Heroic Cat Saves Boy From Evil Dog - Page 2 - GoFuckYourself.com

Scott McD · 05-16-2014, 05:41 AM

Fiddy awesome cats !!

tony286 · 05-16-2014, 05:51 AM

She was stray who followed them home one day and they kept her 5 yrs ago.
http://gawker.com/hero-cat-takes-a-v...how-1576866499

MaDalton · 05-17-2014, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jel

that's interesting - I wonder if the dog picked up on that, the way animals are meant to be able to, and felt it was in danger or something. The attack itself is weird too, looks like he got hold of the kid's shorts rather than his leg? Or was it in fact his leg he grabbed?

in the video there are pics of his wounds and stitches..

TheSquealer · 05-17-2014, 03:04 PM

Of course the one most logical explanation - dogs and cats fight, are natural enemies and therefore cat attacked dog because it's in his nature to do so and did it as it saw the dog run toward him, acting aggressively... was instantly ruled out in favor of attributing human behavioral qualities and altruistic motives to the cat and it's actions.

That's uhmmmm logical.........

SuckOnThis · 05-17-2014, 03:07 PM

Strange how pit bulls always have the worse owners on the planet.

SilentKnight · 05-17-2014, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

Of course the one most logical explanation - dogs and cats fight, are natural enemies and therefore cat attacked dog because it's in his nature to do so and did it as it saw the dog run toward him, acting aggressively... was instantly ruled out in favor of attributing human behavioral qualities and altruistic motives to the cat and it's actions.

That's uhmmmm logical.........

As a lifelong cat owner - the majority of the time cats will either run from the dog - or act aggressively only in self-defense. Clearly this cat was on the offensive against the dog, despite no direct threat to the cat itself.

But you carry on believing animals are incapable of displaying "human behavioral qualities and altruistic motives"...if it makes you feel better.

TheSquealer · 05-17-2014, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilentKnight

But you carry on believing animals are incapable of displaying "human behavioral qualities and altruistic motives"...if it makes you feel better.

Again, you are doing more of the same... "no threat to the cat". It's a simple, automatic fight or flight response from a primitive animal... not a matter of conscious reasoning by a complex brain.

Further, you pretend to know what the cat is thinking or perceives, which is silly.

I can't remember seeing a cat NOT stand it's ground when an aggressive dog is running toward it with obvious hostile intent. My cats used to beat the shit out of our dogs and any other dog that came within striking distance.

TheSquealer · 05-17-2014, 03:30 PM

And again, cats are not people. They have very very primitive brains. As disheartening as it clearly is to some, it's a simple fact of biology.

MaDalton · 05-17-2014, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

And again, cats are not people. They have very very primitive brains. As disheartening as it clearly is to some, it's a simple fact of biology.

GregE · 05-17-2014, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott McD

Yet my cat is fucking scared of spiders...

GregE · 05-17-2014, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

I can't remember seeing a cat NOT stand it's ground when an aggressive dog is running toward it with obvious hostile intent.

Maybe you can't, but I've seen lots of cats run away from aggressive dogs.

The cat in this video was quite obviously protecting the kid.

Now, of course that's not to say that this particular cat doesn't enjoy fucking with dogs in general as well.

TheSquealer · 05-17-2014, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregE

The cat in this video was quite obviously protecting the kid.

How is it that you understand with 100% certainty what the INTENTION of the cat is?

It cannot be that the cat is simply responding to a hostile dog on its territory which it perceived as a threat to himself?

It cannot be that the cat had been fighting with this dog for weeks or years and it was just an automatic response of both the cat and the dog (the dog to attack something on its turf and the cat to respond)?

Joshua G · 05-17-2014, 06:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

I can't remember seeing a cat NOT stand it's ground when an aggressive dog is running toward it with obvious hostile intent. My cats used to beat the shit out of our dogs and any other dog that came within striking distance.

your doing it again...overthinking. cats are smarter than you are giving them credit, plus your own observation that cats never run away from threats demonstrates your lack of openmindedness to ideas you do not personally observe. So cats never run away from dogs because you never saw it?

i know cats run away from dogs cause i see it all the time when i watch tom & jerry.

just give it a break.

MaDalton · 05-17-2014, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoshGirls Josh

your doing it again...overthinking. cats are smarter than you are giving them credit, plus your own observation that cats never run away from threats demonstrates your lack of openmindedness to ideas you do not personally observe. So cats never run away from dogs because you never saw it?

just give it a break.

you waste your time - he's always right and everyone with a different opinion is always wrong

Penny24Seven · 05-17-2014, 07:07 PM

this turned out to be a great thread. It is amazing how so many people know it all no matter what the fuck the topic is.
I can understand someone saying this is my guess on what the cat was doing but to sit here and argue because you watched Lassie as a kid is just fucking funny.
Thanks for the laughs

Phoenix · 05-17-2014, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian837

this turned out to be a great thread. It is amazing how so many people know it all no matter what the fuck the topic is.
I can understand someone saying this is my guess on what the cat was doing but to sit here and argue because you watched Lassie as a kid is just fucking funny.
Thanks for the laughs

I know. I love thIs place, there are a couple of posters here that are experts on everything. I always get a chuckle reading their self pat on the back posts.

Mutt · 05-17-2014, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

And again, cats are not people. They have very very primitive brains. As disheartening as it clearly is to some, it's a simple fact of biology.

