Journal of Matters Relating to Felines - Autumn 2019

The Ghost of Our Woodland A wildcat mother comforts her kittens upon a bed of packed grass sheltered by the thorns, flowers and berries from within a lattice of bramble repeating endlessly into the forest. In search of food, she leaves her young in pursuit of game, weaving through the royal-crested ferns to scale a cascade of moss-eaten rocks to a summit. Her fur, lit by the pale morning sun, is a painting of ochre and cream. Her eyes filled with the verdant green of the alpine wilderness. The Scottish wildcat stands upon this existential precipice to be pushed to its death by the invisible hand.

It is a necessity that I preface this article with an explanation of the historical and anatomical differences between the Scottish wildcat, Felis silvestris, and the common household cat, Felis catus. The Scottish wildcat is a beast wholly unto itself and can be in no means compared to the domestic shorthair. Unlike our sweet, docile tabbies who live a state of perpetual repose by the fireplace or upon a cushioned sofa, the Scottish wildcat has been carved, from its inception, by the biting winds of the adversity and conditioned by merciless rule of natural law. These very different environmental pressures have produced two very different felines. The domestic cat has thinner, shedding fur, owing to desert-origin, compared to the silvestris’ fur thickened for insulation against the showers and hail granted from our Scottish climate. Wildcats are equipped with both longer legs and broader paws for rambling over mountainous terrain and typically a quarter larger in overall size, with an average female specimen being of equal size to a male domestic shorthair. Our bewhiskered pets possess a tapered, ribbon-like tail that are out-flanked by the wildcat tail; thick, bushy and enringed with black until its end as though it has been dipped into ink. The eye of the domestic cat embodies the various colours of cut gems; the wildcat eye is only of polished emerald.

The wildcat had embarked on its evolutionary path of liberty and adventure over nine-thousand years ago following the deglaciation period of the last Ice Age, supported by remains dated to 9600 to 10050BC in Thatcham in Berkshire corresponding to the time of forest reestablishment in the South of England. This new, unexplored land, recaptured from the retreating ice, beckoned a mass migration of animals to such an extent that this unoccupied isle was suddenly the host of a complex ecosystem, with the wildcat being one of the carnivoran fauna to make enormous gains the wars of succession over the entire island.

If this powerful, sly and skilful animal gifted with a brave heart and adventurous spirit had such a brilliant start, then why are they seemingly absent from our ecosystem? James Ritchie, Scottish naturalist, writes in ‘The Influence of Man on Animal Life in Scotland’, ‘At a time not very remote, [the wildcat] roamed the whole of the mainland, and in earlier days, even found a home on the islands…’ Mr Ritchie then provides a timeline of a century of death that obliterated the population of our national felines, motivated chiefly from the protection of livestock and gamebirds following centuries of deforestation.

The presence of the wildcat has been absent long from the centres of urban development, the cities and suburbs, housing our populations stretching across the central belt of the country. Yet, in the wilds of the surrounding areas and the provincial districts of Scotland, the wildcat had established a period of societal cohabitation to bestow nomenclature upon a variety of local sites once harbouring its presence. This is the case for the land north of the Solway Firth of Dumfries and Galloway which has in its possession places titled as ‘Wild Cat Wood’ and ‘Wildcat Craig’. In Berwickshire remains the legacy of the Felis silvestris with locations under the name of Wulcatt Yett, Cat-Leeburn, and Cat-Cleugh in Roxburghshire.

In 1830, the wildcat was ousted from the border counties north of the Solway Firth, with the final one killed in Berwickshire in 1849. Moving from the far lowlands and north of the central valley of Scotland, the forests at the mouth of the Moray firth fell silent of wildcat mewing in 1830 and 1842 being the death date for Stirlingshire wildcats, with the final two souls of Kincardineshire wildcats joining their fallen feline kin in 1850. The Don Valley eradicated the wildcat in 1862 with Glen Tanar extinguishing their feline flame in 1875. A decade of wildcat persecution from 1776 to 1786 by Braemar parishes resulted in the deaths of 44 wildcats. Far from the light of man within Scotland’s areas of heavy forest cover, the wildcat found no refuge; the trapping and subsequent death of a wildcat in 1857 ended the Perthshire breed; the removal of the last wildcat from Loch Awe occurred in 1864 and with Inverness-shire losing the Felis silvestris in 1873. James Ritchie writes, ‘…and now they have been exterminated throughout the whole of that mountainous country, even to the wilds of Rannoch.’ These efforts were not undertaken by the process of accident and error, but by active encouragement from landed gentry. Financial rewards were offered in exchange for wildcat heads on the estate of the Duchess of Sutherland, culminating in the mass killing of 901 animals divided between wildcats, pine martens and other woodland inhabitants. James Ritchie finishes this sobering chapter with a morose conclusion, ‘…the Wildcat in Scotland has proceeded rapidly on the path to extermination and there is little likelihood of it ever regaining lost ground…’

Writing in 1920, James Ritchie composed the book without the knowledge about the approaching land reforms that would grip our country and the monumental effect this reformation would have for wildcat populations. The creation of the Forestry Commission saw the replanting of thousands of woodland acres which increased the coverage of land suitable for accommodating the wildcat. The economic fallout from the First World War caused the decline of hunting as a pastime which lessened the demand for strict control and protective provisions being placed upon the game to shield them from the claws of our ferocious predator. Combined, these developments caused a rebirthing of wildcat numbers to levels unseen for centuries. It very much was a proliferation of feline life, with these apex predators regaining ground as far south as the central belt, where they reigned at healthy levels for three decades spanning the 1950s to the 1980s, according to field studies concluded in 1991 by Nigel Easterbee.

Again, the same question must be asked; if there was such a success story, why is our land bereft of wildcats? Despite their population explosion, there was a lack of account for the influence posed by the domestic shorthairs now present in the country in ever-greater numbers. In the age of the glacier with its infinite winter, the Felis catus was not even in existence, with its Egyptian ancestors not to court the hearts of humans for at least 5000 years after Felis silvestris set their green eyes towards the white of Dover. The tabby arrived on these pebbled shores in the Iron Age at the earliest period, shown from a 1979 discovery of kitten bones at an archaeological site by Robert Harcourt in Dorset. A consequence of clearing the forests during that same historical chapter was the retreating of the wildcat to the sparsely-populated regions of this island along with its gradual drop in numbers. The future expansions in the industries of agriculture and of urbanisation led to an increase

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demand and proliferation of the numbers of imported domestic shorthairs for animate pest control. It is a tale of two populations going in different directions; one shrinking and one growing. The wildcat, upon bouncing back from the brink of extinction, had landed softly in the genetic material of the domestic. A natural, but an inevitable drawback. The genetic pool of the domestic shorthair is far too great for the recovering wildcats to not misstep in.

Despite being the root cause of wildcats’ devastation, persecution of the medieval and Victorian variety appears to have been left in those bygone times. It is totally unthinkable in our society to permit the hunting of critically endangered animals and a scandalous uproar is generated when even common species are targets of pleasureful hunting or culling campaigns. From my own personal research, I have not found a single example of even a trap clasping its steel jaws around the limbs of a wildcat. With their sightings being seldom, there would be no economic motivation for huntsmen to venture off in into the commanding highland landscape to spend days in search for such an elusive creature.

Incidents of wildcat hunting appears to be confined solely to the history books and it would be futile to engage in campaigns against it.

In actuality, it is the embrace of the Felis catus that has led to the Felis silvestris’ peril. This genetic dissolution is not the only way our household pets endanger the wildcat, but the domestic shorthairs themselves acting as a vector of disease. Similar to the Europeans arriving upon the American continent, with their mere presence being a bioterrorist threat to the native populations, the contact of wild and domestic cats exposes the Felis silvestris, the possessor of the weaker immune system, to feline leukaemia and feline HIV of which they have no natural defence. The populations of the old world had survived the throes of the black death which by the time it had naturalised within the European immune systems when contact was made with the civilisations of the Americas who had no prior experience. This is comparable to the wild and domestic cat disease-transfer occurring when they meet. The Felis catus lived a pliable existence accompanying humans throughout history, experiencing an armoury of disease and the poverty from within pestilence festers. These unfortunate circumstances had pressured their species to develop an appropriately robust immunology to lay waste to very same micro-organisms that now cripple the Felis silvestris, who is experiencing these outbreaks for the first time after a history of immersion within the pristine gales, the lucid stream and the scented flowers of the mountain.

The situation of genetic absorption has worsened to such an extent that the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Cat Specialist Group had released a 2019 report ruling that Scottish wildcats live in a state of natural unviability, with the final survivors exhibiting evident degrees of hybridisation after crossing with feral domestic cat species. Pet Food Manufacturers Association provided a 2016 estimation of 17% of British households live with a cat and the national number population of domestic cats reaching 590, 000 domestic cats in Scotland alone.

Thirty wildcats dotted throughout the wilds of the highlands pale in comparison.

Another pressure we can now turn our attention to is the deforestation of the Scottish wildcats’ last remaining habitats for the purpose of enterprise. Aberdeenshire is home to the wildcat haven, Clashindarroch Forest. A conservation group sharing the saccharine title, Wildcat Haven, undertakes the support and encouragement of wildcat populations living there. From their camera footage, the group is able to champion that this forest is home to over a third of the last-remaining pure Scottish wildcats, counting thirteen cats in total. Each specimen is held to especially strict standards of purity set by Wildcat Haven themselves as to not muddy the waters with the inclusion of part-domestic individuals, so their judgement is to be weighted in gold. However, despite the presence of a fertile, viable wildcat population clustered amongst the wilds of Aberdeen, the reaction from the Scottish government and other appropriate authorities could not have been more placid.

The Felis silvestris has been left out in the cold winds of indifference, with the prioritising of commerce over our national cat. Forestry Enterprise Scotland, indirectly operated by the Scottish Government, manages Clashindarroch and has overseen the development of a skiing operation, interlocking trails, and logging operations with continual tree felling to supply the softwood market. A webpage operated by the Forestry and Land Commission states that Clashindarroch is ‘Best known for its cross-country ski trails’ with immediate contradiction by the surrounding wildcat headlines and imagery furnishing the rest of the accompanying results. This same webpage makes no reference to the wildcats in any way shape or form or even an attempt to package their presence under the guise of a tourist experience.

The Forestry Commission’s strategy of conscience omission failed following the outcry generated by a Change.org petition that shone a light onto the expense of the forest’s feline residents caused by the commercial pursuits occurring in Clashindarroch Forest and the subsequent mediastorm occurring thereafter. The Forestry Commission then created a blog entry on another arm of their website addressing this outrage and negative press. The entry acknowledges the presence of the logging operations and states that Clashindarroch is a ‘sustainable working forest’ and that the wildcats ‘can move to a quiet place’. The Commission continues on to say logging that is currently underwent within Clashindarroch Forest involves only one percent of the forest itself and that the process of tree-felling provides food for the cats with the debris housing voles and mice on which they can feast. Wildcat Haven hit back at these platitudes insinuating that that the commission has, within a long-term plan, a desire to see 60% of the forest felled in the next two decades. Wildcat Haven have stated that such action would cause copious amounts of distress to the wildcats which can have devastating behavioural effects like kitten abandonment, which would render such commercial activity illegal, as outlined by Scottish Natural Heritage, a public institution which is supposed to act as the guardian of Scotland’s natural world.

This may just be a typical spat between a collection of companies hungry for profit and ever-suspicious ecology campaigners, but I do believe that there is a kernel of truth contained within Wildcat Haven’s accusations of ever-encroaching demands by the Forestry Commission.

