My cats are very different. Gorgeous is bright, alert, and very fond of biting me at any given moment. Grey (also known as Grigio), on the other hand is timid. She often has a vacant expression on her dilute tortoiseshell face, mouth agape as she wheezes from her street-acquired respiratory ailment. Simply put, she seems simple. Sorry, Grigio. 

Armed with the knowledge that cats, can, in fact be dumb, I cannot claim that I was terribly surprised by the results of a feline-related study that were released this past week. It seems that cat brains, over the 10.000 years since the animals were domesticated, have been shrinking. 

«Our data indicates that domestic cats indeed, have smaller cranial volumes (implying smaller brains) relative to both European wildcats (Felis silvestris) and the wild ancestors of domestic cats, the African wildcats (Felis lybica), verifying older results, we further found that hybrids of domestic cats and European wildcats have cranial volumes that cluster between those of the two parent species.» Apparently, the theory that cat brains are getting smaller is anything but new. Scientists have been investigating the size of cat brains for as many as sixty years. The confirmation suggests that cats could provide valuable insight as to the effects of domestication on animals. 

While this news is probably an exciting biological development to many scientists, to Twitter users, it was more exciting as an opportunity for humor.