My cats are controlling my brain!

[milleniumgypsy]

Well, I hope that they aren't. Well, it isn't really the cats though, it's a parasite that the cats have that moves to a different host, rats, but it can also get to us. It makes the rats behave differently so they can get caught by cats easier so the host can complete it's life cycle. Scottie found this link and showed it to me. It was published in Discover, and the link is here (clicky!).
(I could possibly have some rational explanation for this article but Scottie is nibbling on my shoulder and I can't form coherant thought... ...)


... Click the link people!

Comments

[rachelkachel]

*clicks*

...weird. Also slightly frightening, if true.

[invsagoth.livejournal.com]

I am pretty positive that the cat/rat part is true since this isn't the first time I've heard of a parasite altering the behavior of an animal to get to the next host in it's life cycle. I was going to talk about a different parasite that involves snails and birds that I know of (snail basically seems suicical and gets eaten by bird) before I got distracted. The human part is somewhat disturbing though it's plausible! I'm going to be all parinoid when I change my kitty's litterbox now lol. :P

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, that's really neat. It's also heavily featured in Scott Westerfeld's book Peeps, which is a really good read. ^_^

[invsagoth.livejournal.com]

I thought it was neat too. I didn't know it was featured in a book, I'll have to check that out! n.n