‘Scotland's Forestry Strategy 2019–2029’, published by the Scottish Government, who, I repeat, operate that same Forestry Commission permitting the commercialisation of Clashindarroch Forest, provides a list of the number of both animate and botanic life they propose to have distinct association with the Scottish forests, ‘257 moths, 177 vascular plants, 172 lichen, 77 bryophytes, 59 birds, 6 bats’. There is no mention of the wildcat. An animal that this country has been the only possessor of for hundreds of years, with its name even being typically prefaced with ‘Scottish’, fails to be included in a list for animals distinctly endemic to the forests of Scotland. This absence stirs only suspicion within me, which is heightened following a reveal from a freedom-of-information request made by Wildcat Haven against the Forestry Commission. This statement was sent by John Thompson, Forestry Commission district manager, to senior Forestry Commission Scotland staff: "We have two very significantly-scaled wind farm proposals in the pipeline for Clashindarroch... they are probably below the radar for most at the moment. Significant clearfelling is likely... I will be surprised if the presence of Scottish wildcat does not become a significant issue. I flag this simply to ensure that we do not create any hostages to fortune regarding the scale of our felling operations."

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The last remaining bastion of wildcat presence is now under siege for the pursuit of wealth, with Thompson referring to these innocent felines are ‘hostages to fortune’. We find ourselves at a crosspoint regarding the fate of these wonderful beings. The first is to allow the wildcats to simply die out and accept a hard truth against insurmountable odds. I understand that it will be a monumental undertaking, but nothing worth doing is easy. History is on our side. Wildcat populations rose from the grave just over a century ago despite an atmosphere of despondence preceding the advent of their proliferation. From the abyss, wildcat numbers flourished and were able to thrive as a valued part with a prominent role in the landscape of the Scottish nation as reward for the concentrated effort by multiple institutions. It happened and, in theory, can be repeated.

Baring my heart, I must confess that I am having an incredibly difficult time envisioning a future for our wildcats. This chance of another revival has already been tried and, unfortunately, is looking to end in failure. The Scottish Wildcat Conservation Action plan is project begun in 2013 and, according to the booklet available on the Scottish Natural Heritage website, has the principle aim of its terminal year of 2019 to secure ‘…at least five stable populations of Scottish wildcat in the wild.’ Referencing the statement released this same year, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s branded of Scottish wildcats as a lost cause, it can be concluded that the project has been ineffective in halting the demise of the Felis silvestris. I had written to Scottish Natural Heritage to discuss the plan and the problems that prevented it from achieving its primary goal. I received the following response from Martin Gaywood, Species Project Manager, who informed me that in light of this pessimistic classification, the Scottish Wildcat Conservation Action plan has embarked on a new path: ‘‘A main focus of the SWA [Scottish Wildcat Action] work was an assessment of the status and quality of wildcats in the ‘Priority Areas’ and more widely. It was this data that the IUCN [International Union of the Conservation of Nature] Cat Specialist Group used for their review, and which highlighted the poor status of the resident, wild population. As a result, we have switched the focus of new activities from in situ conservation of wild-living cats, to working with partners on a new programme of ex situ conservation breeding and the release of animals in a prepared site (most likely the Cairngorms Connect area). The aim will be to try to re-establish a viable population, which will serve as a foundation for future phases of restoration work. This immediate, new phase (called SWAforLIFE) is expected to start autumn 2019 and will run until 2025 At the moment the SWA project team and partners are working hard on the final reporting for the SWA process, due to be completed March 2020. This will then link and feed into the new SWAforLIFE phase of work which it will slightly overlap with.’’

This breeding-release programme will not be without limitation. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature continued that the only way these wild populations could become sustainable is through population augmentation with more wild specimens, either from captive breeding programmes like Gaywood has stated or by the importation of wildcats from the European continent. The first method faces common issues typical of ‘captive raising to wild release’ arrangements such as the difficulty involved in keeping the spirit of the animal untamed and unsoftened by human influence, along with the uphill struggle that these individuals face upon their immediate release; adapting to a wholly wild and unconstrained environment that is never truly replicable in captivity. The latter method is held down by a problem specific to the Felis silvestris. Since the post-Ice Age deluge that filled the English Channel and thus permanently flooding the continental land bridge, the wildcats present in Scotland have adapted to our specific ecosystem with its own environmental pressures, meaning that any of its continental cousins arriving in the country will fail to seamlessly weave themselves into our ecosystem. In any event, the same hybridisation will occur again unless the feral wildcat populations are addressed. Another burgeoning wildcat population would meld with the omnipresent hordes of the domestic cat.

Critics to wildcat re-establishment plans would rightfully draw attention to this. Why waste public funds if they eventually face genetic dissolution? A common suggestion is to secure the wildcat as an animal of natural liberty and freedom is a state-backed campaign promoting responsible feline ownership. A campaign ‘Is Your Cat A Supercat?’ was launched by species preservation group, Scottish Wildcat Action, in 2017, aiming to encourage the uptake of procedures such as micro-chipping, neutering and vaccination and their application to household cats.

Roo Campbell, Priority Areas Manager for the group, explained the reasoning for the campaign: “If all domestic cats were Supercats, it would give wildcats the best chance of survival. We know a few wildcats are still out there, but they face serious threats. To increase their numbers, it’s really important that they have more wildcat kittens and not the hybrid kittens born from mating with domestic cats.”

In spite of the good intent behind such a campaign, we only have to look towards Australia to see why a similar programme, Catch-NeuterRelease, CNR, is a wholly futile effort that fails to yield palpable results. Throughout the centuries following the Australian introduction of the domestic shorthair in the 1700s, cat populations have grown like a frenzied plant; constricting all other life present on the enormous island, with estimations that the feline removes two billion animals from the Australian ecosystem each year. This is an annual natural disaster which shows no signs of slowing and had prompted investigation into finding a solution. CNR programmes were discarded shortly into discussions for several reasons.

Viability of CNR programmes is thoroughly disproven by Felicia Nutter’s study, ‘Evaluation of a Trap-Neuter-Return Management Program for Feral Cat Colonies: Population Dynamics, Home Ranges, and Potentially Zoonotic Diseases’, on the basis of practicality. The population density of Scotland is sixty-five people per square-kilometre, but in the parched flatlands of Australia, this drops to three. There is no viable way for all of the free-roaming cats to be caught considering the sparse coverage of people living in that country. Human resources are stretched too thin across to large a surface area for effective collectivized efforts of feline pest control. She had also found that the minimum rate of neutering to induce population decline within feral cat populations was 80%, meaning that if such a programme was to be institutionalised, an extremely rigorous operation with extraordinary discipline would be required to achieve sterilisation of eighty cats out of every lot of one-hundred. The futility in using CNR programmes is emphasised when the high sterilisation rate is only effective on the condition that no additional cats are admitted into the population. This can occur incredibly easily through lost pets who eventually come to join these vagrant cat communes and, if unneutered, nullify all progress of the programme. Cats breed multiple times throughout the year, resulting in the mother-cat birthing a sizable kitten litter each time. The cost of CNR campaigns is compounded by another finding of Nutter’s study being the necessity of repeated vaccinations that are continually required to replete a cat’s immunity to disease. Feral cats are rarely recaptured, ultimately causing the regulation of disease resistance under these programmes to be a vain effort, with the added cost of a single round of vaccinations amounting to nothing. Confining Catch-Neuter-Release programmes to irrelevancy was the discovery that even with these unrealistically fortunate and theoretical conditions, the feral cat populations would finally reach extinction at the end of a thirteen-year period. Remembering Australia’s aim of ecological conservation, this wait, in excess of a decade, simply cannot be accepted. These conclusions would be met by us here in Scotland.

Yes, we have a higher population distribution which may influence the success of a CNR programme, but I remind you that there are now less

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than thirty wildcats roaming our highlands. The Felis silvestris needs immediate assistance with no delay. Resigning plans to create a CNR plan, we would then have to follow Australia’s lead in feral feline management with the adoption of lethal measures.

The deadly stratagem used in Australia is a sausage envenomed with chemicals derived from plantlife native to the Australian environment. This method is proving a success, with consumption of the bait by the wildlife having no ill effect due to the million-year evolutionary fencing match between the Australian fauna and the flora. Being a newcomer to that part of the world, the domestic cat possesses no natural immunity to the botanical poisons and promptly succumb to unconsciousness before death. Unfortunately, these measures fail in being a solution for our predicament. The aims for both situations are fundamentally different. In Australia, the aim is the indiscriminate killing of feral cats, as each individual feline has the propensity to kill hundreds of native faunae. Here in Scotland, our aim involves the conscience separation between wild and domestic cat, the veneration of one and the vilification of the other. The same biosynthetic evolutionary path is shared by both the wildcat and the domestic. Bait infused with any toxin would cause the mortal end for either species. This is without mentioning the huge amounts of pushback from the public and interest groups from across the political spectrum which would be incensed by the decision to kill live, but innocent, animals with a profile of being a loving pet. Such outcry is even deafening in Australia, where the campaign can arguably easier to understand and support. The context of Scottish wildcat preservation is based on much shakier ground, with the main propositional argument being notions of tradition and appeals to emotion.

In the event of wildcat population transplantation or the introduction of breeding programmes elsewhere on this island, the dilution of the wildcat would still persist. Such plans are being put forward in Cornwall and Devon with the rationale being that the wildcats can live well amongst hedgerows and the edge of farmers’ fields. I completely reject this project. Addressing the arguments that wildcats can live near farms, farmers typically employ several mouser-cats to control rodent populations. These cats will inevitably mate with the introduced wildcats.

Mousers are scarcely neutered early in life, the reasoning being that if a cat is efficient in catching mice, the farmer will breed that same cat to ensure a second generation of skilful mouse-hunters. If all farmland cats were neutered the breeding for cats with an affinity for hunting an impossibility which is why I believe any law of mandatory neutering for cats in areas undergoing wildcat reintroductions would never be accepted. Not only is there short-sightedness present in the proposal of a Cornish-Devon wildcat programme, a Pet Food Manufacturers Association report, ‘Cat Population Detail 2016’, labelled the South-Western region as having the highest rate of household cats compared to anywhere else in the United Kingdom. The entire project is doomed to failure and, if greenlit, will be colossal waste of resources.

Coming naturally like the moon eclipsing the sun, this combination of dwindling numbers, commercial pursuit and hybridisation are immovable obstacles blocking the wildcats’ future. I propose a new direction for their future. We must accept our failure in conserving our feline species and begin efforts to make the best of this horrid situation. There are two options that we can take as a national pursuit. The first is a compromise between the desires to retain the living specimen of the Felis silvestris and the contemporary world where it finds itself. This is the creation of a new domestic breed of cat, the ‘Silvestris’; a scientific blend of cats both wild and domestic, crafted by the skilful hands of expert cat-fanciers. I have highlighted how hybridisation is the main diagnosis of death for our wildcats. For this to happen, viable offspring must be being produced by these mixed pairings proving that the endeavour of breed creation is viable. Also, it is not too late for the project either, as despite there only being thirty pure wildcats living free in the country today, there are hundreds being bred in captivity. These captive wildcats serve as a deep reservoir of genetic information for use in the synthesis of this Silvestris breed. With cross-collaborative agreement on the impending death of the wildcat’s traditional image of a moving shadow of the forest, a new breed can be created to stand by the side of the Scottish Fold on the podium of recognised Scottish cat breeds.

My proposal of the Silvestris breed of domestic cat is a proven possibility and not an unrealistic dream. Establishment of a cat breed hybridised between wild and domestic cats has been done before with the Bengal breed and its history can be replicated for the development of a domestic cat painted from the genes of the Felis silvestris. The Bengal is a cat experiencing great popularity, owing to its zest for life, attentiveness, and lithe form enmarbled with black and gold, coated in a pearlescent sheen. The origins of this breed can be traced back to 1970s America, where a woman, Jean Mill, had ownership over both a standard black domestic-shorthair and an Asian leopard-cat brought out from within the jungles of Southern Asia. To her surprise they produced kittens, who captured the attention of pastime feline-fancier, William Engler. From the love between an Asian leopard-cat and his harem of domestic shorthairs, sixty Bengal kittens where born by 1975. In the 1980s, Mill adopted these kittens, resuming the breeding of those with the paired gifts of a leopard coat and a domesticated temperament. Finally recognized in 1983 by the United States of America’s ultimate authority on all things feline, The International Cat Association, the breed was further established by Mill’s financial efforts and appeals to breeders.

