vilakins | (no subject)

2 – World Book Day: What are you reading at the moment or what have you just finished reading?
I read a lot of books and like to swap between genres, or mix them like now: alternating between a fun space opera series and a connected set of stories about an Irish community. I'm also partway through one of Victoria Goddard's Nine World fantasies. They're in several series, all interleaving so It's hard to keep the timelines level. I've stopped this particular one until I catch up with another series it has spoilers for.

3 – What if cats and dogs had opposable thumbs day? What do you think our furry companions would be doing if they could open the cans themselves?
They'd be like curious, mischievous monkeys, causing havoc in the house as they investigated and played with anything they could get their paws on. Not that polydactyl cats who often have thumbs seem to use them.

5 – Fun facts about Names Day: Does your name have a meaning?
Victory of the people - yay!
Were you named after somebody?
A fictional character, Nicola Marlow from Antonia Forester's wonderful books (I very much approve), and my middle name is my maternal grandmother's.
How old do you think your name is?
Over 2000 years, being Greek in origin. There was a Nikolaos involved in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) but the name really became popular after St Nicholas the bishop of Myra, the inspiration for Santa Claus.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Polydactyl 'thumbs' aren't really functional and aren't opposable anyway, they're more ornamental. Now Margays who are the only cat species (that I know of) have true opposable thumbs and use them to great effect, literally climbing like monkeys.

I didn't know about margays but yes, I was right about them being monkey-like. I wonder if they can manipulate objects like monkeys, opening jars etc.

Well, we've had a perfectly ordinary pawed cat who could open jam jars, so it's a reasonable bet that they can, given sufficient incentive. (like, that's where the treats are stored.)

Was it a black and white? They seem to be especially good at opening doors. A friend had a Burmese who could open the clips on both sides of his cat flap to get out: push the the inside ones back, open the flap towards him, flick the outside ones, and he was away!

He was a Marmalade and white, although you're not wrong about tux-cats being adept, and our little Häagen-Dazs cat (she's a vanilla/chocolate/caramel fudge swirl) is especially smart and good at opening doors, including round door knobs which are hard without thumbs.

Not that polydactyl cats who often have thumbs seem to use them

that we've noticed ;0)

Point!