The “Cat Island” in Turkey is Heybeliada, off the coast of Istanbul, making a visit convenient if you’re in that city. (See map below.) Curiously, the Wikipedia entry doesn’t mention the preponderance of felines, but you can read about them at Laughing Squid.

Heybelida (I’ve put an arrow near the island):

From the article:

The CATS AND KITTENS channel captured candid footage of the stray cats who live on Heybeliada, an island just off the coast of Istanbul (a city is also known for its high feline population) where the cats outnumber the humans on the island. These generous people not only document the cats but also feed them.

We live in Istanbul, Turkey, and unfortunately there are many hungry stray cats and kittens on the street, meowing for food. They need food, attention and some love. We aim to make those cute cats and kittens life better. Every day

It’s interesting to note that these cats are not afraid of humans like other feral cats, rather they gather around for food and even seek out attention sometimes.

Another video of the cats being fed. There’s a short reddit article on the island.

From Supa Fluffy:

The people of Istanbul are noted for their love of cats. In addition to pets, the city has thousands of strays that people feed and interact with as a matter of course. The island of Heybeliada, in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul, has become known as Cat Island. The 200 or so cats who live in the park there are clean, well-fed, and socialized to humans. If you stand still for a minute, or better yet, sit on a bench, they will approach you expecting affectionate petting. One hotel on the island warns visitors to not bother coming if you don’t like to be around cats. But if you do, this may be heaven on earth! They may be “community cats,” but they are not exactly strays. Someone is providing these cats with everything they need so they don’t have to fight with each other over resources

And another: feeding and departure from the park:

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From Arkansas’ River Valley Democrat-Gazette paper we hear of a cat promoted to be a cop, used to improve relationships with the community. Meet Pawfficer Fuzz:

From the paper:

Residents will be able to follow the escapades of the city’s top police cat across multiple formats going forward.

The Police Department and city on Tuesday released the first episode of a new children’s short story series, “The Adventures of Pawfficer Fuzz.”

The initiative centers around the eponymous Pawfficer Fuzz, a male Siamese Manx cat who’s a fixture in the Police Department’s Community Relations Unit. It will feature a new tale on a biweekly basis that people can watch on the department’s YouTube channel or listen to on audio platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music, according to a city news release.

An intro:

The first episode of the series is titled “Fuzz Finds His Calling.” Narrated by Josh Buchfink, Fort Smith’s public relations manager, it recounts how Fuzz took a chance and persevered through “Police Acatemy” training with other cats named Popsicle, Marbles, Snowball and Mushy to fulfill his longstanding dream of joining the Fort Smith Police Department. It also teaches the importance of looking for and acting on opportunities to help others. Shoptaw appears as a supporting character alongside Officer Brad Williams and Police Chief Danny Baker.

If you go to the Fort Smith Police Department website, you can find the “Adventures of Pawfficer Fuzz” page, which has the latest adventures. There are three narrated ones (below; go to the page to hear). .

And here’s a 7-minute Halloween video of “Pawfficer Fuzz and the case of the pilfered pumpkins.” Trigger warning: there’s a d*g in there! Like me, the narrator loves peanut-butter cups.

In this episode, Fuzz’s job is to apprehend older kids who stole candy from younger ones. With the help of two other officers and the Fuzzmobile, he tracks down the perps.  But there were no arrests! In the end, Fuzz hands out safety lessons to the kids, as well as one moral one.

The cop himself:

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From LoveMeow we hear the tail of a beautifully marked calico cat. Click the headline to read (and look at that cat!):

From the article:

A kitten with beautiful markings was found wandering outside. Two months later, her wish came true with three other cats.

Shelly who has been rescuing animals for over 12 years, was recently contacted about three kittens desperately needing help.

A Good Samaritan found them wandering outside with no mother in sight. After scouring the area, they spotted the cat mom, but she showed no interest in caring for her babies.

The kittens’ eyes were crusted shut due to infections, and they were underweight. Shelly rushed to pick up the smallest kitten and provided critical care, and returned to tend to the other two.

Sadly, one of them didn’t make it:

“I continued with a bottle for a few weeks more, whilst introducing mixed wet food. I named them Polly, Cloud and Destiny.”

Despite Shelly’s herculean efforts to save them all, the runt of the litter, Destiny, sadly lost her fight. Polly and Cloud took to the bottle straightaway, filling their bellies to the brim at each feeding.

The two survivors are above, and here’s the lovely Polly:

. . . Polly, the calico, was born with stunning markings. Her fur coat grew even more striking and gleaming as she matured.

She strutted about with her tail held high as she explored around. Her brother Cloud was at her heels, his curious gaze scanning the place. They learned to eat from a dish and figured out the art of the litter box together.

Polly and Cloud made a full recovery and bloomed into boisterous young cats. They befriended many foster kitties, some of which took them under their wings.

When it was time to find them a loving home, Donna, a previous adopter, surprised Shelly when she inquired about four kittens.

. . .Donna fell head over heels for Polly and Cloud as well as two of their foster friends, and couldn’t bear to separate them.

A week ago, the foursome was officially adopted and moved into their forever home.

At least four cats in that house! But you have to admit that Polly is a stunner.

