What is it about the internet and cats?

Morning has broken. I crawl out of bed and head directly to my computer. Now that the tree in the front yard has been cut down [1][2] there is lots of light in the room. I wake up the computer and head off to the morning must-reads.

Yes, of course, the news. But also the really important sites such as I can has cheezburger?, My Cat Hates You, and Cats in Sinks. Depending on my mood I may go to Have a Kitten Break or Memoirs of a Feline Empress in Exile or Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat or Manx MNews or Darling Millie.

I surf over to Shakesville to check out the cats there (yes, Dudley and Zelda are cute but it is the cats that call me back) and then drop by John Scalzi's site, Whatever, to get a fresh update on the cats (and dog) there.

"What is it" I wonder "about the internet and cats?"

In an act of creative procrastination I fire up google and type that phrase (with quotation marks) into google. I get 4,180 results. I type "what is it about the internet and dogs" and get no results. "Aha!" I exclaim to myself although I am not sure what it means. I toy with the idea of putting in different phrases. I look at my Crazy Cat Lady Action Figure [3] and realize that once again the cats are dragging me into that mysterious vortex from which I will emerge hours later with no clear sense of exactly how the day passed by without me getting anything done.

I go down to the kitchen, get myself a fresh cup of coffee and sit down to begin my day's work. As I lean over the keyboard a fluffy voice whispers in my head "But what is it about cats and the internet?

--mmy

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[1] Crossing my fingers that none of the neighbourhood children ask what happened to mommy squirrel and the baby squirrels when the men in chainsaws got to work. ↩

[2] Tell myself not to snap at the various neighbours who tell me how much they loved that tree. They didn't trim it, they didn't have to rake the leaves but they would have knocked on our front door immediately after the tree, rotten at core, fell over on their car. ↩

[3] A Christmas gift from my Vet the cats' Vet. ↩

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Comments

[Laiima]

I started reading blogs during the election season of 2004. I was desperate to find someone, anyone, who was thinking about politics and interesting and reasonable way. Not like talking heads on TV. I found blogs, and started reading, and was hooked. The first blog I ever read was Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly. He had a feature where he took photos of his cats and posted them on Fridays. There were some weeks where his cat pictures were the highlight of the week.

Ever since then, I really like seeing pictures of animals on the web. They don't have to be pets! they can be zoo animals, or wildlife encounters, or whatever. Photos on Flickr work too.

Spouse not only loves I Can Haz Cheeseburger? enough to have it bookmarked, but he's recently found some a website for some Japanese dude and his cat who loves jumping into boxes. He's always calling me over to show me some silly video of said cat. And they're funny.

Life is hard. Cats make it better and sillier.

[Invisible Neutrino]

I don't remember when I started reading I Can Has Cheezburger? but I've loved it ever since. XD

[MercuryBlue]

Wanna kitty. No can has kitty. Expensive. Also, Dad's allergic, so's at least one sister. Therefore, lolcats.

[thebewilderness]

Because Friday cat blogging is simply not enough!
http://www.freekibblekat.com/default.asp

[Asha]

I don't know what it is about finding an amusing cat picture. It is something that just begs to be shared. After a bad day, something cute is a great distraction. Yet nothing seems to convey it's contempt yet dependence on humanity than the face of a cat. Can anything be serious after that?

[lightning]

Cats? That's what the internet is *for*, after all. That, and activism. No cats, no activism. See the Cute Cat Theory of Internet Activism.

[truth is life]

@lightning: Your link is very interesting, particularly the part where the author starts talking about Arab political activism. Since it was created 3 years ago...well, talking about how Tunisians aren't politically active or about the Egyptian secret police has a different ring than it did back then.

[Nikita Cat]

Dear MMY, & Slactiverse:

My name is Nikita, I'm a 13 yr. old Guy Cat, and Head Blogger of Meowsings, with Elvira Mistress of Felinity, my young protege.

Thank You, we are deeply honored to be mentioned in the same post with the Big 3, and will continue to do our best to deserve such mention.

I've been blogging since 2002, actually, and thanks to Mr. Drum, and Laurence Simon, the Cat Blogging Community began to come into it's own.

I learned I wasn't alone, in 2006, thanks to The Carnival of the Cats, and have been a frequent host ever since (I will be hosting this sunday evening, and invite Slactiverse readers to stop by!)

