From the American Association of Retired People (AARP) comes a heartwarming article on a couple who started a “rest home” that takes in only senior cats, giving them a lovely place to live out their “golden years”. Click below to read and see the two videos, which largely reproduce what’s in the AARP article:

Click to read:

An excerpt:

“Most of them have come from hardship situations, and we don’t adopt out. The cats live with us for the duration of their lives,” says Terry, 77. “Our mission is to rescue senior cats that need a home.”

The effort started in part because the pair were looking to adopt a kitten and Terry visited their veterinarian asking about a young cat. Someone there overheard her request and asked her to consider adopting an older cat there to be euthanized. “Of course, I took the cat,” Terry says.

“I found a real purpose in caring for these animals who, in many ways, were a reflection of where I was in life, too,” Terry says.

The backyard is a haven for the cats or a cat “Disneyland,” as Bruce, 77, calls it. The couple repurposed a “Frontierland” play area they had constructed for their children — complete with a hotel, a general store, a saloon and a sheriff’s office. They adapted it for the cats, and now it also includes feline play areas, napping spots, scratching posts and more.

“We had a vision where they could be free the way I think cats would like to be free outside, but protected,” Terry says.

“They feel secure here. The fact that they can go and sleep up on a bridge over a lake — I mean, how good is that?” Bruce says.

Cats come to Cats Cradle through veterinarians’ offices and private homes, particularly where someone might be ill and unable to take care of their pet. The couple have rescued more than 350 cats over the years and plan to continue their efforts.

“We discovered the special quality of older cats. They had qualities in their older years that young cats don’t have,” Terry says. “Maybe that’s true of people as well. You just have to discover it.”

A news story:

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From Asean Now we learn about five unique cat breeds developed in Thailand. I didn’t know about any7of them. Click to read:

Here are a few:

Wichien Maat: The royal cat of Siam [JAC: this is related to but not identical to the “Siamese Cat”]

Sleek bodies, mesmerizing blue almond-shaped eyes, and an air of elegance that would make any cat lover weak at the knees. That’s Wichien Maat for you—the royal cat of Siam. Their cerulean eyes result from a genetic trait specific to the cat breed and are where it gets the name ‘Moon Diamond’ from.

There’s a lot worth learning about the Wichien Maat. These regal kitties are no ordinary house pets. They are highly intelligent and curious and enjoy interacting with their humans, thus earning the moniker “Meezers.”

I’m not a fan of the etiolated long-snouted monster that the Siamese has become, but these Wichien Maat cats are adorable.

Suphalak: Rare yet prized

Commonly known as Thong Daeng (Thai for “copper” or literally “red gold”), this Thai cat breed came to prominence during the Burmese-Siamese war in the 18th century. The sacking of Ayutthaya led to the transfer of many royal treasures to Burma (present-day Myanmar), including the Tamra Maew.

Upon discovering the awe-inspiring nature and energies of Suphalak cats as detailed in the Cat Treatise, the king of Burma commanded his subjects to capture all Suphalaks and bring them back to Burma. This apocryphal story has been used to explain the rarity of this breed and their close resemblance to the Burmese cat.

But Thailand’s love for the Suphalak isn’t just because it’s rare. These creatures are small and short-haired, flaunt golden yellow eyes, and have an evenly pigmented reddish-brown coat. Owing to these attributes, they are compared to the value of gold, implying that they bring prosperity to the pet owner.

Si-Sawat: Shimmering eleganc

Also known as the Korat cat, these silver-coated felines feature prominently pointed ears and bright green eyes. They can pick up the faintest sounds, spot the tiniest movements, and sniff out even the sneakiest treats.

Like many other cats on this list, the Si-Sawat is considered a symbol of good luck and prosperity. This explains why it was never sold but only given as a gift, and it had to be in pairs! These cats were considered a symbol of a blissful and prosperous marriage, a guarantee for a happily ever after.

Even today, the Si-Sawat cats are an integral part of the Hae Nang Maew festival in Northeast Thailand. When the villagers are desperate for rain to quench their fields, they take to the streets with a cat in tow. It’s a lively parade, with the Si-Sawat as the star of the show

Khao Manee: Pure as snow

Literally translating to “white gem,” this Thai cat breed originates from a breeding initiative. Most Khao Manee cats have odd-colored eyes—with one shining like a golden treasure, and the other like a sapphire, which is considered a symbol of good fortune.

The pure white coat is another defining characteristic of the Khao Manee breed. It is soft, smooth, and lustrous, accentuating its elegant and regal demeanor. Moreover, some of these cats are born deaf, necessitating specialized care and attention.

Back in the 19th century, it was strongly believed that owning one of these cats would bring both longevity and prestige to a household. In fact, legend has it that when King Chulalongkorn the Great ruled the land, the penalty for stealing these cats was none other than the ultimate punishment: death itself.

Konja: The black panther

Yet another breed that appeared in the Tamra Maew, the Konja cat often draws comparisons to the legendary Thai lion, Singha. It’s no wonder why their elegant walk exudes a similar majestic aura.

In the treatise, their eyes, teeth, tongue, and claws were described as pitch black. Another distinguishing feature that made them truly stand out was a crisp white stripe running from under their chin all the way down their belly.

Today though, the Konja breed is typically entirely black. Perceptions of this black panther stand in stark contrast to the common belief of black cats being seen as ominous symbols. In ancient times, Thai people believed that feeding the cat would bestow upon them a great deal of good fortune. In fact, the Konja cat continues to be a common fixture in Thai temples to this day.

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Here a cat sings classical music, cracking up its staff (from reddit; posted by Posted by u/EvaRaw666).  Sound up: It’s got talent!

girl trained her vocals..
by u/EvaRaw666 in Unexpected

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Lagniappe: From ViralHog we see a cat playing with a mouse but not harming it. It’s not really a fist bump, and I worry about the last sentence in the description below. Well, make of it what you will. . .

“Joey brought this mouse in at 1 am through the cat flap. We saw a mouse running across our living room the next evening, so we decided to check out our cat camera and to our surprise found that Joey had brought this mouse in, and instead of killing it for prey, his playing with the mouse like they are friends! It almost looks like they are fist-bumping! The mouse’s whereabouts are currently unknown!”

h/t: Ginger K., Peter

From Bored Panda, an endless fount of animal fun, comes some “hilariously relatable” (oy!) memes showing what staffing a cat is really like. Click on the screenshot to see fifty. I’ll put up a few.

