Actor Sidharth Malhotra gave his cat, Edward, to his actress girlfriend, Alia Batt, and regrets it

Well-known actor Sidharth Malhotra was in a relationship with a well-known actress, Alia Batt as reported by The Indian Express. They dated for several years and parted company in 2016. It was an amicable parting and the couple remained 'cordial' as the news media describe it. The couple have moved on in their lives.

Sidharth Malhotra reveals that he might have gifted Edward to Alia Bhatt. (Photo: Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra/Instagram).

But Sidharth Malhotra was asked what he had learned from his relationship with Ms Batt and his response concerned his cat that he gave to her and whose name is Edward.

He said: "Don't gift pets!" And when asked what he might steal from Alia he said his cat. He would take back his cat, Edward if he could.

Clearly, Mr Malhotra really misses Edward which is unsurprising because he must've had a very close relationship with his cat.

This makes it all the more surprising that he decided to give Edward to his then girlfriend. But he is unsure because it is reported that he said he 'might' have gifted his cat. You can see how this 'gift' can spark a dispute. There are often disputes over gifts of all kinds. Gifts of animals are more problematic.

I don't think any man, or any woman should give their girlfriend or boyfriend or partner of any gender their cat companion.

There are many moral and potential legal issues involved. Firstly, let's think about the cat. The cat has formed a close relationship with their human caregiver. Of course, it depends upon the human caregiver's quality of caregiving but on the presumption that it is good there will be a close relationship.

Also, a domestic cat has a close relationship with his surroundings. If you give your girlfriend your cat, they have to enter into a fresh relationship with a stranger or at least somebody who is not as close to them as their owner which is detrimental to their welfare.

And if your girlfriend is living a different property too, they will have to get used to new surroundings and that is always problematic. So, when you give away your cat you are doing so without thinking about your cat's welfare. And you are doing it without their consent which of course you can't obtain.

Caveat: your partner may be a much better cat caregiver and your cat might like her/him more than you!!

It would be understandable to gift your cat because you might be infatuated with your girlfriend or boyfriend, and you would do anything for them. But it should stop at giving away your cat.

You might argue that Alia Batt in knowing that Mr Malhotra is missing his cat, should give Edward back to him.

But legally, if it is a genuine gift, legal title in Edward has passed to Ms Batt and she is entitled to keep him.

As this kind of gift that can cause problems between the parties as well. It can cause arguments because he might say that he didn't gift Edward to Ms Batt but just asked her to look after Edward for a while. And then she could counter that argument by saying it's a gift. Then you have a dispute which you don't want to get involved in.

The conclusion is that if you have a good relationship with your cat, you never give him or her away. You look after them for the duration of their life and then when they pass away you cremate them and keep the ashes as a memento. And when they are euthanised at the veterinary clinic you attend that horrible moment because it is your last duty.

Cougars in Australia? I think not.

In the news today there is the story of a "giant cat spotted in Western Australia". It was seen near the town of Lancelin, Western Australia. A security camera captured the animal in the distance. The camera appears to be on the property of Wayne and Helen Gardiner. They say that the cat was about 50-60 m away.

Is this a CCTV image of a mountain lion (puma) in Australia? No, is my response. Image: Mr and Mrs Gardiner and ABC News.

As usual, the image quality is very poor. In every single photograph of an unusual wild cat sighting the image quality is very poor which makes it impossible to be certain about what we are looking at (but we can almost always guess accurately). This is highly convenient!

It is said that people have occasionally reported sightings of mountain lions in Australia because some believe that the cat was brought over by the US during World War II as a mascot! Sounds plausible? I don't think so.

If and when they are seen it is normally in Western Australia. There has been at least one "compelling report" made annually.

As expected, nobody in Australia has ever captured a mountain lion on a camera in decent quality.

This is a news media story. If you look at the cat carefully and view it in relation to the shrubbery behind it and in front of it, we can see right away that it is not a mountain lion. 

The plants in front of the cat are probably about 15-20 inches high. That is a good way to scale the size of this cat which appears to be around 17 inches tall to the shoulder which would represent the size of a very large feral cat.

We know that there are very large feral cats in Australia. Sometimes they can be unusually large because they are feeding on an abundance of prey animals. Therefore, over a long period of time, the feral cats of Australia have evolved to be much larger than your normal feral cat in other parts of the world. It is said that they are twice the normal size.

The mountain lion is one of the world's biggest cats. They are clearly much smaller than the Bengal tiger for instance but still substantially larger than the cat we see in the image.

And if they genuinely were mountain lions in Western Australia you would think that somebody would have captured the animal on camera at least once since World War II! It is difficult to miss such a large cat and certainly one which is so definitively out of place in Australia.

There are no wild cat species living on the Australian continent. There never has been because the continent drifted away from the mainland before wild cat species on the mainland had a chance to travel to the area of the world that became Australia. In short, there was a water barrier and there still is between what I call the 'mainland' and the Australian continent which is an island.

New, young cat is terrified. Owner asks, "What can I do?"

On social media a new cat owner has just adopted a young cat and is concerned as she hides away and does not move. She is in the bathroom where she was placed. Below is the picture provided.

It is a very classic, common situation as strange surroundings and sounds concern cats. They love familiarity, routines and rhythms. My response below is also typical, but it is always useful to spread the word. The keyword for the human is PATIENCE. Everything should proceed at the kitten's pace and things should never be forced by the human.

