photo by Aaron Logan
The ear-tufts of the Caracalmay help it hear a mousecommunicate with friendsor hide better in tall grass
The Caracal will eat most thingsthough mammals are preferredit can dine on a monkeyor perhaps snack on a bird
In London Zoo I met a Caracalwhich would rather shyly joinits keeper in a game of footballbut only if it was in the mood.
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74 comments:
I think I've heard of a caracal, but never seen one. Or read a poem about one.
Now I want one, and wish I could write such good poems.
never heard and never seen one either, particularly jumping so high to catch his meal. Caracal must be a goalkeeper
Caracal: "a fiercely territorial medium-sized cat ranging over Western Asia and Africa." (Wikipedia)
They have been tamed, supposedly the ancient Persians kept them to hunt pigeons. The one I met at the Zoo was tame-ish, you couldn't pat it or anything, but it did play football.
They have really nice faces. I want one too, but I think it would need a country estate to range around in.
Here's a link to a great video instead.
No problem, Stu. I must say it didn't occur to me to leave a comment.
Here's the link again, to your photostream page this time - some fine Caracal pics and other wildife too.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12197503@N07/
thank you very much; really appreciate the compliment.
sorry again, Stu
Sorry about all the deletions, had some crossed wires over linking to a photographer's work. Sorted out now.
wooo!,this thread looks like a Russell Brand's on the GU when offie and gg were playing with his sensitivity.
Nice, gui. I'm sure I wrote something about the ears of the caracal which got deleted. Perhaps not Attenborough enough.
Still want one.
No mimi, nothing of yours deleted. Just some typical internet misunderstandings.
The video I've linked to about 7 comments up (or 7 comments down from the top, as it happens) is excellent, some really good Caracal goalkeeping.
Of course, and sadly, there are ads on the net for Caracals for sale as pets. Difficult to think what kind of house could hold a cat that can jump 3 metres in the air though. Castle maybe.
A cathouse?
That is some excellent goalkeeping, but I'd still put money on my little tabby to beat that caracal in a penalty shoot out.
Wiki also has a wonderful picture of a caracal kitten: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caracal_kitten.jpg
My dog has caracal-like ear-tufts, but he's shite at goalkeeping.
Impressive dribbling skills, though.
Let's play the caracal guessing game,
-What's the difference between :
a dog keeper, a god keeper and a goal keeper?-
the first good answer will win a brand new T shirt-
"caracal ole!"
a dog keeper trains a nuisance
a god keeper betrays his innocence
and a goalkeeper is to blame
Please come again Henry, it's very good but off
a dog keeper keeps dogs, a god keeper keeps gods, and a goalkeeper keeps goals.
(just the other day, a friend accused me of being prosaic. he might have had a point).
a dog keeper picks up crap
a god keeper talks crap
a goalkeeper is crap
munni's almost there, to my mind
a dog keeper keeps dogs, a god keeper keeps gods, and a goalkeeper keeps goal, but only one at a time.
The dog keeper can see his dog, the god keeper can't see his god, and the goalkeeper should have seen it but didn't?
Bravo Melto,
it's close enough, because:
"a dog keeper pick up dog shit
a god keeper talks a lot of bull shit.
a goal keeper takes all the shit"
Alberto Caracal de Montelimar
Zeph,
I'm sure yours is a very perfectly rational explanation since you're a very good keeper
Munni and Billymills,
such a straightforward description! you must be yourselves god keepers?
They're good keepers too!
Zephie,
el señor Alberto Caracal de Nouga de Montelimar will be shipping the winning prices to your adresse-(within a couple of weeks)-
Zephie,
el señor Alberto Caracal de Nouga de Montelimar will be shipping the winning prices to your adresse-(within a couple of weeks)-
Tell the Senor to check the address, Guitou, you know I had to move house to avoid the paparazzi.
I've just noticed the caracal in the picture is swinging in a hammock. Just my kind of cat.
No. I'm a goalkeeper.
