Jay Leno - "Every quality that women hate in a man they love in a cat"

You have to admit that Jay Leno is smart and talented. He also loves automobiles. You may have seen his fantastic collection in his own super-clean facility in California. He says that California is a great place to collect cars because the weather is so good. It doesn't get wet and damp which eventually damages a car's appearance. He also loves cats. Which means that I love him because anybody who loves cats and who is smart and talented has got to be admired.

He took the trouble of making a video, a funny cat video, for his appearance on The Ellen Show.

This is partly a testament to his wealth I would say. He has the money to ask one of his colleagues to knock together a funny cat video. He is quite involved with the making of videos because he has a very successful YouTube channel in which he presents his vehicles. But it's just nice to see him do this in a smart/funny way.

RELATED: ‘Cat love bites’ – what do they mean and why do they happen?

An Internet search quickly provides me with some information about Jay Leno and his love of cats. It's not just him but his wife also. I wonder if his wife introduced him to his feline friends?

There is a quote online by him which goes like this:

"I've never understood why women love cats. Cats are independent, they don't listen, they don't come in when you call, they like to stay out all night, and when they're home they like to be left alone and sleep. In other words, every quality that women hate in a man they love in a cat".

Do you want to try and unravel that? Perhaps it's impossible. Too complicated. Clearly women allow much more leeway with their feline friend than they do with their male friends and spouses.

Perhaps this is all about the kind of relationship that people have with cats. It's a much more balanced relationship. While writing this, I think I have found a reason to explain the above quote. Humans tend to play games. People can become suspicious and distrustful. They lie and hide behaviour which they think might undermine their public profile.

Jay Leno and his cat. Screenshot.

The human world is a tricky world. What you see is not what you get, very often. This is the exact opposite to what you get with a cat. Everything is laid out in front of you. You know exactly what they're doing and thinking (if you have a decent understanding of feline behaviour). 

But the point is they don't play games and they don't lie and muck you about. It is a very simple, direct, and in the best homes, loving relationship. Their reliability is enormous in comparison to many people. It's unconditional. This builds trust whereas distrust can lead to developing the kind of attitude that some women have for some men and as hinted at in Jay Leno's quote above.

Taylor Swift celebrates Benjamin Button's birthday by lip-syncing her song "22"

On her Instagram page, Taylor Swift, lip-syncs to her upbeat song "22" in celebration of her Ragdoll cat, Benjamin Button's 22nd birthday in cat years. As a rough estimate you divide by seven so I'm guessing that Benjamin is about three years old.

Taylor Swift celebrates Benjamin Button's birthday by lip syncing her song "22". Montage: MikeB based on screenshots.

The pop superstar celebrated her 32nd birthday on December 13. She took to her Instagram account on Monday, December 27, to share her video while sitting alongside her adorable purebred cat. Ragdoll cats are particularly attractive, perhaps the most attractive of all purebred cats.

RELATED: Taylor Swift falls in love with Benjamin Button (a Ragdoll kitten ‘purrbox’).

The recording used a New Year's themed filter and the brief clip features swirling confetti and Swift wearing a headband that reads “I’m Feeling 2022".

You can watch the video on Instagram by clicking on this link. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CX_inZjhMPY/

It has received 2,539,963 likes ❤. That is because Taylor Swift has 194 million followers on her Instagram pages. It might surprise you to know that that places her 14th in the current list of most followed Instagram celebrities. The top spot is Instagram itself at 453 million followers. The top genuine spot by an individual person is Christian Ronaldo at 381 million followers.

Biden family are adopting a cat

NEWS AND COMMENT-WHITE HOUSE: It is all over the news and it is pleasing news for people who like and live with domestic cats. We know that the Bidens like animals and so you could say it's about time they adopted a White House cat. There's a cat waiting in the wings, apparently, currently with a foster carer, which they are going to bring to the White House in January 2022. That is the sum total of the news about the Bidens and a new cat.

Jill Biden and Major in the foreground. Photo: Jill Biden.

They've also adopted a new dog whose name is Commander. It appears that their two-year-old dog, Major, couldn't settle in the White House and they have wisely, I would say, decided to rehome him. There were reports of him nipping people or a person. I don't think these were really difficult situations but he was clearly unhappy. Perhaps these were defensive bites because of stress. He's gone to a quieter home with family friends. It's best for him.

