The Dodo has a heartbreaking but also heartwarming piece on research animals that, after years in cages, were finally released into homes or zoos. (The organization that does this is called The Beagle Project). There are d*gs, cats, rabbits, and chimps, and all have videos, gifs, or photos. It will surely make you tear up. I’ll show just the cats, but have a look at the others, for it’s beautiful when an animal encounters freedom for the first time.
Here are Shira and Jax, who, according to the piece, were released from a research lab in New York. Shira is the light one, and the article notes, “Sadly, Shira passed away from a seizure a few months later. It’s unknown whether it was caused by the research that was performed on her. Thankfully, [Jax] is still enjoying life as a house kitty.
Jax sees his first bird!:
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Here’s a good idea reported by the BBC’s Newsbeat. A company has modified a robotic device that allows you to play with cats remotely while you’re online. It’s being used by shelters that hope to get cats adopted (and to give some fun to those who are disabled or allergic to cats), and it’s working. As the BBC reports:
The company [inReach]now has devices installed in more than a dozen animal sanctuaries throughout the US, with users from around the world queuing up online to play with the cats for two minutes. The wait can take several hours but people don’t seem put off.
And of course, bonds eventually form: “We actually had a lady in New York play with a kitten in South Carolina and after playing with the kitten through the website, she called the shelter and said ‘don’t adopt that cat’. She then jumped on a plane, flew over seven states, and adopted that animal the next day,” Scott told Newsbeat.
Now, try it for yourself. Go to this site, which has 13 shelters using iPlay. Find one that’s available, and see if you can play with the cats. You choose a toy and manipulate it with the keys on your computer. I never quite got the hang of it, but I’d be very curious to see if any readers can make it work. Here’s a demonstration video:
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Finally, I’ve put up cat tattoos before, but here’s a new batch, also from The Dodo: “14 tattoos that perfectly capture catitude.” Here are my favorites:
A reader has her cat on the arm—and, for some reason, pizza! (From reddit):
Another reader has his late Siamese tattooed on his chest (from reddit):
Jackson Galaxy, the “Cat Whisperer” put on his Facebook page a tattoo from one of his friends with a pawprint from each cat that she rescued. “”My new ink. One paw for each of my furbaby rescues. Three boys and one girl. I love them all!”– Kim”:
Stylish and classy (from reddit):
Another simple but lovely one, also from reddit:
Finally, a mother and daughter from California got matching tattoos of a pair of calicos (from reddit):
The Dodo site has eight more; go see.
Which readers have cat tattoos? ‘Fess up—I know some of you have them. (Send photos if you do!)
h/t: Su, Diane G
That is some nice ink. I thought about a tatoo to cover surgery scars but after I had the tattoos put on for my radiation (they are just freckle sized dots), I reconsidered because even those does hurt!
No tattoos here. The play with a pet may help in getting more pets adopted and might be worth looking into for the Human Society facility we have here. This one really gets no funding and is all volunteers.
I think a web site that just shows pictures of the animals and tells a little something about them would help a great deal. Many of the animals never get out of the shelter.
🐾🐾
and yet, not a single cat with a tattoo of a human on it’s arm…
Yes, I have published one post on tattooed cats, but I abhor the practice because it’s painful for the cat and self-indulgent for the owner. You don’t need to ornament a cat to make it beautiful.
yes, I remember. I was being a smarta$$. what I meant was that no self-respecting felid would mar their own bodies with an ugly human tattoo, nor would a dolphin ever get a jumping person tattooed above their a$$es either!
I’m very much of two minds about tattoos. I do like Carl Zimmer’s collection of science tattoos, and knew a geologist/volcanologist with a volcano tattoo behind her ear, but I can’t decide if overall I find them cool or creepy.
I admit to bursting into tears when I picked up my daughter from college and she had gotten a bunch of tattoos. I told her she looked like a sailor. Now about 8 years later I am used to them, and realize how much times have changed. She is not remotely skanky or “cheap”, as we used to say back in the day. Does the concept of ” cheap” even exist anymore?
I don’t think people use “cheap” anymore, but I get what you’re saying. From my personal pov, there are some tattoos that do look “cheap”, usually the rose on a woman’s breast, generic tattoos on forearms, anyone’s name, especially on the neck, and anything to do with crosses or jebus. but, like everything, it’s all subjective. I think I might be an outlier for my own age group (mid-late 30’s), by not having one. my own son, not quite of legal tattooing age, wants to get Big Ben (and Elizabeth Tower) down his side. I just grit my teeth…he’s already got ears and nose pierced, including an industrial ear piercing.
My daughter had those huge ear plugs for a while but thankfully got the holes repaired by a plastic surgeon. She doesn’t even have normal ear piercings anymore. My son is generally much more adventurous and “wild” but has no tats or piercings.
I had my ear pierced for a few months when I turned 18. Only took a couple of times getting the stud hung up on my shirt while getting undressed before I said to hell with it! and, I do worry my son will do the ear gaging like your daughter, and he’s talked about nipple piercing, all thanks to his heroes, Slash, Green Day, Motley Crue, and the like, and he had the nerve to ask me to sign the release form and take him this summer! Sorry, kid, you can mutilate your nips on your own in 5 months when you’re 18!
I had two of my 12th Gr Calculus students, a boy and a girl, both very smart kids, come back from lunch giggling. You could see through their T shirts that they had both had their nipples pierced. Ouch! I really don’t get it…
Animal research is one of those really difficult topics…so I won’t dwell on it other than to yearn for a time when computer models render them no longer necessary.
I can’t think of any art I’d want to hang on my walls for the rest of my life, let alone any I’d want to paint on my body the rest of my life. Tattoos never did make sense to me, though I’ve certainly seen some very well done.
b&
Tried the real-time cat-play sites–of the ones that were operating and had cats in the room, they were inured to the toys. It’s fun to just take the camera and pan and zoom around, though.
The “Pawmetto” shelter in South Carolina has some somewhat active cats at the moment (its remote-control toys are currently inactive), including an interesting looking one with a light, dilute-spotted body and a regular-toned gray tabby tail.
I was surprised at how many people I saw, though, mostly shelter workers/volunteers, but in some cases visitors. I wonder if they realize they’re being live-broadcast across the country?
You know it’s only a matter of time before your cat sneaks on to your laptop at night to play iPet Companion with that calico in Mississippi.
😀
A friend of mine in college had a cat that had done his term in the basements at at Caltech with his skull opened up and wires attached to his brain. He was named “Shadrach”, and he was the only cat I ever met who was trained to “fetch.”
Oh, so glad he had a happy ending, at least!