Picture of scraggy calico kitten with long pink human nails

I find the human nails ghastly. God, I hate women's nails that are as long as this especially when they are varnished in bright pink and pointed - sharpened up, looking like cat claws. The nails belong to a young woman who is a cat foster carer living in Florida, USA. She does great work and takes some nice photos as you can see on this page.  But please cut your nails and stop varnishing them just for me!

Picture of scraggy calico kitten with long pink human nails. Picture: Instagram.

The picture is good for me because it shows how vulnerable these little newborn kittens are. And look at those nails! Yes, I am on about nails again. I like the nails of cats but not long human nails. Cats are born with decent nails (claws to you and me) but no teeth (rarely they might have some). 

To think that some cat owners ask a veterinarian to remove the claws of their kitten. At such a tender age to put them through 10 brutal amputations. The trauma. The pain. It is quite disgusting to think about it. These people should be ashamed of themselves. 

Because I am on the subject of nails I'll add some more info. You know that cats are digitigrades don't you? They walk on their toes. That part of the anatomy that looks like it is part of the leg leading to their feet (the bit below the hock) is actually their feet. They have very long feet. It helps give them lots of leverage to jump so effectively.

They are built for hunting and speed. There are five phalanges on each forepaw. Four are fully functional and one is vestigial (no longer particularly useful). Each phalange has three parts (bones) called phalanxes. The claw is attached to the distal (farthest) phalanx. They are protractile. So when the vet removes the nail they are actually removing the distal phalanx to which the nail is connected. Yes, it is an amputation, not the removal of only the claw.

You can see the calico pattern on the head. Calico is tortoiseshell-and-white. This kitten has just been fed some milk replacement formula by the look of it as it is still on his face.  Full belly. Happy bunny. Leave his bloody claws alone please. I hope that the foster carer or the cat rescue organisation for which she works have a clause in their contract making it mandatory that there is no declawing. Never declaw please. It is totally immoral.

Pictures of cats used in myGP app cervical cancer screening campaign

In an act of enlightenment, the organisers of a campaign to encourage British women to attend a cervical cancer screening employed a picture of three cats; one hairless, one long-haired and the third shorthaired. They've equated the lack of hair or hair length on these cats to pubic hair on women and as to whether they shave or wax their hair or not. Apparently women are embarrassed to go for cervical cancer screening unless they have had their pubic hair waxed or shaved beforehand. I think that's the connection between this campaign i.e. hair length or no hair and cervical cancer.

It's caused offence in some quarters of the female population while others see the benefit of it. The key aspect of this campaign is that it has got people talking about cervical cancer screening. This is the objective because it will help encourage women to go to a clinic. This will save lives.

Some women thought it was demeaning to equate cats with cervical screening. I think it is quite enlightened because it is a kind of a fusion between women's liking of domestic cats (or that is the perception) and cervical cancer. The connection comes in the amount of hair or fur people and cats have!

It's quite imaginative in that sense. My opinion is that women have been too sensitive about this campaign. The bottom line is that it gets people talking about it. Not enough women apparently are attending screening clinics and one reason is that they can't get waxed during coronavirus lockdowns because the waxing businesses are temporarily closed down because of social distancing rules. There is a connection then with the amount of pubic hair women have and cervical cancer!!

Gayle Maxwell, a cervical cancer survivor, found it amusing and laughed at it hard. She thinks any form of awareness is fantastic and found the campaign funny. Another lady thought that it was "seriously inappropriate". They thought it was making sexualised jokes about women's reproductive health. I go back to the original point: awareness. The campaign catches the eye and that equates to awareness. It is using the obsession with pictures of cats on the Internet to achieve this. Well done I say.

Pictures of cats: five sibling kittens

A top quality picture of five kittens smushed together keeping warm. They are a spectrum of coat pattens. This is how a litter of kittens turns out sometimes. They are tabbies. They looks incredibly healthy. All credit to the person who has looked after them in addition to the mom.

