Cats Know Names, But Won’t Answer to Them

Researchers in Japan are obsessed with cats, probably due to childhoods swamped in Hello Kitty. A few years back, they discovered that cats know their own names, even if they usually won’t respond when you call them. Now they’ve learned that cats know the names of their feline friends, too. Maybe they want to know if you’re giving treats to other kitties instead of them.

More:

“Cats Actually Know Each Other’s Names, Study Suggests,” Samantha Cole, Motherboard

“Cats know the names of other cats that are their friends, study says,” Matthew Rozsa, Salon

_____________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-z46

Image (“Newscatster, in the Style of Modigliani”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

How Cats Tamed Us

Abigail Tucker explains why humans are obsessed with cats. A New Yorker video.

______________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-rrn

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Breaking: UK Cat News

This just in: Larry the Cat votes “Remain,” in a sense. Number 10 Downing Street’s “Chief Mouser,” a tabby who moved into the UK Prime Minister’s official residence in 2011, will not be leaving with David Cameron on Wednesday. “It’s a civil servant’s cat and does not belong to the Camerons – he will be staying,” said a government spokesperson. Larry will continue to shed fur on the chintz during the tenure of incoming PM Theresa May.

There has been no reaction from the kitties of the EU so far. We await miaous from Brussels.

More:

“Larry the cat escapes Downing Street eviction,” BBC News

_____________

Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-o8s

Image (“Newscatster, in the Style of Modigliani”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Cats.

“’For some reason, cats took off, and then it’s this avalanche that just sort of keeps piling up,’ said Jason Eppink, the curator of ‘How Cats Took Over the Internet,‘ an exhibition that opens on Friday at the Museum of the Moving Image. ‘People on the web are more likely to post a cat than another animal, because it sort of perpetuates itself. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.’

The exhibition — which may well be the first mainstream museum installation entirely dedicated to cats online — is made up mostly of images, videos and GIFs of cats and is meant to be a cultural deconstruction of their enduring popularity. The show takes a high-minded look at anthropomorphism and what it calls the ‘aesthetics of cuteness‘ as well as a low-brow wallow through cheesy trends — like the LOLcats who demand cheezburger — and bad puns, like Caturday, a fad that had people posting cat pictures on Saturdays.”

” ‘How Cats Took Over the Internet’ at the Museum of the Moving Image,” Jennifer A. Kingson, New York Times

Australia Will Kill Millions of Kitty Cats

20 to 30 million feral cats roam Australia, killing 75 million animals each night. 29 of the continent’s mammals have been lost to extinction, and feral cats are implicated in 28 of these eradications. More than 120 Australian animals are currently at risk of extinction by feral cats, which also spread diseases that affect farm livestock.

These critters are not the mild-mannered moggies British colonists brought with them since arriving in 1788 but ferocious felines weighing up to 30 pounds. The Australian government wants to kill 2 million of these furry furies in the next 5 years.

More:

“Feline Massacre: Australia Unveils Plan to Kill Two Million Feral Cats,” Vice

____________________

Short Link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-lI2

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

DC Cat Café Opens June 20th

Crumbs & Whiskers, DC’s first cat café, is opening at 3211 O Street NW in Georgetown on June 20th. Kickstarter backers can schedule now, Gentlemeow’s Club members can sign up on June 15th, and the rest of us must wait until June 18th.

So reservations are required; sounds pretty exclusive. Will there be valet parking?

Cat Fancy Magazine ‘Put to Sleep’

After 49 years, Cat Fancy Magazine is no more. To put that in perspective, 49 years is 3 or 4 cat lifespans [insert ‘9 Lives‘ joke here].  Cat Fancy was known for beautiful feline photos and practical kitty-keeping advice and had many fans, including Ayn Rand. The magazine will be succeeded by something called “Catster.”

___________________

Short Link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-krm

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Hello Kitty in Space!

Japanese novelty manufacturer Sanrio has put a 1.6-inch-tall Hello Kitty figure into space on board a Hodoyoshi-3 satellite to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the fictional feline’s introduction.

Of course, this isn’t Kitty’s first space trip. Last year Lauren Rojas of Antioch, California launched Hello Kitty 93,625 feet into space as a seventh grade science fair project.

Cat Café

Like cats with your coffee? The Purina One Cat Café just opened in Manhattan. It’s a coffee shop full of kitties, all of them up for adoption. A similar tea shop is planned for San Francisco but, without corporate sponsorship, it hasn’t gotten off the ground.

Cat cafés seem to have started in Japan and spread to Europe, but New York’s is the first in the United States, though it will only be open for four days. Purina One Cat Café is downtown and, as seems natural, is only 8 blocks from Katz’s Delicatessen.

Purina One Cat Café, 168 Bowery, New York, NY 10013

_________________

Short Link:  http://wp.me/p6sb6-jdt

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Kitty Cafes

“Cat cafes — establishments that allow you to make feline friends while you enjoy your coffee — already exist in Paris and Japan, and … the concept will soon hit San Francisco. The trend has been slow to catch on in the U.S., mostly due to strict health codes that prohibit the presence of animals in restaurants. But the team behind the upcoming California cafe — obviously named KitTea — plans to make it work by running two separate operations: a tea house and a ‘cat sanctuary.’”

— “San Francisco Cat Cafe: Video Tour of Other Cat Cafes in Japan,” Samantha Grossman, TIME Magazine