Your New Pet: The Dogcat

November 17, 2006 11:21 AM

Your new pet. A new species? Dogs and cats are old news.
posted by SilverTail (77 comments total)

My money is on a hoax. How long have we had cats and dogs? Never once anyone has tried this? I think not. If they could breed cats and dogs together it would have been done since the stone age. We're supposed to believe a bunch of Brazilians just did this on their own?
posted by Ironmouth at 11:24 AM on November 17, 2006

I call catshit.
posted by The Bellman at 11:24 AM on November 17, 2006 [1 favorite]

No. Not a new species.

Hoax.
posted by bshort at 11:25 AM on November 17, 2006

Ironmouth. Yeah. Some cat's overactive mothering instinct caused it to take over carrying for puppies. Owner saw chance for 15 minutes of fame. Or maybe the owner really didn't know, and the frisky feline cat-napped some poor dogs puppies after losing her own litter.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:26 AM on November 17, 2006

Cue mass hysteria!
posted by steef at 11:28 AM on November 17, 2006 [1 favorite]

It's been done.
posted by me & my monkey at 11:28 AM on November 17, 2006

Praise the lord!
posted by thirteenkiller at 11:29 AM on November 17, 2006

/me stockpiles torches and pitchforks
posted by Stynxno at 11:30 AM on November 17, 2006 [1 favorite]

Isn't this a sign of armageddon?
posted by jonmc at 11:30 AM on November 17, 2006

Ceiling Dog is watching you interbreed.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:32 AM on November 17, 2006 [2 favorites]

I think it's genetically impossible.
posted by lobstah at 11:35 AM on November 17, 2006

Boring. Call me when they do something cool like breed wasps with aluminum.
posted by Pastabagel at 11:36 AM on November 17, 2006 [10 favorites]

You know what's bullshit? This.
Although Alumini-wasps would be neat. Or Terrifying.
posted by boo_radley at 11:38 AM on November 17, 2006

Just another cog in the wheel of life.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:39 AM on November 17, 2006

What's sad is how many of my (often college) educated coworkers believed this.
posted by owenkun at 11:40 AM on November 17, 2006

Jesus. Anyone credulous enough to believe this, thank your local Board of Education for teaching about Intelligent Design instead of real science.
posted by orthogonality at 11:40 AM on November 17, 2006

We're supposed to believe a bunch of Brazilians just did this on their own?

Yeah, this would be way more believable if it were white people who'd made the scientific breakthrough. No way brown people can do something this advanced.
posted by thirteenkiller at 11:42 AM on November 17, 2006

I thought the cartoon was called Catdog, not Dogcat. Quit confuserating me!

Is this more or less believable than the Japanese 24-hour a day climaxing until death story?
posted by fenriq at 11:43 AM on November 17, 2006

I hear they do this in Kazakhstan. And worse, even.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:43 AM on November 17, 2006

You see what gay marriage leads to? Dogs and cats, living together. The dead rising from their graves.
posted by stet at 11:45 AM on November 17, 2006

Um that was trolling please no flame
posted by thirteenkiller at 11:45 AM on November 17, 2006

Yeah, and I've got a truckload of hamsterkeets out back I gotta unload. First 100 customers get a bonus talking guinea cocka-turtle with a side of touch-responsive mood-bacon. Hurry, potential chumps customers! My fake passport is almost ready!
posted by maryh at 11:45 AM on November 17, 2006

weapons-grade pandemonium writes "I hear they do this in Kazakhstan. And worse, even."


Throw the catdog down the well, so your country can be free.
posted by orthogonality at 11:48 AM on November 17, 2006

When these things grow up they're going to have the WORST anxiety attacks when they figure out what they are and start chasing themselves.
posted by haveanicesummer at 11:51 AM on November 17, 2006

This sounds ridiculous on its face, but because "If they could breed cats and dogs together it would have been done since the stone age." Inter-species mating isn't always a "it works or it doesn't" thing. Take, for instance, the beefalo. There were more than two hundred years of one-off stillbirths, infertile hybrids, and miscellaneous crazy shit before the first confirmed healthy fertile beefalo was both in 1965.

The reason I don't buy it is that the cat genome and the dog genome are wildly different. Just on the surface, cats have 38 metacentric chromosomes, and dogs have 78 acrocentric. In fact, there's so much variation within the genus Canis that many foxes can't mate with domesticated dogs.
posted by Plutor at 11:53 AM on November 17, 2006

This sounds ridiculous on its face, but not because...
posted by Plutor at 11:53 AM on November 17, 2006

Even if this is a hoax this thread is wortwhile because now I know that my life goal is to breed wasps and aluminium. Best. Species. Ever.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:56 AM on November 17, 2006

Cross species is known as "hybrid" of which there are many examples. Dogs crossed with other species are known as "canid hybrid", including with Jackals - I can't find a dog and cat hybrid though (unless you count poodles).
posted by stbalbach at 11:57 AM on November 17, 2006

Cats and dogs do not have the same number of chromosomes, right?

