Our cats episode - right here, right meow

you are very close to selling out. Uh yeah, Colorado. Denver is like right there, right, and then he's doing okay, it's it's respectable, but it's definitely Denver was like, give us this ticket. Yeah. And I gotta say, Houston, we really stuck our neck out for you. After Dallas and Austin. We heard from a lot of Houston nights about how big your city is. So prove it. Oh so they call throwing on the gauntlet. Uh, And we have two more shows to announce. Is that correct, sir? That's right.

We are doing Night one and Night to at the Bell House in New York City. That's right in Brooklyn, New York. Bellhouse has been our home there for many years and coming back home. Yeah, these are very special shows because they're smaller, smaller than places we've been playing, and we love it there and I think it's it seems gonna be pretty great. Yeah. So that's June, and tickets go on sale Friday. Friday. That is correct, and we will have links at our square space website. S

y s K live dot com. Make sure you buy tickets to the correct night that you want to go. Oh yeah, and it's gonna be the same show both nights, right, be the same show both nights. And now all I need our tickets from Lynn Manuel Miranda to go see Hamilton's on Broadway. Oh yeah, sure, sign me up for those as well. Placed. It's pretty tough ticket to get if you're a listener, sir, you can come to our show. Yeah, oh yeah, totally, even though it conflicts with the Hamilton's performance. Yeah,

that's what I said. So, like we said, s Y s a live dot com power by squarespace, where you can find all the tour deeds. We'll see you soon in Brooklyn. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's over there, and this is stuff you should know. The podcast the annoying podcast apparently the what the annoying podcast? Cat Me Owning is annoying. Oh, it's like there's rusty

nails in my blood vessels. You don't like cats, do you know? I'm just kidding out climate cat um. I think people are like our heart cuts. Or conversely, people are likerry dogs. I think those people are weird maybe not humans. Yeah, I mean I get the preference. I have both, as you know, and as everyone knows. Two dogs, two cats, and I'm gonna be talking about my cats a lot. So Lauran and the Whiz the wizard yet

I call him the Whiz. It's my pet name for him. No, we call him the Whiz or wizzled with an L. I haven't reached the point where I'm he's comfortable with me calling him that. Oh, sure he is. Well, we have tons of nicknames, like everyone does for their pets. I even made a list one time. You made a list of pet nicknames for our pets, just so we had them all down. Do you have that on your refrigerator or something. Let's just have a tattooed on your arms on the old hard drive on the laptop. What

were you drinking when you did this? Uh? Milk? By the way, let me just say I now to have tried the Crown Royal Northern rye. Would you think it is the bomb? It is very good? Yeah, mind's gone? Is it really? Yeah? Yeah, mine's getting there. I'm not surprised. Um. All right, let's get into this. And if you don't like hearing cat stories for me, then this might not be the show for you. Yes, you're ready. I'm ready. C A T cat is defined. So let's talk history

with cats. That's where we usually like to start. It's good, feels normal. Um. For a very long time, everybody thought egypt were was the culture, the group of humans that domesticated cats. Although if you've listened to our Animal Domestication episode, you probably had your mind blown a little bit or your suspicions confirmed that cats are not technically domesticated animals.

Yeah there's they're technically a feral species still, but some of them will deign to hang out with humans, you know, for the most part, though, they're not strictly a domesticated animal. That's just semantic. So at this point, what I'm saying is that everybody thought that the Egyptians were the first to quote unquote domesticate cats. Yeah, and you know, we think that for good reasons, because Egyptians love their cats. They were worshiped, they were mummified. If you look at

Egyptian artwork, there's cats all over the place. There was a cat deity named Bustatt. Yeah, that was the cat headed deity. That'd be a great cat name, and apparently like the cult, Oh yeah, it really would be like modern cat name. And speaking of modern cat names, we found out that, um, the Egyptians may have been the first to really revere cats, but they were far from the first humans to live with cats. The Egyptians what they went back to three four thousand years maybe five

thousand tops. We found evidence that in the Fertile Crescent something like twelve or so thousand years ago, when people first started toying around with agriculture, they started storing the grain that they harvested from agriculture, and the cats said, I like these piles of grain that are attracting rodents. I don't need to be a fierce wild animal anymore.

I'm just gonna hang out where these peeps are. Yeah, and they they formed what can only be described as a symbiotic relationship with humans because humans, all of a sudden, we're like, these crazy cats are doing us a kindness, and so in turn, maybe we should start feeding them. Is that a reference for to the trivia night? No, what was the kindness of group of Oh remember therets? I think it might have been. I can't remember, but it is no business affarets A business affairts a kindness

I can't remember. I can't either, But that's a fascinating topic though, the groups of animals and their names. I'm sorry for interrupting. Uh. So they said, Hey, they're doing us a kindness. I'm gonna start feeding them. Maybe they'll hang around more. And hey, maybe uh, when we go on a ship. We've got a lot of mice and rat problems on ships. Maybe we should put them on our ships too, because they're great mouser's And before you know it, cats were all over the world doing countenances

to humans my life, killing rodents. But like you said, it was symbiotic, Like we're the ones who piled up the grains at the first place. You know, they owed us. But the point is that our history with cats goes back far, far farther then, uh, just ancient Egypt. And you so, like I said, speaking of great cat names, you said Bestat would be a good one. Agreed, But um, I found that all cats are descended from the African wildcat.

