I came across this article about these adorable little panthers. They have been born in a zoo in the Tierpark Zoo in Berlin on the 26th of April and seem to be creating something of a sensation. They are certainly very cute.

This is an interesting idea that appears to be quite popular in Japan. It’s a cat cafe. That’s not a place where you eat cats but more a place where you go to drink tea and play with the cats. Customers wanting to spend some time with a cat can stroke and play with with one of the 20 resident cats at a cost of around $9 for an hour. It is aimed at people who want a pet but who have busy lifestyles or work long hours so can’t have one. I wonder if this would work over in the UK, I have four cats that can I rent out for a few hours and I’m sure they would love the attention.

I am frequently amazed at my cats climbing ability and the places they manage to end up. My cats, however, have a fair way to go to match this cat who can scale a stone wall. The cat called Charlie manages to climb a sheer 13 foot wall in order to get into his home which is on the second floor. You can see him in action left but to fully appreciate the skill that is spider cat you really need to see the video.

This is slightly odd its a story about a man called Mr Humphreys and his one eyed cat, Midge. Midge, however, is no ordinary cat, he likes to race. Mr Humphreys first realised Midge had a talent for racing when the cat raced him from the shops one day. Since then, Midge waits for Mr Humphreys to race him home. It appears, however, that the cat is much faster than the man as the cat always wins.

This article highlights the importance of microchipping your pets. Its about a cat called Kofi who went missing from its home in Nottingham four years ago. When his owners moved away they thought that was the last they would see of their pet. Luckily, however, they had decided to have him microchipped. When a black and white cat was found in Ipswich this year he was scanned by the RSPCA and was identified as Kofi. He was later reunited with his owners and doesn’t appear to have been traumatised by his ordeal.

If this article is to be believed then this could be Britain’s first vegetarian cat. According to his owner Dante will only eat fruit and vegetables ignoring plates of meat or fish. It is not clear why he refuses to eat meat and experts are baffled as cats are natural carnivores and so are unlikely to exclude meat from their diet. In fact cats need to eat meat because it is a source of taurine which is essential to their diet. Without it the cats retina will degenerate and it can become blind. Dante’s owner has started to sneak scraps of meat into his food so that he gets a more balanced diet but it appears this cat just loves his veg.

This is interesting its a Tweeting cat door (pictured left) that has been made by a programmer to track his cats. The cats each have a RFID tag attached to their collars. When they go near the cat door the RFID reader reads the tag and if the cat is authorised a servo unlocks the cat door. Each time there is a cat door event a Twitter message is sent as well as a picture of the cat that has activated the flap. You can check out the updates at the following link.

I came across another big cat story today, a man in East Anglia has found what he claims are claw marks in a tree. Shaun Baxter says that he saw a large animal making the marks whilst he was out shooting rabbits between North Walsham and Edingthorpe. He says “I was standing next to a tree in my camouflage gear and about 70 yards away was a big black panther-like cat.” and “It was scratching on a tree, like a normal household cat would do at its scratching post.”  According to the story the gouges reach about 4ft off the ground and cut half an inch into the wood of the tree. Once again I remain unconvinced. What do you think are there big cats in the UK?

If this picture is genuine then it could be the best evidence yet that large cats are roaming the countryside. The picture was taken in New Denham near Uxbridge by Paul Keehn and appears to show a large black cat sitting by a fence near some homes which back onto fields. Britain’s leading big cat expert said of the photo "If this photo is genuine it is the best ever photo of a British Big Cat taken in Britain.” and "It's a photograph that would be hard to disprove. I would prefer to have seen another photo of it to see that there's some movement to be sure.” I’m not entirely convinced. What do you think?

A lady in Washington got a surprise when she found that the second hand sofa she had brought had a cat inside it. A few days after buying the sofa she noticed that it was making mewing noises and after searching for the source she found a cat inside. It appears that the cat had crawled inside through a small hole before the sofa was donated to the store. The cat was later reunited with its owner.

Cat owners in Leicestershire have been urged to sign their pets up to a blood donor scheme. Currently only four cats are signed up to the Loughborough based Pet Blood Bank UK (PBBuk)  which stores and collects dog and cat blood for use in transfusions. Under the scheme the PBBuk will go to the cats home in order to reduce any stress to the donors. It's an interesting idea but unfortunately I think my cats are more likely to take blood rather than give it.

This is Ugly Bat Boy and he has been given the dubious unofficial title as the most hideous cat ever. The cat who is eight years old was born without fur except for one shaggy part around his neck giving him an interesting appearance to say the least. He certainly is odd looking. Do you have a cat that is uglier than Ugly Bat Boy?

I came across this article today about a Swarovski crystal encrusted cat flap. It is billed as the latest must have pet accessory and costs £1,000. It comes in a number of standard designs including a roman arch style and a stable door style but can also be customised to include details such as your cat's name. I love my cats but I don't really see why someone would spend this much money on a cat flap, I guess some people have more money than sense.

If you like dressing up your pet then you need to be careful. Animal welfare charities have claimed that forcing pets to wear clothes can be harmful and that in some case there could be grounds to prosecute. Many top fashion designers now produce clothes for dogs but experts have said that clothing should only be put on pets when it is necessary, such as protecting short haired dogs during cold weather. Animal welfare officers have also warned that in some cases dog clothing can cause your pet to overheat and that owners have a duty of care towards their animals. Well I think I am safe here, I would be lucky if I could even get a hat on any of my cats without losing a finger or two.

