Hello My Furiends,
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your humans and other furry and feathered friends. Our Humans went away for a few days but we were very well cared for by our cat sitter, Cathy. I was a bit miffed however when The Male and Female Human came home smelling of puppy! It took me a few days to get over this betrayal but all is forgiven now and the provision of extra petting and treats helped.
Purrs & Head Bonks,

Cat’s in Literature? It’s a Long Tail

The fact that cats are associated with litter-ary tomes is no news to this feline.A new exhibition at the British Library explores the rich literary history of us wonderful felines through a purr-fect display of books, manuscripts and artwork. The exhibition is titled, Cats on the Page,and features exhibits from the 16th century to the modern era. Much of the exhibition is from children’s literature like  Cat in the Hat, Mog (the feline hero of a series by Judith Kerr) and a pictureof Beatrix Potter’s Kitty-in-Boots by Quentin Blake.  Leave it to our feline loving friends across the pond to honor cats with an exhibition at the British Library. Our American museums need to step it up!

Argos Selling “Parasol” Christmas Trees for Cat Owners

Two paws up forthese enterprising British humans! The company says that it will “keep yourcat’s claws far away from low-hanging baubles and also offerloads of extra room for presents and/or activities.” 

This tree sells for £33.33(about $42.77 US). Now some of you humans may be meowing that this is rather pricey but I ask you, isn’t your cat’s happiness worth it? How many more year swill you deprive your felines from a festive Christmas fir?  And if you are feeling fancy you cam pay a little more for a sow covered effect. Felines unite! Insist that your humans provide you with a Christmas tree this year. And by the way, these tree makers have evidently not encountered a feline like myself who is a master of climbing up things and knocking down things. If you have a feline in residence like me, you may want to put that tree in cement. Oh, and unless your a lucky moggie across the pond, your  humans will not be able to purchase this tree as Argos does not do international delivery (hiss).

Christmas Cat Cost Causes Controversy 

Now far be it from me to meow about the cost of anything feline related but methinks purrhaps the City of Reykjavík went a bit over the top here. The city council spent a total of 4.4 million ISK on a large LED Christmas Cat on Lækjartorg Square.   (I had our Purrsonal Assistant find out how much this is in USD and it’s about $35 million). When I asked why they would have a huge cat statue at Christmas, I was expecting a warm and fuzzy story. What I got was the legend of the Yule Cat which is pretty horrifying, The legend says this is a huge and vicious cat said to lurk about the snowy countryside during Christmas time and eat people who have not received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve. Seriously???? A people eating cat?? I say, “Get your money back Reykjavík and stop perpetrating this horrible fable! Hiss.

High Speed Video of Cat Tongues Reveal Another Reason Whey They’re Superior

Okay, you humans have been meowing about the raspy tongues of your felines for years. Well this should put all that kvetching to rest once and for all. First and foremost,stop giving us baths because scientists have proved that we felines are way better at cleaning ourselves than you are. Your assistance is superfluous.

A very smart scientistnamed David Hu used videos taken with high speed cameras to study the feline’sgrooming techniques. He learned that we felines have a four-phase grooming regime that is aided by tiny spikes on our tongues (so far this is not new information to me or my humans who have often suffered the “kiss” across the face from a raspy tongue). Evidently what is new information is the specifics of the construction of these little spikes and that they fill up with saliva.

The four-step process we cats use to groom ourselves the little spikes is quite efficient. The tongue first extends outwards from the mouth, then the little spikey thingies stiffen and finally, when we complete the sweeping lick across our luxurious fur, it deposits water that’s stored in the hollow cavities in the spikey thingies.  One final note, the tongues of our barkie furiends is flat and cannot transport water. Score another one for the felines!

Cats drinking from taps are the best new entertainment online

It is a fact that we felines own the internet and there’s always something new to enjoy about us. The latest phenomenon is cats drinking from faucets. Now frankly, I find this fascination puzzling. All of The Tribe of Five have been or are faucet drinkers. Felines poised over faucets are nothing new.  Still, Dusty, an Alaskan feline more adept at lapping at air than drinking water, has had over 38,000 people talking about his antics on social media. As a result, many folks are posting other feline’s water drinking attempts. At the risk of sounding bitter I cannot help but get my whiskers in a bit of a twist. I am a feline who opines on his own blog, who has (IMHO) some rather pithy comments in my blog and who has yet to get over 38,000 folks starting conversations about me. Seriously, what does a cat have to do?