"Here kitty, kitty...a cool cat...just when you thought you were safe..."

In Sync, Sink: Once in a while, a story will present itself in such a timely fashion that, along with other things I am experiencing, thinking about, and writing to you about, that becomes a matter of synchronicity. As I have been writing to you about diagnostics and prognostics, as I was looking for another interlude you and I could sink our teeth into to again cleanse our palates before reading about more serious stuff, as I have been meeting more cats and dogs the past year (from a distance) than all my life prior, and as I was listening to local and world news a few days ago, it all came together...in the form of a kitten as well as a colossal canine!

Anxiety Reprise - Type II, my bad (?) In talking to people in my office and writing to you about anxiety, I have often made the anthropological reference to the saber-toothed tiger, as in "Once upon a time anxiety allowed us, through an adrenaline rush, to escape the ravages of the saber-toothed tiger...while we no longer need to run from this massive canine, we still get these flight-fight adrenaline rushes, sometimes when we don't need them..." Turns out I may have been understating, underdiagnosing the case. That is, new findings support the existence of a giant saber-toothed cat having lived in North America, a species that may be a relative to the best known saber-toothed cat "Smilodon" (I have yet to meet a household cat on zoom bearing this name, but it's probably going to change soon), the fossils of which were discovered in the tar pits of California (where else would 'cool cats' hang out?) and went extinct about 10,000 years ago...yep, this new massive canine, extrapolated from both teeth and elbow (!) bone, estimating this cat would have weighed in at up to 900 pounds, the teeth and strong forearms enabling it to hunt and subdue prey weighing between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds, so even today's rhinos would be at risk. As one happy paleo dude was overheard, "It's been well known there were giant cats in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and now we have our own giant saber-toothed in North America..." Not in my house and hopefully, not in my dreams...

Sweet Tweet: "I taut I taw a puddy tat..." As we learned, Tweety Bird was usually correct in alerting us to the approach of Sylvester. His annoying alarmist nature resonated with me again when I overheard the story of the missing Bengal Tiger (named "India"), which was spotted roaming around a Houston, Texas neighborhood, eventually apprehended and transferred to an animal shelter. I constructed a tweet in my own mind, but never sent, #Tweety#Petsmart,emptycatfoodshelves...could have saved them a lot of time in chasing down this cat...Turns out this particular Bengal was fairly domesticated, almost as tame as our Detroit Tigers have been so far this baseball season...

Calling all Cool Cats:  A term usually associated with the late 60's and early 70's, a 'high' compliment, also took the form of a "hep" tiger character, who appeared in a series of cartoons in the late 60's, which was sort of a hybrid of "Pink Panther" and "Snagglepuss". But "Cool Cat" distinguished himself from these other Looney Tune characters as he was a 'product of his time' having donned shorts, a green necktie, and usually a matching necktie (he could easily get away with this attire today, including the shorts, on a zoom call). He was frequently accompanied by his antagonist, Colonel Rimfire, who was in turn accompanied by his blunderbuss...talk about fight-flight! Both of which eventually fell out of style, and probably would be quickly extinct in today's cancel culture...

What's in a name: As I've met a plethora of pets, I've also learned their names, if only out of canine courtesy...many obvious, 'pet prosaic', lacking imagination, but apparently meaningful to the owners. But after reading this post, you just wait, my prediction, prognostication, is that you'll see the return of such names as "Snagglepuss", as well as "Smilodon", and...? Just remember where and when you read this.