Woman allows her cat to repeatedly knead her face with claws out (video)

Woman allows her cat to repeatedly knead her face with claws out. The claws must have been trimmed beforehand. Image: Screenshot.

Would you allow your cat to do this to make a high-hitting TikTok video. She did and I'll tell you why she is not being scratched to blazes! She trimmed her cat's claws before she started videoing! Simple. That's the only reason why the cat is not drawing blood because untrimmed front claws are often very sharp especially immediately after the cat has sloughed off the outer sheath of the claw on a scratching post. 

The woman is smart because (1) she knew it would make a high-hitting TikTok video and it has at 83m and (2) she knew that doing a careful job of trimming her cat's claws would save her from pain!

This is clearly a close relationship. Normally domestic cats knead their caregiver's lap. The motivation for doing so is exactly the same. The cat, in their mind, is a kitten because the owner keeps them in that mental state and they are at their mother's nipple drinking colostrum. 

Obviously, what you see in the video is nothing like that description but in the mind of the cat this is exactly what is happening. The typical human-to-adult cat relationship is one of surrogate mother to kitten because the owner keeps their cat in a constant state of belief that they are a kitten as they are cared for so comprehensively.

Animal shelter is heartbroken at the prospect of splitting up mum and daughter cats but should they be?

The news media reports that staff at an animal charity in Warrington, Warrington Animal Welfare, say that they are going to be heartbroken if a mother and daughter duo, Isobelle and Phoebe, who have lived at the shelter for a considerable time, are split up. 

The pair are aged four and two respectively. They say that they are the longest staying shelter cats at their rescue and if they can't be rehomed together there may have to be split up and rehomed separately.

Isobelle and Phoebe at Warrington Animal Welfare. Photos by the rescue.

But if they are rehomed separately the staff at the shelter would be upset. But I question whether they should be upset because in the natural course of events, daughters and sons of parent cats become independent at a certain point in time. 

In the wild, they would leave the natal range and find their own home range and thereby find their own home. They would become independent at a certain age after their mother had shown them how to kill prey and bring it back to the den.

So, my argument is that splitting up mother and daughter is not such a big deal as the shelter staff think it would be. I don't think the daughter would be particularly upset and neither would the mother unless there is a particularly close bond between the two for whatever reason but that, I believe, is unlikely.

You get a similar story with siblings. Some people think that siblings should stay together at the shelter and be rehomed together. But the truth is that if they are adopted by somebody before they become fully independent, when they become independent, they might start fighting each other. You can't automatically presume that siblings will get along well. They might but they might not.

Freddie Mercury's favorite cat waistcoat at auction will fetch far more than the estimated £7,000

The hand-painted favourite waistcoat of Freddie Mercury is under the hammer at the moment. The waistcoat contains images of his cats, one of which is Delilah, his favourite cat. Freddie was a great cat lover. I think he preferred them to people. The waistcoat is estimated to fetch between £5000 and £7000 at the Sotheby's auction. I would expect the price to be much, much higher than that. I will try and update this page if and when I hear the result of the auction but I do know that the gate outside his home covered in graffiti achieved as I recall something in the order of £400,000 which was massively higher than the auctioneer's estimate. 

Update: it sold for £139,700!!

RELATED: Freddie Mercury’s favorite cat DELILAH.

Freddie Mercury was much loved. His possessions are very desirable. His cat waistcoat was one of Freddie's favorite possessions therefore my estimate for the price would be something well over £100,000 at a very rough guess.

93% of the lots were sold above the estimate at Sotheby’s New Bond Street auction rooms, London, UK.

Above: Freddie Mercury’s favorite waistcoat (hand-painted with portraits of Freddie’s cats): Estimate £5,000–7,000.

Taiwanese offered a free pet if they have a child

Like other developed countries, Taiwan is suffering from a low birthrate. In fact, the country has one of the world's lowest birth rates. In order to encourage the Taiwanese to have a kid a billionaire who wants to become the president of Taiwan has proposed offering couples free companion animals if they have a baby as a kind of reward. And the idea comes from the fact that while human birth rates have plummeted pet ownership rates have skyrocketed. People want pets.

Pets are popular in Taiwan but having kids is not. Image: Getty (Sam Yeh).

People want to live with a companion animal rather than a child, which brings to mind the current Pope's concern about this trend which is also taking place in Italy. He doesn't like the thought that people prefer to have pets. He sees it as children being substituted by pets and he is right.

