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Ten scientific benefits of owning a cat

News you can use: Ten scientific reasons owning a cat will improve your life.

I especially like #4.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

10 comments

  • PeterF

    Obviously biased study. Everybody knows you don’t “own” a cat! You “own” a dog, you “feed” a cat.

  • Dogs have masters, cats have staff.

  • wayne

    Yeah– “Cats have staff.”
    My front door mat says– “The Cat & it’s housekeeping staff, reside here.”
    (I like dogs, just happen to have a Cat.)

  • wayne

    Interesting historical factoid–
    -Newton is often credited with “inventing” the “cat-door” or “cat-flap.” –I can’t vouch for it’s authenticity, but it’s a good tale.
    -Many old Churches in Europe have an inconspicuous “cat-door,” often located at the base of their main front-door, for easy ingress/egress of the resident Cat.

    I can’t resist….
    Retirement of “Eric the Red”
    >Rodent Control Officer, CSS Acadia.
    (He spent 16 years keeping the ship rodent-free.)
    https://youtu.be/GD0oJMq_1RM

  • wodun

    1. OWNING A CAT IS BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.

    If you’re worried about your carbon footprint, it’s better to own a cat than a dog. A 2009 study found that the resources needed to feed a dog over the course of its life create the same eco-footprint as that of a Land Cruiser. Meanwhile, cats—which eat less in general and are more likely to eat fish than corn- or beef-flavored products—only have the approximate carbon footprint of a small hatchback.

    Unless you let them roam outside then they genocide the bird population.

  • BSJ

    One negative is Toxoplasmosis

  • jburn

    “Unless you let them roam outside then they genocide the bird population”
    Not in my neighborhood; they quickly discover they aren’t at the top of the food chain.

    Wiley Coyote does appreciate the easy meal to be had from these fat, sluggish, pampered, spoiled and socialized creatures. There’s probably a metaphor in there somewhere……..

  • Maurice

    I just like them around. They are fierce and playful when young, then turn into cheap heaters for my yorkie, and generally remind me what happens when you lose your fur and develop opposable thumbs – you get to go to work and they get to sleep the day away :-)

  • LocalFluff

    AFAIK, cats were created by the ancient Egyptians to protect their Nile harvests from vermin such as rats and birds. I suppose cat psychology still expresses the attitude of being employed as guardian of wealth by the Sun God on Earth.

  • TimArth

    Another interesting historical factoid-

    Centuries ago, in Europe, cats were, for a variety of reasons including the powerful catholic church declaring them evil, routinely exterminated. Of course, when the cat population dwindled, the rats flourished. When the rats flourished, the plague flourished. After a while, people started to notice that families who chose to keep cats weren’t getting infected by the plague at the same rate as other families and the cats made their comeback.

    https://owlcation.com/humanities/Cats-and-the-Black-Plague

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