Poem: "Interspecies Relationships"
Feb. 17th, 2018 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis is the freebie for the February ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from scrubjayspeaks. It also fills the "yummy" square in my 1-31-18 You Are card for the Valentines Bingo fest.
"Interspecies Relationships"
When the world was younger,
humans wandered the land
looking for companionship.
Sometimes they found it in
each other, sometimes in others.
A few wolves crept out of the woods
and, daring to make themselves
vulnerable, became dogs.
Man and dog hunted
together, and it was yummy.
Women, chasing the rats
away from the food supply,
smiled at the wild cats.
The cats were more interested
in the rats than in companionship,
but they stuck around for the food.
Dog is man's best friend, bound
to us by a deep tie of trust, and they
would no longer thrive without us.
Cats, though? They like
to keep their options open.
* * *
Notes:
Domestication is a process in which humans change animals. But it doesn't always work the same way.
Dogs were domesticated first as hunting companions. This gives them a strong sense of attachment to humans.
Cats, on the other hand, largely domesticated themselves. This makes them an outlier among domestic animals, very little different from their wild relatives.
crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from scrubjayspeaks. It also fills the "yummy" square in my 1-31-18 You Are card for the Valentines Bingo fest. "Interspecies Relationships"
When the world was younger,
humans wandered the land
looking for companionship.
Sometimes they found it in
each other, sometimes in others.
A few wolves crept out of the woods
and, daring to make themselves
vulnerable, became dogs.
Man and dog hunted
together, and it was yummy.
Women, chasing the rats
away from the food supply,
smiled at the wild cats.
The cats were more interested
in the rats than in companionship,
but they stuck around for the food.
Dog is man's best friend, bound
to us by a deep tie of trust, and they
would no longer thrive without us.
Cats, though? They like
to keep their options open.
* * *
Notes:
Domestication is a process in which humans change animals. But it doesn't always work the same way.
Dogs were domesticated first as hunting companions. This gives them a strong sense of attachment to humans.
Cats, on the other hand, largely domesticated themselves. This makes them an outlier among domestic animals, very little different from their wild relatives.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-17 09:01 pm (UTC)Agreed
Date: 2018-02-17 09:18 pm (UTC)Re: Agreed
Date: 2018-02-18 02:29 am (UTC)The "founder" of the line invented the lever on his own. Really.
Later the cats planned and executed an ambush to decimate a flock of birds that was giving them problems.
She notes that they seem to be at least as smart as a child, but lack symbolic elements in their language.
They also have thumbs...
"I for one, welcome our new feline overlords..."
Re: Agreed
Date: 2018-02-18 03:22 am (UTC)I had not heard that, only read her early notes on breeding for intelligence.
>> The "founder" of the line invented the lever on his own. Really. <<
Mrrrrp the Magnificent. :D Truly a super-intellect, and using it for the purpose nature intended: reproduction.
Yes ...
Date: 2018-02-17 09:33 pm (UTC)In Egypt, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this.
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2018-02-17 10:33 pm (UTC)Re: Yes ...
Date: 2018-02-17 10:40 pm (UTC)Re: Yes ...
Date: 2018-02-18 10:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-17 10:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-18 12:45 pm (UTC)It is worth noting however, that without cats, one cannot successfully store grain, and without agriculture and grain stores, wide-scale civilisation is not possible. Ergo, domestication of cats must have been a pre-cursor to settled civilisation.
It's an excellent poem, and encapsulates what happened nicely.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-18 06:31 pm (UTC)The more popular theory is that cats noticed that there were a lot of rats around grain bins, and moved in to take advantage of it. Which is to say, agriculture was the precursor (perhaps only by a few days) to cat "domestication".
(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-18 08:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-18 08:17 pm (UTC)Anyway, we had agriculture before we had settled civilisation. Nomad hunter/gathers transitioned by clearing and planting small plots at regular camp sites, and initially dug pit stores, which later became Cairn storage bins. Large circular dry stone structures that would store an entire winters supply... and that's probably when cats came on the scene.
Yes ...
Date: 2018-02-19 09:48 am (UTC)Re: Yes ...
Date: 2018-02-20 02:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-20 02:13 am (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2018-02-20 02:41 am (UTC)