It turns out, and the African wildcat is uh Felix Sylvestris Libika, which means Felix the cat and Sylvester the cat both were very appropriately named cats. I wanted to know that. Well. I wonder if that's where they got it. I bet surely you think can't be that coincidental. Felix has say for sure, Sylvester I might be sure about that too. Yeah, I think you're right on the money. Boom. You should have looked it up. I bet that you could find that out pretty easy. I'm so comm but

I didn't even need to look it up. I'm not gonna waste the finger motion. Uh So they found cats and burial sites on Cyprus, which is an island, which means people brought him there. Cats didn't swim to Cyprus hate swimming for the most part. Yes. Uh. And then as you said, that symbiotic relationship was carried on all the way into the New World, because nothing much happened from you know, the time of the Fertile Crescent until

the New World. Yeah, like nothing, right, But um, the cats made their way over apparently as early as Columbus's voyages to the America's or the Caribbean, I should say supposedly. Uh, the kiddies wrote on the Mayflower and settle at Jamestown. And there's a false uh. Remember we did a show on Isaac Newton. Um, there is a false legend that he created the kitty door. Oh it's not true. Huh.

It's not true because it was actually written about in the Canterbury Tales, specifically in the Miller's Tale, and there are actual images of fifteenth century doors in France with what they called cat holes. It makes sense. I mean that the flap like just cut a hole in that

door so the cat can go in and out. And the reason why they thought about this so early when they started building doors, I'm guessing that they started building cat doors in those doors pretty quickly after that, because the idea of keeping a cat indoors only is extremely new, like we're talking like the last sixties seventy years maybe. Um. Prior to that, uh, it was you had a cat that wandered freely inside or outside the house or just

stayed outside all together. And it took the invention of m clay kitty litter, h refrigeration so you can refrigerate meat more easily, so you have more surplus of meat that you could share with an indoor cat. And then spaying and new during apparently were the three advancements that allowed cats to be kept indoors. Cats, believe it or not, worked for the United States Postal Service as late as

the early twentie century. Uh. They were used as mousers, of course, mouser's Mouser's neither one, Mauser's lieutenant Mauser's uh. And then at one point they they said, you know what, We're gonna actually hire cats in the form of giving these post offices an allotment for food. And the cats immediately went on strike. Oh teaser for the next episode. But they were they were actually used by the us

PS and um technically paid in food. That's great. Yeah, in their warehouses, I guess, and they're in their postal warehouses. So h you mentioned the kitty letter being a big invention. It was invented by a man named Ed Lowe. I think he was a Minnesotan but ended up in Michigan. Uh in seven is neighbor. You know people use things like ashes and sand. Yeah, saw the newspaper. Yeah, if you wanted to keep your cat inside. And as neighbor came by in and said, hey, my sand is frozen

because I'm in Michigan's and cold. It has to be for your stand to freeze pretty cold, I guess. Uh So he said, you know what, I got this full Owner's earth clay. Why don't you use that? And it works so well. He packaged it and sold it as a kitty litter. That was right. Originally was kitty litter, right, And it was just kiln dried clay. That's it, right,

broken into small pieces, I think. So, I mean yeah, Fuller's Earth style, and um, he started giving it away at first, and like you know, you had to really educate the populace at this point. And that's just the populace, the pet owner, pet store owners, that one wants this, and he apparently told one pets are owner, just give it away when somebody comes in and they want kittie later, give them this for free. And uh, apparently that little

marketing technique worked very well. Same with the slinky. Oh yeah, what did they give it? Awave him away for free? No, there's some other like the inventor himself demonstrated him. That's what it was at K. A. O. Schwartz, which is what ed Loo did. And and pet store owners said, wait, you're saying I should keep my cat indoors where it can poop and p Yeah, here's a box. Put in

this box. But apparently they were already doing that somewhat because people were using sawdust and stuff or frozen sand. But it wasn't the norm like you said. Um, and then spaying and neuter ring, of course, is what you mentioned. Uh. If you've ever had a cat that goes into heat because you did not spare neuter and that cat is an indoor cat, you're in for trouble. Oh yeah, like your drapes are toast well, I mean they're just gonna

be spraying, which we'll get too later. H the when I was in I have a story I wish I could tell in full for my college days. But I can't um, but needless to say, I was a young, dumb college student and didn't I wasn't educated on spaining uttering, and I had a cat going to heat. It's no fun there. They go crazy and they're allowed and they want nothing more than to get outside and have the sex. Yeah, so we'll just stop the story there. Boy, is it

a good one. Do you know how many people are going to write in asking like just tell me, just me, I'm special, I won't judge you. So that is the long storied history of cats. Yes, and uh I talked to Holly from Stuff You miss in History class for this self proclaimed crazy cat lady. Yeah, she and Tracy are very much both in the cats, and they did a show on the history of cats, which I bet is very much more in depth than what we discovered. So I would certainly hope still go check that out.

Did an eleven minutes show on cats, on the history of cat. I'm sure it was very detailed, so I would suggest listening to that for even more inside. So let's talk cat anatomy. Right, when you look at a cat, usually think, well, it's basically the same thing as a dog. No, that's not true. There's a lot of different differences between cats and dogs. Cats, for example, have about twoty four

bones bones. Twenty seven of them are in their tail, which is very lucky because cats use their tail to do amazing things like balance and to turn over when they're falling, which is that with the tail helps with it's part of it. Which is a legend that a cat always lands on its feet, supposedly, which gave rise to the idea that cat has nine lives. Um, But no, cats can also not land on their feet sometimes. Yeah.

