The domestic cat's vomeronasal organ is also called Jacobson's organ. It is in the roof of the mouth. It allows a domestic cat to detect in a very precise way the odours in the air and which enter the mouth when the cat breaths in. You can see that the cat is checking the odours in the air because their mouth is slightly open and the cat is static as if concentrating. This behavior is called the Flehmen Response . Snow leopard Flehmen response. The cat has his/her mouth open. Photo is a still from the video below. A recent study did some work on how the vomeronasal organ works and they likened it to the sophisticated human parallel coiled gas chromatograph! In the scientific world, the gas chromatograph is a sophisticated device which is used to separate and identify components in a volatile sample. It measures the various components in the sample. RELATED:  Snow Leopard’s Flehmen Response on Camera Trap Video . In this study, a computer simulation of the interior of the domest

Feline idiopathic cystitis is linked to stress and it is very painful for domestic cats to suffer from this disease. A study evaluated the behaviour and physiological responses of cats with feline idiopathic cystitis and cats that were healthy. RELATED:  Why does stress exacerbate cystitis in domestic cats ? The way they achieved this was to look after the cats in a controlled environment for about a year. They had the same people looking after the cats and everything was stable. And then suddenly they destabilised the situation by feeding the cats at different times by different people. The whole husbandry of the participating cats was messed up with the deliberate purpose of stressing the cats concerned. And when they did this there was a clear indication that there were specific sickness behaviours as a result such as vomiting, diarrhoea, anorexia or decrease food and water intake. There was also lethargy, fever, somnolence and enhanced pain-like behaviours. There was decreased gen

Wandering cat. Image: SVEN HERSELMAN. I can think of two ways to minimise the distance that your domestic cat companion travels away from your home if they are indoor/outdoor cats. These are my tips: Feed your cat well with high quality wet cat food and some dry cat food for grazing at night. It has been found and indeed suggested by a very well-known cat behaviourist, Dr. Jon Bradshaw, that when domestic cats are fed well and regularly, they have less inclination to patrol over large areas. Domestic cat will inherently patrol their territory if they are allowed outside because this is instinctive wild cat behaviour. But when well fed it dampens that desire. It shrinks their home range because one reason for having a home range is to have a territory within which they can hunt. The hunting desire is somewhat dampened when well fed although not eliminated because the desire to hunt is not directly linked to feeling hungry. This is also inherited from the wildcat ancestor. Secondly, amon

The power of the emotion in this video is the deep emotional bond the woman has for her cat companion and I'd say vice versa. It shattered her when her cat failed to return. As you might have guessed he is now supervised all the time and is leash trained. Viola. And the world is so pleased that you are back together with your darling cat.

NEWS AND VIEWS - NORTH CANTERBURY, NEW ZELAND: Animal advocates were present at the North Canterbury Hunting Competition in Wellington, New Zealand. You may have read about this competition in which adults and schoolchildren under the age of 14 go out and shoot wild animals including feral cats. The kids were offered a £100 cash prize for the most cats shot dead! Great. There was uproar about schoolchildren shooting feral cats. The first problem is that it indoctrinates the children into believing that shooting animals for fun is a good thing. Secondly, you can never be sure that you are shooting a feral cat or a domestic cat; someone's pet. Animal advocates say schoolkids swung around dead cats they'd shot in front of them saying "meat, meat, meat". Image: NZ Herald. Because of the uproar, 'on the ground' and online, the people who made the rules about the competition said that children under 14 couldn't shoot feral cats in order, I guess, to appease the

I have only just discovered that this cat is blind. His name is 'Bear'. He is a bit overweight too. At first, I thought that the cat was uncoordinated because they walked off the edge of the gangplank. But no, he is blind which explains things. The big question is why Bear was allowed to charge down the gangplank without being on a lead and harness to keep them safe. The owner is very laid back when her cat dives into the water. Not sure I'd be that laid back. The woman thinks that 'he's gonna make it'. He didn't! There could have been something sharp down there on the water which would have hurt him. He gets out okay by himself but moans bitterly. He has a raucous, loud complaining voice which is not particularly feline. He obviously hates water like the majority of domestic cats (but not all cats as some actively enjoy messing around in bathtubs).

