a kind tribute
to my little himilayan irish kitty
yeti kennedy
from my compassionate vet’s office
in a perfect circle
he
appeared from the wild
returned to the wild.
—
“trees are as close to immortality as the rest of us ever come.”
― karen joy fowler
the littlest yeti
the bravest warrior
the sweetest brother to olive
lived with a disease he valiantly fought
made it to his first birthday
filled with crazy fun and sass
left the earth as suddenly as he appeared
as yetis sometimes do.
—
“all the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.”
~ havelock ellis
side eye and some intense discussion going on at a recent meeting
as co-editors in chief olive and yeti make the tough calls.
—
insider exclusive – behind the scenes backstory of ididnthavemyglasson.wordpress.com:
before each and every time i post a blog
i am subjected to the scrutiny of my photo editorial board
who can be
exacting and my most challenging critics
or
supportive and my most passionate champions
often made to defend my choices
i am never sure how it will go.
—
“they can’t censor the gleam in my eye.”
charles laughton
new research shows that cats track their owner’s movements
Cats are special and intelligent creatures, and a new study led by Dr. Saho Takagi at the University of Kyoto in Japan confirms this.
Takagi’s research reveals cats’ ability to track their owners as they move about the house, and show signs of a genuine surprise if their owners pop up where they don’t expect them.
These findings support the idea that cats retain a mental representation of their owners, even if they’re out of sight, which is a sign of higher cognitive processes that can include planning ahead and using imagination.
There have been studies in the past that suggested that cats search in the correct places if they see food disappearing and that they expect to see their owner’s face if they first hear their voice, but how these abilities were practiced in real life still evaded researchers. “It is [also] said that cats are not as interested in their owners as dogs are, but we had doubts about this point,” Takagi explained.
To explore cats’ cognitive capacities, Takagi and his team studied what happened when 50 domestic cats were individually shut inside a room while repeatedly hearing their owner calling their name from outside the room. Then, the cats were exposed to either a stranger’s voice or that of their owner coming from a speaker that was positioned inside the room they were in.
Human observers watched recordings of the cats’ reactions during the experiment and ranked the cats’ level of surprise based on their ear and head movements. It appeared that the cats only showed confusion and surprise when their owners’ voices were suddenly coming from the speaker inside the closed room, implying to the cats that their owners had somehow managed to teleport to get inside the room with them.
“This study shows that cats can mentally map their location based on their owner’s voice,” Takagi explained. “Cats have the ability to picture the invisible in their minds. Cats may have a more profound mind than is thought.”
That said, it’s not too much of a shock that cats possess these abilities. “That awareness of movement—tracking things they cannot see—is critical to a cat’s survival,” said Roger Tabor, a biologist, author, and presenter of the TV series Cats on BBC.
“A lot of what a cat has to interpret in its territory is an awareness of where other cats are. It is also important for hunting: how could a cat catch a field vole moving around beneath the grass if it couldn’t use clues, such as the occasional rustle, to see in its mind’s eye, where they are? A cat’s owner is extremely significant in its life as a source of food and security, so where we are is very important.”
—
“the moment I walk into a room,
i have kind of like the terminator’s tracking system for where the food is,
and i can get there immediately.
-mike birbiglia
—
Source study: Plos One- Socio-spacial cognition in cats: Mentally mapping owner’s location from voice
yeti has always held a secret dream of co-starring in a judy garland film
—
“somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.”
-judy garland
the cats have done it again
(the most likely suspects)
a long while after putting my latest puzzle away
without finding a missing piece
they have left a piece at my feet
now all i have to do is find their secret lair
where i may discover a treasure trove
of all of my missing ‘one-pieces.’
—
“sometimes the hardest pieces of a puzzle to assemble, are the ones missing from the box.”
-dixie waters
thought it might be interesting
to expose the cats to a bit of world geography
while sipping a refreshing drink.
so far they have refused to take any quizzes
but i’m confident they are learning by osmosis.
—
“without geography, you’re nowhere.”
seemingly overnight
baby yeti
has transformed from a crazy toddler with mini claws and fuzzy fur
into an awkward, gawky teenager
who’s not quite sure what to do
with his newly stretched out body and all his parts
can’t wait for the
sassiness
storming off to his room
eye-rolling
questionable choices
acting like he doesn’t know who i am
mercurial emotions
and the puberty talks.
—
“no matter where you are or where you grow up,
you always go through the same awkward moments of being a teenager
and growing up trying to figure out who you are.”
-aimee teegarden
yeti and olive – one waves hello, one nods goodbye
—
“nature is forever arriving and forever departing, forever approaching, forever vanishing;
but in their vanishings there seems to be ever the waving of a hand,
in all her partings a promise of meeting farther along the road.”
-richard le gallienne – english poet
this baby yeti
who was abandoned and rescued
from a box in a park near the woods
has come home to live with us
named by my daughter
because, apparently
i talk about yetis a bit more than most people in the world
also because he is furry and white and found near the woods
yeti is sweet and happy and purring and exploring
tomorrow he’ll meet olive.
—
“and on the subject of naming animals,
can I just say how happy I was to discover that the word yeti,
literally translated, apparently means “that thing over there.”
“Quick, brave Himalayan Guide – what’s that thing over there?”
“Yeti.”
“I see.”)
– Neil Gaiman
I didn't have my glasses on.... 