Hanukkah Sameach
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Walk Through The Web Wednesday 12/9
Hello Furiends,
How is your December going? Things are fine in our neck of the woods. The raccons are still shimmying up the tree that reaches to the upstairs deck, looking for a handout, the deer are still finding apples from the tree on our property and the neighborhood cats are still trying to sneak into our garage now that the weather is colder.
I received my wonderful gifts from my Basepaws Secret Santa furiend (more about that later in another post). It was really fun to purrticipate and I loved the information my secret furiend sent about themselves.
Even though it’s been very cold here, we’ve had quite a bit of sun and finding sun puddles has been easy.
Lily
And, if the sun can’t be found, my brother Oliver and I like to have a nice, cozy snuggle.
Stay warm and cozy my furiends and I hope you enjoy this week’s feline stories.
Cats at the Hermitage museum in Russian receive a bequest from a French benefactor.
Meowza, paws up for this guy, a French philanthropist who left a sum of money for the cats living in the basement of the State Hermitage Museum in Russia.
Around 50 cats live in the famous St. Petersburg museum and it has been a home to cats since the time of Empress Elizabeth, who reigned from 1741 to 1761.
Catherine the Great, the founder of the Hermitage, gave the cats the status of guardians of the art galleries and their job is to keep the treasures safe from rodents.
Today, the felines are taken care of by volunteers and museum staff, and receive support from donations which have allowed the cats to have their own washing machine and the services of a local veterinarian.
The windfall will likely be used to repair the museum’s basements, where the cats live. The folks who care for the Hermitage cats also adopt them out and refer to the adoptees as “graduates”.
Selah cat-themed coffee roastery gives back, feeds 1,500 shelter cats
Oh my whiskers, this is something the Tribe and The Human can get excited about. This Washington based coffee roaster, Cool Cats Coffee Co. opened its doors in September and since then, the business has donated enough to feed 1,500 cats living in animal shelters across the country.
The co-owner of Cool Cats Coffee Co., Jordan Swofford says, “Good coffee should feel a greater purpose,”
Cool Cats Coffee Company employs a “Chief Meow Officer”, Jameson and “Chief Feline Officer” Gus who both have their own Instagram accounts.
Cool Cats Coffee’s mission is to let the world know how amazing felines are and to support the hard-working organizations and volunteers who fight for felines every day.
When a customer buys coffee or merchandise from the company, a percentage of the profits are donated to Greater Good Charities, which then distributes the funds to animal shelters across the country that are in need of financial assistance.
“Every purchase is feeding 20 homeless cats,” Swofford said.
The small-batch coffee roastery currently offers four different roasts: “The Cat’s Meow” dark roast, “Death Mittens” medium roast, “Colombian Supremo” light roast and their holiday special, “Santa Claws.”
Cool Cats Coffee Co. also offers a series of pun-filled, feline-themed merchandise, as well as sunglasses and bandanas for cats to wear.
Our Human travels from our neck of the woods to Seattle often and she checked the map and Selah is a short side trip on her way there so hopefully, businesses will open up again there and she can do an interview with the good folks at Cool Cats Coffee this summer.
It’s official: Birmingham is the #1 place in the US to live right now. If you are a cat, that is
While you humans are looking for great places to move, we felines would like to make an argument for considering a place that’s #1 for cats according to a study by PetListed.com. The #1 feline friendly city is Birmingham, Alabama.
The study looked at data sets covering the most 100 populous cities in America to discover which were the most feline friendly and used the following criteria:
Amount of cat-friendly housing in a city
Number of AAFP certified cat veterinary practices
Abundance of local animal shelters + welfare groups
Number of pet stores selling cat products
What are some of the reasons Birmingham was #1? Their housing market is ideal for owning a cat. With 81% of all available rental properties across the city allowing felines, this makes Birmingham the 6th highest cat-friendly housing market in the U.S.
Birmingham has numerous fantastic shelters and cat sanctuaries as well as cat cafes. If you want to get an idea about how much Birmingham loves felines, check out Magic City Kitties.
Now as much as we love the idea of this list, we are staunch country kitties so we won’t be moving to any city anytime soon but you feline city dwellers might want to take a look at all the cities on the list.
New Research Shows Cats Help Children with Autism
I’ve meowed about The Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) before. They do amazing work and this study, released today is only one example of the excellent work they do.
We kitties are more than just pretty faces and that’s been verified in a new study published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing titled, “Exploratory study of cat adoption in families of children with autism: Impact on children’s social skills and anxiety,” The study states that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may experience increases in empathy and decreases in problem behaviors after adoption of a shelter cat into their families.
Meowza! What a win-win situation, kids get help with ASD and kitties find furever homes! This is the first scientific research that shows these claims to be true.
Findings of the Feline Friends study, led by researchers at the University of Missouri, demonstrated that children with an adopted shelter cat had better empathy and less separation anxiety, as well as fewer problem behaviors exhibited by less externalizing, bullying and hyperactivity/inattention. Children and parents also felt strong bonds with their new cat almost immediately after adoption and despite the responsibilities involved in care for a cat; these bonds did not decrease over time. The researchers conclude that shelter cats may be beneficial for some children with ASD while not necessarily creating a burden for their parents.
Well there you go, science proves again how beneficial we shelter kitties are in the lives of humans! You can read the full paper in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing.
Isle of Wight animal shelter in bid to reunite Russian cat with owners
I have written about cats that stowed away on busses, trains, cars and other modes of transportation finding themselves many, many miles away from home.