If you think that you can simply multiply the age of your cat by 7 to obtain the equivalent age in human terms, you are wrong. It is more complicated than that. The relationship between cat and human age is not linear to put it more scientifically. Anyway, this short article is not about cat age but about working out the age of South Korean children. Working out the age of South Korean kids isn't easy and the same goes for cats! Image: MikeB RELATED:  Infographic cat age calculator . Up until now South Koreans had a very peculiar (by Western standards) system which caused confusion. It goes like this. I will quote The Times verbatim just to make sure that I get it right! By tradition, a Korean baby, however, is one year old at the moment of birth and gains another year every New Year's Day. [Using this system] in an extreme case, a baby born in the last minute of December 31 would turn two at the stroke of midnight, in the second minute of their life. The following New Year

A new study has decided that the ancestors of today's humans coexisted with dinosaurs for a short time. A discussion about this topic has been ongoing for a long time. The argument was that the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs took place before humans evolved but that assessment appears to have been overridden by this new study. Image: MikeB A team of palaeobiologists employed statistical analysis of fossil records to conclude that placental mammals originated before the mass extinction event which was the impact of a large asteroid into the earth in the area of the Gulf of Mexico as I recall. It's believed that after the asteroid impact placental mammals diversified and evolved rapidly perhaps facilitated by the loss of competition from dinosaurs. The lead author is Emily Carlisle of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences who said: 'We pulled together thousands of fossils of placental mammals and were able to see the patterns of origination and extinction

Decayed San Francisco. Image: DALLE-E Ron DeSantis, the presidential candidate, recently threw his hat into the ring on the discussion about the new woke culture. It's said that he made a bizarre speech. He was speaking to the Conservative group's Road to Majority conference and was discussing wokeness. And he made this comment about it: "When woke overtakes our criminal justice system — like it has in San Francisco, like it has in Los Angeles — the average person becomes less safe in their communities as a result.” He vowed to leave “woke ideology in the dustbin of history.” “Don’t tell me it doesn’t affect people’s lives. I was just in San Francisco. I saw — in 20 minutes on the ground — people defecating on the sidewalk. I saw people using fentanyl. I saw people smoking crack right there in the open, right there on the street. It was a civilization in decay.” Yes, he is saying that he saw the gross degeneration of society's values to the point where adult humans wer

NEWS AND COMMENT - SOUTHAMPTON, UK: This is a very strange situation. A male Bengal cat, a genuine purebred Bengal cat by the way, who is four years old and whose name is Louie, has been at the St Francis Animal Welfare Shelter Fair Oak, Southampton, UK for 12 months because nobody wants to adopt him. Nobody wants to adopt a purebred Bengal cat whose been at a rescue center for 12 months. This is Louie and it is a mystery why no one wants to adopt him. Image: the rescue center. As a purebred Bengal cat, a popular cat breed, you would have thought that people would want to adopt him as quickly as possible. It is hard to imagine that a purebred cat can be so unwanted when people buy Bengal cats for £1,500! I am sure that the adoption fee at the shelter is a tiny fraction of that perhaps in the order of £100. So, what is going on? I have no idea. All I know is that he was a full-time indoor care, in an apartment and is therefore a little nervous which is to be expected. They recommend tha

Recently, Donald Trump gave a speech to religious conservatives as part of his campaign to take back the White House. He was delivering his speech to a conference full of evangelists in Washington. He sneaked in a subtle biblical reference reflecting his ego which is a big as the White House. Donald Trump. Image: Bing. In reference to the two criminal indictments against him; one for criminal charges over a hush money payment to conceal an alleged affair with a porn star and the other an indictment concerning the classified documents seized at his Florida home, the former president Donald Trump declared: "I'm being indicted for you". This has hints and the tone of John 3:17 which says: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”  The belief is that by sacrificing himself for us on the cross, he took the punishment for all of our sins at once. Trump seems to be saying that he is - metaphorically sp

You may remember this story. It is rather disturbing in several ways. The woman concerned is Emma Claiir. Her name is spelled correctly. The headline is: "Social media influencer quits and says that she was left suicidal after receiving death threats because of her admission that she killed two cats as a child." She is an Australian. In April, she admitted to her 105,000 followers that she killed two cats when she was a child. Her admission occurred on an episode of her pod cast, Simply Chaotic.  Emma Claiir. Image: Instagram. It was a bizarre confession. Her co-host, Christy Jean, on the pod cast was stunned by it. She said that she didn't mean to kill the cats but that she was a child. She said: "I was swinging my cat around. Like, I was thinking it was a stuffed toy. And I accidental let go of it." She believes that the cat died from fright rather than because of injuries suffered as it was hurled across the room. During her confession, she giggled and explai

People ask: 'What breed of cat is Choupette?' As far as I know Choupette is still alive and the recipient of a $1.5 million legacy from her adoring caregiver Karl Lagerfeld who passed away in 2019 aged 85. News media reports that the cat is now looked after by Lagerfeld's housekeeper Francoise Cacote, in Paris, France. I expect she uses the money to look after darling Choupette in the manner to which she is familiar with a lot left over to spend on herself but we don't know! The name "Choupette" is a cute version of the French word for 'cabbage' namely 'chou', which is a term of endearment between French people. French people sometimes give their opposite number a nickname such as "my little cabbage". The name Choupette is derived from that cultural habit. Choupette is a Birman purebred cat. They are a majestic longhaired particolor, pointed cat. They have striking blue eyes and white laces and gloves on their feet. That all sounds a

