Man attains rank of "Cat Commander" having raised and trained an army of 60 cats to keep rats out of his grainery.

A man has trained 60 cats to guard a grain depot from rats, the Dalian-based Peninsula Morning Post reported on Monday.  Yin Chunzhu, an employee at a storage and transportation company in Dalian, Northeast China’s Liaoning province has been dubbed “Cat commander” for his army of feline guards.

The barn, stocked with organic crops has been harassed by rampant rats for many years, according to staffers. Due to the possible contamination from rat poison, Yin has been training the cats since mid-October to protect against rodents.  The cats have been trained with different skills such as detecting, lurking and patrolling for rats.

“It is obvious that our grain damage has lessened in the recent months”, said a staff member at the company. And the expense of raising the cats is only half the cost of losing the grain, she added.

America's obesity epidemic extends to pets: Shelter now offering cat adoption prices per pound

FAT CATS: Bellingham animal shelter offers chubs at $1 per pound

Frosty, a 5-year-old domestic long-haired cat, has been at the Whatcom Humane Society’s Williamson Way shelter since late November. He’s been featured twice on the radio as “Pet of the Week,” but has yet to be adopted.

The Whatcom Humane Society believes one of the reasons Frosty may not be able to find a “forever home” is his weight — at 13.2 pounds, Frosty’s a bit of a fatty.  To help Frosty and other plus-size cats find homes, the Humane Society is having a “Flab-ulous Feline Adoption Special” through Wednesday. The adoption fee for cats weighing more than 12 pounds will equal the weight of the cat — so a cat like Frosty would cost only $13.20. The regular adoption fee for cats and kittens is $115.

“It’s heartbreaking to see these big, beautiful cats get passed over day after day, having to compete for homes and kennel space with younger, skinnier cats,” Executive Director Laura Clark said. “Our staff and volunteers do what we can to provide each cat with daily exercise and TLC, but our resources are limited.”

Clark said the Humane Society’s largest cat is Patches, an 18-month-old short-haired Siamese mix, who weighs in at a whopping 22 pounds. The shelter renamed him from the tab his previous owners had given him: Fatty.

After finding her foster mom Patience, Stella decided to take it a step further. She adopted Patience's whole family. And, just in time for Caturday!

Some people hold the opinion that cats are more independent than dogs, that they, in the words of a popular quotation, "will take a message and get back to you." Not so with my Stella.

The smallest of five in her litter, Stella was born to a calico mom whose muted colors were like those in a Monet watercolor garden. Two of the male kittens took on her apricot shades, one other male and a female duplicated her sandy charcoal hues, and Stella reprised the limpid blue of the garden. Her button nose was as pink as a newborn baby mouse.

I had brought the mom and her brood home from the animal shelter to foster just after the kittens' eyes had opened. I named the mother Patience because she had set about her maternal duties with tender regard and longsuffering. Five hungry kittens can seem like a squirmy mass of furry balls roiling about in a tumbler as they scramble for just the right position for both nourishment and comfort.

Patience would lie on her side contentedly opening and closing her forepaws while 10 tiny feet kneaded her belly to obtain optimum milk flow. She kept her poise no matter what sounds emanated from her kids – slurping or squealing. After mealtime, Patience washed each face and bottom to ensure nature's protocols ran smoothly. Observing this most elemental ritual gave me moments filled with awe and wonder. Tending the little family was both privilege and honor. I committed myself to work very hard in finding these beautiful felines great adoptive homes.

When the babies began to grow stronger and to explore their surroundings, a new dimension of wonderment opened to all of us. Legs began to stagger, then to walk, then to run. PLAY came into being, and the rough and tumble of competition.

I noticed at this time something unique about Stella. She made choices. Actually, it boiled down to one choice: me. Whenever I entered the room to clean the litter box or refresh food and water, Stella would ignore her wrestling siblings and come over to me. In my kneeling position on the floor, it was easy for her to climb the Mt. Everest of my lap and plop herself down with a purr that sounded like an outboard motor. Her habit never varied. It didn't take long before I realized Stella had adopted me!

She allowed her natural mom to perform basic functions, but as far as bonding or any show of affection, her preference was clear. I knew she had my number.

Needless to say, Stella joined our family after her mom and siblings found their own respective homes. Today, she remains petite and opinionated with an expressive voice that could almost be said to imitate vocabulary.  Her favorite game involves helping me make the bed. Her coat is still blue and white; her nose, pink, and she still thinks I am her real mommy.

