O.K., how about this one...

While I was visiting the in-laws yesterday, Mom-in-Law informed me that cats will climb into a crib with a baby and suck the breath out of a baby there by killing him/her. She followed it up with "They don't to it out of malice but, while they are sniffing the babies face, presumably looking for the source of smell of milk/formula, they inadvertantly cause the baby to sufficate".

With that, I was nearly in stitches. It was all I could do to hold that one in. Later, I found out that it is an old wives tale and that no where in the United States had a case of such ever been recorded. Not so much a mystery but, still a pretty entertaining story if you ask me.

So..somehow cats are putting their whole mouth over a babies mouth and suffocating them by sucking all the air out... Ok then! lol

Ooooh, I believed that when I was younger! One morning I woke up with my kitty sitting on my chest, just sitting there....starring at me >_>. It is an entertaining story though . I love those old wives tales.

Wow, I hadn't heard this one in years. I'm surprised some people still believe in this old story. Here's a link:

Snopes

ha ha, cats are EVIL

I've also heard the ones about it being *dangerous* to have a cat while your pregnant (my parents believed this one and got rid of beautiful black green eyed cat because my mum was pregnant with my younger sister) and that if you swallow cats hair as a child it will make you walk with a limp or something. Really stupid.

If a white cat mews on your doorstep, you must prepare to get married
If spraks/ember from the fire lands on a cat, an earthquake is coming
Pass a black cat from 4:00a.m. to 7:00a.m., you will die before the day it out
And the list goes on...people give cats a really bad name by doing this, thankfully, these aren't believable.

Oh yea I remember that one the cats sucking the breath of life out of a baby???!!! PLEASE! Yea they got some good ones out there.

iF you take a closer look at this OWT there may be something to it, not in that cats are actually stealing a babies breath, but rather a cat can cause the death of a baby. If anyone has ever owned a cat, they know that cats love to cuddle and sleep in warm places; if there is a baby in the house, its crib/cradle is most likely to be the warmest place to sleep. People would dote over their babies, wrap them in balnkets and place theier cradles by the fire, an all to inviting place for a kitty. Many stories claimed that the cat was sitting/laying on the babies chest, stealing the breath from their mouth.

What was more lkely to be happening was that while the cat was on the baby it would in actuality be suffocating the baby by the shear weight of its body lying directly across the lungs. It is hard to breathe while something is across your chest, ever play dog pile and be the person on the bottom? Now consider that a babies lungs are not near as developed as an adult and the weight of the cat is enough to stop it from breathing.

Now there was a mention of cats being harmful to humans during pregnancy ...this is in fact a truth. There is a microscopic parasite that causes an infection in humans caused Toxoplasmosis. The parasites responsable for the infection is commonly found in cats, more so in its feces and can be contracted by nothing more than cleaning a litter box. If the mother contracts this infection during the pregnancy, it CAN be passed onto the unborn child and can cause a multitude of complications in the baby the most severe being: seizures, hearing loss, anemia, and mental retardation.

Toxoplasmosis infection is not limited to cats alone, it can be contracted from eating undercooked meat or from eating fruits and vegetables that have been grown in infected manure that have not thoroughly washed.

Well, that one at least is understandable. Never mind "before the day is out"... if I was to pass a cat of ANY colour, even a small one, I'd probably die on the spot

At the very LEAST, I wouldn't be able to sit down for WEEKS

Meow Purr.

My great grandmother and grandmother actually would tell my mother and uncles this they said it would actually happen in mexico, i personally dont like cats, but i dont think its true either but its such an old story that has been passed down from generation to generation that i dont even bother to test it!

Well then, the weddings off angie!! You mean ole dog lover person, you! Ha-ha-ha!

Yep. my wife is a nurse and that's the data in her medical books. Pity me, I'm on perminant litterbox detail and we have SEVEN CATS!!!

I'd never thought about the weight of a full grown and well fed cat sitting on the warm chest of a newborn. That could very well cause suffication and be the genesis of the OWT.

What happens if you own the cat and pass him every night to go to the can? Heh-heh! If you own two of them, like I do, will you die twice as fast? HA-ha! I love OWT's.

yea ive heard that owt all my life, and i figured that yea a cat at one time or another lated on a baby and suficated them,,and kneeding like they do(that weird clawing thing) could have been takin the wrong way..but yea i still hear people say that

yep and i haven't heard cats board the Noah's Ark

I don't believe the black cat rubbish. I have two black cats (20 pounds each).

I totally believe they could kill someone by sleeping on them. Taimat and Toes love sleeping curled up with me, and since I'm a tummy sleeper, Taimat sleeps on my back. There's been a few nights I've woken up because I couldn't breathe because she was lying across my back in such a way that I wasn't able to get enough air in my lungs.

Didn't help that I had a cold at the time though. I wouldn't trade my twin dragons for anything though. Well... maybe a Tibetian Spaniel. Those dogs are soooooooooooo cute!



Huh... I thought Lions were taken on the Ark. I'll have to reread that part of the Bible again now. Man.... And there's so many words there... Nap time!

As I recall, neither cats nor chickens are mentioned anywhere in the bible. Kind of curious since they are both such common animals. I can kind of understand cats thought, because of the Egyptians but, chickens? Who don't like chickens?

Wow! That is quite a wives tale. I can understand the cat sniffing around to find the smell but I dont tink it would be enough to kill a baby.

I've heard that my whole life. I never believed it until I came across this picture........

Ya, the part about a cat sucking out a baby's breath. The only way I think a cat could kill a baby is by sleeping on it. I have lived most of my life with three cats of varying sizes and varying colors (my black baby reciently died ). They LOVE to sleep close to you. And by close to you I mean on your head, on your back, on your chest, on your feet, on your hands, on your arms (let's put it this way, there isnt a place on you where a cat doesn't like to sleep). I can remember cold days when I would try to wake up for school and there would be a warm kitty-cat in the small of my back purring like a little furnace (gosh they make it hard to get up in the morning). My largest cat is somewhere in the area of 20lbs. If he were to sleep on a baby's chest, I'm fairly certain he would suffocate the baby.

I still have a photo of my cat lieing on me when i was baby,
I do think im still living...
Even better, it was a black cat!!!

I can't believe people actually worry about that, that's just sad.

when i was a baby my parents had a siamese cat. i also slept in a crib and i never died, obviously- children have tho- however, that's not related to animals in the house. (our DD sleeps with us...we aren't allowed to have animals in our apartment but i breastfeed and we all get a better night's sleep, reguardless) cats stealing baby's breath is rubbish- in my opinion. sheesh, i would be dead if that were true cuz that cat really hated me. i have relatives who believe it, tho.

I have never heard of this OWT, but I can see how it may have developed -- Asthma

Also, I would be more worried about a dog laying on top of a baby than a cat (why do cats get such a bad rap?).

As for crossing the path of a black cat, I wish people would stop perpetuating that myth, even in jest. Myths like that have caused the death of too many black cats. We had a cat that was all black, and she was the sweetest thing in the world.

Rest In Peace, Sydney. I love you.

That might be posible if you replace the cats respiratory system, with a Hoover vacuum.

Yeah, those old tales are cool.