Picture of Judge Victoria McCloud with her grey Maine Coon cat

I have made a presumption here that judge Victoria McCloud has been pictured with a Maine Coon cat because the cat does look very much like a Maine Coon cat with that square muzzle and those lynx-tipped ears. The coat is shaggy and medium-long and therefore the cat ticks the boxes in terms of appearance for being a Maine Coon cat.

Picture: Richard Pohle.

The reason why I have stolen this picture from the Internet - and I hope the photographer doesn't mind (the photographer is, I've discovered, Richard Pohle of The Times) - is because this lady is in the news. 

She is the only transgender judge in Britain and she has resigned because, in her words, 

"I have reached the conclusion that in 2024 the national situation and present judicial framework is no longer such that it is possible in a dignified way to be both 'trans' and a salaried, fairly prominent judge in the UK."

I can't add to that. Except to say that the transgender discussion is all over the news media these days. I've recently written about JK Rowling who states that the notorious cat and person killer, Scarlet Blake, should be referred to as a man in the reports about her regarding her trial and imprisonment for 24 years without parole.

JK Rowling is a gender-critical feminist and she feels that writing about Scarlet Blake as a woman denigrates to a certain extent women in general. She wants the news media to refer to her as a man because she's a man who transgendered to a woman. Click on the link below to read about this:

JK Rowling says that Scarlet Blake the cat-killing trans murderer isn't a woman.

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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.

British power plant burns old growth Canadian forest destroying wildlife habitat

The Drax power plant near Selby, North Yorkshire, UK has been receiving a couple of sets of government subsidies worth £6bn because it is claimed that the electricity produced by this powerplant comes from burning plant biomass - trees from ecologically unimportant areas in Canada. 

In this instance, biomass is renewable organic material from trees. It should also be carbon neutral with the carbon produced from burning wood being cancelled out by the carbon absorbed by trees growing.

But the problem with this process is that Drax is receiving subsidies in order to burn wood from old-growth forests which provide a unique habitat for ecosystems in Canada. It's probable, that these forests provide a habitat for the Canada lynx which is my connection to the cat in this article.

In the UK, in 2017, in a sustainability report, Drax promised not to take timber from no-go areas which means protected forests, primary forests, old-growth forests and forests classified as having a high biodiversity value.

Government support for Drax can only be justified because the wood that they use for their power stations has been sourced sustainably and I presume in compliance with good carbon neutral policies. And in compliance with wildlife conservation. That's not mentioned in The Times article: Power plant burns rare forest wood.

The wood comes from primary forests as mentioned and therefore Drax should not receive government subsidies which have amounted to £6 billion as I understand it in the past.

In a letter to The Times British Members of Parliament have said the following: 

"Continued wood burning biomass harms forests, communities and contributes huge amounts of carbon emissions to the atmosphere."

In response, Drax did not deny clearing old-growth forests for its power stations. However Drax said that its 2017 report was "not a policy and is now obsolete." It's been superseded by 2019 document they say. A spokesperson for Drax said: "We are confident our biomass is sustainable and legally harvest and meet the requirement of our 2019 sourcing policy."

Comment: the company is wriggling out of their responsibilities. Sorry by entirely typical of big business.

Secondly, it seems extraordinary to me that Drax and the UK government can even contemplate chopping down forests and burning them in power stations in the UK. How can that be a good policy? 

That would seem to go totally against the fundamental principles of being carbon neutral. In preserving nature. In preserving habitat for wildlife. In doing the right thing. In protecting the planet. How does this Drax policy in partnership with the UK possibly enhance sustainability, nature, and protect the planet?

The UK government should be as ashamed as Drax. Typical of double talking big business in league with unethical British politicians. I hate them all.

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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.

Why does the no-kill cat shelter policy mean that 10% of the cats are killed?

You may have wondered why the much vaunted no-kill animal shelter and cat shelter policy results in 10% of the cats being killed. Surely "no-kill" means no killing whatsoever? I'm afraid not. 

What it does mean is that there is no killing i.e. euthanasia of healthy cats but exceptions are made for cats with severe medical conditions that cannot be treated causing significant pain and poor quality of life and cats with severe behavioural issues that pose a danger to life to humans or other animals and where rehabilitation efforts are unlikely to succeed.

These cats are euthanised. The term euthanasia would genuinely apply to a chronically ill and terminally ill cat but under any other circumstances it wouldn't really apply. We have to use the word "kill" under circumstances where the cat is euthanised because of behavioural issues.

There is a muddying of the waters in terms of the language used at cat shelters. However, the no-kill movement - which is the brainchild, as I understand it, of Nathan Winograd, American's greatest advocate of saving the lives of shelter animals in America - has reduced unnecessary euthanasia.

The no-kill philosophy focuses on saving all healthy and treatable animals and with that in mind it can dramatically reduce the number of animals euthanised due to the limits of space at shelter facilities and time limits.

The concept is there to focus the minds of managers and workers to use their best possible practices and imagination to find ways to save lives. And there's been a quite dramatic - I think it's fair to say - increase in the number of no-kill shelters in America over the past decade.

The euthanasia rate has dramatically dropped in America over the past decade too. It's still pretty high but much better. There is still work to do.

Some people decry the no-kill movement. I've read quite a lot about PETA but once again there is misleading language used against them in my view. But they seem to believe that killing feral cats is preferable to looking after them and putting them back on the street under TNR programs. 

I think that is a misleading idea about PETA. But ironically Nathan Winograd is in a running battle with PETA about saving cats and killing cats. Nathan Winograd hates PETA as he thinks that this very high-profile animal charity kills too many cats. Either they promote the idea of killing feral cats or they kill themselves and he consistently says this. It's a shame because both of great animal advocates. We don't want people on the same side fighting each other over policy decisions.

I'm told that in 2017 a milestone was reached when for the first time the total number of dogs and cats euthanised in US shelters fell below 1 million. The actual number is estimated at 800,000. I'm also told that it is difficult to obtain accurate data on the number of cats killed 10 years ago compared to the number of cats killed today at shelters. There's been a reduction though so no-kill has worked to a good extent but more work needs to be done.

