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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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.

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 :) .

Minghao with a kitten

Minghao with a kitten. I have chosen this picture because I think it's very nice although I'm not completely convinced about the way the kitten is being held by Minghao. Better not to treat cats and kittens as babies. 

I'm also not completely convinced that this is Minghao! :) The Twitter caption is not clear but I think it is. And if it is, Minghao is a Chinese singer, songwriter and dancer living in South Korea and a member of the South Korean boy group Seventeen. I have seen another photograph of Minghao with another cat so this guy likes cats. 

His alternative name is interestingly "The8". It is a very novel name. It is a stage name. The number 8 is liked by many people in China. When it is "laid down" (whatever that means - rotated?), the infinite sign appears. That may be partly why it is considered a nice number.

Minghao with a kitten. Instagram.

It's interesting that if you search for "cats" on Twitter you invariably get a huge number of tweets from South Korean boy bands. These are all very attractive, girly, or androgynous looking boys. I think this is a good thing. It is nice to see the boundary between female and male broken down. It is very much a modern concept.

It would appear that South Korean girls (who are the biggest audience for K-pop) like this kind of neutral, in-between the genders, beauty. And that is fine. Perhaps when they grow up, they may be more attracted to the more masculine (in the classic sense) male appearance.

They are groups that have been created artificially, I would say, by producers who want to make a lot of money out of them. I don't want to misrepresent the situation, and I am guessing, but it is likely that these boys are exploited. I wonder how much money they get out of their songs? No doubt the producer who created the band gets by far the biggest slice of the profit.

On an associated issue, there are a lot of celebrities who like to have companion animals. And they almost invariably create an Instagram account to tell the world about this. Sometimes the photographs are excellent and they genuinely are entertaining to their fans.

Of course, when a celebrity associates themselves with an attractive companion animal it helps to promote that celebrity. It also helps, incidentally, to promote the animal which is often nowadays a purebred cat, sometimes the Scottish Fold because this particular breed has been promoted by Taylor Swift. I have some doubts about the ethics of that because the breed has potential health issues. But that is another matter which I won't go into here.

Here's a bit more about Minghao. He was born on November 7, 1997 and attended Beijing Contemporary Music Academy. The boy band Seventeen debuted in 2015. Minghao was awarded the "Prime Minister's Commendation" from the Prime Minister of South Korea for his contribution to the development of the country's contemporary pop culture and arts.

Jeongyeon’s cat 'Bomb' copies her when she taps her leg

This is cool. Jeongyeon is a 'celebrity' as I like to call them. A created celebrity as a producer created the band of which she is a member. She is a 24-year-old South Korean singer and member of the South Korean girl group Twice. She obviously lives with a cat. Here we have her cat copying her as she taps her leg. It is a clear example of domestic cats learning by observation which they are very good at as they learn to hunt and become independent when living in the wild as a feral cat. Kittens learn fastest when observing their mother or a close relative. I guess that, instinctively, they trust them the most.

Jeongyeon on Instagram.

Note: this is an embedded tweet. It may disappear over time as it may be deleted at source on Twitter. If that has happened, I am sorry but I can't control it.

Jeongyeon also has two dogs: Nanan the poodle and Bbosong the white Pomeranian (source: aminoapps.com). The same source says "she also has a cat named Bami, a Scottish Fold cat, [who] technically belongs more to Jeongyeon’s sister, Gong Seung Yeon". 

Jeongyeon’s cat 'Bomb' copies her when she taps her leg. Screenshot.

"The actress brought Bami into the family when he was 8 months old". This appears to be the cat in the video. She seems to have two names from her Scottish Fold: Bami and Bomb. The cat is a grey solid colour. There is a problem with celebrities adopting Scottish Folds probably because Taylor Swift adopted one. This breed should not exist arguably because the mutated gene that creates the folded ears can cause serious harm to the cat if the breeding is not accurate and ethical. How many Scot. Folds are 'culled' at birth? No idea. Perhaps none, perhaps some.