Major has not been at the White House since the beginning of the year. He was undergoing 'additional training'. Commander is the sole companion animal at the moment at the White House.

I suppose, on a realistic note, the Mr and Mrs Biden will have to ensure that their new cat fits in. It depends upon the individual's character. But bringing in a new cat into the White House is not the same as bringing a new cat into a three bedroomed, semi-detached house in Washington DC.

There's lots of activity I guess at the White House, a lot of people, noise and disturbances from time to time. The new cat is going to have to be well selected which I think he is. We don't know the cat's gender but for the sake of convenience I have described him as male.

When they placed a mouser at Downing Street in the UK, the residence and office of the Prime Minister, they went to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home to select an individual that they believed could cope well under tricky conditions for a domestic cat. He had problems with the new dog, Dilyn apparently.

Larry the cat at number 10 Downing Street is spraying urine to mark territory on the arrival of Dilyn the dog

The Bidens' new cat is going to have to get on with Commander and settle in quickly and feel confident and relaxed in their high profile role. There will be lots of news about him or her. I'm sure the Bidens want it to go very well. They don't want to be seen as failing. It would not look good if they had to rehome their new cat having already rehomed Major.

It's good news though. It's good for domestic cats to have a high profile feline in the White House to generate some pleasant, light-hearted cat news for the future.

Oscar Ramsay (Gordon Ramsay's son) carries the family's Exotic Shorthair incorrectly

Of course, Gordon Ramsay has a very high hitting Instagram account with over 13 million subscribers. And he has a son called Oscar. And the family also has what appears to me to be a pointed Exotic Shorthair cat. A very good looking cat although bred to extreme. The Daily Mail has picked up on the photograph and said how adorable it is as Oscar who is two years of age goes for a 'walk' with the cat. Well, they are joking of course because Oscar is carrying the cat and here is the point of this article.

Oscar Ramsay carries the family cat in the wrong way. Photo: Gordon Ramsay.

Oscar is carrying this purebred cat in a very bad way. It's the kind of way that children do carry cats. Every time they do it it is incorrect. It's common sense that it is incorrect. You don't need a sophisticated argument from a cat behaviourist to tell you. 😉.

When you carry a cat you have to support them properly and not have them hanging from their shoulders putting strain on their spine. I've got a nice graphic prepared by Ruth which shows you how to pick up a domestic cat.

If you want to pick up and hold your cat, the only way to do it is to place your hand under the cat's chest while they are standing on the ground, and you lift her up while at the same time you place your other hand under her bottom so that she is fully supported. 

Then as you lift up your cat to the vertical position you continue to support her bottom with your other hand and arm while also supporting the upper part of her body (under the shoulders) with the other hand.

Essentially there needs to be two support points on a cat: the upper part of the body and more importantly the entire weight should be supported under the cat, under the bottom. 

Sometimes you simply want to lift up a cat in the horizontal position with both hands and place the cat on a table or whatever. That's different. In the first description I'm describing how to pick up a cat and carry a cat in an intimate way as opposed to a functional way.

Oscar Ramsay carries the family cat in the wrong way. Photo: Gordon Ramsay's Instagram page.

You don't carry a domestic cat as if you are carrying a baby which is belly-up and cradled. And you certainly don't do what Oscar is doing.

He just needs to be taught because he doesn't know better. There is certainly a responsibility on cat owning parents to both teach their children how to interact with the domestic cat and secondly to supervise until they are confident their child can interact properly. This should be a proper parent-to-child training session with practice.

It's important both for the cat's health and welfare and also from the standpoint of the child because if a cat is mishandled they can strike out. A child might become scratched. The parents then don't like the cat. They relinquish their cat to a local shelter. That's how it can play out.

I don't want to be a wet blanket but I don't see it as that amusing to be honest. I just see a need for Gordon Ramsay or his partner to do a bit of research, such as read this article, and teach their son (who looks like Gordon) how to lift and carry a domestic cat.

