Hello Furiends, It’s been a busy week here in our neck of the woods. Most of the time was devoted to The Human putting the finishing touches on her purresentation at the Cat Writers Association conference. She enjoyed some great seminars at the virtual conference. We liked it because she was at home with us on Friday and Saturday. We were very instrumental in helping her during the course of the conference as displayed in these photos. We have a nice view from the office window and since she was sitting at the big table, we were able to take over her pink office chair occasionally.
When we got bored we checked for squirrels
When The Human abandons the pink chair, it’s ours!
Alberto concentrating on the conference,
Alberto concentrates in a bed in the cat tree in the office
Oliver takes a break from learning to check out the woods.
Lily goes for a change of scene and hangs out in the living room.
Oliver returns to his focus on the programs.
After the conference, we went in the kitchen to see what the human was making from her Hello Fresh delivery. We were incensed to find out she was making a meatless dish and hastily made our way back to our sleeping stations on the cat tree in the office. It was a nice weekend and I’m sure The Human appreciated all the assistance we provided.
Where’s the meat and what’s up with the kale?
Today is “Evaluate Your Life” day and Lily, Oliver and I spent some time to honor the day. We suggest you do the same.
I hope you enjoy this week’s feline news.
A homeless cat is rescued and then finds an amazing furever home
We love The Dodo and find some of the most heartwarming videos there. This one gave The Human leaky eyes (she said only because it had such a happy ending). This kitty was abandoned when his humans moved away, was rescued and then adopted by a family that takes him on boat trips. This little movie is like a fantastic fairy tale. You can keep up with all of Richey, Kiley, Lori and Jason’s adventures on Facebook.
Meowza, there are a lot of video games featuring cats and here’s the latest on the list created by a man from Portland, Maine. The game features nine cats on a fictional island in Casco Bay.
The creator of the game, Eric Blumrick, calls this an adventure game about cats and their encounters in the small island town where they live. The cats wake up one morning and find that all the humans have disappeared. The game poses the question, “Are the humans worth bringing back?”
The cats need to discover what humanity is and what it is to be human and as they do, they discover the story of the island and its history.
“In the end, once they uncover all the stories of Peace Island, it will be up to the cats and the players to decide whether the humans are worth bringing back,”
Please note, this product is for you humans only and it’s pretty clever. The Burdick Chocolates menagerie, well known for its silk-tailed mice, now includes cats. The company created dark chocolate felines with a cherry ganache filling and a curved cashew tail. They’re almost two inches long, come six to a box and are being sold for a limited time online and at the L.A. Burdick shops in New York, Chicago, Washington and New England. The box of six chocolate kitties sells for $27.00
Hysterical compilation of news reporters’ cats making guest appearances
It’s clear from these videos that when TV reporters work from home, their felines like to get in the act too.
Hurricane Ian cats rescued by Indiana women on vacation
Two Indiana women, Samantha Grimes and Holly Irwin were vacationing in Florida news reports about animals in need because of the hurricane. Both women who work in animal rescue and are board members and volunteers at SOAR Initiative Indianapolis knew they wanted to do something.
When they heard that shelter doors had been reopened, they loaded 35 cats into crates and put them in their Kia Sportage. They had to move all of their items into the storage compartment on top of the car to fit the cats in.
I would say these Indiana tourists went above and beyond and that animal rescue folks are never “off the clock”.
Hello Furiends, I hope your week is going well. We had a good day with the book launch which leads me to a shameless bit of self promotion. For today’s launch, Baker Books is offering a limited amount of gifts with purchase so you can buy a Christmas present and get a present for yourself!
Baker Books is offering a limited amount of free Christmas cards with book purchase.
It’s getting cool enough in our neck of the woods for some fireplace time. The important thing about this photo is that LIly is finally joining us. Photo #1 shows how tentative she is. Photo #2 shows she’s finally relaxing.
Lily deciding if it’s okay to relax with her brothers.Lily decides it’s okay,
The other day I was snoopervising The Human in the kitchen and she YELLED at me. Sheesh, what an ingrate!
“Please, stop shrieking”“That’s the thanks I get for trying to help!”
And finally, I bring you the sad tale of Oliver and the invisible falling leaves. Oliver still hasn’t grasped the idea that those leaves have to be very yellow before they blow off the trees.
“Sigh, how long must I sit here and wait for the leaves to fall?”
“What do you mean I’m early?”
“Look at all those leaves, why don’t they blow past the window?”
“Wait? What is this word “wait”?
And lest you think Oliver’s leaf chasing obsession is dumb or no fun, take a look at how much he has enjoyed it in the past.
Well, that’s it for our news in this neck of the woods. Hope you enjoy this week’s news and enjoy fall in your neck of the woods.
Workers from the Millstone Wildlife Center in New Hampshire were alerted to a baby bobcat who’d been abandoned by her mother. When they found the 6-week old kitten she was in good physical health but cried constantly for her mother.
The kitten’s rescuers got in touch with Spicy Cats, a rescue and rehabilator for feral felines. One of their feline residents, Honeybun was an expert in fostering as she had raised several litters of kittens that were not her own.
Raising a wild kitten was a new endeavor for Honeybun but as Caroline, the president of Spicy Cats told the Dodo, “ She’s very, very maternal and patient so we knew she’d be perfect for the bobkitten,”
The kitten’s crying soon stopped as she accepted Honeybun’s mothering and Honeybun was patient with the rambunctious kitten.
Despite providing love and care for the bobkitten, Honeybun won’t be able to teach her the skills she’ll need to survive in the wild so she will only have a “baby nanny” role. When the kitten is ready, she’ll be placed with another bobcat at the Millstone Wildlife Center and a spring release is planned.
