Happy Wednesday Furiends,
The sun is shining here and The Tribe is stretched out enjoying the many sun puddles. This week was a bit……interesting. The Human took us to our yearly wellness exams. Due to our size, she prefers to take us individually. Luckily we live only a few minutes from the stabby place so two appointments work.

Oliver went first. To be honest, I’m a bit annoyed at hearing about what a good boy Ollie was. The human dressed him in his new halter and leash and he was able to avoid the dreaded cat bag. She loaded the cat stroller in the car, Oliver hopped in the passenger seat of the car and off they went. When they got to the stabby place she rolled the stroller around to his side of the car, picked him up, set him inside, zipped it up and off they went. All bloodwork has come back good and healthy but there was one little glitch.

We both went from 20 pounds to almost 22 pounds – MEOWZA! The Human was instructed to decrease our daily kibble allowance from 1/2 cup each to 1/3 of a cup. By Oliver’s reaction you’d think the vet said “no kibble ever again.”

Getting me to the vet later that day did not go so smoothly. The Human is trying to figure out why I freaked out about the new halter. And freak out I did. I contorted my body into the most amazing position while using my Siamese voice to SCREAM as loudly as I could. The Human had to admit defeat. Stuffing my into the cat carrier did not go easily either but she finally got me zipped in and off we went.

The D-I-E-T word was used at my visit however I was not as emotional about it as Oliver was. I went into my carrier gratefully when the exam was done and off we went home.

Lily was a bit perplexed but not worried as the stabby place we go to is a “fearless practice.” We did an article about their new building several years ago. It’s pretty amazing and, since I hid during the recent visit, The Human used a photo from that article (gee, I was much slimmer then).

Lily foolishly thinks she’s dodged a bullet and has escaped the visit to the stabby place so she showed her gratitude by giving The Human copious head bonks. Lily will be surprised to know that her appointment is next Saturday.

So that’s our week. The Human was busy getting all her entries in to the CWA Communications contest. We’ve been entering this every year and we have earned some pawsome honors! Now, if your humans are creative you should get them to enter too. The Cat Writer’s Association is not just for writers, it’s for photographers, radio shows, videos and lots of good stuff. And, you don’t have to be a CWA member to enter. You should check it out! And don’t wait too long, the contest entry time closes on April 30th.

And now, let’s get to the news of the week.

Cat’s Reaction to Human’s use of cat face filter is hilarious

All I can say is, “Human WHAT were you thinking?!” Poor Pixel the cat was taken aback when his human, Anne, filmed herself with a TikTok cat-face filter. 

Anne adopted Pixel from a local shelter and he lives with three other cats.

This video of Pixel and his not so human human has had 8.3 million views, 1.7 million likes and 34,400 comments (meowza, and we have a hard time keeping up with the comments on our posts!)

Blind kitty demands shower every day

There are many blind felines who are living their best lives and Blinkin is one of them. He loves his daily showers and demands them. He has a furiend, Wicked who is his “seeing eye cat” and when Blinkin is done with his shower, Wicked helps dry him off.

Paws up to the wonderful humans who adopt and care for blind kitties and those teach others what a joy those felines can be. Take for instance, photographer Josh Norem who works with Saving Grace Rescue Center and who lives with multiple blind cats.  These two felines, Grace and Max live with their family and enjoy a full and happy life. Their blindness has not stopped them from having fun and living a normal kitty life.

The people at Saving Grace Rescue understand special needs felines as the rescue started with a kitty named Grace who had cerebellar hypoplasia. The human who adopted her was horrified to hear that many special needs kittens are euthanized. She took Grace home and she and her human spent 17 wonderful years together. Grace inspired Amber to found a special needs kitten rescue.

Cat and baby love to snuggle

So many times you humans say that babies should be kept away from the feline but that’s not always true. There are so many old wives tales about cats and babies and you humans need to update your knowledge. Just like the video above, babies and felines can be furever friends. And, in case  you’re wondering what false information is out there about babies and cats, this article from Petful will help.

Study claims cats recognize the names of their owners and feline friends.

You know, sometimes I get a bit weary reading about what scientists have “discovered” about felines when many of you humans who live with us already know about these discoveries.

A team of researchers from Kyoto University in Japan conducted a study on 48 cats, which lived with at least two other pets, either in a family home or a cat café.

They did two tests. The first was showing the felines a photo of another feline they lived with. They then tracked the cat’s response whenever a name was called , either the cat’s or another name. They said if the cat stared at a photo longer, it was a sign that the cat knew the name of the cat in the photo. Hmmm, I’m not sure about this one but what do I know, I’m only a cat.

They found that household cats paid attention to the monitor for longer when the wrong name was called, indicating an ‘expectancy violation effect’,” the researchers wrote in the study, which has been published in the journal Scientific Reports. Again, this feline non-sciency brain is struggling to understand this.

In another experiment where they showed cats pictures of their owners, they found a strength of connection and the bigger the family and the longer they have been with the group, the more likely they are to remember a name

Feral cats get to stay at their Oakland Coliseum home

Three cheers for the good folks at the Oakland Coliseum who have decided to allow the feral felines living there to stay. Since the Coliseum was constructed in the ’60s cats have called it home, they eat well and they work for their meals.

“The cats have been doing an excellent job. Staff commented that they have not seen a rodent in over two years,” Henry Gardner Executive Director of the Coliseum Authority told KCBS Radio.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Island Cat Resources and Adoption will capture the adults and spay, neuter and release them back to the Coliseum. The kittens will be put up for adoption at the Oakland Animal Shelter.

“So, it’s a matter of now controlling the current population so that we can coexist and that’s cats can still do their work,” he said.

Two paws up for a good humane solution!