The idea of making something out of a cat probably sounds weird because cats are pets and not some random nonliving item that can be easily exploited. Well! That does not apply to everyone. Some people consider cats as just another tool to achieve their goals—ethics be damned.

Although Americans do a good job of keeping our furry friends as pets, others elsewhere think that these animals are just another source of protein. Cats have also been used to make all sorts of unconventional and unbelievable things, including telephones, drones, pianos, and even spy gadgets.

10 A Telephone

In 1929, Professor Ernest Glen Wever and Charles William Bray, two Princeton University scientists, made a telephone out of a cat.

Wever and Bray rendered the cat unconscious with sedatives before opening its skull to reach the auditory nerve. They attached one end of a telephone wire to the nerve and the other end of the wire to a telephone receiver 15 meters (50 ft) away. Then Bray started to talk into the cat’s ears while Wever listened at the telephone receiver.

The two men were more interested in experimenting with the auditory nerve than creating a practical telephone out of a cat. Before the experiment, scientists thought that the sound of voices increased in frequency when they hit the auditory nerve. However, the experiment revealed that voices remained at the same frequency as they collided with the nerve.^[1]

Wever and Bray also discovered that the cat telephone did not work when they put one end of the wire in other tissues and nerves apart from the auditory nerve. The telephone also malfunctioned when they stopped blood flow to the cat’s head, even though the wire was connected to the auditory nerve. The experiment was crucial in the creation of cochlear implants for deaf people.

9 A Piano

The katzenklavier (“cat organ”) is a piano like no other. It is made from real cats. Athanasius Kircher gave details about making one in his 1650 music book, Musurgia Universalis.

Kircher wrote that the piano required several cats that made meow sounds of different pitches. The cats were put in small cages at one end of the piano. Their tails were connected to some mechanism that delivered a spike into the tail of a cat whenever the player pressed a corresponding button.

The pain of the spike caused the cat to meow. The player composed music by pressing different buttons to make different felines meow. Kircher added that the meows got louder with subsequent presses as the cats became determined to escape from the piano.^[2]

Although there is no evidence that someone ever made a cat organ using details from Kircher’s book, there are claims that one was played as King Phillip II rode into Brussels sometime in the 16th century—a full century before Kircher proposed his piano. Historian Juan Calvete de Estrella wrote that the piano was played by a bear on a chariot.

8 A Drone

Drones have been taking over our skies lately. Maybe that was why Bart Jansen decided to make one out of his cat after it was hit by a car in 2012. Jansen was so distraught by the death of his cat, Orville, that he wanted a way to immortalize his pet.

Jansen decided to turn Orville into a drone because the animal had shared a name with Orville Wright, one of the two inventors of the first successful airplane. Jansen worked with engineer Arjen Beltman, who managed the electrical and mechanical parts of the project.

The result was a remote-controlled quadcopter drone he called the Orvillecopter. It resembled a regular quadcopter with the skin of Orville spread over it.^[3]

Jansen and Arjen later went on to fashion quadcopter drones out of a rat and an ostrich. They also added a jet engine to a dead shark and made a submarine out of a badger. The duo is currently trying to build a quadcopter that could fit a man. It would be made from a cow.

7 A Purse

In 2016, New Zealand taxidermist Claire Third made the news after putting a purse she had fashioned from a dead cat up for auction. The purse included the head and skin of the dead feline in case you are wondering.

Third found the cat by the roadside where it had been squashed to death by a passing vehicle. She took it home and made it into a purse that she put up for auction at NZ$1,400. The auction generated mixed reactions. Some liked the product, while others accused her of making money off a dead cat.^[4]

Someone suggested that she leave the cat alone. Another asked if she thought it would be okay if someone shot and stuffed her. Others just made jokes. One asked, “Who let the cat out the bag, or is it inside out?” Third reduced her asking price to NZ$1 but sold the purse for NZ$545.

6 Food

Americans might become disgusted at the thought of eating a cat, but in Vietnam, these animals are just another source of meat. Vietnamese cat meat lovers call them “little tigers.” They are sold at restaurants where consumers eat them with beer.

Little tigers are sometimes prepared in inhumane conditions. Restaurants drown the cats in water before shaving their skin and burning them to remove leftover fur. Then the restaurant workers cut the animals into bits and fry them.

The Vietnamese continue to eat cats even though a government ban restricts restaurants from killing and selling cats over concerns that the rat population could explode. The Vietnamese consume so many little tigers that there is a shortage of cats to make the delicacy. These days, thieves prowl the streets to steal cats to sell to restaurants. Vendors also smuggle the cats from nearby Thailand and Laos.

Interestingly, the Vietnamese do not have a history of eating cats. They only started consuming cats, rats, and dogs after suffering a series of devastating wars and famines in the 20th century. While the nation is much more stable today, people have just become used to eating cats and it will take more than a government ban to stop them.^[5]

5 A Spy Gadget

Operation Acoustic Kitty was the CIA’s elaborate attempt to make a spy gadget out of a cat. The idea was to rig cats with audio surveillance systems and have them play around foreign agents in the hopes that the animals would pick up one or two secrets.