The kitten’s future success is due to the wonderful humans at the Millstone Wildlife Center, Spicy Cats and especially to foster mom Honeybun.
This is a delightful tale of the cat loving folks in Norwich England. There are some famous felines that the community embraces as their own like Budge, who resides in the Cathedral grounds. Budge has been caught napping in the nativity scene during the Christmas season. Since he first visited the Cathedral in 2018 at the Good Friday service, he has been in the habit of making his visits a daily thing.
Another famous Norwich kitty is Wendy, the deaf cat who went on a 15-mile adventure after sneaking into the back of a delivery van. She had all her fans worried until she turned up in Tasburgh five days after she went missing.
The good folks of Norwich also are known to rally around humans who have felines with needs like Peppa who was adopted by eight-year old Savannah Baum. Peppa was in desperate need of dental surgery at the cost of UKL 1,140. (The Human shuddered when she read this part having just paid for dental surgery for Lily and Oliver). The wonderful people of Norwich donated to the operation so Peppa could stay healthy and she and Savannah could have many more years together.
Note to all my feline furiends in the UK, if you’re in need of a place to live, might I suggest Norwich?
And speaking about England, our furiend Larry the Cat is in the news again. As I have previously reported, Larry’s title is chief mouser to the Cabinet Office, and now he’s been sighted taking on much larger prey when he takes on a fox.
The fox, looking worse for the wear retreats from Larry’s aggressive moves.
If you’re wondering what Larry the former Battersea Dogs and Cats Home feline who was hired based on recommendation for his mousing skills, does besides chasing vermin and foxes, his other duties include greeting guests to the house, inspecting security defenses and testing antique furniture for napping quality.
If you can’t travel to Norwich, England to visit their felines, you can stay on this side of the ocean and visit the famous bookstore cats of Philadelphia. If Philadelphia doesn’t work for you don’t despair, there are bookstore cats in other cities. For instance, over 55,000 people follow the New York City-based Instagram account @bookstorecats, which is dedicated to showing off felines residing at independent bookstores all over, from Missouri to Texas to Hawaii.
But I’m talking about the Philly bookstore cats so here goes.
Molly’s Bookstore and Records on South 9th Street has a customer service feline in their employ. The cat, Mrs. Stevenson, sits in the window, raising her paw to greet patrons and invite people in to the store. Her humam employer refers to her as a people magnet, drawing people into the store. Mrs. Stevenson was named after a character in a Canadian comedy show.
Millie, the feline worker at The Last Word Bookshop at 220 S. 40th St. spends much of her time in the lap of the shop owner. When she’s not there, you can often find her in her kitty hammock near the local history section, hiding under the children’s book table or chilling at the checkout counter. Millie’s predecessor Lester, crossed The Rainbow Bridge in the spring of 2021 after he’d been a loyal employee for 15 years. Millie’s owner was being moved to an assisted living community so the bookstore hired her and never looked back. Millie settled in to her new home and has many fans who come into the shop just to see her.
Found lounging around the Friends of the Free Library’s bookstore at 311 N. 20th St., Geoffrey Chaucer — or just Chaucer, for short. He took up residence in the store when he was two and now he’s a handsome 10-year old feline. His human employers and coworkers love him. He has a few designated food and napping stations around the store and sometimes, when he’s had enough of people, will hide away on a bed beneath the bookshelves.
There are a few clues at The Book Trader at 7 N 2nd St that will alert you to the fact that you will find a feline employee inside. The tree outside has a sign that reads, CATS ONLY, PLEASE” and as you approach the door you’ll see a little speech bubble affixed to the glass that reads, “CAUTION: Please don’t let frisky cat outside! Thank you.” The “frisky” cat, Dr. Abraham Pickles is rather lazy and spends more time gazing out the windows or sleeping rather than tryig to escape. The 6-year old Dr. Pickles, has lived in the store for half his life. Dr. Pickles is pretty friendly to customers, but he doesn’t hesitate to give someone the whacky paw if they pet him too much. The store sells Dr. Pickles post cards and if you can’t get to Philadelphia to meet him you can follow his adventures on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/thedrpicklesofbooktrader/
Not every cat is cut out to be a bookstore employee and that was made clear to to Spiral Bookcase (4257 Main St. in Manayunk)owner Victoria Mier when she took store cat Calliope home with her during the pandemic.
When the previous feline employee, Amelia, crossed over The Rainbow Bridge several years ago, Calliope arrived one day when the bookstore was doing an adoption event.
Calliope — who’s now a 7- or 8-year-old Torby — was pretty shy and hid behind stacks of books for her few months but adjusted and loved to do figure-eights (accompanied by loud meows) around people’s feet to get their attention.
During the shut down, the bookstore owner took Calliope home with her. The feline loved it there and was more comfortable than she had been in the store. Although Calliope is retired now or, as some suggest, she’s not retired, just working from home.
The Human has furiends that enjoy cosplay but she never knew felines enjoyed it too. I would rather eat tasteless kibble for a week than be forced to wear any kind of a costume but I know there are cats out there who don’t mind the occasional outfit. We choses a few of our favorites but don’t forget to click on the link in the heading to find you favorites. Or go directly to the Cat Cosplay Twitter account to find out what’s new.
Hello Furiends, Fall is here and we love the cozy weather, especially when The Human comes home and turns on the fireplace for us for a little while.
The Human bought us a drinking fountain. Lily and I are cutting it a wide swath but it’s early days yet and frankly, I don’t see the need to drink from that thing when I have The Human trained to turn on the bathroom faucet for me. Oliver is an early adaptor and he was the first to check it out and and he drinks out of it. Lily and I are in “wait and see” mode.
