CAT RELATED STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Ranthambore gets a big cat surprise
MSN India
While the park officials appeared perplexed over the identity of the big cat, MAIL TODAY has come to know that this male tiger was seen in the park in April 2009. Jaipur: A sambar's alarm call is taken to be the surest sign of a predator's presence in ...

A Cat's Amazing Tale
WDTN
Is this a joke? Someone really found my cat all the way in Ohio? Quite a surprise! I do give all thanks to number one God and number two the microchip." The Allens wanted us to pass along a big "thank you" to Everit Terhune who found Madison.

Greenwich Township couple holding out hope that cat escaped January house fire
The Express Times - LehighValleyLive.com
28, the couple's first thought was of Sweetpea, their 6-year-old calico cat. “I kept thinking we shouldn't have left her alone. I should have brought her to my sisters' house,” Neil Greco said Friday, describing the torrent of if-only thoughts that ...

Possible mountain lion in Westchester New York
Doubtful Newsblog
By idoubtit
MOUNT PLEASANT, N.Y.— Another big predator cat is apparently roaming the northern suburbs. The calls started coming in ... Young saw the spot in Mount Pleasant where the big cat crossed paths with a number of startled suburbanites.

Prowling big cat remains elusive even after a month
The Times of India
A month has finished since the forest officials began efforts to trap the prowling tiger in Kakori.However, no success has come their way yet. The forest
officials ...
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/...cat.../11721472.cms?...

Boulder cat has close encounter with mountain lion in Boulder

Zeus, an 11-year-old Maine coon cat, had a curious encounter with a young mountain lion.

The cats checked each other out — from opposite sides of a sliding glass door — about 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Pine Brook Hills area of Boulder.

Gail Loveman, Zeus' owner, said she was busy in the office of her home when she heard a noise and turned to see a young mountain lion on the porch.

"There was this cat 4-feet away from me!" Loveman recalled during an interview Tuesday.

That's when Zeus entered the room and got into a stare down with the mountain lion. Another house cat, Bacchus, a litter mate of Zeus, peeked in but decided he was better off staying in the hallway out of sight, Loveman said.Loveman, a volunteer firefighter with the Boulder Mountain Fire Protection District, grabbed a camera and started taking photographs.

The interaction between the cats went on for about 5 minutes.

Zeus typically stands tall, hisses and acts fairly aggressive when he sees other animals - mostly squirrels, other house cats or even dogs - through the glass door. But Zeus remained calm as he appraised the big cat.
"I think he thought 'Hmmm! This is different,' " Loveman said.

When the lion left the porch, Loveman went to an upstairs balcony and spotted a second lion, which Loveman thought was likely the mother of the first lion.
 
Read on...

Meet the world's oldest two-faced cat

We're used to hearing of animals setting world records by living to extraordinary old ages.

 But perhaps not animals that boast not one but two faces:

The creature, who is named Frank and Louie, hails from Massachusetts in the United States. At 12 years of age, it is now officially the world's longest surviving so-called "janus" feline.

Frank and Louie has two mouths, two noses and three eyes, but one brain, meaning its faces react in unison.

 The name "Janus cat" was coined by British zoologist Dr. Karl Shuker, based on the two-faced Roman god of transitions, gates and doorways.

 The cat's owner, a woman only identified as Marty, lives near Worcester in Massachusetts and has asked to remain anonymous. She was working as a veterinary technician in 1999 when a day-old, two-faced kitten about the size of her thumb was brought into her clinic to be euthanised. She adopted the cat and the pair have lived together ever since.

 Frank and Louie's remarkable achievement will be recorded in the 2012 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.

http://news.uk.msn.com/blog/news-bite-blogpost.aspx?post=cea5a4b5-2e39-4056-9891-73887a47dec9

Video - Cat barks like dog

In the 20-second video, our black feline friend can be seen from behind, sticking its head out of a window and making said barking noises (some have suggested the mimic is to scare off an actual canine, but we're not sure). When it realises its owner is behind it, camera in hand, however, the cat immediately switches to making more, err, cat-like noises.

Read on...

Cat steals from everyone in San Mateo neighborhood

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/19/BAIN1JVID8.DTL

Lucky for Dusty he's a cat. Otherwise he'd surely be in jail, or at least a 12-step program. The San Mateo feline has pilfered more than 600 items from neighbors - behavior so odd it's baffled and delighted animal experts and made Dusty a minor celebrity.

"It's extreme, but it's absolutely adorable," said Marilyn Krieger, a cat behavior consultant in Redwood City. "I can't say exactly why he's doing it, except it has to do with mixed-up neurotransmitters. I think it's a form of OCD." Dusty's nocturnal heists started about four years ago, a year after his owners adopted him as a kitten from the Peninsula Humane Society.

