Cat direct register gait seen brilliantly in the snow

Direct register cat gait is seen clearly when walking in quite deep snow. Image: MikeB from screenshot taken from video below on Twitter.

The domestic cat walks with direct register which means that cats place their hind paws directly in the same spot where their front paws landed. This creates a narrow track with overlapping pawprints in the snow as you can see. The reasons why cats and in fact many other animals do this is because of the reasons set out below the video.

Stealth and balance. It allows the cat to move silently and precisely. They minimise the amount of noise and of course disturbance that they make while walking. And in the snow, it is probably quite important because walking in the snow can be quite noisy and if the hind paws registered directly with the forepaws they don't go into the snow. They are silent.

It looks like this cat has walked along this snow track before and returned, using the exact same positions for his or her feet.

Cats instinctively walk silently and stealthily because they are one of the world's most skilled hunters. And when hunting they need to go undetected.

Direct register walking also helps in maintaining balance particularly when the cat is walking along a narrow surface or along a branch for instance.

Energy conservation. With a gait in direct register, the cat as a skilled predator can move more efficiently and they can conserve energy. They minimise the distance travelled by their bodies' center of mass between each step. This minimises their movement and reduces unnecessary movements which allows them to retain energy for more important activities such as a surge in speed when hunting or escaping larger predators.

And also, it goes without saying when looking at this video and the still image that walking in direct register provides a kind of camouflage for the cat's presence. The cat leaves a narrower and less conspicuous trail. This makes it more challenging for a predator of cats to detect and attack them.

The direct register gait of cats applies to walking. Cats do not maintain a direct register gait when they are running. They transition to a form of movement called the "rotary gallop". This form of movement allows them to move much faster while the direct register method of walking is mainly used for slower, stealthy movements. The rotary gallop is used for quick bursts of speed when hunting over a short distance after the stealthy approach.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Woman transitioning to a 'human cat' with many body modifications and more to come

The image and videos that you see are of a young 22-year-old Italian woman named Chiara Dell’Abate aka Aydin Mod who wants to transition to a 'human cat' through plastic surgery, piercings, tattoos and other body modifications. Does she look like a cat? The answer is no quite definitely. I don't know what her thinking is but to an outsider like me, she has not realised her objective; nowhere near. I find it very sad indeed that she has done this to herself. For me she looks revolting.

Chiara Dell’Abate aka Aydin Mod. Screenshot (modified) from YouTube.

Apparently, she is very excited about her transitioning to a human cat. She started the long journey at the tender age of 11 when she received her first body mod. She now has 72 piercings in her body.

Her body modifications include punched nostrils, 0.8 cm upper lip piercings and a 1.6 cm inner labia piercing. Her tongue has been split (see video below). Horror. I can't see that that is anything at all to do with being a domestic cat. Domestic cats do not have split tongues but snakes do. 

She struggles to speak properly. I wonder if she struggles to eat properly too. And what about day-to-day functioning? These body mods must get in the way.

But she is very happy with her body. She said, "I'm thinking that I would be a pretty cool cat lady".

In addition to the above, she has submitted herself to a blepharoplasty which, I'm told, removes excess skin or fat from the eyelids. Her eyeballs have been tattooed!! She has pointed ears, forehead implants and claw-like nails. And permanent eyeliner.

She added: "I think becoming a cat lady is more appropriate for me as I don’t really want to look like a cartoon character. I have always loved cats, and I think I’ll look really bold and fierce as a cat lady with the right body mods."

She is not finished. She was to become more like a human cat.

"To achieve the full cat-like look, I will need a cat eyes lift or canthoplasty — surgery to produce more elongated and naturally almond-shaped eyes — teeth reshaping, upper lip cut, more fillers."

And she said that she will employ something called a transdermal which is like a micro dermal to attach a tail and definitely more tattoos. 

She said that the procedures hurt a lot but the pain is temporary and not a big deal to her. Some people have slammed her for her desire to dramatically alter her appearance. For me, the alterations are very much to her detriment. She looks horrendous to me. But I am an old man with particular views. Perhaps I'm a bit old-fashioned but....she looks horrible...

Some people have labelled her psychotic and disturbed. Others have been supportive and praised her for living freely. She said that through her body modifications, "I feel free to stay true to myself, regardless of what people think."

I just wonder whether she wants to modify her body because she is unhappy with it. I wonder if she does have mental health problems. I am not saying that she does by the way. She sounds perfectly normal and rational but I also wonder whether she will think exactly the same way in 10 or 20 years' time. I doubt whether she will. I wish her well.

But because there is more to come, she'll get progressively worse until she turns into a monster. And what about the cost? And has anyone checked out her mental health? People should be protecting her.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Around 10% of Taiwanese domestic cats are infected with hepadnavirus linked to chronic hepatitis in cats

I find the conclusions of this study rather alarming. Scientists in southern Taiwan researched the prevalence of domestic cat hepadnavirus which is associated with chronic hepatitis in cats. They say that it is similar to hepatitis B virus infections in humans. It's the first study to investigate the level of infection in Taiwan although it was first identified in Australia in 2018.

Image believed to be in the public domain.

They tested 71 cats, eight of which (11.25%) were positive for this virus (DCH). They say that the "study highlights the importance of continuous surveillance of DCH and further research to elucidate the pathophysiology and transmission route of DCH."

The National Institutes of Health tells us that the first hepadnavirus to be isolated from carnivores came from a domestic cat in Australia. It was subsequently detected in Asian and European cats. It is associated with hepatic disease in cats.

Hepatitis is a liver disorder caused by bacterial or viral infections, parasites or metabolic diseases. It can cause the liver to become inflamed and prevented functioning properly or at all.

In a separate study dated 2022 from Japan, the scientists asked whether the "global prevalence of domestic cat hepadnavirus [is] an emerging threat to cats' health?"

In the abstract of the study, they state that it's prevalence rates were "6.5% in Australia, 10.8% in Italy, 12.4% in Thailand, 12.3% in Malaysia, 3.08% in the United Kingdom and 0.78% in Japan."