This cat went from Russia to a shelter on the Isle of Wight. The cat, dubbed Ivan was taken first to the Southampton Cats Protection when his microchip was scanned; the number showed it originated in Russia. He was then transferred to the Isle of Wight Animal Shelter.
But there was no registered address or any other details. Ivan is believed to be about 3 years old is now at the shelter on the Isle of Wight where he is in quarantine. The shelter director says he’s very friendly.
The mystery of Ivan’s travel from Russia has everyone baffl3d. Some speculate that he was brought to the UK as a kitten.
The center is appealing for information from anyone who may know his owner. If they are unable to find them, they will rehome him but they would to reunite him with his family for Christmas.
Humans, this is a cautionary tale to remind you that you need to keep your cat’s microchip details up to date!
Walk Through The Web Wednesday 12/2
Happy December Furiends!
I hope your Thanksgiving was purrfectly wonderful! It was nice having The Human at our beck and call for four days. We could get used to all that attention! One bit of good news is that Lily is slowly coming out of her grief and spending a little time with Oliver and I -horray, progress!
Now that it’s December, we are trying out some holiday photos and memes. Trust Oliver to not take this activity seriously!
We will be attempting some more festive pics before Santa Paws comes. And now it’s time to enjoy this week’s feline news fresh from the web.
Former rapper left behind music career to rescue cats
Sterling Dabvis is one of The Human’s heroes. He was a presenter at this year’s Cat Writer’s Association award ceremony and she embarrassed us by being such a fan girl! But we agree, he is a hero to felines.
He began his cat career when he was home in Atlanta after a rap tour. He went to apply for a job at his local shelter. He says, “I did horrible in the interview because they had cats in the room and I was playing with all the cats, kissing all the cats,” But he still got the job to trap, vaccinate and neuter community cats.
It became obvious to him quickly that men were in short supply in the TNR and rescue world and he asked, “Where are all the guys and where are all the Black people?’’
In 2017 he started his own non-profit called TrapKing Humane Cat Solutions with multiple goals that included changing relationships and enlisting the help of Black people and also men with cat rescues.
The mission of TrapKing is to change the stereotypes of not only men in cat rescue, but also bridge the gap in communication between black communities and animal rescue/local shelters.
Sterling Davis is making inroads in so many areas of cat rescue and bringing people into his passion that have never even thought about helping kitties before. You can follow him and his adventures on Instagram.
Oakland-based ‘Cat Town’ is a cat-sized city for rescue pets
Ah, more creative humans working to get cats adopted. Cat Town in Oakland, California is a feline sized city with scaled-down models of popular Oakland landmarks. And you won’t find cages here. Kitties are housed in “studios” and there is even a Quiet Zone for stressed out felines. They want to save every area kitty from euthanasia and by providing a calm, happy environment for these cats they are successful.
Manhattan cat owner says sitter refuses to return pet
Meowza, this is one for the books. A plant store owner in Manhattan is claiming her cat sitter won’t return his feline. This feline, is the best marketing draw for the store. When the store was forced to close because of the COVID shut down, a woman offered to care for Sammy, the shop kitty and now is keeping him.
According to court documents, the sitter was a friend of Sammy and stopped by the store weekly to visit him. The cat had lived in the shop for years and Amanda Walker (the alleged cat thief) and asked to purchase or adopt Sammy and take him to her home. The offer was refused.
The plant store owner was stuck in Florida and unable to travel due to doctor’s orders and Amanda texted him saying, “Please let me know if I can help take care of Sammy! I love him! Hope you are safe and well.” The offer was accepted and after the store was reopened, she requested an extension of Sammy’s time with her. Soon she began avoiding him and refusing to take his calls.
Walker even threatened to get a restraining order as Krstic persistently tried to get his cat back, the court documents say. The owner said he kept calling, begging her to return the cat and she took out a restraining order against him.
The cat’s owner says he is distraught as he had Sammy at the store for four years, ever since Sammy was a kitten. He noted in his complaint how much “young kids love Sammy” and referred to Sammy as a “huge draw”. He also said he takes care of Sammy like his own child, and that Sammy is like part of him. He is suing for the return of Sammy and for damages as well.
Now don’t get me wrong, this feline would never condone taking a cat away from it’s human but I wonder why the cat was left in the store when the owner went to Florida? And whose welfare are these humans looking after, theirs or Sammy’s? What do you think about this legal hissing contest?
Jay County Humane Society partners with Portland Police for cops cuddles with cats
Paws up to the innovative folks at the Jay County Humane Society who are running an innovative program to get kitties furever homes. They are teaming up with the Portland Police Department to encourage people to adopt cats with some adorable photo shoots and a reduced adoption fee of $20.00 for a program called “ Cats and Cuddles with Cops”. The program was a great success.
A HISTORY OF FELINES, AS NARRATED AND ILLUSTRATED BY A CAT
Well of course we’re going to give this book a paws up! It’s written by a cat about cat history and since we’ve written two books Felines Opine on God, a Devotional for Cat Lovers and Felines Opine on Etiquette: What Humans Need to Know About Guests, Cat Sitting and Furniture (with the third one, Are There Head Bonks in Heaven? coming out at the end of the year) we feline authors must support each other!
When Paul Koudounaris went to the Los Angeles North Central Animal shelter in 2011 he was disappointed to find out that the feline he wanted to adopt had already found a furever home. As he tells it, as he was walking toward the door, a striped paw reqched out from a wall of cages and grabbed his shirt. It was love at first sight and Baba had her furever home.
Today she is the narrator and model for the book, A Cat’s Tale: A Journey Through Feline History. The Tribe is quite impressed with Baba’s historic knowledge as she retells tales of cats throughout history.
