Cute Cat Often Turns Crude

Prof. M Zahidul Haque

Prof. M Zahidul Haque and Tanzila Rahman

Cat is a cute enigmatic domestic pet. Cat’s roaming style is popular among the people particularly the fashion artists as ‘Cats Walk’. Naturally cats are calm and polite; they are the most affectionate domestic pet in the world. Cats are often referred to as ‘connoisseurs of comfort’. Cat’s relationship with the humans is more than 10 thousand years old. There are around 220 million pet cats and 480 million street cats living around the globe. In the United Kingdom 18% of the households have at least one cat while there are more than 58 million pet cats in the United States.

Tanzila Rahman

The domestic or house cat (Felis Catus) is the domesticated species of cats in the Felidae family. About 38 species of cats are found on earth; most domesticated cats are small cats but there are big cats too which include Tiger, leopard, cheetah, etc. Cats have strong flexible body, sharp teeth favorable for hunting small animals. They have a strong night vision (6 times higher than the humans) and sense of smell.

In Bangladesh cats are proverbially called as ‘Bagher Mashi’ (Tiger’s Aunt) because they are a smaller version of tiger and belong to the same scientific family. Cats domesticated as well as stray are popular in Bangladesh. Cats like to live close to humans; they love cozy bed and like to sleep with human adults and children. Every cat has their own personality and it is therefore important for a cat owner to learn when his cat want his attention or prefers to spend quiet time.

There some interesting facts about cats, for instance, a cat acted as the Mayor of an Alaskan town for 20 years, a cat went to space in 1963, and a cat named Blackie was named as the richest cat in the world with 7 million pound! Meanwhile often the cute cat turns crude causing harms to the humans. So, the cat owners should maintain precautions to protect themselves from any sort of illness might cause by the favorite pet cat. They can carry harmful germs that cause illness in humans, ranging from minor skin infection to serious illness. A cat infected with rabies can pass the virus to their owner. Any contact of the pet cat with the saliva of the rabid animal including cat (live or dead) can lead to infection. If the saliva of the infected animal gets into the owner/person’s body through an opening in the skin or through eyes, nose or mouth. However, one cannot get rabies from the blood, urine, or feces of the infected animal including cat or from just touching or petting the animal.

As reported in the Press, recently in a tragic incident in Kanpur India, both the father and his son had to die due to rabies (Hydrophobia) when their most affectionate domestic cat bitten them. It may be mentioned here that only the infected cat can transmit rabies, not the uninfected ones. In the incident stated above, they’re not aware that their favorite pet cat was fallen victim to a stray dog bite,  unknowingly contracting rabies. Both the victims were ignorant of rabies symptoms and they didn’t pay much attention to the symptoms developed in them and had to meet with the tragic end of their lives.

Here, the authors feel that publicity on the symptoms of rabies should be made on both print and electronic media for creating awareness among the common people to protect them against rabies by taking vaccine and other medication. It may be indicated here that the number of stray dogs and cats has increased significantly in our cities because now-a-days stray dogs are not killed, as they enjoy protection under animals’ protection law.

Sometimes it is seen that the pet-cat is sleeping close to the baby-child and licking cheek, sharing the same plate to take foods—people should keep a glance over these issues. Hence, the owner/persons should thoroughly wash their hands after handling, cleaning or feeding the house cat.

A recent research has found that cats killed a huge number of species across the world wreaking much ecological havoc. Cats are biological invaders; they eat indiscriminately whatever available to them. The owner of house cat plus other members of his family should keep a vigil so that his cat may not roam freely and get bitten by any rabid animal including infected dog. The pet cat should be provided with routine veterinary care.

Proper and regular care can retain the pet cat’s existence as great companion and emotional supporter to the cat owner.

(Prof. M Zahidul Haque retired as Professor and was also the Dean of Faculty of Agriculture at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka and Tanzila Rahman (BCS-Agri) is Upazila Agriculture Officer, Ramu, Cox’s Bazar)