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Comment by cromka | Hacker News Reader

Looks like a house cat, I am betting it's a matter of months before someone starts selling the crossbreds, like they do with Bengal.

Also, they're only 3-4 lbs!

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Let's see if it (or crossbreeds) can be tamed.

This particular one was actually being kept in a house because someone confused it for a "pretty housecat". After a while, the owner realized it didn't want to be tamed and contacted someone for help.

Also, it's the only known one in existence. Hard to start a breeding program unless they find more.

> Let's see if it (or crossbreeds) can be tamed.

Clearly you are not a cat person ... the question is not if it can be tamed, but how quickly it can tame the humans around it ... ;-)

I mean, taming animals is trivial. Look at the lion whisperer. People before that thought that lions are always wild.

Some animals are just harder to tame and remain ferocious more than others. But behaviour of animals is adaptable and most animals learn.

I mean, taming animals is trivial.

FTFA: "The man took the animal home, believing it to be a domestic breed. But after about a year of living with the clearly wild animal, he realized it would be better off at a sanctuary."

There's a YouTube (and other) channel out there about a guy and his (I use the possessive with caveats) coyote (named Weave). His motto is "Anything can be a pet if you don’t mind getting bit."

I think the lady that got mauled to death in 2018 at the lion preserve that guy works at might disagree with you if she hadn’t been y’know, mauled to death by a lion.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/28/africa/woman-killed-lion-...

People also get mauled by dogs yet we don't consider that to mean that they can't be domesticated. A domesticated animal is still an animal and if its big enough to kill you can coommon enough then some people will be killed by it.

The only reason my house cat has not murdered me is because he is 4kg, and I'm not. He loves me though.

My cat always looked at me like "if only you were smaller..."

I'd be getting scared when a cat reaches the 20kg threshold. I'm about 90kg, so thats a 4.5x ratio :)

Cats are the perfect killing machines (apart from maybe sharks) :)

There's a bobcat that lives around here. He's on my porch now and then, and I also see its tracks in the snow.

It doesn't look like it wants to be petted. I stay clear.

Many people don't know that Craigslist has a "best of" which includes this (relevant) post that makes me laugh every time I read it:

https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/ric/6881185958.html

Yep, a bobcat. But much smaller than the one around here.

omg WHAT

Where do you find this?!!??! This is GOLD!

On the Craigslist homepage (on desktop) there is a gray navbar on the left side of the screen. That area has a calendar and some group of links below it. The second group of links below the calendar includes "best-of-craigslist" link.

https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all

I like that the Craigslist site design is utilitarian and hasn't changed much over the years. The downside is that stuff like this can hide in plain sight.

Brillian! Thank you! I love Craigslist and am so glad that it's still around and hasn't been "modernized"

>"I'd be getting scared when a cat reaches the 20kg threshold" - most likely even 10kg cat will shred you before you could blink. They're insanely fast and surprisingly strong for size. Furry explosives they are

An angry cat in full fight mode will absolutely put a human in hospital, and the bites and scratches are teeming with potentially deadly bacteria.

They may be unique - a super-successful predator that has persuaded a more dominant species to look after it by looking cute and feeling soft and making relaxing noises.

my cat at its peak weight is about 8kg, and that's the size that i'd get a bit nervous around if i didn't know it's a tame housecat that runs away at sight of a mouse...

See also "why you should never put a chimp and a little person in the same room" by Penn Gillette

Cats are not really domesticated. I've heard various terms but semi-domesticated probably serves. They're very adaptable but not pack animals. You're sort of safe with house cats because they're small. You get less safe as the body weight goes up the scale.

It’s funny to hear they are not pack animals. I’m sure that is technically the case, especially in the wild, but my house cats definitely cling to me and follow me around like I am their leader. They groom/fight to try to establish a hierarchy below me, and when my partner comes home from work immediately switch allegiance to her, who they clearly see as the dominant mammal in the house.

They don’t go outside (they can’t really, it’s too busy by the road here and they’d decimate the wildlife, but I live with it because ultimately we’re doing them a huge favor by giving them a home, post-rescue) so I am sure that has something to do with it. Perhaps infantilism is keeping them in this pack headspace? But even then my mother’s cat — rural, murderous, tough tabby tom — treats her like a god and the rest of us as an annoyance.

As I wrote, they're adaptable. But there's a difference between true pack animals with an established hierarchy and being solitary but being open to other cats and species. Certainly, some cats are more pack-like (lions) and others are, or are more open to, being largely solitary.

I have 2 cats that are sisters. They have a very interesting dynamic. There isn't a fixed dominant sibling, they switch back and forth.

They antagonise each-other most of the time, but they also support each other in times of stress. If one goes to the vet and the other doesn't, the initial reaction is hissing and being a dick. Then, after a few minutes, it's licking and comforting.

I don't like to anthropomorphise too much, but they definitely look out for each-other. Equally, they definitely annoy each-other.

Domestic cats, are pack animals under some conditions.

