October 25, 2007

Black Plague

The reason it is called "Black" is because when the victim vomits black vomit, he immediately dies. Black vomit is digested blood. Bubonic Plague (in the stomach) is a hemorrhagic disease. Pneumonic Plague is the same thing but in the lungs. Both caused by the bite of infected fleas.

During the Historical Black Plague in Britain the Maltese cat literally saved Europe from extinction, and now you do not even see the cat on charts you see hanging in veterinarians' offices.

When the Plague first broke out, no one knew what was causing it; finally "they" figured it out: it was fleas carrying the disease. Fleas however had been around for a long time, so what was the problem? "They" also finally figured that one out. It was the cats. The cats? England had bred their cats to such magnificent size and beauty for the show ring they were no longer useful to man for their original purpose of catching, killing and eating vermin.

What had happened was the British feline was no longer able, for one thing, to get into small holes where rats and mice hide. If the cat is so large and lazy to be unable to hunt, the rodents party and proliferate, which, of course means an onslaught of fleas for man to live with. Since the fleas, even now today, carry The Black Plague, man was inundated with the Plague, as it spread like a wildfire unchecked. Remember they did not have bug spray back then, nor cleanliness.

The Maltese Cat is very small; tiny ears; tiny paws; short tail; short legs; short fur the solid color and appearance of a gray rat; somewhat flat face with round, green eyes, with a loving expression to die for. She is an excellent mother, and the most loving, sweetest, kindest companion in the world: a real rodent-killing machine. Some Englishmen went to Malta and brought back a shipload of these "Maltese" cats. No one ever gave them a fancy name, the cat from Malta was too lowly looking, so for centuries she remained just the "Maltese" cat, however, for a short time in history (my mother's time and my youth), the lowly cat, that saved all of Europe, wound up on the American "charts" as the "Maltese Cat". Now she is no longer recognized anywhere, thus the lowly cat, forgotten and scorned, has disappeared from sight and History for ever and ever - she is extinct.