The project started with a single cat called Acoustic Kitty. It underwent surgery to have a microphone installed in its ear and a radio transmitter placed at the base of its skull. An antenna was also installed under its fur.

Agents took the cat to a park where they tested it around two random men sitting on a bench. The cat did not walk toward the men. Instead, it sauntered right into the middle of the street where a taxi ran over it. The CIA later released a memo saying that cats do not make good trainees.^[6]

4 Defensive Weapons

Cats clearly do not make good shields because they are just too small and always wander off in the opposite direction of wherever they are needed. However, they can become valuable defensive weapons when used against the beliefs of an enemy, just as the Persians did in the 525 BC Battle of Pelusium against Egypt.

Egypt and the Persian-ruled Achaemenid Empire went to war after Pharaoh Amasis II delivered another woman in place of his daughter to Achaemenid emperor Cambyses II for marriage. The pharaoh refused to give away his daughter over concerns that Emperor Cambyses II would turn her into a concubine instead of a wife.

Amasis was dead by the time the Persian army reached his border. His son Psametik III (or Psammenitus) was pharaoh. The Persians arrived with lots of cats, which they knew that the Egyptians revered and would never kill. The Egyptians were unable to deploy their arrows against the Persians over concerns that they would hurt the cats.

Other accounts say that the Persians did not use live cats but drew images of a cat-headed goddess called Bastet on their shields. Whichever was true, all sources agree that the Egyptian army was heavily defeated. There were so many casualties that the ancient Greek historian Herodotus still found remnants of dead soldiers when he visited the battlefield 75 years later.^[7]

3 Offensive Weapons

In 1584, someone in Germany published a manuscript, Feuer Buech, detailing the creation of some siege weapons. It included an incendiary weapon made from burning pigeons and cats.

The unidentified author suggested that armies stole cats that lived around castles or city walls they planned to attack. During the attack, the army would strap explosive-filled bags to the backs of the cats and set them on fire. The cats instinctively fled back home to hide, burning whatever stood in their way.^[8]

There is no evidence that the German military ever produced or used that sort of weapon. However, there are accounts that burning cats were used as weapons as early as the third century BC. There are also claims that the infamous Mongol ruler, Genghis Khan, used them during his bloody campaigns.

2 Black Diamonds

Losing a pet can be painful. However, some people are turning their animals into diamonds to remain with their beloved pets forever. Human and animals can be turned into diamonds because our bodies contain substantial amounts of carbon. Diamonds are also made of carbon.

Pets and humans often end up as white diamonds. However, one business managed to create a black diamond from a cat called Sooty.

In 2008, the BBC reported that one Sue Rogers had turned her dead cat into a one-third carat black diamond. The gem was the only black diamond ever made from ashes at the time. The manufacturer, LifeGem, made the diamond using two grams of carbon from the cremated remains of the dead cat.^[9]

They first made the diamond using the regular method. That is, they exposed the ashes to a very high temperature and pressure for two weeks. The resultant diamond was white and only turned black after it was exposed to electrons for a day.

1 Drug Mules

Incarcerated criminals in Russia and Brazil have been turning cats into unwilling smugglers. In 2015, officials arrested a cat outside the Presidio Regional Romero Nobrega prison in Patos, Brazil, after a failed smuggling attempt.

Officials discovered the smugglers had used gauze, plaster, and masking tape to strap mobile phones, chargers, and SIM cards to the cat’s body before covering it with fake fur. Prison officials discovered the plot after spotting plaster on the body of the cat. Later, they said that they would check every cat entering and leaving the prison from then on.

In another incident, two people were arrested after a cat tried smuggling hashish and amphetamines into a Russian prison in 2018. Police said that the cat had lived in the prison until one of the inmates took it home after his release. The suspects had brought the cat near the prison at the time they were arrested.^[10]

Cats are beautiful and dangerous. Tourists who want to experience the real-life dramas that come with these apex predators often consider going on safaris or visiting parks in Africa or Eurasia.

But if those tourists are from the Americas, they could see similar things at home. The New World’s large and small cats may not have the global fame of lions, tigers, and cheetahs, but their way of life is much the same. Ordinary people have witnessed some amazing events associated with wild American cats, while professionals have inched even closer.

10 Episodes That Were Banned From Television [Videos—Seizure Warning]

10 Mary’s Peak Encounter

One day, this person was just visiting the scenic wilderness of Mary’s Peak near Corvallis, Oregon, when this happened.^[1]

Seeing a large cat make a kill right in front of you is something that you would only expect to experience in places like the Serengeti, not a few miles from home!

Lesson learned: Always keep your phone charged, and have extra batteries on hand!

