We are pleased to announce that our third book is out! It came out of the experience we had with the loss of Tucker and Jasmine this year and The Human’s certification and work in pet grief counseling. And the best news? If you have Kindle Unlimited you can get the ebook for free!
We wrote this book to offer comfort and advice for all our two and four-legged furiends whose kitties have crossed the Rainbow Bridge. If you read the book we would love it if you would leave a review on Amazon.
The Tribe is taking full advantage of the end of the year mini vacation and it took Oliver a while to get to gay Purree to record his greeting so Alberto’s regular Walk Through The Web Wednesday feature was preempted for our New Year’s message.
Hello Furiends, It’s almost Christmas and The Tribe is looking forward to the celebration. We each wanted to record a purrsonal Holiday message and we wish you a festive season, no matter what event you celebrate in December and that you enjoy the web gems I found for you this week.
We also wanted to share a Catmas Carol with you. Every year the Human takes our Catmas Carol book out and we enjoy some feline caroling. Here is one of our favorites!
Gary and Deb Mosberger’s cat had been missing for five weeks. Every pet parent is happy when their lost fur kid finds his way home but this reunion was a true Christmas miracle.
December has always been hard for the Mosbergers as their son Vinny was killed by a drunk driver 18 years ago on December 9th.
Vinnie loved cats and had many throughout his life. Having cats in the home help the Mosbergers feel closer to Vinnie and they added two cats to the home last year. The cats, Abe and Lincoln, like to stroll around the neighborhood, letting themselves in the house through a window.
On November 5th, the cats left the house for their daily stroll. Lincoln came back, Abe didn’t. When he didn’t return by the next day the Mosbergers checked with all their neighbors, put up posters around town and contacted shelters in their area.
Deb Mosberger woke up on December 9th, the anniversary of Vinnie’s death. She said that Vinnie knew how much she and his dad loved their felines and so she said, “Okay Vinnie, it would be nice if you could bring Abe home.” All throughout the day she felt Vinnie would bring the missing cat home and she even told her neighbors.
That evening, while she worked in the kitchen she heard crying at the window, it was Abe, 18 years to the day that Vinnie had died. The cat was skinny and scared after his 5-week ordeal and was very happy to be home.
Deb Mosberger said that ever since her son died, she hated the month of December. Abe changed all that this December 9th. She said, “Now I can love December again because of this Christmas miracle.”
A cat named Frank just won $10,000.00 for his shelter, Focus on Ferals. Franks sweet face and heartwarming story earned him the top spot in the recent Arm & Hammer Cat Litter contest, “Purrfectly Impurrfect”.
There were about 2,000 shelter cats nominated for the prize. The purpose of the contest was to highlight stray cats overlooked because of their age, appearance or misunderstood personalities. The goal is to help these cats find homes too.
Due to the campaign’s success, Arm & Hammer established the Feline Generous “Kitty,” a fund that will donate $50,000 to shelters and shelter cats in need each year.
Focus on Ferals staff said Frank can make their “hearts explode with love” but also prompts them to “burst into tears,” given his injuries and scars. Five-year-old Frank arrived at the shelter with an ear infection and a cheek injury, where a bone fragment eventually had to be removed.
Despite all this, shelter workers say Frank has quirky facial expressions and cries out for attention. His lovable personality and charm attract volunteers and fellow cats like his best friend, Pickles. For more information about the shelter and its mission, visit its website or check out Focus on Ferals’ Facebook page.
We’ve all heard the old excuse, “the dog ate my homework”. Well my furiends, it’s not just dogs that like to chew or shred paper (or plastic, like yours truly).
A young human from Malaysia, who had just earned his university degree came in to his room to see that his cat had ripped it up.
Afif Adlan Mohd Hanafiah graduated with a finance, accounting, and management degree from the University of Nottingham in July and had been proudly displaying his diploma, until his cat shredded it. He tweeted a photo of the “crime scene” and the rest, as they say, is history. His post currently has over 53,700 retweets and 254,600 likes.
Okay, first I have to say that this study must have been done for people who really don’t know, love and understand cats. Any true cat parent knows we love and are bonded to our humans!
