Friday Cat Blogging

Update: I would like to thank Kevin Drum and Elayne Riggs for linking to my Friday Cat Blogging post. My site meter reading has gone into the stratosphere. I like having hoards of folk showing up to read my blog. I hope a make some new friends from the deluge.

Caracals

Animal control officers in Prince William County, Maryland have captured a caracal that had confronted a German Shepherd. The dog probably had no clue what the heck this thing was. It's a rather unusual-looking cat. Caracals are native to South Africa. They weigh about 20 pounds and are known for their ability to leap high to catch birds. A photo is to the left. The cat was illegally owned as a pet. The owner was told she would have to send the cat to a zoo or another home, as long as it wasn't in Prince William County.

Speaking of caracals, the Audubon Nature Institute announced "the birth of the world’s first caracal cat created from a frozen/thawed embryo." Audubon also cloned the worlds first endangered African wildcat. The two-month old kitten's name is Ditteaux. A photo of Ditteaux is below.

Ditteaux

Black cat adoption has been banned again in time for Halloween. I know this story has urban legend status, but just to be on the safe side, if you own black cats, keep them indoors until after the holiday. Disclaimers and reminders that are necessary this time of year: practitioners of wicca are not Satanists. Wicca is a religion.

Animal rights groups have called in scientists to help quell the cat and dog fur trade. The testing will "examine how safe the fur is, and the results reveal the tanning of these cat and dog fur products pose newfound dangers." The sale of dog and cat fur as fashion accessories has ballooned in Europe. According to environmentalist Sarah Clarke, "up to 12 dogs, or 24 cats, are killed to manufacture one coat, even more if puppies or kittens are used. But it's a trade that's not confined to Europe. Jackets made of Alsatians and children's toys made of kitten fur are on the market here. Environmentalists want them banned, not only on the grounds that the trade is cruel, they also have evidence that the products are unsafe."

A new trailer and images from Mike Myers' "Cat In The Hat" is available online.

And finally, let's play a game of "Find The Kitten." Lucky's in there somewhere. See him?

Posted on October 17, 2003 at 04:54 PM | Permalink

Comments

I never even heard about that... I mean the ban on black cat adoption around Halloween. And I have a black cat.
But yeah, I think the idea that they're adopted for sacrifice is far-fetched. I mean, I think the whole idea of black cats & halloween didn't have to do with satanic sacrafice, but with witches and their "familiars".
I think it's more likely that the reason it's wise to have that ban is because people might get black cats around Halloween the same way they get rabbits for Easter, or dalmation puppies after seeing a Disney film... and it often doesn't turn out very well.

Posted by: Chloe at Oct 18, 2003 3:48:18 AM

Hey, we're up at the same ungodly hour. :)

I would agree with you about the black cat sacrifices if it were not for the other stories I read this week that didn't make it to my Friday Cat Blogging. I can't post that stuff without getting upset. One story was about a woman who held a kitten out a car window while the car was moving because she didn't want the kitten's fleas to get all over her. The kitten is okay. It's being adopted out of a shelter. There were worse stories that I'm getting upset just thinking about. The animals were killed. I think that mostly the fears for animal shelters in not permitting black cat adoptions this time of year are animal cruelty and abandonment. Too many people are cruel. Shelters make the same disclaimer around Christmas, but they don't outright ban adoptions. They tell people who want to buy or adopt a cat for Christmas exactly how much investment is involved. It's not a lark. Adopting a cat is a long-term commitment that can last as long as 15 years. There are too many Christmas cats and kittens that are abandoned a few months later after the novelty has worn off.

Posted by: Trish Wilson at Oct 18, 2003 4:09:36 AM

Oh, well, I wasn't trying to say that animal abuse around Halloween was far-fetched, I meant the satanism sacrafice angle. Satanic sacrafices, and even Satanic cults and rituals, are really actually pretty rare, historically. Though Hollywood's horror genre has warped our minds to think that there's people doing that all the time. haha. Geez, I'm just thinking about that old movie, "The Legacy" - I kind of liked that movie actually. haha.
But of course just plain old nasty animal abuse is all too common. And I'm sure Halloween pranks have more than once involved animal abuse. But I don't think that's the real threat in animal adoption.
But yeah, I'm so against the idea of a pet as a GIFT. I know, somewhat from personal experience & observation, and some from hearing the stories about the dalmations thing, that this is truly a flawed means of acquiring a pet of any kind.
I was just reading that crazy 'grouphug' web site last night, and there was one person who confessed that they have a dog, thought it was cute as a puppy, and now hate it, have started mistreating it, and wonder how long it'll be before they start actually abusing it. And I think there's probably a lot more people who feel the same way, sadly.
My friend is a dog trainer and dog breeder, and she has a service where she'll keep a new puppy for a month and housebreak it, socialize it, and teach it basic manners - for people who want a dog, but can't commit to the housebreaking time. And a couple of years ago, someone left a wonderful Jack Russell terrier with her to train, and then told her they decided they didn't want her back! That was really unimaginable to me. My friend decided to keep the dog herself. The dog is a wonderful dog, and has since been trained wonderfully and won many ribbons for agility trials and earth dog. The dog's probably a lot better off than with the owners who orginally got the dog. I believe the dog was a gift of some type, among the original owners.

Posted by: Chloe at Oct 18, 2003 6:12:08 PM

You're quite welcome, Trish! Trust me though, it's mostly Kevin, not me, who's pushed up your hit-count. :)

Posted by: Elayne Riggs at Oct 19, 2003 7:19:24 PM

Chloe, you mean "The Legacy" starring Katherine Ross? Any movie with Roger Daltry of "The Who" as a character is a piece of dreck worth a look. Talk about over-acting. LOL I like that kind of movie, too. You know Turner Classic Movies has been playing Hammer Films this month? I adore Peter Cushing.

I agree that Satanic cult sacrifices are rare -- except maybe on "The X Files." LOL I also am sad to agree that animal abuse is all too common.

Posted by: Trish Wilson at Oct 22, 2003 6:50:35 AM

"You're quite welcome, Trish! Trust me though, it's mostly Kevin, not me, who's pushed up your hit-count. :)"

The Kevin Quotient is definitely a factor, but hits from your link haven't been too shabby either, Elayne. :D

Posted by: Trish Wilson at Oct 22, 2003 6:51:52 AM