As always, the Russians and Chinese are producing the best cat videos. This one, from Russia, shows a kot sucking on a vacuum cleaner hose when the machine is running. Every other cat in the world flees from the sound of a vacuum cleaner. What’s going on here?
Just to prove that cats are smarter than d-gs, here’s a cat pulling its favorite toy along with it. What dog would do that?
And from I Can Has Cheezburger?, some photos of big cats liking boxes. This propensity to sit in cardboard cubes is obviously a derived ancestral trait (in the parlance, a synapomorphy) in Felidae.
Can you name all the cats?
p.s. Those überskeptics who think these are photoshopped should watch this video.
h/t: Su
The first cat is Baghira, the second one is Bill, the third cat is Robert and the fourth cat is Jill.
Damn, you’re good! They wouldn’t tell me their names! 😀
What is the attracting of sitting in cardboard boxes? What did they sit in before cardboard boxes were invented, and why? Is a box like a safe lair?
Maybe it’s like hiding in the long grass?
I was wondering that too. The possibilities I’ve come up with are:
carboard is more comfortable than laying on bare ground because
there’s temperature difference (the box is either warmer or colder than the ground)
the cardboard is softer than the ground
the cardboard is drier than the ground
or
they have an instict to put their backs against something for protection or concealment, and the box triggers that instinct.
The cardboard could also be warmer and retain the cat’s body heat. I used to have a cat that loved to lie on newspapers–maybe that was something similar. Would a box made out of something else be as appealing, I wonder?
It’s a preadaptation for homelessness.
Far be it for me to know why cats, big and small, behave the way they do with cardboard boxes, but it seems to me the reasons are twofold perhaps. First is the lying on cardboard aspect, and as someone mentioned, they love lying on newspapers as well. Our house cats love lying on magazines or inside our napkin basket. The urge to lie on ‘stuff’ seems to me to be an instinct to lie on a bed of grass, or something along those lines. Simple as that. Then there is the attraction to boxes, or perhaps more explicitly, going through new openings. Something seems to spur them ever forward toward any available opening, even if they have gone through it thousands of times. Our cats ‘chomp at the bit’ to gain access to our garage, and once in, and having explored all shelves and various openings out there, are anxious to gain access back to the house. They never tire of going back and forth despite what should now be territory overly familiar to them due to the number of excursions taken to and fro. A new box is always met with enthusiasm, as is the laundry bag my son uses to transport clothes back and forth between our house and his dorm room each weekend. It has a sturdy frame covered in near transparent mesh, but, regardless, each of the three cats will find their way inside the empty bag before Saturday of each weekend draws to a close. “MUST GO INSIDE!” Surely it’s instinct of some sort to perpetually move forward until . . . until a nice bed of tall, wild newspaper can be found and kneaded into a soft bed suitable for recharging those batteries of exploration.
Hah, love the vacuum kitty! I posted that myself. Couldn’t stop laughing.
Are those big cat photos real or photoshopped? That last one in particular looks kind of strange. It looks like the screen-left front leg has been severed from the body to put it at a new angle on top of the box.
It’s got its paw wrapped around the top of the box, but it’s definitely not photoshopped.
My cat lies like that all the time.
The part that looked odd to me actually turns out to have been an optical illusion of sorts! The torn edge of the cardboard near the cat’s body (where you can see the corrugation) made it look weird to me. I thought that was the bottom of the box, behind and under the cat, that a photoshopper was trying to make “peek through” under the cat’s leg! When I looked closer I saw that the torn part is actually in front of the leg! Ha!
But, honestly, every time I look at that last photo I get that, “this doesn’t look quite right” feeling. But, whatever, it really doesn’t matter. It’s a beautiful animal!
Agreed!
Regarding the movie: Cats do not sweat through the skin (except in the paws), but lose heat through the respiratory tract. Maybe the cat in question is panting near the entrance of the vacuum cleaner so that the warm, moist air exhaled from the mouth itself is quickly sucked and at the same time, its tongue is refreshed by the air stream flowing rapidly.
black panther
caracal
lion
lynx
OK, what did I win?
My warm congratulations! 🙂
(p.s. If I were picky, I’d say that it should be “melanistic morph of leopard” instead of “black panther”
I knew that…but I’m in a colloquial mood today because it’s Caturday!
(p.s. And if I were picky, I’d point out that your p.s. is missing a closing parenthesis, but I’m not, so I won’t).
How can you tell it’s a leopard and not a jaguar?
Shape of skull and weight, primarily…and Jaguars have doors. 🙂
The easiest ways to tell the difference between a leopard and a jaguar are generally by spot pattern- not really possible in this case- and by the shape of the skull; jaguars have heavier and IIRC broader skulls than leopards do.
The last one looked like a bobcat to me.
One of my mother’s cats would carry around a teddy bear in his mouth. He could even open the drawer in the entertainment center (which didn’t have a handle — you had to open it by gripping the top) to get to the bear.
My dog used to carry his furry toys on walks to the park; of course as soon as an interesting smell caught his interest he’d drop it and I had to carry the white furry rabbit (or whatever) around the park . . .
Really? If a dog did that, it would be so unremarkable the Youtube video probably wouldn’t rate any hits.
Actually, my dog likes to grab her own leash and try to walk herself. Not sure if that’s smarter or dumber than trying to walk a toy.
Vacuuming Cat seems to have his/hers lick reflexes (I assume) triggered. Maybe the airstream feels liquid-like, somewhat compressed air certainly should and have similar properties.
I see the game is over, but my cat list would have been:
Black Cat
Cool Kat
Big Cat
Loll Cat
Yes, I was wondering the same thing about the vacuum-cold-air licker. I also noticed how the cat punished the vacuum pipe when it sucked in its mouth.
Curiouser and curiouser.
I’ve seen these before, but I never get tired of trying to work out exactly what emotion is inspiring the expression on the caracal. It’s like a weird mix of contemplation and contentment.
I doubt it’s such an introspective emotion as those. I can’t make up my mind whether it’s a bird in the distance or a fleabite just above the base of the tail.