There was an old lady who swallowed a cat.
Imagine that, she swallowed a cat.
It is at this point in the rhyme that we realise that this is not a true story: A small bird maybe, but a cat… that is a bit hard to swallow.
This animal worshiped by the ancients was part of one of the most famous thought experiments . The idea of cats hovering between life and death waiting for you to open the box before going either way is probably just as unlikely as the old lady in the rhyme, but there is something about cats that is definitely mysterious… Here is a photo of Henry’s pet by way of example.
Cats have also given their name to the three-dimensional x-ray image, which led me to wondering whether cats ever had CAT scans. There are a few cases where cats have been used as model organisms for diseases where CAT scans are used as part of the diagnosis, but actually it turns out that if your pet insurance covers it, that these scans are also used for diagnostic purposes in veterinary medicine as described in this recent article in the Telegraph:
Give your pet cover a CAT scan
In writing this post, I found out that recently, a cat named Cinnamon had its DNA encoded as part of the Cat Genome Project.
I especially liked the acronym: GARField (Genome Annotation Resource Fields)!
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird …
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
I don’t know why she swallowed that fly—
Perhaps she’ll die.
Thank you to Hannah and Henry for providing the photos for this blog post.
Do I have to swallow the whiskers?
My throat tickles just thinking about it! And that story with Hermione…
Perhaps it would be fun to think of a “protocol” for how to swallow a cat… though there might be a few people who would not find that in the slightest bit funny.
Does the cat have to be swallowed whole?
Enquiring (or should that be ‘sick’?) minds want to know.
Yes.
Swallowing a bite at a time is trivial.
I can’t believe I am having this conversation.
Are there countries in the world where people eat cats? Or are they still sacred?
This may be an urban legend, but it is common belief in Italy that people from Vicenza, in the North East of the country, near Venice, eat cats (or may be used to). Not sure about the whiskers though.
For me, the cat is an unclean animal. I can’t have them in the house, cooked or uncooked.
I had an ex who tried to convince me the Dutch eat cats. When I requested menu evidence he back tracked… Later he relented and said it was just during the second world war, but that his gran had done it. Not sure of the truth in that though!