A 2019 study from researchers at Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences published in the journal Current Biology, indicates that like children and dogs, cats forge a similar attachment to the humans raising them. Well, DUH! Attachment, is a relevant behavior that applies to cats as much as other pets.
For the study, researchers had kittens and cats participate in a “secure base test”— similar to a test that is conducted on babies and dogs to study their attachment behaviors—in which cats are separated and reunited with their owners over the course of a few minutes to determine if the animals were securely or insecurely attached to their owners. Of the 70 kittens researchers were able to classify, 64.3% were found to be securely attached and 35.7% were insecurely attached. For the 38 adult cats they tested, the results were 65.8% securely attached and 34.2% insecurely attached.
To see if the kittens’ attachment style could be modified, the researchers had kittens undergo a six-week training course. No significant differences were found, indicating the lasting power of an initial attachment style, as in humans.
“Once an attachment style has been established between the cat and its caregiver, it appears to remain relatively stable over time, even after a training and socialization intervention,” Vitale commented in the same media statement.
If there’s one important thing you humans can learn from this is that it is important to spend time with your kitten to establish the attachment bond early.
I’m still not sure why the university had to spend money to study this but, if it helps non-cat folks understand what amazing and loving creatures we are, then I say, paws up!
Now I know many of you humans want to know why we felines love to destroy the Christmas tree but that explaination would take waaaay to long so I thought I’d take the simpler question, “Why do cats want to hide under the Christmas tree?”
You’ve seen us snuggle between the presents, rolling around in the ribbons and you’ve probably wondered, “why?” Dr. Ignacio Casali and Dr.Adrew Lee, both DVMs, tackle the answer.
Despite the fact that we are soooo cute cuddling under the pine boughs, we can also get up to a bit of mischief. Sometimes it’s the dangling ornaments that are just asking to be swatted or those flickering lights that draw us to the bottom of the tree.
There is another reason we want to dive into the depths of your holiday tree, it’s because it’s like a cardboard box on steroids to a cat, according to Dr. Lee. “It can provide height, a place to hide, and is full of toys — all things that cats love.” In a sense, it is the perfect playground for your feline friend. Dr. Casali agrees adding that your Christmas tree could provide us kitties with a sense of shelter or comfort.
Despite the fact that we felines love the bottom of the tree, you humans need to watch what we are playing with from the tree. Dr. Casali says, “During this time of the year, we see cats that come into the emergency room with foreign materials in the stomach, which many times come from Christmas decorations. Cats like to play with the strings and the ornaments, which they can swallow.” Dr. Casali reminds you humans to keep a close eye on us and, if we do swallow part of an ornament or another kind of décor, call the vet right away!
Oh, and be prepared for us to be bummed when you take down that fun tree with all it’s hanging cat toys!
I hope things are going well in your neck of the woods and your humans are putting lots of gifts under the tree for you (if your tree is still standing, that is).
We had some holiday fun when we purrticipated in the Basepaws Secret Santa event. Our new furiend Poppy lives with her human Ami, younger sister Violet and (as Poppy described her) grouchy Aunt Rose. Poppy is a Dwelf Sphinx, Violet is an Elf Sphynx and Aunt Rose is Peterbald. The best part of Poppy’s story is that her human Ami is allergic to cats but she can lives with these three felines without allergy problems! Poppy has great taste in gifts and I loved what she sent. Oliver and Lily were a little miffed that they didn’t get Secret Santa gifts so The Human has promised to sign us all up for Secret Santas next Christmas!
I no sooner got the gifts out of the box and Oliver had to show up to check out what I got.
There was one toy that The Human had to explain to me and when she did I was a bit shocked.
Being the resourceful kitty I am, I told Lily (who is always more curious and not as lazy as I am) to come over and help meowt.
Did I mention what a resourceful feline I am? I finally figured out that if I could paw the toy over, the treats would drop out and I can help myself.
Thanks again to Poppy and her human Ami and now let’s look at this week’s feline news.
The Catgarden Café in Seoul, Korea is the place where you can cuddle about 130 festive felines and now, these kitties in their Santa Suits are spreading cheer throughout the city.