I see a lots of articles about people who simply have too many cats. This latest one looks at a case where a lady had 48 cats in her house. RSPCA inspectors found two dead kittens in a kitchen cupboard at her house with the other cats living in poor conditions. Three of the cats had to put down whilst the others were signed over the RSPCA who hope to find them new homes. This leaves the question how many cats are too many cats? I have four cats (pictured) which is quite a lot and they tend to take over the house, generally two sit on each sofa and you have to kick them off if you want a seat yourself. I think four cats is at the top end of the normal scale before you start turning into one of these crazy cat ladies that has 30+ cats. Saying that I did see a rather cute little kitten this morning......

This is quite interesting its an article about a cat called Leo who's job is to walk past potential guide dogs to try and get a reaction. The cat is an important member of staff at a training school for guide dogs. If the dog passes the training exercise it will not pay attention when the cat walks past it. If in the worst case scenario the dog chases the cat then it is not deemed to be a suitable guide dog and fails its training. The dog in this picture doesn't seem to be too bothered by the cat, I think he probably passed the test.

I came across this interesting article about people who put their pets on the animal equivalent of Prozac. Apparently some pets can become so depressed that the only solution in to give them the drug. The article looks at the cases of a dog, a cat and a parrot all of whom were prescribed the drug and showed a distinct improvement. The dog called Amber was experiencing panic attacks and dark moods but after being prescribed sertraline and animal anti-depressant regained all of her previous confidence. Tigger the cat became depressed when the family had a new baby. He started spraying in the house and spent hours howling. However, after being prescribed Clomicalm Tigger was once again back to his old self. Whilst the case studies are quite interesting I do wonder whether in most of these cases the same effect could be achieved simply by making changes to the animals lifestyle rather than resorting to giving them drugs. However, I may be wrong, having never had a depressed pet its hard to judge.

The Forestry Commission has confirmed that big cats have been caught on camera in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. The animals were spotted by rangers who were filming a deer survey. The sightings have been confirmed by experienced rangers who would be unlikely to mistake deer for big cats. On both occasions the cats were observed in low light using heat activated vision equipment. Whilst it couldn't be determined what sort of cats there were, it is confirmed that there are certainly cats out there.

I woke up this morning to find there had been some snow in the night. Its not very much but its quite a rarity to see any snow in Egham so it was a surprise. The cats spent about 10 minutes outside digging holes in the snow and then pouncing on them before it got a little too cold for them and all came back aside to find a warm spot to spend the rest of the day. It seems cats don't like snow very much because it makes their paws wet.

Every night for a few weeks my four cats have been running up and down by the window shaking their tails and making hunting noises. It took a while to find out the cause of all the excitement and it was only after a week or so that I discovered Mr Nibbles (pictured) as I have named him. After several days of sitting by the window with my camera and using a little cheese as bait, I finally managed to get a picture of our elusive night time visitor. At least we know the cats are not crazy now, there really was something out there. Mr Nibbles only visits when all the cats are closed in for the night so for now he is perfectly safe and its great entertainment for the cats.

According to this article Mischief could be the world's oldest cat. At a grand age of 27 human years that makes him around 125 in cats years. There are records of a 29 year old cat which has since died but there is currently no record holder in the UK for the oldest cat. Mr Thorne, Mischief's owner got him as a kitten in 1981. 27 years later he is now an indoor cat and despite losing clumps of his fur is still going strong. The oldest cat ever was Creme Puff, who was born on August 3, 1967 and lived until August 6, 2005 an amazing 38 years and three days.

This is interesting its a sat nav collar for dogs. The sat nav device in integrated into a waterproof collar. It uses satellite, telecom and radio frequencies to pin point the location of the dog and then alerts the owner once the animal is on the move. The collar can also send a text message if the dog goes beyond a pre programmed range. Whilst at home the collar can be switched off to save the battery life but it can still send an alert if the dog wanders out of range. The collars which  are made by a company called Retrieva will be available in January and start at £250. I wonder whether they will make a version for cats.

I came across this story about a two headed kitten that has been born in Australia. The kitten can meow from both mouths at once although it can only eat through one of its mouths. Unfortunately the kitten is not likely to live very long.

This is a story about a cat who hitched a ride underneath freight train and travelled 100 miles before she was discovered. The cat was found underneath a freight train by a depot fitter in Carlisle when he was examining an empty train carriage which had returned from Billingham. It is believed she had climbed aboard at Teesside and travelled the rest of the journey underneath the train. The white and tortoise shell cat was shaken and dirty but unharmed and was taken to an animal refuge in Carlisle where is it hoped the high speed pussy can be reunited with her owner.

This is Tinks and he could be Britain's fattest cat. Along with seven dogs he will be competing to win the title of the UK's biggest animal slimmer. Tinks weighs over 11kg and as a result suffers from heart problems and spends most of his time sleeping. This is one seriously fat pet that really needs to go on a diet and exercise program to lose some of that extra fat. Lets hope the 100 day fitness program will help him to do this. He makes my cats look thin in comparison.

This is an interesting idea from Lancashire police. They are distributing cat bells for elderly people to attach to valuable items. The idea is that when someone tries to steal a handbag or purse that has bells attached, it will ring as an alarm alerting the owner. The use of cat bells in this way has already proved to be a success in other areas.

If your cat has been giving you evil looks recently, then it might be planning to kill you. This useful checklist will help you find out whether your cat is plotting your demise. It includes useful tips such as when the cat pummels you with its paws, it is not a sign of affection, they are actually checking your internal organs for signs of weakness and digging in the litter box is practice for burying bodies.

Its Guy Fawkes Night tonight and as usual there are many fireworks. My cats have all gone to ground tonight because of the bangs. They started a couple of hours ago and shortly after there were no cats to be seen in my house, which is very unusual. Oscar is currently hiding under the stairs, Lucy is hiding upstairs under some boxes of envelopes and Oliver is hiding behind the sofa. Only Willow is brave enough to sit on the sofa as usual. She doesn't seem bothered by the bangs, she is more curious about the interesting flashing lights. The other cats really really hate fireworks.

