Post by Jackalstep on Aug 21, 2016 15:55:56 GMT -5
In the books, it's never really clear exactly how the cats think about numbers. If I remember right, they seem to have some concept of discrete numbers, but it's not discussed much.
I remember in Watership Down, the author clearly sets parameters for the rabbits' conception of numbers: They can count to four, and anything above that is hrair, which if remember right simply means "thousands".
Personally, I like to imagine that, in a Warriors-type setting where the cats are anthropomorphized a bit, cats count using base eighteen, because they have eighteen claws. For example, twenty would be thought of as eighteen and two, or thirty-nine would be thought of as two eighteens and three. So this is limited, as they can't count higher than 324 (eighteen eighteens), but that should be more than enough for Clan purposes. And probably, some cats are likely to be far better at counting than others. I imagine most can count to eighteen, maybe two eighteens, but tend to struggle after that.
What about you guys? Do you have any headcanons as to how cats in a fictional setting might count?
I remember in Watership Down, the author clearly sets parameters for the rabbits' conception of numbers: They can count to four, and anything above that is hrair, which if remember right simply means "thousands".
Personally, I like to imagine that, in a Warriors-type setting where the cats are anthropomorphized a bit, cats count using base eighteen, because they have eighteen claws. For example, twenty would be thought of as eighteen and two, or thirty-nine would be thought of as two eighteens and three. So this is limited, as they can't count higher than 324 (eighteen eighteens), but that should be more than enough for Clan purposes. And probably, some cats are likely to be far better at counting than others. I imagine most can count to eighteen, maybe two eighteens, but tend to struggle after that.
What about you guys? Do you have any headcanons as to how cats in a fictional setting might count?