The reason for the plummeting birth rates in Taiwan have been put down to the high cost of living and difficulties accessing childcare together with "traditional gender expectations" whatever that means. I think there are other reasons such as a lot of people don't like the direction in which the world is travelling and I mean in terms of human behaviour.

By far the most obvious and biggest reason why the Taiwanese are not having kids is because they are facing the potential invasion of their country by China! And that can happen at any time judging by the threats coming out of the Chinese government. And there are other issues, world issues.

We have the war in Ukraine started by Putin. A brutal, unnecessary war started by a deranged dictator who has become a mass murderer destabilising the world with many threats of nuclear war, which is incredibly worrying to hundreds of millions of people including potential parents. They don't want to bring a child into the world which is that scary.

And then we have global warming i.e. climate change. Billions of people are concerned about climate change. They don't see enough being done to curb it. They foresee their child, if they had a child, living through horrendous conditions in 2050 and beyond. It's not worth bringing a child into a world with these sorts of problems. That is my thought on this problem.

And I see another problem! I tend to see problems being a cynical old man. Having a 'pet' as companion animals are euphemistically called is not as easy as it looks. Kittens and puppies are cute and great and beautiful but you've got to be living in the right circumstances to make the relationship work.

Having a pet is not all fun and it doesn't always enhance your life. There are responsibilities. Very serious responsibilities. And owning a companion animal can be expensive especially with rising prices right now. And you've got to have a lifestyle which makes cat and dog caretaking workable. You can't just adopt a couple of kittens and leave them alone at home all day while you go to work. That is not going to work in any sense of the word.

You can never leave a cat alone all day for 10 hours while you go to work without some sort of problems and for it being very unfair on the companion animal. They are likely to suffer from separation anxiety and their behaviour will reflect it with inappropriate elimination such as defecating on your bed and spraying urine. And if they don't do that, they may develop cystitis. And if they don't suffer from cystitis they're going to be upset, distressed and stressed and even depressed.

The point is that this billionaire presidential hopeful thinks that offering a pet as a reward by having a child in Taiwan is a wonderful idea but he's not offering these potential parents and new car as a reward. He is offering them a sentient being who will live in the human world and you've got to be a committed caregiver to do justice to the ownership of a pet.

Emulsifiers in cat food might harm cats due to inflammation

If you know a bit about cat food ingredients, you'll know that emulsifiers and stabilisers are sometimes used in wet pet food. An example would be lecithin, an emulsifier that can be used in wet pet food. They act as a glue to the processed foods to hold them together. To that information I can add, today, a report in The Times, on a study in which scientists examined the health implications of emulsifiers, a group of E-number additives added to industrially produced foods such as bread and chocolate for the human market!

Does this list of ingredients in cat food mean anything to you? Me neither.

And it has been found that people who consumed many emulsifiers were more likely to suffer heart disease and stroke even when adjustments have been made for factors such as weight and overall diet.

The study which has been published in the British Medical Journal, monitored the diets of 95,000 French adults over seven years. They examined the average daily intake of eight groups of emulsifiers. The scientists suggested that the 5% increased risk of heart disease was because additives can damage the gut by disrupting the community of bacteria known as the microbiome. This leads to inflammation that increases the risk of other conditions.

Sidebar note: am I the only one (I am sure that I am not) who finds it next to impossible to read wet cat food label ingredients? There's a long list of ingredients which by and large looks meaningless to me. I don't know whether the ingredients are harmful to my cat or not. I don't know what many of them mean. I don't know what purpose they serve as an ingredient. I have to do research which is troublesome. There is an argument that pet food labelling listing ingredients should be much clearer and understandable by non-expert laypeople, the typical cat owner.

So, what can we take from this is cat owners? I think we can look at the wet food labels from time to time to check whether there are additives and emulsifiers in it. A small task but I think that cat owners should know about quality cat foods and poor-quality cat food. It doesn't take much to work it out and these kinds of harms can be insidious. They are in the background. Cat owners don't know that they are taking place. They rely upon pet food manufacturers to create pet foods which are healthy but they aren't always.

It is difficult cat owners especially with increased prices on pet food due to inflation. Sometimes they opt for the cheapest dry cat food but, in my view, after many years of research on cat foods, a cheap dry cat food fed exclusively is likely to cause health problems. There has to be some wet cat food in their as the primary food source and it should be high quality without emulsifiers.