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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.

UK parents don't do toilet training. Cats are better toilet trained than kids!

I have decided that it is possible or probable that the UK's domestic cats are better toilet trained than reception-aged schoolchildren in this country. The shocking headline from The Times is that parents 'don't do toilet training' with the result that 90% of teachers of reception-age children say that nine in ten had a child in their class who wasn't toilet trained.

What do these kids do? Do they poop and pee where they sit at their desks? Or do they put their hand up and asked teacher something like this: "Teacher, I want to have a pee. Can you tell me how to use a toilet?"

It's completely bonkers. A survey by the early years charity Kindred found that of 50% parents believe that they should not have full responsibility for toilet training their children. It would appear that these parents need or want to rely on others, usually teachers to help train their children how to use the toilet. What is going on in the UK?

Equally shocking is the fact that 16% of parents think it is their job to teach their children how to read. Only 16%! Surely it's a fundamental responsibility of parents to do both these chores? That's what being a parent means.

Cats

Domestic cats including kittens hardly need to be trained to use the litter tray. Some might but the majority won't in my view provided the litter tray is positioned in a good place and the substrate (the litter material) is acceptable to the cat which can be assessed through trial and error.

RELATED: 6 tips on cat inappropriate elimination (infographic).

The reason why kittens and cats automatically use a litter tray if it is in an accessible position (quiet and away from the food and water) is because the substrate is the best material in which to go to the toilet. And therefore instinctively they use it. They go in search of something which is like the earth; the soil outside and the cat litter substrate is exactly that.

If they don't find and use the litter tray easily or are reluctant to use it then they can be trained with common sense by placing them in the litter tray and then praising them with a treat when they go to toilet in it.

The tray should be about one and a half times the length of the cat excluding the tail. It's probably safer to provide a cat with an open tray rather than one that is covered because some cats might be reluctant to go into a covered one as going to the toilet places them in a vulnerable position and they want to escape easily.

That's a minor point. If a cat is peeing and or pooping outside of the litter tray it will always be something to do with the caretaking provided by the human companion or a health problem which may itself be caregiver related.

It might be the environment that is too stressful because a cat is bullying and guarding resources or it might be because the cat has cystitis because they are too stressed. It'll be something like that. They might be spraying urine but that is not peeing. That is marking territory.

I have concluded, as mentioned, that it's probable that cats are better toilet trained than young school kids or cats are better at using their toilet than children are at using theirs!

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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.

JK Rowling says that Scarlet Blake the cat-killing trans murderer isn't a woman

Transgender criminal defendants should not be referred to by their chosen gender. According to JK Rowling - a person who believes in biological sex rather than their self-certificated gender or trangener - a man who commits a crime as a transgender woman should be charged, prosecuted and sentenced as a man. I agree with her and support her outspoken and brave views.

JK Rowling pic from her Twitter account. I hope she accepts me publishing it here. If not please tell me in a comment and I will act fast.

She says this because she has criticised the reports about the criminal charging, prosecution and sentencing of Scarlet Blake, a transgender person who was successfully prosecuted for cat killing and torture followed by the murder of a randomly selected man namely Jorge Carreno

JK Rowling believes that to report these crimes as if they were by a woman denigrates women. She says that it is unfair on women that a transgendered man has been charged and prosecuted as a woman. This goes to the heart of what JK Rowling believes namely that you can't alter your biological gender or sex.

It has been very troublesome for her, that belief. She's been very harshly criticised by the LGBT community (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community). This community demanded that JK Rowling's books be outlawed by the community to try and hurt her sales. JK Rowling pressed on unaffected by it.

She has her rights and the right to have her own opinions and the right to express them. And I like that attitude. Personally I think that transgendered people should be able to choose their sex in terms of legal documentation and general day-to-day affairs but I also believe as JK Rowling does that you can't change your fundamental gender at birth.

I am sorry that this believe might upset some people but that's what I believe. The reason why am talking about this is because there is a cat context in this story as you probably know as Scarlet Blake is described as a "cat-killing trans murderer". That is in The Times today. The full headline is "Rowling: cat-killing trans-murderer isn't a woman".

After it emerged that Blake was a transitioned from male to female person Rowling criticised Sky News for referring to her as a woman in its reporting. She shared her views in a clip in a video on Twitter/X in which the author wrote: "I'm sick of this s***. This is not a woman. These are #NotOurCrimes."

This tag is used by "gender-critical feminists". JK Rowling is a gender-critical feminists. These are people who believe what I've stated namely that your biological sex remains throughout your life and they say this in the interest of feminism.

In a separate post, Rowling added:

"Crime statistics are rendered useless if violent and sexual attacks committed by men are recorded as female crimes. Activists are already clamouring for this sadistic killer to be incarcerated in a woman's present. Ideologically driven misinformation is not journalism."

Scarlet Blake, according to my research, was being held in a male prison. That was presumably on remand and I will presume that she will remain in a male prison during her 24 year life sentence without parole. That, if true, should be welcomed by JK Rowling.

1. Crime statistics are rendered useless if violent and sexual attacks committed by men are recorded as female crimes.
2. Activists are already clamouring for this sadistic killer to be incarcerated in a women's prison.
3. Ideologically-driven misinformation is not journalism. pic.twitter.com/9hnBBAY6eH

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 26, 2024

Transgender women with male genitalia aren't allowed to be held in mainstream women's prisons according to The Times. Nine in ten transgender women are housed in men's prisons according to the Ministry of Justice.

I'm told to that the journalist Louise Tickle, an award-winning reporter who has written for The Guardian for more than 20 years, said that she was boycotting The Guardian newspaper for not telling its readers that Blake was transgender.

My personal experience is that early on in this story, newspapers were not mentioning that Blake was transgender and I guess it was because they were trying to be politically correct. 

I find that very strange because it's important that the reports should mention that Blake is transgender. It was part of the story and in fact it was part of the trial because the jurors had to consider whether Blake was big enough and therefore physically able to kill the man she randomly selected, Carreno. Being a man she was.

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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 it true that a tomcat with bad teeth can never become a father?

