Cats

Military Cats

Instead of a cat-and-synth picture on this Memorial Day, we thought we would lead with a cat-and-tank pic:

2210642_168219dbc8
[Photo by unclebumpy on Flickr. (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).]

On a serious note, cats have a long history of military service. Many military cats served on board ships as mascots or working cats (i.e., helping control rodents) or both. Pooli served on board a US attack transport during World War II.

Pooli, a US navy ship cat from World War II
[Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

There is also Pfc Hammer, an Iraqi kitten adopted by American soldiers. Hammer served with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division in Iraq and ultimately came to live in Denver with Staff Sgt. Rick Bousfield.

military cat Pfc Hammer with Staff Sgt Bousfield
[Image via US Department of Defense website.]

Pets are often left behind by soldiers who deploy to wars, including the current war in Afghanistan. There are organizations, like Pets for Patriots in Hawaii, that help find foster homes to care for military pets during deployment. Here we see a cat named Fancy getting ready to go to a foster home while her military humans are away.

The US Army - Pets of Patriots
[By The U.S. Army (Pets of Patriots) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]

Finally, we encourage readers to visit our article on the Presidio Pet Cemetery here in San Francisco. We visited the site last Memorial Day.

Presidio Pet Cemetary

The dismantling of Doyle Drive is occurring right over the site at the moment so it is closed, but we hope to visit again soon.

Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna: Reading the Paper

A typical weekend morning features coffee, the newspaper, and Luna. Here is what it often looks like from my perspective.

Luna looks for attention while the author reads the newspaper

Luna with New York Times (iPad)

I don’t think Luna cares in particular about Senators McCain and Rubio, but she does like attention, especially when I am nearby but not paying attention to her. (One could probably say the same thing about the politicians featured in the news.)

I have also grown quite accustomed to reading my newspaper on the iPad. A sign of the times.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at the Tuxedo Gang Hideout

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: The Cat Museum of San Francisco

Those who follow our Facebook page are often treated to pictures of noted individuals with cats on their birthdays, courtesy of the Cat Museum of San Francisco. (And if you don’t follow us on Facebook, this is one more reason that you should!) It turns out that the Cat Museum of San Francisco does exist in the real world as well as online. While they don’t have a permanent “museum” space, they do have pop-up exhibits from time to time. I had the opportunity to see one of these at Sunday Streets in the Mission back in April.

Cat Museum of San Francisco

The exhibit featured numerous cat-related prints in a variety of styles. It was veritable catnip for someone who loves both art and cats.

French poster with cats

photographic prints of cats

japanese ink drawings of cats

The Cat Museum of San Francisco “is dedicated to exploring the relationship between people and their feline friends.” According to their website:

We are a brand new 501(c)(3) non profit organization established in the Fall of 2010. Our goal is to create a facility here in San Francisco where we can collect, exhibit and interpret objects, related to the Cat.

Visit www.catmuseumsf.org for more information and online exhibits. We at CatSynth certainly hope this project continues to grow.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Lazy Cat?

For this week’s Photo Hunt theme of lazy, we have a photo of Luna napping in an extraordinary sun patch.

Luna being a Lazy Cat in the Sun.

While Luna may be able to enjoy a lazy time this weekend, I do not have that luxury. Both today and tomorrow are filled with band rehearsals – three rehearsals for two bands, including preparation for an album release next week – plus stops at an art exhibition and a cat video festival in Oakland tonight. Yes, a cat video festival. There are all of course rewarding experiences and I freely chose to commit to them, so I’m not complaining. But I do sometimes think there is wisdom in the path of the “lazy cat.”

I did hesitate to write this post because of the pejorative use of “lazy” to describe cats. It’s not uncommon to hear cats’ propensity for napping described this way, and I read frequent unfair comparisons to dogs. But domestic cats fill the roles they were bred for, and do so quite well. There are working cats, on farms, in wine cellars, and even at one of our neighborhood arts institutions, SOMArts. The role of the house cat is to provide companionship, an important social and emotional function. Luna does this spectacularly, as do many of the other cats I have met though blogs. And it not a role without risks, as companion animals are especially vulnerable to abuse (sadly, so are humans in domestic situations). So let us honor the “lazy cats” and maybe learn something from them about being in the moment.

The Saturday Photo Hunt is up. This week’s theme is lazy.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by the Florida Furkids.

And the Friday Ark is on hiatus this week, but will be back on May 17.