Can anyone give another explanation for the weird appearance of the dogs?

(I call hoax, but very good one)
posted by phrontist at 11:57 AM on November 17, 2006

fenriq: "Is this more or less believable than the Japanese 24-hour a day climaxing until death story?"

PSAS isn't new and isn't a hoax. I seem to remember seeing ads recently for an episode of a TV Doctor Drama (Gray's Anatomy, maybe?) about it.
posted by Plutor at 11:57 AM on November 17, 2006

anyone else find it amusing to read that the dog's name was ..well... "dog"
posted by hpsell at 11:59 AM on November 17, 2006

Alumini-wasps would be neat

I'd love to imprison my nemesis in a cell of Transparent Waspinimum.

Wouldn't you?
posted by CynicalKnight at 12:01 PM on November 17, 2006

I, for one, welcome our new canofelix overlords...
posted by Mister_A at 12:01 PM on November 17, 2006

I, for one, welcome our new dogcat overloads.
posted by rsanheim at 12:01 PM on November 17, 2006

dammit.
posted by rsanheim at 12:02 PM on November 17, 2006

Mister_A: You and me, 3 pm, monkey bars behind school.

BE THERE!
posted by rsanheim at 12:03 PM on November 17, 2006

Isn't this a sign of armageddon?

Why yes, I believe you're right.
posted by CynicalKnight at 12:06 PM on November 17, 2006

My dad had a dog named Dog. As far as I know she never bore half-cat half-beagles though.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 12:08 PM on November 17, 2006

Has anyone noticed that the 'puppies' bear a strong resemblence to rabbits? See?! This is where all the bunnies come from- perverse and shameful dog/cat couplings! If we pass laws requiring abstinence training for our pets, at last my carrot patch will be safe. Dobson is already on board!
posted by maryh at 12:11 PM on November 17, 2006

Well, now they're going to have to hold a wedding for the dog and cat. They've been living in sin.
posted by zusty at 12:12 PM on November 17, 2006

I thought you guys were being funny talking about wasps and aluminium.
posted by frecklefaerie at 12:16 PM on November 17, 2006

im in ur cat mashing up your beagles
posted by sharpener at 12:16 PM on November 17, 2006

im in ur metafilter posting fark
posted by LarryC at 12:21 PM on November 17, 2006

Recipe for fame: Get nursing cat. Get litter of puppies. Get puppies to nurse from cat. Take pictures.

My confirmation of the intelligence of humanity is daily reaffirmed. Joy.
posted by Atreides at 12:27 PM on November 17, 2006

im in ur cathouse overturning ur natural order
posted by maryh at 12:28 PM on November 17, 2006

To me, the funny thing about this is that one of the often-heard criticisms from some of the less-enlightened in the creationist crowd is something along the lines of "Well if evolution is true then why don't we see dogs coming out of cats!"

Now we can show them evidence.

[Yeah, I know this is bulljive]
posted by moonbiter at 12:46 PM on November 17, 2006

Cats bred with dogs? Not as cool as the liger, bred for its skills in magic.
posted by aught at 12:51 PM on November 17, 2006

plutor, well then, that would make the catdog, dogcat story less believable. Thanks for the linky.
posted by fenriq at 12:52 PM on November 17, 2006

HOAX
If that cat was really Brazilian it would be wearing a "Brasil" t-shirt.
posted by redteam at 12:54 PM on November 17, 2006

A litter of kittens has lost their mommy to puppies... Won't anyone think of the KITTENS!!!??
posted by easternblot at 12:56 PM on November 17, 2006

Just another cog in the wheel of life.
Dat is the truth.
posted by Floydd at 12:59 PM on November 17, 2006

I @m ur dog, hump1ng ur cat
posted by mistermoore at 1:01 PM on November 17, 2006

So... will they spray your furniture, shit on your carpet, cough up a hairball and drool all your shoes? Yay. The best of both worlds.
posted by Talanvor at 1:02 PM on November 17, 2006

"No way brown people can do something this advanced."

Agreed.
posted by hatchetjack at 1:03 PM on November 17, 2006

As above: Bullshit. Hoax.
posted by ericb at 1:05 PM on November 17, 2006

On a related note:

My bunny has been trying to schtupp my cat.
posted by Mister_A at 1:18 PM on November 17, 2006

It's fairly common for certain mammals to accept another species litter as their own. I think in this case the girl woke up one day and noticed her cat tending to a litter some bitc..female dog left behind. There could even be some hoaxing at work here too... who knows?

