Vladimir's Catography : A Cat's Life

Any time is a good time to spruce up your house, but a change of Season seems to cry out for a new look. As a feline fashionista I implore all humans to ensure when decorating the home that images of cats are present in the interior design. Naturall...

I'm a champion sleeper myself. Olympic standard. I spend a lot of time practicing and I can honestly say that I've perfected not only the art of the catnap, but the deep comatose condition of the expert sleeper. With practice and determinati...

Yes, I am a Cat Fashionista. I am not offended when you call me thus, for I wear the name as a badge of pride. I keep an eye on cultural trends, read fashion magazines and peruse the celebrity pages, but I am far from being one-dimensional. I have n...

Cats are carried around all the time in baskets and boxes. It's a fact of life and has to be accepted. But why carry a cat to the Vet in a common cardboard box? That's adding insult to injury. A Cat Carrier is an essential item for all cat c...

Who says a cat can't appreciate poetry? Like Gerard Manly Hopkins, I appreciate the speckled, freckled, brindled, stippled, peppered and spotted. Yes, cats have an eye for beauty too. When you look around, the number of beautiful spotted things...

It's an intriguing fact that there are people who love cats, and people who loathe them, but there is no one who is indifferent to cats! Why is that? Some people have heaps of cats, somewhat like a hoarder. I've heard of households with twen...

It is no coincidence that I share a house with a person who tries to treat me well, and to understand me. My person attempts to expand her knowledge about cats in general and about me in particular - a difficult task for her at the best of times. It&...

The amazing cat, Kao K'o-Kung, known as Koko to his close friends, is the Cat Who .... can do almost anything. Koko, with his almost supernatural talents, features in twenty nine mystery novels by Lilian Jackson Braun and although his actions fi...

I enjoy Cat Detectives. In my constant search for new and thrilling feline investigators I discovered that an earlier hero of mine is still out there with his magnifying glass - Mycroft, aka Big Mike, the amateur sleuth of Empty Creek, Arizona. I fi...

Film is a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating (some may say 'indoctrinating') citizens. That's why it's so important to have cats portrayed correctly. There are plenty of movies with cats playing minor...

Most people only know Slinky Malinki as one of the cats that gets chased by Hairy Maclary, but there's a lot more to Slinky than just a blacker than black cat. Slinky Malinski, that stalking and lurking adventurous cat, traveled his own personal...

In Norway, these fluffy cats are known as skogkatter or Norsk skogkatt - literally, Norwegian Forest Cat. The name has a real ring to it. So much more thrilling than my own 'Domestic short hair' and these cats are thrilling in themselves with...

These little cats are the only naturally spotted breed of domesticated cat and quite possibly the oldest of all house cats. And probably the prettiest. Images of these elegant little felines appear in papyrus and on walls of Ancient Egyptian temples...

You have to admit a Siamese has class. It's all in that aristocratic elongation, the long, finely chiseled head, the absolutely straight profile, well aligned chin, long legs and sculptured body lines. And those blue almond eyes! Enough to send...

How many cousins do I have? New cat breeds seem to spring up overnight and I freely admit that I have not heard much about the Burmilla before. The subject cropped up almost accidentally, in a snatch of overheard conversation, the mention of a cat &...

The Chausie is an amazing cat and one you won't run across every day. To start with, Chausies are Hybrid Cats, a cross between the Jungle Cat, Felis Chaus, and the domestic cat, Felis Catus. The Jungle Cat , the wild side of the Chausie, is a me...

The jaguar is another of the big beautifully spotted cats. He is a massive animal, and powerfully built with a deep-chested body and large head. If you run into a jaguar, quickly check your GPS to make sure you're in the Americas. Otherwise, you&...

What I'm going to tell you is shocking. Sadly, it's more than possible that tigers could be gone by 2012. There are fewer than 5,000 tigers left. There are about 7 million smaller cats just like me in Australia, let alone the rest of the world, so w...

Who mourns the passing of the Smilodon? He was another feisty carnivore lost when people began to take over the world. Smilodon became extinct around 10,000 BCE, when so many other large herbivorous and carnivorous mammals went under the axe. Humans...

Have you ever wondered what those fat little cats with an upraised paw are doing? I must admit they intrigued me. This is the Beckoning or Japanese Fortune cat, the Maneki Neko, a popular symbol of good luck and an invitation to prosperity and succe...

Is there anyone who doesn't know Felix the Cat? Felix became an international cinema star in the 1920s, almost a decade before Mickey Mouse was born. He was the world's first animated superstar and rightly deserves the fame he receives as a g...

My first encounter with Felix the Cat was in the form of a flickering, hazy, black and white reproduction on the television. Nothing to write home about. But closer inspection revealed the true Felix to me, the inner Felix. His beautiful blackness...

They have been spotted in every Australian state, huge black catlike creatures that prowl the remote regions of vast mountain ranges and hidden valleys. Sightings have multiplied of late, perhaps because of the pressures on animal habitats in these...