We say concatulations on your new book Baba!
Not Walking but Thankful
Hello There Furiends,
Since tomorrow is a holiday and the Human is taking a min-vacation for the rest of the week, I decided to give her a reprieve from her usual Wednesday blog duties. Actually “mini-vacation” is not exactly true as she will be finishing up our third Felines Opine book for publication (Its called “Are There Head Bonks in Heaven?”). She’ll be spending some quality time with the Tribe (we expect some petting and head bonk sessions by the fireplace!) and with some her favorite humans.
We did want to meow at all our furiends and tell you how thankful we are for all of you. We are thankful for our home, for each other and for the love we get every day. Our purrayer is that every kitty will find a furever home this season.
Although it’s not over yet, we are reflecting on this year, there has been much loss, many kitties crossing the Rainbow Bridge and some wonderful humans we know who are now in heaven. We are thankful to have known them all, furry and non-furry.
We wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. I’ll be back next Wednesday with my reports on all the best feline news on the world-wide web. Give your humans (and furry siblings) lots of love and hopefully there will be some turkey in your future.
Stay safe, warm and happy. Oliver, LIly and I send you…
Walk Through The Web Wednesday 11/18
Hello Furiends,
It’s been a good week in our neck of the woods but instead of talking about what The Tribe has been up to, I want to talk about what some fantastic folks in our community have been up to to help our shelter with it’s specific needs due to COVID. I also hope to inspire you to help your local shelters as well.
Our Human is a great fan of our animal shelter, Panhandle Animal Shelter. Our shelter director, Mandy Evans is amazing and has created programs in our little community that have gone national. Our Human wrote an award winning article about one of these programs called “Home to Home” and this innovative way to keep kitties in homes and out of the shelters is only one of many fantastic ways Panhandle Animal shelter is working to keep humans together with their furry family members.
Our Human heard the shelter director speak last week and one of the things she talked about was the specific challenges of running a shelter during COVID. The most pressing issue was that they couldn’t do the medical treatments for kittens and cats because they didn’t have enough surgical gowns. They brought patterns to the meeting and asked for help.
Now our Human is useless when it comes to sewing but she’s pretty good at marketing so she got the word out. And which group jumped into action right away? It was the pet loving folks who belong to her lost pet social media group, Bonner County Critter Finders. Now she should have figured that a community of folks that volunteer their time to get the word out about lost and found pets would be first in line to help the shelter and so they were.
Thanks to wonderful humans like these, our shelter will be able to do the medical work they need to do. There are many other things we can do to help our shelters during these difficult times. For instance, shelter disinfectant is hard to come by. Our shelter is able to obtain only a third of the disinfectant products they need and this affects how many animals they can take.
I’m setting my human furiends a challenge (I’m exempting the felines because our lack of opposable thumbs limits our purrticipation). Download the pattern and sew a surgical gown for your shelter or, if you’re sewing challenged like my Human, call your shelter to find out what specific needs you can help with that are caused by COVID.
That’s it for this week, kitties be kind to your humans, life is a bit stressful these days!
Bend woman’s animal-detection dog reunites cats with wildfire evacuees
There were many people in Oregon who were evacuated quickly to escape the fires and due these hasty evacuations, some pets were left behind.
One human couldn’t stand to hear the stories of lost pets. Katie Albright, a trained missing pet recovery specialist joined forces with other likeminded humans to help find missing cats.
Her team went into homes that other humans couldn’t access to look for lost cats. Her sidekick, Franklin, a 3-year-old dachshund/beagle mix is her most valuable team member. She trained Franklin in cat detection through the Missing Animal Response Network.
She and Franklin were successful in locating lost cats on that mission. They continue to volunteer their services in other areas as well.
We give Katie and Franklin our Paws Up Award!
A Cat Census?
Sometimes you humans cause me to scratch my head! This one is a head scratcher for me. There are folks purrticipating in the DC Cat Count, sifting through 6 million photos and sorting out the cats and counting each one.
Despite the advances in modern technology there is no computer program that will sort the cat photos out of all the photos so the humans have to do the tedious job themselves, one picture at a time.
Why are they doing this? The DC Cat Count is looking to get an estimate of just how many felines there are in the District. Lauren Lipsey with the Humane Rescue Alliance says getting an accurate cat population number will help her organization manage feral cats in the city. The group operates animal shelters and provides animal control services in D.C. and is partnering with the Smithsonian on the cat count project.
She said, “If we don’t know the baseline population of cats, it makes it impossible to measure the effectiveness of various population control policies or strategies.”
Also, we felines get a bad rap from some humans who say we kill billions of birds and small mammals. This count will provide a more scientific approach to those allegations.
Researchers placed cameras in 1,530 locations, strategically sited across the city. Each location was surveilled for 15 days, for a total of 22,950 days of observation. Of the roughly 6 million photos captured, about 20% are of cats.
Needless to say, the cameras caught more than cats. The most common being dogs, squirrels, deer, rats, and raccoons. There were also some rarer urban inhabitants: flying squirrels, coyotes, beavers, and at least one bobcat.
Now the researchers are going through each photo to eliminate duplicate shots of the same cat. Once that work is done, a few months from now, the team will be able to model cat density throughout the
While the final analysis of D.C.’s cat population is still months away, McShea and Lipsey say there is at least one data point that stands out, in terms of cats’ impact on the environment. There were very few cats in the city’s largest parks, where wildlife could be most threatened by the presence of cats. For example — D.C.’s biggest, wildest park, Rock Creek Park, was “almost absent of feral cats or semi domesticated cats,” according to McShea.
