happy hallow-eeeeeeek!

 beware the zombie cats......

warning signs of infection include insatiable appetite for brains treats, extreme laziness and an increased interest in playing with small, everyday objects like clothes pins, paper clips and milk jug caps.  more pictures of zombie cats will terrify you after the jump.

if you make it out alive, have a happy halloween and eat lots of candy.  mwahahahahaaaaa.....

in honor of halloween weekend....

we present to you this video of big cats playing with big pumpkins. they really are just big kitties, aren't they? wonder what they'd do with a few catnip pumpkins....

it's national cat day!

as if we needed an official day to remind us of how crazy awesome cats are.  let's celebrate, anyway!  hugs and kisses to all our feline pals.

we've got adoption fairs all weekend with friends of ferals on satuarday from noon to three-thirty and the happy cat club on sunday from one to four.  stop by and say hi. or fall in love and go home with a new friend.  they'll be here waiting.

and now for some words of wisdom from a guy who knows what he's talking about:

"Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat." - Mark Twain

alley cat allies defends T-N-R from PETA's hype-machine

wow.  PETA shows us just how much they suck....again.  this time it's their damnation of t-n-r which they liken to being  "abandoned and forced to endure the harsh conditions of homelessness."  they'd rather just kill them.

luckily we have the alley cat allies out there helping these very cats and keeping them out of PETA's deadly clutches. 

"They thrive in every landscape, from densely populated cities to rural farmland. Feral cats are a part of our community. They always have been, and they always will be."

diy treat hunt!

so yesterday we told you about the kit-e-quiz, a neat contraption in which you hide treats and your cat solves puzzles to get them.

today I thought I'd share another treat-related puzzle activity you can do on your own with nothing but a hungry cat and a bag of his favorite treats.

in our house it's called "treat hunt"  we sequester the three cats in one room while one of us places treats throughout another room, usually the living room.  we hide them everywhere; on the back of the couch, in the entertainment unit, on the coffee table, on a window sill, etc. anywhere the cats are allowed to go.  then we release "the hounds" and encourage them to "find it," just like the experts do with their bomb dogs.

what follows is great mental and nasal exercising, searching high and low for the coveted treats.  your cats may not get it at first, but a little help from you is all it takes to point them in the right direction.  once they get the first couple of treats they'll be set and you'll have an easy activity to keep them busy for at least a few minutes.

have fun! 

for the einstein kittehs: kit-e-quiz

do your cats know which cupboard the treats are in?  do they stay up all night devising ways of breaking into said cupboard?

the new kit-e-quiz is designed for food-motivated kittehs who are willing to solve a few puzzles to get to their precious.  the cat fancy editors even picked it as one of their favorite new products calling it a "great toy for cats who get bored easily".

we just hope it keeps them out of the cupboards.

why does the web love cats?

do we even need to ask? well apparently, abc news felt the need to launch an investigative report on the matter, labeling it as "one of the most pressing quandries of our time."

fave quote from the creator of catpaint: "cats are awesome and enigmatic. they even have a hint of the danger about them. i read somewhere that scientists say cats 'domesticated themselves.' like, we domesticated dogs, and we made them into what we thought we wanted, but cats made themselves into what we actually wanted."

the article concludes: ""there's certainly some comedy to be drawn from the fact that we have an amazing, potentially world-changing resource available to us in the form of the internet, and so much time is spent on it giggling at ninja cat clips."

we couldn't think of a better way to spend it.

this just in...

from the "awesomely genius but surprisingly simple" files - sway has arrived at madcat.

sway uses heavy duty magnets to adhere itself to surfaces - tables, bookshelves, the fridge. the top is a handle that allows hoomans to slide it around pretty easily; the bottom part is a sisal ball, feather, and small bell attached to an elastic cord.

makes you go - doh! why didn't i think of that?

check out putty power's review /demonstration of the sway.

wheelie bin woman sentenced

infamous u.k. cat tosser mary bale has plead guilty and been sentenced to a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

the punishment? a £250 (almost $400 USD) fine. the judge reasoned that was a small price to pay compared to the "vilification" she would suffer for the rest of her life.

bale's lawyer said on her behalf: "she cannot still explain her behavior but she.. bitterly regrets her actions." we bet she does. 

scaredy cut for scaredy cats - the silent groomer

cool new product alert!  scaredy cut is here and trimming the pants off kitties already.

nobody likes the buzzzz of the electric clipper and sharp scissors can be dangerous.  scaredy cut uses guarded, blunt-nosed scissors to cut kitteh's hair without the noise and hazards.

madcat angelo was only going in for a trim but he was so cool with it he got the works.  lookin' good, ange! 

more pics after the jump.

heartland farm sanctuary - cuz goats need homes too

these are the folks  we mentioned a couple of weeks ago who are going to be working with DCHS to place feral cats at farms throughout the area.

their main focus is to rescue and provide permanent homes for farm animals who through neglect, foreclosure or other baaaad stuff end up homeless.

yay for rescue!  hay for horses!

another stupid "solution" for the geese

can't tell if this is trying to be funny or not.

but turning our parks' geese into foie gras isn't going to prevent any freak goose-plane accidents.  it will just kill a bunch of geese and be about as effective as the original plan (read: not effective).

looks like someone agrees.  "it's a great plan if you're a moron."

we've been tagged

and not by banksy (that would rule).

looks like the street artist goes by an illegible RFI.  wait a minute....RFI?  RAFFI?!  the beard has struck again!



at least this wasn't as bad as the paint-bombing we got a few years back.  and the tiger was left untouched.

killer bengal pic after the speed-bump-jump.

four more forever homes

congrats to the happycat club, who successfully found forever homes for four lucky felines today during their weekly adoption fair at madcat west!

keep up the great work.

winograd on missouri's prop b

missouri's prop b is a great step one in the fight against puppy mills. but no kill champion nathan winograd asks, what about step two?

while winograd does support the legislation, he makes the very good point that the proposition itself does not contain any provisions as to what will happen to the dogs over the 50 dog per business limit.