They how about We'll say this, Cats really really want to land on their feet and try their hardest to and do most of the time. Yeah, which is good. Uh. They the tail also helps them get in and out of tight spaces. Uh. And the cat is notable for not having a collar bone. Um, it's a detached clavicle. So when you see a cat walk, whether it's a a puma or a kid cat, um, you see there those you know, those shoulder blades movies and rhythm with the legs, and that's I think. One of my favorite

things about cats is that jaguar looks like your house cat. Yeah, like same behaviors, same they do the same things. Well, if you go and look at an African wildcat, what all cat the last common ancestor of all house cats, all domestic cats. Um, they look like a large tabby cat, same kind of coloring, same features, same everything. So they clearly haven't diverged that much from their lineage, you know. Yeah.

And also would probably be in big trouble on a safari because when I look at those big cats, I think, man, they would just let me in there to get you know, get them around the mouth and get a little scratch going like they would just they'd love me. You're the kind of guy that they find like dead and Maldan a zoo enclosure in the morning when they open up.

I just wanted to pet it. Uh happened Sometimes what people want to pet the animals, so they go in yeah, get yeah, take drugs or get wasted and go hang out in zoos after hours. Like the guy who was killed by Tillicum the Orca. Yeah, one of the guys who was killed by Tillica. Yeah, he like took off his clothes and tried to ride till it come and that did not work out. Well, Tim said, get off me with great force. She said, come here, you who thought we were going to talk about a killer whale

in the cat episode? I don't know. You never know. So back to cat anatomy, chuckers, Um, let's talk cat hair. Yes, cats have four kinds of hair. Yeah, most people probably thought you were gonna say three, or maybe even one or two. That's true. Uh, down hair on a w N hair, guard hair, and the brussee yeah, a k A whiskers, but your kind of hair. Yep. So the down hair is the closest to their body and it

keeps them warm. And the next you have on, which is the middle coat and it's kind of an insulating coat. Then you have the guard hair, which is what you think everything is on a cat, what you see, and it protects the lower coats, it keeps it dry and all that stuff. Um, and the brissa those are the whiskers, and they're actually just amazing feats of biology. The briss cat whiskers are UM. Cats use them to sense movement and everything from like the ground or a door jam,

or even changes in air pressure around them. They're extremely sensitive touch um appendages basically, Yeah, so they'll you mentioned the air pressure that helps them navigate at night. So a cat can be running through your living room and come upon your couch and literally since the air coming around the couch. And no, don't run into the couch like the dumb dog does every day. Yeah, because the dog has whiskers too, but they're not feeding them the

same information that the cat's whiskers are. The whiskers do fall out and are replace You should never ever ever trim or cut or pull whiskers. No, and you should spank a child that does. And what let the cat watch there may be a time out, okay. Uh. They also indicate mood. If the cat's whiskers are pulled back, it probably means they're upset or angry or they want to scrap. Uh. If they're just puffed out normally, that means they're pretty happy. And they're roughly the width of

the cat's body. So the cats will use these. Um, if you've ever seen a cat like, let's say there's a cat hole in your door, or they want to go behind the couch, they'll stick their head in first and say can I get through this with my big fat body right? Or my whiskers tingling? And the way that their fat bodies can get through though two is um because of that detached the detached shoulders that you mentioned earlier too, that's right, that's how they can basically

go from um horizontal too. That's when they angle them almost at a ninety degree angle to where they were standing or where their head is. They can go through some pretty tight spots, they can, Yeah, And they can also get caught and wedged and trapped in tight spots sometimes, yeah, which is no good. The Wizard got out one time and got in the attic and we couldn't find him, and it was very scary, and uh, I went up.

We finally looked in the attic and it was in the summer, and he was kind of trapped and wedged in between like this wood and and he was like panting the attic in the summer, and is not a place you want to be very when you're trapped. How long is he gone for? Not that long? I mean, wait, don't answer, that's a cliffhanger. We'll answer that right after these messages, So chuck, Yeah, how long was the Wizard

gone for? Seven days and seven nights. That's a long time. Now, it was just a few hours, I think, but it was so hot that it was. Yeah, we felt like, you know, bad very bad parents. Yeah, I mean he got into mischief. Well yeah he got the tape him to the fridge. Curiosity almost killed my cat. Jerry laughed at that. She's listening. Uh, cats paws, We're not done with anatomy because cats paws are pretty remarkable. Uh. They unlike dogs that can turn their paws, they can make

a little fists and flex yeah more than a dog can. Uh. And they are obviously great for climbing things, um, and for self grooming, heat detection, temperature regulation, killing mice and moles and chipmunks, and bring him to the doorstep saying look what I did. Check this out. I'm a good kiddie. I strangled it with my paws that are offendable. Uh. And um, the claws are obviously not always out. Um. They are there, retracted back in and they use them

as needed. So you found some really, um, really interesting article from the Humane Society of the US on cat claws that I could almost not make it through. I was cringing so much. Yeah it was really rough man. So, um, you said that a cat the cat's claws are retractable, right. Um, So the claws go back into the skin sheath and

they come out when they're ready for some action. Um. And to de claw cat is not to just clip the clause because just like human's fingernails, they grow, which is one reason why cats scratch, which is to basically file down their what amounts of their fingernails their claws. Um. And the fact that they do this on the couch is what leads some people to get them de claus So you can see this vicious cycle coming up right. Well, declawing a cat is way more than clipping it's toenails.

