Walk Through The Web Wednesday – 6/21

Posted on June 22, 2023 by Feline Opines

Hello Furiends,
We’ve been having a cool summer (temperature, not type). The Human is frankly thankful because she chose to live in our neck of the woods precisely because it’s not known for extreme temperatures, although there have been summers with days in the high 90s. For instance, Weather Kitty’s report for today is what The Human considers a purrfect summer day.

As far as other happenings this past week, things have been mostly routine although Oliver has been quite unsettled because of his D-I-E-T. He finds it outrageous that The Human chooses menu options that contain NOTHING he is interested in eating and has decided begging isn’t even worth the effort.

This is an outrage, sprouted grain bread, spinach and an egg!
It wasn’t even worth jumping up here.

In a futile attempt to turn his attention from food to something else, Oliver decided he would “help” The Human put together some table decorations.

Those woody things look nice and crunchy.

When the reduced rations get to him, Oliver chooses a nap to forget about the terrible state of his life.

Lily, the little feline who has never had a weight problem, often encourages Ollie to relax and take some time to smell the roses.

We hope things have been doing well in your neck of the woods and Oliver hopes you get all the snacks, kibble and treats you deserve.

Florida woman leaves inheritance, Tampa estate to 7 Persian cats: Reports

I think a mansion would suit me quite well.

Now this is how you take care of your felines! A Florida woman who died in November decided to leave her estate to her seven Persian cats, along with an inheritance for each one. Nancy Sauer of Tampa, Florida left a stipulation in her will that her seven cats are to remain in her estate with each receiving an inheritance.

This isn’t that unusual, I reported on the inheritance Karl Lagerfeld left to his cat Choupette. The will left by Sauer indicates that the estate not be sold until the last cat passes away. Despite this stipulation in the will, a a Hillsborough County probate judge recently decided that the cats should be placed in new homes.

A friend of the deceased said that she was worried that the cats would not do well if they were separated.

Sherry Silk, the executive director of the Humane Society of Tampa Bay has stated that the cats should not be alone in a house as large as the one they lived in. The cats have now been at the Human Society for the last month and Silk said, “I am going to personally make sure that we can keep as many together as we can and that they go to the perfect house.”

San Antonio Cat Extravaganza

Oh meowza, every city should have an event like this! The event, last weekend, celebrated local feline charities and rescues, there was an International Cat Competition, lots of seminars to learn more about fantastic felines, enjoy the antics of the Rock Cat Rescue’s Acro-Cats and buy a present for your cats at the shopping village.

Feline Water Fascination

Some of you less informed humans may think that cats hate water. This is not the case for all of us! There are cats that like to swim, ride on paddle boards, take to the sea in a boat or, as in my case, stick your head under the faucet (my regular morning routine) and enjoy the wetness.

The perks of adopting a wallflower

Lily was a bit shy when The Human first met her at the shelter.

This is a reminder that just because a kitty doesn’t run up to you to greet you when you’re looking for a new feline furiend at the shelter doesn’t mean this kitty isn’t loveable. Our very own Lily was quite shy (she still is in some circumstances with people she doesn’t know) is known as “Bug” or “The Bug” because she is such a love bug and she loves to curl up against the Human and go to sleep.

It does take time and patience to win over a timid cat but it’s worth it. Amanda Kowalski, vice president of behavior programs at San Diego Humane Society says, “The first time they start to interact with you, like giving you a nose touch or rubbing against you, is so gratifying and worth the wait.”

Sometimes it’s the environment like shelters or foster homes that make a cat shy. When looking at cats in a shelter or rescue, it’s important to remember that “what you see is not necessarily what you’re gonna get,” says Nancy Puro, volunteer and behavior programs manager at Cat Adoption Team, the largest cat shelter in the Pacific Northwest. She explains that the behavior a cat is displaying at a shelter or rescue may not reflect what their personality will be like once they settle into a home. Again, this was the case with our Lily.

There are many types of shy cats. Some weren’t fully socialized when they were kittens, some act fearful because they’re overwhelmed by their surroundings. Any of you humans who have given a shelter kitty a furever home can attest to the fact that their personalities change quite a bit once they are comfortable and safe in their new home (and that often takes a while to achieve).

This doesn’t mean that a very shy cat will eventually turn into a social, stranger loving feline. Many shy cats, even after they’re out of their shell, will continue to be reserved and often will find a place to be alone to reenergize.

Please don’t disregard bringing a shy cat into your home. The article, linked above, has links to information to help you bring a shy kitty out of their shell. Oliver and I and the Human are glad The Human decided to bring shy Lily to our house.

It’s always good to have a snuggle bug in the house.

