Spring is here

[cjsmith]

Spring is here, and my cats are responding with thinner fur coats. This means lots of carpet cleanup in cjsmith's world.

I gotta wonder. They don't go outside, so they aren't responding to temperature changes. Might it be the longer hours of sunlight? Strange that coat thickness would be linked to light rather than directly to warmth.

If humans are instrumental in cat evolution, maybe in another thousand years Felix domesticus will like to have thick fur combed out. (Or not. I suspect the majority of caring pet owners do the spay and neuter thing, which would mean that pet traits associated with those owners are being winnowed out.)

Comments

[apparentparadox]

There's the whole "kin selection" thing that can go on, though. If planned breedings become more common than unplanned breedings (more likely with dogs than cats, but still), then people might be happier with cats that like to have the thick fur combed out, so will patronize breeders whose cats are like that, which means that the breeding stock would tend towards ones that pass on the genes for "likes to have thick fur combed out".

Or, it could all go the way of the "looks, not brains/ability" of most of the AKC, and some stupid trait will be considered "important" and that's what the breeders will aim for to get more prizes.

I don't think it's so strange to consider that the shedding would be more related to sunlight hours rather than temp -- after all, temp can vary wildly over a short period of time (think: very warm days during the winter), whereas sunlight hours are a pretty good predictor of season.

Of course, it could also be something once or twice removed, like, say, arrival of birds because of growing plants because of increased sunlight, and full coats make it uncomfortable to run after birds.

[buzzy-mcbuzzer.livejournal.com]

I never turn down a good brushing. In fact, I've discovered that when I want to be brushed, I just have to do one of those "shed at will" things, and I'm almost immediately attended to.

Alternatively, one only needs to hork up a nice wet hairball in an unsuspecting place to receive more regular attention :E

[platypus]

I swear, Moly sheds when she gets nervous. When we take her to the vet, she leaves great clouds of fur everywhere. Sure, we pet her a lot at the vet, but we pet her a lot at home too sometimes, and we've never been able to knit a new cat out of her shed fur there.

A lot of biological rhythms are sensitive to light. I'm not sure it's the most logical thing, but maybe it needs time to get started, and temperatures fluctuate too much to be good triggers, or something. I don't actually notice very sheddy cats in spring here, but they have short and not terribly plush fur. It's just the vet that makes them go BAMF.

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

I found a new brush that my cat doesn't hate! In fact she started to purr and liked it! Weeeeeeeeird. I got it at Walmart (yeah, I know evil but it was 3 bucks!) It's a standard slicker brush but it has little plastic tips so it doesn't aggravate her skin.

Although I did pick her up to check her paw tonight and I am catfurred.

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

So what are future cats going to be like? Outdoor, alley-cat, loner hunter types? Oh yeah, just like now.

[domesticpanther.livejournal.com]

I brush my own hair! Both my mamas gave me my very own brush to use, but I like theirs so much better :)