Share this story with your friends. More on Shelly’s rescues and fosters on Instagram @5_star_strays.

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Lagniappe: From reader Gary, a cat and Darwin:

Here is our Siamese named Sky on a table below a sketch of Darwin. Seems right up your alley. The sketch was done by an artist in Richmond, VA.

h/t: Kevin, Ginger K.

We have another Caturday Felid Trifecta today, but the next one will be in two weeks as i’ll be traveling. Be sure to keep sending me items that might fit in this kind of post. Thanks!

Here from the BBC (or click on headline below) is a story about Bella, the cat awarded a Guinness World Record for having the loudest known purr.

Bella, from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, achieved a purr measuring 54.6 decibels, equivalent to the volume of a boiling kettle.

Her feat was captured by an official adjudicator and an acoustic engineer who blocked out all external noise.

Of course you want to hear it, so here’s a video:

The award!

Ms Spink said: “We’ve always known Bella had a really loud purr – we even have to turn up the volume to hear the TV over her purring – and that’s always after mealtimes.

“So, when we saw that the record for the World’s Loudest Purr was up for grabs, we knew we had to put Bella forward, and we’re so pleased we did.”

She said the certificate would get a “really prominent place in the house”.

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From the Washington Post comes a story of an ill and depressed woman whose doctor, on the “after visit summary” slip, prescribed for her A CAT.  Click below to read:

An excerpt:

So when he asked her what was wrong, Sipe, 67, opened up to him about her loneliness since her beloved cat died over the summer.

“I was really going through a bad time,” she said she told him during her appointment in September.

King mentioned that she should think about getting a new cat. When her checkup was over, he handed her a printed summary of the appointment, with instructions to get a high-dose flu shot in October and a coronavirus shot in November.

There’s more:

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Finally, from a site named The Flying Black Cat (click on image below), we have a legend with very little information but lots of merchandise. What IS the legend?

Well, there’s a book that was released in April of last year (click below to go to the Amazon site):

Sadly, the only information I can get about it is the same words everywhere, including on the site:

In a quiet fishing village, far away from all the big cities, is a place where dreams begin.

A place that is like magic to those lucky people who need to slow down their busy lives to open their eyes and see the world that we were meant to live in.

Sometimes it takes a very special place, an extraordinary being, and a moment in time to help us find the magic in our lives.

Still, it looks like a good book for youngsters who love cats, or need to be taught to love cats.  If you’ve read it, weigh in below.

h/t: Debra, Simon, Ken

It’s time for another trifecta.  The first article comes from Science, and suggests that, contrary to earlier opinion, once cats start purring, it is self-sustaining, and needs no further effort from the cat. Click to read:

An excerpt:

One of the most delightful sounds to a cat lover is their feline friend’s rumbling noise when they get a little scritch behind the ears. Yet how cats produce their contented purrs has long been a mystery.

A new study may finally have the answer. Domestic cats possess “pads” embedded within their vocal cords, which add an extra layer of fatty tissue that allows them to vibrate at low frequencies, scientists report today in Current Biology. What’s more, the larynx of these animals doesn’t appear to need any input from the brain to produce such purring.

At first I thought the paper, which used eight larynxes (or “larynges”) taken from dead cats, involved killing cats. Well, it did, but not from the experiment. Here’s from the paper:

Eight domestic cat larynges (Felis catus) were investigated in this study. An overview of the specimens is given in Table 1. The larynges were harvested from animals that had to be euthanised due to terminal disease unrelated to the respiratory tract in veterinary clinics in Vienna, Austria. The animals’ owners gave their explicit consent for the larynges to be investigated postmortem.

So it’s okay for me to report it (I wouldn’t have otherwise). From the Science summary:

Domestic cats are small, with most weighing about 4.5 kilograms, and researchers had puzzled over how these animals manage to generate the low-frequency vocalizations—typically between 20 and 30 hertz (Hz)—involved in purring. Such frequencies are usually only observed in much larger animals, such as elephants, which have far longer vocal cords. And whereas big cats such as lions and tigers are capable of loud roars, domestic cats are only able to produce low-frequency purring.

Most mammal vocalizations, including other cat noises such as meowing and hissing, are produced in a similar way—a signal from the brain causes the vocal cords to press together, and the flow of air through the larynx causes the cords to knock against each other hundreds of times per second, producing sound. This process, known as flow-induced self-sustained oscillation, is a passive phenomenon: Once the vocal cords start to vibrate, no further neural input is required to keep them going.

But in the 1970s, scientists proposed that purring was different. The so-called active muscle contraction hypothesis holds that domestic cats actively contract and relax their laryngeal muscles about 30 times per second in order to purr. The idea, based on measurements of electrical activity in the laryngeal muscles in purring cats, caught on and has been a common explanation for cat purring ever since.

Here are the “glottal muscles”—muscles in the larynx that drive the vocal cords, opening and closing during a spontaneous purr

More from the Science summary:

To conduct the work, scientists removed the larynges from eight domestic cats, all of which had been humanely euthanized because of terminal disease and were investigated with the full consent of their owners. The researchers pinched the vocal cords together and pumped warm, humidified air through them. By isolating the larynx this way, the scientists guaranteed that any sound produced was occurring without muscle contractions or any input from the brain.