Park Seo-young opened the Catgarden cafe in 2016 to take in cats rescued off the streets or that were the subjects of failed adoptions, a situation that has worsened this year.
The number of abandoned pets increased by about 3.7% in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
The Catgarden Cafe itself has been hit this year by the coronavirus pandemic. The cafe used to have about 100 visitors a day, but that has recently dropped by about a third. Snack time is the best time to visit as the cats line up in the front yard for a treat. A special festive feast is planned for these cats in their Santa Paws gear.
So often you humans believe that we felines are so slavishly devoted to you that we would never cuddle with another human….these stories prove that isn’t true!
Cat café simulation Calico is here. Now it is a bit confusing to this feline why you humans would prefer a simulation to a real cat café but The Human reminded me that not everyone has a cat café in their neck of the woods (we don’t). The game is ready and you can decorate cakes, collect animal friends and assemble your café right meow.
The cats of Syros will be starring in their own documentary in 2021. The cats were first introduced to the world in 2018 after Joan and Richard Bowell’s job advertisement for a live-in cat caretaker for the 55 plus kittens sheltered at their Syros based ‘God’s Little People’ cat rescue centre went viral.
The job ad received over 40,000 applications before the Bowell’s narrowed the list down to offer the position to Jeffyne Telson, a woman who had run ‘ResQcats’, a non-profit sanctuary dedicated to the care and welfare of stray and abandoned cats and kittens in Santa Barbara for 21 years.
When Joan, and her British Richard first came to Syros on holiday 20 years ago they were appalled at the living conditions of the cats of the island and how distressed they appeared.
“We spent our holidays feeding them, rushing them to the vet and giving them medication. Leaving them behind was terrible. We talked about how wonderful it would be to build our own house and help the cats,” said Richard
In 2011, the couple sold their house in Denmark and moved to Syros, turning an acre of island into a cat sanctuary that they called ‘God’s Little People’. Within the first year Joan and Richard had rescued 30 distressed cats.
Initially funding the shelter was a struggle and it was done by selling Joan’s illustrations and through small donations but the couple were soon broke.
One day a €10 note blew onto the property, just enough for Joan and Richard to finally buy themselves some coffee and a croissant. From there things began to turn around and today the shelter is doing well (but still always in need of donations).
All I can say is bless these humans who gave up so much to help the kitties of Syros!
How is your December going? Things are fine in our neck of the woods. The raccons are still shimmying up the tree that reaches to the upstairs deck, looking for a handout, the deer are still finding apples from the tree on our property and the neighborhood cats are still trying to sneak into our garage now that the weather is colder.
I received my wonderful gifts from my Basepaws Secret Santa furiend (more about that later in another post). It was really fun to purrticipate and I loved the information my secret furiend sent about themselves.
Wow, there’s some cool stuff in here!
Even though it’s been very cold here, we’ve had quite a bit of sun and finding sun puddles has been easy.
“Please don’t disturb me while I’m sunning.” Lily
And, if the sun can’t be found, my brother Oliver and I like to have a nice, cozy snuggle.
Stay warm and cozy my furiends and I hope you enjoy this week’s feline stories.
Meowza, paws up for this guy, a French philanthropist who left a sum of money for the cats living in the basement of the State Hermitage Museum in Russia.
Around 50 cats live in the famous St. Petersburg museum and it has been a home to cats since the time of Empress Elizabeth, who reigned from 1741 to 1761.
Catherine the Great, the founder of the Hermitage, gave the cats the status of guardians of the art galleries and their job is to keep the treasures safe from rodents.
Today, the felines are taken care of by volunteers and museum staff, and receive support from donations which have allowed the cats to have their own washing machine and the services of a local veterinarian.
The windfall will likely be used to repair the museum’s basements, where the cats live. The folks who care for the Hermitage cats also adopt them out and refer to the adoptees as “graduates”.
Oh my whiskers, this is something the Tribe and The Human can get excited about. This Washington based coffee roaster, Cool Cats Coffee Co. opened its doors in September and since then, the business has donated enough to feed 1,500 cats living in animal shelters across the country.
