Quote de jour

"Cats are eternally elegant."

Cat of the Week

Our focus is on black and white cats A.K.A. tuxedo cat this week. This smart and sassy tuxedo kitty is Natasha. She is a young adult and loves to frolic in the leafy suburb of Cortland, N.Y.

Cat Art of the Week... in our continuing series. Is it just me, or does this page have most bizarre use of grammar?

News & Mews...

It rained last night and the moist ground provided Merlin with an extra juicy scent fest. He sniffed and pawed at the ground like a truffle hound in Tuscany. I wonder if cats can be trained to hunt for truffles? Merlin opened his mouth as lions and other big cats do, catching the whiff in the wind and stared round-eyed at me afterward. Was I not supposed to spy on him?

Domino is less interested in hunting since his stray days are over. We're fattening him up to better survive winter outdoors. He made a few lame attempts to chase a squirrel who dropped a chestnut on him. This is a favorite 'camouflage' spot by the cedar hedge.

The violent winds unleashed a torrent of twigs and branches. Merlin seemed genuinely perplexed by their sudden appearance. He is never at a loss for words...

Personality of the tuxedo cat

Not only are tuxedo cats elegant, but black and white kitties are considered to be very smart, perhaps more so than other cats.  Tuxedo cats are easy going, very affectionate and doting companions. They tend to be more vocal than cats from other breeds(except of course the Siamese, which I'm unfortunately too familiar with.)

Famous tuxedos

Black & white kitties seem to be very popular. They appear in literature,films, TV and one even lived in the White House. Here’s a list of famous tuxedos:

•  Asgerd- The first cat to arrive in America on a Viking ship.

• Socks –  President Clinton’s world famous cat. He was born in March,1991, and died in February, 2009 at the ripe old age of twenty.
• Sylvester the Cat – This cartoon cat, of Looney Tunes fame, became famous for his lisp and his peculiar expression “Suffering Succotash”.
• Felix the Cat – Felix is the king of cartoon cats.
• Mr. Mistoffelees – One of the felines in T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and featured in Cats! the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on the T.S. Eliot book. Mr. Mistoffelees (a humorous variation on devilish Mephistopheles) is depicted as a magician in Cats.
• Oreo - Oreo C. Collins, a 2-year-old tuxedo cat from Macon, Georgia earned a high school diploma in August 2009. Kelvin Collins, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Central Georgia who rescued Oreo from a ditch when she was a kitten and helped her with the exam. He claimed, "She is a real smart cat." Granted, this was a ruse by The Better Business Bureau to expose Internet diploma mills.  But, we cat lovers know there are some truly smart kitties despite the barrage of LOL cats butchering the English language and their inane hunkering for "cheezburgers."  Youtube is littered with piano-playing and talking cats. Many cats tweet and twitter, have their own websites and Facebook profiles. Is there a secret kitty revolution underfoot? Today Facebook, tomorrow the world? 
  
• Think you might want a tuxedo kitty of your own?The best way to find a Tuxedo is to go to Petfinders.com, search your zip code for a shelter nearest you, look under their cat breed heading for 'tuxedo' and be ready to fall in love. I looked at listings near me and found the most stunning tuxes at our
• Link of the Week
  
  http://www.elmsfordanimalshelter.com
• Thinking of adopting a Tuxedo and need some ideas for names? How about Fred Astaire, Broadway, Checkers, Coco Chanel, James Bond, Jazzy, B&W, Oreo, Panda, Penguin, Salt 'n pepper, Tuxie, Yin Yang, Zebra.
• Until next time, no matter what the color, love a cat!