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USDA veterinarian assesses feline containment BY MANDY BOLEN Citizen Staff Despite speculation about her visit to the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum, veterinary behaviorist Terry Curtis is not a "kitty shrink" who will place the six-toed cats on tiny therapy couches, ask them to interpret ink blots and eventually blame their mothers. Curtis, a veterinarian with a master's degree in psychology, is in Key West this week at the behest — and expense — of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has been investigating the four dozen resident cats for the past three years. Her goal, as she sees it,...

BIG PINE KEY — Traps set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture have caught two feral cats so far in Big Pine Key's National Key Deer Refuge. The trapping program is being conducted by wildlife officials in an effort to protect Big Pine Key's endangered marsh rabbit population. Following months of studies, traps were first set in June in several areas throughout the 84,000-acre refuge. "To date, two feral cats have been captured and transported to the Big Pine Key Animal Shelter," said Refuge Director Anne Morkill in an e-mail last week. "USDA Wildlife Services will continue trapping for at...

Teen Girls Accused Of Setting Kitten Ablaze. COTATI, Calif. -- A three-month-old kitten is fighting for his life after allegedly being set afire by two teenage girls last week. The male shorthaired kitten, named Adam, received second- and third-degree burns over 75 percent of its body and was being treated at an animal hospital in Cotati, in Northern California's Sonoma County, officials said. The kitten has undergone two surgeries and had its tail and the tips of its ears amputated. Two girls have been charged with cruelty to animals in connection with the case. They were arrested last Friday after...

KEY WEST, Florida (Reuters) - A game of cat and mouse is under way between the U.S. government and Florida's Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum over the fate of dozens of felines roaming the former home of the Nobel Prize-winning author

(07-09) 15:05 PDT Victoria, Texas (AP) -- By all accounts, Tahoe is a typical kitten: cute, sleepy and hungry. But his eating habits are far from typical, as the stray's been nursing from a 3-year-old dog named Lillie. Ever since the kitten was found under the hood of Eunice Collins' running Chevrolet Tahoe a few weeks ago, he's been feeding from the unusually cooperative longhaired dachshund. Tahoe feeds in the morning, at night and after naps, purring and pawing at the dog's belly. "That's not going to happen very often," said veterinarian John Beck, who added that the "kitten got...

Scientists believe cats 'sort of domesticated themselves' THE WASHINGTON POST June 29, 2007 WASHINGTON – Your hunch is correct. Your cat decided to live with you, not the other way around. The sad truth is, it may not be a final decision. But don't take this feline diffidence personally. It runs in the family. And it goes back a long way – about 12,000 years, actually. Those are among the inescapable conclusions of a genetic study of the origins of the domestic cat, being published today in the journal Science. The findings, drawn from the analysis of nearly a thousand...

Computer geeks have their own niche in pop culture. Sometimes, something crazed from that niche escapes and runs rampant among the masses. It's happened before, with the "I Kiss You" guy, Mahir Cagri (www.ikissyou.org); the "All Your Base" fad (www.allyourbasearebelongtous.com); and, more recently, the Diet Coke-and-Mentos experiments (www.eepybird.com). Now working its way into the popular consciousness is something far more bizarre and — depending on your point of view and sense of humor — either very funny or irritatingly cutesy. For the last few months, online regulars have been seeing on various Web sites and blogs pictures of cats and...

Cat owners can now see what their pet gets up to once they go through the flap. It follows the launch of 'cat cam' by a German inventor, reports the Daily Mail. Jürgen Perthold, who lives in America, attached his light-weight camera to the collar of his tom cat Mr Lee. "I wanted to find out what he gets up to, where he spends his days," Mr Perthold said. "He goes out the whole day, sometimes he returns hungry sometimes not, sometimes with traces of fights, sometimes he also says out all night. It gave me the idea to equip...