You might think that it is strange to link a tomcat's bad teeth with a failure to becoming a father but it isn't. This will be a very short post and therefore it might not be interesting but the question needs to be answered.

Domestic cats mating showing how the male grips the female's neck in his teeth to stop her swiping him. Picture: MikeB under license.

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When a male domestic, stray or feral cat mates with a female in heat he clings onto the female's neck with his teeth. This subdues her and prevents her swiping him when he removes his penis because it hurts. It hurts because of the backward facing barbs on his penis which rake her vagina. It sounds a bit gruesome but these are the anatomical facts of the matter.

To answer the question, bad teeth which are painful to use, may curb his instincts to mate with a female in heat. They have to grip the back of the neck of the female quite hard and if the teeth hurt because of gum disease and general poor oral health, he may decline the offer of sex. That is the theory. I can't say that such a tomcat would NEVER become a father.

I'm not sure that it is entirely followed in practice because the male's instinct to mate is unshakeable. Tomcats cats have a few unshakeable instincts, one is the one mentioned in the other is to sustain their lives through successful predation. The other, for a domestic cat, is to seek security and warmth and lastly companionship with a human caregiver.

It seems likely that a young cat would not have rotten teeth and therefore they'd be no obstacle to mating. Only when they get older would there be gum disease at which time the tomcat may show a disinterest in mating.

Here is some more from Bing's Co-pilot:

1. Health and Reproductive Function: A cat’s overall health significantly impacts its reproductive abilities. Bad teeth can lead to pain, infection, and difficulty eating, which may affect the cat’s overall well-being. If a tomcat is in poor health due to dental issues, it might struggle with other aspects of reproduction as well.

2. Nutrition and Fertility: Proper nutrition is crucial for reproductive success. Cats with dental problems may have difficulty eating and maintaining optimal body condition. Malnutrition can directly impact fertility and sperm quality.

3. Behavioral Factors: A tomcat’s ability to mate successfully involves more than just physical health. Behavioral factors play a role too. If a cat is in pain due to dental issues, it might be less interested in mating or less effective in courtship behaviors.

4. Age: Older tomcats may experience dental problems due to age-related issues. As cats age, their teeth can deteriorate, affecting their overall health and reproductive abilities.

5. Dealing with Dental Issues: If a tomcat has bad teeth, it’s essential to address the dental problems. Regular veterinary check-ups, dental cleanings, and appropriate treatment can improve overall health and increase the chances of successful reproduction.

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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.

Indigenous Sami reindeer herders support Gaza in protesting against Israel

The Sami reindeer herders are descendants of northern Europe's nomadic people and it said they can trace their roots back to the end of the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago. They have been practising traditional reindeer herding since the 17th century. It is much more than a job. It is a way of life. Their historical lands have been divided up by the creation of four different countries across which the Sami people now live: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

Sami child. Image: MikeB under license.

"Our bodies know the pain"

The words above where spoken by Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen, a Sami activist and artist widely known for her singing.

The Al Jazeera article by Shafi Musaddique about the reindeer herders of Norway is, I think, very poignant. The journalist says that the Sami people of Norway sympathise with the Palestinians in Gaza because "our bodies know the pain". 

The Sami's work and lifestyle defines them. They are very connected to nature in an old fashion way; something which the modern human does not follow. It's one of the great problems of modern life. People are disconnected from nature.

Connected to nature

The Sami people are respected for their connection with nature. They say that they don't live off the land but live within it. The problem is they are seeing their lands being destroyed. Europe's oldest and last remaining indigenous people are under very severe threat because of a range of issues impacting their lifestyle.

Huma rights abuses against the Sami

Arguably, there's been a long line of historical abuses perpetrated against the Sami people including:

Forced assimilation: the Sami faced policies designed to erase their culture, traditional way of life and languages. The programmes included forced relocations and boarding schools where Sami children were forbidden to speak their language. There was a suppression of cultural practices.

"Scientific" racism: the Sami people were subjected to dehumanising research. It was practised under the guise of "racial science", a concept which has now been discredited. It involved measuring skulls and forced sterilisation under the guise of eugenics.

Land dispossession: the Sami's traditional lands were seized for forestry and mining and later for green energy projects like wind farms. The core of their lives, reindeer herding was severely disrupted. This negatively impacted their culture and livelihood.

Present-day challenges

We can move forward to the present and there are further challenges which are gradually chipping away at the lifestyle of the Sami people.

Environmental threats: as mentioned wind farms, resource extraction and mining and other industrial projects are taking place on Sami lands which is destroying their culture. The projects damage grazing, disrupt migration routes for the reindeer and pollute water sources.

Limited self-determination: there has been some recognition of Sami rights but governments (four governments as mentioned) often make decisions affecting the Sami people without proper consultation and without respecting their lifestyles and traditional land use.

Discrimination and hate speech: there is prejudice against the Sami people, discrimination and hate speech. This, as can be imagined affects their well-being, emotional health, mental health and has a negative impact upon their general lifestyle.

Consequences

These human rights abuses and injustices have far-reaching consequences on them.

Loss of culture and identity: their language has been suppressed together with traditional practices. There is a loss of cultural heritage. A weakening of Sami identity.

Economic hardship: being dispossessed of their lands has caused economic hardship. It has disrupted their livelihoods resulting in them being dependent on government support. This undermines their integrity and their self-esteem.

Health issues: having suffered a loss of culture and discrimination, there are mental health problems and high rates of suicide within some Sami communities.

Resisting these abuses

The Sami people appear to be fighting back in resisting these human rights abuses. What they are doing includes the following.

International advocacy: they are bringing their causes to international bodies such as the UN in order to pressure the countries in which they live to force them to respect their rights.

Land rights activism: they are fighting against the developers of the projects that damage their lands by taking legal action such as a landmark case against the Fosen wind farm company in Norway.

Cultural revitalisation: they are working to revive traditional practices and to promote the Sami culture and their languages within their communities and further afield.

They are described as not being a monolithic group and people had different points of view about their human rights and their existence.

