Cats

"The food of the lion (causes) indigestion to the wolf."

"There are no pacts between lions and men."

"The lion is not so fierce as they paint him."

"The lion's work hours are only when he's hungry; once he's satisfied, the predator and prey live peacefully together."

"Noli Barbam vellere mortuo leoni."

"They rejoice Each with their kind, lion with lioness, So fitly them in pairs thou hast combined."

"It is not always realised that the lion, ordinarily looked upon as a native of Africa, had in historic times a habitat extending beyond the limits of that continent from Macedonia to Western Bengal—though the Old Testament should afford a reminder of its former existence in Palestine. Outside India, there is no doubt that the lion was still to be found in the remoter parts of Mesopotamia and southern Persia in the beginning of the present century. When in the Persian Gulf during the [first] Great War, I heard of definite evidence of its continued existence in both countries so late as the year 1917; but it is there almost certainly on the verge of extinction, if not absolutely extinct, today. ... The last stronghold of the lion in India was, and is, the in Kathiawar; there alone he has been able to maintain a footing up to the present time, by reason of the enlightened policy of strict preservation followed by the authorities of the Junagadh State."

"Exceeding wise they roar like lions mightily, they, all-possessing, are beauteous as antelopes; Stirring the darkness with lances and spotted deer, combined as priests, with serpents' fury through their might."

"The Maruts, Friends of men, are glorious as the fire: their mighty and resplendent succour we implore. Those storming Sons of Rudra clothed in robes of rain, boon-givers of good gifts, roar as the lions roar."

"Like a car-driver whipping on his horses, he makes the messengers of rain spring forward. Far off resounds the roaring of the lion, what time Parjanya fills the sky with rain-cloud."

"Averting woe, they labour hard to bring him, the ancient, plenteous food as power resistless. May he, born newly, conquer his assailants: round him they stand as round an angry lion."

"What time thou settest near the Sun thy body, thy form, Immortal One, is seen expanding: Thou a wild elephant with might invested. like a dread lion as thou wieldest weapons."

"Ye, Strengtheners, for Paura stir the filler swimming in the flood, Advancing to be captured like a lion to the ambuscade."

"There hath the strong-winged eagle left his talon, as a snared lion leaves the trap that caught him. Even the wild steer in his thirst is captured: the leather strap still holds his foot entangled."

"The lion who breaks the enemy's ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself."

"Rouse the lion from his lair."

"The man that once did sell the lion's skin While the beast lived, was killed with hunting him."

"If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee; if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee; if thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accused by the ass..."

"Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number"

"O lion, your allies in the reedbeds are numerous."

"The lion who lives a life of compassion will receive it."

"An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep."

"The lion shall lie down with the lamb."

"All you gotta do is to use your instincts. How do you think a tiger knows how to tackle a gazelle? It's written, it's code written in their DNA, says "Tackle the gazelle." Believe it or not, in every man there's a code written that says "Tackle drunk bitches.""

"Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"

"If a man proves too clearly and convincingly to himself … that a tiger is an optical illusion — well, he will find out he is wrong. The tiger will himself intervene in the discussion, in a manner which will be in every sense conclusive."

"One doesn’t contradict a hungry tiger."

"To those new States whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom — and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside."

"And lastly, Chairman Khrushchev has compared the United States to a worn-out runner living on its past performance, and stated that the Soviet Union would out-produce the United States by 1970. Without wishing to trade hyperbole with the Chairman, I do suggest that he reminds me of the tiger hunter who has picked a place on the wall to hang the tiger's skin long before he his caught the tiger. This tiger has other ideas."

"Even after killing ninety nine tigers the Maharaja should beware of the hundredth."

"Animals do not think like we do. People who forget that get themselves killed. That tiger … is not your friend. When you look into his eyes you are seeing your own emotions reflected back at you."

"In the zoo we fed our tigers an average of 5 kilos of meat a day. Richard Parker will be getting hungry soon. Tigers are powerful swimmers, and if he get's hungry enough, I'm afraid the little bit of water between us won't be any protection. I need to find a way to feed him. I can eat the biscuits, but God made tigers carnivores, so I must learn to catch fish. If I don't, I'm afraid his last meal will be a skinny vegetarian boy."

"Perched atop a coastal cliff, a tigress named Lidiya reclined, illuminated by the sun rising from the sea. She lay as a house cat might in a , content and at ease. The colors of her —cuts of black and washes of orange against a background of white—allowed this to all but disappear amid the complexity of the forest floor, hidden by the uneven terrain and obscured by shadows in the spindly ."

"It's The Eye Of The Tiger It's the thrill of the fight! Standing up to the challenge of your rival."