The team was able to produce purring in all of the larynxes—a “great surprise,” says lead author Christian Herbst, a voice scientist who holds dual appointments at the University of Vienna and Shenandoah University. Without any active neural control, all eight larynges produced self-sustaining oscillations at frequencies between 25 and 30 Hz—suggesting purring doesn’t necessarily require active muscle contractions.

The new experiment instead suggests that purring, like meowing and hissing, is a passive phenomenon that plays out automatically after cats’ brains provide the initial signal to purr, the researchers conclude. That explanation “is much more in line with what we know about how vocalizations are produced in other vertebrates,” says Karen McComb, an expert in animal behavior and cognition at the University of Sussex who wasn’t involved in the study.

But there is a reasonable objection, too:

However, David Rice, a biomechanical engineer at Tulane University who has conducted research into the mechanics of cat purring, isn’t fully convinced. He says there’s no guarantee that living cats’ vocal cords behave the same way as the surgically removed cords from the study. Just looking at excised larynges, he says, is “akin to removing the mouthpiece from a wind instrument and analyzing its sounds in isolation.”

Herbst suspects that purring is probably driven by a combination of neuronal control and self-sustaining oscillation—but it will be difficult to ever know for certain. As he notes, a cat will usually only purr when it feels safe, comfortable, and content—something that wouldn’t be possible if the felines had uncomfortable probes inserted into their larynxes. Until scientists find a way around that conundrum, this particular cat will likely remain in the bag.

He has a point, but I’d put my money on the first “endogenous purring” hypothesis. Still, purring means something, because it’s initiated by stimulation from the brain, including the pleasure of being petted.

Here’s the world’s loudest purring cat:

Merlin, a rescue kitty from Torquay, Devon (UK) now has plenty to make a noise about after being confirmed as having the world record for Loudest purr by a domestic cat.

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From The World of Kitsch, we have a series of cat-shaped buildings. Click to see:

But there are only six, and no captions to show where or what they are. Readers might try a Google image search and tell us below what these buildings are and where they are located.

This is the best one by far: a real building!

A maneki-neko building, which may be a bus shelter:

Note: this is not a cat!

Neither is this one!

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Many of you have older cats with arthritis. If so, here’s an article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (click headline to read) that may help your ailing moggy:

A precis: here’s the new drug you can inject at home:

Earlier this year, Liz Schwinn noticed that her 18-year-old cat, Mango, wasn’t as playful or as social with her four other cats as she used to be.

During Mango’s annual exam, Schwinn mentioned this to her veterinarian, who said he had been having encouraging results with Solensia, a new drug for feline osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis occurs when tissue in the joints starts to wear down, causing bones to rub against one another. Not only does this make moving harder, but it can also cause severe pain.

It was difficult to treat in cats because there were few effective solutions that could be safely used long term and as any cat owner knows, it’s hard to administer oral medications.

Approved for use in 2022, Solensia is a once-a-month injection to relieve the pain associated with osteoarthritis. Its active ingredient, frunevetmab, is a monoclonal antibody designed specifically for cats that targets Nerve Growth Factor, a key driver of osteoarthritis pain. By targeting NGF, Solensia reduces pain signals and helps to control the animal’s pain.

Schwinn and her husband, Mike, who live in suburban Cleveland, have noticed a definite improvement in the six months that Mango has been treated with Solensia.

“It’s made her more active and social,” she said. “She’s out and about more with us instead of sleeping in the bedroom. And we haven’t seen any negative effects.”

Since Solensia can be injected subcutaneously, under the skin, the Schwinns opted to purchase it from their vet and administer it at home, thereby eliminating the stress of taking Mango to the vet once a month.

If you have an arthritic cat, I give the advice you always see on television: “Ask your doctor!” (or in this case your vet).  And click on the screenshot below to go to the Solensia page for vets:

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From PetHelpful: “Iowa cat rescuer hailed a hero for saving abandoned mama cat and her 2 kittens.”

Many animal lovers feel passionately about animal rescue (and rightfully so) but it takes an extra special person to rescue animals on a daily basis. Whether they’re part of a rescue organization or are a one-person show, it’s inspiring to see the ways they change animals’ lives simply by following their passions.

One cat foster mom is saving lives across Iowa thanks to her efforts in fostering, rescuing, and trap-neuter-release. She recently answered a call about three gray cats who had been abandoned in a local park, and–as the September 25 video shows–she had no trouble winning over the confused felines. The poor babies had no clue where they were!

The Tik Tok video (click on arrow to go to the video with sound, and you’ll want sound):

@malanimalscatcoalition

Even after five years in rescue i think this is definitely the appropriate reaction to meeting a baby puffball 😍 #cats #kittens #catsoftiktok #kittensoftiktok #fosterkittens #fyp

♬ Happy Day in Paris – French Cafe 24 x 7

h/t: Merilee, Divy, Ginger K.

Well, I had to take this one from Scientific American, and of course the headline is somewhat misleading. And contra the subheading, cats (for all their wonderfulness) have NOT attained “evolutionary perfection, but have all kinds of design flaws, just like every creature. But why are they “perfect”?  Click to read; the evolutionary biologist explaining their faux perfection is Anjali Goswami, “an evolutionary biologist at the Natural History Museum in London who studies large-scale patterns of evolution in vertebrate animals through time.”