A welcome surprise during the Bengal’s breeding programme was the appearance of a pearl lustre upon its fur. The Bengal is the only cat in possession of this ethereal phenotypical trait and shows the potential for the innumerable features that may reveal themselves is the Felis silvestris were to be admitted into a domestication programme. This is a real possibility, considering Hannah O’Reagan’s and Andrew Kitchener’s scientific study into the effects of fox farming upon the zoomorphic character of the red fox, Vulpes vulpes. They had found that unusual fur colour, morphology and behaviour, absent from the fox’s wild history, had manifested within the descending litters, concluding: ‘‘The rate of change in the morphological traits of red foxes resulting from artificial selection carried out on fur farms considerably exceeds the rate of change resulting from natural selection… Long-term artificial selection aiming at genetic improvement of traits related to fur quality, animal size, and pelt length has led to the increasing differences in terms of the exterior and body dimensions between the farm foxes and their wild ancestors… Some behavioral and morphological changes (elongation of the lower jaw, elongation of face skull, widened skulls, shortened snouts, floppy ears, curly tails, emotional expression of positive responses to human) appeared together with delayed development of normal traits in domesticated silver fox.’’

Following the story of the Bengal, whose form and beauty still elicits the wilds of Capricorn, this Silvestris breed would reflect its highland heritage. Ideally, the breed would still retain an overwhelming likeness to the Scottish wildcat, being a complete mirror image with its larger, muscular body wearing a thick fur coat styled with striped ochre tones and its club-shaped tail. This authentic wildcat image would be perfectly complemented with the amicable temperament brought forth from the breeds domestic heritage during the breeding process. This history of the Bengal can be easily mirrored with the creation of a domestic hybrid merged with genetic fabric of the Scottish wildcat.

Safety concerns will flare up from the prospect of using the Scottish wildcat as a blueprint for a new domestic cat breed. They have remained fully wild animals spending their earthly history as a solitary apex-predator. The general public will understandably assume that the presence of

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‘wild’ blood in its veins would induce distemperment, rendering the cats unsuitable for cohabitation and a considerable danger to pets and people alike. These concerns can be put to rest with the Bengal cat breed leading by example. Descending from the jungle, it would be expected that its breed profiles would be prefaced with warnings. However, fine genetic-tuning has instilled a delightful mindset remote from any wild beast, shown by the following description provided by the Governing Council of Cat Fancy of Britain: ‘‘Bengals make wonderful pets. They are very adaptable and are just as happy as a devoted companion to a single person as they are as a family pet. They are highly intelligent, alert, curious and lively and will play like kittens into old age. … Bengals are affectionate cats and enjoy human company.’’

It would be unreasonable to suggest that this Silvestris breed would be a docile lap-cat, but I do not believe that a cat being lively is a negative.

In dog breeding, there exists a classification of ‘working’ dog hallmarked by high intelligence, attentiveness and boundless energy. Ownership of this type is usually confined to the countryside or by those in possession of great stretches of land or copious amounts of free time in order to placate the dogs’ physical and cognitive demands. There is no issue when some dog breeds are seen as appropriate for certain living arrangements and inappropriate for others due to their biological make-up. Why is a placid, soft demeanour thought of as the only disposition suitable for a cat? Different breeds of animal have different requirements and there is nothing wrong with this, whether the animal happens to be feline or canine. A domestic breed of predominant wildcat heritage can simply be classed as a ‘country’ breed of cat with recommended living requirements like those of most working dog breeds.

There is one fate we have not addressed. Let us assume the mind of a pessimist and envision a future where my domestication proposals are rejected and there was no funnelling of resources to stop the erasure of the wildcat from our national bestiary. In this tragic timeline, I suggest that the entirety of the Scottish nation enters a state of mourning and begins a year of wildcat commemoration. The purposes of a commemorative year would be the admission of our collective failure to safeguard the existence of our feline species, over whom we should have fulfilled our role as their benevolent caretaker. We have been the only country on this windswept isle with the wildcat on our land and must bear full responsibility in accepting our incompetence and indifference along with accounting for our historical maltreatment towards these innocent cats. During the commemoration, we will effectively aim to right the wrongs of our history in relevance to the Felis silvestris. The commemoration would involve the open display of feline imagery in the form of statues, embellishments to buildings, real open affection and celebration of the Scottish wildcat from all the houses of our society with the full endorsement from the Scottish government. Every town and city should be festooned with the feline form of the Scottish wildcat, engraved upon building facades, the construction of murals, and the erection of statues of gold and bronze to mark the passing of this great feline race.

As a nation, our greed and disinterest has sentenced the Scottish wildcat to its death through homelessness and genetic atomisation. Like the fading crescent moon, the Felis silvestris is waning. We can no longer entertain fantasises of an ever-perfect future were nothing goes wrong, that the wildcats’ will suddenly escape, unscathed, from their impending demise to live on stronger than ever. There is no public appetite for real ecological conservation or desire to supply the demands such campaigns command. The options that remain are either incredibly demanding of money, time, resources, exhibit deep unpopularity, are ethically ambiguous or tragically morbid. Yet, this situation was borne from our decades-long deferment of action which caused all the other preferable scenarios to crumble away. For this, our national consciousness deserves to be inflicted with hauntings of great guilt and even greater shame. These options, as difficult as they are to choose, are the final chance for us to save these wildcats in their existential struggle, as if we were to breathe into glowing embers to give life to a hot and vigorous fire. For centuries we have witnessed the wildcats existing as orbs of soft, glowing light on the edge of the faded horizon and banished to the far reaches of our minds. Now, their luminous ghosts stand before us, urging action.

Composed by, Maurice Alexander, Undergraduate of Business Management

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Into The Wild Bulgaria, a country highly influenced by the socialist regime and now one of the newcomers in the European Union since 2007, is a place far from flawless when it comes to stray animal policies. Other parts of Eastern Europe have, indeed, a similar situation. However, it can be suggested that Bulgaria is one of the most hostile places for street animals in Europe. According to Sofia Globe there were 7032 stray cats in Plovdiv, which is the second largest city in the country with a population of 346,893 residents. The same source reported that there has been a decrease in their number since 2015 when they were 8646. Nevertheless, the issue remains unresolved. And the question we need to ask ourselves is why is this the case?

There are different factors which have led to the creation of this problem. And what I mean by ‘problem’ is not stray animals’ existence. It is the fact that their continuous reproduction leads to them multiplying. This, frankly, results in seeing more feral cats and stray dogs dying of starvation, the unbearable temperatures during the harsh winters, the summer heat and lack of water or people’s cruelty and negligence.

Furthermore, the Bulgarian government is not paying enough, if not any, attention to this situation. At the same time various non-governmental organisations such as Four Paws and Help Bulgaria Cats and Dogs work tirelessly to either castrate such animals or find a new home for them.

What is worth mentioning is that Help Bulgaria Cats and Dogs is an organisation founded by two British people who migrated to Bulgaria ten years ago and were highly distressed by the way animals on the streets were treated. We certainly cannot allow ourselves to create a stereotype of Bulgarians not caring about this issue. As someone, who comes from this country, I can proudly say that my family as well as friends and acquaintances of mine express nothing but love and care towards homeless dogs and cats. However, there are undoubtedly many more who are not willing to help.

The Bulgarian population might not be so moved by what is happening to animals on the streets every day, but a lady called Sabine Bertram from Germany certainly is. This amazing individual stayed in my mother’s family hotel in my hometown a few years ago and they bonded over their love for animals. She is the founder of ‘Pfötchen Chance e.V’. This is a non-profit association registered in both Bulgaria and Germany, which is funded solely through donations. Their main goal is helping homeless cats and dogs on the streets of Bulgaria and taking them to the local veterinarian for examination, vaccination or castration. Afterwards, Sabine and the volunteers in her organisation would look for new families for these animals in Germany and Switzerland and ensure their safe transportation.

I still have not had the privilege of meeting her in person. However, she was eager to share her story with me once I reached out to her through social media and asked if she is able to tell me more about what she has been doing over the last few years. After interviewing her, I was even more impressed by her compassion. Sabine started from the very beginning by telling me when she first came to Bulgaria. Twenty-two years ago, she and her husband visited The Golden Sands beach resort while on a holiday. They liked it so much that they decided to come back every summer. In time, they became so enamoured by the country’s beauty that they decided to only go to Bulgaria during their holidays.

Sabine told me that even back then, while Bulgaria was still in its early democratic days, the only new thing which she saw was all of the stray animals. In Germany, this issue never existed and animal’s rights have always been of great importance. On their second trip there they carried dog and cat food in their backpacks. They never spent time by the beach, and were only making sure all the animals they see in the streets were being fed. The other tourists in the resort as well as locals called them ‘crazy’, she added. When I realised what she had just said, I was once again angered and at a loss of hope that things may one day be different. So was she, more than twenty years ago, when she heard these words and could not understand where this cruelty towards animals was coming from.

Not long afterwards, she and her husband visited a shelter created by a German-Bulgarian couple in the coastal town of Dobrich. Sabine and her partner went there driving a transporter filled with dog food. She was so impressed by how well the animals were treated there so she started making monthly donations for many years. After some time had passed, one day in February of 2016 she saw a publication on Facebook asking people to donate money to a veterinarian clinic in order to save a puppy which was brutally hit by a car. For weeks she followed the publication and saw that there was no initiative coming from anyone. Sabine’s heart was broken. She then decided to pay for the treatment, which cost only 70 euros and managed to save the animal. Afterwards, she adopted two dogs and one cat from Bulgaria which live with her in Germany. 'My migrants' - she calls them.

Her views on the issue with homeless animals in Bulgaria have not changed, even after years of hard work towards trying to give them a better life. Sabine is certain that the government can resolve this problem by funding more organisations like hers. Over time, she has found that the main issue with official state animal shelters is the lack of financial support by the country’s leaders. The only money which is given away is for food. None of it ever goes for medical treatment or vaccines. When I asked Sabine what her message to all the people who are just like her is, I found nothing but wisdom in her words. She believes it is crucial for children to be taught to love animals from an early age. She is encouraging everyone to never stop fighting for animal’s rights. ‘Find more friends with the same ideas! As long as the animals need us, we will be there!’

She decided to end the interview by adding the following: "I think it is absolutely necessary to punish animal cruelty in Bulgaria, finally hard.

Apparently, there is a wildlife police in Bulgaria, but nobody knows where it is and what its job actually is. Bulgaria, as a member of the EU, should also comply with applicable animal welfare rules!" This is the story of someone who is not limited by cultural differences, language, time, space, the financial and political situation or prejudice in order to do good for those who are incapable of protecting themselves in the way humans can. Yet, her example still imposes questions like why are not Bulgarian citizens the ones who need to be the most concerned? And why are they not taking action? Is it the government’s fault? Or is there another reason behind this? Is it all coming from people's mentality towards animals? Or is there a deeper, more complex answer to this question?

Composed by, Simona Hristova, Undergraduate of Linguistics

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This Fragrant Weed The plant Napeta cataria colloquially known as Catnip is cultivated as an ornamental plant for use in gardens. It is known for its effects on cats.

Cats will be drawn to the plant and will lick and chew it. Catnip is also available in commercial products for domesticated cats designed to increase their “enjoyment�. Although once consumed the plant can have adverse effects on the cat, including; sleepiness, anxiety, hyperactivity and biting at the hand. This is due to an organic compound contained in the plant called nepetalactone which has effects on a cat similar to what a drug like cannabis might have on a human.

There is now a mass movement for the legalisation of cannabis. The Liberal Democrats have adopted it as their party policy. It has already been legalised in Canada and some American states. Initially my libertarian instincts persuaded me that this was a good idea after all prohibition of alcohol did not work and what business does the government have telling people what they can and cannot put into their own bodies. But further research into the effects this can have on people and in some cases seeing this first hand, I have come to the conclusion not only that this drug should not be made available for commercial use but that we should also begin enforcing our drug laws properly.

The short-term effects of cannabis may be relaxation and stress reduction or even an increased sense of humour. However, the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, which is the main psychoactive substance found in cannabis, can lead to all sorts of negative effects in the long term including; anxiety, panic attacks, paranoia, hallucinations, memory loss and the development of long-term mental disorders such as schizophrenia. This in turn leads to people acting irrationally and is a danger to public safety.