"Qi hu nan xia — When you’re riding a tiger, the hard part is getting off."

"I think all cats are wild. They only act tame if there's a saucer of milk in it for them."

"If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, you end up with a non-working cat. Do not try this."

"Nothing divided people more deeply than how they felt about cats."

"A cat which dares to scratch me while we're at peace, no matter how many times it may then caress me, shall never be allowed to be close enough to me to scratch me again."

"The cat is, above all things, a dramatist; its life is lived in an endless romance though the drama is played out on quite another stage than our own, and we only enter into it as subordinate characters, as stage managers, or rather stage carpenters."

"CAT, n. A soft, indestructible automaton provided by nature to be kicked when things go wrong in the domestic circle."

"I never shall forget the indulgence with which he treated Hodge, his cat: for whom he himself used to go out and buy oysters, lest the servants having that trouble should take a dislike to the poor creature. I am, unluckily, one of those who have an antipathy to a cat, so that I am uneasy when in the room with one; and I own, I frequently suffered a good deal from the presence of this same Hodge. I recollect him one day scrambling up Dr. Johnson's breast, apparently with much satisfaction, while my friend smiling and half-whistling, rubbed down his back, and pulled him by the tail; and when I observed he was a fine cat, saying, "why yes, Sir, but I have had cats whom I liked better than this;" and then, as if perceiving Hodge to be out of countenance, adding, "but he is a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed.""

"... in 2007 ... a study of the DNA of the entire cat family—the —revealed that it was composed of eight district groups or s. These groups diverged from their common ancestor, the catlike , at different times, beginning with the ' lineage (containing, among others, lions and tigers) over ten million years ago. The very last group to branch off the family tree, around 3.4 million years ago, was a lineage containing various species of small wildcat—the ' lineage. From genetic comparisons within the study, researchers found that the domestic cat fit within this lineage. ... In a huge project comparing genetic material from some 979 domesitc cats and wildcats, Driscoll and his colleagues discovered that all of today's domestic cats are descended from the ."

"Lat take a cat, and fostre hym wel with milk And tendre flessh, and make his couche of silk, And lat hym seen a mous go by the wal, Anon he weyveth milk and flessh and al, And every deyntee that is in that hous, Swich appetit hath he to ete a mous."

"Cats don't have friends. They have co-conspirators."

"A cat is the ideal literary companion. A wife, I am sure, cannot compare except to her disadvantage. A dog is out of the question. It may do at a butcher's – it would be out of place in a bookseller's. A cat for a bookseller is a different creature temperamentally from the same animal at a fishmonger's or a baker's. In these shops the cat is a useful animal – I suppose it is employed to eat fish entrails or to keep down rats and mice – but in my shop its function is that of a familiar. It is at once decorative – contemplative – philosophical, and it begets in me great calm and contentment."

"Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons."

"Perhaps God made cats so that man might have the pleasure of fondling the tiger..."

"The kitten has a luxurious, Bohemian, unpuritanical nature. It eats six meals a day, plays furiously with a toy mouse and a piece of rope, and suddenly falls into a deep sleep whenever the fit takes it. It never feels the necessity to do anything to justify its existence; it does not want to be a Good Citizen; it has never heard of Service. It knows that it is beautiful and delightful, and it considers that a sufficient contribution to the general good. And in return for its beauty and charm it expects fish, meat, and vegetables, a comfortable bed, a chair by the grate fire, and endless petting."

"Cats — by day the most docile of God's creatures, every one of them in the night enlisting under the devil's banner — took the place by storm after the human voice had ceased."

"In Greenville, South Carolina, I had the honor of knowing a magnificent tom, weighing eight pounds, who opened doors by leaping up, seizing the knob forcibly between his fore-paws, and turning it, his only defect in the matter being that he could not close the door after him. Some years ago a family residing in New Haven, Connecticut, was alarmed by what the servants supposed to be a ghost, and the lady of the house, a thief. An outside door was repeatedly opened, no one entering but the cat. In spite of watching, nobody was discovered, and the mystery grew to be frightful. At last the ghost was caught, and it proved to be pussy. She had observed, she had reflected, she had drawn an inference; in other words, she had performed three distinct intellectual operations. The result was that she knew how to open doors by leaping up to the latch and pressing her paw on the thumb-piece."

"Confound the cats! All cats—alway— Cats of all colours, black, white, grey; By night a nuisance and by day— Confound the cats!"

"The Naming of cats is a difficult matter; It isn't just one of your holiday games. You may think at first, I'm as mad as a hatter When I tell you a cat must have three different names."

"Nothing's more playful than a young cat, nor more grave than an old one."

