From Politico, we hear and see the stalwart War Cats of Ukraine. Click the headline to read:

Excerpts and text (indented) from the article. There are also videos, but I can’t embed them:

Wars are fought by soldiers using bullets, shells and missiles, but also with ideas and propaganda — which explains why cats have become the latest battlefront in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s social media are full of felines, showing how they help soldiers as emotional support animals, attract donations to the military with their fluffy cuteness, and also fight invaders — in this case mice.

Russia is fighting back by humanizing its invading soldiers — often used in “meat wave” attacks against Ukrainian positions and accused of atrocities against civilians — by showing them with their own cats.

They mention and show several cats. Here are two:

Shaybyk the lover

Oleksandr Liashuk, from the Odesa region in southwest Ukraine, gave a purr-out to Shaybyk — one of four stray kittens living with his unit on the southern front in 2022.

“Shaybyk had the biggest charisma. It was getting cold, so I took him with me one night into my sleeping bag. And that’s when I fell in love with that cat,” said Liashuk, 26. “He’s not just my best friend, he’s my son.”

Since then, Shaybyk has moved to different positions with Liashuk, with the pair becoming a viral sensation for their joint patrol videos.

Liashuk describes his cat as the perfect hunter. “Once we were at the position in the forest and he caught 11 mice in one day. Sometimes [he] brings mice to my sleeping bag,” he boasted.

Despite their bond, Shaybyk remains a free cat, but he has always returned to Liashuk. In June he disappeared for 18 long days until he was found by Ukrainian soldiers at a position several kilometers away, chilling with the local felines. “He just needed some love. I call it a vacation,” Liashuk said.

Shaybyk and Liashuk also collect donations for the Ukrainian army, with Shaybyk receiving a special award in September for helping to raise money to buy seven cars and other supplies.

Herych the high-bred

Unlike frontline strays, Herald, known as Herych, is a cat aristocrat. As soon as Russia invaded, Herych, a Scottish Fold, joined his human, Kyrylo Liukov, a military coordinator for the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation, which delivers supplies to frontline units.

Herych, who lives with Liukov in Kramatorsk, a city in Donetsk region, traveled to the front more than 20 times.

“Every time he was the star of a show, with so many fighters running to us to pet him and take a picture with him,” Liukov said. “Herych was patient — though a little shocked.”

Unlike other frontline animals, Herych remains calm during Russian shelling. “At most he just turns his head to the sound and that’s all,” Liukov said.

Like Syrsky, Herych uses his online popularity to help Ukraine’s army, fronting a campaign that raised several million hryvnias (a million hryvnia is about €25,000) to purchase cars for the military.

The site also reports that the Russians have “weaponized cats for propaganda,” but we won’t talk about moggies on the wrong side of history.

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From the BBC, a coincidental recovery (click screenshot to read):

An excerpt (indented):

Mike and Marilyn Chard from Bovisand lost their one-eyed cat Tigger back in October.

He was taken in by Gables Dogs and Cats Home in Plymouth but because he was not micro-chipped, his owners could not be contacted.

The couple spotted Tigger on TV when he was seen being held by the general manager at the rescue centre.

When he failed to return home three months ago, Mr Chard said they thought their pet had “gone off to die”.

The couple adopted the stray 12 years ago when he walked through their cat flap with one eye and a bent tail.

“He hadn’t been himself for maybe ten days and was due a vet appointment but there was nothing you could put your finger on.

“Apparently when he was out that day he must have had an epileptic fit and somebody found him the next day semi-conscious and took him to the RSPCA, who gave him to Gables. That’s all we know.”

The cat had been nicknamed ‘Bovi-Mort’ during his stay at the charity, but the couple said they were “100% certain it was him from the photographs”.

Mrs Chard said: “He was called Bovi because of Bovisand and Mort because they were thinking of putting him to sleep.”

Mr Chard said: “We were there when Gables opened because we couldn’t wait. They were over the moon he was going back to his owners.

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This story comes from NBC (Channel 4) in New York, recounting how Buffalo Bills kicker Tyler Bass (who works with a cat-rescue group) was excoriated on social media after he missed a crucial kick. Bass and cat fans rallied, donating over a quarter million dollars to the cat-rescue organization.

Click to read:

The article:

Fans found the purr-fect way to show support for Buffalo Bills kicker Tyler Bass.

The Ten Lives Club, a cat rescue organization that Bass has worked with, received more than $250,000 in donations made in his name following the backlash he received after missing a heartbreaking field goal in Sunday’s playoff game, according to The Buffalo News.

The Bills trailed the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 with under two minutes remaining in the AFC divisional round matchup when Bass missed a 44-yard field goal that all but ended the game and the season for a Bills team seeking its first Super Bowl championship.

