
For regular Wordless Wednesday, please scroll down.
To learn more about the Peace Globes and the Blog Blast for Peace, visit Mimi. (Yes, there are lots of Mimis here at CatSynth)

For regular Wordless Wednesday, please scroll down.
To learn more about the Peace Globes and the Blog Blast for Peace, visit Mimi. (Yes, there are lots of Mimis here at CatSynth)

Luna sits at the controls of the studio here at CatSynth HQ.
Please visit Andrée at meeyauw for more Cats on Tuesday.

Well, it's Sunday, and time for the 189th Carnival of the Cats. Luna is in one of her many favorite spots and ready to preside over the festivities. And so we shall begin…
First of we have a funny cat and dog video from Musings at Windyridge. What a patient dog…
Aloysius' friend Goldy enjoys some bird watching in Ohio at Catymology. “Oh, for a fine, fat pheasant of my own!”
We have come to expect great photography from our friends at The Poor Mouth on “Wordless Wednesday”. And they deliver with this elegant photo of Mimi.
Many of our friends celebrated Halloween this past week. We can still catch the Cat-O-Lanters over at Watermark. In fact, the have a second one, because you can't have too many Cat-O-Lanterns.
And what would Halloween be without costumes. Fortunately, the cats over at The Scratching Post have found a minimalist approach by going out as a rabbit.
Wanna see something Scary in the South? Head over to Blog d'Elisson. They also feature black cat Neighbor for Halloween. It's been great to see so many black cats this week.
Halloween is of course followed by dia de los muertos (day of the dead), and at Texas Oasis, we have dia de los muertos para los gatos, honoring beloved cats who have passed on this year. We at CatSynth offer our respects as well. They also share an excellent New York Times article about the love of our animal companions.
Puddy enjoys a not-so-grand adventure outdoors at A Byootaful Life. He doesn't make it much past the backyard. But that's further than Luna ventured when outside in her harness…
Boo says TGIF, or “Tuxie Goodness It's Friday.” Well, even though it's no longer Friday, it will come around again soon enough.
Meanwhile, might as well enjoy something comfortable, or “cumforbuls”, just like at Friday Cat Blogging Ladybug Edition at Lab Kat.
Nosey enjoys his perch atop a wooden board. There is also a closeup, where we can all see how handsome Nosey is.
Visit Bonnie and Victor to see “a one-time only affair, never to be repeated. Bonnie tolerating Victor? Never! She just wants her chair.”
Meanwhile, we have a great new video of Middle-Aged Cat Play from This, that and the other thing. Pounce! Good times.
Over at spectacular imperfections, we have a case of identical twins. How did they do that? Emily certainly wants to know.
Nothing says peace and contentment more than a kitty curled up in a lap, and have a wonderful example at AmbivaBlog. [perhaps it's appropriate that Luna jumped up on my lap as I wrote this].
Even indoor cats want to be mighty hunters, and thus Mycah has an encounter with a squirrel at TacJammer.
More cat videos this weekend, with Tabitha and Gizmo in action at Nancy's Crazy Adventures.
Perfectly Parker has Freaky Photos for Formerly Feral Friday. OK everyone, say that ten times fast!
At Pet Monologues, “a cat makes a brief, but critical, appearance.” Inspired by another COTC participant Watermark.
Especially in these days of high energy prices, we more cuddlin' to keep warm, and Grace and the Kittens show us how. And Audace demonstrates another source of renewable energy with his non-stop play.
Andrée of meeyauw treats us to Lectionary reading from the LOLCat Bible. This ons is for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Samantha and Tigger demonstrate classic classic cat-sleeping positions over at Life from a Cat's Perspective.
And speaking of classics, check out this photo of our friend Dragonheart.
At Mind of Mog, the cats are getting “legal” for their apartment, which means a trip to the vet for Ritzi. And although everything went well and Ritzi can return home, parting can be so bittersweet.
iMeowza declares “Me Handsome”. With photos like that, we at CatSynth cannot disagree. But meanwhile iInfidel says “look who's the dirty boy”. We'll leave that one alone…
“Fundamentally rendered insane by power”. The The Rangers have been sick, at StrangeRanger. We hope the get better soon. But meanwhile, Ivy demonstrates the proper response, lots of rest.
At the The Mad Macedonian, a cat reveals a secret. Co-blogger Nikita maintains a blog-within-a-blog called Nikitas Place, complete with its own blogroll and more. Interesting concept.
Next, we have this adorable photo of Missy Blue Eyes enjoying another gizzy quilt. The blue of her eyes and quilt are remarkable.
Missy also introduces us to a saturday trio. Extreme cuteness alert!
Rocky is having a yard sale over at Artsy Catsy. Check it out, though we at CatSynth need to avoid accumulating more stuff right now. Must resist.
In Israel, four members of a local cat colony enjoy a nice breakfast. You can see four handome gray and silver cats, arranged in quite a symmetric pattern.
At The Wide Awake Cafe, we meet a handsome black cat at a bed-and-breakfast. We are also reminded that “lfe sometimes requires one to take tedious journeys but if there is a cat at the end of the road, all is purrs.”
…and what a great sentiment with which to close this carnival!
We at CatSynth enjoyed hosting, but are quite exhausted from the experience.

