Why Does Kitty Do What it Does

A while ago I wrote an article discussing the similarities between a cat’s brain and a human brain (A Study of Cats and Humans,) this article is going to try and go inside of your cat’s head and see why it does what it does.

According to a report by Rolan Tripp, DMV, (www.AnimalBehavior.Net) that I found in the Catnip Newsletter (July 07, Vol. 15, page 10.) Dr. Tripp stated a cat’s behavior is based on five factors genetics, gestation, early socialization, intentional training and experience.

When it comes to genetics, the kitten’s father plays an important part in determining the cat’s personality, while mom plays an important part in teaching social skills, hunting and eating.

The brain during the gestation period (pregnancy) develops quite quickly and anything that happens to the mother cat while carrying the kittens will have an effect on the litter. This includes stress, trauma and happy things.
This knowledge helped me to understand why feral kittens behave as they do. Since feral cat mothers are usually fighting for survival and food while carrying a litter.

American Expat Experiences – Costa Rica Socialized Medical Care Equal to US For Less Cost

A lot of negative buzz in the U.S. hisses socialized medicine, partly because of the delays and restrictions associated with government run health care in many countries.

That’s not what I found in Costa Rica, at all, said retiree Gene Warneke from his home near Grecia, a sky-top villa overlooking Costa Rica’s lush Central Valley. He now walks with a prosthetic leg in the aftermath of an amputation brought on by a clotting disorder.

As an American living with a disability in Costa Rica, Warneke dealt with his health care and medical challenges both in the U.S. and in Costa Rica. And the story of how he came to see the inside of socialized medicine in Costa Rica and government run insurance plans is relevant for people interested in the quality of healthcare they might experience if choosing to retire in Costa Rica.

Social Medical Revolution

What is Social Medicine

It is possible to argue that all medicine by its very nature is social. The way we define diseases and health, the methods we use for diagnosis and treatment, how we finance health care, all these cannot help but reflect the social environment in which medicine operates. Social medicine, however, looks at these interactions in a systematic way and seeks to understand how health, disease and social conditions are interrelated. This type of study began in earnest in the early 1800′s. It was the time of the Industrial Revolution and it was impossible to ignore the extent to which the factory system impoverished the workers, thus creating poverty and disease.

All medicine is inescapably social, said Leon Eisenberg, the Harvard professor of social medicine and psychiatry, and this Author entirely agrees. Take, for example, the announcement of the sequencing of the human genome, which the BBC predicted would mean we could banish inherited disorders, screen people for their vulnerability to diseases, tailor treatment to an individual’s genetic make-up, create thousands of new drugs and extend human lifespan.