I would expect that these kittens have one father because they are similar. But sometimes the kittens in a litter may have different fathers. It is called superfecundation. I have written about this and if it interests you you can read the article by clicking here. I guess you might know that female cats can mate with different males when she's in heat. The release of her eggs are triggered during mating. Her reproductive tract contains the sperm of several males and chance dictates which male's sperm fertilises each of her eggs which have been shed from the ovaries. That's why you sometimes get a wide variety of appearances amongst siblings in a litter of kittens.

Picture of Bengal Cat Opening Door Using Handle

We have all seen it but never any better than this. This Bengal cat has been caught red handed so to speak.

Photo: Pinterest.

We also know that cats learn by observation. It makes sense that they watch humans open the door and the enterprising individuals with sufficient nous decide to give it a try and voila, you have a Bengal cat looking a bit sheepish caught in the act of doing what his owner does.

Bengals are wild cat hybrids as you know. This boy is possibly an high filial cat judging by his size and if so he has more wild genes in him which in turn should make him more intelligent. I don't think high filial Bengals should be full-time indoor cats. They need more than the normal stimulation but also security. You can't let then roam around the neighbourhood. He'd get stolen.

The obvious way to be a responsible owner of a Bengal cat is to build a nice garden enclosure. So when opens the door and 'escapes' he escapes into a cat containment area.

Cult of the Funny Internet Cat

The cult of the funny internet cat is fading. You know what humans are like. I use the word "human" rather than "people" because I write about cats so much I have got used to differentiating between the two that way. Humans follow fads and trends or in this case a kind of cult. The cult of the funny cat on the internet.

The internet is still relatively young. Google is only 14 years as I recall. A lot of websites are less than 5 years old. The internet is a very transient and fluid place in which to set up business. I sometimes think that Google considers 4-5 year old sites as in their dottage; time to euthanise them in the words of cat shelters.

The internet to date has worked both for and against the domestic cat. The great cult of funny cat pictures put the domestic cat on the map. But the endless funny videos are really quite tiresome now. On the upside the domestic cat got a lot of publicity. On the downside, was it the right kind of publicity?

The cult of the funny cat pic was fun stuff, but a fad, a fashion. It has to be temporary because it is entertainment genre. Entertainment evolves all the time. You only have to look at cinema to see that. In cinema people are tired of the super hyped-up, over CGI'd, thin-plotted, blockbuster. The old stuff looks far better. I think cinema ran out of ideas so decided to over stimulate our senses instead. You get tired of that quite quickly.

Maybe we are running out of ideas in art. The only thing that constantly renews itself naturally is news. The cult of the cat on the internet is dying. People want to go back to real, sensible stuff. Good, clean information well presented.

I don't think the cult of the funny internet cat improved cat welfare. It was too frivolous for that. Funny cat pictures don't really respect the cat. Under this cult of funny cat pics and vids the cat is not really respected but used to entertain us. There are too many very serious and upsetting aspects to the life of the domestic cat to allow ourselves to be amused by funny cat pics. Let's get the welfare of cats right first before we have a laugh at the expense of the cat.

If I am correct, I am pleased. PoC is a serious website. The cat pictures are the best. They are not about being funny but about respecting the cat. In the long term, I hope that means that PoC transcends the slow decline of the funny cat internet cult.

Cat Photography For All

Good cat photography is not limited to gorgeous show cats and tons of high end equipment.  They do help if you know what you are doing but you can get a very decent shot with average equipment and your moggie. What you can't do without is your photographic eye.

When you have your camera in your hand, the trick is to look at the world photographically. By that I mean you need to really look with an open mind at the shape, form, composition and color of what is before you. In fact you should be able to switch to this mode of looking at short notice as it allows you to spot the unexpected photograph that quickly develops in front of you.

Most of the time our minds are closed to what is in front of us. Alternatively, our mind filters what our eyes see. It is a modified and personalized world.

Open your mind and eyes and you might see a good photograph. About 15 minutes ago I saw this:



I am not saying that it is a world better. It is not. But it both gives pleasure to the photographer, captures a scene from day to day life for the photo album and you can bung it up to Flickr for others to share and discuss.

