There is something very satisfying and pleasing to see an "ordinary man" struggling and working hard, showing determination and persistence, in order to extract a kitten from behind a wall. The moment of rescue is always elating. That certainly occurred in this instance. And the kitten is incredibly cute too. You just wonder how this cute kitten ended up behind the wall but they so often do! Or that is the way it looks by the number of rescues like this that take place. Note : This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it. Kitten rescued from wall cavity

This is a touching story about the tragic 18th-century poet Christopher Smart. He was indeed smart being a distinguished Cambridge scholar and a fellow of Pembroke College before he descended into debt and poverty which led to ill health. You wonder whether actually he suffered from poor mental health. Perhaps not but he ended up in debtors' prison where he eventually died in 1771.  Christopher Smart poet. Image in public domain. Perhaps his mind was affected by the terrible travails that he endured as he was confined for several years to solitary confinement in Bedlam aka Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlehem Hospital. He languished in his dark rat-infested cell and composed a meandering, long poem about his pet cat, Jeoffry, called "For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry" I am able to reproduce a long extract thanks to the poetrybyheart.org website: For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry. For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily se

This is called sectoral heterochromia . It is rare and beautiful. No health issues. You do see it in domestic cats. The cat is all-white. It is the dominant white gene which affects eye pigmentation creation in the embryonic stage. It causes the removal of melanin pigment across a part of the iris. The blue color is caused by light refraction only (not blue pigment). The yellow by pigment (eumelanin). All-white cats have no pigment in the hair strands. This is why they can get sunburnt ears - no pigment to block sun and in any case the hairs are thin there. The normal, most common, sort of heterochromia in cats is when they have odd-eyes. One eye is blue and the other is yellow normally. But there are various types of heterochromia and the one we see on this page is called sectoral heterochromia because each eye is divided up into two colours i.e. there are two sections to the eyes. Turkish Angoras sometimes have odd-eyes and they are favoured. They are often all-white cats too. The cl

We are seeing more news media articles about celebrity Indian actresses with their domestic cat companions in loving embraces and I love it because it will boost cat welfare and I would hope animal welfare generally in India.  Disha Patani with her purebred cat. Photo: Instagram. It appears that the best-known Indian actresses are admired by Indian citizens and therefore they have a role to play in modifying the behaviour of people. They can lead the way and we often see, nowadays, these wealthy Indian actresses living in fancy apartments in cities with glamorous, full-time indoor, purebred cats.  They make for good photographs but the underlying message I would hope comes across which is that cats should be treated in a kindly way and looked after well. They should not be street cats living miserable lives as so many do in India and of course in other countries. I'm not going to criticise India for this because there are far too many unwanted, stray and feral cats in the world

This had nothing to do with domestic cats directly but I feel compelled to write about it because I see it all the time and it annoys me. Indirectly what I am saying affects cat welfare. Celebrity woman can dress more functionally and promote cat welfare in one of many ways. They have the clout . I want women to be totally equal to men but if celebrity women wear sexy clothes and the news media reports on it as the Daily Mail has done in this example then we simply reinforce the objectification of women and we ogle them as some sort of sex objects. It has to stop. Note: Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire. Objectifying women. The cycle the reinforces this concept. A celebrity woman wears sexy clothes and the news media report on it, such as above: Mabel sets pulses soaring in a figure-hugging halterneck jumpsuit . It is a self-perpetuating cycle. And some women complain about being objectified. A lot do as far as I can tell. Do

The ACT government has plans to confine domestic cat to their homes from July 1, 2022 regardless of the suburban where they live. It's called the ACT Cat Plan 2021-2031. It's a policy which has been developed in consultation with others including environmental groups and cat owners which is designed to "help cats live longer and healthier lives while better protecting native wildlife." ACT Legislative Assembly. Photo in public domain. There are already cat containment regulations with respect to 'containment suburbs' in Canberra. Outside of "declared suburbs, cat containment will only apply to new cats, because we understand that existing cats and their owners may not be prepared or used to containment", said ACT Minister for Transport and Silly Services Chris Steel. The new rules will also allow owners in cat containment suburbs to take their cat for a walk on a lead. This is currently prohibited. At the moment there are 17 cat containment suburb