Separately, hepatic lipidosis is quite a common condition in domestic cats affecting the liver. It can be caused by anorexia, a loss of appetite which triggers this condition. It's characterised by an excessive accumulation of fat (triglycerides) within the liver which leads to liver failure.

The MSD Veteran Manual says that the cause is unknown but linked with a period of poor appetite.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Forensics will be able to use cat and dog hairs to help convict criminals

NEWS AND COMMENT: This is an interesting development in the world of forensic science. Until now it's been all but impossible to use cat and dog hairs at a crime scene to help identify the criminal because (1) most cat hairs do not contain a root or it is dead resulting in almost no nuclear DNA sequence and (2) domestic cats have a very small number of ancient ancestors resulting in very similar DNA and therefore it is impossible to separate one from another using, as I understand it, nuclear DNA.

However, a new method of screening uses every part of the mitochondrial DNA which enables the forensic scientist to detect tiny differences and in doing so they will be able to link a domestic cat that lives with the alleged criminal. This will help to convicted criminals.

Obviously, not all criminals live with a domestic cat but in the UK, you will find a domestic cat in 26% of the households. And in those homes, there is invariably a pile of cat and dog hair. It is one of the great bugbears of many pet owners: getting rid of it!

Now it appears that forensic scientists can actually use it and as I understand it, it works like this. The criminal lives with a cat or dog. The criminal commits a crime and leaves behind at the crime scene some cat/dog hairs that have come off his clothes and which are deposited onto the victim or other objects at the crime scene. These are collected and analysed linking the criminal with the crime scene.

Although mitochondrial DNA is less variable than nuclear DNA there is just a 3% chance that two cats share the same genetics in this regard. It will be another tool to use to help pin down the criminal.

And so, forensics will now be able to use those hairs to help convict an alleged criminal. Mark Jobling, Prof of genetics at Leicester University and the co-author of the study said that, "In criminal cases where there is no DNA available to test, pet hair is a valuable source of linking evidence, and our method makes it much more powerful. The same approach could also be applied to other species, and particularly dogs."

The other co-author of the study, Dr. Jon Wetton, also of Leicester University's Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, added that, "If the police have a case where there are cat hairs but no human DNA to link a suspect with a crime it is now likely that, using our approach, we would be able to exclude the great majority of cats as the source and demonstrate a stronger link to the suspect's cat. The approach could be applied to other species, dogs being the most relevant as their hairs are also frequently found on clothing."

The study is published online on the Forensic Science International Genetics website. The abstract (summary) in an earlier study of 2014 states that "Mitochondria DNA is often the only option for DNA analysis of shed hair."

And in that 2014 study the scientists add that analysis of mitochondrial DNA has been accepted in US criminal courts since 1996 which was the date of a murder trial concerning Henry L Polk Jnr. in Mississippi. This was the first legal proceedings in America where cat mitochondrial DNA analysis was produced as evidence.

Initially the court deemed it inadmissible but once the judge had heard the arguments it became admissible.

Mitochondrial DNA versus nuclear DNA

Mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA differs in the following ways:

• Mitochondrial DNA is inherited only from the mother while nuclear DNA is inherited from both parents.
• Mitochondrial DNA is circular and smaller in size. Nuclear DNA is larger in size and linear.
• Mitochondrial DNA replicates separately from the nuclear DNA and encodes for proteins that work only for the mitochondria. Conversely, nuclear DNA encodes for proteins that work for the entire cell.
• Finally, nuclear DNA is found in the cell nucleus while mitochondrial DNA is found in the mitochondria (source Bing AI).

Note: the source of this post is The Telegraph newspaper on MSN. I can't find the study online at this time to allow me to provide a link to it.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Veterinarians who declaw cats must HATE them

The argument is that only a veterinarian who hates cats could declaw them because declawing is so obviously a form of punishment for the independent cat who refuses to be submissive towards the human as dogs are to their owners.

All declawing vets should be behind bars for the crime of animal cruelty. This vet declaws cats. His name is Dr Glenn Ephraim. Image: MikeB

That is a theory. Why and how else can a vet act so obviously and blatantly in clear violation of their oath not to cause harm? Declawing is non-therapeutic. It is elective. Elected by the cat owner who is scared of cat claws and perhaps scared of cats in general.

In the cat world in the United States, the elephant in the room is how the heck the veterinarians have got away with brutally and cruelly mutilating innocent kittens and adult cats since the 1950s.

You think I am exaggerating about the cruelty of the operation? No, I am not. It is the partial amputation of the ten toes of the forepaws of the cat. And sometimes all the hind leg paws as well. It causes excruciating pain and can ruin the cat for the rest of their life. Declawed cats are 7 times more likely to inappropriately eliminate. And they commonly bite their owners as their claws are gone. They compensate.

RELATED: Judgement Day for Declawing Vets.

You think the owners who declaw their cats are better off? No, many of them abandon their declawed cats because their cats' behavior has gone wrong. Declawing can change a cat's character for the worse.

Only vets who hate cats could be so horrible towards them in doing something which is a clear-cut crime in many other countries. These vets should all be in jail.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Cheetah meow is part of their rich vocal repertoire

Cheetahs have a rich vocal repertoire. And before I go any further, I'm going to stress the fact that it includes a meow which is very like that of the domestic cat. It's a bit louder and a little bit wilder but unmistakably a genuine meow, which doesn't surprise me one bit because this large wild cat species really does have some domestic cat traits. 

Captive cheetah meowing. Screenshot.

I've just seen a picture of a cheetah cosying up to a photographer. In the photo the cheetah has a GPS collar around their neck and it's in the wild but they decided that they would like to have a bit of human company. They can be like that sometimes. 

It is why, hundreds of years ago, they were tamed to hunt with rich humans in India and other Asian countries for sport. They are therefore tameable and somewhat domesticatable but don't think that they make good pets because they do not.

My thanks to the TikToker 'renn' for the video below.

The cheetah also has a yelp which is a brief, high-pitched yow sounding vocalisation which can travel some distance. A scientist, Mr R McLaughlin, said that he heard the yelp 2 km away.

When the cheetah utters this sound, they open and close their mouth rapidly while their abdomen and head jerk with the effort.

