I always say that I have a mental cat-map of all the stores in my neighborhood that have cats. So, I decided to take my mental map for a particularly fertile (cat-wise, at least) stretch of the area and make it into… an actual cat-map.

If you know of any other local stores in NYC that have cats, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll expand the map or possibly map other neighborhoods… or you can make your own cat-map of your favorite local haunts that have feline friends to greet their customers!

As the article says, “A bookstore cat is a shop’s mascot and keeper, equally adept at charming customers and, when the lights go out, chasing away rodents. And so let us celebrate these furry souls – hopefully not an endangered species! – as more and more readers get their books delivered in shrink-wrapped packages from out-of-state corporate behemoths, or transmitted, in blips, to hand-held devices no cat would ever want to cuddle up to.”

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We recently began packing up some boxes in anticipation of moving to a new apartment  soon – and as you can see from this photo, Charley is very excited that we’ve made him a pile of boxes to scale (the last time we moved, he managed to find a path, via boxes, to the top of a very high bookshelf where he happily perched all the time). He loves to be as high up as possible. He’s taken to napping on that box and generally perching and hanging out there. I would really love to have some kind of cat ladder for Charley-cat in our new place, but it would have to be relatively unobtrusive; also, since Charley is on the large side and his brother is enormous (although not as much of a climber and not as likely to actually use the cat ladder), I’m concerned about durability. Also, I don’t want to spend a fortune. Does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions for building or buying some kind of cat ladder? I seem to recall seeing somewhere a few years back instructions for making cat wall perches out of cardboard but I can’t quite recall where I saw it (Readymade or Make magazine, maybe? Could be a great way to recycle all those cardboard boxes after moving!)*

My husband, by the way, says of my obsession with feline furniture: “On the amused-frightened continuum, I am beginning to tip toward the latter.” He doesn’t really mean it, though… I think.**

*Update: The article I was thinking of was from Craft magazine, and I found an archive online. However, now I remember why I never attempted this – it requires a lot of tools that I don’t have.

**Update #2: the husband swears he was not referring towards being frightened of my love for feline furniture, but rather in reaction to some of the items found on this website full of ideas on how to turn IKEA furniture into cat furniture.

I just love this photo of Jeff (man) and Nick (cat). Jeff’s wife, Deb, describes Nick as Jeff’s “very best friend of twelve years.” She says, “From the day we went to the animal shelter and the staff opened the door to reveal the cages, it was love at first sight. Nick was a year-and-a-half old, and he and Jeff locked eyes, while the rest of us could practically hear the violins fill the air. Since then, they’ve been inseparable.” What a great pair! They remind me of my own household, where we also have a tuxedo cat and a man who are inseparable!

From Jezebel comes adorable photos and a warming tale about marines and cats from Afghanistan:

“Brian Chambers, Chris Berry and Aaron Shaw have adopted kittens they found while on duty – and sent them back to the States to wait for them with the marines’ families. Says Chambers, ‘At only 3 weeks old, their mother had disappeared and they were left alone to live rough and fend for themselves like the other cats in this area. We looked after them both and they lived in a box in the office, after a week they were allowed to roam around during the day and sleep with us in the hooch at night.’ “

Go to Jezebel and Unique Scoop for the full story & more insanely adorable pics…

So, Menandcats.com gives this film two paws up for 1.) being very funny and highly entertaining and 2.) featuring several famous men who love cats!

I recently came across these hoodies for cats and my first thought was, Awww, how cute! Immediately followed by, there is no way my cats would EVER wear one of those. I’ve also seen cat neckties for sale on Etsy and other places, and while I love the idea of putting a necktie on my cat for some odd reason, in reality I’d never do it. My cats don’t like to wear anything – not even collars (they are strictly indoor cats and there is no way they could get outside without going through a hallway, an elevator or several doors and several flights of stairs, a lobby, and two doors before getting outside), but back when they were younguns and I tried to put collars on them, they would get out of every single one like little feline Houdinis.