Happy Wednesday Furiends,
I hope you are all well and looking forward to life becoming more normal again. We would have had an excellent photo for you but The Female Human couldn’t get herself together enough to get the shot so I’m reduced to only sharing the story with you. Still, I think you’ll find our weekly local report very a-moosing.

Last night, The Female Human walked out of our next door neighbor’s house and noticed that the neighbors across the street were on their porch yelling at her and waving their arms. These are fairly new neighbors so she doesn’t know them and didn’t want to appear as if she was judging them so she smiled and continued to stroll down the driveway. The words finally became a bit clearer and she heard “MOOSE! MOOSE! MOOSE!” Thinking that they surely would not be so rude as to be referring to her appearance, she saw them gesturing to her right and turned her head to take a look. There less than the social distancing six feet recommended was a very large young moose, standing next to the cars in the driveway.

The Female Human has lived in Northern Idaho long enough to know that you never mess with a moose. They are extremely large, fairly bad tempered and have no problem charging anything. As she looked at the moose she could tell he was getting annoyed with the neighbors yelling and arm waving. He snorted a few times and, before he could head in her direction she hightailed it over to our house and ran inside. Yes, this would have been a fantastic photo op but she didn’t take the time to get her phone out of her pocket and shoot the picture. Sigh. Due to her failure to capture the moment, I am reduced to using a video and a link to an article in Sandpoint Magazine called, Urban Moose-The Good Life In The City, to show how these beasts have no boundaries and believe they own the forests and the city streets here!

.So now you know why these kitties enjoy sitting in the window and watching our local wildlife walk by!

Well that’s enough moose talk, now on to the feline news from around the web.

U.K. Wildlife Park Welcomes Two Tiny Members of the World’s Smallest Cat Breed

I’ve always thought of my wild cousins as great, big fear inducing felines. Imagine my surprise when I heard about these little guys!

These two live in the Porfell Wildlife Park and Sanctuary in Cornwall, England and are Rusty Spotted Cats, the worlds smallest cat breed.  

These two tiny felines are rusty-spotted cats, the world’s smallest cat breed. The rusty-spotted cat grows to be just 35 cm (not quite 14 inches)- 48 cm (not quite 19 inches) in length. It is believed that these cats are only 2 of around 40 in captivity in the world.

In the wild, these tiny kitties are found in Asia. You can learn more about our little friends here.

Elmo, the Gardening Glove Loving Cat

This klepto kitty made the BBC news with his penchant for stealing one purrticular type of item.

His human, Vikki Maddocks reports that to date Elmo has lifted 14 gloves from the neighbors in the past year. Also interesting to note is that he normally brings one glove home and then goes later to retrieve it’s match.

Elmo drops his treasure at Maddock’s feet and meows proudly.

Why gardening gloves? Trudi Atkinson, a cat behaviorist says it’s possible that Elmo’s mother taught him to hunt using replacement items if real prey was not available. If Elmo’s human reinforced this behavior by petting him or reacting in a positive manner to his “gifts” he would be motivated to continue his thievery.

Evidently this gardening glove stealing is a thing in England. Last year a female cat named Bella received media attention for her glove napping.

Message in a Bottle. Neighbors in Isolation Stay Connected with Carrier Cat

Who says you need skype, text or phone calls during isolation?  Sam Cramer has found a much better way to communicate with her neighbors, Cat Mail.

It all started one day when Cramer’s cat Bella wandered into the house with a new collar. Cramer was confused because Bella had never worn a collar.  Her first thought was that this wasn’t Bella but she said, “I check out the cat and, yes, it has the same scraggly ears and, yes, it has a bad attitude so it’s definitely my cat.” 

Then she noticed a glass bottle with a cork stopper attached to the collar with a hand written note inside. The note was a message from her next door neighbors telling her that Bella had been visiting them for a few weeks

Cramer wrote a note apologizing for Bella if she’d been cranky and apologized for Bella’s intrusion.

The neighbor’s responding “cat mail”  assured her that Bella was “no bother.” 

The 15-year old daughter of the neighbor wanted to make sure Bella was not a stray and figured the cat mail might be a good way to find out if she had a home.

“I just thought it would be a good way to know if she had a home and a name and now it’s turned into a daily thing,” she said. “We’re always really excited to see her at the door.” 

As the lonely days of the pandemic drag on, all parties cherish the tiny notes Bella brings. 

These neighbors have decided that cat mail will continue long after their quarantine is over.

This international star has never left her Portland home

Portland’s ‘Owl Kitty’ has appeared in some of the greatest movies ever made. Her human, Tibo Charroppin says her work has been watched more than 50 million times on her Instagram page. The most amazing thing is that Owl Kitty has accomplished all this without ever leaving Portland.

Owl Kitty is her stage name. Her real name is Lizzy who was adopted from a local shelter. Charroppin said she’s been acting like a diva ever since she was a kitten and she was a natural to become a star. She’s appeared in scenes from many major motion pictures such as Star Wars and The Matrix.

How has this feline diva managed to become a star? Her human is a full time video editor so he has all the skills needed to insert Owl Kitty in the middle of famous scenes. The Human’s partner, Olivia Boone is the social media manager for a major non-profit organization so she had the skills to get Owl Kitty properly launched on the web.

Charroppin also does “behind the scenes” videos to document the process of filming Owl Kitty and those are as popular as the furry diva’s movie shorts. And if you have an aspiring feline actor in your house, Charroppin also offers tutorials to teach you the process.

If you would like to view more of Owl Kitty’s films, visit her Instagram account.

Cat vs. chants: Friendly feline tests Buddhist monk’s patience

This Thai temple cat’s refusal to be ignored during the five-hour-long New Year’s prayers was a true test of the patience of this monk. The video of this monk gently trying to move the cat away took Thailand by storm and now is reaching around the world.

After he tried numerous times to move the cat off his lap because the cat was kneading his shoulder and blocking his view of his prayer book, the monk finally realized that resistance would be futile and petted the feline.

Thailand has many cats that roam freely around the temples and they are called, you guessed it, temple cats. It is reported that all the temple cats are fat due to the love and good care they receive.