Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie!
It’s getting to be that time of year. Pumpkin harvest. Hallowe’en. Thanksgiving!
Join us for a fantastic Pumpkin Fest. Pumpkin-themed noms, pumpkin-themed music, spiced drinks. We’re going to have a blast.
The Pawgaritaville Team
I live alone, with cats, books, pictures, fresh vegetables to cook, the garden, the hens to feed.
— Jeanette Winterson, “Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?“
The Uda tennō gyoki (宇多天皇御記) is the personal diary of Emperor Uda, the 59th emperor of Japan. It contains the oldest surviving written record of a pet cat in Japanese history.
In a quiet hour, I find myself wishing to write about my cat.
There is one black cat.
Minamoto no Kuwashi brought him to court when he returned from his service in Dazaifu and presented him to my late father, the Emperor. His coloring is unlike that of any other cat I have seen. Other black cats are only somewhat dark. This one alone is black as ink.
His appearance is rather like a fine hunting hound. He is a foot and five inches long and perhaps six inches high.
When he curls himself up, he becomes as small and compact as a grain of black millet. When he stretches himself out, he is long like a drawn bow.
His eyes glitter brilliantly, dazzling as the points of needles. The tips of his ears stand perfectly upright and do not tremble.
When he lies down and curls himself into a circle, neither his feet nor his tail can be seen. He looks for all the world like a polished black jewel resting in its hollow.
When he walks, he makes no sound at all.
He moves like a black dragon passing silently through the clouds.
By nature he seems fond of stretching and exercising his body, almost as though he understood the ancient exercises of the Five Animals. He lowers his head and tail toward the ground and arches his back astonishingly high. Perhaps this is why his coat has such a beautiful gloss.
And he is an excellent hunter. At night he catches mice more swiftly than other cats.
My late father delighted in him for several days and then gave him to me. I have cared for him now for five years. Every morning I give him milk porridge.
It is not merely because he is unusually clever and agile that I cherish him. He was given to me by my father. Though he is only a small creature, for that reason especially I have grown deeply attached to him and have taken particular pleasure in raising him.
And so I said to him:
“You possess the forces of yin and yang within you, and you have been given a body complete with limbs and senses. If you have a heart, surely you understand how I feel about you.”
At this, the cat sighed.
He raised his head and looked up into my face.
It seemed as though his breast were full of feeling, but he had no words with which to speak.
I read An Immense World because I am interested in how my animal friends see the world around them.
The author, Ed Yong, defines Umwelt as an animal’s lived sensory world, the parts of its surroundings it can detect and that matter to it. The book provides many examples of how animals senses differ from humans’. And it also provides examples of senses humans don’t have.
My world takes place during the daylight, not at night. But using a night vision scope I have seen my cat walking easily in total darkness. Due to their tapetum lucidum, the reflective layer behind a cat’s retina, cats see better in the dark than humans do. Actually seeing her in action made it real.
I had trouble visualizing a duck’s field of vision, because they can see over their own heads as they fly, but that’s still vision.
Ditto spiders. Their eyes go all around the turret of their head and each has a different function, and that is how they visualize their world.
Bats use echolocation to navigate and to hunt. This is still plain old hearing, though at a higher frequency. Blind humans can learn to echolocate with taps, clicks or by snapping their fingers.
But the ability to “feel” magnetic north is unimaginable to unenhanced humans. I have a pretty good sense of direction, but knowing would be cool.
Having organs in my face that detect bioelectricity sounds cool too. Can you imagine detecting dinner by its electrical aura?
Yong’s style is casual yet engaging. I would like to read his other books, especially Life Beyond Measure: Nature’s Hidden Wonders at Every Scale.
I highly recommend An Immense World to anyone who is curious about the parallel worlds the animals around us live in.
Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.
— Garrison Keillor, “Lake Wobegon Days“
When all candles be out, all cats be grey.
— John Heywood, “A Dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of All the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue” [View online at UMich]
Greetings, Landlubbers and Swashbucklers alike!
Owen’s Black Paw has been the scourge o’ the Seven Seas, strikin’ fear into the hearts o’ even the boldest sailors, since 2011.
The ship was first commanded by Cap’n, now Admiral, @OwenTheTonk. First Mate, now Cap’n, Mr. Breeze, @kittehboi, was one o’ the original crew ‘n keeper o’ the ship’s logs at the @OwentheTonk’s Black Paw blog. The crew changes from year to year, but @RealFakeGator, ship’s Chirurgeon, has also been wi’ us from the beginning.
These days, Cap’n Breeze has the helm.
Owen’s Black Paw has a terrible reputation. Pirate raids, battles, treasure, rum, catnip, strange voyages, and general mayhem have always been our mission. We have sailed through #NipClub parties, fundraisers, holidays, and more than a few incidents where things got a little out of hand.
The official story says the Black Paw takes no prisoners. That may or may not be completely true.
But if you sign aboard, expect pirate music, tall tales, bad behavior, and the chance of eternal glory.
Are ye brave enough? Contact @kittehboi on X/twitter.
Big thumbs up to Pirate Monkeyness Insults and Translations.
Whenever I write a novel, music just sort of naturally slips in (much like cats do, I suppose).
— Haruki Murakami, source unspecified.
Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.
— Jeff Valdez, source unspecified.
Some say that cats are devils, but they behave badly only when they are alone. When they are among us cats are angels.
— George Sand, source unspecified.
