Carnival of the Cats, 63rd Edition

Welcome to the 63rd edition of the Carnival of the Cats!

Come in, make yourself at home. But behave. Mister Gato has his eye on you.

We've done this before, so we won't go over all the rules again, but, briefly: actual Carnival entry links are in bold type.

(Extraneous links and parentheticals are just evidence of my borderline ADD.)

The Carnival mailbag is quite full this week, and some of it isn't even Japanese spam.

Please, I implore you... I am a monoglot (read: "American.") If you are going to spam me, kindly do so in my native language.

So without further ado... let's get to the Carnival!

Anne, over at moonpath, actually had to borrow some cats from a friend in order to participate, but don't worry, that's allowed. She brings us a couple of pictures of a giant furry grumpus who's almost as big as the ottoman he's sitting on, and a wild-eyed kitten who looks like he might be smokin' the crack. Welcome to the Carnival!

At The Tattered Coat, Matt's kitty Luna asks, "Papa, is that kibble for me?"

Brendan of The Irish Trojan sends us a shot of Sasha contemplating some potentially very fresh sushi, along with pix of Toby and Butter as well. And more: here's a nice picture of Froggy, and proof that there are plenty of blogging cats owned by catbloggers.

Drew at DrewVogel.com gives us an update on Mr. Face, a grievously injured kitty who is now thankfully on the mend.

Oscar, TJ's cat at zazzafooky, knows the best way to get attention: climb on the desk and sprawl all over whatever Mama's working on.

Elisson of Blog d'Elisson offers us three entries this week: one in which he documents the well-known love affair between cats and cardboard boxes, and another in which he activates the Wayback Machine and introduces us to Stripes, of blessed memory, circa 1985. Finally, here's a nice picture of thirteen pounds of cat in a size seven shoebox.

srp at Melange shows us Clover playing a game of hide and seek.

And sfp (I wonder if they're related?) at Pages Turned shows us Claudius's reaction to the news of the day. I couldn't agree more.

Ferdinand T. Cat at Conservative Cat offers some helpful instruction for all you kitties out there in developing a course of Basic Training for your humans.

The Robot Vegetable at Middle-Fork presents Sabaki Laps It Up... demonstrating, once again, that a cat's favorite beverage is Anything, As Long As It's In Your Glass.

Matt from Martinipundit has three guest kitties this week. From the looks of them, I'd say they're no more than three months old. Oh my God, the cuteness.

Julie at i-pets.com blog observes that you can't hide anything from a cat! And how.

Gir from Your Moosey Fate sends a picture sequence documenting Hi and Mischief actually companionably getting along, destroying any plausible deniability these "rivals" might have wanted to maintain.

The Lab Kat is featuring a picture of a very relaxed Coby sleeping in a highly improbable position. How do cats do this? I'd wake up all stiff and sore.

Chuq Yang at 7610 is breakin' out the catnip.

Alicia at The Venus and Mercury Cat Blog introduces us to Mercury, a cat with a rich inner life.

Tamara at Cybervassals presents Clyde the Cat, who is clearly a very Clyde Cat.

D.E.D., who blogs at DEDspace, shows what happens when cats do the laundry... before and after. And after the laundry is done, what could be better than relaxing in your condo?

Barb at annoying little twerp, in another laundry-related posting, reminds us to always check the dryer.

Trish at Trish Wilson's Blog offers us a picture of Lucky playing with a bit of string this week. (Lucky appears to adhere to the same philosophy as Mister Gato - "the world is my cat toy.")

Jazz Shaw from Running Scared is dealing with a little feline jealousy this week. This is Pepe's best "don't f*** with me" look; it scares Jazz a little, and it scares me, too.

Jazz's other cat, Colin, hasn't been feeling too well. Our thoughts and prayers are with y'all.

Storyteller at Scribblings checks in with Posing Problems, in which Amber proves a little camera-shy.

At The Blue Parrot, Doby the cat is contemplating life outside the window.

Loretta at Dust my Broom has some incredible photos of a pacifist cat utterly failing to eat a baby bird.

Sweetie, the shop steward wants a word with you. You're in danger of losing your union card.

Brian at Lunar Obverse is showing off some pictures of Smacky the Cat, including one that looks like it might have been taken on a night-vision setting. (That's a great idea. Mister Gato is decidedly nocturnal, and I love that groovy/spooky Silence of the Lambs look.)

Ogre at Ogre's Politics and Views gives us some cross-species feline/camelid action with Cat + Llama.

