Hello Furiends,
Fall is arriving in our neck of the woods and Oliver is looking forward to sitting on the back of the sofa and chasing leaves across the large Livingroom windows (it will be a while before that happens though).
When Lily went in for her dental surgery, the vet and The Human realized that her collar had rubbed the fur off around her neck. Lily went collarless until the fur grew back while The Human searched high and low for the purrfect collar, which she found. The collar is light, made from kimono material and doesn’t rub Lily at all. Lily likes it and the human once again can keep track of Lily’s comings and goings. The Human knows the sound of each of our collar bells which means we can’t get away with anything!
Aside from Lily’s collar things are pretty much the same here, although Oliver’s food fanaticism is ramping up. We put this little video together to show what “poor” Oliver deals with on a daily basis.
And that leads me to the next part of our post……the news!
AI-Powered Litterbox System Offers New Standard of Care for Cat Owners
If you’re like our Human, trying to figure out everyone’s health via the litter box can be a nightmare. Purina Petcare has launched the Petivity Smart Litterbox system with a smart phone app and litterbox monitor that will tracks behavioral data that allow humans to care for their felines. Purina Petcare is touting this as a new standard of care that uses artificial intelligence to learn each cat’s litterbox patterns and identify subtle but meaningful changes in weigh, frequency,waste type and elimination schedule.
The system detects meaningful changes that indicate a veterinary visit may be needed and sends an alert through the app.
The box can be used with up to three cats and is marketed as allowing pet owners to play a more proactive role in the health of their felines. The system is available for purchase at petivity.com for $199.99.
Mandarin Monday: Roaring Iron? Foot Long Jade? How Ancient Chinese Named Their Cats
According to historical records and archaeological discoveries, ancient Chinese kept cats far back into history. Once the Silk Road was established during the West Han Dynasty, a variety of feline species came to China and began mating, resulting in more diverse local breeds.
Cats were originally trained as rat hunters and were only later revered for their purrsonaities and over time, developed unusual names for their felines.
Chinese Li Hua/ Dragon Li
This cat is a local pedigree with a long history in China and has won international recognition. It’s a lively breed and an excellent rat hunter. Those with yellow and orange fur are called jú māo Orange Cat or Big Orange and are known by their ravenous appetites and chubby physiques.
Lin Qing Lion Cat
It is a hybrid breed that has ancestors from both the blue-eyed Persian cat and yellow-eyed local cats of Shandong Province. The cats with both yellow and blue eyes are rarer to find but also a signature trait of this breed. In a document from 1934, Lin Qing Lion Cat was listed as a local specialty, and some of the names of fur colors that show up later were originally invented specifically for this breed.
Zhou Four Ears Cat
Four Ears cats call Szechuan Province – especially the city Jian home. They got their name because compared to other species, their ear flaps are more prominent and were even recognized as a separate set of ears in the past. Four Ears cats were considered to be the divine cat and can be found among the tributes to the emperor.
Colors
Ancient Chinese tended to name things with poetic names, and the color of their feline friends’ fur was no different. Here, I’ve collected some of the more interesting ones.
Good for all seasons
This is the name for monotone cats, and for each different color, there is a corresponding name. For instance, the pure white ones are usually called chǐ yù or xiāo fēi liàn which means “a foot long jade” and “flying white silk in the night,” respectively. The pitch-black cats are referred to as wūyún bào cloudy panther or xiào tiě roaring iron, while the fully yellow felines are called jīn sī hǔ the golden tiger.
Hold the butterfly/cicada in the mouth
These two names are used to refer to two totally opposite-looking cats. The former one is for the black cat that only has a small cluster of white fur around its mouth, while the latter one is for the white cat that has black fur in the same area.
Embroider Tiger
White cats with yellow or orange dots on its fur.
The general who bears a seal
White cats with a patch of yellow fur on their back usually get this name, as if they were generals picked by the emperor for the domestic rat-hunting war. The ones with the yellow patch on the top of their heads have an even more specific name: jiāngjūn guà yìn the general hangs the seal on its head.
Black jade with a hanging pearl
In a rare case, you may encounter a black cat whose tip of the tail is powdered with pure white.
Stepping on the snow to look for the wintersweet
This is the black cat that wears tiny white socks when they are born.
Dark clouds above the snow
If a cat is pitch black when looking from above but pure white when you see it from its belly, then it will get this name.
Golden quilt, silver bed
Cats that are yellow on the back but have a white belly and limp.
Drag a spear in the snow
The white cat who has a black tail.
Golden hairpin in the silver vase
The white cat who has a yellow tail.
Needle hides in the ink
The black cat who has a white tail.
Whip the silk ball
This name was invented for white cats that have “the seal” on their head or back and also have a different color tail. The whip refers to their tails while the silk ball means the seal on their backs. It can also be drag the spear with the seal on its head or back.
The silk rolling on the ground/ Hawksbill
There are some cats that have mottled fur combining all three colors, which makes them look like a piece of shiny fabric stained with dirt, or a hawksbill, a kind of turtle whose shell shares a similar color as this breed of cats. If this type of mottled fur only appears around the mouth and head, the cats can be called roaring rosy clouds.
There you go, a whole list of names for your next kitten.
Nicolas Cage Loves His Cat. The Internet Was Made for This Moment
Nicolas Cage has a cat and now they’ve inspired an art exhibit.
The art will be displayed at CatCon, from Oct. 1-2 in Pasadena, California.
Seven artists are bringing their brushstrokes and pixels to CatCon for Uncaged: The Unbearable Weight of Genius Cat Art.
The art in Uncaged will be on sale both in person at Cat Con and online via Cat Art Show. Ten percent of proceeds will benefit three cat-related charities, with this new Cage-cat genre hopefully benefitting all of meme-kind.
Oil Paintings of Cats Stealing Food Throughout Art History
If you enjoy those funny social media memes of cat’s cat-napping human food don’t think this is a new phenomenon. The Twitter account, Cats of Yore points out that felines have been stealing food for centuries.,
The Cats of Yore account was created by Molly Hodgdon, and one of her favorite sub-genres of art is Cats Stealing Food in Still Life Paintings,” she writes in the first tweet. “It’s so wonderfully disrespectful. So here is a thread celebrating the need for snacks triumphing over art.”
Head on over to Twitter to see all the featured paintings and remember, when we swipe something tasty from your table, we’re only carrying on a centuries old tradition.
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