Katja M. Guenther's book, " The Lives and Deaths of Shelter Animals ," offers an intimate look into a high-intake animal shelter in the United States.  Over three years of ethnographic research (see definition of this term below), she encountered thousands of animals and noted a stark contrast in their stories and survival odds.  Guenther suggests that the fate of these animals is closely tied to societal views on race, class, gender, ability, and species.  See citation for this image below. She deciphers the language and actions of the shelter's staff and volunteers, shedding light on internal power structures, breed bias, and moments of defiance and autonomy.  This book prompts us to reconsider the way we view our animal companions. Guenther's research highlights the impact of social justice on animal shelters, revealing the processes that lead to higher rates of animal euthanasia in public shelters.  Her work shows that human-created inequalities affect the d...

Veterinary clinics in the UK are experiencing a vaccine shortage. This poses a challenge for cat owners, as British cat boarding businesses require vaccinations before accepting cats. Consequently, owners are unable to go on holiday if they intend to use a boarding cattery. While this issue does not affect those who employ cat sitters, the majority of cat owners in the UK likely opt for boarding catteries due to their affordability. The newspapers are reporting that veterinary practices in the UK with vaccine shortages are prioritising elderly and vulnerable cats for injections. The image is representational as the vet is administering the vaccine incorrectly! A boarding cattery owner mentioned that the only exception to the standard vaccinations for cat flu, feline enteritis, and feline leukaemia is if they cannot be given for health reasons. In such cases, cattery administrators will require a titre test from a veterinarian as an alternative proof of immunity. Veterinarians from a so...

This is the story of a Japanese guy whose name is Toco. He had and still has a lifelong ambition to be an animal. To achieve that goal, he spent about ¥2 million which is about €12,800 to have a costume made specifically for him of a collie dog. It is very realistic and when he wears it in that moment, he becomes a collie dog. You can see him wearing the costume in the video below.  When I first saw this moving, large collie dog, I thought that it was a robot because it moves rather slowly and clumsily. And then I realised that it was Toco inside the costume. He has a successful YouTube channel with 44,500 subscribers and the video on this page has been seen 6.5 million times approximately. The video was shot last year when he was interviewed by RTL, a German TV station. It must have been shot by an employee of the German TV station. He obtained permission to use the video and release it to the public. That is why it is on his YouTube channel. Toco commissioned a Japanese company c...

This is a well-known viral video on various social media platforms. It is called "Weird-looking cat Wilfred goes viral with Michael Rapaport voiceover" on YouTube. The voiceover is very amusing. Due credit. But someone has to address the more important issue: the state of the cat. The appearance of this inbreed Persian cat is shocking. She has a grossly undershot jaw and bulging eyes. I'd bet my bottom dollar that she has other health issues due to inbreeding depression. The breeder of this cat - and this is a case of deliberate artificial selection - has done a terrible job. She/he (usually a she) has been a complete unmitigated failure. Inbreeding depression I have a page on inbreeding depression which you can read by clicking on this link if you wish . But I'll cover some basic points here and the information comes from the well-known Robinson's Genetics for Cat Breeders and Veterinarians at page 115. One of the symptoms of inbreeding depression is stated as, ...

Screenshot. A nice gesture by the dad but I feel sorry for the frightened kitten brought into a home where there is an army of kids which inevitably means a ton of noise and disruption; the opposite to what cats need and enjoy. Especially kittens. I bet there is nothing in the home to make is interesting for a cat such as climbers and scratching posts etc. And the way he brings the kitten home in a paper bag of the kind for inanimate objects bought at a shop does not look good to me. I don't see this working out great for the cat. I see the beginnings of neglect due to incompetence. I see a frightened kitten growing up fearfully and becoming anxious. I see kids mishandling the cat and the kids getting scratched. Problems all the way because of a lack of preparation in terms of education on cat caregiving. But that's me: somewhat cynical and pessimistic. You get that way when you are 74 years old. You've seen all the problems that can happen and think they will happen. It ju...

Not about cats today. Ran out of things to say. But this is probably more important right now. It is certainly the topic of the month. But I am not going to comment on it. Well not much. Funnily I have two good friends who live nearby who are gay. They are males and they used a surrogate mother to give them a daughter. They have a great daughter and they raise her very well. But they are not trans. They are gay men of the type that we are used to seeing. Good guys. Intelligent and sensible. But someone has called these two psychopaths. Is that fair? It can't be. It is cruel. It is transphobic. It is sexist and biased and all the other bad things that people say about the LGBTQ community. It is the reactionaries speaking. The mainstream who hate the fringe people, the outsiders. A couple of women or a couple of men in a good relationship can raise kids very well and certainly to a standard that is as good as married couples. BUT there is a weakness which is obvious: in the former th...

He's holding that saucy position for a long time which is a little unusual. I say 'he' as most ginger tabbies are male. And he looks like a purebred cat to me because he oozes class but he probably isn't. He actually looks somewhat like a traditional Persian. I suspect that he has been grooming his tummy and just stopped while his caregiver videos him. This resulted in him 'freezing' with his right hindleg cocked in the air. You can see his tail gently flicking around. Clearly, he is engaging with what is happening around him. The tail movement indicates an interest in the video making.

