Maine Coon Cats are really Skogkatts

From the page at http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2012/01/will-the-maine-coon-become-an-american-icon.html

There are three popular, believable Maine Coon creation myths. (There is a fourth anatomically impossible story about Maine Coons evolving from raccoons.) [ French and English fantasies deleted] The last story traces the Coon’s lineage back to the Vikings. When the Norsemen sailed to America in the 11th Century they brought Skogkatts – Norwegian Forest Cats – along with them as mousers, some of whom, like their marauding owners, forced themselves upon the native population, creating the first batch of Maine Coon kittens.

So what kind of music do cats like?

Cats do like music. Some studies have shown that for it to be an effective relaxation tool, music must have a consistently smooth, soothing dynamic from start to finish with no abrupt changes in tempo, volume or rhythm. On the other hand, our Maine Coon likes Tori Amos, “Little Earquakes”.

Do I have your attention?

Wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1170/5098888565_1bcdb2aee3_b.jpg

..wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.
from Love in the Time of Cholera ~Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Private Screening

Sleeping Cat in Greece

This cat came from a friend in Greece

Sometimes you need a gentle touch

Sometimes you just need a gentle touch. Thank you, ani.

How long does it take kittens’ eyes to open?

It takes 5-8 days for a short-haired kitten to open her eyes. It takes 10-14 days for a long-haired kitten. It’s another week after that before they focus well enough to see and navigate.

Thank you for the photo

Cats with Odd Colored Eyes

Odd-eyed white cats, unlike white cats with two blues eyes, are usually not deaf.

I’m thinking….

The Cat Who Walks By Himself

Read: This is the cat who Walks by Himself

Beware of Dog

The Cat in the Moon

Context is Everything

How Cats Conquered the World

More than 600 million cats claim residence in households across six continents. The latest in scientific evidence reveals how the cat set off on a journey to conquer the world: here.

TSA Regulations for traveling with cats

TSA security procedures do not prohibit you from bringing a pet on your flight. You should contact your airline or travel agent, however, before arriving at the airport to determine your airline’s policy on traveling with pets.

Security Screening

You will need to present the animal to the Security Officers at the checkpoint. You may walk your animal through the metal detector with you. If this is not possible, your animal will have to undergo a secondary screening, including a visual and physical inspection by our Security Officers.

Your animal will NEVER be placed through an X-ray machine. However, you may be asked to remove your animal from its carrier so that the carrier can be placed on the X-Ray machine.

More about: TSA travel regulations

Transformed by the Power of Love

When people are truly in love, they experience far more than just a mutual need of each other’s company and consolation. In their relations with each other they become different people: they are more than their everyday selves, more alive, more understanding, more enduring… They are made over into new beings. They are transformed by the power of their love.

Love is the revelation of our deepest personal meaning, value and identity. But this revelation remains impossible as long as we are the prisoners of our own egoism. I cannot find myself in myself, but only in another. My true meaning and worth are shown to me not in my estimate of myself, but in the eyes of the one who loves me; and that one must love me as I am, with my faults and limitations, revealing to me the truth that these faults and limitations cannot destroy my worth in the eyes of that one who loves me; and that I am therefore valuable as a person, in spite of my shortcomings, in spite of the imperfections of my exterior “package.” The package is totally unimportant. What matters is this infinitely precious message which I can discover only in my love for another person. And this message, this secret, is not fully revealed to me unless at the same time I am able to see and understand the mysterious and unique worth of the one I love.

~Thomas Merton, Love and Living

Pink and Orange Working Well Together

Kitten Thinks of Nothing But Murder All Day

You know it’s true.

Cats, Cat Barf and Daisies

Chrysanthemums (they *look* like daisies) are toxic to cats. Common garden daisies, and gerbera daisies are not, although eating them may cause your cat to vomit. Cats will eat grass and other greens in order to rid themselves of furballs.