vintage cat cartoon!

"It still remains a question whether man adopted the cat, or the cat adopted man."

Just ask Disney. "The Great Cat Family" was a Disneyland episode in 1956, and now you can find it on YouTube. There's two parts; I'll link to the first bit,with its charming portrayal of an early Egyptian using every fishy wile to make a new cat friend. Oh, and check out the kitty tomb with its mummified mice. Wow.

Enjoy.

Happy New Year, dear readers!

chinchilly

This morning it is 33 degrees out. And I am thinking of chinchillas.
Remember Ajax the chinchilla, mentioned in yesterday's post on alternative petstyles? I am always tickled by the way they look - like a portly cockney bunny rabbit with ears squashed by a bowler hat. " 'Ello guvnor."

But I've never known one or been around one. That's why I am delighted to have found a site titled The Sounds Made by the Chinchillas. (Sounds like The Flight of the Conchords.) This is a German-to English site filled with pictures and cute tales, and yes, lots and lots of QuickTime files of chinchilla noises. I could listen to a sleepy and content baby chin for hours, I think.

the nyt takes on different petstyles

Say you live in New York City. An exciting and vibrant place, to be sure, full of opportunity -- but short on living space. Your condo or apartment absolutely won't let you have a dog or cat, but after a long day in the big city you dearly want a small friend to cherish. What do you do?

The New York Times asked that question of a few citydwellers in that boat, resulting in a piece called The UnDog and the NonCat. You'll meet Pounce, the Holland lop-eared rabbit who behaves well unless he needs to chew; Swami and Odin, two small friendly parrots; and Ajax, the chinchilla, whose nocturnal habits dovetail into the work schedule of his people.

It's good to see other pets get some face time. By the way, I decided to see what else the Times had on tap for pet articles, and did a search. Here's an article on CuteOverload (you haven't seen that already have you?). And a nice couple who test drove pet-having by getting a fish.

the famous people kitty jackpot

Oh boy, wait till you see what I have today. How about a long series of photos depicting famous people and their cats?

Yes, I thought you'd like that. There's Freddie Mercury and Bohemian Rhapsody; there is Sean Connery, in a bathrobe, with a kitten, I kid you not; Giorgio Armani with what looks like a high-concept cat; and Keith Moon driving around with his!

Good job indeed, The Catalyst.

that rabbit? with the pancake on its head?

You know those photos somebody will toss into a thread occasionally - "I have no idea what you're talking about so here's a (animal of some sort) with a (food of some variety) on its head?"

I always thought it was cute and random, some wacky tossaway catchphrase, but should have figured out it had a specific source. Catchphrases usually do.

The source's name was Oolong, and he was the original bunny with a pancake on his head. The pet of Japanese photographer Hironori Akutagawa, Oolong showed early on a willingness to park thingies on his noggin while Akutagawa took playful shots. Many, many things. Akutagawa called it "head performance." It was a hit, and continued for the rest of Oolong's quite long life.

Oolong died at the age of eight and a half. Akutagawa has a new bunny now, named Yuebing, that he is training for new head performances. If you'd like to keep up, here's Oolong's and Akutagawa's website (Japanese only, though!). Wikipedia will help you learn some more.

As we go into the New Year I like to think that sometimes we should just stop what we're worrying about what we're doing and check out a bunny with a pancake on his head.

merry christmas! with a surprise visit from robin and finchy

Hooray! Yesterday being Christmas Eve, we had a fun mix of not-a-lotta-people able to make it in because of the snow, holiday last minute busyness, and the appearance of Robin and Finchy! Because, you know, they had to make sure we were keeping our end up.

Robin evaluates the road conditions. Believe me, this was much the best way to evaluate the road conditions.


And he had to figure out the copier.

And the scanner.

We all got home safely to begin our holiday festivities. My warmest Christmas wishes to you all!

everybody loves kitties

Image: thanks, Wikipedia Commons.