9 Mountain Lion In Heat

Here is a professional guide who is awed by the sounds echoing through the woods around him.

What would you do if you heard something like that? (Probably not turn to the camera and whisper “mountain lion in heat.”) Mountain lions (aka cougars or pumas) are included as “Least Concern” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

However, these are not the only terrifying sounds made by wild cats in the Americas.^[2]

8 Lynx Males Screaming At Each Other In Tree

Even without the suggested earphones, this is jarring.

These blood-chilling screams are a good way for the males to compete for a she-cat’s favors without risking harm in a physical fight. Although the males tangled a bit, each one survived the encounter. Of course, both had been at risk of falling.

The question is: What was the winning move? Not position. The cat on top lost the battle.

Did the other lynx have a louder yell? More teeth bared? Fancier footwork on the branches? We’ll never know.

Fortunately, outside of mating season, Canada lynxes are a little more approachable.^[3]

7 Lynx And Cameraman Have Working Relationship

It’s difficult to say which one is more hardcore here—the cameraman who kept at it through Canadian snow for almost 80 days or Mad Max, the lynx.

This time, it’s a win-win situation for cat and man. Mad Max got his meal. The cameraman took some unique footage and enjoyed the best day of his life.

Canada lynxes are also on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as “Least Concern.” Together with the bobcat, they belong to one of the few intercontinental feline lineages. Their Old World relatives are the Iberian lynx and the Eurasian lynx.^[4]

6 Jaguarundi And Monkey

This common, small, Latin American wild cat is one of the least-known cats to residents of North America.

In this video, it’s not an otter going up the tree. That’s the jaguarundi. (Actually, it appears that a tayra has “weaseled” its way into the video. But we’re going to talk about jaguarundis anyway.)

Jaguarundis are built long and low to the ground with a very long tail. (Despite the name, they’re more closely related to mountain lions than to jaguars.)

You might want to take off the earphones for this video. It is a little horrifying—partly because it’s a kill but more because of the hapless victim’s screams and the predator’s harsh yowls. Also, this killer cat does not care that humans are nearby.

Jaguarundis, red-listed as “Least Concern,” usually hunt on the ground, which is another reason why this video would be special if that little sucker actually was a jaguarundi.^[5]

10 Mysterious Urban Legends Based on Video Footage

5 Jaguars vs. Otters

Jaguars are the only big cat that’s native to the Americas. At one time, they inhabited parts of what is now the United States, but today, they only live wild in Latin America.

Jaguars are excellent swimmers, but these two don’t want to go into the water!

What makes this especially hardcore (and hilarious) is that the jaguars are being laughed at by Panthera personnel.

By the way, those giant otters are endangered.^[6] This was probably just a learning experience for the young cats. No one laughs at a hungry adult jaguar.

4 Jaguar And Caiman

Jaguars are powerfully built and have massive jaw muscles. They can eat almost anything they want, including cattle. But in many parts of South America, caimans—relatives of the crocodile—are the favorite food of jaguars.

As we see in this video, the jaguar is good at sneaking up on a careless caiman that ventures a little too close to shore.

Jaguars have “Near Threatened” status on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, though they are rarer in some parts of their range. Caimans are considered “Unspecified.”^[7]

3 Andean Mountain Cat On The Prowl

At first glance, this is just a small, fuzzy-looking cat. However, two facts make this video especially impressive.

First, as this is the Andes above the tree line, many of those rocky surfaces are nearly vertical—and this doesn’t seem to faze the cat. It carries on its restless search for food at a steady pace regardless of the slope.

Second, it is a huge achievement that they are now getting videos like this. Until recently (when digital cameras became a thing), no one could be sure whether the rare Andean cat was still around or had gone extinct. Only native people reported seeing it.

Andean cats are “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Experts aren’t sure where this mysterious little species fits into the cat family. For many decades, conservationists could only study a few pelts and some stuffed specimens. Thanks to modern technology and field evidence like this video, our understanding of Andean cats is improving.^[8]

2 Oncilla On The Prowl

What’s so hardcore about this camera trap video?

First, the oncilla (aka the northern tiger cat) is red-listed as “Vulnerable.” That means it’s at high risk of extinction.

Next, the pointy-nosed, feisty critter taken down by the oncilla is either a grison (Latin America’s version of the wolverine) or a coati (a species that snacks upon rattlesnakes, among other things).

They are both hard fighters, though only one looks like a pretty little house cat.

Finally, after murdering a rodent for dessert, the oncilla goes right back into adorable mode. Then it wanders off into the night to commit more mayhem, and we can only go, “Aww, how cute!”

Do not show this video to any friends who are already convinced that cats are all psychopaths.^[9]

1Mountain Lion Raising A Family

You can’t get much more hardcore than this.

Other than lions, most cats are solitary and just get together briefly during breeding season. Females then do the rest, bearing the young and feeding and guarding them for months to years.