I’m sure I’ve posted the following photo before, but it never gets old:

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Click to read some excerpts of the L.A. Times article:

An excerpt:

Ten months had passed since long-haul truckers Alfonso and Sherrie Meletiche lost their family cat, Baby, while making a delivery in Southern California.

The couple had pulled over at a stop in Rancho Santa Margarita in Orange County when a loud noise caused the feline to break free of her harness and run away.

A search team could not find her. Weeks turned into months. Hope turned into despair.

. . .Ten months later the Meletiches, who live in Fort Myers, Fla., got a surprise call. It was Gail Landau, the founder of Catmosphere Laguna Foundation, which finds homes for rescued and abandoned cats and kittens.

Baby, a Maine Coon mix, had been located. It turned out she had been masquerading as a guest at the five-star Montage Laguna Beach hotel. Landau was able to find her owner because the cat had been outfitted with a microchip, a tiny transponder about the size of a grain of rice implanted in the animal’s skin.

Here’s Baby. Nobody puts her in a corner!

A year earlier, Alonna Meletiche, Alfonso and Sherrie’s daughter, had taken the cat to the veterinarian for its shots and made the decision at that time to have her microchipped, which has become increasingly popular as a way to reunite pet owners with their lost animals.

. . .“I was shocked,” Alfonso said of Landau’s call. “I couldn’t believe it because I, myself, gave up. I said, ‘There’s no way. There’s no way that we’re ever going to get her back,’ but when Gail called, I was overwhelmed, and I was also shocked.”

He immediately booked an airline ticket to California. But then just as quickly he had to cancel his trip when Baby disappeared again from Landau’s house in Mission Viejo.

“I said, ‘Oh my god.’ It’s like feeling this emptiness all over again,” Alfonso said, “just when she was right there within reach.”

Baby would eventually be found again — at the Montage.

. . .When Baby was hanging around the Laguna Beach hotel the first time, passersby had taken to feeding the cat, including resident Nancy Welch, who wound up corralling the feline after her second flight.

“The big mystery is how did the cat get down from Mission Viejo to Laguna,” said Welch, who commented that Baby was living her best life at the luxury resort. “What I keep laughing about is… it’s like a marketing ad for the Montage, that the cat got herself back to the Montage after being at Gail’s house.”

The Meletiche family received the good news. Alfonso flew into John Wayne Airport this week, nervous that Baby might not remember him.

She did.

And here’s Baby, back with her owners after her luxury vacation.  Your take-home lesson: GET YOUR CAT CHIPPED, and DO IT NOW!

Alfonso and Baby were on flight home to Florida on Monday.

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Finally, a cat reacts to a cake made to look like the cat! This video, put up two years ago (without any notes) has since accrued 23 million views! The cat freaks out when the staff cuts into its head.

Reader Divy happened to see this Temptations cat-treat commercial and said this:

Here’s a short one:

And another “shake” ad:

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Matthew found a bunch of tweets with ships’ cats having their own little hammocks. Here’s a sample:

Cats have been part of sailing history for thousands of years, partly for company and partly because they provided critical pest control. Saipan of the USS New Mexico. https://t.co/rqujVKT9MX pic.twitter.com/xkbuEjqo47

— Cats of Yore (@CatsOfYore) September 26, 2022

Ship's cat of HMAS Kanimbla, ca. 1939-1945. https://t.co/arRZumPA6s pic.twitter.com/EuJYVWvo2s

— Cats of Yore (@CatsOfYore) September 26, 2022

"Sailmaker J W BRIGHT, of Kraaifointein, Cape Province, South Africa, has made a miniature hammock for his cat Trinco." https://t.co/UPI7pS44E0 pic.twitter.com/bfTqJmAqBX

— Cats of Yore (@CatsOfYore) September 26, 2022

Dapper kitten aboard HMS Achilles, ca. 1939. 📸 @NZNavy. pic.twitter.com/4LzcjlVN1i

— Cats of Yore (@CatsOfYore) September 26, 2022

Precious babby crew member of the Royal Navy battleship HMS Warspite, 1944. https://t.co/cuVFBOFbB0 pic.twitter.com/S9i8jIaB9C

— Cats of Yore (@CatsOfYore) September 26, 2022

Seamen do love their kitties!

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Here’s a full-on cat parody of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” complete with all the endearing features of cats who enstaff us. I especially like their little mouths moving with the words.

It must take hours and hours to put something together like this. Such is the devotion of cat-lovers to the Internet!  The YouTube notes (below) also show that it’s had almost nine million views:

Cats are royalty. We are their willing servants. Bohemian Catsody – enjoy a parody song of the Queen classic, Bohemian Rhapsody, this time, all about CATS! Okay, some have asked, so here you go – if a Bohemian Catsody tshirt or mug is your kind of thing, you can get one here,

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h/t: Matthew, Divy, Ginger K.

All nine ducklings rescued and taken to rehab. Sadly, we could not catch Amy, nor could we lure her to water by putting her ducklings in a visible plastic box. She went only half a block (distance was 1.5 miles) before flying away. After trying to catch her several times, and with the ducklings getting freaked out, we decided to put things to an end and take the ducklings to rehab. They will be at the facility today.

Here are two articles from Bored Panda and the Indianapolis Star about a cat rehab program for prisoners in Indiana. Click either screenshot to read. I’ve taken most of the text from the Star, and pictures from both sites. I’ve taken most of the text from the Star, and pictures from both sites.

From the Star:

Cats are unable to distinguish between street clothes and prison uniforms –– and that’s exactly what makes the relationship between the men at Pendleton Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison outside of Indianapolis, and the cats that live there, so special.

For six hours a day, seven days a week, a handful of men receive unqualified love from the more than 20 cats that live in the prison as part of the FORWARD program, or Felines and Offenders Rehabilitation with Affection, Reformation and Dedication. In exchange for care and a place to stay before being adopted, the cats at Pendleton offer inmates untampered, non-judgemental affection.

In partnership with the Animal Protection League of Indiana, the program removes cats from a traditional shelter and places them in the prison’s “cat sanctuary,” a wide-open room with scratching posts, climbing structures and nooks to hide in.

