My husband has been helping clean out his parents' house. He keeps bringing home old books and other stray items. I couldn't resist a few quotes from this one:
Cats, by Grace Pond and Angela Sayer, 1976
page 5 - "The felines are carnivorous or flesh eaters, using their thirty adult teeth in a scissor-like action to tear their food apart." That really makes you want to own cats, doesn't it?
page 51 - "Cats which become very soiled, for example having explored the chimney, or the coal-hole, may be bathed, as is virtually the only way to remove soot, coal-dust, or any other greasy substances from the cat's coat. It is usually necessary to have two people to bath a cat, one to hold on to him and the other to do the washing." Cats aren't clean, they're just covered in cat spit. And they don't mention the medical team standing by to suture the deep slashes and puncture marks from bathing the cat.
And my favorite:
page 83 - "Maggot Infestation is generally only seen in long-haired cats following a bout of sickness or diarrhoea, when small plugs of feacal material remain matted in the coat around the rear end. A blow fly then lays its eggs in this mat and within four days the horrified owner will notice the cat's extreme distress and agitated behaviour, and see a large cluster of maggots which have hatched out." What a lovely picture this paints!
That's kind of a creepy book.... :P
ReplyDeleteIt's a totally creepy book. It's supposed to be for cat owners, although I think the book would discourage people from ever owning a cat.
ReplyDeleteI'm a cat owner, and I think I'd throw that thing in the fire! Obviously it was written by someone who didn't like cats.
ReplyDeleteMy cats aren't carnivorous - they're catfoodorous. And yes, they use their teeth. Most people do, too, when they're eating something.
Cats don't like to be dirty, and are usually pretty grateful if you give them a bath when they are super dirty. They actually have pet wet-wipes for this purposed, you don't have to dunk the feline.
And lastly - I've never had a cat with maggots. That's disgusting. If you have that problem, you're not taking very good care of your cat and shouldn't have pets in the first place!
So, yeah - there's two cents from a cat lover!
:)
Wendy, thanks for commenting. I agree it is a horrible book. We have had cats for years without any of those issues. The worst we had was a cat who caught katydids and left the legs in the hallway every morning for us to step on.
ReplyDeleteI just couldn't resist posting some quotes from it.