Squirrel and cat. Living together. Mass hysteria.

February 14, 2019 10:51 PM

Cat and squirrel play-fight Sorry, those looking for a despair, outrage or poop fix, there's none of that in this post. TW: Do not search the web for this topic, most end very badly.
posted by zaixfeep (32 comments total)

I love how the squirrel is just one grey motion blur throughout the video.

They're obviously friends, and they're having a good time. This was fun to watch, thanks for posting!
posted by hippybear at 10:55 PM on February 14, 2019 [5 favorites]

That squirrel looks and acts like a stoat to me.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 10:56 PM on February 14, 2019 [14 favorites]

Damn but that squirrel's zippy.  It's like watching the fight between Yoda and Count Dooku in Attack of Clones.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 10:57 PM on February 14, 2019 [10 favorites]

Do not search the web for this topic, most end very badly.

well, this just ends before anything bad happens. It's not as if anything gets resolved. My last apartment looked out on a little park area where squirrels were active and cats were ever present. Every now and then something horrible happened, and not to the cat.
posted by philip-random at 11:34 PM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm pretty sure that's a weasel of some sort, not a squirrel.
posted by tavella at 11:39 PM on February 14, 2019 [8 favorites]

Since you plagiarized my thoughts in advance, pantalones, let me just add that for some reason the physics engine has the squirrel's gravity turned down way below 9.8 m/s^2, plus it needs to be rendered at a higher frame rate to avoid the herky-jerky animation. That being said: Gameplay 4/5. Realism 2/5. Replay value 5/5.
posted by xigxag at 11:48 PM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

Uh, that's a stoat.
posted by ninazer0 at 12:04 AM on February 15, 2019 [6 favorites]

Does this count as fiddling while Rome burns? Because I couldn’t bring myself to finish reading the BBC story about Trump declaring a national emergency over his stupid fucking wall, but I happily watched this whole video. I am part of the problem, aren’t I?
posted by eggkeeper at 12:19 AM on February 15, 2019 [6 favorites]

MetFilter:I enjoyed the videoSomeone Is Wrong on the Internet!
posted by zaixfeep at 12:28 AM on February 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

That's some crazy Redwall von Ninjapants action.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:28 AM on February 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

...Count Dooku...
No poop references here, please :-)
posted by zaixfeep at 12:38 AM on February 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

I only know the word "stoat" from the Britishy YA novels of my childhood, so turns out we call them weasels Stateside. Thanks for the clarification, folks.
posted by xigxag at 12:45 AM on February 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

Clarification: The animal in the video may be a stoat, but is definitely not the Zinc Stoat of Budapest.
posted by zaixfeep at 12:51 AM on February 15, 2019

This stoat is what all our fishing pole toys try to be!

My main contact with stoats (as a USA person) is remembering that Ron Weasley was displeased that his mom packed him a stoat sandwich for his train ride to Hogwarts.
posted by batter_my_heart at 1:37 AM on February 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

Does this count as fiddling while Rome burns?

Are you Nero? If not, please feel free to enjoy cute videos.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 2:20 AM on February 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

Stoats and weasels are different animals, but in some parts of the U.K., where they don’t have weasels, folks don’t differentiate the species and call the stoat a weasel, as well.

Here’s a good site that explains the difference between the two.

(TW: a video linked on that page shows a stoat chasing and killing a rabbit, not coincidentally, using the same “leap on the back of the neck” maneuver seen in the play video with the cat that zaixfeep originally posted.)
posted by darkstar at 3:26 AM on February 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

That stoat is practicing *exactly* the same positioning on the neck of that cat that it uses for rabbits (of the same size as the cat) to deliver its death-bite, as shown in darkstar's link. Not all young stoats get a *cat* to practice on, that one's just lucky.

I think my introduction to stoats came in Susan Cooper's 'The Dark is Rising' series, where the stoats were agents of the Dark. At the time I thought: "you mean like a weasel? a formidable agent of the Dark?" I can finally understand...
posted by supercoiled at 3:46 AM on February 15, 2019 [5 favorites]

Here’s a good site that explains the difference between the two.

I had no idea that stoats turned white in winter. That's super cool!
posted by hoyland at 4:22 AM on February 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

Stoats and weasels are different animals,

In the UK yes but in the USA the animal that you refer to as a stoat is for us a short-tailed weasel or ermine. (Your link is to a UK nature site and just confirms your sadly delusional beliefs regarding what animal names are acceptable, and in how to spell "program" and in what "biscuit" means, maybe. Come round here muttering about stoats and you'll probably get a mug of ale shoved in your face.)
posted by xigxag at 4:31 AM on February 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

The cat employs the “sit on you” maneuver a few times during the bout. I approve.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:35 AM on February 15, 2019 [6 favorites]

That stoat is stone berserker. Looks like fun.
posted by fuse theorem at 5:24 AM on February 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

That's not a squirrel. THIS is a squirrel.

[pulls out stoat]

That's not a squirrel. That's a stoat.

All right, all right, you win. I see you've played squirrelly stoaty before!
posted by Naberius at 6:07 AM on February 15, 2019 [17 favorites]

Come round here muttering about stoats and you'll probably get a mug of ale shoved in your face.


Make mine Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, please. :-P

But yeah, “stoat” is a word of fair variability (as is “ermine”).
posted by darkstar at 6:08 AM on February 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

Uh, that's a stoat

Ah. I wondered why it's tail was so scrawny. The squirrels here are twice the size, half the speed, and pretty much way deader when they run into the neighborhood cats.

watching the little guy ninja himself all over that cat is awesome.
posted by domino at 6:38 AM on February 15, 2019

Squirrel or stoat or weasel or whatever, this should be the soundtrack to that thing:

the squirreling must go on
posted by philip-random at 7:50 AM on February 15, 2019

Good Lord, was this filmed beside a huge highway or something?
posted by vitout at 8:30 AM on February 15, 2019 [3 favorites]

Ferret.
posted by sammyo at 9:50 AM on February 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

What's really striking about the linked BBC video is the total uselessness of the other rabbits, who just carry on with their lives while the victim is run down and killed. In fact one of them seems to come up and watch at the death.
posted by alloneword at 10:32 AM on February 15, 2019

That's not a stoat, that's a dark lager!
posted by artdrectr at 12:33 PM on February 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

Metafilter celebrating a de-clawed cat? What has this world come to?
posted by rakish_yet_centered at 1:03 PM on February 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

Stoat with a goat and a coat in a boat on a moat.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 4:25 PM on February 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

Stoat with a goat and a coat in a boat on a moat.

Nat, I note, quote and vote for you.
posted by zaixfeep at 4:56 PM on February 15, 2019 [1 favorite]