This is a fragment of a thousand-year-old Chinese painting called "Monkey and Cats." The artist, Yi Yuanji, was famed for his realistic paintings of animals. Hear how he came to specialize in them: he was expert at portraying flowers and fruit, but ultimately felt he would never be a true master, and so turned his hand to subjects that the masters of old had never tried.

He ended up being known for his gibbons, and would wander in the mountains for months studying them. However, this gentle kitten-cuddling fellow has been identified as a macaque. The happiness and delight on their faces makes for the perfect image of holiday joy. Share your love with everyone regardless of specie!

"life is short. eat more dried, petrified cow faces"

Such is the wisdom - and I don't think any dog would argue - of Hugs, AKA The Edgar Winter Dog. Named after the rock legend with a similar lack of pigmentation, Edgar rocks quite a bit of star attitude his own self.

I suspect he had that going on before he starred on Animal Planet's game show, Who Gets the Dog? He's now happily residing at the home of online magazine Ape Culture, where he makes with the snappy coments in his bio like so:

Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Lassie, although if I were her I'd leave Timmy in that damn well. He's nothing but trouble.

You should read it. It's sassy. Ape Culture is, too (if you're traveling this holiday you may appreciate the SkyMall Haiku). Plus, this is yet another great story about a deserving animal finding a forever home.

pawprints in the snow

One of my neighbors let a cat outside. I hope kitty found a dry place on my porch to rest its feet.

the resilience of cats

. . . (and to be fair, other animals) is brought home to me by this bit of news footage from Akita, Japan. Seems a bookstore staffer found a little hurt kitten, and a vet found that kitty's back legs needed amputating. Terrible misery, right? Somebody needs to tell the kitten that -- it seems happy as can be. The video's on this page. (In Japanese. Can anybody translate?)

But this is not an isolated case. Miss Kitty of Colorado Springs has two on one side and races about quite nicely, thanks bunches. And Gracie was born in Kansas with only her back legs, not that she seems to notice.

Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

home for the holidays redux

Just thought I'd give another little reminder shout: Home 4 the Holidays is up to just under 770,000 pet adoptions, and still wants to make it to one million by January 5 2009. There's over 3500 shelters to choose from, so one is handy!

One meellion adoptions. (Spot the Ren and Stimpy reference.)

a cat and snow poem

On a Night of Snow
by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Cat, if you go outdoors, you must walk in the snow.
You will come back with little white shoes on your feet,
little white shoes of snow that have heels of sleet.
Stay by the fire, my Cat. Lie still, do not go.
See how the flames are leaping and hissing low,
I will bring you a saucer of milk like a marguerite,
so white and so smooth, so spherical and so sweet -
stay with me, Cat. Outdoors the wild winds blow.

Outdoors the wild winds blow, Mistress, and dark is the night,
strange voices cry in the trees, intoning strange lore,
and more than cats move, lit by our eyes green light,
on silent feet where the meadow grasses hang hoar -
Mistress, there are portents abroad of magic and might,
and things that are yet to be done. Open the door!

elizabeth's snow day

This is why your friendly Curator is not at the day job.
(It's not the snow, it's the thin sheet of ice under it.)
Stay safe and warm everybody!
x

color me...catly

This post actually started as a response to something Robin&Finchy's mom TaraM wondered yesterday. . . the precise language of cat tails. Their default position seems to be straight up, while Elizabeth's is madly lashing. Upon investigation it seems that the boys want food and lovin', while Elizabeast would like to do battle with the world. Or me. Whatever's handy. She's not picky. (But her ears are never down in aggressive position - so she's playing.)

I found all that out here at Cats International. But on the way there I found an article on what your cat's color says about his personality. Do I buy it? Not totally, but this is what it says about black kitties: "They are often at once both friendly and stubborn. They are sociable, both with people and other cats, but insist upon maintaining independence." Well, that would be our Sal - the lovely on the monitor in my profile photo - to a T. Why don't you have a look and see what your kitty's pelt spells in destiny?

seasonal reminder: how to give to a hungry, homeless pet!