“What is this thing?”}“DRINK out of it? Hmmm”
Speaking of The Human, she had some work to do at home and I love helping her. Here’s a little slide show about my position as her purrsonal assistant.
“Hello Human, I’m here to help”
“As soon as I’m done makin biscuits we can get started working”
“FINE, I’ll just sit next to you on this chair .”
The Human asked Lily if she’d model her new collar (made from kimono fabric) since we talked about it last week. Lily took the meowdeling session quite seriously.
“How’s this pose?”
“Wait, maybe my staring off in the distance pose is better.”
And then there’s the magical day that The Human caught Ollie and I snuggling Lily (we rarely allow any photos of these events).
“Do you really need to take that photo?”
“I decided to let Lily snuggle. Let’s not make a big deal about it!”
And finally, one of the rarest photos of all, all three of us in one shot!
Well, that’s it for the happenings in our neck of the woods. And now the news.
Michigan man’s cats are tallest and have longest tail in the world, Guinness World Records says
Oliver wanted to use this news item to campaign to end his D-I-E-T but after purrusing the story I had to give him the sad news that “biggest” as described in this article is not girth, but length and height.
Two cats who live in Detroit have received theGuinness World Recordsdeclaration as the tallest and longest feline tail
Will Powers who owns the cats has a history of having big felines. Two of his previous cats hold the all-time records for tallest cat and cat with the longest tail before both perished in a fire.
Now, Fenrir Antares Powers which is a Savannah breed, and Altair Cygnus Powers which is a Maine Coon breed, have taken over the record of the largest living cats in terms of height and tail length.
“Call him the Big Chungus or the Chonk, he just grew and grew like Clifford the Big Red Dog,” Powers said in an interview with Guinness World Records, talking about Fenrir.
Fenrir is 18.83 inches tall. He comes from a long line of massive house cats and is the current record holder for tallest living cat. Powers says he is very loving, very outgoing, and he’s often used as a therapy animal at Powers pet rescue.
He also has a voracious appetite and is known for grabbing food off the counter – something only a cat with his size could pull off. He can even open doors when he wants to walk through the home.
The other cat, Altair is also called ‘The Floofus” due to his long and very fluffy tail which measures at 16.07 inches. His personality is a bit different from the other five cats that live with Powers. He loves cuddles and being held.
Maine Coon cats reach their maximum growth at age 5, Altair is not 5 yet so who knows how long his tail will end up being.
We have asked The Human to get out the tape measure and see how tall we are and how long our tails are. We’ll report back next week.
There are many stories of wonderful humans caring for and saving kitties during and after Hurricane Ian. We especially liked this story. A small staff at an animal shelter in Sarasota, Florida, managed to take care of over 100 cats and a four-day-old kitten even in the midst of the horrible storm,.
At Cat Depot in Sarasota, staff members hunkered down inside the shelter overnight as wind banged at their windows amid the hurricane. Some water did make its way inside the building. One of the workers said, “[It was] dripping off … and then collecting it into the litter box at the bottom,”
The people there mopped and cleaned all night. The center has a steel roof which is great for surviving a hurricane but lousy for peace and quiet and the cats were bombarded with much noise. The cats had places to hide and the staff put up sound adsorbing material to counter the noise.
Insulation on the roof partly came off, some items inside like dishes and laundry facilities were lost and the hot water and power in the building went out. Needless to say the staff got little-to-no sleep the night Ian hit.
Cat Depot also opened its building to the public if anyone wanted to drop off their animals as they braced for the storm. They are hoping to reopen on Saturday
The nonprofit relies on community donations and volunteers, and the cleanup process takes all hands on deck. The staff is grateful they missed the worst of Ian — and that all the animals are safe. Paws Up to these wonderful humans!!
As soon as we found this article, The Human said, “sign me up”. The owner of Whiskers and Wine, Nicole Smith said her vision was to build a place for the community to gather, while having food and drinks, surrounded by adoptable cats. With specialty cocktails like Jaz’s Pearfect Meowtini, Nick’s Whiskey Meower and the Peach Pussycat, the space is dedicated to felines down to the decor and the rooftop lounge where cats can catch some sun.
The cats come from Saving One Life, an animal rescue group dedicated to giving shelter and medical care to stray, abandoned and surrendered felines until they find permanent adoptive homes.
Just to make sure that people don’t get tipsy and decide to take a cat home rightaway there’s an adoption application to make sure that the kitties go to furever homes.
All the food and drinks are prepared behind glass, and there is a separate area where guests can watch the cats, but almost everyone enjoys the up-close company of cats.
The Human says this is her purrfect idea of a date, too bad it’s too far to get to San Diego from Northern Idaho!
It only costs $30 to reserve your cat therapy session and you can spend 90 minutes hanging out with the cats while enjoying food and drinks. Meowza, what a fun time! If any of our furiends live in San Diego and visit Whiskers & Wine, meow at us and let us know what you thought.
Big dog obsessed with cats gets his own feline
Archie the Samoyed is so obsessed with cats that he insists on greeting every feline he sees. Even when he’s at doggy daycare surrounded by other dogs, he begs to go outside to watch the cats for hours on end, which they call his “Cat TV.” His humans finally caved and got Archie his very own kitten. .It took B the kitten a little time to get used to Archie, but now they go on walks together and cuddle as well. To keep up with Archie & B, follow along on TikTok https://thedo.do/archieandbTT
“Headless” cats win photo award
The Comedy Pet Photo Awards has announced the winners of the 2022 competition with top honors going to Kenichi Morinaga with his photo of two cats sitting on a fence that makes them appear as if they are headlessly conjoined.