It’s a Q&A article. First Goswami explains that all cats, from little ones to tigers, have the same basic carnivore design. So far so good: it’s a good design for hunting prey. But why are they perfect?:

What does this have to do with being perfect?

Cats have nailed this one thing so well that they all do it and just come up with slightly different sizes. That’s why they’re perfect, evolutionarily. They don’t need variation. They might get bigger or smaller, but they don’t change anything else because they’re doing it just right otherwise. They’re not jacks-of-all-trades; they’re masters of one.

Bears are the anticats. There are only a few species of bear, and they do different things. You’ve got your superspecialized, weird herbivore, the panda [which basically only eats bamboo]. And then you’ve got spectacled bears [which favor fruits and bromeliads]. You’ve got polar bears, which are hypercarnivorous marine mammals, and the omnivorous black bears and grizzlies. And then there are sloth bears, which mostly eat social insects. So almost every single species of bear does something totally different. And they’re just okay at all of it [laughs]. I really do like bears a lot because of that opposite side of things. They’re interesting because they’re so ecologically diverse.

But of course cats do more than one thing. First, there are 41 species in the family felidae.  Fishing cats are adapted to eat fish, the fur of the 41 species varies tremendously in thickness, density. length, color, and pattern. They live in different places (the manul, for example, lives in cold areas of Asia that could never harbor tigers).  Most cat species are solitary but lions are social, and have complex behavioral and reproductive adaptations to reflect that.  It’s not just size that varies. Granted, cats haven’t diverged as much as bears over rather similar evolutionary times, but neither have wombats, which diverged from each other at about the same time as cats and bears (25-40 million years).

And if you talk about “perfection”, using lack of evolutionary divergence among species, why not include “living fossils”: species that haven’t changed much over time? Couldn’t that reflect a “perfec”t match to a static environment, so that evolutionary change is small. Note that are two species of coelocanth that look pretty much the same as their ancestors 400 million years ago, and the one living species of ginkgo tree hasn’t changed much in form in 300 million years, and resembles a small group of species that themselves didn’t diverge much (“living fossils” are often found to be descended from groups that weren’t very diverse when they existed).

Here’s another group that is “perfect”:

People usually talk about a group’s diversity as a mark of success. But you’re saying it’s the sameness of cat species, their lack of variation, that indicates that they’re evolutionarily successful, or “perfect.”

Cats challenge standard biases in evolutionary biology. People have said to me, “What about bats? What about rodents? These groups have so many species doing all kinds of things.” And I’m like, “Yeah, because they suck.” They haven’t figured out how to do anything well, so they keep trying different things.

Do any other vertebrate groups measure up to cats in this way?

Monitor lizards are as awesome as cats. They are the cats of the reptile world. They vary hugely in body size—they have maybe an even bigger body size range than cats do—and they are all utterly identical. They’re also hard-core carnivores.

As an evolutionary biologist, I don’t think that cats “challenge our biases”. Nobody is surprised that a group hits on a good design for its way of life and then various species in the group don’t diverge as much as members of other groups. (There could also be developmental constraints in cat species.)  And the idea that bats and rodents “suck” because “they haven’t figured out how to do anything well, so they keep trying different things,” is naive and misleading. If species find themselves in a different environment, they adapt to it, so that whales are very different from their terrestrial ancestors. Does that mean that whales “suck”? Do tapeworms “suck” because they’re very different from their flatworm ancestors, and have lost their reproductive, digestive, and sensory systems? Not at all! They’re pretty “perfectly” adapted to be intestinal parasites!

The whole article is premised on the fallacy that “perfection” is finding a design that works in all environments, and on the idea that “the theory of evolution predicts that everything must evolve”.

I love cats, but they’re not perfect.

This is just another Scientific American clickbait article, one that disappointed me because it misstates what evolutionary biologists believe, and neglects several groups containing species that haven’t diverged as much as species in other groups. Does lack of differences between species in a monophyletic group (a group descended from a common ancestor) denote “greater perfection”? If so, we’re back to the old scala naturae with respect to groups.

But I’ve run on too long.

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From the Japanese site Spoon and Tomago we have the story of an architect who designed his home in Japan around his two cats. It’s a fantastic place, and you can read about it by clicking on the screenshot below:

Excerpts are indented:

Ever wondered what your home might look like if it were custom-designed to cater to the tastes of your beloved feline companions? Well, the architect Tan Yamanouchi (previously) of AWGL has designed a purr-fect home, prioritizing his two cats over himself and his partner. Instead of adhering to typical human requirements, the architect decided to treat their furry companions as esteemed clients.

The house from the outside (all images © Lamberto Rubino courtesy Tan Yamanouchi & AWGL):

And the specs:

So, what were these cats’ distinctive requests ? As it turns out, our feline friends have rather refined tastes when it comes to their living space :

Temperature Tier Supreme: Cats are known for their knack for detecting subtle temperature variations. They relish the freedom to roam and select their ideal comfort zone, so the architect envisioned a house that would allow them to effortlessly find their preferred temperature at any given moment.

