Crouching Kitten Hidden Tomcat

[Warlockco]

Originally Posted by CrownedSun

But what if we gave the cat Imbuement skills? ;)

OUCH!!
Make the pain stop.

[Witchking]

Anyone care to try stating out the GURPS 4/e effects of catnip?

[Dangerious P. Cats]

Is Mind Control (humans only) part of the style?

[Anders]

No, but see Intimidation and Panhandling.

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

IIRC it was Gus D'Amato who told Ali (when the latter was still Cassius Clay) "You want to know how to throw a hook? Watch a cat. Fast, on target, perfect drop."

[Gorkamorka]

What about the hard to kill aspect of cats?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Gorkamorka

What about the hard to kill aspect of cats?

Or how nearly all have high pain threshold when compared to average humans which I think accounts for the reduced lethality of shock from injuries in kitties.

[Flyndaran]

I wonder what my previous polydactyl kitty, Cerb, would require. His main claws were somewhat blunt but could hit like a club, whereas his extra toes had more fragile but razor sharp ones. Multi-purpose for the VERY rare times when he was cornered and had to fight rather than run like the adorable chicken he was.

[RyanW]

My brother's cat:

Has Chummy, Overweight, and Compulsive Behavior (Pestering dogs), and sank all the resulting points into Acting (Opt Spec: Innocence).

She certainly doesn't have normal cat skills. She'll claim to have killed already dead rodents, she stalks inanimate objects unsuccessfully, and she once fell off of the floor.

[lwcamp]

This is perhaps going off topic for this thread, but in the course of my life I have kept many exotic pets, and have occasionally had the "privilege" of watching conflicts between these animals and cats.

Cats vs. Ferrets: First of all, the Marshal Farms ferrets, bred for the pet trade, are pansies and wusses. For real fighting spirit, get a ferret bred for flushing rats or rabbits from their burrows, or at least bred for a fur farm, or maybe back-crossed to a polecat (the ferret's wild ancestor).

Having said that, ferrets are fast. They're also nearly fearless and stubborn as all get out. Cats have the advantage of reach, but I've seen a ferret/cat play fight where the ferret and cat were both waiting, tensed, the cat with a paw cocked and ready to strike, and the ferret just outside of the cat's range. The ferret jumped in, bit the cat on the chest, and jumped back before the cat could begin its blow. Usually, though, cats just find ferret's pushiness annoying, and jump up somewhere high to avoid them (pet ferrets, unlike their wild relatives, are not particularly good climbers).

A story that is told by some friends of my parents involves a tomcat and a ferret. The tom liked to bait the ferret, waiting until the weaselly thing was sleeping and then swatting it with a paw. The ferret would wake up, chittering mad, and rush at the tom. The Tomcat would casually jump up on something high, and casually watch the ferret's impotent rage. This lasted until one time when the tom tried to hide under something rather than jumping up high. As I recall, it squeezed under the stove. Ferrets are tunnel hunters, built for following prey into their burrows and killing them where they sleep. This ferret chased the tom in, was presented with a good view of the tom's hind end, and saw two very tempting targets. The house reverberated with the sounds of the tom's yowls as he ran around the house, a ferret latched on to his testicles, bouncing around behind him.

Cats vs. monitor lizards: Unless a monitor is very, very large, on the order of a Komodo dragon or one of those 8 to 10 foot long water monitors, it will not usually choose to tangle with a cat just because it is hungry. Smart predators choose prey that won't hurt them much, and cats can be a world of hurt if pressed. However, both cats and monitors are very curious animals. When I've let a large monitor (say, one of my 5 foot long argus monitors) roam in a room where the cats were free, the cats would follow the lizard exhibiting extreme interest, but staying out of reach. Most monitors just ignore this and concentrate on exploring the room, but Nile monitors, which are all completely paranoid, get quite nervous about the cats. To exacerbate things, Nile monitors have a long, whip-like tail, which the cats find irresistible. They can't help batting at it with their paws as the monitor walks around. This makes the Nile both nervous and irritated, so it hisses, coils its tail into a striking pose, and puffs out its throat in a threat display. The cats however, keep far enough away not to be in danger. (This is completely different from what happens when ferrets try to "play" with a Nile monitor. The ferret comes running up, the Nile uses its tail as a bat to play ferret baseball, and after a while even a ferret will give up on the game - but not before it is walking loopy).

I've only had two occasions where monitor and cat came into direct conflict. The first was a female argus monitor that had just laid eggs and was apparently feeling protective of her nest (this is typical for the first week or so after egg laying). She saw one of the cats, which was probably three times her weight, and took off after it at a full run. The cat turned tail and fled, but the monitor kept close at its heels. The cat first tried to take shelter in an opened dog crate, then found to its alarm that it was cornered by an enraged lizard. It then jumped over top of the lizard and lept onto a tall stack of boxes. The lady lizard was left looking rather perplexed, with a few tufts of hair in her jaws.

The other occasion involved a litter of five week old kittens and a desert sand monitor. Monitors are very food oriented and highly enthusiastic feeders. Unfortunately, while their vision is acute, they don't have the mental capacity for good, rapid visual object recognition. If they know there is food in the area, they strike at anything that moves. Consequently, I always separated the male from his mate for feeding, leaving the female in the enclosure and giving thawed mouse carcases to the male on the carpeted floor. Trying to contain the curiosity of four kittens, however, proved fruitless, and once, in a moment of inattention, the lizard lunged at a kitten about to bat it with a paw. The monitor seized the kitten by the paw and shook violently, a maneuver that yanks the razor-sharp teeth through skin, sinew, and muscle. The kitten squalled, I dropped everything and both mama cat and I simultaneously lunged for the lizard. I managed to grab the lizard moments before mama cat could lay into it, and the monitor let go of the kitten, apparently deciding it was inedible. Amazingly, the kitten was unhurt. I've seen monitors rip through thick cowhide gloves, but this kitten had not one spot of blood. It was scared, but uninjured. I made sure to physically separate the lizard from the cats thereafter during feeding.

Cats vs. Bull Snakes: When it is the middle of the night and I hear a sound like air escaping from my bike's tires, it is probably a good idea to check it out. Especially when I hear it a few more times. In this case, the big cranky male bull snake had escaped, and was coiled in its "I'm a rattlesnake, really!" threat display while a curious cat looked on from just out of striking range. I scooped up the snake and put it away, making sure to weight down the lid with a few more bricks.

Luke