It would be interesting to know the percentage of people who love cats compared to the percentage of people who hate cats. There are no statistics on this so we don't know! There is a third category: people who are ambivalent i.e. neither love nor hate cats. I am referring, of course, to domestic cats. As there is no data on this, I'm going to suggest a figure: 20% of people dislike cats, 60% like or love cats and the remainder are ambivalent i.e. 20%. That is a wild guess, straight out of the top of my head without much thought. The general idea is that more people like or love cats than those who dislike or hate cats. And we have to distinguish between people who dislike them and those who hate them. The number of people in the latter category are relatively small and they are a danger to the animal. They are predisposed to abusing cats, shooting feral cats (in America legally or illegally) and generally misbehaving with respect to stray an outside cats. There's lots o

You have to be very impressed with this mom. She is brave and strong. She finds a way through this gate which is a considerable obstacle for her. She manages by using all her athleticism and courage. A testament to the strong mothering instincts of the domestic, stray and feral cat. You see the classic scruff of the neck 'bite' of the kittens which pacifies them allowing her to take control without interference from struggling kittens. I am sometimes astounded at the skills of feline mothers in their abilities to overcome obstacles when relocating her family to a new den. They move their kittens quite often depending on the potential threat. This cat is clearly a community cat or she may be a working cat. It is clearly a building that is in use. Community cat navigates through a tricky barrier with her kitten in her mouth to relocate to a new den Community cat navigates through a tricky barrier with her kitten in her mouth to relocate to a new den During the first weeks afte

Until April 24, 2020, the state of Kentucky was the odd man out in terms of veterinarians having a duty to report animal abuse to the authorities. On that date Kentucky governor Andy Beshear signed Senate Bill 21 into law which empowers veterinarians to report suspected animal cruelty. Tabby cat at vet. Pic: Pixabay. And so, in the US, veterinarians in all 50 states have a mandatory duty to report animal abuse if they have reasonable cause to know or suspect that the animal has been subjected to cruelty or animal fighting and they shall report the matter to local law enforcement or bureau of animal protection. In the UK, there is currently no mandatory reporting by veterinarians of animal abuse. It is obviously a difficult subject and there are privacy issues and I guess difficulties in making an accurate decision. There is an article on the BMJ website which states that UK veterinarians need special training to report cases of suspected animal abuse and neglect as per research publ

The term 'Javanese cat' is confusing. This can happen sometimes in the cat fancy. There is some confusion surrounding the Siamese family of cats and the Javanese is in that 'family'. It depends where you are as to what it means. Female Adult Blue Lynx Point Javanese Cat  photo: Wikipedia. Years ago, I wrote about this so I'll use my own words. This description applies to the USA: "If the Balinese is a “Modern” Siamese with long fur, the Javanese is a Balinese with “ unconventional ” (non-traditional) points . Confused? It is also described as an Oriental Longhair with points." To put it another way, in the USA, the Javanese is a longhaired, contemporary Siamese cat with pointing that is not of the traditional colours such as lynx points (tabby), tortoiseshell points, cream points and flame points. By 'contemporary' I mean the super-slender body conformation compared to the regular domestic cat body conformation which is popular nowadays. In

This patient domestic cat knows what he is about to receive by the look of his patience as he waits to be shampooed. It seems to be a ritual. The cat politely complains but accepts the shampooing. It is very cute because it appears that the owner has done this a lot and her cat has learned to accept it without question except for the faint complaint. Cat in Asia is shampooed standing up on two legs. It is unusual to believe that you have to shampoo your cat regularly. In this instance it maybe because the cat is a community cat living outside a lot with the greater possibility of getting dirty. But I think it is more to do with the attitude of the woman caring for her ginger bicolor cat. She is treating him as a child. You can see her washing his bottom and tail as if she is washing the bottom of a baby. There may be a culture in that country to do this. She may be doing it to get rid of fleas. The better method would be to use a flea comb twice per day. Healthier for the cat and mo

