OMG OMG OMG OMG!

October 23, 2014 • 12:24 pm

LOOK AT THIS KITTEN!!

IMAG3146

Anthony Hutcherson, a lovely guy who breeds Bengal cats and “toygers” in Maryland, and who was on Team Cat for the Great New Yorker Cats v. Dogs Debate, has renewed his offer of a gratis Bengal cat for me, and enclosed the above photo as a temptation.  He added:

Whenever you are ready for Bengal Cat or kitten let me know. The offer is indefinite with no expiration date – just like the beauty of a cat.

And, this:

. . . This little guy is going to be stunning.  He’ll be ready to go in a few weeks hint, hint

OMG.  It’s adorable. And it has a determined, self-confident look on its little face. Now I’ve got Bengals on the brain.

Ariel Levy’s New Yorker profile of Anthony and some other breeders (Ariel was also on Team Cat) is called “Living-Room Leopards” and can be read free at the link.

~

162 thoughts on “OMG OMG OMG OMG!”

  2. Uh, this is Jerry Coyne (ignore the alias, it’s fake). I just moved to Houston and would be delighted to adopt the Bengal cat who I will name “Anthony – nickname TonyHutch.”

    Signed,
    The Real ™ Jerry Coyne
    (not the imposter in Chicago)

    1. Me too, but I only have a small flat. Not great for Bengals!

      Am just buying my own place right now (another small flat) but the cat rescue charity at the end of the road to the new place is probably a sign.

  5. That kitteh is gorgeous!

    I’ve heard Bengals can be a real handful and need a lot of attention & playtime, not to mention a lot of places to perch on & jump around on. As much as I’d love a tiny little ocelot (so cute!) bouncing around my place, I think I’d be a bad guardian for this little fella. If only I had a house instead of an apartment…

  8. I know people from several people from cat rescue organizations who would be more than happy to show up with an adorable kitten, right at your doorstop. Maybe the reason you travel all the time…

    1. Why stop? I’m sure this unbearably cute kitten (is there any other kind?) would have every bit as much fun in exotic lands eating exotic local critters as Jerry does!

      b&

        2. Not all cats are poor travellers. My first post-parental living cat, Astrid, was an excellent traveller. She actually enjoyed riding in a car, as long as she was not confined to a carrier and free to move about and look out the windows. I took her from Wisconsin to Connecticut, them Minnesota and the Chicago suburbs. Through it all, she either settled on the front seat next to me or rode on the shelf looking out the back window. Once, on the road to Connecticut, I stopped for gas, and two kids from another car were looking at her. She stood up and stretched, and one of the kids said, “Holy shit! That’s a real cat!”

          I once took her on a plane, and had to give her kitty tranks to keep her docile in the carrier. The flight was underbooked, so I could keep her on the next seat instead of on the floor. The female flight attendants (a cumbersome locution) all came by saying things like, “What a pretty kitty! Are you okay? Can I get you anything?” or “Can I pet the kitty? Can I get you anything?” That was the most pampering I ever got on an airline.

          1. Yeah, Baihu also likes to perch somewhere he can get a good view. The one car is a ’68 VW Westfalia Camper, and he likes to sit on top of the kitchen sink that’s right behind the passenger seat. The new car is a ’64 1/2 Mustang, and in that he seems to prefer the little ledge behind the rear passenger bench and the rear window. In both cars, my lap is an acceptable substitute, especially earlier in the ride if he’s still a bit unsure what’s going on.

            I don’t think he’d enjoy flying very much, either. I’d like to think that he wouldn’t need tranqs, but I’d certainly have a fast-acting one ready to administer…but that’s assuming that I’d even be willing to put up with the TSA these days, myself….

            b&

          3. Thanks to my college studies in Old Norse (7 semesters), I have chosen to give my cats Viking names. Astrid was my first cat after leaving the parents’ place (which had its own felids). When Astrid died, I got Thorbjorn (or, more properly, Þorbjórn), and became a two-cat household when Freti was added. When I got married, my wife took in a stray who was dubbed Kveldulf. My wife died and Thorbjorn followed her shortly. Freti died in 2009, aged 19, and Ísa joined Kveldulf, who died two years ago, aged 18. I then added Samone, who is the first of my cats to not receive a Viking name. I prefer a two-cat household because when I lose one (as is inevitable) it feels not so much like replacing a cat as restoring balance to the home.

            I agree with T.S. Eliot that all cats have a name that will emerge if given a chance, but Samone was so standoffish for her first year that she kept her shelter name and I’ve gotten used to it.

