The Madness

From the journal of Demona Callery

London, December 16, 2000

I'm going to go ahead and write this down while I remember it. Scatterbrained me, I'll forget by tomorrow. I've known the cats some time now, and their Madness is no longer a stranger to me. My attempts will be to now document this disease which plagues my friends as best as I can, and use the best of my abilities to find a cure for them.

First off, what is the Madness? The Madness is many things. It is an emotional, physical, and most of all a mental disease which suddenly comes upon these anthro-cats involuntarily. Warning symptoms vary from the three types which I've identified. They can range from just twinges in limbs to violent spasms of pain throughout the body. There seems to be no way as of yet to control it, or stop the coming of an `episode'. So far there seems to be no pattern to these, but triggers I find to be very strange. A Madness episode can be triggered by the subject being in a physically-or more common: emotionally-threatening situation, by being angered, or frightened, but also it seems to be triggered by everyday things that could have effect on normal cats. Such as a ball of yarn, a rat, a dog bark, or tom rivalry. Also queens in heat seem more apt to succumb, or lapse, into an episode, and the scent they put off can make toms around them lapse.

Episodes themselves are as varied as the cats themselves. At first they started small: happening about once a week for periods of thirty minutes to an hour. But they've been becoming more frequent with every lapse. They've increased in both time, frequency, and intensity. Now rarely a day goes by without hearing of a cat lapsing, and times are running from hours on end to even days. In all of these episodes, the subject seems to revert to the state of normal cat, moving on all fours, and not thinking as an intelligent being would. My hypothesis is that if these episodes continue on their rate of growth, the cats will either lose their minds completely, or die. Either way, the end result is grim. I've tried to remain optimistic.

As of now I've identified three different types of Madness. The first, seeming to be the most mild and least dangerous, I've really seen in only the `younger' cats. Etcetera, for one, seems to be most plagued. This type doesn't seem to be brought on by anything emotional, but just occurs on its own. Symptoms are periods of...for lack of a better term: kittenish actions, where the subject reverts to the mental state of a kitten. These episodes occur more playful and outright comical than the other types, and rarely dangerous unless the subject eyes you as a giant catnip ball.

The second I find disturbing. This type seems to be mostly in queens who've come into heat. I'm certain it is plaguing Demeter terribly, but other queens I've yet had the chance to examine. Symptoms here seem to include extreme nervousness, anxiety, and a strong reluctance to be around anyone, toms especially. From what I've seen other symptoms include the usual feline heat: extreme itching and fever. If the queen feels threatened, or is touched without want, personally I can say the situation can turn violent. Their frame of mind seems to be to just get away from everything and everyone until it passes. Self-preservation, as is common with the female gender, is evident.

The third is the worst and, I'm sad to say, is assuredly plaguing the widest range of cats. It's most definitely in the majority of adult toms, and even the young female Electra has shown signs. This third type is almost always triggered by unsettled emotions or the presence of danger, and almost always turns violent. Symptoms of an episode of this type vary from cat to cat, but seem to include extreme physical pain and may even cause physical changes when lapsing. Macavity seems to have the worst, but it is not limited to just him. In this episode state it seems the cat has trouble speaking-if at all-and feels nothing but the urge to hunt and kill...like a wildcat. I can almost associate this type with hydrophobia. Signs that appear in this state are bloodshot eyes, foaming at the mouth, staggering, and extreme aggressiveness... maybe this disease has a connection to rabies after all.

As in finding a cure, Demeter has assisted me in some research, but nothing I've found has even the ability to hold off the episodes, let alone cure it. I've run every test I know to do with hydrophobia. I've tested for chemical imbalances in blood, tissue, organs, but no results. If I could just have more time to run some tests, I'm confident I could at least find a clue. But there's my dilemma. Even if I could get one of the cats to agree to let me examine them, they wouldn't agree to being locked up. And without bonds, how could I keep them around when they lapse? Then, I know if I could get them into seclusion, and watch and study as they go into, during, and leave an episode, I could learn more, I'm sure. It all comes down to time and resources, of which we all are both running out of. As I said, I'm worried that if these episodes keep occurring the cats don't have much of a chance for recovery, and my veterinary clinic doesn't carry the equipment for extensive research. Blast it!

I've had several theories on what causes this Madness in the first place. It may have to do with Change itself, and is some magical side effect that I could never hope to explain in the name of science. If this is so, as much as I hate to say it: the cats are doomed. Unless some force higher than us all reverses the process, there's no hope. But I'm a doctor. I'd rather stick to what I know. The cats are indeed half-human and half-feline physically, so why should their minds have not been effected? I've only one machine able to do a brain scan, and none of them has agreed to it yet. My theory is that when the Change happened, it not only changed their bodies but their brain compositions. Along with the fur and fangs, areas of their brain such as sight, sounds, and smell have increased, and with it the instincts built into one's consciousness with such senses: a predator. This theory does not, however, explain why they should act as normal homo sapiens and all of a sudden have episodes of pure feline movement. Unless, however, (I apologize, I'm not trained in areas of animal psychology) that their want to be human makes them continually act human, thus repressing their feline sides. They can repress, possibly without consciously knowing it, but not forever. Eventually it builds up, like a flood against a barrier, and breaks loose, the feline side taking control, thus making the cat lapse. The only solution to this that I can think of is not any drug, but within the cats themselves. If they can accept who they are, and live in a balance between their feline and human sides as felis sapiens, perhaps then the Madness will disperse. Inner peace...I picked one heck of a time to become a philosopher.

But there is still something I think may be remotely related to the Madness, somehow, someway. These magical beings that have been appearing defy the very laws of science that I've pledged to, but, granted that I myself am not going insane, they do exist. They-Quetzel, Cairo, and there are others-act as though they know something. They treat the cats like playthings, which has created a strong dislike in us all, but I have a hunch they know more about the Madness than they are letting on to. If I can find it in myself to trust them, I would love to question them about it. If they could give me something...anything!...to go on it would help. But, alas, they come and go like the wind, leaving mischief in their wake. Personally, I'd much rather rely on my own scientific research than the word of a fairy. But help is help.

I'll file this away for now. Perhaps, if it's not too late, I'll stumble over it again with some new information and have a chance at helping-more preferably curing-this Madness. I'll try for as long as I can, and hope that the cats can hold out long enough.