Uh oh.
Bad news day for cats.
Beware kitty!
Okay, so how do I get rid of the parasite and is the cure covered by Obamacare?
What a great new legal defense for cat-owning reckless people (possible oxymoron?): My cat's parasites made me do it!
Before we get all crazy about the kitties making us crazy ... I just want to say I don’t think it’s that common here in the U.S. I grew up with a ton of farm cats all around me (we commonly had 25 or so outside cats) and as a small child, paid little attention to sanitation. As an adult, I live closely with several indoor kitties, most of them rescues from outside. (We have had anywhere from 11 to four cats in the house at any one time, since we do rescue work sometimes.)
When we were trying to get pregnant, I was concerned about this issue, so I made my doc give me a blood test ... and after 35+ years of living very closely with a number of cats, I did NOT test positive for the antibody! (I was hoping I would, so I wouldn’t have to worry about it during pregnancy. However, it gave me a good excuse to have my husband clean out the litterboxes during my pregnancy. ;o)
Anyway, people get a little over-the-top about this, I’ve noticed, so I wanted to share my .02.
I discussed this with my cat and he said (in Swedish)not to worry about it, I think that’s what he said, anyway I know cats don’t make you nuts.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my combined microbiology/immunology ping list.
Not a cat person. I tend to dislike then.
So I was really surprised 3’years ago on June 6th when my Brittany bitch had one pinned in the corner of my yard. A tinny she-kitten less than 2 lbs. seems my neighbor cleaned out a ‘nest’ of feral cats under his shed and this one made through the chain link to my yard.
My boys still make fun of me for taking care of “D Day” knowing my cat history.
Makes me wonder how many cats Nancy Pelosi has.
I probably have this since I have lived with 2 cats for the past 13 years, and given the stat that 30 to 50% have it. And yes, I indulge in risk taking behaviour (note the British spelling ... just an example of my risky behaviour.)
Other examples of risk taking:
1.) I often hand feed chicken to my non-declawed cats.
2.) I have been known to enter the shower without checking the temperature of the water first.
I am normally a hermit, but my extroversion is evident by my posting of personal information on a world wide forum.
I feel anxiety and depression, especially after watching the “State of the Union” or reading that DHS bought billions of hollow point bullets. Obviously, that’s not normal, since most people seem unconcerned.
Also, I have been exposed to cat “faeces” (to use another British spelling) because my cats are huge and despite buying the biggest litter boxes I can find they still occasionally miss the target.
The only upside I can think of is that now I have something to blame for how I feel and act — I have a cat virus in my brain. This explains alot.
The importance of this parasite should not be underestimated.
It is one of the large number of “mind controlling” parasites in the world, and the toxoplasma protozoa has a unique way of doing this.
Typically the parasite reproduces in the guts of felines, then it infects rodents that eat the cat feces. Then it makes the rodent attracted to cats so they are eaten. This is its life cycle.
When its host experiences fear or repulsion to something it fears or instinctively knows is hazardous, the protozoa detects these chemicals and excretes enzymes that make its host’s brain excrete *dopamine* in the pleasure center of its brain.
Imagine if when you saw a red hot stove, that you knew you shouldn’t touch and were afraid of, then suddenly waves of pleasure, even sexual pleasure, flooded your brain. If that happened each time you saw a red hot stove, soon you would be retrained to like red hot stoves. And if you touched one, and got burned, then you would get a huge dose of pleasure. You would like red hot stoves a lot, and want to touch them, maybe even encourage others to touch them.
This is done to rodents to retrain them to be attracted to the urine of cats, so to venture into their territory and be eaten.
But since humans have a similar chemical system in their brains as do rodents, it would not be unrealistic to imagine it having a similar effect.
Of course, people are usually not afraid of house cats, so there would be no fear response. But what *are* humans afraid of?
What if a person is attracted to all the wrong things and bad people and behavior, and rejects and despises healthy, normal behavior and associations?
Say they are attracted to communism and al-Qaeda, and reject normal families and marriage, and the Boy Scouts?
Those who are being parasitically controlled are turned into nihilists, people who want to destroy everything that is good. They want ruination and despair for all, misery and anguish and death.
Some estimated 11 million Americans are infected with Toxoplasma gondii.
Some 80% of French people are infected, and look what has become of them.
Moral: cook your roadkill well and don’t eat cat feces.
BOOKbump
Toxoplasmosis is widely believed to cause people to repeatedly and sillily post cat pictures on Free Republic.
Since the condition is not fatal, the practice will likely waste bandwidth eternally