Moggy in the TARDIS

Liking a) Doctor Who and b) cats is obligatory for all downthetubes contributors - and anyone disliking either of these two things is asked to leave pretty quickly, I can tell you.

The team was therefore thrilled to see this advert for a flea treatment product from a company called Novartis. We liked it and we don't care what anyone else thinks.

Return of the Cat

British comics artist 'Israeli reports via his blog that local stray Lucky the Half Face Cat has resurfaced post winter near his London home.

"He's survived another winter," says 'Israeli, whose recent strips include various strips for 2000AD and contributions to the Who Killed Robin blog involving seven British comic creators telling an ongoing web story.

"Alhough he's looking tattier than ever, and seems to be having a little difficulty with his back legs, he meowed at me and came over to be stroked when I spotted him on the way back from the shops yesterday."

Bless him. (The cat. not 'Israeli). He’s apparently vanished and resurfaced for three years on the trot, looking considerably worse for wear each time but still thriving despite his feline-styled homage to Batman’s Two Face looks.

What is it with stray Toms that they manage to all but disappear in the winter months then make a surprise re-appearance? Do they hibernate?

• Anyone who prefers birds to cats should check out New Zealand artist David Fletcher's "Crumb" blog, dedicated to his blackbird character who features on the comics to mobile service ROK Comics.

Photo © 'Israeli and I hope he doesn't mind me borrowing it.

The Kitten Problem

Garfield animated cartoon writer Mark Evanier (also writer of the brilliant Groo comic and more) is having a hard time trapping a stray cat he's (sort of) adopted -- as much as you can adopt any cat.

His aim is to do the right thing and have it spayed, but despite taking food from him for eight months or so, it's proven remarkably savvy about what might be about to happen to it. You can read his diary of the experience here.

Good luck, Mark! Given the reproduction rate of feral cats and the problems they can cause (bless 'em), you're doing the right thing, honestly. I speak as someone who has rescued a stray myself in the past.

Other celebrity cat adopters I know include J. Michael Stracyznski and others - mainly SF writers by the way, is there some unwritten law?

Friday Fun: Talking Cats

You may have seen the original "Talking Cats" ...



... but now someone has kindly provided a Babelfish provided translation for those of us who don't speak cat.



The original cats, Stina and Mossy usually fight instead of talk, so apparently this was an odd moment. They kept "talking" for about an hour, constantly.

The Dead Goldfish

I thought this cartoon might have originally appeared in Viz - it seems to be based on an old Internet-circulated joke - but a version is being passed on from the "Bore Me" site, an archive of "viral" e-mail jokes and pictures which, it seems, several people have just found and have begun "viralling" all over again...

Every joke I get that I pass on I tidy up and in many case "anglicise" the content. I'm waiting to see how long it takes before a joke I've amended this way - as I have this cartoon - gets back to my mail box. But I think I'll check the BoreMe site and see if any of them have ended up there.

Yes, I do need to get out more...

Credit cards for cats

This surely has to be a theme for a new Really Heavy Greatcoat, when I get time to write some. Reuters reports today that an Australian bank has been forced to apologize after it issued a credit card to a cat after its owner decided to test the bank's identity security system.

The Bank of Queensland issued a credit card to Messiah the cat when his owner Katherine Campbell applied for a secondary card on her account under its name.

Before Messiah could go mad online and buy enough Go Cat to keep it happy for the next couple of decades (which is what my cat would have done) the bank said the cat's card had been canceled. Shame.

"We apologize as this should not have happened," it said in a statement (probably issued by someone called Rover).

Cat Tracking into parallel dimensions

It's a well known fact that many SF and comics writers own cats. Don't ask me why, it's just one of those weird rules of the universe.

Of course many freelancers work from home, but even they must sometimes wonder where their cat has disappeared to. Into Schrodinger's box? A parallel dimension? Or simply to scrounge food off the little old lady two streets away and then work its way back to your house employing the "Six Dinners Sid" method of coming home?

Well, tough luck, cats -- it seems you're close to having their lives monitored just the way we are through CCTV, money trails, RFID chips and your wild bretheren are pursued across the African plains for Big Cat Diary. The technology for GSM tracking is getting smaller by the day.

This German company has info on the latest GSM tags that could be used to monitor your moggy -- but at 110g, it's still too heavy for the domestic feline and you can be sure they'll lose the thing about five minutes after leaving your house. The company doesn't sell the things, but they reckon that by next year a smaller, lighter and more robust version will be on the market.

But do you really want to know where cats go?

Special Delivery Frog

Our champion hunter cat delivered this frog this morning: I'm sure she's trying to persuade us not to keep messing up our house (we're having our roof done) -- and thinks gifts like this will persuade us...

Still, at least this delivery was alive and more than happy to be rescued (so happy it jumped all over the hallway before I could recapture it after taking this picture). The dead baby birds I can do without.

Cat Presents take a new twist

One of the perils of working from home is that I never know what our hunter-killer cat Lily will bring in as a 'present' (usually in the hope that she will be rewarded with biscuits, I suspect).

Usually, thankfully, she has a predeliction for large leaves, although we do suffer the inevitable dead birds, much to our dismay. (Never common birds, either -- the worst was a beautiful wren (survived), and a robin (had to put out of misery).

This morning, I'm working on some news gathering and Star Trek proof reading (the first US/UK issue of STAR TREK Magazine, out next month is looking great!), when Lily races upstairs and starts hissing and growling at one of the other cats.

At first, I can't see what she's got in her mouth but it's big... and it looks furry.

Oh god, I think. Has she managed to get our neighbour's rabbit out of its cage?

No -- this time it's an entire bird's nest, carefully woven by unknown birds, one broken egg in it. I suspect -- or hope -- that this is a deserted nest, its residents fully fledged, although I did have a very young (permature?) bird dumped at my feet earlier in the week...

Meow Mix: Cat Big Brother

(Old post reinstated, ignore if RSS checking) Maybe they'll use famous cats like Data's Spot, from Star Trek, eliminating the opposition with a well-pawed phaser...

ANIMAL PLANET TO LAUNCH CAT BIG BROTHER SHOW

A US cable network is hoping to wow cat fans with a new feline BIG BROTHER show. Animal Planet bosses will air MEOW MIX HOUSE for 10 weeks this summer (06).

* The hour-long weekly show will feature 10 cats sharing the same apartment and competing for Best Purr and Top Post-climber.

* A panel of judges will vote a cat out of the house every week.

I didn't actually believe this at first, but there's actually a web site about the show at: www.meowmixhouse.com

Official: Cats are harder than bears

(Old post reinstated, ignore if RSS checking) Caught this pic in one of the tabloids while on a bacon bun run, of Jack, a 15-pound orange-and-white cat, who's sitting under a treed black bear in a backyard in West Milford, New Jersey, Sunday, June 4, 2006.

When the bear climbed down, the cat chased it up another nearby tree. Neighbour Suzanne Giovanetti thought Jack was simply looking up at the bear, but soon realized the much larger animal was afraid of the hissing cat. The cat's owners called it away and the bear ran off.

Photo: Suzanne Giovanetti, no infringement intended).