            When I first met Thorbjorn, he climbed up into my arms, pot his front paws on my shoulders and licked my nose. How could I even put him down? A hug and a kiss from a cat is powerful juju.

        1. Since the offer was “gratis”, the multiplication of fees is moot. As far as I can tell, I was the first to put in an alternative claim, so that should take precedence.

          1. If you really think you can out-bid Jerry, by all means — go for it! As I wrote, Baihu has dictated that this be an one-cat household, so there aren’t any openings to fill here….

            b&

          2. I will pay double on triple on double. Anyway, nothing is really not-nothing to a physicist. And my cats would just have to suck it up if they think I would not accept such an adorable creature. (Aside, one of our cats is part Siamese/Calico/Tabby and she looks a bit like a snow tiger already.)

    1. Orson is clearly a superior moggy – you think you agreed to the rules he imposed!

      That is one gorgeous kitten Jerry, with a look of great character in his eyes. I predict a daily dialogue to rival Hili’s in the not too distant future … and I can’t wait!

  16. I’m not sure you can say no to this little guy and have any kitteh cred left. Well, I guess you could.

    I’ve had perhaps 30 cats over the past 45 years – typically 2 or more at a time and can recall one in particular that would have had a look like that at such a young age. His name was Amazon Ace and he lived up to it. He disappeared once while we were away on vacation when he escaped from our apartment. We found him a few weeks later in a vacant lot a few blocks away in a heavy traffic area. He appeared to have found a place to wait out our return, stayed safe and was happy to return home. A big, strong, confident guy.

  18. I hate to throw cold water on the party; but I have some direct experience with Bengals.

    So, yes, these wild-hybrid cats are beautiful (that’s the appeal). But they are not like normal pets.

    Mr. Hutcherson has several (in my opinion) highly unusual samples of this breed (Bengal).

    My mother had one for a while and after the third, and very serious, bite (which it would deliver with no warning, my Mom is a cat person her entire life and knows how to handle a cat and their body language and other signals), she finally had to take it to the shelter (no one would adopt it).

    When my Mom brought the cat to the shelter, the person at the shelter said that they got many, many Bengals and that they do not consider them to be adoptable because of the risk of being injured by the cats.

    Other relatives have had them too. They have been universally: Skittish, solitary, unsociable, not pet-like. One of my siblings had two and one never came out of hiding if any human was present including the family – who are all cat-people (every trip to the vet involved stitch-worthy cuts on the arms).

    The other one was so high-strung that he would literally run berserk in the presence of any stranger (and not stop until he found a deep, dark hole to worm himself into.) He would leap from the floor to an 8-foot ceiling trying to escape.

    Note that most of these breeders and fanciers keep these cats caged. This is wise, given their potential behaviors.

    These are not house cats. 🙁

    1. My uncle has a Bengal and she’s quite gentle with him. Always indoors and never caged, Ruffles is demanding, playful and skittish when guests arrive, but she’s not a biter. She is a one person kitteh.

      2. Obviously breeding is critical as is how they are socialized (or not) prior to adoption (/purchase).

        My family members with Bengals all got them from very reputable breeders. They are quite serious about their beasts, have had many cats and d*gs, know both well. They pay good money to good breeders for their beasts. They research it heavily prior to purchase. Even they underestimated the special demands/needs of their Bengals.

        Obviously, your mileage may vary.

        My concern (as with most if not all exotic pets) is that the general public (obviously not a person like Jerry) buys them for the “wow” visual (or danger) factor and to impress people and not because they love the beasts or are equipped to take good care of them. The beasts end up with the dirty end of the stick.

        That saddens me very much.

    3. I agree. The cat shelter in Bourbonnais that I volunteer for, houses three or four bengals, all housed together in the owner’s office, with several 6′ tall cat trees. They tolerated his attentions, no one else’s.

      All quite gorgeous, all unadoptable. All owner surrenders.

    4. I imagine the breeder/breeding matters a lot. It would be worthwhile to look into the temperment of parents, grandparents and siblings. A good breeder doing this for love will invest the years needed to produce healthy, socialable cats. Someone in it for the money will produce littters of unsocialable cats as fast as he can sell them. The experience of others may not be relevant.

    5. Everything I have heard or read about these cats agrees with jblilie. They have not been bred far enough from the wild cats. Some countries consider them as wild cats and illegal as pets.

      But every animal has it’s own personality; none of us should be judged by the actions of another.