"...they claim that puppy millers are going to voluntarily spay/neuter dogs and spend money on their lifetime care without any profit in it. that is an exercise in sheer self-delusion at best, and an intentional misrepresentation at worst. plan b, according to HSUS, means the dogs will go to “a humane organization” which simply means a missouri kill shelter. either way, the dogs are dead."

prop b is a good step. but more work must be done toward a no kill nation.

frolicat dart - take it to your leaders

beam me up, dottie!

cool new product alert:  the frolicat dart is in stock and ready to drive your cats bonkers with its 360-degree rotating laser of doom. dooooom!

hands-free, pre-timed, crazy kitteh laser fun.  isn't technology the best?

saturday is national feral cat day

alley cat allies promotes the day as a time to celebrate all that has been done to help our nation's community cats and as an opportunity to educate further so more lives can be saved.

support your local feral cats by visiting the dane country friends of ferals adoption fair at our westside store on Sat. from 12:00-3:30 to meet cool kitties like ladybug.  can't adopt but want to help?  volunteer!

another look at UW monkey testing

local activist, rick marolt, has an op-ed piece in the isthmus today calling for more scrutiny of the university's animal research agenda.

he makes some good points, like this:

"damaging a monkey's brain outside a laboratory would be criminal cruelty."

no matter what side of the issue you may fall on it's worth a read.

will madison's geese ever be safe?

two more park's commission meetings will discuss the fate of madison's tarred and feathered friends.  first, it was the threat to planes.  then, the overpopulation.  wonder what the excuse will be this time? 

all we know is that they are certainly nowhere near as dangerous as bees have been this week.

can you put a limit on love?

looks like this story on a barking dog in waunakee has got everyone talking about pet limit laws.

"the number of pets you have has nothing to do with the way they're cared for."  we agree.

unlike most of the surrounding municipalities madison does not have any current limits.

so what do you think? do pet limit laws help, hurt or do they even matter at all?  how many of us even knew there were such things?

get a load of these sweater kittens

ha-cha-chaa!

109 cats in sweaters doesn't really make any great points about cats or sweaters or the meaning of life or anything.

but it doesn't have to; it's 109 cats in sweaters.

pope cat sez "pees be wit u"

pushkin the cat recently made a new friend - pope benedict XVI. his holiness, reportedly a cat lover, blessed pushkin and tickled his ears during a visit to the uk last month. got to love men in power who love cats.


no word on whether or not pushkin got to ride in that goofy popemobile.

tea partiers vs. missouri puppy mill prop

it's no secret that we hate puppy mills. but missouri's prop b is at least a step in the right direction, especially in a state long considered the puppy mill capital of the US. it requires breeders to give dogs clean facilities, enough food and water and exercise, and a rest period between pregnancies.

sounds reasonable, right? not according to the tea partiers, who say that it's part of a "radical agenda" and that the real goal is "making it more difficult for middle-class american families to be dog owners."

*sigh* if yer lookin for a dog, please adopt.

tube-nosed fruit bats will haunt your dreams

yikes.  these guys look like some sort of unholy cross between a house elf and an orc.  creeeeeepy.

there existence was unknown before an expedition to papa new guinea in 2009 where scientists were undoubtedly given the willies upon seeing those beady little eyes.

in any case, it's good to know that they're out there.  and not in here.  or are they?

biden on the loose in madtown

holy nypd blue!  cops were everywhere today. (which is a good thing - more donuts for lucy).

turns out vice prez biden was in town to fire up the voters ahead of the november elections.  surrrre he was.  and it just happens to be thirsty thursday, right?

 oh, that biden.

new whitehouse chief of staff should work at madcat

apparently he's a cat freak (in the best possible way).

father to two maine-coon's named Moose and Junior, mr. rouse has developed quite the reputation around D.C. as the capital cat guy. 

some politicians receive money, fancy dinners or vacation packages, but, this guy could be greased with a few cat-shaped cookies. 

guess there's hope, after all.

dchs to start placing feral cats?

the news was announced via dane county humane society's facebook page today and if it means what it sounds like it's tremendous news for everyone working towards a no kill madison.

the barn buddies program will work with the heartland farm sanctuary to place feral cats at farms where they can live out their days as barn cats.

the governator vetoes CA's landlord-renter declawing/debarking bill

oh, arnold.  california's been on such a roll with awesome pet-related legislation lately that this was quite the surprise.

the bill was to prevent landlords from denying tenancy by requiring cats be declawed and dogs debarked. it was a housing issue that even the CA Apartment Association (ie landlords) were in favor of.

so why didn't it pass? the CA Veterinary Medical Assoc. doesn't want legislation to set precedent regarding surgeries that could be medically necessary. ugh.

at least they're doing the right thing in massachusetts.  no more devocalizing, no more pain.

on duty cat sez all aboards

takin tickets: ur doin it rite.

it's bedtime!

get out yer footie pjs, friends. it's getting cold outside.

if kitteh is starting to do that whole curl-up-and-hide-nose-with-tail-thing it may be time to break out the beds.

lucy likes this one.  and this one.  and this one.  and this one.  

cats need robot love too

cats and robots.  they go together like R2-D2 & jam.  and we just happen to heart them.

now you can love them, too, with an oregon humane society's clever "play with cat over internet via robot toys" idea.  warning:  the wait-time is pretty long and the cats are about as interested in the toys as lucy is in moving and not eating donuts.  maybe they need roombas?

but still deserving of props for finding a novel way to bring attention to sheltering and adoption.  (and robots!)