HHOLOVE Launched the World’s First Companion Robot for Cats. A robot cat sitter…hmmm

HHOLOVE, a rising digital pet brand under HHO, has launched the world’s first cat smart companion robot—O Sitter on Kickstarter, the world’s largest crowdfunding platform, on June 16 at 9am EST .

The system has integrated functions of AI Smart Life Recording, Interactive Companion, Reliable and Visible Feeding, O Sitter is considered a groundbreaking differentiated product. The company says that the product is purrfect novice cat owners, frequent travel owners, and those who have to keep track of their cats when they are at work.

The company says the O Sitter uses AI dynamic computing to automatically record the daily activities of your cats that can then viewed on an app.

It also has a high-speed silent gimbal camera, combined with a laser and rich expression interaction design that will follow active cats. There is a 360° horizontal + 110° vertical panoramic view which gives the cat owner a clearer “digital” view with its 4x digital zoom. O Sitter can detect the cat’s movement within 3 meters (about 118 inches), so that you can quickly target where they are.

And if all this tracking wasn’t enough, there’s a built in laser that can be manipulated by the app, either by the human directly or it can be preset.

The build-in laser can be manipulated by cat owners via APP to accompany their cats for remote play. It is also available to select a preset laser motion track.

And what good would a cat sitting robot be if there wasn’t a voice option for the human? There is real time voice interaction as well, of course.

What else could you want? How about a customized feeding plan? Owners can add their cats’ information on the app and choose a feeding plan.

What happens if there’s a power failure? The system will switch to battery-powered mode, and after the network is disconnected it will enter offline mode immediately, and the device will dispense food at regular intervals as scheduled.

O Sitter was made available on Kickstarter on June 16 with discounts of up to 50% off.

As wonderful as this all sounds, The Human isn’t sure she wants one more intrusive device in our home. She can’t say anything with Alexa plugged in without seeing ads for the things she’s talked about. She gets so annoyed; she doesn’t leave Alexa plugged in. And don’t get her started on Facebook that even seems to know what she’s thinking about purchasing! My guess is, this will not be part of our household. What about yours?

Walk Through The Web Wednesday 8/18

Posted on August 18, 2021 by Feline Opines

siamese cat on a leash walking through a garden

Hello Furiends,
Before I get into happenings in our neck of the woods I wanted to thank all of for voting and sharing the information about my attempt to get my mug on a beer can and also raise money for the Charleston Animal Society. Oliver wanted to be a part of this so I let him do my “thank you” image (note how excited he looks).

Thank you all and thanks for contributing to the fund raiser for this shelter!

As for the rest of the goings on in our neck of the woods, we have all been looking for ways to beat the heat. Oliver has figured out that water helps but evidently he requires help to get the water.

I however, purrfer to just dive in and get a drink and a cooling off at the same time.

Lily, showing her usual restraint and logical thinking, waited for the day we had cooler temperatures and enjoyed the breeze blowing in to the kitchen window.

It’s been a blessing to have a little rain but there are still fires raging around us. We are purraying for all the humans and animals affected all around the west (and our furiends in Canada!)

Cat’s meowing helps rescuers find owner, 83, who fell down a ravine

Oh my whiskers, this is for all you folks who don’t give us felines any credit. After police were called to search for a missing 83-year old woman one of her neighbors noticed the lady’s cat, Piran, meowing and attempting to draw attention to a corner of a cornfield near the lady’s house.

A neighbor, Tamar Longmuir, located the missing woman as soon as she went over to the cat. She said, “The cat is very attached to her, and he was going back and forth in the gateway and meowing, so I decided to go and search the field.”

That hero feline was responsible for his human being rescued after falling about 70 feet down a steep embankment. The poor lady had been there for hours.

Both the lady and her cat are fine and safe at home. Meowza, what a hero kitty!

How high can a cat really jump?

Have you ever wondered how high your feline can jump? Well an adult cat can jump five or six times its height on average, (4-5 feet) Now there are exceptions depending on breed and the cat’s physique.

One study recorded a cat jumping to touch a suspended cotton ball that was 7-8 times it’s height. And according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the longest horizontal jump by a cat was 7 feet, held by Waffle, the Warrior Cat.

Cats were built to jump but, if we’re jumping on places you don’t like you can get us a cat tree or install wall shelves for us to attain the height we love. People, jumping is in our DNA so please provide safe places for us to jump to our heart’s content. And make sure you watch where we jump up so that we’re not in danger of falling as this happened to our Angel Tucker and I don’t know who was more scared, The Human or the cat! And of course there was the time when Oliver was a kitten when he jumped up on the half wall in the living room and “flew” down the stairs.

