So what is ectoplasm? Well, the only time that I have seen it is in old photographs of spiritualist mediums spewing up a long trail of gunk from their mouths to prove that they are in contact with the spirit word, the 'other side'. I don't understand it. Perhaps the ectoplasm is from the other side and is evidence of its existence. The word appears to exist from it use to describe single celled creatures: 'clear outer layer of the cytoplasm in amoeboid cells'. Black cat spewing up ectoplasm! No actually it is vomit! Picture in the public domain. There was a lot of fakery in spiritualism in those days and there still is. The picture of the black cat simply reminded me of the ectoplasm of fake spiritualists. It is a bit of fun. How spiritualists got away with it is beyond me as it looks patently idiotic. Cats are master vomiters. They can vomit with great ease. You only have to be concerned about a cat vomiting if it lasts for 24 hours or thereabouts. Then it is ab

This is a boring and ubiquitous problem: how to reduce the numbers of feral cats in any one place. It is a perennial problem for thousands of local authorities who want to protect wildlife. They are eager to do it but sometimes they use blunt instruments in their panic and desperation to get a result quickly. The only way to remove feral cats from areas which are considered important in terms of conservation is to do it painstakingly and precisely. There are no alternatives because you simply must distinguish between domestic and feral cat. And all the cats in between those extremities. There are, after all, many semi-domesticated cats outside. Feral cats. Photo in public domain. If your plan is to trap and kill cats roaming around the landscape on the premise that they are all feral you are mistaken. You may be liable for compensation and you may be engaging in a criminal act in killing someone's pet. It can be very hard to distinguish between domestic and feral cat. That is why t

This is an extreme version of the Exotic Shorthair. The way this breeder has bred this cat to extremities is by making the animal more rounded . This is seen in the cat's cheeks which are incredibly large and, yes, round in appearance. I've not seen an Exotic Shorthair with such rounded large cheeks. The appearance reminds me of a Russian bred British Shorthair . I'm going to conclude therefore that this cat is the creation of a Russian breeder. Rounded head and cheeks of an extreme bred Exotic SH. Picture in public domain. You can go to the breed standard to find out why this person decided to create such enormous cheeks. All the breed standards for this cat will be similar but I'll choose the Cat Fanciers' Association breed standard for the Exotic. It says that the cheeks should be "full". The head should be "round and massive". The face should be round with "round underlying bone structure". The word "round" is littered lik

There is a story today in The Times newspaper about the inhumane slaughter of pigs in their millions using carbon dioxide. I've used the word "inhumane" because that appears to be how it is considered by the authorities and experts. In 1986, two British scientists came to the conclusion that pigs slaughtered in carbon dioxide gas chambers suffered "severe respiratory distress". 90% of the 9 million pigs slaughtered in Britain annually are killed this way. There are calls to change it. Farm pig. Photo: Pixabay. To the best of my knowledge, unwanted domestic and feral cats at shelters are no longer killed in carbon dioxide (or carbon monoxide) gas chambers (dependent on the country). There was a time when it happened and there may still be some gas chambers in America. They've been largely phased out. A study from 1973 concluded that carbon dioxide was a suitable alternative to chloroform for euthanasia of cats by non-veterinary personnel. That moment has

I'm asking the simple question whether it is a good idea to take your cat hiking. You put your cat in a backpack and off you go. The picture looks great. You are stimulating your cat to the maximum. Your cat has got used to it and therefore 'behaves'. It has taken some time to achieve this. Because at the beginning your cat wouldn't cooperate.  You tried a lead and she just fell over so it's taken months and months to get her to the position where she cooperates and comes along with you on a hiking trip. But when you go for a walk along a hiking trail she wants to go left and right and stop and sniff. So you make about a mile of progress and consider that to be a great success. Then you go back to your campervan. Picture of a domestic cat on a hiking trip. Is it an unrealistic dream that is being sold? Pic in public domain. It is a good idea? That's why I have put the question inside the picture. Because it looks really good but we do not know what happens behi

This is a quick note but one worth making nonetheless. I think I can predict that in the long term, perhaps in about 18 months to 2 years time, governments in various countries, perhaps predominantly in the West, will be thinking about vaccinating companion animals as a second phase protective measure against Covid-19.  This is because there is a concern among some scientists that animals may create a reservoir for mutant variants of the Covid-19 virus. As the virus is zoonotic it can theoretically and actually be transmitted from animals to people and this must apply also to companion animals. Danish mink farmer with white mink due to be euthanised. Photo per credit Perhaps because of the general panicked nature of governmental responses to the coronavirus pandemic, not enough work has been done on this aspect of the spread of the disease. In addition nobody wants to alarm anybody which may lead to companion animal abuse. In fact, in China, at the outset of the pandemic, there were in