Jeongyeon’s cat Bomb copying her taps on her leg pic.twitter.com/MLqLVn8pm9

— hourly cats (@hourIykitty) July 29, 2021

Doja Cat likes clothing that makes her feel like a 'bad bitch'

She likes tight-fitting pants (trousers). She says that her backside is too big relative to the rest of her body and it is as if another person is tacked on to her lower body! 

“When my pants fit right. I struggle a lot because I have a really fat ass and nothing else on my body matches it. It’s like I’ve stolen someone else’s lower half. If I find pants that hug everything and act as Spanx, nobody can fuck with me, I’m on top of the world.”

She is very body and clothes conscious as I guess she would be. She said that she adopted her stage name "Doja Cat", from one of her cats and her favored strain of marijuana. She said: "I was heavily addicted to weed and weed culture, so when I began rapping, I thought of the word 'doja' and how it sounds like a girl's name."

Doja Cat likes clothing that makes her feel like a 'bad bitch'. Photo: Twitter.

DOES DOJA CAT HAVE A CAT - CLICK TO FIND OUT.

She knew she was different from an early age. It's obvious but what I like about her is that the word "cat" is incorporated within her name. She obviously likes cats and lives with cats or a cat (please click the link above). You can almost forget that the word "cat" is a central part of her persona. That's why on this page you see a photograph of her in a dramatic suit of clothes and wearing cat ears.

Horace Walpole's favourite cat drowned in a goldfish bowl

Horace Walpole (1717-1797) was, by all accounts, a careless pet owner. He was an English writer, artist historian, man of letters, antiquarian and a politician. He is described as an 18th-century Gothic writer by The Times. The newspaper reports that his favourite cat, Selima, drowned in a goldfish bowl while trying to grab the goldfish. As a consequence, Walpole the author of The Castle of Otranto, asked his friend, the poet Thomas Gray, to write an epitaph for his beloved cat. It is called: Ode On the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes. The poet described her as the "demurest of the tabby kind". His favourite cat was a tabby cat.

That famous goldfish bowl was placed on top of the pedestal as a memorial to Selima and it is to go on display at Strawberry Hill House, the Gothic-revival mansion in Twickenham south-west London, the home he built from 1749 onward. I have visited this house. It is a very interesting place and the photograph below was taken by me which gives you an impression of what it's like, I hope.

The goldfish bowl is being displayed as part of a series of exhibitions about objects associated with the property. The reason why I have stated that Horace Walpole was a careless pet owner is because The Times also reports that in 1739 his King Charles spaniel, Tory, was killed by a wolf in the Alps. The next dog that he lived with, Bettina, died when falling from a balcony in Florence. Another spaniel that he lived with, Rosette, died in a fire.

Perhaps he wasn't careless but just too busy to really care for his companion animals carefully. He created a pet cemetery at Strawberry Hill.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle prefer dogs over cats

OPINION: Some people might be interested in knowing the preferences with respect to companion animals of Meghan Markle and Harry Windsor, her husband. We know that Meghan Markle had a cat called Archie which is a reason why their son is called Archie that we also know that she appears to prefer dogs to cats because currently they have two dogs at their Californian home but no cats as far as I am aware. They could have cats as their home and staffing would allow it. Perhaps Harry influenced their decision to have dogs at the moment. He may have been quite firm on not having cats actually. He may even dislike them. 

The picture below shows his natural love for dogs. I suspect that he is an animal lover. He loves Africa, a country renowned for its wildlife.

 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle prefer dogs over cats. Photo: Getty Images.

As for Harry, he was interviewed way back in 2016 when speaking to Chris Evans on radio two ahead of the Invictus Games at that time. He revealed that he favours dogs over cats. I don't have any more information on that but it is pretty typical of men in general although there are many men who are very fond of cats. For instance, I've just written about Morrissey who is a great cat lover and who did an advert for PETA with a tabby cat on his head!

Cat Archie and Meghan are approached by another of her moggies. I believe that she is stroking Archie. Photo: Splash News.