It's nothing like that. It's more akin to, as this article puts it, cutting off humans fingers at the first knuckle at the last, not the one the knuckle closest to the end of the finger. Yeah. We try not to get too opinionated, but I've always preached don't declaw it's uh. I think it's cruel. The cats need their claws for a variety of reasons. Um, there's no medical benefit to declawing a cat. It is purely for humans who don't want to take the time to train their

cat to not scratch their couch. Yeah, and the humans, it makes the point that the average person can easily train their cat to scratch different places. Um. They suggest things like make sure your cat has a number of different scratching posts from different types of materials in different positions like vertical and horizontal, um, and put them near the things uh that they scratch, like if they scratch the arm of the couch, put a post near there. And you know, cats respond to know and just like

dogs do. Right, you tell a cat no, and then you rub some catnip on the scratching post and they'll say, well, that's wonderful. That's what they say. They have the stuff. I think instead the cats not saying well that's wonderful, they're saying, you win this round, and they're biding their time, is what they're really doing. There are these clear sticky tapes you can put on your furniture that they don't like, and UM, my experience has been you don't have to

leave that stuff there forever. Once they realize, oh, I don't like the feel of that on the couch, I'll just move on and and to the scratching post and then you can eventually peel that stuff off. You can. It does look kind of gross after a little I can with a cat in the house. Um. You can also hide behind your drapes with an air horn and wait for your cat to come to scratch. They'll pick up on that real quick. You want to start young, um, both trimming your cat's nails and with the trying to

get them to not claw it stuff. The earlier you start, the better they're going to be. And it really doesn't take that much effort. If a cat doesn't have its claws, can lead to a lot of problems. Um. Decline can can make their their paws swell and uh like stay swollen. Um. It takes away their ability to jump on something, so they could try and jump up on something and not be able to grab and then fall back down. Yeah. And they may also turn into biters because they don't

have the ability to claw anymore. So maybe like, well I use my teeth instead. It is way worse and supposedly also a lot of reason that some some people have their cats declawed is not just for their furnisher stake because they're worried about things like cats scratch fever.

Because Ted Nugent preached against right. Um, but the but the the idea that you can catch an infection from a cat scratch is far less likely than a cat's bite, dealing with cats feces um, or getting bitten by a flea that isn't infected that is a near your cat. So being scratched by a cat. Declawing a cat to prevent infection is actually a terrible idea as well. Yeah.

And if you have indoor outdoor cats and you declawed them, um, that's just like the worst possible scenario because then they literally have no defense than the outside world their toasts. So are we clear enough? Don't declare your cats. In fact, many countries abandoned. Yeah. Um, it's such a like, such a bad thing to do. So I'm not judging him. Some people don't know, Um you know, well yeah, so,

so we're trying to educate you. So you brought up indoor and outdoor cats, here's another soapbox for you to stand on, chuck, just slide it over. Um. There is a great debate on whether cats should be indoor cats or outdoor cats. And like we said, for almost all of domestic house cats history, they were not indeed housecats. They were not strictly indoor cats because just didn't really exist very much um, and they were allowed to come in and out, or they were strictly outdoor cats. And

it's a fairly recent change. But there's a lot of um. A lot of the animal rights groups say no, you should keep your cats indoors. It's the safest place for your cat. The American Bird Conservancy says that you would be also saving the lives of countless small animals. They The American Bird Conservancy estimates that in the US alone, cats kill hundreds of millions of birds and more than a billion small mammals like rabbit, squirrels, and chipmunks every year.

Isn't that crazy, That's like, well beyond the circle of life. Yeah, you know. So there's a lot of people who say, yes, you should keep your cat indoors, and then the other the other side says, don't be stupid. These are outdoor animals. You should not confine them indoors. It's unnatural. Well, yeah, the thing I'm most often here is my cat loves it outside, which is true. Your cat does love it outside, But for me, it's you know, you're the owner. It's

up to you. Like an indoor cat can live fifteen seventeen twenty years if you have a strictly outdoor cat, they say, the life expectancy is can be as little as, you know, two to five years. It's definitely like a live fast, die young scenario. Yeah. For the outdoor cats, sure they can get Uh well, I mean, how many times have you walked down the street or driven down the road and seen a squash cat that was somebody's

house cat? Far less than a squashed dog or even really yeah, not that I think about it, I very rarely have seen a dead cat on the side of the road. Well, how about this, how many times have you seen a cat across the road? Successfully? Probably a lot, because cats are pretty smart. They're not like squirrels. Like a squirrel run into the middle of the road, it will be across the road and they'll turn back like, oh the tire missed me, Let me go make it

easier for it. Cats are pretty good at it. But your cats shouldn't have to be good at crossing a street with cars. Well, then you get into the idea of like humans fragmenting natural habitats and all that kind of stuff, because if if you really look at it, chuck, especially with cats, if you consider the idea that they are not fully domesticated animals, and that we have basically shuffled them around the world. We basically take an African wild has been like, hey, come with us, we're going