The cat count project will be complete in 2021, at a total cost of $1.5 million, funded by a number of nonprofits and charities. Meowza, sometimes I wonder how you humans spend your time and money!
Questionnaire survey identifies potential separation-related problems in cats
The first questionnaire survey to identify possible separation-related problems in cats discovered that 13.5% of all sampled cats displayed potential issues during their owner’s absence, according to a study published April 15, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Daiana de Souza Machado, from the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brazil, and colleagues.
Now this feline could have told you we miss you humans when you’re gone but in defense of these humans doing the survey, so many studies have been conducted on owner separation problems in dogs and very little work has been done to see how we felines feel! There is a common belief that we cats are happy being left alone for long periods of time, but the most recent research suggests that we are far more social than you humans realize and we are deeply bonded with our humans..
The results of this survey were interesting. 13.5% of cats showed at least one trait of separation related problems (destructive behavior was the most frequently reported)
Other behaviors or mental states identified were: excessive vocalization (19 out of 30 cats), inappropriate urination (18 cats), depression-apathy (16 cats), aggressiveness (11 cats), agitation-anxiety (11 cats) and inappropriate defecation (7 cats).
There is still more work to be done in this study but I am thankful that there are humans willing to dive into the emotions and reactions of felines.
Checking in on the Disneyland Cats
There is quite a clowder of cats at Disneyland and there are folks who are concerned about how the felines are surviving. The good news is that Disneyland loves having the cats around as they do an excellent job of vermin control. These felines even have quite a large fan club. On Instagram, @disneylandcats has more than 85,000 followers, and the handle has another 16,000 on Twitter. You can follow the #disneylandcats hashtag on either platform and find a fan page on Facebook.
There’s even a website devoted to all things cats at Disneyland. DisneylandCats.com has profiles of each cat with some real information about each one. Ned, for example, is a domestic longhair who hangs out on the grounds of the Disneyland Hotel. The site is so popular that you can buy T-shirts that say “We try to forget it was all started by a mouse” and “Beware of hitchhiking cats.”
“The cats are taken care of by the park’s workers with help from local veterinary clinics,” Kyle Jaeger reported. “There are feeding stations and shelters where the cats receive routine veterinary care, including flea treatments, spaying and neutering, and vaccinations.”
So I think it’s safe to say that the Magic Kingdom is still magical for it’s resident felines.
Ice fishing, feline style
We have humans that enjoy ice fishing in our neck of the woods but I’ve never heard of felines trying it until now. This kitty from Korea is trying her best to capture a carp under the ice in the lake.
This poor feline, named Marilyn, is beyond frustrated. I doubt that she was happy having her unsuccessful fishing trip uploaded to her You Tube and Instagram accounts either. I’m guessing Marilyn earned a few more viewers to compensate her for her frustrated fishing expedition.
Walk Through The Web Wednesday 11/11
Hello Furiends,
I hope this week finds you healthy and happy in your neck of the woods. It’s gotten pretty chilly here and while Oliver and Lily are busy looking toward their own comfort, I have been busy helping our Human with the chores.
That’s a brief look at our lazy week now let’s take a look at what is happening in the feline world.
Nissan is giving tiny kei cars to felines in cat cafés across Japan
I have seen ads from car companies who seem to be marketing to dog lovers but not Nissan who is partnering with a chain of Japanese cat cafes to promote the Nissan Dayz kei car.
This small kei car starting at ¥1,327,700 ($12,590 USD), is loaded with state-of-the-art features. Even base grades get lane departure warnings, forward collision braking, hill hold, and pedestrian detection braking, auto-dim high-beams, and more. Higher trim levels get Nissan’s Around View bird’s eye parking assist and ProPilot system that includes hands-free highway driving with adaptive cruise and lane centering.
Nissan says it’s so easy to drive, a cat could do it and to prove their point, they created cat-sized Dayz cars to be placed at “Mocha” cat café locations throughout Japan.The official Nissan website does warn (via Google translate) “Please note that the cat may not drive the car depending on the mood of the cat.”
I am beginning to believe that it’s time for the Tribe to campaign for The Human to take us and move to Japan!
Flies For Dinner: Purina To Offer Bug Based Dog, Cat Food
Okay, this feline will be the first cat to admit that we felines eat some pretty disgusting stuff but I’m wondering if Purina has gone too far this time.
Purina PetCare is launching a new pet food line to offer dogs and cats a more eco-friendly meal option. Starting this month, they will sell insect-based Purina Beyond Nature’s Protein in Switzerland.
And if the idea of “fly food” isn’t disgusting enough, let me tell you the details per Purina’s press release. “The insect protein comes from black soldier fly larvae, which are already in use in animal feed in Europe. The millet and fava beans provide protein, energy, and fiber to aid digestion. All the ingredients are steamed to maintain nutrient quality.”
Purina is referring to this new product line as a new eco-conscious choice. And says that many scientists and chefs have long promoted eating bugs, including mealworms, as a sustainable food option with “great promise” for humans as well as pets.
This feline says “thanks but no thanks!”. If any of our furiends in Switzerland have tried this food, give us a meow in the comments and let us know what you think. As for me, I’ll stick to stinky fish.
Neonatal nurse brings her skill and compassion home to help feline patients
There are heroes and then there are HEROES. Neonatal nurse Sheryl Cyr takes her hospital skills to her non-profit, Loving Lois Rescue and Rehabilitation in Florida.
Cyr is the founder of Loving Lois Rescue and Rehabilitation. The 501c3 nonprofit’s mission is to help special needs kittens get healthy and find homes.
