Although the dwarf cat in the video is impossibly cute, it has been bred to extreme with extremely short legs and arguably, there are many people who would say that this is unfair, unkind and indeed inhumane. The domestic cat has a perfect anatomy for predation. This is destroying that perfect anatomy for commercial gain.  Many people believe that dwarf cats in general are unacceptable. Many believe that they should be banned. In Germany they are banned because they are considered to be the product of torture breeding. RELATED:  Qualzucht – Torture Breeding . The problem is this: dwarf cats have difficulty in behaving normally. They have difficulty in expressing their normal behaviours. It is through the expression of normal behaviours that domestic cats can be content. Under the UK's Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is arguable that the creator of this cat is in violation of that act. It isn't just the expression of natural behaviours which is a problem with this individual cat wi...

It is always great to see real a commitment to rescuing cats after a disaster and then reuniting them with their owners which is always a highly charged an emotional moment. The cats in this video seem incredibly calm. I am impressed both with the cats and with the rescuers. Update : the video below can only be seen on YouTube sadly but I have added one from Twitter above. At the point of reunion, of course the owners want to take their cats out of the cat carrier and hug them. Entirely understandable. But when I see this, I am concerned about the cats running off.  They are, after all, in a strange environment. They have just been through a terrifying experience. There are strangers everywhere. There is noise and commotion. Isn't there a good chance that these cats would run off and never be seen again? I think if I was the cat owner, I would take the carrier with their cat inside to their home or to a secure place if there is one and open the carrier there. Or perhaps I am being ...

Yep, I realise that this is not about kittens or cats but I have never really seen an animal like this one before. The coat pattern is strong and the spine of hairs on the back are interesting.  This is a youngster. When they become adult, they lose the long spine hairs. Aardwolf rescued. Screenshot. I am sure that most people haven't seen this interesting little creature before. Very strong and interesting coat markings. There is a resemblance to the hyena but this is a much smaller and non-dangerous (to humans) creature. They live of termites and worms etc. An insect eater of sorts.  The species name is 'aardwolf' which means 'earth-wolf' in Afrikaans. They live in East and Southern Africa.  The caption to the video states: This aardwolf cub named Maple looks like a "mini-hyena." When she was found on a farm in Johannesburg with no mom in sight, a wildlife vet name Lauren helped raise her. When she was finally ready to go on her own, she looked back to t...

The Independent reports that "Zoopatrul Ukraine has rescued over 1000 cats and dogs from war during the last 11 months". I love these guys and ladies who are thinking of animal welfare under the most difficult conditions. Someone has to look after the animals because humankind has a moral obligation to do it as it is through human folly that this horrendous war started in the first place.  It is the folly of Vladimir Putin and his expansionist policy to try and turn Russia back into the USSR. And in the meantime, about half a million animals are killed. The last statistic I saw was that around a third of a million animals have been killed in the Ukraine war but that was about six months ago. I believe that we have an obligation to think about all those cats and dogs, domestic animals, that are now wandering around hopelessly lost in the rubble of what was once their home. And the zoo animals. And livestock and horses. I could go on. All victims of Putin's crimes. These pe...

Personally, I am sick and tired of seeing domestic cat behaviour described as 'weird' in YouTube videos. It really is time that people grew up on the subject of domestic cat behaviour. Humans are describing cat behaviour which they do not understand as "weird".  The word describes something which is unnatural when this is natural cat behavior under the circumstances in which they find themselves. Stop using the word please. This is a human issue. In fact, you could go so far as to say that the weird behaviour is being demonstrated by people in failing to understand domestic cat behaviour which they have an obligation to understand if they are to be good cat caregivers. It is not the place of humans to denigrate cats about their behavior because humans have failed to understand it.  Below is one of those irritating 'weird cat behavior' videos of which humans are so fond. The problem is that YouTube video makers like to develop click bait to encourage people to...

I am going to be a grumpy old man again. Do we have to continue to peddle the idea that black cats bring good or bad luck in 2023? Black cats have had a bad time of it for centuries. Why are we still attaching bad or good luck to black cats?  This is just a silly human superstition exposing human weakness and emotional frailty. It would be far better to drop all superstition and start being more rational. I find it staggering that in this day and age superstition is still very relevant to billions of people's lives. Superstition has no place in society any more. It should be over and done with. It is the cause of so many problems not least of which is the persecution of the black cat by idiotic people. How many black cats have been hurt because of this stupid superstition? How many black cats have been persecuted during Halloween? You might know that many cat shelters and animal shelters do not allow black cats to be adopted during Halloween to protect them.  That tells you th...

Esme, a black cat living in the US, is famous for being branded a 'thief' by her owner, Kate who even went so far as to place a big sign on her property next to the items that she had "stolen" from her neighbours.  It's a bit of fun but some people like me can both see the fun I also see something which is not quite right about this. There was a bit of a backlash by people who claimed that the owner was shaming her cat publicly. The news media presenter you see on the video said that cats don't have shame. They can't feel emotional shame. And therefore, it is not possible to shame them. A fair point. Nothing to be ashamed of But the fairer point is to say that there is nothing to be ashamed of 😃. It is entirely natural feline behaviour. Natural for a cat living in the human environment where they have difficulty expressing their natural instincts to hunt. Natural hunting behaviour When a domestic cat does this and "steals" objects belong to nei...