What my ears hear....

 

My ears are the amazing. I can hear more from low to high- pitched sounds than any other warm-blooded animal that human scientists have tested. My hearing range is remarkable.

At the low range my hearing is about what would be expected from a small animal. But what is unexpected is the high pitched sounds that I can hear.  I can hear the tiniest little squeaks of small rodents and insects. 

What usually happens to animal hearing is that the higher an animal can hear, the less it can hear at lower pitch.  But that's not happened to us cats. We can hear low and we can hear high.

It's obviously why we need to hear high pitched sounds. These are the sounds in the undergrowth that alert us to mice, rats and other rodents. These are our prey in the wild.

But why do we need to hear the relatively low sounds? That may be because we have a dual role in life. We are hunters and predators but we are also prey to larger animals. We may need to hear the low sounds to keep us safe from animals like coyotes and dogs. 

We are both prey and predator.

 

I think therefore I purr

Human scientists have had the audacity (and stupidity) to say that cats don't think. That we are mindless beings just driven by instinct  and unable to solve problems.

Sometimes it is difficult to grasp the full stupidity of the human mind!

Of course we think. We learn, don't we? We learn how to hunt rabbits. We learn that if we wind ourselves round the human legs and purr loudly, we may get a treat.

We learn to avoid the neighbour's horrible yapping dog. And we work out how to sneak into the cat flap four doors down, where the owner provides ad lib food for their own cat - which we then steal. 

We learn to recognise the name that a human gives us. When they call us, we turn our heads to see why - if we are not too busy. Sometimes, just sometimes, we even come when called.

Do we think? Of course we do. And it humans thought a little better than they do, they'd know that.

 

What could be more beautiful?

What could be more beautiful than a cat? This is Holly, an ordinary black cat. Nothing special about her. No pedigree. No extraordinary colouring. Not particularly long hair. Just an ordinary cat.

But what is ordinary about a cat.? What is ordinary about her? Just look at the grace of her body, the curve of her paw, the gloss of her coat, and the linear loveliness of her tail.

August 6, tomorrow, is National Cat Day. Humans can celebrate it  by celebrating the beauty of all cats. Not just the special ones, not just the ordinary ones, but also the scruffy ones, the elderly ones, the starving ones and the disabled cats. 

So, if you can, give a pound or a dollar to your local cat rescue, and next time you want a cat, adopt a rescue cat. 

We cats say thank you.