After the game, the 26-year-old kicker reportedly began receiving online threats that led him to delete his social media accounts.

The Ten Lives Club made a post showing support for Bass, who has previously partnered with the Buffalo-based non-profit organization to help rescue cats.

Here’s the Instagram post put up by the rescue group 10livesclub.  DON’T BULLY OUR FRIEND! Note that the organization mentions how their phones are “ringing off the hook” with donations:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ten Lives Club (@10livesclub)

More:

Donations — with the $22 amount being a nod to Bass’s No. 2 jersey — came in from Bills fans, Chiefs fans and other supporters.

The organization raised donations through its website and its social media accounts, which feature a profile picture of a cat wearing a Bills jersey.

“That money came in very, very quickly and will make a huge difference for our rescue cats here in Western New York,” Kimberly LaRussa of the Ten Lives Club told The Buffalo News.

This is very sweet:  “Leave our friend alone.”  I’m glad that although he missed a kick, the cats are the beneficiaries.

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Lagniappe: A battle royale between a Siamese cat and a sand fox (Vulpes rueppellii). What a sound the fox makes! The cat just hisses, but he seems to have the upper paw. I think the fox just wants to cuddle.

h/t: Gregory, Jez

Today we have several cat videos and some memes, but nothing that takes intellectual acumen to appreciate.  We won’t have a Caturday Felid next week as I’m going to California, and posting of everything will be light. So enjoy this one, and we’ll be back on the 27th of January.

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First, a 5½-minute video of cats getting what they hate most: wet.  There’s nothing sadder than a sodden cat.  Listen to the orange moggie howl in the second clip! In the third, I don’t know why the video makers don’t immediately rescue the cat. That’s cruel!

Tbe cats pawing at the door are presumably trying to get out of the rain. Once again, their staff just stands by and take a video. And there’s one cat who falls in the toilet!

The Siamese at 4:45 makes quite a racket.

But, in general, people who stand by and take a video of a distressed cat without helping it are reprehensible. Don’t be one of them!

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Now a 4+-minute video of cats getting what they like most (well, next to food): NIP! This is one more advantage of cats over d*gs, as there’s no such thing as d*gnip.  You can’t get your d*g high!

You can clearly see the variety of their reactions: some wallow in the stuff; others largely ignore it.  There’s a bit of information at the end.

petMD and Wikipedia both have useful articles on catnip, the former with information for cat staff and the latter general information about the plant and its effects.

From petMD:

Cats have an extra scent organ called the vomeronasal gland in the roof of their mouth. This special pathway allows scents that are collected in the nose and mouth to be carried to the brain.

Nepetalactone is the oil that’s found within the catnip plant’s leaves that can cause behavioral changes in cats. For a cat to be exposed to this substance, they have to smell the catnip.

Catnip mimics feline sex hormones, so cats enjoying this substance will often display behaviors similar to a female cat in heat (although both male and female cats can experience the effects).

These behaviors can include overt signs of affection, relaxation, and happiness. Other cats will display active behaviors, such as playfulness or sometimes even aggression.

For cats that have a positive experience with catnip, it can help reduce anxiety and even relieve pain.

Some veterinarians have recommended using catnip to help with separation anxiety if your cat will be home alone for an extended period of time.

About 60% of cats show a catnip reaction, and Wikipedia reports that the difference is not due to a single gene form, but appears to be polygenic, that is, it’s like many human maladies, in which you have to have a combination of different gene forms (and often a certain environment) to show a trait.  As for other species, it says this:

Catnip contains the feline attractant nepetalactone. N. cataria (and some other species within the genus Nepeta) are known for their behavioral effects on the cat family, not only on domestic cats, but also other species. Several tests showed that leopards, cougars, servals, and lynxes often reacted strongly to catnip in a manner similar to domestic cats. Lions and tigers may react strongly as well, but they do not react consistently in the same fashion.

Here’s a controlled experiment showing that some big cats do react to catnip: about 72% of the big cats showed a positive reaction, but it differs greatly among species.

Here’s nepetalactone:

Finally, catnip is often grown as an ornamental plant in gardens, and I recommend it, as cats will come around, eat it, and act weird.  And you can also make catnip tea from it, supposedly a relaxant for humans. I’ve had it, but it didn’t really relax me: I just rolled around on the ground for 15 minutes.

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Bored Panda (click in screenshot below) has a variety of cat memes—50 of them. I’ll show a few of my favorites below.

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Lagniappe: A cat fiddles with its staff’s  elaborate model train set:

h/t: Ginger K.

I’ve been first item has been sent, from one source or another, many times, and it’s time to put it on a Caturday Felid post.