Not a wicketkeeper, Billy?
Yes, Offie, nothing like a feline for knowing how to relaaax.
Off-break bowler, zeph. Not very good. Decent goalkeeper, though, in my day.
"Decent goalkeeper, though, in my day." Albert Camus used to say the same, I believe.
Camus didn't have a choice-He played goalkeeper as he couldn't afford to wear out his shoes running across the field. He was raised by a very poor single mother.it's true, sad but true.
of course there is the intellectual analysis of Camus being a goal keeper. first because on the field the keeper is kind of a "stranger" also the more he has to keep going inside a net to pick up the ball like "Sisyphus" the more we enjoy the game.Above all there is an absurd paradox of being rewarded for catching the ball with your hand in a game played with feet, and that's perfectly Camusien.
Thanks Guitou, I knew you'd field that one:)
A beautiful animal and poem. Mind you, I think almost all cats are beautiful. My friend Carles (the Catalan spelling of Carlos) comes from a village near Ripoll in the Catalunyan Pyrenees.
All the village cats, going back for as long as anyone remembers, have Caracal ears. Carles, who teaches genetics at the University of Barcelona and lives in the city, has two of the little charmers living with him.
They really look extraordinary. Lovely natures, too...
I was crazy about goalkeeping. In Russia . . . the gallant art had always been surrounded with a halo of singular glamour… he is the lone eagle, the man of mystery, the last defender. Photographers, reverently bending one knee, snapped him in the act of making a spectacular dive across the goalmouth to deflect with his fingers a low, lightning-like shot, and the stadium roars in approval as he remains for a moment or two lying full-length where he fell, his goal still intact…
Famous goalkeepers No.2. Not a difficult one for Otherstuffers, I would think.
Mishari, those cats sound lovely, and domesticated, too, which a Caracal will never be... they must be some sort of local variation, like a Manx cat? If the village were further South, one might wonder if some long-dead Moorish lord had let his hunting Caracals loose by mistake.
MM, is it Nabokov? Guessing a bit, as I'm no expert on him, but can't think of anybody ele it could be.
Nabokov, Conan Doyle, Nils Bohr and Pope John Paul George Ringo. Dmitri Shostakovich, on the other hand, was a qualified football referee
Guitou, I still have that shirt you gave me, with the #1 and Camus' name on the back, and the quote on the front: "All that I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football".
And all from within the six-yard box, looking out.
Nabokov? I assume you mean Evgeni, not Vladimir.
Other famous goalkeepers, I submit Eduardo Chillida .
offie,
Morality and Football isn't something our british friends are referring to as an oxymoron? if still alive,Albert probably would take this one back no? I remember about the shirt you mentioned, that was Marcela's idea-Philosophy football, great graphics but I like the pseuds shirts better -I think we should do an "encore", since we are such a limited audience it should be easier-
may be Zeph rather wait for Nesta to take charge:-)
Nesta has his own blog now, Guitou, no doubt t-shirts are available there:)
I shall give some thought to a design for an OtherStuff t-shirt, a haiku might be good, or one of the 50 word thingies.
why not the Caracal with " Meltonian 1" in the back?
or Haiku on the world cup? or South Africa?
what do I know. You should run a vote , chances are that feedbacks from Other Stuffers may raise the design level to a fashion contest.
Yes, it was Nabokov, in Speak, Memory. There are several lyrical references to football in his work (of course the existence of John Terry was undreamed of at that time). It's hard to imagine him as much of a team player. Perhaps that's why he became a goalie: always slightly detached from the rest of the side.
François Mitterand was a goalkeeper (and a dog keeper). I thought he was quite stylish. But a lot of that crowd behind him was foul. Some of them are still there.
Guitou, morality and football are not an oxymoron at all - if they were, no one would bother being scandalised when footballers don't live up to the high moral standards we impose on them.
Zeph, manx cats are not just a local variation, the tail-lessness is the side effect of a genetic mutation that can cause serious health problems (as I found out a few years after I acquired a manx cat).