Those and lions are the only cats known that don't mind to tolerate friends and non relatives around in their territories, cats clearly enjoy the company, form hierarchies and share food. Hyaenas and mongooses are related with cats and definitely social also. Lingsangs on the other way, are solitary.

I have never felt safer around any other animal than a 11 kg Maine Coon that I happened to share a couple of years of my life with

My main coon is over 10kg and is basically harmless

My newest cat started as a stray. Cautious around humans, but not feral. He was hanging around a lot, so of course I started giving him food because I’m a sucker that way. He disappeared for a couple months, then showed up injured from a fight one day, so we took him to the hospital and ended up keeping him in the garage for a few days to recover. We also did the usual due diligence to locate an owner.

The rest, of course, is history. Now he’s a big 20lb goober of a cat who is positively enamored with my wife. The feeling is mutual.

There was a farm nearby where a mother cat died and all but two kittens died from hunger afterwards. We adopted one, my wife fed the kitten (which was way underage for adopting) with bottle.

Now she has been with us for years. She’s very loyal to me, dismissive to aggressive to anyone else. Not sure why me and not my wife, but hey :)

She basically sleeps next to me all the time, both when I work from home or at night. She’s 14 now, no medical issues.

A tamed lion ripped the face off of Melanie Griffith.

I still need to watch that movie, I feel obligated to see it after so many people suffered so many injuries while filming it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roar_(film)#Injuries_and_set_d...

I've watched a lot of horror shows that had no effect on me. But this one wasn't a horror show, it was for real. I found it very disturbing. I couldn't believe what I was watching.

And you'd think Tippi Hedren would have learned not to go around wild, untamed animals after what her character wrnt through in The Birds!

I missed that connection!

> always wild

If they do not have a developed prefrontal cortex acting as a filter from instinct to action, they will be nice or calm for a long time - until the whim occurs and they will act violently. Maybe just for a fraction of a second. And at that point, their strength and natural weapon will make a whole difference.

I remember seeing a wildcat in a sanctuary in Costa Rica with a similar story (the kittens looked like housecat kittens, so someone adopted them, but the adult cat's behavior was different enough to be really challenging). I've been trying to remember the exact species I saw there (maybe an oncilla?), but apparently there are several kinds of wildcat fairly easily mistaken for housecats as kittens.

I think not all of them categorically refuse to be pets, but they're noticeably more aggressive and less affectionate compared to housecats.

What do you mean it's the only one known? It got the name because locals called it that way. Locals will not call things they don't normally see.

Yeah it’s not the only one known.

Unfortunately while people are going wild as if someone found a never-before-seen cat, this is actually more “after genetic analysis we now know that the tiger cats that everyone already knew about in Bolivia are actually a different species to the ones in Brazil”.

But that’s not very exciting so people and news outlets seem to be running with the story as if nobody had ever seen one before.

Locals are not trained zoologists, I suppose.

There are almost identical animals from different species in the area. The scientific term is an species complex.

> This particular one was actually being kept in a house because someone confused it for a "pretty housecat". After a while, the owner realized it didn't want to be tamed and contacted someone for help.

I mean, the dude tried to feed it "noodles, rice, and eggs" so I'm not sure if he'd be able to tame my very own house cat, even starting from the house cat's current stage of being entirely tamed.

The "owner" clearly hasn't interacted with real cats.

If you don't raise them with humans since they are born, they can't be tamed.

That's not always the case. Some feral cats from colonies that are TNRed are found to be very receptive to humans and instead of returned sometimes offered for adoption instead of returned (the R in TNR)

However these come from a centuries-long bloodline of house cats of course. A species that's never been domesticated is very different.

All the wildcats (which basically include domestic cats) are very closely related based on my understanding. Even the whole box thing is related to a lot of wildcats having a liking for caves.

even as a kid we all liked little forts and boxes etc, which is itself interesting. snow caves were awesome; makes me wonder if it's a primeval instinct somehow.

All of a cat's senses and weapons face forward. It makes purfect sense to have its back protected from an attack from behind.

I don't think they'll hybridise - Leopardus has 36 Chromosomes, while all other cats have 38.

Oh wow, that is certainly something I missed in this story

3 lb housecat can shred your face so fast that your arms would be late arriving.

do not underestimate cats.

Many years ago I met someone who had trained his two housecats to guard the house (I am not sure what that entails). He also had two great big dogs similarly trained. For my safety he would not let any of the animals near me when I visited, but he said the cats scared him more than the dogs did.

One might argue that a guard dog may be inherently easier to bribe with a treat, or cower with bluster. A trained attack cat is a far scarier proposition, given the speed, sharpness, and number of 'utility knives' they have at the ready. Also, the dog is likely to bluster and warn you. The cat, not so much. Just go for your face.

