monroe street festival this weekend!

with the badgers away we can par-tay!

the annual monroe/vilas neighborhood celebration is this Saturday, Oct. 2 from 10:00am to 5:00pm.  there will be deals, dancing and dottie, of course.

see ya there!

shirobu! the youtube sensation we can't get enough of

just look at him !  you can't help but be drawn in by that fuzzy, grumpy face.

the six-year old flame-point himalayan's family has a youtube channel with seemingly endless video clips and photo montages of shirobu going about his fantastic everyday life.  you must watch this to see his adorable mini-bedroom set complete with tiny bed.  a bed!  then watch him pass out on the couch like your old uncle phil.  lol!  

now try not to get addicted.  it's impossible!

celebrities for rescue

katherine heigl's foundation has pledged $1 million to fund spay/neuter programs in the los angeles area.  pretty cool that she's on the no kill wagon and wants the money to go towards programs that work.

ally cat allies, the awesome group working to protect urban community cats, has a bunch of celebrity allies but our fav is Angela from the office.  last week we found out that her character not only takes care of her own house full of kitties but also feeds the ferals that live on the grounds of dunder miflin.  how cool is that?

downward facing... cat?

here's yer sunday weird:

got to stay limber if you want to be a ninja cat.

cool new tents - store cat-approved

the petstages starry night huts just arrived and are already a favorite of dottie the hutt.

these are light-weight, mesh pop-up tents that even glow in the dark.  wowzers!

if you do a lot of stumbling around at night this could be the thing to save your shins (and your kitteh) from getting shmucked. 

willy st. fair this weekend!

put on your dancing shoes and come hang with us this weekend at the willy st. fair.

there'll be live music, food, chances to win awesome prizes (like a cat tree) and a whole lot of good times.

stop by the store to see Gabby and rub elbows with your favorite madcatter.  and don't miss the parade on Sunday at 11:00am!  trust me.  it gets weird.  and elvis-y.

wheelie bin woman charged with animal cruelty

infamous cat dumper, mary bale, has finally been charged with causing unnecessary suffering to a cat and not providing the animal with a suitable environment, both violations of the 2006 Animal Welfare Act.

the RSPCA (the UK equivalent to the ASPCA) wanted to send a message to any other would-be mary bales that, despite their funny name, wheelie bins are not acceptable cat depositories.

new ok go! video features former shelter dogs

they are known for their inventive, well-choreographed, one-take videos (remember the treadmills?).  now they've one-upped themselves with a bunch of very well-trained dogs. the band is selling their video for "white knuckles" to raise money for the aspca with a focus on rural, volunteer-run animal shelters.  if only they had used cats, too.  imagine the chaos!

warner geese update

it's front-page news again.  the volunteer group, wild warner, was put in charge of working with the parks department to come up with a new plan for the geese and now we have their report.

as the no madison goose kill group had already suggested wild warner is advocating GeesePeace  tactics and suggesting the airport employ avian-detecting technology to avoid the already rare bird-strikes.

now we just have to wait and see if the parks department agrees with them tonight.

fingers crossed for a no kill madison that is as progressive with its wildlife as it is with its politics.

now hiring: new minions for morty and lucy

all applicants must be ready to fulfill every hedonistic desire no matter how strange or unlawful it may be.

yeah right.  they wish!  lucy's first order would be "moar donutz!"

we are hiring for a full-time service rock-star to take care of our clients and their pets.  if you have lots of energy, a kickbutt attitude and love to help people we want to hear from you.  interested?  here are the full details.

yer sunday weird

meet puggy, a pekinese with the world's longest dog tongue:

the tongue measures 4.5 inches long.
how'd ya like to wake up to puggy licking your face?

the "lost" dogs

the guy who wrote the "where are they now" article on michael vick's dogs has turned it into a book.

gorant writes about the amazing stories of the 47 "lost cause" dogs who were deemed unable to be rehabilitated by both the hsus and peta. now they have found new homes and are making a difference in hundreds of lives.

as gorant says, "pit bulls are not bad dogs, but they can have bad owners. and if there's one great result from the vick case, it's that animals deserve a second chance." we couldn't agree more.

poopy power!

a dog park in cambridge, massachusetts has a lightpost powered by poop. yeah, you read that right.

patrons of the park deposit dog doody into the airtight methane digester, which  produces methane gas when stirred, which is burned in the old-timey lightpost next to it. the dog park stays lit, animal waste stays out of landfills, and the dangerous methane stays out of the atmosphere. how's that for the coolest science project ever?

zomg this cat is tryin to tell us something

 

see it? mebbe it's some kind of subliminal advertising.

click over to geekologie if you need help

60% of cats will wear collars - other 40% think they're nerds

the recent meme making the news outlets is that cats should wear collars to increase their chances of being reunited with their owners should they be lost.

well, yeah,we think cats should have identification, too.  (most humane societies are anything but humane.)  collars are useful and super-duper cool looking, and if your cat likes em that's great, but we've all known houdini-cats who can slip out of anything in the blink of an eye.  so what about them?

microchipping is the only sure way of identifying that your cat is yours.  get chipped.  it's worth it.  (dane county humane society takes walk-ins during normal biz hours.)

smelly days are here again

if the ragweed allergies haven't brought your nose to its knees yet this might.

