Do Cats Hear with Their Feet?: Where Cats Come From, What We Know About Them, and What They Think About Us

221 Pages·2008·2.42 MB·English

by  Jake Page

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JAKE PAGE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUSANNE PAGE
(except as noted)
PREFACE BY MICHAEL W. FOX
DO
CATS
HEAR
WITH THEIR
FEET?
Where Cats

Come From, What We Know

About Them, and

What They Think About Us

JAKE PAGE
FOR SUSANNE , AS ALWAYS,
NOT TO MENTION
CAT, RUDOLPH, AND FIG NEW TON
CONTENTS
Preface by Michael W. Fox vi
Introduction 1
PART ONE
TRANSFORMATIONS
1
Just-So Tales of Cat Beginnings 9
2
The Taming of the Cat 29
3
Black Cats and Feline Reputations 47
PART TWO
CATWORK
4
On Being a Predator 57
5
Homeland Security 75
v CONTENTS
PART THREE
THE CAT ’S WORLD
6
Kittens 87
7
The Senses of Cats 97
8
The Mysteries of Play 121
9
How Cats Communicate 131
10
The Association of Cats 145
11
Breeds, Individuals, and Friends 153
APPENDICE S
Appendix A The Wild Cats of the World 165
Appendix B Cat Food Alert 177
Appendix C Feline Health Problems by Breed 181
Acknowledgments 185
Further Reading 187
Index 191
About the Author
Other Book by Jake Page
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
PREFACE
A
s a veterinarian and animal behaviorist, I tend to ap-
proach animals and the books about them I review the
same way. Like taking a cat’s temperature, I first check
the back end as soon as I have glanced at the cover.
I look for reference citations that could be a temperature
gauge as to the veracity of the book in question. The scientific
and other published documentation that an author includes at
the back of the book is good form, since it gives credibility to
what he/she writes.
Jake Page’s book checked out fine in this respect, and when
I saw his appendices I felt that this was a healthy cat book, not
stuffed with fluff and nonsense. Some cat books, like many
cats, are warm and fuzzy but actually quite boring, or worse,
rather sickly, not put together well and soon to be buried and
forgotten. Yet others are highly inbred, copycat books, inferior
rip-offs of better originals. A few make a lifetime’s impression.
vi
vii PREFACE
I have known a few cool cats like that, and this book is one of
which they would certainly not disapprove.
I sensed Page’s love and concern for cats, clearly evident in
the appendices that draw attention to the epidemic of nutrition-
related disease linked to feeding cats manufactured pet food,
especially the dry kibble types. I was glad to see him focus on
the most common ailments in the various purebreds, some of
which may be hereditary—an increasing problem—or linked
to breed sensitivities to certain food ingredients, antiflea and
other veterinary drugs, anesthetics, and vaccines.
So I felt that further examination of this book was called for.
Like opening a cat’s mouth, I wasn’t sure what I might find
when I scanned the contents and began to sniff out the intro-
duction. Would it bite and grab my attention?
Catchy titles aside, the introduction was like being greeted by
my cat Igor when I come home from work. I felt the immedi-
ate embrace of a kindred spirit dedicated to the task of helping
people better understand the nature of animals, and the ani-
mals of nature. What better way for us to see, or at least get a
better glimpse of, the cats’ world than through their eyes?
Satisfied and encouraged by the introduction, I stalked
through the book swiftly, enjoying it, and then returned to
savor the heart and marrow of each chapter like a big cat who
first surveys the herd of wildebeest or antelope before deciding
where to start first.
From the first chapter on I was captivated and appreciative of
Page’s accumulated and well-integrated natural history knowl-
edge. Thanks to writers like him, the often painstaking and
patience-demanding observations of ethologists—scientists
who study the ethos/behavior of fellow creatures, and whose
findings, along with those of other natural scientists, are too
PREFACE viii
often buried and forgotten in academic journals—are rescued
and shared with a wider readership.
People’s attitudes toward cats vacillate between revulsion
and reverence, fear and kinship, from age to age and individ-
ual to individual. Cats, as you will read, have been victims of
human prejudice and cruelties based primarily on ignorance
and indifference for centuries. This book is an antidote and will
do much to further people’s acceptance and enjoyment of cats.
It is also an antidote to cats being victims of misperception and
misunderstanding that can cause them to be overindulged, in-
appropriately disciplined, or otherwise mistreated; and to be so
highly anthropomorphized as to be regarded and treated like
infant children or surrogate offspring rather than as cats with
their own special nature, ethos, spirit.
I was hoping to see some mention of the psychic and spiri-
tual aspects of cat mythology and phenomenology so as to com-
pare my findings and conclusions with the author’s. This is not
within the scope of feline natural history, however, so I respect-
fully refer the reader to my own work, Cat Body, Cat Mind. As a
scientist I became intrigued when many years ago a reader of
my syndicated newspaper column, Animal Doctor, told me of
the family cat who suddenly began to pace and cry in evident
distress one morning around ten. Then, around 11:00 a.m., the
veterinary hospital called to say that the family’s beloved dog,
which was very closely bonded with the cat, had expired on the
operating table at around 10 a.m. Somehow the cat seemed to
know when her beloved canine companion had passed on. But
how? Over the years I have collected many such anecdotes, and
they do make one wonder about the awareness and sensitivities
of other creatures, and our own limited senses.
Scientific studies of feline behavioral genetics and the almost
ix PREFACE
ephemeral, matrifocal, littercentric social psyche and ethos of
the domestic cat are usefully summarized in this book. You
will learn about the sociability of cats, and the feral cat “societ-
ies” that congregate around garbage dumps and warehouses. A
common contemporary prejudice toward cats is over the free-
roaming cats’ predatory behavior, killing and maiming song-
birds and other wildlife. Others put food out for such home-
less cats, or see nothing wrong with allowing their own cats to
roam free and hunt and kill. Importantly this bioethical contro-
versy—kill them or feed them, trap and adopt them, or spay-
neuter-vaccinate and release them—is laid out in this book. It
makes for a good foundation for conflict resolution between the
polarized extremes of cat lovers and protectors and cat haters
and exterminators.
Rather than being another sentimental celebration of cats,
Do Cats Hear With Their Feet? provides the knowledge and in-
sights to better our appreciation, understanding, care, and con-
cern for all cats great and small—and the promise of a more
fulfilling relationship and communion with those felines who
enrich our personal lives. A gift indeed.
Dr. Michael W. Fox
Author of Cat Body, Cat Mind