Free Republic

We’re not saying that every time your cat does something weird it’s a signal of an impending natural disaster, but you might want to start paying attention. Because, as this security footage shows, cats apparently have a sense for that kind of thing. This footage was take at the Cat Café Catchy in Japan, when an earthquake struck Osaka in June. Moments before the café started to shake, the cats seem to react to a loud noise or a thump. They jolt awake, looking around as if expecting to see what woke them from their naps. Then the building begins...

An online movement of men is shrugging off the stereotype that 'cats are for girls' and flaunting their affinity for kitties, writes Hayley Gleeson. And they're giving others permission to embrace a gentler, more thoughtful kind of masculinity. Myles Loughran is a cat man. 'Cat man' as in, 'cat lady', but with a Y-chromosome. Put another way, Mr Loughran is a man who likes cats — as opposed to a man who likes dogs, say, or miniature pigs. "There's something about cats," the 29-year-old co-owner of Cat Cafe Melbourne tells ABC News. "I feel they can give you that real...

Cat cafes, where patrons pay to hang out with cats, have become huge in Japan and spread around the world since the first one opened in Taiwan in 1998. Adorable felines, after all, may be the one thing that Starbucks can't match. Case in point is Cat Cafe Nekokaigi owner Mayuko Horii, who opened Kyoto's first cat cafe in 2008 with 13 stray kittens. The ancient Japanese city happens to be full of stray cats.