She rescues kittens that nobody else will take and nurses them back to health. She will take mother cats with their newborns and deal with the medical issues of the little ones.
Cyr has had 23 years of neonatal experience and explains she’s compelled to work with special needs kittens because the sickest and most fragile ones who can’t do it without help and can’t tell us what’s wrong. They can’t tell us what hurts.
Cyr named the rescue after a cat that resides with her now called Lois. Lois was found paralyzed and lying in a parking lot five years ago. Today, after therapy, Lois has gained back all her motion and climbs, runs and plays with Cyr’s other cats. Cyr has 11 permanent feline residents.
“People often ask me why I do what I do,” Cyr said as she sat on her couch, a tiny kitten named Little Mary purring and outstretched against her chest. “This makes it worth it right here. If they can all go on to be safe, happy and loved, that’s all I need.”
Paws up to you Sheryl Cyr!
Adopt A Human – The Pet Effect
Did you know that having felines in your home is healthy for you? The Pet Effect , a campaign from the Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) works toward the goal to introduce pet owners to the health benefits of the human-animal bond, and to understand how important veterinarians are for happy, healthy pets!
The Female Human used HABRI research while she earned her diploma in Feline Behavior and Psychology and is very impressed with their work. HABRI assembles scientific evidence that demonstrates how pets improve heart health; alleviate depression; increase well-being; support child health and development; and contribute to healthy aging. In addition, companion animals can assist in the treatment of a broad range of conditions from post-traumatic stress to Alzheimer’s disease to autism spectrum disorder. The Pet Effect campaign not only shares the benefits of pet ownership but also shares the message and the science that proves veterinary medicine is an essential component of health for pets and people.
So if you know anyone who still doesn’t have a feline in their house, please send them this video along with the number to your local shelter!
OVER 10,000 CATS REHOMED THROUGH INNOVATIVE ‘VIDEO MATCHING’ SCHEME
Kudos to our furiends at Cats Protection in the UK for creative thinking in these difficult times. More than 10,000 cats have found their furever homes since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic thanks to a pioneering new idea.
Cats Protection launched a new doorstep delivery scheme called Hands-Free Homing in March to ensure cats could still be homed despite forthcoming lockdown restrictions. They used interactive video to match prospective owners with potential pets, and then transporting the animals to the new owner’s doorstep if a match was found.
Interested adopters interacted with the shelters and the cats virtually and then when the match is made the new feline in residence is delivered to your door.
We love it when you humans get creative!
Walk Through The Web Wednesday 11/4
Hello Furiends,
I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. We have returned to the beautiful colors of autumn again and are having some nice rain showers.
When you humans insist on changing the time on us we really get discombobulated. It always takes a while to figure out ur new meal times, snack times, play times, etc and this really stresses meowt! Still not too much has changed. Ollie is seeking out the best heat vents and, when the sun is shining, likes to find the best sun puddles, which for him are on the dining room table (apologies to any of our future dinner guests). The Female Human takes exception to Oliver’s commandeering of this spot and he can never understand why she gets herself in such a tizz about it.
My favorite sun spot is on the very top of the cat condo in the office…can you find me?
Finally, there are brief glimpses of hope that Lily might find a cuddle buddy yet.
Well that’s enough about us, let’s check out the news items I have for you this week.
Lost cat returns home with debt
A portly gray Tabby from Thailand, missing for 3 days, returned home but when he came home, his human found out he had incurred some debt.
He arrived home after his adventure with a cardboard note attached to a new collar. The note read, “Your cat kept eying the mackerel at my stall, so I gave him 3.” The feline’s benefactor signed the note, “Aunty May at alley no. 2.”
A Facebook page picked up the story and shared it and the story went viral. Some folks offered to pay the cat’s debt. Others felt that “Aunty May” might not have wanted to be reimbursed for the fish at all.
At the time of this report, it is still not known whether the feline paid his debt or not.
Beloved resident stray cat memorialized in cathedral service
Doorkins Magnificat, a beloved cat who made the cathedral her home for 12 years, died Sept. 30th. The tabby earned celebrity status during her years at Southwark Cathedral, meeting Queen Elizabeth II, starring in a children’s book and having a presence on social media.
After the cat’s death, Andrew Nunn, the dean of the cathedral, hosted a service of thanksgiving, which was live-streamed on Wednesday.
“She was enormously popular and had a massive Twitter following — and was also the focus of a lot of people’s visits to the cathedral,” Nunn said. “When she died the response was huge, and we knew we had to do something — there was no way in which we could just ignore the fact — and why would you? We loved her, and she gave a lot to our life. It felt entirely appropriate.”
The cat began visiting the cathedral in 2008 between Christmas and New Year’s Day and waited for food. Once she realized that the cathedral was a source of two meals daily, the cat decided to stay.
She became known as Doorkins making her bed next to a warm pipe underneath the cathedral’s chancel or on a cushion in the consistory court.
In August 2017 Doorkins “published” her first book, “Doorkins the Cathedral Cat,” which gave readers a tour of the Gothic-style church and a week in the life of the cat.
She developed kidney disease in the last few years and lost her eyesight. She died in the arms of Paul Timms, the head verger at his home after she had a stroke.
Her remains were cremated and she was laid to rest in the church’s courtyard.
The cat’s remains were cremated and she was laid to rest in the church’s courtyard.
“It was an unusual occasion,” Nunn told the congregation during the memorial service. “In more normal times, we often host memorial services for the great and the good. But I don’t think there’s ever been a service for a cat.”
Although some people like the Bishop of Burnley were negative about the service there were no regrets from the cathedral for holding the service.
