Apologies to all my regular and irregular readers. My cat blogging has been suffering because of my day job, which is overboard at this point. In trying to make up a final exam, I ACTUALLY found this question in an online test bank. Multiple Choice Question 1. Which of the following is most similar to the negative feedback mechanism in human physiology? A) A car runs out of gas and stops. B) A teacher marks all the wrong answers on students' exam papers. C) A toilet tank refills itself after a flush. D) An automatic door opens as soon as somebody approaches it. E) A clock ticks on a shelf. Hint:

Youtubes of cats and printers- there are a so many of these! But these two caught my eye. In most I've watched, the cat goes wild and crazy pouncing on the paper, and usually destruction ensues, with funny results. But, watch the way this kitty "Smudge" responds. You can almost read Smudge's mind. Instead of mindlessly pouncing, Smudge wants to understand the details of what's going on. Mostly, I think, "hmmm... where did that paper come from, and how did it get there? Is there any more where that came from? Hmmmm.... is there more at the back of the printer? Is it hidden in the scanner? Why didn't I see it move from the scanner to the printer?" Sure looks to me like Smudge has been paying a lot of attention to the situation, and KNOWS that the human hides pieces of paper under the scanner lid. A most intelligent cat! I wanted to see what Pam/werebear at The Way of Cats had written about cat intelligence, as she is a most astute cat observe...

This kitty looks like a near twin of Tootsie, my Maine coon. I ran across this wonderful picture at I Can Haz Cheezburger. I was intrigued, so I left a comment asking about the kitty. The person who posted the picture (and the caption) was kind enough to reply. Yes, she IS a Maine coon. Human (FuzzyWuzzywasabear) said: "She's my father's Maine Coon. She loves crawling inside her pretzel jar and watching the world. I haven't been able to get a picture of it yet, but she also does backwards summersaults to catch her dangle toy." Direct link (with comments) is here . And, it's fun to track the various captions over at "I can haz cheezburger". I found the photo when it was first put up (~2 days ago), and within an hour or so there were 6 captions. Last time I looked, this photo had 98 captions, and you can see them all here. Mine was one of the first, and reflects what Tootsie would have been thinking (I think), but ebry cats iz diffrnt. ;) Th...

This is Feets, Booglum's Maine coon polydactyl rescue cat: Direct link is here Booglum says: "Here is the baby Maine Coon Kitty, Feets, and his big huge polydactyl paws! Aww, such a baby. He is our snowstorm rescue baby. :)" I've featured Feets before, here . Love that kitty, who, btw, is somehow entered by breed as a "Mancoon" at the vets! So I've been told ;) Here's Tootsie, my Maine coon polydactyl rescue cat (click on photo for a larger image)- also on flickr with Creative Commons License. Click on the label below, "polydactyl", for more polydactyl cats.

Boogie Woogie Basics This is the second installment in ' darkblack educates VG about boogie woogie'. The first installment is here. So, I had found another great kitteh YouTube, of a British Shorthair cat (kitten), with nice musical accompaniment. And, the music sounded really familiar. It took me back to an email chat that darkblack and I had once upon a time, when I was first trying to learn my way around boogie woogie, when I first found this YouTube: VG : I have another music question for you darkblack -- boogie woogie reprise! Found a sweet kitty vid I am planning on using. THEN, got to listening to the music. Rang some memory bells from a discussion we had a long time ago about boogie, and then about Emerson and OP (Oscar Peterson). I've listened multiple times to music on two YouTubes, but just can't make the call- is this the same "tune" in the kitty and Emerson/OP YouTubes? My guess is yes, but not a musician with the "ear". darkbl...

I have a fondness for YouTubes with great music. And, then, there's my Maine coon thing. ;) More about Fletcher Henderson here: Feline Follies- with the exceptional Fletcher Henderson And, in case you're wondering the music above is here also: More information here, and here.

I'm back as of 15 minutes ago! A storm came through here, and I and many others haven't had power for 2 days- fallen trees took out power lines, and blocked roads. So, I'm just gonna do the easy thing, and show you some Maine coon belly fluff. Tootsie my Maine coon loves to have her belly rubbed. Is this a Maine coon thing? Direct link is here Pictures of Cats.org