to the New World. Hey come with us. We're gonna go found Rome. Hey come with us. We want you to be one of our deities here in ancient Egypt. Um, and the cats went along with it, but didn't actually evolve to become a domesticated species. Um, then we have just taken wildlife and shuffled it into our own human life. And um, I I said, I don't know. I kind of see like the the out the indoor outdoor. Um people sure, I see their argument. Yeah, well, if you

do the indoor outdoor thing, bring him in at night. UM, don't have them declaude, like I said, because you're just like throwing them into a gunfight without a gun. But you shouldn't have any cat declaudes your or the Humane Society's position at I don't think you should. Personally, I don't think you should have cats outdoors, but I'm not gonna get all up in arms about that because I

get it. Cats do love being outside. Um. One thing you can do, though, if you do have an indoor cat, is build some sort of enclosure for them that is outside, or like let them hang out on a screen and porch or someplaces. They're not going to get actually outside of your house, and but they're still able to enjoy the out of doors. Yeah, we go out on my deck and they love it. They don't want to come in. Um. And I know we'll hear from people that say, I

had an outdoor cat that lived to be seventeen. You got super lucky, you know, I mean that's great. Yeah, there's probably folks songs about that cat among cats. Uh. And they recommend if you do want to keep your cat indoors, startom young, because once that cat gets the taste for the outside, it's really hard to get them to be indoor cats after that. Yeah. UM, I hope I'm not too judging in this. I don't think so.

I just think, you know, if your cat is gonna live many, many years longer inside, then keep them inside. So but if you are going to keep your cat inside, um, there are some things that you want to do for your cat, like, for one, UM, an indoor cat's life is extraordinarily sedentary, especially compared to an outdoor cat's life. Right, Um, they just lay around and they get fat and happy.

But the problem is is they can get like really really fat, and that can lead to all sorts of problems, the same kind of problems that humans get when they over eat. So one of the first things you want to make sure you do when you have a strictly indoor cat is to um feed it a proper diet. And cats, unlike dogs, did not really evolve to become omnivores. Instead, they are straight up meat eaters still, so you want

to feed them like a high protein diet. And um, you don't want to leave that food out all day because that cat will be like, I'll just eat and eat and eat because on board. Yeah, that depends on the cat too. We leave our food out, the dry food, and they get there, uh called the good stuff, the wet food. Although the thinking now is they should eat more wet food than dry food. Yes, supposedly, that's what

That's what I found. Yeah, but um, I'm my cats are thirteen and we've I guess we've been doing it wrong all these years. But they can't jump up on the counter now where the food is because no, because they're and uh, so well, they asked we call it. They asked for a ride. You know, you won't through the kitchen, they'll go right, So I'll give him a ride up there and they'll eat some you might as well.

And both of my cat, like Lauren especially, he's a main coon and he will he will literally like talk to you. You can you yell iron and help me out? At you? You say, what are you doing? And he'll go, you have a good day and to go me ow. Whereas Wizard is not super chatty. He's a tap, short haired tabby and he's he's not as nearly as chatty. Uh. And both I found on the streets of Los Angeles. Uh, Wizard was one was a blood and one was a cryptin.

You brought them together. Wizard was in Emily's neighborhood when we were just dating. I went over to Emily's house and there was this couple, good natured, I think, but they had this kit and they were trying to like force it in a shoe box and it was just screaming. I was like, what are you doing? They're like, this guy's been hanging out here for a couple of weeks. So we're trying to get it in this box so

we can bring it inside. Now. I was like, give me, give me the cat, and then off with the cat, ran into Emily's house and said, we got a cat. Um that's the wizard and um no, Lauren was actually first Lauren lived. Uh, this is kind of a neat story. I came home from a night shoot as a p a at seven am, exhausted, laid down to sleep, and I heard this incessant mewing of a kitten outside. I was like, all right, I gotta go check this out.

In my dumpster was a four week old kitten that looked like it had been shaved on the back, but I guess it was just maybe that top coat had fallen off because he was black, but the undercoat was this weird short gray and he looked terrible. So I was like, I guess I got a cat, took him to the vet, got him cleaned up, and as I was checking out, Tim Curry a rocky horror picture show was the vet. Did not expect him to make an

appearance in that. No, Well, that's what kind of the fun thing about l as you'll see celebrities that weird, just normal places like the vet, so he was checking out. I went to go right at check and needed both hands and said, Mr Curry, would you hold my cat? Did you sign my cat? Um? He probably would have, but he held him and he asked what his name was. I said Laurn and uh, because he looked so weird and had that silver back, and he went, Lauren, you

look like a baboon. And he like said that to the cat and said he had very uh, dramatic ears. And then he gave me Lauren back and it was a wonderful experience. He was blessed by Tim Curry. And eventually Luran's hair grew out normal and he was just a big black main coon. Uh. And they've been my buddies ever since. They didn't get along though, and they still don't, which is weird with cats. I guess people

can have different different experience with the grown cats. My experience has been once they're at a certain age, it's hard to throw them in the same house together and have them be best buddies. Like. They still they co exist, they have their own areas. They do kind of fight every now and then we'll hear them like, you know, going at it um. But when food time comes, they eat like, you know, inches from each other, or if there's a sun spot in the dining room, they'll lay

next to each other. They've worked it out over the years. But um, yeah, it's pretty interesting. They're not like dogs dogs are either, Like I think they get along right away, unless you have a dog that's aggressive, you know, very fascinating. Yeah, there's nowhere to go but down after that story, so let's take a break, agreed. So check. One of the things that um cats most famous for is their behavior, right, Like, there's just certain things cats do that other no other

animal does. Very quirky. So for example, um, what's called making biscuits are kneading dough. It's the best. So what is that? Uh? Well, if you maybe you're laying on your couch and your cat jumps up on your belly and then just starts flexing its paws, um pushing their paws in and out left, right, left, right, as if they were kneading dough or making biscuits. Uh. Sometimes they keep their claws in for this. Sometimes they flex them into your skin a little bit, which to me doesn't hurt.

