WINGED CATS And yet — in fact you need only draw a single thread at any point you choose out of the fabric of life and the run will make a pathway across the whole, and down that wider pathway each of the other threads will become successively visible, one by one. — Heimito von Doderer, DIE DÂIMONEN HDT WHAT? INDEX WINGED CATS WINGED CATS 1299 There is a tale of a winged predatory cat known as the Cat-a-Mountain in the accounts of Marco Polo (1254- 1324). This beast supposedly had the body of a leopard but a strange skin that stretched out when it hunted, enabling it to fly in the pursuit of its prey. This Cat-a-Mountain is most likely an imagined hybrid — a predatory feline imagined as a large bat or a predatory feline imagined as a large flying squirrel with flaps of skin enabling it to glide. Winged cats of myth and legend were often demonic creatures with “feathered” wings and were liable to swoop down on humans, who were liable to be terrified. Later authors would use Polo’s term to describe a wildcat and by the 17th Century it would have been abbreviated to Catamount and would be being used as a synonym for the American Mountain Lion, Cougar, or Puma. CATS WITH WINGS ESSENCE IS BLUR. SPECIFICITY, THE OPPOSITE OF ESSENCE, IS OF THE NATURE OF TRUTH. Winged Cats “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX WINGED CATS WINGED CATS 1657 Job van Meekren, a Dutch physician, described a Spaniard, Georgius Albes, who was able to draw the skin of the left pectoral region to the left ear, or the skin under the face over the chin to the vertex. The skin over the knee could be extended half a yard, and when it retracted to its normal position it was not in folds. A similar skin disorder in cats may account for at least some of the tales of cats with wings. CATS WITH WINGS ESSENCES ARE FUZZY, GENERIC, CONCEPTUAL; ARISTOTLE WAS RIGHT WHEN HE INSISTED THAT ALL TRUTH IS SPECIFIC AND PARTICULAR (AND WRONG WHEN HE CHARACTERIZED TRUTH AS A GENERALIZATION). Winged Cats “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX WINGED CATS WINGED CATS 1667 The Royal Society of London conducted a sheep-to-human blood transfusion experiment. (remarkably, the human survived). PALEONTOLOGY THE SCIENCE OF 1667 CATS WITH WINGS Johann Homilius delivered a dissertation DE MONOCEROTE criticizing all who doubted the existence of unicorns, pointing out that this animal had been described in the BIBLE. YOUR GARDEN-VARIETY ACADEMIC HISTORIAN INVITES YOU TO CLIMB ABOARD A HOVERING TIME MACHINE TO SKIM IN METATIME BACK ACROSS THE GEOLOGY OF OUR PAST TIMESLICES, WHILE OFFERING UP A GARDEN VARIETY OF COGENT ASSESSMENTS OF OUR PROGRESSION. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP! YOU SHOULD REFUSE THIS HELICOPTERISH OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORICAL PAST, FOR IN THE REAL WORLD THINGS HAPPEN ONLY AS THEY HAPPEN. WHAT THIS SORT WRITES AMOUNTS, LIKE MERE “SCIENCE FICTION,” MERELY TO “HISTORY FICTION”: IT’SNOT WORTH YOUR ATTENTION. Winged Cats “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX WINGED CATS WINGED CATS Gaspar Schott’s PHYSICA CURIOSA, SIVE MIRABILIA NATURAE ET ARTIS LIBRIS XII. COMPREHENSA..., printed at Würzburg, relied on the imaginative zoology of the engraver’s teacher Athanasius Kircher: HDT WHAT? INDEX WINGED CATS WINGED CATS 1842 June: Henry Thoreau visited Gilian Baker’s farm in Lincoln near Walden Pond to see the “winged cat” that resided there.1 WALDEN: Many a village Bose, fit only to course a mud-turtle in a victualling cellar, sported his heavy quarters in the woods, DOG without the knowledge of his master, and ineffectually smelled at old fox burrows and woodchucks’ holes; led perchance by some slight cur which nimbly threaded the wood, and might still inspire a natural terror in its denizens; –now far behind his guide, barking like a canine bull toward some small squirrel which had treed itself for scrutiny, then, cantering off, bending the bushes with his weight, imagining that he is on the track of some stray member of the gerbille family. Once I was surprised to see a cat walking along the stony shore of the pond, for they rarely wander so far from home. The surprise was mutual. Nevertheless the most domestic cat, which has lain on a rug all her days, appears quite at home in the woods, and, by her sly and stealthy behavior, proves herself more native there than the regular inhabitants. Once, when berrying, I met with a cat with young kittens in the woods, quite wild, and they all, like their mother, CAT had their backs up and were fiercely spitting at me. A few years before I lived in the woods