The photo, titled Boom! Boom! depicts a cartoon-like connection of two cats, beat out about 2,000 other entries to take the top prize, some of which were shown in the list of finalists published in July. The photographer is from Japan and says he enjoys visiting the small islands around his country and taking photos of the street cats he finds there.
This photo was also picked as the winner of the Best Cat photo category, took home the £2,000 cash prize, plus a £5,000 donation from Animal Friends Pet Insurance that goes to an animal welfare or conservation charity of his choice.
He says that after much deliberation, he decided to make his donation to The Cat Welfare Group, an organization based on the U.K’s South Coast that helps rescue and re-home stray and abandoned cats.
The Comedy Pet Photo Awards says that judging this year was the closest it has ever seen, with just 10 points separating the top six places and seven different countries were represented in the Category Winners, which are listed below.
Hello Furiends, We had some excitement in our neck of the woods when the mail human brought a package to our house from the Tooth Fairy by way of our good furiends at 15 and Meowing. While we loved the contents of the package The Human (and myself who was thankful they remembered me) loved the note! Thanks so much for these great tooth soothing toys!
We all took off with one of the toys. Oliver is shown below enjoying the one he snagged.
Is this really for me to play with?Oooh, this is fun!
The Human had to take Oliver back to the stabby place for the white coat people to check his progress after his dental surgery. Oliver (and I) purfer to ride in the passenger seat in our vests and leash than to be stuffed inside a carrier. As you can see Oliver did quite well.
All went well until The Human pulled into the parking lot of the stabby place. Oliver is no fool, he knew where he was.
How could you??!!
All went well at the check up. There are still a few stitches that need to dissolve but all in all the little guy has recovered nicely. He has returned to his snoopervisor position on the counter to oversee The Human making dinner. Also, Oliver has slimmed down to a svelte 18 1/2 pounds but he is working hard on getting those pounds back as his mouth heals.
Let me know before you start chopping the onions.
I hope things have been going well in your neck of the woods and now, this week’s feline news.
A cartoon video of the history of cats
This is a great (and fun) review of how we felines ended up all over the world and why we are so much like our ancient ancestors.
A cat who’s obsessed with potatoes – and why
In an attempt to gain some of their cat’s affection away from her husband, a woman plans a strange tactic to gain his love back. Needless to say, this story intrigued us as we are Idaho felines (although we’re nowhere near where they grow potatoes!)
Whenever Chris Watson walks his neighborhood and says, “Here, kitty-kitty,” cats come running. Chris is a cat whisperer, a Pied Piper of felines, Catluminati. Watson has become a social media sensation, racking up millions of views of videos showing his near-daily cat walking ritual. He says,. “I just walk through Tacoma neighborhoods, and I find cats that are friendly, and then I kneel down to them to get them to come visit, and I pet them on camera”
His intentional cat petting has garnered him 1.6 million followers on TikTok and 118,000 follows on Instagram. One of his videos, of an unusually patterned cat who exchanges kisses with him, has been viewed 15.6 million times and has 21,000 comments.
Watson has been able to quit his job as an ad producer and shift to Catluminati as his full-time job. He makes his money through sponsorships. He also sells Catluminati merchandise including T-shirts and hoodies. Watson wouldn’t say how much he makes but called it a comfortable income.
“It’s more than I’ve ever made in my life,” he said. At this point, I could hear The Human mumbling about how The Tribe should be earning some money too.
Watson recently adopted a tabby named Scamper and he also does feline charity work. He’s raised funds to help sick cats, alerted the public to missing cats and promotes nonprofits that aid, foster and provide felines for adoption. He doesn’t know where Catluminati will take him next, but he vows he will never lose the spontaneity that has made him a success. “If you’re enjoying yourself while you’re doing what you’re doing, other people are going to enjoy it too,” Watson said. “That’s one thing I’m never going to leave behind — the fun.”
Last week I featured Larry the Cat’s campaign to be Prime Minister of England but Larry doesn’t have to be PM to reside at No. 10 Downing Street. Moments after Prime Minister Boris Johnson pulled out of Downing Street for the last time on Tuesday, a familiar brown-and-white tabby slipped out of the door of No. 10 and perched on the doorstep.
Larry the Cat was staking his claim to Downing Street, as the fourth prime minister (under Larry’s watch) prepared to move in.
Larry will greet the house’s next occupant, Liz Truss, when she arrives on Tuesday afternoon, as he did Mr. Johnson and his predecessor, Theresa May, when they took up residency. .He arrived in 2012 as a rescue stray to be a pet for the children of Prime Minister David Cameron. In subsequent years, he was given the exalted title of chief mouser to the Cabinet Office, a post he has carried out with mixed results, depending on who is passing judgment.
In his farewell remarks, Mr. Johnson gave Larry a shout out, noting that he had overcome an initially adversarial relationship with the family dog, Dilyn.
“If Dilyn and Larry can put behind them their occasional differences,” Mr. Johnson declared, “then so can the Conservative Party.”
Larry is part of a long tradition of cats in the British government. For centuries, the feline employees have tackled rodent problems in the halls of power, although it was not until the late 1920s that records of payments for their upkeep started, when the Home Office made a request for a penny a day for cat food. (I bet The Human wishes prices for cat food are would be that low today!)
As Britain awaited updates on a post-Brexit trade deal, Larry managed to get people’s minds off the deal when he found himself embarking on an ambitious (and failed) attack on a pigeon.
Much like other occupants of No. 10, Larry has not escaped criticism of his job performance. British tabloids called him “Lazy Larry,” when Downing Street officials had to call in pest control to supplement his efforts. He also developed an antagonistic relationship with the Foreign Office’s own mouser, Palmerston, who has since retired from public duty.
