5 thoughts on “May 13th”

1. Hairballs and Hissyfits 14 May 2018 at 19 h 11 min

   wow I never knew Paris had so many stray cats! I am not sure if I have ever seen one in Paris. I love the description of alley cats – here we call them stray cats or feral

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   1. Le Maitre de Frimousse Post author15 May 2018 at 9 h 39 min

      J’ai cherché comment traduire “chat de gouttière”. Une gouttière c’est le conduit d’évacuation d’eau du toit. En fait un chat de gouttière c’est l’équivalent, pour un chat, de bâtard pour un chien. Mais ça signifie aussi un chat qui n’a pas de race définie.
      Un chat haret c’est un chat domestique qui est devenu sauvage. Rien à voir avec le chat sauvage d’Europe qui n’est pas apparenté au chat domestique, qui descend du chat sauvage africain.
      Le chat de gouttière de la photo est un chat des rues, comme les chats des Aristochats.

      I didn’t know how to translate “chat de gouttière”. “Une gouttière” is a gutter, the exhaust pipe that brings down the water from the roof. In fact “un chat de gouttière” is the equivalent, for a cat, of mongrel for a dog. That also means a cat that is not purebred. But now we often say “chat européen”.
      “Un chat haret” is a domestic cat that became “wild”. Nothing to do with the wildcat “chat sauvage” of Europe that is not related to the domestic cat, whose origin is the African wildcat.
      The ordinary cat of the photo is “un chat des rues” (that is why I used the word ‘alley’), as cats in the Aristocats.
      Therefore there are about 80000 stray cats in Paris…
      (Doesn’t ‘feral’ mean ‘fierce’, ‘dangerous’? Those cats are not!)
      …
      I’ve answered your comment in French too in case some visitors are interested.

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      1. Hairballs and Hissyfits 17 May 2018 at 2 h 27 min

         Thanks for the info! We don’t really have so many different definitions for cats in English! Feral does mean dangerous but has just come to mean a cat that has never lived in a home and was born wild. Stray is even more general–it can mean feral or a cat that was once a house cat but now lives in the street!

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         1. Le Maitre de Frimousse Post author17 May 2018 at 9 h 55 min

            

            Thanks for this info.
            The photo shows… “un chat sauvage”, a wildcat.
            But does this cat look very different from one of our kitties? Or one of those “chats harets”, your stray cats?
            A wildcat is a protected species. Domestic cats are not on the list of huntable species. But “chats harets” are!
            Therefore hunters that are fond of shooting will shoot cats in the forest or in the fields , whether they are wildcats, domrestic cats or stray cats.
            In case of someone makes a complaint, the lobby of Hunters (*) is so powerful that no one is ever prosecuted!

            (*) That’s our NRA!

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            1. Hairballs and Hissyfits 24 May 2018 at 1 h 26 min

               Terrible about what hunters will do! I am not sure but maybe those wild cats are like our feral cats!

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