Hello There Furiends,

It’s a beautiful day in my neighborhood. We had quite a bit of snow last night and this morning and The Tribe and I are enjoying the beautiful view from the bedroom (and watching all the furry and feathered freeloaders coming to the upstairs deck). Wherever you are my furiends, stay warm and safe and enjoy the day.
Purrs & Head Bonks,

Jerusalem Mayor Provides Annual Budget For Cat Food

I’m not a fan of controversial purrlitical news items (unless it’s my brother running for Purresident) but sometimes I have to raise a paw in acknowledgment of those in purrlitical office who take the time and energy to look after felines. Moshe Lion, the mayor of Jerusalem, has approved 100 thousand nis per year to build feeding stations for Jerusalem’s street cats. Now that’s about $ 27,222.00 dollars in in the good ole’ US of A. It came about because the city changed its garbage disposal system to containers that are underground. This worried the good folks of Jerusalem because they were afraid the city’s stray cats, not being able to forage in the garbage, might starve. So this fine purrlitician is having feeding stations built where the new earth-buried garbage cans are located. City hall estimates that they will use about 210 food bags per month and 2500 bags per year.  Mr. Mayor, the Tribe of Five sends you a hearty mazel tov!

British couple celebrate cat’s return after rescuing imposter by mistake

Oh my whiskers, my column is late today because I couldn’t stop laughing. But this is a serious tale as well.

Teddy, a Russian blue, failed to come home in early January, so his humans reported him missing to Animal Search UK, an online database for lost pets.

They were soon contacted by a couple 11 milesway who said they’d taken in a Russina blue with the same markings. Teddy’s humans went to retrieve him and all was right with the word. Sort of that is,because a few days later the humans discovered they had two identical Russian Blues in their house!

There was no Russian Blue in the Animal Search data base so these resourceful humans took feline #2 to the vet to be scanned for a microchip and lo and behold, they found an address and the cat’s name,Nigel. Nigel’s family had recently moved to the area and Nigel escaped his new abode and went exploring.

The moral to this story is this, make sure your felines have identification, even house cats. The Tribe of Five is in the process of writing an article about an amazing company that has, what we believe, is an innovative solution to help humans reunite with their felines. Stay safe my furiends, and make sure you have a way to get back to your humans if you get lost!

If You Think Cats Are “Aloof” & “Antisocial” It Isn’t The Cat..It’s You!

How do I love this headline…let me count the ways! We felines get a bad rap about our purrsonalities and our inability to commit or show love.

Researchers from Oregon State University conducted tests with 23 shelter cats and 23 pet cats. They put the felines in rooms with some humans who completely ignored them and others who talked to them and petted them. Even though the humans were strangers, the cats spent much more time with the humans who paid them attention.  The researchers found that when you call us felines by our names, we pay more attention. (Duh, they needed science to figure this out?!) And, for all you nay saying folks who call us unloving, the study showed that cats will choose interaction with humans over food and toys. So there you go, another urban legend debunked. You can read about the study in Science Alert.

The Cat With Nine Lives…Or Two At Least

The Female Human and her sister run a local Lost pet group and their favorite saying to humans looking for their lost pets is, “Never give up!” This story is a purrfect illustration of that. A feline made a what seemed to be a return from the dead when he appeared three years after his owners were told he had been run over and killed.

The human and her daughter were devastated when they were told their beloved Sidney had been run over and taken to the landfillby local workers. . When they received a call almost three years later from a woman who said she’d found Sidney they were incredulous.

The lady insisted it was Sidney (now six) who was alive and well and living 12 miles from them. The family had mourned Sidney and finally had dealt with the loss of their beloved feline. They didn’t believe it could be true that Sidney was alive but still they couldn’t ignore the call and went to visit the woman who said she had Sidney. She insisted it wasn’t some sort of a sick joke and that she’d had Sidney scanned and his microchip provided his name and address. The lady said Sidney had been living rough and was a little wild….until he saw his humans. He rolled over on his back and started meowing for a belly rub. Now that’s what I call a happy ending!

We Pay Homage to Walter Chandoha, Cat Photographer

If there ever was a king of cat photography, it was Walter Chandoha. It all started one winter evening evening in 1949, Walter Chandoha was walking to his three-room apartment in Astoria, Queens, when he spotted an abandoned gray kitten shivering in the snow. He put the kitten in a pocket of his Army coat and brought it home to his wife, Maria.

The kittens antics were frenzied and the couple to named him Loco. Locos frenzied moves inspired. Mr. Chandoha (pronounced shan-DOE-uh) to photograph him.  Loco’s photos quickly sold to newspapers and magazines around the world and a career was born.

Taking pictures of cats soon began to look like a more fulfilling career path than the one in advertising that Mr. Chandoha had planned while attending New York University, after serving in World War II. So, after graduating, he turned to freelance photography for a living — and, by the mid-1950s, he was the dominant commercial cat photographer of his era.

By the time of his death on January 11th of this year, Mr. Chandoha had taken about 90,000 cat photos.  I think this man must have been greeted by so many felines who crossed the Rainbow Bridge ahead of him and I bet our Miss P. and Buster said hello too (and those two are very photogenic.) I wonder if they take pictures in heaven?