Happy Wednesday Furiends!

Wooohoo, summer is here. We had a chat with The Human and were discussing how The Tribe would celebrate summer if we had opposable thumbs and our own money. Since we recently celebrated National Sunglasses Day (yes it’s a real holiday) we thought we’d take the concept a little further with our “how I’d like to spend the summer” photos.

We hope you’re enjoying your summer. Meow at us and let us know how you like spending your day!

The Power of “Purr-suasion” – Firefighters save cat stuck on roof

I’ve written many news items about my fellow felines being stuck in trees and being reswcued by firefighters. In Madison, Wisconsin firefighters took this to a new level as they rescued a poor cat laying in a rain gutter  

The cat was in great distress and “using her powers of purrsuasion” the firefighter was able to calm the cat, pick it down the ladder to the cat’s worried humans.

The article never said how the feline managed to be in a rain gutter on the roof but I think it’s safe to say that the cat will stay away from roofs from now on!

‘Unable’ to catch rats, Karnataka police ‘deploy’ cats

The Gauribidanur rural police station in Karnataka, India has ‘deployed’ two cats to rein in the rats at the station.

Sources at the police station said rats had started to nibble away important files and things got so bad, and the humans were unable to stop the rodent destruction so they hired some felines to do the job.

Speaking to indianexpress.com, Vijay Kumar, Gauribidanur the police station sub-inspector, said: “We have a lake nearby and it seems the rats found our station to be a better place to reside. When a cat was deployed, the rat menace reduced and we have brought in another cat recently. Till now, they have killed three rats.”

The police care for the cats giving them milk and food and they have become part of the police family at the station.  My favorite take on the story was an Indian newspaper that referred to the cats as “claw enforcement” MOL!

Cats with judgmental looks are taking over Reddit

The internet is exploding with photos of “judgmental cats” on Reddit. The article refers to humans getting “hissterical” about the judgy feline photos. Some of the comments in the thread were pretty funny: like this one; “[I] started singing out loud and glanced over to see my cat, Snuggles, staring at me with lots of judgement [sic]. Cats,” Redditor lscraig posted.

And Reddit isn’t the onl;y place where you’ll find my fellow felines scowling. The hashtag #judgmentalcat has more than 388,100 posts on TikTok.

The truth is that cat’s aren’t really judgmental and there are a number of reasons why our expressions might look that way to you humans. I asked The Human, who is a cat behaviorist and  she said it oculd be one of many things. It might be that the cat feels cornered, maybe another cat is near ( a cat we’re not fond of), we might be in pain, scared or just unhappy about something that just happened. Whatever the reason for the funny expression, it’s just how we look.

And there are some cats (as there are humans) who have what many refer to as RBF (that means due to no fault of our own, we are just born with a cranky face).

The Seattle man who’s watched over 100,000 cat videos and isn’t planning on stopping

Will Braden from Seattle, WA has watched, by his count, 100,000 cat videos in the past 10 years. Meowza, that’s a lot of videos!

He’s the cinematographer who used to shoot everything from commercials to weddings and now has a full-time job as the guy who puts together CatVideoFest, “the world’s #1 cat video festival.” It took place in Seattle June 24-26 at the Cinema Egyptian and at various times in 100 other cities, mostly in the U.S.

He never gets tired of the videos and says that “Everyone deserves a fun cat video to distract them from all the tough stuff in life,”.

Take a video such as “Bert the Cat vs Cat Balloon,” which has had about 8 million YouTube views since August 2011. Braden has seen that video dozens of times. The video features an orange cat named Bert facing off against an orange cat balloon. A few whacky paws at the balloon and Bert is in for a nasty surprise as it pops. Just good old slapstick comedy.

Braden receives about 400 submissions every year for the CatVideoFest and he also searches the web for excellent feline films.

When asked if there are any videos he won’t use he mentions the4 funny one of cats hacking up hair balls edited to techno music. He said it was funny but “too much”.

Braden is the Seattle guy who had transitory fame in 2012 with his Henri the Existential Cat videos (these are some of our favorite videos) That year the first Henri video won the first Internet Cat Video Festival, held as a bit of lark by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. And that was no easy win, the first contest drew 10,136 entries.

The story of Henri (who was really Henry) is that he was the Braden family cat. He was a Seattle shelter kitty and because of his elegant “tuxedo” black-and-white coloring, he became Henri le Chat Noir, translated to black cat.

Faking a French accent, Braden talked for Henri and his fictional angst. Henri amassed a huge fan base quickly and soon had his own You Tube channel. The Human has been an Henri fan for years.

