Showing posts with label feline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feline. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Lost Cat: Cats from space? (Sumerian)


Can a big monkey find li'l kitty for rare hottie?
"How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise" is a beautiful saying. A few adjustments made it poetic but ruined its original meaning. What it really means, in plain English, is: "It feels horrible to know something when the person who finds out can't do anything about it."

Pasadena is part of Los Angeles, which is part of a giant mountainous forest called the Angeles National Forest, which is probably why it is full of coyotes (and bears, deer, rams, and man-eating lions). "Them coyot's is some wily varmints," the common wisdom goes around town. They'll pick a cat right off the street or out of a yard. It's like cats-and-dogs outside because, after all, these are felines and canines, wild or feral.

What do cats know about anything anyway?

Skulking loners and organized packs of canines lope around the streets, particularly in the foothills of Altadena and other communities, coming down in search of water, bowls of dogfood in yards, and anything on four legs wandering around at night. Coyotes will grab a human baby as quickly as a dingo would if no one is watching.

Bad Kitties worse than Good Boys?
(Cat Dog Diary) Imagine a freaked-out rescued kitten meets a fluffy puppy

Can you help me find my kitty?
When my beautiful neighbor asked me what I thought happened to her Fitzgerald, I diverted: "It's not important what I think. What's important is how we're going to find him before it's too late."

"So you'll help me search by walking around the block for hours, calling out, 'Here, kitty-kitty"?

"No, I won't do that. It hasn't worked for you, and Fitz loves you. I was thinking we go divine."

"Go 'divine'? Kill ourselves and look for Fitzy in heaven?"

"No, of course not! Cats don't go to heaven. Everyone knows that. That's a place for dogs."

"Where do they go then?"

"Well, that's what I intend to find out through some urban shamanic divination procedures. They'll tell us were to look or reveal the whereabouts of all that remains of frisky Fitzy the coyote's Pemican."

"Coyote chow?"

"Possibly. Do you really want to know?"

"Yes, I must have closure!"

"Well, if that's all you need, Dr. Deborah King told me we can do it ourselves. We can cut the dysfunctional energetic ties that bind and give ourselves relief."

"Just find my cat...or else."

She wasn't having it -- skeptic, doubter, distruster, faithless -- so she pushed me to do the only thing I could, which was to go behind her back to meet with a pet detective, a psychic familiar with these sorts of cases.

I only asked the psychic as a favor. She offered her services, saying she had a knack for dealing with beloved pets. I showed her some photos then we took a walk around the block to see if Fitz would run out of wherever it was hiding and come to the psychic like a magnet. That's what she claimed happened before in the rescue of both a pet cat and a tortoise.

"How does anyone lose a tortoise?"

"It was stuck under the fence, which I moved in my search, and it ran to me," she explained.

Not exactly magic, but I would gladly take it in this case.

Closure came for me quickly, and I wasn't even looking. The psychic said pictures and walking were no longer even necessary. She already had a clear story to tell. Coyotes were not to blame, except to the extent that they may have scared, startled, panicked, chased, terrified, or injured Fitz, but not killed and consumed it. This 9-year-old fur baby was driving her human caretaker to distraction, and she was near insanity. But she wouldn't listen.

It was going to be a tough case because I put limits on the remote viewing protocol and told the psychic to stuff her preconceived telepathy and start answering a series of commonsense questions.

She said, "You're being too rigid."

And I said, "Yes, I am, and I want you to narrow your impressions, visions, and telepathic communications with the cat to just answering what I ask. Force yourself to only reveal a tiny slice of all that you know, none of which is being helpful. If you can find it in yourself to answer, just find it physically without answering or saying anything. Just go straight to it or, better yet, just get the cat to run out and throw itself at you like you claim the tortoise did."

She could not, so we started with a flood of potentially useable intel, which sent us across the boulevard to a cul de sac then a yard then a yard then a shack. Wouldn't you know? We poked around...and she wasn't there. She may have been there before, hiding out under the shed, but we didn't find her or any tangible proof she had been there. Now the messages began to come in more strongly. The psychic was saying the cat was alive.

How'd cat cave-dwelling pets begin?

Maybe magic and devis can locate this cat
Personally, I took it for a goner, a tuft of colorful hair in a lump of coyote scat. But we found no such lump. I had already asked 80 people at a nearby church meeting; not one of them had seen the cat.

But one church woman was sure she could imitate its voice, and this allowed me to ask the cat questions about why it left. It answered, vaguely: "I was being smothered." That made sense, but was it any reason to leave? My neighbor says their love was mutual. Seems the cat didn't think so.