Proximity, Yet with Space to Spare: Cats adore being in close proximity to their human family members, but they also cherish having their personal space. Thus, the home has to allow cozy snuggling while maintaining a comfortable and respectful distance.

Safe Havens Abound: Our furry companions thrive on variety. They crave multiple snug spots to call their own, with a penchant for changing things up with the seasons.

The outcome? A house that essentially doubles as an oversized cat tree. The architect placed a central atrium, complete with a skylight, enveloped by spiral steps. The natural light filtering through gently illuminates each step throughout the day. The stair dimensions were meticulously calculated based on the body measurements of these cats, resulting in a whopping 23 distinct floor levels. Consequently, the entire residence is divided into fine temperature layers, offering the cats a diverse landscape to explore and enjoy.

The spiral staircase was designed to allow the occupants a panoramic view of the entire house from any vantage point, without obstructing the line of sight. Each step is generously sized at 900 millimeters, providing our cats the option to  hide from people downstairs, maintain a certain sense of separation from others, or peacefully nap in their chosen nooks.

The house’s architectural form consists of two interlocking L-shaped volumes, each featuring a distinct shed roof with varying angles. This not only simplifies construction but also blends with the surroundings of Kamakura’s mountains. Moreover, it prevents the house from becoming a commonplace structure we’ve all seen before. The strategically placed windows were meticulously designed in terms of height and positioning, allowing passersby and visitors to delight at the sight of these adorable cats as an integral part of the architectural elevation.

I see no cat doors, so these must be indoor cats. Go to the site to see more of the house.

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Finally, a Hero Cat in Newfoundland wakes up its owners, preventing fire and perhaps death. Meanwhile, the d*g does nothing. Story from the CBC, click below or on preceding link to read.

The tail:

A Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s couple is happy their house is intact and they’re thanking the feline firefighter that saved them.

Scott White awoke in the early hours of Sunday morning to his cat purring and pacing around the bedroom. The cat, a shelter rescue named Joey, even stood on his chest to get his attention.

White quickly realized something was wrong, and went to the kitchen to find the room filling with smoke from a slow cooker he had set hours earlier.

“We went to bed around midnight and it was fine,” White said of the Crock-Pot. “And then it wasn’t fine when Joey found it.”

White turned off the pot before it became a full-on fire, and could rest easily knowing his cat had his back.

Joey was adopted from a rescue group in Toronto about 2½ years ago. He came from a shelter in Quebec where cats are euthanized.

He’s not the only pet in the house, however.

White’s 10-month-old puppy — who they had believed to be a solid guard dog — slept in their bed through the entire incident.

“I guess we found out the real hero is the cat,” White said.

Here’s Joey taking a well deserved nap after his grueling rescue (photo by Scott White):

h/t: Matthew, Fred

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) is known as the “Father of Electricity”, most famous for helping design modern alternating current (AC) electricity. He also had 300 patents to his name.  But today we’re concentrating on how he became interested in electricity through his cat.  The story is from Letters of Note, which you can access by clicking on the screenshot below. The introduction:

In Washington DC in 1939, aged eighty-three and in failing health, Tesla met Pola Fotić, the daughter of the Yugoslav ambassador to the United States, and they bonded over their shared love of cats. Soon afterwards, from his home in New York City on this day in 1939, Tesla wrote to his new friend and revealed one of the reasons behind his lifelong fascination with electricity.

And an excerpt from the letter. I’ve put the electricity bit in bold, but I suggest reading the whole excerpt (or the whole letter at the link above), as it’s a wonderful missive about a boy and his beloved moggy:

New York,
July 23, 1939
My Dear Miss Fotitch,

. . . . But I was the happiest of all, the fountain of my enjoyment being our magnificent Macak—the finest of all cats in the world. I wish I could give you an adequate idea of the affection that existed between us. We lived for one another. Wherever I went, Macak followed, because of our mutual love and the desire to protect me. When such a necessity presented itself he would rise to twice his normal height, buckle his back, and with his tail as rigid as a metal bar and whiskers like steel wires, he would give vent to his rage with explosive puffs: Pfftt! Pfftt! It was a terrifying sight, and whoever had provoked him, human or animal, would beat a hasty retreat.

Every evening we would run from the house along the church wall and he would rush after me and grab me by the trousers. He tried hard to make me believe that he would bite, but the instant his needle-sharp incisors penetrated the clothing, the pressure ceased and their contact with my skin was gentle and tender as a butterfly alighting on a petal. He liked best to roll on the grass with me. While we were doing this he bit and clawed and purred in rapturous pleasure. He fascinated me so completely that I too bit and clawed and purred. We could not stop, but rolled and rolled in a delirium of delight. We indulged in this enchanting sport day by day except in rainy weather.

In respect to water, Macak was very fastidious. He would jump six feet to avoid wetting his paws. On such days we went into the house and selected a nice cozy place to play. Macak was scrupulously clean, had no fleas or bugs, shed no hair, and showed no objectionable traits. He was touchingly delicate in signifying his wish to be let out at night, and scratched the door gently for re-admittance.

