Caturday felid trifecta: Rare video of Chinese mountain cats; a very round cat; a family of Korean policecats (and lagniappe)

It’s Caturday again, and we have three features plus a bonus.

From Paws Planet we have the very first video of Chinese Mountain Cats (a mom and two kittens) ever taken in the wild. The species (Felis beiti) is from western China, and is vulnerable, with fewer than 10,000 individuals estimated in the wild. It used to be regarded as a subspecies of the wildcat (Felis silvestris, the ancestor of all domestic cats), but has been ranked as a separate species on morphological grounds, but I have to say that this is a rather dubious decision. Morphological differences between geographically isolated populations are always a dicey way to describe new species, particularly when they’re not that pronounced. Nevertheless, it’s cute!

It was first photographed in 2007 by camera traps, and the species is named after the French missionary Félix Biet, an amateur naturalist.

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Also from Paws Planet, we have the roundest cat I’ve ever seen. Meet Zuu, a Japanese cat who lives with his brother Bocco. I’m not sure what breed he is, but he has a squished face and small ears. Zuu and Bocco have an Instagram account that you can see here.

There’s not much information on Zuu, so I’ll just show a few photos:

Zuu and Bocco:

Getting a boop:

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Here is the story of a pregnant cat that showed up at a Korean police station, was adopted by the cops, and became, along with her kittens, part of the police force. Click on the screenshot to read (and see a video).

I’ve indented quotes from the story.

The mama cat met the officers at Busan Police Station, Pusan, South Korea just a few months ago, when she was mourning her late kitten. Feeling bad for her loss, the kind officers had helped the poor cat lay her baby to rest while she observed from a distance. And of course, she couldn’t forget their sympathy at that moment. So when the cat got pregnant again shortly afterward, she came straight to their headquarter and found exactly what she needed there: their help.

This time, with the help of the compassionate officers, the strong mommy successfully gave birth to four healthy and beautiful kittens. The policemen have kindly adopted them all. They name the mama cat Mollang – which means “don’t know” in Korean, because no one knows exactly where she came from. It doesn’t matter though. All that matters is now she and her kittens have been a part of their station, part of their life.

The cat family has lived a fabulous life since then. They have a place to shelter from the elements, enough food and drink to fill their stomach, and above all, incredible “butlers” to take care of them, making them feel loved and cherished.

Mollang even becomes a star of the police station as she works hard every day just like other officers there. The sweet feline and her kids also have their own uniforms to dress up, and she often sends rats to the policemen to express her gratitude for giving her the job.

And here’s a video of Mollang and her kittens; it’s well worth watching (narration in Korean with English subtitles). I don’t think the cats like their uniforms, and I wonder where the duck noises come from:

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Lagniappe: the “Self-loading cat launcher.” The cat apparently loves to be launched!