I think it feels quite nice. And there are a bunch of theories on why they do this, but I think the leading one is that when you see little kittens, they kind of need on mama's belly to get more theoretically, to prime the pump a little bit to get more milk flow. Yeah, but you should not feed cat's milk. We should mention no, because you're feeding a cat cow's milk and they are not capable of digesting cow's milk. It's actually really bad for him. I wonder where that

came from. I don't know. Tom and Jerry definitely did not help any cat, you know, because Tom was crazy for that stuff in a variety of ways that didn't

help cats. That cartoon um. But yeah, that's that's the predominant theory that they're basically hearkening back to a happy childhood, and they're also releasing They have scent glands in their paws, so when they're scratching or kneeding, making biscuits, they're releasing that scent as they're like kind of claiming their territory, right, they're marking whatever that is, whether it's their humans belly.

There's a really cute UM video and an article you sent me that has um like a cat needing a dog upon its side and the cats just and there, like kneading its shoulders and that pretty good stuff. So the cats saying this dog, this is my dog, that's my dog. Um, and uh, there's other ways that cats also mark their territory. They're people, um using scent glands too. It's not just in their claws. Um, they're also on their faces, which is one reason why cats kind of

bump faces with you. Yeah, we call it the head butt. You know, cat Lauren head butts a lot. Wizard doesn't head butt as much. But if you're scratching a cat with your finger a lot of times they'll they'll make sure that finger gets at the corner of their mouth. Um, you have sent glands there in the pause. Um, and they're they just they eat that stuff up. They love it.

They are they're they're marking you. And then they're also taking in any weird sense you may have gotten to, which is why some people will be like, your cat knows when you've been holding another cat and they're not happy about it because they can smell that other cat because that cat was like you go, sucker, I just it's gonna take your cat off. This is my person now. Uh.

Cats can also spray. Um. It is very pungent. It's not just urine, although it can be, but most of the time it's urine mixed with a fatty material, viscous fatty material. It's really musky and stinky. Uh. If you get your cat fixed, which you should, spay a neuter early as as early as possible. But that'll take care about spray issues. Uh. If you don't fix your cat, you're you're just asking for it. They will pay you back. Yeah in spray. Yeah, not in spades, but in spray.

And what they'll do is it's uh sometimes if it's a horizontal surface, they kind of just be. If it's a vertical surface, they'll spray and they'll they'll back that thing up and you'll see the tail quiver and comments. Right. But Laurn and other cats, I think, even after you've had them fixed, will mimic the spray. Like he'll go by the couch and back up to it and quiver a sale but nothing comes out. Oh he's just psyching you out. You're like, no, no, He's like, I'm just kid.

He fixed. Uh. And a lot of times it's stress a lot of times it is to mark their territory, and sometimes it's a male saying like hey smell this, check me out. And sometimes it's in revenge, like if your cat's not happy, if the litter box said, like remember my story when I didn't put letter in there. Oh yeah, Lauren started peeing everywhere. It just goes off like a paint bomb and a bag of bank robbery money. Uh.

Cats can drool. Had one very drulie cat as a kid. Yeah, but supposedly that's like a really bad sign if your cat drools a lot, well, it can. It can signify in a medical issue, right, So if your cat doesn't normally drool and starts drooling, you should get it checked out. But if you're you can just have a Drulie cat as well. If you're working that scent gland um, they'll they'll you know this cat scooter I had. It was along here and laurent rios a little bit, which is

drool like crazy. Really yeah, So it's so if it is a problem and usually indicates something like um, some sort of oral disease, or they're having trouble swallowing which is not good um, or they might have motion sickness interesting, and panting is not good in your cat. Like, if you see a dog panting, that's your dog's panting. But if a cat's doing it is really stressed out. Yeah, that's like when Wizard was panting in the attic, it was it's disturbing to see a cat pant. Uh. Funny

enough that cat, Scooter ran away from my house. We had outdoor cats growing up. I didn't, man, we didn't do the right thing when I was a kid in my family. No, No, we didn't go to the vet much. It was kind of like look kind of like country style, like you just had animals. If they got sick and dyed, they got sick and died. But I was I was very much educated as I got older on like proper pet care and like you take your cat to the vet once or twice a year to get checkups. Yeah, exactly,

just like you do a dog. But Scooter ran away from home and I found that cat like three years later, five miles away from my house, living at someone else's house. And see wearing like a necklace made of chipmunks skulls. Right, he had this wild look in his eye. You know, he was still he just lived with someone else. I don't know how he got there. I mean it was a long way. Still, he hang gone Ferrell, he just

moved in with another family. Yeah, he was in this driveway just hanging out and ran up to the door. He didn't know you, but he had he had his tag. He ran right up to me and I didn't take him. I was like, I guess you're happier here. How old were you? I was probably like twelve. Wow, Chuck, that was a very adult decision to leave the cat. Yeah, good for you. I think it was on my bike too. It was just didn't make logistical sense, Like how am