This study is interesting because it looks at the attitudes of cat owners in respect of keeping them indoors full-time on an international basis . We know that geographically there will be variations in attitudes because some countries have more space in them than others.  For example, the UK is heavily urbanised with a resultant increase in possibility of road traffic accidents killing cats. This should drive cat owners to keeping their cats inside all the time. Set against this, in countries like the United States, which is much less urbanised there are more predators of domestic cats (e.g. coyotes) which is another factor for keeping cats indoors. Full-time indoor cat. Picture in the public domain. In round terms, the 5,000 cat owner survey found that getting on for 50% of domestic cats are kept inside for their safety. The main safety factors are road traffic accidents, being attacked by a predator or stolen by thieves. The survey, which is published on the MDPI website is entitled

Floof cat. Floof means a fluffy, longhaired animal. Pic: Reddit. The man is in his gym lifting weights! Actually, he appears to be in his garage lifting weights. If all gyms had weights like this they would be more people in them. He is the epitome of a laid back cat, it seems to me. He looks like a random bred cat. He doesn't look like a Maine Coon. He might be, but the overall appearance does not tell me that he's a Maine Coon. It would not surprise me if somebody told me I was completely wrong as he might be a slightly non-typical cat of this breed. My guess is that this cat weighs something in the order of 25 pounds. That would put him at the top end of the scale for domestic cat weights. He's one of those very big domestic cats which always impresses. I've got to say that he looks a little bit overweight without wanting to be critical. I think we can allow him to be a little bit overweight, if I am correct. It's just his character, his laid-back character which

Don't ever, ever yell at or near a domestic cat. Don't even yell in the same house which there is a domestic cat. Don't even think about yelling when you live with a domestic cat. You are liable to frighten your cat and your cat may well associate you with being a hostile creature and if this happens it will weaken the bond between cat and human.  Don't yell at or near domestic cats. Please. It is not clever to make a video of you yelling at your cat as this complete moron did. His video has received more than 8 million views because it's been on the Internet for about 8 million years. And the only people who want to see it are voyeurs who have a curiosity about how a domestic cat would react to being shouted at. You don't need to be curious because the answer is obvious. Domestic cats are frightened by yelling at them or in the same room as them. They respond well to the exact opposite: soothing sounds, quietness, calm, confidence and reassurances ( make a c

In an act of enlightenment, the organisers of a campaign to encourage British women to attend a cervical cancer screening employed a picture of three cats; one hairless, one long-haired and the third shorthaired. They've equated the lack of hair or hair length on these cats to pubic hair on women and as to whether they shave or wax their hair or not. Apparently women are embarrassed to go for cervical cancer screening unless they have had their pubic hair waxed or shaved beforehand. I think that's the connection between this campaign i.e. hair length or no hair and cervical cancer. It's caused offence in some quarters of the female population while others see the benefit of it. The key aspect of this campaign is that it has got people talking about cervical cancer screening. This is the objective because it will help encourage women to go to a clinic. This will save lives. Some women thought it was demeaning to equate cats with cervical screening. I think it is quite enligh

This is a Flickr photograph by Terje Sund of a black (ebony) Oriental Shorthair (OSH) at, I believe, a cat show. The photographer describes the cat as a "world winner". I believe that this cat is female. The cat looks fierce but that's just chance and misleading which can happen sometimes in photography. The cat is simply opening their mouth at the same time as the photographer took the photograph.  Black Oriental Shorthair show cat looking aggressive. Photo: Sund It gives an impression of aggression but I don't think this is true at all. Although the ears are flat which sorta gives the impression that the cat is trying to protect them, a precursor to aggression. However, I think this too is misleading because often Oriental Shorthair cats are bred with ears that come out of the side of the head rather than are positioned on top of the head.  This is selective breeding and it looks odd to me and I wondered why it should happen. It should be in the breed standard bu

Here are some interesting and I think very nice pictures of black, leggy and slender Oriental Shorthair cats. The black coat delineates the cat's shape to the maximum against their background. And this cat has a very particular shape as guided by the breed standard. You don't have to look very far to see why the Oriental Shorthair is so slender with such long legs.  Picture of black leggy and slender Oriental Shorthair. Photo: in public domain. The International Cat Association's breed standard for what they describe as the Siamese Breed Group which includes the Oriental Shorthair, the Oriental Longhair and Balinese, states that the body should be "long and tubular with equal width at shoulders and hips. Medium-sized. Fine-boned". As for the legs the guideline is that they are "long with hind legs higher than front legs; finally boned but proportioned to carry the body length and weight; firm muscles." The feet should be small and the tail long. Picture