The Cat Blogging Community is a worldwide, and diverse, community, from ordinary cats who blog, humans who blog about their cats, activists for various causes such as anit-declawing, and feral cats, to veterinarians, shelter humans, and reputable breeders, and more.

The Critter Blogging Community is almost as varied as the residents of a zoo, and the subjects covered are just as varied.

There is even an annual BlogPaws Convention where members of this fraternity can meet, learn, and network, from, & with, each other, and industry insiders, and others.

Animals Online are so much more than cute, and funny, photos, and video, and contine to make their mark in the general conversation.

[MikeB]

Probably in some sort of reaction against Friday Cat Blogging, Bruce Schneier, the security guru, has Friday Squid Blogging (http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/09/friday_squid_bl_294.html). I guess not everybody likes cats, at least on Fridays on the Internet.

[kisekileia]

My favourite cute animal sites are The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee and Cute Overload.

The IBKC is created by a woman who fosters shelter kittens and takes ridiculously adorable photos of them. She gives them lovely elaborate names, and her own beautiful cat named Charlene Butterbean mothers them. The IBKC is full of heartwarming adorableness.

Cute Overload is just...cute, and generally also funny. It has adorable animals of many different species, usually with amusing captions.

[MaryKaye]

Back when I was on Usenet (can't find a workable spam-free feed anymore) I would occasionally drop in on the cat newsgroup, but they were frequently overrun with people who talked like the cat puppet on _Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood_. Like, I meow meow love my cute meow kitties meow. Between the meowers and people who were hair-triggered on flame wars (declawing, spaying, indoors versus outdoors) the group was not really functional.

I think things must have improved immensely when graphics became widespread. A cute cat picture is so much better than someone typing "meow" constantly.

Hadn't thought of that in years. Never figured out why that particular group went wrong in such an unusual way. The floating flame wars were pretty standard, but the meowers were something else.

[Mika the Mighty]

What isnt it about Internet and cats? Silly question. If have to ask, wouldn understand.

Pah. Need fish treat now.

[MercuryBlue]

*pets Mika*

[Coleslaw]

Pthalo, your cat drinks from her water bowl? Mine only does that in extreme circumstances, when he can't find a running faucet, a puddle, a glass someone (for "someone" read "husband") left lying around, a vase, or any other water source not his frequently cleaned and refilled bowl.

[Will Wildman]

The compulsion to blog about cats is curiously powerful. Here we see a blog that was originally about learning organic chemistry, but the blogger eventually gave up and decided to write about cats instead. (Some people might imagine that the discussions are a thinly-veiled attempt to teach organic chemistry concepts disguised as pictures of cats, but that is clearly absurd.)

[Kit Whitfield]

Here's an actual theory: what cats offer in a human-cat symbiosis is the experience of a practice baby. Not the nappy-changing and pram-pushing, of course, but you get to practice parental emotions on a cat. Their faces are big-eyed and small-nosed like babies, and their voices can be uncannily baby-like - I'm sure I'm not the only mother ever to get halfway across the room before realising that wasn't my baby waking from his nap, it was next door's cat yowling about something. Parenting being a strong impulse and baby-like things being kind of funny, the popularity of cats on the Internet probably, if eccentrically, comes out of the same place as the popularity of genealogy sites.

[EColeman]

@Laiima
The box-jumping cat would be Maru.
Every time I watch a Maru video, I glance at the six digit viewing numbers and marvel at this cat's existence as mini-celebrity. They're such nice, simple videos, with no outside distractions--no stupid music, no obvious evidence of Maru's owner's personality. With the exception of the latest box, there's no clutter in the clean, Japanese apartment. I don't know if the owner deliberately clears everything away, or if they really are that clean, but the effect is to have a perfectly clean stage for Maru, his very unique personality, and everything that makes you love cats.

My theory for why I personally look at cats is because they're a cheap anti-depressant/anti-anxiety pill. I've noticed my consumption has gone up dramatically over the past year, which has been a stressful one.

Which reminds me, I need to go check Good Morning Kitten

[MaryKaye]

Pthalo, you might want to check out that cat--sometimes yowling after using the litter box is a sign of a urinary tract infection or other medical problem. (On the other hand, sometimes it is just a strange cat.)

We have, I am embarrassed to admit, five cats. Three years ago we had one 17-year-old cat, and my son wanted kittens--the elderly one is too old and crotchety to be playful at all. We went to the shelter for two kittens, and ended up with a beautiful set of four gray kittens nicely displaying the Mendelian ratios for a cross of LlxLl for hair length. (Just couldn't bear to split them up!) I figured the 17 year old was not going to be with us much longer due to cancer and severe pancreatitis, so we separated her turf from the gray cats' turf and went on from there.

