This photo of a “lost cat” poster, sent by Matthew Cobb, was seen in Newport, Wales on Friday. I’m betting it’s not a joke.
Lost cat
January 29, 2012 • 11:38 am
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Are you saying that, out of the following two options, you’re betting on number 2?
1) Welsh people have a sense of humour;
2) Welsh people can’t tell the difference between cats and badgers.
Clearly you’ve never spent much time in South Wales.
Okay, somebody in Wales call that phone number and find out.
Pointless given that the photo is about a year old at least. And no need, given that the picture of the badger is easy to find online without any of the lost cat stuff.
So the poster of the poster won’t know now, a year on, whether that was a joke or he thought it was a cat?
To be fair, this isn’t just Wales, but Newport. The place where a paediatrician’s home was attacked by a mob unable to spell the word ‘paedophile: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/901723.stm
Required viewing whenever Newpoert is mentioned;
The poster’s also been doing the rounds at least since February last year: http://www.cfzaustralia.com/2011/02/taxonomy-fails-infamous-cat-found.html
Tineye.com found this same picture posted back in 2009 so I’m betting it is at least a meta joke.
Yep. As soon as I see one of these things, I reach for tineye.
Hey, thanks, that looks like a handy website!
The first Google result for “found cat skunk” is a nearly identical one of a possum which I’m pretty sure I’ve seen before.
Since this is a virtual copy of a number of similar ones posted in the US of possums I’m going with option 1 from garicgymro’s list.
See
http://www.flickr.com/photos/discoweasel/3031213853/
For just one example.
I wouldn’t recommend calling the number. Most likely this was a practical joke played on some guy called Paul, who will either be annoyed at all the calls about badgers he’s been getting or (more likely) will have changed his number.
He’s badgered.
Love it! 🙂
“very aggressive”.
I bet I can explain the sudden increase of the neighborhood’s cat food bowl movements.
Classic prank, but a good one. I’ve seen possum iterations of this, too.
Here’s a deconstruction of a very similar poster, from 2008:
http://25tolife.net/2008/08/16/cat-found
I prefer to take it as a joke….lmao
First one I saw was a brush-tailed possum one in W.Australia. I must admit, the ‘not house-trained’ followed by the unsmiley emoticon still makes me laugh
The grass in the background is field grass, not somebody’s garden, at a guess. Hoax!
The offended Welshman at the top is correct. Type “picture of badger” into Google and the one in the poster shows up. (It’s still funny.)
It appears to be a prank but I love it. It gives me some great ammunition for the on-going sparring match I have with our UK rep (who is Welsh, of course!).
lost pigeon
Excellent!
Mushroom, MUSHROOM!
SNAKE!!
KHAN!
Did no one else think of Pepe Le Pew and his romantic liaisons?
She play ze ‘ard to get !
I once met a fellow, in Texas, who had a recently trapped badger in the back of his pickup. He said they tame down and make good pets. This one was already soliciting for the guy to scratch its back through the cage wire.
If it were not a joke, the “cat” would be photographed in the guy’s house.
I don’t see how you could mistake a badger for a cat, especially in the UK where there are proportionally more badgers than there in the US.
Reminds me of a former co-worker from India who had never seen a possum. He thought it was a giant rat.
I sure hope he never walked over to the canal behind the plant to see the coypu (nutria), he’d probably think we had aquatic marmots.
From time to time I’ve thought about putting up a “Lost Snake” poster, but I can’t do it because I’d feel horrible if somebody actually got scared by it…
This “Troll Poster” meme dates back to 2007.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/irl-troll-posters
The second image if you google “badger”. Hoax. Funny one, though.
The previous Labour/Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly Government planned a badger cull in parts of Wales in the belief it would alleviate the problem of TB in cattle.
It is not impossible this poster is some kind of satire in response to those plans.
The plans were eventually ruled unlawful by the courts, and the current Labour Welsh Government has embarked on a “review”, which most people regard as code for ignoring the issue in the hope it will go away.
So this particular poster is a joke, but here’s a true story: I was at a campground on the St Laurence River where there is a large population of wild skunks (this is in some ways a refreshing change from the large populations of racoons one sees at most Ontario campgrounds). The skunks seem to have become well-habituated to humans, and every evening at around dusk they come out and walk around the campground (presumably seeking tasty slugs, grubs, etc). The advice given by the staff that if people stay calm (and especially make sure any dogs are under control), no one will make a big stink (so to speak). So, one evening I was on my way to the washrooms, walking slowly as I (quitely and from a safe distance) admired the variety of colour patterns and hairstyles on the (dozens of) critters ambling around the field. At one point, there was a skunk about 1/2 meter away from me, and 2 women are walking in the other direction:
W1: Do you think that’s a skunk?
W2: I’m not sure – maybe it’s that lady’s dog.
W1 [to me]: Is that your dog?
Me: No, that’s a skunk. Isn’t he pretty? Don’t worry – there’s lots of them around. They seem to be pretty comfortable with people, so as long as you don’t startle them.
I don’t think they found my response to be particularly reassuring, but at least they didn’t scream and run.
That’s a great story!
More than once I’ve been most impressed–and grateful–by the degree of forbearance most skunks show before detonating…
We were walking our keeshond dog in a park and passed a family that included a boy about 6. He turned to his parents all breathless and said, “Look, they have a raccoon on a leash!” If you pull up a picture of a keeshond, they do sort of resemble raccoons.
Late to the party, but the Bloggess tried to mess with her neighbours last fall (and it still makes me laugh) – http://thebloggess.com/2011/10/missing-2/ and the original – http://thebloggess.com/2011/09/its-hard-to-rattle-texans/
Ha, Ha! Looks like an interesting site as well.
We used to put the ex-directory number of the local nick or the local knocking shop on these pranks.