STAGE 1
Felis Catus
is a small, lithe carnivorous mammal and one of the most widely kept companion animals in the world, descended from the Near Eastern wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica) and first domesticated approximately 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent. It is an obligate carnivore, requiring a predominantly meat-based diet rich in protein and taurine, which it cannot synthesise in sufficient quantities and must obtain directly from animal tissue. Its retractable claws are adapted to climbing, gripping, and killing small prey species such as mice and rats. It has a strong, flexible body, quick reflexes, sharp teeth, and highly sensitive whiskers that function as tactile sensory organs. Its night vision and sense of smell are well developed, with a tapetum lucidum behind the retina that amplifies low-light vision, and a vomeronasal organ that supplements olfactory detection of pheromones. It is a social species, but a solitary hunter and predator. Cat communication includes meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, grunting, as well as body language conveyed through tail position, ear orientation, and postural cues.
In the urban setting, Felis Catus exhibits several behaviours:
In movement
it does so with the particular quality of an animal that has decided to go somewhere but refuses to appear as though it was told to. It picks its way along the top of a wall or the edge of a fence with unhurried precision, placing each foot with quiet deliberateness, pausing at intervals to survey the settlement below from whatever elevated position it has claimed. It drops to ground level only when necessary, crossing open space in a low, fluid trot that carries a faint air of mild reluctance, as though the exposure of open ground is beneath it. It investigates doorways, gaps in walls, undersides of houses; not with the frantic enthusiasm of the dog but with a cooler, more methodical curiosity, as though confirming what it already suspected.
When stationary
it stops completely. It selects its surface with care and folds itself into position with the slow, deliberate ease of something that has thought about this for some time. It does not sleep immediately. It sits upright first, watching the settlement with half-closed eyes, monitoring the street with an attention that appears casual and is almost certainly not. Eventually it lowers itself fully, tucks its paws beneath its chest, and becomes effectively part of the architecture: warm, still, and entirely indifferent to whatever the settlement is getting on with around it.
Critical Links
