From: jwkenne@attglobal.net   
      
   On 2015-06-15 17:45:35 +0000, William Vetter said:   
      
   > Will in New Haven wrote:   
   >> On Sunday, June 14, 2015 at 8:27:59 PM UTC-4, William Vetter wrote:   
   >>> Dorothy J Heydt wrote:   
   >>>> In article ,   
   >>>> William Vetter   wrote:   
   >>>>> Michael R N Dolbear wrote:   
   >>>>>> "Dorothy J Heydt"  wrote   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Is someone writing about the vibrissae of an aileuromorph?   
   >>>>>>> Please send a link, if so.   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> The best Amazon can find is the facsimile reprint "The Functions Of The   
   >>>>>> Vibrissae In The Behavior Of The White Rat (1912) "   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> All listed seem to be non-fiction.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> If you cut the rat's whiskers off, he can't find his way through a maze.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> If you cut the cat's whiskers off, he can't locate a victim's neck in   
   >>>>> the dark to kill it with a bite.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> That is the importance of the vibrissae, whiskers that function as   
   >>>>> sensory organs.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Cats score very badly in maze work anyhow.  Maze work is how many   
   >>>>> scientists define the intelligence of animals.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> That, and being willing to understand/carry out the command of   
   >>>> humans.  This is why some humans think dogs are more intelligent   
   >>>> than cats.  The dog is a pack animal and wants to cooperate with   
   >>>> whoever it thinks its pack leader is.  The cat is less social,   
   >>>> more independent, and while it can become very fond of its human,   
   >>>> this takes time.  Thus, the cat may understand perfectly what you   
   >>>> want it to do, but just can't be bothered; so you'll never know   
   >>>> if it understood you or not.   
   >>>   
   >>> I've been reading some books by Roger Tabor.  The phrase he uses is   
   >>> that the cat is "not particularly hierarchical."  And in terms of   
   >>> hunting behavior, the dog is "a cog in the machine," and the cat "_is_   
   >>> the machine."   
   >>>   
   >>> Well...the way I look at it is the cat, in that he is an independent   
   >>> hunter, is self-employed, and really doesn't get the concept of a boss.   
   >>> Cats may also operate as scavengers, although their dentition isn't   
   >>> specialized for that such as, for example, the hyena.   
   >>   
   >> Nitpick: The hyena, if were are talking about the spotted Hyena, kills   
   >> much more of its food than it scavenges. And much of its scavenging   
   >> consists of taking kills away from lions in battle, not of waiting for   
   >> the lions to finish eating, so their teeth are just fine for things   
   >> other than scavenging.   
   > Kitties don't have the great molars of the hyena for crushing bone;   
   > only for tilting their heads sideways and chopping meat, so the   
   > paleontologist will say the kitty is not meant to be a scavenger.   
   > Nevertheless, we presume the kitties first became village cats in   
   > settlements around the Mediterranean by hitting the garbage dump.  Such   
   > was the early relation of kitties with humanity, outside of Egyptian   
   > religion.  We presume.   
      
   The last I heard, perhaps as early as 10,000 BC, a small number of cats   
   (five or six females and an unknown number of males) realized that   
   human neolithic grain stores attracted mice, etc., and that Egyptian   
   cat-worship was an effect, not a cause.   
      
   >> When we feed   
   >> them, they are operating as scavengers.  When their main procurement of   
   >> food is this way, and food is plentiful, they form colonies, and, in   
   >> feral colonies, adult cats interact socially as kittens do in the nest,   
   >> grooming one another in the regions of their bodies they can't reach,   
   >> nursing their neighbors' kittens, etc.  Some cats, especially large   
   >> males, can show dominance behavior, but the cats in these colonies   
   >> behave as colleagues, rather than employees of the leader.   
   >>   
   >> That's how I see their behavior toward their humans. Surely you've   
   >> encountered personnel managers who believe an employee who doesn't show   
   >> ritual submission is up to something, and others who want to relate to   
   >> their subordinates as junior colleagues.  Some types of employees will   
   >> succeed under either; and for an employee ill-suited to the type of   
   >> boss will fail disastrously.   
   >>>   
   >>> The differences between dogs and cats tells us something about the   
   >>> differences between dog people and cat people.   
      
      
   --   
   John W Kennedy   
   "Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts.  Only the heir to the throne   
   of the kingdom of idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts"   
    -- J. Michael Straczynski.  "Babylon 5", "Ceremonies of Light and Dark"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)