Recent examples of this include the Dayton, Ohio gunman, Connor Betts who shot 9 people including his own sister and was found to be a serial cannabis user. The effects of the drug on him included hearing voices in his head. Another example of this includes the case of Che Ambe who sliced off the hand of 21-year-old Tyler Stevenson and had been convicted 4 times for drug possession and was a known cannabis user. Even the Adam Smith institute, which advocates the legalisation of cannabis, has concluded that it led to an increase in gang violence and knife crime.

The more commonly available cannabis is, the more likely incidents such as this will happen in the future. Cannabis deprives people of their critical faculties and limits their ability to reason.

But those who would advocate its legalisation often say that it could be taxed and regulated to remove impurities and control the strength of THC. However, evidence shows that this is not the case. In Colorado where the drug is legal the strength is between 18.7-30 % THC which is far above what it was in past years when it was often below 10%. While it may bring in additional tax revenue this would pale in comparison to the psychological effects readily available cannabis would have on the most vulnerable elements of society.

My solution to this mess would be to adopt the policies of Japan. A zero-tolerance approach.

Composed by, Derek Gardiner, Postgraduate of Law

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Bittersweet Futures The Chocolate British Shorthair is one of the most beautiful members from the family of classic British cat breeds, gifted with luxurious fur of deep chocolate hue. A perfect name for a perfect cat. However, what if future generations fail to appreciate this perfection due to the word ‘chocolate’ becoming an unknown name for a forgotten treat from sweeter times, long since passed. This may be the consequential reality resulting from industrial reforms being proposed in Western Africa today, where collaboration between governments and cocoa producers may see the global price of chocolate rise to melting point and thus vanish of the pantries of the common public.

Cocoa began life with a hallowed existence in Southern America, serving a monetary function for native civilisations and enjoyed as a drink within the gilded cups of Mesoamerican royalty. Its status as an aristocratic beverage continued when its first export of the beans gained great popularity amongst the upper echelons of European society, those being the people that could afford the drink once cost of labour and once the shipping and handling were factored into the final price. The notoriety and popularity of cocoa grew so great that it fostered the creation of an enormous slave plantations for the crop within Southern America until such high demand eventually prompted the cocoa industry to transfer production to Western Africa.

This move triggered a monumental drop in the price of cocoa which resulted in an equally great drop in the price of chocolate, opening so many more consumer markets on the European continent. Drinks, bars and ice-cream flavoured its wonderful flavour have continued to be enjoyed by all for over a century. The thought of cocoa-derived products continuing to be a staple of our diet and a regular of our beauty routines seems an immovable certainty, but these assumptions can be considered unbelievably optimistic when one considers the plans from the two main cocoaproducing nations, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, for cocoa production today and the consequences these plans may have for us chocolate-lovers tomorrow.

The affordability of such luxurious and delicious produce is wonderful for us as consumers but creates a horrendous existence for its producers who exist in a cycle of harsh toil for paltry reward. This is due to the skewed dynamic between price and pay which in the farms operating with extremely thin margins and, revealed at the 2018 Paris Agricultural Show, industry profit is swallowed up by processers and distributers, with only 6% of total earnings returning to cocoa growing nations and only 2% of that sum reaching the individual growers themselves. Not only are the people involved in the agricultural side of the cocoa industry poorly paid and profit shared so unequally, but they are also at the mercy of everchanging global markets, with financial constraints have being especially heavy following cocoas 2008 price stagnation and its price collapse in 2015, further reducing their ability to command a higher price for harvests.

Therefore, it is understandable that this misery has produced considerable unrest with those involved and that they are requesting assistance from their governments. To pacify this discontent, Ghana and the Ivory coast have created proposals to exert some control on the global price of the crop. This is to be achieved through the introduction of a ‘Living Income Differential’, a $400 premium applied to every tonne of harvested, raw cocoa on top of the typically commanded price.

A $400 price increase may appear unreasonable, however, the reasoning behind the decision is that both countries producing such a large stake of cocoas total production that could allow them to dictate the price and change an heighten the industry’s standard price. Ghana is in possession of nineteen percent of the total global supply of cocoa with the Ivory Coast possessing forty-three percent. Overall, two thirds of the total world production of cocoa occurs within Western Africa alone.

This near-monopoly is not purely the result of history but also the temperamental nature of the cocoa plants growing conditions. For the trees to reach fruit-bearing maturity, it must be located in the narrow strip no further than 11 degrees from the Earth’s equator, being immersed in continual humidity, the perpetual downpours of a rainforest climate only broken by a short dry season and warmed by a temperature between twenty-one and twenty-three Celsius. From these impossibly strict conditions, very few countries possess land capable of industrial-scale cocoa groves and this natural exclusion shows, with the collected world production consisting only as five million farms, each being on average less than ten hectares in total size. Following this information, it is easy to understand the rational of both governments; they are almost the sole possessors of a suitable climate for production, which theoretically should allow them to abuse this fortunate position and extort global buyers into purchasing a product with an artificially higher price, as there are very few options consumers can choose from. The consumer, in theory, must purchase cocoa from them.

Reporters, Isis Almeidaand and Ekow Dontoh, of Bloomberg, are highly negative of this national pursuit, stating that such a policy will lead to a boom and bust economy of unintended consequences, with great surplus preceding great price falls- the very opposite of the secure, regular increasing price.

However, this promise of $400 will be an undeniable offering to the desperate people who, for years, have subsisted upon the miniscule pay from the lowest prices of cocoa in recent history and will immediately resolve to plant a greater number in its pursuit. This overplanting will lead to a great surplus during a time of reduced global market consumption, a consequence of the premium which causes cocoa-purchasing companies to push the $400 cost onto the individual consumer which materialises as raising the price of the products they buy. A certain percentage of these people, realising that the standard price of a chocolate bar or chocolate drink has risen and that they can no longer afford the quantity they could before, and will buy less cocoa-derived products or cease consumption of them entirely. These actions convert into the reduction of consumer demand.

Why would one gaze into a crystal ball for the ending when we could simply read from the pages of history? Nations have always struggled to control the prices of their citizens goods. It has been theorized that Ghana and the Ivory Coast are attempting to replicate the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC. This is the arrangement between 14 of the world's major oil-exporting nations, who operate as a cartel

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managing the crude oil supply to maintain a desired world market price. The fundamental difference between OPEC and the Western African price proposals is that governments are instituting premiums to raise the price and not controlling supply.

The premium policy may have been influenced by conclusions met from previous failed attempts at supply control by the Ivory Coast. The 1980s was a decade marked by unfortunate chance for Ivorians, beginning with the downturn in global prices of cocoa, severe drought withering almost a quarter of a million hectares of cocoa plantations and the collapse of discussions concerning price agreement with the cocoa industry, culminating in with the world recession of 1986 and the financial crisis that subsequently set upon the Ivory Coast. In the fallout of these recurrent, almost biblical, curses of bad luck, then Ivorian President, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, ceased the export of cocoa as a final effort to raise the price of harvests. This effort was futile, with the price of cocoa halving in two years as consequence of oversupply and under-demand for the crop.

Despite those turbulent times, Western Africa still retained a large stake in the global cocoa supply. However, the 1980s are almost forty years in the past, with the industrial arrangement and agricultural landscape changing so much in the passing years, that if the cocoa industry of Ivory Coast collapses again and Ghana’s falls alongside, both may fail to recover their positions as the dominant cocoa-powers. The development of the emerging cocoa-growers may eclipse Ghana and Ivory Coast if they were to stumble in the economy of the present, being unhampered by the premiums that the Western African nations will have imposed upon themselves. The absence of such premiums will allow the price of their cocoa to reflect its true value, having great appeal to the trader and buyer markets in comparison to the now overtly overpriced Ivorian and Ghanaian cocoa. The Living Income Differential intended to improve the lives of cocoa farmers in Ghana and Ivory Coast will collapse following the natural transfer of buyers purchasing the crop from Ghana and Ivory Coast to these emerging, premium-free nations.

One of these nations is Indonesia, ideally placed along the earth’s equator with the correct soil and climate wherein the cocoa trees can grow with strength and vigour. These conditions have been utilised well for the past 25 years, with 1.5 million hectares of land terraformed into cocoa groves and their fruit becoming the archipelagos fourth-largest earning agricultural produce for foreign export, all allowing Indonesia to become the primary non-African competitor in the cocoa industry. In 2009, despite the era of price stagnation, 250,000 tonnes of cocoa was produced which almost doubled to 480,000 tonnes in 2012.

The World Cocoa Foundation reported that the annual global demand for cocoa has been reliably increasingly for the previous century and I doubt it will change. This enormous and forever-growing crowd of sweet-toothed people will just be in search of new suppliers when the Living Income Differential is enacted. Indonesia is in a perfect position to harbour these lost buyers and proliferate trade of crop due to their competitive advantage of price and may possess the opportunity to carry the mantle as the main producer of cocoa if disaster does strike and Ghana and the Ivory Coast fares for the worst.

Perhaps then, our future, as a world of chocolate-lovers, is not so bittersweet. Instead of artificially-induced price inflation and chocolate returning to its exalted status for the few, another country will simply step in and continue to secure both our sweet-tooth and our beloved Chocolate British-Shorthairs comparison with the delicious treat we all know and love.

Composed by, Maurice Alexander, Undergraduate of Business Management

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Silvestris In Silver Three banks are in possession of issuing Scotland’s banknotes; the Clydesdale Bank, The Bank of Scotland, and the Royal Bank of Scotland and upon every one, you will find that it is dripping with layered, integrated illustrations of the highest detail, serving to immortalise the heritage of Scottish society portraits in shades of sapphire, gold, amethyst, emerald and ruby.

The honour of such depiction is not without justification. Looking at the banknotes circulating our economy today, we can see the visage of Robert Bruce, Robert Burns, Charles Rennie MacIntosh and Walter Scott; all renowned characters enshrined within Scottish history and engraved upon the mind of the average Scot. The other portraiture highlights the second function of monetary illustrations. If the first were an act of celebration of men whom everyone in this country can agree upon their historic status. The second function is an act of education regarding the lessor known in our national story. Placed alongside the dominating columns of our culture is Lord Illay, founder of the Royal Bank of Scotland, William Arrol, civil engineer designing the Forth, Tay, and Tower Bridges and recently introduced Nan Shepard, a novelist and Mary Somerville, an academic of the natural sciences. It is undeniable that the aforementioned names would have been well-since faded lights within the realm of public interest and opinion- if not for their inclusion upon the money that is in possession of every single person in the country. This educational aspect of physical money is the motive for the Journal of Matters Relating to Felines undertaking ‘Silvestris In Silver’, our campaign in the pursuit of the placing of the Scottish Wildcat, Felis Silvestris, on the face of upcoming currency and coinage of Scotland.

The ‘Fabric of Nature’ Series of banknotes introduced redesigned £5 and £10 banknotes featuring previously mentioned Nan Shepard and Mary Somerville, respectively. The key factor which gives wind to our sails was the inclusion of Scottish fauna on each banknote reverse side, with waveswept mackerel and playful otters, respectively. This is an unorthodox move as the banknotes of this country and been painted with sweeping landscapes and awe-inspiring architecture throughout history. This artistic direction of native fauna presents a wonderful opportunity for us to clasp with both paws.

These notes have been in circulation for some time and last year the Royal Bank of Scotland revealed the third instalment of ‘The Fabric of Nature’, a £20 in the hues of lavender, with Edwardian tearoom entrepreneur, Kate Cranston on the obverse and on the reverse, scarlet bodies of two red squirrels. The decline of the red squirrel is a well-known tragedy, beginning with the introduction of the grey squirrel from across the Atlantic Ocean, continuing with the animal warfare between both species and ending with the red squirrels’ ostracism from English fauna.

Which is why Gill Hatcher of the project, ‘Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels’, penned the article, ‘A Future for Scotland’s Red Squirrels is On the Money’, heralding the inclusion. He writes, ‘Choosing to feature them on our country’s money feels like a solid statement – the red squirrel belongs in Scotland. We also hope that having this iconic species in people’s wallets, pockets and purses will serve as a friendly reminder that continued conservation effort is essential for ensuring they will always have a home here.’ Does this not confirm the motives and desires of our Silvestris In Silver campaign? Being an exact parallel of the wildcats’ existential crisis shows that if we were to succeed in influencing the design process of upcoming notes, we can encourage action towards a positive difference being made to Scottish wildcat populations.