My comment: personally, I am very sympathetic towards them. It's a great shame that these traditional peoples are abused like this. It brings to mind the Aboriginal Australians, who've been abused and the Native Americans in the United States. They've all been abused by Europeans. The Europeans travelled to North America and abused the wildlife and the Native Americans. The Europeans were transported to Australia where they abused the Aboriginal Australians who were there tens of thousands of years before them. It's a great shame that a so-called civilised race, the Europeans, were so badly behaved towards indigenous people and their lifestyles. Pure ignorance and arrogance. The same attitude which resulted in the mass slaughter of the tiger (as pests) in India during the Raj.

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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.

Google's Gemini can't answer the question: "Is Putin a mass murderer?

I asked Google's Gemini the following question: Is Putin a mass murderer. Gemini's response was: "I'm still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search."

Image: Google which allows the image to be downloaded.

My response to my question: Putin is a mass murderer because he has invaded a neighbouring country to expand Russia as he thinks Ukraine should be part of Russia. His invasion is almost universally recognised as illegal. As the act of war was illegal shelling apartment blocks with old woman and pets inside in their many thousands is mass murder. Bombing and shelling non-military targets in Ukraine and killing more than 10,000 civilians must be considered mass murder under these circumstances.

Definition of murder: the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. The actions of Putin and the Kremlin cronies fits this definition I would strongly argue. It does not matter that Putin's orders have to go through several layers of commanders. The buck stops at the top.

I'm surprised that Gemini has no opinion on this. That the question is beyond its abilities. It could have at least presented some possible suggestions. 

Perhaps Google is scared of criticising Putin! Perhaps the senior bods at Google are scared that Putin will order their assassination if Gemini calls Putin a mass murderer?!

A huge number of animals have been killed by Putin's bombardment of Ukraine's cities in the east and south-east. The devastation to wild animal life such as marine wildlife in the Black Sea to name one example is enormous and still being assessed.

"About 80 animal species are on the brink of extinction due to the invasion, and more than 10 million animals have been killed, environmentalists estimate."  -  central.asia-news.com

We must think of the animals. So many killed needlessly. Or so many starved to death. The cruelty is unimaginable. For what? To satisfy the psychopathic cravings of a dictator and megalomaniac.

Google's Gemini liked Elon Musk to Hitler and it was unsure if paedophilia was wrong. There is work to do! 🙄😎

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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.

The domestic cat is NOT weird as stupid newspaper journalists claim

Online newspaper journalists have a tendency to claim that the domestic cat is "weird". It just plain stupid. Domestic cats behave as they instinctively have evolved to behave. They behave differently to humans and from a cat's perspective, no doubt humans behave weirdly. 

In fact human behaviour is far more weird than cat behaviour. Look at what humans are doing to the planet at the moment? They are destroying the planet upon which they rely for sustenance and for all their needs. If that isn't weird I don't know what is.

But a website called Your Tango says that cats are weird and they list 15 facts to prove it. So what are these facts? I will touch on a few of them to illustrate my argument.

Perspiration

The first one they list is that "cats sweat through their paws". What is weird about that?! That's perfectly normal. Cats can't sweat through their bodies because they have a coat which is highly functional. And they keep their coat clean all by themselves without having to go into the shower! Far more practical than human behaviour. 

Also when they groom themselves it helps to cool them through the same scientific process which makes sweating effective: the latent heat of evaporation.

Tasting sweetness

And they add that "cats can't taste anything sweet". So what? Cats are obligate carnivores. They've evolved to eat meat. They don't need to be able to taste sweetness. 

Look, if humans couldn't take anything sweet just like cats there would be much less human obesity. Around 40% of Americans are obese. It is a similar percentage UK residents. This obesity is nearly always caused by overeating and eating the wrong foods including foods high in carbohydrate i.e. sugars. Sugars and salt are addictive to humans.

Ironically, the only reason why domestic cats can be obese (and there are too many obese domestic cats thanks to poor human caregiving) is because of the high carbohydrate content in the unnatural dry cat food that they are given so often. Humans have passed on their obesity to the domestic cat.

Grooming exaggeration

Then Your Tango begins to get things wrong. They add that "cats spend up to half their lives grooming themselves". Wrong! Completely wrong! Cats are fastidious groomers but they don't spend half their lives grooming themselves.

Sleeping exaggeration

And they say that cats spend 70% of their lives sleeping. This is incorrect as well because cats, particularly full-time indoor cats, spend a lot of their time perhaps even more than 70% sometimes of their lives not sleeping but snoozing. That's because they've nothing to do thanks to full-time indoor living and a sterile environment. They are not sleeping in the proper sense. We know this because they leap into action at the slightest activity near them.

DNA

The journalist also adds that domestic cats shed 95.6% of their DNA with tigers. That's probably correct and there is also nothing weird about it at all. It's what you would expect because thanks to millions of years of evolution both the tiger and the domestic cat stem from the same ancient cat-like animal. 

Their evolutionary paths split millions of years ago but their ancient origins are the same. Nothing strange about that. It is all nature, evolution and scientific.

I won't bother to go on because I'm wasting my time. I've made my point. Online journalists need to be more careful and stop using click bait words and tactics. I've seen too much of it; too much stupidity and carelessness.

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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.

Mail Online continues to scaremonger about pet cats being a "major harborer of deadly diseases"

NEWS AND OPINION: I'm irritated. The Mail Online has published yet another article also by their deputy health editor in America, Alexa Lardieri, in which she exaggerates either deliberately or carelessly the potential for the domestic cat to carry zoonotic diseases which can be transferred to people. 

In her headline she says that the pet cat is a "major harbourer of deadly diseases". The phrase "major harbourer" is highly misleading. It is irresponsible. It is likely to lead to many cat owners questioning whether they should continue to own a cat. 

The domestic cat is not a major harborer of zoonotic diseases. It does carry some zoonotic diseases but we know they are rarely transferred or are rarely serious otherwise there wouldn't be hundreds of millions of domestic cats around the globe. And relative to humans spreading disease to other humans, the domestic cat is in a minor league. There is no comparison. That's because nearly all diseases affecting cats cannot be transmitted to people.

What she has written in the Mail Online might lead to cats being surrendered to animal shelters where they might be euthanised despite being healthy.

