One-year-old boy found living on the streets, apparently being kept alive by cats

This isn't a human interest story, it is a tragedy.

Whether or not the cats were looking after the boy --- and I seriously doubt they were --- there is no way that this child would have survived without adult human intervention.

Reunited with his "loving and responsible" Dad, this poor kid will be dead within the next 18 months.

[quoteWhether or not the cats were looking after the boy --- and I seriously doubt they were ---][/quote]

What do you think those cats were doing with this child, then?

(And of course human intervention was necessary for the child to survive.)

It's a tragedy alright...

How does someone "lose" a one year old? I hope that the police charge the man with child neglect, and take the child away from him. He is a poor excuse for a parent. I wonder where the mother was.

If someone can intervene on this boy's behalf and see to it that he's cared for and nurtured.....what a wonderful life he'll have..... with that sort of control over pussy....

( I am so sorry....but it needed saying......)

Tenderizing him.

It's remarkably easy.

There may be too many endangered children for the government to effectively take charge of them the way you advocate, phoenix. I do agree with your post, however.

You're a very cynical person, joefromchicago!

I like to think the cats were taking care of the lost child. Sounds like they took better care than the child's father, actually....

Why do cats survive in groups in Argentina, while in the U.S. they tend to live separate lives?

internet cafes...

This is not only awfully judgmental, it is very poor public policy. It is a very bad thing when the government takes kids away from their parents.

How about some services? If the father is homeless and collecting cardboard to sell, you might think that the family might be in need.

I hope that this man gets some services, perhaps some housing and some support raising the kids.

Why, when it comes to the very poor, does everything have to be about punishment rather than support.

Actually, they form groups in many places.

There has been an ethological study done of English barn cats (the females tend to live in supportive groups, help each other with kitten raising etc) while the males wander from barn to barn looking to mate.

Ditto with the Coliseum cats in Rome.

Here in Adelaide, we had the Rock cats...a group of cats which lived in a colony in the crevices in the rocks which had been piled up as a sea wall between the beach and residences.

Pictured: Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper
Not Pictured: Snorky

Typical!

Bloody males!

Interesting info.; however, I like regular sized dogs (not the lap dog size), since they have a grand history of working alongside man for ages. Cats may have helped prevent plagues, by eating mice/rats, but they never really developed the same relationship with man. Here in the U.S., folks my age remember two great black and white tv serials, Lassie and Rin Tin Tin. Lassie was a female Collie that always protected her owner Timmie. And Rin Tin Tin was a German Shepherd that not only protected the orphan Rusty (living in the Old West on a Cavalry Fort), but always got the bad guy by the end of the episode. So, I do believe dogs are smarter than cats, and able to have a more meaningful social relationship with humans. Apologies to all the cat lovers.

There was and maybe still is a couple of millenia old cat colony in Rome at piazza Vittorio Emannuele, their days described by Eleanor Clark in Rome and A Villa, and from the described organization of that, I can see this happening.

I don't really care if this can be linked to hot water bottle temp.. though maybe it is.

Dunno.

Animals can often recognize babies of another species...cats certainly can, and will often allow stuff from little kids that would get an adult scratched to pieces.

Siamese will try to defend the house against burglars sometimes (one of mine did not realise it was me coming home late one night, and was advancing on me like a banshee, looking supernaturally evil and making positively bloodcurdling noises....she was terribly embarrassed when she realised; stories of bailed up plumbers and suchlike abound).

I had a client whose very beloved cat appeared to bond with her baby in utero (a couple of colleagues are pregnant as we speak, and their cats are desperate to sit on their bellies with their ears to the baby, listening to the heartbeat, as far as we can tell)...this cat did that, and, when the baby was born, seeming to recognize that the mother could be abusive, set herself to protect the baby.

The mother told me that whenever she got unreasonably angry with her son, the cat got in between them and threatenrd the mother....had actually gone for her.

We used the cat's reactions as a good barometer to help the mother learn to back off and take some time out for herself when the cat stirred.

I think these cats, who would be used to caring for all kittens as a group, might well have recognized a "young", and incorporated it into their group.

The full article has more information about what they were doing.

That they were grooming the child really suggests it was seen as part of the group.

I'm not disagreeing - and the temp tells them the child is alive.



This is a little weird for me, in that the one (and only) story I remember my mother telling when I was small was about cat kittens in a forest. I suspect she made it up on the spot, but don't know. Involved a lioness, I think, but I draw a blank on the details.