This is strange, its a cat that glows in the dark. The cat named Mr Green Genes has been genetically modified as part of an experiment which could lead to a treatment for cystic fibrosis. He looks like any normal cat until he is exposed to ultraviolet light, then he glows. Researchers made him so they could learn whether a gene could be introduced harmlessly into the feline's genetic sequence to create what is formally known as a transgenic cat. That's all very interesting but my main thought on reading the article was "cool a glowing cat".

Police have issued a warning to home owners in Surrey after a number of incidents where thieves have used cat flaps to steal valuables. In one incident a suspect was arrested after he went around the back of a house in Betchworth and reached through the cat flap to try and steal valuables. Police have advised home owners not to leave any valuables within easy access of cap flaps and to make sure they are adequately secured.

With my husband working hard on important project at work I find myself spending more and time at home alone with my four cats. Generally I have quite a few TV shows that I like to watch but when there is nothing else on I like to treat the cats to a nature documentary. Whilst this might make me sound like a crazy cat lady I do quite like nature documentaries. Not as much as my cats, though. They especially like documentaries about birds and watch every moment intently with their ears flicking constantly. They also make hunting noises at the TV when they see certain types of birds, usually songbirds which I guess they are familiar with seeing in the garden. Rather confusing, however, is that my cat Oliver has recently started making hunting noises when he sees Alan Titchmarch of the TV, why I don't know, but for some reason my cat wants to hunt him.

I have mentioned screaming frogs on my blog before when my cats have caught them. For those who are unfamiliar with them, frogs tend to let out a high pitched scream when cornered by a curious cat. Today Oliver caught a frog and brought it back through the cat flap where he decided to deposit it in his food bowl. I'm guessing he was then about to eat his latest victim. What actually happened was I heard the now familiar high pitched scream of a cornered frog and found that I had a very large frog hopping around my dining room with four cats in pursuit. This frog was lucky I got to him whilst he was still alive and he is now safely back in the pond.

I was reading this article about a cat called Dixie that was reunited with its owners after a surprising nine years. Dixie went missing nine years ago and her owners assumed that she was dead. She was later found by the RSPCA less than half a mile from home on the 24th of August. Because Dixie had been fitted with a microchip she was returned to her owners within half an hour of being found. No one except Dixie knows where she has been for the last nine years but she appears happy to be home. I have microchipped all of my furry friends and will continue to do so with any further additions to our family. At a one off cost of only £20 it gives the peace of mind that if they ever get lost there is a good chance they will be found and returned to us.

I read this article today about a firefighter who revived a cat by giving it mouth to mouth resuscitation. He has rescued the moggy from a burning apartment in Massachusetts but finding that it needed air he performed mouth to mouth on it as he carried it outside. The cat soon revived and recovered soon after. Asked what it tasted like to give mouth-to-mouth to a cat, the firefighter laughed, grimaced and said: "Like fur." I'm not sure I would fancy doing this, my cats always smell of fish.

Scientists have discovered the best way to swat a fly. Apparently flies are so hard to swat because they have the ability to plan and carry out an emergency take off in under 200 milliseconds. The trick then is to creep up on the fly and then try to anticipate which direction they are likely to fly to. It works because flies are unable to register slow movement but it still relies on guessing which direction the fly will go so doesn't seem entirely fail safe. We have a device in our house for catching flies, his name is Oliver and he rarely misses, catching them in mid air. Every house should have one.

Oliver relaxing after eating too many flies.

I came across this picture of a cat biting a cactus. Whilst I'm not entirely sure that it hasn't been photoshopped, it looks really painful and just the sort of thing my cats would do. Cats are crazy.

This is Yoda, a cat who has four ears. He has extra ear flaps behind his regular ears making him rather unique. Yoda's owners adopted him as a kitten and after speaking to several vets have realised they have a somewhat unusual cat as no on seems to have seen anything quite like him before. A quick google search brings up this article on a few other four eared cats but it appears they are few and far between. Despite the extra ears Yoda is still quite cute.

I came across this website today that has that has these interesting new cat toys. They are made out of cardboard and come flat packed. When assembled, however, they become cool fire engines, planes and tanks. As you can see by the pictures from the site the models have holes for the cats to crawl inside and play. They start at £15.00 each and look like they will be great fun for playful moggies. One word of caution the website does say that cats may need your help to assemble the models.

We all know tigers are big and scary with sharp teeth. Someone obviously forgot to tell this tiger that. He lives at a zoo in Pennsylvania and has refused to venture out since a new $500,000 enclosure was built for him and the other tigers. The tiger occasionally pokes his head out to have a look around but even after two months has not yet plucked up the courage to go outside.

These clouded leopard cubs have recently been born at Howletts Wild Animal Park near Canterbury. The two male and two female kittens were born in April and have recently made their first public appearance at the wildlife park. Clouded leopards are difficult to breed but the breeding program at Howletts has been quite successful with 30 births since 2003. The leopard is currently threatened with extinction in the wild due to the demand for it coat.

The recent wet weather seems to have encouraged the frogs in the garden to leave the pond and start hopping around looking for food. Unfortunately this means that in our garden they are almost certain to come into contact with one of the cats. The cats obviously think frogs are lots of fun. You can pounce on them and they jump, let them go and then they jump again. Frogs also scream when they are cornered and stressed. They make a very high pitched screaming noise which doesn't seem to deter the cats. It does, however, alert me to the fact that the cats are playing with another poor frog. So far this morning I have rescued two frogs and returned them unharmed to the safety of the pond. My cat Oliver has also learnt this morning (after picking a frog up in his mouth) that whilst frogs are great fun, they actually don't taste that good. I wonder whether he will remember this when the next frog comes along, my guess is that the urge to pounce on another jumping frog will be stronger than the memory of the bad taste.