      But I just think breeding animals the way we do is wrong. Being done long before anyone knew anything about genetics, only the visible characteristics were considered. Every special breed has health weaknesses and serious health issues that ‘mixed’ breeds largely don’t. And there are already way more cats and dogs in the world than are or can be cared for already.

      1. People really think I haven’t thought about these issues, or would inquire deeply about getting such a cat before making such a move. It’s heartening that my readers think I’m so clueless. JEBUS!

        1. Really, people. The guy wrote the book on why Evolution is true, and the one on speciation. He knows a thing or three about generational divergence. He’s not a credentialed ethologist, best I know, but it’s clearly an area of interest for him such that he’s probably forgotten more about the field than most of the rest of us will ever learn — and he’s friends with at least one of the most famous ethologists in the world. And he has one of the top breeders in the world offering to help him find a feline soulmate. A little credit, a smidge of a benefit of the doubt, wouldn’t be out of the question.

          I mean, if Jerry can’t befriend a Bengal, who on Earth can? He quite clearly wouldn’t be the first to do so, either. Maybe this particular kitten isn’t the right one for him (or vice-versa) after all, but they’re certainly not worng for each other, either.

          And anti-pedigree snobbery doesn’t do anybody any good. Yes, by all means, of course, encourage people to audition for the complete pool of cats, especially those in shelters — or that stray Bulgarian tabby that Jerry threatened to smuggle back to the States. But the cats pick you. And if a pedigreed cat picks you, that obligation is every bit as solemn as when a feral cat does.

          I mean, if anybody has a right to be holier-than-thou on this, it’s me. Baihu, several-month-old feral kitten born to a feral mother, remember? If I wanted, I could pooh-pooh not only those who adopt from no-kill shelters rather than the pound, I could pooh-pooh those who adopt from the pound. Why are they wasting their efforts on cats who already have shelter, even if all too temporary, when there’re even more desperate ones on the street?

          Why?

          Because all cats need foreverhomes.

          All of them.

          Especially the ferals, and especially the lost strays, and especially the ones at the pound, and especially the ones at the no-kill shelter, and especially the neighbor’s housecat’s unplanned litter, and especially the ones from the breeder.

          Every single one.

          So why on Earth tell somebody that a cat he’s clearly besotted with isn’t deserving of a foreverhome? Makes no sense at all.

          Cheers,

          b&

        2. Jerry, I’m not commenting on you at all. I worry that people will think these are “regular” house cats and will buy them and then end up taking them to a shelter (this is very common). It makes me sad.

        3. I’ve had two Bengals. They were both SPECTACULAR. Incredible personalities. It’s true, the second cat was the meanest cat I’ve ever had (though he was far from unmanageable), but he was also the smartest, the most soulful, deeply devoted … it destroyed me when he died. I hope to get a third–I definitely wouldn’t have anything but a Bengal. Highly recommended! (Anyone who knows of any ‘unadoptable’ Bengals … I’ve got plenty of room.)

    6. What ever you do, in the hours of walking and travel on your near future, do not pick out the perfect name for this little guy. Once you decide on a name, like Darwin or Hitch or Leonid or Spot, it’s all over.

    7. Sounds like a handful, too.

      There is nothing problematic or inconsistent about admiring cats enormously and yet choosing to remain catless. Bengals might be more high-maintenance than average and even more difficult for someone who regularly travels. If they’re emphatically one-person pets this makes it hard on both cat and cat-sitter.

      Yes, he’s cute but it’s a responsibility and this is just the sort of case where head and heart ought to be as one. Empirical rationalists make predictions and consider schedule. Is Jerry still a bonafide ‘cat person?’ Sure. Nobody expects PZ to get an actual squid.

      1. I am glad so many people are telling me that I shouldn’t get this cat, a Bengal, or any “purebred” cat, as if I haven’t thought of it. Really? “It’s a responsibility”? DOn’t you think I’ve pondered that. I’ve had a pet most of life (cat and skunks) and I know exactly what it entails. And believe me, I’d inquire into the temperament of any animal I’d consider (Anthony’s cats are placid, 11 generations removed form the wild).

        It’s irksome that so many people think I haven’t considered the upside, the downside, and the alternatives of adopting a cat, but want to give me advice as if I’m stupid or something.

        1. “It’s irksome that so many people think I haven’t considered the upside, the downside, and the alternatives of adopting a cat, but want to give me advice as if I’m stupid or something.”

