It's been months since I posted anything other than articles relating to cat breeds, cat care, and cat anatomy. So I thought I'd mix things up a bit and post a story about a cat I once had when i was a kid. Well, sort of had. Her name was Taffy and she came from a farm not far away from us. She was an excellent mouser, scared off dogs, and was sweet and affectionate with us kids. She also produced a litter of kittens every summer to our delight.
But as she got older, Taffy started to disappear. At first, she'd only be gone for a week or so. Maybe two weeks. But time marched on and she'd be gone for weeks at a time. We'd worry, but she always came back, and always in one piece.
Finally, she wandered into the field one spring just before the snow melted and this time she didn't come back. We watched for her for weeks, but as the snow faded away and the flowers began to bloom, we finally gave up hope. My two sisters and I cried over her, assuming that she'd been killed during her wanderings. Perhaps she'd been hit on the road or eaten by a coyote. Or maybe a cougar as one had been spotted in the area. Whatever had happened to her, we were sure we'd never see her again. So sure that we held a little funeral, as little girls are wont to do, attended by our others cats, our dogs, and our horses. Most of our stuffed animals were there as well. It was a moving and depressing spring afternoon.
Time moved, as it always does, and while we grieved for our lost feline friend, the summer soon washed over us. We found ourselves running in the fields and tearing through the garden without a care in the world. July melted away and August was in full bloom with a heat wave upon us as we had a picnic out in the hay field. The sun beat down as we drank lemonade and caught grasshoppers. The afternoon wore on and we eventually packed our basket so we could head back to the house.
As we gathered up the picnic blankets, a sound floated over the field. At first we thought it was one of the barn cats wandering out into the field to hunt. But my older sister happened to glance over her shoulder and she suddenly turned, focusing on the distant grasses.
"Look," she whispered to no one in particular.
My younger sister and I did, straining to see what she saw. The sound came again and a flash of beige fur caught our attention. We caught our breath as if we were one person. The sound. The flash. I was the first one to speak, though I'm sure we all recognized her.
"Taffy!" I squealed the way only a little girl can.
We all started running toward the cat who was leaping through the field, heading toward us will all possible speed. We abandoned the basket and blankets as we fell to our knees and cuddled her to us, thankful that our little sweetheart was back in our arms. But she was different, and we'd seen her in this state often enough to understand.
"She's pregnant," I stated, running my hands over her swollen belly.
"Not just pregnant," my older sister replied. "She'd having her kittens. Right now."
We didn't waste any more time. My older sister bundled her up in her sweater and we all but ran back to the house. My mother saw us coming and pulled open the door, ushering us into the house while firing questions at my older sister.
"Mom, not now," she replied quickly. "Taffy's having kittens."
"Again?" My mother rolled her eyes as she said this, for Taffy had indeed blessed us with a litter every summer for the past four years.
No one answered as Taffy squirmed in my sister's arms and finally sank her teeth into the exposed flesh of my sister's hand to gain her freedom. Without any hesitation at all, Taffy ran to the back of the house and down the stairs to the basement. We, excited little girls that we were, dashed down the stairs after her.
At the time, all three of us had cute little rooms in the basement. It was an old farmhouse and didn't have central air conditioning, so it was much cooler in the basement during the summer heat waves. Taffy, being familiar with the bedrooms that had been set up only a year before, headed straight to my bedroom. Why my room? Because I had this habit of never pushing the draws shut on my dresser.
Taffy took a flying leap into the first open drawer, the one that held my socks and underwear. She moved around for several minutes and finally settled herself on my cotton panties, fluffing them up and making herself a cozy little nest. Not five minutes later, the first of four kittens squirmed his way into the world.
We'd seen it before, this cat giving birth to anywhere from one to four kittens. But it was still miracle, still made us shut our mouths and watch with wonder. These kittens were larger than normal and had little tuffs of fur on their ears, but they were still sweet little bundles of joy. We smiled as Taffy cleaned them up and revealed their sleek fur.
It would be the last litter of kittens Taffy had at our home. But that's another story ...
Muscles and bone are the very foundation of the conformation of a cat. There are 244 bones in the feline skeleton that lend support and substance to the cat's body. These bones also provide protection for the internal organs. In some breeds of cat the bones are as sturdy as a hardwood such as oak. However, some of the more delicate breeds have bones that are more flimsy and less substantial.
