Planet Meow

Pet product company, Pet Mate have developed a cat flap that, by using Radio-frequency identification (RFID), can restrict access to and from a property for up to eight individual cats. In other words, if you own more than one cat and you don’t want certain cats going outside for whatever reason, you can set the timer on the control device for whenthose cats are allowed access and then, by attached a small disc to the cat (by collar I assume), the RFID system in the cat flap will know to either lock or unlock the cat flap depending on which cat approaches the cat flap. Capeesh? No? Well, read about it here.

Being someone interested in science and technology, it was hard for me to ignore the new that’s been going around the internet all this week regarding South Korean scientists making the “breakthrough” of genetically engineering a glow in the dark cat.

“WAT????” I hear you ask.

The story goes that Kong Il-keun, a scientist at Gyeongsang National University not only managed to clone a litter of Turkish Angora cats but also made one that, when illuminated with ultraviolet light, glows red.

The cat in question was one of three cats that was cloned from skin tissue of the mother cat. Unfortunately, one of the kittens was still born but the other two are now 10 months old and healthy apparently.

So after the world was blessed with the creation of the hypoallergenic cat, we should now rejoice that soon, we will be able to buy a neon puss.

Actually, the reason for the cloning was to see if cats could be created that mimic human genetic illnesses and thus aid the development of cures. The novelty of a glowing cat aside, I can’t say that’s something I can get behind.

According to the East Anglian Daily Times, there are a bunch of black cats who, due to supesticious nonsense and a reputation of being witch’s familiars, are being left behind in a Bury St.Edmunds cat sanctuary by prospective cat owners.

FOR SHAAAAAAME!

What’s wrong with black cats? My sister had one. She was the sweetest thing in the world. If I could afford another cat, I’d go for it in a second. it would perfectly compliment Charlie’s white existence.

If you want a black cat and can get to Bury St Edmunds, phone 01284 724253 and help out the poor puss’.

News from Pet Club UK says that Cats Protection have launched a short story competition for all the wannabe cat-obsessed novelists out there.

According to the article, Cats Protection (which you’ll hear a bit more about when I get round to it)  want supporters to send in short stories of no more than 1,000 words that tell of cats – fictional and non-ficitional – with the winning entry receiving not only a laptop and a new pen, but the winners of all three categories receiving publication in The Cat magazine.

The competition is to be judged by Robert Rankin no less, so make them good.

While Cats Protection are not charging for entry, they do suggest that a donation of £5 be made. Entry is open until February and the entry form is open here (Adobe PDF Reader needed).

Word up to mitchclem.com for hosting this (check out Mitch Clem for the Kittens! The Comic comic strip).

Disclaimer: Under no circumstances would I EVER endorse the running over of cats with radio controlled cars.

It is magic, though. Lazy puss.

…here’s my guide to the numerous cat “comedy” sites that have cropped up this year.

According to the wikipedia entry, Lolcats have been around for a few years but it was only when the dude behind http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/ brought them all together that Lolcats gained internet Zeitgeist status. The process, though simple – take a picture of a cat and photoshop a cute comment, usually in broken “cat-lish” over the top – probably takes a bit of doing. For a start you need a good photo. I know I’ve taken many pictures of Charlie but none that have that look that suggests he might be doing something daft. He just seems to pose. Anyhows, http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/ has most of the originals and then http://www.lolcats.com put them together in a nice Web 2.0 format of sorts for everyone’s perusal.

The most important development of the Lolcat phenomenon would, in my opinion, have to be The Lolcat Bible. Now, this isn’t probably one for the more humourless Christian. In fact, I would bet a fair wager that if this was done certain other Great Faith religious texts, you can be guaranteed, there would be all sorts of hullabaloo. Enough about current affairs though. Browse through the Lolcat Bible and be either amused by the newest tranlation of great book or maybe stunned at the idea of the time that might have been spent translating it into gibberish that only a talking cat might fully understand.

The next site I stumbled across has a simple yet powerful raison d’etre – the documentation of cats……wait for it……in sinks.

http://www.catsinsinks.com/ has a neat design and with one click of the “Show me another cat in a sink!” button, you will presented by the sight of a new puss in a sink. Incredible stuff.

My final recommendation for now is an old classic from sometime last year. http://www.infinitecat.com/ started with one innocent photo of a cat admiring a rose. Little did the photographer realise that this photo would be the start of a continuum bending fashion of people photograpging their cats watching a monitor displaying the photo of the original cat. The result being an unending chain of cats watching cats watching cats watching cats watching a cat smelling a rose. The point, you ask? “Ask the inventor of the internet” would be my reply.

More updates as I find them (and have time to document them). I’m off to photograph my cat, in a sink, watching my The Infinite Cat Project on my laptop with the line “I’m in ur Sink…breakinur spac-time continuum”.

Laters.

Now here’s something I can get behind. Coming from a family that had 6 cats living under the same roof at point, this article from The Seattle Times gives some good advice for keeping the peace between the feline population of a human household.

There was always an odd circular pecking order in my house – Buz bullied Ronnie and Reggie, Ronnie bullied Cassie and Emily, Cassie and Emily bullied Buz and all of them wailed on Tyler.

If only my Mum and Sister had discovered this book. I’m sure lasting psychological damage was done to those cats from living so close to each other. Especially Reggie (even though he was the biggest cat).

One thing that article does mention is the existence of a “vertical” territory amongst cats. I do know that our cats could all get along quite well as long as they all had their perches or laps (laps being considered some sort of feline no-fire zone). It was only if they ever had to stray across the living room floor that sparks would fly between one cat and another.

Anyhow, I digress. Read the article and take note those of you with multi-feline populations.

…I mean, they really do.

My name’s Rob and this website has been put together just for me to document my views on cats including but not exclusive to my own cat, cats that live on my street, cats from around the world, cats on film and tv, cartoon cats, big cats, LOLcats, looking after a cat, chats with other people who like cats and other topics related to cat appreciation.

Stay tuned y’all.