dads and cats

father's day is just around the corner and if you are reading this blog, chances are you know a father with a cat. here are some gift ideas for those dads who go gaga over their feline pals.

looks like popular female singers are the new "cat ladies". both katy perry and susan boyle are all about their kittehs, with perry referring to her cat as her "substitute boyfriend." morty's jealous.

daily kitteh offers some cute pics of furry finnese, and the result of their dastardly doings. in surprising turn, kitteh destruction is not as cute as it sounds.

cute sleepy kitten is flaunting his cute sleepiness while the rest of us work away the day. he needs to get a job.

vote for pedro! and dottie, gabby, lucy, morty & nikki

it's time to exercise your right to vote - the isthums' own "madison's favorites" poll is up and ready for you to decide who rules and who drools. voting is open until june 18 and you must fill out at least 20 categories or your ballot will be thrown out. as p diddy would say, "vote or die."

here's a typical conversation between a cat and her guardian. they always win don't they? it's the whiskers. they have powers.

here's some more sad news about the sicko in florida. the no kill nation needs to get cracking in the sunshine state.

peta has decided to respond to the public outcry at their euthanasia numbers in typical peta form - kneejerk reactions and hyperbole. this time with graphic photos! thanks peta, you are ever so helpful in teaching us how not to respond to criticism.

lasers and cats

this stanford commerical is pretty much everything we love about cats and technology.

nutro recall!

nutro has issued a recall of some of its dry food, affecting the dry cat food lines natural choice and maxcat. the specific products being recalled have one of two "best if used by" dates May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010. the issue is the pre-made mineral mix being added to the food is too high in zinc and too low in potassium. though nutro assures there is no real health risk, some people are linking the food to their pet's sudden illnesses. while this is all unfounded in the fda's eyes, it is something to consider.

if you have an affected bag of food, bring it in and we'll exchange it out for something better. remember, your kitty can't chose for his or herself what to eat, but we're sure they would sleep better knowing they were eating the best-tasting and safest foods out there.

in other recall news...remember the huge menu foods recall of 2007? it seems so long ago now, but path to justice is just now starting to get somewhere. the owner and president of nutrachem, the company that supplied the tainted food that caused the illness and deaths of thousands of animals, have agreed to a plea deal. they will plead guilty to the combined 26 misdemeanor charges against them on june 16. it will still be awhile before we know what punishments they will be up for. stay tuned for more info.

cats vs. robosapien!

you may know by know that we have a bit of a weakness for cats and robots, but really now, can you blame us?

cats and birds and who's to blame?

the new york times is running an article today questioning the old debate between birders and cat enthusiasts - who's killing all the birds? with no real conclusions reached in the article we thought we'd go ahead and side with team cats; not because we are biased by our cat-worshipping, or our rallying against that stupid cat-shooting bill, or because we don't love birds (we do!), but because there is plenty on information out there that exonerates the cat and places the blame squarely on human shoulders.

"in a 2000 report by the World Conservation Union surveying 1,173 threatened bird species, habitat loss was the most important threat, affecting 83% of the bird species sampled. across the United States, little land is left untouched by human development, modification, fragmentation, and pollution. already human activities have led to the extinction of 10% of the world’s bird species—in some locales, that number rises to as much as 90%. today more than a thousand bird species are listed as threatened, and scientists predict between 500 and 600 of those will go extinct in the next 50 years. "

alley cat allies, whose mission is "to end the killing of cats and lead the movement for their humane care," is one of the leading proponents of trap-neuter-return programs that seek to reduce the populations of feral cat colonies over time via sterilization and natural die-off, which in turn helps lower the feline threat to birds. killing the cats would not take pressure off the birds because there will always be more cats to move into that newly opened-up area, where resources (rodents, birds) will again be plentiful. t-n-r places the fixed cats back into their territory, where their presence prevents other cats from moving in.

nobody wants the birds to die, but we also don't want an entire species of animal to take the fall. we are all responsible for our part in the world. let's work towards a better future where we won't have to worry about losing any species of animal.

cat smartz

happy monday, everyone! hope you have your thinking caps on because reading this interesting article from new scientist on the topic of cat intelligence got our fur a little ruffled. after testing cats abilities to manipulate a string with a treat tied to one end against their ability to discern between two strings, one with a treat and one without, they come to the conclusion that "cats couldn't infer cause-and-effect relationships between two objects and could only learn an association from scratch each time." well we're not scientists, and our high school knowledge of the scientific method may be a bit rusty, but having spent a good amount of time with the eminent felis catus we beg to differ.

if cats can not understand cause-and-effect then how are they so good at getting what they want? meowing at the door will get them a trip outside. meowing at the food bowl will often-times get them a snack. scratching an inappropriate area will get them some red-faced attention. they even learn how to manipulate objects to get what they want, thus bypassing human involvement altogether. we have cats who turn on the faucets themselves when they're looking for a fresh drink of water and who figure out cupboard doors and food bins.

even wikipedia's article on cat intelligence agrees with us that cats aren't dummies. in fact, the physiology of a cat's brain even works similarly to that of our own noggins:

"the physical structure of human brains and that of cats are very similar; they have the same lobes in the cerebral cortex (the "seat" of intelligence) as humans do. Human brains also function the same way, conveying data via identical neurotransmitters."

so all in all cats fetch, cats learn tricks, cats play and cats have the were-withal to know when to just relax and take a nice nap.