Man Clad in Underwear Pins Leopard May 28 04:21 PM US/Eastern By ARON HELLER Associated Press Writer JERUSALEM (AP) - A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family. "This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. "I don't know why I did it. I wasn't thinking, I just acted." Raviv Shapira, who heads the southern district of the Israel Nature...

This creature had been part of my life for almost 17 years. He wasn't exactly a normal cat. He was built like a medium sized dog. When he was healthy he weighed over 20 pounds. Today he weighed just over 10 pounds and was skin and bone. He had been sick on and off for about a year. Antibiotics helped but he never completely recovered. This morning he really looked bad. We called the vet and took him in. I already expected the worst. The vet said his temp was 92 F (normal is about 101). I expected him to...

This was at Sunday night's game between the Yankees and the Mets. The groundskeeper was rolling out a mat for batting practice and... you'll see what happens.

3:00PM Thursday May 17, 2007 NZ Herald source is blocked @ FR Link to article HERE

A continuation of this thread: Caption Tiny

If you spend any time at all observing net culture, then you'll have been unable to miss the recent explosion in popularity of lolcats. This relatively recent phenomenon is the convention of taking pictures of cute animals, most frequently cats, and overlaying absurdist captions on the images. The core behavior has existed for some time; "Image macro" is a generic term for this kind of folk art, and cats have always featured heavily in these types of Internet in-jokes. But a few distinct categories have sprung up that have helped amplify and popularize the phenomenon. I'M IN UR X Ying...

HUDSON - They tried to wait it out, but that didn't work. Five days later, they tried to lasso it with a rope. That failed, too. Out came the honey barbecue chicken wings, leftovers from Beef O'Brady's on Friday night. Even those were a bust. It was time for desperate measures. * * * JoAnn Black first spotted the long-haired gray cat Wednesday morning. Black, headed to a friend's house, opened the front door to her mobile home on Langdale Drive and saw the furry feline in the front yard. "As soon as I opened the door and said...

Baby tiger's birth adds to rare species   Last Edited: Friday, 09 Mar 2007, 7:41 PM EST Created: Friday, 09 Mar 2007, 6:54 PM EST     A rare tabby tiger has been born in Polk County. Related Items Videos DAVENPORT - Sounds of life fill the air at Horseshoe Creek Wildlife Foundation.  Spring is dawning, and that means babies being born.All the births are a joy for Horseshoe Creek founder Darryl Atkinson. "It's like being a father all over again.  I can't explain -- they are my children," Atkinson said.   He is especially thrilled by the recent birth...

Extra the kitten has been aptly named by her owners - she has 26 toes that give her a distinct advantage over her naturally climbing moggie mates. Her human family noticed there was something different with the three-month-old kitten when she started scratching more than other cats. "You would sort of want to wear boxing gloves when you play with her," says Kaelene Gerrard, who lives with her partner Eli Eliu and daughters Mercy, six, and 12-year-old Shardae. She examined the frisky feline's paws and did a double take at what she found. "We counted and then recounted but we...

SUN CITY CENTER It's just the two of them now. Ever since Eileen Horan's husband died five years ago, her daily routine has revolved around Pat, their miniature poodle. Every morning, Pat jumps on her bed, wriggling and panting warm breath in her face. They go on seven walks a day. They take their medicines together. Horan, 87, considers Pat one of her children. He's also her biggest worry. Like many residents in retirement communities like Sun City Center, Horan fears what will become of Pat when she dies. Who could care for the 15-year-old poodle the way she does?...

First video (same as post link) Home comforts for rare white tiger cub Reuters.com Jan. 28 - A rare white tiger cub is being raised in a German home until he is big enough to join other large cats in a safari park.There are about 250 white tigers living in captivity -- 80 of them are owned by the German entertainers Siegfried and Roy in Los Angeles. When he's old enough, Pipo will live at the Serengeti Park in Hodenhagen. Tom Metcalfe reports. Video: Rare white tiger cub lives in German home ***************************************************Second Video: Reuters QuickCut Kiss me, I'm cute...