Mar

10

Well, DUH. Who would open the little cans for them?

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Cats Help Shield Owners From Heart Attack

THURSDAY, Feb. 21 HealthDay News — Whether its a frisky kitten or a tubby tabby, a cat at home could cut your heart attack risk by almost a third, a new study suggests.

[snip]

The finding, from a 10-year study of more than 4,300 Americans, suggests that the stress relief pets provide humans is heart-healthy.  Cat owners “appeared to have a lower rate of dying from heart attacks” over 10 years of follow-up compared to feline-free folk, Qureshi said.

Jan

3

no problem — we just give them each a beer and line ‘em up

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Scientific American: Cat Fleas Abhor A Vacuum

If you don’t subscribe to the Dutch journal Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, you might have missed the news about fleas: the best way to get rid of a house full of cat fleas is to reach for the vacuum cleaner. The old upright is not only lethal to adult bugs, but it completely wipes out their young. Scientists from Ohio State University had set out to determine what additional measures might be needed to kill a bunch of Hoovered-up fleas: burning, freezing, poisoning, maybe even a little good old fashioned stomping. But it turns out that getting sucked into a vacuum bag does the whole job.

The researchers were so surprised by the results, they repeated the study several times. In each experiment, they sprinkled a kitchen carpet with 100 cat fleas, either adults or juveniles. And they found that the vacuum snuffed out pretty much all of them. What makes vacuuming so deadly is hard to say. The researchers admit that they did not conduct a postmortem on any of the deceased. But they think it was the physical trauma of being sucked through the brushes that gave fleas a one-way ticket to the chitin-yard. Now, if only scientists could come up with a safe way to vacuum the cat.

–Karen Hopkin

Dec

30

except that she seems to have done just that

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News of the World

THIS is Robo Cat—enforcer of the claw and steel standing after vets rebuilt her legs from scratch.

Blunder cat Baby had surgery to save one of her nine lives after plummeting from a third floor window and shattering her back legs.

But when the feline fractures were X-rayed, vets found she had suffered an earlier accident which left her with two metal rods in her FRONT legs.

Now the alloycat, six, is believed to be the only moggy in the country to have undergone such extensive surgery.

And just like the Bionic Man from Seventies TV hit The Six Million Dollar Man, Baby’s reconstruction wasn’t cheap. The £10,000 price tag means she’s also been dubbed the Bionic Cat by her owners.

Jess Gower, chief vet at the Blue Cross centre in Victoria, London—the charity which paid for the op —said: “Baby’s back leg bones had broken into several pieces.

“She is the only cat I have seen that has been fitted with a metal implant in each of her FOUR legs.”

“Contrary to popular belief, cats don’t always land on their feet.”