Caturday Open Comments: The Closer The Cat, The Happier The Human, Study Finds. PLUS: P-22’s $100m Legacy

Welcome to this week’s Caturday open comments and open topics. This is our second week running posts like this, so if you didn’t join us last week, you’re welcome to comment on anything, suggest stories, talk about your own cats, or describe the many ways in which Buddy is a dapper and diggity diggity dope feline, as DasEFX might say.

P-22’s lasting legacy: the world’s largest wildlife corridor

Three years after his death, the world’s most famous puma’s legacy continues to expand with the construction of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing.

The crossing straddles 10 lanes of US 101 and a local road, stretching 210 feet to link the Santa Monica Mountains ecosystem to the Simi Hills. Along with restoring 13 acres of habitat, the $100 million project provides a safe way for mountain lions and other animals to travel between fragmented habitats.

It also recreates the route P-22 himself took when he migrated from the San Diego area to Los Angeles as a young puma. He settled in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park, an improbable home for a large wild predator, let alone a member of his often wide-ranging species.

The route is extremely perilous for mountain lions, already under threat from habitat fragmentation, hunting and ecological pressures. P-22’s remarkable resilience became the stuff of legend when researchers realized where he was born and the journey he’d taken to his final home.

The puma became iconic in Los Angeles, often appearing on Ring doorball cameras, spotted by hikers on the trails above Hollywood Hills, and even resting in the backyards of homes neighboring Griffith Park. Sightings were frequently posted to socials like Instagram and Facebook, where locals bonded over their admiration for P-22 and the rest of us admired him from afar.

Perhaps the most recognizable photograph of P-22 was the one captured by National Geographic’s Steve Winter, who snapped the striking cat passing in front of the Hollywood sign in the hills at night. (See header image.)

The Wallis Annenberg crossing will be opened on Dec. 2, ushering in a new era for wildlife in California.

Study: Physical proximity to your cat is associated with positive vibes

On the heels of research that found a link between having cats in the home and happiness, a brand new study finds positive mood benefits associated with being physically close to our feline overlords.

In this study, researchers visited cats and their humans in their homes rather than in a laboratory setting. They observed the cat-human interactions, how much time they spend in close proximity, and took urine samples to measure hormonal changes in the humans. Feline proximity was also tracked and logged via small Bluetooth collar attachments.

“I think many cat owners are familiar with the sense of comfort and peace they feel when their cat climbs onto their lap seeking affection, they start to pet it, and the cat begins purring contentedly,” study co-author Saho Takagi said. “Our findings suggest that this feeling may be partly reflected in the hormonal connection between cats and their owners, particularly through oxytocin, a hormone involved in the formation of parent-child bonds and social relationships.”

Since Bud seems to be attached to me by an invisible tether and spends hours each day in direct physical contact – napping in my lap, resting a paw on a leg or arm, sleeping while burrowed up snugly against my side – this study is affirmation of the calming effect the little dude has.

PITB will be operating out of a hotel this week

Or for several days at least. Contractors will be here working on the bathroom and kitchen, and apparently the work is going to put the bathroom out of commission for at least two nights, not the one night as I’d hoped. (Thanks to those who offered suggestions for staying in a hotel with a cat!)

I’ll still be around and hopefully will stick to a regular posting schedule – every other day, or more frequently if there are newsy cat stories that fall within this blog’s remit – but Photoshop is a real Pain In The Bud when using a laptop, I’ve found, so the Budster and I will be reliant entirely on Pexels, Wikimedia Commons (fair use) and that sort of thing. Hopefully Bud lets me work, ’cause I’m not supposed to leave him alone in the hotel room for longer than a few minutes at a time.

Big Buddy has been downgraded

…to The Slightly Larger Buddy. This momentous change is prompted by Little Buddy’s certainty that his growth spurt is imminent and he’s about to blossom into the fierce tiger he’s always known he’ll be.

When that happens, the gulf in Buddy height and weight will be significantly reduced, rendering me Slightly Larger.

Which is fine by me, but what of Little Buddy? Will he be Moderately Sized Buddy? Super Buddy? Buddy In A Transitional State? The latter sounds vaguely culture war-ish, as if Fox News is about to run a story any moment now about the girls Buddy has replaced on the track and field and swimming teams, which of course would be preposterous. He’s too lazy to run and too terrified by water to swim. I could, however, envision him as an accomplished deadlifter. Those huge meowscles would be put to excellent use!