Almost every day that I do research on writing an article for this and other websites I bump into British news media discussing how to keep domestic cats out of gardens. They consistently recite the same old mantra about using smells and tea leaves and any other old wives tales to keep those pesky domestic cats from ruining your carefully-tended garden. How many backyards are beautifully created and maintained!? And frankly it's all baloney. If a neighbour's domestic cat comes into your garden, they don't always pee defecate in the flower bed. They might sometimes but I would not say that it is commonplace. And how many neighbours' cats come into your garden in the first place? Wandering neighbourhood cat. Image: Battersea. Secondly, probably the best and simplest way to deter a cat from coming into your garden - if it really does bother - you is to wave your arms around and make a noise. A domestic cat exploring your garden will be a little bit nervous in the first pla...

What can one say about this silly TikTok video. The video maker has dreamt up a way to try and provoke a response from a very laid-back blue British Shorthair cat by placing an ice cube on them while they are minding their own business on a cat tree. And guess what? Nothing happens. Screenshot. Despite that disappointing result the video has garnered 45.3 million views!! Something has gone bananas on the internet. The video is worth about 45 hits.  Anyway, is it a good idea to place an ice cube on your cat. It is obviously very cold and that's why the person put it on their cat. They'd hoped that its coldness would upset their cat sufficiently to stimulate and exciting response. No. And it is not a good idea. It could only be uncomfortable if she/he felt it. Why deliberately make your cat uncomfortable?   Oh, I forgot: to make a silly video. British Shorthairs are pretty unflappable anyway. You'll find the breed recommended for apartment living because of their character...

Well, I am going to attract disagreement on this one. The video on TikTok is rather strangely described as showing how stray cats survive outside. It does not. It just show us these things: The person doing this is being cruel in placing two live crayfish or large prawns on a motorised buggy to take the animals to the cats to feed on. Do crayfish feel discomfort? Or pain? Do they have emotions? I don't know but it is likely as scientists have confirmed that fish feel pain . The crayfish also died of suffocation because they breathe through gills like fish. So, this person has committed these animals to death in one of two or both ways. Both are cruel and there was no need for it. The cats are naturally cautious about eating the live crayfish as they are jumping about (in discomfort?!!). Cats are naturally cautious when faced with a strange live or dead object. They prod and poke it to check it out and preferably kill it by batting it about the body and head as it is much safer tha...

This article is about the failure of trying to get an obese full-time indoor cat outside for exercise. It was probably the first attempt. Things will improve with patience if that is what the caregiver wants. This is an instructive video on a couple or more areas of domestic cat caregiving. The cat is Roxie. She is a tortoiseshell-and-white. She was a nice svelte charmer when she was adopted but ended up a tubalub in quite a short time.  She became addicted to 'therapy eating' to alleviate her boredom. She also enjoyed watching feline television aka looking out the window at the birds and the bees.  But that was the totality of her mental stimulation. Not enough. So, her loving caregiver throught that he'd take her out to his gorgeous back garden. So impressive. So big with a gardener on a motorised, sit-on lawnmower. The Shawshank Principle governing indoor cats It was all but impossible to get her into a harness for the lead. He managed with only one scratch. But she wou...

In the United States, the first thing that the cat owning public fear is their cat being attacked by a predator outside the home and that predator is often the resilient coyote . The second thing they mught fear is shown in the video below. It is the theft of their cat for nefarious purposes. It is not a great video as half of it appears to be about selling security cameras but the theft of the cat sitting on what appears to be the stairs of a condominium in New York City is the kind of thing that cat owners anywhere fear.  The owner may believe that their cat has become lost or has been killed and cannot be found. They would often have no idea that their cat has been deliberately stolen. The security camera tells them what happened if they are lucky but it is almost worse because of the fate that will them befall the cat in the hands of criminals. I am sure that some thieves see indoor/outdoor domestic cats as livestock to be 'harvested'. They are on the streets of suburbia to...

A domestic cat fights off a coyote on the veranda of his home. The video is hard to watch and those who've watched it agree. The commenters have presumed that the cat escaped. We know that it is a male cat as ginger tabbies are almost always males. We can see that he puts up a great fight. The coyote grabs the cat as he tries hard to escape by climbing the railings. The coyote grabs his back in his jaws which is hard to watch. RELATED:  How to haze coyotes which is necessary in Florida where they are booming . The video is unpleasant which may upset advertisers so I have decided to place it on a page where there are no adverts. Please click here to see the 8 second video if you wish . It is not that bad and the cat is not killed in the video. Coyote catches cat but the cat fights back and I believe that he escapes. Screenshot. That bite must have injured the cat with puncture wounds but he then fights back using his sharp claws to box the coyote around the muzzle. That must have in...