Animals may not be able to write a novel or drive a car but to say every action and emotion they have is just primitive biological instinct is wrong. You might as well say the same thing about humans.

In this case, maybe you're right, if the boy had been inside and the cat noticed the dog interloping on his turf maybe he shoots off like a bat out of hell the same way.

Look at this honey badger's mind at work, this isn't just primitive instinct, he's using some pretty advanced problem solving skills to work himself out of prison.

My dog did this same thing, she was bored to shit of being in a fenced in backyard every day unable to see people and cats/dogs pass by in the front yard. One day I went to let her in and she was gone, I of course freaked out. The gate was closed, I looked to see if there was room for her to squeeze under/through the gate. No way. So I went to the front of the house and shouted for a few minutes for her, nothing. Now my heart was beating fast, I went up the street looking and shouting her name. Finally 10 minutes later thankfully she appeared, I put her in the house and then went back into the backyard to further investigate. At the farthest back corner of the yard I discovered it - a deep hole and tunnel to the next door neighbor's yard. Studying it I was amazed, there was no possible way she dug that tunnel in the hour or so she was out there. I'm not sure how many hours/days it took her to dig her escape route but she had definitely chosen the spot furthest away from the house to avoid detection.

Now I have to google to see what the experts say about the mental capacity of dogs and cats.

Mutt · 05-17-2014, 09:11 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_in_animals

From what I've read dogs, cats and other animals do have emotions like we do, and some fairly complex thinking but the problem is that we compare them to us, because that's all we know ourselves - we are limited in how we think as well. We definitely love to anthropomorphize animals, especially our pets, and this story is an example of it. I think in this example Squealer's opinion is closer to the truth than the 'OH NOES! EVIL NEIGHBOR DOG EATING BOY! MUST SAVE HIM!!!'' we imagine in the cat's head.

It's always mind boggling to consider what life and we'd be like if we had no language skills at all, our entire lives are spent with this interior dialogue going on in our heads. When we're thirsty we think to ourselves 'I'm thirsty I need a drink'. Then we think to ourselves 'I'll go to the kitchen and get a glass of water' and go do it. If we had no way of expressing those thoughts to ourselves with language how fucked up/retarded would we be I wonder? Animals survive without language, primates do so humans could too but would we be pretty much chimpanzees if we lost our language ability?

TheSquealer · 05-17-2014, 10:33 PM

Even the wiki page you showed is nothing but ambiguous language such as "some studies suggest that.." kind of wording. Nothing specific or concrete or proven with respect to cats. I actively made an effort to find anything I could and there just isn't much out there on the subject with respect to answering the question of what degree cats possess any sort of limited conscious awareness. It's likely of course in some basic form. But their experience is absolutely nothing like ours to be certain.

I think the best way to describe conscious awareness is as an arbitrator for unconscious processes... and the degree to which we possess consciousness is reflected in the degree to which we can interrupt or moderate the output of unconscious mental processes. In other words, you can show a rat the button to push for food... but make the button shock him. His brain will run two basic innate unconscious programs "go to food" and "escape harm". This leaves him oscillating ... running towards food (the button) and running away from the button, often until it is exhausted because it has no ability to interrupt or moderate those two unconscious processes. Would a cat behave differently? Sure, ... but then you have to answer "why" and there can be countless reasons for that... maybe "escape harm" overrides the other and it walks away.. maybe maybe maybe... yet, well all confidently declare that our own cute little Mr Mittens is just too smart for that.

My point is that no matter to what degree various animals and insects may experience some form of limited self awareness or conscious awareness or experience and display what appears to be some form of emotion.. it is absolutely nothing like what we try to make it out to be. That is our own projection.

Our closest ancestors have a brain 1/3 the size of ours, missing many many many critical mental functions which we possess and are still functioning at the level of a mildly retarded 3 yr old an and are capable of little more than foraging, fighting, fucking and throwing poop. A cat... a dog... that is many many many rungs down the ladder again. Apes are not even developed enough to do something as simple as engage in any form of cooperative behavior... even to save their own lives. That capacity as with countless others just doesn't exist in their brains wiring.

Part of what is happening in situations such as the video, is that our brain is wired to identify causation in everything. Meaning from a survival standpoint, we need to understand "touch fire = get burned". Furthermore, our brains abhor complexity and conscious thinking as it is very slow and costly in terms of energy consumed. It wants one simple answer. It doesn't care about the right answer if it is unimportant and unrelated to something we are focused on. It definitely does not want a complex, multifaceted answer to irrelevant things. Our brain is an organ tasked with a very simple purpose... survive and multiply. If the problem (such as what we observe in the video) is not directly related the brains mission of reproduction and survival, then it quickly dismisses things with any sensible explanation. Think about when a school shooting occurs, the question is always "was it the music... or the video games". People are always looking for that SINGLE answer. Our brain is wired to distill any question into one simple answer so it can move on. It works with what info it has. If it is missing info, it makes that part up. In this case there is the observation of the cat going after the dog after the dog attacks the boy. Our brains are wired to identify "why" and then it moves on. So it quickly creates this "makes sense" type explanation based on what was observed, but it is not rational. It did not come after rational reasoning and examining the facts. It did not come after carefully weighing the evidence. Declaring the cats intention is really just an assumption made instantly and unconsciously (intuition first, reasoning second). The fact is that cats and dogs fight. The fact is that we really don't know what the perception of the cat was in that moment, what prompted the cat to attack the dog (it simply cannot be supported by science to say the cat is defending the kid... it cannot even be proven that a cat understands what a kid is). We do know that cats certainly don't experience the same reality we do with the same level of emotions, attachments, awareness, self awareness etc etc etc. But we certainly love to pretend they do. The issue with the fact that "cats and dogs fight" is that our brain still needs to tidy it up by answering the "why" so it can put it to bed and move on... which is why our brains quickly reason based on what was observed that it was defending the child. A simple, clean, nice, neat and pleasing, feel good explanation.