"I noticed a piece of latex glove on the bed one morning and told my husband he should do a better job cleaning up his work stuff," said Jean Chu, a dentist. "He said, 'It wasn't me. I think it was the cat.' "

After that, Chu and her husband, Jim Coleman, were greeted each morning with a tableau of neighborhood detritus on their doorstep: gloves, towels, Crocs, swim trunks, Safeway bags, bubble wrap, a Giants cap and other backyard sundries.

Chu started keeping a log of Dusty's haul, which averages three or four items a night. His record spree is 11 in a 24-hour period. "It's work. Every time I go out to get the paper in the morning, I have to pick up after him," said Coleman, an artist. "Sometimes he brings things
that are sort of expensive. I get a little worried about that."

As for the booty, Chu washes it and hunts for the rightful owner. If she can't find the owner, she stores the loot in boxes in the dining room. The boxes are now piled two deep.

"He stole my bikini," said Kelly McLellan, who lives a few doors up the street. "He did it in two trips. He was very focused on keeping the ensemble. When it went missing I wasn't worried, though. I knew where to go."

McLellan's son, Ethan, 6, lost a Nerf rocket football.

"I looked for it, but I didn't know where it went," he said. "Then I remembered. The cat took it."
Stephanie Somers' family lost six bathing suits and countless shorts, towels and car wash sponges. "We don't leave anything out anymore," she said. "But we don't mind. We like
Dusty." A year ago Chu contacted People magazine about her kleptomaniac kitty, and a star was born. Dusty has been on the David Letterman show and Animal Planet, and infrared footage of his nighttime antics are a hit on YouTube - there's even video of him dragging home a brassiere. The public can meet Dusty at an adoption event June 25 at the Peninsula Humane Society, where he will be posing for photos and allowing fans to pet him.

Dusty's predilection for theft is rare but not unheard of, animal experts said. Some cats will bring home half-dead mice, acting on their instinct to teach kittens to hunt. Dusty's habit is likely related to that somehow, minus the kittens and mice. "It's like a predatory instinct gone awry," said Richmond cat consultant Mikel Delgado. "He's obviously very bold." Anika Liljenwall, behavior associate at the Peninsula Humane Society, said Dusty's predatory instinct has become "crossed in his head."

"In his mind he's caught something and he's bringing it home to share," she said.

Neuroses aside, everyone agrees Dusty seems to be a perfectly happy and healthy cat. "We always try to find meaning in what animals do," Liljenwall said. "But maybe he just does this because it's fun."

Thief demands £1m ransom for boy's cat

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Thief_demands_1m_ransom_for_boys_cat

A cat burglar who broke into a home and stole a schoolboy's pet cat has demanded a £1 million ransom for its safe return. Caesar is a rare Mekong Bobtail cat but its owner - 12-year-old Dawid Kisielewski - says the pet is not worth more than £500.

Caesar was nabbed last month from the youngster's home in Myslowice, Poland. Dawid had almost given up hope after putting up posters all over town, when the family suddenly got the mysterious ransom phone call.

"He has been beside himself with worry - he loved Caesar," said mum Jolanta, 40.

The family said it had received a phone call from a man saying he had the cat and would return it safely for £1m. Jolanta added: "He must be a raving madman. We don't have that sort of money - and besides, the cat is only worth £500. We have no idea what to do as we can't afford to pay it, but if we don't Dawid will be broken hearted."

Now police say they will do all they can to find the cat-napper.

"Someone who demands a ransom for the misappropriation of property belonging to another can get three years imprisonment," said police spokesman Ryszard Padua. "We will find this ridiculous man and make sure he gets the full sentence."

Cat/Bridge interaction, with amusingly named bridge

http://www.startribune.com/local/119148874.html DULUTH - Minnesota Department of Transportation employee Christopher Smith was just doing his job -- clearing debris on the sidewalk near the center of the Bong Bridge connecting Duluth and Superior, Wis., about 1 p.m. Tuesday.

And then he heard the meowing.

He looked over the edge to find a cat on a pier cap, a concrete ledge of sorts, about 20 feet down from the bridge. The cat was trapped about 80 to 90 feet above the water of St. Louis Bay without a way to come back up, according to John Bray, spokesman for MnDOT.

After Smith tried unsuccessfully to phone his co-worker Gary Wright, who was operating a sweeper on the bridge, he called for help.

Seeing a Superior police car parked near Smith got Wright's attention and he went to check on his co-worker.

He found Superior police officer Bradley Esler and Smith trying to figure out what to do. The first plan was to dangle a nylon strap down to the cat to see if it would try to climb aboard. "Our thought was we could hopefully put the strap down there and the cat could self-rescue," Wright said.