I came across this unusual article that shows pictures of a leopard attacking a crocodile. Apparently this sort of behaviour has never been captured on camera before. The leopard filmed in the Kruger National Park, stalked the crocodile before dragging it out of the water. Although the crocodile fought back the leopard managed to get the crocodile by the throat before suffocating it. Surprising, my money would have been on the crocodile.

Whenever a new box arrives in our house it is never long before it has a cat in it so I am always very careful to check whether there is anything inside before getting rid of boxes. However, if you don't have cats you it might not occur to you to double check. One lady in Germany managed to mail her neighbours cat 500 miles across Germany after the curious kitty crept into a box she was about to post.  The box was sent from Rottach-Egern in Bavaria to Dorsten and it was only when the box arrived at its destination that the cat was discovered and freed.

A vaccine that could cure cat allergies is undergoing clinical trials. The research suggests that after the vaccine can make patients can develop a tolerance to cat allergens such as fur after just four treatments. The article doesn't say whether the effects of the vaccine are permanent or if it needs to be taken as an ongoing treatment. Perhaps this will be clearer after the clinical trials.

When a kitten became stuck in a drain it was rescued by firefighters using just a vacuum cleaner. They put a sock on the end of the nozzle and this little guy was soon freed from his hiding place.

This is Tama the cat. She has been credited with turning around the fortunes of a loss making railway company in Japan. The Wakayama Electric Railway axed all its staff two years ago because it was making a loss. Last year Tama was appointed as station master and given her own office. Since then the company's fortunes have picked up and the number of passengers has increased by 10%. Despite the success Tama does not draw a salary, receiving cat food instead.

We had to take Oscar to the vet the other day because he had a problem with his right eye. He had been unable to open his eye for most of the day and was obviously in quite a lot of pain because he was not his usual happy self. The vet said that he has a eye ulcer and has given us some drops which we need to use three times a day. Oscar is now starting to look a bit better, he can open his eye and is bouncing around as usual. We have to take him back for a checkup at the end of the week but hopefully it will have cleared up by then. As to what has caused the ulcer, apparently it is commonly caused by fighting so I'm guessing one of my other cats is responsible.

This is Ollie, fast asleep.

I took a picture of Willow today whilst she was using this large box as a new cat tent.  Isn't she cute?

Some rats are now becoming resistant to normal poisoning techniques and have been dubbed "super rats". The rats which have been found in the West Country have a mutant gene which helps them develop resistance to the poisons. If all else fails I guess they will have to resort to using an army of cats to counteract the problem.

According to this article pets are the latest victims of Britain's throwaway society. Figures from the RSPCA show that 7,347 animals were rescued from the street last year. Half of this figure were cats, a trend which the article describes as disturbing because cats are traditionally thought of as easy to care for. It appears that many people give up their pets for rather strange reasons with some examples being “My cat doesn’t match my new carpet.” Another said: “I’ve just bought a new leather sofa and I don’t want the cat to scratch it.” There is also a rise in people abandoning animals such as dogs and rabbits when they go on holiday and then not claiming them when they return. Tim Wass of the RSPCA says “It is an offence to abandon an animal and there is never any excuse for doing so. If people have pets they cannot care for, for any reason, then help and advice is always available from the RSPCA.” Reading this article I wonder why people get pets if they are unwilling to care for them.

According to this article we are likely to see fewer butterflies around this year because of last years wet summer. 2007 was the worst year for butterflies for more than a quarter of a century with numbers at a record low. This was mainly because butterflies do not fly in the rain and therefore they cannot reach plant nectar to feed or fly to breed. The charity Butterfly Conservation is hoping that we have a long hot summer this year so that numbers can recover. Unfortunately I think my cats are to blame for the lack of butterflies in my garden.

I woke up this morning to find that it had snowed during the night. Although there is not a great a deal of snow it was still enough to create some entertainment for the cats, well for Willow anyway. Oscar and Oliver pictured to the left went out to investigate before coming straight back inside and sitting on their bean bags refusing to leave the house again. Lucy pictured on the right simply sat under the bench looking miserable before also retreating inside.

Lucy is always finding new places to hide and we can often lose her for an entire day before discovering her latest hidey hole. She managed to find a small space under the stairs the other day and when we located her, Rory took this picture.

Rory has been busy with work this week, so has been working from home most evenings. This means his cat Willow has not been getting as much attention as usual. Generally when this happens she drives us mad by running around the house howling at the top of her voice. As you can see Rory has come up a solution to keep Willow happy. A well placed cushion and she settles down for the evening, whilst Rory can still get his work done.

There seem to be a lot of stories at the moment where animals have been hurt and in some cases killed by airguns. The latest story is about Fergus the cat (pictured) who was targeted with an air gun. The pellet narrowly missed his spine. Fergus is lucky not be hurt more seriously. He is currently recovering from his injury.

A tiger census to see how many wild tigers there are in India has suggested that there are now only between 1,300 and 1,500 left, that’s half the amount there was in 2002. Among the problems facing tigers is that whilst they do well in protected reserves, they do not appear to do so well in other forest areas. This survey suggests that efforts should now be concentrated on the tigers that currently live within unprotected areas.

Futher to my post yesterday about putting kitty on a diet, here is a picture of my fat cat Oscar. Oscar unlike most fat cats is a very active cat, he is always jumping around and playing with his friends but he has always been a rather large cat.