The co-owner of Cool Cats Coffee Co., Jordan Swofford says, “Good coffee should feel a greater purpose,”
Cool Cats Coffee Company employs a “Chief Meow Officer”, Jameson and “Chief Feline Officer” Gus who both have their own Instagram accounts.
Cool Cats Coffee’s mission is to let the world know how amazing felines are and to support the hard-working organizations and volunteers who fight for felines every day.
When a customer buys coffee or merchandise from the company, a percentage of the profits are donated to Greater Good Charities, which then distributes the funds to animal shelters across the country that are in need of financial assistance.
“Every purchase is feeding 20 homeless cats,” Swofford said.
The small-batch coffee roastery currently offers four different roasts: “The Cat’s Meow” dark roast, “Death Mittens” medium roast, “Colombian Supremo” light roast and their holiday special, “Santa Claws.”
Cool Cats Coffee Co. also offers a series of pun-filled, feline-themed merchandise, as well as sunglasses and bandanas for cats to wear.
Our Human travels from our neck of the woods to Seattle often and she checked the map and Selah is a short side trip on her way there so hopefully, businesses will open up again there and she can do an interview with the good folks at Cool Cats Coffee this summer.
While you humans are looking for great places to move, we felines would like to make an argument for considering a place that’s #1 for cats according to a study by PetListed.com. The #1 feline friendly city is Birmingham, Alabama.
The study looked at data sets covering the most 100 populous cities in America to discover which were the most feline friendly and used the following criteria:
Amount of cat-friendly housing in a city
Number of AAFP certified cat veterinary practices
Abundance of local animal shelters + welfare groups
Number of pet stores selling cat products
What are some of the reasons Birmingham was #1? Their housing market is ideal for owning a cat. With 81% of all available rental properties across the city allowing felines, this makes Birmingham the 6th highest cat-friendly housing market in the U.S.
Birmingham has numerous fantastic shelters and cat sanctuaries as well as cat cafes. If you want to get an idea about how much Birmingham loves felines, check out Magic City Kitties.
Now as much as we love the idea of this list, we are staunch country kitties so we won’t be moving to any city anytime soon but you feline city dwellers might want to take a look at all the cities on the list.
We kitties are more than just pretty faces and that’s been verified in a new study published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing titled, “Exploratory study of cat adoption in families of children with autism: Impact on children’s social skills and anxiety,” The study states that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may experience increases in empathy and decreases in problem behaviors after adoption of a shelter cat into their families.
Meowza! What a win-win situation, kids get help with ASD and kitties find furever homes! This is the first scientific research that shows these claims to be true.
Findings of the Feline Friends study, led by researchers at the University of Missouri, demonstrated that children with an adopted shelter cat had better empathy and less separation anxiety, as well as fewer problem behaviors exhibited by less externalizing, bullying and hyperactivity/inattention. Children and parents also felt strong bonds with their new cat almost immediately after adoption and despite the responsibilities involved in care for a cat; these bonds did not decrease over time. The researchers conclude that shelter cats may be beneficial for some children with ASD while not necessarily creating a burden for their parents.
Well there you go, science proves again how beneficial we shelter kitties are in the lives of humans! You can read the full paper in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing.
I have written about cats that stowed away on busses, trains, cars and other modes of transportation finding themselves many, many miles away from home.
This cat went from Russia to a shelter on the Isle of Wight. The cat, dubbed Ivan was taken first to the Southampton Cats Protection when his microchip was scanned; the number showed it originated in Russia. He was then transferred to the Isle of Wight Animal Shelter.
But there was no registered address or any other details. Ivan is believed to be about 3 years old is now at the shelter on the Isle of Wight where he is in quarantine. The shelter director says he’s very friendly.
The mystery of Ivan’s travel from Russia has everyone baffl3d. Some speculate that he was brought to the UK as a kitten.
The center is appealing for information from anyone who may know his owner. If they are unable to find them, they will rehome him but they would to reunite him with his family for Christmas.
Humans, this is a cautionary tale to remind you that you need to keep your cat’s microchip details up to date!