The cat was clearly unaware of their plan, Wright said, and although the feline rubbed up against the strap a few times and seemed to calm down somewhat, the strap wasn't going to cut it.

Then Wright remembered a safety harness bag he had inside his truck. The trio quickly hatched another plan to run the strap through the handles and then propped the bag open with a piece of wood from the sidewalk.

Smith's lunch -- a venison burger -- was also placed in the bag to entice the cat.

Wright then lowered the bag. "Honestly, as soon as the bag touched down on that pier cap, the cat jumped in it and I pulled as hard as I could to close the bag and pulled it up," he said. The cat was so busy wolfing down the burger, he didn't even seem to notice what was happening, Wright said. "I'm thinking the cat had been down there for some time," he said.

Once the cat was out of the bag, he started purring right away. It was so friendly, both Smith and Esler talked about ultimately keeping it. A Humane Society representative from the Animal Rescue Federation in Superior took the cat from the scene and the organization later said they believe the cat is a 1 1/2 -year-old Manx, a breed known for little to no tail and for its fondness for people.

"I am interested in keeping the cat," Esler said. "He's just a happy camper, jumping from person to person. I think he knows it was almost lights out."

Esler also said he'd like to find the person who he thinks "pitched it over the side" of the bridge. "It would really tick you off if you would have seen it down there," he said. Wright concurs with Esler's assessment of what happened. "We found it hard to believe the cat got down there on its own," he said.

The cat will remain at the Animal Rescue Federation for seven days in case the owner comes to claim him, Esler said. He said after that time he will talk with Smith to see if he's still interested in keeping the animal. Otherwise, Esler would like to take him home to see if he would mesh with the cat already living there. "It will be up to Sophie -- the other pound kitty -- at that point," he said. "I was hoping this cat was a girl so I could name her Bridge-ette. But this cat's lucky for many reasons, so maybe Lucky."

Mystery of how cats lap is revealed

It is a mystery that has long puzzled cat lovers: exactly how do their feline companions lap up liquids so elegantly?
Now, with the help of high-speed cameras and a pet cat, a team of researchers think they have the answer.

They found that cats use their tongues to delicately draw up water without breaking the surface of the liquid.

The scientists, who published their study in the journal Science, say this differs from dogs, who employ a messy scooping action to quench their thirst.

The team thinks cats may have adopted this more complex but neater approach because it means they are less likely to be splashed with water as they drink.

Feline physics
Dr Roman Stocker, a biophysicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, was inspired to investigate the physics of cat laps after watching his own pet Cutta Cutta as it drank.

"I realised there was an interesting biomechanics problem hidden behind that very simple action. The project then snowballed from there," he said.

Working with researchers from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Princeton University, Dr Stocker trained a high-speed camera on his cat.

While humans and animals such as sheep or horses use suction to draw liquid upwards, and dogs curl their tongue into a cup-like shape to ladle liquid in, the footage revealed that cats use a more subtle mechanism to drink.

The scientists found that the tip of the cat's tongue curls backwards, not forwards, as it darts down towards its bowl.


Then, instead of penetrating the surface of the liquid, the tongue just lightly touches it.

Dr Stocker explains: "The fluid comes in contact with the tongue and sticks to it, then the action of the tongue being drawn upwards very rapidly creates a liquid column.

"Then, by closing its jaw, the cat captures part of that liquid."
Surprisingly, the researchers also found that the tiny hairs on the tongue, which were once thought to help cats lap, were not involved at all in the process.

To look at the mechanism in even more detail, the team created a robotic cat tongue. They found the process was down to an interplay between two forces: inertia and gravity.

Dr Stocker explained: "The creation of the water column is driven by the force inertia - the tendency of the liquid, once in motion, to keep going.

The scientists used a robotic cat tongue to study the forces behind the mechanism

"The water column initially becomes larger in length and in volume, but at some point the weight of the column itself overcomes these inertial forces, and gravity causes the column to collapse back into the bowl."

Because of this, the cat's timing when lapping is crucial.

"There is a time when the volume of a column is at a maximum, which is at the time at which the cat closes its jaw," Dr Stocker said.

Cats vs dogs
By studying zoo animals and YouTube footage, the researchers also discovered that big cats such as tigers, leopards and cheetahs also used the same mechanism as their domestic cousins.

But Dr Stocker and his colleagues are not sure why felines have developed this sophisticated drinking mechanism, but they suspect it could be down to their dislike of water.


He explained: "The lapping mechanism of cats seems to be a lot cleaner compared with dogs, which is much more vigorous and produces more splash.

"One speculation is the face of the cat, and particularly the region around the nose and the whiskers, is extremely sensitive, therefore the cat might want to try and keep that as dry as possible."

