Sand Cats

Nature 3 Minutes

Sand cats, also known as “sand dune cats,” are desert dwelling felines native to Northern Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East. While these cute cats look quite similar to your average housecat, be warned they are 100% wild animals. Sand cats have not been domesticated in any way, and are actually ferocious little predators.

Description of the Sand Cat

Sand cats are a pale tan or sandy color (to match all the sand of course), with some dark spots or stripes on their fur. Their tails are tipped with black, with a few black bands around them. There are two dark stripes on their upper forelegs. Their ears are quite large, which helps heat escape in the hot desert temperatures.

Interesting Facts About the Sand Cat

Don’t let their cuteness fool you… these little cats are fierce predators! They are unique felines due to their desert habitat, and have a few characteristics to help them survive this environment.

Desert Dwelling Feline – Sand dune cats are the only cats that live primarily in desert regions. Other felines may range in deserts occasionally, but sand cats specialize in surviving within these arid environments.

Purr-fect Hiding Place – Where better to snooze during the hot desert day than a nice cool burrow in the sand? Sand cats are experts at burrowing, and spend much of their naptime in shallow burrows. They also dig to seek out their prey, most of which also spends its time underground.

Furry Feet – Those fuzzy little feet aren’t just for show! Sand cats have heavily furred feet to help keep them from burning their toes on hot sand. The fur protects sand cats’ feet by providing a barrier between the sensitive footpads and the scorching sand and rock. They have so much fur on their feet that they don’t leave behind footprints!

Water? Who Needs It! – Because water is scarce in the desert, sand cats can go long periods of time without drinking. Instead, they receive most of their moisture from the prey that they eat. Sand cats can sometimes go months without drinking.

Habitat of the Sand Cat

Sand cats live exclusively in desert regions. They are found in very arid habitats with little to no vegetation. Instead, they live in dry, sandy plains and rocky valleys. Conditions are extreme in the desert, and temperatures can reach 124º F during the day, and 31º F at night. Because they need to burrow to escape the heat, sand cats are found only in soft soils.

Distribution of the Sand Cat

These cats are native to Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. They are restricted mainly to the Sahara Desert in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and parts of Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Pakistan. Their ranges are influenced by the presence of desert as well as land development and soil composition.

Diet of the Sand Cat

Sand dune cats prey on rats, mice, hares, birds, snakes, spiders, and insects. They commonly make lunchmeat out of venomous snakes and spiders. Because they live in such a harsh environment, sand dune cats must be opportunistic feeders. The must eat whatever they can find, because they have no other choice!

Domestication

Sand cats have not been domesticated in any way.

Does the Sand Cat Make a Good Pet

No. Because sand cats are threatened, animals taken illegally for the pet trade can seriously damage wild populations. They are very sensitive animals, and do not do well in facilities not equipped for their needs.

Sand Cat Care

In zoos, sand cats must be provided with very particular care. They are provided with plenty of hiding spaces and burrowing opportunities, and have access to round the clock medical care. They are fed a diet of mice or rats, bones, and rib bone meat at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.

Behavior of the Sand Cat

Because the desert is so extremely hot, animals benefit from nighttime activity. Avoiding the heat, sand cats are nocturnal and hunt at night. They are mainly solitary animals, but not highly territorial. While they don’t socialize with other cats, they will occasionally share burrows. They do not share the same space in the burrow, but instead occupy it while the other animal is away.

Reproduction of the Sand Cat

Populations of sand cats in different locations will breed at different times of year. After mating, the female sand cat has a gestation period of 59 – 67 days. The litter usually consists of 2 – 4 kittens, with numbers up to 8 occurring as well. The kittens will begin to hunt for their own prey between 6 and 8 months of age. They reach breeding age by 14 months old, and can produce a litter of their own at that time.

SOURCE: ANIMALS.NET

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126 thoughts on “Sand Cats”

  3. “New DC US Attorney Opens Inquiry Into Unlawful Use of Common J6 Felony — Ed Martin, the acting DC US Attorney, is demanding records related to charging decisions made by his predecessor to unlawfully apply a document-tampering statute against 350+ J6ers.”

    Julie Kelly, Jan 30, 2025

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    EXCERPT: “”Paul Hodgkins, a 38-year-old crane operator living in a working-class neighborhood of Tampa, traveled alone by bus from Florida to Washington, DC to attend President Donald Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021. After the speech, Hodgkins, like thousands of fellow Trump supporters, walked from the Ellipse to the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.

    At 2:50 p.m., more than 35 minutes after the first breach, Hodgkins entered the building. Carrying a “Trump 2020” flag, Hodgkins made his way to the Senate floor and took a selfie. He raised the flag inside the chamber then peacefully exited the building at 3:15 p.m. He did not assault police or vandalize government property.