New, frightened kitten concerns her owner as she won't move. Image: u/UnluckyTie6534

My response on social media is as follows (what would yours be?):

You'll need a lot of patience. Give her all the time she needs to feel more at home. Perhaps provide her with a hiding place which is better than the one in the picture ✔️😎. And provide her with a really good food treat. With respect, the dry cat food you have provided looks to be poor/average quality. Provide high quality wet cat food. You'll get to know what treats she likes but slightly warmed up prawns might do it. Placed a little away from her may encourage her to move.

And try and play with her when she feels confident enough to venture forth as when a human plays with their cat, they lose themselves in play and allow the human to be close and interact but never force interactions. She'll choose. One day she'll jump on your lap and look at you in a way that melts your heart. She will come around at her own speed. Well done and it was good of you to ask.

Domestic cat's instinctive desire to entertain themselves based on hunting

This charming, short, video of a ginger tabby cat playing on a loose flagstone and with water is novel in my opinion. It shows a domestic cat instinctively using his hunting skills to entertain himself through play. 

And he's observed that when he pounces onto a corner of the flagstone water is ejected. The pouncing behaviour is reminiscent of the hunting technique of the serval which often hunts for small prey animals such as rodents in long grass. 

Domestic cat's instinctive desire to entertain themselves based on hunting. Screenshot.

The serval picks up the sound of these rodents even though they can't see them and then leaps into the air and stuns the animal when they make contact with the ground.

This 'stunning technique' is very clear in this video. The cat is effectively hunting, and it is not clear to him why the water is being ejected upwards as the flagstone squashes it underneath, forcing it out and up.

It is a variation on play-hunting in using whatever is available as a "toy". It caught my eye but please note that this is an embedded video from the Reddit.com website which may well end up being converted to a link to that website or the video may disappear. If that happens, I'm sorry but I have no control over this.

Volodymyr Zelensky's Warrior Cats hate Poo Tin's 2-legs

I agree that the title is a bit bizarre. The picture might help. And if you click on the link below, you'll see the connection between Poo Tin and Putin. And finally, there a strong fan club of the Warrior Cats books remain online, and they love to participate in role play games (Warrior Cats RPG). 

RELATED: Please be responsible and pop your dog’s poop in the POO TIN.

I have a suspicion that this is the product of photo-editing but who cares. 

Ready to fight! ✔️😊😎. My God I am very keen to see Putin's forces kicked out of Ukraine and for things to return to 'normal'. But they won't. I predict a form of nuclear war and perhaps a world war.

Another related page, my attempt at a Warrior Cats short story.

RELATED: Warrior Cat – The Long March. This is just one episode. A sample. There are 10 in all.

10-year-old girl who fled Ukraine is reunited with her cat, Arsenii

10-year-old Ukrainian girl reunited with her cat who was flown over from her home country to California. Image: The Hill.

Here is an audio of this story. It is very short and succinct. It is a success story and a good ending story of cat rescue, effort and commitment to do the job. Ukraine must seem a long way away to this 10-year-old girl.

The audio file below is embedded. It is served by npr servers. It may stop working at some stage.

 

Here are a few words. The 10-year-old's family left everything behind but are now together in Sonoma County, California. They plan on starting a new life. The Bezhenar family are of course adjusting to their new way of life. 

There are 3 daughters, one of whom, Agnessa was pining for her cat. The other 2 daughters are Maria and Eleanor. The family are in a large house, and they have adopted an additional kitten named Tosha. 

The rescue of Arsenii, Agnessa's cat is down to Geoffrey Peters. He made the arrangements and found an app which connected the Bezhenar family to him. 

 The community pitched in and furnished an empty house and donated money, food, gas cards and gift cards. They even donated a piano as one of the daughters is musical.

The reason why website readers really must accept adverts

A lot of people find the adverts on my websites and other sites irritating. One visitor said that she found the website hard to read because of the adverts which was a distinct exaggeration. However, it is a point, and it needs to be discussed. I will tell you why adverts are essential and why visitors to websites 'must' accept them and even click on them.

Google Ads are a force for good in one way. The support the 'independent websites' which provide a valuable contribution to the internet. Image: Google.

On a personal level, I have spent tens of thousands of hours and spent many thousands of pounds and dollars in running PoC and ancillary websites like this one. I don't get paid a penny but if I was paid the minimum wage, I would have earned tens of thousands of pounds.

The overall cost over the 15 years of the websites would be somewhere around £250,000+ at a rough calculation if you add in the minimum wage payment. The Google adverts bring in a relatively small income. Nowadays it is around £500-£900 per month. The company which hosts the site charge £80 per month.

So those are the raw facts. Without the adverts I'd have to take a massive loss payable out of my savings or charge a visitation fee. If I charged a fee to visit the site's viewing figures would drop pretty dramatically because no one else is charging except the large news media companies. 

All PoC traffic would go elsewhere to websites like Wikipedia. So, adverts help to keep independent website alive. By 'independent' websites I mean those owned and managed by a person and not a group or a business.

Without ads there would be no websites owned and run by single individuals working alone. I think that would be a big loss to the internet. I would not continue if there were no ads. In fact, I would not have started.

Do you want the internet to be dominated by big corporations who charge for entry to their sites?

Visitors should payback what they have learned from visiting these independent sites by clicking on an advert. You don't have to buy anything. Just click on the ad and see the product. You may make a purchase and at the same time the website owner earns a tiny bit of money (around 10 pence).

It is a small price, and the inconvenience of ads are also a small price to pay for free information. The ad blocker businesses are wrong. They are predatory and damaging to the internet. I know Google and other businesses make pots of dosh from ads but that's the nature of capitalism. 

I believe that all internet users should support the independent websites as it supports free speech and it helps to provide checks and balances against the corporations who, for me. are often unconcerned about animal welfare.