The Daily Cat

"In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him."
--Dereke Bruce

Donald Trump scratching post

One of the really nice things about cats is that they're completely apolitical. Your cats will never call you a sore loser or tell you to "just get over it." But despite their total indifference to human politics, most would love nothing more than taking a few well-placed jabs at our new president, especially if he was covered in sisal rope rubbed with catnip.

Not that Politikats has it in for Donald Trump. Just about any politician is fair game when the online company is designing scratching posts. The Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin posts are sold out. But Hillary Clinton posts may still be available if seeing your cat tear her to shreds would do your heart good.

The scratching posts are 26 inches tall on a stable 26-inch wide base and are made of recyclable ABS plastic wrapped in sisal. The politicians' heads are resin-based and hand painted with lead-free paint.

Sounds like fun for the cats. And if you can't stand the thought of seeing your least-favorite politician in your living room, you could always turn the post so s/he is facing the wall.

"I love cats because I love my home and after a while they become its visible soul."
-- Jean Cocteau

© Eric Isselée - Fotolia.com

It's been less than three years since veterinar- ians Julie Levy and Kate Hurley sent out the challenge to North American shelters: Can we save a million cats in five years?

So far, it looks like the answer is "Yes!"

Levy is director of Maddie's Shelter Medicine program at the University of Florida, and Hurley heads the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program. Since they started the Million Cat Challenge, more than 750,000 lives have been saved, and more than 1,100 shelters in the US and Canada have signed on to help reach that million cat goal.

Soon the number of participating shelters could get a boost from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Earlier this month, the huge nonprofit announced a partnership with the Challenge that will, among other things, bring more attention to the plight of shelter cats. ASPCA statistics show that cats are less likely than dogs to get out of shelters alive.