My advice would be: don't try it until you are a bit older. To be honest Oscar is probably too young to be carrying a cat of this size. The cat is about half his size. This is quite a well fed, plump Exotic Shorthair. Although, I don't think that he or she is obese. Just well looked after except for the technique in carrying her 😊.

Katie Price gives away her kids' remaining Sphynx cat

People ask whether Katie Price has a Sphynx cat. Well, there was a time when she had 2 Sphynx cats but no longer. It is hard to keep pace with the acquisition and abandonment of animals that live with Katie Price and to be perfectly honest I can't say I care about her but I do care about the animals. 

She impulsively adopted two Sphynx cats some time ago. The black Sphynx cat was named Hagrid while the standard coloured Sphynx cat was named Dobby according to The Sun newspaper. They have an Instagram account (don't they always :-? ). The photograph on this page is from that account.

Hagrid and Dobby - Price's former 2 Sphynx cats. Photo: Instagram

She gave away Dobby about years ago and The Sun now reports that she has just given away another of her children's pets in giving Hagrid to a friend from the local stables where her £10,000 horse is kept. The reason? It's because her so-called 'Mucky Mansion' is being refurbished as part of a reality TV programme, as I understand it. Therefore she is living out of a suitcase with her current partner.

RELATED: The wrinkly skin of hairless cats.

Katie's former boyfriend Kieran Hayler said that both the hairless cats were peeing everywhere around the home ('mucky mansion' seems correct) when he lived there. Dobby was relinquished because he couldn't get on with Katie's protection dog Blade. That would have caused peeing inappropriately.

And because there was cat urine everywhere the place stank of cat urine as it would (ammonia smell). And because of that she lit a candle to try and mask the smell. That caused a house fire apparently.

So that's the story of Katie Price's Sphynx cats. A disaster. What is ironic is that when she lived with her former husband Peter Andre, he insisted that she had to keep the cats because they belonged to their two children Princess and Junior. Times have changed and now anything goes.

Katie Price has a history of self-indulgent adoptions of animals without proper preparation and budgeting to only find later that she hasn't got the skills or the finances to properly care for the animals in her charge.

If it is true that the hairless cats were peeing everywhere it would have been due to stress because they were marking territory to reassure themselves. And this points to a chaotic environment which was not calm enough. 

Also, Sphynx cats are quite hard to care for because they need to be full-time indoor cats and washed regularly as their skin becomes grimy due to the oils from sebaceous glands deposited on the skin. 

They look interesting which would have appealed to Katie Price but it's not all plain sailing. You have to know what you're doing and be committed. This appears to be beyond Ms Price.

The aptly named "Mucky Mansion" is certainly large. It's located in Sussex and she bought it for £1.3 million in 2014. It has nine bedrooms and three stories. There is a two-bedroom annexe, stables, tennis court a swimming pool and 12 acres of land. There are many reports about its rundown state. This probably is due to the fact that Katie Price did not have the budget to maintain the property. It appears that her earning potential has faded considerably as she becomes older and the public becomes weary of her antics.

Model spends $500 to feed her three cats and a dog for dinner on one day!

Camila Elle, a model with 61,000 Instagram followers says that she spends far more on her three cats and a dog than on herself. She says that she thinks nothing of spending a fortune for their dinner.

"I'll think nothing of dropping $500 on something really tasty for their dinner but I’ll only have cheap noodles."

Overall, she has spent more than $200,000 on her four companion animals. One of her cats is on Prozac for anxiety. The 3 cats are named Tuumi, Miso and Tigger and her dog is Zed. She says that she earns a seven figure sum annually. She buys them the best of everything. She loves them more than anything in the world and they are her life.

Yuumi and Elle. Photo: Elle on Instagram.

Two of her cats are purebred, one is a Persian (Misco) who cost her $2000 and the other is a British Longhair (Yuumi) who also cost $2000. These two cat breeds have very similar appearances if you compare the traditional Persian with the British Longhair. Her dog was also bought from a breeder and cost her $4000. Her third cat is non-purebred. I don't know where she adopted him/her from.

She claims to spend around $1000 a month for medications, food and grooming. She says that her fluffy kitties need to be groomed twice a month because they have long fur. This costs her $150 a time. Comment: I wonder why she doesn't do it herself. It would be a very good bonding experience.