From IFL Science (first headline below):

The first streaming video carried by laser beam from beyond the Moon has been received from 31 million kilometers (19 million miles) away. For extra points, it’s ultra-high definition (and very cute).

Among the technical challenges required for human colonization of the Solar System, improved communication systems may not be top of mind. However, when you consider how painfully long it took New Horizons to send back its images from its brief flyby of Pluto, it’s clear we need to pick up the pace.

Last month, NASA conducted a demonstration of the practicality of using near-infrared laser beams to transmit data from the Psyche mission, then at a distance of 16 million kilometers (10 million miles) from Earth.

At the time, NASA HQ’s Trudy Kortes described that achievement in a statement as “One of many critical […] milestones in the coming months, paving the way toward higher-data-rate communications capable of sending scientific information, high-definition imagery and streaming video in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars.”

The scientific information may have to wait until spacecraft Psyche reaches its destination, the metal-rich asteroid of the same name, but the streaming videos are here right on time. The technical challenges of sending something like this are immense, and get larger the longer the video, so NASA wanted to keep it short. In that context, what could be a more appropriate introduction than 15 seconds of a cat chasing a laser dot?

Here’s the video. The cat is named Taters:

IFL Science:

ScienceAlert:

And an excerpt:

NASA on Monday announced it had used a state-of-the-art laser communication system on a spaceship 19 million miles (31 million kilometers) away from Earth – to send a high-definition cat video.

The 15-second meow-vie featuring an orange tabby named Taters is the first to be streamed from deep space, and demonstrates it’s possible to transmit the higher-data-rate communications needed to support complex missions such as sending humans to Mars.

The video was beamed to Earth using a laser transceiver on the Psyche probe, which is journeying to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to explore a mysterious metal-rich object. When it sent the video, the spaceship was 80 times the distance between the Earth and Moon.

The encoded near-infrared signal was received by the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, and from there sent to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.

“One of the goals is to demonstrate the ability to transmit broadband video across millions of miles. Nothing on Psyche generates video data, so we usually send packets of randomly generated test data,” said Bill Klipstein, the tech demo’s project manager at JPL.

“But to make this significant event more memorable, we decided to work with designers at JPL to create a fun video, which captures the essence of the demo as part of the Psyche mission.”

. . . ​So why a cat video? First, there’s the historic connection, said JPL. When American interest in television began growing in the 1920s, a statue of Felix the Cat was broadcast to serve as a test image.

And here’s that broadcast:

and, finally:

And while cats may not claim the title as man’s best friend, few can dispute their number-one position when it comes to internet videos and meme culture.

​Uploaded before launch, the clip shows Tabby, the pet of a JPL employee, chasing a laser light on a couch, with test graphics overlayed. These include Psyche’s orbital path and technical information about the laser and its data bit rate.

And that brings us to the next post: the Internet is synonymous with CATS:

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Here’s a 13 year old video, three minutes long, that speaks—or rather sings—truth to power. Note the presence of His Holiness Ceiling Cat at 1:31. Maru is in there, too.

Now when you do a Google search for “cats”, you see two things. First, the results: nearly 7.5 billion sites!

And you see this on the Google page. Click on the screenshot below, and then press the cat’s-paw button where I’ve added an arrow. See what happens! (Sound up, too.)

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Here is an 8½-minute video of cats doing what they shouldn’t be doing. (Actually, they behave appropriately in some instances.) My favorite is the cat taking a ciggie at 3:56. Also note “peacekeeper cat” at 5:52.

Unlike the video above, this one’s actually good.

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Finally, lagniappe from reader Barry:

I sometimes have cats stay with me over the holidays (via a cat-sitting service in NYC). This one is a Scottish Fold. Her name is Ivy. She is adorable, but in this photo she looks alarmed. “Why do you put whipped cream on the lower half of your face and then scrape it off?”

h/t: Ginger K.

Myt favorite wild cat is the Pallas’s Cat, (Otocolobus manul) also known as the manul. It happens to be the fluffiest cat in the world, but with short ears that are also adaptive in its chilly habitat.  There are sixty zoos that keep them for captive breeding programs, and on manul, in Poland, has been declared the World’s Best Manul (winner of the “Manul World Cup”) after an online voting campaign. Click the article below to go to the piece from the Notes from Poland:

The nooz and a tweet:

A wild cat named Magellan (pictured above) from a zoo in Poland has been named the world’s best manul – the species to which he belongs – following a viral online campaign in Poland that saw a leading politician and even the army join efforts to help him win over 125,000 public votes.

“WE HAVE A CHAMPION!!!!! You are great! Magellan the most important and beautiful manul in the world 2023!!!!!!!!” wrote Poznań Zoo on Facebook.