This is a picture of Charlie. He has three legs. He was coming in from the garden and I walked past him. I had no camera but saw the potential. I quickly got the camera and just before he moved, I captured the image. It was a matter of a spit second. I captured a single image. I knew that I would be lucky to get something because cats move when you don't want them to. They aren't the most cooperative subject.

As it happens I have a decent camera (Canon 7D). Your camera should assist you in capturing a fleeting moment. And good photographs are often fleeting.

The framing for the photograph was created using Picasa on my computer. This is free Google software (Note: the drop shadow around the dark frame is Google Blogger. I am not sure that I like it in this instance).

Here is another picture of a Maine Coon purebred cat that I took in America. His name is Zak:



The key to good casual photography is to (a) have a camera to hand and (b) to use your eyes and be open and ready for the fleeting image that will present itself to you from time to time.

Picture of Cat Hissing

This is a picture of a cat hissing. It has to be, judging from the demeanor of the cat. The photographer does not say that the cat is hissing, however. This is probably one of the best photographs of a cat taking up an aggressive stance that I have seen.

Photo by Hannibal Poenaru

We know that hissing is intended to deter or see off an aggressor and it is a defensive measure. It is intended to mimic the snake's hiss. This has evolved over eons. It appears that animals recognise that the snake is dangerous otherwise there would be no point in mimicking the snake. You can see the ears starting to flatten too. This is to protect them in an ensuing fight. Cats ears get damaged in fights.

This particular cat could be a purebred. She looks a bit Burmese or Burmilla and she looks clean and cared for indicating a house cat rather than a feral or stray cat.

The teeth and gums are in good condition. She is probably quite young. The eyes sparkle. The picture was taken in France near Paris. The photo is published here under a creative commons license.

Three Legged Cat Picture

This is another picture of my three legged cat, Charlie. It is nothing particularly special except that he is very good at reaching up and grabbing objects because he likes to get into the meerkat position.

You can see him raised up onto two legs grabbing some string I am dangling in front of him with his claws nicely out. Love those claws. Of course one reason why the picture looks a bit strange at first glance is because he has no right foreleg. Being a black cat this is not immediately apparent.

Picture of Beautiful Mountain Lion

This is a camera trap photo of a puma. The photo has been refined a bit by me. For some people it will be just another mountain lion picture but I think it is a bit special.

Camera trap photo by USFWS Headquarters

Firstly, it is "real". This is a wild mountain lion going about his business. I think that adds credibility to a photo over the well composed captive cat photos.

Secondly, you get a very nice sense of the grace and power of the mountain lion. Such a beautiful cat and so sad, for me, that it is still hunted (with dogs). The mountain lion is a very classy jumper, one of the best amongst all the wildcats. You can see where that comes from in the muscular hind quarters.

One day, hopefully before it is extirpated (totally destroyed) in the wild, people will stop shooting at the puma for fun. I know that sentence will annoy the hunters and shooters. However, it is uncivilised to shoot a wild animal for pleasure. We have moved on. Well some of us have. See mountain lion tracks.

Picture of Alien Cat

Alien Cat

This is a cat from another planet that walks on two legs, has alien eyes and is albino white! I'll let you try and figure what is going on....Enjoy.

Picture of Cat Skeleton

Here is a good picture of a cat skeleton. I made it up myself (except for the drawing!). The cat's skeleton is flexible and light as it is designed for speed and agility. It has more bones than our skeleton. The cat has 244 bones and ours has 206. The difference is partly due to the cat's tail that contains 19-28 bones. The diagram says that there are 18-20 bones in the tail, incidentally. Different sources provide different information.

Picture made by Michael at PoC. If you use it, please link back to this page. Thank you.

You can see a larger version of this picture of a cat's skeleton on this page together with tons of information.

Jaguar Photograph

This is a great jaguar photograph. It was taken by an automatic camera that is sensitive to movement: a motion activated camera trap. Correct placement is important obviously. In this instance it seems that it was placed on a well used trail in a forest in Peru. The jaguar lives in a variety of tropical and subtropical habitats.