Fast-forward three years: now we have four adult gray cats and a twenty year old geriatric cat. She is too stubborn to die. She won't use the litterbox anymore, lives on my bed and almost never leaves it--including when she throws up--but she still nags me to comb her, and snuggles in at night. I will miss her when she goes, except for the litterbox part. This animal has been living with cancer for at *least* five years now. I don't know how she does it. Our current medical care for her is limited to thyroid-reducing eardrops--I can't imagine she would survive another surgery. I hope I look that good when I'm 98, which is my best estimate of her equivalent age.

When we got the gray cats, the shelter lady said, "Did you have previous cats?"

"Yes, three."

(suspiciously) "What happened to them?"

"One died of heart disease at 10; one died of kidney failure at 14; we still have the third one at 17."

"Oh!" (brief pause) "Okay, I don't have to quiz you on whether you can take care of cats."

Having five bugs me a little; I don't want to be Crazy Cat Lady. But otherwise they are a lot of fun. (Except for the litterbox. That is driving me crazy.)

[Lonespark]

Cats in sinks! Aw, now I really miss my kitty. She sure loved sinks.

[cjmr]

Right now we have bewildered cats because we just ripped up the carpet in their 'outdoor' room (the screen porch) because the recent weather made it completely sodden (again) and it started growing mold. They are shut in the house while we are working and can't go out to birdwatch.

[Invisible Neutrino]

The cat my roommate has is exceedingly mild-mannered. He uses the litter box exclusively, drinks ONLY from his water bowl or other water containers placed near it, and rarely throws up. Has not been declawed either.

(apparently the claws are roughly equivalent to the very tippy-bones of your fingers, or perhaps your fingernails. Either way, you wouldn't want someone taking THOSE off!)

[Kit Whitfield]

(apparently the claws are roughly equivalent to the very tippy-bones of your fingers, or perhaps your fingernails. Either way, you wouldn't want someone taking THOSE off!)

What I've heard is that it's more like foot-binding. Cats scratch to stretch out the muscles in their feet, legs and back; if they don't have claws, they can't get the purchase, and their joints stiffen up. Constant pain results.

Really, really don't declaw your cat.

[Mmy]

@cjmr: Right now we have bewildered cats because we just ripped up the carpet in their 'outdoor' room (the screen porch) because the recent weather made it completely sodden (again) and it started growing mold.

Back when our girls were still alive but definitely geriatric kitties we made the mistake of moving some furniture. The "neurotic one" (as we were wont to call her) found that worrisome and being a cat was unable to discuss it with us. The first we realized something was wrong was when she started bleeding (fun way to wake up in morning, find one of your cats on your duvet which is now red from the blood it has absorbed.)

Thousands of dollars later (with surgery, biopsies and experts called in) it turned out that a) she had a bleeding ulcer and b) her doctors advised us never, ever to move the furniture again.

[Laiima]

@EColeman, yes, it's Maru.

@Pthalo, OMG, that's horrible. I didn't know any of that (we don't have pets).

[Nev]

@lightning: That's a fascinating article, especially in light of the Arab Spring! I especially like the maxim "If there's no porn, it doesn't work, and if there's no activists, it doesn't work well".

I can't comprehend what would lead someone to declaw their cat just to save their furniture or avoid some scratches. It's like having a kid—you just accept that they'll wreck some of your stuff, or throw up on you. Not that I've never been tempted to turn my cat into a nice stole after she's peed outside the litterbox...(And before anyone asks, no medical issues, she's just neurotic.)

Me, I post cat pictures for my friends who are in school and living far away from their own cats.

[Mmy]

@Pthalo: About ulcers, though, they're caused by bacteria and can be treated with antibiotics

Apparently stress can act as a catalyst for a low-lying virus. We were afraid it was something horrible and death-dealing and all we had to do was give her the antibiotics (okay, that wasn't easy but it was definitely doable.)

She was a cat who lived on her nerves. We got her as a kitten but she had previously been mistreated and certain things just made her tense and worried. At one point she licked the fur and skin off the spot on her forearm where the IV had gone in when she had surgery.