You can discuss cat behaviour and wildcat conservation all you want but at the end of the day it might be pointless because the world struggles to kick its addiction to fossil fuels. It isn't just the fact that the development of renewable energy is not proceeding fast enough and it isn't the fact that oil, gas and coal together accounted for almost 82% of global primary energy consumption last year, it is also the fact that the EV market (electric vehicles) is stalling in the UK because of various factors and also the vegan food marketplace is being consistently damaged by the manufacturers who insist on adding salt and other unhealthy ingredients to make it more palatable. Humankind is also addicted to salt and processed foods. Image: DALLE-E. Veganism is one route to put a break on climate change because it means we less meat and meat comes from cows and cows produce methane and methane warms up the atmosphere. The EV marketplace is stalling because the infrastructure is not

 The argument from the right-wing is that pupils pretending to be cats are taking over the classroom and undermining the teacher who's probably too sensitive to the woke movement. They've allowed kids to become furries and in doing so undermined their authority. It's worse. One teacher admonished another for refusing to accept the concept of gender spectrum (non-binary). This is a merging of two wokery movements.  Note: there is a wide spectrum of sexuality to which we must be enlightened and sensitive but I believe - without being disrespectful - that there are two sexes. Sex is biological. All the rest is in the head. This is impossible and it must be stopped with firm leadership and guidance from parents initially and supported by teachers. Image: DALLE-E. One girl self-identifies as a male cat and insisted on being addressed as 'kit'. The girl had merged the furries movement with the trans gender movement. Highly complicated and confusing. The culture becomes ve

PHOTO BY JANE RUSSELL/SWNS. Amee Tomkin, Belle and baby. NEWS AND VIEWS - MILTON KEYNES, UK: Amee Tomkin has been diagnosed with autism, anxiety and OCD. It is tough for her. She lives with a female Staffie-type dog companion called Belle. Tomkin said: "Without her I am too anxious to leave the house." Her anxiety is that serious which is why she was delighted that the was allowed to have Belle beside her in the maternity ward at Milton Keynes University Hospital throughout labour and delivery. Belle is the first dog allowed on the labour ward. The first woman in Britain to have her dog beside her during birth as a medical aid was Charlotte Beard in 2021. Tomkin was allowed to have Belle on her bed before she went into theatre and Belle was the first to meet Tomkin's son after Olly after Tomin had her caesarian. Tomkin said: "My midwife at the hospital was fabulous but having Belle with me is like having another midwife there all the time, to keep me calm and check o

His name now is the elaborate 'Duke Ellington Morris'. He used to be a starving and ill feral cat back in 2010 when he was rescued from a colony. He spent some time at the SPCA before being adopted by a mother and daughter. Duke Ellington Morris an airport therapy cat who was a starving feral cat until rescued. Image: Instagram. They discovered that he had the character to be a therapy cat and became one. At that time San Francisco Airport used dogs as companion animals to calm anxious travellers. Airports are places where travellers can become anxious so it is a nice idea to use domestic animals to calm them. The airport used dogs and has now expanded their little group of therapy animals ('the Wag Brigade') to include Duke Ellington Morris, who has his own Instagram account and a rabbit called Alex and LilLou the pig. They are all certified by the San Francisco SPCA as therapy animals and have graduated from therapy animal school with a certificate to say that they ha

There's a new dog device on the block and it is called the Furbo 360° Dog Camera. It's being promoted as a way to keep your dog happy when you are away from your home. Where's the cat equivalent by the way? It contains a rotating camera which allows you to glimpse of your pet pooch when they are at home alone. The camera has a smart sensor to track your dog when they move and when they bark. You can speak to your dog through a real-time two-way radio. This allows you to soothe them while they are alone and becoming stressed. It is said that the Furbo 360 "gives you peace of mind when you’re away from your pooches" (Picture: Furbo).  Yes, and in doing so it encourages us to leave them alone for longer. It can be a counterproductive device. It has another interesting function. You can command the device to release a treat to your dog at the touch of a button or the swipe of a screen. Metaphorically speaking the device throws a bone at your dog. You control the devic

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) tells us that in 2022 insurers paid out over £1 billion. It is the highest on record reported by members of the ABI. It's a substantial increase and they say that it reflects the high cost of veterinary treatment, which results in more expensive claims on pet health insurance policies. Cat and dog health costs are rising steeply in the UK and it undermines the human-pet relationship. Image: MikeB. Pet owners are taking out more at health insurance policies in the UK in order to cover these increased investment costs. And, arguably, the increased veterinary costs are driven by the fact that people are taking out more health insurance policies.  Inflationary upward spiral It is a self-serving upward spiral. It is inflationary. And it is not good for the human-to-pet relationship as it simply means that it becomes more expensive to look after a cat or dog. This is because if insurers are paying out more money to clients to cover inflated veter