Two more examples of Mail Online's misleading, clickbait articles that harm the cat:

• Mail Online’s clickbait title about domestic cat zoonoses is irresponsible.
• Nebraska rabies scare is about raccoons not about domestic cats as inferred by the Daily Mail

This woman is dangerous for the domestic cat. She is referring to the recent Oregon bubonic plague case - an incredibly rare case - in which it was assessed that a resident was hospitalised with the disease having got it from a cat.

Back in the 1300s in England it was a deadly disease killing many thousands but today it can be cured with antibiotics which weren't available back in the day. It is no longer a deadly disease but Alexa likes to use click bait tactics to get more hits to her newspaper in scaremongering and giving the impression that the domestic cat is wandering around the place spreading deadly diseases to residents.

This is entirely incorrect and as I mentioned, irresponsible. She is also referred to recent 'Alaskapox' death. This is another extremely rare infection which occurs as you can guess in Alaska. It is a viral disease and in this case an elderly man died after contracting it.

The experts say that it appears to be zoonotic and it appears to be circulating across Alaska's mammals with occasional transmission to humans. Notice that it is carried by "mammals" meaning other animals as well as possibly and perhaps rarely the domestic cat.

It's mainly found in small mammals including voles and shrews but sometimes cats as well and over the past nine years seven people in Alaska have been infected by it. It appears that, rarely, a domestic cat contracts the disease when bumping into or preying upon a small mammal that has the disease.

Nearly all of the people who contracted it had mild illnesses which resolved on their own after a few weeks without treatment. The symptoms include bumps or pustules on the skin and joint or muscle pain and swollen lymph nodes.

Let's be sensible, please. It is pretty clear to me that Alexa Lardieri doesn't like cats. She wants cats to be kept indoors all the time and it appears that she has an agenda to promote. Her writing is not neutral or unbiased. To me, she is not a good reporter.

I hope people think about what she's saying, do their own research and find out as I have that she is exaggerating and scaremongering.

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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.

Hand operated cat elevator loved by the cat

These are not that uncommon particularly, it seems, in continental Europe. Perhaps more common in Eastern Europe. I am unsure. But I have seen a lot of these. It is a very simple solution to letting you cat go outside when living on the 3rd floor! 

Cat elevator hand operated. Screenshot.

I guess he could have put a cat flap in the front door of his apartment but I am sure there is a front door to the apartment block which makes a cat flap unworkable. There is some risk. What if the cat is spooked by a sudden noise on the ground and jumps out of the bag halfway up the building and lands awkwardly? Just a thought.

Nice to see the cat enjoy it. He asks for the elevator all the time apparently. Proof that full-time (FT) indoor cats are bored and don't like it. I am not saying that letting a cat outside unsupervised is great either. See where I'm going? FT inside is not optimal and neither is indoor/outside unsupervised.

Cat domestication is no longer optimal. Double tap the video to see it full screen!

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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.

Why do domestic cats have thinner fur between the ear flaps and the eyes?

The Live Science website asks a similar question but I think the way I have asked the question is more accurate. They ask "why do cats have bald spots in front of their ears?" Well, firstly, these are not bald spots. The hair is thinner between the top of the eyes and the flaps. Secondly, although Live Science claim that small wild cats have the same anatomical characteristics, I don't think they do. On this page you will see a headshot of a serval which is a medium-sized wild cat compared with a headshot of a black domestic cat.

This is typical of the black domestic cat but there are variations:

Black domestic cat showing thinning hair from above the eyes to the base of the ear flap where skin is genuinely bald. The photograph is from Wikipedia and therefore published it under licence.

This is a serval:

Serval headshot showing continuous fur above the eyes and up to the flaps. This photograph, it is believed, as in the public domain.

You will see that the serval's fur between the eyes and the that is pretty solid and it doesn't seem to be thinning to me. Another point worth making is this: every time we discuss this topic we invariably show an image of a black domestic cat. This is because there is greater contrast between the white skin underneath the black fur making the thinning coat more obvious.

Also the fur there tends to stand on end. It is vertical which makes the skin underneath more visible.

Another point worth making is this: I don't think all domestic cats have the same level of thinning fur at this point on their face. It varies which is understandable because domestic cats do very.

But it has to be said that often times we see this characteristic so what causes it? The frustrating answer is that we don't know. I think one reason is that the hair strands tend to sit more vertically at that point which makes the skin below easier to see which could add to the impression that there is partial bolding at that point.

Live Science suggests that the thinning fur at that point is to help with hearing because the sound waves bounce off the head between the eyes and ears before entering near ear canal and impinging upon the eardrum. So this thinning fur maybe to do with improving hearing. That's the best guess so far.

It might have nothing whatsoever to do with hearing, however. It might just be a domestic cat trait because of their domestication. Fur is present to keep the cat warm and to protect them. Arguably, both of these benefits are not strictly required by a well cared for domestic cat. Perhaps, then, it is an evolutionary trait during the 10,000 years of domestication. That is another big guess.

It may be nothing to do with evolution. It could be a problem with thinning coats generally due to their lifestyle and/or diet which might not be entirely appropriate but which is not clear to humans. Perhaps the domestic cat is losing fur and this process is not visible in most areas of the coat because the fur is denser elsewhere than in the area between the top of the eye and ear flaps.

So perhaps this so-called bald patch is a symptom of a generalised inadequate domestic cat caregiving and its variation is because in some homes caregiving a superior than in other homes. We need another study on this to do some tests to get to the bottom of 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.

Do cats have to be in a carrier in the car?

Your cat must be in a seatbelt harness or carrier when travelling in a car in the UK. In the USA each state has their own laws on restraining pets in the car but I suspect that all the states have similar laws.

I think the best way to restrain your cat inside a travelling vehicle for longish distances is to put them in a seatbelt harness. This is a harness that connects to the seatbelt as you might imagine! The picture shows how it works. For trips to the vet, the carrier is obviously more suitable.

Picture: Zooplus. It costs £8.

The reason why cats and dogs need to be restrained? Because in the UK there is a booklet called the Highway Code which provides all drivers with the rules of the road. It's quite a lengthy booklet and when a new driver takes their driving test in the UK they are tested on the Highway Code. If they fail the paperwork part of the driving test you failed the test.