COMMENT BASED ON NEWS FROM THE MIRROR NEWSPAPER: The madman with the funny haircut (short back and sides), the dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-un wants to destroy all cats and pigeons in North Korea because he believes that they bring Covid-19 from China, across the border, and spread the disease in his country. China and North Korea are separated by two rivers, the Yalu and the Tumen. He has issued a command to his indoctrinated and subservient citizens to tell them to destroy all cats and pigeons. The man-God has commanded. Apparently, some North Koreans are shooting at pigeons as they fly across the border between North Korea and China. Kim Jong-un. Mad as a fruitcake. In one particular example, a family on the border between North Korea and China at Hyesan, Yanggang Province were ordered to face 20 days in isolation because they ostensibly illegally raised a cat following in order not to do so in this border region. Hyesan, Pic: Google. The family told the authorities that th

This video tells us that when push comes to shove cats are bemused by mice and fish wriggling around computer screens. They want to look under the device and are generally confounded by what they see. They have a similar or same reaction to looking at their reflection in a mirror or when watching television. I have seen cats look behind the TV to find the cat on the screen. Their mentality is rooted in reality. They can only understand natural events because they don't understand human devices. And rightly so. They are not meant to understand them. Link to this video (opens new tab/page) Domestic cats are bemused and ultimately frustrated by phone cat games. Screenshot. So, the question which comes from this observation is whether the phone and iPad cat games are a minor form of cat cruelty. A very minor form of it. They can't be defeated. The cats can't attack the mice and fish and eat them. This might cause minor frustration and confusion. It we deliberately frustrate

This, for me, is a sad video. It appears to be in a country other than in the West but I could be mistaken. The dog is tied up with a chain and clearly lives outside the home in his dog kennel and provides security to the family. An incredibly unfulfilling life of great restrictions and limitations. It is cruel in my book. This sort of human-animal relationship is over. Humans can do better. It requires education. Ignorance is a huge ball-and-chain on humanity's progress. Stray cat tries to steal dog's food. Screenshot. The cat is a stray and hungry and so tries to "steal" the dog's food without success because the dog wakes up and chases the cat away, which may be a good outcome because dog food is not good for cats. It's okay on a one-off basis but eaten regularly it would lack sufficient nutrients for a cat. The cat would become ill eventually. I hate to see dogs tied up like this. It is banned in some countries because it is inherently cruel. It is the

The title to this Daily Motion video is in fact: Cat Sits in Owner's Lap and Reacts Weirdly Every Time he Spins Coin on Table . And although the grammar is poor that is not the point. The word "weirdly" is the problem for me because I do not think that this cat is acting weirdly. I think we can explain what he or she is doing.  Cat prepares to pounce on spinning coin. Screenshot. You can see the cat placing their right foreleg over their eye and partly over their head when their owner spins a coin on the table. I think this feline behaviour is misleading because all the cat is doing is preparing to pounce onto the coin.  Note : This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it. The position of the foreleg is incidental. It looks rather strange and as if the cat is deliberately making this action for some 'weird' reason but he is no

There is a story emerging from Spain which is a bit of troubling because I can see other households suffering the same outcome. In this instance an elderly Colombian lady, Clara Ines Tobon, who had lived in the northern Madrid neighbourhood of Fuencarral since 1996, died. She had some pet cats. We don't know how many. It is believed that she died three months ago.  Some think that she died of Covid-19. The cause of death is unimportant. The important aspect of the story is that nobody knew about her death and she had some pet cats who appear to have been full-time indoor cats with no way of exiting her property. That is the way I have interpreted the story which I think is reasonable because the cats ate her in order to survive. For illustration purposes only. Photo: Pixabay (modified) The upper part of her body was partially eaten by her pet cats. They say that there were two surviving cats that were taken to an animal rescue centre. That statement implies that some of the cats

The video, photograph and the breeding is by Альбина Шконда, Moscow, Russia. A wonderfully pretty kitten. The British Longhair is less well-known than the shorthaired variant but more beautiful. I am surprised the breed is not more popular. Read more on this breed by clicking on this link . Note : This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

