Happy Mew Year Furiends!
I hope your 2021 is off to a great start. Things are about the same in our neck of the woods. The Female Human had a lot of time off during the holidays. Although she was not going to work, she did work at home. I decided I was tired of the cushy bed next to her workspace and decided to hang out in the catnip infused bag she got us for Christmas. It was quite enjoyable!

Oliver decided to spend some extra time with the Human when she showered. He thought it had to be pretty boring in that wet, glass box so he added some excitement of his own.

As you can see, we had some fun with our Human! We also had her work on a new feature we will be doing on a weekly basis. Oliver, Lily and I have so much fun recording messages for you all and we decided that it would be fun to hear from our feline furiends about things that were of interest to them. It’s called “Cat Chat” and here’s how it will work:

1-Send us an email with your comments about the topic you want to meow about
2-Attach a photo with a good shot of you from the front (so we can have our Purrsonal Assistant work her magic with the automation)
3-Send the email to: FelineOpines@gmail.com and in the subject line type “cat chat”

We will email you and let you know when your Cat Chat segment is published on the blog. Now’s the time to meow about your favorite topic, special gripe and anything else your whiskers are in a twist about.

‘Midnight Cafeteria’ project feeds dozens of stray cats in Taiwan city

The Midnight Cafeteria is 45 small wooden houses, decorated by Taiwanese artists and scattered throughout the city of Taipei. They were created to be a place of rest and food for feral cats. A teacher, Hung Pei-ling  and her neighbors started the program for the stray cats in their community.

These good folks do more than shelter and feed the cats. They also capture injured cats and cats that need spaying and take them to the vet. Once the cats are healed, they are returned to their territory.

Another cat loving human in Taipei, Chen Chen-yi, a researcher at the Taiwan Animal Equality Association, was instrumental in the building and decorating of the cat houses.  Many times the places where people feed stray cats are messy and the public ends up complaining about the cats. With these tidy little houses the neighborhoods stay clean and the cats are accepted.

Paws up to these forward thinking humans!

Feline groovy: cats in classical music – 10 of the best

If you are a mewsic lover you already know that over the centuries cats have appeared in opera and other venues.

For instance, Christopher Smart’s cat Jeoffry received 74 lines of Smart’s poem Jubilate Agno (1759-63), set to music by Benjamin Britten in his cantata Rejoice in the Lamb. Smart wrote the poem when he was locked up in an for mania – with only Jeoffry the cat to keep him company. Jeoffry is also the subject of a book, Jeoffry: The Poet’s Cat,

Another cat named Pulcinella who belonged to the composer Scarlatti, ran over the keys of the musician’s harpsichord and inspired a theme for a fuge.

If you are a feline and mewsic lover, this article (and the videos in the article) are definitely for you!

MTA worker has saved dozens of cats from subway tracks and rail yards

The next time you think you don’t have time to help cats, remember Thomas Doerbecker. He is a subway maintenance supervisor and a rescuer of stray cats in the rail yards of New York.

His “side career” started in 2017 when management approached him and asked if he’d help him rescue a stray cat that had hid himself in the subway tunnels. He bought a humane trip, put some food out and the kitty was captured.

There were more cats to rescue so Doerbecker took a Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) class at his local shelter. If the cats are adoptable he will look to get them adopted out.

He and his wife currently have seven fosters plus six cats of their own. Thank you Thomas Doerbecker for keeping kitties safe!

Cats decked out in superhero costumes from Batman to Thor by Indonesian designer

A former teacher in Indonesia went from teaching humans to designing clothing for cats. The business of cat fashion has been very good to the former teacher and when he branched out into cat supurr-hero costumes he hit the jackpot, designing cat couture superhero costumes to cosplay characters. So, if you’re the kind of feline that enjoys a good costume, check  these out!

St. Louis man uses cat’s litter box to fight porch pirates

There are so many benefits to living with cats but I bet you this is one you’ve never heard of. A human in St. Louis was getting sick and tired of having “porch pirates” steal packages off his porch. He knew he needed to do something and then one day, when he was cleaning out the litter box, the idea came to him.

He had several Amazon boxes in the basement so he took them and packaged up the cat litter and sealed it up inside the boxes.

Sure enough, the thief struck attain and a neighbor found one of the packages on the ground. He was going to return it when he saw the note inside addressed to the thief.  To date, no more packages have been taken from his porch.

Now that’s what I call creative thinking!