September 16, 2007

• What Animal would you be?

  Socrates_Cafe asks What animal do you most relate to? What animal would you most like to be? Why?
  
  If I had to be any animal I would like to be a cat. I love cats. I always have. I would love to hear what animal you would be. either tell me in my comments ro write a blog about it and let me know.

  If your cat is 3, your cat is 21 in human years.  If your cat is 8, your cat is 40 in human years.  If your cat is 14, your cat is 70 in human years.
  The nose pad of a cat is ridged in a pattern that is unique, just like the fingerprint of a human.

  In English, cat is “cat.”   In French, cat is “Chat.”  In German, your cat is “katze.”   The Spanish word for cat is “gato,” and the Italian word is “gatto.”  Japanese prefer “neko” and Arabic countries call a cat a “kitte.”

  In Ancient Egypt, 3500 B.C., people prayed to cats and considered them almost divine with a devotion that today’s cat-owners can hardly compete with. Cats were also extremely well-suited for keeping down the vermin in the grain stores, for instance. Killing a cat entailed the death penalty. Dead cats were embalmed and buried in special coffins in their own cat-graveyards. A person who had lost his cat shaved off all his hair to show the extent of his grief. Later, Phoenician tradesmen took short-haired cats to Italy from where they gradually spread throughout Europe. (Long-haired cats came considerably later from Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan.)

  During the Dark Ages, cats were killed as demonic beings. It was a phrase in a book written during this period that gave rise to the idea that cats have nine lives. The English writer William Baldwin wrote in his book Beware the Cat that “it is permitted for a witch to take her cat’s body nine times.” In the 15th Century, Pope Innocent VIII decreed that all cat-worshippers in Europe be burned as witches. During this time, as thousands of “witches” were cruelly burned at the stake, many an unfortunate cat accompanied them to their terrible deaths. This, despite the unsuspected aid that cats provided by reducing the rat population that spread the Bubonic Plague. Even as late as the Salem witchcraft trials, cats were often burned or hung with those accused of witchcraft (remnants of this period can still be seen in the black cats of Halloween).

  A 13th century Egyptian sultan left his entire fortune to the needy cats of Cairo. For many years afterward homeless cats received a free meal daily.

  In the 9th century, King Henry I of Saxony decreed that the fine for killing a cat should be sixty bushels of corn.

  Many Egyptian parents named their children after cats, especially their daughters.  Some girls were called Mit or Miut.  The mummy of a five-year-old girl named Mirt was found at Deir el-Bahri in King Mentuhotep’s temple.

  Cats were also valued for their mysterious and superstitious qualities. There is a myth that the Egyptians once won a battle because of cats. They were fighting a foreign regiment and just at the time of attack by the foreigners, the Egyptian released thousands of cats at the front lines. Seeing the onslaught of these terrifying creatures, the foreign army retreated in panic.

  Did you know that one unspayed female cat can produce 36 cats in just one and a half years? Every year, millions of animals are euthanized in animal shelters, and millions more are abandoned to die on the streets. The good news is that these deaths can be prevented with spaying and neutering.

  Millions of cats are waiting in shelters right now for the perfect home. Unfortunately, not all of them will find good homes: An estimated 3 to 4 million animals are euthanized in shelters ever year. The good news is that there are two easy solutions to the tragic animal overpopulation problem:

      spay and neuter animal companions to prevent adding to the homeless, and
      adopt your next cat from the animal shelter.

  If you have the time, energy, patience, and money to provide a happy home for a cat, visit your local animal shelter. By adopting a shelter cat, you get a terrific companion and save a life at the same time.

  So I would be a cat. What animal would you be?

  

  • 5:36 pm
  • 8 Comments