During this time, Mom must do her regular hunting as well as catch more food to feed her family. Typically, the male doesn’t help her and is often a threat to the cubs.

The encounter with the cub’s father is just one of the awesome things about this video.

The young male’s eventual fate is sad. Over the long run, though, this tendency for male cats to disperse has helped mountain lions spread throughout the Americas.

It’s always a risk to set off on your own, but it has paid off. Today, as a species, mountain lions range through more latitude than any other mammal in the Americas.^[10]

10 Heartwarming Stories Of Pets Who Survived Natural Disasters (Videos)

Cats may hold the top position in our hearts, but some of them also hold very real job titles. Dogs may be more accommodating to their bosses (and owners), but cats have nonetheless received stellar performance reviews throughout the centuries.

The famous feline attitude simply indicates that they do it for the love of the job, not for treats or recognition. Here are 10 cats that have performed important, unusual, or adorable jobs.

10 Unbelievable Things We Have Made Out Of Cats

10 Chief Mouser To The Cabinet Office

Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office is a very prestigious position at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of Britain’s Prime Minister. The Chief Mouser title is currently held by Larry, who was recruited from the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home for his mousing resume. He even has an entry on the official British government website.^[1]

The position began during the reign of Henry VIII, but records only exist from 1929 onward. Occasionally, the office has been empty for long periods of time when mice have wisely not caused trouble. The cat that held the title the longest was Wilberforce, who served under Prime Ministers Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan, and Margaret Thatcher.

9 Mail Carriers

In 1876, the Belgian city of Liege decided that the most efficient way to transport the mail was via cat. The Belgian Society for the Elevation of the Domestic Cat trained 37 volunteers to deliver letters sealed in waterproof pouches tied around their necks. One enterprising individual delivered its mail in about five hours, but the others took up to 24.^[2]

On March 4, 1876, The New York Times reported, “It is believed that, unless the criminal class of dogs undertakes to waylay and rob the mail-cats, the messages will be delivered with rapidity and safety.” The experiment was promptly discontinued.

8 Ship’s Cat

Felines adapt easily to their surroundings. They are excellent at catching mice that bite through important ropes and food stores. This makes cats perfect for life on a ship.

Several cats have been decorated for their naval service. In 1941, “Unsinkable Sam” started out on the German dreadnought Bismarck and was found on the wreckage of the sunken ship by the HMS Cossack. After the Cossack was torpedoed, Sam was transferred to the HMS Ark Royal, which was also torpedoed. He then rightfully retired from military service.^[3]

Pooli, another World War II cat, was awarded three service ribbons and four battle stars for her work on an attack transport. In 1949, Simon protected the stores of the British HMS Amethyst during a 101-day siege. He is the only cat to be awarded Britain’s Dickin Medal and was buried with full military honors.

7 CIA Informants

In the 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency attempted to train cats to spy on Soviet embassies. The program, Project Acoustic Kitty, funded operations to implant microphones, transmitters, and antennae into cat’s bodies to secretly record conversations. The cats were then trained to follow orders, which proved to be much harder.^[4]

In the first mission, a female cat was taken to a public park and told to record a conversation between two men on a nearby park bench. While crossing the road, she was hit by a taxi and killed instantly. The CIA concluded that the project was “not practical.”

6 Astronaut

By 1961, the French space program had successfully launched rats into Earth’s atmosphere. Then they decided it was time to go bigger. What better animal to follow rats than cats?

Fourteen feline candidates were selected for training, which involved a compression chamber, spinning in a high g-force centrifuge, and exposure to rocket noises. During a 10-hour surgery, electrodes were implanted in the selected cat’s brain so the crew could measure its biological responses during the flight.

On October 18, 1963, a tuxedo cat named Felicette was launched in the nose cone of a Veronique AG1. She flew almost 161 kilometers (100 mi) above the Earth, briefly experienced weightlessness, and safely returned via parachute. She is the only cat to survive a space flight.^[5]

10 Fantastic Little-Known Felines

5 Composer

In 1996, Rabbi Moshe Cotel was sitting at his baby grand piano when Ketzel (“cat” in Yiddish) jumped onto the keyboard. She landed on the treble and walked down toward the bass. Cotel, who was chairman of the composition department of Peabody Conservatory, grabbed a pencil and transcribed the notes.^[6]

A year later, he heard that the Paris New Music Review was hosting a competition for songs under 60 seconds. He entered Ketzel’s song, which was titled “Piece for Piano: Four Paws.”

The judges, who were not told the title or composer, awarded it an honorable mention. When the piece was performed at the Museum of the City of New York, Ketzel was sitting in the audience and gave a loud meow at the announcement of his name.

