It is a picture which tells a thousand words. It's a good picture because we have this wheel against which rests a vulnerable tabby kitten turning towards an outstretched hand belonging to the rescuer who tells us that "A year later and he's doing great." Kitten rescuer "A year later and he's doing great". Photo: Reddit uder:u/penny1605. It is all there. We don't need any more information. And when you go onto the Reddit.com website you see a lot of this. You see a lot of what I can only describe as decent people who are sensitive to cats and their rescue when in need. There are so many cats like this and to be honest it is heartbreaking to know that as I write these words there are millions of kittens on the planet in this exact position waiting to be rescued but many will not. Not enough people talk about the failure of cat domestication. It is a hard topic to confront because people associate the domestic cat with cuteness and funny cat videos. Th

The video deserves 50 million views as it must have taken an age to set up and create. They trained the cats to play their part. I think it was made in sections over a period of days or even weeks. You need a real commitment to do this because you don't know if you'll be rewarded. If it takes 20 hours of work to create it, you can only justify that input of time and effort if you can get something out of it which means success! Success is measured in the number of views and also the amount of money you make in advertising revenue. This gamble worked out and well-done to the creator. When you see their YouTube channel you can see that they have found a successful cat video formula. That means that they are not taking a risk on whether this cats and dominos video would be successful. They know it will be successful. It is about the degree of success. One of the big issues of doing work for the internet either in writing articles or making videos: is the effort worth it? There has

Austin Animal Center has been in the animal rescue news as per a report by Nathan J Winograd who has his own organisation called the No Kill Advocacy Center . He has a Facebook page and on that page is a post which explains the situation. In summary, the shelter decided to, in effect, gag the employees to stop them criticising the shelter in public (see FB post below). Winograd argued that that was a breach of their constitutional rights and also it would increase the prospect of animals being killed at the shelter. He won the argument which doesn't surprise me because he's a brilliant lawyer and an incredibly precise individual.  He firmly believes that every animal shelter in America should be and can be no-kill which means that 90% at least of the animals at the shelter should be adopted out and not euthanised because a home cannot be found for them. He has advocated for this over many years and in essence changed the face of animal shelters in America of which there are ab

Helios is an unneutered male ginger tabby. These are popular cats with a reputation for having nice personalities. Not sure if there is a connection between coat and personality but that's the reputation. Ginger tabbies are also called red tabbies and yellow cats...enough. Man shows off his cat's pom-poms. Screenshot. Helios's Pom Poms The thing that I immediately picked up on in this video is that Helios looks as if he is 'whole', unfixed, not castrated because he has those typical chubby cheeks. And his owner makes a point of it saying that people love his chubby cheeks. I do too. I guess most of us do but you have to have pom-poms. Sorry the video is not embedded. Why did this guy stop other sites showing the video? Click on the link below please. Helios's owner also makes a big deal about his cat's testicles. He shows them off to the world. Unpleasant human behavior. I think this is undignified and disrespectful. Almost pornographic I'd say. It is

A cute looking, chonky cat to use modern parlance. In cat fancy language he is 'cobby' . He looks like an overweight, young, white British Shorthair. I am probably wrong. But he does look overweight though. Puppy fat?  I am minded to think of the large number of young boys in the UK who are overweight. If a boy or girl is overweight it is likely that they'll retain their excess weight into adulthood which will cost them ill-health. Type 2 diabetes is on the cards. Chonky cats are cute in one way and seriously wrong in another. Weight issues in cats is a serious matter.  Picture circulating on the internet in the public domain. Source: Pinterest. Perhaps the fad of publishing pictures of fat cats on the internet has promoted fatness in cats. There is certainly a bit of carelessness in sizeable percentage of cat caregivers in keeping their cat's weight stable at the correct level. This is important and not difficult to achieve. The problem is that some owners have lost