The program houses them with incarcerated caregivers, who, incidentally, gain skills such as empathy, responsibility and self-esteem.

LaRussa, who is behind bars for conspiracy to commit robbery — which was botched and ended with accomplices murdering four people — has been involved in the program since 2017, when he fell for a 7-year-old cat named Clover. He and his wife have since adopted Clover, and she lives at home with LaRussa’s wife.

Every day, LaRussa and his peers start their morning by 7 a.m. They report to the cat sanctuary, where, like clockwork, the cats await them, dozens of tiny faces longing for the door to open.

The work, albeit behind prison walls, is a full-time job.

“I believe it’s changed me a lot,” LaRussa said. “I’ve grown, from even just the little time that I’ve been here until now. We’re all incarcerated. Whether you are selfish or not, you learn to care about something other than yourself. Now, it’s all about (the cats) and trying to help them in the best way possible.”

Tori Kypreos, the program supervisor at Pendleton, has watched inmates move through the program and evolve as a result.

“It teaches them responsibility,” Kypreos said. “It teaches them there are other things that are important than what they believe is important. The cats rely on them immensely, so just seeing that they’re dedicated to coming in every day to help and take care of these cats, to watch the cats grow, is very important.”

The cats and the inmates, both bound by prison walls and troubled pasts, mend each other day by day.

Duck suit!

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Firmoo is an outfit that sells cat-themed spectacles, at least in their Me-Meow collection. (“Purr-fect for your eyes”). Here are a few models you may want to consider (only women are shown wearing them). Click the screenshot below to go to the site.

Some examples:

They sell only frames, and they’re inexpensive, so have a look.

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From LoveMeow we have the story of a polydactylous kitten named Macaroni born with deformed legs as well as many extra toes (toes are not a burden), but don’t worry—he’ll be all right. Click on screenshot to read the story:

Jacqueline “DeAmor” Santiago, president of Friends for Life Rescue Network, was apprised of a tiny orange tabby with an abnormality in his front legs. With her experience working with special needs kittens, she immediately offered to help.

The kitten, Macaroni, was polydactyl and had contracted tendons which caused his front limbs to appear “twisted”. He came into Jacqueline’s care when he was four days old, giving him the best advantage.

Newborn kittens have “exponentially better” chances of correcting their twisted legs.

“This is often caused by either polydactylism (extra toes) or by a small mom with not enough room in the womb for the legs to stretch,” Jacqueline added. Macaroni has extra toes on each paw, adding to their size.

“Their legs get stuck in the same position during development and need to be stretched over the course of weeks to help them grow correctly.”

“This is often caused by either polydactylism (extra toes) or by a small mom with not enough room in the womb for the legs to stretch,” Jacqueline added. Macaroni has extra toes on each paw, adding to their size.

“Their legs get stuck in the same position during development and need to be stretched over the course of weeks to help them grow correctly.”

Jacqueline started physical therapy on Macaroni through massaging and stretching. The tiny ball of fur whose eyes hadn’t opened, took everything in stride.

He was a champion eater and so brave with every massage session and leg stretching exercise.

The tabby boy is getting more active and playful each day. He relishes the company of his foster mom and the resident cat, Wolfie. His personality is emerging.

“Mac is a big purr machine and loves to play already. He enjoys flailing his legs and trying to bite with his tiny teeth. He’s still ultra snuggly. We are hoping that once his paws are under him, he will start running around.”

In the weeks that follow, the sweet kitten will be able to put his legs to good use as he enters the boisterous kitten phase and navigates the world around him.

Here’s a video of a kitten in San Diego similar to Macaroni, with polydactyly and bent legs. (It was also missing an eye.) The improvement after treatment is astounding!  Reader Marion said, “Here’s a video the San Diego Humane Society released of their treatment of a polydactyl kitten with bent legs.  I imagine it will bring in a ton of money.”

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Lagniappe:  Click below to see a video taken from a CatCam, worn around a cat’s neck. And put the sound on:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1270687383871368

h/t: Ginger K., Marion

Here we have the drawings of Ainars, who takes real cat photos that are viral on the Internet and makes drawings of them. Click on the screenshot to see ’em all.

My name is Ainars and I’m the creator of @dailypurrr on Instagram.

More than three years ago, I figured out that I wanted to make silly cat doodles and do them every day. That’s how dailypurrr started. But before that, I had dozens of failed attempts to create something that would bring some fun to people around the internet.

This time, I decided that I would be silent until I’d made my first 50 cat drawings. When that happened, my friends and family got to know that I was secretly making low-quality cat doodles.

One month later, I was going to sleep and had about 500 followers on my Instagram page and was hoping that in three upcoming months, until the New Year, I would have my first 1000 followers. But… Life is full of surprises.

When I woke up, there were 1100 followers. I refreshed the page—1200, refreshed it once again—1300… I was shocked and decided to ask where all these people got to know about my page. It turned out that 9GAG made a post about my drawings.

That was a life-changing moment and my page got its first 10 or 20 thousand followers, which led to huge interest in my page.

So, I continued to make daily doodles, until one day I received a casual email with an offer to do an interview. Without any doubt, I answered that I was absolutely ready. That e-mail was from Rokas, who is a part of the Bored Panda team.

When this short interview and article came out, my follower count skyrocketed and after that, the whole internet was flooded with reposts of that interview, my drawings, and all the other materials.

Ainars social-media sites: More info: Instagram | Facebook | patreon.com

Here’s a sample of six of his drawings. Remember: they’re modeled on real cats photos, which are shown:

There are 34 more at the site—go see!

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The Kiffness is a musician (I don’t know his name) who takes various sounds and sets them to music. These include people singing, drill sergeants, cockatiels, and so on, but he’s most famous for his musical riffs on caterwauling. (The Kiffness’s YouTube channel is here.) He’s very inventive!

Here are the top ten Kiffness takes on caterwauling. I bet you’ve heard one or two of these:

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Finally, we have a musical composition that happens to be shaped like a cat. But it’s also very nice music and only 33 seconds long. Have a listen:

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Lagniappe: From Reddit via Peter, a cat on a matchbox, “ready for a scratch”, as it says on the label.

h/t: Ginger K., Avis

If you find good cat-related items, send them along for future Caturdays. Thanks!

This is from the Independent (click to read); the cat’s entire name is “Duke Ellington Morris”.

