Fresh, sourced, three times a week

Cat news

Cat news, three times a week: studies, recalls, records and the stories worth your time, written from the primary source and fact-checked. Each piece opens a discussion on the forum.

A tabby kitten sitting on a windowsill indoors, looking out at the garden

Science · Sep 12, 2026

Owners Dreaded Bringing Their Cat Indoors. Two Thirds Said It Was Easier Than They Feared.

Eighty-seven owners who moved an outdoor cat to indoor living were asked how it went. Most expected a battle. Half the cats had settled within weeks, and half the owners had made no preparations at all.

By Nora 0 in the discussion

A hand resting on a relaxed ginger and white cat lying on a sofa, ears forward

Science · Sep 10, 2026

Researchers Read 1,100 Comments Under Videos of Cats Who Were Not Playing

Eleven videos captioned as play, all showing a cat that had run out of patience. Between 75 and 93 percent of the comments under each one were delighted. The study is really about how badly all of us read a cat.

Read

Two cats meeting nose to nose under a wooden table, each sniffing the other

Science · Sep 8, 2026

Your Cat Carries a Chemical Business Card, and It Is Made in the Kidneys

Cats leave a scent that says which cat left it, and it holds for at least a day. Japanese researchers have found where it comes from: fat droplets in the kidney that nobody could explain for over a century.

Read

A white cat wearing a collar walking along an urban street

Cat stories · Sep 6, 2026

She Went Out Through the Cat Flap. Five Months Later She Turned Up Fifteen Miles Away, in a Furniture Shop.

Cooper left a house in Gargrave in the spring. In August she walked into a shop in Keighley, fifteen miles across the Yorkshire hills. Nobody can explain the middle part.

Read

A small tabby kitten held gently in a pair of human hands

Cat stories · Sep 4, 2026

A Kitten Fell Ten Feet Down a Rusted Pipe. He Now Lives With the Dispatcher Who Took the Call.

A passerby heard crying in an abandoned field in Alameda. The kitten was ten feet down a metal pipe. Four people got him out and cleaned up, and then the story ended in the one place nobody plans for.

Read

Several cats lounging in and around a small wooden boat used as a planter, beside calm water

Cat stories · Sep 2, 2026

Police Boarded an Abandoned Sailboat. There Were No People, and Sixty Cats.

A welfare check off Owens Beach in Tacoma turned into a six-day operation on a forty-foot sailboat. No crew aboard, cats in every compartment, and a department that is still going back because cats hide.

Read

A ginger tabby cat eating dry food from a bowl on a stone surface

Health · Aug 31, 2026

One Lot of Frozen Cat Food Was Just Recalled. Here Is the Code to Check.

Northwest Naturals pulled 53 cases of its Frozen Chicken Recipe over possible salmonella and listeria. One lot code, one best-by date, and a bag you can check in about ten seconds.

Read

A tabby cat sitting low beside a parked car, the wheel and the underside of the vehicle filling the background

Cat stories · Aug 30, 2026

A Kitten Was Found Inside an Excavator. The Manufacturer Mailed Her a Hard Hat.

An Ohio crew found an orange kitten in the engine bay of their excavator, named her after the machine, and kept her. Then Komatsu heard about it and sent her a safety vest and a hard hat in her size.

Read

A young woman holding a black kitten against her chest, the kitten looking straight at the camera.

Science · Aug 28, 2026

Did You Know? Two Cats in Three Are Securely Attached to Their Person, the Same Share as Human Babies

In 2019 researchers at Oregon State University gave kittens and adult cats the test used on infants and dogs. About 65 percent came out securely attached. Cookie would like that number reconsidered.

Read

A ginger tabby lying on warm wooden boards in the sun, eyes closed to slits.

Science · Aug 28, 2026

Did You Know? The Slow Blink Is Real, Tested, and You Can Try It Tonight

In 2020 two experiments at the University of Sussex showed that cats blink back at a person who slow-blinks at them, and walk over more often afterward. Here is the game, and the science behind it.

Read

Close portrait of a black cat with bright green eyes against a dark background.

Cats in the world · Aug 28, 2026

Did You Know? In One US Shelter's Records, Black Cats Were Adopted Least and Euthanized Most

A 2020 study went through 7,983 cats admitted to an urban shelter in Kentucky. Coat color mattered less than the folklore says, except at the two ends: black cats fared worst, white cats best.

Read

Science · Aug 28, 2026

Did You Know? Your Cat Cannot Taste Sweet. The Gene for It Is Broken, and Has Been for Ages

A 2005 study found that the cat's sweet-taste receptor gene is a pseudogene: a 247-letter chunk missing and two stop signs in the middle. Tigers and cheetahs carry the same break.

Read

A calico cat on a wooden deck looking up with wide yellow-green eyes, as if it had just been called.

Science · Aug 28, 2026

Did You Know? Science Checked Whether Cats Know Their Names. They Do, and They Ignore You Anyway

A 2019 study in Scientific Reports played cats a series of words and then their own name. Household cats reacted to the name, even spoken by a stranger. Cookie has a statement.

Read

A grizzled senior tortoiseshell cat with a grey muzzle, eyes half closed, sitting in a garden.

Did you know? · Aug 28, 2026

Did You Know? The Oldest Cat on Record Lived to 38, in a House in Austin, Texas

Creme Puff was born in August 1967 and died in August 2005, three days past her 38th birthday. No cat has been documented living longer. Here is what the record actually says, and what it does not.

Read

A fluffy red-and-white Maine Coon kitten curled on someone's lap, one white front paw stretched out to show its extra toes.

Cat stories · Aug 28, 2026

Meet Erebus, the Wisconsin Kitten Who Just Set the World Record With 29 Toes

A Maine Coon kitten from Kaukauna, Wisconsin, has more toes than any cat ever measured: 29, one more than a record that had stood since 2002. Cookie has opinions.

Read