Boy, this is a fast holiday season, isn't it? Christmas is a week from tomorrow. . . !! Which is why I was grateful for a timely reminder about Banfield's Season of Suppers, the holiday pet-meal-on-wheels being run alongside Meals on Wheels. Press release here. Find your local Banfield here.

Up where I live and work now, my favorite coffee shop drew my attention to a another local holiday pet food bank through Dooley's Dog House, in Kirkland WA.

And now I'm off to brave the snow on the way to work. Keep yourself and your pets warm and safe, everybody!

the elizabethan collar

Alas, my friend's dog Dudley, of the goofy appearance and tiny brain, had to have part of a sore tail removed. This meant he had to undergo a spell in the sartorial splendor of The Elizabethan Collar. Named after the large starchy lacy ruffs worn in England around the time of Queen Elizabeth I (16th c.), they are a means of keeping your pet from chewing and licking where they must not.

Frankly, I just wanted an excuse to post these pix because they made me chuckle. But as it happens, I found very useful instructions on how to make an emergency collar. (Tip: Margarine might fit your cat.) Plus, just for sheer joy of discovery, here's a page on Elizabethan cosmetics -- don't try these at home.

purchase that purr

What could a cat make you buy? Almost anything, if you're me -- but anyone will admit they work like a charm for selling comfort, warmth, softness, even fun.
But how about the safety of a motion detector system? A dishwasher? A car? Huh? Well, I've found a thoughtful, entertaining and well-illustrated page that lays that all out for you.

jealous doggie!

We've often noticed here at the Museum that when we're playing with Elizabeth and trying to lavish affection on her, Cash the dog is right there yowling and sticking his nose in, wanting to know why for we play with the little pointy animal and not him.
We laugh and say, "Look at that jealous mutt."
Well aha! Thanks to the razor-keen eye of our dependable Doug, I can now relay scientific proof that our dog is trying to run us through the emotional wringer.

Ask them to do a trick and they'll give it a try. For a reward, sausage say,
they'll happily keep at it. But if one dog gets no reward, and then sees
another get sausage for doing the same trick, just try to get the first one to
do it again. Indeed, he may even turn away and refuse to look at you.

So says this report from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, based on a study from The University of Vienna's Clever Dog Lab. In controlled circumstances, dogs were put in pairs and asked to shake. When both got rewards, hunky dory; if one got a reward and the other didn't, well, disapproval was made known. I must admit I couldn't help but laugh at this observation:

One thing that did surprise the researchers was that — unlike primates — the
dogs didn't seem to care whether the reward was sausage or bread.

*ahem* Dogs? You mean like they'll eat anything dogs? You think they care?

Anyway, Doug's citation here. The university of Vienna's Clever Dog Lab here!

where does everybody get these old photos anyway?

. . . and how much fun is it to go to flickr.com and search "antique+photo+cat"?
Lots.

south african cat myth

From The Golden Bough, the classic 1922 compendium of world myths by Sir James George Frazier, in which we are reminded yet again just how utterly important cats are. . .

A tale told by the Ba-Ronga of South Africa sets forth how the lives of a whole family were contained in one cat.

When a girl of the family, named Titishan, married a husband, she begged her parents to let her take the precious cat with her to her new home. But they refused, saying, “You know that our life is attached to it”; and they offered to give her an antelope or even an elephant instead of it. But nothing would satisfy her but the cat. So at last she carried it off with her and shut it up in a place where nobody saw it; even her husband knew nothing about it.

One day, when she went to work in the fields, the cat escaped from its place of concealment, entered the hut, put on the warlike trappings of the husband, and danced and sang. Some children, attracted by the noise, discovered the cat at its antics, and when they expressed their astonishment, the animal only capered the more and insulted them besides. So they went to the owner and said, “There is somebody dancing in your house, and he insulted us.” “Hold your tongues,” said he, “I’ll soon put a stop to your lies.” So he went and hid behind the door and peeped in, and there sure enough was the cat prancing about and singing. He fired at it, and the animal dropped down dead. At the same moment his wife fell to the ground in the field where she was at work; said she, “I have been killed at home.”
But she had strength enough left to ask her husband to go with her to her parents’ village, taking with him the dead cat wrapt up in a mat. All her relatives assembled, and bitterly they reproached her for having insisted on taking the animal with her to her husband’s village. As soon as the mat was unrolled and they saw the dead cat, they all fell down lifeless one after the other. So the Clan of the Cat was destroyed; and the bereaved husband closed the gate of the village with a branch, and returned home, and told his friends how in killing the cat he had killed the whole clan, because their lives depended on the life of the cat.