Nunn said, “There’s such a lot of emotion around at the moment, and sometimes, something like that can just release it for people,” Nunn said. “It was heartwarming as well as emotional.” He also said that Doorkins was a positive influence to the church congregation.
Shop owner replaces ceiling panels with glass panels and the results are hilarious
If you’ve ever shared your living space with a cat, you’ll know that they’ll go wherever they want to go, whether you’re on board or not. And they love high places — all the better for looking down at you, right?
One cat owner decided to give his felines exactly what they wanted, and his friend revealed the results on Twitter.
As you can see from the photos posted on Twitter, this cat parent has carried out some major ceiling modifications to his store, including glass tiles for his feline spectators. His cats can now go into the ceiling area, perch on the glass and see everything that’s happening down below.
The cat in the cab: Feline friend brings comfort to driver while on the road
Pickles the cat is an excellent traveling buddy for Muninn Myrkvi, an over-the-road truck driver for GP Transco..
He says, “Pickles has the ability to brighten anyone’s day. Whenever anyone spots him through the window, I get smiles and a thumbs up.”
He adopted the 6-year old Maine Coon from a friend in 2019. Pickles was curious abut everything during his first few journeys albeit a bit skittish and nervous when the big rig started up.
It only took a week for Pickles to get used to his life on the road. Now when he’s on the road, he likes to look out the passenger window while they are driving. Most of his time is spent however, snoozing on the passenger seat.
This feline is as pampered as any house cat. In the early days, Myrkvi would try to get Pickles to check out his surroundings while wearing a harness but the harness was not a success. Now Pickles will sometines sit on the top step of the cab with his human by his side. Any noise or disturbance sends him scurrying back into the cab immediately.
When Pickles isn’t traveling, he spends time with his human on the family alpaca farm. Pickles enjoys himself there but he seems to prefer their road trips.
Pickles makes a purrfect traveling companion for this trucker who says, “Knowing Pickles is around helps keep my anxiety down as I go through my day.I tend to keep to myself even more than the typical OTR trucker, so Pickles helps alleviate loneliness. I also love when he cuddles up at night.”
‘MeowTalk,’ an app that translates cat sounds
What do I think about this app? I say, “It’s about time!”
Javier Sanchez, a technical program manager at Bellevue, Wash.-based business and tech solutions company Akvelon, has built a cat translation app called “MeowTalk” that he hopes will change how people interact with their feline friends.
Using data science and machine learning, MeowTalk listens to the sounds a cat makes and offers up a human language translation, promising to remove the barrier between pet and person on interactions ranging from “feed me” to “let me outside” to “I’m in pain.” With user input, an out-of-the-box version of the app can be trained to understand a specific cat.
Sanchez worked in the machine learning platform team at Alexa and wondered if there could be something similar for cats.
MeowTalk (on iOS and Android) comes with a general model that listens for cat meows in your home and then categorizes those sounds into 10 built-in intents that are universal to all cats. While cats don’t have a shared language, each will develop their own vocabulary that they will use consistently, Sanchez said. Users can create cat profiles and assign meows to new labels in MeowTalk when they think they know what their cat is asking for.
The app will learn a new word and will make accurate predictions for that word the next time it hears it. Behind the scenes, user feedback is training the cat-specific model to understand that cat’s meows going forward.
There is a smart collar in the works (Much like the translator worn by the dog in the movie “Up”, one of our Human’s favorites). Sanchez consulted with a data scientist named Stavros Ntalampiras, who wrote a research paper that got the attention of the Akvelon team, called “Automatic Classification of Cat Vocalizations Emitted in Different Contexts”.
Sanchez has been a cat person the majority of his life. As one of his cats circled his office as a test subject during a recent Zoom video call, he said dogs, while they definitely understand speech, just don’t have the same vocal capabilities to communicate through their barks.
Did our human download the app? You betcha’ and I’ll report on what we think about in a future feature.
Even Kitties Get The Blues
Hi there furiends, Lily here.
Ever since Angel Tucker crossed the Rainbow Bridge I’ve been sad and anxious. Tucker was my cuddle buddy and protector and now that he’s gone and I’m left with the two hooligan brothers, Oliver and Alberto, life has changed a lot.
I’m not as comfortable hanging out in my old spots because I don’t have my protector and I’m not a very bold kitty by nature. My anxious behavior has prompted the Human to do some research to help me.
Is a grieving kitty an anxious kitty?
Grief can make us anxious. There are two main factors that contribute to making us anxious, our genetics and our environment. It’s easy enough for my Human to understand what goes on in my environment but how can she find out about my genetics when I was adopted from the shelter and she has no history about my feline family? Well, that’s why she had my DNA test done with Basepaws.
As a feline that doesn’t understand things too “sciency” I will try to explain this to the best or my ability.
The science of being anxious
There are humans who have studied anxiety, specifically separation anxiety in felines. This can be separation from our humans or our other furry family members. We know what happened in my environment to cause me to be more anxious (the loss of Tucker) but what are the genetic reasons for my anxious behavior?
Now, getting back to DNA, did you know that studies have been done that indicate some cat breeds can be calmer than others? For instance, an article on the Purina site states that Birmans, British Shorthair, Persian and Ragdoll breeds tend to be calmer. If you look at my DNA breed make-up from my Basepaws report, you’ll see I have very little “calm kitty” in me.
As I mentioned earlier, genetics and environment contribute to feline anxiety but did you know that environment can actually change your genetics? Things like stress, trauma, diet, etc. can all effect change and not always in a good way.
How do you know if your kitty is blue?
