Free Republic

Exotic species such as pythons, Asian carp and cane toads often dominate the invasive species discourse. Few biological invaders, however, have wreaked as much ecological havoc as one of our most cuddly companions: cats. Despite their small stature and memeable mugs, domestic cats (Felis catus) are perfectly adapted killing machines, armed with retractable claws, sharp fangs and night vision. And these potent predators are anything but picky. As humans have spread cats around the world over the past 9,000 years, these ferocious felines—which were likely domesticated thousands of years ago in the Near East—have terrorized native creatures on every...

If you own a cat, you know that they crouch down and pounce while playing. The same thing was caught on tape, but with a much larger cat - a 400 pound lion at a zoo in Chiba, Japan. A two-year-old boy got a very close encounter when the lion lunged, after the boy turned his back. The good news is that a glass wall was separating the two when the lion pounced, smashing his face into the wall. The glass wall is only about a month old, allowing lions to see their human visitors more closely than ever before....

Video: Courageous cat scares off scaredy-cat bear In a battle between a big, black bear and your average house cat, who would win? In the case of one fearless feline, the answer is not what you'd think. Petsami, an online animal entertainment network from the creators of America's Funniest Home Videos, posted this hilarious YouTube clip of a massive black bear being chased off by a courageous cat. The hapless bear is just doing what bears do, lumbering about and sniffing stuff, when out of nowhere appears a black and white cat. The bear is clearly shocked, and beats a...

Strange as it sounds, the question has been thrown around in previous years and even studied by scientists. A recent write-up on the website Improbable Research revisits whether cats with darker coats wreak more havoc on their owners' immune systems. Pet dander, skin flakes, saliva and urine can aggravate owners' allergies and asthma, but for cats in particular, a specific protein called "Fel d 1" is a common culprit. It's secreted by cats' salivary and sebaceous (or oil) glands, so when a cat grooms itself, it spreads the allergen to the outermost surface of the fur, increasing human exposure to...

June 21, 2008 Over the past several days, I have gone through several emotions, confusion, disgust, disappointment, and finally anger. At first my confusion and disgust were aimed at the arrogance of our State Legislature. Now, I find anger has overtaken my disappointment for my Governor, Bobby Jindal. My anger also extends to the national media, which includes the press and conservative radio talk show host that have long touted the “savior of the Republican party’s future.” Since Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana has made the national news and exposed the corrupt and inept leadership in Baton Rouge. The impression the rest...