But with or without the boy, dogs and cats still fight and are mortal enemies... and we have no way of understanding the intention of the cat. It's just a belief that he was motivated to act based on evolved emotions and complex mental processes which it has no ability for.

It all fascinates me a great deal. It also fascinates me that someone can kick a dog and it will cause more outrage than kicking a baby. And of course if a really hot chick kicks either, that's just confusing and all is forgiven. If a Nigerian Muslim extremist set a cat on fire, it would cause more worldwide outrage than 250 missing school kids. That is how irrational we are when it comes to domesticated animals.

xato · 05-18-2014, 03:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

Even the wiki page you showed is nothing but ambiguous language such as "some studies suggest that.." kind of wording. Nothing specific or concrete or proven with respect to cats. I actively made an effort to find anything I could and there just isn't much out there on the subject with respect to answering the question of what degree cats possess any sort of limited conscious awareness. It's likely of course in some basic form. But their experience is absolutely nothing like ours to be certain.

I think the best way to describe conscious awareness is as an arbitrator for unconscious processes... and the degree to which we possess consciousness is reflected in the degree to which we can interrupt or moderate the output of unconscious mental processes. In other words, you can show a rat the button to push for food... but make the button shock him. His brain will run two basic innate unconscious programs "go to food" and "escape harm". This leaves him oscillating ... running towards food (the button) and running away from the button, often until it is exhausted because it has no ability to interrupt or moderate those two unconscious processes. Would a cat behave differently? Sure, ... but then you have to answer "why" and there can be countless reasons for that... maybe "escape harm" overrides the other and it walks away.. maybe maybe maybe... yet, well all confidently declare that our own cute little Mr Mittens is just too smart for that.

My point is that no matter to what degree various animals and insects may experience some form of limited self awareness or conscious awareness or experience and display what appears to be some form of emotion.. it is absolutely nothing like what we try to make it out to be. That is our own projection.

Our closest ancestors have a brain 1/3 the size of ours, missing many many many critical mental functions which we possess and are still functioning at the level of a mildly retarded 3 yr old an and are capable of little more than foraging, fighting, fucking and throwing poop. A cat... a dog... that is many many many rungs down the ladder again. Apes are not even developed enough to do something as simple as engage in any form of cooperative behavior... even to save their own lives. That capacity as with countless others just doesn't exist in their brains wiring.

Part of what is happening in situations such as the video, is that our brain is wired to identify causation in everything. Meaning from a survival standpoint, we need to understand "touch fire = get burned". Furthermore, our brains abhor complexity and conscious thinking as it is very slow and costly in terms of energy consumed. It wants one simple answer. It doesn't care about the right answer if it is unimportant and unrelated to something we are focused on. It definitely does not want a complex, multifaceted answer to irrelevant things. Our brain is an organ tasked with a very simple purpose... survive and multiply. If the problem (such as what we observe in the video) is not directly related the brains mission of reproduction and survival, then it quickly dismisses things with any sensible explanation. Think about when a school shooting occurs, the question is always "was it the music... or the video games". People are always looking for that SINGLE answer. Our brain is wired to distill any question into one simple answer so it can move on. It works with what info it has. If it is missing info, it makes that part up. In this case there is the observation of the cat going after the dog after the dog attacks the boy. Our brains are wired to identify "why" and then it moves on. So it quickly creates this "makes sense" type explanation based on what was observed, but it is not rational. It did not come after rational reasoning and examining the facts. It did not come after carefully weighing the evidence. Declaring the cats intention is really just an assumption made instantly and unconsciously (intuition first, reasoning second). The fact is that cats and dogs fight. The fact is that we really don't know what the perception of the cat was in that moment, what prompted the cat to attack the dog (it simply cannot be supported by science to say the cat is defending the kid... it cannot even be proven that a cat understands what a kid is). We do know that cats certainly don't experience the same reality we do with the same level of emotions, attachments, awareness, self awareness etc etc etc. But we certainly love to pretend they do. The issue with the fact that "cats and dogs fight" is that our brain still needs to tidy it up by answering the "why" so it can put it to bed and move on... which is why our brains quickly reason based on what was observed that it was defending the child. A simple, clean, nice, neat and pleasing, feel good explanation.

But with or without the boy, dogs and cats still fight and are mortal enemies... and we have no way of understanding the intention of the cat. It's just a belief that he was motivated to act based on evolved emotions and complex mental processes which it has no ability for.

It all fascinates me a great deal. It also fascinates me that someone can kick a dog and it will cause more outrage than kicking a baby. And of course if a really hot chick kicks either, that's just confusing and all is forgiven. If a Nigerian Muslim extremist set a cat on fire, it would cause more worldwide outrage than 250 missing school kids. That is how irrational we are when it comes to domesticated animals.

tl;dr

Good kitty

bushwacker · 05-18-2014, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

Even the wiki page you showed is nothing but ambiguous language such as "some studies suggest that.." kind of wording. Nothing specific or concrete or proven with respect to cats. I actively made an effort to find anything I could and there just isn't much out there on the subject with respect to answering the question of what degree cats possess any sort of limited conscious awareness. It's likely of course in some basic form. But their experience is absolutely nothing like ours to be certain.