"All cats can see futures, and see echoes of the past. We can watch the passage of creatures from the infinity of now, from all the worlds like ours, only fractionally different. And we follow them with our eyes, ghost things, and the humans see nothing."

"If enough of us dream, if a bare thousand of us dream, we can change the world. We can dream it anew! A world in which no cat suffers from the malice of humans. In which no cats are killed by human caprice. A world that we rule."

"Dream the world. Not this pallid shadow of reality. Dream the world the way it truly is. A world in which all cats are queens and kings of creation. That is my message. And I shall keep moving, keep repeating it, until I die. Or until a thousand cats hear my words, and believe them, and dream, and we come again to paradise."

"Little one, I would like to see anyone — prophet, king or God — persuade a thousand cats to do anything at the same time."

"Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat."

"How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven."

"One cat just leads to another."

"As one of the poets has said, no cat ever gave anyone a straight answer."

"Daylong this tomcat lies stretched flat As an old rough mat, no mouth and no eyes, Continual wars and wives are what Have tattered his ears and battered his head."

"Tous les chats sont mortels. Socrate est mortel. Donc Socrate est un chat."

"Although most cat owners believe that cats have a need to roam outdoors and that this activity benefits their welfare, roaming also carries welfare risks for the cat. On the other hand, most cats have not been selectively bred to be “s” that live indoors 24 hours a day. Until recently, most domestic cats were allowed to roam freely, and they contributed to the large population of stray and feral cats. In turn many pet cats come from the stray and shelter population. A large proportion of domestic cats have not been selected for easy adaptation to live in confinement and in close contact with people, and socialization to people may also not have been complete in these cats. However, cats are adaptable to a wide range of environments and are generally not known to show clear behavioral signs of problems, such as stereotypic behavior. Problem are often not abnormal behaviors per se but natural behaviors that need to be redirected to appropriate substrates. The most frequent behavior problems cited by cat owners are: inappropriate elimination, scratching, aggression, anxiety, eating problems, vocalizations, and excessive activity. Despite the frequent reporting of these behaviors, most cats will generally adapt to indoor housing provided there is sufficient space and that they are accustomed to these conditions from an early age. The , developed to assess the welfare of s in intensive systems, can be modified to assess the welfare of cats housed in confinement."

"Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want."

"Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many different ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia."

"... I think ... of a young cat I once introduced to the joys of catnip. He took only the preoccupied, casual, dutiful sniff which was the routine response to any new object presented to his attention before he started to walk away. Then he did what is called in the slang of the theater "a double take." He stopped dead in his tracks; he turned incredulously back and inhaled a good noseful. Incredulity was swallowed up in delight. Can such things be? Indubitably they can. He flung himself down and he wallowed."

"I like a cat because it does not disguise its selfishness with any flattering hypocrisies. Its attachment is not to yourself, but to your house. Let it but have food, and a warm lair among the embers, and it heeds not at whose expense. Then it has the spirit to resent aggression. You shall beat your dog, and he will fawn upon you; but a cat never forgives : it has no tender mercies, and it torments before it destroys its prey."

"It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten cities in Meroe and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungle's lords, and heir to the secrets of hoary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgotten."

"We own a dog — he is with us as a slave and inferior because we wish him to be. But we entertain a cat — he adorns our hearth as a guest, fellow-lodger, and equal because he wishes to be there. It is no compliment to be the stupidly idolised master of a dog whose instinct it is to idolise, but it is a very distinct tribute to be chosen as the friend and confidant of a cat."

"The cat is a wild animal that inhabits the homes of humans."

"Yes, it is strange that anyone should dislike cats. But cats themselves are the worst offenders in this respect. They very seldom seem to like one another."

"What I like about cats is the way they ignore you. There's no telling what way they feel. If I want to be popular all I have to do is rattle the tin opener and he's all over me, purring and sharpening his back on my shins."

"Quand je me joue à ma chatte, qui sait si elle passe son temps de moi plus que je ne fais d'elle? Nous nous entretons de singeries réciproques. Si j'ay mon heure de commencer ou de refuser, aussi a elle la sienne. (translation) When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not merely a pastime to her? We entertain each other with reciprocal antics. If I have the option to commence or refuse playing, she also has her own option."

"The idea, to a cat, that somebody else owns him is ludicrous."

"The cat does not merely experience contentment, he exudes it. You cannot be in the presence of a contented cat and not have some of that contentment rub off on you. Which surely is a good part of the reason we love cats so."

"Unlike a human smile, purring cannot be, as far as anyone knows, faked."