The Persian is on Prozac because she is anxious. The medication costs $500 monthly. Comment: Persians to have a reputation for being anxious which is why there can be mishaps in the litter tray. So this news does not surprise me.

She is a raw cat food aficionado, which I like. She obviously is very careful how she provides the raw food to her companion animals. They all eat raw food because it's the best thing for for them. And she spends $200 weekly on "the best delicate cuts", minnows, Greek yoghurt and chicken hearts.

ASSOCIATED: When a child, Kloé Kardashian was incorrectly told she was allergic to cats by her mom

For their birthdays she splashes out on something extra special. And in that vein, she has splashed out on two treadmills for her pets so that they burn off any excess calories. The home has five cat condos/towers to ensure that they play and enjoy themselves and have a high place to rest. She is having a custom-made cattery built specially.

It will cost her $5000 and will be 6 feet wide and 10 feet tall with a real tree in the middle of it. Zed her dog is also treated in the same way. She buys him lots of toys which he gets bored of but she takes him to the beach every day for walks which she loves. If she can't fit the walk in she will pay for a dog walker to take him out. And she takes him to see a police trainer to learn new tricks.

ASSOCIATED: Hailey Bieber confesses that their Savannah cats are ‘psycho’

She always takes her four companion animals to the veterinarian for regular checkups. She is a model and a model cat owner although maybe she is being a little bit generous by the standards of the average cat caregiver. But as far as I'm concerned she's doing a fantastic job based upon this report in The Sun newspaper.

Freddie Mercury would have loved Bohemian Catsody!

 

Bohemian Rhapsody parody with cats. Screenshot.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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The world knows that Freddie Mercury loved cats. One of his songs was inspired by perhaps his favourite cat Delilah. I have some pages on Freddie Mercury and his cats which you can read by clicking on the links below if you wish. I'm not sure that this version is, truthfully, that great but I don't think that's the point. It's a very good attempt and a lot of effort must have gone into it.

ASSOCIATED PAGES:

1. Freddie Mercury’s favorite cat DELILAH
2. Freddie Mercury: his ten cats and Bohemian Rhapsody the film
3. Last known photo of Freddie Mercury was with his cat Oscar

As you guessed it is a parody on Queen's iconic 1975 smash Bohemian Rhapsody. The lyrics go like this:

"Mama, just killed a mouse
Ate it all except the head
That's your present on your bed
Mama, a sign of my love
Why did you scream and throw it all away?"

Katy Perry says women are like cats

Katy Perry started off loving dogs and became a cat lover. I figured out that as at Monday 20th April 2020, Katy Perry possibly has one remaining cat, Monkey because her other had just died. But tell me if things have changed since then which I expect they have. She thinks that cats are like women. This is what she said in the video:

"Women are like cats, like, you know they want to be loved on their own time. They want people to earn their affection and they'll eat whenever they want but do not shove food down their throat."

Katy Perry says women are like cats

Her interviewer says that it is a brilliant analogy. I don't think it is brilliant. It's passable. It seems that the wanting to be loved in their own time is a reference to the stereotypical image that cats are independent which is inaccurate. Or they are aloof. That, too, is inaccurate. It certainly is for me in my relationship with my cat. We're bonded. Perhaps my relationship is closer than normal or perhaps the stereotypes are wrong. It's the latter. And who shoves food down cat's throats? Not sure about her analogy. Pretty weak but women do like cats more than men which points to the fact that the domestic cat character is a match for a woman's character.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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Ricky Gervais is wrong on domestic cat behavior

Ricky Gervais is on YouTube talking to Ellen DeGeneres on her show about cats and dogs. Ricky Gervais is a well-known animal lover (well-done). He doesn't keep dogs because he travels too much which is entirely understandable. But he gets it wrong on cats. I'm a bit surprised by this.

Ricky Gervais is wrong on cats. Screenshot.

He says that you can leave cats alone for as long as you want because they don't care. But you can't do the same thing with dogs. He thinks cats are highly independent. This is his first error. And before I go on, I want to say that I respect Ricky Gervais for his love of animals. But the fact of the matter is that cats are not independent. They are dependent upon their human caregiver for company, sustenance and security. And they mind when left alone for long periods.