If you are owner of a fat cat you might want to put it on a diet. A study carried out by Edinburgh University has shown that one in every 230 cats is now diabetic. Overweight cats are three time more likely to develop the condition that their thinner friends. I think its time to cut down on the kitty treats and invest in a cat treadmill.

Pest controllers have warned that this summer is likely to bring a plague of mice. Several factors have contributed to the growth of the mouse population including warmer winter and more rubbish being present on the street. Calls about mouse problems rose by 23 per cent last year in London and the South East. I don’t think we need to worry too much, having four cats seems to control the mouse population near our house nicely.

I found this on Crooked Brains and had to post it. It's so unusal to see so many cats in a tree at the same time. I have managed to get a picture of two of mine sitting in the tree together but this is just great.

Cats and rats have been helping Colombian police sniff out land mines. The rats are trained to sniff out landmines and are taught to freeze when they detect one. The problem is that the rats have not been doing the job effectively because they are frightened of predators. Putting the rat into a cage with a cat helps the rat becomes used to the presence of possible predators so they can concentrate on their job. The cat’s claws are covered so they cannot injure the rat.

You might have cause to be worried if Oscar the cat (not my cat Oscar) curls up next to you. The cat has an uncanny knack for curling up next to patients at a nursing home just before they die. Staff at the nursing home have now started alerting the patients family if Oscar sits next to them.

A cat was thrown from a car in Cornwall, the frightened cat managed to run across several lanes of traffic to the middle of a roundabout. The cat was left uninjured but very frightened. Hopefully it will soon find a new home with someone who will look after him.

My cats have been hunting frogs for several months now with no success. So little success in fact that I had become secure in the knowledge that the frogs were too smart to be caught. Yesterday Oscar (pictured) came running into the house with a large frog firmly between his teeth. At first I assumed he had caught a bird but upon further inspection I found it was a frog and was still very much alive. After a bit of persuasion I managed to get Oscar to drop his frog and returned it to the pond. Oscar was left with a very bad taste in his mouth, but is still hunting frogs.

This is another one of those stories that makes me sick. This poor kitten was set alight by two teenage girls. The cat was in a cage at the time so had no way of getting away when the two girls poured flammable liquid on him and set to light to it. The skin on his back was burnt off leaving raw tissue and he has had his tail and ear tips amputated because they were so badly damaged. How someone can be this cruel to an animal is beyond me.

This is Lucy doing her cute kitty act. This usually happens after she has done something particularly bad.

Cats seems to love sitting on shoes. Here is a picture of Ollie guarding a pair of my shoes.

There have been many times when my husband has been nursing a bitten hand, disinfecting a scratched arm or cleaning up cat sick, that he has uttered the phrase, either the cats goes or I do, I know he doesn't mean it, but found this amusing.

A charity is looking for overweight pets to take part in its "fit club". Good Friday pictured below managed to lose 1kg when he took part last year, so if you have a fat cat or an overweight dog, you might want to sign them up.

If like me you have spent many evenings in the pub discussing such topics as "If a rabbit and a badger had a fight who would win?" or "How about if a tiger and a bear had a fight, who would win then?" then you will find this picture entertaining. Who will win the cat or the eagle? My money is on the eagle, it has sharper claws.

Picture from boredstop.com

A cat that disappeared in 1997 has now been reunited with her owner ten years after she went missing. Lynx turned up at an animal sanctuary 60 miles away from her home. The animal sanctuary was able to track down her owner because Lynx had been micro chipped.

I came across this article which looks at how cats became domesticated. It suggests that cats actually domesticated themselves because being near people they were never short on food. The association between people and cats appears to stem from the fact that cats fed on the rodents that fed on the grain stored by people. Eventually some cats became tolerant of human contact and these cats found that rewards such a bowl of milk or a dry place to sleep came as a result of being close to people. These cats then began to breed in larger numbers because more kittens survived. The article makes for interesting reading. So basically the conclusion is my cats love me because I feed them, tell me something I didn't know.

I read this article about five kittens that were left to die in a bin. Due to the heavy rain the bin had filled with water and the poor things were left struggling to survive as the water got higher. The weakest of the kittens had lost their fight for survival and died before anyone found them; the other three were found desperately trying to stay afloat.

It always makes me so angry to read an article like this, in my opinion if you are responsible pet owner and you don’t want any kittens, you get your cat neutered. There should be no excuse for unwanted kittens. It strikes me that some people in today’s society need may need further education before they should be allowed to own an animal. Just as there is no excuse for having unwanted kittens, there is also no excuse for treating an animal like a piece of rubbish. Kittens never stay at animal shelters for long and I’m sure the three surviving kittens will soon find a loving home, its just a shame that a callous person caused the death of their siblings with needless cruelty. 

The three surviving kittens.

Its getting to that time of year when cat owners like myself need to start thinking about flea control. Fleas can be a real nuisance especially in a multi-cat household. With four cats if one cat gets fleas, then soon the whole house is infested. I usually find that prevention is better than cure, if at all possible. I am careful to change my cats flea collars every few months and so far we have been flea free for nearly two years, fingers crossed.

However, with pets it’s inevitable you will have to deal with fleas at some point. I found this useful website called fleascontrol.com that has a flea control guide to help you get rid of annoying fleas. The website has useful tips on what remedies work such as flea collars for prevention and flea shampoo and powder for tackling the problem. It also has useful information for removing fleas from the home to try and prevent further outbreaks.

I read this story about a kitten that got trapped in a toilet after it crawled inside to explore. Fire Fighters had to remove the toilet to rescue the kitten from inside the U-bend. We are always very careful to put all the toilet seats down in our house, mainly because Oscar likes to stick his paws in water and could easily fall in and get stuck. This little kitten was very lucky; I hope he learnt that toilets are not good hiding places.