The owner of the shed wasn't home, so we could only look around the yard and come back to go through the shed, empty it, just as soon as we could get permission. I returned alone (because the psychic claimed not to be feeling well) at 10:00 pm. The owner still wasn't home, and his sympathetic neighbor couldn't grant permission for a search of it. I wandered up and down the alley, calling out, "Here kitty-kitty" like a darn fool, ending up doing what I told her was pointless. I tried reasoning with the cat, sending out my own intuitive feelers for the slightest hint.

Everything Everywhere All at Once
Meanwhile, my nagging neighbor was on the phone, who promised a big reward she never really intended to pay out. She was doubting and demanding answers. The psychic started texting, sending new messages, saying the injured, hungry, thirst, confused cat had moved on. Work needed me to drive to the other side of the county for an important assignment. Isn't it just like the universe to all coincide and bombard us with nonsense from all directions (i.e., Everything Everywhere All at Once)?

The three were unrelenting, pulling me in all direction. All I could do was lope and skulk very suspiciously in an alley and around the property for an hour like a cat burglar casing a joint and hoping to catch video of the cat alive to at least have a reason to hope and continue the search. It would have been better to meet with the Council of Coyotes and ask it if any member had made off with a pretty angora calico Afghan tabby furball.

The Buddhist cats of ancient Japan
"How terrible is human attachment, tenacious clinginess, and our utter inability to let go. Such is the plight of humans on this vast plane of existence, the Buddha realized and proclaimed. But how can we let go?

The Buddha answered that. "Cultivate mentally-purifying calm the develop insight. When we see the true nature of things, the heart/mind, seeing the true nature of existence, automatically lets go with no effort on our part to separate. Let me repeat, we do not need to make any extra effort to relinquish. Seeing reality as it is is enough to discard and abandon everything we are consciously and unconsciously clinging to that is bringing about our suffering (dukkha).

E. Hicks
Abraham-Hicks (a council of 12 entities as channeled by Esther Hicks with the help of her very supportive husband Jerry) says that everything we want is downstream. Let go to get it. Stop fighting the way upstream. We are not salmon.


She called and texted me, demanding to know if it was the coyotes who tore and devoured her precious kitty. I didn't have the heart to tell her that the truth was worse than that.

The psychic said the scared cat had been found, wandering and drained, by someone who took it in and loved it better, kept it safer, and gave it so much love that it didn't even want to return "home" now. "Home is where the heart is," everyone knows that. She pushed and pushed me, and all I could say was, "You say you don't want it, this reality we're in [where the cat is dead], but you don't, you don't really mean it. You say you won't stand for it, this circus we're in, but you don't, don't really mean it. What if the truth is worse than that?"


"Coyotes?"

"No, that's what you already think happened. You want 'closure' to accept that. What if it's worse? What if Fitz doesn't want to come back?"

"Impossible! Fitzgerald needs me, can't live without me..."

"Well, I don't know about that. Wouldn't it be worse to find out that Fitz is fine but not coming back, alive and happy but not with you?"

"What the h*ll are you talking about?! I'll break Fitz out! Who has my cat?! Who's keeping him hostage and away from me?!"

"Why are you asking me? You don't believe in cat psychics, remember? Who cares what she said? You ask me for the 'truth,' but you don't, you don't really mean it."

"Spark"
[My neighbor] she's addicted to nicotine patches
She's afraid of a light in the dark
It's 6:58 are you sure where my Spark is?
Here, here, here

She's convinced she could roll back a glacier
But she couldn't keep fluffy alive
Doubting if there's a woman in there somewhere
Here, here, here

CHORUS: You say you don't want it
(this reality we're in), again and again
But you don't, don't really mean it!
You say you don't want it, the circus we're in
But you don't, don't really mean it
You don't, don't really mean it!

If the divine Master Plan is perfection [by rebirth]
Maybe next I'll give Jewish a try
Trusting my Soul to the Ice Cream Assassin
Here, here, here

[CHORUS]

How many Fates turn around in the overtime?
Ballerinas have fins that you'll never find
You thought that you were the bomb
Yes, well so did I

[CHORUS]

She's addicted to nicotine patches
She's afraid of a light in the dark
6:58 are you sure where my Spark is?
Here, here, here
  •  Eds., Wisdom Quarterly, July 4, 2026 (a true story with details changed to protect the guilty and innocent, a learning experience about human nature beset by clinging and ignorance)

Thursday, March 27, 2025

Short Attn Span Theater: Big Cats

The jaguar may be king of the pride - Feline baby caracal: pet kitten?
Truth about cats and dogs (felines, canines)
  • Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Science: Cats want to play fetch. Cat Sutra

"Zig, hey!" says ginger white kitty, while extending its paw in the air (zaLysonArts/Getty).


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A surprising number of cats want us to play fetch with them
What good results from the deed of meditation?
Many people have seen dogs fetch, but cats like to get into the game, too. Despite their very different hunting and play styles, fetching appears to combine elements of predatory [hunting, stalking, killing] and social behavior for both species.

