Carys Weldon Blog
Monday, June 08, 2009
Cats (can) spread brain parasitesI know most of you are cat lovers. Right now, I have a story in Cup of Comfort for Cat Lovers just for folks like you.
I also have a story in The Ultimate Horse Lover's Guide, too, but that's a topic for another day. (Those are under that other name I go by. Newbies may brouse archives or links to find my g-er-rated side.)
Okay, I'll come clean. My story in CoC for Cat Lovers is called CREEPY CAT and in that I boldly admit I'm really a dog and pony girl. But I have loved many, many cats over the years.
All that aside, I was watching Animal Planet--the channel I choose to leave on for my 3 lb yorkie, Pixie, to watch when I leave her alone. Well, that and Disney. I don't leave AP on if they're doing something scary like Animal Control on Parade or something like that. Those dog catchers are scary. But maybe not as scary as some of those pet owners out there. (There's an x-rated topic there, don't you think? They outlaw nudity and sex--and that's wholly natural behavior and state of being, but they put animal cruelty on g-rated channels--does NOT make sense to me.)
Okay, that wasn't what I wanted to talk about today. I like a blog called NOT EXACTLY ROCKET SCIENCE. You can find it here:
http://notexactlyrocketscience.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/brain-parasite-drives-human-culture/
I learned that cats can spread brain parasites. Now, first let me tell you how I got there today. On AP, we were watching a show with true animal facts and they addressed the "Do earwigs really like to go in human ears, or eat human brains?" I guess it was a rumor...which I had not gotten into the loop of.
I assume you didn't know since you didn't keep me up to date. In case you didn't know, we have a reciprocal relationship here. I post. You post. We all post. The more you post, the more I think about giving away gift certificates and other freebie stuff.
Anyhow, nobody told me that crazy folks actually thought those creepy earwigs crawled into ears. So, the show had me on the edge of my sofa seat, cliff hung for two commercial breaks before they finally said, "No. Not true."
Such a relief! I mean, common sense told me it wasn't true. But common sense doesn't really rule the world. (You knew that, right?)
Anyhow, that show got me thinking about what kind of things might want to eat human brains. Okay, THAT might be partially because I spent the weekend at SoonerCON, a science fiction convention in Oklahoma City. Heckuva lot of fun. I'll probably elaborate on that tomorrow. Suffice it to say there was a lot of zombie talk over the last three days.
Girls wearing ZOMBIE panties and showing them off. Wait, that was at SINNERcon, which was the late night activities that go along with SoonerCON. Yeah, you might want to read up on THAT and show up next year.
So, back to the brain eating bug thing... Trichinosis came to mind. You know, the kind of worms that live in meats that are not cooked well enough, and more often than not in pigs, of all the critters out there.
I also thought about MAD COW disease which, we all know, is a brain thing.
So, I typed into a search box on the net, "Parasites in human brains." And there I got pointed directly to NOT EXACTLY ROCKET SCIENCE where I learned about the THING that cats may carry.
Vaguely, somewhere in the back of my mind, I had heard about "Pregnant women should NOT clean cat boxes." And I believe this is a warning all people should know about. Just google for more of the WHY NOTS.
Anyhow, because I am NOT a rocket scientist, and know (no offense here) that some of you aren't either, I thought you'd like to read a blog which assumes we need informed on a few points. And I did, so...yay for the blogger who created the informative piece.
And I'll just creep back out of my blog here, where I generally post nothing of value to the human race and point you to something that might keep your brain from being eaten. Go. Please. We do NOT need more zombies in this world. We have enough braindeads walking around.
(She says as she actually goes to eat a pretty rare piece of steak.) If I sound like I've had something eating my brain, it's probably whatever's in steak that doesn't get fully cooked.
Ah, great. I just realized I have a totally reasonable excuse for being sort of a mad cow.
Great. Just great.
Wait. Is that good to know I have an excuse for my insanity, or not?
Labels: brain, cats, dead bodies, earwigs, insanity, mad cow, parasites, rocket science, zombies
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