The reasons for featuring the wildcat upon our money are numerous and not purely grounded ecological activism. Yes, motives regarding conservation and awareness are principal and thoroughly outlined within, ‘Ghost of the Woodland’ but to not tread over the same ground, I will address only the practical applications of wildcat imagery and its factors that will have great appeal to their uptake for design purposes.

Firstly, the physical biology of Felis silvestris will lend itself well to the desired complexity required for present-day banknotes in order to dissuade counterfeiture. The composition of a wildcat has nuanced differences from the form of a domestic cat. This means that counterfeit artists may encounter difficulties adjusting to the slight difference in anatomy and these errors will slow the circulation of this fake money and can be easily identifiable to a trained eye. The fur of a cat, especially a wildcat, is arranged in series of layered coats of varying lengths. Careful inspection of a high-quality image of a wildcat or petting a typical domestic cat will confirm this. More aspects of wildcat fur which will augment its practicality in banknote design would be the patterns and colour gradients. Scottish wildcat fur is an ochre palette of browns, creams and whites arranged beautifully with interlocking stripes. The complexity of the shading for fur and achieving the correct pattern will also make the Scottish Wildcat preferable from a perspective of practicality for future banknote additions.

Continuing with suggestions that may allow the scales to tip in the favour of our proposal, is that if the artist were to ever to be tasked with searching for quotes, we have the perfect suggestion. Picture the following laced throughout the design of a banknote, this quote from John Bossewell from within his 1572 work, ‘The Heraldic Musion’: ‘‘A beaste that is enimie to myse and rates. Slye and wittie, and seeth so sharply, that he over-commeth darkness of the nighte by the shyninge lighte of his eyne. In the shape of body, he is like unto a leopard, and hath a greate mouthe. He doth delighte that he enjoyeth his libertie, and is his youthe he is swifte, plyante, and merrie. He maketh a rufull noyse, and a gastefull when he proffereth to fighte with another. He is a cruel beaste when he is wilde and falleth on his owne feet from moste high places, and uneth is hurte therewith. When he hathe a fayre skinne, he is, as it were, prowde thereof, and then he goeth fast aboute to be seene.’’

If the old-English style is off-putting, then fear not, as the Journal of Matters Relating to Felines can provide a second suggestion. Sourced from Carl Van Vechten’s, ‘A Cultural History of the Cat’, this quotation may be considered more practical for the average citizen with it being composed in standard English but it is infinitely more appropriate considering that it would be printed by a Scottish bank, as it was said by the famed Scottish poet and novelist, Sir Walter Scott: ‘‘Ah! Cats are mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of. It comes no doubt from their being so familiar with warlocks and witches.’’

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Both quotes are not only delightful and charming descriptions of the cats in general, but they are an arrangement of sentences with such power and beauty that any snippet will be a wonderfully welcome embellishment to adorn an upcoming banknote. Other suggestions for a feline design would be the background for the wildcat side could be illustrations of Clashindarroch forest, which is the Scottish forest with the highest number of Scottish wildcats, essentially a wildcat haven that, in our own belief, should be site of cultural and ecological heritage and would serve as a perfect complement to the wildcat image.

Relaying the same points, I have contacted the following institutions about the possibilities of incorporating our request into their future designs and they have given the following statements: All of the proposals were relayed to the three banks capable of note design and printing, with the addition of the Committee of Scottish Bankers, contained within shimmering golden envelopes sealed with black wax to implore their attention.

Michael Downey of The Committee of Scottish Bankers, began his prompt reply thanking me for my ‘interesting’ letter and supplied the following explanation as to why they cannot assist us with our cause, ‘‘Banknote design is a competitive issue given the brand associations and therefore would not be discussed at a forum external to each organisation.’’

Derek Walker, Cash Services Manager of Clydesdale Bank, thanking me for my letter, stated, ‘‘no redesign or indeed new design contemplated, certainly in the medium term.’’ Upon question if any of the points or suggestions placed forward by our ‘Silvestris In Silver’ campaign would be kept until a new design in contemplated, Mr Walker affirmed that our input will be retained, but its consideration and possible application is many years away.

Both Royal Bank of Scotland and the Royal Mint both failed to reply as of early September 2019, providing neither nebulous, corporate platitude or message of thanks.

I must admit that I am deeply disappointed by the reaction from the three banks, especially considering that I had exhausted my ability in encouraging their support and reciprocation of the Silvestris In Silver campaign with a point-by-point plea for the Scottish wildcats’ inclusion.

Unaffected with the indifference, we must remain resolute. I reiterate that this is a monumentally important opportunity for the survival of the Scottish Wildcat, a key zoological and cultural icon for Scotland and which desperately needs this act of good will and magnanimity on behalf of banks.

Silvestris In Silver does not end with this article. The Journal of Matters Relating to Felines will continue to write to politicians and institutions alike in efforts to progress our campaign and will be updating the campaign in our next issue. I eventually came to meet Laura Cuthill, a Content-Assistant for BBC Radio Scotland. She requested that I provide more information regarding the wildcat aspects of this autumnal issue and our various campaigns. Once provided, she said that our campaigns were of great interest for the ‘Out of Doors’ radio-programme, located in Scotland, the programme covers the all aspects of the natural world surrounding us from geography, outdoor activities, tourist sites, farming and, the topic creating the possible opportunity for us to feature on the radio, animal conservation.

Composed by, Maurice Alexander, Undergraduate of Business Management

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The Feline Family Categorising is a human speciality; items, colours, music, cats. Nothing escapes. All objects – animate or otherwise – are ruthlessly shunted into infinite figurative pigeonholes based on their similarities and differences. This grouping of like items becomes a beast unto itself within biology.

For the uninitiated, I would like to take a moment to welcome you to the wonderful world of taxonomy and systematics, the naming and classification of living things.

In 1735, the world of biological science was forever changed by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus upon the publishing of his magnum opus, Systema Naturae. Within this extensive tome, he painstakingly included entries for over ten thousand species of plants and animals and with them a binomial (two name) classification system which is still in use to this day. Whilst he was not the first to create this kind of system (that honour belongs to the Bauhin brothers, both botanists – try saying that when you have had a few drinks!) he was the first to publish using it. Of course, many of Linnaeus’ original groupings of plants and animals are now known to be incorrect. Back in Linnaeus’ day, there was not the fancy technology available for assessing DNA and subsequent genetic relations, so he had to base all his assumptions on the outward looks (or morphology) of the plant or animal. This is problematic when you think about how similar birds and bats are on the outside but are completely different groups genetically.

Nowadays, genetic analysis through marvellously sophisticated techniques is allowing us to get ever closer to discovering and refining which species are truly related to each other. Even so, scientists still squabble about what belongs where. The only constant is the use of the Linnaean naming system, or more simply, taxonomy.

The word taxonomy is derived from the Greek roots ‘taxis’ and ‘nomia’ (the former meaning arrangement and the latter, method). Taxonomic classification is divided into a series of ranks, some of which were created by Linnaeus. The highest of these is known as Domain. Ever since its (fairly recent) creation, the number of Domains has been hotly debated. Generally, the proposal of three Domains is most widely accepted. These are Bacteria, Archaea (microorganisms that are almost identical to Bacteria) and Eukarya (plants, animals, fungi and more). Within each Domain lies our next rank, Kingdom. Kingdom was originally the highest rank proposed by Linnaeus. He devised three Kingdoms: Plants, Animals and Minerals. No prizes for guessing which are still used today. As with Domain, there are several disagreements as to just how many Kingdoms there are, the most recent research has suggested seven but in the interests of our furry feline friends, we shall focus on one: Animalia.

Kingdom Animalia is split into a number of Phyla (singular Phylum). These Phyla sought to group animals initially by their morphology, but now by genetics. This has resulted in various animal groups being involved in taxonomic musical chairs as they have been propelled from one Phylum to the next. Luckily, our Phylum of interest, called Chordata (i.e. animals within this group have a ‘cord’ of spinal nerves as well as other defining features) has remained relatively stable. Within the realms of Chordata are some hopefully more familiar faces. The Sub-phylum Vertebrata contains seven living Classes (we are getting there, I promise). Three of these classes pertain to fish, the others are Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves (Birds) and Mammalia.

From Class, we progress into our next taxonomic rank, Order. At last count, there were 29 different Orders of mammals. However, the one we are interested in comprises a surprisingly diverse array of beasts. The Order Carnivora contains, among other groups, the seals, weasels, bears, dogs, hyaenas and, most importantly, cats. As an interesting aside, it is a common misconception that hyaenas are dogs, or at least closely related to them. In fact, they have their own group within Carnivora (a rank known as Family) and are more closely related to cats! However, now it is time for the Family we have all been waiting for, Felidae – the cats.

Studies have shown that felids as we know them evolved in the Miocene period, around ten million years ago, diverging from closely related groups such as the linsangs (small arboreal cat-like mammals). This makes them quite a recent addition to Class Mammalia. It has been discovered that there were eight separate evolutionary lineages which radiated from a common ancestor in Asia. The first of these lineages to evolve gave rise to the majority of the so-called ‘big cats’. Many of the smaller species then evolved rapidly in part due to many ancestral individuals migrating between continents and becoming adapted to new environments. The lineage which our lovely pet cats’ ancestors were part of was one of the most recent to have developed, possibly as late as 6.2 million years ago.

Today, there are 14 different extant (living) Genera (the singular Genus may be a familiar term) within Family Felidae. These are: •

Acinonyx – The fast and furious, the cheetah (1 species).

•

Caracal – Funnily enough contains the adorable caracal and another not so aptly named species (2 species).

•

Catopuma – Interestingly does not contain the puma, but small Asian cats instead (2 species).

•

Felis – This is the Genus your cat belongs to. It also includes close relatives such as our native wildcat! (7 species).

•

Herpailurus – The shy Jaguarundi of the Americas (1 species).

•

Leopardus – The South American contingent (7 species).

•

Leptailurus – The African serval and its marvellous ears (1 species).

•

Lynx – Self-explanatory (4 species).

•

Neofelis – The elusive and beautiful clouded leopards (2 species).

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•

Otocolobus – The weird and wonderful Pallas’ cat (1 species).

•

Panthera – The biggest and baddest of them all; tigers and lions and leopards and… oh my (5 species).

•

Pardofelis – The stunning marbled cat (1 species).

•

Prionailurus – A variety of small southeast Asian cats (4 species).

•

Puma – This one contains the puma (or mountain lion, or cougar, or one of its many names) (1 species).

Genera group related Species, of which there are, according to a 2016 study, 38 in total, though depending on who you ask, it fluctuates due to difference of opinion on genetic evidence. Genus and Species form the two parts of the animal’s Latin name in the aforementioned Linnaean binomial system. Let’s take the domestic cat, for example. Its Genus is Felis and its Species, catus.

You will notice that the Genus is always capitalised, and the Species, always lower case. The binomial name is also required to be italicised.

Often, the chosen name will relate to the animal (a fun example is the brown bear, Ursos arctos, which directly translates to ‘bear bear’) or be named after a famous biologist. Ridiculous rules and naming conventions aside, scientists were still not happy. Due to the fickle mistress that is evolution, species are always changing and as such, this leads to minor differences between groups within a species, often due to location of populations. This is a small step towards becoming a brand-new species, bringing us to our final taxonomic rank, Subspecies. Domestic cats are not usually classified to Subspecies level, but our cat can take a trip into the trinomial for the sake of example, becoming Felis catus domesticus.