It is a contact call normally made by the mother who has been separated from her cubs or by young cheetahs who have lost their mother or siblings. That information is according to Mr J Kingdon (1977).

Another contact call would be the churr. This sound is used by mothers to call or encourage their offspring and by male cheetahs to relocate their siblings or coalition partners and also in a variety of other circumstances according to Mr TM Caro (1994).

The churr is also called a "stutter". It can indicate that the female is in heat (oestrus) and when males use the stutter, they do so to indicate an interest in a female according to Mr TM Caro (1993).

The cheetah also gurgles. This is a friendly close-range vocalisation. That information, by the way, come from Mr G Peters (1984).

Further, cheetahs occasionally growl when involved in agonistic encounters at a kill. They also moan when they are attacked or threatened by other cheetahs, leopards or lions. That information comes from a variety of researchers/scientists including TM Caro mentioned above.

And finally, the cheetah purrs like a domestic cat during friend encounters and after a meal or when resting. Of course, the cheetah purr is much louder than that of the domestic cat.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Outdoor cats are 'free cats' which you can take (according to Twitter X user)

A Twitter X user, Sophiane (see below), says that outdoor cats are free cats and you can just take them, which is complete baloney. It is complete BS. I have never heard anything more ridiculous it all my life. Is she kidding?

What this woman is saying is absurd. She follows up by saying that it is not legal advice. You could say that! Outdoor cats are often indoor/outdoor cats and in which case they will be owned cats. As they have an owner, they cannot be taken by anybody because that would be theft and a crime.

Sophiane who said on Twitter X that outdoor cats are free cats that can be taken. Wrong!

A lot of outdoor cats are owned cats. You have to check whether they are owned by scanning for a microchip. If the cat has a microchip containing current details, then you can reunite the cat with their owner if they are lost. But see the last paragraph!

Often, they won't be lost and they will find their way home in any case.

Also, regarding feral cats which are invariably outdoors, you won't just take one back home because that wouldn't work either. Feral cats are unsocialised and therefore they do not fit into a home because they are fearful of humans.

Obviously, there are complexities because some feral cats are semi-feral and they might fit in to a family home and further, you might be able to take that cat as your own if there is no microchip as mentioned.

The point really is that just because a cat is outdoors you cannot assume that it does not have an owner and therefore can 'take it' Sophiane is implying that you can do entirely as you please with respect to an outdoor cat. I am not even sure if she is being serious.

Perhaps she might be joking. That seems possible because what she has said is so outrageous and so obviously incorrect.

There are many types of cat that are outdoors at any one time. Some might be indoor/outdoor cats as mentioned. Some might be 'barn cats' (farm cats) which are outdoors nearly all the time but they are still domesticated and usually owned by the farmer. 

Some might be semi-feral cats which are socialised to a certain extent to humans. Some might be true feral cats which you can't go near because they are entirely fearful of people because they are entirely unsocialised to people. 

RELATED: Residential Park management get away with poisoning community cats.

And there are community cats which are domestic cats that live outside within a community and which are fed by the community usually shopkeepers et cetera. 

This last kind of arrangement is normally found in Asia such as countries like India and Pakistan where you will see lots of outdoor cats which are actually looked after within the community except, they normally do not take these cats to a veterinary clinic when they need veterinary medical help. 

That's the great weakness of community cats. But no single person usually owns a community cat. They are owned loosely by the community.

So, these various types of outdoor cat create complexities in terms of ownership.

Lastly, a microchip with correct details is not absolute, irrefutable evidence that the person as set out on those details owns the cat. It is good evidence but not complete evidence because things might have happened since the registration of the microchip. The person may have given away the cat to somebody else who did not register their name on the microchip for instance.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

77-year-old Florida man arrested for feeding stray cats

NEWS AND COMMENT: The headline from an American online news media outlet, 21WFMJ, attracted my attention. Whenever I read about anybody, never mind an elderly bloke, being arrested for doing something apparently decent and sensitive, it makes me sit up and think a little bit.

We are told that the elderly bloke had empty tuna cans and cups of dry food together with food bowls; all evidence of feeding stray cats. The elderly man's name is Walter Comanitz and he was arrested on Thursday for committing a nuisance. Yes, he was arrested and charged with a nuisance violation under an ordinance which applies to Sebring, Florida, a city in south-central Florida. 

Clearly, they have a local law which states that people cannot feed stray cats. That's pretty clear and it can be a crime for doing so. That, to me, seems like employing a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

We are further told that a couple of local business owners had complained about the stray cat feeder and written statements against him and his cat feeding on their properties.

The business owners' complaints concern their belief that the stray cats cause a nuisance and in feeding them you attract the nuisance to their properties. I completely get that. I understand it. This sort of problem between people who are sensitive to stray cats and who want to help them versus other people, often businesses, who are insensitive to the cats and see them as a pest of vermin is not uncommon. That's because businesses are concerned about profit and they don't want anything to get in the way of making profit. Also, entirely understandable.

RELATED: 79-year-old Ohio woman ordered to spend 10 days in the county jail for feeding stray cats.

The root cause of the problem is careless cat ownership which puts the cats there in the first place. That is what needs to be tackled. The fallout is an argument between these groups of people: the cat lovers and the cat haters. The way to deal with this is in taking proactive measures in improving cat ownership through education. It sounds easy but it is incredibly difficult because you will always have a tiny minority of cat owners who are irresponsible and it doesn't just apply to America but everywhere else.

In fact, America is one of the best countries in terms of cat ownership. Places in Asia can be horrendous in this respect.

These business owners say that the cats are defecating and urinating on their business properties and lounging around on their vehicles.

Once arrested Walter became agitated according to the arresting officer. He claims to be an attorney and that he was going to get rich because of he's been arrested. I suspect that he was hinting at claiming compensation of some sort but that won't happen because there is an ordinance in this city. It appears to be a black and white law without wriggle room.

Walter was handcuffed and taken into custody. He was released on his own recognizance and will return to court on Friday morning.