— Rae Zimmerling, Gearhart

'Extinct' wild cat spotted in Borneo, is more than welcome to join the Caturday festivities

One of the world's rarest wild cats, an elusive creature once thought to be extinct, has been spotted in camera traps in Malaysian Borneo for the first time since 2003, researchers say.

The Bornean Bay Cat, a long-tailed reddish or grey feline the size of a large domesticated cat, was sighted in the northern highlands of Malaysia's Sarawak state, the forest department said today.  Three photographs showing two or three individuals were captured, bringing new hope for the future of the endangered animal about which very little is known, said research officer Wilhelmina Cluny.

"This species is very secretive... it was classified as extinct until a photograph of it was taken in 2003," she said.  "I do feel encouraged, this photograph was taken in a logged forest... when we saw this it made us wonder whether this kind of habitat can sustain wildlife, even for rare and important species like the bay cat.  We had been looking for any mammals and this bay cat came up, it's quite exciting that we got the photograph."

There has been very little research into the bay cat, and there is no indication as to whether its numbers are rising or falling.  The images were captured in 2009 and 2010 but not released until the study was completed.  The animals spotted were the grey variety, which are even more rare than the reddish type.  The camera trap was positioned next to the Pulong Tai national park in northern Sarawak, one of the two Malaysian states that make up part of Borneo.  The vast island is shared with Indonesia and the small sultanate of Brunei.

Other than these handful of images, most other information on the species consists of "historical records, morphological descriptions and anecdotes", according to the Sarawak Forest Department.  Rampant logging in timber-rich Sarawak has removed much of the state's forest cover, threatening the survival of animal and plant species, as well as indigenous tribes whose way of life is increasingly in peril.

If you've ever wanted to know what's in Purina Kitten Chow, here you go, just in time for Caturday.

Biotin:  Vitamin B7. Necessary to keep Garfield’s coat sleek and full, biotin is also found in expensive hair conditioners for humans.

Brewers Rice:  Fragmented rice kernels, with the bran removed, used as supplemental starch in beer-making. While cats are obligate carnivores (i.e., they don’t need any plant-based food), kittens can safely digest a dry food diet of up to 35 percent carbs.

Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex:  Provides a water-soluble variant of vitamin K, necessary for blood clotting. The FDA says you can use up to 1,000 times the recommended daily allowance in most animal feed without adverse effects. On the other hand, the FDA banned it for use in human vitamin supplements in 1963.

Animal Fat Preserved With Mixed Tocopherols:  This is your mouser’s only source of arachidonic acid, a fatty acid that’s essential for healthy skin, as well as proper wound healing and blood clotting.

Fish Meal:  Roly-poly fish heads (and tails and bodies and guts) are ground up to form a protein-rich powder. The FDA reminds us that “animals do not share in people’s aesthetic concerns about the source and composition of their food.” Eat them up, yum.

Chicken By-Product Meal:  Think leftovers like the heart, liver, and kidneys. Depending on the source, this can also include necks, feet, intestines, undeveloped eggs, and maybe even a few feathers.

Copper Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate:  All kittens need copper to grow connective tissue, baby toms need zinc to develop mature testicles, and almost every mammal needs iron to avoid anemia. Cats don’t easily absorb the oxide form of copper, so pet foods typically use the sulfate form.

Taurine:  Cats do not have the genetic wherewithal to manufacture certain amino acids. Without taurine in their diet, they can go blind from retinal degeneration or die from heart failure.

Soy Flour:  Protein is protein, and this stuff provides more amino acids than the equivalent amount of beef. But your cat’s ancestors didn’t hunt soya in the wild, so their bodies aren’t engineered to process the legume’s isoflavones, which may be contributing to the sharp increase in feline hyperthyroidism over the past 30 years.

As a fundraising stunt, man to live with lions for 30 days, the last 29 of which likely be in their gigantic litter box

SPRING HILL, Fla. - A Florida man says he's going to spend the next month living in a fenced enclosure with two African lions. James Jablon of Spring Hill hopes the stunt will raise money for his wildlife center, Wildlife Rehabilitation of Hernando.