And if you don't restrain your cat in your car when travelling the police can stop you (do they ever!?) And you could end up with a £5,000 fine in the worst case scenario which would be highly unlikely. In fact I think it would be infinitesimally unlikely but technically possible.

Rule 57

The rule which dictates that you must restrain your darling cat is rule 57 of the above-mentioned Highway Code. Or you might keep your cat in a carrier throughout the journey. There are other pet containers to restrain them when travelling in a car.

I mention that the best way to restrain a cat is through a seatbelt harness but the more typical way to do it would be to leave them in a carrier but the issue for me is that on a long journey you don't want to keep your cat in a carrier. The seatbelt harness would be better.

Or you might put them in the back behind a headrest cage. This is a mesh which attaches to the headrest on the back seat and keeps the dog or cat in the luggage area of the car. But I think people like to have their cat in the passenger compartment so they can talk to them and be involved with them (safely!).

Ireland

When I took my cats to Ireland about 25 years ago with my then wife I didn't give one single thought to rule 57 of the Highway Code. So my two cats were free to move around the car and my little lady cat spent most of the time sitting on a dashboard looking out the front window.

And we smuggled them on to an overnight ferry and then we hired a car in Ireland and drove to my mother-in-law on the west coast. Once again the cats were free to wander around the cabin. Although I don't know whether they have a Highway Code in Ireland. Not that it would have made any difference because as mentioned I totally ignored the Highway Code at that time.

Projectile

But if you want to abide by the law and be a good driver and a good cat caregiver you should restrain your cat. And there's a genuinely good reason for it because if you have an accident your cat or dog might become a missile thrown forwards. Both you and your cat might be harmed, possibly badly. So Rule 57 is common sense.

Peeing

Postscript: I have got to make one last point which is that sometimes cats are very nervous in a vehicle and being nervous they might urinate and if they urinate on your passenger seat and it sinks into the foam you are not going to get it out. Therefore I would strongly suggest that you put down some sort of absorbent or protective material on the seat where your cat is travelling. It will pay dividends.

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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.

Airbnb renter allergic to cats found his £1,000 rental was full of cat hair

NEWS AND COMMENT: this is a nice little story about Airbnb and the shedding of hair by domestic cats which is something that a person allergic to cats cannot tolerate!

This person, Graeme Dodd, from Perth & Kinross in Scotland was renting an Abu Dhabi apartment under an Airbnb scheme. He agreed a rental of £1,000 for 10 nights. He arrived at the apartment in Abu Dhabi with his wife and two children.

Graeme Dodd is allergic to cats! He found that the Airbnb rental flat was covered in hair and could not accept it. Comment: there appears to be no attempt to hoover the flat or get rid of the hair.

It appears that Graeme Dodd wanted to cancel the Airbnb offered and the host offered to help by finding alternative accommodation and they agreed to refund the original booking.

However, the alternative apartment was much more expensive costing £3,700 even though it was in a similar location and of a similar size. Graeme Dodd and his family were offered other alternatives but they were either too far away or of a lower standard.

Airbnb then decided to charge Mr Dodd "for both bookings". It's not clear what that means but it is clear that Mr Dodd's 10 day stay worked out at £4,700 which was totally unacceptable to him.

Mr Dodd struggled to resolve the dispute and he wrote to Katherine Denham of The Times newspaper who unsurprisingly managed to obtain a full reimbursement of £2,700 together with a £1,000 refund for the original booking meaning that his ten-day initial charge of £4,700 was reduced to £1000 which was the original price of the rental agreement. 💕😍

Lesson learned? Nothing really except for the landlord who clearly did not offer up his flat to an Airbnb client in an appropriate condition. It appears that he got sloppy. The cat hair belonged to his/her cat! 😸

But if the landlord i.e. the flat's owner lived within a 30 minute drive from the apartment it would have been better, perhaps, if (s)he had simply turned up and hoovered the place top to bottom to remove the cat hair.

Source: The Times hard copy newspaper. Thanks and well done Katherine Denham.

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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.

Landlord-imposed pet restrictions in the United States are widespread

Young man and his dog companion. Image: Nathan Winograd.

OPINION: Nathan Winograd, American's great animal shelter expert and advocate, tells me the following about landlord-imposed pet restrictions in America,

In a nationwide survey of landlords, approximately 47% of rental housing did not allow pets and only 9% of pet-friendly units allowed pets without limitations on type or size. Large dogs were welcome in only 11% of rental housing. Meanwhile, pet-friendly rentals had a 20 to 30% rent premium, costing on average $222 more per month than rentals that did not allow pets.” In some cities, the situation is worse: more than half of all rental units in Los Angeles did not allow any pets at all. In one survey, “only 212 out of 612 apartment listings allowed dogs.

The California legislature is debating a bill called AB 1226 which would prohibit no pet clauses in landlord tenancy agreements i.e. rental agreements between the landlord and a tenant. 

The politicians are working out the drafting of the legislation. Winograd says that it is sorely needed because stopping tenants having pets in their apartments negatively impacts adoptions, it increases the relinquishment of companion animals to shelters and causes animal homelessness as well as people homelessness. 

It also results in wasteful expenditure as those that rent properties must pay a premium for housing which allows them to live with their companion animals.

Winograd's No Kill Advocacy centre has, for a very long time, called for "state and federal legislation to ban housing discrimination for families with animal companions."

The landlords and others who are against this kind of legislation are apparently concerned about "allergies, noise and property damage" when companion animals live with renters. 

Comment: but these concerns which are not entirely unjustified can be dealt with with a properly drafted agreement between landlord and renter and by taking an added deposit which would cover any damage to the property when the renter leaves.

Also, leases always contain a clause concerning "quiet enjoyment" which would encompass a dog barking. Neighbours have recourse under the lease and/or under the rental agreement which would refer to the lease to reinforce good behaviour.

I know that it is not great having to enforce good behaviour but if it's made abundantly clear to the person renting that they have to comply with certain strict terms of their agreement and the lease then they are reasonably likely to comply with those terms provided the individual is vetted properly.

