Little tiny Brazilian cat steals chicken. This kitty had a plan. First try, no. Steps back to reconsider. Second try, 5.7 of 6 for technical merit, 5.0 of 6 for artistic impression in the Cat Olympics. Pretty darn good. But not up to the Torvill and Dean standard. But, that was ice dancing, not chicken stealing. Hard for a tiny kitty to dance with a dead chicken. Comment from Michael: I love this cat (and chicken). But is this a purebred cat? Not sure, but it is clearly a pointed cat with fur that is not Siamese fur. The pointing is blue ( grey ) and solid (not tabby pointing). As the fur is longer than for a Siamese , if this is a purebred this little gutsy charmer could be a Ragdoll or Ragdoll mix. Or a plain old but gorgeous, moggie. Direct link is here Direct link is here Nine judges- Technical merit- 6.0 from three, 5.9 from six. Artistic impression- 6.0 from all judges. This was record-breaking. Have I mentioned that the week-long 2009 World Figure Skating Championships...

"Dandy" is a Maine coon in France, and he loves being vacuumed! Direct link is here Oh! at the very end, above, I caught a glimpse of a dandy cat toy- which I just featured in a post with Maine coon kittens! Maine coons having fun with "Catit Play Tunnel" toy Direct link is here And, a reprise of one of my favorite youtubes of Vinski, the Norwegian forest cat in Finland: (original post is More Vinski- getting a quick dustoff ) Direct link is here --- Human of French Maine coon says: "Dandy et l'Aspirator, mieux que le Furminator ! ;-) - La suite, Dandy en redemande! - M'enfin, faut bien qu'il se repose l'Aspirator un peu !" Online translation: "Dandy and the Aspirator (vacuum cleaner), better than the Furminator! ; -) - The continuation, Dandy asks again some! - at last, is necessary although it rests the Aspirator (vacuum cleaner). Comment from Michael: I am dreaming of the day when I can hoover my girl cat. Her fur would benefit ...

Direct I can haz link is here. My original post is here . Knowing that Easter is coming up, I wanted to reprise something I have said before- but in a much stronger form. Earlier, in my post Holiday Kitteh Reindeer Costume- FAIL I said "I'm just not a big fan of "kitteh costumes". Cats have an innate dignity that humans often lack." My underlying thought, for what I said more mildly before, is that we humans don't "own" cats. We are very privileged that they have chosen to associate with us. It is an offense to cats to do make them wear "costumes" for our amusement, and that is pretty clear from the sample of comments posted by "the cat owners" in the "information" intro to various YouTubes of cats wearing costumes. Yes, this is a "fair sample": --Captain Charisma hates being a dino cat! --Silver still doesn't like being a dino cat --Jade is our russian blue, she loves her costumes and enjoys tr...

Who's The Fairest of them All? More "Cats in Paintings", and then, "Cats in Books". For some reason or other I got into doing internet research into how cats have been depicted in paintings. Like, I have a gazillion links. But this painting by Frank Paton caught my eye because of my interest in how cats behave in response to seeing themselves in mirrors, and how cats perceive space. I've posted several YouTubes of cats and mirrors click here , and my considered verdict is that they have no idea what's up with mirrors. Nonetheless, there is something essentially true about this painting: Who's The Fairest of them All? Frank Paton ca. 1880 Quoted from wiki - Frank Paton(1855 - 1909) was an English artist of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, best known for his paintings of animals and scenes of rural life. His most famous compositions, "Fairest of Them All" and "Puss in Boots" (1880), have adorned many a wall in the form of plat...

Catit Senses Play Circuit Ball / Tunnel - oh, this looks like fun! Thanks to YouTube, I discovered another cat toy! Direct link is here

More here: , The Unified Catnip Theory Revealed- it's an insect repellent! Direct link is here

Pierre Bonnard was a great painter of cats. But, not in an obvious way. The cats are never the focal point, if there is one single focal point in Bonnard's paintings. Of course not all Bonnard paintings have images of cats. But, hey, I'm a cat blogger! For some reason or another, I started looking for paintings of cats. There are so many. Also see here . But the Bonnard paintings captivated me, the more so the closer I looked. Apart from Bonnard's portraits of Ambroise Vollard with his cat/s, the cats are less obviously presented. But, if you look with an attuned eye, the cat is THERE, just as a cat always is. Not just "there", but often the most animated and intent being in the room. Pierre Bonnard - Ambroise Vollard with his cat (1924) Pierre Bonnard - Ambroise Vollard c. 1904-5 flickr image from Art or Idiocy? First, Ambroise Vollard the art dealer, and then on to Pierre Bonnard the painter, both important in their own ways. Ambroise Vollard has b...