          I doubt anyone intends any insult. We are all human, and all subject to human bias, so who knows what even smart people are thinking? And we *don’t* know what you’ve thought or why unless you tell us. And, even thought the topic is about a cat that you note is especially cute, the forum discussion is also about the wider hows, whys and considerations of adopting cats in general, with your experience as a conversation starter. Perhaps you’d tell us about your specific considerations since you have given it much thought over the years?

        2. Jerry, I had no idea that you were seriously considering adopting the cat* (or one like it). If there’s anyone equipped to adopt such a feline, it would be you.

          If you choose to adopt a kitteh (of whatever type), I wish you both well (of course) and I would look forward to the lab-cat and boots+cat photos!

          (* You seem too freedom-loving to me; but of course I don’t know you.)

        3. Jerry, I’m sorry. Of course I assumed you were pondering positives and negatives and had researched the hell out of it. My remarks were general and intended to address the onslaught of “oh, you must get this cat!” feedback. Maybe. Or maybe he shouldn’t. A case can be made either way and it’s for Jerry to decide because he knows his needs.

          I guess it came off like advice to you. Not my intention so I apologize.

          1. It’s like arguing against creationists; the real target of the warnings is not the one addressed (Jerry in this case), but other potential readers more likely to gain information.
            (Analogising our host to a creationist doesn’t feel right, sorry Prof)

  19. When I was a little girl I wanted an ocelot because of the Honey West show. Honey West was my hero! I think a bengal would be a safer choice, though.

  20. So cute! How can you not adopt him? Even if he is a handful, that’s part of the appeal of cats – the lure of the wild, the thrill of cohabitating with the not entirely tame. As distinct from the boring, slobbering domesticity of most dogs.

  21. Savannahs! I know they are housecats bred with servals, but I want one so badly.

    The only reason to get a dog is to get a large predator. Savannahs can be large predators.

    I have an elementary school just across the street so feeding won’t be a problem.

  22. Really cute,we might be getting a siamese kitten.Heard they can be a handful anyone with experience with them?

    1. My wife and I share a house with two of them. Possessive with their humans and skittish around strangers. Favorite toys are individualy wrapped cough drops or Brachs butterscotch.
      Fair warning, they are vocal, very vocal.

    2. they love to talk and talk and talk.

      most kittens are handfuls. We ended up with three (a momma cat on my folks farm got killed) and we took them home with us. We have cork on theh walls of the living room(blame the 70s) and we had kittens literally climbing the walls.

      1. Baihu’s a good conversationalist. Not a motor mouth, but not shy to speak his mind, either.

        And…he still climbs walls, even at the ripe old age of six — and I don’t even have any cork!

        I have metal mesh screen / security doors front and rear; whether I’m home or not, if the weather permits, the solid doors are open and the screen doors shut. And Baihu casually walks up them whenever he feels like it to perch on the top of the open inner door. Or, sometimes he’ll go at them at a full flat-out sprint, bounce off the screen door a bit over halfway up, and vault to the top of the inner door.

        He’s also rediscovered the fun of the laser (which he grew tired of after a while as a kitten). I shit you not, he’ll jump halfway up the wall and even manage a couple more feet vertically and at least a few horizontally, all in the great quest to catch the little red dot….

        Cheers,

        b&

          1. They’re not those flimsy wire screens…it’s basically a thin steel sheet with holes punched in them. It’s at least as sturdy as a regular front door.

            b&

          2. So, you can still see out your screens? 😉

            I’ll have to look into them–would be nice to be able to leave the doors open once again.

          3. Save for the part where the cat’s hanging out, yes — much like any other screen door.

            Home Despot has an entire section of their online catalog devoted to them:

            http://www.homedepot.com/b/Doors-Windows-Doors-Security-Doors/N-5yc1vZaqqe

            I’m sure they’re not the only one.

            And, yes — it’s delightful to be able to leave the doors open, for both me and Baihu. This time of year, they’re closed during the day (temperatures still in the 80s and 90s), but open all night. In a little while for a little while they’ll be open ’round the clock; then, they’ll be open during the day and closed at night…with the cycle reversing itself, and then closed all the time once it heats up again.

            b&

          4. “Save for the part where the cat’s hanging out…”

            😀

            Interesting, I’ll have to look into those. I suppose they make sometime similar for sliding glass doors, as well.

          5. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen something like this for arcadia doors, but I’m sure there’s no reason it couldn’t be done.

            When I got the house, there was an “Arizona room” in the back — basically, a closed-in patio, and it had an arcadia door to the outside and was separated from the kitchen by French doors. I got rid of the arcadia door and replaced it with the French doors, leaving just a large open archway between the kitchen and what’s now my office. The French doors open inwards, and I’ve since put outwards-opening double security doors on the opposite side. And there’s no center post for either set of double doors, so it can all open up quite wide.

