Why Cats are better than dogs

Zoltan Kaszas gets it right!!

Cats are better than dogs.  He explains why!

Dogs Can't be Artists!

This is a serious WTF moment as the city of Riverside showed "dog art" at one of the parks. All these artsy-fartsy "dogs" look like they got a stick up their butt!  Humans do so many things that are just intended to humiliate the dog species. Not that I care. I mean, they're just dogs.

Click to see Dog Art!



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Painting
for bogus background

Realism vs Classicism in Cat Art

I'm not big on so-called "art" unless it's pictures of cats. Especially if they are pictures of me!!  While I want to talk about some pictures of me and contrast artistic Realism as an aesthetic vs the Classical or Romantic aesthetics, I want to convince you that there are many famous pictures of cats. How I will accomplish that task is to simply show you a small sample of the large bunch of famous painters painting cats.  It's kind of odd that all three of the painters that come to mind were French. But many French persons wear t-shirts that say J'aime Les Chats. That's French talk that says "I'm crazy about my cat!" There's also many non-French-person books about art and cats.

Mona Lisa with her cat painted by Leonardo da Vinci

The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous pictures of all time according to experts. I'm not particularly fond of it because the lady creeps me out with how her eyes seem to always look at me. It turns out that my being creeped out was not unfounded!

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Girl sleeping with a Cat by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Renoir was French and painted all kinds of cats. He even painted cats with people who were naked. These are pretty tame compared to what a 14-year old can find on the internet now a days.

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Woman with a Cat by Edouard Manet

Here's another famous painter who painted cats. All mentions of him misspells his first name (should be Edward, right??). I don't want to make a big deal out of it because I want to talk about the juicy part of art theory and then put photos of me into the larger context.

So anyway the first appearances of the term realism was in the Mercure français du XIXe siècle in 1826, in which the word is used to describe a doctrine based not upon imitating past artistic achievements but upon the truthful and accurate depiction of the models that nature and contemporary life offer the artist. I wasn't around in 1826, so I can't vouch for that, but it seems truthy enough. The French proponents of realism were agreed in their rejection of the artificiality of both the Classicism and Romanticism of the academies and on the necessity for contemporaneity in an effective work of art. They attempted to portray the lives, appearances, problems, customs, and mores of the middle and lower classes, of the unexceptional, the ordinary, the humble, and the unadorned.

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I present the following two photos of me for discussion. Here I am looking all humble and unexceptional. Way to unexceptional for my taste. Therefore, this image isn't really art - not the classy kind anyway! I look like a bum and if you've read all my blogs, you know I'm not a ordinary cat. Ordinary cats do not have their own web site! Or their own domain name! (like huskercat.com)

Cat in a window.

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Now contrast that to this one (below), which to my mind looks pretty classy. I kept the same pose in this one. That way you can judge them without bias for your conclusion that I'm a very classy cat. Note that the viewers attention is drawn to me. There are no pointless parts of the image. Just me and I'm all framed up which emphasizes my superiority and greatness in the feline domain.

Let's face it, no "humble" cat (never met one of those, btw) would draw a viewers complete attention like I do. This is a great image. It is clear that this frame and the wall and floor, for that matter, are simply a artistic vehicle to make me look good! And that's how art works.

Cat in a frame

You can take pride in how much you've learned. You're a better person for having undertaken this chore. If you have any questions, I don't want to hear them. For the definitive book on cats in art, go buy this book! It will answer all your questions.

Michelle - my newest friend!

The good news is that I have a new friend! The bad news is that she is visiting me every day this week because my owners have abandoned me! It if wasn't for her I'm sure I would have died from starvation and probably dehydration!

Me (on the left) & Michelle

My new friends name is Michelle and I warmed up to her right away (see surveillance photos).  She's keeping my water bowl loaded with the ol' H2O, purified by the City of Riverside. She's under orders to keep me inside. When I'm outside I have a 18,000 gallon water bowl available to me. It's an important part of this compound I occupy with the owners. I heard that there is an international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. I am the first line of defense against this conspiracy - at least my yard which is quite sizable. 

I couldn't hang out with Michelle all day so I had to take off and mark my territory outside. 

Me and Michelle again

I'm TRAPPED!