4 Mayor

Talkeetna, a small town of about 900 people near Denali National Park, had a very unusual mayor: Stubbs, a ginger cat. He came to power in 1998. As the town is a historic district, the role is more symbolic than functional. His mayoral duties included patrolling the town, drinking catnip-infused water every afternoon at West Rib Cafe & Pub, and taking visitors in his “office” at Nagley’s General Store.^[7]

But even cats have political opponents. In 2013, Stubbs was brutally attacked by a dog. His lifesaving operation was funded by donations from hundreds of well-wishers around the globe.

Stubbs soon used this positive press to make a failed bid for the 2014 Alaska Senate race. He died peacefully of old age at his home in 2017. No word yet on who will fill the power vacuum.

3 Customs Officer

In 2002, a Siamese cat wandered into a customs checkpoint in Stavropol, Russia. He was adopted by the guards and soon took on the duty of searching vehicles for illegally smuggled Caspian Sea caviar.

“One day, Rusik just leapt into the boot of a passing car at the checkpoint and immediately sniffed out some sturgeon,” police officer Sergei Kovalenko said. “After that, we decided to use him all the time in our searches.”^[8]

No matter how ingenious a hiding spot the smugglers (often mafia) created, Rusik could sniff them out. After he spent less than a year on the job and put the sniffer dogs out of work, it was clear that the cat was a formidable weapon against sturgeon smuggling.

In 2003, he was run over by a car that he had previously busted for smuggling caviar—a move that many believe was a mafia-ordered contract killing. Rusik was simply too good at his job to live.

2 Assistant Librarian

When a striped cat named Kuzya showed up at the Novorossiysk children’s library in 2013, the staff just couldn’t resist letting him in. But for Kuzya to be allowed in the library, he had to be made an official employee. Unfortunately, the Russian government was cracking down on undocumented workers, so no human—or feline—could be hired without the proper paperwork.

The library staff was undeterred. They acquired an animal passport, and Novorossiysk’s head librarian signed a special order that made Kuzya an official library assistant. His wages are 30 cans of Whiskas cat food a month, and he must show up to work in a uniform (a bow tie).^[9]

1 Actor

For as long as there has been cinema, there have been movie star cats. However, as the felines are notoriously hard to train, dogs are more popular as costars.

Some cats that have graced the silver screen include Orangey in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Syn Cat as “Tao” in The Incredible Journey (1963), Ted Nude-Gent as “Mr. Bigglesworth” in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Crackerjack and Pumpkin as “Crookshanks” in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), and Tonic and Leo as “Church” in Pet Sematary (2019).

The PATSY (Picture Animal Top Star of the Year) Awards recognize animal excellence in film. Cats, which are notoriously hard to work with due to their Hollywood personalities, have nonetheless managed to snag quite a few nods.^[10]

10 Weird Ways Cats Have Been Venerated Through History

About The Author: Jackie Mead is a museum educator by day and a writer by night. Her work has appeared on Cracked, HistoryisNow, and History Magazine.

Dogs have definitely won the propaganda war when it comes to pet popularity. Dogs are man’s best friend while cats are those aloof animals who will only occasionally allow a human to touch them. For all their stand-offish behaviour humans still tolerate cats enough to let them poop in a tray in their homes. Yet sometimes a cat repay their owners and will show them that feline affection is a real thing. Sometimes their displays of love are downright heroic.

Here are ten cats that have saved lives.

Top 10 Job Titles Held By Cats

10 Warming a Baby

When a tiny baby, less than 12 weeks old, was abandoned by his parents in Russia the outlook for his survival was not good. The weather was brutally cold and it looked unlikely that the child would survive the night. The infant was saved however by a local cat named Masha.

Many people fear having a baby and a cat in the same house because of the risk of a cat deciding that the baby’s face is an ideal spot to sit. In the case of Masha it was by climbing on top of the baby that they saved the child. Perhaps because the baby was in a box it was doubly irresistible to the cat.

Masha’s warmth kept the child alive and by meowing loudly was able to draw the attention of a neighbour. The child was taken to hospital and cared for while a search was made for his parents. Masha was rewarded with large quantities of treats and petting by admiring residents of the nearby apartment block.^[1]

9 Cancer Finder

Dogs have long been trained to detect things no human could sense. They have even been put to work in medicine where a dog’s nose can pick up the chemical signatures of diseases as diverse as Parkinson’s, Malaria, and Cancer. Training a cat is slightly more tricky. Sometimes though a cat can spontaneously show this amazing ability.

Sue McKenzie had spent twenty years living with a cat called Tom who very rarely showed her any affection. One day however Tom began to repeatedly bat at the back of his owner’s neck and meow loudly. Worrying her elderly cat was showing signs of an illness she took him to the vet. When the vet found nothing wrong with Tom it was suggested that maybe Sue was the one who needed help.

A scan revealed a cancerous lump. The doctors successfully treated Sue but gave her a stern lecture on always listening to her cat. Sue could not have known Tom would save her life when she welcomed the young stray into her home.^[2]

8 Diabetes Detector

Rescuing an animal can be one of the best things a person can do. Not only do you give another living thing a home the animal repays you with companionship and can improve your mental and physical health. For Hazel Parkyn her rescue cat Walter has saved her life over 50 times.