            Come to think of it, I wish I had similar double doors in the front, too. Ah, well….

            b&

        2. Ben, I doubt that not a bit.

          One of my sibling’s Bengal cats would leap directly from the floor to the top of the curtain rods, 7 feet off the floor. Single, standing leap. Really amazing and startling.

          Cats are amazingly athletic.

          1. Yeah — my shoulders are about Baihu’s jumping limit. I’m about 5’8″, and he’s an athletic ten-pound cat. A Bengal with a few more pounds and inches shouldn’t have any trouble with seven feet.

            b&

  24. Neat coloring, but I really hope you’ll get a cat bred for disposition, not for coloration.

    John Bradshaw, author of Cat Sense, posits that increasingly the selection pressure on cats is for looks (cat breeders) and for being feral (since most pet cats are spayed or neutered, one of the parents is often a feral cat). I hope that educated cat lovers will learn to insist on getting cats who are handled for socialization by multiple people as young kittens and bred for health and personable disposition.

  25. Max says: This kit has a nice body but can’t
    match the beauty, temperament or style of a DSH. Turn down this insistent offer and *after* next year’s book tour find a nice rescue cat who’s been stepmothered, fixed, and given all his or her shots. Keep it indoors at all times but don’t let it get lonely. Don’t have it declawed (ugh!) but expect your furniture to suffer. When it begins to gaze lovingly deep into your responsive eyes you’ll know you’ve made the right choice.

    -Max the Magnificent
    King of the Kitties
    Advice – 10 cents

    2. As a slave to Baihu, who was born a feral kitten to a feral mother and didn’t hire me until he was several months old, I wholeheartedly agree that rescue cats of all sorts are fantastically wonderful and desperately need foreverhomes.

      But all cats need foreverhomes, including the ones with the fancy papers. If a fancy papers cat is the right one for Jerry’s foreverhome, that’s cause for celebration!

      True foreverhomes are picked by the cats, not the humans. Jerry really doesn’t have a lot of say in the matter. If this kitten has already chosen him or soon does, so be it, and with blessings from all.

      b&

      1. “But all cats need foreverhomes, including the ones with the fancy papers. If a fancy papers cat is the right one for Jerry’s foreverhome, that’s cause for celebration!”

        True, with reservations. I have to say that I’m not a big fan of cat breeders in general, especially those that breed for the exotics which are wild cross breeds that *look* great but, which due to their semi-domesticated behavior traits, aren’t good pets for most people. If consumers would demand breeders breed for great dispositions instead of looks I think it would advance the cause of cats as good pets.

        All of my cats have been rescues, and I think that is a great option, but if people are going to go with a breeder, I hope they will reward ones who breed for behavior and health, not with extreme inbreeding and obsession with exotic looks, some of which are genetic defects that aren’t necessarily nice for the cats.

        1. Thanks for your recurrent lecture. The fact is that Anthony breeds for good temperament, and the two cats of his that I have handled were sweet, affectionate, and docile. Frankly, I do not appreciate the lectures on what kind of cat I should and should not adopt. This is a personal decision on my part but everybody seems to think they can put their two cents’ worth in. You don’t know anything about Anthony and his cats so please stop banging on about what I should do. Don’t you think I’ve considered disposition as well as appearance, or that that would be a huge issue for me?

          I am beginning to think the readers think I’m clueless here. I’m not.

          1. I think that a lot of readers here are cat lovers and so have opinions about cats.
            I do agree that it seems rude to lecture you about what kind of cat to get.
            Totally your choice of course and no one else’s business.
            I do really feel for you knowing how much you love cats and yet not owning one because of all the travelling you do.
            I have to admit that I am completely selfish as I travel far more and yet have two cats that have to go to the cattery each time.
            I try to make up for it though while home and they do have it pretty good with 200 acres to roam and plenty of fusses too.
            I live that term ‘fusses’.
            I hadn’t heard of it before this site.
            All the best with your cat decision.

          3. “Thanks for your recurrent lecture. The fact is that Anthony breeds for good temperament, and the two cats of his that I have handled were sweet, affectionate, and docile. Frankly, I do not appreciate the lectures on what kind of cat I should and should not adopt. ”

            I apologize for that. You are right, Jerry, I didn’t give enough consideration to the fact I read and enjoy your website precisely because I do respect your intelligence and judgement, and knowledge and enjoyment of cats.

