The Rise of Cats and Madness: Do you keep cats in your house?

[GammaGlobulin]

Dear Folks,

 

I love cats, and have owned a few in my time.

 

Here in Asia, there are cats, aplenty.  I guess you may have been rather impressed by the sheer number of cats roaming around at night, compared to what you were probably used to, back home.

 

We know the advantages of keeping cats in one’s house, but did you know that there are concomitant risks, as well, with either keeping cats or associating with cats?

 

And, did you know that there can be problems associated with keeping cats near your bed?

 

I am not speaking of typical diseases that everyone knows about, such as rabies.

 

I am talking about a relatively little known disease that can lead to craziness!

 

Yes, it is possible for cats to drive a man crazy.

 

And even a few famous people have been driven crazy by cats, too.

 

Here is an abstract that explains this, quite succinctly:

 

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-86811-6_4

 

In years gone by,  even Jonathan Swift wrote about this thing called: “The English Malady”.

 

And, please do not think that this same malady cannot happen to you.

 

You can read about it in this book, in fact:

 

 

And, you can read about it for free at this link:  

 

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-86811-6_4

 

Here in Thailand, I try to stay clear of cats, as you know.

 

I am OK with watching them roam around at night, but I become more wary when they approach me.

 

Here is why:

 

I do not know why Jonathan Swift wrote about this thing with cats called, “the English malady”, but he did.

 

Personally, I am not worried about this or rabies, either.  I keep up-to-date with my rabies booster, at regular intervals.

 

Cats are lots of fun, but there are risks to cat ownership.

 

Just my two-cents about cats……

 

Best regards, 

 

Gamma

 

 

Note: I have lived most of my life with cats, and I have not suffered many ill-effects, to speak of.

 

Note2:  Of course, nobody likes when they howl and yowl at night, but that cannot be helped.

 

My advice, these days, is to just keep your distance; and...just live and let live.

 

I am fully up-to-date with my rabies vaccinations which I received at a very reasonable cost from the local hospital.  But of course, rabies vax will not protect you from the madness written about in the literature of old.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FriscoKid]

First to confirm that I did not read any of this post. 

[pgrahmm]

[KhunLA]

Cats .... HELL NO 🥵

[petermik]

46 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Cats .... HELL NO 🥵

For some it`s the only way they can get near to a pussy........

[still kicking]

17 hours ago, FriscoKid said:

First to confirm that I did not read any of this post. 

Second that

[NativeBob]

24 minutes ago, still kicking said:

Second that

third that

love cats. always keep them

 

[transam]

I have 2, one is the rat killer, the other spends most of its time in the house stalking for weee lizards.

So, we are usually rat and lizard free...😋

[still kicking]

2 minutes ago, NativeBob said:

third that

love cats. always keep them

 

I am not much of a cat person I am more into small dogs (silky terriers Bichon Freeze), but I don't mind cats.

[Lacessit]

Dogs have masters, cats have staff.

 

Toxoplasmosis is at its most dangerous for pregnant women.

[Freddy42OZ]

19 hours ago, pgrahmm said:

 

 

Agust?  

I wish we could trace the morons that create these images and remove them from the gene pool.   

If someone is too stupid to spell August properly, after going to the effort of creating a graphic promoting a pointless "day" then why do we want them in our societies?

[GammaGlobulin]

13 minutes ago, Freddy42OZ said:

 

 

Agust?  

I wish we could trace the morons that create these images and remove them from the gene pool.   

If someone is too stupid to spell August properly, after going to the effort of creating a graphic promoting a pointless "day" then why do we want them in our societies?

 

Yes.

Very annoying.

 

[Dexxter]

My first wife was into cats and she obtained many smelly cats after we separated. She was definitely on the mad side of the bell curve.

[Thingamabob]

Have had cats, and dogs and horses, all of my life. Love cats to bits. Currently 2 at the townhouse in Bangkok and 8 at our place in Rayong. Some sleep with us, eat near to us, and generally share our space. At 83 I've yet to get sick as a result of their presence.

[NativeBob]

de-worm and vaccinate your beloved one. How difficult is it? 

Also - there are indoor cats and outdoor cats.

[No Forwarding Address]

17 hours ago, transam said:

I have 2, one is the rat killer, the other spends most of its time in the house stalking for weee lizards.

So, we are usually rat and lizard free...😋

Cats don;t at mosquitos and biting rice fly’s, lizards do………..I would like to know if there is a way to attract more lizards to keep the mosquito population down………Cheers

[renaissanc]

My wife and I look after 25 rescued cats and have done so for 5 years. They are very quiet at night and are happy to have a safe place to sleep on soft beds. A cat sleeps next to my wife and me every night, maybe even 2 cats. We've never got ill from having the cats. 4 sleep in the main part of the house, 19 in the Cats Room, and 2 in very large cages outside because they prefer to stay there.

