Sure, there are plenty of famous dogs out there. But how much do you hear about our feline friends? Here are a few cats worth meowing about.
Our canine companions have always enjoyed their time in the spotlight. From Lassie to Toto to Rin Tin Tin, dogs have a worldwide reputation for hilarity, heroism, and the ability to do some pretty awesome tricks: Who could forget about Tyson, the famous skateboarding bulldog?
We’re wild about dogs, don’t get us wrong. But there’s an equally common household pet that doesn’t get nearly as much acclaim: The cat.
Just think about it – aside from Wonderland’s crazed Cheshire Cat, and everyone’s favorite lasagna-loving cartoon feline, Garfield, how many famous kitties could you list off by name?
True, most cats probably wouldn’t save you from a burning house. You wouldn’t catch one riding down the street on a skateboard, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a feline that would even deign to shake your hand. Even so, cats are loyal, loving, quirky companions, and there are some pretty amazing felines out there in the world today. Here are a few fascinating cats you might want to meet.
For the frail and elderly, a cat can provide a wonderful sense of companionship. But Oscar, a rescued cat that lives in a nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island, can do one better: Amazingly, he is able to predict when one of the residents is entering his final hours. When Oscar senses that a patient is close to death, he will jump onto the patient’s bed to curl up beside him, purring and providing comfort until the patient finally passes away. So far, Oscar has provided a welcome vigil at the bedsides of 25 patients in their final hours.
No one knows for sure how Oscar can tell when a patient is near death, but experts believe it could have something to do with the cat’s remarkable sense of smell. “Cats can smell a lot of things we can’t,” veteranarian Margie Scherk told CBS News. “And cats can certainly detect illness.”
Animal behaviorist Daniel Estep has another theory: “One of the things that happen with people who are dying is that they are not moving around much,” he told CBS. “Maybe the cat is picking up on the fact that the person on the bed is very quiet. It may not be smell or sounds, but just the lack of movement.”
Whatever the case may be, it’s certain that Oscar has provided plenty of comfort to the nursing home’s patients in their final hours of need. And his bedside vigils haven’t gone unappreciated: Rhode Island’s largest hospice organization has awarded the cat with a certificate honoring his important work. Incredible as he is, though, we’d still rather not see him turn up at our bedsides anytime soon.
Most parents are used to picking up their kids from school. But how often does your cat need a lift?
Well, if you’re Liz Bullard of Bournemouth, England, you’ve got to deal with a kitty carpool every single day: Earlier this year, her cat, Sgt. Podge, disappeared from her house one night. Soon, she managed to locate him at the house of an elderly woman who lived about a mile and a half away.
Just days later, though, Sgt. Podge vanished again – and turned up in the exact same spot. Now, he’s established a routine: Every night, he leaves the house and walks across a golf course to arrive at his chosen destination. So each morning, after dropping her son off at school, Bullard makes another stop at 8 AM at the corner where Sgt. Podge is always waiting, and drives him back home for breakfast.
Bullard isn’t quite sure why her cat’s taken to wandering the streets at night, but as long as she knows where to find him, she doesn’t really mind. She just wishes he’d take the weekends off, so she could sleep in every once in awhile.
Check out a video of Sgt. Podge’s daily trip from BBC News.
It’s a good thing cats have nine lives – because an accident-prone six-year-old cat named Baby has definitely used up at least two of hers. In September, she fell from the third-story window of her owner’s London home, leaving her with serious injuries. Vets decided to fix the fractures to her back legs by inserting metal plates – but when they x-rayed Baby, they discovered that the cat already had metal plates in her two front legs from a previous fall. The cat now has metal implants in all four legs, and the hospital staff has given her the nickname, “the bionic cat.”
According to her vets, Baby should be back to normal in no time. We just hope her owner keeps the windows closed from now on!
Finally, meet a one-of-a-kind kitten by the name of Lil’Bit. When this cat was born, his Arizona owner got quite a shock – she almost dropped him when she discovered that he had two faces. Because of this rare condition, Lil’Bit’s owner didn’t expect him to survive, but she did her best to keep him healthy anyway, feeding him every fifteen minutes from an eye-dropper because he was unable to nurse with the rest of his litter.
Fortunately, these days, the two-faced cat is doing just fine. And he’s quite a sight to behold: “One of Lil’Bit’s faces can be asleep while the other one is awake. I have also seen him sneeze out of one side and not the other, and blink on one side of his face but not the other,” his owner told The Daily Mail. “And when he purrs, it is like he is purring in stereo.”
Want to see Lil’Bit for yourself? Watch this amazing video from The Telegraph.
Originally published November 2007