Ok, readers, here's the deal. In my earlier post I detailed how Michelle was being conned into enforcing my owners demands to keep me in the house ALL week. Michelle did a fine job of making sure I had food and drink. My owners, who were on vacation in Kittyhawk, North Carolina, demanded that Michelle send a photo of me on Wednesday. As can be seen from the following photo, it's clear that I'm suffering from Cabin Fever, which is a real thing. In fact, what I want (to be let out) is exactly what the cure is for Cabin Fever. It's an insidious disease Scientists have proved that therapy for cabin fever may be as simple as getting out and interacting with nature." This is what I have demanded but, oh no, my owners demanded that I be kept indoors. Scientific research has "demonstrated that even brief interactions with nature can promote improved cognitive functioning and overall well-being." After they let me out, I will try and find a place where my overall well-being is a high priority! Stay tuned!!

Me (under serious duress)

Getting some Luv by My Gigantic Water Bowl

I know it's weird to have a 18,000 gallon water dish, but that's how I roll. But what's even weirder is that humans love jumping in it and splashing around. I don't like to cause trouble so I just let this grossly inappropriate behavior slide. And don't take my word that it's not right. Even dogs are not supposed to swim in a water bowl (click here for disgusting story). 

Anyway, the important point is that love is an important thing and, although I get lots of it, I always appreciate more. One of this weeks visitors, Savanah, was getting ready for a dip in my gigantic water bowl and I strolled by to be captured and loved up. 

Savanah (left), Me (right)

This photo constitute official documentary evidence of me getting seriously loved up!! After the big squeeze, I just hung out to watch what was going on. I apologize for the lame photographer who didn't know enough to not include a lazy duck. Talk about dumb! 

What's up with that damn duck???

My New Friend Savanah - from Nebraska!!

I have a new friend from Nebraska!! She's pictured below, next to me. As the official cat of Nebraska (which is a fact since I'm the Huskercat), new friends from Nebraska are always welcome and my most important friends. 

Here I am seen hanging out with Savanah (the smiling one). She's not as old as most of my friends or the other people who visit my place so naturally she's more fun than most!!  

Although I like hanging out with Savanah, I'm a cat with things to do and can't spend all day snoozing on the sofa.

So off I go for my next unscheduled activity. My destination was supposed to be private but the paparazzi snapped this photo of me. I'm a very busy cat so I need to squeeze in 16 hours of sleeping in each day so I can keep all my commitments. And Savanah is going to be one of those for this week!! The theme for this week is FUN!!

Me.  Sleeping (of course). Use of this photo is granted if you link to my site and spell my name correctly. 

KATIE!! My New Taker-Carer!

Well, it happened again. The grownups whose main responsibility is to take care of me have abused my right to have consistent reliable care. Many legal councils all over the world have concluded that owners have an obligation to care for their cats. My owners have cut some kind of deal with Katie (seen below) to replace them for the duration.  According to the chatter she comes highly recommended, but she hasn't spent any time with me until now where she got a briefing on my care from the adults. 

Katie (L), Me (being held)

I am seen here making my contribution to the interview/assessment process. I'm sure everything will go well, but my resentment builds toward the adults that see fit to take off on prolonged excursions. They're going to have to make this up to me. In the meantime, it's obvious that Katie and I are going to have a good time!

Kira, Me --> Paris France!!

Hello from Paris, France!!  That's right, Kira took me to Paris which is in a foreign country called France. Our picture was taken by a river.  For those of you who are not as worldly as Kira and me, I provide the following travel info. Paris is known for two things: 1) that tall pointy building and, of course, 2) Pepe le Pew who is in love Penelope Pussycat. The romance of Pepe and Penelope provided Paris with its reputation as the City of Lamour (which means "love" in French language). That river you see is the Seine (which, in French, means "river") and it starts at Dijon (the city where they make that fancy mustard).

You'ld think that the Home of Pepe le Peu would be a major landmark in this town, but we couldn't find it anywhere. The Parliament of Paris has been very negligent in not showcasing his home. It could put Paris on the map!

Kira & ME!

Pepe le Peu

Most Cool Friends Ever!!!

Kira, Merrique & Me!!