[sandyf]

7 minutes ago, renaissanc said:

My wife and I look after 25 rescued cats and have done so for 5 years. They are very quiet at night and are happy to have a safe place to sleep on soft beds. A cat sleeps next to my wife and me every night, maybe even 2 cats. We've never got ill from having the cats. 4 sleep in the main part of the house, 19 in the Cats Room, and 2 in very large cages outside because they prefer to stay there.

We have around 60, only one in the house and I think my wife's sister has 2 in her house, the rest are in large cages outside.

I built this in 2016 when the numbers started to rise.

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

2 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

Have had cats, and dogs and horses, all of my life. Love cats to bits. Currently 2 at the townhouse in Bangkok and 8 at our place in Rayong. Some sleep with us, eat near to us, and generally share our space. At 83 I've yet to get sick as a result of their presence.

 

Yes, but sometimes it is difficult for us to know if they (the cats) have been driving us mad.

This is what worried people of the 17th century when INTELLECTUALS began keeping cats as pets.

Perhaps the intellectuals were just mad to begin with, and it was the cats that got a bad rap.

 

 

[GammaGlobulin]

23 minutes ago, sandyf said:

We have around 60, only one in the house and I think my wife's sister has 2 in her house, the rest are in large cages outside.

I built this in 2016 when the numbers started to rise.

 

 

 

This is almost incredible.

You have taken the caring for cats to a whole new level.

Those cages could not have been cheap.

 

note:  talk about the rise of cats....You seem to know more than most about the Topic.

 

Edited August 10 by GammaGlobulin

[Jerzy Swirski]

44 minutes ago, sandyf said:

We have around 60

Damn, I thought I was going to win easily with 16 cats but you make me look like an amateur.

 

I also built a cathouse and fenced off part of the garden so they have plenty of room to wander freely.

 

 

[NativeBob]

Thai couple rented townhouse for beauty salon. it was abandoned for almost a year and became a shelter for cats. nice house and not that old, just owner was some lousy khun thai. or maybe they asked too much for rent. 

So the new inhabitants opened doors, cleaned some old furniture and suddenly discovered cats living there. 

guess what did they do?

 

I won't believe that but the person who told that story to me is the most trustworthy lady in our mooban and I had no chance to accuse her of lying.

[sandyf]

6 minutes ago, Jerzy Swirski said:

Damn, I thought I was going to win easily with 16 cats but you make me look like an amateur.

 

I also built a cathouse and fenced off part of the garden so they have plenty of room to wander freely.

 

 

We have a lot of land but they don't go far, bit of hunting among the shrubs for lizards.

They all return to the cages at feeding time.

[Katatonica]

Damn, yes, same here, have 10 currently although we lost a few of the younger ones, unsure as to where, possibly snakes or monitor lizards although the wife did have to retrieve one from a Russian lady on a motorbike who thought she was cute once… Very time consuming, constant trips to the vet, pet-shop and about 20 litter trays to keep clean. One lives outside, best friends with our dog. The rest used to wander the garden and jungle but losing them wasn’t nice. Wife may be mad, hard to tell..could just be me.

Edited August 10 by Katatonica
Addition

[NotEinstein]

A pregnant cat chose our garden to give birth in. I was brought up with dogs but my wife has been anti-pets. The mother had obviously be dumped as she in good with people. Now the 3 remaining kittens are 7 weeks old and it looks as though she is pregnant again......

 

Anybody want some cats?

[brianthainess]

4 hours ago, Dexxter said:

My first wife was into cats and she obtained many smelly cats after we separated. She was definitely on the mad side of the bell curve.

     The Mad cat Lady.

[brianthainess]

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

We have around 60, only one in the house and I think my wife's sister has 2 in her house, the rest are in large cages outside.

I built this in 2016 when the numbers started to rise.

 

 

How very sad to keep cats caged or any animal come to that.

[Snackbar]

The local Chinese take-aways reduced their numbers in the old days.

[daveAustin]

On 8/8/2024 at 7:27 PM, GammaGlobulin said:

I am talking about a relatively little known disease that can lead to craziness!

 

Yes, it is possible for cats to drive a man crazy.

Is that what happened to you bruv?

[save the frogs]

On 8/8/2024 at 2:27 PM, GammaGlobulin said:

Yes, it is possible for cats to drive a man crazy.

 

People starting crazy threads about cats can also drive a man crazy.