Okay, poetry break:

The one-l lama,
He's a priest.
The two-l llama,
He's a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn't any
Three-l lllama.
- Ogden Nash

Jessi at Enter the Faerie sends us some kitten blogging. I think my blood sugar just spiked.

Romeocat at CatHouse Chat documents a little friendly ear-chewing. I've it before, and I'll say it again: when a cat chews your ears, you know he likes you.

At Music and Cats (where Kimberly is hosting next week's Carnival!) we see lucky Lyra in her window seat, which she really doesn't want to share with Sergei.

Laurence, at This Blog Is Full of Crap, is horning in on the University of Phoenix's turf with Frisky University's new distance-learning programs.

Perhaps in response, lisaviolet from lisaviolet's diary offers to improve your kittycat's mind at Handsome's College of Street Smarts.

Sissy Willis of Sisu has a trio of posts for us this week. First, a nice picture of Baby on the terrace... and here, Tiny stops to smell the hostas (but doesn't think that they were Intelligently Designed.) And finally, just making it in under the wire... here are Baby and Tiny on homeland-defense duty, accompanied by a real groaner of a Ralph Waldo Emerson pun.

(You'll never find erudition like this in the mainstream media. When was the last time your hometown newspaper made an allusion to the Transcendentalist poets?)

frightwig at Sundappled Wood gives us an idea of what Saturday with Izzy is like. That's a happy, sleepy kitty right there.

Tom Hanna at Tom Rants discovers that he's only four (cat) degrees of separation from The Gipper.

Rahel, who blogs at Elms in the Yard, introduces us to Pinocchio. This artsy kitty apparently lives in a frame-and-poster shop.

The estimable Chap, of the Chapomatic blog, sends along a photo of the AcropoliCat... a well-fed stray who was making a nice living for himself as a mouser-in-the-ruins a few years back.

Tommy at Almost Average continues to innovate. He just posted the only work-safe image of a wet pussy that you're likely to find on the Web. (That's one peeved-looking cat, by the way.)

BJ from Quite Early One Morning shows us Molly's summer quarters. A comfy basket on a shady plant-lined patio... that's the feline equivalent of a house in the Hamptons right there.

At Mind of Mog, Friday catblogging means a picture of Bazel the hedonist, lolling on some overstuffed pillows on a comfy couch. In a sunbeam, natch.

El Capitan at Baboon Pirates performs a badly needed public service by conducting a cat treat taste-off. Our favorite swashbuckling primate really takes one for the team here: he tastes the treats himself.

Pipsqueak at The Common Room has been adopted by a stray cat who has just had kittens. Here's a nice picture of one of the newborn kittens curled up on the family dog's paw. A very small kitten and a very big dog!

Martin at EGO shows us a picture of Morris the outdoor cat, master of camouflage.

Last but certainly not least, Mira at The Oubliette sends along some meditations on feline beauty.

A final note - several catbloggers have hipped us to the fact that June is National Adopt A Shelter Cat Month. (A tip of the enrevanche chat-chapeau to Trish Wilson, B.J. and D.E.D.... and here's a great post at DEDspace in which D.E.D. debunks the myths of cat ownership for the benefit of the uninitiated.)

We can't get behind this idea fast enough or far enough -- our beloved Mister Gato is a shelter/rescue cat, and he's one of the most delightful animals we know. If you are a non-cat-owner who is living vicariously through all of this catblogging, and you're looking for a feline buddy to share your living space with, we can't recommend this avenue of adoption strongly enough: you're saving a cat's life and enhancing your own immeasurably at the same time.

Thanks for visiting! And thanks to Laurence Simon, organizer and administrator of the Carnival of the Cats, for letting us host again this week.

Be sure to mark your calendars for next Sunday, when the Carnival of the Cats moves to the delightful Music and Cats. Submitting your entries couldn't be easier: use Ferdinand T. Cat's excellent multi-Carnival online submission form.

(And don't forget the Friday Ark at The Modulator, always an excellent source of blog posts about furry quadrupeds as well as other members of the animal kingdom.)

Whew, Papa. I'm knackered.

Credits

Mister Gato eats only IAMS cat food (and occasional table scraps.)
Kibble, catnip and toys cheerfully delivered by Beasty Feast.

Additional research and not-strictly-necessary external linkage by the
Enrevanche Catblogging Support Outsourcing Centre in Bangalore, India.

No animals were harmed in the making of this blog entry.