Now I must tell you a strange and unforgettable experience that stayed with me all my life. Our home was about eighteen hundred feet above sea level, and as a rule we had dry weather in the winter. But sometimes a warm wind from the Adriatic would blow persistently for a long time, melting the snow, flooding the land, and causing great loss of property and life. We would witness the terrifying spectacle of a mighty, seething river carrying wreckage and tearing down everything moveable in its way. I often visualise the events of my youth, and when I think of this scene the sound of the waters fills my ears and I see, as vividly as then, the tumultuous flow and the mad dance of the wreckage. But my recollections of winter, with its dry cold and immaculate white snow, are always agreeable.

It happened that one day the cold was drier than ever before. People walking in the snow left a luminous trail behind them, and a snowball thrown against an obstacle gave a flare of light like a loaf of sugar cut with a knife. In the dusk of the evening, as I stroked Macak’s back, I saw a miracle that made me speechless with amazement. Macak’s back was a sheet of light and my hand produced a shower of sparks loud enough to be heard all over the house.

My father was a very learned man; he had an answer for every question. But this phenomenon was new even to him. “Well,” he finally remarked, “this is nothing but electricity, the same thing you see through the trees in a storm.”

My mother seemed charmed. “Stop playing with this cat,” she said. “He might start a fire.” But I was thinking abstractedly. Is nature a gigantic cat? If so, who strokes its back? It can only be God, I concluded. Here I was, only three years old and already philosophising.

However stupefying the first observation, something still more wonderful was to come. It was getting darker, and soon the candles were lighted. Macak took a few steps through the room. He shook his paws as though he were treading on wet ground. I looked at him attentively. Did I see something or was it an illusion? I strained my eyes and perceived distinctly that his body was surrounded by a halo like the aureola of a saint!

I cannot exaggerate the effect of this marvellous night on my childish imagination. Day after day I have asked myself “what is electricity?” and found no answer. Eighty years have gone by since that time and I still ask the same question, unable to answer it. Some pseudo-scientist, of whom there are only too many, may tell you that he can, but do not believe him. If any of them know what it is, I would also know, and my chances are better than any of them, for my laboratory work and practical experience are more extensive, and my life covers three generations of scientific research.

Nikola Tesla

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From The Dodo, we have a bittersweet video about a cat named Elie who falls in love with the neighbor down the hall and pines for him when he leaves. She loves the neighbor even more than her own staff! The neighbor moves away, leaving the cat bereft, but then the neighbor comes back for a grand reunion.

The YouTube notes, with the cat’s Instagram page:

Cat falls in love with guy down the hall and is heartbroken when he moves — wait til he comes to visit! Special thanks to Elie & Aireen!

Keep up with them on Instagram.

One of Elie’s Instagram posts:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Aireen Balalilhi (@eliethehallwaycat)

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From the World’s Best site (click on screenshot below), we have a list of what are supposedly the world’s five best cat movies, but they’ve left out the very best one:  Kedi (2016), a documentary about the cats of Istanbul, following a handful of cats around the city (I don’t know how they filmed at ground level). It’s a superb movie (the Rotten Tomatoes rating is 98% from critic and 85% from the audience), and it’s enjoyable even for people indifferent to cats.  Here’s a trailer and a place to rent it from YouTube:

The World’s Best list is pretty lame, but I’ll give it to you and show one clip that I like:

The Rotten Tomato scores are lame, too:

a.)  THE ARISTOCATS | ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 68%

b.) PUSS IN BOOTS | ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 84%

c.) OLIVER AND COMPANY | ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 44%

d.) ALICE IN WONDERLAND | ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 79%

This 1951 Disney movie is not a cat movie, but it does have an excellent cat, which I’ll show in a clip:

e.) GARFIELD | ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 15%

Do you have favorite cat movies, or want to weigh in on these? Please do so in the comments.

h/t: Fred, Ginger K.

I have at least three Caturday felid posts in statu nascendi, though whether this feature will continue is still in question (most people who wrote in want it continued, but of course I won’t hear from those people who don’t like it or don’t read it).

First, a cat chain reaction:

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Here, from Wichita (Kansas) 12 news, we have the story of a cat that went missing from Wichita, and was found a decade later in North Carolina, of all places. It’s now on its way home thanks to a GoFundMe campaign. Click to read:

 Update: A Wichita woman says a cat whom she lost 10 years ago will be heading home next month.

Carol Holmes said she got an email on her father’s birthday, that his namesake, Bob the cat, had been found in North Carolina.

Holmes said a group was committed to bringing Bob home, but she needed to raise nearly $1,000 to do that.

As of Tuesday morning, a GoFundMe set up to cover the costs of transporting Bob nearly halfway across the country has exceeded its goal.

A Wichita cat owner got quite a shock when she received an email about her missing cat – which had been gone for 10 years. Even more surprising – it was found in North Carolina.

Carol Holmes spent August 19 thinking of her father, Bob. That day would have been his 94th birthday – and that day she got an email about another Bob she was missing.

“It was surreal. It really is. I was just so stunned,” said Carol.

You see, “Bob” was also the name of Carol’s missing cat. She’d named it after her beloved father. Bob the cat disappeared from Wichita ten years ago. Now, he’s resurfaced in North Carolina and Carol has no idea how he ended up there.

