Recently in cats Category

Check out the Humane Society's video about feral cats being rescued from San Nicolas Island off the coast of Los Angeles.

The organization DoGreatGood.com made the project possible.

You can read more about it at this Humane Society page  -- they have more pics also.

 H/T:

Critter News 

Cats are very strange creatures, a fact I'm beginning to appreciate since I've come to own one a little over a month ago (if one ever does truly "own" a cat).

Here's a story and video from the BBC about Casper, a black-and-white tom cat in the UK, who takes a bus ride every day, curling up -- for free -- on one of the front seats. The bus drivers look after him, dropping him off near home after he makes his rounds.

I don't know what the attraction is but he loves big vehicles like lorries and buses Owner Susan Finden

Here's the update on Annie the Cat vs. The Collar (See my post from a couple days ago for the backstory).

The good news is I managed to collar her Thursday morning (here she is watching for birds last night in the living room window, her favorite perch).

When she bounced up onto my bed this morning to wake me up, however, her collar was gone. I found it unhooked and lying on her blanket on the bed in the spare room where she mostly sleeps. (She really should have thought to hide it from me in the closet.)

So I put it back on this morning -- I'm persistent -- but if she continues to get it off I'll let the issue drop. I don't want to make her miserable if she really does hate it. After all, one blog reader on the earlier post already has called me "mean."

My co-workers are teasing me about how cats now seem to dominate my posts -- ever since I got a cat of my own.

So when Doug Epperhart of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council sent me another shot of one of his cats in a weird spot (see our earlier post about Doug's cat Bojangles), I had to print it, of course (nice looking cat, too!).

Doug's wife Andrea was taking some recycling items out to the bin in their driveway the other day and found Tia, one of the couple's two calicos, resting in the yard clippings:

A Los Angeles City Council committee on Monday called for an ordinance that would outlaw the declawing of cats.

L.A. is one of several cities considering the move before a Jan. 1, 2010, deadline when a state law goes into effect forbidding cities and counties from regulating the practice of veterinary medicine.

"It is not like clipping nails -- it is an amputation," said Councilman Paul Koretz who has a cat and sponsors weekly feline adoptions at the council chambers.

The City Attorney will prepare a draft ordinance for consideration by the full council before the end of the year.

Read more in the Daily Breeze today. 

Given time, this could develop into an epic standoff -- getting a collar and ID tag (seen on the right end of the table) onto Annie Oakley, the new cat (seen on the left end of the table).

So far, cat = 3, human = 0. 

"Cats don't like collars," one friend explained to me. "You might as well try putting a bra on her," he said.

A colleague at the Breeze, however, tells me it's all quite do-able -- and necessary, she says (and I agree), for cats who will be venturing outdoors (which Annie will do once she figures out the doggie door the dogs are using all the time). 

My colleague's strategy for collaring the cat: "You just have to pin her down."

Easier said than done, I suspect.

I've failed at my first three attempts to put it on her so far. So the collar (a special and safe break- away cat collar) sits, ready and waiting, for the next go-around.

Until then, AnnieO remains (temporarily) victorious -- and smugly collarless.

Read more about Annie the Cat 

I confess that one of my worries about getting a cat was the whole scratching thing.

I've been through some destructive dogs in my time and the canines I have now are the easiest I've ever had when it comes to furniture. They have almost no interest in even lying on the sofa, let alone destroying it.

So after I dumped the last sofa -- which, through the years, had been meticulously destroyed by my crazy Austalian shepherd Pilgrim (now deceased) -- I bought a new sofa this past January. Not to sound too materialistic here, but I really do love this sofa. Really. It's the nicest sofa I've ever had.

So far, Annie Oakley the cat has stayed mostly on her scratching posts, although a couple times I've stopped her from clawing on the furniture. The color literally drains from my face when I catch her doing this. The sofa is now heavily covered in protective blankets, throws and more throws.

Too bad reporters don't make more money. If we did, I might be able to buy her some of this new cat-scratch furniture.

It comes from The Company of Pets. The pieces shown below were designed by Jeanne Byers and Rochelle Klein, partners in an advertising agency.

But for now, the cheap-o, ugly scratching posts will have to do around my place.

Since AnnieO has two of her own dogs, I suspect the "neo-pop" canine scratcher at the right might be her favorite style. If her owner could afford it. it costs a mere $1,200. The modernist French chair? $575. (This cat in the photos even looks a bit like my Annie Oakley. But clearly way more spoiled.)  

 HT: Paws 'n Claws

This comes from fellow pet blogger Laurel Babcock at Paws 'n' Claws  in N.Y.

I thought I'd seen almost everything ... but I've once again been proven wrong. ... Most of  us have seen photos of female animals who have taken on the care and feeding of babies who are not of their own kind. But this was surely a new one to me! ... Thanks to P&C friend and contributor Diane for the photo.