Thursday, August 30, 2007

How cats fish

This is how Garfield does it:

Click to enlarge
When I saw this comic strip today, I remembered something similar that I witnessed last Sunday at the pond behind my Hooghly house. A fish had died in the pond and was floating near the bank, and two cats, one of them distinctly Garfield-ish, desperately tried to fish it out. They submerged up to their elbows in water and tried to get nearer to the fish, but in vain. I captured a video of their efforts from our first floor balcony overlooking the pond. Here you can see the Garfield-ish cat (he is called Meow) jump atop some dead branches and leaves floating in the water to get closer to the dead fish whose tail can just be seen briefly near the wall. At one point Meow seems to be contemplating catching other fish as well. That morning the pond was teeming with shoals of fish all floating near the surface.


I thought this behaviour was pretty unusual as I have always known that domestic cats hate getting wet and avoid water at all costs. Obviously, this is just another myth. Hunger can make anybody do anything.

And Garfield isn't the only cat who is perpetually hungry.


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