Mercury is a lovely young tabby who lost most of his two front legs in 2013 after an unfortunate encounter with a weedwhacker. Fortunately, he was taken into a loving home whose staff helped him heal and taught him to overcome his handicaps (story here and here). Here he is:
He’s a fun-loving cat, as this photo shows:
And here are three videos of this adorable moggie, who moves a bit like a kangaroo. Here’s his first attempt to climb stairs:
He chases a laser pointer:
And Mercury wants his fusses!:
It’s amazing how animals can compensate for injuries and deformities through both behavioral and developmental change. But, after all, bodies are adapted to respond to physical challenges by strengthening bones and muscles needed when the body is altered. Perhaps the most famous example for biologists is that of “Slijper’s goat,” a goat born without forelegs that was named after the Dutch vet who studied it. During development, the goat underwent substantial modifications of its anatomy that allowed it to get around pretty well (I won’t dwell on its sad fate). Here’s a video of a similar two-legged goat whose movements resemble that of an ostrich:
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Tabby Mango spends much of his time sleeping in the entrance to the store in Tiverton, Devon, or curled up on a mat.
However, he is so well-loved that he has his own dedicated page on the social network.
It was set up by an unknown customer to give Mango’s fans an outlet to share their love
Citing their reasons for creating the Facebook page, the anonymous account holder wrote: “Our children love this cat so much that my husband suggested we make a page for him.
“What a good idea. So here it is. To put a smile on people’s faces. Thank you for your support for this lovely moggy.”
At one time, the moggy was a regular sight within the store – but now he often does not stray further than the entrance.
Maureen Saunders, one of Mango’s fans, said: “He’s a dear little thing.”
Despite Mango’s near-constant presence at the store, he has an owner and a home of his own just a stone’s throw away.
I wanted to share a couple of pieces of artwork I recently made of the two cats on whom my wife and I serve daily.One piece is black ink on white paper and is a simple depiction of just the stripes of our cat Zizou. His fur is dark gray and the black stripe patterns are quite striking, at least to my wife and I. Zizou was named after the great French soccer player Zinedane Zidane, formerly of Real Madrid and Juventus, as well as a highly instrumental member of the French national teams that won the ’98 World Cup and the ’00 European Championship.
The other piece is colored ink stipple on sketch paper of our cat Gunner when he was just a few weeks old. Gunner was named for the Gunners, the nickname of Arsenal Football Club of London. I was an avid Arsenal fan from 1999 until 2014 and my youngest son remains their staunch supporter.
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The latest Tesco slogan: ‘Every LIDL helps’
Non-UK readers find a Brit to explain.
We live about 200m from a major Tesco store. We do most of our food shopping at Lidl. ‘Nuff said.
Cute story about the Tesco cat but it’s disturbing to see a link to the Daily Mail on WEIT!
I’ll link to what I want, thank you. Sometimes even the Daily Mail gets stuff right!
Interesting how Mercury seems to hold his front “wings” pointed back for balance. There are a couple spots in the videos where his torso looks distinctly like a chicken.
I would be curious to see him going back down the stairs.
“How does he get down?” was my first thought too.
But cats and gravity have always had a flexible relationship.
Sometimes, it seems that the cat really is the stripes. And Gunner is in desperate need of a bellyrub….
b&
Mercury is such a cutie. What great staff he has too.
I used to work at Waikato Hospital in Hamilton, NZ, the biggest hospital in the southern hemisphere. In 1998, the cat of a staff member, Smokey, followed her to work and became a regular around the hospital, especially the Emergency Department. The patients loved her, and although there were initial concerns, it was decided she was NOT a health and safety risk. Among other things, she was known to lie with dying patients, providing them with comfort at the end. She apparently retired on health grounds to a farm in 2010, after a 12 year career.
There’s another cat there nowadays, but I don’t know much about it except it’s a Maine Coon and it mainly visits the mental health unit.
I love the artwork, and I’m greatly impressed by it.
This goat walks like an ostrich. Have the ratites moved to this stance in one (or two three) generations?
And what bout say, Hesperornis, how fast did that go?
Do we know anything about that?
The goat in the video is missing its hind legs, not the forelimbs as in the Slijper case. That makes it look ostrich-like because birds have the femurs nearly horizontal (shifting the centre of gravity to make up for lack of a long/heavy tail like normal bipedal dinosaurs have), and walk from the knees rather than the hips.
Great insight, thanks.
Nice and the drawings are excellent, thanks for sharing them.
Lovely art work, Ken.
Cute kitties too.
I’m curious as to why Ken Elliott was an avid supporter of Arsenal for 15 years and then apparently stopped being one!
Love the art! Seems to capture something about the kitties that photos just can’t get.