I've never heard of this, but apparently others have:

...as I was about to step out the door, I looked down and there was a dead baby kitten on our mat. The mama cat is wild and has never let us anywhere near her. A couple of hours later my hubby went to take out the trash and there was another dead kitten in the same place. He buried them out in the field. I just went outside for a smoke, and there is another one, that makes three.

My question is, since the mama cat is wild, why would she keep bringing her dead babies and putting them on our doorstep? Is that normal for cats?

So one commenter had a thought, which occurred to me as well:

Mother cats can be clearly seen to actually *care* (emotionally) for their kittens, and will fight to the death to protect them, and will risk death to save them - anybody remember "Scarlet" the fire-cat?

Why this mom-cat would bring her dead kittens to your door... hard to tell. Possibly she thinks that you might be able to bring them back.

Wow. Just realized what a heartbreaking thought *that* is.

Yes. Our cat treats us as her bed and her slaves, but she also knows that ultimately, we have a lot of power over her. So one wonders what they think of us, and just how much power they think we have, should we, in our beneficence, choose to wield it.

I'm convinced that, for both emotional and scientific reasons, we're going to be uplifting cats and other pets to full sentience as soon as it becomes possible to do so. The scientific reason is because this will be the best way to really understand how brains produce intelligence.

Do you mean sentience or sapience? I think they're already sentient, and I'm not sure how one quantifies that to determine when it's "full."

If you want to think about this you need to read David Brins Uplift books, or Judging by your terminology maybe you already have.

Paul

Reminds me of the difference between dogs and cats. We feed, groom, house, and love a dog and the dog thinks, "He must be god." The same to a cat, and the cat thinks, "I must be god."

I'm convinced that, for both emotional and scientific reasons, we're going to be uplifting cats

I am not so comfortable with the idea of a carnivore becoming sapient. I like my cat but you've seen them fool around with their prey? Better include a conscience when you do that.

So, do you consider humans sapient? Because humans would never do that, right?

I am not so comfortable with the idea of a carnivore becoming sapient.

I think the market for more intelligent pets could be enormous. Many people already spend thousands of dollars purchasing and caring for their animals; I can see them spending at least an order of magnitude more for one capable of near-human interaction. Speculative, yes, but the human need it would fulfill is, IMO, a heck of a lot more compelling than suborbital tourism (for example).

So, when the knowledge begins to be available, and the cost of doing the manipulation declines enough, I think it will be done.

(Paul Breed: of course I've read Brin, starting all the way back with 'Sundiver'. :) )

I have had perhaps 100 or more cats in my life, from my birth to present day. The momma cats I have known (the term is queen) generally understand that humans can help. I have had feral pregnant queens adopt me, and leave as soon as the kittens are gone to good homes. I have observed queens grieving for their lost kittens. I suspect that you do indeed have a queen asking for help. Alas that you can't.

This is why I think pets will be the gateway for nanotech cell repair, just as they are for cloning. The "yuck factor" goes away when it's a kitten being created (or saved).

The only reason I would want a sapient cat is so it could clean its own litterbox.

Or, at least you could tell the cat to go back in there and cover their stuff up.

This is a bit of a philosophical downer, I'm gonna watch the SP where the boys develop a tooth faery scam, and Kyle discovers existentionalism (spelling? don't care) get a giggle out of the "what is god" discussion rather than think that it's my fault for breaking the hearts of cats.

I'd be a lot more worried about a sapient Rottwieler than I would about a 10 pound housecat.

There was a feral cat once that had kittens under the house. She had gone hunting, I had blocked her path back, and had put a cage up with food for the kittens. Anyway, when the mother found she couldn't go back to the kittens she screamed. It hardly sound like a cat, it sounded like a grieving woman in ultimate pain. It was one of the most painful things I've heard and I almost let her back - except that I knew it would be better for the kittens this way.

I have had times where both dogs and cats came to me when they were hurt, and it seemed obvious that they thought I could do something to help. Never a feral one, however.

Won't sapient pets open a 30-gallon drum of Fancy Grade nightcrawlers just from the legal standpoint? You'd be creating a whole new class of citizen, something like perpetually dependent children, that would have to have specified legal rights, yet they wouldn't be fully emancipated. Or would they? I'm assuming being unable to talk, not having thumbs, and having short lifespans (a cat goes from birth to old age in the time humans spend in school) would limit their participation in human society. Adopting a sapient pet would be like adopting a child...could pets petition the court for a change of guardianship if they didn't get along with their...er, "owners"? And would they even put up with being second-class citizens? Even if I only have ten good years left, I might prefer to go independent as Tiger's Rodent Control with my own place and checking account... This could be strange!

Won't sapient pets open a 30-gallon drum of Fancy Grade nightcrawlers just from the legal standpoint?

Yes, and animal rights fanatics may even welcome this (and even help bring it about) since it would blur the currently sharp dividing line between us and them.

Charleton Heston warned us what happens when you do this with Apes.....