My cat Oscar has always suffered from runny eyes ever since we got him form the rescue centre nearly three years ago. Unfortunately the vet has said Oscar will always have the problem and there is nothing they can do to correct it. Oscar is such a happy cat, he is always pouncing on things and he is very affectionate, despite his eye problem. He does, however, get very moody when his eyes need cleaning. As you can see from the picture Oscar has runny eyes and is feeling very sorry for himself. A simple wipe of his eyes with the soothing eye wipes from the pet store or a clean tissue and Oscar is his usual happy self and back to pouncing.

My cat Lucy has a new hobby, hunting newts. We have around 50 newts in our pond at the moment and as you can see by the picture Lucy spends most of her time watching them and dipping her paws in the water to try and catch them. To date she has not actually managed to catch anything but she is very persistant.

Its about time for another cute cat picture. This is Oscar (top) and his brother Ollie relaxing at home after a hard days pouncing in the garden. Cats have such a hard life, don't you feel sorry for them?

I threw a few dried out crusts of bread out for the birds today and a little while later went out into the garden to find my cats happily eating them. So, I provide nice premium cat food and gourmet biscuits and my cats choose to eat stale bread. Anyone watching them would think I am a terrible cat owner who starves her pets.

I found this website where this guy makes suits of armour for cats and mice, I'm not quite sure why but the results are interesting. One thing is that missing from his website though is cats actually wearing the armour.

It's very rare to get a picture of all the cats together but as you can see by the picture below feeding time is a very happy time in our house with all four cats tucking in.

It’s that time of year when the cats are moulting and we have fur everywhere. To try and combat that we brush our cats or at least we try to. Ollie is by far the most furry of our four cats but he is a little sensitive (mild understatement) when it comes to be brushed. As soon as Ollie sees you approaching with brush in hand he starts a high pitched wailing noise and tries to get as far away from you as possible. It’s usually best to chase him outside because when he starts this wailing his party trick is to poo on the floor to punish you for scaring him. Obviously this is easier to clean up outside. The brushing process usually goes something this:

Step One: Chase Ollie into garden and shut all entrances to the house.

Step Two: Chase Ollie around the garden with brush in hand whilst he continually wails at you (the wailing noise sounds like is being strangled and I’m sure if anyone walked past they would assume I had my hands around his neck).

Step Three: When you manage to get close enough to Ollie quickly brush him as many times as you can whilst avoiding claws and teeth.

Step Four: Keep repeating steps one through to three until; either the Ollie has been brushed and the loose fur has been removed; or Ollie starts making a low growling noise in his throat. This is the sign that he has had enough grooming for one day and will bite you.

Ollie glaring at me after being brushed.

The evil brush with some fresh Ollie fur in it.

Des the cat has 26 toes, quite a few more than the average moggy which usually only has 18. Des has two extra toes on his front paws and one extra on his back paws. Thats 8 more claws he has to scratch you with.

A picture of his back paw.

If you are prone to allergies then is the time of year they generally start acting up. You can help prevent many allergies by investing in humidifiers, or helping healthy living with an air purifier or even using a specialised vacuum cleaner. www.bestvacuum.com specialises in all of these devices. You can buy various humidifiers that remove impurities from the air whilst also humidifying the air at the same time. Their vacuum cleaners also cover a variety of problems, I have recently purchased a Dyson animal which having four cats I find great for picking up the handfuls of fur they leave behind when they are shedding their fur during the summer.

Mobile phones with cow ringtones are being used to lure leopards away from human settlements in India. Forest guards have downloaded animal ringtones for their mobile phones which they then attach to loudspeakers behind a cage. The leopard attracted by the sound of mooing then gets trapped inside when it comes looking for its lunch. The trapped leopards are all released back into the forest.

I read this article about animals that have managed to get their heads stuck in things. From cans to walls, some animals don't learn from mistakes.

Cat in a tin.

Lucy the cat managed to survive for seven weeks trapped under the floorboards. Its thought that she survived by licking condensation from pipes to obtain water.

I found this interesting website where a guy has managed to attach a camera to his cat. The camera is set to take a picture every two minutes so by the end of the day he has a picture diary of what the cat has been up to during the day. Very interesting I must try this with my cats.

I came across this article about a cat that has apparently grown wings. I'm not sure how authentic the picture is but it's still quite cool.

Its been a while since I posted any cat pictures, so here is a couple.

Willow Playing with a tape measure.

Oscar fast asleep.

Analysis of cheetahs DNA found that they are also cheaters by nature. Litters of cubs were found to be made up of cubs from several different fathers. In fact 43% of litters contained cubs from multiple fathers.

I read this article about Odin the tiger (pictured) who has learnt to swim. It includes a video showing Odin in action as he chases lumps of meat thrown into the water.

An Israeli man woke up to find a leopard in his bed. He managed to pin it down for 20 minutes until help arrived to collect the leopard.

Scientists have come up with a "great" new way to stop cats having an effect on the local bird and rodent population. All you have to do is simply fit your cat with a brightly coloured clip on bib to make it more difficult for the cat to stalk innocent wildlife.

The first thing that strikes me about this experiment is, do any of these scientists have cats? Anyone that owns a cat knows that if it very difficult to keep anything attached to it. We found this when our cat Ollie hurt his tail and had to wear a plastic collar so he couldn't lick the stitches. We tried everything to keep the collar on the cat with no success. With this is mind I don't think a cat bib will be very successful, cats are too intelligent when it comes to getting rid of unwanted clothing.

A rare Scottish Wildcat kitten has been born at Wildwood Discovery Park in Canterbury. It is thought there are now only around 400 Scottish Wildcats left in the wild as the species has declined due to interbreeding with domestic cats.

A Scottish Wildcat.