For the last few years, Larry’s comings and goings have been a media staple for cameras waiting for news outside Downing Street. He has become a social media presence, with his own Twitter account that posts occasionally snarky observations about rotating cast of prime ministers who occupy the house.
Larry even figured in the Conservative Party leadership race. During a campaign event in August, Ms. Truss, Britain’s foreign secretary, noted that she had an “extremely positive” relationship with Larry, saying: “He frequently sidles up to me. I think I’m one of his preferred cabinet ministers.”
I believe Ms. Truss paid attention to Larry’s popularity and she suggested that the cat’s place in Downing Street will be secure. Clearly Ms. Truss is a wise woman, at least when it comes to cats.
Happy Wednesday Furiends, First, Oliver would like to thank you all for the get well wishes. He really apurreciated them. He had a rough few days but he’s back to his old sassy self now.
As The Human was playing nurse to Ollie most of last week and getting up at ungodly hours (and rousting Lily and I from our sleeping positions on the bed) she didn’t manage to capture any new photos of us so I thought this would be a purrfect time to feature Lily’s Remember Me Thursday video and brag that this little video won a Certificate of Excellence from The Cat Writer’s Association.
On September 22, 2022, the entire world shared the importance of pet adoption, and shine a light on all orphan pets waiting in shelters and rescues. Since its inception in 2013, Remember Me Thursday®has made more than 2 billion impressions on social media.
On #RememberMeThursday, love your rescue and help others #SeeTheLight. It’s up to you to spread the word. We’ll be celebrating again this year and hope you’ll join us!
I hope you enjoyed Lily’s story and that you enjoy this week’s news stories.
Now here’s a concept I can get behind. Shanghai’s first cat island is open and housing 20 stray cats and preparing to accommodate 200-300 in the future. The island has interactive activities for visitors and is also serving as an adoption center.
Those wanting to adopt are required to volunteer some time at the shelter and time to get to know the cats they want to bring home. This is to mitigate the possibilities that the cats will be abandoned and that they will have forever homes.
Paws up to the wonderful people that created his sanctuary!
I do not like purrlitical stories as they often result in much hissing and fuzzy tails but this story has to be shared. Larry the cat is appearing on billboards all around London announcing that the No. 10 Downing Street’s Chief Mouser has thrown his collar into the ring to run for prime minister.
While most humans opine that either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak, of the Conservative Party will be the winner the #Larry4Leader organization is making sure he is considered in the race.
Larry was only four years old when he was adopted from Battersea Dogs and Cats home to begin his new life in politics and has served as a trusted companion to three prime ministers: David Cameron, Theresa May and the outgoing PM, Boris Johnson. That means that Larry has more purrlitical experience at the highest level than the two humans running against him.
Larry’s campaign team is making his purrlitical positions clear which include, “responsible hiss-cal policy” and “no lying in No. 10 unless it’s on a comfy cushion.”
If you want to know more about Larry’s campaign you can visit his website.
There is a website, www.larry4leader.com, dedicated to Larry’s political efforts.
Two paws up for the humans who supported Lana’i Cat Sanctuary at their cat yoga session on the lawn of its shelter. The non-profit incurs costs of almost a million dollars a year to house the 680 cats that live there. They bring in about 200 new feral cats every year but they also adopt out about 100 cats a year.
This little island sanctuary that does so much good for felines doesn’t have the kind of opportunities for fund raising that larger places might have. According to the 2020 census there are 3,367 people on the island. That is about half of the population of the town we live in and we live in a small town. They streamed the yoga event on Facebook and plan to stream the next one they do.
A woman created an artificially intelligent (AI) infrared camera rig using a Rasberry Pi to monitor her cat’s poop after she discovered it was eating plastic after her vet advised her to monitor her feline Teddy’s bathroom habits as he is a plastic eater. The vet told her it’s important to make sure Teddy eliminates the plastic and it doesn’t get stuck in his intestines.
The woman knew this would be a challenge as she had two cats so she wrote a program and set up a camera motion sensor that would trigger every time Teddy used the litterbox so she could tell if Teddy was constipated from the plastic he ate.
Estefannie wrote a python script and set up a camera with a motion sensor that would trigger every time Teddy used his litterbox so she could tell if he was constipated or not.
She said, “I did a lot of research and found I need to take a whole bunch of pictures. Luckily I already have a picture taking script that can take several pictures a second,” she explains on her YouTube channel.
This project wasn’t without its problems. Teddy took exception to the flash so she set up a series of infrared lights and gave the camera an infrared filter so it could see in the dark.
Every time a photo is taken it is sent to a server which processes the image and sends back a message to Estefanni’s computer. It tells her which cat is using the litterbox and if they are pooping or peeing. This complex arrangement allows Estefanni to save all of the data so she knows when Teddy is not pooping and if he needs to go to the veterinary hospital.
How long did it take her to create this incredible set up? It took about a year.
Ah, one of my favorite subjects – working cats and what better workplace for a feline than a winery?
Wine magazine has done a feature article on these furry employees. Sometimes the cats arrive at the winery and make it their home, which was the case for the resident feline at Napa Valley’s Black Cat Vineyard. In the mid-1990s, a stray black cat wandered onto the property as proprietor and winemaker Tracey Reichow and her kids planted their first grapevines. Every day, he returned to snoopervise their work.
They named him “Black Cat.” The following year, Reichow decided to name the business after the friendly feral feline. Through her veterinarian, Reichow learned about other needy felines who were better suited to the outdoor life. Reichow would bring them to live on her property. At one point, she had 13 winery cats prowling over her 20 acres.
She has a cat door in case any want to come inside her home. But typically, they prefer to sleep in cat beds in the vineyard’s outbuildings like machine sheds and a huge barn, which she warms with heating pads in winter.