The three pictures of blue British Shorthair cats on this page show cats that have been bred to an extreme appearance. They probably come from Russia where they are very good at this. But I'm going to refer to The International Cat Association (TICA) breed standard for the British Shorthair to point out how breeders end up magnifying a particular feature of a cat because the breed standard specifies it. How far they go down that road is up to the breeder because the cat associations don't prevent them breeding to extreme although they should because sometimes it creates inherently unhealthy cats which goes against the cat associations' policies. Extreme bred British Shorthair to emphasis the cheeks and to make the cat look very cobby and rounded per the breed standard. Picture in public domain. So, the head shape of the British Shorthair under the TICA beach standard demands that a show cat should have "full round chubby cheeks. Broad, wide cheekbones with smooth tr

These are really nice pictures of cats; specifically pictures of "Poodle Cat" kittens. There are a few things to say about them. Firstly, they are an excellent example of the Selkirk Rex, which is how they should be referred to. It's an important point because journalists and people outside the cat fancy or cat world tend to refer to Selkirk Rex cats as 'Poodle Cats', which creates a bit of confusion because there just so happens to be a super-rare cat breed which you probably can't buy because there may be none left named the, guess what, Poodle Cat .  It is also a curly-haired domestic cat looking quite similar to the Selkirk Rex but it is not. It is a distinct cat breed with a genuine name. Selkirk Rex kitten, AKA Poodle Cat. Picture in the public domain. Some people refer to the Selkirk Rex as a "cat in sheep's clothing". That's another way to describe this breed but 'Poodle Cat' caught the imagination and it sort of stuck. Despi

I have decided that this amazing looking cat is a Russian bred, cinnamon British Shorthair registered with The International Cat Association (TICA). I have speculated big time after carrying out a bit of research to reassure myself that this cat association accepts this colour of cat.The cat might also be registered under the World Cat Federation (WCF) which also no doubt allow cinnamon as a coat colour. The CFA does not. I must say it's a fantastic colour for a domestic cat. It is completely standout. Cinnamon British Shorthair cat. Photo in the public domain on Pinterest If a visitor came to your home and saw this cat they would be astounded because it's so rare to see a colour like this. Especially because the British Shorthair is really known for its grey coat which is described as "blue" in the cat fancy. We do see lots of blue British shorthair cats all of which are outstanding but cinnamon is unusual. This can also is very much in line with the breed stan

A top quality picture of five kittens smushed together keeping warm. They are a spectrum of coat pattens. This is how a litter of kittens turns out sometimes. They are tabbies. They looks incredibly healthy. All credit to the person who has looked after them in addition to the mom. I would expect that these kittens have one father because they are similar. But sometimes the kittens in a litter may have different fathers. It is called superfecundation. I have written about this and if it interests you you can read the article by clicking here . I guess you might know that female cats can mate with different males when she's in heat. The release of her eggs are triggered during mating. Her reproductive tract contains the sperm of several males and chance dictates which male's sperm fertilises each of her eggs which have been shed from the ovaries. That's why you sometimes get a wide variety of appearances amongst siblings in a litter of kittens.

The title says it all. A heart pattern on a domestic cat is not very unusual. But when there are three heart patterns, one on the face, a second on the chest and a third formed by the forelegs, it has to be said to be highly unusual. It certainly caught my eye which is why I decided to republish it on this website. I don't know who took the photograph but I am confident that it is in the public domain because it must've circulated around the Internet and in doing so any copyright would have been lost in my humble opinion. Picture of a cat with a triple heart pattern when sitting. Photograph in the public domain. I don't believe that this cat is purebred but she/he might be a bicolor (2 colours) British Shorthair. I think that is the only cat breed which is possible. The cat is more likely to be a rare random bred cat. They do occur.

This is a nice video. It is not abusive. It is beneficial to the cats. It is beneficial to the people who view it because it entertains people. And as I believe it was filmed in a cat café somewhere in Asia. The cats performance is also beneficial to the clients of the café because they can watch these wonderful cats carrying out their instructions.  And they do carry out their instruction so well. The woman has done a wonderful job in training them. I am convinced having looked at this video that it is in a cat café and that what you see is part of the entertainment for people in the café.  I may be terribly wrong on that and if so I apologise but that is my current assessment. It makes for a good video. It also tells you that cats can be trained quite nicely with a bit of patience and positive reinforcement. @tiktokcats How many cats can you count? 😹😻 ♬ Lalala - Y2K & bbno$

Well, this is either a totally boring, fabricated video or it is interesting because it prompts the question as to why this cute white kitten is washing her paws and face so keenly? Of course, I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist these days being an old man and I tend to see the negative in a lot of things which goes with the territory of being elderly.  The point that I am getting at is I think the video maker put something on this kitten's paws in order to make them lick the paws this keenly. I could be wrong. But it's the vigour with which this cute kitten grooms her paws which leads me to believe that she is licking something off them which was put on them. I've tortured that description but you get the point.  And the kitten has been placed in a tunnel of some sort. It looks like a ventilation shaft which I guess is also meant to add a bit of interest in it. The key to the success of a TikTok video is to make it look different so you find any means possible to achieve t