As you might expect, this isn't the first time that Walter has been arrested for feeding cats. This is another phenomenon with respect to people who feed stray cats and those you don't like it. Some people are compelled to feed starving stray and feral cats which is part of the reason why they become a nuisance to some residents and most business owners.

We are told that Walter was arrested in February on a littering charge for leaving the feeding bowls on the ground. He was fined $20 and he had to pay court costs of $71.

Comment: I am highly sympathetic towards people like Walter but understand the issues. There have been some terrible incidents in respect of people like him been confronted by those that strongly dislike people who feed stray cats. On one occasion a stray cat feeder was shot dead by a resident after an argument. There can be a lot of background animosity between these two groups of people which boils over into violence on occasions.

RELATED: Man who fed feral cats lost his temper and shot a police officer several times.

It's quite unusual for a city to enact a local ordinance making it a crime to feed stray and feral cats. It happens in the US but never in the UK for instance. This, too, is an area of contention by residents in a municipality. The problem is that some people see feeding stray cats as kind and decent while at a more commercial level and on an amenity level it can come a nuisance.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Woman who does TNR wrestles with a smart feral cat and it looks horrible

Woman who does TNR wrestles with a smart feral cat and it looks horrible. Screenshot.

This woman must be kind as she is a TNR volunteer. She feeds, traps and neuters feral cats where she lives - not sure where she lives! No matter. The video is a bit shocking as she takes a risk in trying to pick up a smart feral cat and place her in what appears to be a sack of some sort to take her to a vet to get her spayed. 

Me deciding to take a chance to grab the extremely smart feral cat I've been feeding so I can get her fixed. No cats were harmed! Only me!"

She makes a fool of herself looking stupid as she fights with the cat getting scratched. We don't see the injuries she suffered but she must have been harmed perhaps quite seriously. As I say, it looks horrible.

To be honest, she is brave in allowing the video to be uploaded to social media as she is not shown at her best of you know what I am getting at.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Is human-grade wet cat food healthier for your cat than standard cat food?

I am sceptical about an article in the Express newspaper which claims that human grade cat food completely changed the health and vitality of this woman's two cats. She claimed that her cats completely changed when they were fed on a human-grade meat diet. She did this deliberately to see if it made any difference to her cats. She said that she tried her favourite high quality, human-grade cat food: Untamed.

Image: MikeB

And here is the problem for me: the whole article in this online newspaper promotes and praises Untamed human-grade wet cat food. It seems to me like this is a promotional, paid piece and therefore I have difficulty in believing it. Although logically high-quality cat food at a human-grade level should be better for a cat than cheap cat food.

But is it better than standard high quality wet cat food? I would doubt it. The author of the article, Sophie Harris, said that "feeding both of them 2 to 3 times a day can be expensive but I believe investing in their food is the least I can do as an answer [to whether this food improved health]".

She said that the "food is quite pricey, with my two cats costing £100 a month ($121) to feed, not including the dry food they eat throughout the day." That means £50 per cat per month which is expensive. Not many people could justify that kind of expenditure.

Perhaps this is the weakness in this argument. You could argue all day long that human-grade wet cat food should be bought and provided by the cat owner, every time, all the time if the sole objective is to max out the health and welfare of your cat. But, 95% of cat owners can't afford that kind of expense so the discussion is academic.

And Sophie found that after a few days of feeding on the super high quality cat food her cats would not eat anything else but she says that she had the "satisfaction that it was providing him with all the nutrients he needed." How will she get them off it and go back to the standard stuff?

Untamed say that cats should have more energy because they will have been eating high-protein whole meats.

RELATED: Are plant proteins as good as animal proteins for cats?

Not long ago, I did some research on vegan dry cat food which I bought for my cat but he does not like it! My research using Google Scholar indicated to me that plant proteins are as good as animal proteins. So, the statement above that high-protein whole meats are better seems to be incorrect to me. Protein is protein. And cat food is artificial in any case. The manufacturers simply add all the nutrients needed to make it balanced.

Perhaps one factor with buying human-grade wet cat food is that it is probably prepared to a higher standard which may make it healthier. And there will be less additives I suspect. Of course, the basic ingredients are higher quality and they probably meet stricter standards. There will be less fillers and artificial ingredients. This would indicate that it provides better nutrition which may in turn lead to improved energy levels, a stronger immune system and healthier coat.

RELATED: No wet cat food waste (infographic).

Of course, that must be the common-sense conclusion but you might not see it actually in your cat. Also, not all human-grade cat foods are of equal quality. And also, cats may have specific dietary requirements and sensitivities. I don't think we can say with 100% certainty that providing your cat with human-grade cat food will improve their health and welfare over providing a good quality wet cat food. Notice I have referred to good wet food. Poor quality dry foods are liable, I believe to cause health issues if it is the sole source of nutrition.

You might like to consult with a veterinarian on this if you are considering it. Also, transitioning to a new diet should be done gradually as a sudden change can cause gastrointestinal issues.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Binjamin Netanyahu wants to "abolish this evil" by destroying infrastructure and innocent people but he won't destroy what's in their MINDS

Benjamin Netanyahu is deluded because he thinks that he can bomb out of existence what is in the minds of the Hamas terrorists. He thinks by destroying infrastructure and people and animals including pet cats and dogs, he can destroy what is in the minds of Palestinians who feel aggrieved to the point where they become terrorists and wants to kill Jews in Israel.

How is this going to 'abolish this evil'? It'll make it worse. Image: CNN.

You cannot kill off what is in the minds of an aggrieved people by destroying infrastructure and by destroying many innocent people. In fact, you will certainly achieve the exact opposite.

The terrorists are watching their homes being destroyed. They are watching innocent civilians being destroyed including babies and children. They are seeing their pet dogs and cats being destroyed. They are seeing their hospitals being destroyed. This will make them angrier. This will feed what is already in their minds: a hatred for the Israelis, their neighbours.

So, in destroying infrastructure Netanyahu will not be abolishing this evil but reinforcing this evil. He will be strengthening this evil. He will make things worse.

The man is deluded. He is motivated by his extreme anger at the Hamas terrorists who killed around 1500 Jews in Israel together with animals. I must mention the animals because I feel for them as much as I feel for the humans.