I have worked on the image quite a lot. It has been sharpened a bit and the color made more saturated. It has also been cropped to a squarish format and text added to give the image a poster feel. I also retouched out two cables that were straddling across the undergrowth behind the jaguar. These adjustments are allowed under the creative commons license, for which I thank Smithsonian Wild.



This a really nice jaguar picture now. I think it works well. I hope you do too. I love the intensity in the eyes and the purposeful walk. Note: I have donated $35 to the Smithsonian Institute for the use of this photo.

The jaguar (Panthera onca) lives in Central and South America. It is the largest in all of the Americas. It is the third largest wildcat on the planet. The jaguar is a very burly cat. It is closely related to and similar in appearance to the leopard but it is heavier than the leopard.

The jaguar has a large head and short powerful limbs. The jaguar spots are rosettes; sometimes with a black spot in the center. These rosettes become solid spots on the limbs and undersides.

The jaguar varies in size over its range. Some are twice the size of others. This is due to prey availability. The average weight of this cat in Central America is 56 kilograms (123 lbs - pounds).  Male jaguars in the Pantanal region of Brazil average 102 kilograms however (224 lbs).

Read more about the beautiful and impressive jaguar.

Ocelot Picture

This is a camera trap photograph of an ocelot in Peru. The cat seems to be on a trail. Camera traps are set up at points that are regularly used by the animal being photographed. The ocelot is a medium sized wild cat that is about the size of the average dog.

Ocelot in Peru - camera trap photo by Smithsonian Wild - I added the words and improved quality.

The ocelot lives in Central and South America. At 2002 it was said to occupy Texas, USA (no longer).

It has one the most outstanding coats of all the wild cats. This resulted in it being widely persecuted for its pelt. The major threat now is habitat loss. Both are of course due to human activity. However it is assessed as Least Concern by the authorities (Red List™). This indicates that this species is not threatened with extinction at 2011.

The ocelot lives in a variety of habitats including tropical forest and its prey is usually small mammals such as rodents and possums. It also catches birds and lizards.

Jaguarundi Photograph

This jaguarundi photograph made by a camera trap has an ethereal quality about it while at the time showing us this cat in some detail. It is both informative and slightly "other world" in its feel. The image quality turned out like this because the original photograph had a peculiar color cast, which I eliminated and I produced this filtered black and white image that glows slightly in its place.

Jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi) - photographed by camera trap in Peru - photo by Smithsonian Wild

As you can see, this small wild cat has a weasel-like appearance. It resembles an animal called a "tayra" (see photo adjacent), which belongs to the Mustelidae family not the Felidae family.

Tayra - Wikimedia commons

There are no markings that can be seen in the photograph but the coat is heavily "ticked" to use a word commonly heard by domestic cat breeders at cat shows. It means the coat has a fine broken appearance caused by the agouti gene.

This unusual wild cat species has been called "an enigma" by the authors of Wild Cats of the World.  The jaguarundi behaves somewhat like a Puma (cougar) hence its classification, which was (perhaps still is) in a state of flux. It has 38 chromosomes, while all other small wildcats in South America have 36 chromosomes.

The body of the jaguarundi is slender and the tail long. The head is noticeable small relative to body size and elongated. Read some more about this unusual wild cat. Are there any in Florida?

As the creative commons license does not allow commercial use and as I have advertising on this page, I have donated $35 to the Smithsonian Institute in the hope that this is acceptable.

Leopard Camera Trap Photo

I am having a bit of fun with this interesting leopard, camera trap, photo. These are cameras that are fired off when the animal passes in front of it. The shutter works on a motion sensing device in the camera.

It means you get uncomposed images. I guess that is obvious. Hence this one:

The picture is by the Smithsonian Institution. You can see their photostream on Flickr. I actually prefer poorly composed and slightly blurred camera trap photos of wildcats to the captive cat pictures that are beautiful. They are more real for me.

Associated page: leopard description - a beautiful leopard cub.

African Wild Cat Picture

This is a really nice African wildcat picture. The author is an amateur photographer who publishes his work on Flickr, a large photo hosting site owned by Yahoo. He has kindly allowed me to publish it on my site. His Flickr name is: antony_j_jones. Thank you.