In all breeds the bone is surrounded by muscle. The muscles respond to a series of electrical impulses that are originally issued by the brain. Once these impulses are received, the muscles convert them into contractions using a series of chemical transformations. The muscles produce movement, movement which the bones follow. This movement is usually the gracefulness that defines the cat and its delicate body.
At cat shows, the head sets the standard for the body in a physical sense. Many judges spend more time studying the head of the cat than any other part of the body. While the points allotted to the rest of the cat should certainly be considered, there can be no argument that the head is of utmost importance.
The largest part of the head is the brain. The brain is located in the cranial cavity and is an enlarged and highly modified continuation of the spinal cord. The nervous system begins and ends here. The brain is divided into two egg-shaped hemispheres whose surfaces are marked by folds which are both thick and numerous. The hemispheres make up the greatest part of the developed brain, and the brain itself is held by the cranial cavity, which is designed to cushion and protect the brain. The rear wall of this compartment is formed by the occiptal bone, whose lower section is perforated by an opening that is almost circular. This opening is for the spinal cord.
Now the brain would be almost useless if it couldn't be kept informed of everything that happens in the body. This is where the cranial nerves come in. There are twelve pairs of cranial nerves. These of these -- optic, olfactory, and auditory -- are there purely to interpret the special sense of sight, scent, and sound. Five of the pairs -- oculomotor, abducens, hypoglossal, trochlear, and spinal accessory -- are for motor function. The remaining four -- trigeminal, facial, glosso-pharyngeal, and vagus -- are for both sensory and motor functions.
The head of the cat is the seat of most of the major functions of the body. Air intake, food intake, excretory abilities and many other functions are seated here. Though some of these processes are carried out in depth in other areas of the body (such as digestion), they are started in the head. For example, the head produces some digestive enzymes in the salivary glands, and so digestion begins in the mouth.
The head, by way of the pituitary gland (the principle control gland in the body), also influences the endocrine system. Almost a dozen separate function are controlled by hormones manufactured, released, or stored by the pituitary gland. Some of these many functions include growth and even the onset of estrus in female cats.
As the head is solely responsible for acquiring the oxygen and food the body needs, the head should never be ignored during your study of the cat. The brain does so much for the body, but it itself exists on the most simple of chemicals produced in the body. The brain, and the head, asks for very little in return for supplying essential life to the body.
A cat's heart beats 110 to 140 times per minute, sending blood rushing through the body in a mere 11 seconds. And though the circulatory system has many purposes, none is as important as sending oxygen throughout the body. And this is accomplished through the most numerous cell is the cat's body -- the red blood cell.
Red blood cells are so numerous in the cat that I'm not even going to bother typing out the numbers. I don't like seeing that many 0s in a row. But there are a lot and they only live for two to six weeks before they must be replaced. Thankfully, the cat's body is constantly making new red blood cells. This starts when tissue, anticipating a shortage of oxygen, sends out a hormone (erthropoietin) through the bloodstream and to the bone marrow in red blood cell construction sites. The hormone signals primitive cells to begin to grow.
The primitive cells develop into rubriblasts, which are sort of like adolescent red blood cells. Each of these rubriblasts divides into two separate cells, both of which continue dividing. Eventually, these two red blood cells (abbreviated to RBCs) become 16. The RBCs are composed mainly of water and hemoglobin. Each hemoglobin molecule contains four iron atoms. This allows for the transportation of over 1 billion molecules of oxygen throughout the cat's body.
The cells continue to grow until hemoglobin accounts for 95% of the dry weight of the red blood cell. This takes about three days (out of a six-day RBC production process). At this point, the cell ejects its nucleus in an act of self-sterilization. This leaves the cell free of all distractions. The cell can now work, and work it does. In fact, RBCs work themselves to death as they carry oxygen to the various organs of the body.
Even the shape of the red blood cell is important. It looks a little like an unperofrated doughnut and it is very flexible. So flexible that an RBC can squeeze through the smallest capillaries to deliver fresh oxygen and take away toxic carbon dioxide.
Without the all-important red blood cell, the cat would not be able to function. It is not an exaggeration to say that the red blood cell is the single most important cell in the circulatory system of the cat.