This is about a feline drinking problem and a cat whose owner posted a request for help on the Reddit.com website. He said that his cat would not drink water except when he cupped the water in his hands and presented it to him. He's tried everything possible including changing the water receptacle and using different kinds of water including bottled water. He could not go on doing this because he wasn't at home all the time and his cat was becoming dehydrated.  I'm not sure how the story ended because it's about six years old but he received some good answers mainly about changing the receptacle. One person thought that the cat could not recognise the water and suggested that he put a ping-pong ball in it. Cupped hands holding water. Photo: Pixabay. I would suggest that the problem might be to do with the odour of the water. When it is cupped in the hands of the cat's owner the water would smell of the body odour of the person. Cats are very much into the scent o

The title to this post is the title given to the video on YouTube but it is inaccurate. This is not a bizarre posture but a very clever and natural posture which allows the cat to stretch over to this large receptacle of water and drink from it.  Skinny tabby cat uses his athleticism to drink from a large receptacle. Screenshot. I love the athleticism that this skinny little tabby stray cat demonstrates. It is another example on video of the extraordinary athleticism of the domestic and feral cat.  You probably know that domestic cats prefer to drink from what appears to us to be dirty puddles and polluted water but which in fact is pure from the cat's perspective than tap water. Tap water contains chemicals to keep it pure and to protect the health of people but domestic cats can smell this, they can smell the chlorine and fluoride that is in it and prefer rainwater although it might have collected some pollutants in the air as it falls to the ground.  They don't mind these

Here is a mini-catio and I like it. It is a compromise between a proper catio - a cat enclosure attached to the side of a house one side of which is open to the elements behind a protective mesh to stop the cats getting out - and access to the outside which can often be unsafe.  And this little mini-catio, as I have described it, is cheap to purchase and quick to put up. That will appeal to many people. I would expect that it could be erected in as little as an hour. The only difficulty will be providing a cutout panel for the window through which the cats have access to the tiny enclosure. But these sorts of tiny enclosures can be attractive to domestic cats who are confined to the indoors.  Photo: Reddit.com We know how cats like to rest in their favourite place (which they tend to change on a daily basis) and therefore a little enclosure like this can add to their menu. It would be an extra place where they can go to. It would add a little bit to their lives and make it more colo

  There are not many items of furniture that we can share with our domestic cat companion but this is one of them. What I particularly like about it is that it provides a hideaway for a timid cat. I would suggest that this item of furniture, which you can buy on Amazon in America but not the UK is ideal for a timid cat. And I think it is nice to be able to share furniture with cats. It helps to promote the concept that the human home is not only for humans but companion animals as well. Human homes should be 'catified' to use the language of Jackson Galaxy. I know that it can be difficult to do that because people are often houseproud and they want their home to look good from a human perspective but I think we need to put aside those limitations if we live with a cat or dog. Cats are particularly in need of a modified house because they enjoy vertical spaces. Any interior designs created for a cat loving family should include objects which allow vertical movements. Note :

This is just a little vignette, as I call it, of life in the home of a couple of idiot and cruel brothers in England who starved their cats and left a dog with an untreated skin condition. RSPCA inspectors made several visits to their home between September 2019 in February 2020. The cats looked thin and when they were palpated the bones of their hips and spine could be felt. They showed extreme hunger when taken to a veterinarian. When food was put down, they ate immediately and the veterinarian reported severe hunger. Naming and shaming: Mark Anthony Scott and his brother Stephen Scott who starved their cats are banned from keeping animals. Two of the animals. Pic: RSPCA. When an RSPCA inspector, Rachael Hurst, visited she saw a ginger shorthaired cat frantically eating something off the bathroom floor next to the toilet. One cat, a-year-old tortoiseshell was found to be emaciated and a veterinarian reported that she would have been suffering for many days before taken to a veteri

And extraordinary little video of a mother hen 'incubating' her three kittens! They crawl out from under her protective care in what appears to be a barn in Iraq. That is all we know. Except that it is not uncommon for mothers of one species of animal to raise the offspring of another animal. It is nice, isn't it? It is good to see. It restores our faith in the world or at least a little bit! Mothers do it naturally and humans do it too, all the time. These are interspecies relationships. I hope they make us more aware of the sentience of animals. An awareness of animal sentience improves animal welfare . Click on this link (opens new window) to see a cat protecting chickens ! The exact opposite. Mother hen protects and incubates three tabby kittens. > @goran.surchi 😩😩 ♬ الصوت الأصلي - goran.a_88 Note : This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have