BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Robert Jenkins — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:44:44 GMT

Reminds me of the cat Mr X brought in because his coat had fallen out suddenly and he had a sore on his bottom.

Miss Y had brought it in 2 days previously for dematting and castration!

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Martin Atkinson — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:49:26 GMT

[quote user="Thomas Johnson"]

Reminds me of a great work of literature:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Six-Dinner-Sid-Inga-Moore/dp/0340894113/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371455405&sr=8-1&keywords=six+dinner+sid

[/quote] You beat me to it Thomas, Six Dinner Sid was one of children's all time favourite bed-time story books. The problem is that in most cases in reality this doesn't happen. The second 'owner' (or 5 others in Sid's case of course!) is happy to feed this cat for months or even years until it gets sick and requires capital outlay on treatment and then suddenly it is not their cat anymore, its a stray again and not their responsibility.

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Thomas Johnson — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:59:29 GMT

[quote user="Julie Innes"]

Cat was living a double life, with both parties thinking they "owned" it (as if!) Mr X put it inthe cattery every summer when he went on holiday, and Miss Y couldn't work out where her cat had gone!

[/quote]

Reminds me of a great work of literature:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Six-Dinner-Sid-Inga-Moore/dp/0340894113/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371455405&sr=8-1&keywords=six+dinner+sid

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 19:49:03 GMT

[quote user="Julie Innes"]Mr X put it inthe cattery every summer when he went on holiday, and Miss Y couldn't work out where her cat had gone![/quote]

Priceless!

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Julie Innes — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 19:44:45 GMT

I managed to miss it, as I thought it wasn't on up here (Scotland). I've always thought it would be interesting to put a camera on your own cat. Especially on my old cat who, it later transpired, went to the railwaymen's club on a Saturday (on the bar, eating snacks!) and frequented the local kebab shop late on a Friday night (no wonder I couldn't get the weight off him!) I used to also see him in neighbour's windows, and wonder if they knew he was in their house.

My favourite story re cats and their secret lives came when I was seeing practice as a student. Woman brings cat in for a check up, as has been missing for 2 wks. Which is funny, as he always seems to go missing for a couple of weeks in the summer. Vet notices something familiar about cat- yes, we vaccinated this cat 3 weeks ago before going into a cattery. It belongs to Mr X. No it doesn't! demands Miss Y... turned out she let the cat out in the evening, and Mr X let it out in the morning! Cat was living a double life, with both parties thinking they "owned" it (as if!) Mr X put it inthe cattery every summer when he went on holiday, and Miss Y couldn't work out where her cat had gone!

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Stephen Courtney — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 19:13:04 GMT

[quote user="bob lehner"]

Well, I could have told them all that for nowt.

[/quote]

Personally I would have charged a consultation fee.....

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:33:23 GMT

[quote user="bob lehner"]Just to tell that cats wander around at night, get into scraps, eat small creatures, feed in other people's houses and then go home to have a damn good kip.[/quote] Yes but it seems the great cat owning public don't realise this. How many times have you seen a cat with an abscess and the owner thinks in order of ascending likelihood it was most likely due to a) a rat bite, b) pecked by a bird, c) bitten by a squirrel, d) attacked by a fox, e) beamed up by aliens and experimented on and when told it is actually a cat bite they say, 'but he doesn't fight'. Or when they get run over they say,'but he doesn't go near the road', and when its missing for a day they assume that it has been kidnapped to make a fur coat for a German lady who can't afford a fox fur but still won't believe it may have gone to the neighbour's for a kip and got locked in, 'because it would never do that, I look after him too well'!

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Bob Russell — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:32:33 GMT

I thought it was really entertaining!

I assume they got some good scientific data that might be useful for something but I really enjoyed it. I am sure the programme was good value for the BBC.

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

bob lehner — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:00:54 GMT

Yes I thought it was a disappointment also.

Must have cost a pretty penny - what with all the hi-tech collars and cameras, control room like something from NASA and loads of high-powered scientists sitting up all night . Just to tell that cats wander around at night, get into scraps, eat small creatures, feed in other people's houses and then go home to have a damn good kip.

Well, I could have told them all that for nowt.

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:57:34 GMT

[quote user="Mark Holmes"]I think any suggestion that short term behavioural changes can be considered evolutionary demonstrates a misunderstanding of evolution.

[/quote] Given that >90% of them are probably neutered absolutely my thoughts. I learned nothing new, but not forgetting it was aimed at a lay audience. I wasn't over-convinced about the types of purring either, I feel the change in tone at feeding time was as much likely to be due to heightened excitement of expectation of the prospect than a demand for feeding/attention. I don't usually watch these types of programmes, expecting it to be over-dramatised and anthropomorphic selling-coals-to-Newcastle stuff but in the end I didn't flick the remote control and not only because there was hardly anything else worth watching - it wasn't too bad.

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Tim Browning — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:16:31 GMT

I think it was a missed opportunity to address issues of how cats often live in modern society and the welfare implications when not in idyllic middle class leafy rural villages. Stress was vaguely mentioned but not developed. The one multicat household with rapidly evolving, without natural selection, apparently Zombie cats was discussed shallowly. There was no mention of neutering and its effects etc.

Also worried about terrorists seeing program and attaching explosives to cat with camera and then detonating when on rambles in sensitive areas. I hope Larry the No 10 cat is well guarded.

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Mark Holmes — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:38:28 GMT

I think any suggestion that short term behavioural changes can be considered evolutionary demonstrates a misunderstanding of evolution.

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

Stephen Courtney — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:10:56 GMT

There weren't a lot of surprises, and I disagreed with their premise that cat's behavioural changes are evolutionary - i feel they are environmental adaptations to living in modern homes, not evolutionary. Apart form a few obvious and bizarre breeds, we have done very little harm to this species in the 10 000 years that cat have deigned to associate with us.

Re: BBC Horizons: Life of cats.

mariette asselbergs — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:04:05 GMT

I was a bit disappointed, it didn't come up with many surprises really. I didn't watch it to the end though.

Initially I was thinking on putting a cat cam on our cats, but then I realised they go into our neighbours' houses all the time and sleep on the neighbours' beds sometimes, so maybe not....(:-)