I think the best way to describe conscious awareness is as an arbitrator for unconscious processes... and the degree to which we possess consciousness is reflected in the degree to which we can interrupt or moderate the output of unconscious mental processes. In other words, you can show a rat the button to push for food... but make the button shock him. His brain will run two basic innate unconscious programs "go to food" and "escape harm". This leaves him oscillating ... running towards food (the button) and running away from the button, often until it is exhausted because it has no ability to interrupt or moderate those two unconscious processes. Would a cat behave differently? Sure, ... but then you have to answer "why" and there can be countless reasons for that... maybe "escape harm" overrides the other and it walks away.. maybe maybe maybe... yet, well all confidently declare that our own cute little Mr Mittens is just too smart for that.

My point is that no matter to what degree various animals and insects may experience some form of limited self awareness or conscious awareness or experience and display what appears to be some form of emotion.. it is absolutely nothing like what we try to make it out to be. That is our own projection.

Our closest ancestors have a brain 1/3 the size of ours, missing many many many critical mental functions which we possess and are still functioning at the level of a mildly retarded 3 yr old an and are capable of little more than foraging, fighting, fucking and throwing poop. A cat... a dog... that is many many many rungs down the ladder again. Apes are not even developed enough to do something as simple as engage in any form of cooperative behavior... even to save their own lives. That capacity as with countless others just doesn't exist in their brains wiring.

Part of what is happening in situations such as the video, is that our brain is wired to identify causation in everything. Meaning from a survival standpoint, we need to understand "touch fire = get burned". Furthermore, our brains abhor complexity and conscious thinking as it is very slow and costly in terms of energy consumed. It wants one simple answer. It doesn't care about the right answer if it is unimportant and unrelated to something we are focused on. It definitely does not want a complex, multifaceted answer to irrelevant things. Our brain is an organ tasked with a very simple purpose... survive and multiply. If the problem (such as what we observe in the video) is not directly related the brains mission of reproduction and survival, then it quickly dismisses things with any sensible explanation. Think about when a school shooting occurs, the question is always "was it the music... or the video games". People are always looking for that SINGLE answer. Our brain is wired to distill any question into one simple answer so it can move on. It works with what info it has. If it is missing info, it makes that part up. In this case there is the observation of the cat going after the dog after the dog attacks the boy. Our brains are wired to identify "why" and then it moves on. So it quickly creates this "makes sense" type explanation based on what was observed, but it is not rational. It did not come after rational reasoning and examining the facts. It did not come after carefully weighing the evidence. Declaring the cats intention is really just an assumption made instantly and unconsciously (intuition first, reasoning second). The fact is that cats and dogs fight. The fact is that we really don't know what the perception of the cat was in that moment, what prompted the cat to attack the dog (it simply cannot be supported by science to say the cat is defending the kid... it cannot even be proven that a cat understands what a kid is). We do know that cats certainly don't experience the same reality we do with the same level of emotions, attachments, awareness, self awareness etc etc etc. But we certainly love to pretend they do. The issue with the fact that "cats and dogs fight" is that our brain still needs to tidy it up by answering the "why" so it can put it to bed and move on... which is why our brains quickly reason based on what was observed that it was defending the child. A simple, clean, nice, neat and pleasing, feel good explanation.

But with or without the boy, dogs and cats still fight and are mortal enemies... and we have no way of understanding the intention of the cat. It's just a belief that he was motivated to act based on evolved emotions and complex mental processes which it has no ability for.

It all fascinates me a great deal. It also fascinates me that someone can kick a dog and it will cause more outrage than kicking a baby. And of course if a really hot chick kicks either, that's just confusing and all is forgiven. If a Nigerian Muslim extremist set a cat on fire, it would cause more worldwide outrage than 250 missing school kids. That is how irrational we are when it comes to domesticated animals.

Shut the fuck up already.

MaDalton · 05-18-2014, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

But with or without the boy, dogs and cats still fight and are mortal enemies...

millions of households with cats and dogs would disagree

but i know that doesnt matter to you

marcop · 05-18-2014, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

Even the wiki page you showed is nothing but ambiguous language such as "some studies suggest that.." kind of wording. Nothing specific or concrete or proven with respect to cats. I actively made an effort to find anything I could and there just isn't much out there on the subject with respect to answering the question of what degree cats possess any sort of limited conscious awareness. It's likely of course in some basic form. But their experience is absolutely nothing like ours to be certain.

I think the best way to describe conscious awareness is as an arbitrator for unconscious processes... and the degree to which we possess consciousness is reflected in the degree to which we can interrupt or moderate the output of unconscious mental processes. In other words, you can show a rat the button to push for food... but make the button shock him. His brain will run two basic innate unconscious programs "go to food" and "escape harm". This leaves him oscillating ... running towards food (the button) and running away from the button, often until it is exhausted because it has no ability to interrupt or moderate those two unconscious processes. Would a cat behave differently? Sure, ... but then you have to answer "why" and there can be countless reasons for that... maybe "escape harm" overrides the other and it walks away.. maybe maybe maybe... yet, well all confidently declare that our own cute little Mr Mittens is just too smart for that.

My point is that no matter to what degree various animals and insects may experience some form of limited self awareness or conscious awareness or experience and display what appears to be some form of emotion.. it is absolutely nothing like what we try to make it out to be. That is our own projection.