As for Archie the cat, a close friend of Meghan said that her mother, Doria, rescued Archie and he became an important part of their home. Meghan love to play with him and she was always talking about him to friends. It's no surprise that she named her son after the cat she loved. So, I have to conclude that she loves cats too but I sense that she might prefer dogs. 

The two dogs that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have at the moment are called Guy and Pulia. It was reported in glamour.com that we don't see much of them on social media. They like to keep things private. Twitter still has a tweet on its website of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, discussing voting and how each vote matters and how the voting booth is the only place where women and men are completely equal.

Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex and @GloriaSteinem discuss representation, why each vote matters and how all women “are linked, not ranked." MAKERS has an exclusive look at that historic backyard chat! 🙌 Q&A to come tomorrow! https://t.co/e0WY2hjTju pic.twitter.com/AExOmNdWIb

— MAKERS (@MAKERSwomen) August 25, 2020

Cats in private jets - so much better than in the hold of a commercial airliner

Kate Beckinsale has two flat-faced Persian cats. Being a celebrity, and I guess being quite wealthy, she is able to take a private jet on occasions. I don't expect she takes them all the time but, on this occasion, I believe that she was flying with her fellow cast members from her latest TV show Guilty Party, which was shot in Calgary, Canada. 

She is able to take her two cats and her dog, a Pomeranian, with her. And what is particularly pleasant is that she can let them wander around the cabin, obviously under supervision in the interest of safety but this is so much better than being stuck in a cat carrier under the seat or in the hold of a commercial airliner.

Clive, Kate Beckinsale's Persian in the captain's seat of a private jet. Screenshot from Instagram video.

Her two cats are Clive and Willow. I believe that Willow is a female, perhaps a chinchilla Persian and I also believe that Clive is about 12 years of age. He is pointed. Is he a Himalayan? His age, by the way, is probably not far from the lifespan of a contemporary person.

Kate Beckinsale likes to have some fun, which is enjoyable for her followers on Instagram of which there are 4.7 million. The captain of that jet agrees to allow Clive to sit in the left-hand seat which is the normal captain's seat, as I understand it. And he pretends that Clive is the captain. The aircraft is on the ground so it's completely safe.

It is always good when a celebrity person likes animals, provided they are good cat guardians and Kate Beckinsale is. Another high-profile celebrity who loves cats is Taylor Swift. That doesn't need saying because the world knows about it. She has 160 million Instagram followers. Only the National Geographic has more! 

Taylor Swift can genuinely influence the world by what she says on her Instagram account. She has an enormous responsibility. Perhaps I'm being a little bit too critical but I don't think she discharges that responsibility in respect of her cats brilliantly sometimes because, for example, she loves the Scottish Fold which is a cat breed which probably should not exist.

If they are not bred carefully, they can suffer from severe disabilities due to cartilage problems. It is a genetic mutation which causes the cartilage of the ear flaps to lose its rigidity causing the ears to fold flat to the cranium. I think she could have adopted a more inherently healthy purebred cat or better still a completely unwanted and "left-on-the-shelf" rescue cat which she saved from euthanasia. Now that would have helped all rescue cats the world over.

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.

Dame Mary Archer has loved cats since childhood

I've just discovered that Dame Mary Archer loves cats. For those who don't know, she is a high-profile lady living in the UK. And I use the word "lady" carefully because she is very lady-like. She is highly educated and very attractive. She is married to Jeffrey Archer the former politician and novelist. Mary Archer is a scientist trained in physical chemistry at Oxford University and she has a PhD. She is an expert in the chemistry of solar panels.

Dame Mary Archer and her Bengal cat Sunita 2015. Photo: Daily Mail.

But the point of this article is that she has always loved cats since she was a little girl. She also loves her study at her home in Cambridgeshire, UK. An article about her dated January 2015 and published online on the Daily Mail website shows her with a Bengal cat, Sunita (see above). She says that Sunita likes water which is very typical of wild cat hybrids and also likes the warmth of a computer which is typical of all domestic cats.