And these cats earn their pay by keeping rodents like gophers (that can tunnel through the roots of grapevines and kill the plants) away from the vineyard.
Many rescue organizations offer “barn cat” adoption programs for cats that are fearful or distrustful of humans. These cats would be stressed as indoor pets and that puts them at risk of euthanasia. But life in a winery can be the best solution for these cats. .
At Black Cat Vineyard, the cats hunt rodents like gophers that can tunnel through the roots of grapevines and kill the plants. One of her current cats, Peanut, even leaves gopher guts on the front porch each morning as a gift.
There are requirements for the humans who hire winery working felines. As the cats are territorial, adequate food, water and shelter is required or the cats will move and find new territory.
And if the furry winery employees decide they like the company of humans there are plenty of people for them to choose from such as employees and guests.
At Carlson Vineyards in Palisade, Colorado the three rescue winery cats—Hank the Tank, Gunny and Willow Taffy Snowball—seem to turn on the charm for guests, according to co-owner Garrett Portra.
“It’s almost like they know, ‘Showtime! Time to earn our keep around here,’” he says with a chuckle. “It’s amazing how many people come in just to see the cats.”
The cats live outside, but they sleep indoors at night since there are coyotes in the area. There’s even a cat bed next to the register, which is “purr-fect” for cat lovers who buy bottles of the winery’s popular “Laughing Cat.”
A beloved rescue cat named Jinx, who was “crazy as anything,” inspired the name of Crazy Cat Winery and Café in Bristol, New Hampshire, says co-owner Claudette Smith. At the end of the day, Jinx liked to come into the tasting room and do the “zoomies to entertain the humans. When Jinx crossed the Rainbow Bridge last year Smith was overwhelmed by the support of his fans. Jinx’s legacy continues as he is on the winery logo.
Now rescue cats Cricket and Jasper attract customers. When asked what they bring to the business, Smith doesn’t hesitate. “People. Cat people.”
Crazy Cat shares photos of the winery cats on social media, as well as posts about adoptable cats from rescues like nonprofit group FuRRR Feline Rescue, which rescued Cricket and Jasper.
The winery recently hosted a month long food and kitty litter drive for FuRRR. Anyone who donated received a 10% discount on bottles of wine, which have names like Whisker White and Cat’s Paw.
For the photography book Wine Cats, Craig McGill and Susan Elliott photographed 108 cats in three countries. They learned of a cat named Mr. Wu, who could detect cork taint whenever a wine writer opened a bottle that was off.
I’ve featured cats that work at distilleries too. At Beehive Distilling in Salt Lake City, Owner Chris Barlow and his daughter adopted a cat named Gimlet from Best Friends Animal Society after they hosted a fundraiser for the nonprofit.
Gimlet’s job is to deter rodents that may be attracted to the grain bags around the gin distillery. But her main job is to entertain guests that watch her strut her stuff as they enjoy a drink. She even sleeps in cat beds on barrels and steam pipes.
“It’s really nice to have a cat around,” says Barlow. “I think she just makes everything better.”
Ultimately, when distilleries and wineries adopt working cats, it benefits the business and saves the cat’s life, according to Megan McCloud, senior manager of lifesaving programs at Best Friends Animal Society.
“Just like people, cats have unique personalities and thrive in different environments,” she says. “Working cats are a great asset to businesses, and it’s a wonderful lifestyle for their unique dispositions.”
Paws up to the great wineries and distilleries who give cats a job and a home!
Hello Furiends, It’s hard to believe August is almost over! Now that The Human is better some of us felines have had our own health issues to deal with. Lily, as I reported before went for a tooth cleaning and had to have two teeth extracted.
“Let me just tell you that was NOT fun and boy am I glad my recovery is over!”
And poor Oliver. Lily only had two extractions, he had three and he’s not feeling happy about it. The Human keeps telling him that being proactive is good because our poor Angel Tucker had to have emergency tooth surgery because he had a terrible infection and he really suffered! Oliver’s not buying this reasoning but once he’s all better and eating treats again, he’ll be happy.
“I am not happy!”
As for me, I’m just crossing my paws and purraying that my wellness exam next year goes as well as this year and the people in the white coats will keep their paws off my fangs!
“I don’t want to even think of having any of my fangs removed.”“Human, please tell me there’s no tooth extraction in my future.”
Well, that was our week in our neck of the woods. I hope your week went better!
You all know I’m a huge fan of creative adoption ideas and this one is definitely creative. Well, here’s great one. In Olivehurst, California (about 40 miles north of Sacramento) there’s a house for sale in town with interesting terms. Or rather, two cats up for adoption with interesting terms. You can adopt two cats for $285,000.00 and the house they live in comes with them for free. This deal happened when a cat loving lady passed away and donated her tome to FieldHaven Feline Center.
The cats, Spencer and Ginger are ready for some new roomates I the cozy 2-bedroom house. FieldHaven says they are “impeccable houseguests”.
The house comes with a back porch where Spencer and Ginger enjoying hanging out. On the FieldHaven Facebook page it says, “Spencer and Gin have lived here for some time, and don’t need rehoming. They come with the house and expect food, water, and a bit of love,” FieldHaven said in a Facebook post.
The house is listed on Zillowand Realtor.com. The listing says the house has brand new carpet, fresh paint, a spacious kitchen and a single-car garage with added space for the washer and dryer. It also has a bonus bathroom and shower and a bonus room leading to a spacious backyard.
The proceeds from the home’s sale will go to supporting animal adoption efforts at FieldHaven.
I would suggest that the new homeowners consider putting a catio in for Spencer and Ginger.
Here is another one of my favorite news items. Whenever a feline has a happy reunion with their humans I am a happy cat!