Our closest ancestors have a brain 1/3 the size of ours, missing many many many critical mental functions which we possess and are still functioning at the level of a mildly retarded 3 yr old an and are capable of little more than foraging, fighting, fucking and throwing poop. A cat... a dog... that is many many many rungs down the ladder again. Apes are not even developed enough to do something as simple as engage in any form of cooperative behavior... even to save their own lives. That capacity as with countless others just doesn't exist in their brains wiring.

Part of what is happening in situations such as the video, is that our brain is wired to identify causation in everything. Meaning from a survival standpoint, we need to understand "touch fire = get burned". Furthermore, our brains abhor complexity and conscious thinking as it is very slow and costly in terms of energy consumed. It wants one simple answer. It doesn't care about the right answer if it is unimportant and unrelated to something we are focused on. It definitely does not want a complex, multifaceted answer to irrelevant things. Our brain is an organ tasked with a very simple purpose... survive and multiply. If the problem (such as what we observe in the video) is not directly related the brains mission of reproduction and survival, then it quickly dismisses things with any sensible explanation. Think about when a school shooting occurs, the question is always "was it the music... or the video games". People are always looking for that SINGLE answer. Our brain is wired to distill any question into one simple answer so it can move on. It works with what info it has. If it is missing info, it makes that part up. In this case there is the observation of the cat going after the dog after the dog attacks the boy. Our brains are wired to identify "why" and then it moves on. So it quickly creates this "makes sense" type explanation based on what was observed, but it is not rational. It did not come after rational reasoning and examining the facts. It did not come after carefully weighing the evidence. Declaring the cats intention is really just an assumption made instantly and unconsciously (intuition first, reasoning second). The fact is that cats and dogs fight. The fact is that we really don't know what the perception of the cat was in that moment, what prompted the cat to attack the dog (it simply cannot be supported by science to say the cat is defending the kid... it cannot even be proven that a cat understands what a kid is). We do know that cats certainly don't experience the same reality we do with the same level of emotions, attachments, awareness, self awareness etc etc etc. But we certainly love to pretend they do. The issue with the fact that "cats and dogs fight" is that our brain still needs to tidy it up by answering the "why" so it can put it to bed and move on... which is why our brains quickly reason based on what was observed that it was defending the child. A simple, clean, nice, neat and pleasing, feel good explanation.

But with or without the boy, dogs and cats still fight and are mortal enemies... and we have no way of understanding the intention of the cat. It's just a belief that he was motivated to act based on evolved emotions and complex mental processes which it has no ability for.

It all fascinates me a great deal. It also fascinates me that someone can kick a dog and it will cause more outrage than kicking a baby. And of course if a really hot chick kicks either, that's just confusing and all is forgiven. If a Nigerian Muslim extremist set a cat on fire, it would cause more worldwide outrage than 250 missing school kids. That is how irrational we are when it comes to domesticated animals.

Get a life.

editeur · 05-18-2014, 10:29 AM

Most probably that cat defended his "kitten", as most animals do. From what I read, this cat was with this child since his birthday, and cats often "adopt" other young animals, including humans, and treat them as their own kittens. I've seen it myself in one of my friends family, where cat even tried to move the baby by the kid's scruff. It's just an instinct, but nevertheless it in this cat this instinct was stronger than instinct of self-preservation, it says a lot about this cat.

MaDalton · 05-18-2014, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by editeur

Most probably that cat defended his "kitten", as most animals do. From what I read, this cat was with this child since his birthday, and cats often "adopt" other young animals, including humans, and treat them as their own kittens. I've seen it myself in one of my friends family, where cat even tried to move the baby by the kid's scruff. It's just an instinct, but nevertheless it in this cat this instinct was stronger than instinct of self-preservation, it says a lot about this cat.

that would be my theory as well

RyuLion · 05-18-2014, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mutt

11:34 AM PT -- As if being beaten up by a cat wasn't bad enough, TMZ has learned ... the dog was picked up by animal control yesterday and the decision has been made to put it to sleep.

Sources tell us ... the dog was aggressive even after it was captured and officials decided it was in the best interest for everyone involved to euthanize the canine.

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2014/05/14/cat-sa...#ixzz31ibvupTQ

Hell yeah, if a dog does that once, it will do it again..

SilentKnight · 05-18-2014, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaDalton

millions of households with cats and dogs would disagree

but i know that doesnt matter to you

Quote:

Originally Posted by editeur

Most probably that cat defended his "kitten", as most animals do. From what I read, this cat was with this child since his birthday, and cats often "adopt" other young animals, including humans, and treat them as their own kittens. I've seen it myself in one of my friends family, where cat even tried to move the baby by the kid's scruff. It's just an instinct, but nevertheless it in this cat this instinct was stronger than instinct of self-preservation, it says a lot about this cat.

I quite agree.

Not to say that I don't respect Squealer's opinion and belief on the topic - it's obvious he's put some time and effort in to an opposing argument. I just don't agree with it.

It's an interesting topic, either way.

dyna mo · 05-18-2014, 10:52 AM

Digit, the cat, attempts to come to terms with loss and disillusionment, and tries psychoanalysis to get to the root of her discontent.

L-Pink · 05-18-2014, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaDalton

TheSquealer · 05-18-2014, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilentKnight

I quite agree.

