Happy Wednesday Furiends,
Meowza, April is almost gone. We are starting to see signs of spring in our neck of the wods and that makes us happy. Just about every morning there are sun puddles to soak in (until the rain comes). We don’t mind the rain though. After all the summers of fires we are happy to see the moisture.

This week The Tribe had a meeting and we decided we were feeling educational and thought we’d include some tips for our readers. By “we” I mean Oliver and Lily, I wasn’t feeling very educational this week and anyway, I have to do my weekly reporting. So here are our tips for the week.

How to share the sofa, even when you aren’t very good furiends.

Oliver and Lily seem to be at odds more often than not but, when you both want to be on the sofa to watch TV with The Human, just choose a comfy spot and completely ignore the other cat.

How to find a comfy position on your cat sofa, even if you are a bit CHONKY

Making Biscuits with Oliver

We hope you enjoyed these tips and now to the news.

Catastrophe: Feline Breaks Loose On United Airlines Boeing 737 Flight

Meowza did this story get my whiskers in a twist! The Human was pretty annoyed as well. When we researched this story there were other headlines such as, “A feral cat escapes on a United Airlines flight and causes havoc” and “Diabolical cat terrorizes United Airlines flight”. Really??!! Let’s look at the facts.

This article claims “a tabby cat caused chaos on a recent united airlines flight after going for a run inflight and reportedly scratching and biting other passengers. “
It continues by saying, “According to the airline blog live and let’s fly, a cat recently decided to stretch its legs on a united airlines flight, escaped its owner, and got a bit scratchy and bitey as other passengers attempted to recapture it.”

Let’s review this, the CAT decided to take a stroll??!! How did the cat make this decision and how did the hapless feline let himself out of the carrier?
The article continues to show it’s ignorance of the difference between a therapy animal and an emotional support animal. Finally, way down in the article is this quote from United’s website, ““We know that pets are important members of your family,” says United’s website. But United also has rules around the carriage of pets in the cabin, including a requirement to leave the animal secured in its travel carrier/kennel.”

Bingo! Don’t blame the cat, blame the human who took him out of his cage. And why didn’t he have a harness and leash on? Again, sounds to me like human error.

There is so much misunderstanding about therapy and emotional support animals and their importance. The Human wrote an article about this called, “My Emotional Support Is My Cat” and she address misinformation about therapy vs emotional support animals.

That poor feline probably freaked out and his human did not do her due diligence to make sure there would be no incidents like this..  Okay, rant over!

She married her cat to get around her landlord’s pet restrictions

Deborah Hodge recently married her cat, India, in a loophole scheme to avoid rental restrictions, which have barred Hodge from bringing animals into the unit.

This London lady was frustrated and just wanted to show her commitment in the hopes that will prove to property owners that India is more than just an animal.

“She is fundamentally the most important thing in my life after my children,” she told South West News Service.

“By marrying India, I need any future landlords to know that we come as a package and we cannot be separated under any circumstances as she is as important to me as the children,” the cat-wife explained.

The pair both wore tuxedo-style outfits — because India, a tuxedo cat, already had one. The wedding took place in a London park.  The 5-year-old cat was draped in gold lamé and meowed through the vows as Hodge’s friends watched on, including one who legally ordained the civil union.

“I had nothing to lose and everything to gain so I married my cat!” Hodge said. “I recited vows under the universe that no man will ever tear myself and India apart.”

She had been given approval for India to live with her in 2017 but now she’s faced with eviction as she suddenly lost her job on March 17^th and is struggling to pay the rent.

 “I’m on my last pennies,” she said. “I’m terrified of losing India. I can barely leave my house with anxiety over what the future holds and I’m just desperate not to lose my cat.”

Hodge has said that many of her two-legged loved ones think she’s “bonkers,” but felt it was the only way to show she’s “very serious” about keeping India. Her children were not overly enthusiastic about the marriage ceremony.

As silly as all this sounds, the bottom line is this lady is emotionally bonded to her cat and, when India lost a leg a few years ago, Hodge was there for her and their connection strengthened. The human animal bond is strong and real and this feline is purraying that Hodge finds a new job and a place that will welcome human and feline.  