This taxonomic overview is just that, an overview. No matter where living things are categorised, someone will always disagree. Scientists are constantly completing new genetic analyses and reviewing the taxonomy of all kinds of species. If you were not already convinced that scientists are never able to agree on matters of taxonomy, they have introduced a number of subcategories such as Tribe, Suborder and many others which just make classification even more convoluted than it already was. To confuse things even further, sometimes species may have more than one correct classification! This extends to many felids, which may be known under different Genus names. Nevertheless, taxonomy and systematics is a fascinating field which shapes how we understand the natural world and pleases our innate need to categorise. Our brief tour of taxonomy will serve as an introduction to a wider series about Family Felidae covering each species in turn from the majestic tiger to the tiny black-footed cat and everything in between including our beloved pets. I hope you will join me for this exciting journey where we will investigate the biology, evolution, behaviour and the issues our feline friends face with ever-increasing human encroachment.

Composed by, Thea Mainprize, Undergraduate of Zoology

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Gateway to Glimmer Picture it; awakening in the company of the sun from within our bedroom with the morning light spilling in through the arched windows rising towards the Edwardian ceiling. Slipping into mink slippers and a dressing-gown, you exit your abode and descend spiral stairs of wrought iron, embellished with feline forms and the medieval rose, out into a magnificent garden to a prepared breakfast, ready to spend yet another day in the company of your lilac British shorthair, fashioned in a sparkling diamond collar. This is a fantasy we all have, but this life of limitless leisure could have been our reality if we, several years ago, had a moment of clairvoyance and invested into Bitcoin.

Mentioned frequently on internet but almost never in real life, what is bitcoin? Having searched for the answer, I found that it is elusive, impervious when caught and very complicated one it has been unravelled. This is shown by the Financial Conduct Authority reporting that 74% of Bitcoin investors could not provide an explanation or definition of what this investment was. Therefore, to save you from financial ruin, I have taken upon myself the duty of explaining within the following paragraphs what bitcoin is, why it was invented and why it has appeal.

Unfortunately, things are never simple, especially matters relating to financial technology, and requires me to preface the bitcoin explanation with a history and analysis of money as a concept and financial systems with the evolution of these systems.

Money can be thought as a physical manifestation of quantified value, of which the value of labour is expressed. Money has omnipresence throughout civilisation, manifesting itself as pebbles, seashells and nuts at different stages in our long winding history. One thing uniting all of these different monetary forms is that the societies who were operating with them believed they possessed a universal value. For the past several centuries, gold has been the chosen medium that we perceive to have captured value.

Everyone reading this will have no memory of metalism, the trading in gold and other precious metals. The arrangement of our present economy was borne from the practicality of paper, with the cumbersome aspect of gold bestowed by its proportions and weight. To alleviate the problems that were present in this metallist economy, banks and governments offering the service of reservation of gold within its vaults and to be exchanged for paper receipts corresponding to the received value, which can be traded back for the gold at relative ease. Understandably, trading a paper receipt valued at one-pound sterling for an identically priced good is infinitely more practical than cutting and weighing one onethousandth of a gold bullion valued at one-thousand-pound-sterling. This dynamic of trading receipts with the value tied to gold held within a banks’ reserves was titled the ‘Gold Standard’.

To the exclusion of the history and politics under the demand of brevity, the government eventually held itself liable for the reserved gold. The trading of these notes continued unabated due to the reasoning of the citizenry believed that their governments follow through with their promise and payment of the recipient. This mass trading of paper notes possessing value granted from the financial promise of a government is named the ‘Fiat System’. Fiat being a Latin word for ‘by decree’, captures the relationship between money and government, by which money’s value is bestowed under governmental order.

Two key tenets underpin a Fiat System. The first being Centralisation, a single authority exercising control over money itself, and Unlimited Quantity, that same central authority can printing whatever quantity of money central authority desires. Many people take issues with these aspects of the Fiat System, our present-day system, as three fundamental problems stem from them.

The first is the value reduction of fiat currency following the printing. For example, a 1914 gold bullion was equal to one 1914 pound-sterling.

Now, after multiple printings, in the year 2019 to purchase a 1914 gold bullion requires £233 using the pound sterling of 2019. This is a 99.57% decrease in value in just over a century. The second problem is the corruption of the Central Authority induced from the sheer power that the central authority possesses, being the single power operating the money monopoly. Finally, centralisation, discussing the problems that occur were the central authority can repeal the legality of whatever legal tender they choose, rendering that tender obsolete. This has been recently enacted within this country, where UK banks had placed a time limit on the use of old versions of tenure to promote the uptake of new polymer notes.

These are the proven concerns of some sections of society and the limitations of the central authority’s money system, Fiat, that spurred the development of Bitcoin. In 2008, a flagship whitepaper was released onto the internet authored under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, detailing what Bitcoin was and that it was invented as a solution to the Fiat monetary system.

Bitcoin is a decentralised cryptocurrency. Bitcoins are not physical coinage but an address record from which you can send and receive money.

When someone purchases bitcoin, they purchase a bitcoin address. What separates bitcoin from our conventional banking system is that unlike the ledger, a collection of transactions within the financial system wherein it is stored on a banks central computer of which the public is not privet, the ledger of the Bitcoin system is available freely online at any time and is entirely transparent, showing all the transactions occurring in real time between the various bitcoin addresses.

Bitcoin was developed as a solution to the three fundamental limitations with the present-day money system and the newfound and historically unsolvable problem of digital money duplication. With each bitcoin user possessing a perpetually updating ledger, it renders the transaction record collection impossible to be tampered with. To achieve this, every single computer under the use of a Bitcoin user will have to be hacked and altered to catch all of the ledgers. This impracticality will mean that the duplication of files would break the consistency of the universally owned ledgers and sound the alarm, highlighting the incongruent information. This ledger network is called a Blockchain. This Blockchain provides greater security and continuity for the Bitcoin trading system.

These factors are the reason why bitcoin is spoken with great enthusiasm where the realms of finance and technology melt together, commonly accentuated to Fintech. Bitcoins present a scenario for money similar to what the internet had to offer for information. Before the advent of mass

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adoption of the internet, information was under the control and regulation by several institutions such as newspapers, libraries and universities.

Afterwards, with the widespread adoption of the internet, all information was contributed by internet users for and free for everyone, levelling the power of the institutions.

Having this crash-course about this financial-technological revolution, I am sure that you are keen to purchase bitcoins of your own. Like how money in the world of flesh and blood is stored within one’s purse or wallet, a bitcoin, existing only in the cyberworld, is stored within a ‘wallet’ of its very own. The wallet is not physical, but rather a computer programme that can send, receive, store and monitor bitcoins placed within it.

In the same way software programmes like Outlook handles your emails, a bitcoin wallet handles the bitcoins in your possession, with the wallet itself being fully integrated with the omniscient Blockchain, the autonomous global ledger of bitcoin transactions mentioned previously.

Similar to the silver clasps of a velvet purse or the golden button locking together a leather wallet, a bitcoin wallet is also supplied with a security in the form of a ‘private key’. The key is constituted as an unbroken chain of letters and numbers as function as a password for you to gain access to your trove of cryptocurrency. Beware, just like all other passwords, if the private key falls into the hands of another, then that person can gain full control of the same wallet placing your bitcoins at risk of theft. There have been so many different types of wallets being created since the advent of bitcoin, with wallets being invented for the desktop, your mobile phone., hosted upon parent websites as well as more intricate wallets independent of an internet connection. There are even wallet setups requiring the agreement from multiple wallet owners, so if yourself and several trusted friends possess an affinity towards the bitcoin trade you can all do so together under the one wallet. In order to actually partake in this trade, you will all require a ‘bitcoin address’. Derived from this impossibly long key is a shorter is this more manageable string of similar composition that performs as an account number permitting you to be the recipient of bitcoins from other ‘cryptotraders’.

Once you are in possession of a bitcoin wallet, a private key and a bitcoin address, you can now begin your life as a trader this new and exciting medium! You must start by locating a ‘bitcoin Exchange’, where conventional money can be exchanged for bitcoin. Exchanges are found online with each one commanding their own rules, terms and conditions for trading. These demands include a country whose bitcoin trade they support, the payment method they accept, and the fees they subject onto traders. One factor that should be the subject of a critical eye is reputation considering that several bitcoin exchanges have collapsed with losses in the hundreds of millions of pounds worth of traders’ money, Mt. Gox, late king of bitcoin trading, being the perfect example of this financial meltdown.

Now that you are replete with a beginner’s knowledge of this new bitcoin world, perhaps I have been the one to set you on a wonderful financial journey, ending with you becoming one of the many ‘crypto-millionaires’. Splashed upon the heading-images of online articles, there are countless stories of unlikely people falling into absurd amounts of wealth following their meagre bitcoin investment. The low investment was just concurrent with the incredibly low price of bitcoin during the time of their involvement, with the total cost for an order of two pizzas being 10,000 bitcoins. When this transaction had taken place, ten-thousand bitcoins had a worth of merely £15. This incredibly low value explains why so many people were able to invest. As I write in the Autumn of 2019, these 10,000 bitcoins have appreciated to almost £8.5 million, with a single bitcoin commanding a price of £8441.41.

Therefore, for most of us, the opening fantasy will remain just a fantasy. Comparable to the casual toss of a pebble into an oceans roaring waves for an immediate return a chest of coins to leap out from the turbulent waters, the heavily publicised bitcoin millionaires are just common people that had stumbled into a new unknown medium of exchange with zero foresight on its impending international popularity. No rising with the kiss of the sun. No mink slippers. No vaulted ceilings. No florally feline staircase. No garden enveloping the horizon. No amber-eyed, lilac British shorthair. However, we have at the very least, some solace in our newfound knowledge of the origins, motives and use of this cyberspace currency.

Composed by, Maurice Alexander, Undergraduate of Business Management

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The Writer’s Familar Do you remember Sabrina the teenage witch’s familiar Salem? Or Hermione Granger’s Crookshanks? Apparently, in the witchcraft world, everyone has their own familiar. During the times of the European witch hunts, familiars were “said to be given to witches by the devil”, according to Rosemary Guiley’s Encyclopaedia of Witches and Witchcraft. Essentially, familiars were small demons sent to help witches to reach their purposes. They would also represent their owner, be another living version of them. Any small animal could fulfil the requirements to be considered a familiar, but cats, probably for their mysterious allure, were the perfect candidate for such a role. This is partly how black cats gained their reputation for bringing bad luck. What is an artist if not a witch? Cursed souls who have a different truth.

Lewis Carroll is one of the greatest cursed souls of his era. Mathematician, writer, poet, and photographer – when this form of art had just been developed… Although his contribution to the literary world is very punctual and unique – as non-belonging to any movement – he wrote what remains today a real masterpiece in terms of children’s literature. It is perhaps due to Carroll’s status of outsider regarding literature that what he created could reach the level of a masterpiece, making his work incomparable, unrivalled and therefore eternal. From his soul emerged a new world made of madness, poetry, power and love. He created the Wonderland and his very own feline familiar is the Cheshire Cat. Firstly, Carroll is the Cheshire Man; he was born on January 27, 1832, at Daresbury, Cheshire. But this is obviously not enough proof to assert that the Cheshire Cat is his familiar, his embodiment. One will remember that the ruler of Wonderland is the Queen of Hearts, a tyrant. In fact; the Cheshire Cat is the true ruler, as in being the one who knows the truth. He is Plato’s philosopher king, uninterested by power – in Tim Burton’s movie adaptation (2010) the Cat actually says to Alice ‘I’m not interested in politics’ and disappears. Despite this, he would still be a compelling and legitimate candidate for rulership due to his great sense of objectivity by acknowledging Wonderland’s problem: madness. Alice herself is surprised by his honesty: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad, you’re mad’. He even enlightens Alice about her own condition: even if she thinks she is not mad, then in Wonderland, she will be seen mad anyway. The majority wins, and her sanity would be such contrast that it would look like a doubled madness. The Cheshire Cat’s position, one of knowledge and clarity, makes him look like a superior figure, someone in control. Such a figure resembles this of the creator, the author; the almighty and omniscient force. In the book, the Cat’s playful attitude of appearing and disappearing is a trick which displays his limitless control over the world of Wonderland. Moreover, up on a tree, the Cheshire Cat’s physical position represents the idea of superiority: Alice has to look up. This position gives the Cat a fatherly connotation which we are reminded of during the narrative time of the book: all along, Alice nervously looks for the Cheshire Cat, in search for advice and intelligent conversation. The Cheshire Cat’s presence makes her feel safer. The image of the father, once again, echoes the author’s situation, father of his creation.

