Happy Wednesday Furiends!
I don’t know how things are in your neck of he woods but things are heating up in ours – literally,. It rarely gets really hot here so when it does heat up for that one to two week time period we really suffer.

Lily chose to ignore the uncomfortable temperatures and put on her fairy (or as she says faerie) garb to celebrate yesterday’s holiday.

Oliver, on the other hand is still yammering about the D-I-E-T so we decided he should celebrate today’s holiday, “Let It Go Day”.

As for me, I wouldn’t mind a few new Cat TV channels. I am beginning to feel a great ennui as I am forced to watch the same old birds on my iPad. Oh the trials and travails of a first world cat . Life is rough. .

Well that’s it from our neck of he woods this week. We hope you and your humans are staying cool and comfortable!

Cat turns liquid to squeeze under door

Holly the feline has become an overnight TikTok sensation as she appears to turn into liquid to get under a door that looks far too narrow for her to squeeze through.

The video has so far been viewed more than 29.7 million times and surpassed 5.7 million likes. Meowza!

I don’t understand why you humans are making such a big deal about this. We felines are expert at getting into, over and under things that look impossible to you!

Take a look at Holly’s video and let me know what  you think. And by the way, you humans have been wondering about the feline ability to fit through small spaces for years.  Cats Maru and Hana were subjects in an experiment that their human conducted on this subject.

Is my cat happy or hurting? This app will help

We felines recognize that our health and happiness is of the utmost importance to you humans and this is why you will be thrilled with this new piece of news. There is a new app in development called  Tably that was released by Silverster.AI a joint venture between two Canadian companies. .Now you may be asking, “Alberto, how did this come about?” Well the developers discovered the Feline Grimace Scale (FGS) that was developed to assess acute pain in cats based on facial expressions. This made the Tably folks wonder, could we figure out a cat’s mood with the right app?

Now any of you humans that share a home with felines know that we give you lots of clues when we don’t feel good but the cues are subtle.  “

“Depending on the cats’ muzzle, eyes, ears, whiskers, or head position, you can determine whether or not a cat is in pain,” says Paulo Steagall, lead author of the FGS publication and associate professor of veterinary anaesthesia and pain management at the University of Montreal. The FGS was created by Steagall and his team to be used by veterinarians, other veterinary technicians, and cat owners.

Alta ML coupled the FGS  with machine learning to make it more accessible to the general public. The app picks up relevant points on our faces, maps them out based on the FGS, and shoots out a reading – happy or not – along with a percentage. The percentage isn’t correlated to the level of happiness, but rather the level of confidence the machine has.

The developers say that Tably, with a high quality and full face front image of the cat, will be 97% accurate.

The app company reports that most humans are using the app to check on their kitties after they’ve had surgery or to figure out if a cat exhibiting hiding or other behaviors is experiencing pain. The company says the app will help humans know when it’s time to take us to the stabby place but I don’t know, our Human always seems to know when we need to go there.

The company will soon be releasing an ios and android version for the app and their plans are to make it part of a veterinarian’s post-appointment follow-up process.    

Elderly cat spends birthday in animal shelter, celebrates by getting adopted

Oh my whiskers! If you can read this story without getting leaky eyes then this feline would have to question your humanity!  A cat arrived at a shelter in Cincinnati after his owner had to  go to assisted living and couldn’t take Sammy along.

When the staff at Kitty City learned it was Sammy’s 19^th birthday, they threw him a birthday celebration — complete with party hats and bright decorations. Well, if Sammy’s birthday wish was for a new furever home, his wish was granted. This sweet guy will live his golden years with a new family full of love for him.

And by the way, there are a few other senior cats at the shelter if any of you Ohio folks are looking to make them happy too.

When it comes to heated divorce, pets aren’t people too

This may make you howl but according to human law, pets are considered property in a divorce. Still, there are ways of working out custody with special mediation and “petnups” that will keep your humans from getting into a cat fight in court.

Some of the more enlightened states in this area are Alaska, California and Illinois. There is a bill in New York state to give judges more leeway to consider the best interests of the pets as these other states have done.

The subject of fur kids comes up a lot when you humans divorce. Adam Citron, a New York lawyer who has handled dozens of divorces, said pets are “constantly an issue.” He’s among lawyer who’ve sometimes see the worst in people in divorce court and advocates for prenups covering pets. A “petnup” is especially helpful for animals acquired during the marriage.

One tip for states that haven’t taken the new approach to consider the best interests of the fur kids would be agreeing at the time a pet is acquired during a marriage whose name will appear alone on registration or adoption papers. That person should pay any costs out of a separate bank account. Such measures are especially helpful if one party is trying to weaponize a pet in exchange for other coveted property. (Boy you humans can really get vindictive!)

It’s best, if you humans insist on divorce to put fur kid custody at the top of divorce negotiations. The Animal Legal Defense Fund, says more laws empowering judges to consider the emotional needs of pets are needed.

A spolespurrson for the Animal :Legal Defense Fund said, “What we would like to see is to have animals considered in the most holistic way possible,” she said. “Who is the animal bonded to? Who can provide for the animal’s overall health and well-being going forward?” Now that lady has the right idea.

Here’s hoping all your humans will stay together and that you will never need the services of some legal beagle (or feline purrsonal attorney) to sort out the best interests of your cats when a split happens.

Family ‘absolutely shocked’ when cat they thought they cremated returns home

When Frankie the cat went missing on May 19, his family in Warrington, England was devastated.  Frankie was a beloved rescue who had been adopted by his family 14 years ago. His human, Rachel Fitzsimons, said he was  a “real hunter” who went out and brought “gifts” back to the family — but was never gone for long as he always came home to sleep with their 7-year-old son every night.

But on Wednesday evening of May 19^th Frankie left at about 7pm and didn’t come home.  The family wasn’t too worried the first night because the weather had turned bad and they figured Frankie had taken shelter somewhere. The next day the family did become worried when Frankie didn’t return and they went all over the neighbourhood looking for Frankie. Their 7-year old son Remy cried every night.that Frankie did not return.

Then on Saturday, Fitzsimons said she spotted the body of a cat on the side of the motorway near their home — fearing the worst she got as close as she could to look at the cat..  Still they continued to search but they returned to the cat on the roadside. The cat had been badly injured so identification was difficult  but the fur and tail were strikingly similar to Frankie’s.  The family was convinced it was him.

The family was in mourning for Frankie. They collected Frankie’s remains from Highways England who had picked him up and they took Frankie’s body to their vet to have it cremated.  They lovingly placed his ashes in a box with his name on it and their son kept it in his bedroom.  They also kept Frankie’s bed and his toys.

Then just over three weeks from the day he went missing, the family heard a cat outside. Mr. Fiitzsimmons ran into the garden and then started shouting, “‘Come out! Come out quick! Come out!’ Mom and son ran outside and there was dad…holding Frankie!

Sure enough, Frankie had returned home — albeit a frailer, thin version of himself. The family, who was “absolutely shocked,” gave him food and had him checked at the vet who noted Frankie had an abscess in his mouth and might have suffered some head trauma but Frankie is recovering and eating more.

The family is so thankful to have him back and to have had him all those years before and now are even more thankful to have Frankie in their lives again, living his best life.