"I would say cats know more about fluid mechanics than dogs," he added.


Science reporter, BBC News Rebecca Morelle 

Mystery of how cats lap is revealed

It is a mystery that has long puzzled cat lovers: exactly how do their feline companions lap up liquids so elegantly?
Now, with the help of high-speed cameras and a pet cat, a team of researchers think they have the answer.

They found that cats use their tongues to delicately draw up water without breaking the surface of the liquid.

The scientists, who published their study in the journal Science, say this differs from dogs, who employ a messy scooping action to quench their thirst.

The team thinks cats may have adopted this more complex but neater approach because it means they are less likely to be splashed with water as they drink.

Feline physics
Dr Roman Stocker, a biophysicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, was inspired to investigate the physics of cat laps after watching his own pet Cutta Cutta as it drank.

"I realised there was an interesting biomechanics problem hidden behind that very simple action. The project then snowballed from there," he said.

Working with researchers from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Princeton University, Dr Stocker trained a high-speed camera on his cat.

While humans and animals such as sheep or horses use suction to draw liquid upwards, and dogs curl their tongue into a cup-like shape to ladle liquid in, the footage revealed that cats use a more subtle mechanism to drink.

The scientists found that the tip of the cat's tongue curls backwards, not forwards, as it darts down towards its bowl.


Then, instead of penetrating the surface of the liquid, the tongue just lightly touches it.

Dr Stocker explains: "The fluid comes in contact with the tongue and sticks to it, then the action of the tongue being drawn upwards very rapidly creates a liquid column.

"Then, by closing its jaw, the cat captures part of that liquid."
Surprisingly, the researchers also found that the tiny hairs on the tongue, which were once thought to help cats lap, were not involved at all in the process.

To look at the mechanism in even more detail, the team created a robotic cat tongue. They found the process was down to an interplay between two forces: inertia and gravity.

Dr Stocker explained: "The creation of the water column is driven by the force inertia - the tendency of the liquid, once in motion, to keep going.

The scientists used a robotic cat tongue to study the forces behind the mechanism

"The water column initially becomes larger in length and in volume, but at some point the weight of the column itself overcomes these inertial forces, and gravity causes the column to collapse back into the bowl."

Because of this, the cat's timing when lapping is crucial.

"There is a time when the volume of a column is at a maximum, which is at the time at which the cat closes its jaw," Dr Stocker said.

Cats vs dogs
By studying zoo animals and YouTube footage, the researchers also discovered that big cats such as tigers, leopards and cheetahs also used the same mechanism as their domestic cousins.

But Dr Stocker and his colleagues are not sure why felines have developed this sophisticated drinking mechanism, but they suspect it could be down to their dislike of water.


He explained: "The lapping mechanism of cats seems to be a lot cleaner compared with dogs, which is much more vigorous and produces more splash.

"One speculation is the face of the cat, and particularly the region around the nose and the whiskers, is extremely sensitive, therefore the cat might want to try and keep that as dry as possible."

"I would say cats know more about fluid mechanics than dogs," he added.


Science reporter, BBC News Rebecca Morelle 

Role reversal as cat chases fox

Musti the cat prowls around his garden unaware that he is being stalked by a hungry fox.

But the three-year-old pet is not about to go down without a fight as he gives chase, sending the wild animal scarpering with his bushy tail between his legs.



Musti’s brave stand was captured by owner, Hugo Udusaar, at his house on the Estonian island of Aegna. He said: ‘I was a bit worried at first, wondering if Musti had seen the fox.

‘But before I could tap on the window, he suddenly turned on the fox and sprinted after him. I think the fox was lucky to escape.’ Mr Udusaar said it was not the first time his pet cat had chased off a fox.

‘Musti does not like these visitors and will angrily protect his territory. He has no fear,’ he added.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/846537-role-reversal-as-cat-chases-fox#ixzz14n8UHhSs

Role reversal as cat chases fox

Musti the cat prowls around his garden unaware that he is being stalked by a hungry fox.

But the three-year-old pet is not about to go down without a fight as he gives chase, sending the wild animal scarpering with his bushy tail between his legs.



Musti’s brave stand was captured by owner, Hugo Udusaar, at his house on the Estonian island of Aegna. He said: ‘I was a bit worried at first, wondering if Musti had seen the fox.

‘But before I could tap on the window, he suddenly turned on the fox and sprinted after him. I think the fox was lucky to escape.’ Mr Udusaar said it was not the first time his pet cat had chased off a fox.

‘Musti does not like these visitors and will angrily protect his territory. He has no fear,’ he added.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/846537-role-reversal-as-cat-chases-fox#ixzz14n8UHhSs