Catymology

Today I'd hoped to celebrate the coming of Spring, but when I woke up and looked out the window, everything was covered with a layer of snow! I had to go back to my archives to find a photo of myself sitting in the sunshine.

All I'd like to do is go out in the backyard and cat around a little. I'd even step across the snow that's still piled up in the shade next to our back steps. But today is too cold. Maybe tomorrow?

Check out the Friday Ark at Modulator.

Labels: spring Equinox

We all know that many humans treat their pets like children, but how many treat them like fashion models? Lilly is a gorgeous young coal-black long-haired cat who really seems to get off on being dressed up. The Star Tribune gossip columnist C.J. recently interviewed Lilly and her human, Carol. There's evan a video of Lilly getting dressed, and her human talking baby talk to her.

Carol complains that someone in the neighborhood (a posh suburb of Minneapolis) has been stealing Lilly's clothes.

This was the point where I got a little upset. Apparently, Lilly runs around getting into confrontations with the local dogs and hunting mice and chipmunks. Left to our own devices, all of us felines would run around the neighborhood like that, but you know what? It's not safe. It seems contradictory for Carol to play dressup with Lilly and then let her go out and cat around like that. What does she think, she's Lindsay Lohan?

But, as for this dressing up pets trend, I don't think it's really new enough to deserve space in a gossip column. I'll bet C.J. never stopped to check on just how many humans get off on dressing their cats. I'm not talking about children, but adults. Do you know how many hits you can get on Google for "cats in clothes"? 6,570,000! And just about any random post from Stuff on My Cat is a lot more clever than someone baby-talking to her kitty.

But for more cat fun, check out the Carnival of the Cats, hosted this week at Nikita's Place.

Labels: guest cats

More wildcat news. Last week, hunters used their dogs to tree this gorgeous cougar, apparently a wild one, near Spooner, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin officials who came to look have said that wild cougars are rare in Wisconsin and next door here in Minnesota. I sort of wonder whether the cougars might not be migrating. After all, in some parts of the country, it's spring, and young cats have been known to range out quite widely to find mates. Uh, oh. That could lead to more cougars.

The interesting thing about this cougar story is that the hunters backed off. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources asked them to try to trap the cat so that they could put a marker on him and see where he was going. But the hunters, who seemed to have a bad attitude toward government workers of any kind, pulled their dogs out and let the cougar go. I sure hope he's managed to catch some prey, because it's been beastly cold up here in the Upper Midwest recently.

Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/local/40797587.html?elr=KArksUUUUå

This cougar is joining the Friday Ark !

Labels: wildcats

I woke up early and took a bath today, because it's my birthday! Yesterday, my personal groomer had brushed me--including my fluffy ruff and tummy. Don't you think I look a lot better now?

Labels: birthday

A little bit of the nip keeps me from thinking too much about money. I like to roll in the catnip and then lick it off my fur. I even offered some to my humans, but they said they preferred a little nip of something else. As long as they have enough money for catnip and food, I guess we should all be happy.

And by the way, Monday is my birthday!

Check out the boarders at the Friday Ark.