This is a little story from social media which tells us that dogs can sometimes be better cat rescuers than humans (or sort of). But they always need human help. I think the story is told by a woman but I am unsure. She was walking with her dog who became interested in something under a bush. She pushed him to come with her but "he continued going back to that bush and looking under it". Dogs can be better cat rescuers than humans sometimes. The bonded pair. Image: the story's narrator who is anonymous. She went to look under the bush too and saw a young kitten in a desperate state. She was dying, covered in fleas and skin and bone. The woman took the kitten home and cared for her. "We took it home. Took care of it and the kitten would not leave my dog out of sight. Since then, they sleep together. She adores her rescuer." But for her dog the kitten would be dead. This kitten was saved by the dog but she needed human help to do some of the caring.

This is not directly to do with cats but I feel that I must flag it up. The story surprised me. This is not simply a factual reporting of that story but I would like to provide my opinion as well, where appropriate. The Telegraph reported in the drug about 7 hours ago. It concerns a retired cardiologist with no history of mental health problems; no history of depression. His name was Robert Stevenson. He was respected. He was prescribed the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. This is a general-purpose antibiotic which can be prescribed for a wide range of bacterial infections including urinary tract infections, chest infections and for example sexually transmitted disease infections. It is also prescribed for infections such as conjunctivitis. Just over a week after commencing the course of this antibiotic he left a note for his wife on Facebook telling her that he had left a written note under his pillow at home. The note apparently was uncharacteristically confused and illogical. He was found

By a factor of more than 10, Australian journalists and the authorities in Australia exaggerate the number of native animals killed by roaming domestic cats. I mean that they multiple by more than 10 the true number.  Domestic cat predation in Australia is hugely exaggerated. Image in the public domain. How can I make that bold statement? Well, perhaps one of the oldest if not the oldest study about the predation of animals by roaming domestic cats was published in 1987. The scientists found that each domestic cat in a village killed 14 animals in one year. "A total of 1090 prey items (535 mammals, 297 birds and 258 unidentified animals) were taken, an average of about 14 per cat per year." - Predation by domestic cats in an English village. Link:  https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1987.tb02915.x There was a factor of 14 between animal killed and domestic cats. There are 3.8 million domestic cats in Australia according to Wikipedia. But only 2.9 million are allowed outside

Some people ask whether it is safe to put a cat litter tray in a child's bedroom? Other people might ask whether it is safe for a child to play around with cat litter. They might do that if they are curious. And sometimes toddlers might put cat litter in their mouth. Would that harm the child? Image: MikeB Chemically-speaking, cat litter is pretty inert and therefore I think you will find the general consensus is that cat litter is not toxic for children in general terms. Tidy Cats But there may well be problems. Although litter is not poisonous as such, some litter such as Tidy Cats Lightweight is extremely dusty. I have written about it and it is a popular page because a lot of people report catastrophic cat health problems after using this litter . As it is so dusty it could harm a child if they are rummaging around in it, kicking up the dust. The dust particles would get in the eyes, mouth and ears. My advice then is to keep children away from this particular brand of litter. A

This is a really quick note. I was prompted to write it because I was looking for my cat this morning. He had been out and active all night. This is usual for him. He goes to bed at about 11 AM and stays there until the mid or late afternoon. And he likes to rotate the places where he sleeps, which is why it can be tricky to find him sometimes.  My experience tells me that four different hiding places that are covered and in different locations around the home is about ideal. What are your ideals? And he particularly likes places in which to sleep that are covered. In fact, he almost insists upon it. The reason is obvious: he feels more secure. Even better for him is when there are four walls and a roof with an entry point in one of the walls as you can see in the photograph. Domestic cat's sleeping place is covered and enclosed for a sense of security. Image: MikeB Note about the picture above. You see that well-worn scratching post? That's good as it is infused with his scen

I'll say it strongly: the title is pure mumbo-jumbo and it comes direct from Pets Radar, a cynical website in my opinion where they regularly employ clickbait with a complete disregard for factual truth. They are cynically misleading the general public and those who want to adopt a cat for the first time. In fact, they are taking the piss out of people. That's what they are doing. They are playing with the internet. Don't listen to their advice. I'll tell you the truth. The truth is far less prosaic. It is far less interesting. I know that people who want to adopt a cat from a cat breeder like clarity in terms of the cat's character. They want to know what they are buying. They want certainties. That's why Pets Radar provides it. But it is false. 16 most affectionate cat breeds who love a good cuddle. A random bred cat being affectionate. The nose-to-nose cat greeting occurs frequently. It is a friendly greeting and pleasant for both parties. I think the human l