John Paul II was also a goalkeeper, before he became a priest. I don't know if he was a weird loner type though.
Ah, I didn't know that, Munni. The Japanese have bob-tailed cats but I think the tail is actually longer than a Manx's, so maybe they don't have the same problems.
the vet put it a bit more eloquently, but basically manxes have a shortened spinal column, and this causes their guts to become compressed, which can lead to various problems.
Munni,
agree but,
there is a distinction between our expectation and their behavior.(footballers)
The comments I made were referring to their behavior.
I think Morality it's about behavior and the observation of the principles or values that we expect from them which are not necessary high moral standards-
It's odd how the positions people took on the football field in their youth can be reflected in their later lives. Arthur Scargill, for instance, was a striker. Harold Pinter I believe was a playmaker for his school, and David Cameron was Eton's no.10. I was a sweeper myself.
Guitou, I take your point. Still, I don't think it's quite fair when some of these kids suddenly get lots of money and fame that they're not prepared to handle, and then they're expected to behave like role models ... of course there are also those who really should know better.
Meltonian, very interesting.
Meltonian,
I was offside already.
Actually, I'm so enchanted by the idea of a bob-tailed cat that I'm going to turn Pongo into one. The ears, I can't really do anything about but the tail? That, I can fix...
I remember some 30 years ago in Boston accidentally slamming the flat door on my cat's tail. She howled briefly and I felt like absolute shit.
Her tail hung at a funny sort of angle for a couple of weeks and then, one day, I was running my hand down the length of her, head to tail the way you do and the last 2/3rds of her tail came off in my hand.
She didn't even notice. I guess it had atrophied. It happened at the dinner table and the look on my face had my flatmates in stitches...
Oh, Pongo?...cooo-eee...here boy..through the door....goood cat...
Fate looked kindly on you, Mr Offside. You could have been called Foul. Or Dropped-Ball.
Are you sure that was a cat and not a lizard, Mishari?
Talking of which, David Icke was a goalkeeper.
Mishari, I had a very similar experience with my sister's gerbil. I think I was about 7, and my mother was trying desperately not to laugh.
Gerbils have tails? Who knew?
http://www.messybeast.com/bobtail-cats.html
,
for these who like me didn't have a clue about tailess cats.
Muni I still agree with you about youngsters, the comment was made about football in general-(always scandals and cheating, from Italy, France, Russia to South America or Africa )
btw who is goalkeeper n°2
sorry for anonymus, i didn't mean it
guitou, well if we agree, then I'd better stop arguing.
That messy beast site is fascinating! Rumpy-riser, that's the tail my wondercat has.
I'm off to attend a "festival of futbol and art" later today, I shall report back.
50% of the gerbil is tail. I always tell the butcher to cut them off before weighing-no point in paying for something you're not going to use.
I'd forgotten about David Icke. His son played in goal as well, I think. It must be genetic.
gerbil tail make great tapas.
chopped and fried with garlic and parsley, delicious with a glass of Jerez.
Melton,
in truth, I've been called a lot of things. And not just on the pitch.
muni,
please don't stop, arguing with you it's a privilege
Thanks for the tip, guitou.
I know some people like to eat the skins, but I prefer to cure them and sow them together. Fur inside or fur outside is a matter of choice, but they make excellent thongs.
Melton, it's a shame you missed the heyday of the Pseudscorner blog, you would have fitted right in. No mammal was knowingly left uneaten (in a virtual way).
Zeph,
if you're suggesting Melton would have bee a perfect ****Tapir barbecue chef during our wild Tape Room party, I concurr
Regrets, I've had a few. Missing the opportunity to discuss small or large mammal cuisine will always be among them. The story of my royal dog casserole will remain forever untold.
I've been away, and just trying to catch up. It seems the Tapir is on the menu again. I will always regret bringing the tapir into the taproom. Poor beastie.
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