Not to say that I don't respect Squealer's opinion and belief on the topic - it's obvious he's put some time and effort in to an opposing argument. I just don't agree with it.

It's an interesting topic, either way.

I appreciate that.

And I agree... to me its just an interesting topic.

I am mostly interested in the brain and brain function. There is no question that cats have primitive brains when compared to human brains. In that, lies an inability for a wide range of mental processing and ability... which we never the less, perceive to be present regardless.

I think a simple argument is this.... if it was truly within a cats ability to understand "child", to feel "attachment" to the child, to understand the child is in danger and then to fight on behalf of the child with purely altruistic motives (risking its life to defend the child), then we would all surely say "sure, that happens all the time". But we definitely can't say that. That itself, should be evidence enough that something else is likely going on.

As someone stated (and assuming the cat wasn't just attacking the dog because thats what cats and dogs do), I would guess that at best, that cat might have a mis-wired maternal response that activated in defense of perceived offspring (assuming it was trying to defend the child)... that however, would also mean the cat has to have some conscious understanding of the child's age and stage of development, that it was threatened and needed defending... all of which are highly unlikely, though possibly it its understanding was simply of the boy was simply "my kitten". This happens all the time when one animal will suddenly take care of young of another,... even the offspring of newly killed prey. It's just a hardwired, innate response which happens automatically and without conscious awareness, reason or thought.

The only studies i've read on feline consciousness and conscious awareness are murkey at best and suggest that the cat perceives its owner to be a large cat and acts accordingly.

It is funny to me to observe how angry people get at the suggestion that the cat is not behaving like a person, when its comforting to believe so.... yet when they lick their ass, eat their own feces or kill and eat their own newborn offspring, we then quickly dismiss that behavior with "that's just what animals do" to then dehumanize it.

Why do people get so angry at all about it?

That fact in itself, is telling. There is a need to believe. There is a need to defend that belief. There is open hostility towards any challenge to that belief. But why? That is the truly interesting question.

dyna mo · 05-18-2014, 12:51 PM

I recently was picking up some primal dog food for my dog and asked how much to get my 10 lb dog groomed. I knew it was going to be bad when the girl answered my question by first firing off all that's included, not the least of which was the blueberry facial scrub.

total = $55

That's $5 more than I pay a trained and experienced pro stylist to cut my hair but I don't get the blueberry scrub.

Simon · 05-18-2014, 01:08 PM

One thing that I believe hasn't been considered is that some reports have mentioned that the child is mildly autistic. With how little we understand about autism, maybe it's possible that the connection between the boy and the cat provoked something a little beyond the usual "leave my damn kitten alone!" response.

dyna mo · 05-18-2014, 01:32 PM

the cat is suffering from nipple anxiety and that's why it lashed out at the dog.

prolly came from a 9 kitty litter.

Chosen · 05-18-2014, 02:29 PM

Cool cat

Mutt · 05-18-2014, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

Furthermore, our brains abhor complexity and conscious thinking as it is very slow and costly in terms of energy consumed. It wants one simple answer. It doesn't care about the right answer if it is unimportant and unrelated to something we are focused on. It definitely does not want a complex, multifaceted answer to irrelevant things. Our brain is an organ tasked with a very simple purpose... survive and multiply. If the problem (such as what we observe in the video) is not directly related the brains mission of reproduction and survival, then it quickly dismisses things with any sensible explanation.

You must be talking about primitive humans because for tens of thousands of years humans have been embracing and growing their capacity to think and plan in increasingly complex ways. We'd still be living in caves and eating animals we killed ourselves if as you say our brains abhor complexity and conscious thinking. Many modern human beings including yourself don't abhor complexity, they seek it.

TheSquealer · 05-18-2014, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mutt

You must be talking about primitive humans because for tens of thousands of years humans have been embracing and growing their capacity to think and plan in increasingly complex ways. We'd still be living in caves and eating animals we killed ourselves if as you say our brains abhor complexity and conscious thinking. Many modern human beings including yourself don't abhor complexity, they seek it.

Not at all. I may not have stated it well.

Overall, our brains are optimized in terms of minimizing energy consumption vs ability to the point that it literally defies description. Conscious thinking only accounts for maybe 1% of your brains activity. Though of course, we'd all like to believe otherwise and most do. Generally speaking, your brain relies on a myriad of shortcuts to circumvent conscious thinking, solely to conserve energy... and I offered one example in that our brains are hardwired for not only identifying causality, but more importantly, to identify a single cause... a single, simple answer. And that single answer is enough. Right or wrong or incomplete is irrelevant. Democrats = Good, Republicans = Bad. School shooting = violent video games, this food = good, that food = bad etc etc etc etc etc. These are never real answers as the answers typically tend to be incredibly complex and require a great deal of careful consideration, research, thinking, debate etc... but these answers are good enough for your brain to accept and move on which will then allow it to stop wasting valuable energy lost to pointless contemplation which do not further its objectives of reproduction and survival. Not valuable energy in 2014 terms of you just read a great book and it made you do a lot of soul searching (your brain was taking full advantage of its optimized systems while doing that anyway). Valuable energy in the sense of many millions of years of evolution, facing feast or famine, stalking the wounded animal for 3 days until you can kill it and eat, sense... but that is still the organ we have today and the multi-million year reality which it is adapted to deal with. Our very large brain came at a very large cost in terms of energy consumption, which it also had to adapt to. Compared to primates, we are born a year early ONLY because of the size of our brains (which continues to grow after birth). Unlike any other animal, we are helpless for roughly the first decades of our lives ONLY because of the size of our brain and its incomplete development at birth.