I was touched with pity when I first saw this sign about a lost cat. To be factually correct, it's a sign about a found cat that someone has lost. It's from a telegraph pole in a busy urban shopping centre and posted there by a couple of kin...

Every now and then another story will crop up about the magical qualities of cats. Are cats magic? There are books a-plenty on the subject too, but no one has really pinned down the inherent magicalness of cats at all. Not once! It's about time t...

Cats, as you know, have nine lives. Have you ever wondered why? I certainly have. Many are the hours I've spent in contemplation of the eternal question : What is the meaning of Life and Why do I have Nine? I've noticed people make a great fuss ove...

In my youthful days I thrilled to the description of Bagheera. A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera the black panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights, like the pattern of water...

From his humble beginnings to superstar status, Morris, spokescat for the 9Lives Cat Food Company, never lost his common touch. He inspired cats around the globe with his simple yet powerful philosophy on life: "The cat who doesn't act finic...

Trim sailed around Australia in 1802 on the good ship Tryall, assisting his person, Matthew Flinders, to map the coast. During his many sea voyages with Flinders, this remarkable black and white cat took an interest in the practical aspects of the r...

This feline prodigy has taken the world by storm! He's known from Anatolia to Zaire as a force majeure on YouTube, and I've been following his phenomenal rise from the very start. (I might pick up a few tips to give my own career a boost). ...

I am a cat of many faces. Not only am I a dark shape in the rhododendrons, a domestic moggy with a shortened tail, I am also a Tweeter. Every day I make time in my busy schedule to pop in and exchange some friendly greetings with my anipals on twitt...

I am Vladimir. I am a Spy. I engage in spying, espionage, all sorts of covert activity and clandestine operations. I wheel, steal and deal in highly classified information, coerce mafia bosses, capture terrorist financiers and assassinate ambassado...

Who said we fight like cats and dogs? If you bring a dog near me you will quickly learn about angry cats, but that aside, I have been known to tolerate the odd dog or two over the years. At one time I had a friend who was a dog! So I can say in all...

It has come to my attention that people learn to read from objects known as primer books. This is typical of human behaviour, they learn by reading throughout their lives. To this end I offer "C" is for Cat. C is also for words which descr...

Sometimes it's hard to ignore the great number of companion animals who are not cats. I am well aware that dogs have their place, and that many people make a place especially for them, I merely prefer them to be in a place which is not mine. However...

Do you ever wonder how cats can catch birds when birds can fly and we can't? It's been a while since I brought down a bird. These days I have a little trouble jumping onto a kitchen chair but a few years back I was one of the best hunters ar...

I've heard people say it's cruel to confine cats inside because we are free spirits. Of course we are! However, these same people give little thought to the possible consequences of roaming free, like getting hit by cars, injured in fights,...

Yes, Cats can talk. Cats are particularly good at communicating with people. It's people who are a bit slow on the uptake. I've heard some people say that their dog talks to them. Ha! All cats have a much larger vocabulary than dogs, most of...

It's about time people realised something basic about feeding cats. Cats are carnivores. More to the point, cats are obligate carnivores. Being an 'obligate carnivore' means that I'm designed to get my nutrition from animal-based proteins - that's m...

Just when I thought the negative aspects of getting old were the cosmetic changes like raggedy fur and gnarled claws (not to mention the give-away grey hairs) I now discover that cats get Alzheimer's Disease too! There is one fear that I have ab...

All the domestic cats you know today have a common ancestor - and that ancestor still runs free across the savannah which is a lot more than you can say for the human ancestor. My noble ancestor is the African wild cat, Felis libyca, found today acr...

You know the feeling. You just meet someone for the first time and it's as if you've known them all your life. There's an instant recognition, a rapport between you that transcends the mundane barrier of species. You're both on the exact same wavelen...

I don't want to upset you, but Life is not just a bowl of cherries. It's not even a bowl of kibble. There's more in this world than the simple joys of napping in the patch of sun on the kitchen floor. Life is not always nice. Life is als...

Christmas is an odd time of year. I never quite know what to make of it. People make a huge fuss and, apart from the rise in noise level, they also engage in many arcane and dangerous activities. Dangerous to cats! But before I pass on my sagacious...

Keep your feline friend safe on the big night of goblins, ghosties and ghouls. I tend to hide out myself, the sound of kids shrieking "Boo!" gives me nightmares for weeks, but there are plenty of poor shivering cats out there who could suf...

There is no reason why people should declaw a cat. None. What is most shocking to me about declawing is the attitude. This is treating a cat ilike an inanimate object - an object to be modified by surgical mutilation, to suit some person's perce...

Look upward! That's my motto. I've been down before, withdrawn, anxious and prone to panic attacks - depression is not limited to the human species. Nor is hope. When you're flat on your back with all four paws in the air, the only way i...