A Wisconsin man said the cat living in the maple tree outside his home has never left the tree in it's entire 7 months of life. It lived solo in the hollow of the tree, about 12 feet up.
The 7-month-old cat was born in a maple tree in Ron Venden's back yard, but when the mother cat moved her kittens from their perch, she left little Almond behind, Venden tells Wisconsin State Journal. Since then, the cat has remained in his treetop home.
Retired carpenter, Ron Venden, 66, has been caring for the cat which he named Almond. Venden climbs on a ladder to check on and feed Almond twice a day, spoiling her with fresh food like meatloaf, salami and fresh milk. He also created a protected straw bed with protective tarp in the tree to protect him from the icy Wisconsin elements, he even set up a dry food feeder for him.
Venden told local newspaper that he had never seen any paw prints in the snow around the tree, and it was confirmed by his relative saying that they had not seen the cat anywhere other than the tree. He tried bringing the cat down several times but Almond resisted and scratched him.
"I want to see how long it stays here," he said, happily petting his tree-bound friend."I kind of enjoy it. Though the neighbors think I'm goofy."
Archeological digs says that oldest dog exist 8,000 years or more but have not scientifically proven until one researcher discovered an ancient bone.
Recently, a University of Maine graduate student named Samuel Belknap III was researching about the diet and nutrition of ancient people who lived in what is now Texas. As he examine human waste, he came across a small bone. He says a carbon-dating test pegged the age of the bone at 9,400 years old. A DNA analysis confirmed it came from a dog. And because it was found deep inside a pie of human excrement and was the characteristic orange-brown color that bone turns when it has passed through the digestive tract. The fragment provides the earliest direct evidence that dogs besides from being used for company, security and hunting were also eaten by humans and may even have been bred as a food source.
From the size of the bone, Belknap figures the dog weighed about 25 to 30 pounds. He also found what he thinks was a bone from a dog foot, but the fragment was too small to be analyzed.
Belknap and other researchers from the University of Maine and the University of Oklahoma's molecular anthropology laboratories, where the DNA analysis was done have written a paper on their findings. The paper has been scientifically reviewed and accepted and to be publish later this year.
This is an important scientific discovery that can tell us not only a lot about the genetic history of dogs but of the interactions between humans and dogs in the past. Dogs have played an important role in human culture for thousands of years and in the present. Truly, dog is man's greatest companion.
January 26, 2011, The American Kennel Club (AKC) announced it's nationwide registration statistics revealing that for the 20th consecutive year.
