Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for October 16, 2019

Hah, Calvin and Hobbes were having the meow/roar discussion yesterday.

Today is Global Cat Day, in case anyone hasn’t caught on.

I think we were a day ahead of Mr Johnson.

When I was a docent at the Bronx Zoo, they mentioned that as a rule-of-thumb. At the time, zoologists were uncertain as to whether Snow Leopards purred or roared. In size, they were kind of in the middle, and they were very elusive and solitary. I gave a talk on them (pre-internet days) and dug up a couple of facts my mentor didn’t know… and the Ounce was her specialty.

They have to get their fun somehow.

If cat can’t roar, what’s a caterwaul?

Well, isn’t that the cat’s meow….

A vocal cat is a happy cat.

But they all think alike.

This weeks strips have been an advertisement for the “National day calendar”.

Luddy: “Hear me roar!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFr9n-WwWlU

Arlo, the cat is not arguing with you. That would imply the possibility that the cat might be wrong. That’s not a possibility, that’s an impossibility. The cat is merely setting you straight. There’s a difference. We know all this because the cats have told us so.

And the roar/purr dividing line is a pretty good one. Turns out cougars/mountain lions/puma are the largest small cat. They purr!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXhfZRE08ko

My Manx cat Sigurd makes a kind of a chirping sound. No meowing.

There is a reason why we don’t have guard cats the size of pumas.

This is not true, big cats do indeed purr and my late cat Harry would get in the window and howl just like the big cats roar.

Cougars are considered Big Cats, but they purr. Big Cat Rescue has a video of this.

I wonder what’s going on with Gene.

Some of them chuckle. https://assets.amuniversal.com/48a10b40bb0b0137be3e005056a9545d