Thursday, December 13, 2007

Two Cats Mad or just Two Cats Ill?

For months now I've been banging on about a disease which makes you more amenable to cats, and people have been looking at me strangely. Now at last, some proof it really exists.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_10_catcoat.html?ref=magazine


It's a parasite rather than a disease, and its called Toxoplasma gondii, and it makes you more likely to be eaten by cats. The last line of the article does make it sound like a send-up, but I think he measn, like big ones. Lions and Tigers and other Kenya-based animals (although not giraffes or zebras).


From an (actually much more interesting) article in the NY Times:The Year in Ideas

6 comments:

Calum Fisher said...

Toxoplaswhatsit?

Gav: So there's Tommy stuck with this kitten. You can imagine what happened. The thing was neglected, pissing and shitting all over the place. Tommy was lying around fucked out of his eyeballs on smack or downers. He didn't know you could get toxoplasmosis from cat shit.

Renton: I didn't either. What the fuck is it?

Gav: He starts getting headaches, so he just uses more smack, for the pain, like. There he has a stroke. A fucking stroke. Just like that. God home from hospital and died about three weeks later. Been dead for ages before the neighbours complained about the smell and the police broke the door down. Tommy was lying face down in a pool of vomit. The kitten was fine.

Andrew C said...

I remember that...
I'm getting me some aftershave made of this

Thanks for the links - I liked this, too
The Edible Martini Yum

Debbie McKee said...

Pregnant women are warned not to change or come in contact with cat litter for this reason.

Paul M said...

This may have been the original discussion.
This is the link from that post.

charl * said...

Sheesh........ now I'm stuck here for a while. Thanks. :>)
//From an (actually much more interesting) article in the NY Times:The Year in Ideas//

john smith said...

Toxoplasmosis is not really that common in cats, if you have them properly cared for and take them to the vet once in a while. It's one of those things that gets a lot of airtime but is not terribly prevalent.