Dame Mary Archer says she likes cats because they're self-sufficient and entertaining but I'm sure she likes them for other reasons, but the one stated are the ones I normally hear. I think we can add: reliability, consistency, persistence, likeability, emotional and physical warmth (on a cold and hostile winter night). And many more reasons. I just love their reliability. They are far more reliable and consistent than humans.

Postscript: I learnt about Dame Mary Archer's love of cats because she was a character witness at the criminal trial of Lady Lavinia Nourse (79) the wife of a famous and now deceased British judge who was accused wrongly of child abuse long ago. The jury took a mere five minutes to acquit her which strongly indicates the inappropriateness of the prosecution. But that is another story. As a character witness Mary Archer said that both lady Lavinia and herself were mad about cats. I suspect that that was meant to give the impression that Lady Lavinia is inherently a good person and I agree with it! If a person is mad about cats, they cannot be a bad person. And therefore, they can't be a child sex abuser.

Indian celebrity actresses such as Disha Patani indirectly promote cat welfare

We are seeing more news media articles about celebrity Indian actresses with their domestic cat companions in loving embraces and I love it because it will boost cat welfare and I would hope animal welfare generally in India. 

Disha Patani with her purebred cat. Photo: Instagram.

It appears that the best-known Indian actresses are admired by Indian citizens and therefore they have a role to play in modifying the behaviour of people. They can lead the way and we often see, nowadays, these wealthy Indian actresses living in fancy apartments in cities with glamorous, full-time indoor, purebred cats. 

They make for good photographs but the underlying message I would hope comes across which is that cats should be treated in a kindly way and looked after well. They should not be street cats living miserable lives as so many do in India and of course in other countries. I'm not going to criticise India for this because there are far too many unwanted, stray and feral cats in the world for my liking. It is a symptom of a failure in the domestication of the cat. It is time we made more effort to stop it.

So here we have Disha Patani, an Indian actress who works primarily in Hindi films I'm told by Wikipedia. I am also told that this is her real name and it seems that she is trained as an engineer. Is that correct? It might well be.

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A post shared by disha patani (paatni) (@dishapatani)

Note: This is an image 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.

In the photograph on her Twitter tweet, we see her cuddling what I believe to be a Himalayan purebred cat which is a pointed Persian cat. In this instance I think this is a lynx-pointed Persian. Or the cat is a Ragdoll. The cat is certainly purebred. The photograph has received 1.6 million likes in 19 hours!! She has 44 million followers! That is the power of female celebrity. Let her use it to the betterment of animal welfare, please. She can do so much. I don't know whether she is involved in animal welfare matters and whether she campaigns on animal welfare issues. I hope so because, as mentioned, she has the clout to make some changes in the right direction. And there is a real need in India to improve animal welfare.

There are too many sad, street cats for my liking but, as mentioned, that applies to very many countries in the world. So, we can't single out India as that would be unfair. India does have a fledgling cat fancy by the way. I think I may be partly responsible for instigating the beginning of the cat fancy in India. They do like their purebred cats but they seem to be confined to the Persian which is by far their favourite and which they call the "punch-face" Persian. Not a great description because it implies that you punch the face of a cat to squash it and make it flat which is the requirement under the breed standard (the flatness not the punching!). That is another story because flat faces are not healthy faces! It distorts the facial anatomy leading to breathing and other problems.

Objectifying women - the cycle that constantly reinforces it

This had nothing to do with domestic cats directly but I feel compelled to write about it because I see it all the time and it annoys me. Indirectly what I am saying affects cat welfare. Celebrity woman can dress more functionally and promote cat welfare in one of many ways. They have the clout.

I want women to be totally equal to men but if celebrity women wear sexy clothes and the news media reports on it as the Daily Mail has done in this example then we simply reinforce the objectification of women and we ogle them as some sort of sex objects. It has to stop. Note: Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire.

Objectifying women. The cycle the reinforces this concept.

