The human-animal bond

Like millions of other people, I recently saw the movie Avatar. My favorite part? I loved how the Navi could bond with the animals so closely that the two practically became one. They bonded physically and mentally.

I’ve written before on this site about how close I am with Thurston – my neurotic, OCD, tubby, but extremely loving and adorable tabby cat. I’ve mentioned how he likes to rest his head on my face when he thinks I’m asleep, to sit on my lap while I drink coffee, and to generally snuggle up and get extremely, extremely close.

Thurston (who in the past has licked all the fur off his belly) seems to have developed a case of feline acne (aka “catne“) on his chin – he’s going to the vet this weekend to get it checked out. In the meantime, guess what’s happened to me? I am breaking out on MY chin in sympathy with Thurston. Sigh. Hopefully this will clear up soon, for both of us!

NJ flights are delayed due to a tubby tabby

According to NJ.com, Newark Liberty International Airport recently experienced delays because “a skittish kitty lodged itself under a bomb-detection machine.”

“A woman and her young daughter had the brown-and-black cat in a carrier but when they removed it so the container could go through the X-ray machine, the freaked-out feline ran under the CTX explosive-detection device, Port Authority officials said.” The cat, who weighed 25 pounds, eluded officials’ initial attempts to lure the feline out. Eventually, they managed to lift the heavy machine and get the cat out with a “combination of the snare and a ‘hydraulic spreader’ to lift an end of the bomb-detection machine.”

And now, Menandcats presents to you, courtesy of Catpaint, what this scenario might have looked like:

JR & Milo

JR had always been allergic to cats and claimed not to be a “cat person.” But when he started dating his girlfriend Rachel, she already had one cat, the skittish Wylee. Miraculously, JR was not allergic to him. Rachel loves animals and would have easily adopted lots more, but JR made it clear that he didn’t want Rachel to become “the crazy cat lady” with tons of cats. But in 2008, Rachel and JR were in Brooklyn meeting a potential PUPP client (Rachel is the founder of PUPP; she and JR are both on the board). The client had two cats, and JR made a comment that “Wylee could really use a friend.” Coincidentally, walking back to the subway that night, they found a cute, dirty, crooked-tailed kitten. Rachel says, “He was injured, and the only thing we could do was rescue this poor kitty (we carried him home in an empty Colt 45 box we found at a bodega).  We had no intention of keeping him, but after seeing how affectionate he was and seeing how well he got along with Wylee, we realized we couldn’t let him go.” They named him Milo, and JR – who still pretends sometimes that he’s not a “cat person” (Sorry, JR. I have lots of photo evidence and eyewitness testimony to the contrary) – plays with Milo all the time, and when Milo cuddles with Rachel, JR gets jealous and tries to lure Milo away and over to him!