From the article (and a a photo). At 14, though, he should be retired!

A cat has been hired as the newest employee of a US airport to help calm nervous flyers.

Duke Ellington Morris, known as “Duke”, is the latest member of San Francisco International Airport’s “Wag Brigade”.

The appointment of the 14-year-old black and white cat was announced by the airport’s Twitter account, with the caption: “Purrlease welcome our newest Wag Brigade member, Duke Ellington Morris!”

Underneath, a professional snap of Duke wearing a tiny pilot’s hat and shirt collar was also shared.

The Wag Brigade programme was first launched by the California airport in 2013, with the aim of using animals to help sooth anxious travellers.

The Duke!

Purrlease welcome our newest Wag Brigade member, Duke Ellington Morris! 🐱 pic.twitter.com/FDSw1a55Ef

— San Francisco International Airport (SFO) ✈️ (@flySFO) June 8, 2023

More:

Initially the scheme was limited to dogs, but over time it has been expanded to include other specially trained animals including cats, rabbits, and even the “world’s first therapy pig”, LilLou.

Animals are selected for their temperament and behaviour, and must be certified by San Francisco’s SPCA and have completed its Animal Assisted Therapy (ATT) programme.

Before getting the call up to wear the special “Pet Me” vest at San Francisco airport, Duke was initially rescued by the SPCA from a feral cat colony in 2010 while he was still a kitten.

He was adopted by a five-year-old girl and her mother, who had him certified as a therapy animal.

On his Instagram account, run by his owners, Duke’s latest appointment was announced with a post reading: “Happy is not the word… elated!”

Here’s Duke’s Instagram page and a photo of him with his staff. The caption for this one, apparently from the cat: “I picked her out as my guardian on November 1, 2010, when she was a sassy 5 year old. Best decision of my life.”  Clearly this was written by Duke:

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Here’s a great Kiffness video of a cat meowing, almost in English, about its loneliness. A musician turns it into a plaintive song: “Sometimes I’m alone.”

Here’s the original video (click below or here to go to the plaintive cat).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kuma & George Rufus 🐺🐈 (@kumatron.the.shiba)

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In this article from Explore Cats, we get the answer to the question all ailurophiles have asked: “Can any species of cat climb down a tree head first?”  We know that a treed cat has to climb down backwards because its recurved claws will only give it a grasp when it’s facing forwards (see this article for more explanation). But is that true of all cats species?

The answer is no, and click on the screenshot below to see why:

The way to do it is to evolve the ability to rotate your ankles 180°, so you can walk down head first with your paws backwards. By “rotating 180 degrees,” they mean upside-down, as if you were able to walk on the tops of your feet.

From the article:

. . .certain wild cats have the hypermobility needed. Three wild cats are known to be able to rotate their rear ankles 180 degrees.

These arboreal cats have adapted to a life that is spent significantly in trees. Hypermobility provides these cats with the ability to move swiftly up and down trees.

The ability to rotate their ankles 180 degrees also gives these three species of felines the ability to climb down trees by holding on with their hind legs only as well as the ability to hang from tree limbs with just one rear paw.

Three known species of wild cats are known to have evolved hypermobility: Margery, clouded leopards, and marbled cats.

The Margay

The margay (Leopardus Wiedii) is considered by many researchers to be the most adapted to life in the trees. The margay is a small spotted cat that is native to Central and South America. Smaller than a house cat, the margay only weights 2.6 to 4 kg (5.7 to 8.8 lb).

Margays are found mostly in dense forests that range from tropical evergreen forest to tropical dry forest and high cloud forest.  The wild cat’s range once extended as far north at Texas but is now distributed from Mexico through Central America to Brazil and Paraguay.

In addition to ankles that are able to rotate 180 degrees, margay cats have large paw pads that help them to grip tree bark. Nocturnal cats, the agility of margays helps them to hunt small primates and squirrels as well as amphibians, reptiles, birds and eggs.

A video:

And here’s Professor Ceiling Cat actually holding a margay, which was pretty tame and was resident of a bar in Playas Del Coco, Costa Rica. The photo is from August, 1974 when I was taking an Organization for Tropical Studies Course in Costa Rica, and it’s a photo of a 35mm slide. The cat bit my ring, and for years afterwards, until the Turkish puzzle ring fell apart, it had a dent from the margay’s tooth.

This is the only time in my life that I held a species of cat other than a housecat.

Marbled Cat.

The marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) is a small wild cat native with a distribution from eastern Himalayas to Southeast Asia. Like the margay cat, the marbled cat is also adapted to life in the trees and has the ability to rotate its ankles 180 degrees (Kitchener et al., 2010). This lets the marbled cat descend trees head first as well as hang on to a branch with one hind leg only.

The marbled cat lives in forest up to 2,500 m (8,200 ft) altitude. Similar in size to a domestic cat, the marbled cat weighs between 2 and 5 kg (4.4 and 11.0 lb).

This is a short video as the cat is elusive:

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Finally, the clouded leopard, perhaps the most beautiful of cats:

These arboreal cats (Neofelis nebulosa) live in dense forests from the foothills of the Himalayas through mainland Southeast Asia into southern China.

The largest of the wild cats with hypermobility, clouded leopards weigh between 11.5 and 23 kg (25 and 51 lb).

Notice the rotated ankles in this tweet:

Not only do Clouded leopards possess claws and paws specifically adapted for conforming to the shape of tree branches, but, they also have ankle joints that are able to rotate completely backwards. This makes them one of the best climbers in the cat family! pic.twitter.com/5TA2p5cRFn

— Doc 🐍🔜 Anthrocon (Dealer's F10) (@DrWildlife) June 12, 2018

I found this video:

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Lagniappe from reader Divy: Her master Jango approves of the paper by Luana and me:

h/t: Su, Ginger K., Debra

I am running low on cat-related items for future Caturday felids. If you come across an interesting cat-related piece, please send it my way.

Did you know that Wikipedia has a list of famous and notable cats? Yes it does, with lots of them! Click below to go down the rabbit hole, for many of the cats have their own entries.

Here’s just an excerpt (click on links to see cats). Oscar the hospice cat is the one that freaks me out the most.  He would lie down beside terminally ill patients right before they were out to die. In fact, as the article says,

Joan Teno, a physician at Steere House, clarified that “it’s not that the cat is consistently there first. But the cat always does manage to make an appearance, and it always seems to be in the last two hours.”^[9]

After Oscar accurately predicted 25 deaths, staff started calling family members of residents as soon as they discovered him sleeping next to a patient in order to notify them and give them an opportunity to say goodbye before the impending death.  