I think most humans know their fur kids well enough to notice when behavior changes and/or circumstances in the home changes. Any behavior change should be taken seriously and potential medical issues should be ruled out with your veterinarian. If like me, your feline is grieving the loss of a buddy and feeling like the “odd cat out” you can be pretty sure your cat is blue.
Sad kitties are often more lethargic than usual, we don’t hang out in our favorite places anymore, we may want more attention from our humans or just stick close to our human as I do since I’ve lost my feline protector. We can act as though we are on high alert, never allowing ourselves to be in a place where we could be trapped. In other words, we will act anxious.
So what do you do when your kitty is blue?
We felines can grieve and, like grief with you humans, there is no specific behavior or timeline that we follow when we grieve. While we are going through our sad times giving us extra love and attention always helps. Talk to us (yes, we do respond to your calming voice) and you might even consider some calming products such as Feliway pheromone spray or plug in or a natural calming product formulated for cats.
Believe it or not, music helps many of us. Our Tribe purrrticularly likes Music for cats. You could even sit with us for a while and watch some of the pawsome movies for cats on Amazon Prime or Cat TV on YouTube.
I hope my furiends who’ve lost their best buddies over the Rainbow Bridge won’t be blue much longer and, if you and your humans have found ways to help you with your grief and anxiey, meow about it in the comments and share what worked for you.
Walk Through The Web Wednesday 10/28
Hello There Furiends,
I hope all is fine in your neck of the woods. It’s been quite chilly here and it’s always a bit of a transition for these heat loving felines to get used to the chillier weather. Oliver prefers to hang out in front of the fire, Lily likes to sit under a map to warm up and me, well I just head back to bed and under the covers.
I hope you enjoy this week’s web wanderings and stay warm!
The Home Detection Test Aims to Detect Early Signs of Urinary Tract Disorders in Cats
Did you know that about 50% of felines who have one episode of feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD) will have a recurrence? That’s the bad news. The good news is that Royal Canin USA and Blücare have teamed up to create an in-home system that works as an early detection of blood in cat urine. It’s a non-invasive test that cat owners can use at home.
Dr. Brent Mayabb, Global Chief Medical Officer for Royal Canin noted, “Cats are very good at masking, meaning that many cats show little to no clinical signs in the early stages of common diseases, It is our objective to create a convenient experience that is less stressful for both cats and cat owners. Hematuria Detection, technology by Blücare, allows vets and their clients to work together to manage the health of the pet and provide peace-of-mind for the owner.”
This detection, technology by Blücare, is an easy-to-use product with white granules designed to be evenly distributed over clean cat litter. Features and benefits of this product include:
• NON-DISRUPTIVE: The non-invasive, at-home test reduces stress for cats as the test is administered in the comfort of the cat’s environment.
• RELIABLE: Allows detection of microhematuria, which is blood invisible to the naked eye.
• SIMPLE AND QUICK 2: The granules are easy to spread into existing, clean litter while achieving clear results within a few seconds. Results remain visible for 48 hours.
It’s easy, just three steps;
1. SPREAD: Evenly spread the granules over clean litter and wait for the cat to urinate.
2. INSPECT: After the cat urinates, inspect the litter box. If the granules are white or yellow, the test is negative. If the granules are blue, the test is positive as it shows the presence of blood in the cat’s urine.
3. CONSULT: Contact a veterinarian if the granules are blue to confirm the results and determine next steps
The Royal Canin Hematuria Detection, technology by Blücare is available now through veterinarians nationwide. To learn more about this product, click here.
Video of cat running the wrong way down an escalator has over a million views
An eyewitness filmed a cat attempting to descend an escalator that was going up. This 25-second video has already had more than –6 million clicks.
His antics also attracted quite a crowd at the bottom of the escalator. The presumably exhausted feline finally came to a stop and let the moving stairs carry him to the top.
There were a number of opinions on the felines purpose. Some called him stubborn, some stated the cat was using the escalator as his private treadmill and someone referred to him as a sports lover.
Whatever the cat’s reason, we will never know but it sure provided 25 seconds of entertainment! You can watch the video on the website.
Campaign to elect a feline mayor of Oakland heats up
Now I normally have a strict NO POLITICAL STORIES rule in my Wednesday feature as you humans can’t talk about this subject without hissing and howling at eachj other. I do, however, make an exception when a feline throws his hat into the ring. Many of you may remember, our very own Oliver ran for Purresident and we were quite busy campaigning for him and his running mate, Olive from Three Chatty Cats.
Sadly, none of the Tribe was interested in a purrlitical career but this doesn’t apply to Wally, a handsome ginger man-cat. Wally doesn’t have an official owner, he just showed up at the block where Heather La Mastro lives over five years ago. The neighborhood fed him and looked after him so he stayed. He is well loved and has been dubbed “Mayor of 55th St.” With so many of the good folks on 55th street in lockdown and bored, they began to float the idea of approaching Wally to run. He does have three opponents, Betty, a gray tabby and two dogs, Mimi and Macy. The Tribe has decided Wally has their vote and are urging you all to support him with his Twitter hashtag #Wally4Mayor. Oliver is busy contacting his former supporters to ask them to back Wally.
These rescue organizations are good luck for black cats
Since National Black Cat Day was yesterday, I wanted to give a shout out to all you house panthers. This time of year is not such a good time for black cats but fortunately, black-cat rescue organizations across the United States are working hard to change the misconceptions about black cats and find them furever homes.Tracey Lenac runs Black Cat Holistic Rescue in Los Angeles, California and rescued her first black kitten 23 years ago. Across the country, Susanna Finn is assistant director of Black Cat Rescue in Boston, Massachusetts. Her organization finds homes for black cats, including a pudgy three-legged cat named Shelly and a skinny, mostly-bald cat named Snoopy. Finn and her co-workers promote black cats as funny, friendly and loving.