But the problem here is that Mr Netanyahu is responding on his gut instinct. He responded too quickly. He needed to settle down, and think more coldly and in the long term. He needed to think when he was calmer and less angry. His response is too instinctive. Animalistic. Instinct leads to this kind of retribution. It leads to simple aggression. A nihilistic destruction of your enemy.

History is repeating itself. It doesn't work. Benjamin Netanyahu is sowing the seeds for far more violence in the immediate and long-term future. He is feeding the aggrieved minds of Palestinians who hate him and Israelis.

I'm not defending the Palestinian terrorists and I'm not defending the Israelis either. The way I see it is that they are both parties to this problem. And the Prime Minister of Israel is making things worse while at the same time killing and maiming innocent people. This can't be right. His reaction is disproportionate in my view and in the view of many others.

And what he's doing may lead to a wider conflagration which would further destabilise the world which is already destabilised by the Ukraine war which is thanks entirely to Putin's illegal invasion of that independent, sovereign country.

The world is being shaped by dictators. Netanyahu wants to be a kind of benevolent dictator.

Huge protest in London in support of the Palestinians of Gaza. Funny this: the citizens of the world are protesting in support of the Gazans while the politicians are voicing support for the Israelis!?

Screenshot. Huge protest in London in support of the Palestinians of Gaza.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Black Oriental Shorthair is your perfect vampire cat companion for Halloween

This is a beautiful jet black, Oriental Shorthair with a slight squint and golden eyes, together with massive bat-like years and fangs, which make him, Toivo, ideal as your vampire bat accomplice for the forthcoming Halloween parties.

Image: A Tuomas Ikonen and MikeB collaboration.

RELATED: Why Siamese Cats Are Cross-eyed. Note the Oriental SH is a member of the Siamese cat family and Siamese cats are predisposed to being cross-eyed.

He is five years old and he lives in Finland and a social media star. I have taken his photograph and removed the background and added some fun background objects to make him look more like a Halloween cat. 

I hope his owner accepts it and perhaps approves of what I've done. Anybody can use it provided the copyright owner agrees. I believe the copyright owner is Tuomas Ikonen. I have sent a message for his approval.

Toumas clearly loves the Oriental Shorthair breed, which has a very particular look: slender, sometimes very slender which is described as "Oriental" by the cat fancy.

He is a very calm cat according to his owner. Despite looking like a badass, vampire cat with massive fangs, he is a sweetie with a great personality and a big voice which sounds like an out of tune falsetto opera singer.

He loves attention and of course he has found fame at this time of year. This brings to mind a more serious side to Halloween and black cats. It is that time of year when sometimes, crazy people, like to abuse black cats because there are hints of witchcraft about them if you believe in that kind of stuff. 

This is a throwback to the Middle Ages; around the 13th century. It's crazy but as I recall, some animal shelters do not let people adopt black cats at this time of year to protect them from these crazy people.

And of course, there is another serious side to this time of year which is fireworks. This is one of my pet hates and you will find that it is a pet hate of many cat owners (and dog owners). We don't know how Toivo deals with the sounds and sights of fireworks but if the general population is anything to go by, he hates it just like I do.

I have a page on advice from the UK's Cats Protection charity about how to look after domestic cat during this torrid time of year which you might like to peruse at your leisure by clicking on this link!

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Chinese infant indoctrinated by no animal welfare laws tosses kitten onto street where it dies.

I have said it before a thousand times and I will probably say it again a thousand times but there are no general animal welfare laws in China which is of course a result of their attitude towards animals but a lack of law also helps to mould attitudes. Countrywide laws can change attitudes. They can change human behaviours. And conversely, a lack of adequate nationwide law does the same thing but in a negative way.

This is what is happened in China and will continue to do so while Beijing abjectly refuses to introduce animal welfare laws that have been in place for over a hundred years in Britain and in America. China is so massively out of step in this regard. They just don't get it and this is because of a 3000-year history of animal abuse.

This picture comes from Twitter X where it has been posted by an animal advocate. It shows a Chinese infant chucking a kitten into the air and then onto the pavement or road where it dies. And this child will grow up and perpetuate this animal abuse by teaching their children to do the same thing.

It is all so unnecessary and so cruel. It's about attitude and in another post, I have said that the thread that runs through the concept of karma is attitude.

Eventually a bad attitude to something comes home to roost. It is cause and effect. What goes around comes around. If a country does something negative for so long such as abuse animals, karma will insist that that country will eventually suffer the consequences of this lacuna in their animal welfare laws. For me, the sooner the better.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

American news media inaccurately report on animal shelter intake rates

Nathan Winograd, a major animal advocate in the United States of America, tells me in his newsletter that "We are seeing something we've never seen before".

Image: Nathan Winograd's newsletter.

He has accused the online news media of America of "spreading alarm" about the very high animal intakes into rescue centres and shelters in America. He blames them for inaccurate reporting. He should know best and he says that the facts on the ground do not mirror the news media stories about high intake rates.

He claims that "while intakes are higher than at the height of the pandemic when many of these facilities were closed, they remain below pre-pandemic levels."

He claims that there has been an "epic failure of journalism to accurately report on this topic".

And this is the problem as he sees it: these stories have allowed shelters to avoid their responsibilities. It's allowed them to continue with, in his words, "shoddy practices by pointing the finger of blame outward".

In other words, the shelters can blame a mythical super-high intake of animals to cover up their inadequacies.

But the truth, he says, about shelter overcrowding and killing shelter animals unnecessarily lies in the fact that the shelters are "making pandemic-related closures permanent". And there are no "offsite adoptions [and] appointment-only adoptions."

In addition, he blames the shelters for a "lack of public access hours (evenings and weekends, and [a] failure to implement robust volunteer, foster, and rescue partnerships."

As I say, Nathan Winograd, is America's best expert on animal shelters in America and he is the number one exponent of the no-kill shelter policy.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Menopause is a mystery and Ngogo chimpanzees make it more of a mystery!

Elderly Ngogo chimpanzee. Image: Sci News.