The Winner is… #Magellan #Poznan #Zoo #Manul #PallassCat https://t.co/uoiDtIvVvx

— Zoo Poznan (@PoznanZoo) December 12, 2023

They were celebrating Magellan’s victory in the Manul World Cup, an informal online contest organised to find the most popular member of the species, which is also known as Pallas’s cat and is native to Central Asia.

Magellan – who is named after the famous Portuguese explorer because he escaped from the zoo in 2020 – received around 127,000 votes in the final, narrowly defeating his rival Bol from Japan, who got around 113,000.

“Now we have to fund him a ship,” Poznań Zoo wrote after the animal’s victory, encouraging people to help raise money for a new enclosure. They noted that among Magellan’s talents is “pretending to be a stone” but that “the rest of the world annoys him”.

Among those to lend their support was Radosław Fogiel, an MP and former spokesman for the Law and Justice (PiS) party that ruled Poland until this week.

Ahead of Magellan’s semi-final against Stubsi, a rival from Germany, Fogiel tweeted: “Magellan needs you! Here’s our chance to beat the German furball in the vote!”

The 1st Warsaw Armored Brigade also encouraged people to vote while STS, the largest Polish betting company, opened online bets on the event.

Malgorzata’s translation of the post above: (with her comments in italics):

Well, it’s a bit stupid plea for donations. As you probably know, this cat, named Magellan, has won an international competition and now the ZOO where he lives wants people to donate money. Here is the translation of the words under his picture:

“I will give you exceptional thanks. Because I need a ship. Magellan without a ship is like …. Magellan without a ship. I’m wise. I know how to pretend to be a stone. The rest of the world irritates me. If I’m now the Best, I now need a ship most of all. For me not to sulk you, my faithful subjects, can exchange your votes into gold*here. Otherwise I will escap[e again.”

And underneath is a bank account where the money can be paid.

I think they wanted to make it funny but, frankly, it’s not funny. Just stupid. I wonder whether anybody will make a donation to the ZOO.

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Here’s a seies of cats in nativity scenes, sent in by reader Grant Palmer. Every such scene needs a cat Jesus!

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And a Dodo story about the rescue of three tiny frozen kittens. In Dodoland, everything always comes out good in the end.

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Lagniappe: A calendar that you can buy here. But get it quickly, as 2024 is about to begin!

h/t: Ginger K., Grant, Malcolm

This will probably be the last Caturday felid of the year, as Dec. 30 is my birthday; but it won’t be the last Caturday felid forever—so long as people keep reading it.  First, we have a short video of a cat reacting to being put in a baby sling.  Guess whether the cat will like it! (This woman is obviously pregnant with a human, too!)

There are a number of appealing videos of this family and the cat is staffs at the Don’tStopMeowing video site. Chase the Tabby is a real kvetcher.

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Matthew and I always argue about whether Scottish wildcats are real: a population of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) that lives in Scotland (Matthew’s view, shared by most scientists) or simply a population of feral tabbies. There’s some DNA evidence that Scottish wildcats may have been a distinct population, but have bred with feral domestic cats, which makes the question harder to answer.

The summary article below in Science suggests that yes, Scottish wildcats were a wild population of the European wildcat until about 70 years ago, but then began interbeeding with feral housecats, and now there’s no even fairly pure gene pool of the Scottish wildcat; it’s been polluted by moggie genes. Click to read:

An excerpt (read the original paper if you’re curious):

Though it lies in ruins on the northeast coast of England, Kilton Castle was once an imposing stone fortress, home to several noble families, and—it appears—at least eight cats. Archaeological excavations in the 1960s uncovered a well, at the bottom of which lay the bones of several felines dating back to the 14th century. The animals were an odd mix: Some were domestic cats, but other, larger specimens appeared to be European wildcats, a fierce, burly species that has inhabited the continent for hundreds of thousands of years.

The two species’ closeness in death was deceptive. A study published today in Current Biology finds that even though European wildcats and domestic cats overlapped in Great Britain for more than 2000 years—including at sites such as Kilton—they appear to have almost never interbred. That changed suddenly about 70 years ago, when domestic cats began to mate with wildcats in Scotland. In the span of mere decades, the genome of the Scottish wildcat—the last remaining wildcat in Great Britain—has become so corrupted that the animal is now effectively extinct, a second study in the same issue finds. The findings could complicate ongoing efforts to save the most endangered mammalian carnivore in Great Britain.

“It’s very intriguing work,” says Shu-Jin Luo, a geneticist at Peking University who researches the DNA of wildcats in China and who has similar concerns about the impact of domestic cats there. “The studies set a very good template for studying the interactions between domestic cats and wildcats around the world.”