Hazel suffers from diabetes and her blood sugar level sometimes drops dangerously in the night as she sleeps. When this happens Walter detects it, perhaps by smelling chemical changes, he smacks her in the face to wake her up. This allows her to treat the low blood sugar before it becomes dangerous.

Ironically Hazel had bought a dog in hopes of training it to warn her if she was in danger. The dog proved to be useless in this task while Walter sits by Hazel’s bed at night ready to pounce.^[3]

7 Seizure Sensor

Cats are not always the most gentle of doctors. If a patient is about to suffer a seizure it is not usual medical practice for a doctor to bite them. Biting, however, is exactly what Blake does to his owner.

Glen Schallman has a range of illnesses that can bring on dangerous seizures at any time. While he might be able to detect the signs of an oncoming episode during his sleep a seizure could prove fatal. When he adopted Blake however he found that the young cat was giving him advance warning of an attack – by biting his toes.

Glen is now the oldest person ever recorded with his combination of illnesses and this can in part be put down to the tender ministrations of his feline protector. Blake was not trained to act as a guardian over his sleeping owner but has proved to be a trustworthy nurse.^[4]

6 Dog Fighter

Despite their reputation as man’s best friend dog can, sometimes, turn against humans. A dog bite can be a serious thing and is particularly risky for a child. When Jeremy, a four year old boy with autism, was attacked by a dog he might have sustained serious injuries.

Jeremy was riding his bike outside his home when Scrappy, a neighbour’s dog, grabbed his leg and began to shake him violently. It was then that Jeremy’s family cat Tara literally leapt into action. She launched herself at the dog. The dog turned tail and ran back to his home. Jeremy was left needing seven stitches but his injuries could have been much worse.

Tara was a stray that had followed the family home from the park one day. In return for her bravery against the larger dog Tara has since gone on to fame and acclaim. As well as multiple awards she has ‘thrown’ out the opening pitch at a baseball game and June the 3rd was named as “Tara the Hero Cat Day.”

10 Outrageous Stories Of Cats’ Lives Saved In Strange Ways

5 Fire Alarm

When a fire broke out in the night at a family home it was not a fire alarm that woke the sleeping family member but their cat Bandit. Bandit ran to the bedroom of owner and scratched her face to wake her up. Most people would be upset by a cat scratch but Bandit’s owners had reason to be happy. Able to call a fire engine their house, and lives, were saved.

The family owned several animals but the other three dogs, four cats, four kittens, and their hamsters and gerbils proved less helpful in their rescue. All the animals and humans in the house were saved.

Had they not been woken by Bandit the billowing smoke in the house might have smothered everyone inside to death. The local fire brigade was quick to praise Bandit’s heroic efforts – but they also suggested that people should invest in fire alarms rather than relying on their pets.^[5]

4 911 Caller

Sometimes a cat can call for help in a literal way. When Gary Rosheisen fell from his wheelchair in his home there was no way for him to reach the telephone to call for help. Yet police turned up and were able to help him anyway. The puzzle was how the police had known to come out.

The police had received a 911 call but no one was one the other end. When they phoned the number back there was no answer so they decided to check the address of the phone call to make sure that everything was okay. It was then that they found Tommy the cat next to the phone.

His owner had once tried to teach Tommy to call 911 in an emergency but did not think it had stuck in the cat’s mind. Making matters easier for Tommy was the fact that 911 was on speed-dial given his owner’s ill-health. With one button Tommy saved the day.^[6]

3 A Good Heart

Claire Nelson took a chance when she adopted a cat called Rusty. Because the cat was quite old most people had passed it by in search of a cuter kitten. Rusty would pay back his new owner almost immediately however.

When she began feeling a little unwell Rusty started acting very strangely. Normally incredibly mellow, as most cats tend to be, Rusty became anxious and would not leave her side. When Nelson tried to lay down the cat jumped up on er chest and would not let her go to sleep. Unable to go to bed and still not feeling well Nelson finally decided to visit the doctor. While waiting for a bus she took a turn for the worse and called 911.

Doctors found that Nelson had suffered a heart attack and needed emergency surgery. Without Rusty causing a fuss she may have gone to bed and never woken up again.^[7]

2 Crimean Tom

The Crimean War of the 1850s saw Russia fighting an alliance of the British Empire, France, and the Ottomans. During the fighting the Russians holding the city of Sevastopol were put under siege for almost a year. When the allied troops finally captured the city they found hardly any supplies to support them left. That is when Tom, a stray cat, stepped in.

Lieutenant William Gair was given orders to find any food left in the city. He was leading searches of cellars when he spotted Tom. Tom looked unusually fat for a cat that had just survived a year-long siege. Gair reasoned that Tom must know where there were plenty of mice – and where there were mice there must be a supply of food. Tom led the British to plentiful stores several times and helped the troops avoid starvation.