A celebrity woman wears sexy clothes and the news media report on it, such as above: Mabel sets pulses soaring in a figure-hugging halterneck jumpsuit. It is a self-perpetuating cycle. And some women complain about being objectified. A lot do as far as I can tell. Do they really mean it?

As it happens so much, maybe this is the way it should be? Maybe this is the male-female relationship. But I hear women complaining about being objectified as sex objects. They want to be treated as equals and I totally get that and support the goal. 

But when they dress in sexy clothes (which is perfectly okay) and they are reported in the news media as illustrated by the Daily Mail online newspaper we reinforce the objectification of women. They are nothing more than to be looked at for their appearance. That is the role of women in this vicious cycle which constantly reinforces this stereotype. 

If women want to break out of it, they have to wear loose fitting boring trousers and cover up their torso. In short, they should dress more like men which they will totally hate and it is an untenable idea. 

They want to be attractive and they do it for themselves. It's instinctive. It is part of their DNA and inherited genetically. It is meant to attract for mating purposes. There has to be a compromise somewhere down the line which means wearing less sexy clothes and the news media stopping these sorts of headlines.

The trouble with writing about women on a cat website is that Google never finds the page and therefore nobody reads it! Which is why I have to write this incredibly quickly because I am basically wasting my time. I hope somebody reads it and comments. I will waffle on to make the page larger which may help Google find it.

It is beyond time that this unhealthy relationship between celebrity women and the news media is broken. It simply reinforces over and over again that women are sex objects. Both parties are equally to blame. I don't want to spoil the fun because I know women enjoy wearing these sorts of garments but there is a much wider issue, one of equality, total equality and the way men perceive women. 

If men perceive women as sex objects, they are never going to be equal in the wider sense. Certainly, many women are completely equal in the workplace and in life generally but overall, you see a lack of equality and it is deeply entrenched.

By equality I don't mean that women should do men's work. They don't need to behave like men and become directors of companies which is a miserable job. Trying to force women into top executive jobs in big companies I think is unhealthy as well because I don't think women are geared up for that kind of role. You have to be a completely driven testosterone-fuelled male to do that. But there are many roles that women can fill and they should be allowed to do them in an atmosphere of complete equality.

Jacqueline Fernandez meditates on the balcony of her apartment in Mumbai with Bengal cat in background

Jacqueline Fernandez and her white Persian showing tear staining due to tear duct overflow. Photo: Instagram.

Jacqueline Fernandez is a Bollywood star born in Sri Lanka and a former model. She likes animals. Thank God for that because the more celebrity animal lovers we have on the planet the greater likelihood that humankind can gradually start to live in harmony with animals. We are very far from that at present. Jacqueline Fernandez lives with four cats we are told. I know that one of them is almost certainly a Bengal cat (see below) - the one you see in the photograph on her Instagram page - another is a pointed Persian A.K.A. a Himalayan cat and a third is an all-white Persian. Both flat-faced with associated health issues such as tear duct overflow.

Fernandez mediating on her flat balcony with her Bengal cat. Photo: Instagram.

The Persian is a contemporary bred cat with a flat-face. They are called "punch-faced Persians" in India because it is as if they have been punched. Not a great description I would hasten to add. Perhaps the description might, just might, encourage cat abuse. But a strong counter to that is Jacqueline Fernandez and her love of animals and cats.

Yoda, I believe, a pointed Persian with a flat-face (Himalayan). Photo: Instagram.

Of the four cats that she lives with, one is also a Ragdoll in my opinion. The cat appears to be a seal-pointed Ragdoll. I don't know the breed of the fourth cat. But please read more about that if you want to by clicking on this link which takes you to the main website.

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Alec Baldwin and wife Hilaria buy a Bengal cat for daughter Carmen

NEWS AND VIEWS: So what is the big deal about the title to this post? Carmen, the Baldwin's daughter expressed a wish to adopt a cat companion from the age of 2. The trouble with satisfying that perfectly good request is that Alec Baldwin is allergic to cats we are told by his wife Hilaria. So they had a dilemma. Another dilemma that they had is that Hilaria and Alec Baldwin speak up for animal rights and support PETA.

