“I can’t get another cat.” That’s what my friend’s mother, Sallie, told me after enduring the unexpected death of her husband and — just two years later — the passing of her cat. Squish was a low-key tuxedo who liked to curl up on the couch with her at night. Sallie took Squish’s death especially […]
The New York declaw ban didn’t come easy. After years of legislative defeat, opposition from the largest veterinary group in the state, and pushback from special interest groups, New York became the first to enact a full statewide ban on cat declawing when its governor inked the bill in late July. The bill is a […]
On a rainy day in Japan’s Southern Wakayama Prefecture, more than 3,000 mourners shuffled through a small Shinto shrine to pay their respects to Tama, the beloved, departed stationmaster at Kishi train station. Flowers were piled high next to images of Tama from happier times. A Shinto priest led a hymn as train riders, railroad personnel and Tama’s […]
Everyone who has a cat has heard the familiar sentiments: Cats don’t care about their human caretakers. They only stick around because we feed them. They’re indifferent and far less affectionate than dogs. People who love cats have long known those stereotypes aren’t true, but now there are finally research studies to help prove it. […]
The lost kitten was cold and all she wanted was a place to get warm. That’s how the unnamed stray, who had been separated from her mother, made her way into the undercarriage of an SUV on December 19th. She had survived a harrowing journey from Brooklyn to Harlem before the driver heard her […]
Friendly, fluffy and fierce. Perhaps it’s that incongruity, the image of cats as both cuddly companions and ruthless predators, that has made them so beguiling to so many human cultures over the millennia. From Egypt’s Old Kingdom – where the goddess Bastet was envisioned as a lioness warrior deity – to modern day, the image […]