"Many people feel more complete with a cat in their life, and I would not be surprised if cats felt the same way about us. I know that if I disappeared from the lives of my five cats, they would not be as happy as before. I know, because they wait for me to go on walks along the beach, though they could perfectly well go on their own. When I am with them, they react in such a strong way, gamboling, racing ahead of me, and then flopping down in my path, that it is obvious they derive great pleasure from my company. I find it hard to believe, though, that they could possibly enjoy my company as much as I enjoy theirs. This is not surprising: we domesticated cats for our benefit. While they get something from it, we probably got the better deal."

"In mid-nineteenth-century London, which had a population upward of two million people, the journalist and social researcher set out to survey the lives of the working and nonworking poor. One of the now obsolete categories of labor he investigated was that of the cats’-meat men: sellers of boiled , who purchased their stinking wares from knackers’ yards, then wheeled it in barrows along appointed routes each day, selling it to the public as at two and a half pence per pound. By Mayhew’s reckoning, there were a thousand such venders in the capital, serving the needs of a feline population of three hundred thousand: roughly one cat per dwelling house. Cats had a liminal status, perceived by the humans they lived alongside as being somewhere between regulators of vermin—they helped control the population of s and that flourished among the goods brought in and out of London’s teeming docks—and vermin themselves. Weasel-faced and rat-tailed, given to screeching and swiping, the mid-­century cat was a rogue scavenger and a fit target for the cruelty of children, thanks to its own well-known predisposition to cruelty. At the same time, however, a new cat was beginning to emerge. This was a round-faced, wide-eyed, sleek-­bodied creature that was pampered, primped, and lavished with affection—like Oliver, a plump, stately, black domestic cat who was a member of a suburban household in the late nineteenth century and who, preserved in taxidermied condition with a yellow ribbon tied in a bow around his neck, is now in the collection of the Museum of London."

"I have no faith in cats: they are a cold-blooded race; they are the politicians among domestic animals; they care little who is master, or what are the over-turnings, so their pickings are secure; and what are their midnight caucuses but primary meetings?"

"Tout ce qui s'agite devient pour eux un objet de badinage. Ils croyent que la nature ne s'occupe que de leur divertissement."

"Quand je me joue á ma chatte, qui sçait si elle passe son temps de moy plus que je ne fay d'elle."

"[My cat] Nameless and I have an agreement: I leave her alone and don't make sudden moves when I wake up to find her perched on my chest, staring with an unblinking hostile gaze at my face and in return she rarely mutilates me."

"Don't want a cat Scratching its claws all over my Habitat Giving no love and getting fat Oh, you can get lonely And a cat's no help with that."

"... In Wales the cat was held in great estimation. It was enacted by , "the Good," that the price of a kitten before it could see was to be a penny; if it caught a mouse, its value was raised to twopence, and afterwards to fourpence. If any one stole or killed a cat that guarded the prince's , the offender was compelled either to forfeit a ewe, or as much wheat as would cover the cat when suspended by its tail."

"It has been the providence of Nature to give this creature nine lives instead of one."

"In ancient times cats were worshiped as gods; they have not forgotten this."

"It is widely grokked that cats have the hacker nature."

"Le chat ne nous caresse pas, il se caresse à nous."

"Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission, the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance."

"And when [a cat's] shifts and clever managings have not sufficed to stave off inexorable fate, when its enemies have proved too strong or too many for its defensive powers, it dies fighting to the last, quivering with the choking rage or mastered resistance, and voicing in its death-yell that agony of bitter remonstrance which human animals, too, have flung at the powers that may be; the last protest against a destiny that might have made them happy—and has not. -- "The Achievement of the Cat""

"“Would you like to go and see if cook has got your dinner ready?” suggested Lady Blemley hurriedly, affecting to ignore the fact that it wanted at least two hours to Tobermory’s dinner-time."

"“Thanks,” said Tobermory, “not quite so soon after my tea. I don’t want to die of indigestion.”"

"“Cats have nine lives, you know,” said Sir Wilfred heartily."

"“Possibly,” answered Tobermory; “but only one liver.”"

"For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry. For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him. For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way. For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness."

"I cannot agree that it should be the declared public policy of Illinois that a cat visiting a neighbor’s yard or crossing the highways is a public nuisance. It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming."

"Moreover, cats perform useful service, particularly in rural areas, in combating rodents — work they necessarily perform alone and without regard for property lines."

"J'ai beaucoup étudié les philosophes et les chats. La sagesse des chats est infiniment supérieure."

"Cats, no less liquid than their shadows, Offer no angles to the wind. They slip, diminished, neat, through loopholes Less than themselves."

"When there was room on the ledge outside of the pots and boxes for a cat, the cat was there — in sunny weather — stretched at full length, asleep and blissful, with her furry belly to the sun and a paw curved over her nose. Then that house was complete, and its contentment and peace were made manifest to the world by this symbol, whose testimony is infallible. A home without a cat—and a well-fed, well-petted, and properly revered cat—may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?"

"Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat."

"When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction."

"If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much."

"... a person that started in to carry a cat home by the tail was gitting knowledge that was always going to be useful to him, and warn't ever going to grow dim or doubtful."

"A cat is more intelligent than people believe, and can be taught any crime."

"We loitering in the garden—from her post Of purview at a window, languidly A great Angora watched his Collieship […] She seemed the Orient Spirit incarnate, lost In contemplation of the Western Soul!"

"A cat may look at a king."

"Lauk! what a monstrous tail our cat has got!"

"Mrs. Crupp had indignantly assured him that there wasn't room to swing a cat there; but as Mr. Dick justly observed to me, sitting down on the foot of the bed, nursing his leg. "You know, Trotwood, I don't want to swing a cat. I never do swing a cat. Therefore what does that signify to me!""

"The Cat in Gloves catches no Mice."

"The cat would eat fish, and would not wet her feet."

"It seems almost impossible for cats to make an ugly or undignified movement, and I would say the leopard in motion is the most beautiful sight of all."

"A leopard does not change his spots, or change his feeling that spots are rather a credit."

"Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree In the cool of the day..."

"It is perfection in natural design – sleek, smart, and powerful. Capable of amazing physical prowess, the leopard is a formidable predator; able to bring down prey significantly larger than itself."

"Leopards are cunning beasts and will lie quietly until you are almost on top of them. Then they will suddenly charge with the deadliest speed and determination."

"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?"

"Noi fummo i Gattopardi, i Leoni; quelli che ci sostituiranno saranno gli sciacalletti, le iene; e tutti quanti Gattopardi, sciacalli e pecore, continueremo a crederci il sale della terra."

"There is a hair-trigger ferocity about the leopards. Each time one lifted one’s binoculars for a closer view one was confronted with two green glaring lamps that burned directly into one’s own eyes. The pupils had the effect of boring into you. No animal, not even the lion, has such an implacable gaze."

"Put a leopard and a V. antirrhopus together and the former would be in trouble."

"A leopard doesn't change his spots just because you bring him in from the jungle and try to housebreak him and turn him into a pet. He may learn to sheathe his claws in order to beg a few scraps off the dinner table, and you may teach him to be a beast of burden, but it doesn't pay to forget that he'll al ways be what he was born: a wild animal."

"I am lithe, and light, and supple, like the leopard of the plain."

"Leopards on the gable-ends, Leopards on the painted stair, Stiff the blazoned shield they bear, Or and gules, a bend of vair, Leopards on the gable-ends, Leopards everywhere."

"King Richard II: ...[L]ions make leopards tame. Thomas Mowbray: Yea, but not change his spots:"

"The lively-shining leopard, speckled o'er With many a spot, the beauty of the waste."

"Jack: "What are your legs?" Archy: "Springs. Steel springs." Jack: "What are they going to do?" Archy: "Hurl me down the track." Jack: "How fast can you run?" Archy: "As fast as a leopard." Jack: "How fast are you gonna run?" Archy: "As fast as a leopard!" Jack: "Then let's see you do it!""

"If strolling forth, a beast you view, Whose hide with spots is peppered, As soon as she has leapt on you, You'll know it is the leopard."

"As top predators, wild cats play a key ecological role in s, but little is known about the factors that regulate their abundance. This study looked for correlates of ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) abundance at two spatial scales. ... The frequency of records, number of individuals recorded per station, and density estimates were 2–3 times higher in areas with relatively low levels of logging and poaching. At a continental scale, ocelot densities decrease with latitude and increase with rainfall. Primary productivity seems to determine the abundance of wild cats across their range, but at a local scale their abundance may be affected by logging and poaching or by competition with other species."

"Ocelots were the pet of choice for the well-heeled celebrity or adventurous types in the mid-20th century. Apparently if they are raised by hand from a young age they become relatively docile. It’s clear that the cats were sourced from all over the Americas–not just Texas. However, I found more want ads in the Rio Grande Valley than elsewhere in the state, which leads me to believe that Texas ocelots didn’t escape the trade. ... With an abundance of ocelots living in cities, it’s not surprising that some of the cats escaped. The first article from Fort Worth does not confirm the ocelot was the marauder, but it does report on the escape of two cats. And finally, a reminder that these cats were still wild animals is the shocking headline, “Pet Ocelot Chews Off Baby’s Toes.” I’ve included it from the ' here, but the story was featured in newspapers nationwide in 1956."