there was what was called a “winged cat” in one of the farm-houses in Lincoln nearest the pond, Mr. Gilian Baker’s. When I called to see her in June, 1842, she was gone a-hunting in the woods, as was her wont, (I am not sure whether it was a male or female, and so use the more common pronoun,) but her mistress told me that she came into the neighborhood a little more than a year before, in April, and was finally taken into their house; that she was of a dark brownish-gray color, with a white spot on her throat, and white feet, and had a large bushy tail like a fox; that in the winter the fur grew thick and flatted out along her sides, forming strips ten or twelve inches long by two and a half wide, and under her chin like a muff, the upper side loose, the under matted like felt, and in the spring these appendages dropped off. They gave me a pair of her “wings,” which I keep still. There is no appearance of a membrane about them. Some thought it was part flying-squirrel or some other wild animal, which is not impossible, for, according to naturalists, prolific hybrids have been produced by the union of the marten and domestic cat. This would have been the right kind of cat for me to keep, if I had kept any; for why should not a poet’s cat be winged as well as his horse? CATS WITH WINGS HDT WHAT? INDEX WINGED CATS WINGED CATS “HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE” BEING A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME (JUST AS THE PERSPECTIVE IN A PAINTING IS A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN SPACE), TO “LOOK AT THE COURSE OF HISTORY MORE GENERALLY” WOULD BE TO SACRIFICE PERSPECTIVE ALTOGETHER. THIS IS FANTASY-LAND, YOU’RE FOOLING YOURSELF. THERE CANNOT BE ANY SUCH THINGIE, AS SUCH A PERSPECTIVE. 1. A similar cat has been observed in West Virginia in 1959. Now that we are aware that genes can be transferred from species to species by viruses (not to mention, by pipette), we find we do not have so great a difficulty in believing what our eyes tell us. It is entirely to Thoreau’s credit that he was able to observe and notice even before the existence of a theory which would legitimate his observation! —May we all develop such skill! There is a report on winged cats, that mentions Thoreau, at: http://www.messybeast.com/winged-cats.htm Although this is possibly the earliest report of a winged cat, an undated, but old, winged cat was stuffed and mounted in the Niagara Valley, with bony structures near its shoulder blades covered with flaps of skin. The specimen seems genuine, but what the bony structures are is unknown (possibly they are extra limbs). There are around 138 reported sightings of winged cats, in 28 of which there exists physical evidence. There are at least 20 photographs and one video. The impression of “wings” can arise in pet Persians and other longhaired breeds due to fur that mats if the pets are not being adequately groomed by their owner. There also is a rare hereditary medical condition called Feline Cutaneous Asthenia (FCA) that is related to “elastic skin” conditions documented in other animals, and in humans. The skin on the cat’s shoulders, back, and haunches, is abnormally elastic. Even stroking the skin can cause it to stretch. The stretching skin forms pendulous folds or flaps which sometimes contain muscle fibres, enabling them to be moved. They cannot be flapped like a bird’s wing since the flaps do not contain any supporting bones nor any joints. Cutaneous Asthenia literally means “weak skin” and refers to the fragility of the skin. It is also called “dermatoproxy” and “hereditary skin fragility.” There are similar conditions in humans, dogs, mink, horses, cattle and sheep. In cattle and sheep the term “dermatosparaxis” (“torn skin”) is used. In horses a similar condition is called “collagen dysplasia.” It is also known as “cutis elastica” (“elastic skin”). The human form is called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and occurs in several different forms. Elastic-skinned people have exhibited themselves as freaks, demonstrating the condition by stretching handfuls of their hyperextensible skin away from their bodies. Arthur Loose the “Rubber Skinned Man,” whose cheeks and jowls hung in pendulous folds 8 inches long, and James Morris the original “India Rubber Man,” who could pull his elastic skin 18 inches from his body, may well have been examples. As the term dermatosparaxis implies, the skin is also abnormally fragile. It tears at the slightest contact with anything sharp — rough surfaces, or even the cat’s own claws when scratching or grooming itself.