Cats and horses do have a special affinity for each other. That is what I thought, growing up with cats and horses, and it seems to be correct. Direct link is here And, an important note, after reading the youtube comments- this is a "rescue horse" in effect. A few commenters noted how skinny the horse looked. Human says, in comments: "Yes, he was skinny, but he was in our place to get better shape. he wasn't our horse, justa a friend as many others that pass here!" I love this flickr image from gillicious.

I've learned something new about giving a cat medicine. I've read a lot about people trying to wrangle cats, or trick cats, or outwit cats, or out-maneuver cats to give them needed medication. And, something that works for one cat, won't work for another, according to my reading. So, this is FYI, fwiw! Here's the deal: Tootsie has been suffering from some kind of respiratory infection since I got her from the shelter. On my first visit to the vet, a week after I brought her home, the vet gave me some liquid antibiotics. But Tootsie was so unhappy with the vet visit, she became really evasive. And, she is one strong and wiry cat. So, I waited a few days, and then the symptoms seemed to go away. So, in the interest of comity and getting her to trust me, I didn't give her the medication. But, suddenly last week the symptoms returned, and way worse than before. I discovered that the medication, which had been in the fridge, was discolored (label said do not use...

Oscar the Cat and Jasper the Horse- best friends- well, maybe. But, this is a fun YouTube, and I always like YTs with great music. Direct link is here Human says: "This is my horse Jasper and Oscar, the barn cat. They have a very interesting relationship. Oscar likes to bat Jasper in the head and Jasper keeps coming back for more! Oscar never has his claws out so I think they both enjoy sparring with each other." Music is Queen- You're My Best Friend. Direct link is here - if you go there, the entire song lyrics are posted up right- click on "more information".

A lilac point Siamese cat is caught on video stealing kitty treats from the cabinet. And, he knows he is guilty as all get-out! Looking over his shoulder and checking repeatedly for the human, once he opens the cabinet door. Siamese are among the smartest cats apparently. I don't know if they have a moral conscience, but this cat KNOWS that what he is doing is not on the "approved list". ;) Direct link is here I read through the YT comments, and found that the human says: "He is a lilac point traditional (apple head) Siamese". I don't know Siamese, and I don't know about the color pointing thing- so I was at first trying to guess what type of Siamese he was, and then his color. But, the human cleared this up. Here's a sweet flickr photo of two lilac point kittens from seemster . (CC license allows sharing.) Michael over at "Pictures of Cats" has many many pages discussing the Siamese cat- including the "cat fights" over t...

This bengal cat loves sleeping in drawers. I confess I had to watch this a second time before I "got it" as to the trick, but then I was really laughing! Souter has such an innocent look about him... Direct link is here Human says: "My cat Souter (4 m/o bengal kitten) loves sleeping in drawers, especially ones that are closed. I thought that my girlfriend kept leaving her drawers open, and was going to yell at her for doing so, until I saw him doing this. Forgive the sound track, I rushed to get out my camera when I caught him in the act and didn't have time to turn down the stereo." Michael at Pictures of Cats has a great page about Bengal cats. I find these cats fascinating, even tho I don't want to be owned by one. PoC page is here

Otto was rescued as a kitten from a Best Buy parking lot. The humans coaxed him out from under a Semi truck by feeding him some left-over hamburger from Chili's. Otto is "cat star" at YouTube. LOL! This is Otto, doing one of his "special tricks". I've watched it several times over the past few days, and it's a keeper in my category "watch this when you need a good laugh". Direct link is here This is the story of Otto's rescue. Direct link is here

