[CAT] Shakespeare, resting

[PHOTO] Scenes from the Toronto Christmas Market, Distillery District

[CAT] "For Leopards in Iran and Iraq, Land Mines Are a Surprising Refuge"

National Geographic's Peter Schwartzstein reports about the dwindling isolation of the Iran-Iraq frontier, often reinforced by landmines, that helped the Persian leopard survive in this border area.

Laced with land mines and roamed by packs of dedicated poachers, it's an environment seemingly calculated to imperil even the most fleet-footed animal. Yet this is the place the world's largest leopard calls home.

Once spread across the Caucasus region, Persian leopards now are relegated to this former war zone, along with a few isolated pockets of rural Iran. Here, hundreds of thousands of Iranian and Iraqi soldiers bludgeoned one another to death in some of the late 20th century's most brutal battles. Even today, border guards patrol the once fiercely contested high ground.
Map of Persian leopard range.

But through it all the leopard has endured, and oddly enough, the region's violent past has contributed to its survival. As part of the decade-long conflict, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his Iranian counterparts planted an estimated 20 million to 30 million land mines in the 1980s. Two decades after the last of the big minefields were laid, the explosives continue to maim and kill local residents.

But the mines also have become accidental protection for the leopards, discouraging poachers from entering certain areas.

And now interest in clearing the land mines throws into sharp relief the conflict between human and wildlife interests. Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdistan region is developing swiftly, and along with that comes hot pursuit of oil and gas deposits—many of which lie in leopard-heavy highlands—to fuel its likely bid for independence.

Conservation efforts have struggled to gain traction in large swaths of the Middle East. As in many developing regions, the welfare of the environment is a distant consideration amid economic peril and political flux. But the emergence of the Islamic State jihadist group, which now controls swathes of Syria and Iraq and which was recently camped on Iran's doorstep, has pushed the plight of the Persian leopard even further from local decision-makers' thoughts.

[CAT] "To Spur Adoptions, an Oakland Cafe Puts Cats Among the Patrons"

The New York Times' Carol Pogash describes a cat café in the California city of Oakland that also helps place cat in new homess.

The Cat Town Cafe & Adoption Center, which opened in late October and has arranged 52 cat adoptions so far, claims to be the first permanent cat cafe in the United States. Customers line up for locally brewed strong coffee, handmade bagels and “vegan fig nut pop tarts” (the proprietors clearly know their audience). When it is time to visit the cat zone, visitors push through glass doors to another world of lounging cats, all of them candidates for adoption. There are no cages.

Cat cafes are well established in Japan, where there are also owl cafes and penguin bars. There, customers are typically people who need their cat fix, because many apartment buildings in Japan do not allow cats; few cafes serve as adoption centers.

In the United States, there have been fitful efforts to establish similar businesses in various cities, but health department rules against keeping animals in the same place where food is served have gotten in the way. Demand, however, is fairly obvious: A pop-up cat cafe in New York City, open for only a few days this year, drew an almost comically long line of customers and high level of attention online.

So cat-loving entrepreneurs here have largely ditched the Japanese model in favor of a charitable one that separates the cats from the food and emphasizes adoption. Since Cat Town opened here in Oakland, cat cafes have sprung up in Denver and in Naples, Fla. On Monday, the first permanent cat cafe in Manhattan — Meow Parlour, at 46 Hester Street — opened, started by the owners of Macaron Parlour, a pair of Manhattan bakeries.

[CAT] "Who Killed Cat Fancy?"

New York Magazine's Abraham Riesman describes the fall of Cat Fancy magazine and its replacement by Catster. As he describes it, cats did not stop being popular. Rather, they were differently popular.

To understand the seismic shift in cat culture, you can start by picking apart Cat Fancy's name. It used to be much more than a whimsical reference to the enjoyment of felines. When the magazine launched in 1965, animal lovers were very familiar with something called "the cat fancy." The term referred to a connoisseurlike approach to cats: following professional cat shows, maintaining directories of cat breeders, and recognizing the importance of purebred bloodlines.

"Back then, the people who had all the knowledge tended to be the people who were showing cats, breeding cats, everything like that," said Melissa Kauffman, senior editorial director for I-5. Cat Fancy's innovation was to take that knowledge — and its attendant attitude toward cats — to a nationwide audience. "They did cover some of the topics that Cat Fancy covers today, but it was more about things like show information." There were long indexes of breeders, in-depth analyses of different breeds, and impassioned letters from opinionated cat owners (including, in one memorable instance, Ayn Rand).

However, Susan Logan is quick to say the magazine was not snobby. "From the very first [issue], the true scope included mixed-breed cats, feral felines, and even our domestic cats' wild cousins," she told me in an email. "Self-described as a magazine for 'anyone who fancies the cat,' Cat Fancy from its very first issue in 1965 defined that meaning as a voice devoted to the care, welfare, and adoration of all cats."

Nevertheless, readers of Cat Fancy in its early decades would likely be aghast at the shape of today's cat passions. Modern feline icons like Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub are mutts with genetic deformities. They wouldn't have made it past the front door at a Golden Age cat show. And their many public appearances are filled with fans who would disdain anyone who gets a cat from a breeder rather than a shelter.

[. . .]

Then there's the other massive trend in cat culture that Cat Fancy never totally caught up to: Nowadays, cat enthusiasm is all about laughter and delight. When the internet goes gaga for a piece of cat content, it's lighthearted, or about cats as an extension of our personalities and lifestyles. It's a video of a cat massaging another cat or falling into a fish tank. It's a list of GIFs of cats who "Cannot Even Handle It Right Now." It's an advice column about dating a fellow cat person (featuring, of course, lots of GIFs).

By contrast, Cat Fancy and its offshoot website, CatChannel.com (which will remain in operation), are more likely to publish useful-but-staid information about flea and tick products or details about Abyssinians. They have lists and photo essays, of course, but the overall tone remains calm and clinical, like words from a kind veterinarian.