Well of course they did. (See Chapter 66 of The Golden Bough for this story.)

tiny terrier, big skies

Her destiny was made in the streets of Rome. She was a starving young orphan. He was an Italian builder of airships (think zeppelins) between the two World Wars.
He was walking by. She sat up and begged. And that is how Col. Umberto Nobile found Titina, his staunchest ally and fellow explorer, who would be by his side all the way to the North Pole and through years of disgrace.
Titina, a fox terrier, was with Nobile on a historic 1926 flight across the North Pole. Nobile had designed and built the ship, called the Norge; the expedition's commander was Roald Amundsen, who was not thrilled to have a small dog along. Yet Titina got a respectable amount of fan mail and drummed up interest in the adventure.
Unfortunately, her next big trip with her master in 1928, in which the airship Italia crashed in the Arctic with loss of lives, left Nobile's reputation in ruins for the rest of his days. Yet Titina never wavered in her devotion. Read an excellent article about her in the Jan/Feb 2006 BARk Magazine here.

glenn gould and his dog nick

Glenn Gould (Canadian, 1932-1982) was a brilliant and unusual pianist, probably best known for his 1955 recording Bach: The Goldberg Variations. (He had a habit of vocalizing, humming and "la la la-ing"as he played, which I always found charming. You may see an example of that here.) There is a lot to know about this gifted soul, but look what I found - he had a dog named Nick when he was a child. What a sweet photo! Child prodigies need loyal friends - looks like he had one.

Thanks, Wikipedia Commons.

gatitos

Look, it's a little snippet of vintage Sesame Street. A couple of observations about kittens, in both English and Spanish: and now I know the Spanish for "kitten" is "gatito."

from the blue rider with love: girl with cat

Ah. I do love a Franz Marc (1880-1916) now and then. This is his oil painting Girl with Cat from 1912 (thanks, Wiki Commons).

Marc was a major figure in the German Expressionist art movement known as Die Blaue Reiter, "The Blue Rider," named for a painting by Wassily Kandinsky, another major member. The group's aims included the expression of spiritual truths in their art and the use of color symbolism. Marc was very fond of that last. Roughly put, Marc associated blue with spirituality and male energy, and red and yellow with female energy - yellow also meant joy. Red, a color of earth and matter, also eventually developed a meaning of motherhood. And isn't that a charming red cat wiggling babylike in a happy girl's lap?

I wish his life had been always that happy. He was a soldier in WWI and was on a list of important artists to be withdrawn from battle, but was killed before he could be gotten out. What a waste.

Here's a bio of Marc from the Guggenheim.

bunny style

I found this likeable story from the British designer Paul Smith on Anecdotage.com:

In the early 1980s...I was on a train with a friend and I was daydreaming out
the window. He said, 'What are you looking for?' And I told him that I was
looking for rabbits, because if I saw one before my fashion show, I knew the
collection would be good. A week later, he sent me a toy rabbit for good luck.
Then he must have told someone, who told someone else, and now I receive between
six and twenty rabbits a week. I have about 18 cartons of toy rabbits in my
warehouse in Nottingham.

And what have lucky rabbits inspired? See Paul Smith's designs here. And can you spot the rabbit reference in this interview?

winter. bunny. monday. game!

Yes, it's the first of December and it's Monday, so I rather think I'll bring you a cheering game.

This is another serene little gem from Ferry Halim's Orisinal site. The goal - bells fall from a winter sky, and the little bunny needs to leap up from bell to bell for maximum score. (Just keep clicking up!) And if you fall? Just try again. That's the beauty of

Winterbells