Hey There Furiends,
It’s been boring on the feline side of our neck of the woods this week. Our Purrsonal Assistant has been attending to things other than us, which left us far too much time on our paws. Since we had very little to do, we decided to have some photo fun.

The weather can’t make up it’s mind as to what it wants to be and, there are no sunning opportunities on the upstairs porch in our near future, so we all decided we’d do a photo of where we would like to be right meow.

So there’s your glimpse into what the Tribe would like to be doing. How about you? We also would love to be doing more Cat Chats but we’re still waiting for our furiends to send us a photo and an email about what you want to meow about. We felines have so much to say, come on guys, email us (FelineOpines@gmail.com) so we can feature you on Cat Chat. And if you are a feline who’s not a fan of writing, no worries. Just tell us what you want to meow about it and our Purrsonal Assistant will write it up for you. Attach a photo of your furry face and we’ll do the rest!

And now, it’s time for this week’s web wanderings.

The case of the mysterious missing feline GPS device

One would think that buying a GPS device for your feline would be a good way to keep your cat safe. Well, not necessarily.

Andel Kindell paid $180.00 for a GPS tracker and attached it to his cat Alex’s collar after a harrowing experience where the cat got out and was gone for two days. Then, one day the cat came home without the device and an injury on his paw.

Kindell logged into the tracker app on his phone and was amazed to see the tracker quickly moving around town. How could that be, the feline was at home!

First he thought someone had taken it and used it for their cat so he followed the signal. He was confused as he could see the device crossing the road but there was nothing in front of him.

It took him a while to solve the mystery. When he took Alex in to have his paw tended to, the vet said the injury looked like it was caused by a bite and the two humans surmised that a rat had bitten the GPS off and perhaps had eaten it with the collar which would explain the weak signal.

Once they’d figured out the “how”, Kindell realized that the GPS path followed local drainage routes.  All things considered, he thought it would be easier to buy a replacement GPS than think he’d get the original one back from the rat.

Meow Mates: Program brings rescue cats to Wyoming jail

I love to hear about programs that help felines find furever homes and that help humans too!  Black Dog Animal Rescue and the Laramie County Sheriff’s Department have partnered to begin “Meow Mates,” a program that will get foster cats out of a potentially stressful shelter environment and allow them to be socialized with jail inmates who have been cleared to care for them. The goal is, after the kitties are socialized and worked with, they will be ready to be adopted.

Sully, a 3-year old Ginger male is the first cat in the purrogram. Sully and the other felines that join him will live in the jail’s housing unit with the inmates, who will be responsible for their care.

Getting these kitties out of stress filled high volume shelters and with “foster inmates” will be a win-win for humans and felines alike.

Many studies have proven that the presence of animals in correctional facilities increases the welfare of the inmates and the attention and socialization the felines receive will increase their welfare too.  The inmates are excited to have their feline furiends arrive. The program will not cost the jail anything. The will be provided with everything needed for fostering (included veterinary care) just as individual foster homes are.

A fancy feline has her own tiny living room and fur-niture

Clearly, some of our humans need to up their game! This feline has her own living room with furniture made by her human. The feline digs have a kitty-sized sofa, plants, white rug and wall art.

Needless to say, this kitty is living her best life. I had the Purrsonal Assistant do a bit of research and evidently there are more enlightened humans out there who understand kitties need their own special pace. Furiends, what are your humans doing to accommodate your living space needs?

‘The cat picks you’: Fayetteville cat rescue aims to save felines and humans

This story is for all the humans who have a “It’s only a cat” attitude.

The death of Heather Hall’s 16-month old daughter in an accident in 1995 left her depressed and suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. But then she began to foster kittens through her local rescue group and her world changed for the better.

She believes it was the cats that brought her out, literally and figuratively. And it all started with fostering kittens.

Eventually, Hall and a friend Patti Johnson began their own rescue called Operation Healing Whiskers whose mission is to sponsor cats for individuals in need of an emotional support animal.

 “We started it because we saw a need in the area ,” Hall said. “There weren’t any (rescues) that specifically want to put their animals in the hands of people that need it — the ones that are hurting, that have suffered some kind of trauma.”

Johnston related an encounter with another rescue that illustrated what Operation Healing Whiskers is all about.

A young boy wanted to hold a fussy cat that the rescue had been having trouble adopting out. As soon as the cat was in the boy’s arms, it calmed immediately. The connection between cat and boy was unmistakable. Hall says that story illustrates what rescue should be about, connections between people and animals.

There are so many who’ve been helped by cats from Healing Whiskers, one boy with a developmental disorder  is calmed by his cat while his mother cuts his hair.

The cats are not trained or certified service animals but they are emotional support felines.

The shelter is very careful about which cats go to which homes but often it’s the cat that picks the humans and not the other way around.

The humans at Healing Whiskers believe that they are providing people with love they didn’t know was there by providing them with their kitties, and the kitties are getting love and a home,”  You can visit their website or their Facebook page and if you live near them, how about offering to foster or supporting them in some other way? We give Operation Healing Whiskers our Paws Up award!

Seafaring felines: Cats have long had adventures aboard ships

I reported in a previous Walk through the Web Wednesday about the amazing sailors who rescued some hapless felines on a sinking ship. Did you wonder why there were three cats on that boat? Well felines have a long nautical history in the last several centuries.

Sailors brought cats on board to catch mice and rats, which would eat the crew’s food. Ancient Egyptians carried them on boats to control infestations of mice and rats. Irish and British sailors used to believe that inviting a black cat onboard ensured good luck on a journey and many felines have become famous for their seafaring ways.

Trim was a black and white cat, born in 1799 who traveled on the HMS Investigator while Captain Matthew Flinders mapped Australia’s coastline. During meals, Trim would steal food off sailors’ forks. When Flinders stopped at the island of Mauritius to get the Investigator repaired, French officials accused him of spying and put him under house arrest for six years. Trim stayed by his side until one day in 1804, when he mysteriously disappeared and never returned.

Blackie, a black cat with white paws served during WW II on the HMS Prince of Wales. When British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was about to step off the ship to greet U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Blackie walked up to greet him.

Mr. Chippy was a tabby who lived on the ship Endurance, the ship that explorer Ernest Shackleton sailed to Antarctica on. The cat belonged to the ship’s carpenter; “chippy” is a British slang term for “carpenter.” Chippy liked to climb the rigging in all sorts of weather and once fell overboard. An officer turned the boat around, and the ship’s biologist scooped the cat out of the ocean with a net.

In 1949, Simon was traveling aboard HMS Amethyst when the British ship came under attack on China’s Yangtze River. Seventeen crew members died. Simon and 10 sailors were wounded. The ship was stuck in mud for almost 10 weeks while the two governments negotiated. Simon protected the crews’ shrinking food supply by fighting off aggressive rats. After the ship’s crew made a daring escape late one night, the crew and Simon became heroes. The British animal welfare group People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals presented him with the Dickin Medal, the highest honor awarded for an animal showing bravery in battle. He’s the only cat ever to win the Dickin. Upon his death, Simon was buried with full naval honors.

When the German warship Bismarck sank in World War II, British sailors on the HMS Cossack discovered a black-and-white cat floating on a board in the ocean. They rescued him and named him Oscar. Then their ship was torpedoed. Oscar survived, and British naval officers renamed him “Unsinkable Sam.” They stationed him on the HMS Ark Royal. When it, too, was torpedoed, sailors rescued him off another floating board. The governor of Gibraltar adopted Sam, and then moved him to a British home for sailors.

Oh my whiskers, I think I would rather stay at home than have the adventures these felines had!