Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) attracted more attention rescuing a cat then they would in rescuing 10 men

The RNLI have said that in rescuing a white cat from a river they attracted more attention than if they had rescued 10 men 👍. Great Yarmouth and Gorleston coxswain, Paddy Lee, said:

If we'd rescued 10 men, I don't think we'd have got as much attention. It's even hit the headlines in places like Italy and France.

Oliver Bolton took the photographs. He said that the rescue had been dramatic. The cat, who they have named Icicle, fell into a river. Icicle appears to have clambered up to a space about 2 feet above the waterline in a wall but was stuck there.

Icicle on the ledge. Photo: Oliver Bolton.

RNLI rescue a white cat from a river near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Photo: Oliver Bolton.

Icicle after his rescue from a river. Photo: Oliver Bolton.

It looks as though somebody called out the RNLI and just before they arrived icicle fell into the river. The men of the RNLI quickly got to him and scooped him out of the water. They wrapped him in a warm blanket as you can see in the photograph.

He was reunited with his owner Mandy Baker who said that he has used up his nine lives.

Icicle fell into the river about two minutes before the RNLI arrived and the photographer said that he was struggling as they rescued him.

Domestic cats are good swimmers but this cat may have been very tired because he may have been in the water for a long time before he clambered up to that ledge and then fell back in. And the water must've been very cold. 

I would have thought though that he would have survived for quite a bit longer because domestic cats are very durable, resilient creatures. They are great survivors which is exactly why they have nine lives.

Agrocat - love of boxes

An amusing cat photograph which once again shows us the domestic cat's love of boxes. However, this photograph was set up as the cat is wearing a hat 😊. And therefore he/she was placed in the box. It doesn't matter because it's a nice picture and cats love boxes (for security and reassurance). I believe that these are tangerines and I also believe that the photograph was taken in Brazil.

Agrocat - love of boxes. Image: Twitter.

Picture of a Ukrainian soldier with a calico cat tucked into his jacket

This is one of quite a few pictures that I have seen of Ukrainian soldiers and their cat or dog companions. This young Ukrainian soldier (or is he a civilian volunteer in a camouflage jacket?) has a calico cat tucked inside his jacket. A calico cat is a tortoiseshell-and-white cat. They are almost invariably female as are tortoiseshell cats. The man is genuinely enamoured of his cat companion.

Picture of a Ukrainian soldier with a calico cat tucked into his jacket. Photo: Reddit.

The cats keep them company and entertain them. The dogs help them do their job. I remember one story of a Ukrainian soldier in the trenches on the front line in the north of the country at the border between Ukraine and Russia who relied upon his stray dog companion to help spot the enemy because his sense of smell and awareness was superior to his. He believed that they made a good team together.

RELATED: Stray animals boost morale on Ukraine’s front lines as Russian troops invade.

It's great to see a stray dog becoming useful and for his human caregiver benefiting from the relationship as is the dog. It becomes a symbiotic relationship in which both parties mutually benefit. This is a silver lining to this ridiculous war which should never have happened but which is the project of a madman, Putin.

Quite a lot of people think that he has lost his mind because he has been in isolation for two years or more, partly because of Covid about which he is paranoid and partly anyway because he has apparently become somewhat reclusive with a coterie of buddies from his KGB days who advise him. These men have very distorted views of the West as has Putin. He has called Ukrainians neo-Nazis or even plain Nazis when ironically, he is behaving just like Hitler.

Picture of a man evacuating Kyiv, Ukraine with rifle, aquarium, cat carrier and wearing a helmet

This is a strange picture of a man who I would consider to be heroic. He was apparently evacuating his home in Kiev, Ukraine to get away from the fighting. He has a rifle which I'm going to presume was given to him by the state to defend the city as a lot of volunteers are doing this, and he is carrying a mini-aquarium and a cat carrier with I believe a cat inside. 

He is wearing a helmet to protect his head. Although I would think that he would be too preoccupied in not splashing the water out of the mini-aquarium to be that concerned about whizzing bullets. He has a lot to carry and be concerned about and I don't foresee a great outcome especially for the aquarium.

Picture of a man evacuating in Kiev, Ukraine with rifle, aquarium, cat carrier and wearing a helmet. Photo: social media.

I don't know how he is going to make it out of there with all his worldly possessions. I'm being facetious because I have to presume that he has left a not behind. The number of refugees travelling west primarily into Poland and other bordering countries has reached about 400,000 according to the last report.

On the BBC, I saw a young woman interviewed by a BBC reporter on the border with Poland I think it was. She had a young cat on her lap. There was no cat carrier and she had apparently carried this cat all the way to the boarder from perhaps Kiev. It must have been a nightmare. 

The cat looked content but anxious because of all the noise and commotion around her. It makes you think. I don't see much chance of that cat getting to where she is going because there will be so many hazards between where she is and finding some sort of shelter when she gets into Poland. 

She needs a cat carrier and some cat food. She also needs a lead. It is a very fraught situation for companion animals. She told the reporter that the cat had already escaped once and gone into the engine compartment of a car to hide. I believe that she had struggled to rescue the cat on that occasion. You can see something similar happening in the not-too-distant future.

Where does the Cornish Rex come from?

The question in the title is asking about the origin of the cat breed called the Cornish Rex, one of the Rex cats. The first Cornish Rex cat was born in an old farmhouse on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, UK on 21 July 1950. Originally the cat was called the 'English Rex' until a second form of Rex cat was discovered in nearby Devon (Devon Rex). The map below shows you the location of Bodmin, Cornwall.

A red tabby male cat in a litter of five kittens born to a standard farm cat called Serena was seen to be different to the others because he had an unusual curly coat. The owner, Mrs Nina Ennismore kept the kitten and on the advice of a geneticist, I am told, mated the curly-coated male kitten back to his mother, a tortoiseshell cat.

Beautiful Cornish Rex cat with a Van-type coat. Photo: Pinterest.

This mating produced a litter containing two curly-coated kittens and one plain-coated kitten. They were back crossed a further time to produce further curly-coated kittens and the new breed called the Cornish Rex was established.

Clearly, a lot of inbreeding took place in those early days to establish this breed. This is typical of how breeders operate. They exercise a balancing act between too much inbreeding and fixing the appearance of the cat.

The first mail Cornish Rex cat and the founding cat of the breed 'Kallibunker'.

RELATED: Cornish Rex Cat.