Caturday felid trifecta: Earliest known picture of a cat?; “helicopter cat mom” saves moggy by watching from afar; cat with a Pinocchio nose

I found this post on the National Geographic Lovers Facebook Page, and became curious.

But doing just a little digging on the Internet, I find that Snopes adjudicates this “oldest cat photo” claim, judging it FALSE:

While we have not been able to definitively determine the source of this image, we can say with confidence that this is not the oldest photograph of a cat.

For starters, this image is often circulated with the claim that it was taken in the 1880s, but the first cat photographs date to at least the 1840s. When we examine these earlier photos of cats, it’s clear that the above-displayed image was not created with the same methods used in the 1840s.

The internet’s propensity for taking and sharing cat photos may seem like a modern-day tradition, but long before we had Maru, Lil Bub, or Grumpy Cat, we had photographer Harry Pointer and the “Brighton Cats.”

Pointer, who lived in Brighton, England, became well-known for a series of photographs he took in the 1870s of the “Brighton Cats.” Pointer took photographs of cats doing regular cat things, like resting, drinking milk, and sleeping in baskets, but his photographs became more popular when he started to position his cats in humorous or unusual positions. One photograph, for instance, showed a cat on a tricycle; another showed cat next to a few tea cups.

Maru! That’s also the chubby Japanese tabby!  But here are three Brighton cats at the link given by Snopes, and the site has a lot more than these:

 

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This story comes from Newsweek, and deals with a “helicopter cat mom” who was obsessively watching her moggy from afar.  Click headline to read:

An excerpt:

A quick-thinking cat mom has shared how she managed to save her pet from potential danger, despite being hundreds of miles away.

Mandee, 36, from New York, shared a now-viral clip of her 9-month-old cat, Fifi, who recently joined the family after being adopted from a shelter in 2024. In the video on TikTok Fifi is seen on the front porch of their home, moments before slipping out of a loose harness.

On Friday, May 9, while Mandee’s husband was outside digging a trench for a culvert in their yard. He briefly tethered Fifi to the porch so he could run inside for a tool. But the kitten, wearing a harness meant for a larger cat, quickly wriggled free.

That’s when Mandee, who only shared her first name, received a motion alert from their home security system while away on a work trip. Opening the live feed, she spotted the problem instantly.

“I could see she was wearing the wrong harness,” Mandee told Newsweek. “I’m a helicopter cat mom who is always watching, even from afar.”

Using the camera’s audio function, she immediately called out to her husband, who was just a few yards away, to intervene before Fifi could venture too far.

“Tim Fifi’s out,” the voice from the camera said in the video. “Tim. FiFi is out, she is loose,” she said, and quickly, her husband came running.

Thankfully, he arrived in time to scoop up the escapee. No harm was done, but Mandee said the incident was a lesson learned.

“The harness was obviously too large for Fifi, and my husband realized afterward he can’t tether her, even if only for a moment,” she explained. “It was the first and last time he would try that.”

Well, the cat may have gotten loose, but it’s not clear how much “danger” it was really in. What it shows is how attached some people are to their cats. And here’s a Tik Tok video of the near escape:

@talesofwhist

I did not mean to make him trip. 🤣🤣🤣 Crisis averted! **She was there for a total of 2 minutes while he was checking his work by the road #catharness #catfails #catfunny

♬ Mission Impossible Theme (Movie Trailer Mix) – Dominik Hauser

 

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Finally, from Parade, we have a cat with a Pinocchio nose; he’s named Barney Rubble, from the Flintstones.  The nose extension is apparently the result of a fungal infection, which is getting better, but it’s not cure whether the proboscoidal hypertrophy will vanish. Click to read:

 

An excerpt:

The sweet video of Barney Rubble was posted to the TikTok account for BBC Northern Ireland at @bbcnl, and everyone has fallen in love with this precious orange boy.

@bbcni

This week Alright Pet? went to Rescue Cats NI to visit a rather remarkable kitty 🐱 Listen now on BBC Sounds Pets Cat Rescuecats

♬ original sound – BBC Northern Ireland – BBC Northern Ireland

The video clip explains that Barney’s rescuer feels he may have a Cryptococcosis infection which this sweet boy is on medication for. PetMD explains that a Cryptococcosis infection is a type of fungal infection that occurs when a cat inhales spores from a type of fungus that grows in organic material such as soil, decaying wood, or bird guano (especially droppings from pigeons.) It’s obvious that the rescue loves this sweet boy and are doing everything they can to make sure he’s all better.

Once a cat is diagnosed with cryptococcosis, a veterinarian will prescribe anti-fungal medication. The type of medication that is prescribed will depend upon the severity of the infection.

The article also explains that the best way to reduce risk for infection is to keep cats away from pigeon roosting areas and ideally keep them strictly indoors to reduce the risk for them to breathe in spores from Cryptococcus neoformans or Cryptococcus gattii.

If you have a cat who goes outside, you’d best read the linked article, “Cryptococcosis in cats,” which explains what it is, how cats get it, what the symptoms are, and how vets treat it. The good news is that it seems pretty curable. Barney Rubble may be cute, but I feel sorry for him, and hope that he’s cured.