According to the study, housecats and wild Felis silvestris individuals coexisted for two millennia, but remained genetically separate because they favored different habitats (this is called “ecological isolation” in the trade). Then the scrublands that were homes of the wildcats were largely erased by human activity. The report (I haven’t read it) also suggests that the wildcats and domestic cats bred at different times (called “temporal isolation”) in that domestic cats have no real breeding season but wildcats breed twice a year:

Domestic cats have been in Europe for thousands of years, having likely followed migrating farmers from their birthplace in the Middle East. Once they entered the continent, they invaded the home of a distant relative, the European wildcat.

The two aren’t so different: Both belong to the genus Felis (our kitties are F. catus; the wildcat is F. silvestris), and the European wildcat has a brown, striped coat reminiscent of some tabbies. But the wildcat is about 20% bigger, with denser fur and a thick, blunt tail. It’s also fiercely solitary and wants nothing to do with humans. Try as you might to tame it, says Roo Campbell, a mammal specialist at NatureScot, Scotland’s nature agency, “you’re not going to end up with a cuddly pet.”

So perhaps it’s no surprise that domestic cats and European wildcats kept to themselves. Even though domestic cats became widespread in Europe during Roman times, DNA markers from modern cats and ancient bones show virtually no genetic overlap between the two species, the first paper reports.

One explanation is that—Kilton Castle aside—they largely avoided the same places. Domestic cats lived in close proximity to people, where food (and perhaps petting) was plentiful, whereas wildcats preferred scrubland far from human habitation. Wildcats also only mate twice a year, whereas domestic cats can mate whenever they want, so hooking up at the right time would have proved challenging.

Dogs and wolves show a similar pattern, notes study author Greger Larson, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford. Those two canids have overlapped in the Northern Hemisphere for at least 11,000 years, he says, but show little evidence of interbreeding.

. . .Today, the genome of the Scottish wildcat is so “swamped” with domestic cat DNA that the animal is “genomically extinct,” the authors conclude. All that’s left in nature is a “hybrid swarm,” they write, a confused mix of wild and domestic DNA. In some cases, the wildcats’ striking stripes have been replaced by spots, as well as other patterns and colors not found in nature.

“Everything these wildcats have evolved over thousands of years is being lost in a few generations,” says the study’s lead author, Jo Howard-McCombe, a conservation geneticist at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS). The findings are a particular sting to Scotland, where the wildcat is a symbol of bravery and independence, appearing on everything from high school logos to the crests of storied clans.

What a pity! Here’s a picture of a putative domestic cat/Scottish wildcat, with the caption from Science:

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“World’s Best Cat Litter“, surely an advertising site, nevertheless gives us a list of cat poetry worth reading. Click to read, and I’ll give my favorite, which faithful readers already know.

Excerpts—and their list:

They move through the world with an elegant and rhythmic gait, their lithe bodies embodying the very essence of poetry in motion. Every swish of their tail, every stealthy pounce, is a dance of precision and grace.

They are the furriest of ballerinas.

A cat’s ability to inhabit the moment, to be completely present, is a lesson in mindfulness and a theme often celebrated in poetry. Just as a poet uses words to paint vivid pictures, a cat uses its actions and expressions to convey a spectrum of emotions, from affection to indifference.

The great T.S. Eliot knew this well when he penned “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.”

His whimsical collection of cat poems, later adapted into the famous musical “Cats,” brings the quirks and idiosyncrasies of feline friends to life through imaginative verse.

In “The Naming of Cats,” he muses on the complexity of a cat’s many names, reflecting the multi-faceted nature of these creatures that poets find so enchanting.

. . .A simple sunbeam transforms into a stage for their theatrical naps, and a cardboard box becomes an epic adventure. In these everyday moments, poets find inspiration to celebrate the joy of the mundane. And thus, this is why owning a cat is like living in a perpetual poem.

Their presence evokes a sense of wonder, an appreciation for life’s smaller pleasures, and a deep connection with the world around us. Whether it’s through their graceful movements, their soothing purrs, or their playful antics, cats invite us to explore the poetic aspects of existence.

Here’s a list of poems about cats, each celebrating the grace, mystery, and charm of these beloved feline companions.

The list. I’ve added links where possible:

• “The Naming of Cats” by T.S. Eliot – From “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” this poem explores the idea that cats have many names and facets.
• “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear – A delightful and whimsical poem about an owl and a cat who set out on a journey together.
• “The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss – A beloved children’s book in rhyme, featuring the mischievous cat in the iconic red and white striped hat.
• “Macavity: The Mystery Cat” by T.S. Eliot – Another gem from “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” this poem introduces us to Macavity, the notorious mystery cat.
• “Cat” by Eleanor Farjeon – A charming and simple poem that captures the essence of a cat’s character.
• “The Cat” by Emily Dickinson – In this short poem, Emily Dickinson muses on the enigmatic nature of cats.
• “The Cat’s Song” by Marge Piercy – This poem celebrates the independent and wild spirit of cats.
• “Pangur Bán” by Anonymous – An Irish poem from the 9th century, it compares the scholar’s work to the hunting activities of a white cat named Pangur Bán.