“I wish that Bob could talk and tell us the story of what happened these 10 years,” said Carol.

Someone in Fuquay-Verina, North Carolina, found Bob, took him to a local vet and had him scanned. That’s when Carol was notified – all the way in Wichita.

“It’s very unusual to find a cat when they have been gone nearly a decade,” said Carol.

She said she’s thrilled Bob has been found, and now, she’s working with a volunteer group to get him back to Kansas because, of course, there is no place like home.

The GoFund me raised $2,275—more than ample to bring Bob home.

Here’s the errant moggie, and there’s a video at the link above, though it was made before Bob came home. He traveled a distance of 1200 miles. If we only knew how he traversed that distance!

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Finally, we have an “influencer” cat?

Meet Leo, a ginger puss living at a Home Depot in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.  He enjoys wearing a tee-shirt (!) and has become a TikTok celebrity. From yahoo! news:

A cat living at a Home Depot store in New Jersey has become a full-fledged social media celebrity — and has even been drawing new customers to the business.

Jeffrey Simpkins, whose TikTok videos of Leo the cat went viral, said he wanted to document the feline after first encountering him at the Mount Laurel store last month.

“The very first one I did, the first day it hit 4.5 million [views],” Simpkins told WTFX-TV. “I’m happy if I get 1,000 views on a video before this.”

Simpkins told WPVI-TV that Leo’s devoted fans admire “his unique personality, like he’s friendly, he wears clothing unlike other cats, and he has several places he sleeps at.”

Store employees said Leo was a former barn cat brought to the store about a year ago to help solve a mouse problem. The employees take care of Leo and make sure he gets regular vet check-ups and has a place to sleep when the store is closed on holidays.

Some customers said they came to the store just to see Leo.

“It is the last week of summer, so we figured let’s go see the cat and make the most of it and see if we can be part of his fan club,” Cherry Hill resident Michelle Lythberg said.

Here’s a Channel 6 news report on Leo and his doings. Note that the reporter’s name is Katie Katro.

You can see more of Leo’s Tik Tok videos tiktok videos here.   Here’s two more short ones.

The store employees clearly love him!

@cat_dad_2020

Leo’s nightly routine 🐱@The Home Depot #catdad2020 #catsoftiktok #homedepot

♬ original sound – 🐱❤️Jeff (cat_dad_2020)❤️

@cat_dad_2020

We love visiting Leo at Home Depot #catdad2020 #catsoftiktok

♬ original sound – 🐱❤️Jeff (cat_dad_2020)❤️

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Lagniappe: A spider that looks like a cat:

The cat-faced (or cat face) spider (Araneus gemmoides) is a common outdoor orb-weaver spider. The spider gets its name from the shape of its abdomen which looks similar to the face of a mountain lion.

These spiders are considered beneficial garden residents as they will consume many types of pests. The female cat-faced spider dies soon after laying eggs.

The abdomen of the spider contains a pair of conical humps at the top of the abdomen that form the “ears” of the cat-face pattern. Other markings on the abdomen contribute to the face-like features on this spider.

h/t: Philip, Randy, Debra, Michael

We’re back to Caturday Felids again, and let me know if you want this to continue, as I’m not sure people are that keen on Caturday felids, and it takes a bit of work. At any rate, we’ll have one today, at least.

The Washington Post has a lovely story about an English woman, profoundly deaf, who got a kitten. It turned out that the kitten, now an adult, helped her in many ways, and so he beat out 3,000 competitors to become the UK Cat of the Year.  Click to read:

A precis and some photos (and their captions) from the Post:

Then something stopped her as she read the paper that day in April 2021, deep in the pandemic.

“I saw a photo of a tiny black and white ball of fluff, and I fell in love with him then and there,” said Moss, 66.

A family had placed an ad, hoping to find a home for the last kitten in their cat’s litter. When Moss reached out to them, the family arranged to bring by the two-month-old domesticated shorthair with tuxedo markings. Soon, the deal was sealed.

And a giant photo:

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The article below was in Science (click on screenshot), but reports findings from an article in the Journal of Chemical Senses.

In short, cats love tuna because they have umami (“savory flavor”)receptors on their tongues that are stimulated by tuna (DUHH!). First, the scientific abstract:

. . . and from Science:

. . . . tuna (or any seafood for that matter) is an odd favorite for an animal that evolved in the desert. Now, researchers say they have found a biological explanation for this curious craving.

In a study published this month in Chemical Senses, scientists report that cat taste buds contain the receptors needed to detect umami—the savory, deep flavor of various meats, and one of the five basic tastes in addition to sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Indeed, umami appears to be the primary flavor cats seek out. That’s no surprise for an obligate carnivore. But the team also found these cat receptors are uniquely tuned to molecules found at high concentrations in tuna, revealing why our feline friends seem to prefer this delicacy over all others.

“This is an important study that will help us better understand the preferences of our familiar pets,” says Yasuka Toda, a molecular biologist at Meiji University and a leader in studying the evolution of umami taste in mammals and birds. The work could help pet food companies develop healthier diets and more palatable medications for cats, says Toda, who was not involved with the  industry-funded study.

The study’s funding is describes as “Mars Petcare UK supported the study financially; they did not have any influence over the study conception, design or interpretation, or the decision to publish the data.”

