Kitty toes and Dinos and MOR
This week’s Caturday Cat Fact
Cats have extremely sensitive feet! Their forepaws have lots of mechanoreceptors, which respond to pressure and movement and in cats are particularly sensitive to the speed and direction of something as it moves across the paw pad. They also have a bunch of specialized mechanoreceptors at the bases of their claws, allowing them to sense how extended each one is, and if they are being moved sideways. All of these are adaptations for catching prey - in fact, cats are farsighted so in the final moments of a hunt they rely primarily on their sense of touch. According to cat behaviour expert Dr. John Bradshaw in his book The Behaviour of the Domestic Cat, “it is almost possible to think of the feet as sense organs in their own right, and their degree of sensitivity may explain why many cats appear to dislike having their paws touched.”
Where was I this week?
I was in Bozeman, Montana last weekend and gave a talk titled “Growing up sabre-toothed” for an event called Dinosaurs and MOR at the Museum of the Rockies
What am I working on?
I am super behind on my postdoc project, comparing the bone histology of wolves (Canis lupus) from different ecozones in Canada. We have had trouble with our Isomet saw, so I had to take the first 3/4 of the sample to the University of Ottawa for defatting - successive baths of ethanol and acetone to remove excess fat from the bones. The defatting is done, and I need to bring the specimens back to the museum to embed the and cut!
My PhD advisor is due to submit an application to NSERC to renew his Discovery Grant this fall, and we have discussed getting some papers out from my PhD to help with that. Publishing that material in peer-reviewed journals will also be good for me, of course!
My postdoc ends on April 15, and I don’t know what comes next. I will be applying for employment insurance as soon as the contract is done, but that gives me only 55% of my previous salary (which was not very high!). I will be taking on cat sitting and possibly some other gig work if I can. Aside from the shortage of cash, I actually think the break will be good for me. I started university in 2010 at the age of 17, and I haven’t taken any breaks since then! Taking some time to reorient myself and do some goal setting will probably be good in the long run, if a little painful. One of the things I am thinking about is starting a consulting business - very small, just me doing some of the things I enjoy doing as an academic, but for other people’s projects!
On the volunteer side of things, I am helping [Bird Friendly Ottawa(https://birdfriendlyottawa.ca/)] prepare for an event May 10th in celebration of World Migratory Bird Day. We’ll have lots of activities for birders of all ages and experience levels, and will be welcoming local organizations as well!
I also volunteer for Cat Rescue Network, where things are pretty quiet right now. Kitten season is coming soon, though!
Cat updates
Cola, my foster (but tbh, probably a foster fail in the making) had a seizure on Friday evening. This is the first time she has had one that I’m aware of, and it was really scary. She bounced back and seems to be okay now, but she is getting bloodwork done to investigate possible causes. If the bloodwork comes back clean, we will discuss referring her to a neurologist.
Momo and Khonsu are both good, happy to have me home after a couple days away over the weekend. I am still working on getting Momo to accept Cola as a member of the household and not an intruder (see below).
Learning
To help get Momo acclimated to Cola, I am working my way through The Science of Feline Introductions, a self-paced course at the IAABC Foundation. It is taught by Patience Fisher, a cat behaviour consultant in Pittsburgh.
I am hoping to catch up on readings so I can start tuning into the Data Science Learning Community’s book club for the book An Introduction to Statistical Learning with Applications in Python. I have some, but very limited, experience in python, and I’m looking foward to taking some time to learning it!
Reading
I am almost finished reading Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff. It is a great read, and Anne-Laure’s approach really gels well with my brain! I participated in her Curiosity Collective, which led up to the launch of the book, in February, which was an absolute dream. In fact, starting this now page is an experiment I am doing following the formula of this book, and sharing with the Ness Labs community!
I am also reading John Bradshaw’s The Behaviour of the Domestic Cat, which you can probably guess inspired my #CaturdayCatFact for today!
To see more of what I’m reading, you can check out my profile on The Storygraph or check out this year’s 365 papers list on my Codeberg page.
Listening
I like listening to really chill, uncomplicated novels as audiobooks when I go to sleep. I used to love the Warrior series by Erin Hunter as a kid, so I’m revisiting it as my bedtime stories. I am currently listening to Book 4 of the Dawn of the Clans series, The Blazing Star
Watching
I’ve been watching Hell’s Kitchen as background while I do things around the house. I’ve never watched it aside from stray episodes here and there, so I started at the beginning and I’m now on season 8. I don’t really like that it glorifies toxic work environments in professional kitchens, but it does make for good TV.
I’m also keeping up on the current seasons of Rupaul’s Drag Race and Top Chef - the latter is in Canada this year!
Playing
I finally picked up Monster Hunter Stories and its sequel a few weeks ago, and I’m playing through the first one many years after it originally came out. I love the creature design in the Monster Hunter series, but am terrible at the combat, so the turn-based system is much better for my play style. Plus, I like the idea of making friends with monsters more than just killing them!