I’ve linked to Seamus Heaney’s English translation above, but the original version in Old Irish is here, along with a better English translation by Robin Flower.

• “The Rum Tum Tugger” by T.S. Eliot – Yet another cat from “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” this poem introduces the curious and fickle Rum Tum Tugger.
• “Cats” by Henry S. Leigh – A humorous poem that pokes fun at the various personalities and quirks of different cat breeds.

I couldn’t find that one, but here’s another cat poem by Leigh, “My Love and My Heart.”

• “To a Cat” by Jorge Luis Borges – In this poem, Borges reflects on the mysterious and timeless nature of cats.

The original Spanish version by Borges is here.

• “The Cat That Walked by Himself” by Rudyard Kipling – Part of Kipling’s “Just So Stories,” this poem explores the independent nature of the first cat in the world.

This is not a poem but one of Kipling’s “Just So Stories”, a collection that Matthew is particularly fond of.

• “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot – While not exclusively about cats, this modernist masterpiece contains a reference to a cat that adds depth to the poem.

Well, here’s the verse that I think they’re referring to. I love the poem, which is a masterpiece, but I don’t know how much “depth” this adds. It’s a simile, that’s all:

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,

The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,

Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,

Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,

Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,

Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,

And seeing that it was a soft October night,

Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

But where this list really goes wrong is that it omits the very best poetry ever written about a cat: the extract called “For I will consider my cat Jeoffry“, a fragment of the longer poem “Jubilate Agno” (“Rejoice in the Lamb”) written by Christopher Smart (1722-1771) who was at the time confined in an insane asylum with his cat. I will reproduce it in its entirety. There is no competition!

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.
For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the forepaws extended.
For fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.
For fifthly he washes himself.
For sixthly he rolls upon wash.
For seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.
For eighthly he rubs himself against a post.
For ninthly he looks up for his instructions.
For tenthly he goes in quest of food.
For having considered God and himself he will consider his neighbor.
For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.
For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it a chance.
For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying.
For when his day’s work is done his business more properly begins.
For he keeps the Lord’s watch in the night against the adversary. 
For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.
For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.
For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.
For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.
For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.
For he will not do destruction if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation.
For he purrs in thankfulness when God tells him he’s a good Cat.
For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.
For every house is incomplete without him, and a blessing is lacking in the spirit.
For the Lord commanded Moses concerning the cats at the departure of the Children of Israel from Egypt.
For every family had one cat at least in the bag.
For the English Cats are the best in Europe.
For he is the cleanest in the use of his forepaws of any quadruped.
For the dexterity of his defense is an instance of the love of God to him exceedingly.
For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.
For he is tenacious of his point.
For he is a mixture of gravity and waggery.
For he knows that God is his Saviour.
For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest. 
For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion. 
For he is of the Lord’s poor, and so indeed is he called by benevolence perpetually–Poor Jeoffry! poor Jeoffry! the rat has bit thy throat.
For I bless the name of the Lord Jesus that Jeoffry is better. 
For the divine spirit comes about his body to sustain it in complete cat.
For his tongue is exceeding pure so that it has in purity what it wants in music.
For he is docile and can learn certain things.
For he can sit up with gravity, which is patience upon approbation.
For he can fetch and carry, which is patience in employment.
For he can jump over a stick, which is patience upon proof positive.
For he can spraggle upon waggle at the word of command.
For he can jump from an eminence into his master’s bosom.
For he can catch the cork and toss it again.
For he is hated by the hypocrite and miser.
For the former is afraid of detection. 
For the latter refuses the charge.
For he camels his back to bear the first notion of business.
For he is good to think on, if a man would express himself neatly.
For he made a great figure in Egypt for his signal services.
For he killed the Icneumon rat, very pernicious by land.
For his ears are so acute that they sting again.
For from this proceeds the passing quickness of his attention.
For by stroking of him I have found out electricity.
For I perceived God’s light about him both wax and fire.
For the electrical fire is the spiritual substance which God sends from heaven to sustain the bodies both of man and beast.
For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements.
For, though he cannot fly, he is an excellent clamberer.
For his motions upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadruped.
For he can tread to all the measures upon the music.
For he can swim for life.
For he can creep.

That cannot be beat. Second comes “Pangur Bán”, and then all the rest are also-rans, though Eliot’s cat poems are pretty good.

h/t Merilee, Ginger K.

