For years I made every Marine in my unit read Shackleton's Journey just because of the mental toughness that was displayed during their hardship. Anyone who can snivel about being cold, hungry or uncomfortable after reading that book is not human. Everytime I was in a situation where life was miserable, I always pictured Shackletons crew and I sucked it up.

As for the cat controversey, everyone is obviously entitled to their own opinion. As a Christian, I know that man was placed above all animals, so I don't look at animals as being "human-like". I've always had pets (not cats) and would not hesitate to put them out of their misery or kill them out of some other need. I only kill animals for food or damage control and I don't expect everyone to get it. More than 80% of the meat my family eats comes from wild game that I kill. To PETA that's unforgivable... to me, that's life.

Semper Fi, George

Indeed! It's occurred to me that we can Learn so Much of Survival, by "just" Watching our Cat!

Be it Survival, Stealth, Concealment, Tracking, Silence, Stalking, and Whatall Others.

A lot of the Benefit of this Exercise, is that it's a Good Way to First get Familiar with the Main Requirements, as Well as the various Chief "Subcategories" of General Survival.

I've been Thinking of sometime Making such a Post, on this Topic. I'm in effect Doing so now. This is a Good Oppurtunity to now Do so.

So "How Does your Cat Do It?!" Watch How it Eats! Or Stretches and Keeps Limber. Curls Up for Warmth. Sleeps. Conserves and Manages it's Energy. Keeps Warm. (It's Fur, Etc) And Dry! Rests. Hides. How they Jump! Their Great Sense of Balance! Their Footing. How they Go About Seeking and Getting it's Food! It's Utter Patience and Intent Watchfulness in Doing so! It'sScratch-Sharpening of it's Claws. It's Caution and Wariness! It's Sense of, and Use of it's of Sense of Smell, certainly Closer to a Dog's than we are! The Way it Sits in a Window or Elsewhere and Watches Things! And Listens for Things and Hears. The Way they Hiss / Pounce / Scratch / and Fight. How and Why they Keep Themselves Clean, and the Healthy Sanitation they Practice regarding their Wastes. Their Silence. Their Laying Low, (Literally and Figureatively), and Not Making Waves or Bothering Anybody. A Large Part of That, is in how They Themselves Don't Want to be Bothered. And On and On! How Does your Cat Do it?!

Or Dog? Along these Same Lines, -How is it Provided For by Other Normal, Often Taken for Granted, Aspects of Life?! Dog?

Or How's it All Provided For around the Average Home?! In other words, -How Does the Home Do It?!

How Do the Locals thruout our World Do It?!

How Do you and Others generally Do It within the Society and Economy? And How Does Society and the Economy as a general Whole, Do It?!

Of course Work or some Service is usually Done, you get Paid some of our Medium of Exchange known as Money. With Which you Go Out on some of your Free Time, to Buy / Obtain Food and Other Neccessities of Life. Or Pay a Rent or Mortgage, Towards Having and Retaining your Shelter! Your Electric, Gas, or Other Means of Warmth! And On and On!

But Just What is All Round Involved here?, -And Just How is it Generally Done? What Survival and Sustenance Items and Practices Do we so Take Care of?, with some of that Societal Money that we Earn? Just What Do We and Animals All Do!?, Towards This? How Do we Go About Doing It?!

Look, Think, and Watch on These Sometime! It's Really Interesting and Intrigueing to Think of!

We can then Tap Into Such, and Apply It! In a Better "Whole Picture" Awareness of Survival and Prep, and of What They Come Down To and are All About!

How Does your Cat Do it?! How is It Done via Other Things in Life?!

These Other (Common Societal) Means for Doing So, -are in a Sense just "Glorified Survival"!

We typically Get our Meat, Fish, Fruit, and Other Food, from a Supermarket or Other Store! Rather than Directly thru Nature and it's Elements. But the Store and Everyone Else Ultimately get their's from Nature and it's Elements! Even if that is via the "Semi-Natural" Means of Agriculture. "Survival Gardening" and Other Subsistence Food Provision, is also Such. So it's by No Means "Contrary" to Survival!

Someone Else somewhere in the Society has Grown It, in a "Favorably Conditioned" Area, for His or Her Own Economic / Survival Interests and Livlihood. It's then been Transported to your Store, by Others also Acting in their Own such Interests. You Do your Thing, and Earn your Buck or Pound. And Go to your Store with such, -Acquire such Food, -Satisfying that Part of your Survival Needs! On and On it Goes! I'll let this Food Example Alone Suffice.

This is Survival Too! This "Non-Survival" type of Survival, is the Glorified, Roundabout, Indirect, Normal Everyday Life sort of "Societal" Survival that I am talking about. It's a Glorified Such!, but Still a Sort of Survival All the Same!

So How Do we typically Go About Doing that?!

Even "Non-Survivors" so Survive!

(The Most Pacifistic Persons in the World!, are Still at Every Moment Fighting a Raging Battle and War!, -How? -Via their Immune System! Quite Ironic! But it's Evermuch So!),

Even Non-Survivors so Survive! -Via this Societal, Economic, Roundabout, and Glorified Form!

A Dancer, via His or Her Talent and Training, and a certain Demand or Market Out there for Their Talent, -Goes Forth Doing that Talent and Love of Their's, Earns Money for It, and then "Store Survives"! It's Still Survival, if it also is Much Non-Survival!

They Run into Trouble!, When the Normal Rug of their Survival Means, Gets occassionally Yanked Out from Under their Feet!

Then it Comes Down to Real Survival! Directly via, and In Accord With, -Nature and it's Elements!

Society Largely has Gotten Cut Off from Nature and the Land!