"In the USA, the ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) is a highly endangered felid found only in a few remaining vestiges of native thornshrub brushland in the (LRGV) of extreme southern Texas. From 1987–1998, carcasses of 15 adult ocelots that died of vehicular accidents or natural causes were examined for s. All cats had 1–8 (mean=3) helminth species. ... Although a single heartworm infection may have contributed to the death of one ocelot, helminth infections in general seemed to be of no great consequence to this endangered ocelot population. The helminth fauna of ocelots in the LRGV is reflective of that from wild felids in general; all have been reported previously from the (Lynx rufus) and (Puma concolor) elsewhere in Texas."

"Small mammals are the dominant ocelot prey in Central and South America ... In Venezuela, rodents occur >80% of the s with and included as prey (Ludlow and Sunquist). s (' sp.) are a common part of ocelot diet in Peru and Venezuela Opossums (' and ') are the most common prey in Belize (Konecny 1989)."

"Dalí acquired his ocelot in the 1960s (allegedly from the ), and for a time it was seen to accompany him, on a leash and stone studded collar, almost everywhere he went. One of the most popular accounts of Dalí and is that of the painter bringing the wild cat into a Manhattan restaurant and tethering it to his table, causing great alarm to a fellow diner. To appease the woman’s fear, Dalí told her that Babou was nothing more than a normal cat which he had “painted over in an op art design.” Babou was privvy to the high life both at home and abroad – author Suzanne White describes seeing the cat stalking about “on a silken setee located in front of a carved marble fireplace” in Dalí’s living room, while famous images exist of the artist and his pet on a voyage aboard the luxury ocean liner the ."

"After a stalk of a few minutes across a , puma crouched behind bush and waited until nearest deer came within 5 ft. Puma caught its hindquarters with its front paws probably because tall brush prevented a leap. The deer was forced to its haunches and after struggling downhill for about 70 ft. stumbled; and deer and puma rolled over and over out of sight into clump of shrubs where it was killed. Puma carried deer for about 50 yds., dragged it at least another 80 yds. Liver eaten and uneaten stomach and intestines removed from hole in deer's side next to ribs. Buried carcass under leaves and weeds."

"... After the near elimination of mountain lions from the United States in the first half of the 20th century, protective laws beginning in the mid-1960s allowed them to reestablish or increase their populations across the West. Mountain lions typically occur in topographically varied s. Their rugged habitat is one of the main reasons that lions are seldom seen. They live in areas with high prey densities and enough vegetation and topography for good hunting cover. Maternal females usually select dens in rock outcrops, dense shrubs, or under conifers well out of sight of people."

"... any one may have a fancy, and a squirrel has a right to make up his mind touching a catamount."

"Puma concolor, a large American cat species, occupies the most extensive range of any New World terrestrial mammal, spanning 100 degrees of latitude from the to the . ... Genomic DNA specimens from 315 pumas of specified geographic origin (261 contemporary and 54 museum specimens) were collected for molecular genetic and phylogenetic analyses of three mitochondrial gene sequences (16S rRNA, ATPase-8, and NADH-5) plus composite microsatellite genotypes (10 feline loci). ... The marked uniformity of mtDNA and a reduction in microsatellite allele size expansion indicates that North American pumas derive from a recent ( circa 10,000 years ago) replacement and recolonization by a small number of founders who themselves originated from a centrum of puma genetic diversity in eastern South America 200,000-300,000 years ago. The recolonization of North American pumas was coincident with a massive late Pleistocene extinction event that eliminated 80% of large vertebrates in North America and may have extirpated pumas from that continent as well."

"The mountain lion is large and slender and has short, muscular limbs ... The pelage is of medium texture, characteristically short year-round in tropical forms, but growing longer and thicker in the winter in temperate forms. The young are black-spotted in three irregular dorsal lines and transverse rows These spots are vivid up to the animal's third or fourth month of life. The eye color is blue in young kittens and turns greyish brown to golden in adults. The pupils are round."

"Mountain lions (Puma concolor) were previously endemic across Pennsylvania. The species was officially declared regionally extinct in 2011 by the , although the last time that a mountain lion was observed east of the was in Maine in 1938, excluding the current population that resides in Florida. The Northeastern population of P. concolor has been almost nonexistent since the early 1800s, most likely due to targeted hunting depredation by farmers to protect livestock, along with habitat destruction and fragmentation. The last documented observation of P. concolor in Pennsylvania specifically was in 1874."

"At the scale of their entire distribution, cougars inhabit a wide variety of habitats including foothills woodlands, high mountain forests, boreal forests, deserts, riparian woodlands, and tropical forests. Cougars occur in the xerophytic woodlands of central Argentina, tropical semi-deciduous and secondary forests of South and Central America, and the and s of ..."