I gonna get this cat back? You know you're gonna have him stand on your pegs And I think I probably went by Kilm was like I saw Scooter. My parents with like, who you mean? We told you never to talk of him again? The one that left. It's so funny. Uh. If you want to get a cat um as with all pets, just think about if you have the time to take care of a cat. They don't need the kind of training a dog a puppy does, but they still need to be trained as kittens. If

you're going to take them outside. Sometimes if they're an indoor cat and you're like, I really want my cat to be able to enjoy the outdoors, strongly recommended that you, um train them to to walk around in a leash. I've seen it. I have to. There's a guy in mining US place that has a cat that walks on a leash. Yeah, it's pretty crazy and cute. It's hilarious. You're like, where's that cat? Should be wearing a stove top hat or something. That's what it looks like. It

looks like some sort of trick is about to happen. Yeah, when you see a cat on a leash a right, Like, yeah, that's clearly a performer. Hilarious. Um, you should always adopt cats. If even if you want a specific breed, check with your local shelters because they probably have something that strikes your cat fancy. There are seventy was it seventy million or seven million? Seventy million, uh, stray cats in the United States and growing every day. Yeah, like one cat.

If if this cat is feral and obviously not spade or neutered, that that can lead to hundreds of cats. Oh, very quickly. They have a litter or two or three. Then those kittens have litters and always always say new to your cat and adopt, don't shop um, because there are tons and tons of great kittens and kitties. Uh, just walk into a shelter and I guarantee you you will find at least one that you want to keep.

Or you can walk around Los Angeles and look for somebody who's trying to adopt the kitten and wrestle it away from him. Yeah. You know, we got Buckley, our dog, from a an actual shelter, but all of the rest of our animals have literally just been pulled off the street because they kind of pulled off. It sounds like your kidnapped that we did from the wild, the wilds of l A. Yeah, except for our youngest dog, which

was the only Georgia animal we have, Charlie. We had to trap her in a cage like she was a wild dog. Well, yes, you can tell. She's like, you stay over there, I'm cool over here she can move to. All these years later, Charlie still won't like she'll bark at anyone that comes in our house. That's who she is. Part of the breed too. Oh yeah, well she's a shelty right, yeah, shelty mix of some sort. So they're like, hey, there's a kind of thing. Yeah, they're like she literally

it's her job. She sits in the front sunroom and just stairs and waits for people to walk by so she can bark. It's maddening, is what it is, especially when you have a sleeping baby. I think one of the funniest things ever is when you're walking past the house and there's a dog in the window and it just watches you. It doesn't part, it just watches you as you go past. Keep walking. Pal Yeah, it's a

little distressed. I think it's hilarious to see. And speaking of babies and kids and cats, um, we're already having to manage that stuff, you know. Um, because babies, once you start moving, she's got that palm or grass briflex. Yeah, they don't know. They'll they'll they'll jump on an animal, they'll pull tales and pull hair, and you just have to be really vigilant. And as they grow older, teach them, you know, how how to pat pat and how to

be gentle. Well yeah, and you you should teach your kid using words like gentle and soft and so they can they say, Oh, you're not supposed to see the of the cat's eyeballs when you pete. You know, yeah, Wizard already popped her once in the face. Clause in How did she take that? If she didn't like it? She cried, We're like, Wizard, you're a jerk. He's like

what thirteen? I know, he's like was closed in. It was a warning shot, right, But that was our fault, you know, we we thought, you know, we weren't managing that like we should. It's up to you. You also want to be careful with kitty litter. Apparently toxoplasmos Is GANDHI has completely ruined our world. So this whole advent of keeping cats indoors has changed humanity in ways that we're only beginning now to understand. Did we do a whole show on that, Yeah, we did some years back.

Um it was a pretty good one too. It's like, has toxoplasmosis turned us all into zombies or something like that. But there's a very recent study that came out of the University of Chicago and they examined I think three hundred and fifty eight adults um and identified some people that suffered from intermittent explosive disorder where just something just sets you off and it's totally unreasonable, And a really

good example of it is road rage, right. Um, And they found that half of the people with I e ED had talk So plasmosis infections would you would have gotten from a cat? I most certainly have it? Yeah, yeah, well supposedly one in three people in the world have it because of cat domestication. And it's bad if you're a pregnant lady. So if you're pregnant, they say it's time to switch duties if that's how it goes in your house and your husband is on cat litter duty,

right because you have that baby. Because of toxic plasmos as, it can cause birth effects as well and children born children. Yeah, it's bad news. Great idea to keep the cat indoors. Uh. Oh you know. One of the other reasons we did mention for doing that is you're you're you're much more likely to spot a sickness in your cat if they're always oh yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry, yeah, like you're more

in tune with with what's going on with your catau. Um, we should talk before we leave about purring and catap purring. All cats, I'm not all cats. Some wild cats do peru, all domestic cats per and even raccoons per which I didn't know. I didn't know that anything. Pretty interesting. Have you ever seen foxes? They don't purr, they go. It's the best. It's pretty great. Wiggle that tail. It fox to me is like a dog cat. It's like the