It'd Do them Well to Get Back into some Basic Touch with it! And Watching a Cat!, is a Good Way to Get some Idea of This! -A Good Way to Start!

It's like those many Country Power Outtages I Experienced when Younger, at the New House my Family Moved into! So What Do you Do when the Power Goes Out?! When the Well Runs Dry?! When the Normal (Societal) Survival Rug gets Pulled Out from Under your Feet?! When *Life's* such Power Outages may Occur!?

I Realize that Life Overall is More than just Survival Alone! We Live to Live! Not just Survive! Life is in the Living! We Dine!, Not just Merely Intake Food! Dining in Life!, while it's certainly In Part such Intake of Food, -is Also Something So Much More! Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone! Etc, Etc! I Do Beleive All of This!

But in Order to Live!, Indeed as a Part of Much of our Living, -We Must First Survive! It's just So Much of the Very Base upon which we Stand!

So I Think that People and Society in General, Shud Get Back in Touch!, with this Awareness!

Stores, Gas Stations, The Roads we Drive, -These are All Examples of our "Survival by Other Means", -Sort of "Power" that could Go Out! -"Extended Survival" This "Extended Form" of Survival is of course Not All It! But it's Slightly Deeper Survival Structure can be Looked At, For Insights into the Real, *Non* Extended Varieties of Survival! For such Times as One's "Extended Survival Power", May Suffer an Outtage!

So How Do we Do This?!, via our Such Indirect Means? Just How Do we typically Go About Doing This?!

Since Many in Society are More Familiar with these More Indirect Means, -Over Direct Survival Means! -This Then may be a Good Place for some to Start! To Start Getting their All Round Survival Awareness Up! It can be a Good Exercise for us More Familiar with Direct Survival, too.

So How Do we Do It?! How Do you Do It?! How Does Society Do It?! The Economy?! How Does your Home Do It?! How Do the Locals in Other Parts of the World Do It?!How Does your Cat, Dog, or Other Pet Do It?!

How is It that All of These?, -Go About their Imperative Task of Survival?! Just How? It can Point a Lot of the Direction we Shud Take!, in Emergencies, Disasters, or in the Wild!

A Cat can be Quite Very Instructive in This! It can Serve as a Very Good Start!

(This is to People in General, Not only to joblot.)

[color:"black"] [/color] [email]joblot[/email]

Heck, I've just enjoyed trying to puzzle out Scott's long and convoluted posts in this whole thread.
You want barbecue sauce or Tabasco with that cat burger? <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I don't want to hear anyone tell me cat tastes like chicken!

Bountyhunter

I don´t think it´s strange to talk about animal welfare and fishing or hunting. Thinking about animal welfare is about respect for other creatures. That does not rule out eating meat. It just rules out senseless killing or cruelty. I think that some respect for animals is neccessary to preserve them.

Nah... more like squirrel <img src="images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Oh!, a rat with a bushy tail.

Yum, yum.

Bountyhunter

I'm not sure if this has already been posted, but I am afraid that all the dogs on the voyage were also shot, and buried. You will have to read the book to understand the situation. Although I am against senseless killing, I completely agree with his decision.

The crew had to abandon the ship and tow the three boats across the ice. There was a danger that at anytime the ice could split up underneath them, sending people and equipment in different directions and into the water. The crew had to be completely ready to abandon the flow and board the boats, something that would have been made much harder, had there been animals present.

It was not as if they had happily shot the animals and carried on, as before with all their comforts. They had all been forced to abandon any equipment not absolutely necessary including all their photos of family and a lot of the food of lesser value. The extra mouths also meant less food per person and extra water would have to be melted for the animals to drink. The crews blubber supplies were very low and they were often forced to eat snow for water.

I hope this sheds some light on the situation.

Amen, -You have said it Very Well!

I would Hate to *Have To* Do it too! But They *Had To!*

As such, they were Not Senseless or Pure Out Cold Blooded Killings. But Rather Very / Perfectly Sense-IBLE, Decisions, in their No Choice Circumstances!

I Think that as Much Resulting Meat / Food Value, Shud Have been Made Use of!, as an Additional Way of Stretching and Conserving Food Supplies.

But from What you and some Others have said in this Thread, -This could have Equalled Too Much Weight and Bulk, to be Carrying! Someone as Shackleton wouldn't have been so Stupid, as to just Let All that Good Food Go to Waste!, for No Good and Pressing Reason!

Heck, This Reminds me of something else! From the Aviation Part of my "Overall Life Onion". -Which is that It's Heartbreaking the Things Balloonists have to sometimes Throw Overboard! -When they Find they've *Got To* Unload some Ballast!, and in a Hurry!

In Survival too!, Such "Weight and Balance" Considerations can be Entirely Life and Death Crucial!

"We Still Love you!, Petty, -But we Just CAN'T Take or Feed you! Thats just the Way it Is!"

In such No Choice / Hard Choice Situations, It could be Best to, in Addition to your Means of killing your Animals being a Quick, Humane death, Go even a Further such Step. This is that this Neccessarily Unfortunate Task could perhaps be Done when a Given Animal is Sleeping.

Finally, I am a Person who's Posted something about the Additional Dogs. But that's Minor and Beside much of the Immeadiate Point. Just said by way of Mention.

I'm probably at least as Foggy on this as you may be. You may also Know Well More on that particular Point.

But in a Recent Shackleton Documentary that I Viewed, (Might Not be the One we're typically Talking About), I Definitely Heard Mention of this, -How They Ended Up *Having To* kill a Lot of their Sled Dogs.

It was a Case of Regrettably *Having To* Do What they Did! NOT of Unneccessarily / Senselessly Doing Wanton, Cold Blooded, or even Bloodthirsty killing of their Animals for it's Own Sake! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ditchfield[/email]