[Literata]

Out of curiosity, would anyone be interested in a Crazy Cat Lady post about my experience with fostering a mother and litter, and what I learned from it? I've told parts of that story before (it's how Clumsy Cat came to live with me, and why she's clumsy) but I could put in more context, meaning, and of course, adorable kitten pictures. It could also be a PSA about cats with cerebellar hypoplasia, a little-known condition that sometimes results in cats being needlessly euthanized. If more potential adopters knew about it, that might help.

[Mmy]

@Literata I personally would love to read a Crazy Cat Lady post from you. Neither of our girls were healthy (both had "interesting" medical problems) and I love stories of people who don't give up on their cats.

[Brin]

Sounds good to me, Literata. Meaningful lessons, PSAs, and cat pictures? What's not to love?

Mom brought two cats into her marriage. They didn't die until I was eight, but I never had much relationship with them: the cats stayed downstairs and I usually stayed upstairs. I remember their deaths, but I was still young enough not to feel empathy for them or for Mom's grief. (Is eight later than usual to have not developed empathy yet? It seems like it ought to be on the old side, but I don't really have anyone to compare myself to. I'm curious.)

I don't generally seek out cute pictures, but I do enjoy them. Except baby humans. Once they get to around two or three, they're okay, but seeing them when they're very young make me feel like maternal instincts are trying to forcibly insert themselves into my mind. You'd think baby cats would provoke similar feelings of manipulation, but they don't.

[MercuryBlue]

Kitties!

[Literata]

I'll work on that, then. Maybe kittens can be like pie - a wonderful thing to share after a stressful thread.

[Laiima]

@Brin: from what I've read, around age 7 is when children start to grow out of their narcissism, and realize that other people are different than they are (and therefore have different wants and needs, etc., etc.). So I would say you sound like you were within the normal range of development.

@Literata: Would also enjoy hearing more about your Crazy Cat lady story or stories. :)

[Mmy]

@Pthalo: I didn't mean to belittle your reaction and the money spent or 'splain with my comment about ulcers -- just it seems to be a little-known fact -- most people haven't heard the news, I think.

No worries. It is one of those little known facts and one people should know. Our girl was a worrier (she had the kittykat version of OCD).

She was always nervous and the only place she felt really, really, really safe was in mmySpouse's lap. So for the last months of her life she slept in mmySpouse's lap. Which meant he slept sitting up with her favourite blanket over his lap.

[truth is life]

* I was twelve years old when this decision was made and did not have a say in the matter.

That sounds like what happened wrt our cat--my family had him declawed while I was "out" and not consulted (I could have been, but I suppose they didn't even think about me). Having been around here for a while, I had got an idea that it was bad, and would have objected if asked.

It's not like declawing will necessarily stop a sufficiently determined cat, either--we had one a long time ago who liked chewing things, such as electrical cables. Never managed to get herself electrocuted, but still.

[storiteller]

I'm not big on cats, as I'm hideously allergic to them. More than an hour in a house with cats without my meds and my eyes itch so badly that I feel like I want to tear them out. I start sneezing like crazy though. I'm much more of a dog person. I still miss my golden retriever sometimes, even though she died more than 10 years ago.

But I think I would have both understood and enjoyed organic chem much more if it had involved cute cat photos.

[chris the cynic]

I have no idea how it happened that I decided to run a search for it, but I did, and the porting the comments to new-Slacktivist means that they now show up in google searches. Which means that I can now get to this (Google's text only cache is easier to read than the page itself) which is home to this comment from Will:

ferrying him from place to place around the globe, carrying his water and holding his coat

I misread this at first as “holding his cat”, which made for a glorious mental image of the Antichrist roaming the world, nuking cities and massacring rebels, with Rayford always three feet behind him with a pile of fluffy indifference in his arms. “Have the refugees made their way into the subway? Good. Detonate the nerve gas tanks and release a statement to Le Monde about the latest attack by Christian terrorists. Someone get me four tonnes of sidewalk chalk; I’m going to write the Tetragrammaton on the Western Wall and then call in an air strike. Is Puffington hungry? Puffington wants skritches? Skritchyskritchyskritchy pppprrrrrrr. Step along, Rayford, I have to make a phone call to the former King of Jordan. I know you like to watch.”

And it seems much more appropriate to post that find here in this thread than where I originally posted it.

I am unnaturally happy with having located that.

[WingedBeast]

Cats are cute, energetic, can't talk, and have each a total personality. Essentially, they're like babies, only you'd feel creepy if you were staring at pictures of babies on the internet (especially if you don't have one yourself).