We get a lot of people traffic around this place due to my popularity as the Huskercat, but it don't get any better than this!  I have friends who travel from all over the country and from some places that are technically considered other countries - like France and England.  But this is a big deal! Thursday, Kira arrived from Portland, Oregon via LA, to be joined by Merrique who drove in Friday morning from her secret mountain retreat nestled in the San Jacinto mountains not far from my compound. They needed to spend some time with me to recharge their cat deprivation. Kira likes loving me up since she's been away from Mufasa who had to stay in Portland.

Merrique & Me!

Merrique doesn't have a cat so I'm the cat she'd have if she had a cat. Merrique is my newest SNF (sexy new friend). But she's not a new visitor to my place. She was the last visitor of the original Huskercat (Tommy) before he passed on 6 years ago. She remembered that and told me. I had no idea. But she can come visit whenever she wants! I took over the job a month later and everyone says I've done a great job!

This is not to say that she doesn't have pets - she has snails. Or a snail. I didn't get the details. It's (they?) is/are sea snails. I don't want to question her judgment as she is my brand new friend, but having pets that people can eat seems a little questionable to me. However, it's important to be sensitive to cultural differences and she's from Paris, France. This is relevant because snails were invented in France and the people from there call them escargots (instead of just snails). I hear that everyone there eats snails. But to be honest, I'm not sure escargots is a real word. I never heard of it before now.

I have the oddest story about a snail. Some time back my owner answered his door and there's a snail at his doorstep. So the he picks up the snail and tosses it into the garden. Two years later, he hears a knock on his door. He opens the door and it's the same snail. And the snail says, "Hey what was that all about?" Anyway, that was weird. I never saw that coming!  :D

Kira and Me!

So anyways, Kira and Merrique came to see me. Between the two of them, they've been to Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Scotland and England.  Every one of those is a foreign country and now they're hanging out with me! How cool is that!!

New Physics research prove cats are very smart!!

We've all heard them ... Schrodinger's cat jokes.
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar.  And doesn't.

I know - pretty darn funny!! What I have here is big news about cats and quantum theory (not the simple physics theory as illustrated in the following image).

We all know that Schrödinger’s Cat Theory is a paradox used to explain the apparent contradiction between what quantum theory tells us is true at microscopic level and what we see with the naked eye. It shows the problems of applying the rules of quantum mechanics to everyday objects.

Here's another funny!

So why do I bring up this particular cat??  Science, once again, proves that cats are smart - that's why! Here's the deal: 

The Yale team "built a device consisting of two, 3D microwave cavities and an additional monitoring port — all connected by a superconducting, artificial atom. The “cat” is made of confined microwave light in both cavities." According to Dr  Chen Wang “This cat is big and smart. It doesn’t stay in one box because the quantum state is shared between the two cavities and cannot be described separately.”  Dr Wang is a postdoctoral associate at Yale and first author of a study in the journal Science (which is a pretty fancy journal).  “One can also take an alternative view, where we have two small and simple Schrodinger’s cats, one in each box, that are entangled.” But clearly the theory to go with is that Schrodinger's cat (or cats?) is/are really smart! Who wants entangled cats, right? 

This is important scientific research because it adds to our knowledge that cats are smarter than dogs. It's a fact that cats have almost TWICE as many neurons in their cerebral cortex!!! Dogs should be embarrassed by this. They probably would be but they're not smart enough!!  

What's in a Dog Brain??

Ok, I know what you're thinking.  There's not a punch line.  Some so-called canine neuroscientists (scientists who study dogs ... not the other way) tricked some stupid dogs into getting strapped down and then ran them through a brain scanner.  I know, I know, this all presupposes that dogs have brains! But these "scientists" seemed to be comfortable leaping to that conclusion.

Funny photo of dog being tortured in a brain scanner

There was a lot of chatter on the cat blogs about this silliness. The news picked up on this like it was interesting or something.  (Smithsonian  The Scientist  Current Biology)  What they found was that in both dogs and humans, the caudate nucleus got all jumpy in both dogs and peoples when they experience pleasure. To test this they gave a dog a piece of a hot dog. And guess what, dog brains light up when they get a piece of a hotdog. For regular people, think of it as a pleasure response. For my more sciency readers, this takes place in he caudate nucleus, which, as we all know, is rich in dopamine which is what jacks up some neurotransmitter chemical goo. That's right. Dog brains are full of goo. According to the scientists, no need to take my word for it! 

Another dog being tortured. Neuroscience fact: Dogs have to hold themselves really still so the scanner can find their brain since it's really tiny.

