Smudge and two of her three kittens
"Satellite cats" foto just days ago
To most people a “stray” cat is any they can’t attach to a specific owner or household — but it’s actually much more complicated than that. The cat may not be a “stray” at all, but on it’s own mission in the world, connecting with humans only as convenient.
Cats look pretty much the same except for coat color, so that’s the way they are sorted into categories. Scientists try to find a genetic connection between coat color and temperament, with a little success. Siamese cats have evolved a bit differently, being “boat cats.” “Ginger/red/yellow” cats — shades along a spectrum of one color — seem pretty much connected to a good temperament. “Good,” being one that is friendly to humans and a “bad” or “wild” temperament defined as resisting control or reacting to something mysterious humans don’t know about.
Granny Mama Cat at least ten years ago.
All these kittens have disappeared.
I think GMC died not long ago.
What’s useful to me is watching and pondering the cats around my household, a population that I’ve observed almost twenty years. One part was pre-existing in the neighborhood, mostly white with gold patches; one part was the two pet kittens I acquired from a family in Great Falls and which lived a long time; and one part was imported by a neighbor who accidentally brought them home as stowaways when he bought an old truck. The three categories were quite different. But we all know that cats don’t vary in appearance as much as dogs do.
A Portland co-worker who didn’t like cats used to say that they had all the brain-power of digital wristwatches. He was thinking of the logical reasoning brain, but one of the distinctions of felines is that they have formidable autonomic nervous systems. I’m told that another species with such a developed sympathetic/parasympathetic system is the grizzly bear, but not the black bear, which is more like a dog. Cats and grizzes are emotional. They don’t plan, though they are good at understanding puzzles or why would Skinner put them in puzzle boxes? They react to experience and are shaped by it. Once they form a habit, they are not easily discouraged from it.
The nature and personality of cats are more a matter of memes than genes. If genetics submits a faulty or vulnerable kitten, its mother may simply eat it. (Or a tomcat like Uncle Shorty, who lives in the garage, will “recycle the protein” for her. Once kittens are up and running around, Uncle Shorty becomes protective.)
The basic plan of cats is that of the predator and the success of the predation depends upon sensitivity to the environment. “Where the birds are.” If a human is part of the environment, that’s fine. Looking at cats this way means considering them according to their behavior and habitat.
Categories may include:
Household cats, in human homes, often with generative organs removed, which changes their hormonal patterns, though some instincts will remain, like that for nurturing kittens. These can adapt to other animals: sometimes prey babies (rabbits, ducklings), or to toy animals if they are cuddly enough to be triggers.
Another surgically forced change is removal of claws because they can destroy household objects or inflict minor wounds on humans. There is a strong movement in opposition to this practice. Underlying both the practice and the resistance are Apartment Cats that never go outside and serve decorative or intimacy needs for humans. Surgical alteration and confinement will probably not result in genetic change, but theoretically it could, as the humans select the kind of cat they will accept and protect. The individual cat is rewarded or punished according to the standards of the compassionate and aware human, but always within the limits of what means anything to the nonhuman creature.
Come and go cats are part of a household but have established an outdoor territory that responds to what is out there. These territories have been explored by humans via tiny neck cameras on collars and GPS locators. The “cat turfs” are stable but interact with each other and vary if there is something new and attractive, like a food source or dangerous like a new mean dog. Still, most cats are faithful to their household and come back even after adventures take them far away. Some cats disappear for weeks or months, then return, like grizzes coming back to their dens.
“Double Dipper cats” One of the startling results of camera research is how many cats eat and sleep at multiple homes. Fitting themselves into human schedules, they show up regularly, which leads the humans to believe that the cat has “bonded” with them. That’s true, but cats don’t mind multiple relationships if they don’t conflict.
One of the prettier satellite cats.
I called her "Maybelline" because of her lined eyes.
Currently there are NO calicos.
Satellite cats keep a human household as a reference point but actually have a wide range of places they keep track of. They may not allow themselves to be touched or even trapped and only obey their own rules, but fit into niches like a sunny wall angle or a jungly bit of plant growth, making grass nests with their curled bodies.
Scouting cats are looking for a new anchor point after they’ve been ejected or the anchor household has been demolished or emptied. These come closest to what people call “strays.” If they are fed and praised, they may attach and settle into a human family. People in this town will “deport” cats they don’t like or want — assuming they can catch them. Some cats will scout and adapt to even a nonhuman environment, but the premise of the humans is that they will attach to a farm of the type that existed in the old days. Those places are scarce these days often replace cats for rodent control with poisons, which will kill the cats. Coyotes and owls are predators of cats.
Mascot cats might be those that attach to businesses or libraries, simply adding warmth and charm or maybe performing rodent control. They get names and praise from multiple people but don’t go home with them.
Colony cats accumulate from genetic families that stick together over generations and then maybe attract other cats if there is enough food. Rome and Ernest Hemingway’s home in Cuba are both famous for cat colonies. The latter has inbred enough to develop distinctive multi-toed paws, a heritable anomaly that shows up in people as well. (My cousins have it.) Sometimes this feature is honored as “special” or even “magic.”
Natal cats (Born on the premises and shaped by that). The cats at my house are burrow cats — they like to give birth down under structures as though they were foxes. They are too wild to touch and run when they see me unless I’m feeding them. But one cat raised two kittens in the crawl space under the house which are tame, but they have a genetic element (Bengal?) that drives them to climb and they will run from me if I unexpectedly appear outdoors. They are long-legged, long-backed, with yowling voices.
Lab cats… These are cats we don’t want to know about. Because of being used for experiments on brains and sensory organs, they are essentially tortured and discarded. I haven’t heard of any being taken home for pets. Luckily for scientists, there are a lot of people who hate cats, having internalized old European ideas about witches having cats for “familiars,” that connect to the Devil.
Damaged cats . . . Cats can survive horrendous injuries, which evoke different responses. I remember one in my childhood on the farm of a relative. It had been shot through and through. I thought something should be done, but the farmer shrugged. No one I knew in childhood EVER took a cat to a veterinarian, and most home-doctored only working animals. An animal that was also a “crop” like a cow or pig or horse, might be taken to a veterinarian. Cats don’t even have as much value as puppies.
Feral cats . . . One can look at this from a species context — kinds of animals normally domesticated but having escaped and adapted to the wild (pigs come to mind) or an individual animal that was once part of a household but has converted to being wild. The remarkable aspect of cats is that they may convert from domestic/tame to wild and back again, whichever works for survival. Humans are a bit like that.
Alley cats are those that used to live out of the garbage cans left in alleys for pickup by garbage trucks. Like small family farms, this habitat is about gone, due to higher sanitary standards and impenetrable garbage cans. Grizzlies also struggle with this habitat change. But humans can still get into dumpsters.
"Bengal" cats
Wild cats. The original “root stock” of cats is thought to be an array of small striped felines in Africa. They evolved in warm climates, though if you include bobcats and lynx or even bigger cats, they can range up mountains and far to the north. The effort to create “bengal” cats by back-breeding for coat patterns and for research about cross-breeding have not settled into new species. Some of the results are attractive and docile enough that they get taken home for pets.
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