I came across this useful website pethealthforums. It has lots of useful information and advice from other pet owners. I was actually looking for some information on what to do when your cat gets stung by a bee and although I didn't find anything about this (it appears other peoples cats are more intelligent then mine and don't play with bees) I did spend a lot of time reading through the other posts.

A cat in Folkestone caused twelve homes to be without power when he got stuck on a pylon. Flash the cat had climbed the 30ft pylon and then found he was unable to get back down. In order to safely rescue Flash, the electric company cut off the power supply to the surrounding homes whilst an engineer in mountaineering gear climbed up to get the cat.

Cats just love boxes. This is Willow helping to unpack the new TV.

A lucky cat managed to survive 35 days trapped in a cargo crate after it chewed its way into a box which was then loaded onto a ship going from the US to Shanghai. Apparantly it is possible for cats to survive for long periods without water because they are able to live on the moisture that comes from condensation. Amazing.

We all want our pets to be well looked after when we go away. We have to plan our holidays’ carefully to make sure we have someone to come and take care of our cats for the duration. No cat care means no holiday. However, even I think the idea of a Pet hotel is a little extreme. The Wag Hotel in San Francisco is just that. It features a number of creature comforts such as plasma screen TV's, toys and rugs and also has a pet chef and massage parlour for the pampered pets. With all this, why would they want to go home?

Further to my post about Lucy's attack on Rorys hand, Rory had been been feeling hot and generally unwell for most of the weekend following the attack. When he went to the doctors he was told his hand was infected and given a huge dose of pills (pictured below) with the instructions to take one three times a day for a week.

Lucy is not a very popular cat.

Lucy the evil cat.

Having four cats I find one of the worst jobs is cleaning out the litter box. It needs doing a twice a day and sometimes even more often. It can also be an issue when we want to go away for a few days. Whilst it is easy to find people to come and feed the cats, not many people want to clean the litter tray. With this is mind I have been investigating some alternatives to the basic litter tray.

I came across the Littermaid. This handy device is an automated self cleaning litter tray. The litter tray itself has a large open design enabling and includes an automated cleaning rake. Basically what happens is the cat uses the littermaid. When the cat exits the tray it triggers the sensors, setting the timer for the cleaning cycle. Ten minutes after the cat has left the tray the cleaning cycle starts and the rake moves the clumps of waste into the receptacle. If a cat should enter the tray before the tem minutes is up then the timer simply resets itself and waits an additional ten minutes before starting the cleaning process, meaning that there is no risk of cats becoming trapped inside during the cleaning cycle. All of the collected waste is deposited in the disposable plastic trays.

To clean the littermaid you simply need to remove the sealed plastic trays which are sealed to close in any bad smells. The disposable trays are available to purchase separately but you can always line them with plastic bags to prolong their life. The littermaid is also available in several sizes to suit different households, such as the LitterMaid LM900 Mega which is designed for people who have four or more cats. This model features a larger tray area to hold more litter and the disposable trays are also deeper to hold more waste.

In all it’s a very good idea and should cut down greatly on the time spent cleaning the litter tray. It also means that when we have other people looking after the cats they would only have to replace the plastic tray every couple of days rather than cleaning the litter tray itself which is a much more pleasant experience altogether.

We have had our cat Willow for four years now, since she was a kitten. She follows us with the devotion you would usually only associate with dogs.  Willow follows me around all day, everywhere I go in the house or garden she is there. When I go to the bathroom she waits outside the door, I sit on the sofa she sits next me, I go in the kitchen to make a sandwich she sits and waits for treats. She also knows exactly what time Rory gets home from work. When the time approaches she sits by the front door waiting for him. As soon as he comes in the door she is there to greet him. She waits for him to take off his shoes and then runs upstairs past him and jumps on the bed as he opens the bedroom door to change out of his work clothes, just waiting to have her ears scratched. Such a loyal pussy cat.

A picture of Willow trying to look cute.

Cats can be very unpredictable creatures. You just think you are getting along and they turn round and attack you for no reason. Lucy did just that today leaving Rory with two nasty bites and several scratches, making it the worst attack yet from one of our cats. The only previous attack that involved biting was when Ollie bit Rory’s hand several years ago. That particular attack did not really come as a surprise, as we had only just got Ollie from the cat home and he was slightly feral. With Lucy, however, what caused her to attack is a mystery. One thing is for sure, if this becomes a habit it will take a lot to convince Rory not to send her to the cat home.

Rorys hand after the attack.

Lucy (left) and Willow.

They look so cute but this friendly behaviour ultimately ends in a fight for the beanbag. It starts with Willow (Grey) sitting on the beanbag. Oscar then comes along and decides he wants to sit with her, so makes himself comfortable. This leads to a prolonged cleaning session with Willow and Oscar fighting to be the first to clean each other. After a while they stop cleaning each other and start biting each other until one of them gives up (usually Oscar) and leaves the beanbag.

Willow and Oscar pictured before they start attacking each other.

After taking my new trainers out of the box, it made a nice new cat bed.

Another hot April day and all the cats are fast asleep trying to escape the heat. Poor Oscar is exhausted. What a hard life he has.

It’s getting very hard to watch any TV in our house at the moment as we have to wrestle the remote away from this vicious creature (pictured above). Ok I admit the photo is staged but he does look pretty scary.

Cats are always doing something funny. Today I found both Oscar and Willow in a tree. They must think they are birds.

Have you ever wondered what a cat would do if you put it on a treadmill? Not much if this example is anything to go by. I must try this with my cats.

I found these pictures of a really useless cat who appears to be afraid of mice, Being the owner of four useless cats I found them quite funny.

Pierrepoint the cat had a lucky escape after she crept into a vans engine. She was spotted after the van had travelled 15 miles and although she was suffering from shock had no other injuries.