Thanks to everyone who participated this week.
NOTE: The round-up will be posted sometime Sunday night (US Pacific time)

We at CatSynth are excited to be hosting this weekend's Carnival of the Cats!
We welcome all feline blog submissions for the Carnival. To participate, use the handy submission form, or contact us.


And don't forget this weekend's other cat events. Weekend Cat Blogging #126 is at Chey?s Place. The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is back home at the Bad Kitty Cats. And of course Friday Ark #163 has boarded at the modulator.
I was innocently listening to news headlines on Democracy Now this morning (if such a thing is actually possible), when I heard this:
In California, a judge has given the green light to a controversial pesticide spraying in Santa Cruz County. On Thursday, Superior Court judge Paul Burdick rejected the county?s restraining order because he said it could not prove the spraying would harm the public. The chemical, Checkmate LBAM-F, will be used to halt the light brown apple moth. Checkmate?s manufacturer, Oregan-based Suterra, has refused to release the ingredients of the pesticide and petitioned the courts to keep them secret. One hundred residents on the Monterry Peninsula reported respiratory illness after a similar chemical was sprayed there in September.
SPROING! What's up with that? Well, our local paper The Santa Cruz Sentinel confirms it:
A trio of state-owned planes will begin spraying a pesticide next week in Santa Cruz County to halt the spread of the light brown apple moth, an invasive pest the state says is capable of causing millions of dollars in crop damage if it is not stopped soon.
Aerial maps from the California Department of Agriculture confirm that Santa Cruz city and CatSynth HQ are probably in the spray zone, and that spraying will occur overnight starting Sunday November 4 through the following Friday (barring rain or other weather that will cause delays).
So OK, just stay indoors, keep our pets indoors, and don't eat anything off the trees for a couple of days, right? Unfortunately, I cannot find a specific advisory of any sort, just notice of the time and location of spraying. Indeed, the biggest problems here are that the health effects, and even the chemical composition of the pesticides, aren't publicly known:
Since similar spraying began on the Monterey Peninsula in September, residents have opposed the aerial spraying because nobody, not even scientists, knows what kind of health effects the pesticide, CheckMate LBAM-F, is capable of having on people…
Fortunately, Luna is an indoor cat. But what about open windows? And what about outdoor animals (strays, farm animals, wildlife)? Unlike some of the folks on the Sentinel's discussion board, we at CatSynth try not to get hysterical about such things, but we would like answers to a few rational questions. For me, it would simply be enough to have more information on health and safety. A simple advisory to stay indoors, and how to protect animals and children, would have been enough. And if there is no reason for such an advisory, say so, and back it up with some data.
Meanwhile, I guess we'll just take our best reasonable guess and stay inside…
and let's NOT crack open a window!
Time for another “CatSynth pic”, and so we turn to our friend Mimì from polynominal:

Here we see Mimì jealously guarding her SidStation from anyone who might dare to touch it (like me).
The SidStation is a full-function hardware synth based on the SID chip from the old Commodore 64/128 – people of my vintage are probably quite familiar with these systems. The SID was quite ahead of its time feature-wise, and now it is a great vintage concept.