"I have seen a chased by a cheetah suddenly turn round and face its pursuer uttering a series of blood-curdling snarls. The cheetah came to a a sudden halt, backed, and then bounded away, with the little fox following for about 10 to 15 m (avg. 43 ft) before it turned and ran in the opposite direction."

"... The cheeta, after felling the , seizes it by the throat, and when the keeper comes up, he cuts its throat and collects some of the blood in the wooden ladle from which it is always fed: this is offered to the cheeta, who drops his hold, and laps it up eagerly, during which the hood is cleverly slipped on again. My tame cheeta, when hungry or left alone (for it appeared unhappy when away from the dogs and with no one near it), had a plaintive cry, which appropriately calls a "bleat-like mew." Shikarees always assert that if taken as cubs they are useless for training, till they have been taught by their parents how to pull down their prey. This opinion is corroborated, in part at least, by my experience with the tame one mentioned above."

"With illegal trade in elephant and rhino 'products' dominating the headlines, the trade in live cheetahs seem to have slipped under the radar. It is only recently that the general public has been alerted to the scandalous and illegal trade in cheetah cubs to the Middle East, where they are prized as exotic pets. Typically cubs are capture in East Africa and shipped to Yemen for onward travel. Less than 50 per cent of the cubs survive the journey."

"The cheetah is considered one of the earliest divergences in felid evolution, about 8.5 million years ago, compared to the large cats of the ' group, which still shared a common ancestor about 6 million years ago (Adams 1979, Hemmer 1978, Johnson and O'Brien 1997, Neff 1983, Pecon-Slattery and O'Brien 1998, van Valkenburgh et al. 1990). The species known as Acinonyx pardinensis (Adams 1979), which is larger than the modern species, migrated from North America to Asia, India, Europe, and Africa. The modern cheetah evolved into its present form about 200,000 years ago. Genetic research has shown that today’s cheetah populations are descendants of but a few animals that remained after the Pleistocene era about 10,000 years ago, at which point the population experienced a founder event generally referred to as a population bottleneck (Menotti-Raymond and O'Brien 1993, O'Brien et al. 1985, O'Brien et al. 1983). The cheetah somehow survived this time of mass extinction and the population gradually increased."

"Due to the cheetah’s specialisation for speed, it has developed many morphological and physiological adaptations. For , it has a small head, lightweight and thinly-boned skull, flat face, and a reduced length of muzzle that allows the large eyes to be positioned for maximum binocular vision, enlarged nostrils, and extensive air-filled sinuses (Ewer 1973). Its body is narrow and lightweight with long, slender feet and legs and specialised muscles, which act, simultaneously, for high acceleration and allow for greater swing to the limbs (Hildebrand 1959, Hildebrand 1961, Neff 1983). The cheetah is the only cat with short, blunt claws, which lack skin sheaths, making the claws semi-retractable, thus providing added traction like a sprinter’s cleats (Ewer 1973)."

"During his 49-year reign as an Indian in the 16th century, Akbar the Great had more than 39,000 cheetahs in total, which were called Khasa or the Imperial Cheetahs, and he kept detailed records of them (Caro 1994, Guggisberg 1975). However, all the cheetahs kept for hunting and coursing purposes were taken out of the wild from free-ranging populations. Because of this continuous drain on the wild populations, the numbers of cheetahs declined throughout Asia. In the early 1900s, India and Iran began to import cheetahs from Africa for hunting purposes (Pocock 1939). In Africa, the cheetah was important to many local ethnic groups: the ate cheetah meat for speed; traditional healers used cheetah foot bones for fleet-footedness; and kings wore cheetah skins for dignity (Nowell and Jackson 1996, Wrogemann 1975). These practices, combined with exportation to other countries, contributed to the beginning of the cheetah’s decline in Africa."

"Cheetah numbers throughout their ranges are declining due to loss and , and a declining prey base (Nowell and Jackson 1996). Intra-guild competition from more aggressive predators decrease cheetah survivability in protected game reserves, causing larger numbers of cheetahs to live outside protected areas and therefore coming into conflict with humans (Caro 1994, Marker 1998, Nowell and Jackson 1996). As human populations change the landscape of Africa by increasing the numbers of livestock and fenced game farms throughout the cheetah’s range, addressing this conflict may become the most important factor in their conservation."

"The primary prey of snow leopards is and s whose typical habitat is the rugged terrain of mountainous regions. Smaller mammalian species (e.g. s, Marmota spp.; s Lepus spp.; s, Ochotona spp.) and various birds have been reported in snow leopard diet. Domestic livestock, primarily sheep and goats, comprise a significant component of snow leopard diet in many areas, and occasionally horses, s, and cattle are also taken."