UK veterinarians to be investigated over rising bills

For me, this is a welcome development. And also for me, the rising bills are due to one primary factor: the buying up of independent veterinary clinics by big business managed by gray men in gray suits who focus on financial profit over animal welfare. 

Vet checks cat. Image: Pixabay.

They saw an opportunity in the marketplace which was veterinary clinics owned by the veterinarians themselves who were not, in their view, sufficiently focused on making money. They've dived in and bought them up and altered the pricing structure and the methodology of operating these clinics.

And now, the competition regulator has begun a review of veterinary services because there are concerns among cat owners and others that their costs are rising faster than inflation.

I suspect that the government's concern is more to do with the inflationary aspect of the services than animal welfare. The UK government is desperate to get inflation down. The Competition and Markets Authority is going to look into how services for pets are bought and sold. About two thirds of households in the UK own a pet.

And The Times agrees with me! I've just read that. They say that, "The market has been transformed by consolidation. Independent practices are being taken over by groups."

At one time, small practices i.e. independently-owned practices accounted for 89% of the veterinary industry in 2013. That figure has fallen to 45% in 2021.

"A single company may own hundreds of practices and it may be unclear whether their vet is part of a large group. This could impact choice and reduce the incentives of practices to compete". Those are the words of the Competition and Markets Authority.

The president of the British Veterinary Association defends veterinary practices for selling up to big business in saying that his association had "not seen any hard data or real evidence to suggest that corporatisation is driving up prices."

In contrast, a spokesman for the consumer magazine, Which?, said: "[Our] research has uncovered a number of areas of concern, such as pet owners not knowing the price of treatments until after their appointment, people being unaware their vet is part of a chain and difficulties [finding] cheaper medication. The Competition and Markets Authority's review must consider these issues and lead to a more competitive veterinary industry which makes it easier for owners to shop around for the best option for them and their pet."

Defector says 2 Russian military helicopters were used to transport pedigree cat during Ukraine war

A defecting Russian helicopter pilot, Kuzminov, told the Ukrainians that when he was fighting for the Russians, his commander "needed to transport a cat, which had some impressive pedigree. To do this, two Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopter crews were assigned. So, two helicopters transported this wonderful animal, so to speak, from Rostov to Yeysk [at which there is a Russian airbase]. The Mi-8 was flying the cat in, while the Mi-24 was circling to provide cover. We burned a lot of fuel, resources. Furthermore, the crews aren't always allowed to rest."

Russian chopper. Image: Getty.

The story is clear. His commander was abusing his position to fly his expensive pedigree cat around Russia. Although it's quite nice to know that his commander loved cats and owned a pedigree cat. But you can imagine the expense of it and you might imagine what his commander is now saying to him after this story was revealed by the defecting pilot.

It seems that this Russian pilot is yet another example of a Russian military man transferring his allegiances from Russia to Ukraine. You may know that the Ukrainians operate a scheme whereby they pay and assist defecting Russian military personnel who come over to the Ukrainian side. This is another example.

The man was paid, I'm told, US$500,000 or £398,000 for defecting with the helicopter. I think that money is partly remuneration for the pilot because of the risks he took and partly to purchase the helicopter!

Kuzminov hinted at the kind of indoctrination that the Russians are being bombarded with by Mr Putin and his cronies when he said that "The truth is, there are no Nazis or fascists". He is referring to the fact that Putin has consistently said that there are Nazis in Ukraine. What he means is that there are people in Ukraine who deny their Russian heritage and he really wants Ukraine to be part of Russia. And if you deny that in Ukraine you become a Nazi according to Mr Putin.

So, Kuzminov, like many other Russian military personnel simply had enough of living the lie and risking his life while killing innocent Ukrainians. He didn't want to do it anymore and changed sides. 

This must irritate Putin massively and I would expect Putin to be tracking him down to kill him. Putin has a very solid history of killing people he considers to be traitors usually by poisoning or some other mysterious accident. Numerous colleagues and associates, oligarchs and businessmen have been killed in this way by Putin.

Kuzminov landed his Russian helicopter in Ukraine's Poltava Oblast on August 23. He gave the helicopter to the Ukrainians of course together with spare parts!

He added that the war is "a real disgrace". He disagrees strongly with it. He hates the fact that "People are simply killing each other. That's all I can make of this, and I don't want to be part of it. What is going on now is simply the genocide of the Ukrainian people. Both Ukrainian and Russian."