Perhaps the problem in this instance is that Ricky does travel too much and therefore he does not have an ideal connection with his cat. It would appear that he leaves his cat without his company for considerable periods of time. This is not going to help the relationship. He thinks dogs can't cope with this and cats can but I would argue that cats can cope with that separation better but it does not promote a strong relationship.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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And I think there is a huge misconception about domestic cat independence. In the right homes where the caregiver is good at their job domestic cats are very emotionally connected to their human companion. They miss them when they're gone (separation anxiety and idiopathic cystitis). They welcome their human companion when they come home having waited by the door for hours. They want to be next to their human companion. They like to place their paw against their human companion to make sure that they are in contact with them. There is a plethora of indicators which scream to us that domestic cats are connected to their human caregiver very strongly.

And you can't simply turf a domestic cat out onto the street and expect them to survive which is what you are more or less saying if you call them independent. Ninety percent of domestic cats are almost entirely dependent and very often cats are in a codependent relationship with their human caregivers. I am for instance and I'm proud of it. It's a good relationship. It is a good substitute to the human-human relationship. There is nothing wrong with it. It is mutually beneficial. But in effect the parties are mutually dependent.

Secondly, he talks about brushing his cat and then stroking her. He says that she asks to be brushed which is very typical because cats enter into a routine with their human caregiver and they know that if they meow in a certain way their human caregiver will respond by doing what they want which is in this case to brush them. But Ricky Gervais says that after he has brushed and then stroked his cat, she bites him. And he puts that down to his cat asking to be brushed and not stroked. His cat is complaining that he should not have stroked her. He's sort of joking but at the same time he is being serious.

The truth is that this is not a question of his cat receiving something that wasn't requested and therefore complaining with a bite; it is that Ricky Gervais has overstimulated his cat because he is brushing and stroking her too vigorously, forcefully or for too long and his cat thinks that this is play rather than petting (which cats perceive as being licked). 

So, his cat is being stimulated to play and for a domestic cat play involves slapping with the paws (claws out) and biting with the mouth. That's why his cat bites him when he strokes her after brushing. He puts it down to his cat being fickle. I'm afraid it's not; it is down to him brushing and stroking her not quite in the right way. I don't want to be critical but that is the truth of it.

You can tell that Ricky is very close to his cat because he understands variations in her meows. This is partly, though, because a cat will request certain things at certain times under certain circumstances which can be interpreted not necessarily through the vocalisation but because of those circumstances.

Did Elvis Presley ever live with a domestic cat?

There is no record of Elvis Presley living with a domestic cat companion. That bold statement is based on reading a page on Elvis's love of animals and the pets that he had throughout his life. 

Fake Elvis picture with white cat. This is actually Marlon Brando with his white cat with Elvis's head stuck on. This sort of proves that he did not have a cat.

CLICK TO SEE MARLON BRANDO WITH THIS WHITE CAT

I think that if he did live with a cat or cats, it would have been mentioned on the Graceland page (official website) as it is quite comprehensive. Although they do admit that they can't list every animal that he lived with.

Elvis Presley and Sweet Pea October 18 1956. Image in the public domain.

They do say though that he loved animals of all kinds and that he had many pets during his lifetime. It seems that he loved horses perhaps more than other animals and dogs probably feature in the top two sorts of domestic animal that he preferred.

He lived with a number of dogs including a basset hound named Sherlock, a couple of great Danes and a Pomeranian. Another dog he lived with called Get Lo developed kidney disease. He had his dog flown to Boston for treatment where he stayed for three months and then his aircraft picked him up and brought him home. Despite his best efforts Get Lo died.

As to horses, his favourite horses included a golden palomino Quarter Horse named Rising Sun and a Tennessee Walking Horse named Bear.

Associated: Did Kurt Cobain like cats?

He was given a squirrel monkey for Christmas in 1966 by the Lewis family who were devoted fans. They bought the monkey at the Katz Drugstore and named it Bambi. The Lewis family spent a lot of time at the front gates of Graceland and eventually they became friendly with Elvis. Mr Lewis ended up working for Elvis as a gate guard. Elvis and Priscilla loved Bambi.