Although their domestication histories and natural behaviors are very different, cats and dogs share many similarities.

Both species are predators, live closely with humans and are capable of enjoying rich social experiences with us.

Is this fake Buddha quote true? Kind of, partly
In our newly published study, we found that more than 40% of cats described in our survey data played fetch, compared with almost 80% of dogs.

We also outlined several possible reasons for fetching, including play, selection during domestication, and learning effects. More

The Creeping [Cat] Sutra (AN 10.216)

Karmic-result? Deal with it.
“Meditators, I teach an exposition of the Dharma on creeping. Listen, attend closely, and I will speak.”

“Yes, venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha then said: “What, meditators, is the exposition of the Dharma on creeping?

“Meditators, beings are the owners of their karma (deeds), heirs of their karma; they have karma as their origin, karma as their relative, karma as their resort; whatever karma they do, good or bad, they are its heirs.

I'm a stalker. I'm a predator. I'm a killer.
(1) “Here, someone destroys life, is murderous, bloodyhanded, given to beatings and violence, is merciless to living beings.

“One creeps along by body, speech, and mind: One's bodily karma is crooked, one's verbal karma is crooked, one's mental karma is crooked.

“[Therefore,] one's destination is crooked, one's rebirth is crooked. And for one with a crooked destination and rebirth, I say, there is one of two destinations -- either the exclusively painful hells or [rebirth/reappearance as] a species of creeping animal.

“What are the species of creeping animals? The CAT, the snake, the scorpion, the centipede, the mongoose, the mouse, and the owl, or any other animals that creep away when they see people.

I was after Maus. I guess karmic-results are just
“Thus, a being is reborn from a being; one is reborn through one’s deeds. When one has been reborn, contacts [impressions] affect one. It is in this way, I say, that beings are the heirs of their karma.

(2) “Someone takes what is not given… (3)…engages in sexual misconduct… (4)…speaks falsehood… (5)…speaks divisively… (6)…speaks harshly… (7)…indulges in idle chit chat… (8)…is full of longing… (9) …has a mind of ill will and intentions of hate… (10)…  More
  • [EDITOR: KARMA (deeds, intentional actions, courses of action) refers to doing. Having been willed, carried out, and stored up, there are two kinds of outcomes -- the "resultants" (vipaka) and the "fruit" (phala) that ripens. [One might distinguish between immediate mental resultants and longer-term fruits or future circumstances that result from deeds.]
  • Mikel Delgado, Judith Stella, The Conversation, Nature via ScienceAlert.com, 9/5/24; Dhr. Seven (ed.) "Creeping" (AN 10.216) based on Bhikkhu Bodhi translation (suttacentral.net, AN 10.216), CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Why do cats do that? Science explains

SciShow, Oct. 30, 2019; CC Liu, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
A mechanical "cathouse" for madams to profit? Maybe human science has gone too far now.

Why do cats do that? Baffling cat questions explained!
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Smoking catnip is rad, Man.
(SciShow) Curious why cats have certain behaviors? Why do they knead blankets? Why do they love cardboard boxes? Join Olivia Gorden for a fun new episode all about those lovable kittens and their strange cat-ttitudes.

Saturday, October 21, 2023

P-22 Mountain Lion Festival, LA (10/22)

Fiona Ng, LAist.com, Oct. 21, 2023; Xochitl, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
A mountain lion stalks by hillside homes in the LA suburbs. Long live P-22 (Johanna Turner).
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Nearly a year after its death, the Mountain Lion Spirit of P-22 lives on in Los Angeles
I thought I loved my cat. I love this one!
This Sunday (10/22/23), Griffith Park is celebrating its most influential transplant: LA's Lion King.

It's a native son who made the trek from the Santa Monica Mountains to its new digs by crossing the 101 and 405 Freeways — and in so doing inspired Los Angeles to dream the impossible dream of building the world's biggest freeway overpass for animals to use, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing.

"We were told we were crazy, and here we are. It's underway," said Beth Pratt. "It actually started because of the P-22 story and the effect it had on me."

A drawing of a bridge for wildlife to cross over a busy freeway A rendering of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, slated for completion in 2025 (National Wildlife Foundation).


Pratt leads the Save LA Cougars campaign, which helps support efforts to get the historic wildlife crossing built.

The organization is also behind the annual P-22 Day Festival at Griffith Park, where all of Los Angeles is invited to celebrate the city's urban wildlife and its titular king.

LA's Lion King
P-22 Day Festival, Oct. 22 (urbanwildlifeweek.org)
Like the majority of the city, Pratt first heard about P-22 in 2012, shortly after she started working with the National Wildlife Federation.

"I couldn't believe the headlines I was reading that a mountain lion had made a home in Griffith Park," she said.

She learned from biologists working in the area about the plight of P-22 — having arrived after a treacherous journey in Griffith Park only to be trapped there.