But cats’ love of tuna then raises the question, “Why do cats favor a flavor their ancestors never detected?” (Remember that the housecat evolved from Felis silvestris lybica, the European wildcat, which doesn’t encounter tuna.) Here’s the answer:

But cats must taste something, McGrane reasoned, and that something is likely the savory flavor of meat. In humans and many other animals, two genes—Tas1r1 and Tas1r3—encode proteins that join together in taste buds to form a receptor that detects umami. Previous work had shown that cats express the Tas1r3 gene in their taste buds, but it was unclear whether they had the other critical puzzle piece.

So McGrane and colleagues biopsied the tongue of a 6-year-old male cat that had been euthanized for health reasons unrelated to the study. Genetic sequencing revealed his taste buds expressed both the Tas1r1 and Tas1r3 genes—the first time scientists showed that cats have all the molecular machinery needed to detect umami.

When the researchers compared the protein sequences encoded by these genes with those of humans, however, they found a striking difference: Two critical sites that allow the human receptor to bind to glutamic and aspartic acid—the main amino acids that activate umami taste in people—were mutated in cats. “So I began thinking, maybe cats can’t taste umami,” McGrane says.

To double check, he and his team engineered cells to produce the cat umami receptor on their surface. They then exposed the cells to a variety of amino acids and nucleotides. The cells did respond to umami—but with a twist. In people, the amino acids bind first and the nucleotides amplify the response. But in cats, the nucleotides activated the receptor, and the amino acids further boosted it, McGrane says. “That’s the exact opposite of what we see in people.”

In the last part of the experiment, McGrane and colleagues gave 25 cats a taste test. In a series of trials, they presented the felines with two bowls of water, each with various combinations of amino acids and nucleotides, or just water alone. The cats showed a strong preference for bowls that contained molecules found in umami-rich foods, suggesting this flavor—above all others—is the primary motivator for cats.

Well, that’s a bit of a yawner. Cats like tuna because they like meat, and have similar molecular machinery to other animals that like meat, though the response works in a slightly different way.  Just remember, if you give your cat ice cream, it likes it because of the creaminess, not the sweetness. At any rate, it must have been a slow news day at Science.

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Finally, from Fox News in Colorado, the story of a woman who feeds a cat that hung around the state fair (click to read):

A precis:

As the Colorado State Fair approaches next weekend, one remarkable tale of devotion and friendship, spans two decades, involving a dedicated state fair worker and an endearing state fair cat named Garth.

Sheri Giordano, a dedicated employee of the Colorado State Fair since 1994, reminisces about the day she first crossed paths with Garth, a little black dot under the grandstand.

“I saw a little kitty that was sitting in the grass under the tree right outside of the grandstand. So since the famous Garth Brooks performed at the Grandstand, I named him Garth,” Sheri fondly recalls.

From that moment, a beautiful connection was forged that would withstand the test of time. Sheri had him neutered and vaccinated. For two decades, Sheri made it her mission to care for Garth.

“I had a sense of dedication to him. I felt like he was special and I loved him and I wanted to take care of him,” Sheri explains.

Through snow and rain, Sheri would faithfully visit the fairgrounds every single day, ensuring Garth had food and fresh water. The routine became her anchor, a source of purpose even on the most challenging days.

“It’s been a huge part of my life, and there were days when I didn’t want to get up, but I knew I had to go take care of Garth. So he’s always been there for me, so I was always there for him,” Sheri tearfully expresses.

Then Garth disappeared for four months, and, mirabile dictu, returned, but in bad condition. He was taken to the vet:

But the passage of time had taken its toll on Garth. Sheri recognized that it was time for him to retire from his state fair cat duties.

“He was skinny and scrawny and he barely had a voice. And I don’t know what happened to him, but that was the point where I realized I needed to do something with him,” Sheri shares.

Sheri took Garth to the SOCO Spay and Neuter Association. There, they conducted tests to ensure his health, and Garth’s bloodwork astounded everyone.

“It was a little bit of a shock to hear of this 20-year-old feral cat that his blood test was clear. So it was a real testament to Sheri for taking such good care of him over the years,” Lisa Buccambuso, the Executive Director of SOCO Spay and Neuter Association, affirms.

Nowadays, Sheri visits Garth every week, ensuring he continues to receive the love and care he deserves. And amidst the routine, there’s a moment that brings a smile to everyone’s face –

The big questions, which aren’t answered in this piece, are twofold:

1.) Why didn’t she just adopt the cat, or put it up for adoption, if she took the trouble to go to the fairgrounds every day. Garth would surely be better off in someone’s home than under the bleachers?

2.) WHERE IS GARTH NOW? Sheri is said to visit Garth every week, but where does she visit him? Has he been adopted? Is he still at the fairgrounds? (The article says he’s “retired from his state fair cat duties.

Perhaps readers can answer these pressing questions, but the news people sure fell down on the job here.

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Lagniappe: Peter sent a reddit video of a nice man feeding one of Istanbul’s street cats (this one has a collar).  The Turks love their kitties! Sound up, please.

Street cats in Istanbul be like
byu/ledim35 inaww

h/t: Jon, Nicole, Matthew