Yesterday, according to my west coast brother, was "Global Cat Day" so my brother's cat spent the day sleeping to celebrate. Evidently global sleeping takes a lot of effort, so today Ace made up for it by again sleeping all day. This reminded me of the sleep habits of cats and dogs I have lived with. Everyone knows that cats sleep, on average, 23 hours a day, dogs not quite so much. I asked my veterinarian once if it was bad for my miniature dachshunds to lie around so much, but then put on sudden bursts of energy, to chase a squirrel for instance. The vet said no. Animals' hearts (cats and dogs) are adapted for long resting times interspersed with hard chases after prey. It must be true. A sparrow got into our house once, when I was home alone, and while I was trying to figure out how to lure it to an open door, my chubby old cat Athena leaped straight up in the air, caught the bird, flying at ceiling height, in her front paws, brought it down, snapped its neck, and that was the end of that bird. It did not suffer. My heart nearly stopped while all this was going on, but Athena quietly strolled away and went back to napping, her inner panther satisfied for the time being.
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