A better way to say what I meant may be that our brains are wired to generally avoid the energy cost of complex conscious thinking. It will simply search for the most simple, "makes sense" explanation and move on. That we always buy into it 100% is simply part of the complex illusion that we live in.

Illusionists as an example, take advantage of your brains hardwired energy saving shortcuts in countless ways. The most common of which I am sure are those which exploit the many many assumptions of the visual system and visual processing.

Tom_PM · 05-19-2014, 08:03 AM

There's no question about it. This cat was saying......... quit touching my STUFF! <punt>

Don't you all know about cats yet? :P

Choopa_Pardo · 05-19-2014, 08:48 AM

I love my cat and my cat loves me. That's all that matters.

05-17-2014, 03:04 PM	#54
TheSquealer BANNED Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: In Your Head Posts: 25,080	Of course the one most logical explanation - dogs and cats fight, are natural enemies and therefore cat attacked dog because it's in his nature to do so and did it as it saw the dog run toward him, acting aggressively... was instantly ruled out in favor of attributing human behavioral qualities and altruistic motives to the cat and it's actions. That's uhmmmm logical......... Last edited by TheSquealer; 05-17-2014 at 03:05 PM..

05-17-2014, 03:30 PM	#58
TheSquealer BANNED Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: In Your Head Posts: 25,080	And again, cats are not people. They have very very primitive brains. As disheartening as it clearly is to some, it's a simple fact of biology. __________________ . Yes, fewer illegal immigrants working equates to more job opportunities for American citizens. Rochard

05-17-2014, 07:07 PM	#65
Penny24Seven So Fucking What Industry Role: Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: USA Posts: 6,289	this turned out to be a great thread. It is amazing how so many people know it all no matter what the fuck the topic is. I can understand someone saying this is my guess on what the cat was doing but to sit here and argue because you watched Lassie as a kid is just fucking funny. Thanks for the laughs __________________ Our site is coming soon. It will be one of the best ever! I know so. Brian and Penny

05-17-2014, 09:11 PM	#68
Mutt Too lazy to set a custom title Industry Role: Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 34,431	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_in_animals From what I've read dogs, cats and other animals do have emotions like we do, and some fairly complex thinking but the problem is that we compare them to us, because that's all we know ourselves - we are limited in how we think as well. We definitely love to anthropomorphize animals, especially our pets, and this story is an example of it. I think in this example Squealer's opinion is closer to the truth than the 'OH NOES! EVIL NEIGHBOR DOG EATING BOY! MUST SAVE HIM!!!'' we imagine in the cat's head. It's always mind boggling to consider what life and we'd be like if we had no language skills at all, our entire lives are spent with this interior dialogue going on in our heads. When we're thirsty we think to ourselves 'I'm thirsty I need a drink'. Then we think to ourselves 'I'll go to the kitchen and get a glass of water' and go do it. If we had no way of expressing those thoughts to ourselves with language how fucked up/retarded would we be I wonder? Animals survive without language, primates do so humans could too but would we be pretty much chimpanzees if we lost our language ability? __________________ I moved my sites to Vacares Hosting. I've saved money, my hair is thicker, lost some weight too! Thanks Sly!