Happy December Furiends! I hope your Thanksgiving was purrfectly wonderful! It was nice having The Human at our beck and call for four days. We could get used to all that attention! One bit of good news is that Lily is slowly coming out of her grief and spending a little time with Oliver and I -horray, progress!
Now that it’s December, we are trying out some holiday photos and memes. Trust Oliver to not take this activity seriously!
We will be attempting some more festive pics before Santa Paws comes. And now it’s time to enjoy this week’s feline news fresh from the web.
Sterling Dabvis is one of The Human’s heroes. He was a presenter at this year’s Cat Writer’s Association award ceremony and she embarrassed us by being such a fan girl! But we agree, he is a hero to felines.
He began his cat career when he was home in Atlanta after a rap tour. He went to apply for a job at his local shelter. He says, “I did horrible in the interview because they had cats in the room and I was playing with all the cats, kissing all the cats,” But he still got the job to trap, vaccinate and neuter community cats.
It became obvious to him quickly that men were in short supply in the TNR and rescue world and he asked, “Where are all the guys and where are all the Black people?’’
In 2017 he started his own non-profit called TrapKing Humane Cat Solutions with multiple goals that included changing relationships and enlisting the help of Black people and also men with cat rescues.
The mission of TrapKing is to change the stereotypes of not only men in cat rescue, but also bridge the gap in communication between black communities and animal rescue/local shelters.
Sterling Davis is making inroads in so many areas of cat rescue and bringing people into his passion that have never even thought about helping kitties before. You can follow him and his adventures on Instagram.
Ah, more creative humans working to get cats adopted. Cat Town in Oakland, California is a feline sized city with scaled-down models of popular Oakland landmarks. And you won’t find cages here. Kitties are housed in “studios” and there is even a Quiet Zone for stressed out felines. They want to save every area kitty from euthanasia and by providing a calm, happy environment for these cats they are successful.
Meowza, this is one for the books. A plant store owner in Manhattan is claiming her cat sitter won’t return his feline. This feline, is the best marketing draw for the store. When the store was forced to close because of the COVID shut down, a woman offered to care for Sammy, the shop kitty and now is keeping him.
According to court documents, the sitter was a friend of Sammy and stopped by the store weekly to visit him. The cat had lived in the shop for years and Amanda Walker (the alleged cat thief) and asked to purchase or adopt Sammy and take him to her home. The offer was refused.
The plant store owner was stuck in Florida and unable to travel due to doctor’s orders and Amanda texted him saying, “Please let me know if I can help take care of Sammy! I love him! Hope you are safe and well.” The offer was accepted and after the store was reopened, she requested an extension of Sammy’s time with her. Soon she began avoiding him and refusing to take his calls.
Walker even threatened to get a restraining order as Krstic persistently tried to get his cat back, the court documents say. The owner said he kept calling, begging her to return the cat and she took out a restraining order against him.
The cat’s owner says he is distraught as he had Sammy at the store for four years, ever since Sammy was a kitten. He noted in his complaint how much “young kids love Sammy” and referred to Sammy as a “huge draw”. He also said he takes care of Sammy like his own child, and that Sammy is like part of him. He is suing for the return of Sammy and for damages as well.
Now don’t get me wrong, this feline would never condone taking a cat away from it’s human but I wonder why the cat was left in the store when the owner went to Florida? And whose welfare are these humans looking after, theirs or Sammy’s? What do you think about this legal hissing contest?
Paws up to the innovative folks at the Jay County Humane Society who are running an innovative program to get kitties furever homes. They are teaming up with the Portland Police Department to encourage people to adopt cats with some adorable photo shoots and a reduced adoption fee of $20.00 for a program called “ Cats and Cuddles with Cops”. The program was a great success.
When Paul Koudounaris went to the Los Angeles North Central Animal shelter in 2011 he was disappointed to find out that the feline he wanted to adopt had already found a furever home. As he tells it, as he was walking toward the door, a striped paw reqched out from a wall of cages and grabbed his shirt. It was love at first sight and Baba had her furever home.
Today she is the narrator and model for the book, A Cat’s Tale: A Journey Through Feline History. The Tribe is quite impressed with Baba’s historic knowledge as she retells tales of cats throughout history.
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