"It wasn't just P-22, there were mountain lions all around the Santa Monica Mountains that were facing the same struggle. I asked that day how I could help."

Beth Pratty, Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing
More than a decade later, Pratt and Save LA Cougars have raised some $100 millions toward the construction of the wildlife crossing near the Liberty Canyon exit on the 101 Freeway.

The project broke ground last year. Currently, Caltrans crews are putting up the support system on both sides of the freeway for the bridge to be placed across early next year. The entire crossing is set for completion in 2025. Source (LAist.com) laist.com/news

[Let's kill P-22 then feel sorry for it, like we did the Native Americans, the Palestinians, and most of the other wildlife that used to roam wild throughout the basin, from the foothills to the bay.]

Monday, February 6, 2023

Remembering Los Angeles' own lion, P-22

Xochitl, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; LAist 89.3 FM (scpr.org), 2/4/23



Why did you have to kill me on purpose, why?
Los Angeles lost its lion, Puma 22, to its favorite sport -- driving too fast on the freeway. P-22 could cross on his own, but 200 ponies were too much for him to absorb. His injuries led to erratic behavior and misguided veterinarians euthanized him. They give their reasons, couched in compassionate terms, but he could have lived. And this past weekend, he was eulogized at his former home, Griffith Park. The Greek Theater is on the other entrance to the park, behind the hill where the Hollywood sign shines. It was full of well-wishers and many beautiful speeches in memento mori, simulcast live by the local NPR affiliate (scpr.org).
The Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory by day, with the Valley (SFV) behind the hill.
LA's "Central Park" connects to the Santa Monica mountain range, home to wild cats.
Maybe we're taking this too far? Suddenly everyone loves a killer in the city? Save our wildlife!

Monday, January 9, 2023

Los Angeles LION P-22 funeral at Greek (2/4)

National Wildlife Federation (LA Greek Theater); Xochitl, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Buddhists love animals, particular vegetarian/vegan Buddhists, and Thai forest monks.
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P-22 CELEBRATION OF LIFE
California Compassion Meditation, Hollywood
P-22's Celebration of Life is being presented by the National Wildlife Federation.

Los Angeles — and the world — lost the beloved puma or mountain lion P-22 on Dec. 17, 2022 [when misguided scientists executed him in a murderous act of euthanasia* to spare themselves feeling bad that it might suffer after being hit by a car, becoming confused and erratic in a suburban environment populated by humans].

White Man kills then tries to save our lions.
We will all be grappling with the loss for some time, trying to make sense of a Los Angeles without this magnificent wild creature. Let’s come together as a community to celebrate his remarkable life.

Joining us will be special guests speaking about their connections to P-22 — and how it also connected us all. There will be musical performances, dancing, food, and much more.
EVENT INFORMATION
  • Saturday, Feb. 4th, 2023, noon, 12:00-2:00 pm
  • The Greek Theatre, Griffith Park
  • 2700 North Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
  • PHONE: 1 (844) LAGREEK
  • Family-friendly event, to be held rain or shine
  • Ticket information: Admission is FREE
  • But all guests must have a ticket for entry
Why did you have to kill me in a misguided act of pseudo "compassion," humans?
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Tickets are available on a first come first served basis. Tickets are general admission. There is no reserved seating. Limit of four (4) tickets per person. Doors open at 10:30 am. Show starts at 12:00 pm. Parking is $20. The Greek encourages ridesharing and public transportation (with a bus stop right in front of the venue).

This is a privately sponsored event and a place where we come together respectfully to collectively celebrate and grieve P-22.

Please avoid conduct that is inappropriate or disrupts the peace and good order of the event or which may adversely affect the well-being or safety of others. Such behavior will be immediately addressed. Guests who violate the code of conduct will be subject to immediate removal. More: P-22 Celebration of Life | Greek Theatre (lagreektheatre.com)
  • More info at savelacougars.org
  • For media inquiries, please contact: nadia@puentestrategies.com
*Euthanasia is BAD karma
Bhante and Dhr. Seven, (ed.) Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY
Kill the animals, dogs and cats, and call it "mercy"! It will be your bad karma and the doctor's.
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Bad thoughts lead to bad actions lead to bad results
Killing to avoid the pain created by our mirror cells and calling it an act of "mercy" and "compassion," because as well all know being murdered is better than being allowed to be in pain that makes others uncomfortable. The intention of taking life is a citta or mind moment that conditions the subsequent result. The motives for killing can only be of four kinds, which is true of all bad karma: greed, hatred/fear, and delusion (passion, angry aversion/cowardly aversion, and wrong view). When the act (karma) is willed and carried out, motivated by one or more of these intentions, it will ripen (when it comes to fruition, which it will do many times in the future) in unwelcome results generally called "suffering" (dukkha).