He accurately predicted 100 out of 100 deaths, and nobody knows how he did it!  (Some say it was confirmation bias, but read this article in the New England Journal of Medicine. If you can’t get it, ask me.) This is one case in which I’ll suspend skepticism. Here’s Oscar, the Cat of Death.

• Beerbohm, a cat that resided at the Gielgud Theatre in London.
• Blackie the Talking Cat, a “talking” cat who was exhibited (for donations) by an unemployed couple on the streets of Augusta, Georgia. Blackie became the subject of a court case, Miles v. City Council of Augusta.
• Blue, a Siamese cat taken “hostage” in Gresham, Oregon in a grocery store in the United States in 1994.
• Browser, a Texas library cat.
• CC (Copy Cat, or Carbon Cat), the first cloned cat.
• Chase No Face, a cat who lost her face in an accident, was a therapy cat for people with disfigurements.^[55]
• Crimean Tom, a cat that helped British Army troops find food after the Siege of Sevastopol
• Dusty the Klepto Kitty (US), notorious for being an expert night cat burglar.^[56]
• Emily, an American cat who, after being lost, was found to have gone to France.^[57]
• Faith, a London cat that took up residence in St Faith & St Augustine’s church (by St Paul’s Cathedral) in wartime, and received a PDSA Silver Medal for her bravery in caring for her kitten when the church was bombed.^[58]
• Fred the Undercover Kitty, a cat famous for assisting the NYPD and Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office in 2006.
• Jack, a cat who was lost by American Airlines baggage handlers at John F Kennedy airport before Hurricane Irene.^[59] He was found later but was severely dehydrated and malnourished after his 61-day ordeal^[60] and was euthanized.^[61]
• Lewis, a cat who became infamous after being placed under house arrest.
• Little Nicky, the first animal cloned for commercial reasons.
• Marzipan (c.1992–2013), a calico cat who lived in the lobby of Astor Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. She was the theatre’s unofficial mascot and was often seen sitting on the couches, waiting for the patrons to pat her as they left the cinema. She was also known to stroll in the cinema and watch the movies, or simply wander down the aisle and sit on patrons’ laps.^[62] She had her own Facebook fan page.^[63]
• Mike (1908 – January 1929), a cat who guarded the entrance to the British Museum.
• Mittens (~2009–present), a ginger Turkish Angora who wanders Wellington, New Zealand, and has a Facebook-based fanbase who regularly posts photos of him climbing into rental cars, entering businesses, and napping in unusual places.
• Nora, a gray tabby cat who plays the piano alongside her owner.
• Oscar, a cat fitted with bionic hind legs following an accident in 2009.
• Oscar the hospice cat, written up in the New England Journal of Medicine for his uncanny ability to predict which patients will die by curling up to sleep with them hours before their death. To date he has been right 100+ times.^[64][65]

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You probably already know what you’re supposed to do to communicate with your cat. Guess first!

From ScienceAlert; click on screenshot:

An excerpt:

Never fear – research from 2020 has shown that it’s not so difficult. You just need to smile at them more. Not the human way, by baring your teeth, but the cat way, by narrowing your eyes and blinking slowly.

By observing cat-human interactions, scientists confirmed that this expression makes cats – both familiar and strange – approach and be more receptive to humans.

“As someone who has both studied animal behavior and is a cat owner, it’s great to be able to show that cats and humans can communicate in this way,” Karen McComb, a University of Sussex psychologist, said in a 2020 statement.

“It’s something that many cat owners had already suspected, so it’s exciting to have found evidence for it.”

Here’s a demonstration:

The SCIENCE:

Anecdotal evidence from cat owners has hinted that humans can copy this expression to communicate to cats that we are friendly and open to interaction. So, a team of psychologists designed two experiments to determine whether cats behaved differently towards slow–blinking humans.

In the first experiment, owners slow-blinked at 21 cats from 14 different households. Once the cat was settled and comfy in one spot in their home environment, the owners were instructed to sit about 1 meter away and slow-blink when the cat was looking at them. Cameras recorded both the owner’s and the cat’s faces, and the results were compared to how cats blink with no human interaction.

The results showed that cats are more likely to slow-blink at their humans after their humans have slow–blinked at them, compared to the no–interaction condition.

The second experiment included 24 cats from eight different households. This time, it wasn’t the owners doing the blinking but the researchers, who’d had no prior contact with the cat. For a control, the cats were recorded responding to a no–blink condition, in which humans stared at the cats without blinking their eyes.

The researchers performed the same slow–blink process as the first experiment, adding an extended hand toward the cat. And they found that not only were the cats more likely to blink back, but they were also more likely to approach the human’s hand after the human blinked.

“This study is the first to experimentally investigate the role of slow blinking in cat-human communication,” McComb said.

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The New York Review of Books has a cat issue with a review of five books on cats by Gregory Hays, an associate professor of classics at the University of Virginia.  If you click on the second screenshot, you can read his article for free!

I’ve put the five books below with their Amazon links.

John Gray’s book has gotten good reviews in other places, too. Here’s from Hays’s bit about it:

Cats aren’t preoccupied with being good, only with being cats. They are incapable of empathy, altruism, pity, or kindness, and likewise incapable of cruelty or sadism. They are beyond good and evil. Cats don’t know that they will die, though they may sense the approach of death when it comes. They do not search for meaning in their lives.

Cats refute continuously the claim that the unexamined life is not worth living, by living it. They are both Stoics and Epicureans: they live in accordance with nature and they seek to maximize pleasure. But they do this without reading treatises or attending lectures. Nor do they share the defensive outlook and rejection of the world common to both schools. That cats have no use for philosophy is an indictment, for Gray, not of cats, but of philosophy: “Posing as a cure, philosophy is a symptom of the disorder it pretends to remedy.”

If cats have the answer—that there is no answer, for there is no question—it follows that the best philosophers will be the most catlike. A cautionary example here is Pascal, who lived an anxious life trying to overcome his dread of death through faith and reason. Not a cat person, Pascal. Gray’s sympathies lie rather with Montaigne and Samuel Johnson, who recognize the futility of human striving and urge us to take life as it comes. Not surprisingly, both were cat owners.