Hi, this is Michael, I run the Pictures of Cats.org website and work with VG. VG asked me to do a post about cat adoption in UK and whether it could be more efficient. The following gives the essence of a much longer exchange we had via email and chat: VG: Hi Michael, from reading my blog stats, there are UK readers who are looking to adopt/ rescue a cat, and “outclick” either to your site, or to the petfinder.com link I give near the top right. You know I found Tootsie, my Maine coon, via petfinder.com US, by searching their internet data base of cats available for adoption. Do you know of any similar thing in the UK? I’ve searched around and can’t find anything like Petfinder in the UK. Michael: Here’s a link to the largest cat rescue organization in the UK, but they don’t have much of an internet presence - http://www.cats.org.uk/ VG: Okay, I’ve checked out the site extensively. I am very surprised to find that there is no way of searching the site to find details of ca...

This is look at pet food recalls of 2007 and 2009- a wider perspective on melamine and our food chain. I happened upon a fascinating Book Salon discussion at Firedoglake with Marion Nestle about her book "What to Eat". Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health andProfessor of Sociology at New York University. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley. It's well worth reading the whole discussion, but from the perspective of a pet owner, her comment here particularly struck me: I’m writing a book about pet food, What Pets Eat, with my partner, Dr. Malden Nesheim. This will be a combination of Food Politics and What to Eat, but for cats and dogs. Like What to Eat, it’s not really about what you should feed your pet, but instead how to think about what to feed cats and dogs. Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua ...

Direct link is here I said: Pretty funny when Mex meows/ scowls at you! What was going on there? Like, "stand back, I'm playing with the water?" Human responds: Haha knowing him, I think he meant more somthing like "hey, you're close all of a sudden! Look, I'm having so much fun!!". I was kinda creeping up on him with the camera.. lol. He's a sweetheart, always meows at me like that when I come near him. (via YouTube comments) oh, and check out Mex's gorgeous fur coat, and those "ear tufts".

This is my favorite scene from "That Darn Cat". I have to confess that it took me a bit of watching to figure out how "DC" got up there on the drive-in movie screen, trying to catch the surfers! ;) Direct link is here I was able to watch the whole movie, thanks to a YouTuber who posted it in 12 parts here . Note that the second part isn't labeled by "part #"- just "That Darn Cat" but the rest are. Part 1 is here on You Tube , part 2 is here on You Tube . I trust y'all can figure out the rest. p.s. click on the label below "cats in movies" for, um... more cats in movies.

Human says: "Every Bengal cat owner knows they need constant activity and enrichment. And that a Bengals's favorite activity is anything new to solve. Here is a few of the things we came up with." Direct link is here This is an all round great video. Watch till the end... ;) Purrrrr.... A page over at PoC (link) has a wealth of information about Bengal cats. The title at the top is "Bengal cats for sale", but that's a bit misleading. Michael can correct me if I am wrong, but my guess is that page started out focusing on the price of Bengal cats (and the cat being stolen from owners) and then just grew and and grew. If you click on the label "Bengal cats" below you'll find more great YouTubes of Bengals on this blog.

Laser pointers are a favorite Human toy. There are gazillions of YouTubes of kittehs chasing laser pointers. This is one of my favorites, with music added by me: Direct link is here , and also links to the original, without music. p.s. I've posted this particular YouTube before, but it was in a post that showed all kinds of animals responding to laser pointers, here , but the kittehs kinda got lost. So, this is a reprise. I have a lot of posts about Maine coons on my blog. I ended up adopting a Maine coon in part because of all the great You Tubes I watched featuring Maine coons- so I decided to create a separate label just for "Maine coons on You Tube". The label "Maine coon" shows all the Maine coon posts. Click on label/s below to see.

What is the color range of cats' eyes? I got curious about this, after doing some research on deaf cats. From Michael's post about odd-eyed cats, here it would seem that the basic colors are blue, yellow, orange and green. I've only just started to dip into all the posts over there, but discovered that the breed standards for various purebred/ pedigreed cats are specific as to the quality of eye color, for example, "vivid green" for the Russian Blue. I went to flickr, and searched for the best photos I could find showing different eye colors- oh, not just the eyes, but the cat too! I'm only posting the ones that show the face of the cat. Along the way, I discovered that there are a lot of different eye colors. And, that sometimes I couldn't figure out how the color fell along the spectrum. I know "blue" when I see it, but yellow/ green or yellow/ orange, well? And, where the heck is "amber" on the spectrum? And, as an aside, huma...

