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Watched the most delightful BBC documentary last night on cats. A group of British scientists put cameras on 100 cats for a month and charted their behavior patterns. One feline group were semi-feral farm cats – as close to cats in their original wild as the scientists could get since these cats hunted all their food; one group of cats lived with people in a rural setting, while the third group lived with people in Brighton in a place with a very high, umm, cat density.
Clearly, I missed my calling in this lifetime. I should have been a veterinarian. Or a cat scientist working out of Cat HQ (pronounced “Haitch Q.”)
The findings were quite remarkable, at least to me since I suppose I’m the quintessential “cat person.” In fact, Max has warned me that he may consider institutionalizing me if I ever own more than two cats!
Cats’ eyes have a very different concentration of rods and cones than human eyes, which results in a very different visual field. Feline eyes are designed for crepuscular hunting, dawn and dusk; primates, on the other hand, sleep at night and forage for food during the day, hence perception of color and pattern is an evolutionary advantage.
Cats can’t focus on anything that’s closer than 30 centimeters, so their whiskers function as a kind of sense organ; they’re attached to tiny pilary muscles that spring forward and back in a thirtieth of a second – much too quick for the naked eye to perceive. Thus cats are able to perceive their prey when it’s within striking distance and are able to perceive the exact width of any enclosed space they move through since their whiskers are exactly the same width of their bodies.
Cats also have evolved an entirely different language for communicating with humans than the “language” which they use to communicate with one another. Cats are mostly silent with one another, communicating mostly through complex scent markers. The meows, trills etc. they use to communicate with humans is a stylized form of the communication kittens use with their mothers. This is really rather remarkable: Cats have learned to “talk” to an alien species! (Us.) They also use a whole range of body postures with humans that they hardly ever use with one another.
Why do some people love cats so much? It’s a kind of neotenous passion: Kittens have round faces with disproportionately wide-set eyes, much like human babies.
The three-part documentary is called Cat Watch: The New Horizon Experiment. I highly recommend it for all feline fans.
###
In other news, spent the afternoon with Seraphina yesterday, brainstorming funding sources for the 2015 Breaking Barriers festival and generally bonding. She grew up in Bed-Sty; both of us agree that the Brooklyn Public Library on Grand Army Plaza is one of our favorite places in the world!
We went to a grant-writing seminar – very useful, I think, even if we don’t end up applying for the grant because it lays out the types of information that need to be in a business plan, particularly the part about “measurable objectives,” which is not a part of business planning per se but which I think is good discipline. Then we went out to dinner and discussed Pollyanna and our respective lives to date: We both owned businesses that went kerplunk, so we share the entrepreneurial mindset. I think she would be a good business partner, and I’m happy to work with her to help her grow Breaking Barriers. If there’s money down the line, I suspect I’ll share in it.
Got home to a hysterical phone call from Ben – Robin not coming to Ithaca for his birthday bla bla bla.
Ben was incoherent with fury. I suspect the fury was mostly hurt feelings.
“So inconsiderate of him to cancel at the last minute –“
Fact is I was kind of bewildered by the Ithaca bday celebration all along.
My understanding was that Robin had planned to do something with friends on his birthday, and my original plan had been to drive up to Syracuse on the 21st to take him out to dinner. I was surprised when Ben told me the plan had changed, actually texted Robin about it. As usual, didn’t get an answer.
There was also some bizarre stuff around Ben telling me that Robin had thought I’d said the 20th, when it was quite clear to me from the communications I’d had with Robin that he knew perfectly well it was the 21st so I wondered whether there wasn’t some (typical) dissembling going on on Ben’s part, though to what end I couldn’t possibly imagine.
But Ben lies about a lot of stuff for absolutely no reason. Or maybe there is a reason but I’m too simpleminded to see it.
“I would never have planned Sunday if he hadn’t scheduled that dentist appointment for the 20th. I figured he had to be up here anyway, so we should all do dinner!”
Ah, thought I. So you made plans, but he didn’t sign off on them.
The saddest thing that Ben ever said to me, a few years back, is that he’s never seen himself as the hero of his own life. He’s always a supporting character. And that means that he becomes completely, oppressively obsessive about whomever he considers to be the star.
For many years, the star of Ben’s life was me. It was really burdensome.
Now, the star is RTT. Who finds it equally burdensome, I expect. A complex leaven of love, resentment, and guilt because, of course, Ben’s health is Not Good.
I’m going to go up anyway. I expect Ben is very, very lonely. He may not even know how lonely he is.
As to RTT – yes, yes, a heartless little manipulator. But I clearly remember being exactly the same way when I was his age. RTT wants to reinvent himself, and that’s just easier when you keep a safe distance from people who know your personal history. His personal history is painful to him. I love him; I don’t have much of a relationship with him. Maybe that will change. Maybe it won’t. My focus is not on that lack of a relationship.
Ben’s is.