Soden’s book is a fictional biography of Jeoffrey, the cat celebrated by Christopher Smart as his companion in the lunatic asylum. Smart’s poem (a fragment of Jubilate Agno) is my favorite bit of literature about cats, and you can read it here.  All cat lovers need to know this relatively short fragment of poetry that, to me, best sums up how humans see cat-ness.

Hays says this:

Unsurprisingly, the years with Smart are the heart of the book. The asylum period is an imprisonment for Jeoffry too. Used to the sounds and smells of London, he is now confined by a wire-topped wall to Smart’s room and tiny garden. We watch with him as Smart is force-fed his “medicine” and herded out naked into the rain with other patients, in lieu of bathing. Soden movingly imagines Smart’s mental illness as experienced by Jeoffry:

To Jeoffry, the man smelled of fear…. Around Smart stretched something that was not there, but which Jeoffry could see all the same: an absence of light, like a silk blanket that was not black but blank, that was not dark but vacuous, empty of meaning, devoid of sense…. On some days the blanket and its jabs sent Smart mad, and on other days it sent him still, and sometimes Jeoffry could see that it wasn’t there at all. Jeoffry knew it for what it was, but what it was he could not say.

Whether this catches a cat’s experience, who can know? But at least it takes seriously the gulf between cats and ourselves.

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h/t: cesar

Here’s a story from the New Yorker that will divide cat-lovers into the “innies” and the “outies”. Click to read:

It’s about the German town of Walldorf, which is legally required to monitor species that are locally threatened. It turned out that the crested lark (Galerida cristata), though widespread across Eurasia and north Africa, was locally rare.

The town set aside some nearby fields as lark habitat, but the birds stayed put, so Walldorf fenced in the vacant lots where the birds were nesting in the weeds. A community of sixteen thousand people—home to the software giant sap and one of the richest towns in Germany—was now spending more than eighty thousand euros a year to protect a small number of birds.

Here’s a crested lark from Wikipedia (photo from Morocco):

By last year, only two pair of the species were observed breeding in the town. And so the local government took more drastic action:

“From now until August 31,” it declared, “the free roaming of cats is to be prevented by their owners in the area covered by this decree.” The rule would take effect in just three days, not only in the new subdivision but also in Tredwell’s neighborhood, and recur each spring until 2025. The owner of any cat caught outdoors would be fined five hundred euros, or about five hundred and fifty dollars; any cat that injured or killed a crested lark could incur a penalty of fifty thousand euros.

And of course there are two sides. As author Crair writes,

As a city person, I have always thought of the countryside as close to nature—but many rural animals, struggling to survive in agricultural landscapes, are now seeking refuge in denser human settlements. Urban wastelands are becoming sanctuaries for rural birds; scientists in Czechia, where the crested-lark population has fallen by two-thirds since the nineteen-seventies, discovered the birds nesting in abandoned commercial developments, where native weeds still grow. These habitats were so fragmented that the birds stopped functioning as a single, healthy population. Baden-Württemberg likewise became a kind of crested-lark archipelago, with islands of birds in a sea of unpopulated fields.

Cats are most dangerous to wild bird species that live in small and isolated groups. On actual islands, for example, cats have contributed to the extinction of at least thirty-three creatures. The Birds of the World database, from Cornell University, warns, in an entry on the rare Razo skylark of Cape Verde: “One introduced cat could easily spell the end of this species.” This is why nations like Australia, where cats only arrived with European settlers, often regulate cat ownership. In Germany, where there are few restrictions on cat ownership, the nation’s felines kill more than fifty million birds each year. Peter Marra, a Georgetown biologist, argues in his book “Cat Wars” that “the most desirable solution,” for conservationists the world over, would be to “remove all free-ranging cats from the landscape by any means necessary.”

And yet it’s hard for cat owners to resist the insistent meowing at the door as many cats demand to go out. (I always kept my cats indoors, mostly to keep them safe, as I didn’t ever see them be predators.) But the cat-owners of Walldorf, and their moggies, resisted:

Last summer was “a real horror show” for Walldorf’s cats and their owners, Tredwell told me. Mimi and Fluffy refused to use a litter box for weeks, but Tredwell couldn’t open the windows for fresh air, lest the cats escape. The cats threw up, shredded the furniture, and clawed her face while she slept. She was allowed to let them roam with expensive G.P.S. tracking collars, but the cats ran away from her when she tried to steer them away from lark territory. She gave Mimi and Fluffy to her mom, who lived outside the lockdown zone, but they disappeared and turned up at Tredwell’s door two days later. When she was finally allowed to let them out again, on September 1st, they disappeared for another three days.

Oy gewalt! What is one to do? Well, the pecksniffs, with their authoritarian streak, came out to report people:

Many residents of Walldorf started to think that efforts to enforce the lockdown went too far. “There were people running around taking pictures, trying to gather information about the cats,” Marine Vetter, a local cat owner, told me. The country’s largest newspaper, the tabloid Bild, reported that locals received a letter asking them to report cat sightings to Fischer’s team. The paper called Fischer and his employees the “Katzen-Stasi.” In January, Walldorf hired a second conservation company to protect crested larks; Fischer resigned. In February, a state official said that Fischer’s team may have improperly collected private data. (Datenschutz, or data protection, is a –schutz about which Germans tend to agree.)

The author does make a good point, especially salient given that the species is only locally endangered, and because of human activity that reduced suitable habitat, not necessarily because of cats:

Still, my conversations with Lepp left me feeling sorry for the cats. There’s no telling whether last year’s larks hatched in Walldorf because of the cat lockdown, some other factor, or pure luck. Cats seemed to be bearing the burden of bad decisions that humans have made, which have transformed so much of the planet that many of our fellow-creatures can no longer survive—and no one talks about keeping people indoors from April to September. (Incidentally, when we were locked down at the start of the covid-19 pandemic, birds became more visible and produced higher-quality songs.)

Why not keep humans indoors, too?  We are, after all, the world’s most notorious and profligate predator.

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Maybe you already know the answer(s) to this question, but read the LiveScience piece below in case you don’t:

Most of the piece:

“It’s one of those behaviors that we mostly understand, but not totally,” said Mikel Delgado, a certified cat behavior consultant at Feline Minds, told Live Science. “Purring is likely reflexive, like breathing.”