Until this fMRI dog research, I thought this was the only medical procedure that dogs needed.

Post-Thanksgiving Visitors: Steph & Jessica - my two sexy new friends!!

OMG!! My owner (not the pretty one) told me a couple friends were coming over because it was Black Friday.

I had to ask myself "Why? Why? Would he invite over people who were celebrating some kind of racist holiday??" Aren't we above that? And why does he have friends that would celebrate Black Friday???

Oh, boy! Do I have egg on my face or what? My research on the Internets revealed that the Black in Black Friday just refers to when stores really start to make money. Apparently humans go berserko on this day and spend all their money on Christmas presents.

So ... this is great!!  The visitors will be bringing me Christmas presents!!! And now, introducing my newest SNFs (sexy new friends, in case you're new to my blog), Jessica and Stephanie! 

Jessica and me (I'm the one in front)

As can be seen in the above photo, I'm looking around for my Christmas present. Also, as can be seen in the above photo, Jess has red hair. I have other SNFs with red hair. BUT notice below that Steph has purple hair. This is a Huskercat first! Never before have I had Red and Purple SNFs at the same time! It was a real colorfest!

Stephanie and me!
(I'm not the one with purple fur!)

It was pretty cool to have Steph and Jess stop by to visit me. They brought some stuff over for my owners. But I'm still waiting for my Christmas present. Maybe they're not into Christmas. Not everyone believes in Jesus.

Catting around! Me & Briana go clubbing!

Briana came over this weekend and spent some time hangin' with my owners. I hadn't seen her over at my place before, but let's face it ... pink hair gets your attention!! There was alot happening during the day, but later Bri took me out clubbing.  FYI, Briana goes by Bri to her friends.  I've never been out clubbing.  At first I was apalled that Bri was into clubbing. She just didn't seem the type.  She's very nice and plenty adorable and didn't seem like the violent type.  I mean ... what did baby seals ever do to her, right?? Wow, was I embarrassed when Bri explained to me what clubbing is!  I didn't know what nightclubs were.  Anyways, Bri was plenty ready to go out.  I think we can all agree that when you're dressed in a silver sequined mini-dress, you are ready to go dancing! My owner wasn't invited to go probably because he's an old fart. HA!!

Me (left; being snuggled), Briana (right; pink hair)

As can be seen in these photos, I decided to stay with my usual gray fur.  I had to be careful. Those PeTA freaks are all over in Hollywood, where we were headed, and they love to throw blood on real fur. They are disgusting people. I'll stay with my real fur coat and PeTA can suck it!

I've never been out dancing before. The reason is probably because I'm a cat. That's not to say I don't get out from time to time. Like that one time my owner took me to the Pink Leopard which is a pretty fancy restaurant. I wrote about that incident because the bouncer was racist against cats and you can read about it here if you haven't been following my blog. Plus, I'm not the first cat to go out dancing (see photo below).

Surveillance photo documenting that I'm not the first cat to go clubbing. This photo also illustrates that my friends are way cooler than these wacked out hillbillies!!  :)

My owner told me that people might not believe that Bri and I went out so I got some pictures to prove it!  Here's my cold, hard evidence. I don't have time for haters who are suspicious about my lifestyle. Well, that's my report! Paparazzi photos are below!

You can see ME right next to my logo! Hangin' with Bri as she dances like there's no tomorrow!! Bri's in the pink hair as one might expect.

Here's a closeup of ME! It was pretty exciting as can be seen in this paparazzi photo.

stupid dog butt dials the cops!

Headline: Dumb dog does heavy breathing number with police.

Headline: Dim-witted dog causes trouble by scratching owners phone instead of her butt.

When a dog is this stupid, I thought I'd suggest a couple more precise headlines. I don't mean to criticize the Associated Press, but in their effort to be politically correct, they aren't laying blame where it is due. People need to understand how stupid dogs can be. Millions of people are catching onto this. In the olden days, there were more dogs in the USA. But now, there are more cats. There are ~74 million cats in the USA which is about 4 million more than dogs. 

It's not racist to call dogs stupid or dumb. It's not even racist to call dogs retarded, although it's a little insulting to retarded people.  Funny thing ... dogs are eaten for lunch and dinner in at least 11 countries! Click here for more info on dogs as meals.   

This dog looks like a dirty mop!!