When he purchased Graceland in 1957 it came with 13.8 acres of land. This allowed him to have a little farm in which there were chickens, a turkey and some hogs. He smoked and cured pork in the old pump house.

He was given some donkeys which he put in an empty swimming pool that was under construction because the delegated fenced area was not ready.

However, no mention of cats. That does not mean he never lived with one but it seems likely that he didn't.

Max Verstappen lives with two cats and they interfere with his simulated race

Well, the Formula One racing blog websites tell me some good news which is that Max Verstappen lives with a couple of cats that he calls Jimmy and Sassy. Max Verstappen has been in the news lately when he was allegedly pushed off the track by Lewis Hamilton and ended up in hospital for checks but he was all right. And he wasn't pushed off the track by Lewis Hamilton either in my opinion but that is another story.

Max Verstappen is in good spirits and he was taking part in 24 Hours of Spa sim race (simulated race). I think Max likes to lock his cats into another part of his home, which appears to be huge, while taking part in this sort of race.

I'm going to presume that a 'sim race' as it is called is one which is played online from your home and is entirely simulated. This allowed his cats Jimmy and Sassy to get into the room where he was driving. He said:

"I'm having some technical issues here; the cats are running through the sim. I hope the cat doesn't jump behind my brake pedal because it will become a pancake."

He suggested some alternative names for his cats such as Lewis and Toto indicating that he has not lost his sense of humour after the accident. You can see the sim race below in the YouTube video. Please note, however, that sometimes these YouTube videos disappear because of various reasons and if that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Lewis Hamilton prefers dogs just to add a little spice to the feud between them. Max lives in Monaco. He talks some more about cats and dogs in the video as I understand it. He also said:

"I live on eight floors with my pets. So, then I have to close the balcony, because they don't know it's a long way down. So, then I have to step in."

Put pretty, androgenous Korean boys with pretty, popular cats and you get this

If you Google "cats" on Twitter you are invariably flooded with a plethora of pictures of pretty, androgenous Korean boys and cats. The boys are always smiling, clearly jovial and happy while someone else films them so that they can post the video on Twitter to bore their fans. I'm being cynical and sarcastic. 

But we see an awful lot of these sorts of images and I think the producers of these videos and still photos somewhat cynically join together two popular aspects of entertainment namely pretty boy bands from South Korea (if that is what they are because I'm guessing) and beautiful domestic cats. 

It's a great combination for young women and teenage girls. I guess these images and videos are exclusively targeted at young women and girls. Arguably it's an exploitation of the cat but it is so mildly done and inconsequential that I don't think anybody could criticise anybody for these images.

Put a pretty boy with a pretty cat and you get this. Image: Twitter.

I can't deduce anything from this Twitter tweet other than it is what it is. It's a form of entertainment and publicity. The boy band wants to publicise their presence. I am sure that boy bands are very competitive. They are created by producers who put together a band of attractive, androgenous boys as a product to sell to the public. They have a shortish lifespan. They are transient.

There is just something about gulf’s shoulder that cats love and sit! pic.twitter.com/3F7gxBsIu1

— g🌹 (@butterflyandg) August 5, 2021

A cat or two has been added in this one to spice up the image of the band. Two of the photos show a Scottish Fold, a cat breed that I have said should not be created for health reasons. Taylor Swift made the Scottish Fold popular. I am afraid that she made a mistake. She has a huge number of followers on her Instagram (166m) and Twitter feeds (88.5m). Therefore, what she does has great influence among youths who are easily influenced.

Did John F Kennedy have any cats?

The question is straightforward but the answer is not. Few pictures exist of the president John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) with any family cat. The White House Historical Association refers to the family of John F. Kennedy bringing Tom Kitten to the White House with pet hamsters Debbie and Billie, plus a canary, Robin.

Early picture of a young John F. Kennedy holding a kitten when visiting the Solomon Islands in 1943. Photographer unknown.

There is a picture of Jackie Kennedy and daughter Caroline looking happy with Tom Kitten in 1960. Tom Kitten was a grey cat it seems. Caroline is seen next to Tom with her mother smiling animatedly.

Below is another photo which also includes another kitten. Tom Kitten is the cat on the right.

Tom Kitten - the cat on the right - with Jackie Kennedy and Caroline her daughter. I believe the photo is now in the public domain.