For his role in saving the soldiers Gair brought Tom back to Britain with him. Unfortunately Tom did not survive long but Gair had him stuffed and preserved in honour of his bravery. Whether the cat now kept in the Imperial War Museum is really Crimean Tom is unknown, but his story lives on.^[8]

1 Saving a Baby

A cat named Gatubela would seem to be destined to prove heroic. Gatubela is a translation of Catwoman and when Gatubela saw a baby at risk she jumped in to save the day. When baby Samuel crawled towards a steep flight of stairs the cat pounced to try and force him away from the edge.

In a video of the rescue Gatubela can be seen rushing to Samuel and grabbing his back to try and pull him away. When that doesn’t work she jumps in front of him and uses her paws to push and startle him backwards. The baby sits down and Gatubela seems content that he is safe.

Of course cats are still cats. When Samuel is safe Gatubela proceeds to pounce on the baby and bat him around a little. That bit of the video was cut out of most versions found online – hitting a child after you save it is not really the done thing.^[9]

10 Cats With Amazing Careers

The Ancient Egypt is one of the most fascinating cultures that ever populated the earth and despite all the research and studies done over the past decades there is still a lot of mystery surrounding their lifestyle, traditions and believes.

One of the main characteristics that all researches agree on is that Egyptians had a fascination for animals and many of them were used to explain incomprehensible phenomes or were associated with gods. It is not illogical if we think about how life was in that time and all the dangers humans were constantly facing. Usually the animals with stronger religious and spiritual meaning were the closest to them, the simpler that they could see daily. In this case the Egyptians develop a special devotion for cats above any other animal. The reason why is still uncertain and remains one of the many mysteries about Ancient Egypt.

What we know for sure is that Egyptians had a great admiration for felines as they were one of the most venerated species. The Egyptians were the first civilization to domesticated them and were treated like another member of the household. Despite being used as a protector of the homes some studies suggest that the Egyptians believed cats were related to divinities. That’s why the received a privileged treatment from the community.

Before reading please consider that this is a general recompilation of interesting facts, some of them might change slightly depending on what era are we referring to. Nonetheless, all these statements were true at some point during their ancient history.
This is a list of 10 curiosities about cats in the ancient Egypt you might not know…

1. The goddess Bastet was represented with the head of a cat.

The goddess Bastet was usually represented with the head of a feline and a golden earing. It was believed that one of the ways people could offend the goddess was to harm one of her cats. When she was really angry, she could transform into a fearful lion thirsty for blood and the only way to calm her down was through offering beer. She represented beauty, joy, love, happiness and was the protector of humans.

Bastet was extremely popular during the second dynasty (2890-2670 BC) and had her cult center in the city of Bubastis. It is believed that a temple in her honor was built in the city and mummified cat were buried inside as an offering to the goddess.

2. The Egyptian word for cat was an onomatopoeia that sounded like an actual cat.

According to experts the word cat in the ancient Egypt was pronounced like “miu” or “meow”. This refers to the sound cats make when they meow.

It is particularly curious that despite their great admiration they only had this one word to refer to cats. It was a general word, which means they didn’t differentiate between species or any other categorization. Moreover, in the Egyptian alphabet there is a jerogr to represent exclusively the cats which is obviously the silhouette of a cat.

3. Killing a cat or being involved in the death of one was punished by death.

Killing a cat was considered a major capital therefore the punishment was to sufferer the same result as the victim, death. Depending on the period of time if the death was produced by accident the punishment was either the same or could be replace by the payment of a fine. As Herodotus repots, Egyptians caught in a burning building would save the cast first, before trying to save themselves, another person or attempting to put out the fire. Some experts suggest that not even the emperor could forgive somebody that had committed this crime. There is a popular story amongst amateurs that explains that not even Pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes, father of the legendary Cleopatra, couldn’t stop the death of a Roman solider who had killed a cat by accident. So, the poor solider, unaware of the severity of the crime he had committed, was sentenced to death.

Nonetheless, some theories suggest that during certain periods cats were sacrificed and mummified in the city of Bubastis as an offering to the goddess Bastet, of which we have spoken in the first curiosity. Other theories also hint that cats could be sacrificed in order to be buried next to his owner so that the cat could accompany him in his journey to the other side. These speculations are interesting because it means that depending on the period there could be exceptions to this law.

4. The death of the family cat was a tragedy.

The cat was considered to be another member of the family, that is why they receive the same care as the rest of its members, especially after death. The richer families mummified their cats with jewelry, once it has passed away. Some owners even buried themselves with their cat. When the family cat died the whole family participated in the grieving that involved shaving the eyebrows as a symbol of the pain and sorrow. However, not all cats received treatment. As today, only those that came from a wealthy family would enjoy such a treatment.