            So, that considered, were I have a chance to do this over again I still would have written a post about exotics and temperaments, one that gave a qualifier with a nod to you noting that you likely had that in hand. I think exotics and temperament is an issue worth talking about and big issue for cats and pet owners in general. That “Anthony breeds for good temperament” is awesome, and is worth noting, especially because such practice is exceptional in bleeding edge exotic cat breeding.

            I never want to annoy you, though I do seem to have a knack for it having done it more than once, which suggests that I’m the larger part of the issue. But I do also think that I’m often surprised by what annoys you, because if I knew I wouldn’t have done it in the first place.

      2. Too true. My wife grew up sans cat but now we live with two. Our first was sort of an ambush. We went to a breeder with my parents because they were thinking about adopting. While we were sitting there, K’ehlyer walked right up my wife’s chest stared in her face, meowed and that was it. Kitteh got a home.

        1. I can never just go see an animal. I know if I am ready to take an animal home that the minute I see him/her, she/he is coming home with me.

          My current dog, who I love more than most humans, I went to see in the home of a volunteer who was looking after her after she was taken off death row in Ohio (my dog, not the person). I also had an appointment the next day to see a different dog at a different home. I cancelled the second appointment after I drove home with my new dog. 🙂

      3. Both of our current kittehs are rescue cats. one poops on the floor (the reason he was returned to a shelter) and the other still has front claws (we got the other post-de-clawing) and shreds our furniture, carpet, woodwork, clothing (and yes, we’ve use tinfoil, double-stick tape, all the spray-on products, she has multitudes of scratching-objects of all types, etc. — nothing stops it).

        We tried everything in the book to keep #1 from pooping on the floor (everything anyone recommended and plenty of other wild ideas) and nothing stops that either, at least for no more than a few days. (Box is cleaned twice a day.) Good things about is: his poop is firm (unlike #2 cat, the clawed demon) and he always puts it on the linoleum just outside the (very commodius) cat box. Quick and easy cleanup for his staff.

        Sigh. We just put up with it.

        #1 is a very affectionate beast, a big lap cat. #2 much less so, though she is getting more talkative and affectionate as she ages.

        1. My childhood cat (pre allergies), Fred, pooped on my parents’ bed while they were in it! Fred was feral and hated living indoors. He ended up taking off one day. 🙁

      4. My wife and I walk our neighborhood every evening. 2 months ago a feral cat we had been seeing poked his nose out from behind a shrub. I said – “Hey, dude!” There was a black and white streak that wrapped itself around my ankles. ‘Now what?’, I asked the wife. I tried picking him up, and he settled nicely into my arms. He is now my constant companion at home – and he wants nothing to do with the outdoors – except from the window view. Faithfully uses the litter box. The girls (also rescues) are slowly adopting…

  26. Suck it up. That is an exceptional cat, you will be happy as an exceptional cat slave.

  28. That cat should be named Willie. Free Willie. It’s a done deal, I think, coz how can PCC resist that face and those markings?!
    And besides, it’s soooo soft…..

  32. I would take this lovely furball in an instant. In fact I would like to have any cat. The problem is that I am allergic to them.

    We have a campus cat that likes to hang out at the library and likes to socialize with the students. Whenever I see him I pet him anyways (the consequences are totally worth the experience). But it probably wouldn’t work out if I lived with a cat.

    Life can be so unfair…

    1. I’m allergic too but it could be a good thing as I would have lots of cats in addition to my dog. The place would be a zoo. It was bad enough when I had fish, a budgie, guinea pigs & a dog. Pet store staff used to laugh at the variety of supplies I’d buy in one go.

  34. There are not many times when I wish I had done a social science degree, but occasionally I wish I had had a chance to take some 101s in Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology so as to make better sense of how people interact on the Internet. It’s only human to want to share experiences and educate, but the amount of finger-wagging that goes on social media sites and blogs is fascinating. It goes on IRL too, but it’s more noticeable in cyberspace where people have unprecedented and almost unlimited ability to communicate. Anyway, it’s not the need to wag fingers that fascinates me; it’s the huffy annoyance upon realizing that your pearls of anecdotal wisdom may in fact not have been gratefully received and worse, may have caused hurt.

    I suspect that it is the same impulse that makes some tell fat people they are fat (as if they didn’t know and weren’t aware), or tell smokers that they are killing themselves*, or that [insert life style choice here] is mistaken and wrong and won’t someone think of the children; and then go on to defend their behavior because it is all done For Their Own Good.