one of the university's "corpse" plants will be blooming by week's end and stinking it up to high heaven.  not sure why, but, i feel compelled to head to the greenhouse to see if it's as bad as they say.

maybe we could recommend a little petastic to drive the stink away.

cat organ can haz royal LoLs

nothing amuses a prince better than a bunch of stuffed cats squeaking out "somewhere over the rainbow."

and that's the difference between us and the brits.  we prefer to LoL at keyboard cat over any old cat organ.  it's the american way.

peta sucks...still

as if we didn't already know it, there is even more evidence coming out in favor of our position that peta totally sucks.

nathan winograd's no kill blog takes on ingrid newkirk, herself, in his post on "hoarding" at a jersey shelter.

and peta kills animals has the "animal rights" organization's 2009 report (pdf) that finds only 8 of the 2,366 animals PETA took in were adopted out.  the rest were killed.

with a budget of 33 million dollars you'd think they could do more than get celebrities to take their clothes off.

hai.

it's nice out. git outside and play.

daily dose of awesome...from space!

this was just too cool not to share. time-lapse earth as seen from the internaional space station. i think i can see my mom's house.

i can haz ikea mayhem?

100 cats let loose in an ikea? don't worry, they did it on purpose.

a camera crew filmed the cats running, jumping, exploring, and fighting in the furniture megastore, and the results are gorgeous.

a bunch of curious cats overtaking a store - sounds like just another day at madcat.

new! tote bags and magnets!

tired of the plastic bags and cardboard flats?  we've got totes!  they're super huge and sturdy; can definitely hold a case or two, a couple bags of food and maybe even a store cat if you're sneaky enough.

and don't forget your fridge.  dress it up with a magnet that screams "i'm an awesome cat-lover and i have pictures and schedules to post."  form and function have never come together better.

it's time to flair-up, people, madcat-style.

crystal ball says "i can haz cheezburger?"

need a little inside info on why your cat is so insane?  maybe you should look to the stars...

cats of the zodiac gives you a full run-down on each sign's idiosyncrasies and some of them seem to be spot on while others are a total miss (morty, the aries, has never "rushed through life"). 

if you don't know your cat's actual birthday you can use their "gotcha" day or just read through the descriptions and find one that matches.

happee laberz day!

hope you are having a fantastic three-day weekend and a super-awesome labor day.

we're shuttin' down at 4:00 to hit up some end-of-summer celebrations and give the store cats a chance to party without us nosing around.

if yer lookin' for some labor, better check this out.

on the catwalk

meet lorenzo. your average two year old maine coon....minus the fetish for fashion.

according to his bio, "lorenzo does not wear pants or hats, and he refuses to model in the nude." rules to live by.

his work has been featured in a couple of museums and he has thousands of fans around the world.

perhaps madcatter miles has finally met his match.

new duvet beds are here!

and as you can see they are already quite popular with the furry ones, like mr. phoenix here.

what makes them so neat?  molly meow duvet covers are machine-washable and can be stuffed with just about anything:  old clothes, towels, a blanket, a life-time of shed fur or a bunch of fall leaves.  

ideal for small dogs and cats these beds are also nice to look at.  miss nikki agrees.

holy cats!

pop quiz time! have giant mutant felines overrun this innocent, unsuspecting town? or is this a cat-sized community built just for kittehs?

if you guessed cat-sized community, you'd be right. although giant mutant felines would have been cool too.

check out craig grant's amazing story of how he went from cat hater to cat sanctuary caretaker and savior of cats in need of a good home. from his manifesto: "my cats have made me happier than I've ever been. they are truly the best friends i've ever had."
 
check out more awesome pics in this article.

diego's story

some madcatters recently lost their cat, diego, to an infectious feline disease called FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis).  devastated by his loss they now want to raise awareness about FIP and what people can do to help.

affecting anywhere from 1 in 100-300 cats FIP is always terminal and can manifest suddenly even years after initial exposure.  though it is most prevalent in young cats and those in catteries the disease can be found in house cats, like diego, too.

there is no immunization and no cure or treatment.  organizations like SOCK FIP and the Bria Fund for FIP Research rely on donated dollars to do research and hopefully find a cure.

other ongoing research is being done by UC Davis who are collecting DNA samples from infected cats like diego.  perhaps through this he will become a part of the cure and his passing will in turn save countless lives.

our condolences go out to diego's family and all of those who have lost a kitty to FIP.

happy 90210 day!

9-02-10.  it only happens once a century so this is a pretty big deal, bro.

unfortunately there were no pictures of any of the cast with a cat so this one of donna at that halloween party freshman or sophomore year of college will have to do.

let's all take a moment today to remember the greatness that was beverly hills 90210.  mega burgers, mullets and side-burns for all!

all aboard?

ever feel like takin' off hobo-style on a one way train? well this cat did.

a cat named lilou in ireland boarded a train headed for the big city. after station staff discovered the adventurous feline, they tweeted about her, hoping her owner would see. and that's just what happened.

what i want to know is - what even possesses a cat to get on a train? wouldn't it be noisy? or is there some part of them that knows what the train is for and they're like, sayonara suckers! sounds like the start to a disney movie. reality show producers, are you reading? that's a freebie.

anyway, lilou was issued a railcard with her picture on it. happy ending!

recall alert

sounds like there was more than probiotics in the bags... due to salmonella concerns, some iams proactive health indoor weight & hairball care dry cat foods are being recalled.