5. They had cat cemeteries

The ancient Egyptians had a wide range of pets, including cats, dogs, hippos, falcons among many others. As we have mentioned household pets were mummified and buried usually with their owners. But animals were also mummified in a massive scale. This gigantic cemetery was located in Berenike, a port-town on the Red coast and it is estimated to be nearly 2.000 years old. It belongs to the pre-dynastic era, when the Roman Empire controlled the region. 100 complete animal skeletons were found, including 86 cats, 9 dogs and 2 monkeys. Though this wasn’t the first discovery of mummified ancient pets, however it emphasizes the great lengths Egyptians and Romans went to care for these creatures.

6. It was forbidden to smuggle cats out of the country

Exporting cats out of the country was strictly prohibited by law. There was a specific branch of the government whose task was to deal with this problem. Government agents were sent to other lands to find the cats that had been smuggled out and returned them back. Nonetheless, Phoenician and Greek merchants and later on the Roma legions exported cats illegally to Europe.

7. The Egyptian cats weren’t like our cats.

Like any other domesticated species wild cats had a different constitution that evolve and changed when they started living with humans. As we mentioned previously the Egyptians only had one word to refer to cats because they didn’t differentiate between the different species. Nonetheless, researchers have been able to identify three different kinds of cats from the mummies found in various locations. The first species is called Felis lybica commonly known as African wildcat. This was the most common breed and experts are completely sure that it was domesticated.

The second breed that can be found was the Felis chaus also known as the jungle cat. Although it is likely that this one was also domesticated there aren’t enough evidences. Finally, we can find the Felis serval or serval. This wasn’t a common breed and probably wasn’t autochthonous, but they were imported from Nubia in the south of Egypt. Nowadays this region belongs to the country of Sudan.

8. Cats were commonly used as guardians and as hunters

Cats were a symbol of protection. Is a well-known fact that they are extraordinary haunters. The Egyptians used to have them in their homes where cats would haunt rats, maces, scorpions and snakes. It is believed that this is how they were domesticated. In exchange from keeping the undesirable little animals outside the home and protect the family members (just like the goddess Bastet did) cats were offered food, a home and a safe place from its depredators.

Moreover, other studies also suggest that cats were used to haunt little birds. The owner or in this case the haunter threw a wooden tool, that resembled a boomerang, to kill the bird. The cat was in charge of picking the pray and bringing it back to the owner.

9. The Egyptians lost the Battle of Pelusium because of its fascination for the cats

In 525 BC during the Battle of Pelusium the Persian King Cambyses II, aware of Egyptian culture, had the image of Bastet painted on his soldiers shields and commanded his armies to attached cats and other adored animals like dogs, sheep and ibises in their shields. The Egyptian army seeing their beloved goddess on the enemies shields and afraid that they might injure the sacred animals didn’t attack and surrendered their positions. Many were massacred on the field and those that weren’t killed fled to the city of Memphis. Memphis was besieged and fell shortly after. Pharaoh Psametik II was captured and executed. Thus ended the sovereignty of Egypt and the territory was annexed to Persia until the arrival of Alexander the Great, many years after .

It is said that the Persians would have won regardless of the tactic used since King Cambyses II had far more experience than young Pharaoh Psametik II, who had just been crowned. Nonetheless, the battle was won through this unusual strategy to use animals as hostage.

10. The most popular Egyptian found sculpture is the Gayer-Anderson cat

Hundreds of cat’s representations have been discovered over the past years. However, the most famous and better-preserve it the Gayer-Anderson Cat Statue that has enchanted many writers, artists and sculptors with its beauty and charm. As Marcel Marée, curator for the Egyptian sculpture gallery at the British Museum, said “This cat figure is among the very finest surviving from ancient Egypt, and justly regarded as one of the British Museum’s greatest masterpieces.” It is a bronze statue representing the goddess Bastet in her cat form adorated with golden earrings. It is estimated to be from around the 600 BC. Therefore, it probably belonged to the Late Period (around 664-322 BC). It’s named after Major Robert Grenville Gayer-Anderson, who donated the statue to the British museum in the 1939. Previously it was showcased in his house, now transformed into the Grayer-Anderson Museum.

Although, there aren’t any conclusive evidences experts suggest that it comes from a temple. It was customary to have bronze figures of gods, varying in sizes and forms, inside the temples throughout Egypt as a sign of power, admiration and respect. Another function of the statues was to help believers communicate with the gods. Only a king or someone very wealthy could afford buying a piece like this because it is adorned with precious metals.

The sculpture is wearing a silver protective pectoral that invoked protection and healing, golden earrings and nose ring, representing the goddess Bastet and has a scarab beetle drawn on the cat’s heat and chest that symbolizes rebirth .

If you wish to learn more about the sculpture, it can be visited in the British Museum in London. You will find it in the Oriental Art collection, room 4. If not we strongly encourage you to have a look at the British Museum’s website were there is 3D model and a detailed scientific analysis of the piece.