ultimate combination. It is, isn't it sort of? Oh, by the way, we saw our neighborhood peacock the other day and I thought, of you those things. Yeah, this dude has he's a crazy bird guy because he has a s Oh, dude, he's got like six peacocks. That's gotta be illegal. I don't know. Maybe I would think. So you're only allowed to have six cats in Atlanta? That's cats? Really? Yeah? Should we turn Holly in now she didn't know more

than six, I'd be surprised if she doesn't. But Holly has a separate litter box for each one of her cats, which proves that she's a crazy cat lady. Yeah, she'll tell you. Man, um are you're talking about purring? No, we were talking about the peacocks. So this guy has I think four or five, which is the male and female. Which one has the big plume. I think that's the male, so I guess he has four or five females. And then this one huge male peacock that like will literally

sometimes be on the apex of its roof. Yeah, screaming. Yeah, they get up on the roof. It's like they're where they like to go. Apparently it's nuts. But he's a bird guy, because I've seen his on his back deck. He's got this like aviary with parrots and cockatoos and all sorts of stuff birdland. Yeah. Bird people a weird uh purring, So they pur um and most of the time it means they're very happy, but they can also pur if they're upset or startled or injured, Uh, they

might pur. And they're direct wiring from the brain to the muscles in the voice box, and so they vibrate the muscles and the actives a vow for the air. So it sounds like one continuous per but if you listen closely, uh, it is an inhale and an exhale perr going on um. And it's of course if you're a cat lover, it's a wonderful thing if your cat to per It's very soothing. Put you right to sleep. Uh and I guess what else cat up? Well, yeah, cat, and that's pretty awesome. It is a It is legitimately

a drug that cats do. Cats do drugs in the form of cat note all right, And you can do it two different ways. One you can inhale it. You can cook it in a spoon and shoot it right through your nose through the cats knows if you're a cat, you do it through your nose um, and that sends them into like ecstasy. Oh it's yeah, it's pretty awesome. And then they can also eat it and that usually makes it makes the cat mellow. And it depends on

the cat only. I think about half cats are actually um sensitive the cat its wiles, it's charms, right, but um, the ones that are, they go nuts for this stuff. Yeah. Both of my cats do UM. And you can get it either, you know, dried out like it looks like a reguano um And that's what I said. You could put in your scratching pads to attract them to that. So I put that stuff down and man, they roll around in it and it's it's pretty great. Or you

can my mom gives me, she grows it fresh. Yeah, because it's a member of the mint family, it grows pretty pretty easily. Yeah, it looks like a little mint leaf, and they're more prone to eat the fresh stuff and roll around in the dried out I would have guessed the opposite. I don't know. It's pretty fun though. I think it's hilarious that there's a drug for cats. Dogs don't have a drug. Sure, it's called human kindness. They get off on that, they do. Uh. If you want

to know more about cats, there's a lot. I mean we didn't even get into the breeds and cat shows and cat fanciers. There's a lot more out there. Yeah, yeah, cat Fancy magazine. You've been to Rome, Italy? Yeah, cats everywhere? Oh yeah, there are a lot of cats there, aren't there. And there's a history to that. Amsterdam. I think there's that cat boat in the canal. Sure, it's like a boat with a hundred cats on it. I've not heard of that. Yeah, huh, there's there's a lot more out there. Yeah,

it's sure there's a lot of cats. But we're done with cats if you ask me, I agreed. If you want to know more about cats, travel to Rome or Amsterdam. You can also save some time and money by just typing the word cats into the search part how stuff works dot com. Since I said search parts time for the listener mail, I'm gonna call this. Uh, you were right about math, Chuck, sort of. Hey, guys, A huge

fan of the show. Just started listening a couple of months ago after a friend recommended it, and I've been hooked ever since. I want to make a quick comment about math majors and ambiguity in response to the continent naming episode. I am major to math in college and definitely have an aversion to ambiguity. I have really, absolutely hate movies were unresolved endings with unresolved endings, So perhaps

you guys are onto something here. However, it should be noted that higher level mathematics, especially pure mathematics, can be incredibly ambiguous, which is why some mathematicians, most mathematicians, it's been their entire careers attempting to solve problems or understand or proof theorems without ever solving anything. I can imagine. Have you ever seen Proof? The movie or the play really good, even if you hate math, jails in it and Gwyneth Paltrow. Oh wait, it isn't depending how you

feel about them. Isn't like Albert Einstein a matchmaker or something in that one? No, that was thinking of a different one Tim Robbins and Meg Ryan Yeah yeah, okay, different movie. Uh. Finishing out from Kim, she says the uncertainty was maddening. Just why I chose to go to medical school instead. So Kim's no dummy. Thanks for the podcast. And that's from Kim who uh she is at the University of Illinois at Chicago, oh y, that's where our

taxo plays most is study came from. Actually it's not true that came from the University of Chicago, but right next door. Yeah. I'm sure they're friends probably or bitter rivals maybe. So well, thanks a lot, Kim. We appreciate the email. If you want to get in touch with us and clarify some random thing we tossed out there, we love that kind of stuff, you can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you should know.

You can send us an email to Stuff Podcasts at House stuff Worst dot com and has always joined us at our Luxurious Home on the Web Stuff you Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is It How stuff works? Dot com