Genetically it's next to impossible, for the same reasons humans and chimpanzees can't have offspring (with a much closer match genetically)

For its cuteness factor here's some pics of a dog adopting a baby squirell as part of her litter
posted by samsara at 1:26 PM on November 17, 2006

They cross the companionship and trainability of a cat with the bathroom manners of a dog!
posted by drezdn at 1:41 PM on November 17, 2006

Sheesh, cats these days....I thought they had taste but I guess they're so hard up they'll screw anything...parents, hide the hamsters!
posted by Holy foxy moxie batman! at 1:43 PM on November 17, 2006

samsara writes "Genetically it's next to impossible, for the same reasons humans and chimpanzees can't have offspring..."

I don't think that's been firmly established. I'm not sure it ever will be, as the experiments are mind-bendingly unethical. Not that similar things haven't been attempted....
posted by mr_roboto at 1:53 PM on November 17, 2006

You credulous young whippersnappers. This is one of the oldest silly-season stories in existence. I remember the Long Beach Press-Independent running a front-pager on such a supposed mixture around 1972, with solemn commentary on whether the new breed should be called a "cog" or a "dat." And I couldn't convince my aunt it was bullshit ("They wouldn't print it in the paper if it wasn't true!") until the paper printed a retraction the next day.
posted by languagehat at 2:24 PM on November 17, 2006

In other news, journalists skipping high school biology classes.

I’d have sex with a dog/cat. Then it’d be a smedogcat.
posted by Smedleyman at 2:29 PM on November 17, 2006

I'd rather have a dogcow.
posted by mike3k at 2:33 PM on November 17, 2006

What happened?
posted by Ceiling Cat at 2:53 PM on November 17, 2006

phrontist : Can anyone give another explanation for the weird appearance of the dogs?

They are new-born puppies. Probably only days or weeks old. They all look weird when they are that young.

I mean they are basically just grubs at that point.
posted by quin at 3:27 PM on November 17, 2006

Damn pastabagel, I cannot get the aluminum wasps out of my brain now.
posted by Iron Rat at 3:57 PM on November 17, 2006

This was already disproved as a hoax last week in Brazil. I just can't find the story that I read about it. (Woulda been in Portuguese anyway). Just take my word for it, I know it's not true, because I read it on the internet!
posted by msali at 4:22 PM on November 17, 2006

Can anyone give another explanation for the weird appearance of the dogs?

Newborn pugs look v. similar.
posted by docgonzo at 4:56 PM on November 17, 2006

Those puppies look exactly like the ones my childhood Shih-Tzu disgorged after getting knocked up by a Golden Retriever.

"Hoax" is too strong a word. "Gross journalistic malpractice" is more like it. I'm calling Reuters now to tell them all about my pet canary - WHICH IS REALLY A GILA MONSTER!!!
posted by MaxVonCretin at 4:59 PM on November 17, 2006

Doot unh doot doot Pig and Elephant DNA just don't mix.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:19 PM on November 17, 2006

aluminum + wasps deserves another shout. That is seriously one of the best things I've read in the past week.

GET THE SPRAY!

My GOD! They JUST DON'T DIE!

OW OW OW *pssssssshhhh* OWOW *pssssshhhh* OW RUSTPROOF OW OW SHINY OW SHINY AND CLATTERING OW OW

seriously. cool.
posted by exlotuseater at 12:54 AM on November 18, 2006

OK, true story time. I came home aged about 12 to find our (male) cat in the garden being buggered by the golden retriever from up the road. Just another of the factors that led to my astonishingly well-adjusted state of mind.
posted by imperium at 2:52 AM on November 18, 2006

I don't think that's been firmly established. I'm not sure it ever will be, as the experiments are mind-bendingly unethical. Not that similar things haven't been attempted....
posted by mr_roboto at 1:53 PM PST on November 17

Wow. You learn something new every day.
posted by kosher_jenny at 6:56 AM on November 18, 2006

Can anyone give another explanation for the weird appearance of the dogs?

Meh, they just look like regular puppies to me. Puppies all have claws like that, puppies all have smushed faces like that, these aren't some weird hybrid, they're just puppies who were either orphaned or taken away from their mother to be raised by this cat who was already lactating. This sort of cross-species mothering happens very frequently.
posted by biscotti at 7:20 AM on November 18, 2006

Are you kidding me, that ain't nothin'. Haven't you heard about the rabbit-human hybrids?
posted by booksandlibretti at 4:19 PM on November 18, 2006

Real wrath of God stuff.
posted by stevil at 6:25 PM on November 18, 2006

Did someone mention Aluminum Wasps?
posted by gregor-e at 10:40 PM on November 18, 2006