Well, it's time for the big Halloween Weekend Cat Blogging Round-up. We're celebrating black cats this weekend (of course, we do that every weekend here at CatSynth). But we welcome all cats and cat-lovers for the Halloween festivities. Indeed, we open with a holiday graphic from our British-shorthair-tabby friends Kashim and Othello:
They also have a video this weekend. Check it out.
Across the Pacific (aka, the “other pond”) in Malaysia, we have a black kitten standing proudly among its ginger siblings at
Of course, no celebration of black cats would be complete without a visit to the House of Mostly Black Cats. This portrait of Boni Maroni (left) is certainly appropriate for today, but we also think it would be great for their Peace Globe, which they are preparing for the next Peace Globes blog event on November 7. We'll be there, too!
We also have black-cat laser eyes at Sleeping Mommy, along with Sara Blue, who was recently found and rescued. Sounds like she is adjusting to her new home. Just watch out for those laser eyes.
Sadly, homeless kitties abound, and at Very SEDAP!!! they are doing their best to help some wary homeless kittens in their neighborhood. More spooky laser eyes give way to a family of kittens learning to trust humans.
With so many homeless kittens and rescues this weekend, we think this is a good time to pause and think about all the pets and homeless animals affected by the wildfires in southern California this week. As things appear to be calming down, we continue to hope for the best.
Boo wishes everyone a Happy Halloween with his own festive graphics at Manx Mnews. A mixture of traditional Halloween black-and-orange, cats, and modernist texture (can't resist a moment to dip into art-critic mode). Nicely done.
Meanwhile, Upsie and sher get into the holiday spirit by featuring Sydney the Spider. Fine dining, spider-style, brings new meaning to the title What Did You Eat?.
And for our Halloween celebration of black cats, Stasia cedes the spotlight to Petee at Zazen in the Moonlight. Sounds like the little guy has had a tough life, but it sounds like he has a nice loving home now.
A beautiful black cat can be a princess. But over at Life from a Cat's Perspective, Samantha wishes her mom wasn't quite so literal about it. Don't worry, Halloween will be over soon enough…
Izzy may be exonerated, but it seems like trouble abounds at Mind of Mog. Seems like an episode tailor-made for the Bad Kitty Cat Festival.
Meanwhile, our friend Kitikata-san is dealing with some unwelcome scents in the form of CJ (right) and another “scardee cat.” And she didn't get to partake in the smoked chicken. Hope she gets some Halloween treats as consolation…
Over at A Byootiful Life, we find one of our favorite “Luna look-a-likes” Puddy is trying to get out. Hopefully getting to hang out with all your WCB friends and celebrating black kitties is reason enough for Puddy to stay inside with us.
Meanwhile, the cats at Rosa's Yummy Yums are looking bored, in a tragically hip sort of way. Now we look this way. Now we look that way. What else is there to life?
No…really…what else is there?
More black cats this weekend! Big black Kamikazee is ready for the holidays. He wishes everyone a Happy Halloween at I Got Two Shoes.
The folks at Music and Cats invite you to guess “what part of the (black) cat is this?”
Over at cuisine guylaine, we are treated to un petit tour dans le jardin! and more.
We at CatSynth join our fellow weekend cat bloggers in offering our thoughts to Miss Peach, who is seriously ill, and her family.
WCB Apocrypha. Andrée of Meeyauw has begun Sunday lectionary readings from the LOLCat Bible. Daisy has a Sunday comic reminding us not to judge others by their skin (or lack thereof). Megan at the Bad Kitty Cats Journal reflects on kitty cats, children, and memories after a difficult year.
Other Weekend Cat Events. Friday Ark #162 is at the modulator. The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is at Live from a Cat's Perspective with Samantha and Tigger. And Carnival of the Cats is going to Missy Blue Eyes' and KC's on Sunday. (And we're hosting the Carnival right here at CatSynth next Sunday).
Luna and I welcome everyone to Weekend Cat Blogging, Halloween Edition. We are happy to be hosting this event.

This is difficult time for cats, especially black cats. In North America (U.S. and Canada), some continue to view cats as “bad luck”, such as in this article, which fuels neglect and sometimes abuse which can spike around Halloween.
Many shelters continue to suspend adoptions of black cats around Halloween (sometimes for all of October). And while this is to protect them, it is unfortunate because black cats already have a harder time getting adopted.
So we at CatSynth want to celebrate black cats this weekend. Black is beautiful!

We invite all our feline friends to participate, but we want to especially welcome black cats. Households with multiple cats are encouraged to let their black siblings enjoy the spotlight this weekend.
To participate, regardless of fur color, please leave us a comment, or contact us. We will be posting the big round-up later this weekend.
And don't forget the other Weekend Cat Events ™. Friday Ark #162 is at the modulator. The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is at Live from a Cat's Perspective with Samantha and Tigger. And Carnival of the Cats is going to Missy Blue Eyes' and KC's on Sunday.