Raining hard here right now. V. wisely got his bike under cover days ago. Kea doesn't remember rain, so she's convinced that V. has turned on all the sprinklers and has forgotten to leave a patch of yard dry. Well, she's realized differently in the past hour, because it's a cloudburst. She doesn't like getting her paws wet. Jelly and Lady both know about rain. Lady would prefer to conduct her toilette indoors at this time, so must be supervised. Jelly just looks bummed.
But Cali and Nesta are cats, and they are experts at all manner of natural events. Nesta has been boxing regularly with a cat from down the street, and when it's raining, their matches are called off. It's very scary to hear them go at each other, like two tiny lions. Nesta is by far the smallest cat in the neighborhood, but she is very smart and so far, wins all her fights. She doesn't go into their territory, she waits in our abundant foliage until another cat has the audacity to venture in, and then she pounces. After she wins, she comes inside, sits by V's feet on the recliner-porch, or, more likely, on top of the couch itself, between us, licking her paws and prettifying herself post-fight.
Non-human animals have histories and cultures of course. All thinking people can see that individual cats and dogs have personalities, just like humans do. Groups of cats, like the group of semi-feral cats that Nesta comes from, have their own little histories, and the larger groups, like the domesticated cats (Felis silvestris catus) have their cultures and histories too.
Recently, the cats of the world have been vibing on a different wavelength. Why? Well, for one thing, they've been watching us closely for generations, living alongside of us - and they're very smart and adaptable. I'm not sure how adaptable most humans are. Cats usually are, though.. Little cats have their own way of dealing with us, but the big cats have a different philosophy towards humans. In general, big cats will consider eating a human, and have been. Mountain lion attacks are up, one mountain lion pulled a full grown man (slightly built though) off his mountain bike in the Santa Monica mountains, killed him and ate part of him. In Africa, lion attacks are up. In India, formerly domesticated cats are running amock. I think the cats transmit their views on humans to each other, and if you're going to adopt a cat, you should take that into consideration.
Cats are lovely creatures, if you didn't see the video about Christian the Lion from my post a couple of days ago, it's still up there (under Nature). They are also very helpful. I know it's mean, but I don't like rats and, although I like field mice and gophers, I don't want them right under my feet, if you know what I mean. In this YouTube video, just below, you get a good idea of what it must have been like for little teensy monkeys back in the day when they had to contend with really big cats on the savannah - say, about 28 million years ago.
This is a cat who lives in Arizona, where scorpions are increasing in numbers. That would be because few other creatures are as well adapted to higher temperatures, little foliage, wild variations in humidity, and the food of death...as the scorpion, the Alacron (maybe it's Alacran - if you can tell me anything about the derivation of that word, please do). Scorpions are very cool, when they're not in your shoes or your house - this cat thinks so too:
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