Carmel company launches cat food with mouse meat in it

When The Human read this story she said, “Ewwwww” but Oliver, Lily and I licked our chops and wondered when we’d get to try some. Tom Radcliffe a former pet store owner took his  customer’s complaints about their finicky cats and decided to try something different.

With  some expert help – including friends’ cats and animal nutritionists with Ph.D.s – Radcliffe is making cat food out of mice. A month after its commercial launch, Mouser is for sale in pet and feed shops in California, Arizona and Nevada, and Radcliffe expects to expand to Oregon, Washington and Idaho as early as next month. Well, Idaho is our neck of the woods so we’ve told The Human to keep us posted.

The four versions of Mouser are Field Hunter, with chicken leading the ingredients; Forest Hunter, with turkey leading; Pond Hunter, with duck leading; and Brush Hunter, with rabbit leading. While Radcliffe believes the mouse meat has very broad appeal among cats, consumers may have to serve different flavors of Mouser to their pets to identify those they like best, he said.

The amount of mouse in each can is a trade secret, Radcliffe said. But he added that mice are “ridiculously expensive,” with the meat costing about 10 times more than chicken, turkey, duck or rabbit. Because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration classifies mouse along with other meats as a product that does not require pre-approval to enter the market, Radcliffe’s regulatory journey involved meeting state standards overseen by the Association of American Feed Control Officials representing local, state and federal agencies.

Retail prices for the 5.5-ounce cans of Mouser vary. Pets and More charges $2.39. At Aptos Feed & Supply, it’s $1.99, which is triple the cost of Friskies at a big box store but still puts the brand in the normal range for premium-priced canned cat foods, Delezene said.

“In the industry, we’ve talked about it for years: Why don’t they have gopher, rat, mouse, lizard tails — all the things that cats eat?” Delezene said.

Radcliffe does not appear to face current competition in the mouse-meat cat food business, but that may change soon with the potential market debut of Frankenmouse options. A company co-founded by a Stanford University microbiologist – called Because Animals – plans to release lab-grown meat foods for pets this year. The startup’s Harmless Hunt Mouse Cookies for Cats, made with “cultured mouse,” are already available for preorder.

So my finicky furiends, keep  your eyes out for Mouser in your neck of the woods and let us know what  you think.

9-Year-old’s Lemonade Stand Raises $2,000 For Shelter Cats After He Saw They Had No Toys

Never underestimate the efforts of little humans!

We salute 9-year-old Ben Miller from Boise, Idaho who raised $1,150.00 in one weekend with his lemonade stand fundraiser for the Idaho Humane Society. His compassion for the shelter began when he went to the shelter with his grandmother and noticed that the cats didn’t have any toys.

His mother helped him advertise his stand on Facebook and people from all over the valley came to support him. Ben’s  highlight of the day was when his teacher came by.

We give this little human our two paws up award!

One-eyed cat missing for five years found on Scottish oil rig

My readers know that this feline has a soft spot for stories of reunited felines and humans. This one-eyed cat was reunited with its owner on Friday, five years after it went missing,

This one-eyed feline was helcoptered to Aberdeen, Scotland after being discovered hidden in a storage container on a North Sea oil platform.

The black cat – nicknamed “one-eyed Joe” and also known as “Cyclops” – appeared to have been shipped from Peterhead to the platform as a stowaway in a container.

Workers filled out a safety card after discovering the animal, noting that staff had “ran away frightened” after he popped out of the container. Despite the initial surprise, staff on the platform said he was “spoiled rotten” during his time there.

Following the discovery on Thursday, the crew called in the Scottish SPCA. The charity arranged for him to be helicoptered back to Aberdeen the following day.

Joe was then found to have been a regular visitor to a local prison where it appeared he lived most of his five years away as a stray. The prison staff cared for him and he was, in their words, “much loved”.  His microchip revealed his name as Dexter a beloved pet feline who had been missing for five years.

Aimee Findlay, a Scottish SPCA animal rescue officer, said: “We are so glad that he was well looked after for the time he was missing,” said Scottish animal control officer Aimee Findlay. “But we’re even more delighted to be able to reunite him with his original owner, thanks to his microchip being up to date.”

Sigh, oh how I love a happy ending!