Alec Baldwin and wife Hilaria by Bengal cat for daughter Carmen. Photo: Twitter.

They probably discussed, quite extensively, adopting a rescue cat from a rescue organisation as this would support PETA and support the idea that if people want a new cat they should always go to a rescue centre first. 

But the cat allergy problem scuppered that objective, they thought. So they decided to buy a Bengal cat from a breeder. Hilaria, we are told, did a lot of research and discovered that the Bengal cat is hypoallergenic meaning that the cat does not produce the allergen, or produces less of the allergen Fel D 1, which is a protein in a domestic cat's saliva which causes the allergic reaction in 10% of the population.

I suspect that the research included a discussion with a cat breeder of Bengal cats and the breeder wanted to promote her cattery so she convinced them that Bengal cats do not contain this allergen. I'm afraid they were misled if that is a true assessment. Bengal cats are not hypoallergenic. No domestic cat is in fact. 

They gave a false reason for buying a Bengal cat rather than adopting a rescue cat, which is that Alec Baldwin is allergic to cats and therefore they were forced to go down the route that they did. Note: they knew that all rescue cats will not be hypoallergenic but they did not realise that all purebred cats are the same notwithstanding what the breeders say.

PETA are annoyed but polite because they emphasised that the Baldwins have always supported them and do good in terms of animal welfare. But they say that they have inadvertently encouraged people to purchase a purebred cat rather than adopt a rescue and possibly save that cat's life from euthanasia at a rescue centre.

Perhaps the point of the story is that the Baldwins could have found a better route to compromise. The research should have thrown up the information that Purina have made a dry cat food which masks or suppresses the feline allergen that I mention above. It is called LiveClear and it is on the shelves at the moment. The reviews are pretty good and it seems to me that it works at least well enough to help control the problem.

And there are other ways to manage having a cat companion if you are allergic to them. Quite a lot of people who love cats are allergic to them but they find a way around the problem. An alternative to what I mentioned might have been to adopt a rescue Bengal cat. There are some unwanted Bengal cats out there at rescue centres and with certain organisations such as Purebred Cat Rescue. Her research should have led her to these sorts of organisations and to the Purina food.

I suspect, therefore, that Carmen expressed a strong desire to adopt a Bengal cat and therefore they could not get around that problem. And perhaps she wanted a kitten as well. Most of the rescue animals at shelters are adults.

Therefore, I have to reluctantly conclude that the Baldwins used a false reason for purchasing a Bengal cat but we don't know the full story behind it. I am speculating. There is one final point in that the higher filial wildcat hybrids are a little bit difficult to live with in my opinion and a lot of people don't prepare themselves for it. Although, I suspect that the kitten in the photograph on this page is probably an F5 Bengal cat. I hope so because if he is he will be very much like a typical domestic cat because the wild cat component is a very small percentage of the cat's DNA.

Jay Leno likes cats and lives with a black-and-white moggy

For the record, as some people want to know, Jay Leno likes cats and he lives with a black-and-white moggy, which I'm going to suggest he adopted from a cat rescue centre but I might be wrong on that. I get a strong sense that he would do the right thing and adopt from a rescue centre. This is the because he is essentially a decent person. In any case, anybody who likes cats is going to be a decent person! As you almost certainly know he also likes cars. He likes cars and cats a lot, the both.

Jay Leno and his cat. Screenshot from YouTube video.

He may live with more than one cat but I have seen him with his black-and-white moggy in a YouTube video from The Ellen Show in which he discusses cats and particularly whether cats are smarter than dogs. He believes that they are but it was tongue in cheek.

Over a period of time, Jay Leno made nine jokes about Asians eating cat and dog meat. He regrets doing that now. He thought he was doing no harm at the time. I have not heard these jokes. The fact is, though, that a lot of people in the West dislike Asians eating cat and dog meat.

What grates is that there is an unwritten contract both with cats and dogs as companion animals. It was written at the moment they were first domesticated. Cats were domesticated about 10,000 years ago it is believed (and maybe earlier) while dogs were first domesticated perhaps about 20,000 years ago. 

