Catscapades

Last week we talked about cats that save lives. Here’s another such story. Recently in England, an 83-year-old woman went missing. Search crews and neighbors looked everywhere for her, but it was her black cat, Piran who saved the day and the woman.

It turns out she’d fallen 70 feet into a ravine and Piran knew it. She tried everything to alert searchers to the problem. Finally one of them took her frantic meowing seriously and found the woman, who, incidentally, survived to thank her beautiful cat.

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/17/1028495560/cat-saves-elderly-woman-fallen-ravine-cornfield-cornwall-england

I’ve shared stories here before of working cats and library cats. I think we all find this concept fascinating. Don’t you enjoy walking into a library, a bookstore, a pet store, or a veterinary hospital, etc. and seeing a cat strolling through the building or curled up napping on the counter or taking inventory of the merchandise or just greeting customers and patrons?

I always smile when I walk into my chiropractor’s office or our local nursery and see the resident cat at work or play. Our local library had a cat at one time who would help students do their homework, assist patrons in choosing the right book, and mingle with people enjoying the outdoor secret garden. This week I happened upon a site that brought back memories of that cat and the calm that would spread through me upon seeing him. I thought I’d share the link which I’m quite sure will cause you to smile. Even just the thought of a cat in the library or a bookstore is a bit therapeutic. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52810/10-cats-who-live-library

At this site you’ll meet Trixie, a cat who was dropped off at a library in Independence, Kansas—similar to the story of Dewey, the most famous library cat of all. You may recall he was found in the book drop on a winter day in pretty bad shape and recovered to a lovely life delighting library patrons who came from all over the world to meet him.

There’s a cat working in the library at Texas A&M University. Miko is their pest control specialist. There are also library cats in St. Helena, CA, Bradford, PA, Long Island, NY and a very special cat working in a library in Russia.

Kuzya got the job at the library in Russia after applying using his uncanny ability to look cute and fluffy. He did such a good job in his role that he was promoted to assistant Librarian—a promotion that came with a new dress code. You must check out the link and see him in his adorable bowtie.

I saw a photograph of an Amikoshi Oriential cat for the first time this week. Interesting—kind of cute. But then it’s a cat and cats are cute. For fun I found a site featuring strange breeds of cats and they include the Pixie Bob, a bobcat-type cat; an Elf cat, an extremely rare hybrid from the American curl and the Sphinx; the Canadian Sphinx, which is hairless; the munchkin, with short legs; the Scottish fold with bent ears, and the Egyptian Mau, which is spotted. One of the most unusual, other than the Amikoshi, is the Bambino, a hairless munchkin. What’s with hairless cats? I don’t see the point. Isn’t the allure of a cat the fur? Well, yes, and the whiskers and round eyes and those ear and paws…But for me, I also adore running my fingers through the fur.

My Cat-a-Day calendar for August 18 showed a pretty fluffy rare breed of cat—a Nebelung. This is the long-haired variety of the Russian blue. Sweet looking cat. Here’s a picture and an overview: https://www.thesprucepets.com/nebelung-cat-breed-profile-4770585

Here’s a site offering a rundown on a variety of unusual cat breeds: https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/pets/strange-cat-breeds-you-have-to-see-to-believe/ss-BB1bsWmc#image=13

Black Cat Appreciation Day was established in 2011 to help bring attention to the many beautiful black cats that are overlooked by those seeking to adopt from a shelter or purchase from a breeder. It’s true, black cats are the most overlooked cats in shelters. However, I know people who adopt almost only black cats—who go out of their way to take in black cats. No they aren’t witches, they’re just doing what they can to protect and save some of the least admired cats. If they’re going to rescue a cat, they’ll rescue the underdog—um…er…undercat. Some of those who appreciate the black cat don’t really need another cat and aren’t in the market for one, but will rescue one that’s in danger of being euthanized.

Here’s a site with interesting information about the black cat. For example, there are 22 breeds of cat that include pure black cats. I have a grandcat who is a munchkin and he is pure black and absolutely beautiful. Such a sweet boy. Love him to pieces. Black cats also appear in the British shorthair breed, American shorthair, Maine coon, Bombay, the Rexes, and Persians.

While in former centuries black cats got a bad rap—they were thought to be evil and related to witchcraft–other groups of people considered them good luck. Fishermen and sailors liked having a black cat aboard for luck (and to keep the rat population down). In Japan—sort of the cat capital of the world—there’s at least one cat café devoted to the black cat. Learn more interesting facts about the black cat and Black Cat Appreciation Day here: https://nationaltoday.com/national-black-cat-appreciation-day/

First I’d like to thank Lori at Escape With DollyCas for arranging Olivia’s amazing blog tour. She kept us hopping from stop to stop. We had fun and, yes, book sales were up. Thank all of you who participated and who visited the blog stops. I hope you enjoyed the 10-day journey with us.

Today I want to feature cats in trees. As you know, I do this every once in a while. You may also know that I like to photograph cats out of doors. Since our cats stay inside, I stalk neighborhood cats, and I take pictures of cats I see while I’m out walking. I get a thrill when I see a cat in a tree and I’ll almost always try to capture that cat with my camera.

As most know, cats are excellent tree-climbers. Yes, they can scurry up the trunk of a tree quite expertly, but when it comes to climbing down, that can be a different story. Cats’ claws aren’t built for the climb down a trunk. Some cats will come down if left to their own devises. Others need coaxing—and that doesn’t mean a crowd of people shouting directions, but maybe a treat or the cat’s favorite food left at the base of the tree for enticement.

If possible, you might go up after the cat, but don’t be surprised if she sits on a branch watching you make the climb, then just before you get in position to grasp her, she scampers down on her own. It happens.

I saw someone climb up a tree once to rescue a young cat who had stealthily run up a tall tree and then suddenly developed a fear of heights—or so it seemed. He did reach the cat, lifted her off the limb, and attached her to his leg for the climb down. She actually held on with all of her claws for the ride down. She didn’t climb that tree again, but there was a smaller tree in our backyard that she loved to climb—a plum tree. Dinah would see that tree and run full speed across the lawn and up into the tree. Such fun. She could leap back down from the branches—no worries. One day, however, we decided to take that messy tree out. Dinah didn’t notice until one day when she got a burst of energy and ran across the lawn toward that tree. She stopped abruptly where the tree had been and looked around obviously confused. I got a laugh out of that, but I don’t think Dinah was too happy that day.