    A few years ago Phil Plait (Bad Astronomy) got a tattoo and wrote a blogpost about his decision. He asked his readers to please not lecture him on his choice, as he was 1) an adult 2) not stupid and 3) had done his research carefully on the pros and cons. He also pointed out that it was hurtful and insulting to face a barrage of virtual strangers telling him what he ought to do with his own life on his own website. Needless to say, in the comments a significant percentage of people insisted that it was very important that they had to tell him that tattoos were bad and that he would be sorry when he was old and that tattoos were awful anyway.

    Anyway, I wish I had done some social sciences.

    * anyone looking at my gravatar and going Aha! Nope, sorry. I don’t smoke. I just find it amusing when people who don’t know me lecture me on the error of my ways.

    1. “I just find it amusing when people who don’t know me lecture me on the error of my ways”

      That’s funny!

      (I don’t fly light aircraft.)

    2. I wish I actually did a social sciences degree for some of the reasons you mentioned but in particular, I find the way people interact, especially in corporate environments, absolutely fascinating (fascinating turns to pissed off when bad shit goes down with me but I’m in the environment sometimes so not always objective). Alas, I never thought I’d regret it, but I refused to go into social sciences (despite being begged by many of my profs) because there was a statistics component and I swore I’d never take math again.

      As for finger waging, sometimes people honestly think they are being helpful and sometimes they are being righteous. As a pale skinned person, I can’t tell you how many times strangers came up to me in my youth and told me how unattractive I was because of my skin colour. In their minds, I was deliberately looking that way to offend them when I should just get a tan (which I can’t because I don’t have the necessary melanin). I particularly enjoyed (hated) the lectures given to me by dark skinned people who told me how to tan (like dark people know how white people should tan). My revenge is I look younger than my age now but I still put on fake tan in the summer because I’ve been conditioned to hate the colour I am.

      1. I wonder if those people ever thought that maybe they had been unkind not to mention stupid to tell children what they ought to do to “look right” to others. I also grew up in a tanning-obsessed clique of society, but I was really incapable of tanning so I was never particularly tempted to try to get the “right” color.

        But you are right, people do mostly do it out of a desire to be helpful. I think everyone does it, at least a bit. The trick that we probably all could do to learn is to consider what it might be like to be on the receiving end.

        1. I don’t think they saw themselves as unkind. They figured I was a jerk for being pale and were there to tell me so. Some of them told me in no uncertain terms that I looked “disgusting” and one co-worker told me to “get a tan” while looking completely repulsed at my appearance. People have no situational awareness.

          2. What fascinates me is that people honestly don’t understand that what they say harms others. It’s strange how they are so wrapped up in their own world. Humans are a mess.

          3. Am I right in thinking that in Classical times a pale complexion was desirable because it showed that you weren’t a pleb who laboured in the sun all day?

            /@

          4. I think you are right on with that.

            I think much of the caste identification (as I’ve been told by many Indian friends and colleagues) generally speaking, is that too: lighter colored is higher caste.

            The prejudice against melanin goes deep and far back.

          5. Probably, but Plebs were also upper class. It would show you weren’t a slave or a lowly offspring of a freed man. 🙂

            I always make the joke that back in the 17th C I was hot. It’s funny because I heard an interview with Bo Derek once who said that she was lucky to be born when she was because in previous centuries she would be seen as unattractive and too skinny.

          7. I find it a gross injustice that my dad is so dark skinned. Because I am light like my mom, I blame his genetics for having too many whities back there.

      2. Wait. What?

        Damn.

        In this day and age, you’d think that people would finally have realized that degrading comments based on the melanin content of one’s skin are crass and uncouth and absolutely unacceptable. If you had more melanin in your skin than these people did, would they have told you to stay out of the Sun?

        And that’s ignoring the fact that there has to be something seriously unhealthily fucked up about somebody in the first place to consider melanin content in judging a person’s beauty. I’ve known beautiful women with every shade of skin people come in, from porcelain white to coal black and every shade of red, yellow, and brown between. How any healthy straight male or lesbian or bisexual human could think any less of any of the examples I have in mind based on her skin color…is just simply incomprehensible.

        I mean…look at this:

        http://www.imdb.com/media/rm273451008/ch0012249

        Anybody who says she needs to get a tan is barking mad.

        Or how ’bout Lena Horne? Would you tell her to “lighten up”?

        Simply incomprehensible….

        b&

        1. Because of social pressures I was desperate to get a tan when I was longer. In my mid-forties I had my first basal cell carcinoma removed from my back, which is quite early to get them.

