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Bobbing along

Writer's picture: CroneCrone

I read an article today about cats bred to have flat faces - like Persians. Apparently, according to these researchers, what makes these cats attractive is that they look vulnerable because of the round face and big eyes, but also because this facial type mimics the expression of the subtle 'cat in pain' facial expression. This means owners are even slower to notice that their cats are in pain - as well as the fact that the flat faces have health implications.


It's a funny thing about cats because more than dogs and horses they already have quite closed faces, to my thinking. Yet despite the closed-ness, to coin a phrase, when you know a cat well you do become able to read its mood from its face - a correlation over time of behaviour and the subtle signals.


Animals definitely try to communicate with us - the domestic ones obviously - let me out, feed me, don't do that to me, let me go, show me attention - but the wild ones too. Like the birds that knock on windows or doors to encourage people to put out food. In some places, humans forage with wild animals (dolphins and honey eating birds) for their mutual benefit. And cetaceans seem eager to explore humans and have been known to help them.


In the Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher, Craig Foster befriends a wild octopus which reaches out to touch him and nestles against his body.


I'm sure that birds of prey circling above have turned their heads to look at me. Most animals look at us just so they know how fast and in which direction to escape. But they may be, sometimes, interested in us. If they have the time for such an indulgence.


It's remarkable really that all these creatures manage to share space with us, to survive in a world we have transformed to match our needs. We almost live in separate domains, they do their thing, we do ours, but every now and then, we bump into them and recognise that there is a 'who' there, not just an it.

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