Photo copyright Helmi Flick - please respect copyright Hi, I'm Michael and I like Maine Coon cats . In fact I like all cats. Ah, no that is not quite correct. I like all animals but I write and think about cats as they are companion animals to me. I express myself on my website, Pictures of Cats.org . And Valley Girl (VG), the person who builds this fine website, very kindly agreed to join with me in the common purpose of helping rescue cats and cat charities generally. You will see that teh kitteh antidote/ anecdote is an associated website domain to pictures-of-cats.org. (PoC). PoC's main purpose is, then, to make money to give to rescue cat charities (see PoC Donations ). But it achieves far more than that. It keeps me sane for a start! It provides endless hours of enjoyment and some agony to me. And I know VG likes creating pages for her Blog as well. VG also very kindly trusted me enough to have access to her website, hence this post. I would like to take this opportunity...

Not all white cats are deaf. It depends on many things. This is Casper, a polydactyl cat rescued from the Human's yard. Direct link is here Human says: "6 days 6 weeks 6 months; Well close enough, we found this little kitten abandoned in our yard, still had his eyes closed, middle segment is about Christmas (playing with the wrapping bow), and last segment shows his polydactyl 6 toes, brown/blue eyes. He is not deaf as many are. And just as cute as can be." Casper has one blue eye and one brown/ amber eye, which is a good indicator that he's deaf in one ear, on the side with the blue eye. A good discussion of odd-eyed cats is here. Intro: "What causes odd-eyed cats? The color of eyes of an odd eyed cat are blue plus either yellow, orange or green." An explanation about the cause of white coats and hereditary deafness is here. And, this article gives even more information about the genetics of cat coat color- and white fur and deafness in cats here. Ma...

I have polydactyl Maine coon, a rescue cat, and thus have special fondness for "polys". Frankie the polydactyl cat knows how to work the crowd! What a ham! Direct link is here Direct link is here Click on the label below, "polydactyl", for more polydactyl cats.

The Angeles National Forest above the Los Angeles region is a dumping ground for unwanted pets. In one of those moments of synchronicity, a reader sent me her story from last weekend of rescuing an abandoned dog in the Angeles National Forest, and almost at the same time Michael over at "Three stray cats" wrote a piece about feral cats in Los Angeles. Three stray cats, Feral cats of Los Angeles . The map below is via an online site that includes the Angeles National Forest here. This is, briefly, the story that my reader told me (only slightly edited for length). ~~She and a friend were volunteering at a place in/near the Angeles National Forest last weekend- (~March 2, 2009) We came upon a Pitbull girl, who had obviously given birth to a litter of puppies pretty recently... she was roaming around in the middle of the street, in the middle of nowhere... in the middle of the Angeles Forest!!! Poor thing!!! We pulled over and got her to come out of the middle of the street,...

British Shorthair cats are among the 10 most popular cat breeds. I'm just beginning to learn more about them. But, after watching this fabulous YouTube, I'm sold! Human says: "baby joe joe is teasing his mommy delphi". I really am NOT in favor of silly labels like "the funniest cat video ever", which is a popular YouTube title. But, I'd say this is one of the sweetest cat videos I've found. The "Valley Girl" in me says: "omigod, this is, like, so totally cute, fer sure". Forgive me. Direct link is here This page not only describes the history of the British Shorthair, but has great pictures from the incomparable Helmi Flick. This page has more. And this page I found particularly intriguing, because it weaves together the history of a nation and the history of a cat breed: (intro snippets from that page) ~~The history of the British Shorthair occupies a substantial part of the history of Great Britain, in fact from ab...