When dogs aren't busy butt dialing, they are always sniffing butts (see above photo). 

It's Vegas, Baby!!

Things have been a snoozefest around here lately.  So when I saw on Facebook that my Vegas buddies were in Anaheim, for some reason, and my brain went WTF?? Why aren't they here visiting me?? It turns out they did attempt to get me but my media guy wasn't on the ball (that's right, I have my own phone number!). But they came the next day to hang with me so all is good.

It was Dave and Tarra's #1st anniversary. They came to my part of the country for a spontaneous anniversary trip. That's good because a year ago my owners went to Vegas for their wedding. They left me with my #1 pet sitter, Jennifer, who is a credentialed veternary technician.  I don't really need that level of care since I'm plenty healthy. I just need love, food and a water refill and I'm good. But enough about me!

I bring joy to people's lives as can be seen in the above photo where I am bringing joy to Tarra's life. She gets joy from squeezing me. I'm not sure of the exact squeezological mechanism, but it happens with others too, so it's a real phenomenon. It's known as the squeeze theorem. For those of you who failed calculus, it's a thing that Archimedes himself invented to confirm the limit of a function via comparison with two other functions (that would be Tarra and me!) whose limits are easily computed. That's just a long-winded way of saying she loves me! 

Black and white photo of Archimedes. It's not color because they couldn't make color photos back then.

Fun fact: Tarra took my picture that you see at the top of my blog.

Here I am looking kind of weird. Maybe I got squeezed a little too hard! :)

Pictured here is Dave. I'll be honest. We're having a bromance. That means Dave and I are in a homosocial relationship. I hope nobody is getting the wrong idea here - "bromance" is merely a portmanteau of two words and does not refer to some other kind of homo-type of relationship.  Not that there would be anything wrong with having that other kind of relationship. I want to be clear about that since I have a large following in the LGBTF community.  People and cats who are less sophisticated than myself might not be completely familiar with the acronym. That "F" stands for fixed.  That happens a lot to cats and it's not natural and is typically done without an informed consent. Unless it's a dog we're talking about. They all deserve to be fixed.  It would result in a better world, although they would still hump your leg.

Well, no way do I end my post talking about leg humping! Even on their anniversary, Dave and Tarra had to stop by to see me! I'm sure they had a good time! We don't see enough of them around here. 

What happened to my giant water bowl???

I have a 18,000 gallon water bowl in the back yard.  I'll be the first to admit that it's larger than I need, but that's how I roll. But odd things happened today. This is my story. 

Here I am keeping watch on a plastic bag that tried to escape the back yard.  These things need looking after since plastic is unnatural. Plastic bags are killers. Zillions of plastic bags have banned together to form floating islands of death in the oceans. Don't take my word for it - they talk about it in the New York newspaper which is all about science. 

There's this huge sucking noise in the back by my king-size water bowl.  What the hell is up with all this noise??  

What the hell is up is that there is this hose sticking in the water bowl and it turning it into a waterless bowl!  This is more disturbing than A Serbian Film, which is saying alot! I don't watch movies, it takes away from my nap time, but I hear it's bad.   

Check it out! It's almost empty. They pumped all that water out into the street! I thought it was going to deluge the street for forty days and forty nights - another great flood!  That's what it looks like when you're 11 inches tall. 

This is the little machine that sucked more than a chupacabra. The reason for all the drama?? The water wouldn't hold the chemicals.  What's that even mean, you might ask. Or you probably don't really care. My water bowl needs chorine to keep the water sanitary. Imagine that I chase dog into the bowl and he falls in and drowns very slowly so it feels the essence of life leaving its body, its lungs collapsing from all the .  Then you have a release of organic material, ie, dog scum. If the pH is low, then dog scum organics will create turn into phosphates which are food for algae spores. Chlorine kills algae but you got to have more chlorine if you have scum, but chlorine gets wacky and you have to put in cyanuric acid which never leaves the water which means you have to adjust pH with more chlorine and the water gets sick. I'm not a scientist so I don't really know what all that means, but that's the buzz around here. Another way to think about this is if a dog drowns in the big bowl, it's not a problem as long as one's caretaker/feeder drags the carcass and throws it into the street.  

Good thing for me is that there are two water bowls in my house.  So after a drink, it time to catch up on my 18 hours of snooze time I need.