Drawing a parallel between Lewis Carroll and the Cheshire Cat is like opening a window and having before our eyes, the oeuvre’s genesis.

Indeed, playfulness, wit and control; these attributes of the Cheshire Cat are the key ingredients for oral storytelling - the ultimate form of power and the process that gave birth to Alice in Wonderland…

A boat on the Thames near Oxford, the young Alice Liddell asks Charles Dodgson - her father’s friend who we all know under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, a mathematics professor – to tell her and her sisters a story. Inspired by Alice Liddell’s very own behaviour and personality, Charles builds a semi-fictional character who will soon be who we now remember as the little golden-haired girl with the puffy blue dress.

During each encounter with the Liddell family, Charles will bring with him his fictional creature, and a bit of nonsense to tell new adventures. At the occasion of the Christmas that followed this introduction to the fictional Alice, Charles offered a manuscript and some drawings to the youngest Liddell sister that he entitled ‘Alice’s Adventures Underground’, the first version of the future oeuvre. The book was renamed Alice in Wonderland and finally published in November 1875. Roughly at the same time, Charles also published a mathematical treatise: The Dynamics of a Particle. Charles Dodgson translates sense and Lewis Carroll creates magical nonsense.

However, what we all ignore is that, once outside Wonderland, Alice Liddell ended up growing up. She travelled all over Europe, painted numerous watercolours, posed for a great number of photographers and other artists, other cursed souls…They also say she had an amorous liaison with Leopold, Queen Victoria’s son! In the end, she married a certain Hargreaves – a rich cricket player – and then saw her three sons going to fight for the Great War, the First World War. Only one of them survived. A year before her death, eighty-two-year-old Alice Liddell was able to see the Alice from Paramount Pictures on the big screen (Alice in Wonderland, directed by Norman Z. McLeod and released in 1933), as if to say goodbye to the alter-ego who always accompanied her.

The Cheshire Cat became so intrinsic to the story that he entered our collective memory and our modern culture. We now see him as the symbol of Alice in Wonderland. He is the one we think of when the story is mentioned. Lewis Carroll’s familiar has overtaken him. They are rivals now.

When James Bobin adapted Carroll’s second book of Alice’s adventures, Alice Through the Looking Glass in 2016, offering a sequel to Tim Burton’s film, he actually took the liberty to re-introduce the Cheshire Cat even though in the original literary version by Carroll, Alice does not meet the Cat again. This shows how the Cheshire Cat became an iconic character of the whole story.

A witch’s familiar is here to help its owner achieve their goal. But what if the familiar is free-spirited, appears, disappears, hides behind an enormous smile and climbs trees? The witch is therefore transported by their familiar, transported into the depth of imagination, creating an unexpectedly efficient spell. Charles Dodgson the man of science never understood how he became Lewis Carroll, the great author of children literature. That is the secret magic of familiars.

Composed by, Deborah Lazreug, Undergraduate of English Literature

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The Aristocats The Aristocats, Duchess, Marie, Berlioz and Toulouse are living the great Parisian life of the 1910’s. This period in French Society, later called “La Belle Epoque” is a time of modernity and carefreeness that describes the way of life in Paris in between the Franco-Prussian War and the First World War. Being the Capital of Arts in the 19th century, Paris is the hub for writers and artists of any kind. It was the place to be for foreign writers like Oscar Wilde and Ivan Turgenev. There is a multiplication of literary and artistic movements with Realism, Naturalism and Modernism.

The envy for a peaceful and enjoyable life is particularly visible with the multiplication of entertainments like the cabaret Les Folies Bergères reaching its height of fame during that period through the 1920’s. Becoming a symbol of French Society and Parisian life. It is an era of reinvention and improvements, with the electricity, the invention of the automobile and the projection of the first movie in 1895 by Louis Lumière.

In world changing, with the industrial revolution, differences between men and women in the working world are increased. Women of the working class are being payed less than men and struggle finding a descent work. This situation leads numerous women to be house-wives. At the same time, in the bourgeoisie and aristocracy, women start to have the possibility to study and work in journalism. Thus, women get involved in society, through sciences with Mary Curie who becomes the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (1903) and the first person and woman to win the Nobel Prize twice (1911). Women get also involved in politics with the movements of the suffragettes that fight for women’s right to vote. Women are starting to get recognition for their work in fields still dominated by men, highlighting the changes occurring at that time.

In this wave of modernity, the author Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette, better known as Collette, becomes a key-figure of early feminism and independence by claiming women sexuality in her novels Claudine. In 1893, she marries Henry Gauthier Villars, known as Willy, an older man famous in the milieu of literature and arts. He publishes Colette memories of school under his name in 1900 in book named Claudine at School.

She becomes an invisible figure of literature in her first years as a writer, regardless of the success of her novels. Despite being in the shadow of her husband, she is the one who will stay in history by practicing numerous professions like journalist and critic, by playing in several musicals in the Moulin Rouge and the Bataclan. She lives accordingly to the period in this spirit of freedom and carefreeness.

She is an incredibly modern figure of French society. She has open homosexual relationships with women from the aristocracy like Mathilde de Morny, daughter of the duke de Morny. Those years of her life are years of scandal and liberation of morals, with her divorcing her first husband, Willy, in 1906. She takes back the rights of her previous novels by signing the last book of the Claudine called La Retraite Sentimentale in 1907.

Her attitude and freedom of character made her a controversial figure of French society, however it does not make her less essential. On the contrary, it makes Colette a worldly-known persona. She is the second woman to be elected at unanimity at the Congourt Academy in 1945.

Moreover, she is nominated for the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1948 and is the first woman writer to have national funerals. She went from being a “nobody” in a milieu directed by men to an icon a female independence.

Her relationships with women open to the public eye places a precedent that society is evolving in terms of accepting homosexual relationships.

If it is still controversial, France is a precursor of tolerance by not condemning homosexuality.

The two poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud are worldly known for being cursed artists and lovers. Their love story is one of the most chaotic and famous of their period. Verlaine is married to Mathilde when he meets Rimbaud in 1871. He is intrigued by the talent of the seventeen-yearold. Their relationship causes a huge controversy in the media by provoking the bourgeoisie and abusing of alcohol. The scandal reaches its climax during a diner party in 1872 where Rimbaud attacks and hurts the famous photograph Etienne Carjat with a swordstick. Verlaine’s wife leaves him later on this year and the two lovers escape their reputation in the capital and leave for London. Verlaine is torn apart between his love for his wife and for Rimbaud which is the subject of several poems in his collection Romances sans Paroles. In 1873, in Brussel, Verlaine wants to go back to Mathilde and threatens to kill himself if he cannot have her back. Rimbaud, not taking the warning seriously, announces his departure to Paris, without Verlaine. The 10th of July 1873, drunk and hurt by the rejection of his companion, Verlaine shoots two times at Rimbaud who get slightly injured. Verlaine gets arrested. Mathilde divorces Verlaine in May 1885, after one last attempt from him to get her back. After his release in 1875, Verlaine meets Rimbaud in Stuttgart one last time, where they finish their relationship like it started, in great passion.

If the Arisocats did not have the easiest journey, “La Belle Epoque” was not a smooth sailing either. The 19th century is a great period of evolution in the French society with the acceptance of new norms, morals and values. Those who were once marginalized are brought under the spotlight of Medias in a flourishing cultural ambiance. Like Marie would say: “Ladies don’t start fights, but they can finish them”. Although, it is a period remembered with nostalgia, it is also a time of inequalities, excess and passion.

Composed by, Cecilia Fardoux, Undergraduate of English Literature

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Vault of the Mau As cat fanciers, we are often derided in the modern for our endless affection for the feline race. Crafted by popular media, the average person possesses an image of cats being snooty, cold and unfeeling beasts, and develop a state of confusion when we express the love we have for our perfect pussies. This was not always the case as there was an ancient city from far off land of Egypt, down into the realms of time, where people from far and wide travelled great lengths to partake in the grand celebrations of the Felis catus. This wondrous place was Bubastis, which had been the site of great contributions towards antiquarian feline culture which even today is continually revolutionised in the modern day.

The seeds that would grow into the flower of Bubastis were cast long ago in the Near East, where African wildcats were domesticated. There are many theories surrounding the motives of this domestication, but the generally accepted explanation is that farmers had welcomed and encouraged the presence of cats on their land, finding that they protected the stores of harvest from mice and that the wildcats of Middle Eastern antiquity continued to visit and eventually stay, being unable to resist the offering of regular tasty mice amongst a landscape of sterile, punishing desert. As the skeletons between the Felis silvestris and the Felis catus are indistinguishable, it appears that the blessed land where this transformation occurred will be forever lost to history. However, this theory of mutual-benefit between man and feline is given life considering the independent nature of the feline, by which many zoologists consider to be a hint that cats had joined society on their own terms. The maintenance of this agricultural arrangement eventually led to the formation of a wildcat subspecies which we know as the domestic cat.

Migrating farmers, infatuated by the novel behaviour of this new and charming beast, are then theorised to have brought the mouse-hunters to the new lands they encountered and thus propagated the creatures’ genetics. Their subsequent agricultural success and the preservation of the food storages from the help cats being the bane of rodents would have then led to feline popularity amongst the surrounding rural communities.

This ancient story allowed the Felis catus to be forever penned within the pages of bestiary of earthly fauna.

This process would have happened long before Egyptian civilisation, who are famed for the society-wide feline fancying, but how and why did they come to worship the cat and their animal-human counterparts? Unlike the fading religions of our world today with their basis upon a collection of theological principles and commandments, the Egyptians believed that their surroundings were crafted with sparkles of the divine from an omnipotent cosmic power. Thus, these otherworldly connections they made of the animals around them eventually lead to zoolatry, animal veneration. The movement of time then warped and elaborated the original motives for their worship to create more nuanced symbolism and more complex representatives.

One of these representations was Bastet. Following heavenly fashion of the time, she possessed a feline head upon the form of a female warrior, a fitting uniform for her initial role as the feared guardian of the reigning Pharaoh and for the second job as protector of the dead. Her tenure as a valiant defender began just before the Old Kingdom of Egypt, 2575-2150BC and continued for several centuries. Growing tired of ethereal combat, Bastet undertook a change of career, with the lion goddess Sekmet filling in for her, allowing Bastet to retrain as a household nurturer of femininity and love, spending most of her time in the form of a domestic cat and starring in frequent depictions of her as a mothering cat comforting her brood of kittens.

The city of Bubastis was the place where Bastet then enjoyed the height of her popularity, supported by Herodotus, Historian of Ancient Greece, describing the temple of Bastet as being unequivocal in its beauty. Bastet’s temple has said to have housed enormous catteries with an endless array of mummified cats, being adorned in its entirety with feline status, flowers and seasonal offerings from the most loving admirers.

In the ornate cityscape of red granite columns and feline facades is the revelry that takes place upon the festival of Bastet. The length of the Nile is lined with boats of bundled papyrus and the sky filled with their painted sails all being carried on the current towards Northern Egypt where Bubastis lay, bright with colour, lit by candlelight with the music of the harp, lute and sistrum. Under the cover of night and the blessing of Bastet, throngs of one-hundred-thousand attendees sing, dance, feast upon candied dates and sip wine from flowered cups of gold and silver experiencing nothing but pleasure and enjoyment.

This mystical place obviously does not exist now, as the Journal of Matters Relating to Felines would be undertaking yet another campaign for the creation of a Bubastis ‘Year Abroad’ programme. Despite being a gem within ancient Egypt for both its beauty, cultural contribution and as a centre of trade and commerce, the city was only rediscovered with relative recency.

Spurred by the romance movement the glory detailed within legend and myth, it was popular for scholars to undertake multiple excursions to far off lands in search for the places contained within ancient stories. French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte himself and embarked on a trip to Egypt, with the purpose of Bubastis’ rediscovery with the accounts of Herodotus invoking the explorer within him.

