General CAT-ter (The Beanery)

♩we saw Gobi the neighbor's cat today ♩

♩ he said hi then went on his way ♩

 

I'm on good terms with a neighborhood cat. Last night I spotted her on top of the house next door. I watched her jump down from the second story roof to the eaves, almost run vertically down the wall for a second, and get onto the top of the fence that divides the properties. She looked at me through the window. I think maybe she wanted to come in, but it was late and I was about to eat, so I didn't think it was the best time to invite her in. I was amazed by her agility. Cats are incredible.

 

Kitten needs help from mom

 

Today in driving practice I saw a momma cat carrying her baby from one house to another with another one walking behind her and it was adorable

 

BABYCAT <333333

 

the babiest babycat

 

Fat and shedding everywhere

Spoiler

 

White socks!!

 

Pet! The! Tum!

 

Fun fact Catniss LOVES when ppl pet her tum

 

Actually if Catniss had her way she would be petted and brushed 24/7

 

for ur entertainment, a bunch of cat-related Wondermark strips (Wondermark is quality in general, you should read it)

Spoiler: cut for many links

http://wondermark.com/c1273/
http://wondermark.com/c1250/
http://wondermark.com/1k54/
http://wondermark.com/917/
http://wondermark.com/904/
http://wondermark.com/860/
http://wondermark.com/826/
http://wondermark.com/797/
http://wondermark.com/796/
http://wondermark.com/795/
http://wondermark.com/372b/
http://wondermark.com/119b/
http://wondermark.com/696/
http://wondermark.com/678/
http://wondermark.com/275b/
http://wondermark.com/559/
http://wondermark.com/186/

 

I love all of them, thank you for sharing

 

oh this took me forever to get to I’m sorry!!!

the domestic cat is derived from the African wildcat:

I actually don’t know what, genetically, the coat pattern would be, or how much it has in common with cat coat patterns, but it looks like black ticked tabby to me. Ticked tabby is sometimes said to be the most primitive pattern, so that makes sense.

Cats are odd because they were domesticated really recently, relatively speaking, and there’s the whole thing about how they domesticated themselves. Like you say, blotched (classic) tabby arose in the Middle Ages. However, cats don’t seem to have been closely managed as to breeding — other animals were bred to suit a function, cats performed theirs naturally so selective breeding wasn’t that much of an issue. Breeding deliberately for color or trait in cats is really only a couple hundred years old.

Most cat breed associations recognize several natural breeds, basically groups of cats that started out as randombreds and were formalized as breeds once cat breeds became a real thing. It seems likely that a lot of coat genes arose spontaneously within these populations: colorpoint in Thai cats, spotted tabby in the Egyptian Mau, possibly white in the Turkish Angora, etc. Here is a long article about cat domestication: scroll down to the heading “The Feline Diaspora”, and there’s information about when and where color mutations may have arisen. Here is the even longer, denser (fascinating) genetic study referenced in the article (check out figure 2). And here is a timeline of breed development - notice how late most of these were recognized.

 

Who is she

 

AKDKCKXKX OMG

 

I need you all to meet Max, the fishery cat.



He stays in the shed overnight bedded down in front of the log burner and has a bad habit of catching wrens.

 

Striking eyes!

(also leave the wrens alone....)