Nerf Made a Blaster for Cats That Shoots Catnip Discs Instead of Foam Darts

Now here’s a CAT TOY! Why should the barkies have all the fun?

The folks at Blaster Hub, recently tried out the Nerf Catnip Disc Blaster (which is available exclusively at Petco) and found it was about what you’d expect from a $15 toy blaster. It works with a manually primed spring-loaded mechanism that launches catnip discs about 10 feet. The testers said it’s probably best for kittens. If your human wants something with a bit more oomph, they could buy a more powerful blaster (some shoot up to 50 feet). They could spray the disc with catnip spray and voila! I think that 10 feet would work just fine for Ollie, he’s not big on running.

20 Things you may not know about cats and why you should adopt one

This is me at the shelter the day I met The Female Human. – Lily

Now I realize I’m preaching to the choir here but I’m sure that many of you have furiends who till don’t know or understand the delights of having a feline in residence. I wont list all 20 reasons here but you can find them all in the article. Here are a few of my favorites.

Cats have been in residence for 9500 years according to some French archaeoligists who discovered a 9500 year old cat grave in Cyprus and that gives that kitty the distinction of being the oldest pet cat, predating the Egyptian art depicting cats by more than 4,000 years.

Cats walk like camels and giraffes…really! Our walking sequence is both right feet first, followed by both left feet, so we move half of tour body forward at once. Camels and giraffes are the only other animals to walk this way.

It’s believed that Sir Isaac Newton invented the cat door. HowStuffWorks writes that while Newton was working on his experiments at the University of Cambridge, he was constantly interrupted by his cats scratching at the door. So he asked the Cambridge carpenter to saw two holes in the door, one for the mother cat and one for her kittens. Apparently these holes can still be seen at the university today. Now that’s ingenuity and it was inspired by his felines!

And this just might be my favorite….a cat’s brain is biologically more similar to a human brain than it is to a dog’s. Both humans and cats have identical regions in their brains that are responsible for emotions.

Did you know there were 17 black cat breeds?

Even though Black Cat Appreciation Day was yesterday I still wanted to celebrate as I have so many fantastic black furred furiends. Our Angel Buster was a handsome black cat. Cats come in many colors and patterns including black. The closest thing to a black cat breed is the Bombay. Bombays always have sleek, black coats and copper-colored eyes. Besides the Bombay, you can find a black coat on just about any breed (and mixed breed) of cat.

Black fur in domestic cats and wild panthers is genetic,and that black fur gene is dominant, but both parents must carry it to have black kittens. The interesting thing about this black gene is that it’s found in the same protein family responsible for fighting diseases. This is why some scientists believe that black cats have better immune systems than other cats.

The author of this article, the editor at Pure Wow has other interesting black cat facts and some great info on black cat breeds. Check it out and Purrs & Head Bonks to all my ebony furred furiends!

Walk Through The Web Wednesday 8/29

Posted on August 29, 2018 by Feline Opines

siamese cat on a leash walking through a garden

Well hello there furiends,
Boy did Wednesday come quick this week. Our terrible smokey air is getting better and we even had rain this week! The temperatures are much cooler and fall is coming. Here’s hoping all the fires that surround us will be contained completely. We worry about the humans and the poor forest creatures that are burned out of their homes.

I hope you enjoy this week’s items.
Purrs & Head Bonks,
Siamese cat with blue eyes

These Cats (and a dog and a chicken) make way more money than you – Fashion Spot

Choupette Lagerfeld

The Female Human is constantly whining about The Tribe of Five “earning our keep”. We remind her that we are internet sensations and she responds with “Show me the money.” Now in our defense, Karl Lagerfeld’s is already famous and his cat, Choupette, earns the equivalent of 692 black Chanel 2.55 handbags annually — or a total of $3,808,000. With 114,000 followers on Instagram, Choupette rose to fame in 2012 when she started her modeling career in V magazine. Two years later, her book Choupette: The Private Life of a High Flying Fashion Cat was published. Not too shabby for a young cat. (I think it’s important to insert here that The Tribe of Five wrote a book too). So, my response to The Female Human is, “What have you done to become famous?”

Now the phenom, Grumpy Cat, became famous all on his own and his human remains in the background. Grumpy earns $12,693,333 a year. (That’s a lot of catnip!). And do you remember Keyboard Cat? He has now crossed the rainbow bridge but he’s still bringing in $95,200,000 a year! If you want to know what other famous pets earn, go to Pets of the Net, an online calculator created by pet food brand Webbox, and find out how much six of the most beloved and popular pets are earning. Meowza, The Tribe of Five really needs to step up our game!