          1. Scary. I never did the tanning thing, but I did get a couple bad sunburns when younger, and I live in the Valley of the Sun. And a couple years ago I had a very small actinic keratosis removed from an arm that by now would have been starting to think about becoming cancerous had I not had it removed, so I definitely keep an eye on my freckles….

            b&

          5. NZ sun is hotter and I suspect it’s the hole in the ozone. I have family friends who have been diagnosed with skin cancer and they are dark skinned Maoris! Whenever I’m there my nose (not a big nose but a small bourgeois nose) gets burned no matter what I do. Hats seem to be the best protection.

        2. Yes and as jbilie says above, Indian women are judged unattractive if they are too dark. My Indian friends try to stay lighter. In Toronto there is an Asian mall and when I was there last I told my friends – look at everyone with those parasols, they so want my complexion! 😀

          1. Give it a few more generations, and everybody’ll have a generic Mediterranean-ish built-in tan. For better or worse, you’re a dinosaur — a white dinosaur to complement the blue-black dinosaurs of Africa.

            …hmmm…can you imagine how stunning a child of an Irish redhead and an Ethiopian would likely be?

            b&

          2. I read that the notion that white skin or light eyes are going extinct is untrue.

            I have auburn hair and green eyes. A total freak since red in your hair and green eyes are rare.

  36. Am I the only one who sees Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” on his forehead and between his little ears? Thus, the name Munchkin seems sent from PCC. Or Eddie…

    Sent from Deb T

  37. Aaaaaah, I’m experiencing some severe kittenlust! Alas, I’m travelling too much and on short notice, so adopting would be a bad idea. But once I can, I will head to the Tierheim and get me a cat or two.

    This bengal kitten really looks strong willed and ready to rule his furever home.

      1. I heard yesterday there’s a German word for something you realise later you should have said during a conversation. It didn’t ring any bells for me, but my German’s quite limited (less than a year semi-immersion).
        Ah, here it is: Treppenwitz. That is such a thing!

        1. “Treppenwitz” literally means “stairway witch”. There is an equivalent phrase in French: “l’esprit d’escalier”, or “spirit of the stairway”. the metaphor derives from the notion that someone says something rather cutting to you at a party, and you don’t think of the proper clever comeback until you are walking down the ballroom stairs on your way home.

        3. Staircase wit? Similar to the French phrase., which conjures the nice image of your being half way down the stairs when you think of your stinging reply.

          /@

          Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse all creative spellings.

          >

          4. Mea culpa. Esprit d’escalier it is. Years ago I was working in a lab at SRI and having trouble getting the same results that some Japanese researchers had gotten ( cholesterol research). The boss put a smart-ass young guy in to help me. His initial comment was “i’ll make it work. Things come easily to me.” I really wish I had said You probably haven’t tried many things.” We never did duplicate the Japanese results and I left to work at Stanford proper so never heard what hsppened.

  39. I cannot help but think that, although the new breeds of cats are often beautiful, that this is an extreme case of gilding the lily. I must agree with Leonardo da Vinci who said “The smallest feline is a masterpiece” and I feel strongly that the ordinary housecat is perfect without the aid of man. Breeding cats to conform to human whims is too close, for me, to what is done to d*gs. T.S. Eliot, the great cat loving poet wrote “A CAT IS NOT A D*G and I hope that we can all agree, at least, on that.

    2. Barbara, like others here, you are simply wagging your finger without the ieast consideration about your words might make your host might feel. I am considering adopting one of this breed, and I am sorry,but your tut-tutting is hurtful. I happen to thinks these cats are especially beautiful.

      There are so many readers here who are commenting on this without the slightest thought about how this might make the host feel. Such is the ethos of the internet.

  40. That kitten looks gorgeous and I would need a very good reason not to adopt it, if someone offered it to me. As to temperament, individual cats vary so much that breed temperament hardly seems to exist. I have a Rag Doll who is so skittish, paranoid and bad-tempered she would make a Bengal look like a puppy. She is nothing like the breed “norm” at all. I also had a Maine Coon who was nearly as bad. Anthony’s cats seem to be extremely good-natured to me. I’d adopt one in a flash.

  41. Sorry if I’m posting twice–couldn’t find my prior post. Just wanted to say, as a two-time Bengal owner, they’re the best of the best. Truly wonderful cats. Smart, funny, incredible personalities. I’m currently Bengal-less–sniff, sniff–and it’s a big hole in my life. Highly recommended!!!

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