It all started when a large ginger cat fell through the ceiling of Egron Energy. When some of the workers arrived to check their equipment they were greeted by the cat, whose name is Eugene and a hole in their ceiling. The cat ran out the door and for several days they could here meowing coming from the ceiling. They contacted Mackay Pet Rescue Incorporated (MPRI) who came out and set traps in the ceiling.
And during the waiting time the feline and workers developed somewhat of a relationship. They would look up occasionally and see Eugene staring down at them.
It took a few days but Eugene was finally caught and his humans were called. Imagine everyone’s surprise when they found out Eugene’s home was 1600 km (a little over 994 miles) from the office in Newcastle, NSW.
Eugene’s adventure began when his human Sophie Kilgariff and her fiancé moved from Townsville to NSW in December 2021. On the way, while cleaning Eugene’s carrier, he made his first dash for freedom, squirmed out of his harness and ran into the nearby cane fields.
After hours of searching the couple had to continue on to their new home and new jobs. Sophie’s heart was broken.
Several days later, Eugene was found and returned to Sophie’s parents, but a paralysis tick threatened his life. Sophie instructed her parents to take him to the vet and he beat the odds, recovering fully. He was brought to Sophie’s parent’s house but he escaped again.
This time months passed but Sophie never gave up, posting on Facebook and receiving sporadic notifications of Eugene sightings. Sophie became disheartened and clung to the hope that Eugene had found a new, loving home.
And then, eight months later she received the phone call from MPRI telling her they were calling about her cat. When she realized they were talking about Eugene she couldn’t stop crying.
Eugene is now happily at home in his new location in Newcastle. I’m thinking Eugene used up at least two of his nine lives on that adventure!
You all know that this feline is not sciency at all but I do enjoy a story about famous humans and their cats, even if the stories are only legends.
1. Albert Einstein and Tiger
Albert Einstein loved cats and all animals. “If a man aspired towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals,” he said, and was himself known to own multiple pets, including a dog and a parrot. But it was his cat Tiger who seemed to get the most attention. Biographers have recorded that Einstein was sensitive to Tiger’s moods, noting for example that the cat got depressed when it was raining.
Cats apparently held a big enough place in Einstein’s heart that they pop up in quotes historically attributed to him. I shared an Einstein cat quote in last week’s feature. He explained the telegraph like a long cat saying, “You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles”. .
“There are two means of refuge from the misery of life: music and cats,” is one of my favorite Einstein quotes.
2. Edwin Hubble and Nicholas
Portrait of American astronomer Dr Edwin Hubble, a pipe in his mouth, as he poses with a cat in his arms, California, 1951. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)
If you think huge space telescope when you hear the name Hubble, you’re right. His discovery of galaxies beyond the Milky Way was revolutionary for the time, as was his work to support the theory that the universe is expanding. And he didn’t do it alone.
The center to Hubble’s universe, was his cat, Nicholas Copernicus, who, as Hubble explained, made a beloved nuisance of himself. According to the Huntington Library, where Hubble’s personal papers are stored, references to the giant black cat abound in the archives.
Hubble frequently referred to his home as “Nicholas’ estate.” And in her diary, Hubble’s wife Grace noted the close bond between her husband and the cat. In a moment that every cat owner will recognize, Grace observed that when Edwin would retire to his study to work, Nicholas enjoyed lolling on Edwin’s desk, “sprawled over as many pages as he could cover,” she wrote. “‘He is helping me,’ [Edwin] explained.”
3. Isaac Newton and Spithead
Legend has it that, in between developing the fundamental laws of motion and gravitation, doing groundbreaking work on optics and helping to invent calculus, the great Sir Isaac Newton also found time to invent the cat flap. Meowza, who knew?
As one version of the story goes, when Newton was at Cambridge, he requested that a hole be cut into his door and a leather or cloth flap put over it so that his cat, Spithead, could come and go at will.
While some scholars dispute whether Newton even had a cat, historical evidence makes it pretty clear that he didn’t invent the cat door. Apart from anything else, cutting a hole in a door — even one you might put a flap over — hardly qualifies as an invention. Humans have been cutting holes in doors and walls for thousands of years — since before we even domesticated cats — to allow feral felines access to barns and granaries. They could then hunt the vermin that fed on our food supplies.
But as vermin attracts us felines, so do great men often attract their share of legends over time, and Newton was no different.
4. Erwin Schrödinger and Milton(?)
The most famous cat in science history owes its name to the physicist and Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger, who won the honor in 1933 for his early work in quantum mechanics. But he is best-known for the thought experiment involving a theoretical cat in a box, and whether it could be said to be both dead and alive. Schrödinger proposed the scenario in a 1935 paper as a criticism of quantum theory at the time.
Forever after known as “Schrödinger’s Cat,” the paradoxical thought experiment has become a permanent — although frequently misunderstood — fixture in both science and popular culture.
People have sometimes wondered why Schrödinger used a cat in his example, instead of a rat or a plant or almost any other living thing. Some stories allege that Schrödinger had an actual cat, named Milton, and infer that the pet may have provided some inspiration to the physicist.
However, Milton may — and may not — have existed at all.
5. Nikola Tesla and Macak
Nikola Tesla was a brilliant but eccentric pioneer of electricity. Tesla was fond of talking about his childhood pet, Macak, whom Tesla once described as “the finest of all cats in the world.”
In a letter written to a young admirer in 1939, Tesla extolled the cat’s virtues at some length; the man was in his 80s by then, but time had clearly not diminished Tesla’s love for Macak. And that just shows you how much a great cat can affect a human’s life!
