Food for thought

Ok, so you're sitting there drinking your coffee maybe having a doughnut or a Danish or a scone (I'm having a tough time warming up to scones. I mean, they're just a biscuit with fruit or nuts or fruit and nuts and they're sort of dry, plus they're expensive compared to the good old doughnut) and you say to yourself, Chris, tell me a story about cat pee and parasites, and why, just why, cats aren't so smart after all.

And so I pull up my chair and smile and say sure, I can do that. I can do that because I drive around in my truck a lot, like 20,000 miles a year or more, going to this and going to that or just running the roads, looking for stuff, and while I'm looking for stuff I listen to the radio and on the radio the other day there was this story on NPR and it went like this:

Scientists have found a parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, a little one-celled critter that lives in mice and rats, but can only reproduce in the gut of cats.

So this little parasite, through the ages and dawn of time and however it long it takes genetic mutations to occur, has devised a way of getting into the brains of mice and rats and once there, the mice and rats, who would normally find cat pee extremely offensive (trust me, it is. A cat peed on my bed once), now find cat pee attractive.

The parasite changes their brain, working on a spot that regulates fear and loathing. In the process, the mice and rats, to make a long story short, lose their minds and they get attracted to cat urine and then, of course, the cats see the stupid mice so they do what cats do best: They kill them and eat them.

(Our cat, Tiger Lily, was also very good at catching birds when she was younger. Even hummingbirds, which of course, was sad, but somehow admirable. I mean, I can't even imagine catching a hummingbird, but Tiger Lily caught them like they were popcorn. Fortunately, she's fat and getting old. She can't even catch her tail.)

Once the cats kill and eat the mice the parasite then can reproduce in the cat's gut and the cat then poops out the parasite and the mice get into the cat poop and the cycle continues.

This parasite may also infect humans. What's puzzling scientists is how this all works, since most brain guys work forever on fear and loathing and controlling those emotions thereof in humans, with little or no success. Meanwhile, a parasite seems to have mastered the craft, at least in mice and rats.

You can listen to the story here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9560048

Have a good week.

And enjoy your scone.

Chris Peterson is the coffee cake loving editor of the Hungry Horse News.