The trip was a success, with his team using the geographical features of the land to calibrate the direction of their journey, leading them to a site of a windswept ruin. This site was announced as Bubastis and the substrate for subsequent archaeological excavations for the following two centuries, with the eventual uncovering of sparkling treasures and the ruins of the Temple of Bastet itself. These discoveries had therefore confirmed that the city had existed in all its wealth and splendour just as ancient accounts had foretold, so why was Bubastis found as a litter of broken granite in the 17th century? It was the victory of the Persian Achaemenid Empire over Ancient Egypt at the Battle of Palusian of the Eastern Nile Delta in 525BC. The battle is the culmination of a royal tiff, were Amasis, Pharaoh of Egypt, had purposely delivered a different woman when the Persian leader, Cambyses, requested his daughters’ hand in marriage. Enraged and insulted, Cambyses prepared an army with the purpose of invasion. This army marched onto Egyptian territory during the high popularity of Bastet along with the heightened sacredness of cats being widespread.

Readers of the Journal of Matters Relating to Felines will agree that we express the upmost praise and respect for cat-kind, but even we would agree that the Egyptians, under the charm of Bastet, had taken their devotion to an excessive level. For example, the punishment incurred from

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the death of a cat by the hand of a person, regardless of the circumstance, was death by stabbing and many accounts of people choosing to save their cats over themselves in the event of a housefire.

Being aware of the Egyptians servile tendencies towards felines, Cambyses crafted a plan of psychological warfare. Dotted amongst the frontline of the Achaemenian soldiers were animals of all types and, upon their shields, feline faces and the beauty of Bastet. In order to not endanger the creatures created by the divine and to not damage the image of their goddess, the defending Egyptian army experienced severe paralysis of the mind and could not swing a sword of cast an arrow with reckless abandon, leading to their consequential defeat and the sack of Bubastis, the city being close to the battleground.

The story of Egypt and its feline culture does end here nor is it confined to the history books. There is a wealth of knowledge, treasure and artefacts still remaining within the sands. As recently as last year, there was an incredibly rediscovery of a sealed tomb, the finding of golden death masks and, within the very same necropolis, the unearthing of another team yielding tens of gilded feline statues of wood and bronze and countless mummified cats. This is no surprise, as if there was one were to inspect Victorian-era maps of the region, they would find dozens of archaeological sites of interest outlined, yet to be explored.

Throughout the previous paragraphs, we have explored the golden labyrinth of feline Egyptian heritage, with the basis and origins of their worship, the festivities occurring in the city of cat-lovers, Bubastis and its subsequent fall and rediscovery to the recent developments that the geography of Egypt contains for us feline fanciers today. The vault of the Egyptians sands concerning cat history is by no means exhausted Composed by, Maurice Alexander, Undergraduate of Business Management

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The Animal Characters of Our Island Story Within museums throughout the United Kingdom, you can view ever-flowing manes of golden lions, emerald wings of scarlet dragons outstretched in flight and pale, celestial unicorns in graceful stride all emblazoned upon tapestries of immense medieval splendour. Moving from the era of the Pearl Poet and into the present, these mythical creatures can be seen frequently in our everyday lives, appearing upon coinage, governmental branding and, unmissable to even the most unobservant, appearing as golden imprint accompanying a grand heraldic crest on the face of our passports. Like many things, the origins of these beasts have deep roots that extend down into the depths of ancient history and are widely unknown to the common public. One thing of which they are aware, is that these whimsical creatures have been awarded the titleship of our national animals.

Why is Scotland, England and Wales represented respectively by the Unicorn, Lion and Dragon? Consider that there exists zero archaeological remains of such creatures on these isles; two are entirely mythical, existing purely within the mind, and the lion’s antiquarian expansion is estimated to have been southern France, at its most North-Western point. Like so many things with mysterious origin, the answer is a longstanding mix of history and politics with ever-changing connotations.

The unicorn has had great significance to Scottish people, tracing back when we existed as a collection of painted tribes with a Celtic tongue, from which we expressed this white, spiral-horned horse possessed powers of water purification, domineering strength, purity of mind blended with noble temperament and grace. This perfect creature continued in tales and folklore and was eventually incorporated into the Scottish Coat of Arms in the 12th century, with a heraldic shield flanked by unicorns until the 1707 Act of Union which had overseen the swapping of one with a lion.

This lion is the now-extinct Barbary lion, the national animal of England. The lion has succeeded to its exalted place within English symbolism as a result of an complex royal bloodline and the inheritance of heraldry beginning with Norman aristocracy. The lion was the embodiment of courage, with these notions becoming cemented in English society, with medieval warrior and rulers with a reputation for bravery branded the nickname "the Lion", with Richard the Lionheart being the most well-known example of this tradition.

The Red Dragon of Wales appears to have its origins entrenched in warfare. Its reptilian form was emblazoned upon the battle standards of historic Welsh kings fending off Roman, Saxon and English armies. The Red Dragon itself engaged in battle with an invading White Dragon within the pages of the ancient Brittonic epic, the Mabinogion. This valiant symbol finally received recognition in 1953, with it being given an augmentation of honour.

The honour of heraldic depiction and adoption as a national symbol is one gifted only on the significance and omnipresence throughout a nation’s history and culture. People often say we live in an era not of invention but of refinement, but what if I were to suggest a living, fullyextant animal with a physical presence on this land, to be our new national animal? Or, at least share the title? I propose the Felis Silvestris, the Scottish wildcat, as the nomination.

‘The Animal Characters of Our Island Story’ is a campaign launched by the Journal of Matters Relating to Felines wherein we attempt to influence public figures and institutions to oversee the development of titlesharing between the unicorn and the Scottish wildcat as the national animals of Scotland. The basis of the campaign is bringing the Scottish Wildcat into prominence in Scottish society through the shared title of the Scottish National Animal between the Scottish Wildcat and the Unicorn. Fundamentally, the motive for the campaign is promoting the image and awareness of these felines in the light of their existential struggle that is discussed at length in opening article, ‘The Ghost of Our Woodland’. It would be a wonderful effort to highlight the existence of this frequently overlooked, endangered animal and would build upon the heritage of our nation. There is also the distant possibility that we spark some international fashion, where the next trendy conservation move is lobbying for titlesharing and frequently changing national animals for the purposes of ecological conservation. For example, if we are successful in convincing the Scottish government in honouring the wildcat with this exalted title, perhaps it may prompt the other nations of the United Kingdom to follow our example.

Other motives include a sort of penitence that us, as Scottish people and our government, can pay as reparations for our maltreatment to this beautiful species. Glasgow university has already set the standard of action with twenty million pounds being contributed from their budget to right the wrongs of their past dwellings of history. This is the perfect basis for us as a nation to apologise en masse to the Scottish wildcat and right our past wrongs in the height of forgiveness and exalt its position in welcoming it into the family of Scottish symbolism for centuries to come. The purging of cats, the burning of forests for agriculture and the driving out of them from their leafy forest homes for the amusement and agricultural pursuit of man mars our history and our present. The historic presence of the wildcat extended all throughout this island but is now confined to the highlands, hated throughout history being classes as pests from gamekeepers and landowners. If we fail in preserving the Scottish wildcat population and it fades from existence to live only as ink and paper of history books. Crowning the Scottish wildcat species allows them to live on as a regal, mythical animal for future generations whom will have never seen one nor have such a blessed opportunity for such an encounter.

This act would not be as unorthodox or revolutionary as it appears. Closest example is Wales; with the title being shared between the Red Kite a predatory bird which very much real, and a Heraldic Animal, the Red Dragon, which is obviously mythic. There are also many countries on the European continent were the status of national animal is shared, or at least classed in different way between different species. I will divide them between ‘Ecological’ and ‘Heraldic’. Other countries include Greece (Dolphin, Phoenix), Serbia (Lynx, White Eagle), Portugal (Iberian Wolf, Cockerel of Barcelona), Norway (Fjord Horse, Lion), and Russia (Brown Bear, Double-Headed Eagle). This is in no means an exhaustive list, there exists many more examples of shared titleship on both the European and international stage. The sharing of this position is well-treaded ground and with no country on the European continent classing the wildcat as their own national animal, it is a prime opportunity for Scotland to do so ourselves.

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People may be suggesting that the lion would be a better contender for this move and would be right to usurp Felis Silvestris of the crown of the second national animal, primarily due to iconic imagery given from the Royal Standard, a bi-colour flag with the fleur-des-lis and a standing lion. Our response would be the physical dwelling that the wildcat has had in this country, being a permanent resident of these islands, The Lion is real of course, but never resided on this island compared to the wildcat that has been a permanent resident since the Ice Age. A national culture also needs to move on and giving the wildcat precedence over the medieval lion would be a wonderful opportunity to allow us to let go of the past and begin creating a new image for our country.

Politically, the introduction of new national animals may provide a unifying factor that is so desperately needed now. It would be ridiculous to suggest that this nomination of a national animal will cure all of the ills present in our society, but animals have a universal appeal and an animal receiving increased recognition is something that everyone can appreciate and support. Time to allow our native fauna to spill out onto the pages of history and be a star attraction amongst the menagerie of national animals.

Requesting a statement of judgement, I reached out to members of the Scottish parliament, local politicians of Aberdeen and to political societies at our university. No members of the Scottish parliament responded to my proposals and Martin Ford, an Aberdeenshire councilman for the Green Party, was the only politician to entertain some correspondence with me, providing the following: ‘‘I was fortunate enough to see a Scottish wildcat family, a mother and three kittens, while on a cycling holiday. It was the highlight of my trip and I have never forgotten the surprise and delight of watching them …both your campaigns would serve to remind people, through a species of great conservation concern, that nature matters and matters to them. People take more care of things they value. Anything that counters detachment from and disregard for nature is worthwhile at this critical time in our relationship with the natural world on which we all depend.’’

To my surprise, I was ignored by every single university society that I had contacted, without a single message of acknowledgement or declining to comment. This is excluding the Aberdeen University Conservative and Unionist Association, who could not have been more reciprocal to my enquiry. So courteous they were, the Chairman, Joshua Mills, had even arranged a meeting with me on the same day of my request to discuss the matter in depth, before committing to the following composition: ‘The Aberdeen University Conservative and Unionist Association are delighted to see the Journal of Matters Relating to Felines acknowledging the plight of the Scottish wildcat, the gift of shared titleship with the Unicorn is a fitting reward and symbol for this feline. We hope the Scottish wildcat shall endure for future generations and remain a symbol of the wild nature of Scotland. We are supporting the Journal of Matters Relating to Felines in all peaceful attempts to persuade the Scottish Government to honour the feline with the gift of shared titleship.

Furthermore, a campaign to bring the danger faced by this wildcat to the general public would be welcomed.’

Contained within the paragraphs of this article is information which I hope is sufficient in both quantity and quality to build a mountain of reasoned evidence and substantiated virtue for the Scottish wildcat to climb for it to step upon the podium to share with the unicorn as universally recognised symbols of the Scottish nation. If the proposals made by our ‘The Animal Characters of Our Island Story’ campaign are adopted, then in amicable company, the ethereal forms of the equine and feline can live forever amongst harebell, the thistle, and the burnet rose within our forests before the faded blue summits of the Cairngorms and together in the hearts of Scottish people for generations to come.

Composed By, Maurice Alexander, Undergraduate of Business Management

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Feline Bestiary

This page aims to be a collection of portraits visually documenting all the cats that can be seen across the city of Aberdeen. Future editions within upcoming issues of the Journal of Matters Relating to Felines will be furnished, in both submissions and information, by the general public sending in their own photographs of the cats they see in their daily lives. Photographs can be of any angle, distance or locations, whether the cat is sunbathing at the beach, partaking in some urbex in the city centre, smelling the roses at Seaton Park or enjoying a haunt at the Springbank Cemetery!

Those behind this first issue of the Journal of Matters Relating to Felines: President:

Maurice Alexander

Email:

journalofmattersrelatingtofelines@outlook.com

Secretary:

Simona Hristova

Instagram:

@journalofmatters

Editor:

Beatrice Baron

Facebook:

Journal of Matters Relating to Felines

Writers:

Cecile Fardoux, Deborah Lazreug,

Twitter:

@journalofmatter

Derek Gardiner, Thea Mainprize

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