    Nonetheless, Hodgkins was arrested by the FBI on February 16, 2021 on his way to work. Armed agents proceeded to raid his home and seize his electronic devices. A magistrate judge in Washington placed Hodgkins, an Eagle Scout with no criminal record, on a high intensity monitoring program requiring him to wear an ankle bracelet and abide by a curfew, only allowing him the freedom to go to work; he also was forbidden from traveling outside the Tampa area.

    Charged with a federal felony, Hodgkins also had to surrender his passport and was prohibited from possessing a firearm. His crime? 18 U.S.C. 1512(c)(2), obstruction of an official proceeding, an evidence-tampering statute punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.

    From Paper Shredding to Political Protesting

    The statute, enacted in 2002 as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the aftermath of the Enron-Arthur Anderson accounting scandal reads:

    “Whoever corruptly— (1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or (2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so.”

    Hodgkins was one of hundreds of J6ers eventually charged by the Department of Justice with 1512(c)(2), representing the first time the felony had been used against political protesters. Hodgkins also was the first to plead guilty.

    Despite his cooperation and quick decision to take a plea offer, prosecutors wanted Hodgkins to spend 18 months in federal prison. “Hodgkins admitted that he corruptly obstructed and impeded an official proceeding, namely the certification of the Electoral College vote count. He did so by unlawfully entering the U.S. Capitol alongside hundreds of other rioters with whom he shared in a unified goal: to block Congress from completing the certification,” assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Sedky wrote in the government’s July 2021 sentencing recommendation…..”

    https://www.declassified.live/p/new-dc-us-attorney-opens-inquiry

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  7. Just The News: “A federal appeals court on Thursday struck down a handgun ban on adults under the age of 21, ruling that the current age-based restriction violated the right to keep and bear arms enshrined in the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.

    The ruling is the latest since the Supreme Court established a new test for assessing modern firearms laws in 2022. The conservative-led Supreme Court determined in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, that current gun restrictions were required to be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

    The New Orleans based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that 18- 20-year-olds are among those whose “right to keep and bear arms is protected.”

    “The federal government has presented scant evidence that eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds’ firearm rights during the founding-era were restricted in a similar manner to the contemporary federal handgun purchase ban, and its 19th century evidence ‘cannot provide much insight into the meaning of the Second Amendment when it contradicts earlier evidence,'” the judges wrote in their decision, per CNN.

    The ruling is in response to a federal ban on handgun sales to people under 21, which was first adopted by Congress in 1968 as part of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, Reuters reported.

    The law was challenged by a group of 18- to-20-year-olds and the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation. The appeals court overturned a lower court judge’s ruling that upheld the federal statutes.” 

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  10. “Common Sense Soaring” — Newsletter | January 30, 2025

    We The People with Flag

    “Into only its second week, the Donald Trump administration is marching forward with the kind of purpose and initiative rarely seen in American government. Moving like a tremendous machine, the new administration has left its opponents in the media, Deep State, and opposition party in the dust. They just can’t keep up with his commander-in-chief energy as his executive orders and initiatives shaping U.S. domestic and foreign policy are restoring normalcy to American life.

    After all, the foundation for making America Great Again — the bedrock of all ingenuity, invention, and innovation — is common sense. And the American people have it in abundance!

    Indeed, “Common Sense” is the title of one of the early founding documents of our Republic. Written by Thomas Paine in 1775-76, the pamphlet urged the thirteen colonies to fight on for their independence against the British crown. And it was Paine who, in the darkest hour of the revolution, wrote this famous passage, which George Washington ordered read aloud to his troops on Christmas Eve 1776.

    These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

    Over the last four years, Americans proved we’re no summer soldiers or sunshine patriots. We stood strong as our republic was under assault from within. It was an attack not just on our way of life, but reason itself, common sense. Who would open our borders to usher in millions of illegal aliens, among them felons determined to wreak chaos on our families and communities. As we learned just this week, the previous administration knew precisely where the murderers and rapists were hiding — they just chose not to do anything about it to protect Americans. But the new administration apprehends them and sends them back to their countries of origin.

    Who would use the resources of the federal government to promote and even monetize the mutilation and sterilization of children? The psychopathic activists who set our policies until just two weeks ago. In harming our most vulnerable citizens, they also set about to undermine reality and nature. There are only two sexes, male and female, and contending otherwise is nothing but an attempt to confuse and demoralize a nation. But the new administration moved quickly to set things right, stipulating that no federal funds will be used to advance the trans agenda.

    It’s hard to foresee how the history books will record the swift transition from depravity and insanity to reason and reality — that is, common sense. But we Americans lived through the madness and held firm. We fought back peacefully, using our most precious right that the founders left to us as their legacy — the right to choose our leaders. We chose common sense, the only path to making America great again.”

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      1. They don’t want to “humanize” baby pandas in the wild so they dress in panda costumes, much like they will do sometimes with wild birds – eagles and such – that have fallen out of nests when they are feeding them. They don’t want to alter their wild instincts and get them accustomed to humans.

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  13. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

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