He is described as the "Huge Stray Cat Got into a Shelter and Suddenly Talked to People". We do not know how 'Clanksy' got into the shelter. They don't say that he was brought into the shelter but that he got into it which implies that he walked into it of his own accord. But what the shelter staff love about him, and the same applies to me, is that he has this beat up male tomcat appearance with huge cheeks because he was not neutered combined with a sweet voice and the desire to be a friend. This ginger tomcat has a beautiful personality. The video has been deleted at source! Typical. But here is a montage of the fella: You'll love this chonky, jowly ginger tom street cat. Image: Pinterest. The word 'chonky' is not a typo 😉. It is a strange personality really because as a stray cat he should be more fearful of people but clearly he is not. He likes people. He wants to talk to them in his sweet voice. It's almost certain that he was fed from tim

Is there any significance in the presence of a ginger tabby cat in the film Gone Girl? Apparently in real life the ginger tabby's name is Cheetoh. I watched the film last night for the second time (good idea as it is fairly complicated). I noticed that Cheetoh is a very calm cat; probably a professional cat actor. He's very placid which is exactly how you want them when they are acting! In the trailer you see him at the end in a very short scene. There might be some significance in having a ginger tabby cat in this film because he didn't have to be there. There are three major players in this film, the husband, the wife who goes missing, and the cat! Well, that's incorrect because the cat isn't a major player, the police are but the cat seems to be a thread going through the film. He's not there that often but it's quite noticeable. CLICK FOR SOME MORE ON CATS IN FILMS Amy (Rosamund Pike) with the family's ginger tabby cat. From the film. I think his

It is horrible to be perfectly frank. People are using the rescue of kittens to make money. Kittens are being exploited. Sometimes the rescue is genuine and sometimes the whole thing is scripted and set up. Either way it's an exploitation.  In this non-descript video with no more than 3000 views, which is very bad by the standards of these people, this bloke goes around some abandoned buildings looking for a kitten to rescue. That is what it looks like. He is pulling back bricks and masonry to try and find an abandoned kitten. It's almost like looking for a cockroach or something. It is quite horrible. Note: the still image which is used to promote the video looks very much set up to me. If I am correct, the video maker placed a kitten under a large tile and took the photo. Highly immoral behaviour and frankly cruel. In the UK he'd be prosecuted for animal cruelty under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Surprise, surprise!! YouTube admin have removed the video and a good thing t

This is a video by a guy called Anton, as I understand it. He lives in the Russian city of Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia). It is a city with a population of about 85,000. Going east to west it is about in the centre of Russia and north of Mongolia. In the video he goes up to a tiny grey tabby kitten. How did the kitten get there? What is the backstory? We don't know but the kitten was abandoned. Was he or she abandoned by a person or the feline mother? Too many questions and no answers. Anton is gentle and thank God he turned up to save the life of this kitten. I would think that he or she would not live long on the streets of this city. Enjoy the video. It's a good one because it is kind and gentle. The standout feature is that we have a man working alone saving kittens and cats on his own. But for YouTube nobody would know about him except some neighbours and local people. And thanks to YouTube he's done very well. He has turned something good into something

The Myth of Pet Overpopulation - a video by Nathan Winograd, the world leader on how to reduce animal shelter killings.  Nathan is a brilliant man. He loves detail and precision. He is energetic and motivated. He is committed. Try and stay with the video for its entire length because what he says is good stuff.

This is a video from what I believe is Series 3 of Doctor Who Confidential. It is not news as I am referring to Feb 2015! It is nice, though, to see David Tennant work with cats. He said that he is not big on cats but he appeared to have made a friend of one of the kittens. I don't think he likes cats much though. Shame.  Here is a nice still image from the video which I have cleaned up: The kitten is a tortoiseshell-and-white (calico in US lingo). David Tennant and a basket of kittens (video). From the video. I do love it when celebrity actors at least pretend that they like cats! It helps cat welfare in a small way. It promotes the idea that cats are sentient. There is a great barrier in human society to accepting that animals are sentient. This is because when you accept that they are (and they are) it stops humans abusing animals.  David Tennant and a basket of kittens (video) Humans often abuse animals in the pursuit of financial profit. Animals get in the way of profit or hum