Dr Fogle, a veterinarian and author, says that Kennedy may have avoided photos of himself with cats including Tom Kitten because of the misplaced reputation that cats are sly, evil and untrustworthy. 

Perhaps he was playing safe knowing that a lot of people who dislike cats - and voters - believed bad things about cats. He wanted to protect his public image.

But it is said that he liked cats and the photo on this page supports that.

Ariel Dale says "American Airlines lost my cats. No one can tell me where they are!"

The words in the title kind of sum it up. Ariel Dale says on her TikTok page that this was her worst nightmare. She said that her two cats had been in a kennel at the airport for over 14 hours because their flight was cancelled. She said that American Airlines at F. Kennedy International Airport had lost her cats. She was ultimately reunited with her cats after a series of events as reported on 4 videos on TikTok that she shared and which explain the entire saga.

Ariel Dale says "American Airlines lost my cat. No one can tell me where they are!"

She says that she decided to put her cats on a cargo plane from Los Angeles to New York. It was a tough decision but she decided that it was in the best interest of the cats. Her cats become anxious around people she said which is why she does not want them in the cabin. Because of a mix-up by the airline, she made her flight with two minutes to spare.

CLICK FOR SOME PAGES ON AIRLINE TRAVEL AND CATS

She received a message when her flight was about to take off saying that her cats were delayed and then cancelled and then a further flight was booked. Of course, her cats were on a different aircraft because it was a cargo aircraft.

The new flight carrying her cats was then delayed also. She was reassured that her cats were being well looked after. She attended the arrival of her cats but they were not there. When Ms Dale was finally reunited with their cats, they were distressed she said. She wants the airline to apologise. Ms Dale paid over US$700 for the safe transportation of the cats. It did not happen and she wants compensation or at least an apology.

She was told to file a complaint and she expected a response within 15 days. Ms Dale said that her cats were all traumatised by the experience. The Independent newspaper contacted American Airlines for a comment. We are waiting with baited breath!

Her cats are Stevie Nicks (a tortoiseshell) and Mr Tumnus (black-and-white). Ms Dale is a singer and actor. She has 53k followers on TikTok.

Comment: I would never allow my cat to travel in the hold of a cargo aircraft while I was on a passenger aircraft. The chances of things going wrong are increased substantially. Just saying but not criticising. I don't think she'll do it again though. At least she got some publicity out of it and a viral TikTok video. Some celebs would give their right arm for that kind of drama in their lives :) .

Russian President and Wife Own a Nevsky Masquerade

The press say the President lost his purebred cat (March 2012). There may be a little bit of truth in that but President Medvedev says that his cat is just fine. Perhaps there was a temporary moment when this beautiful purebred cat went walkabout in the Moscow suburb where Medvedev lives. I don't know.

What is sure is that the Nevsky Masquerade or Neva Masquerade is a pointed Siberian cat. What better cat for the president of Russia? The Siberian cat hails from Russia, of course, and is a very popular triple coated purebred cat of distinction that may have the same origins as the Maine Coon and Norwegian Forest Cat. It is one of the great Russian exports (first exported June 28th 1990)!

"Masquerade" refers to the pointed face and "Neva" to the river from whence this cat came. The river Neva is in northwestern Russia. "Nevsky" is a reference to Alexander Nevsky a proclaimed Saint of the Russian Orthodox Church, named after the river Neva.

The pointed version is quite rare, I would have thought. Dani Roseboom in the Netherlands lives with a most beautiful Neva Masquerade (this is not Medvedev's cat!):

Neva Masquarade - Hime Amélie du Palais d'Hiver - "Amélie"
Siberian cat - neutered female. Photo copyright protected.

Hime Amélie du Palais d'Hiver appears to be a lynx pointed Siberian cat.

Apparently, the president's cat cost $1,000 in 2003. That is about the going rate. I am sure that his wife, Svetlana Vladimirovna Medvedeva chose this purebred cat.

The blue eyes go with the pointing. Medvedev's cat had blue eyes. The Neva Masquerade is a natural cross with the traditional Siamese, apparently. 

The famous, former president Mikhail Gorbachev also kept a Siberian cat.