Happy Wednesday Furiends,
We thought we’d change it up a bit with the logo. Oliver is quite happy to be featured during the holiday season. We like to keep track of unusual holidays and we found one for tomorrow (De. 8) that was lot’s of fun. December 8th is “Pretend to be a time traveler day”. We sent our Purrsonal Assistant to the web to find out about this holiday and here is what she learned.

Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day was created in 2007 by the Koala Wallop online community which appeared to be a group of folks who were interested in time travel. Unfortunately, the group no longer exists but there are still many folks who find time travel interesting. The Human is quite fond of movies and books that feature time travel. Here are some of the time travel movies The Human has enjoyed (she’s not a fan of sci-fi so these all travel to the past):

• Meet Cute
• Somewhere in Time
• Time after Time
• Timeline

The Human told us that the best time travel books she’s ever read is from one of her favorite authors, Daphne du Maurier and is called The House on the Stand

We felines decided that we wanted to be photoshopped into our favorite time travel setting. We hope you enjoy our photos!

Lily loves all things romantic and she believes the past is more romantic than the present or the future. She pretended to be a traveler in the 1920’s taking an elegant train ride to some lovely southern plantation.

I decided to imagine a trip to the future on some far off planet where I developed amazing powers like shooting lasers from my eyes.

Oliver decided to split the difference and go back in time to enjoy being in the Steampunk lifestyle with one paw in one century and another paw in the future.

We hope you enjoyed our celebration of Pretend to be a time traveler day”. Where would you go if you had a chance to be a time traveler?

Cat hates his new kitten brother until….

This video will help you not to despair if your cat is having some issues getting along with the new kitten.

Why is this Belgian town obsessed with cats?

Now here’s a fun event that happens in the Belgian town of Ypres. Thousands of people show up masquerading as cats. There are fancy floats that roll down the streets of the town as well as feline costumed humans.  The parade stops at Cloth Hall which is the center of the city’s thriving textile industry. So what is this all about you ask? Kattenstoet, the Festival of Cats is what they’re celebrating. And why is there a festival of cats in this town? Granted, we felines are marvelous enough to have festivities that celebrate us for no specific reason but there is much history behind this party.

It all began in medieval times. In those days, we felines were scorned and regarded as bad creatures associated with the devil. Early writers of the day compared cats catching mice to the devil catching human souls. In the thirteenth century, Pope Gregory IX raised a call to action against the “demonic” cat and people believed this resulted in the extermination of felines across Europe. Historians believe that this action caused the spread of the bubonic plage ravaging the continent in the 14^th century. This is because the plague was caused by infected fleas found on rodents. The mass killing of cats allowed the rats to thrive with no predators and that resulted in the plague spreading at a fast pace.

Legend has it that the celebration of Kattenstoet in this town was for bringing cats in the fall and winter to the Cloth Hall to prevent vermin from destroying the imported wool and valuable clothing that was stored. In the spring, when the clothes were sold and the colony of cats had rapidly reproducing cats, who had done their job well, were killed.

This terrible practice continued until 1817 and after that no more cats were harmed and only the church bells were rung.

In1955 the city saw its first full-scale parade, complete with intricate floats and thousands of costumed citizens. The people of Ypres dress up as cats, mice, witches and historical figures. Accompanied by lively music and dance, brass bands and horse-riders, the procession moves down the streets until it reaches Cloth Hall. A jester tosses plush cats from the top of the tower into the waiting arms of the crowd below. This is followed by a mock witch-burning, in which a giant puppet witch is set on fire.

Kattenstoet. has become a major tourist attraction in Belgium, drawing thousands of spectators from around the world, all eager to witness the famed Festival of Cats. As for this cat, I can’t get over the dark history of this celebration and I’m very happy felines in Europe are much safer now than in the middle ages.

From stray cats to online stars

There are a number of lucky felines who have moved from the streets of Hong Kong and now live their best lives working and living in the shops of Hong Kong. I love to read and report about working cats.

Simple tips, how to keep your cats away from your Christmas trees

We felines are fascinated with your Christmas trees. So many things to swat, such a cozy space to hang out in. Our Angel Miss P. lived under the tree from the moment it was put up until it was taken down and she preferred to hang out there by herself.

Still, many of you humans get your whiskers in a twist when we “play” with your Christmas trees so here are some tips to prevent total tree destruction

There are some tricks to keep your Christmas ornaments safe. Hang the most valued (and fragile) ornaments toward the top of the tree. Hang cat attracting things like bells or wooden (sturdy) ornaments on the lowest branches. The bells help to also alert you if your feline in residence is messing with the tree..

If more drastic measures are required you can place pinecones sprayed with apple cider vinegar around the base of the tree. Most felines don’t like the  smell. But if your feline can endure the smell to get to the tree, try a cat deterrent spray like  ‘Four Paws Keep Off Outdoor and Indoor Spray’ ‘which is safe for cats and kittens.

Another option is to put some oranges under the tree as many of my feline friends do not like the smell at all.  

If all of these options fail, you can hang the tree from the ceiling, put the tree in a play pen or, as The Human does, just forget the tree and decorate the house in a festive manner instead.

That is NOT a fish!

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I’ve featured many thieving felines in my Wednesday news stories but this Wisconson kitty wins the prize as he showed up at home with a whole alligator head!

 “He was very proud of himself,” owner Wendy Wiesehuegel told Fox News , At first Wieshuegel thought it was a bass or some other fish native to Wisconsin. She was shocked w hen she saw what her black cat, Burnt Toast, had brought home.

A  conservation expert said a wildlife biologist would need to confirm its authenticity, but that he believed it was not a souvenir head but belonged to a real animal, which likely measured three feet long.

American alligators aren’t native to Wisconsin, Aspenson suspects that it could’ve been a pet that escaped or was released. However, the wildlife official wasn’t sure how it perished or came into Burnt Toast’s possession, and Burnt Toast isn’t talking.,

Coincidentally, Wiesehuegel remembered seeing what she thought was a gator a few days prior while on a lake with her brother-in-law.

“He just laughed it off like, ‘No, it’s not a gator,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, it probably isn’t one,’ and we just kind of dismissed it, and then this showed up,”

While it’s rare to find this cold-blooded predator in such a frigid climate, Aspenson believes this won’t be the last time.

In July, Wisconsin police were flabbergasted after finding an alligator roaming a neighborhood in Kenosha. As it turned out, the reptile — named Chomper — was actually someone’s pet, and it was reunited with its caregiver after its little adventure.

This marked the second such animal that’d been found in southeast Wisconsin that month. The first was a 24-inch allegedly escaped gator that was discovered swimming in a lake in Fond du Lac.