In terms of the evolution of animals as per Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which is very widely accepted nowadays, the menopause of a number of primate species and of humans is somewhat of a mystery.

Perhaps you are like other men (including me) in not really thinking much about the female menopause and its purpose - some people think that the male human can also have a menopause. What I mean is why does it happen? What's the purpose of the female menopause?

It cuts short a female's ability to procreate and procreation is important in terms of the survival of the human and some primate species and their evolution. The more people there are the more chances there are of creating better people in terms of their genetics and survival.

The answer may be that after the menopause, a female becomes a grandmother and the grandmother can help raise the offspring of their daughters and sons - the 'grandchildren'. In other words, the Ngogo chimpanzee grandmother becomes a grandmother like a human grandmother and helps to raise the kids as it is very demanding.

Without the menopause there would be no 'useful grandmother' to carry out this function. This is called the "grandmother hypothesis".

My research on this also tells me that Ngogo chimpanzees live long lives of about 33 years which is about twice as long as that of other chimpanzee communities and within the 27–37-year range of life expectancy at birth of human under-gatherers.

However, the research today as published in the Times states that grandmother Ngogo chimpanzees do not get involved in raising the 'grandchildren'. In a new study, the researchers looked at 66 females and they estimated that these females spent 20% of their life unable to reproduce as like humans they have the menopause but unlike humans "they do so without lifting a finger to help with their grandchildren."

If the grandmother does not help with raising the kids as is the case with the Ngogo chimpanzees, this undermines the theory 'grandmother hypothesis' thus making the menopause a mystery to this day.

The research is published in the journal Science. And in this research, they also state that the fact that the grandmother does nothing does not totally kill off the grandmother hypothesis. It allows the grandmother to be a "doting grandmother" which may serve some use.

Another theory is that female primates of certain species have the menopause in order to make them less alluring to prevent them competing with their daughters for reproductive opportunities. We don't know at the moment.

Note: as you can see this is nothing to do with cats! I just fancied doing it as it may help some people to better understand the human female menopause.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Jack Russell stuck in pipe cost owner €10,000

FRANCE: A Jack Russell terrier owner has been sent a bill for €10,000, the cost of rescuing his dog from a drainage pipe by firefighters. It took nine hours.

The Jack Russell, Gaia, stuck in a pipe which cost her owner €10,000 to rescue. Image: The Times.

Aliane Chichi, the dog's owner, was on a holiday in Switzerland when his Jack Russell, Gaia, chased a fox. He searched for her. There were two other dogs with him and they led him to a manhole where he heard her barking.

He couldn't pinpoint her location and called emergency services. They discovered that she was trapped underground in a 20 cm diameter pipe.

In all, a dozen firefighters were involved in rescuing his dog who whimpered throughout.

He said that "They used a camera to find her and then they had to call in a contractor to drill down through the road the next day."

The firefighters warned him that he would have to pay because they had to bring in an excavator and road-drilling machinery and he is not a Swiss resident.

They asked him whether he wanted to stop the rescue and he refused. He said that he "wasn't going to leave my dog to die in that pipe. It was unthinkable."

He is shocked by the bill which equates to £8,700 ($10,555). He thought the rescuers were doing their work as a gesture of goodwill but doesn't want to speak badly about them.

In an interview on French radio, he said that he feels that the rescuers were using his distress at the time "to fill their pockets".

He's been able to raise about £2,000 and a crowdfunding appeal was successful enough to cover the rest of the bill with a surplus of about £900. He is donating it to an animal welfare charity.

My thanks to The Times of 27th Oct 2023.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Director of the film 'Argylle' sacked the professional cat actor and used his daughter's cat instead

You know that you can get professional animal actors. I'm talking about cats and dogs usually who are regarded as professional actors. Their owners can make, I guess, a decent amount of money by allowing film producers to use their animals as actors in a film. 

I believe that this is Mr Vaughn with his daughter's Scottish Fold, the non-professional feline actor who became a film star! Image: Fandom Wire.

Clearly, animal actors have to be well behaved, well trained and able to take directions of some sort! You would expect, animal actors to be particularly well-rounded individuals, calm and able to absorb without fuss all the commotion that occurs on a film set with strange people in strange places.

There is an up-and-coming new film due to be aired in 2024 called Argylle and it is directed by Matthew Vaughn. In The Times today he is reported to have told Empire that he had originally hired a professional feline actor.

He said that, "It was very expensive but it wasn't very cute and it was useless."

And so, Mr Vaughan fired the professional cat actor which may have been against union rukes but then I don't think cats are members of any film unions. Vaughn added that, "They don’t have any rights, thank God." Now that's another long discussion because cats do have rights under the law but not of the kind that Vaughn is referring to.

He decided to go up to his daughter's bedroom and he asked whether he could borrow her cat, Chip, for three months.

Chip turned out to be a really good actor. He is the star of the film! Mr Vaughn says, "He was always looking at the right place. I don't want to be rude about some actors I've worked with, but Chip was easier."

So, little Chip, the new feline acting star is now going to be featured in a book and merchandise is going to follow featuring the little fella.

This is partly because he is a cute-looking Scottish Fold. These are the new hot cats because Taylor Swift adopted one. What she touches turns to gold.

It is said that when non-child actors get a break in films because they are the offspring of celebrities and become stars they are described as "Nepo babies".

So, the question is according to Patrick Kidd, the Times journalist, whether "this is the dawn of the nepo kitty".

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P.S. please forgive any typos. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Marrying couple arrange for two rescue cats to be adopted during their WEDDING!

Cool comes to mind and clever and enlightened and great. You know what this does? It incorporates animals into the wedding day. Brilliant. And to find homes for two rescue cats is the icing on the cake. The wedding cat.

The business who worked with the couple to rehome the rescue cats are called Fairytale Pet Care. A couple of ladies decided on the idea and it is the first of its kind in the US. They wanted animals to have a chance to enjoy the big day. I agree. Looking back, it seems strange that companion animals have been cut of this most important day for humans.

Here are the lucky kittens who found their forever homes at this wedding:

2 kittens adopted and rehomed at a wedding. Screenshot from video above.