05-17-2014, 10:33 PM	#69
TheSquealer BANNED Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: In Your Head Posts: 25,080	Even the wiki page you showed is nothing but ambiguous language such as "some studies suggest that.." kind of wording. Nothing specific or concrete or proven with respect to cats. I actively made an effort to find anything I could and there just isn't much out there on the subject with respect to answering the question of what degree cats possess any sort of limited conscious awareness. It's likely of course in some basic form. But their experience is absolutely nothing like ours to be certain. I think the best way to describe conscious awareness is as an arbitrator for unconscious processes... and the degree to which we possess consciousness is reflected in the degree to which we can interrupt or moderate the output of unconscious mental processes. In other words, you can show a rat the button to push for food... but make the button shock him. His brain will run two basic innate unconscious programs "go to food" and "escape harm". This leaves him oscillating ... running towards food (the button) and running away from the button, often until it is exhausted because it has no ability to interrupt or moderate those two unconscious processes. Would a cat behave differently? Sure, ... but then you have to answer "why" and there can be countless reasons for that... maybe "escape harm" overrides the other and it walks away.. maybe maybe maybe... yet, well all confidently declare that our own cute little Mr Mittens is just too smart for that. My point is that no matter to what degree various animals and insects may experience some form of limited self awareness or conscious awareness or experience and display what appears to be some form of emotion.. it is absolutely nothing like what we try to make it out to be. That is our own projection. Our closest ancestors have a brain 1/3 the size of ours, missing many many many critical mental functions which we possess and are still functioning at the level of a mildly retarded 3 yr old an and are capable of little more than foraging, fighting, fucking and throwing poop. A cat... a dog... that is many many many rungs down the ladder again. Apes are not even developed enough to do something as simple as engage in any form of cooperative behavior... even to save their own lives. That capacity as with countless others just doesn't exist in their brains wiring. Part of what is happening in situations such as the video, is that our brain is wired to identify causation in everything. Meaning from a survival standpoint, we need to understand "touch fire = get burned". Furthermore, our brains abhor complexity and conscious thinking as it is very slow and costly in terms of energy consumed. It wants one simple answer. It doesn't care about the right answer if it is unimportant and unrelated to something we are focused on. It definitely does not want a complex, multifaceted answer to irrelevant things. Our brain is an organ tasked with a very simple purpose... survive and multiply. If the problem (such as what we observe in the video) is not directly related the brains mission of reproduction and survival, then it quickly dismisses things with any sensible explanation. Think about when a school shooting occurs, the question is always "was it the music... or the video games". People are always looking for that SINGLE answer. Our brain is wired to distill any question into one simple answer so it can move on. It works with what info it has. If it is missing info, it makes that part up. In this case there is the observation of the cat going after the dog after the dog attacks the boy. Our brains are wired to identify "why" and then it moves on. So it quickly creates this "makes sense" type explanation based on what was observed, but it is not rational. It did not come after rational reasoning and examining the facts. It did not come after carefully weighing the evidence. Declaring the cats intention is really just an assumption made instantly and unconsciously (intuition first, reasoning second). The fact is that cats and dogs fight. The fact is that we really don't know what the perception of the cat was in that moment, what prompted the cat to attack the dog (it simply cannot be supported by science to say the cat is defending the kid... it cannot even be proven that a cat understands what a kid is). We do know that cats certainly don't experience the same reality we do with the same level of emotions, attachments, awareness, self awareness etc etc etc. But we certainly love to pretend they do. The issue with the fact that "cats and dogs fight" is that our brain still needs to tidy it up by answering the "why" so it can put it to bed and move on... which is why our brains quickly reason based on what was observed that it was defending the child. A simple, clean, nice, neat and pleasing, feel good explanation. But with or without the boy, dogs and cats still fight and are mortal enemies... and we have no way of understanding the intention of the cat. It's just a belief that he was motivated to act based on evolved emotions and complex mental processes which it has no ability for. It all fascinates me a great deal. It also fascinates me that someone can kick a dog and it will cause more outrage than kicking a baby. And of course if a really hot chick kicks either, that's just confusing and all is forgiven. If a Nigerian Muslim extremist set a cat on fire, it would cause more worldwide outrage than 250 missing school kids. That is how irrational we are when it comes to domesticated animals. __________________ . Yes, fewer illegal immigrants working equates to more job opportunities for American citizens. Rochard Last edited by TheSquealer; 05-17-2014 at 10:34 PM..

05-16-2014, 05:41 AM	#51
Scott McD Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Glasgow, Scotland Posts: 67,795	Fiddy awesome cats !!

05-16-2014, 05:51 AM	#52
tony286 lurker Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: atlanta Posts: 57,021	She was stray who followed them home one day and they kept her 5 yrs ago. http://gawker.com/hero-cat-takes-a-v...how-1576866499

05-17-2014, 03:07 PM	#55
SuckOnThis So Fucking Banned Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: In my head Posts: 6,844	Strange how pit bulls always have the worse owners on the planet.

05-18-2014, 10:29 AM	#74
editeur Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 252	Most probably that cat defended his "kitten", as most animals do. From what I read, this cat was with this child since his birthday, and cats often "adopt" other young animals, including humans, and treat them as their own kittens. I've seen it myself in one of my friends family, where cat even tried to move the baby by the kid's scruff. It's just an instinct, but nevertheless it in this cat this instinct was stronger than instinct of self-preservation, it says a lot about this cat. __________________ BossTDS - Traffic Distribution System Last edited by editeur; 05-18-2014 at 10:31 AM..

05-18-2014, 10:52 AM	#78
dyna mo The People's Post Industry Role: Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: invisible 7-11 Posts: 63,910	Digit, the cat, attempts to come to terms with loss and disillusionment, and tries psychoanalysis to get to the root of her discontent.

05-18-2014, 12:51 PM	#81
dyna mo The People's Post Industry Role: Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: invisible 7-11 Posts: 63,910	I recently was picking up some primal dog food for my dog and asked how much to get my 10 lb dog groomed. I knew it was going to be bad when the girl answered my question by first firing off all that's included, not the least of which was the blueberry facial scrub. total = $55 That's $5 more than I pay a trained and experienced pro stylist to cut my hair but I don't get the blueberry scrub.

05-18-2014, 01:08 PM	#82
Simon Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Florida's Kinky Keys Posts: 189	One thing that I believe hasn't been considered is that some reports have mentioned that the child is mildly autistic. With how little we understand about autism, maybe it's possible that the connection between the boy and the cat provoked something a little beyond the usual "leave my damn kitten alone!" response. __________________ See most arguments on GFY explained in about 5 seconds email: simon <at> IndustryInc dot com \| icq: 269~043~019 "If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story."

05-18-2014, 01:32 PM	#83
dyna mo The People's Post Industry Role: Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: invisible 7-11 Posts: 63,910	the cat is suffering from nipple anxiety and that's why it lashed out at the dog. prolly came from a 9 kitty litter.

05-18-2014, 02:29 PM	#84
Chosen VIPPay.com \| AdultWebSponsors.com Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 63,151	Cool cat

05-19-2014, 08:03 AM	#87
Tom_PM Porn Meister Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 16,443	There's no question about it. This cat was saying......... quit touching my STUFF! <punt> Don't you all know about cats yet? :P __________________ 43-922-863 Shut up and play your guitar.

05-19-2014, 08:48 AM	#88
Choopa_Pardo Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: NJ Posts: 1,629	I love my cat and my cat loves me. That's all that matters. __________________ AIM - thePardovich Email - [email protected] A World Wide Leader In Hosting! * CHOOPA.COM * Order Now!