Stories
Everything we’ve published.
Care, health, medicine, behaviour, training, breed science, new research and the folklore. Long enough to be useful, short enough to finish.
Health
Emergency, or Can It Wait Until Morning?
Some things in a cat can wait until the clinic opens. A short list cannot. Knowing which is which is the most useful thing an owner can carry.
Scientific Research
The Fountain Probably Isn't Helping
A 2025 review of fifty years of feline hydration research found water source made no measurable difference. Diet format did — and by a wide margin.
Scientific Research
Ordinary People Can Read a Cat's Face
A validated pain scale reads five things in a cat's face. In a study of 1,262 caregivers across 66 countries, owners scored almost as reliably as vets.
Training
Clicker Training a Cat Is Not a Party Trick
Cats train readily. The reason it looks otherwise is that nobody selected them for wanting to please us, so the training has to pay.
Medicine
Neutering: The Timing Question Nobody Explains Properly
Six months is a convention, not a finding. Where the number came from, what the evidence in cats actually says, and why the default costs kittens their lives.
Training
The Carrier Is the Training. The Vet Visit Is the Test.
Most of what goes wrong at a vet appointment has already gone wrong at home, twenty minutes earlier, in the hallway, with a plastic box.
Medicine
What Your Cat Is Actually Being Vaccinated Against
Three diseases, one syringe, and a schedule nobody explains. What each core vaccine is for, what it can and cannot prevent, and why kittens need several.
Lore
Simon, Able Seacat
One cat has ever received the Dickin Medal. He earned it over 101 days on a shelled and stranded frigate, and he is the naval cat story that actually holds up.
Lore
A Hundred and Eighty Thousand Cat Mummies, Sold as Fertiliser
Egypt revered cats. Egypt also bred and killed them at industrial scale to sell to pilgrims. Both things are true, and the second is the one that gets left out.
Lore
Nine Lives, or Seven?
Depending on where you grew up, a cat has nine lives or seven. Both are old, both are confident, and nobody actually knows where either came from.
Lore
The Cat That Isn’t Waving
The maneki-neko is one of the most recognised objects on earth, and most people outside Japan misread the gesture, the origin and the country.
Lore
The Bull, the Black Cat, and the Plague That Wasn’t Their Fault
A medieval pope really did write about a black cat. The story that this caused the Black Death is one of the most repeated pieces of nonsense on the internet.
Behaviour
Why Your Cat Bites You Mid-Stroke
Petting-induced aggression is one of the most misread behaviours in domestic cats. The cat is not being unpredictable. You are missing the signals.
Care
The Litter Box Problem Is Almost Never About the Litter Box
House-soiling is the single most common reason cats are surrendered to shelters. It is also, more often than not, a medical sign being read as a behavioural one.
Breeds
What Breed Standards Don’t Tell You About Health
Breed guides describe temperament and coat. They tend to be quieter about the hereditary conditions that come attached — and about which tests exist.
Health
Reading a Cat in Pain
Cats are built to conceal injury. The signs that remain are subtle, consistent, and learnable — and most owners are better placed to spot them than any vet.
Health
Chronic Kidney Disease: The Numbers Every Cat Owner Should Know
By the time the classic signs appear, most of the function is gone. The case for screening earlier, and what to actually ask your vet for.
Care
Water: The Single Change That Helps Most Cats
Cats evolved in dry country and carry a thirst drive calibrated for prey, not kibble. The gap between the two is a lifetime of low-grade dehydration.
Something look wrong?
We correct in public and date every change. If a claim here does not match what your vet says, we want to hear about it.