And here is a video about the business which made it happen:

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Cat breeder dumps FeLV positive tortie cats in a field to die

A Cats Protection volunteer was angered by what very much appears to be an informal cat breeder dumping FeLV positive cats in a field to die. FeLV positive cats are those that are suffering from the feline leukaemia virus which can't be cured in which usually is fatal within four years.

Fearful, dark tortie cats with FeLV dumped in a field in the UK to die. Two have been euthanised. Image: Breckland Cats Protection.

It's a killer and a lingering death and what happened is that the Cat Protection charity euthanised two of the cats because the disease was too advanced, they say, and a third is too ill to be blood tested at the moment. 

Feline leukaemia virus is transmitted through saliva, blood and other body fluids. The allegation is that there is an informal cat breeder out there (there are too many) near Didlington, near Mountford, in the UK, who bred what appears to be dark tortoiseshell cat informally and because of bad management the cats contracted this viral disease and then he or she decided to simply throw them away which they did by putting them in sealed crates secured with zip ties and placing those crates in a field in Dinnington.

Fortunately, the farmer found them on October 17th and they were taken into the care of Breckland Cats Protection.

The volunteer, Ms Lardner, who I refer to is urging anyone who has recently bought kittens from this breeder to take their cats to veterinarian for a checkup because it seems very plausible that other cats from this person have also contracted this fatal disease.

Lardner said: "I'm just so angry, I can't get over it. This is the result of breeding and the market being so saturated."

Yes, the last thing that British society needs is a person informally breeding cats to make a few quid and doing it in such a bad way that they cats are unadoptable and have to be put down. And even if the cats were healthy, it's wrong. There are too many cats in shelters needing homes for an irresponsible, unscrupulous person to create more.

Final point: I have referred to "an informal breeder" because there are non-purebred cats i.e. moggies. If there were purebred cats this would have been a formal breeder, normally registered with a cat association and they would then be complying with much higher standards. It is the ad hoc cat breeders trying to make a few quid who really are a problem. It is not illegal to do this but it should be.

The report comes from the Eastern Daily Press.

Location: Didlington, Thetford IP26 5AT, UK

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P.S. please forgive any typos. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Greta Thunberg is persona non grata with the Israelis

Greta Thunberg's desire and motivation to be completely impartial and to walk the walk rather than simply talk the talk has tended to get her into hot water which, for me, deserves all the praise in the world. She would make a great politician and I hope that one day she goes into politics because politics needs cleaning up and she's the kind of person to do it.

Greta Thunberg with poster. She is now persona non grata with Israel. Image: Twitter.

On this occasion, she was not supporting climate change activists which is her forte and which has put her in jail on occasions; she bravely posted a pro-Palestinian message on social media last Friday. It featured a photograph of herself and three other campaigners.

One campaigner held a sign saying "Free Palestine". Another held a sign which said "This Jew stands with Palestine" and fourth called for "Climate justice now".

The caption on Thunberg's Twitter X post said: "Today we strike in solidarity with Palestine and Gaza. The world needs to speak up and call for an immediate ceasefire, justice and freedom for Palestinians and/or civilians affected."

In response, Israel's Foreign Ministry said: "Greta Thunberg, Hamas doesn't use sustainable materials for their rockets which have butchered innocent Israelis. The victims of the Hamas massacre could have been your friends. Speak up."

She replied: "It goes without saying - or so I thought - that I am against the horrific attacks by Hamas."

As I said, she is impartial and balanced. She just wants the truth and she wants things done right and she doesn't like to see injustice.

Israel's education ministry has announced that Thunberg is now disqualified from being portrayed as "an educational role models" in the Israeli school curriculum.

Officials described her position as outrageous and "[an] apparent inability to differentiate between good and evil".

They say that she is disqualified from representing "the forces that strive for positive change in the world. Her image cannot be a model for our students, many of whom saw her as [an] inspiration."

Dr Eli David posted on Twitter: "Today Israel Ministry of Education decided to remove Greta Thunberg from all climate studies. Shame on them to include her to begin with. When you endorse wokes, you wake up with terrorism supporters."

RELATED: Digging out a young cat from a bombed out building in Gaza

Comment: Israel is so defensive emotionally about what they are doing. They just cannot take any criticism whatsoever. Thunberg is being fair and honest in my view. Israel should be prepared to accept criticism when deserved. Hamas have been barbaric. Israel's response has been too destructive.

Another high-profile person to criticise Israel indirectly in an effort to assess the current war fairly is UN chief Antonio Guterres who has put the war into context as he sees it. 

He said that the Hamas raid "didn't happen in a vacuum". In a rapid response to that, Israel has called for the UN's Secretary General to resign or be sacked. Once again, a very defensive response to a respected person trying to discuss this horrible war in a balanced way.

Antonio Guterres also said that: "The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people."

Eli Cohen, the Israeli Foreign Minister cancelled a meeting with him and asked: "Mr Secretary-General, in what world do you live?"

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P.S. please forgive any typos. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Animal Armageddon in China when 1000 cats were destined to be slaughtered and sold as pork or mutton

NEWS AND OPINION: I have used the phrase "animal Armageddon" for a good reason because that is what it looks like to me, an outsider, looking in at both the cat and dog meat market in China. In this story - and it is not exceptional - we have Chinese police aided by animal activists rescuing about 1,000 cats from a truck en route to a slaughterhouse (reports CNN).

Image in public domain.

If the slaughter of these cats had taken place - and it is likely that some were feral/stray and some were domestic cats (pets) - their meat would have been marketed as pork and/or mutton in order to maximise the profit margins that these unscrupulous traders hoped to have achieved in this obscene business.

There appears to be a massive amount of illicit trade in cats and dogs for their meat and fur in China. There is simply no way to control or monitor it properly particularly as there are no general animal welfare laws in China. There simply isn't. There's no desire or motivation to protect animals in China in a general sense by the local authorities. 

This rescue is probably an exception and thanks to animal activists. They are brave and committed. This is a fairly new and welcome trend by the way. For many years there was no concern for these animals.