It is challenging to capture the beauty of black felines in photos. Our Human always had difficulty catching our Angel Buster in the proper lighting. Natural lighting is always best or a brightly colored background.
Jaggers Journey in Oregon finds homes for blackcats. The director, Leah Lyman says, “Black cats have amazing personalities,” she says. “People need to open their hearts to them.”
And while we’re celebrating the beauty of black cats, here are some interesting facts’;
• The Egyptian goddess of protection, Bastet, is often depicted as a black cat.
• Sailors used to believe black cats on a ship brought good luck. Fishermen’s wives kept black cats, hoping to ensure a husband’s safe return from sea.
• Some theaters have historically kept black cats to bring luck to a performance.
Biotech Company announces two pilot clinical studies in treating feline diabetes
Scout Bio is working on two potential therapeutic applications for cats with diabetes. The goal is to first, replace daily insulin injections with a single injection of SB-009 to treat feline diabetes and second to significantly increase the percentage of cats entering remission when SB-009 is given with insulin.
Mark Heffernan, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Scout Bio remarked, “This one-time injectable therapy for feline diabetes has the potential to provide a convenient single treatment that is an alternative to the burden of twice daily insulin injections. We believe SB-009 has the potential to be a blockbuster product for animal health.”
This product is being developed in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania’s Gene Therapy Program. We are purraying that this product will work!
Walk Through The Web Wednesday 10/21
Happy Wednesday Furiends,
Fall has come in all its glory to our neck of the woods. Oliver loves to sit on the living room window sill and watch the leaves fall and check out what beasts are in the forests, racoons, deer, moose, bear, skuk, even the visiting neighborhood felines hunting mice. A cat never knows what he’ll see down there!
Lily is far less interested in what goes on in the woods and is much more intereted in what’s going on inside the house.
Oliver is struggling during this time of “weight management”. The Human took a seminar on feline obesity and life hasn’t been the same for poor Ollie. He struggles between attempting to squeeze himself in tight places and begging for tuna casserole. Sigh, life is hard for a portly feline.
Well, that’s the news from our neck of the woods now let’s check out the feline news from around the web.
Cat Cafe opening in Georgetown thanks to local home builder
Stories where you humans go above and beyond to help kitties find furever homes just make my whiskers quiver. And, thanks to Paul Haddix and Haddix Construction the Central Purrk Café will be opening in a few months.
The company is donating their services to help build the interior cat lounge where adoptable cats will recline in fancy modern digs.
Adoptable felines from the Lexington Humane Society and Scott County Humane Society will occupy the cat lounge area of the café.
Visitors can reserve time in the cat lounge at $12.00 per hour, $6.00 per half hour. The lounge has a “free roam” area where visitors can get know the cats in an environment that is more like a home, allowing the humans to picture the kitties in their own homes.
Central Purrk will also host special events like Yoga with Cats, Trivia Nights, Beer & Wine Tastings, and offer birthday or other party packages. All cats are adoptable directly from the cat café and 100% of the adoption fees go to the respective humane society. Cats will be spayed or neutered, up to date on their vaccines and be microchipped.
Scaredy Cat first horror movie for cats
Temptations, the cat treat company premiered the first ever horror movie for cats last week.
The story is about a kitty who makes his way through a haunted house. While storm rages outside, a ball of yarn leads the cat from room to room with all kinds of scary things around each corner. The kitty finally ends up in the kitchen to face the scariest thing of all…a cucumber!
So have your human break out the Temptation movie treats and watch this together this Halloween.
Behind prison walls, cats and inmates rehabilitate each other through animal care program
We felines don’t care much about your past. We just want you to pet us and love us and feed us. This arrangement works out purrfectly at the Pendleton Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Indianapolis.
Six hours every day, seven days a week the handful of men selected for the FORWARD program (Felines and Offenders Rehabilitation with Affection, Reformation and Dedication.) care for more than 20 cats. Those kitties repay the care and housing they receive while they’re prepared for adoption with love and affection for their inmate caretakers. The inmates gain skills such as empathy, responsibility and self-esteem. Many inmates have said that caring for the cats gives them a reason to get up in the morning. I say this is a purrfect “win-win’ situation!
A tale of two kitties: Blind cat and feline friend win $1500 for local shelter
This is an encouraging tale for all my feline furiends who have challenges. Determined kitties can accomplish great things with the help of their humans. These best furiends, Penelope and Orville just helped their local shelter, Hancock County Humane Society, win $1,500.00, $1,000.99 in cash and $500.00 for food.
Shelter volunteer Kathleen Free wrote the story about Penelope, a kitty born with no eyes, and Orville, the kitten who befriended her and became her “seeing-eye cat. The story won the Clear the Shelters Adoption Story Challenge hosted by The Animal Rescue Site and GreaterGood.org.
Clear the Shelters Adoption Story Challenge hosted by The Animal Rescue Site and GreaterGood.org. Winners were chosen by online voters.
The story earned them 6th place and the cash and food for their shelter. Pawsome job pussycats!
Fancy Feast Feline Advent Calendar
Humans, it’s never too early to spoil your felines for the holidays and at this price ($23.00) you can’t afford not to buy it. And since humans like Christmas too, there’s a beautiful kitty ornament included. Don’t wait, go to Chewy and make your felines happy for the holidays.
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