In this edition of cats of history, we'll look at the famous cat who accompanied the ill-fated Shackelton expedition: Mrs. Chippy! Mrs. Chippy was the cat of Harry McNish (sometimes spelled McNeish), who was a Scottish carpenter who had served as a shipwright in the Merchant Navy before joining the Shackleton expedition. Harry McNish brought Mrs. Chippy with him on the expedetion. "Chippy" is a nick name for a carpenter, so Mrs. Chippy got his name because of his devotion to Harry, the Chippy. By the time they realized Mrs. Chippy was a boy cat, the name had already stuck, so they continued to call him Mrs. Chippy. Historyhit.com details that Mrs. Chippy was at home as a ship's cat. He...
When you think of therapy animals, you probably think of dogs, but other animals are getting in on the action too! Pet Partners is an international organization dedicated to using therapy animals to improve people's health and well- being, and they register a variety of animals as therapy animals, including dogs, but also cats, horses, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, birds, miniature pigs, llamas and alpacas! So, dogs are definitely not alone in their work as therapy animals! If you have a cat, you know how cats are therapeutic - you get home from a long day and a few snuggles and purrs later, you can feel the stress of the day start to dissipate! That's the idea behind cats therapy!...
Last week, we looked at toe beans and mentioned that in space there is cat's paw nebula. The week before that, we talked about barn cats and boat cats working in pest control, and that got me thinking... has there ever been a cat who worked as an astronaut? The answer is yes! Let's find out more about this space cat! Our intrepid astronaut cat started her days as a street cat in Paris. According to Allthatsinteresting.com cats were widely used in studies of neurophysiology in the 1960's, so French scientists thought training some cats for space missions would be a good way to study the effects of space flight, since cats were a well known animal. They rounded up 14...
It's labor day here in the U.S. and that got me thinking about all those hardworking cats out there who work for a living and get paid in mice! Cats all over the world have an important job in keeping pests under control! One of the best jobs for cats is an exterminator, so anywhere there are mice, cats can offer their services as mouse catchers! One place where there could be mice is in barns! Mice like to eat the same kinds of things that horses and cows like to eat, so barn cats help out by taking out the mice and keeping the animal feed safe for the barnyard animals! Jennifer Poindexter points out on morningchores.com that cats on the...