After a tipoff by the activists, a lorry containing 1,000 cats was intercepted by the police from Zhangjiagang, in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu.

The animals were destined to be taken south which is the area where, to my knowledge, most cat and dog meat markets are situated. There'd be slaughtered in the south to be served up on skewers as pork and lamb as well as in sausages.

The rescued cats have been taken to a nearby shelter. It is estimated that the fraud would have netted as much as $20,000 for the unscrupulous traders.

We don't know if any arrests have been made. The activists first noticed nailed wooden boxes with many cats inside near a cemetery. The activists then patrolled the streets for several days and noticed that a truck arrived to ferry the cats to a slaughterhouse. They intervened and called the police.

An animal activist in China said that the traders in cat meat can sell a pound of cat meat for around four dollars by passing them offers pork or mutton.

The seizure of trucks by animal activists destined for the South in the cat and dog meat markets is not uncommon. You will see videos and pictures online of brave animal activists stopping and offloading trucks carrying a large number of cats or dogs in rusty old crates or boxes. The animals are rescued but the illicit trade continues in Guangdong, a southern Chinese province, and, to the best of my knowledge, the home of the cat and dog meat market.

There is a complete lack of will by the Chinese government to do anything about the obscene and barbaric dog and cat meat markets in the south. They are left alone by the authorities because they are regarded as a cultural phenomenon and not to be disturbed as I understand the situation. President Xi Jinping supports this animal cruelty. 

There is no recognition by the Chinese authorities of the cruelty that occurs in these marketplaces. It appears to be incidental and of no importance.

For people who support the cat and dog meat markets in China because they don't see any difference in these meat markets to the abattoirs and slaughterhouses in the West, I would like to inform them that cats and dogs are not killed under regulated conditions, relatively humanely, but there are simply bludgeoned to death or thrust into boiling water alive. They are skinned alive. The whole thing is something out of Dante's Inferno. It is remarkable that it still happens today in a country which has the second largest economy in the world.

I have always stated that the time has come for international intervention to stop this in China. China will argue that they should be left alone to do as they please because it's an internal matter. I disagree because when animal cruelty is on this scale, it becomes an international problem. The world cannot just look on and rub their hands and say it looks horrible. I want to see America and other countries adopt sanctions against China until they introduce animal welfare laws of a high quality and enforce those laws while simultaneously shutting down all the cat and dog meat markets and cat and dog fur trade in China. The whole lot should stop ASAP.

To animal advocates, and anyone with an ounce of sensitivity, the dog and cat meat markets of China are horrendous and obscene places which should have been banned decades if not centuries ago.

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P.S. please forgive any typos. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Hockney cat sculpture created at art school in 1955 and given to a kind couple fetched £111,875 at auction

Sixty-eight years ago, David Hockney and his Bradford College of Art friend, Norman Stevens, were hitchhiking to London to visit exhibitions. It was raining and they were sheltering under the eaves of a house owned by Peter Richards and his wife alongside the A1 in Bedfordshire.

Mr Richards with the Hockney ceramic cat sculpture given to him by the artist for his kindness is providing shelter in the rain in 1955. Image: NationalWorld

The Richards felt bad for the guys and they invited them in to dry off and have a cup of tea. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon and their kindness was not forgotten by David Hockney.

He gave them a sculpture of a ceramic domestic cat which was modelled on Mr and Mrs Richards' cat, it is believed. Hockney sculpted the cat in 1955 while still at art school. It is one of six created at college.

It measures 34.5 cm x 40 cm x 15.5 cm. The sculpture comes with drawings and plans for the artwork together with letters and cards sent to the Richards by the artist over the years. A friendship had been created.

Apparently, Hockney has always been interested in cats and they feature in some of his major works.

The cat sculpture was auctioned on October 24. It shattered the previous record of £100,000 set by similar David Hockney sculpture in June 2023.

Hockney cat sculpture and accompanying paperwork. Image: NationalWorld.

Mark Stacey of Stacey's Auctioneers & Valuers said that the artwork had exceeded all expectations.

He added that, "This was a fantastic result for the vendor who was present in the room and was auctioning the Hockney items to benefit his grandchildren. The cat exceeded all expectations and £111,875 is a record for a Hockney ceramic cat, superseding the previous price achieved at Christie's in June of this year. There was both online and telephone bidding from bidders in the UK and globally with it finally being sold to an anonymous UK buyer."

Hockney is one of Britain's most celebrated artists. He is 86 years of age as at the date of this post and he smokes. He dislikes the 'persecution' of smokers in the UK!

He says that when he is creating art, he feels like he is 30 years old. He is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. He's a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. He has used the iPad and Polaroid to create art.

Richards sold the sculpture to raise funds to give to their grandchildren. He is now in his 90s and lives in Thorpe Bay, Essex.

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P.S. please forgive any typos. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Hamas massacres entire family leaving nervous puppy behind who was rescued (video)

NEWS AND OPINION: Fox News report of the plight of dogs on the Israel side of this war. The first is a sweet-looking and nervous puppy held by the journalist Trey Yingst. Hamas massacred his family. He was the only survivor. They lived near the Gaza/Israel border.  I have three feelings. First: great to see the news media focus on companion animals for a while although, secondly the Fox News anchor says that pets are less important than humans which is the conventional attitude but not for me!

Thirdly it is tremendously sad to see this traumatised puppy. One hopes that he gets over it in due course.

In the second part another rescued dog is presented to the camera by Barak Levi Segal. The dog is a survivor of a kibbutz that was invaded by the Hamas terrorists. He is very scared for obvious reasons. 

The dog is peaceful and small. He got lucky because he was fortunate to be found by a person sympathetic to dogs. The journalist rescued three dogs in all and the families of two were reunited with their dog after the rocket attacks. He also states that dogs were shot dead by Hamas.

The short video tells the story of the Hamas attacks on the villages near the border with Israel. It is a different perspective and I like to see it. Although as mentioned it is sad to see.

Dog rescued from the Hamas terrorist attacks on a village and Kibbutz in Israel near the Gaza border. This puppy was the sole survivor of an entire family massacred by Hamas terrorists.

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Note: please forgive any typos. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.