From Katzenworld and the Spectator we have pieces on the use of AI technology not just to entertain cats, but also to determine whether it makes them happy. Click the headlines to read:

From the Spectator (archived):

Spectator,  an excerpt:

There’s a dystopic feel, too, to the futurist utopia imagined in artist collective Blast Theory’s film ‘Cat Royale’. The guinea pigs in this experiment in robotic pet-sitting are three cats, Ghostbuster, Pumpkin and Clover, filmed over several days being fed and entertained in a brightly coloured play environment by an AI robot arm. The arm puts down food, dangles strings, rolls balls and drags a blanket around. The string acts on the cats like catnip – they look seriously overstimulated – but the Small Dimpled Ball Ramp Roll game leaves Clover cold, lowering her happiness score by 1 per cent. My sympathies were with Pumpkin, whose happiness scores remained stubbornly low. Amusing as it is to watch, it’s not funny to think that similar systems of measurement are used on us.

Katzenworld:

The premise (from Katzenworld):

New installation from provocative UK artist group, Blast Theory, asks if AI can make us – and our pets – truly happy

Never-before seen footage of cats interacting with an AI-powered robot arm has been unveiled this week as part of a groundbreaking new project.

Blast Theory’s art installation Cat Royale, which launched on March 22, sees three cats – Clover, Pumpkin and Ghostbuster – go into a specially-built feline ‘utopia’ at the Blast Theory studio for six hours a day over the 12-day project, where they have space to relax, play and explore.

During their daily visit to the utopia, the cats are supervised by a Cat Welfare Officer, and entertained by a robotic arm. At the centre of the installation is a robotic arm, which uses AI to learn what games and snacks the cats like. The robotic arm offers treats, throws a ball, dangles a feather, jingles a bell, or offers a massage depending on how the cats interact with it.

And a computer vision system measures the happiness of the cats as they play with the robot arm, in an attempt to learn how to make them happier. The system then uses this learning to suggest new activities for the robotic arm to try.

Eight cameras capture the cats’ every movement. Audiences across the world can catch up with daily highlights from inside Cat Royale, released at 8pm GMT every day throughout the project on the Blast Theory website.

In episode 1, the cats can be seen responding enthusiastically to the robot arm’s offer of treats, while the narrator poses the unsettling question, “Is it best if the AI learns that they love snacks, and offers more and more of them?”

Cat Royale is also being streamed daily to the World Science Festival in Brisbane, Australia between 22 March to 2 April, before touring to Science Gallery London and Wales Millennium Centre in the UK later this year.

This is the latest project from Blast Theory artists Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj, who are renowned for creating artwork that puts the public at the centre of unusual and sometimes unsettling experiences, to create new perspectives and open up the possibility of change.

If you’re worried about the welfare of of the moggies (I love their names):

The Animal Welfare and Ethics Review Body at the University of Nottingham and animal behaviourists from the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) are consulting with Blast Theory throughout the project to ensure the safety, wellbeing and care of Pumpkin, Clover and Ghostbuster.

Here’s Day 1 (the whole 12-day site is here); there are 30 toys and 60 games to entertain the cats.

This is the twelfth and last day of Cat Royale. Do they look happier?  I think they need humans! I suppose you could use this as a catsitter if you go away for a short time and provide a litterbox, but let’s see what happens at the end of the study. There’s a grandiose bit at the end about how this applies to humans and their desire for experience and instant gratification. Oy!

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If you have a Senior Cat, you’ll be interested in this article from Bored Panda (click to read):

An excerpt:

The current life span for cats is about 15 years, and everyone agrees that’s not enough. Japanese scientist Dr. [Toru] Miyazaki is of the same opinion and decided to work hard on creating a miracle – prolonging the lives of our beloved furry companions. Looks like he succeeded and his solution could potentially double cats’ life span!

. . .Dr. Miyazaki’s breakthrough comes in the form of the “AIM” injection. It’s a medication that has demonstrated an astounding potential to help kitties suffering from chronic kidney disease. The scientist and his team pinpointed the root cause of this treacherous ailment, which paved the way for the development of the injection. Cat owners rejoice!

But how long do we have to wait? The “AIM” injection is currently in the clinical trial phase and is anticipated to be available by 2025. The latest trial results have showed a level of efficacy that has exceeded all expectations and has the potential to revolutionize feline healthcare. Even poor cats who were deemed to have only a week left showed remarkable improvements after receiving an injection.

This medication is unique as it as has the potential not only to treat but also prevent chronic kidney disease, extending not only feline companions’ lifespan but also their quality of life. Imagine a world where cats can enjoy longer and healthier lives, staying with us for decades. It will be a better place for sure.

. . .That’s not all of the good news. Dr. Miyazaki is determined to make this life-saving medication accessible to all. They plan to lower the medication’s price to ensure that every pet owner can afford it. It shows the genuine love and care the researchers have for these wonderful animals. No one should ever choose between food or medication for their best friend and these brilliant scientists are there to ensure that.

Not only do the scientists work hard to help beloved pets, but also regular people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the funding for this study came to a halt. They reached out to numerous platforms and soon people started donating to the cause with heartfelt messages and well wishes. So basically, this medication was made with love and it is a well-known fact that if you do something with love, it works 10 times better.

. . . The future looks promising and hopefully soon we will be able to grow old with our beloved pets and be grey together. Thanks to the brilliance and big hearts of these scientists, many of us will have numerous more years of half-eaten mice on the porch, furballs and incredible love from our furry companions.

Does it work? Many cats die from chronic kidney disease (CKD), and I found one Nature paper suggesting that feline AIM supplementation might cats recover from kidney injury or CKG (AIM is the name given to feline apoptosis inhibitor of macrophage, which seems to become inactive during kidney disease). A publicity article from the University of Tokyo says the same thing, but adds that AIM could help with other cat diseases:

Since returning to the University of Tokyo in 2006, Miyazaki shifted his research towards all kinds of illnesses with a focus on AIM, and has published a number of papers demonstrating how AIM responds to obesity, liver cancer, type 2 diabetes and chronic peritonitis. In 2016, his paper clarifying AIM’s involvement in cats’ kidney disease was published in Nature Medicine. Kidney disease is caused by dead cells piling up in the urinary tract that eventually block off the passageway, much like a clogged up drain pipe, leading to kidney damage. Miyazaki describes AIM as a sort of agent serving to unclog the pipe.

As for humans, the publicity paper adds this:

Miyazaki says he likes cats, but what drives him the most is his determination to meet the high expectations of cat owners. He also goes on to speak about a dear friend he lost during his medical intern days due to a terminal illness, and that she was a cat lover too.

“I believe that perhaps my friend is one of the reasons why I was destined to save cats – I wouldn’t have ever imagined myself focusing on cats otherwise. In reality, however, I have witnessed many people passing away due to incurable illnesses, so I feel strongly about eventually using AIM to treat people. That is the greatest motivation that is supporting my research right now.”

So, ask your vet in a year or two. Miyazaki has already helped produce a cat and a kitten food supplemented with AIM protein, but I haven’t seen controlled blind testing showing that this cat food helps with feline longevity.

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A scary story from the Washington Post (click to read):

The tail:

Tux the cat seemed under the weather, so his owner, Palash Pandey, decided to take her to a vet near his home in Austin. He called for a Lyft.

When Pandey arrived in the Lyft at Banfield Pet Hospital, he climbed out of the back seat behind the driver, and walked around the car to get Tux, who he said was in a carrier on the floor behind the passenger seat. That’s when, Pandey said, the driver unexpectedly drove off with Tux inside.

“I was racing next to the car, banging on the windows and shouting, but he just sped up and took off,” said Pandey, 23, recalling the stressful afternoon of Sept. 30.

“I just stood there in shock for a couple of minutes, wondering what to do,” Pandey said.

Pandey called the driver several times and messaged him on the Lyft app telling him he wanted his cat back, he said.

About two hours later, the driver responded through the app, Pandey said, telling him, “I don’t have anything of yours,” and “She isn’t there sorry.”

Here’s Tux:

Here’s part of the text messaging between driver and frantic owner in which the driver says, “Nope, I have no cat”:

The staff posted a frantic message on reddit and Twitter (“X”) to try to find the cat:

As sometimes happens, the whole world became concerned about Tux (a tuxedo cat) after the message became viral:

People from around the world became invested in his story and wanted to help Pandey reunite with the black-and-white tuxedo cat he’d rescued as a kitten, he said.

“I’m in Europe and kept waking up at night to see if you posted any updates,” wrote one user.

“Do you know the drivers name or plate number?!? I can find all of their info,” wrote another.

“Facebook and ask people to share on Nextdoor Email local vets with a photo Visit the shelter in person Local news Posters with text large enough to be read by passing cars,” wrote someone else.

Comments started snowballing on social media, and people in Austin contacted local television station KVUE about Pandey’s situation, leading to a story.

Tux was taken back to the vet, but whatever ailment she had was gone.  Lyft is paying the vet bills, as it should, but it’s still a mystery how the cat got out. Someone surely let the cat out of the carrier and the carrier is gone. The police are still investigating (a cat is a valuable family member!) The driver should be fired! At any rate, all ended well, but if I had a cat I’d be sure to tell the driver if I were taking it in an Uber or Lyft vehicle.

“If not for all the people who stopped what they were doing to help me out, I have to wonder if I’d have my cat back,” he said.

h/t: Debra, Ginger K.