I found this article on The Daily Mail website about a cat that has learnt how to use a bus. The cat waits for the 331 bus a couple of times a week and uses it to travel to the next stop before jumping off. Very Cute.

As yet no one knows the cats name. He looks a lot like my cat Ollie.

There was a huge breakthrough in the cat eating monkey case today. A team of highly trained cat detectives acting on a tip off managed to apprehend the rouge monkey. Initially he denied all charges but after some “mild” persuasion by DI Willow and her team, the monkey finally admitted to the charges of attacking four innocent cats. Cats can once again sleep easy in their baskets now this monkey is safely behind bars. See the dramatic pictures from the crime scene below.

The suspect is captured for questioning.

Detectives Willow and Lucy begin the questioning process.

Getting nowhere they play "good cop bad cop"

Willow is the bad cop. After this "gentle" questioning the monkey confesses to four murders and is sent to jail. Crime does not pay.

I found this funny story on a website about home exchanges. Basically on one home exchange an American couple were asked to feed the cat in their UK holiday home. However not knowing what the cat looked like, it wasn’t until the end of holiday that they realised they had been feeding a stray cat and ignoring the English couple’s beloved pet. It just goes to show how sneaky cats can be.

Poor Willow didn’t stand a chance against the power of the monkey.

We have now successfully fitted two of ours cats with a small tracking device which attaches to their collars. Whilst it is not actually meant specifically for cats it enables you to quickly track down a cat that does not want to be found. For more information on this see Rory’s blog.

Oscar being attacked by the cat killing monkey.

One of my cats Oscar was not very well yesterday. Unfortunately he had some sickness and diarrhoea and although he quickly recovered he was unable to clean himself properly ending up with poo all over his rear end, so we had to give him a bath. Bathing Oscar is not an easy task as he hates being picked up and is a very large strong cat. With this is mind we devised a plan that we thought would keep us safe from flying claws. First Rory prepared a washing up bowl of warm water with a generous amount of Herbal Essences 2 in 1 Shampoo added to it. I then fetched a very thick towel and we both put on gloves for added protection. After chasing Oscar around the living room for about half an hour I was finally able to throw the towel over him covering his head and front paws. I quickly picked Oscar up and keeping his head covered to avoid being bitten dunked the whole back end of the cat into the washing up bowl. Then holding him tightly Rory proceeded to rub the shampoo into his coat before rinsing him off with warm water. At this point Oscar was growling very loudly. Next I moved the towel from his head to wrap the back claws whilst Rory sponged soapy water onto the front part of the cat. One more rinse and Oscar was clean although very wet and not very happy. A day later and I am amazed at how soft and fluffy his coat is. Now that we have perfected the technique perhaps we will bath him more often…. Or maybe not.

Ollie seems unaware that there is a cat eating monkey behind him waiting to strike.

Lucy meets the cat eating monkey.

I came across this article about a cat that can pronounce its own name. The cat called Agui apparently pronounces his name when he gets scared, usually whilst his owner is giving him a bath. Unfortunately there is no video of the cat actually talking so it’s hard to say whether it’s true or not. One thing is for sure judging by the picture below this cat really hates baths.

I just found this picture of my cat Oliver in the snow we have last month. I think its so cute how he almost blends in with the snowy background.

Today it came around to that time again, the time that every cat owner dreads, the three monthly worming pill. Most people only have to do this once every three months; we however have four cats, so four cats means four pills. Whilst they are usually cute little creatures they seem to sense that it is time for a pill. Our cats include two semi feral boys and two girls that we have raised from kittens. Obviously you are expecting that the problem lies with the semi feral rescue cats now named Oscar and Oliver. However these two cats whilst capable of delivering a very nasty bite (as my husband recently found out) are easily fooled. I wrapped their pills securely in a piece of ham and each cat took their pill on the first go… Job done… Two more to go.

Next the girls named Willow and Lucy. First I tried the ham trick with no luck. Both Willow and Lucy looked at me suspiciously as I tried to feed them the doctored ham. Willow tasted it and spat out the pill… lucky I brought some extra pills just in case. Lucy seeing Willow’s reaction to the ham proceeded to go and sit outside in the rain where she felt safe from the evil human who was obviously attempting to poison her. Whilst Lucy was sulking outside I came up with a new idea. We buy some crunchy biscuits that she really likes that have caramel in the middle. I decided to cut the biscuit in half and cunningly insert half a pill into each half of biscuit. Then I proceeded to reseal the biscuit and give it to Lucy. Success it went down first time. Just one more cat to go.

Whilst I was feeding Lucy the doctored biscuits Willow expressed an interest in them. Willow is famous for not taking pills, even the vet cannot get her to take one but on the off chance I gave her a doctored biscuit with half the dosage inside it. I was amazed when she took the fist biscuit without any fuss. Stupidly I thought the second biscuit would also work. Willow did take the biscuit and started chewing but it was soon spat out and discarded to be gobbled up by a hungry Oscar. I then decided to leave Willow until my husband Rory arrived home from work, she always liked him more then me anyway. When Rory got home he tried to trick Willow into taking the pill by putting it into ham. “I tried that already she is not that stupid” I said. Then he tried to grab Willow and put the pill down her throat (this method is not recommended and does cause injury) see http://www.thejokeshop.org/index.php/2007/02/22/how-to-feed-a-cat-a-pill/

Yes Rory did get bitten and this method should come with a health warning. As a last result he once again tried my earlier doctored biscuit trick. My response was “there is no way that will work” but Willow trusting her favoured human took her next dose of pill without problems. So that amounts to: Four pills into four cats with only one bitten finger and two wasted pills. That must be a record.