In my youth I witnessed a smallish adult puma (mountain lion) successfully harvest a nearly adult cow elk while I was hiding. I was also hunting, but focused on a bull elk somewhat further from me. It was astonishing the speed and total quantity of violence that an 80-100lb cat delivered in only a few seconds on nearly 500lbs of prey. The cat had an alomost perfect attack angle, and the combination of slash, grip, puncture, and throttle toppled the cow elk, and it ran out of resistance in very short order. I had not even seen the puma before the attack started, and I expect a trained attack housecat would practically appear out of nowhere - from behind a couch or a curtain or off the top of a refrigerator, and it would become an 'I need stitches' situation too easily.

Its probably a good thing that most housecats are pretty much impossible to train beyond 'use a litterbox' and 'stay off the kitchen counters', if even that.

> Its probably a good thing that most housecats are pretty much impossible to train beyond 'use a litterbox' and 'stay off the kitchen counters', if even that.

My cat is very well trained to have his harness put on, since he knows it means going outside. He'll jump on the stool and give me a "hurry up already" look and a meow if I don't move fast enough.

The first time I put it on was not so... inviting, though it was a great impression of a Tasmanian devil.

train is the wrong approach. you earn respect with them, and then they defend you.

lol moment was when we with a girlfriend playfully fell down on sofa, but the then master-of-house siberian 6kg cat considered that a threat to me.

he jumped ~3m claws open, smashed a desk top lamp, shredded the gfs' top and basically opened up her back before I could stop him.

> ~3m claws open

!!!

Those claws would weigh more than 6kg!

As a trail runner in mountain lion country, you’re scaring me . I’ve never seen one in person and I do hope to see one, one day. But not like you’ve described!

Yeah, do be careful though. This happened maybe 15 miles from where I live, back in 2018:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/two-attacked-by-co...

Getting old now, so walking in the woods alone is something I don't do anymore, even though things are a lot more developed nearby.

And this is why you should always carry while hiking. That being said, the primary reason is two-legged predators.

My cousin, D. used to work in a National Park and had an international intern worker C. who decided to walk to work every morning through the park. D. had warned her to be cautious of mountain lions in that area. One morning D. was driving to work and saw her walking and not very far behind her a mountain lion making a 'stalk' approach and D. was able to get her attention and direct her attention to the mountain lion. C. hurried to D's car to ride the rest of the way to work and decided to accept the standing offer or a ride to work.

If you choose to trail run in mountain lion country, a bell may scare off bears, but may have the opposite effect for mountain lions. Stay aware, don't wear headphones or zone out on the trail.

I have seen three separate stalk and harvest events, the cow elk was my first and closest. My second was a wild burro colt. The the third was an old javelina (collared peccary). The second was by far the scariest, as the puma actually bit over the mouth and nose of the colt and suffocated it.

Fear is the correct emotion with regards to these wild animals. If you want to see one, the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum (really a zoo, in spite of the name) is the best and safest way I know about. I would never willingly try to find one in the wild unless i had a hunting permit for one, and I'm not inclined to do that.

Peoria has a wonderful habitat zoo, including a bobcat exhibit you can walk over on a fenced bridge. Good luck seeing the cats, though.

Cats all succumb to Churu lickables. They go nuts over the stuff!

Using a litter box is not training but instinct. It just works because it's the perfect cat toilet.

Some breeds like Bengals can actually be trained a bit to do things like fetch and roll over. But the common house cat not so much no.

I believe that tri-colour house cats are all female. This is a tri-colour male.

Spots are different.

The trim-color house cats refers to all calicos... calicos are white spotted tortoiseshell cats. The "is orange or black" is a X linked gene, so you can have XoXb... and then the x chromosome inactivation kicks in and some groups of cells are activated orange and some are activated black.

But (not white) spots and variations of color get into things like the Agouti gene ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agouti_coloration_genetics ). A tabby cat (black and tan, or orange and darker orange) has no sex linked characteristics.

For a deep dive into the genetics of Agouti and how that influences cat fur colors, http://messybeast.com/genetics-agouti-and-corin.htm

I very much appreciate the correction, thank you.

Female orange tabby cats are less common than males though, for much the same reason. They have to get the orange genes from both parents otherwise they are just calico.

The same is true of black cats, the other way around. There are fewer orange (or black) female cats because female cats have another option of coloring - tortoise shell (no spots) or calico (with spots). Another way of phrasing it, half of the male cats are orange, the other half are black - female cats have a third option.

Side bit - the wiki page for X chromosome inactivation shows a picture of a tortoise shell cat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-inactivation

http://messybeast.com/tricolours.htm

And white spots gets into interesting questions of embryonic cell differentiation http://messybeast.com/bicolours.htm

The "why are there large splotches of color with a calico cat compared to the much more mottled color pattern of a tortoise shell cat?"

http://messybeast.com/genetics-index.htm has a deep rabbit hole to go down (and that's for domestic cats... http://messybeast.com/wildcats-index.htm for the other cats).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klinefelter_syndrome

you can have a calico that's not plain female but it's through random rare dna quirks. anyway, that link above i'm sharing because it's interesting.

Similar looking to the KodKod

I have Bengal cat. Absolute love

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