The comfortable rumble of a cat’s purr is one of life’s little joys for cat owners. But is that true for the cat, too? Yes, generally, cats purr when they are feeling good. Whether sitting on a lap or sprawling in sunshine, a purring cat is usually a happy cat.

“Ninety percent of the time, purring is positive,” Delgado said. “It means that your cat is experiencing pleasure. It’s happy, content and feels safe.”

Other reasons cats purr

But research suggests that cats purr for other reasons, too. One is related to survival. Kittens are born blind and deaf; they start purring a few days after birth. In the wild, purring is safe because it is quiet, so it’s unlikely that predators will hear a kitten purr.

At first, purring helps kittens stay close to mother cats, Dr. Kate Anderson, a veterinarian and professor at Cornell University, told Live Science. “They actually find their mom by purring, and their mom checks on them and then she purrs back,” Anderson explained.

But wait! There’s more!

Kittens also purr while they are nursing. “The purr may even lead to some bonding between mom and kittens,” Delgado said.

Cats keep purring when they grow up. “They’ll purr with another cat that they’re friendly with,” Anderson said.

Often, cats purr while grooming each other, when “there’s some caretaking behavior going on,” Delgado said. Domestic cats purr around familiar humans and dogs. Cats also purr while resting, eating or enjoying their alone time.

What’s more, cats may purr to get what they want. Most of the time, said Delgago, purring is a reflex; but purring can be intentional as well. According to a 2009 study in the journal Current Biology, cats use a specific “solicitation purr” to ask for food or to nudge humans to get out of bed. This purr mixes in higher-pitched frequencies that sound a bit like a baby crying. “When humans hear cats purring loudly using a solicitation purr,” Anderson said, “they see it as urgent.”

And more: they purr when they’re stressed or injured, though why they do this isn’t fully understood:

Although cats usually purr when they’re happy; that’s not always the case. They sometimes purr when they are stressed, Delgado said.

“I had a cat that used to purr at the veterinary office — and my cat definitely did not like going to the veterinarian!” Delgado said. “So that was kind of a stress response.”

Anderson has treated many injured, purring cats; she also thinks purring can be a coping mechanism, as it may help them self-soothe when they are sick, scared or dying.

One idea is that purring may help cats heal. A 2001 study in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America noted that cats purr at frequencies between 20 and 150 hertz, which are similar to frequencies used in human treatments for bone growth and muscle pain.

But there is no strong evidence to support or refute this idea.

Now you may be asking this: “What is the loudest purr ever recorded?” The Guinness Book of World Records has your answer, and I’ve put a video of the champion below:

The loudest purr by a domestic cat is 67.8 dB and was achieved by Smokey, owned by Lucinda Ruth Adams (UK) at Spring Hill farm, Pitsford, Northampton, UK, on 25 March 2011. This was equalled by Merlin, owned by Tracy Westwood (UK) in Torquay, Devon, UK, on 2 April 2015.

Smokey is a domestic cat and achieved its record in its home, where it felt relaxed and happy.

Merlin was 13 years old at the time of its record.

Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, I give you Merlin in full throat. That is one loud purr!

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Now the prospective law described below definitely makes sense, and was sent in by gravelinspector. He noted this:

I know you don’t want news of cat attacks, but this is somewhat different. Link below.

In the UK, Scotland and England/Wales, the law is currently that if you have a collision in your car (or bike) with a dog, you’re obliged to inform the police and RSPCA / SSPCA ([Royal or Scottish] Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) or a local vet. Because a dog is a piece of property with an owner and a value.

Ditto horses, sheep, cattle, deer … but not cats. Cats, in law, don’t have owners (well, we know that!), and therefore have no value, and no requirement to inform anyone of damage to this “non-property”.

Well, a case in Auld Reekie is leading to another attempt to change the law:

Click to read:

From the piece:

Hugo, an Arabian Mau, was well-loved around the cobbled streets of the upmarket retail area and, despite having a devoted owner, was looked after by hundreds of locals.

The tabby died last week after he was hit by a car that failed to stop.

Possibly, this time round the law will be changed. One significant difference from the 80s is that now all (domesticated) cats *should* now be microchipped, which disposes of the legal fiction of “not existing without ownership”. Probably it’ll drown in legalese – the normal fate for such outrage campaigns. Maybe not.

Yes! An article about cats in the New York Times, which has at last found a theme to unite all good people. This one is about why the Japanese revere cats, as we all know they do. Japan is the home of Miss Kitty, there are dozens of cat-themed retail objects, and Japan has several “cat islands” that you can visit to see gazillions of felines.  The article in fact begins with the author’s planned trip to Aoshima, a cat island, a trip that was sadly aborted by severe currents, making the author, Hanya Yanagihara, distraught. Click to read:

Some excerpts:

“You don’t need to see those cats,” Mihoko [Yanagihara’s companion] said. “Aoshima isn’t the only place in the country that has a lot of cats.” We were eating dinner by that point: My despair had lasted from brunch at an American-style coffee shop, the kind that no longer exists in America but became popular here after occupation; through a visit to Matsuyama Castle (built in 1627), one of Japan’s dozen or so extant castles; a stop at an orange juice bar (where you could order juice squeezed from different local varietals, some sweet, some tart); and, finally, dinner at a restaurant where we both ordered gyu, thin slices of grilled marinated beef, served rare over rice with grilled burdock and leeks. Throughout the day, as I sulked and broke into intermittent rants at the gods, the weather and the harbor master, Mihoko patiently pointed out cats — here was one licking itself near a makeshift shrine; there was another, staring at us through slit eyes — and fed me cat trivia: Natsume Soseki, perhaps Japan’s greatest modern writer and the author of “I Am a Cat” (1906), a satire of early 20th-century society narrated by a cat, had once taught English to middle schoolers in Matsuyama; earlier, at a gift store, we’d seen cookies stamped with an image of his face.

My desperation was, I could sense, beginning to perplex Mihoko. To her, Japan itself was cat obsessed. After all, cats were so elemental to the country that it had popularized the cat cafe, where you can pay to have a coffee and hang out with cats. So who needed Aoshima when you could get your fix right here in Tokyo? Who needed to travel to an island full of cats when you were already on an island of cats? To be in Japan is to be surrounded by cats: All you had to do was realize that.

