July 23, 2010

Friday Cat Blogging – 23 July 2010

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Today we have Adventures in Cat Science™! First some background: I feed the cats dry food twice a day. Inkblot normally makes a huge production out of this, meowing pitifully and pacing around and then, after I fill the dish, bowling over anything in his way to get to the food and start hoovering down his kibble. After he’s satisfied, he wanders off and Domino starts eating.

Now, I’ve never thought this was because Inkblot is an alpha cat. Not hardly. I just think he’s hungrier and more dedicated to eating than Domino is. Still, the pecking order is what it is, and when it comes to food Inkblot has always been pretty clearly on top.

Or so I thought. Some more background: Once a day the cats get some wet food. I put it on two plates, and as the picture on the right shows, Inkblot’s is always on the left side of the cabinet and Domino’s is on the right.

Now for the Science™. A few days ago Marian woke up before I did and apparently got tired of Inkblot’s antics. So she fed the cats herself. But she does it differently. Instead of just dumping food into the bowl, she picks up the bowl, puts it on the counter, dumps in the food, and puts the bowl back on the floor. Except this time, for some reason, she put the bowl over on the right. And guess what? Domino was first to the kibble and it was Inkblot who paced around nervously waiting for his turn.

Obviously one experiment isn’t Science™. But two? You bet. So I tried this myself, and sure enough: if the food is over on “Domino’s side,” she gets first crack at it. Our cats have apparently been territorially trained to regard spots three feet apart as belonging to one or the other. Isn’t this thrilling? It should be. It’s Science™!

But the experiment is over. Poor Inkblot was humiliated by the whole thing, I think. As senior cat, I figure he’s entitled to a few perks, and getting first crack at the food is one of them. So the bowl is now back on the left for good. And everyone is happy.

As for normal catblogging, it’s below. This is summertime sun worshipping, Domino opting for the full treatment while Inkblot opts for the shade. Either way, they both love flinging themselves on the ground and rolling around when the weather is warm

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate