Here’s a question that cat owners probably ask themselves. Certainly some cats go nuts when they see themselves in the mirror, but they could be thinking it’s just another cat and not their own reflection?  Here, according to petMD, is how SCIENCE addresses the question. click to read:

The test scientists use for self-recognition is the famous “mirror test“, which has been criticized because it depends on a critical use of animal vision, and not all species are very visual. They have, for example, used odor in animals like dogs (e.g., do they recognize their own odor?) From the article:

Understanding that you are the person staring back at you in the mirror may seem obvious, but it’s a feat of mental gymnastics that you probably didn’t develop until you were 18 to 24 months old. Scientists have used the mirror-self recognition test (also called the MSR or mark test) to assess self-awareness in humans and animals for decades.

How the test is run varies slightly from study to study, but MSR tests work by exposing animals to mirrors. Once the animal is used to the mirrors’ presence, the researcher places a marker, like a sticker or a patch of dye, on a part of the animal’s body they can’t readily see (their face or neck, for example).

If the animal investigates the visible mark on their body while looking at themselves in the mirror, they are said to pass the MSR test. In other words, they saw something unusual on their body when they looked in the mirror and reacted in a way that showed understanding that their reflection was their own image.

Some animals, such as great apes, elephants, dolphins, and magpies, have passed the MSR test, but many others haven’t. While there haven’t been any rigorous mark tests involving cats, one recent study made use of YouTube videos and concluded that cats can’t recognize themselves in the mirror.

But what about moggies?

Understanding that you are the person staring back at you in the mirror may seem obvious, but it’s a feat of mental gymnastics that you probably didn’t develop until you were 18 to 24 months old. Scientists have used the mirror-self recognition test (also called the MSR or mark test) to assess self-awareness in humans and animals for decades.

How the test is run varies slightly from study to study, but MSR tests work by exposing animals to mirrors. Once the animal is used to the mirrors’ presence, the researcher places a marker, like a sticker or a patch of dye, on a part of the animal’s body they can’t readily see (their face or neck, for example).

If the animal investigates the visible mark on their body while looking at themselves in the mirror, they are said to pass the MSR test. In other words, they saw something unusual on their body when they looked in the mirror and reacted in a way that showed understanding that their reflection was their own image.

Some animals, such as great apes, elephants, dolphins, and magpies, have passed the MSR test, but many others haven’t. While there haven’t been any rigorous mark tests involving cats, one recent study made use of YouTube videos and concluded that cats can’t recognize themselves in the mirror.

If you look at the paper, the answer is clearly “we have no idea,” for they don’t even used the “mark test” on cats. Clearly there is an important question here begging for an answer, and that answer is not that hard to get, even if the test produces false negatives (e.g. when animal does recognize itself but the mark test fails). Cats are visual animals, though, so someone should slap some red sticky dots on cats’ heads and see what happens. The article even tells you how to do it at home!

The best thing about the MSR test is you can easily try it at home with your own cat. Here’s how:

• Place a large mirror on the floor where your cat likes to spend a lot of time.

• Let your cat get used to the mirror for at least a few days.

• Cut out two small squares of clear tape. Leave one clear and color the other so it will clearly stand out when placed on your cat’s fur.

• When you’re ready to perform the test, place the colored piece of tape on the bottom of your cat’s neck and the clear one nearby.

• Put your cat in front of the mirror and watch how they react.

• Cats who look at themselves in the mirror and quickly try to remove the colored piece of tape might be demonstrating self-awareness!

I’m not sure what the clear tape is for, though.

There are videos of cats seeing themselves in the mirror, but they say little about self-recognition:

When you watch videos of cats seeing themselves in the mirror, it’s obvious they know that something important is going on. The cats’ body language falls into two categories:

• Aggressive: The arched back, erect hair, and puffy tail flicking back and forth are all signs of agitation and aggression in cats. Often, cats show signs of aggression because they are scared and feel like they need to defend themselves.

• Curious: Some cats don’t appear agitated but are simply curious. Their eyes are open wide, and their ears are pricked forward.

You can see both aggression and curiosity in the linked video, which I’ve put below:

***************************

From that ever-informative magazine Newsweek, we learn that people are starting to dunk their faces into bowls of ice water or ice cubes, convinced that this will improve their skin. (I have no idea if there’s any data to support this, though the magazine found one doctor who said, “By constricting blood vessels, cold exposure reduces inflammation and redness, alleviating puffiness and restoring a refreshed look. Cold exposure is particularly helpful for those who have irritable skin through the constriction of blood vessels, alleviating swelling and flushes.”)

At any rate, a helpful cat helped its staff get through this painful procedure. Click on headline to read.

An excerpt:

For many, achieving flawless skin doesn’t happen overnight and often requires effort—whether through skincare products, facials, or even dunking your face in a bowl of ice-cold water, as this woman demonstrates.

Ice-cold therapy for facial skin can reduce puffiness and inflammation, and tighten pores; however, putting your face in the freezing water is the hard part. So, it’s no wonder Makayla Raezz (@makayla.raezz) is reluctant during her TikTok video, which has an astounding 17.7 million views.

Fortunately, she has a supportive kitten called Calypso who seems determined to help Raezz reap the benefits. She stands on her hind legs, places her front paws on her owner’s head, and simply pushes her face into the water.

The feline is referred to as her owner’s “personal cheerleader,” but not all TikTok users agree. Many were left wondering if the cat’s actions were playful or something more sinister. The debate in the comments continues to grow, with some users calling it “supportive” while others remain suspicious of the cat’s motives.

So far, the video has 2.8 million likes and over 7,000 comments, with many viewers assuming the worst.

“I think your cat want[s] you dead,” said one user, while others have written in the first person what they believe the cat would say if she could talk.

“Shhh shhh don’t fight it,” said one comment with over half a million likes, and another wrote: “This hurts me more than it hurts you.”

“Shhhhh just go into the light, girl!” said a third commenter and a fourth wrote: “Nah she was tryna take you out right there sis,” gathering over 20,000 likes.

Nonetheless, whatever the cat’s intentions were, her owner seemed happy that she helped her brace the cold. She even smirks at her kitten’s efforts, amused by the unexpected push. After all, it is beneficial.

Here’s the video under debate:

@makayla.raezz

#iceyface

♬ original sound – ;༊

****************************

The movie “Flow,” an animated film featuring a cat and some other creatures, like a capybara and a lemur, encountering a worldwide flood apocalypse, is superb, and I’ve been touting it for a while. Well, it just won the Oscar for the Best Animated Feature Film, and you should see it. Below is a video of the award, and notice the black cat to the left during the award and in the picture below. Note also that one awardee says that “we’re all in the same boat,” indicating one theme of the movie, which features no words or humans—only animal noises. The movie was made by a group that included Latvians, French, and Belgians.

Oh, here’s the trailer again:

*************************

Lagniappe: A statue memorializing a famous cat lady who lived on the Canary Islands of Spain:

h/t: Ginger K.

Tùng Nâm is a young Vietnamese artist whose work ranges widely, including landscapes, book covers, stamps, and, of course, cats.  The Colossal gives a selection of his art, which you can also find on his Instagram and Behance page (links below).  The text:

Accompanied by delicate insects and social betta fish, the cats in Tùng Nâm’s illustrations (previously) alternate between curiosity, serenity, friskiness, and determination. The artist portrays a diversity of feline natures, merging their likenesses with flowers, waves, foliage, and clouds.

Nâm’s characters are playfully anthropomorphized, donning patterned kimonos and hair ornaments. The series emerged organically from practice sketches of flowers in the ukiyo-e style.

“I felt like it was missing something, so I tried to add a cat as the protagonist,” Nâm tells Colossal. “Somehow it still doesn’t feel right, so I think of adding a companion—fishes, butterfly, dragonfly—like they were encountering each other in a specific moment.” Fittingly, he called the series An encounter.

An accompanying collection, A Floating World, takes further inspiration from the genre, directly referencing the Japanese word ukiyo. The term describes a hedonistic lifestyle in Edo—now called Tokyo—in the 1600s, spawning a style of art that captured the mood and interests of the period. Famed artists like Hokusai or Hiroshige focused on woodblock printing and painting to represent scenes from history, folk tales, kabuki actors, flora and fauna, landscapes, and more.

For Nâm, ukiyo-e provides the starting point for exploring a range of subject matter. He’s currently exploring ideas for further illustrations that incorporate different animals and visual cultures.

Find more on the artist’s Behance and Instagram, and click below to see more cats:

From Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lâm Tùng Nguyễn (@tung.nam)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lâm Tùng Nguyễn (@tung.nam)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lâm Tùng Nguyễn (@tung.nam)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lâm Tùng Nguyễn (@tung.nam)

The cover of what looks to be a Kafka book, but I wasn’t able to translate it:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lâm Tùng Nguyễn (@tung.nam)

The artist:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lâm Tùng Nguyễn (@tung.nam)

Go here to see his designs for 15 stamps depicting animal species endangered in Vietnam.

*********************

And here’s a short video of a cat roaming through the history of art. The Facebook caption says this:

Image of the cat through art history ⏳🐈 Via @fibulamedia 📹 makegallery

*****************

Do our cats love us?  The “happiness reporter” of The Globe and Mail, Erin Anderssen, gives us an ambiguous answer. Click below, or find the article archived here:

The ambiguity!

When Montreal cat behaviour expert Daniel Filion speaks at conferences in Canada and France, he often gets asked the same question: Do our cats love us?

Mr. Filion, who founded the company Éduchateur in 2007 and goes by the Cat Educator in English, used to answer bluntly: No.

“But the reaction I got from people was very, very negative,” he says, including one woman who marched angrily out of the room in protest.

He has since learned to play philosopher. “What is our definition of love?” he now asks when the subject comes up before an audience of veterinarians, shelter staff or cat owners. If we mean the kind of sacrificial love where you put the interests of another before your own, he says, “then no, your cat doesn’t love you at all.”

But if you mean the love where you value the person who adds something to your life – security, tuna, a warm lap – well then, he says, “your cat loves you very, very, very much.” He wraps up his talk to applause, and cat owners depart much happier.

Here of course he is using behavior as an indicator of love, but that’s okay.  As you might guess, the aloofness of cats results from their not having been bred to do specific jobs, but also because wild dogs, including the gray wolf, the ancestor of all dogs, is a social animal, while there is only one species of wild cat that is social, and it ain’t the ancestor of house cats. (Do you know the social cat species?) More:

It’s not surprising that dogs evolved into the perfect companion animal. For at least 15,000 years and likely much longer, they have been deliberately bred and trained to work and live well with people.

Their ancestors enjoyed the easy meals that early humans left in garbage on the edge of camps. Mutual fear became amiable appreciation. Dogs learned to protect people, pull them around and help them hunt, and eventually became today’s typically unemployed, entirely dependent fur babies that take long naps on our beds and bark to be fed.

But cats are more of a puzzle, says Peter Pongracz, an animal biologist at the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, who was one of a few scientists studying cognition in cats back in 2005. “Cats had to take a much longer journey,” he says, to find their way into our homes and hearts.

Unlike the social wolf-like animal that became the domestic dog, a cat’s ancestors were “miserable, solitary animals who hated other cats,” Dr. Pongracz explains. But cats more comfortable with humans encountered humans more comfortable with cats. They became revered (and were also sacrificed) as divine creatures in cultures such as ancient Egypt, and valued, over the centuries, for their skill at dispatching rats from kitchens and ships. But aside from a few pedigree breeds, most kittens are still the result of random hook-ups, and cats have retained their wild independence.

Miserable? Hate? This is pure cat-dissing, even though the points are largely true.  One might as well say that dogs are obsequious, which they are.  More:

As Dr. Pongraczputs it, cats do not need us – unlike dogs, if we vanished tomorrow, cats could hunt to survive – butthey are content to benefit from us.“Dogs perfectly adapted to the human environment,” he says. “Cats perfectly incorporated humans into their environment.”

And new SCIENCE!

When they can be persuaded to co-operate, however, cats have been challenging the dog’s unique people-whisperer status – even to the surprise of cat-owning scientists such as Dr. Pongracz. In a significant finding in 2001, for example, members of his research team confirmed that dogs could reliably follow directions when a human pointed. Five years later, Dr. Pongracz was co-leading a similar experiment using cats as a reference for how dogs performed, and discovered, unexpectedly, that the cats could also follow finger-pointing to find hidden food.

Cat research has since surged ahead. Studies suggest that cats know their own names, as well as the names of their pet siblings. They can distinguish their favourite person’s voice from a stranger’s and learn new words quickly.They recognize and respond to human emotions, such as anger and happiness. And, like dogs, when presented with two bowls of food, cats will typically go first to the one a person last touched, even if they watched it being emptied, a sign that they’re taking cues from humans.

. . . Even the idea that cats are strictly solitary, Dr. Niel says, merits re-examining. When food is plentiful, she suggests, cats actually prefer to live in a social group, which is why you see them happily snuggling with their animalco-habitants in all those TikTok videos. A study published in January found that domestic cats also tended to mimic the expressions of their fellow felines – a behaviour common among humans and other animals that’s meant to signal goodwill.

. . . According to Dr. Udell, cats can learn pretty much anything dogs can – and often more because of their physical abilities. In classes at Oregon State University, they master the usual tricks, such as sit, stay, lie down and play fetch. The more extroverted graduates walk on leashes; one student now happily accompanies their human on kayaking trips.

And while 40 per cent of the cats in the classes are most motivated by food as a training reward, Dr. Udell says about half prefer affection or praise from their owner – a finding that also places them on common social ground with dogs.

 

And isn’t that the whole point of all this new cat science? Cats are who they have always been; understanding them better requires humans to adapt. Perhaps we should also worry less about whether cats love us, and think harder about how well we are loving them.

Here’s a BBC video telling you how to read your cat’s feelings from its face (the link is in the article).  It also shows that cats appear to read OUR feelings. It’s a good video, so watch it.

*****************

Two items of lagniappe today.

First, a black cat sings the blues:

And a well-paid movie cat:

h/t: Reese, Lianne

First, it’s a cat holiday in Japan!  From Facebook:

*******************

The Kiffness is back, riffing on a cat’s meows. This time it’s “Kitty Caught a Mouse”, with tumpet and keyboard accompaniment. (Not the gratuitous appearance of a d*g.)

**********************

In this short video from Instagram, a cat not only makes biscuits, but also delivers them! (Props to whoever finds the original song in Spanish that accompanies this video.)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cats Doing Things (@catsdoingthings)

*********************

This event was covered by several British papers, including the times (click below, or find it archived here) as well as the BBC.  Yes, a cat got on a train and left home, but it all ended well.

From The Times:

Tilly’s journey from a Times graphic:

And her obligatory FB page:

Tilly’s reputation for adventure has won her fans from around the world. She has her own Facebook page called “Tilly the adventure cat”, which has more than 4,700 followers.

********************

Lagniappe: A cat inhabiting what I think is the statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooking Rio. Click on it to see the Facebook video.

h/t: Amy, Divy, Mark, Chris

Here’s a good headline from the NYT (click to read, or find it archived here). You may remember Palmerston, the the resident Chief Mouser of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) at Whitehall in London, who lived on Downing Street and often got into tiffs with Larry, the Chief Mouser of the Cabinet Office. Well, Palmerston, once rumored to have died, is very much alive, and has been transferred to Bermuda.  Click to read, or find it archived here.

Andrew Murdoch, who had served with Palmerston in the Foreign Office and had maintained a residence with him in retirement, was appointed to the governor’s role in September.

A black-and-white cat, Palmerston is named after Lord Palmerston, a two-time prime minister in the 1850s and ’60s. Lord Palmerston was known for promoting British nationalism and intervention. Palmerston is known for mousing.

As a rescue cat, Palmerston is of uncertain age, although he was reported to be roughly 2 years old when appointed in 2016. His relatively low profile in recent years had led to rumors of his demise.

Lord Simon McDonald, formerly the most senior civil servant at the foreign office, said the most frequent question he had received since leaving office was what had happened to Palmerston. “The answer — retirement to countryside — usually treated as euphemism for ‘He died.’” he wrote. “Now we have proof of life in Bermuda! Enjoy your latest assignment.”

Much as Palmerston’s eponymous prime minister could never get along with another prime minister, William Gladstone, Palmerston has had a longtime rivalry with Larry, the chief mouser at 10 Downing Street. Although many details remain murky, reports say that in 2016, Larry tried to enter the Foreign Office in London, leading Palmerston to claw him. Larry was injured enough to need veterinary treatment. Bitterness lingered.

Larry is currently serving under his sixth prime minister. With Palmerston now more than 3,000 miles away, their feud is likely to diminish, political analysts say.

This video shows Larry confronting Palmerston, but also chasing a fox and rejecting Liz Truss’s attempt to pet him:

*********************

And The Kiffness with a great riff on a cat’s vocals: “Sometimes I’m Alone”.  The cat is named George, as you’ll see at the end, and The Kiffness is on tour!

*********************

Lagniappe:  Two today!  First, a cat misuses a store display.

pic.twitter.com/wkcmkCkkWF

— Meonk! (@majeliskucing) February 12, 2025

And wait! There’s more!  The cat movie “Flow,” which I’ve mentioned before, has now been nominated for two Oscars. It’s for everyone, not just cat lovers, for it features adventures and many animals. You can read about it in the NYT below by clicking the headline, or find it archived here, and I’ve put the trailer below. SEE IT!

An excerpt:

“We beat James Cameron!” the filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis said with a shy smile during a recent video interview. “Flow,” his second animated feature, is now one of the highest grossing films ever in his native Latvia, surpassing even Cameron’s “Avatar” franchise at the local box office.

Latvia has a population of roughly 1.8 million people, and “Flow” has sold more than 255,000 admissions since it was first released in August 2024. The film is still playing in Latvian theaters.

“We still have sold-out screenings in week 23 now,” Zilbalodis, 30, said.

A critical and commercial success, Zilbalodis’s computer-animated, dialogue-free film follows a group of animals helping each other survive a flood. It received two Oscar nominations last month, for best animated feature and best international feature, and is the first Latvian production nominated for any Academy Award.

. . . . The “Flow” craze has reached far beyond Latvia. Here in the United States, the animated adventure, which opened in theaters in late November, has become the all-time highest-grossing release for the distributors Janus Films and Sideshow, bringing in $4 million so far.

“Flow” has received terrific ratings on Rotten Tomatoes: 97% from the critics and 98% from the public. You don’t see ratings like that for most movies, especially animated ones with no words!

The American Trailer:

h/t Michael, Laura

The first of our three items today (plus there’s lagniappe at the bottom) are the three best cat commercials ever made.  I chose the first two, but reader Divy insisted that I add the third,

This one was originally broadcast on the Superbowl, and in my view has never been bettered for a cat commercial. Repeated watching enables you to pick up things you missed the first time.  It even has its own Wikipedia entry, “Cat herders“, which says, among other stuff, this:

Cat Herders is a commercial made by Fallon for Electronic Data Systems (EDS). Alluding to the management-speak idiom “It’s like herding cats” that refers to the impossibility of controlling the uncontrollable, it posits an analogy between herding cats and the solution of seemingly impossible problems by EDS.

. . . Authentic cowboys were required, and a casting call was put out across Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and California. Some of the cast had never acted previously but others were SAG-accredited.

Actor Tony Becker points out that many of the actors were “real-life cowboys”, and gives a comprehensive cast list [the list is on the page]

Real cowboys!

Here’s a well-known Cravendale Milk ad for cats with thumbs. Very clever!

And here’s one of the “got milk?” series that is Divy’s favorite. Cats don’t have no truck with fake milk!

*****************

This is from Fox News, but there’s no politics in it—just humanity. Click to read about a lovely man who rescued a kitten from a bunch of horrible people who glued it to a road! How much more disgusting can people get?

An excerpt (the story is from October of 1918):

A tiny kitten may have shaved off one of his nine lives after being discovered glued to a busy road in Oregon on Friday.

Chuck Hawley was driving to work on Silverton Road Northeast just outside of Salem around 7 a.m. when he noticed there was something in the road in a busy lane of traffic.

“When I went to pick her up, her feet were stuck to the road, and I’m like, ‘uh oh.’ So I start to pull her feet up, and it was like a rubber cement, so she was glued to the road.” Hawley told FOX12. “It was all under her neck and then she had a little bit down her side, but it was mostly her tail and her feet.”

The 5-week-old kitten, frightened and cold, had her feet soaked in glue that was “sort of rubbed into the pads of her feet,” according to Hawley.

“Sticky” the kitten was found with her feet stuck to a busy road on Friday. (FOX12)

“I think the way she was sitting someone actually went out and put her there,” he told FOX12. “Because there were no glue footprints around, it was just a glob of glue under her, so it looked like someone just took her and put her in the road.”

Hawley took the kitten, now named Sticky, to an animal clinic where staff members had to use mineral oil to get the glue off her tiny paws. Puncture wounds were also found on the kitten’s neck, but it’s yet to be determined what caused them.

On Monday, Hawley said he spoke with deputies from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, who came to his home to take pictures of Sticky’s neck injuries as they investigate how she ended up glued to the road.

And so Sticky was saved!

The little kitten is expected to make a full recovery — and wound up getting a new home out of the ordeal after Hawley adopted her.

“The funny thing is we were just talking about getting a cat a couple of nights ago,” he said. “Seems like there’s easier ways for the cat to find us, but if that’s how we’re doing it, okay, I guess that’s how we’ll do it.”

Here’s a 2-minute4 video:

Stuff like this both restores my faith in humanity but also makes me realize how horrible some people are. Torturing a poor animal that never did anything to you! Isn’t that the way that some serial killers start?

********************

From Bored Panda we have some vintage cat photos. The site has twenty, but I’ll show half a dozen.  Click on the headline below to see them.

First, BP‘s intro:

Cats have a way of capturing our attention and our hearts, and it’s not just a modern thing. Long before the internet, people were photographing their furry companions, preserving those moments for generations to enjoy. Thanks to Paula Leite Moreira, a Brazilian journalist and the creator of the Instagram account “All Vintage Cats,” these charming snapshots from the past are now reaching a whole new audience.

Paula’s collection is like a time machine for cat lovers. From historical archives to forgotten magazines, she’s unearthed photos that show cats in all their timeless glory—lounging, playing, or even posing with famous faces. If you’re someone who appreciates old photographs or just loves cats, this project is a quiet little gold mine you won’t want to miss. Scroll down to take a look at some of the gems she’s shared.

Milk right from the source!  A note from the article:

Bored Panda reached out to Paula Leite Moreira once more to learn more about her insights on the evolving portrayal of cats in photography across different eras and cultures.

When asked if she noticed any patterns or trends in how cats were photographed across different decades or countries, the journalist mentioned that in the early days of photography, around the mid-19th century in Europe, photos often depicted kittens mimicking human poses, sometimes even dressed in tiny outfits. “These images were frequently made for postcards. But aside from that period, it’s remarkable how photos from decades ago are similar to those we see today. Owners also enjoyed capturing casual moments with their cats at home, with their families, in an unpretentious way.”

From the article:

We were curious about the most surprising or unusual place where Paula came across a vintage photo of a cat. “Definitely a photo of a kitten ‘hidden’ in the so-called ‘longest beard in the world’ of a Frenchman named Louis Coulo,” the journalist responded.

It is a great photo, and here it is:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by All Vintage Cats (@allvintagecats)

************************

Lagniappe: From Newsweek, a cat with salacious markings (below).  I don’t think the black bit looks like a middle finger, though:

Picking a name for a pet is no easy task, which is why one owner took to Reddit and asked for name suggestions, but the answers they received were unexpected.

Reddit user u/martindukz posted to the subreddit channel r/funny a picture of the unnamed brown, white and black calico cat sitting on a footrest. Within four days, the post received over 27,000 upvotes and almost 10,000 comments.

People were basing their suggestions on a specific physical characteristic. The shape of the black fur marking on her lower back immediately gave people ideas; however, the suggestions weren’t what the owner expected. People flooded the comment section with not-safe-for-work name options.

The owner commented on the post, saying the cat’s name is Chili, but based on the marking, they are open to renaming her; hence, the post to Reddit.

Newsweek reached out to u/martindukz via Reddit for additional comment.

“I may be a little dark, but I see a middle finger in that black splotch. I won’t make any name suggestions,” commented one Reddit user.

Others suggested subtle names after humans such as Richard or the author Charles Dickens. A more subtle name idea was Clickbait “because that mark looks like a computer mouse.”

Not everyone had their heads in the gutter. Someone asked: “Am I the only one that thinks it’s a lighthouse?”

h/t: Dan, Divy

The Kiffness combines two songs into a great music video: “Hold Onto My Fur” and the famous “Oh Long Johnson”

********************

From Bored Panda, we have pictures of stuff on cats (one of them stars the famous Japanese chill cat, Kagonekoshiro (“white basket cat”).  Click below to see them all; I’ll show only five:

This is the renowed Japanese cat Kagonekoshiro, also called Shironeko, who died at 18:

Cover y9ur sleeping moggie with Cheez-Its (I prefer the white cheddar version):

This cat is not happy. . .

****************************

Newsweek apparently has a pets reporter, and here’s one of her reports (click to read):

The scoop:

A cat’s response to her feline sibling coming home from a vet appointment left the owner, and viewers, gasping with concern and laughter.

A January 16 TikTok video by user @marissanicoleeeee showed the owner’s two cats sitting on the floor next to each other. The Siamese cat had recently returned from a vet appointment where he was sedated.

Veterinarians sometimes suggest sedating cats during a vet visit if they are fearful, anxious or aggressive. Sedating cats helps them feel less stressed. Plus, it ensures the veterinary team is safe while handling the feline. Following sedation, cats might be groggy, sleepy and quieter, a Pets Radar article reported. It can take a few hours to a day for the sedation to fully wear off.

Still feeling the effects when they returned home, the owner’s cat did not have the reflexes felines normally possess. Instead, he sat there blissfully unaware his black cat sibling, Peach, was plotting to take “full advantage” of him.

Peach realized her feline sibling wasn’t fully himself. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to fight back, she took her chance and pawed him on his face, sending him toppling over. The owner gasped at what just unfolded in front of her.

The video. What a bad cat!

@marissanicoleeeee

#funnycat #vetmed #tik_tok

♬ Just the Two of Us – Grover Washington, Jr.

More:

Knowing what she did was bad, Peach immediately ran off. She thought she could get away with it, considering the state he was in, but her owner captured it all on film.

Meanwhile, the sedated cat rolled to his side and stayed on the ground. He looked up, confused about what happened. The owner felt sorry for him, writing “my poor sensitive boy” on the video.

Newsweek reached out to @marissanicoleeeee via TikTok for additional information and comment.

Viewer Reactions:

Peach’s unexpected reaction to her feline sibling coming home garnered 446,200 views, 101,900 likes and 138 comments on TikTok as of Wednesday. People called it a “hit and run.”

“I can’t stop watching this. The fact the black kitty BARELY tapped him is sending me,” commented a viewer. The owner responded that she agreed it was a light tap.

A second person said: “Black kitty is like, ‘Yo bro snap the F*** out of it.'”

Yep, it’s those likes and views that people want. Eventually you MONETIZE IT!

h/t Nicole, Ginger K.

Mittens the cat was supposed to fly with her family, which was moving from New Zealand to Australia, but managed, due to bungling, to make three trips. The Associated Press reports (click on screenshot below to read):

The tail:

A Maine coon cat named Mittens became an accidental jetsetter this month when her cage was overlooked in a plane cargo hold and she made three trips in 24 hours between New Zealand and Australia.

Mittens, 8, was booked for one-way travel with her family from Christchurch, New Zealand to their new home in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 13. But owner Margo Neas said Wednesday that as she waited for Mittens to be unloaded from the plane’s freight area, three hours passed with no sign of the cat.

It was then that ground staff told Neas the plane had returned to New Zealand — with Mittens still on board. The return trip involves about 7.5 hours in the air.

“I said, how can this happen? How can this happen? Oh my God,” Neas said.

The Air New Zealand pilot was told of the extra passenger during the flight and turned on the heating in the cargo hold to keep Mittens comfortable, she added. Neas was told that a stowed wheelchair had obscured a baggage handler’s view of Mittens’ cage.

That is true incompetence. Mittens could have frozen! But wait! There’s more after this video report:

But the saga had a happy ending. The pet moving company that Neas used to arrange Mittens’ travel met the cat on her return to Christchurch and ensured she was back on the plane for another trip to Melbourne — this time just one way.

Mittens had lost weight but was otherwise unharmed.

“She basically just ran into my arms and just snuggled up in here and just did the biggest cuddles of all time,” Neas said. “It was just such a relief.”

Air New Zealand would reimburse all costs associated with Mittens’ travel and has apologized for the distress caused, the airline said in a statement.

“We’ll work closely with our ground handler in Melbourne to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” said spokesperson Alisha Armstrong.

Meanwhile Mittens, not usually an affectionate pet, is “the cuddliest she’s ever been,” said Neas.

“The cat gets as much attention as she wants right now because we’re just so absolutely and utterly relieved to have her back.”

It’s a good thing that Air New Zealand is covering the travel costs, but they really should give Mittens a year’s supply of cat food.

*************************

From Britain’s Daily Star, a big kerfuffle ensued over plans to put a dog salon (Barks ‘N’ Bubbles) next to a cat cafe (The Andover Catfe). This is recent (click to read):

An excerpt:

A row has broken out after plans were announced to open a dog grooming salon next door to a cat cafe.

The owners of the cat cafe have been left furious after proposals were put forward to open the dog salon right next to their feline-friendly shop in a town centre. The owners of Andover Catfe say a dog grooming shop will ‘potentially end us’ because its clientele will spook their feline residents, Solent News reported.

The comments come as an application was formally submitted by Barks ‘N’ Bubbles to open a salon in Andover, Hampshire. Stuart Waue, owner of Andover Catfe, lodged an official objection to the application and said his cafe attracts cat lovers from around the UK.

He said: “Our Catfe is supposed to be a calming atmosphere for people to enjoy the company of cats. If there are agitated dogs making a lot of noise it will upset our cats and create unnecessary stress for them and our visitors.

A Tik Tok video of the Catfe:

@inandoveruk

🐈ANDOVER CATFE – A MUST VISIT 🐈 We were lucky enough to get a slot at The Andover Catfe last week – what a lovely treat – have you been yet? The cats are adorable, the atmosphere is super calm and relaxing and the food, drink and service was great. Booking is advisable and you can stay up to date with opening hours and availability on their website: http://www.andovercatfe.co.uk. Let us know when you visit! #inandover #supportlocal #andovercatfe #andovercatcafe #andoverhighstreet

♬ original sound – InAndoverUK

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you.

“The increased canine traffic in the area may also result in an increase in dog faeces and members of the public waiting outside our windows with their (potentially agitated and noisy) dogs disturbing our cats and visitors.

“We’re not dog haters and can appreciate a small business taking on an empty unit, but to open this right next to a cat cafe will potentially end us when we are currently bringing people from outside the town into Andover.”

Amber Cooper, owner of Barks ‘N’ Bubbles, defended her application.

She said: “As an owner of three cats myself, I understand the Catfe’s concerns about any distress their cats may experience due to having a dog groomers close by.

“However, as I work by an appointment only basis and will have a waiting area in my salon, I am confident my clients will not have any need to wait outside the premises, potentially causing a disruption to the cats/

“Furthermore, I have known my customers for many years, all of which are responsible owners who will be sure to pick up after their dogs should they mess outside.

“Finally, I take steps in my business to minimise noise wherever I can, and due to not sharing a wall with the Andover Catfe, I am sure any noise will not be heard from inside the cafe.”

The Daily Mail gives the other side (click to read):

How did it turn out? Well, you can google Barks ‘N’ Bubbles in Andover, and it’s run by the woman fighting the Andover CatFe, but their Facebook Page has a phone number and no address. Either the cat vs. dg fight is still going on, the dg salon is being built, or Barks ‘N’ Bubbles lost its fight.

*********************

Bored Panda tells us about a dedicated Instagram page called “only silly cats allowed“, which is fully of silly cat memes and pictures. The page below (click to read) has the 30 best ones, but I’ve chosen a half dozen directly from the Instagram site to show you on this Caturday. The site has a gazillion of variable quality.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 🌈😼Only silly cats allowed😼🌈 (@meow.citos)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 🌈😼Only silly cats allowed😼🌈 (@meow.citos)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 🌈😼Only silly cats allowed😼🌈 (@meow.citos)

No he doesn’t . . . .  (a video):

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 🌈😼Only silly cats allowed😼🌈 (@meow.citos)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 🌈😼Only silly cats allowed😼🌈 (@meow.citos)

. . . and Valentine’s Day is coming!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 🌈😼Only silly cats allowed😼🌈 (@meow.citos)

h/t: Ginger K.