We don't know exactly. At that moment we agreed with cats that we would look after them and in return they would kill mice and rodents, be companions and occasionally entertain us. The functional aspect of keeping a cat has disappeared and now their role is to entertain us and be our companions.

Dogs were originally domesticated as working animals and they still are in very many areas of the world. But they also entertain and keep us company. The contract is that they do X and we do Y. It does not include killing them and eating them. That is why it is immoral and wrong.

It isn't just that it is a breach of this unwritten contract, the whole process is ghastly because they are transported in a very cruel manner. They are killed in a very cruel manner. There is no regulation on how they are killed. It is, to be frank and honest, a nightmare for the animals. It is surprising that it still happens in the 21st century.

Sorry to have gone on so long about it. It came to my mind because Jay Leno has apologised for his jokes publicly, which is fair enough. Perhaps he was being a bit nasty but the motivation was genuine. What I mean is that he loves cats and probably dogs and finds eating them objectionable and I guess he wanted to criticise the habit in a joke. It is a good way of getting a message across.

Ozzy Osbourne said that he likes to shoot cats to keep himself sane

I believe that Ozzy Osbourne and his family i.e. his wife Sharon and his daughter Kelly live in Los Angeles in a large house with extensive grounds which cost a fortune. Ozzy Osbourne is known for his outlandish behaviour and views. 

However, I don't think anything could be quite more outlandish or schizophrenic than his claim, in a radio interview reported in The Mirror newspaper, that he likes to shoot cats wandering into his extensive backyard with a rifle, I presume from inside his home. 

Ozzy Osbourne said that he likes to shoot cats to keep
 himself sane. Photo in public domain.

He said that it keeps him sane and implies that the coronavirus lockdowns have driven him to insanity combined with the fact that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's not long ago which leaves him concerned as to whether he will be able to walk.

His claim reminds me of Jeremy Paxman shooting squirrels from his toilet (sitting on the loo). That was a bizarre claim as well.

He also claimed that he shoots birds. He said that he was a lousy shot but by implication he appears to have improved his skills perhaps because of all the practice he has had in shooting cats! 

But, can this be true? He has featured on a poster campaign to stop declawing of cats organised by PETA, the animal welfare organisation. This clearly implies that he has animal welfare in mind. He should be concerned about animal welfare if he agreed to this campaign. 

Ozzy's poster against cat declawing.
Image: PETA.

And, of course, shooting what might well be domestic cat living with neighbours on his lawn is completely the opposite. That is why I have described his words and perhaps actions as schizophrenic.

If it is, indeed true, however, it must be a crime under California's animal welfare laws. And he can't be sure that he is shooting a feral cat. It is more likely that they are domestic cats wandering around from neighbourhood properties. I don't know the situation where he lives. Perhaps he has no neighbours or they are quite a distance away. Even if they are feral cats, I am convinced that shooting them for entertainment purposes is a crime in a state which is quite advanced in its attitude towards animal welfare and in its laws.

Rapper Azealia Banks digs up her cat and boils the carcass to bring it to life

Rapper Azealia Banks has a Wikipedia page. She has celebrity and followers. I am sure countless thousands of youngsters look up to her. She is an influencer whether she wants to be or not. So why is she engaging in macabre and frankly mad behavior including digging up her deceased cat and boiling the carcass in a big pot on the stove? Oh, she says that she wanted to bring it back to life! She is as mad as a fruitcake if she genuinely believes that. 

Rapper Azealia Banks digs up Lucifer he deceased cat. Photo: Instagram

Perhaps she did this to shock and get noticed. She did upload all the information and a video to social media before deleting it. Her dead cat was Lucifer. The devil is often referred to as Lucifer. Isn't there a Netflix series called Lucifer and it's about a man who is the devil?