Jablon entered the lions' den Saturday (just like in the Bible). He says he's going to sleep on hay near the lions named Lea and Ed and eat when they eat. Presumably, they won't be eating the same thing. He also says he's also going to build a place to sleep and hide in the trees in the enclosure, in case the lions fight with each other. His wacky adventure is being streamed live online through January 31.

About 100 animals live at the center about 40 miles north of Tampa. It was started for native wildlife needing medical treatment, but Jablon says he's now being asked to provide homes for exotic pets.

Authorities kill cougar stalking young bachelor. Man, the dating scene has gotten tough!

Ray County mountain lion a Missouri rarity

By LEE HILL KAVANAUGH

The Kansas City Star

The mountain lion killed in Ray County was examined by biologist Jeff Beringer (left).

The body, a .22-caliber slug lodged in the brain, was sprawled on the autopsy table waiting for the scalpel.

Weight: 115.2 pounds.
Length: 79 inches.
Age: Perhaps three years, maybe younger, according to the sharp white teeth and markings on the inside of the legs.

The anatomical evidence that most interested the scientists: The dead mountain lion (nicknamed the Ray County Cat) was male.  And with that, Missouri’s Mountain Lion Response team sighed with relief.  Had it been a wild female, it would have signaled the state could have a breeding population of the big cats. Of the dozen confirmed sightings since 1994, only one — the team’s first investigation — was a female. In that case, some members thought it was someone’s pet.  So far, it’s just the wanderers, said Jeff Beringer, Department of Conservation furbearer resource biologist, who was part of the autopsy team. That is, the young males looking for love in all the wrong places.

The team saw no signs the healthy feline had been in captivity, such as tattoos or electronic identification tags. Nor did the paws show evidence of life in a hard-floored enclosure. Also, its dewclaws, often surgically removed in captive animals, were intact.  Hair samples taken for DNA testing should show the lion’s origins.
In November, a confirmed sighting  (a photograph and some tracks) occurred in Platte County. The team took lion hair from that site. They’ll check for a match with this one.  The Richmond rancher who shot it Sunday night believes it might not be the only one prowling north of the river. Losing calves, Bob Littleton set out game cameras that were triggered on two different cold October nights.  “One was big, and the other was smaller,” Littleton said. “If this was the smaller one, I sure wouldn’t want to meet the bigger one.”

The team has investigated more than 1,500 sightings in the state.

“I know that my e-mail will be full with new reports now that this one was shot,” Beringer said. “If we have solid evidence, we go out and investigate. But most of the time there’s no proof.”  One reason that Beringer thinks no cubs are out there in the Missouri hardwoods is the lack of road kills. In Missouri, only two lions met their doom that way: one in 2002 at Interstate 35 and Parvin Road, the other the next year in Callaway County.  The cats are common in Western states, with a few in South Dakota, western Texas and Florida. Northwest Nebraska is the area nearest Missouri with an established mountain lion population. Individuals also show up in Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Illinois.  “A neat looking animal, but every mountain lion up close is pretty amazing,” Beringer said.  Every March, he traps and collars the creatures on Ted Turner’s New Mexico ranch, giving field lessons to other biologists.

Out there they’re often called pumas. Some people say cougars. Or panther, painter or catamount. Their scientific name is Puma concolor.  Science shows that most cougars attack protecting their young. Or in the hunt for food.  “These wanderers are more afraid of people than we are of them. … And they’re afraid of dogs. A dog can tree ’em.”  This specimen was up in the branches of a tree on Littleton’s 350 acres just east of Richmond.

The cat’s misfortune stemmed from the taste for veal he had developed. A few months ago, Littleton found one calf mauled; another completely disappeared. Then a cow showed claw marks on its hindquarters. Two raccoon hunters noticed Littleton’s cattle were riled up and skittish. Looking up in a tree, they saw why. “They called me on their cell phone, and I went out there. They were afraid if they shot him, they’d get in trouble,” he said.  Missouri has laws against killing a mountain lion for sport, but not for protecting oneself, family or property. Such shootings are supposed to be reported immediately, with the intact carcass, including the pelt, turned over to state officials within 24 hours.

So his friends handed him their rifle. He aimed well.  Only after the big cat fell did the rancher begin to shake, thinking about the threat.  He called the conservation people and then a television station. Looking into the camera, his voice broke.  Later he said why. He knew how many times his “grandbabies” played in that field. Alone and without fear.  "This has changed my life. I’ll never let them do that again unless I’m there with my gun.”