Landlords who allow pets open the door to far more clients and therefore their business is likely to be more profitable and it is said that they pet owners are often long-term tenants resulting in less 'voids' -  reduced vacancy rates.

In general, Americans are overwhelmingly in support of allowing animals in residential properties.

Winograd refers to a "housing discrimination ban" nationwide i.e. a federal law which "will allow over 8 million additional animals to find new homes yearly, roughly ten years of killing". 

Allowing pets in landlord owned homes reduces the number of dogs and cats killed at animal shelters.

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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.

Marlin's police chief, city manager and animal control officer accused of animal cruelty

NEWS AND COMMENT/OPINION: In Marlin, Texas, USA, the police chief, city manager and animal control oversee a dog shelter (dog pound). And within that dog pound there were dogs that were starving and living in filth and on the verge of death. Many had died. It was a vision of Armageddon in the dog shelter world.

Starving dog at Marlin's dog pound. Image: KWTX.

This appears to have been a complete failure by the city officials in caring for shelter dogs. It's the kind of failure which would normally result in arrests and prosecutions of the administrators of the shelter. 

But, as we know, when the authorities are the alleged perpetrators of animal abuse they are protected because they close ranks and the law is not applied equally. The old adage that everyone is equal under the law is simply a false concept.

In this instance, Marlin's mayor promised accountability but has so far failed to deliver according to Nathan Winograd in his email to me.

There's been a promised investigation by the Falls County Sheriff's Office which has not materialised. Sheriff Joe Lopez of that office said that dogs were not his priority! Yes, we understand that anywhere on the planet, for the police, dogs are not a priority and neither are cats.

The police are invariably engaged in speciesism by which I mean they prioritize humans over companion animals.

As a consequence of this failure of the authorities to act, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has become involved and he is reviewing the case. He told local news reporters that "the Marlin Animal Shelter investigation is now one of his top priorities."

The residents in the area are becoming restless and irritated by the lack of action. They are protesting according to local news reports (which is why the Governor is involved 🙄). They want accountability. A local news station reports that multiple dogs were found dead. They must've starved to death.

Around 40 peaceful protesters are demanding change. They've been protesting in Moody, Temple and Thornton to demand that Marlin's city manager, animal control officer and the police chief be arrested for animal cruelty under the law. They want prosecutions and they want accountability.

The mayor, Susan Byrd, said, "As a proponent of dog rescues we are all working to cooperate with the investigation by the Falls County Sheriff's Office. Upon completion of the investigation, the City of Marlin will do our best to ensure the responsible parties are all held accountable."

It would seem to me that she is in charge and therefore she should also be accountable 🤢. The local newsgathering station that I referred to here, KWTX, said that they tried calling the Marlin Police Chief multiple times for his comment but nothing was forthcoming.

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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.

Secret Service agents bitten by President Biden's dog 24 times!

NEWS AND COMMENT: it is astonishing to read in The Times today that President Biden's dog, Commander, bit Secret Service agents 24 times in all before the dog was removed from the White House. The number of bites may be higher if all staff are included.

Commander. Photo believed to be in the public domain.

The Times reports that, "For members of the Secret Service guarding President Biden, the most crucial weapon to protect themselves was not a gun but a bag of dog biscuits!"

The newspaper reports that one agent required six stitches to his hand after Biden's two year old German shepherd, Commander, bit him.

After that encounter, the agent was given a "care package" for "safety purposes". The care package included pepper spray, a muzzle and dog treats!

The world now knows that Commander was banished from the White House last October to an undisclosed location after reports of 11 similar encounters.

But now newly released documents reveal that he bit agents at least 24 times.

The documented reports cover the period October 2022-July 2023 and they only cover members of the Secret Service rather than all of President Biden's staff. This indicates that the true number of aggressively/defensive encounters could be far higher.

There are apparently 400 pages of documents. They show that many of the agents required treatment after incidents at various locations including at the White House, Camp David in Maryland and at the President's family home in Delaware.

One unnamed agent wrote in June 2023 that, "the recent dog bites have challenged us to adjust our operational tactics when Commander is present. Please give lots of room."

Colleagues were warned that they must be creative "to ensure our own personal safety."

The Bidens were apparently heartbroken according to a source by the frequency of the incidents. The source said that:

"They've apologised to those who have been bitten, taken flowers to some. They feel awful. Commander was overprotective. Even though they tried and tried to work on it, they had to let him go [and] live with other members of their family."

It didn't work out. And it is put down to the fact that the German Shepherd is a particularly protective dog of his pack i.e. the Biden family and he was living in a situation where there were lots of strangers coming and going which instinctively brought forth his protective nature. 

It also clear to me that these attacks were not hugely violent but nips which broke the skin as indicated above. Commander isn't naturally aggressive but simply instinctively defending his pack.

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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.

World's oldest pooch stripped of his title by Guinness World Records

Bobi, a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo, died last October at the reported age of 31 years and 165 days. The breed normally lives to around 12-14 years of age.

Bobi had been awarded the Guinness World Record's oldest dog ever title but now, after a dispute about his real age, Bobi has been stripped posthumously of his title.

Image of Bobi in the public domain. Overall image: MikeB.

Guinness World Records (GWR) said that the microchip which purportedly proved Bobi's age was not, in fact, sufficient proof for the dog to keep the award which his owner received in February last year.

Bobby lived on a farm in the village of Conqueiros in Portugal with his owner and four cats.

GWR said that it had not determined which dog was the new record holder. They also launched an investigation into Bobi last month after doubts about the reliability of the evidence which had been used to prove Bobi's record-breaking age.

GWR said:

"We are left with no evidence which can definitively prove Bobi's date of birth. Without any conclusive evidence available to us right now, we simply can't retain Bobi as the recordholder."

There's been no comment by Bobi's (former) owner after the stripping of his title. The owner, an unnamed man, had previously stated that suspicions about the true age of his pet were unfounded.

The owner had previously put his dog's longevity down to his laid-back lifestyle in the countryside of Portugal and the fact that he was only fed human food.

Wired magazine conducted an investigation and found that the dog's microchip had been registered only in 2022, a year before the dog had finally had his day i.e. had died.