Perhaps Azealia Banks is incredibly superstitious and genuinely believes she can bring Lucifer to life by boiling his bones. She shared the video of her cat being exhumed on Instagram. It was quickly deleted. Bizarre behaviour. Was that to give people a flash but no more of her mad behaviour. The short publishing of the video may have been premeditated to avoid her falling foul of Instagram policy against uploading violent or digusting and offending material.

While she was digging up Lucier she joked "The cat is in the bag". The cat was actually in a bag. This seems to be a reference to the ancient saying "let the cat out of the bag" meaning to expose a secret. She captioned the video "Lucifer 2009 - 2020. My Dear kitty. Thank you for everything. A legend. An icon. Forever a serval serve."

In another video she boiled the cat. The water was murky probably because it was muddy. Her followers were horrified. One said: "I genuinely hope the girl gets help one day but...God damn."

Another said that her stomach was churning and that she should see a psychiatrist. Banks has a reputation it seems for trying to shock. In 2013 she was accused of being homophobic when using a gay slur many times when slamming a celeb blogger, Perez Hilton.

Her response to the comments is mocking and disdainful. She does not care, "Here we go again. Everyone pretending to be so shocked and moved by the word f***ot. It's like society is so bored with itself it needs to hold on to these outdated rules of what you can say and cannot say. Why has society accepted n***er as a colloquialism … But will not accept f***ot'? Everyones always acting like its f**king 1905 in this b**ch."

My comment about the cat: Very disrespectful. Immoral and apallingly poor behaviour. Even she might remember the saying "rest in peace" RIP. Not much peace for poor Lucifer if he is boiled on the kitchen stove. I don't think the cat is Lucifer. It's her. She's the devil.

Rapper Azealia Banks. Photo: Wikipedia Commons.

Kate Beckinsale dances in a sports bra for her chinchilla Persian cat Willow

Judging by her Instagram account, as far as I can tell, Kate Beckinsale lives with two Persian cats and a brown, fluffy toy dog. The Persian cats appear to be a chinchilla Persian which is near white with some grey streaks and a grey tabby. They are both what I would call contemporary, flat-faced, punch-face, Persian cats. She likes to dress them up and make them look pretty.

She lives in a very nice modern home and last Friday the actress, 47, posted on her Instagram page a video of herself dancing in her kitchen to Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl". She was wearing a Niki sports bra and some fancy sweatpants over some fancy underwear which she flashed in copious quantities. Perhaps it wasn't underwear but it kinda looks like that.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kate Beckinsale (@katebeckinsale)

Her beautiful little Persian cat Willow was, as expected, completely disinterested in Kate Beckinsale's attempts to stimulate some sort of excitement in her. Persian cats are well known to be rather inactive. Sometimes people refer to them as pieces of furniture. I can remember being at cat show with the cat photographer Helmi Flick photographing various cat breeds and you noticed then how some are more active than others. Persians are inactive compared to Bengals.

Ms Beckinsale says that her effort of "Trying to hype Willow up about winter woolly has been low yield so far". Her Instagram page is full of pictures of her cats so she is definitely a cat lover which I like. The other Persian is called Clive, he's the one with a grey coat.

Kate Beckinsale and Clive her flat-faced Persian one of 2 that she lives with. Photo: Kate Beckinsale on Instagram.

She has admitted that she is "very much a cat person". When she was growing up she had cats and a big dog she says. For her, cats are easier than dogs because "you don't have to walk around with a bag of poo like you do with a dog, which I hate to walk around with a bag of poop".

Clive is about 11 or 12-years-of-age. He had cancer and sometimes she shaves him. Shaving a cat with very long hair is not a bad thing to do but you may have to put the cat under a full anaesthetic which is a bad thing to do because it is potentially dangerous.

She inherited Willow from a friend. She describes Willow as "insane". That's why her friend gave Willow to her. They have completely different personalities. Clive likes suitcases and boxes and bags. He likes to climb into things. He has a suitcase bed which suits him perfectly. Willow prefers to "sleep in creepy, psychopath places like the back of a drawer, places that she could die [in]".

Apparently Willow is more difficult but she's pretty so she's forgiven!