"The snow leopard (Panthera uncial) is a flagship and keystone species in much of the alpine ecosystems of Central Asia, with only 4500–7500 individuals left in the world (McCarthy and Chapron, 2003). It has been listed as endangered by the (IUCN) since 1972 (Goodwin and Holloway, 1972), and included in Appendix I of the since 1975 (McCarthy and Chapron, 2003). They are also legally protected at the national level in every range country (McCarthy and Chapron, 2003). However, poaching for the exquisite fur and highly valued bones remains a significant and mostly increasing threat to snow leopards range-wide (McCarthy and Chapron, 2003). China is estimated to contain roughly 60% of snow leopard habitat and population, distributed primarily in and the and Autonomous Regions, bus also occurring in , and Provinces, and the (McCarthy and Chapron, 2003). At the same time, China likely owns the largest potential market, with a billion people of increasing economic stature and traditions of utilizing wildlife for traditional purposes. As such, the combination of China’s importance for the species and its threat through the poaching and trade of snow leopards makes China a determinant player in the species’ survival."

"The snow leopard is usually found above 5000 feet and occurs as high as 18,000 feet. Though nowhere common, it has a wide range in the mountains of central Asia, from the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan eastward along the Himalaya and across Tibet into southern China, and also northward in the mountains of the U.S.S.R. and of west China to the , on the southern border of Mongolia: the few specimens caught in the wild come mostly from the of the U.S.S.R., where trapping is limited and the animal is otherwise protected. The typical snow leopard has pale frosty eyes and a coat of pale misty gray, with black rosettes that are clouded by the depth of the rich fur. An adult rarely weighs more than a hundred pounds or exceeds six feet in length, including the remarkable long tail, thick to the tip, used presumably, for balance and for warmth, but it kills creatures three times its own size without much difficulty. It has enormous paws and a short-faced ; it is bold and agile in the hunt, and capable of terrific leaps ..."

"Meow. We know this is the sound a cat makes. Five thousand years ago, so did the s. They just pronounced it “miw,” according to Sir , the deceased expert on Egyptian grammar. This is very close to how Mandarin Chinese speakers currently pronounce the word for “cat:” māo … … The consonant-vowel pattern meow may not seem important in our language—it’s just the sound a cat makes—but in Chinese, this sound pattern—spelled “miao”—occurs 16 times by itself, and at least 78 times in conjunction with other characters, according to http://www.mandarintools.com/. The Miao of China—one of the meanings of “miao”—is an ancient people known for their farming and embroidery; the word also means “family, progeny, sprout.” The ' does not include a listing for “miao” or “meow.” The closest word is “miaow,” and it means, “Imitative. Similar representations of the cry of a cat (and corresponding nouns and verbs) are very widespread in numerous languages: compare, e.g., German miau, Spanish miau, Russian mjau, Turkish miyav, Finnish miau, Chinese miāo, etc.” Even though OED claims the word is widespread, the earliest date given is 1288. Ancient Egyptian isn’t mentioned. Under “cat” however, OED offers, “History points to Egypt as the earliest home of the domestic cat, and the name is generally sought in the same quarter.” Not discussed is the fact that the Egyptians used the word “miw,” even though Gardiner’s book was published in 1927."

"... Once cats have used the meow to gain a person's attention, they generally use additional visual or tactile techniques for explaining what is so urgently needed, such as rubbing their head and flanks around our legs and then against the food cupboard, or sitting looking pointedly at the back door."

"... Why can't people figure out what a cat's trying to say? The answer was revealed in a study conducted in England in 2015. Using an approach similar to 's, the researchers went to people's homes and recorded cats meowing in four different contexts.* Then they played the calls back to listeners to see if they could correctly identify the context of each call. An important difference from Nicastro's study, however, was that people who lived with each cat were included among the listeners. Participants were reasonably proficient when listening to the cat with whom they shared a home, correctly identifying the context sixty percent of the time. By contrast, when hearing an unfamiliar cat, they picked the correct context a paltry twenty-five percent of the time, no better than guessing randomly. These results suggest that each cat has her own specific meows that she uses in different situations, and that people who live with these cats learn to recognize what each meow means. However, these call are cat-specific; there is no universal cat language, with one type of meow proclaiming "I'm hungry" and another indicating "I'm scared." ..."

"... Will you meow?' "Yes—and you meow back, if you get a chance. Last time, you keep' me a-meowing around till old Hays went to throwing rocks at me and says 'Dern that cat!' and so I hove a brick through his window—but don't you tell." "I won't. I couldn't meow that night, becuz auntie was watching me, but I'll meow this time. ..."