Do you think this is fun? I find the music a bit harsh. Actually I find the music very harsh and the whole video a bit gross really but I'm out of touch with the rest of the world, it seems to me. I'm sure the video is pretty popular. I don't know whether to be serious or jokey. This is meant to be a fun video. So I'm not meant to be serious about it, but look at the size of the cat.  This is an obese cat and the owner has allowed this cat to become obese. We have to criticise the owner therefore. This kind of obesity is going to lead to health problems. You can't really in all good conscience make a funny cat video out of a cat's health problems. Can you? Is this part of the modern day trend of making very short funny cat videos based on cat abuse. Am I being too critical? Is that a misconception?  Perhaps I just don't see the world like other people see it. I certainly don't see the world in the same way that a lot of young people in Asia see it. I thi

UNITED KINGDOM: ExoticDirect is BOUGHTBYMANY's sister insurer and they are said to be specialists in exotic pet insurance. They been going for 20 years or more and they get a decent 4.1 out of 5 stars on their Facebook page. BOUGHTBYMANY bought the parent company of ExoticDirect in 2015 which is why they are in this stable of insurance companies. F1 Savannah cats except for the cat on the right! These are exotic pets as far as I am concerned. Photo: PoC. Exotic Pet? There is a discussion about what is an exotic pet and I can understand that. Technically it seems to mean in non-native species to the UK. In which case it would include rabbits because they've been wild in the UK since the 12th century but are non-native as I understand it. The issue with this definition is that I wonder how far back you have to go before you describe an animal as non-native. The other side of the coin to non-native is 'invasive species'. I'm not sure that this is a good definition.

This is such a cute Maine Coon crochet amigurumi cat. I knew that the cat was knitted or created by human hand, obviously, but I didn't know what amigurumi meant. Apparently it is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures.  Amigurumi Maine Coon - cute. Photo: Etsy. Cute amigurumi are the most popular. A translation of amigurumi is "crocheted or knitted stuffed toy". So these are toys for humans I guess. I suppose they could be toys for cats to but they would destroy them. That said the best cat toys are the ones that can be destroyed because they mimic more accurately a cat attacking a prey animal.  I'm wasting my time discussing that because no one is going to let their cat destroy such a beautiful amigurumi. What's so attractive about this object is that it only costs £5.45 p in the UK. I think that's a remarkably cheap price for such a beautiful object. The comments are good. There have been 408 reviews and these amigurumi

This is what I would describe as a behind-the-scenes story. It doesn't hit the headlines because it concerns Cyprus, in the Mediterranean, a small island and not for example America which leads the way on domestic cat news.  But it is a very telling and a sad story. It's reported that there has been a 30% increase in the abandonment of domestic cats on the island. They are sometimes left behind as people leave the island. I'm referring to expatriates possibly possibly British people who feel they haven't got the money to afford to take their cat back home with them. Spotted street cats of Cyprus. Read about them by clicking here . These people may have dual residency. I know that a lot of British people have second homes in Cyprus or they moved to Cyprus in retirement. But they've been squeezed economically by the Covid-19 pandemic. Dawn Foote who runs a rescue centre where there are 800 rescue cats, all of which are neutered, said that, "People, at the mome

When a domestic cat is suffering from a deficiency in calcium i.e. their blood-calcium concentration is low, it may well be due to inadvertent damage to the parathyroid glands during a thyroidectomy operation. This is an operation to remove the thyroid gland because the cat is suffering from hyperthyroidism. A dramatic fall in blood-calcium concentrations can be life-threatening. Cats who have been through the thyroidectomy operation should be hospitalised for a few days after surgery so the blood-calcium concentrations can be monitored. Thin, elderly cat suffering from hyperthyroidism. Picture: PoC. Hyperthyroidism is fairly common in older cats and is caused by an increase in the production of thyroid hormones from enlarged thyroid glands in the cat's neck. Most often it is caused by a benign tumour hence the operation. It should be noted that second hand cigarette smoke may be a contributory factor in developing this disease. Surgery is an option to remove the cancerous gland

  I am sorry, I don't know the name of the photographer. Please advise. Patrick Ayree is a biologist and is now a documentary filmmaker and wildlife television presenter. In this picture you see him with a clouded leopard all over his head. I don't know much about the picture except for the obvious which is that this clouded leopard must be domesticated. He is clearly enjoying the experience (and so is the cat!). The clouded leopard is a wonderful arboreal, medium-sized wild cat species. They live in Asia and are fantastic tree climbers. They have this beautiful coat after which they are named. Of course they are persecuted for their coat. What else can we expect? Click here to read some articles about the clouded leopard.