National Post

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A portrait of a leopard: Amur leopard Xembalo looks through the bars of its enclosure at the zoo in Leipzig, Germany, Wednesday April 3, 2013. (AP Photo/dpa,Hendrik Schmidt)

PM’s cat becomes Reddit celebrity as Harper apparently mails glossy feline photo to letter writer
Do you want to talk to the Prime Minister about cats? Because the Prime Minister, apparently, wants to talk to you about cats.

Reddit user MyLastNameIsHO posted late Wednesday a letter a he claims a friend received from Stephen Harper responding to an inquiry about the cats at 24 Sussex.

In the thread named “Mr friend’s letter to the Prime Minister of Canada about his cats was replied to! (with his signature too),” the user presents the letter with a huge picture of the Harper family cat Stanley. (The Harper’s other cat Gypsy apparently has “no patience” for the camera). (Reddit user MyLastNameIsHO)

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Monopoly’s new cat token replaces 77-year-old iron game piece after Facebook fans vote from more than 120 countries
Scottie dog has a new nemesis in Monopoly after fans voted in an online contest to add a cat token to the property trading game, replacing the iron, toy maker Hasbro Inc. announced Wednesday.

The results were announced after the shoe, wheelbarrow and iron were neck and neck for elimination in the final hours of voting that sparked passionate efforts by fans to save their favorite tokens, and by businesses eager to capitalize on publicity surrounding pieces that represent their products.

The vote on Facebook closed just before midnight on Tuesday, marking the first time that fans have had a say on which of the eight tokens to add and which one to toss. The pieces identify the players and have changed quite a lot since Parker Brothers bought the game from its original designer in 1935.

Other pieces that contested for a spot on Monopoly included a robot, diamond ring, helicopter and guitar. (Steven Senne/The Associated Press)

Laura Helmuth: Don’t be fooled — cats are evil
You know what animal makes a good pet? No animal.

Dogs will bite you to death and then eat your corpse. Snakes will asphyxiate you, escape, infest the Everglades and eat all its mammals. Pet parrots perpetuate a trade that upends ecosystems, and hamsters pass you dangerous zoonotic diseases.

But perhaps the worst pet of all, environmentally speaking, is a cat.

Domesticated cats started out as parasites on human civilization. Unlike other species, and admittedly to their credit, they domesticated themselves. When humans started growing grain, the crops attracted rodents that attracted cats. Wild cats evolved into housecats, and they were quite useful for thousands of years, killing disease-ridden rats and mice and protecting our food stockpiles.

But now that we have industrial farming, reliable food storage and mostly mouse-proof houses, cats are mere parasites again. Playful and often affectionate parasites, sure, and adorable when young, but a scourge on the landscape. (PMO)

‘That ball of fluff you own is a natural born killer’: New Zealand economist wants a nation free of cats
New Zealand economist Gareth Morgan wants you to imagine his country teeming with native wildlife, with penguins on the beach and birdsongs wafting through its cities.

And if that vision sounds enticing, Morgan wants you to consider his path to getting there: Gradually ridding the country of all its cats.

Morgan has launched a campaign against New Zealand’s felines through the website Cats To Go, claiming cats are a danger to local bird populations. (Getty Images/ThinkStock)

Little white cat used in attempt to smuggle cellphone, drills into Brazilian prison
Guards thought there was something suspicious about a little white cat slipping through a prison gate in northeastern Brazil. A prison official says that when they caught the animal, they found a cellphone, drills, small saws and other contraband taped to its body. (Penitentiary System of Alagoas/AFP/Getty Images)

Air Canada flight grounded after Ripples the cat escapes and hides in cockpit
There are plenty of things that can delay a flight – bad weather, ground delays, mechanical issues – but a cat getting loose and hiding somewhere in the cockpit normally isn’t one of them.

However, that’s what happened to Air Canada flight 603 from Halifax to Toronto on Wednesday morning.

The flight, which was scheduled to take off at 5:40 a.m., was delayed for four hours after Ripples the cat — brought on board by one of the plane’s passengers — got loose from its carrier and hid inside the plane’s cockpit.

“They were of course first looking [for Ripples] in the cabin, as I understand it. Then it became apparent that it had gone into the cockpit,” says Peter Spurway, vice-president of corporate communications for the Halifax Airport Authority.

“Then it squirmed down into a little space and the game was on.” (Photo: Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images)

Cute Overload of the Day
A lion cub pads about Animals Lebanon after being rescued from a Beirut balcony, where it was kept as a pet. (Jamal Saidi/Reuters)

Photo: Frank and Louie the two-faced cat
A Massachusetts cat with two faces has become the world’s longest surviving so called “janus” feline at 12 years of age. The cat, who is named Frank and Louie, has two mouths, two noses and three eyes. Frank and Louie have one brain, so the faces react in unison. (David Niles/Handout/Reuters)

Photos of the day
A two week old lion cub yawns during his first outdoor walk at the city zoo in the southern Russian city of Stavropol, September 14, 2011. (Danil Semyonov/AFP/Getty Images)

Why yes, there ARE glow-in-the-dark cats
U.S. scientists have developed a strain of green-glowing cats with cells that resist infection from a virus that causes feline AIDS, a finding that may help prevent the disease in cats and advance AIDS research in people. (Mayo Clinic/Reuters)

Cats missing, wolverines being blamed
The northern B.C. town of Kitimat has become a dangerous place for kitties — and residents say a family of wolverines is to blame.

As of Thursday, more than 80 cats have gone missing, while sightings of four wolverines — a male, female and two young — have been reported around town.

“They’re the most vicious animals I know,” Kitimat Mayor Joanne Monaghan told the Vancouver Province. “They can kill a bear, an elk, a deer.”

“I just want to warn you that they’re out there,” the ominous flyer in Richmond, B.C., reads. The ‘they’ is a population of aggressive raccoons that has so far attacked three domestic cats in Richmond, B.C., over the past two weeks, CBC News reported.  Wendy Thibeault said she awoke last Saturday morning to a rumble outside her home, where she found a raccoon “tumbling” with her captured 17-year-old feline friend,  Kokanee. Ms. Thibeault said she picked up a coiled hose and sprayed the predator,  which had a back-up partner hiding under a vehicle nearby, but to no avail. The hissing raccoon made off with her cat, prompting the family to post the flyer and warn other  pet-owners in their neighbourhood. Should the raccoons return, her husband, Richard, said he will use a hockey stick to “try to defeat the enemy.” Read more.

(Photo: Tyler Anderson/National Post)