Racehorse foals slaughtered in Irish meat factories for human consumption. The kind of foal bred and slaughtered for human consumption. Image: Getty. Because too many racehorses are bred due to a lack of regulation in Ireland and the UK, The Sun newspaper reports that more than 3,000 racehorses many of them young foals were slaughtered for human consumption. Here are some statistics about this obnoxious practice: Since 2020 more than 3,000 racehorses have been killed in Irish meat factories according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. 151 of the horses were just one-year-olds. 288 were under three years of age. The average life expectancy of a racehorses is between 25-30 years. Only 7% (210) of racehorses slaughtered were aged over 20 years. More than 50% (1534) were under the age of six when there was slaughtered. Almost one third (839) were younger than four years of age. These numbers relate to thoroughbred horses with passports issued by the horseracing conglome...

NEWS AND VIEWS: I don't know about you, but I am sick to death of hearing about Instagram influencers. I think they are a bad development. Why should these people influence others? What gives them the right to think they can influence others? But they do because their young followers are gullible. In this story, an Australian influencer living in Sydney is facing a backlash. She disclosed during a jokey podcast that she had killed two cats when she was a child. She was nine years of age when she killed the first cat accidentally, she says. Her name is Emma Claiir. You wonder whether the surname is made up as a lot of what they do is made up. She made the confession in her podcast called Simply Chaotic. I agree: it seems to have been chaotic. She was asked to disclose a secret and she told her co-host: "I killed my cat." She then chuckled as if it was amusing and continued: "I didn't mean to. I was young. I was a child. I was swinging my cat around. Like I was thi...

NEWS AND COMMENT: This strange event took place in Bulgaria. It appears to concern the behaviour of a local woman who became frustrated about cat owners in the area being irresponsible and not spaying and neutering their domestic cat companions.  Kidnapping the cat. Image: Dobromira Stoilova. And therefore, it appears to me, that she took direct action but in doing so she broke the law although I do not think that she will be prosecuted. The woman concerned posed as a municipal employee. She kidnapped the cat in the Vetren neighbourhood of Burgas in Bulgaria. She arranged for the cat to be castrated. This must have been a male cat but see note at base of article. The cat belonged to Dobromira Stoilova who has security cameras. The "municipal employee" can be seen and heard enticing and luring the cat towards her. Despite the intervention of neighbours, she captured the cat and put the carrier into the trunk of her car. The cat was castrated and returned about four days later....

The video explains the reason. Is it the correct one!? Bagel is an extremely laid-back cat. You wonder why. I think it is because she was raised from a young kitten by the woman narrates the video. Well, that may be part of the reason. But she accepts the sunglasses without complaint it seems.  Bagel. Screenshot. And the reason she wears them is to keep dust out of her eyes because she has no eyelids. This means she does not blink and blinking removes dust and grim from the eye's cornea. The don't have to be sunglasses. Some sort of goggles might have been more effective but not as attractive. I sense that Bagel's owner has used her cat's eye condition to turn her cat and herself into a celebrity. Cynical? The motivation is usually a desire by the cat's owner for celebrity. There is a lot of it about. A deep yearning for celebrity status thanks to social media. It was not always like this believe me.   Cat eyelid agenesis Cat eyelid agenesis, also known as feline e...

Sylvester Stallone is about to star in a Paramount streaming series about his family life. And low and behold we see him grooming his Scottish Fold dilute calico cat with a brush or comb. He is seen tidying up his cat's tail.  The cat meows half in complaint but I sense he is gentle even though he is a bit of a hulk. He has a dog too who he feeds at the dinner table on his food and surrounded by a bevy of glamorous women, one of whom I presume is his wife. He likes his ladies. A lot. And they love him. The bit where he grooms his cat appears at 0.18 seconds in. He's a bit vain (a lot of vanity?) as he is irremediably attracted to cameras. He likes to be videoed and photographed which points to a belief that he is attractive to the girls and has the associated confidence to exploit it. I like Stallone. I like the films - or at least some of them - that he has made or starred in.  Now for the disclaimer. I have said that he has a dilute calico Scottish Fold. His cat is definitel...

Me: I'm into bestiality. Screenshot. Here is the TikTok video. It is clickbait. I thought I'd show you what clickbait looks like. It comes in many forms with one objective: to get internet surfers idly wandering around the internet to click on a link or video. The video or article never delivers. The objective is not to deliver. It is to entice people to click on the link to increase visits to their video or website. In this instance they videoed a pretty, innocent-looking woman and juxtaposed her face with ugly words on criminality. There is a clash between the words and the image. That gets the juices flowing in some people. Note: bestiality has been legalised in Spain recently ! Hard to believe but it is true. The video:

The local residents thought she was cat burglar but they were badly mistaken. The local residents thought she was cat burglar but they were badly mistaken. Screenshot. The video tells the entire story clearly and concisely. No need to add words except to say that it is a good story of a mother's unfailing love and commitment in feeding her kittens and initially human ignorance followed by sensitive cat rescue and care. @xzhhamaonea The Mother’s love of a Cat! After watching it, I can’t help to cry. #CatsOfTikTok #CatLovers #CatsLife #love #FunFactsAboutCats #movie ♬ Love You So - The King Khan & BBQ Show This video has a shelf life. I hope you see it before it is gone.