After 49 years, Cat Fancy Magazineis 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.”
“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
Domestic cats kill as many as 3.7 billion birds a year, according to a study led by a Smithsonian biologist. That’s about 15 percent of the bird population. They kill about half as many mice, voles and other small mammals annually. Not everyone is confident about these numbers, however, and it’s unclear how many of these killer cats are actually feral and aren’t anyone’s pets.
Clearly, our sweet house kitties are natural-born hunters, “snakes with fur.” No need to kill them off, but letting pet pussycats roam outdoors is another matter. There are health reasons to keep cats indoors; now there are ecological ones, too.
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Today In International Cat News: An animal shelter in Zwickau, Germany is demanding more than $1,300 for care of two kitty cats owned by an alleged neo-nazi serial murderer. The felines in question, Heidi and Lily, belong to Beate Zschäpe, a member of the Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund, a neo-nazi terror cell suspected of a series of racially motivated murders with as many as 10 victims.
Mr. Romney may be top dog in the Republican race, but dog lovers — and dogs — are a vocal pack, and the canine chorus will be baying about Crate Gate at noon today (February 14th) at the Westminster Dog Show.
