Happy Wednesday Furiends!
It’s a beautiful day in our neighborhood and we hope your neighborhood is beautiful too. After the several months of meowing about making the change from the place The Human called “the business” to moving all work to our home office we are finally settling into a routine. I thought it might interest you to take a tour to see where all the magic happens and all the work gets done. As you will note from the photos, we felines are an integral part of all the creative work that comes out of this space and here’s the photographic evidence of the stresses and heavy demands of our daily routines.

This is “creative central” and where you will find Oliver, Lily and myself hard at work.

Lily is hard at work “dreaming” up some new blog post ideas

Oliver is hard at work here and signaling that he does NOT want to be interrupted when he is thinking.

There are a number of feline work zones. This is my favorite work station

We do allow our Purrsonal Assistant some work space as well.

Sometimes a cat needs to stretch out and play with an ostrich feather affixed to the chair, just to clear his mind and let the ideas flow.

I hope you enjoyed this tour of our workplace and thank you all for being patient with us as we worked on getting our space (and ourselves) organized!

10 Surprising Benefits of having cats in your life

This feline takes exception to the heading that anyone would be surprised that living with cats would provide benefits. Still, we must acknowledge that the writer of the article is doing their best to break stereotypes. The article states (and I have reported in previous #WebWednesday postings) that science has proven that cats can lower stress levels, reduce anxiety and even help reduce the symptoms of depression. The Human can attest to this personally when she went through some very bad times a couple of years ago and she often says, “If it wasn’t for my cats I wouldn’t have gotten out of bed in the morning.”

And we felines can also positively affect your physical health as well. Research has reported that cat owners have a lower risk of heart disease and stroke as well as lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Now I am no medical feline but I do understand that humans (and cats) are prone to some things through heredity but the fact that we can positively affect our human’s health is a very good thing.

Scientists also say that living with a feline can boost human’s immune system. When your immune system is boosted it reduces risk of allergies and other immune-related issues. It’s been found that children, when introduced to cats at a young age, have their immune systems boosted.

When you humans have a cat to care for you have a sense of responsibility and purpose and this is especially important for older humans. And having a cat in your home can relieve loneliness and feelings of isolation.

The article claims that cats improve their human’s sleep quality but when we discussed this with The Human, her response was a resounding, “Oh heck no!” This may come from the fact that she has two 21 pound and one 8 pound pile of furry, purry, neediness in bed with her, on top of her, beside her and stretched out on her legs causing temporary paralysis.  

The conclusion is this-having the love of a feline in your home has so many wonderful benefits so, if you don’t have a cat, go adopt one before June Adopt A Cat month is over. If you have a feline, consider bringing another cat into your home so you can enjoy the love and benefits of living with a fantastic feline.

Someone on TikTok Is Teaching People How to Speak Cat

This feline has now officially heard everything. Evidentily a TikTok user @alecanewman is teaching other humans how to communicate with their cats. Evidently many humans are interested in this as the videos have accumulated millions of views.

Included in his repertoire is a class that teaches humans how to say “come here” (Ma-AH)  He explains this particular command training this way, “This one’s difficult because normally, when you call a dog, they come. When you call a cat, you leave a message.” MOL that’s funny!

Some people say it works and they post videos as proof. The Human hasn’t had a chance to try this on us so I will have to report the results later.

Thief caught stealing beloved store cat named MiMi at shop near Koreatown

OH NO HE DIDN’T!!!  This is horrible! The store had a video camera that caught the purrpetrator taking off with MiMi. The incident happened just before 1 p.m. Saturday, June 24th at Harbin Deer Trading Co., an herbal medicine store on Western Avenue near 2nd Street in Los Angeles.

The owners, Andrew Xu and Kelly Kim, spoke with Eyewitness News and said their cat MiMi has lived in the store for about 10 years. MiMi is well known and loved by the store’s customers.

The owners said the thief was pretending to shop before snatching MiMi from a table.

They said they didn’t notice until a couple hours later when they filled MiMi’s bowl and he didn’t show up. They were busy helping customers at the time of the crime.

The suspect was seen carrying a backpack, wearing a striped purple shirt and a lavender tie with blue pants.

The store’s owners are asking anyone who may have seen MiMi to contact authorities. We are sending purrayers that MiMi will be found soon and returned to his humans.

What is the “cat distribution system” and why is it trending on TikTok?

Needless to say the phrase “cat distribution system” caught my attention. Evidently TikTok is flooded with videos showing the “cat distribution system” in action, but what exactly does this mean?

TikTok has coined a term called “the Universal Cat Distribution System.” It refers to the uncanny ability we felines have for finding ourselves furever homes. We show up during people’s walks, we’ll wander into a house or position ourselves by a highway or road. This is the “Universal Cat Distribution System” which describes the phenomenon of people ending up with cats purely through circumstances.

One user commented a simple explanation to TikTok saying, “Cats pick people… people don’t pick cats.”

One note of caution for my readers, if you are chosen by through the cat distribution system, please make sure the cat is not lost, see if they have a microchip and take the feline to the vet to be sure they are healthy before you bring them in your home, especially if you have other cats in the house.

Have you experienced the Universal Cat Distribution System? Meow about it in the comments and tell us your story.

Working Cat Spotlight –Wayne and Saul from the RE Store in Bellingham, Washington

When you shop in  The RE Store or Bellingham Wind Works you may hear the soft tinkle of a cat bell, or two cat bells. The bells belong to Wayne and Saul, brothers who found furever homes in the neighboring stores in Bellingham’s Fountain District.

In 2017 a customer gifted  The RE Store with two kittens.  Customers were invited to participate in naming the kittens. A change jar was placed on the counter and people left their name suggestions in the jar. The winning names were Wayne and Saul.  

In 2020 when The Restore was forced to close for three months, the Wind Works offered to house the cats. Now the cats sleep in their own beds at Wind Works and spend time wandering between the two stores, even visiting other stores in the neighborhood.

Wayne and Saul are popular with customers and employees alike, sometimes stopping into the stores just to see the cats. Aaron Smith, a 12-year employee of The Re Store said, “They’re some good boys.”

Good job Wayne and Saul!