Here are two cat icons you surely know:

The country’s two most enduring feline icons were born centuries apart. Hello Kitty, created as a cartoon figure in 1974, became the ambassador of first-wave kawaii culture, her image printed on erasers, aprons and sanitary pads and shipped around the world (according to her official origin story, Hello Kitty doesn’t even live in Japan but in a London suburb and, according to her creator, is a human, not a cat). But long before her, or her cartoon predecessor, Doraemon, a blue, earless, grinning cat-robot, there was the maneki neko, or “welcoming cat.”

The maneki neko is a blank-eyed cat figurine — usually white, often ceramic, its expression inscrutable but benign — with a bell around its neck and one paw raised near its ear as if in greeting. You’ve probably encountered one in your local Japanese restaurant; in Japan, they’re so ubiquitous that the eye stops registering them after a while. A few days after returning from Matsuyama, I met Mihoko for a trip out to Setagaya, a district in western Tokyo, where there was an Edo-era temple, Gotokuji, dedicated to the maneki neko.

Here is a maneki neko that I keep in my office:

A maneki neko store I photographed in Hong Kong (the Chinese go for them, too). Of course I bought a few:

And Hello Kitty:

More:

Anyone who’s been to Japan knows that virtually every neighborhood in every town has at least one Buddhist temple and one Shinto shrine. Most of these places are humble: a clean-swept yard and a darkened main building, opened only on New Year’s Day. But some are rich: their gardens well maintained, their trees trimmed, their bamboo fences fresh and green. Gotokuji is a rich temple; in the middle of the central walkway, we encountered a large, spectacular iron incense brazier with Ii’s mon, or family crest, an orange blossom, stamped in gold on its base. It’s rich because cat-loving pilgrims have come here for decades to make donations and ask for good fortune, and because (like many other savvy temples) it sells irresistible merchandise, in the form of ceramic maneki neko, which were offered in five different sizes. The largest was about a foot high; the smallest, just an inch.

The temple maintains a series of shelving units to hold the thousands of maneki neko that visitors have bought, scribbled their names and wishes on and left behind for luck. . . . There were, I noticed, no actual cats at the temple, presumably because they would have knocked over the maneki neko.

A photo of the temple:

Shintoism is no doubt also one of the reasons places like Aoshima exist. In Japan, there aren’t just (11) cat islands: There’s a monkey island. There’s a rabbit island. There’s a deer island (and deer cities, too, most notably Nara, Japan’s eighth-century capital and home to more than a thousand sika deer, who dominate the main park and occasionally try to butt visitors, who are warned by signs not to antagonize them). The Nara deer are exciting to encounter until they begin chasing you but, in general, the attitude in Japan seems to be that the animals are there to stay and, despite some annual culling, it’s our job to accommodate them.

Yanagihara never made it to the Cat Island, but there are plenty of pictures, including some of the five humans who inhabit the mile-long island and feed the cats:

There’s a lot of cat history I’ve omitted (it’s a long piece), including the ambivalent relationship of Buddhism and of Shintoism to cats.

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Here’s a piece from The Atlantic (archived) in which Sarah Zhang explains why people think cats are psychopaths, even though they aren’t. They’re just “aloof little jerks”.

An excerpt:

Cats, she pointed out, simply don’t have the facial muscles to make the variety of expressions a dog (or human) can. So when we look at a cat staring at us impassively, it looks like a psychopath who cannot feel or show emotion. But that’s just its face. Cats communicate not with facial expressions but through the positions of their ears and tails. Their emotional lives can seem inscrutable—and even nonexistent—until you spend a lot of time getting to know one.

D*gs, on the other hand, have “learned to mimic humans”, imitating smiling, expressions of guilt, and appealing raises of the brow.  Feh: they’re sycophants! And their independence is one reason people think they’re “psychopaths.” But they’re not: they’re just CATS!

A common charge against cats is that they do not care about their owners as anything more than a source of wet food. In studies of pet-owner relationships, scientists have found that dogs are more “attached” to owners. These studies frequently rely on protocol called the Ainsworth Strange Situation, in which the pet explores an unfamiliar environment alone, with its owner, or with a stranger. Dogs are more at ease with their owners rather than with strangers. Cats can’t seem to care less about the human there.

Maybe this says something about pet-owner attachment, but Delgado noted that dogs are used to their owners taking them to new places. Cats are territorial, and they might only leave the house to go to the vet, so what looks like indifference to their owners might just be overwhelming anxiety about a new, strange environment. Plus, the Ainsworth Strange Situation was developed by Mary Ainsworth to study parents and infants—another example of us judging cats on human rather than cat terms.

And the closing:

Talk to experienced cat owners, of course, and you’ll quickly find that psychopathy, or something that looks like it, is hardly a dealbreaker. When the subject came up in the office, my colleague Rachel Gutman launched into a tribute to her childhood cat K.C., who terrorized everyone but her immediate family members and, for some reason, Carmine the electrician. He’d bite anyone who dared to pet him. He’d attack her grandfather’s ankles. He’d pee in her grandmother’s bed when she came to visit. “In conclusion,” she said, “he was the best cat, and I miss him every day.”

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This is a very sad story of an Australian hero cat who saved his human family by attacking a venomous snake. I’ve put the end of the story below the picture, or you can access the Facebook entry directly by clicking here.

The next morning Arthur’s hoomans found him collapsed again and unable to get up. They rushed him to our Tanawha hospital. Unfortunately, Arthur’s symptoms were too severe to recover. It was with the heaviest of hearts his owners had to leave Arthur after he gained his angel wings.

His family, understandably devastated, remember him fondly and are forever grateful he saved the children’s lives. Arthur was always getting into mischief; he had previously visited us before having been in accidents and was very much loved by our team.

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Lagniappe: A cool cat DNA tee shirt is for sale, and it’s not expensive ($17 from Quertee, item here). It appears to come only in blue, but there are both men’s and women’s sizes, and it’s a nice logo. (They also have a few different non-cat shirts on sale daily for $12).  This is a must for those who love genetics and cats.

Matthew, who fits that bill, tells me, however, that the DNA helix is twisted in the wrong direction! (It’s in the Z form—a left-handed spiral—as opposed to the more common B form described by Watson and Crick).

h/t: Karl, Barry, Malcolm