There are two aspects of this photograph that I particularly like. Firstly it brings it home to me that the African wild cat is very like our random bred domestic cats. This of course is to be expected because it is the wild cat ancestor of the domestic cat (with the Eurasian wildcat). Is this cat a hybrid? Just a thought as the Africa wildcat does mate with domestic cats. This cat seems a little refined to be a purebred wildcat but I might be wrong.

Secondly, it shows the cat in his/her habitat, which is wide ranging but tends to be open scrub and grassland.

African wild cat - Photo copyright antony_j_jones

The photograph was taken in Namibia, the home of the cheetah.

Black-footed cat photos by Anne-Marie Kalus

Here are two of the best photos of the fierce and diminutive black-footed cat by a talented amateur photographer who publishes her photographs on Flickr. These images are protected by copyright please note. She has kindly agreed to let me publish the photographs here. You can see her photostream here: Photos of Anne-Marie Kalus. If you want to use them please contact her on Flickr.

 The black-footed cat has the appearance of a wild-looking domestic tabby cat with a high contrast pattern.

The facial appearance is very domestic cat looking. However, you will not see these tabby pattern markings on a domestic cat.

The classic tabby "M" mark on the forehead is missing. There are a different set of genes at work.

As the name suggests, the paw pads are black.

Black-footed Cat Pictures

Twelve black-footed cat pictures. Where you see a credit under the photo it has been published under a creative commons license. Please click on the thumbnail pictures to see a larger format version. Where there is no credit the picture is judged to be in the public domain. I have improved the image quality of the black-footed cat pictures published under creative commons.  They are free to be used under the same creative commons license. Please comply with the terms of the license. You can read the terms of the license on the Flickr hosted page that the text links point to.

by jonkriz	by MrGuilt
by jonkriz
See large image, credits and description
by KCZooFan	by MrGuilt
by quinn.anya

Caracal Pictures

Eight fine caracal pictures by very good amateur photographers who have kindly licensed their work for publication. The caracal is one of the larger medium sized wildcats.

This species is famous for its fabulous leap from the ground, its very long ear tufts - the longest and most pronounced of all cats, wild and domestic - and its ferocity!

It has been tamed in the past as has the cheetah; tamed for use in sport hunting. Hunting with cheetahs.

Caracal in Germany - Photo by Tambako the Jaguar	Caracal in the Serengeti - Photo by nickandmel2006
Caracal in the Serengeti - Photo by nickandmel2006	Cedar Grove Feline Conservatory, Kansas. Caracals use ears for communication - Photo by KCZooFan
Caracal at Cat Survival Trust, England - Photo by andrewhalliday	Caracals at Cat Survival Trust, England - Photo by andrewhalliday
Photo by KRO-Media	Copenhagen - Photo by thy

Where allowed under the creative commons license the image quality of some of these images has been refined and the image cropped. People are free to use these images in a commercial environment but please click on the link under the caracal picture to find out which license has been granted. You must comply with the license.

Leopard Cat Pictures

Eight fine leopard cat pictures. This cat is also called the Asian leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). These are images that I have refined in Photoshop to improve the image quality. There has been no other form of image editing. The pictures are either published under a creative commons license (siwild - camera trap images, thanks) or I have assessed the picture as being in the public domain or publication is justified under fair use (1). Click on the images to see larger versions and on the link to go to the Picasaweb library. This cat is called the money cat by the Chinese because the spots look like coins.

Camera trap image. Very interesting image of fine quality. The habitat is clearly shown. The eyes reflect in the usual way the flash light from the camera. From Leopard Cat	Camera trap image. This leopard cat picture shows a skinny cat. This is a leopard cat in Thailand. From Leopard Cat
Another really nice camera trap image. This image shows the habitat very nicely. This is a leopard cat in Thailand. From Leopard Cat	From Leopard Cat
From Leopard Cat	Shows the coat well. From Leopard Cat
From Leopard Cat	From Leopard Cat

Note: (1) Fair use claimed on the basis that the pictures of the leopard cat published here will have no detrimental financial effect on the website from which they were sourced and they are published here for educational purposes. The images have been improved also.