His owner claimed the pooch was born in 1992. However, a database official had explained it had "no registration or data that can confirm or deny this statement."

Danny Chambers of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in the UK told The Guardian newspaper that "not a single one" of his veterinarian colleagues believed that Bobi had actually lived to the age of 31.

The previous holder of the world's oldest dog was Australia's Bluey. Bluey died in 1939 at the age of 29 years and five months.

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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.

Armed robber stole two cats worth 10,000 Malaysian ringgit and slashed the owner

NEWS AND COMMENT: I think that this is the first story that I have read concerning an armed robbery in which two cats were stolen. And it was a very serious armed robbery because the robber slashed the cats' owner to the extent that he required 36 stitches for wounds to his right arm and right leg.

The cats' owner is Ryan Cheah. He had met the robber before as his home when he purchased a cat from him. A few days later the man contacted Cheah asking to purchase two more cats and to meet him at a parking lot at a shopping mall on February 18.

Cheah didn't want to do that and they met at a bus stop instead had 7:30 PM with his girlfriend.

When the buyer arrived his car was smashed up as if he had just been an accident. Cheah went to speak to the buyer when he brandished a knife demanding that he hand over money.

The robber also ordered a colleague to get the cats from Mr Cheah's girlfriend who was unaware what was going on and therefore she handed over the cats.

While the cats were being handed over Cheah tried to escape the vehicle and at that point the robber brandished a machete and tried to slash him. He defended himself but incurred the serious injuries mentioned.

The robbery has traumatised him and the police have confirmed that after an investigation they have made arrests and are to make a statement in due course.

Cheah was concerned that the robber and his colleagues might come round to his house because they know where he lives and harm him. But it appears that the robber is now in custody.

We don't know what sort of cats they were. They must be purebred cats but we don't know the breed. 10,000 Malaysian ringgit is around US$2000.

Source: The Star Online.

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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.

Berlin police seized 48 illegally bred Levkoy cats considered the product of 'torture breeding' in Germany

Germany has a brilliant nationwide law which states that purebred cats that are bred with inherited genetic diseases causing general pain and suffering are the product of "torture breeding" and they are illegal in the country. 

Levkoy Cay. Image from unknown author.

The word "torture" is a very evocative and strong word and I think it is a brilliant word to describe these breeds which are fully accepted in many other countries including America.

In this instance I'm referring to the Levkoy which is a Ukrainian breed; a hairless cat with floppy ears. Germany has outlawed hairless cats because they don't have a coat 😎😢 and therefore they can't live normal lives. 

You can't change the anatomy of a cat breed that fundamentally in Germany and make the cat more vulnerable without being labelled a torture breeder.

And apparently this man living in Berlin was told to stop breeding the Levkoy cat but he continued nonetheless and in a raid by the police and animal welfare authorities his entire stock of cats were seized and he was arrested. He now faces a substantial fine.

The officials believe that he was probably the last breeder in Germany of the Ukrainian Levkoy cat breed.

The seized cats have been distributed to foster carers across Germany where they have received a check up and veterinary care where needed.

You might like to read about this cat by clicking on the following link. It's an article written by visitor to my website. I have updated that page to include what happened in Germany as described in this article.

Levkoy Cat Breed.

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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.

Take yourself and your cat to Scotland if and when World War 3 starts!

It appears to me that we are building up to it? What? World War 3. And there might be some nuclear bombs going off as well although that would seem to be unlikely despite the incessant threats from Putin and his cronies. For instance, Medvedev recently said that if Russia lost any of the ground gained in the east of Ukraine over the past two years of war, Russia would react by using nuclear weapons. The ultimate threat but a typical Kremlin threat.

That's probably just an idle threat but he has threatened the use of nuclear bombs several times before. And recently, the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has warned the West that it was stoking the flames of the beginning of World War 3. He claims that we are on the "edge of the abyss". He blames NATO as does Putin. No reference to the Ukraine war that was started by Putin. The man  is paranoid about the West hating Russia. If only he could be more reasonable and normal.

As you know Lukashenko is a key ally of Vladimir Putin. He believes that there are legitimate concerns that a new global conflict could erupt and he blames the West for this. He says that the West is pushing the world towards this catastrophe.

He claims that it is complete stupidity to think that Russia is preparing to attack the Baltic countries.

Belarus has just received two anti-aircraft missile divisions and two divisions of missile systems from Russia as they are a close ally to Russia. The news media says that Lukashenko is preparing for World War 3.

Highlands of Scotland. Image: MikeB (Canva)

Remote places

Right, that's the dire introduction so what to do? Well, the super-rich have already built their super houses and super bunkers in remote, far-off places like New Zealand. They'll just fly off to a remote spot in New Zealand and live a more or less normal life while Europe burns.

For the rest of us, living in Europe, it seems to me that the best answer is to pack your bags, put your darling cat into a nice cat carrier (a particularly big one to put in the back of your car) and drive up to Scotland. 

You can start off with the mainland and then if you want to you can branch off to one of the many islands on the west coast of Scotland. They are all remote and have a very low human population.

The density of the population of Scotland is 235,540 people (Scottish Highlands). There are other countries with very low population densities such as San Marino, Vatican City, Andorra, Malta, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Estonia, and Kosovo for instance. Iceland also has a low population density but most of it is pretty well uninhabitable.

The countries that I've specified are all very centrally placed in Europe and therefore that would make them unsuitable for a place to go to if there is a conflagration in Europe. You want to go somewhere remote, out of the way, where you are also able to minimise nuclear fallout and radiation poisoning.

That's why I'm selecting Scotland, particular the highlands or the Western Islands. You've got to take with you some sort of home either in the form of a tent or ideally a caravan. Perhaps a mobile home would be ideal.

Lastly, and this is the important point, your cat will love it because you will be walking out of your mobile home to a vast, open, green and wet landscape. It'll be beautiful and your cat can roam freely and safely because there are no roads. 

There is no one there to poison your cat. Or steal your cat. Until the rest of Europe catches up with you and arrive on the borders of Scotland to do exactly what you're doing.

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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.