Henry died in December 2020 at age 17. As Henri, he had starred in 11 videos that totaled 20 million YouTube views; had 168,000 Facebook followers; and with Braden had his angst-filled musings in two books.

Braden’s new cat, Nin has not starred in her own videos. “She does not have the imperious stare that Henry had,” says Braden. She does, however, keep him company at his home office as he works on the cat festival.

When asked why he thinks cat videos have taken over the internet , as opposed to dog videos, he said, “We don’t really like to see dogs screw up,”. “Dogs are loyal and man’s best friend. We like to see dogs show off their skills.” But cats, well. “We think of cats as being aloof. We like to see them taken down a peg, without being hurt,”

The CatVideoFest is part of the Seattle International Film Festival and a portion of the ticket sales support PAWS.

The 10 best names for boy and girl cats in 2022

The Human often sees social media posts of cute kittens with the request, “I need names for my new kitten.” In our house, the kitten is observed and played with before a name is given. Sometimes a family member puts their two cents in like in my case, I was named after a Spanish Tour de France competitor, I looked exotic and I was sleek and fast as a kitten (still fast but not so sleek anymore) so my full name is Alberto Contador. There is a story behind each of our names. Oliver was the runt of the litter and when we came to The Human for her to foster and bottle feed us, he never could get enough to eat. He reminded The Human of Oliver Twist asking for more porridge. Lily was named after the little girl next door (Lily) who loved her (and all cats) but couldn’t have a cat because her dad was allergic to felines.

Still, not everyone goes to these lengths to name their felines so if you’re stuck for a name, try one of the ones below. And, if you have a cool story about how you got your name, meow about it in the comments and let us know where your name came from. The names below came from The Scotsman. We don’t know if the top ten names are different in the U.S.

Male Kittens

1. Loki
Loki is a unisex name that originates from Norway – loosely translating as ‘The God of Mischief’. hmmmm

2. Leo
Leo is a Hebrew name which translates as brave and/or lion. Or maybe people just really like the actor!

3. Charlie
A gender neutral name, though it does translate from German as “free man.” It is derived from the Germanic word karal, which translates to “free man” or kerle, meaning “warrior.”

4. Milo
The name Milo have increased in popularity with cat owners. Milo is likely derived from multiple sources. In Slavic languages, the root mil- means “dear” or “beloved.”

5. Simba
It is no surprise to see the name Simba at the top of this list, especially if you’re a Disney fan.

6. Ziggy
The name Ziggy is a great name for a cat – especially if you’re a household of David Bowie fans.

7. Jasper
Another popular male cat name is Jasper, which is a masculine given name commonly believed to be of Persian origin, translates as “treasurer”.

8. Max
Short and sweet, Max is derived from the name Maximilian, which means “greatest.”

9. Merlin
Thought to originate in Wales, Merlin is another popular boy cat name often related to the famous wizard.

10. Oscar
An Irish name which is derived from two elements in Irish: the first, “os”, means “deer”; the second element, “car”, means “loving” or “friend”, thus “deer-loving one” or “friend of deer”.

Female Kittens

1. Luna
The most popular name for a girl cat in 2022 is Luna, which translates as ‘moon’ in Italian.

2. Loki
Loki is a unisex name that origin came from Norway – loosely translating as ‘The God of Mischief’. Uh oh.

3. Nala
The name Nala has Arabic and African origin. However, the African translation is perhaps best used for kitty’s, meaning queen, lion or successful woman.

4. Coco
Coco is a popular name that has developed in America.

5. Bella
Bella is a name that has been used for decades across the globe, thanks to its meaning of ‘beautiful’ in numerous different languages. And all cats are beautiful!

6. Lily
Named after the popular snowy, white flower, Lily is often thought to mean purity and innocence due to its loose connections to the Bible character of Mary.

7. Lola
Another name with Bible links is Lola. It is a short form of the Spanish name Dolores, meaning “sorrows”, taken from one of the titles of the Virgin Mary: Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, or Our Lady of Sorrows.

8. Willow
Following the popularity of the Buffy The Vampie Slayer character, the name Willow has grown immeasurably over the last few decades.

9. Daisy
Another name taken from a popular flower is, of course, Daisy. However, did you know the name comes from the Old English word dægeseage, meaning “day’s eye”.

10. Molly
The name Molly has Irish origin, meaning ‘star of the sea’. But did you know the name has been in use since the late Middle Ages?