{"id":564,"date":"2018-03-20T02:09:55","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T02:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/overthehils.com\/?p=564"},"modified":"2018-03-20T02:09:55","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T02:09:55","slug":"a-cats-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/overthehils.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/20\/a-cats-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"A cat’s tale"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have always had cats in the house and on the farm because we loved them as pets and for their rodent control services! My last cats came to Portugal with me from the UK in 1991 and returned in 2005 to live out their days \u201cback home\u201d. I haven\u2019t replaced them as a full-time job and travelling simply didn\u2019t fit with housing a new kitten.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Freddy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have missed my feline friends and so I was delighted when I moved into my new home in Cambodia to find there was a resident cat called \u201cFreddy\u201d. However, a lot of Cambodian cats come with a difference \u2013 they have short and often curly tails which takes some getting used to \u2013 if you are used to your cat running towards you with its tail waving behind in greeting, you will wait a long time in Siem Reap.<\/p>\n

I have seen pictures of Manx cats in the UK but am not aware of ever having seen one. On investigation I discovered that a lot of SE Asian cats have a short, malformed tail and it is thought that it is due to a recessive gene. There is also the possibility that the cats have come from the Japanese bobtail; it is thought that the origin of these cats is from Buddhist monks who brought the cats from China to Japan 1,300 years ago and this would explain how these cats were spread throughout SE Asia. The monks kept cats to protect their rice-paper scrolls from mice and to this day most temples and pagodas keep a few cats.<\/p>\n

Julie Masis writing in the Phnom Penh Post in 2014 explained that in the 18th<\/sup> and 19th<\/sup> centuries there are records that show cats were used in various ceremonial rituals in the country. Before the rains a cat was paraded around the village to ask for rain and this ceremony is still carried out in villages around Angkor today. Cats are also used in house-warming ceremonies where a female cat is carried by the woman of the house while walking three times around the house to bring good luck.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Three-coloured kitten with curly tail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three coloured cats are particularly revered, especially females and they are used by the royal household in the coronation ceremony.<\/p>\n

Cambodia is also home to a rare and declining population of fishing cat. \u00a0This is a small cat which looks like a civet and lives in wetlands and mangrove swaps; it is endangered\u00a0 because its fishing activities bring it into direct conflict with the human population. More information can be found at\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/www.fishingcatcambodia.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9Copyright overthehils.com 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have always had cats in the house and on the farm because we loved them as pets and for their rodent control services! My last cats came to Portugal with me from the UK in 1991 and returned in 2005 to live out their days \u201cback home\u201d. I haven\u2019t replaced them as a full-time … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A cat’s tale”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/overthehils.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/overthehils.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/overthehils.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overthehils.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overthehils.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/overthehils.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":570,"href":"https:\/\/overthehils.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions\/570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overthehils.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/overthehils.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overthehils.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overthehils.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}