Nathan the Beach Cat – Popsugar

black cat loves swimming in the ocean

What’s cooler than a sleek house panther? A house panther that likes to swim in the ocean! Nathan — or Nathan the Beach Cat was found in a box on the freeway in Australia and adopted by humans Rian and Mel and now she’s living the vida loca!

Nathan has to 318,000 Instagram followers and is capturing the attention of the internet because of her swimming skills. Nathan’s favorite pastimes are swimming our lounging on the beach with her humans.

cat on boogie board in the ocean The Tribe of Five have a water loving feline friend called Purrseidon who is an ocean loving, boogie boarding feline. You can read Purrseidon’s story here.

You can also read about Purrseidon’s first boogie board lesson in case your feline in residence is interested in this sport.
Sadly, due to the fires that have surrounded us all summer and the very unhealthy air quality, my kayaking training has been postponed. I’m crossing my paws that we have a long, warm fall so that The Female Human and I can give it a try.

Purr-fectly adorable: 5 cute things we saw at Pop Cats in Austin – Austin360.com

cat art

You know I’m a sucker for feline themed events. This one called Pop Cats, a vendor market, adoption fair and overall celebration of all things cats in Austin, Texas sounds like it was a purrfect event. There was cat art, the cat rapper Moshow, a caticorn, a cat cosplay and of course, cats, cats and more cats. I’m glad the humans had fun but the most important part of this event was the cats, those who were looking for furever homes and those who traveled to the event with their humans (this was a BYOC (bring your own cat) event).

Why Do Cats Eat Grass? – Mother Nature Network

The Tribe of Five loves our grass. Normally we eat wheat grass but we have been known to munch on the grass outside as well. There are lots of reasons we eat grass. Grass acts as a natural laxative, when we have tummy aches, eating grass often helps us get rid of whatever is bothering us (can you say “hair ball”?). Sometimes if we felines eat grass obsessively it can mean we are stressed.

If you humans want to provide grass to your felines in residence, pleases make sure it is good for us!

Adorable Rescue Kittens Get a Sweet Newborn Photo Shoot to Help Them Get Adopted – My Modern Met

Ginger kitten in baby picture

I am always a fan of creative ideas that shelters use to promote feline adoptions. Photographers have a very important role to play and the more creative the photos. the better chance the feline has of finding a furever home. We have a great photo lady at our shelter (Panhandle Animal Shelter) and she’s always coming up with new ideas.

A human named Brandy Suppi rescued a Momma cat who had just had kittens. She asked her friend, photographer Heather Scott of LaMon photography to do a newborn kitten shoot. Well, all you have to do is look at these pictures to know these humans came up with a fantastic idea! The photos and adoption information was posted on Facebook
and it looks like these little guys will all be enjoying a furever home soon. Does your local shelter have a “picture lady” or “picture guy”? Maybe they might want to try kitten baby photos!

Oliver Opines on Purresidents and Other Stuff on Friendly Fill Ins Week 94

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Feline Opines

Hello Folks,
Oliver here. I’m filling in the “fill ins” this week because I have some pretty strong opinions on some of this stuff.

You can join the fun by going to our friends at McGuffy’s Reader or with our friends, and Friendly Fill Ins Co-Hosts, 15andmeowing. And, as always, feel free to leave your fill in thoughts as a comment in this post.

Purrs & Head Bonks,
black and white cat Oliver

This Week’s Fill In Questions:

1. My favorite president is ________________ because ___________________.

2. This weekend, I have plans to ______________________.
3. I my .

4. I believe .

My Fill In Responses:

1. My favorite president is the one who was not elected and that would be me because I think it’s time for this country to take a look at things from a feline point of view!

OllieOliveBtn This feline ran for Purresident with my pawsome running mate, Olive from Three Chatty Cats. We had an excellent platform and I think this country would benefit from some feline wisdom! You can read about our platform and other information (as well as my concession speech) here.

2.This weekend I have plans to do absolutely nothing. I am a cat, the only plans I make are for meal times and purrhaps, if I’m feeling frisky, some play time. My “do nothing” plan will be purrfect if I can convince The Male Human to “do nothing” with me.

3.I quite enjoy my job as shower snoopervisor (with my brother Alberto). Although I must say, Alberto is a bit wacky. He loves water, even gets in the shower with The Male Human. I guess that’s why The Female Human is training him to go kayaking with her!

4.I believe that the fat “town squirrel” who tries to muscle our little pine squirrel away from the bird feeder should be a little less demanding and a little more thankful. If the feeder is empty, he stands on the railing of the upstairs deck and gives The Female Human attitude. The raccoons are far more polite and grateful.

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