No matter how you feel about our soon-to-be-former President George W. Bush, you might feel a slight bit of sympathy for him and his family at the loss of their 18 year-old cat, India, who died on Sunday at the White House. I actually didn’t know that Bush was a cat-lover.
RIP, black cat who lived in the White House!
Or, as the Times in Johannesburg, South Africa put it, “Cat gets man out of deep doo-doo.”
TAIPEI – A stray cat has saved the life of a man who fell into an open toilet and was stuck there for two days, a newspaper reported.
The Merit Times said Liu Young-hui, 68, a scavenger living on government welfare in a village in Tainan County, south Taiwan, is recovering following the incident early this week.
Liu, who lives alone, slipped and fell into a hole in the ground that he used as a toilet and was stuck there for two days.
He was saved after one of a dozen stray cats he fed regularly with leftovers showed up at the door of a neighbour and kept meowing until he followed him to the back of Liu’s house.
The neighbour found Liu in the pit in human excrement and pulled him out with the help of other villagers.
They contacted a funeral parlour because they thought Liu was dead but when the undertakers arrived they found he was breathing and took him to hospital where he regained consciousness and is now recovering.
I was reading the blog of Tober, an orange tabby library cat, when he blogged about how he likes to chew on cords! Just like my Charley-cat, who chews on anything he can get his little teeth on. And yes, I do use bitter apple, and cord covers galore, which does cut down on the chewing – although sometimes he’ll chew on things I never thought he would chew on (like chairs).
It’s so hard to stay mad at our furry cord-chewers, though, isn’t it?!
Tober:
Sometimes I get lonely when my coworkers go home for the night, and I have to find things to do to keep myself occupied. Sometimes I nibble on a plant, or I knock Craig over, or I dump Christine’s inbox into the recycling bin. . . but what I like to do the most is chew on cords. Cords are fun to chew. They feel nice in my teeth, and they wiggle and squirm so I can hunt them. But apparently chewing on the cords is a Very Bad Thing To Do.
When I chew on cords, it causes a flurry of activity around the office. Today was very exciting: Pat took the cord off of her computer and threw it away, Linda rearranged all of her furniture, and Christine crawled around on the floor with lots of black tubes. Assistant Boss Karen was frustrated with me, but I’m very charming, and she couldn’t stay mad at me for long.
Because I am in Big Trouble I am not getting any treats and no one will get my dot out for me to hunt. Most of the tasty cords have been hidden from view–at least from human view–or wrapped up in black tubes. My officemates said that I was getting a supply of cords for Christmas, which they would hide in the closet.
Mike says that Pushy got her name when she showed up on his front porch in Texas “and refused to leave.” Mike ignored Pushy for over a week, giving her no food and no attention of any kind, but for some reason she stuck around. Mike says, “I finally gave up and took her in. Sometimes one chooses a cat; other times the cat chooses you.” He also reports that Pushy likes to perch on his shoulder and holler like a Siamese!
Every year around this time, I bust out my interdenominational holiday cats photo and show it to – well, everyone. Holiday Cats has been around for a while, I think since maybe 2001 or so. This year, someone suggested I spruce it up a bit – you know, make it even MORE festive. My husband said “I like the classic!” But once the idea was in my head, I couldn’t get rid of it. So without further ado, I present Holiday Cats 2008. Whooo fun!
Note: The cats did not actually wear any kind of hats for this photo. My cats won’t wear ANYTHING, not even collars. The hats were photoshopped on.
