Oh look there's a potential victim!

This week I have returned to the original premise of this blog with a focus on the chief protagonists in my story. Our cats feature heavily in our lives and their adventures make sure there is never a dull moment. I hope the focus on them this week is of interest to you.

Counting down to Xmas

December seems to be whizzing by as usual. Only a week to go and Xmas will be upon us. I hope you have sorted out your Xmas presents as there is now little time left to do so.

This week we did our pre-Xmas visit to my parents-in-law to deliver the presents and make sure they were all ready for the big day.

On Sunday we returned to the house to find a present of our own. It was one of those horrible presents that we could do without, but sadly the squirrel population of the garden has reduced by one. Interestingly, since that day it seems like there is now one more than last week, but the numbers out there never really make sense.

Returning home after the visit was so frustrating because before we left we debated whether to leave our study room open for the cats to run around in, and I stupidly felt pity for them and decided to do so. We came back to regret it with the scars of battle and ugly remains etched all over the relatively new carpet.

The two cute hairy monsters currently asleep on my desk had done their worst, just when we thought their outdoor escapades were curtailed for the winter.

Venturing into the room next door, it was also clear by the pile of recently removed cat hair and the cat collar with no current owner, that they had also been grappling with each other in there too.

No amount of warm and comfortable surroundings can take away from their instinct to be cats. We had left them a mountain of food so they wouldn’t go hungry and would be satisfied to stay in and play I-Spy but they had soon found an alternative food source and decorated the house for good measure.

He's in here somewhere!

With our cats continuing to present us with the odd gift even during winter I was curious to know why they do this, and how did they learn to catch things even when they were never taught by their mother.

Our cats grew up as part of a litter of nine in a two-bedroom house, so there was nowhere to practice hunting when they were born. And yet, they are expert hunters, capable of catching and killing animals with a single bite.

Instinct is an incredible thing.  The cats are pre-programmed with a bunch of behaviours and experiences that will drive their actions no matter what learning they do later in life.

Apparently, instincts are passed on through DNA. Not only genetic code, but also something called Epigenetic Inheritance, which means that experiences are also handed down from parent to child. (This is a controversial theory by the sounds of it).

Imagine that our human Epigenetic Inheritance was as acute as our cats is or we could improve it further. All of a sudden any learning that our parents have done was instantly available to us as kids.

Wow would that save time!

Straight away there would be no point in doing homework together as the kids would know it all already.

The future of genetics could be fascinating. If we could cut out the need for learning the basics then our kids could take over much earlier and the notion of being looked after by your kids could start while you still have your faculties to enjoy it.

Equally, imagine that one day we will be able to read the knowledge passed on in our DNA. The police will be able to extract DNA from a crime scene and although they won’t know who the perpetrator is, they would know that he is an historian, can juggle, is a keen gardener and he is expert at catching small rodents in a large glass. Now that narrows it down!

In the case of our cats they cannot stop themselves, the minute they see a potential victim, they have to step in. You think you can teach them to observe animals without feeling the need to deliver a fatal blow but there is no chance. A period of observation will always be followed by an attempt to take it further.

The thrill of the chase is then extended by an attempt to play with whatever they have caught. They want the chase to last but the victim usually doesn’t want to play along. So they simulate the chase by throwing the victim up into the air and flicking it around as if it were still trying to get away.

It is a bit like having a second cup of tea though, the subsequent experience is never as good!

He's behind you!

This is something else we can learn from the cats.

Cats apparently feel sorry for us because we are unable to catch animals of our own and therefore present us with one they have prepared earlier.

Clearly, our uselessness in this skill is tattooed on our foreheads or maybe they can already read our DNA.

They watch while we try to catch the half-dead animal they have just presented us with, so they must believe we need to learn more ourselves in order that we can instinctively pass it on to our next generation.

This type of “catch your own dinner” gift would certainly brighten up Xmas day. The fun we could have chasing the turkey around the garden before cooking it for dinner is clearly something we are missing out on.

I once had a boss who tried to help me with a similar experience.

The company car was a shared vehicle used mostly by him and in it was a box of mints that everyone who drove it helped themselves to. He thought it would be a great joke to put a dead mouse in the mints to teach us a lesson. Sadly, that day we didn’t open the box and so we never learned the lesson. His expectant face when we returned the car gave away there was something going on, and he explained the ruse with a disappointed look on his face.

The perennial question – will we get a white Xmas?

Sadly, this year there appears to be little likelihood of a white Xmas.  This event seems to be something that happens very infrequently now. In the week I saw pictures of various rivers in Victorian times that were regularly frozen over and sometimes even thick with snow.  For example see below; 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-38301949

People could happily skate across the water with no fear of going through into the cold waters below. Those days are largely gone in this country, so if by some miracle it happens this year – enjoy it while you can.

Keep still I can't catch you otherwise!

In the next couple of weeks I will include a suitable seasonal quiz with this blog. Unfortunately, this week I have been hampered in producing this blog in a timely fashion by enjoying the delights of the seasonal motorway traffic. Yesterday, I spent eight hours on the M5, so my window for writing this blog rather vanished. Therefore there is no picture quiz this week.

Have a great weekend!

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