“So,” asked L. “Do you think you’d ever get back together with Ben? I mean, you do seem close –“
“Oh, no,” I said. A little shocked actually. “Not in a million years. I mean, I’m very fond of him, that’s never going to change. But to walk out on a 17 year marriage without a word? Oh, no. I’ll never forgive him for that.”
Clearly, I missed my calling in this lifetime. I should have been a veterinarian. Or a cat scientist working out of Cat HQ (pronounced “Haitch Q.”)
The findings were quite remarkable, at least to me since I suppose I’m the quintessential “cat person.” In fact, Max has warned me that he may consider institutionalizing me if I ever own more than two cats!
Cats’ eyes have a very different concentration of rods and cones than human eyes, which results in a very different visual field. Feline eyes are designed for crepuscular hunting, dawn and dusk; primates, on the other hand, sleep at night and forage for food during the day, hence perception of color and pattern is an evolutionary advantage.
Cats can’t focus on anything that’s closer than 30 centimeters, so their whiskers function as a kind of sense organ; they’re attached to tiny pilary muscles that spring forward and back in a thirtieth of a second – much too quick for the naked eye to perceive. Thus cats are able to perceive their prey when it’s within striking distance and are able to perceive the exact width of any enclosed space they move through since their whiskers are exactly the same width of their bodies.
Cats also have evolved an entirely different language for communicating with humans than the “language” which they use to communicate with one another. Cats are mostly silent with one another, communicating mostly through complex scent markers. The meows, trills etc. they use to communicate with humans is a stylized form of the communication kittens use with their mothers. This is really rather remarkable: Cats have learned to “talk” to an alien species! (Us.) They also use a whole range of body postures with humans that they hardly ever use with one another.
Why do some people love cats so much? It’s a kind of neotenous passion: Kittens have round faces with disproportionately wide-set eyes, much like human babies.
The three-part documentary is called Cat Watch: The New Horizon Experiment. I highly recommend it for all feline fans.
###
In other news, spent the afternoon with Seraphina yesterday, brainstorming funding sources for the 2015 Breaking Barriers festival and generally bonding. She grew up in Bed-Sty; both of us agree that the Brooklyn Public Library on Grand Army Plaza is one of our favorite places in the world!
We went to a grant-writing seminar – very useful, I think, even if we don’t end up applying for the grant because it lays out the types of information that need to be in a business plan, particularly the part about “measurable objectives,” which is not a part of business planning per se but which I think is good discipline. Then we went out to dinner and discussed Pollyanna and our respective lives to date: We both owned businesses that went kerplunk, so we share the entrepreneurial mindset. I think she would be a good business partner, and I’m happy to work with her to help her grow Breaking Barriers. If there’s money down the line, I suspect I’ll share in it.
Got home to a hysterical phone call from Ben – Robin not coming to Ithaca for his birthday bla bla bla.
Ben was incoherent with fury. I suspect the fury was mostly hurt feelings.
“So inconsiderate of him to cancel at the last minute –“
Fact is I was kind of bewildered by the Ithaca bday celebration all along.
My understanding was that Robin had planned to do something with friends on his birthday, and my original plan had been to drive up to Syracuse on the 21st to take him out to dinner. I was surprised when Ben told me the plan had changed, actually texted Robin about it. As usual, didn’t get an answer.
There was also some bizarre stuff around Ben telling me that Robin had thought I’d said the 20th, when it was quite clear to me from the communications I’d had with Robin that he knew perfectly well it was the 21st so I wondered whether there wasn’t some (typical) dissembling going on on Ben’s part, though to what end I couldn’t possibly imagine.
But Ben lies about a lot of stuff for absolutely no reason. Or maybe there is a reason but I’m too simpleminded to see it.
“I would never have planned Sunday if he hadn’t scheduled that dentist appointment for the 20th. I figured he had to be up here anyway, so we should all do dinner!”
Ah, thought I. So you made plans, but he didn’t sign off on them.
The saddest thing that Ben ever said to me, a few years back, is that he’s never seen himself as the hero of his own life. He’s always a supporting character. And that means that he becomes completely, oppressively obsessive about whomever he considers to be the star.
For many years, the star of Ben’s life was me. It was really burdensome.
Now, the star is RTT. Who finds it equally burdensome, I expect. A complex leaven of love, resentment, and guilt because, of course, Ben’s health is Not Good.
I’m going to go up anyway. I expect Ben is very, very lonely. He may not even know how lonely he is.
As to RTT – yes, yes, a heartless little manipulator. But I clearly remember being exactly the same way when I was his age. RTT wants to reinvent himself, and that’s just easier when you keep a safe distance from people who know your personal history. His personal history is painful to him. I love him; I don’t have much of a relationship with him. Maybe that will change. Maybe it won’t. My focus is not on that lack of a relationship.
Ben’s is.
“So,” asked L. “Do you think you’d ever get back together with Ben? I mean, you do seem close –“
“Oh, no,” I said. A little shocked actually. “Not in a million years. I mean, I’m very fond of him, that’s never going to change. But to walk out on a 17 year marriage without a word? Oh, no. I’ll never forgive him for that.”