There are estimated to be only ~12,000 cheetahs surviving in the wild. They are on the verge of extinction. And, unlike those cute furry pandas, there is little hope of saving the species through captive breeding programs, for a host of reasons. So, let's say each cheetah is a penny, in US dollar terms. 12,000 pennies left. 12 sawbucks. 120 bucks. $120. Not much left in the cheetah bank account. Chart showing the decline in cheetah population throughout the world. Predicted extinction of population is sometime around 2015. Text and graph are from this link . This is a moving video, watch, listen, and please go to the direct link, because the YouTube information (click on more information) has detailed information about how you can help. Direct link is here Cheetahs are one of the very few big cats that purr, btw. I've posted this YouTube before, but it's worth a reprise: Cheetahs purring and grooming a game ranger Direct link This is a link to my earlier post on ...

So... I just found this, and as far as I am concerned it takes the prize as to "weird kitteh eats". By far. I have some personal experience with durian. Direct link is here UPDATE: I was pretty sure, after looking at above YouTube, and others from the same YouTuber, that Mi Mi is a British Shorthair. But, the YouTube label didn't include that information. The Human was kind enough to respond to my query, and YES, Mi Mi is a British Shorthair. My recent post here has links to more about the breed, along with a totally sweet YouTube. As for my personal experience- I was traveling in Thailand with a friend who writes cookbooks. Deal was, she had never "experienced" durian and neither had I, so late one afternoon we bought one at a local market and brought it back to our "B&B" with the intent of sampling it at breakfast the next day. We two woke up almost simultaneously in the middle of the night, uttering something similar (edited for profa...

Another one from my vast library of "YouTube favorites": Human says (via online translation): When there is a hole to become want to enter is it the instinct of a cat. Original comment is: 穴があると入りたくなるのは猫の本能でしょうか？ Direct link is here I ended up adopting a Maine coon partly because of the great YouTubes I found featuring Maine coons- so I've created a separate label "Maine coons on You Tube". Click on label to see.

I just found this latest YouTube from Human Booglum . We've exchanged quite a few emails about cat "asthma attack symptoms" vs. "cat throwing up hairball symptoms". More on that later. Course, we also discussed our polydactyl Maine coon rescue kitties! This one features "Feets" the polydactyl Maine coon- Human said, in earlier YouTube here , "Feets is our brand new polydactyl Maine Coon, we think he is about a year old and nowhere near full grown. We rescued him from a snowstorm two days before Christmas. He is just a big baby love!" This YouTube made me laugh out loud. Direct link is here Booglum, you say "Feets decides to be naughty". But here's another perspective, which I hope you will consider- Feets wasn't being naughty- Feets was trying to style your hair, but because he's so young, and so new to the hairstyling business, he just didn't get it right the first try. Give him time. Maybe you can show him th...

Another video from my archives/ library of fun kitteh YouTubes: Direct link is here Note how Stitch tries to find the birdies behind the screen. Very similar to kittehs trying to find the "other cat" behind the mirror, as seen below (Human says: Chewie the kitten can't understand where the other kitten is) Direct link is here As I said when I first posted the video just above, I've long wondered about the way kittehs perceive our world, the world we find so "usual". I remember a friend telling me about the kitteh that loved to watch ballet on the telly. And then, would try to find the dancers after they went off screen, looking for them at the side and the back of the telly. More at link .

From my archives- two fun short YouTubes from the same Human (he has two Maine coons): Direct link is here Direct link is here I adopted/ rescued a Maine coon partly because of the great YouTubes I found- so I've created a separate label "Maine coons on You Tube". Click on label to see more great Maine coons on YouTube.

I started this blog in a moment of madness, because I had found so many great kitty YouTubes, and sent them to friends. But then I thought, well, why not start a blog... so that I can have a record of all these great YouTubes for anyone who wants to watch. But, I didn't have any idea where it would go, so I left myself an out: "and occasionally some other stuff, maybe". I'm a cat fan, but also enjoy the art and craft of movies, albeit with a certain eclectic view. Occasionally I go off on a "movie tear" at YouTube. I was off watching Fred Astaire when I remembered an item of memorabilia I had saved. I was in NYC visiting a friend (you'll see the date) and saw this on the news stand. I had to grab a copy- or rather, it reached out and grabbed me. "Taps for Fred Astaire". This is the clip I was watching when I remembered that piece of newspaper memorabilia I had tucked away- "Puttin' on the Ritz". Direct link is here