{"id":1595,"date":"2016-11-07T04:27:52","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T12:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1595"},"modified":"2016-11-07T04:27:52","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T12:27:52","slug":"mindful-monday-cats-defamed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1595","title":{"rendered":"Mindful Monday \u2013 Cats Defamed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Smokey,

Smokey, AKA the Klepto Cat<\/p><\/div>\n

We all know how popular cats are. They\u2019ve practically taken over the Internet with their cute antics, gorgeous photographs, and interesting tales of courage, stamina, intuition… The last statistic I saw indicated that cats rule around fifteen percent of the internet. That is, fifteen percent of what\u2019s on the internet involves cats\u2014cute cat videos, stories of cats doing unusual things, not to mention hundreds of cat blogs. And most of it is positive\u2014favorable to cats.<\/p>\n

This week, however, someone sent me an article from the LA Times lambasting the cat. Evidently because we\u2019re doing so much to protect feral cat colonies throughout the world, we\u2019re losing songbirds and other small potential cat prey by the billions.<\/p>\n

One study completed in 2013 says that there are 84 million housecats in the US who are \"alyzaykatie-0101\"allowed outside and they estimate that these pampered pets kill four to eighteen birds a year and eight to twenty-one small mammals.<\/p>\n

The feral cat population, however, numbering anywhere from thirty to eighty million, kills twenty-three to forty-six birds a year each and 129 to 338 small mammals.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to think of that purring feline in your lap being a killer, but it is in her DNA. In fact, they say that the house cat is much closer to her ancestral roots of the wild cat than dogs are to their genetic beginnings.<\/p>\n

What is the answer to this continuing massacre? The jury is still out where the feral cat is concerned. I\u2019m sure that when a cat colony is being managed\u2014the cats are being fed regularly\u2014their need and urge to kill diminishes. But there\u2019s more that we can do when it comes to our own pet cats. Keep them inside. I can promise, however, that this won\u2019t keep them from killing any rodent that finds its way into your home or the wayward spider or fly that slips in through a tiny tear in a screen. Cats are hunters\u2014it\u2019s in their genes.<\/p>\n

Trump Your Cat<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a lighter note, here\u2019s a timely piece you might want to explore. It\u2019s a site dedicated to \u201ctrumping\u201d your cat. In other words, giving your cat a hair-do like Donald Trump. Want a good laugh today? Check it out. http:\/\/dangerousminds.net\/comments\/trump_your_cat_the_internet_takes_on_donald_trumps_hair_and_wins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all know how popular cats are. They\u2019ve practically taken over the Internet with their cute antics, gorgeous photographs, and interesting tales of courage, stamina, intuition… The last statistic I saw indicated that cats rule around fifteen percent of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1596,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595\/revisions\/1596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}