Thursday 12 May 2016

Cat Communication


Cats on a wall in Rovinj, Croatia


Cats.

What can they tell us?

There was an interesting story in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago. I think it proves that cats can tell us much.

It went something like this:

In the garden of a house in Salzburg there lived a cat. It was pretty well wild. It would let no person come near it.

And it never entered the house.

On the 29th of April 1986 that all changed.

On that day it rained in Salzburg.

Rain fell from the infamous Chernobyl cloud.

The cat carried her three kittens by the scruff of their necks into the house and placed them in a corner of the living room. From this day on she was a house cat.

She would not let her kittens go out of the house. Not even onto the terrace.

Two days later the people who lived in the house discovered the reason the cat had fetched the kittens into the house.

The outside world was contaminated with Chernobyl radiation.

The children of the house had been playing outside in the rain. One of them was taken ill. The doctor at the hospital found no sign of an infection.

Nobody knew what the strange illness was.

But the cat knew.

After the rain the cat refused to drink local farm milk.

Some pieces of the meat that people in the house were eating were given to the cat before being cooked. If the cat refused the meat the people in the house would also not eat it.

The cat was their first Geiger counter.

The people in the house then rented an actual Geiger counter.

The Geiger counter confirmed what the cat knew all along.

Whenever the cat refused to eat the meat, the people tested the meat with the Geiger counter and it invariably clicked loudly and rapidly.








12 comments:

  1. They look very awake and curious!

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    1. I think they are waiting for the dolphins.

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  2. The kitties are definitely not stray cats; one is wearing a collar. I like the stone wall (or is it an out-looking window arch) and the scenery is beautiful. Where was the picture taken? It does look a little like lake Garda.
    Greetings Maria x

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    1. I've put a caption on the picture which was taken by a wall in Rovinj.

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  3. Animals and birds can sense bad things coming long before we can.

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    1. That's right. We should have more respect for animals and for the planet in general. I'm often ashamed at the way we carry on as a species.

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    2. Still being detected in milk and meat today caesium 137 has a half-life of 30 years. The Austrian agency 'Ages' reports in 2016 (30 years after the Chernobyl cloud) that in an affected area 15 from 16 of wild boar tested were up to 7 times the allowed limit. Some types wild mushrooms were highly radiated. They are called Eierschwamerl and Maronenröhrlingen and like the wild boar probably should not be eaten in large quantities.

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    3. Mushroom names in English: chanterelle and bay bolete

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  4. Interesting. I love cats and have always thought they are much cleverer than us. This more or less proves it.

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    1. The "experts" are always telling us that one cannot smell or taste or see this radiation. People who have been in it will sometimes speak of experiencing a faint metallic taste in the mouth. With cats this must be enhanced. The cat in Salzburg knew something was wrong 2 days before the authorities with all their technology and diplomats and satellite images and weather maps and all rest of it actually told the people.

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  5. Fascinating story. Cats have better instincts than we do.

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