He told the story of a winter evening where he found himself stroking Macak’s back. In a moment that inspired his lifelong study of electricity, Tesla was shocked — literally — to discover that the cat’s back became “a sheet of light and my hand produced a shower of sparks loud enough to be heard all over the house.” It was a pretty dramatic moment — his mother told him stop for fear he’d start a fire.
Ah the amazing feline inspires another human again.
I love it when you humans represent us felines in new and creative ways. Kuala Lumpur-based artist Lim Heng Swee has been creating digital artworks of cats camouflaged as landscapes since 2019.. “I found that the body shape of cats lying on the floor is very similar to the shape of a mountain,” he says. “So I decided to blend or hide them inside colourful minimal landscape art.”
Now the amazing thing is that Lim Heng Swee has never owned a cat but you don’t need to share your home with a feline to be inspired by us.
Cats’ Tree Hotel in Paris gives felines the purr-fect guest experience
The Cats’ Tree Hotel gives felines a classically Parisian guest experiences and to that this feline says, “Réservez ma réservation!”.
Happy Wednesday Furiends! I am happy to report that The Human is getting better each day and, as a result, our level of service has begun to return to normal. She’s even cooking again. Once a week she gets a box that has stuff for her to cook. She says it’s easy and is saving her money because she keeps meowing about the fact that she can’t walk our of the grocery store for less than $50.00. Well, she seems to feel this human food delivery system is a good deal and I must admit, there are some tasty smells coming out of the kitchen again.
The other night she made a pork dish and before she could do the clean up, Oliver hopped on the counter and took a nap on the bag that had the ingredients in it.
The Human said it was a tasty dish and Oliver said it smelled great (since Oliver is on a D-I-E-T he wasn’t offered anything.
We were inspired this week by the news story of the artist who makes felines look like royalty so we had our Purrsonal Assistant take a stab at making us royal too.
“You may approach me peasant”“Finally, a chair that is fitting for my station!”“What part of , ‘Yes I AM king of the castle’ do you not understand?”
Well, those are the shenanigans from our neck of the woods this week. We hope you enjoy this week’s feline news.
This one will have you crying tears of joy. Sad Mouth Sam lived clear across the country in Tucson, Arizona, when Kate Perillo spotted her photos online. The Siamese cat appeared to have larger-than-average lips and crossed eyes, giving her a very unique look. Perillo couldn’t get Sam’s face out of her head, so she took a chance and reached out about the cat and she changed both of their lives forever.
Perillo said that when she saw Sam’s photo she knew she had to adopt her. Sam had been living as part of a feral cat colony with Poet Square Cats, and she had eosinophilic granuloma complex — an allergy triggered by food or environment. It only took a steroid shot, antibiotics and a move indoor to completely heal Sam’s allergy.
Perillo and her mother had always had Siamese cats. The last of the cats passed in 2015 and Perillo’s mother passed in 2017 and she felt it was time to adopt a new kitty. She flew from Massachusetts to Arizona to meet Sam.
It was love a first sight and now that Sam is feeling better her personality is coming through. She loves to find sun puddles and bird watching and she’s a huge fan of playtime.
Sam is a talker and has no problem letting people know what she wants.
Sam and her human are a match made in heaven and Perillo says that having Sam in her home is a small way of keeping the memory of her mother alive.
Granted, these portraits are waaaay better than the ones our Purrsonal Assistant did but that’s because Galina Bugaevskaya (aka Cat Universe on Instagram) is a real artist.
Bugaevskaya has been creating her Cat Universe for over three years. Her goal is to place photo shopped images of cats in unexpected situations. She says, “I am inspired by their faces: funny, stern, curious—so different. I adore non-standard photos and funny facial expressions, and I also love harsh frowning cats.”
Her series, vintage oil paintings are photo shopped with the expressions of the cats in mind. She has created felines in pink gowns, the robes of royalty and many more regal ensembles. You can follow Bugaevskaya’s latest creations on Instagram.
Now this really gets my shiskers in a twist. Firing a teacher because her cat decided to make an appearance in the teacher’s livestream class!
An art teacher in China’s Guangzhou city won 40,000 yuan ($6,000; £5,000) in an unfair dismissal case over a cat’s appearance in her online class. The teacher, only referred to as Lou in the lawsuit was running an art class and her cat jumped into the camera’s view five times.
The education tech company that ran the virtual classes fired Lou, citing the feline’s sudden appearances on screen as a reason. (I hiss in the general direction of that tech company).
The company said Luo had taken part in “non-teaching” activities during class, and was also 10 minutes late to a previous class.
Luo appealed the decision in arbitration but the tech company refused to accept the order to compensate the teacher for her unfair dismissal and the court costs she’d incurred.
In a court ruling, Judge Liao Yajing from the Guangzhou Tianhe People’s Court said that if employers require their staff to work from home, they should not have the same expectations as if they were working in an office. Well duh, especially if there is a curious feline in your home.
I am happy to hear the teacher was awarded damages and we hope she-and her feline-will be teaching online classes again soon!
· “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” –Albert Schweitzer
There are many wonderful quotes about the fabulous beasts we felines are. This article lists 60 of them. Lily, Oliver and I have noted our favorites. You can read the rest of the quotes in the article. And apologies to any of our barkie furiends we may have offended with these quotes.
“To err is human, to purr is feline.” –Robert Byrne“If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.” –Mark Twain“Dogs eat. Cats dine.” –Ann Taylor
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.
Three cool cats!“My purrfect summer days includes a pool, a nice cool drink and many, many snacks!” Oliver“This feline fancies a nice, pampering spa day.” Lily“I’m taking my boat and giving white fizh wavez to my furiends the Tabbies O Trout Towne“ Alberto
We hope you’re enjoying your summer. Meow at us and let us know how you like spending your day!
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!
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!
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).
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 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?
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