📨 $50,000 Cat Clones, Orange Cat Theory & The Mystery of Cat Meows

😺 UNDERSTANDING YOUR CAT
Cat’s meows are so misunderstood

Have a cute kitty at home that keeps meowing? Well, you're not alone in scratching your head over your kitties mixed signals. A recent study from France, published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science, lets us now why our understanding of cats is pretty low:

• Misreading the Meow: Turns out, a lot of us (nearly one-third, to be precise) can't tell when our cats are having a bad day. On the flip side, we're slightly better at recognizing a happy cat, with only about 10% of us getting it wrong.

• Beyond the Meow: The study shines a light on how we often get confused understanding our cats' vocal cues, like meows, purrs, and hisses. But here's a pro tip: don't just listen, look. Paying attention to both what your cat says and how they act (think tail swishes and ear twitches) can give you a better clue about their mood.

• The Cat's Out of the Bag: Drawing from 630 cat enthusiasts who watched a bunch of cat videos (for science, of course), the research confirmed what many of us suspected: cats are complex creatures. Their tails alone can tell tales of joy, curiosity or the need for some alone time.

🚀 BEHAVIORAL BREAKTHROUGHS
Is “Orange Cat Behavior” actually a thing?

Ever noticed how ginger cats seem to have their own fan club online? Well, scientists have actually looked into whether their coat color affects their behavior. Spoiler: It's complicated, lets take a look 👇

Let's break it down: that eye-catching orange coat on your favorite feline friend? It's all thanks to a gene on the X chromosome, which explains why most orange cats strut around as males. Those female orange cats you see are a bit of a genetic jackpot, needing two copies of the orange gene to flaunt their vibrant coats. Despite what the internet memes might have you believe, there's no concrete evidence linking coat color to personality quirks in cats. But let's be honest, our human brains love making connections, even where none exist, leading us to dub orange cats as the party animals of the cat world, influenced no doubt by famous felines like Garfield and Morris. At the end of the day, whether a cat ends up a confident charmer or a shy shadow has more to do with genetics and the care they receive early on, rather than the color of their fur.

🔎 PURRSONAL STORIES
Woman pays $50,000 for TWO clones of her dead cat

Losing a beloved pet can hit hard, so much so that a woman from British Columbia shelled out a cool $50,000 to clone her cherished ragdoll cat, Bear, not once but twice, resulting in Bear Bear and Honey Bear—literal genetic copies.

This remarkable feat was achieved through somatic cell cloning, where Bear's DNA kickstarted a new life in a surrogate mom, leading to kittens with Bear's exact genetic makeup but none of the surrogate's. It's a tale of love, loss, and the lengths we go to keep our furry friends by our side, but how does this story unfold, and what does it say about the future of pet companionship? Read more...