Hello Furiends,
It’s almost Christmas and The Tribe is looking forward to the celebration. We each wanted to record a purrsonal Holiday message and we wish you a festive season, no matter what event you celebrate in December and that you enjoy the web gems I found for you this week.
We also wanted to share a Catmas Carol with you. Every year the Human takes our Catmas Carol book out and we enjoy some feline caroling. Here is one of our favorites!
From Lily
From Oliver
From Alberto
A Christmas miracle
Gary and Deb Mosberger’s cat had been missing for five weeks. Every pet parent is happy when their lost fur kid finds his way home but this reunion was a true Christmas miracle.
December has always been hard for the Mosbergers as their son Vinny was killed by a drunk driver 18 years ago on December 9th.
Vinnie loved cats and had many throughout his life. Having cats in the home help the Mosbergers feel closer to Vinnie and they added two cats to the home last year. The cats, Abe and Lincoln, like to stroll around the neighborhood, letting themselves in the house through a window.
On November 5th, the cats left the house for their daily stroll. Lincoln came back, Abe didn’t. When he didn’t return by the next day the Mosbergers checked with all their neighbors, put up posters around town and contacted shelters in their area.
Deb Mosberger woke up on December 9th, the anniversary of Vinnie’s death. She said that Vinnie knew how much she and his dad loved their felines and so she said, “Okay Vinnie, it would be nice if you could bring Abe home.” All throughout the day she felt Vinnie would bring the missing cat home and she even told her neighbors.
That evening, while she worked in the kitchen she heard crying at the window, it was Abe, 18 years to the day that Vinnie had died. The cat was skinny and scared after his 5-week ordeal and was very happy to be home.
Deb Mosberger said that ever since her son died, she hated the month of December. Abe changed all that this December 9th. She said, “Now I can love December again because of this Christmas miracle.”
Shelter cat named Frank wins $10K for Kent County animal shelter in national contest
A cat named Frank just won $10,000.00 for his shelter, Focus on Ferals. Franks sweet face and heartwarming story earned him the top spot in the recent Arm & Hammer Cat Litter contest, “Purrfectly Impurrfect”.
There were about 2,000 shelter cats nominated for the prize. The purpose of the contest was to highlight stray cats overlooked because of their age, appearance or misunderstood personalities. The goal is to help these cats find homes too.
Due to the campaign’s success, Arm & Hammer established the Feline Generous “Kitty,” a fund that will donate $50,000 to shelters and shelter cats in need each year.
Focus on Ferals staff said Frank can make their “hearts explode with love” but also prompts them to “burst into tears,” given his injuries and scars. Five-year-old Frank arrived at the shelter with an ear infection and a cheek injury, where a bone fragment eventually had to be removed.
Despite all this, shelter workers say Frank has quirky facial expressions and cries out for attention. His lovable personality and charm attract volunteers and fellow cats like his best friend, Pickles. For more information about the shelter and its mission, visit its website or check out Focus on Ferals’ Facebook page.
The cat ate my….
We’ve all heard the old excuse, “the dog ate my homework”. Well my furiends, it’s not just dogs that like to chew or shred paper (or plastic, like yours truly).
A young human from Malaysia, who had just earned his university degree came in to his room to see that his cat had ripped it up.
Afif Adlan Mohd Hanafiah graduated with a finance, accounting, and management degree from the University of Nottingham in July and had been proudly displaying his diploma, until his cat shredded it. He tweeted a photo of the “crime scene” and the rest, as they say, is history. His post currently has over 53,700 retweets and 254,600 likes.
Study shows we felines love our pet parents much more than anyone thought
Okay, first I have to say that this study must have been done for people who really don’t know, love and understand cats. Any true cat parent knows we love and are bonded to our humans!
A 2019 study from researchers at Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences published in the journal Current Biology, indicates that like children and dogs, cats forge a similar attachment to the humans raising them. Well, DUH! Attachment, is a relevant behavior that applies to cats as much as other pets.
For the study, researchers had kittens and cats participate in a “secure base test”— similar to a test that is conducted on babies and dogs to study their attachment behaviors—in which cats are separated and reunited with their owners over the course of a few minutes to determine if the animals were securely or insecurely attached to their owners. Of the 70 kittens researchers were able to classify, 64.3% were found to be securely attached and 35.7% were insecurely attached. For the 38 adult cats they tested, the results were 65.8% securely attached and 34.2% insecurely attached.
To see if the kittens’ attachment style could be modified, the researchers had kittens undergo a six-week training course. No significant differences were found, indicating the lasting power of an initial attachment style, as in humans.
“Once an attachment style has been established between the cat and its caregiver, it appears to remain relatively stable over time, even after a training and socialization intervention,” Vitale commented in the same media statement.
If there’s one important thing you humans can learn from this is that it is important to spend time with your kitten to establish the attachment bond early.
I’m still not sure why the university had to spend money to study this but, if it helps non-cat folks understand what amazing and loving creatures we are, then I say, paws up!
The answer to that age old question. Why do cats like to hide under the Christmas tree?
Now I know many of you humans want to know why we felines love to destroy the Christmas tree but that explaination would take waaaay to long so I thought I’d take the simpler question, “Why do cats want to hide under the Christmas tree?”
You’ve seen us snuggle between the presents, rolling around in the ribbons and you’ve probably wondered, “why?” Dr. Ignacio Casali and Dr.Adrew Lee, both DVMs, tackle the answer.
Despite the fact that we are soooo cute cuddling under the pine boughs, we can also get up to a bit of mischief. Sometimes it’s the dangling ornaments that are just asking to be swatted or those flickering lights that draw us to the bottom of the tree.
There is another reason we want to dive into the depths of your holiday tree, it’s because it’s like a cardboard box on steroids to a cat, according to Dr. Lee. “It can provide height, a place to hide, and is full of toys — all things that cats love.” In a sense, it is the perfect playground for your feline friend. Dr. Casali agrees adding that your Christmas tree could provide us kitties with a sense of shelter or comfort.
Despite the fact that we felines love the bottom of the tree, you humans need to watch what we are playing with from the tree. Dr. Casali says, “During this time of the year, we see cats that come into the emergency room with foreign materials in the stomach, which many times come from Christmas decorations. Cats like to play with the strings and the ornaments, which they can swallow.” Dr. Casali reminds you humans to keep a close eye on us and, if we do swallow part of an ornament or another kind of décor, call the vet right away!
Oh, and be prepared for us to be bummed when you take down that fun tree with all it’s hanging cat toys!
indicators of this is when The Tribe members begin to snuggle with each other again. Tucker and Lily haven’t gotten near each other while the temperatures were warm but as The Female Human likes to keep temperatures a bit cool in our house, snuggling has now become a need, not an option.
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