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College Cat Gets PhD After Four Years; “Catland,” A New Book; Cala the Viral Internet Cat Dies; and lagniappe – Why Evolution is True

Of the Washington Postwe hear about a cat named Max who has become a fixture on the Carleton campus of Vermont State University. So much so that he has earned a Ph.D.

Click to read:

Max the Cat has ridden on student backpacks, taken campus tours, and walked into more than one psychology class at Vermont State University’s Castleton campus.

The 5-year-old tomcat is even on the university’s staff list, where he has his own email address.

It seemed like a logical next step, then, when the university awarded him an honorary doctorate in “literature,” officially making him part of the 2024 graduating class, in addition to his role as a faculty member. Max wears many hats, says Rob Franklin, photographer and social media manager for Vermont State University.

Last spring, Franklin had just started working at the university when he saw the cat everywhere he went. He was treated like a celebrity.

“I was talking to a colleague outside Woodruff Hall, the main building on campus, when I saw this cat walking around and everyone was greeting him,” Franklin said.

“I said, ‘What’s wrong with that cat?’ and I was told he came to campus every day to socialize, and then students would take him home when it got dark,” he said.

Max lives down the street from Ashley Dow and her family, but he rarely comes home, Dow said.

From the moment she let Max out at age 1, he went straight to campus and enjoyed the attention of the students.

“He usually comes by around 8 in the morning when I leave for work, and he’s home in time for dinner, or one of the students drops him off,” said Dow, a special education teacher.

. . .Max has been wandering campus and its 4,000 undergraduate students for four years — the same amount of time it takes to earn a bachelor’s degree, he said.

“We don’t give out doctorates here, but I thought it would be nice to give Max one,” said Franklin, who noted that Vermont Public Radio reported on the story.

He had a diploma made with lame cat puns and posted it on Instagram ahead of the university’s graduation ceremony on May 18. The photo in the post showed Max wearing a cat-sized graduation cap.

“With the resounding approval of the faculty, the Board of Trustees of Vermont State University has awarded Max Dow the prestigious title of Doctor of Litter-ature, complete with all its attendant catnip benefits, scratching post privileges, and litter box responsibilities,” the diploma states.

He must now be called “Dr. Max”! Here’s a screenshot of his diploma from the video below, showing Max and his staff:

A one minute video from Channel 10. What an amazing cat!

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The NYT has a piece on a new book about Louis Wain (1860-1939), the famous cat artist who reportedly went mad and whose drawings of cats became increasingly bizarre as his sanity declined. Here’s a group of his pictures, not in chronological order, but the most bizarre date from later in his life. (The last 15 years of which he spent in a psychiatric institution.)

And the piece about the book, called Catland: Louis Wain and the big cat mania. Click on the headline to read the following:

An excerpt from Reich’s review:

To explore this mystery—and further complicate it—comes “Catland,” by author and critic Kathryn Hughes. The title is both literal and metaphorical, a nod to the intertwined worlds the book explores: the imaginary place imagined by Victorian cat illustrator Louis Wain, and the lived landscape we still inhabit some 150 years later.

“Catland” is at its core an exploration of a rapidly modernizing, post-Industrial Revolution Britain, where everything was transforming, including cats — which “went from anonymous background furniture to individual actors.” Soon, cats lost their “weasel faces and ratty tails” as their faces and eyes became rounder. (While Hughes points to the rapid genetic turnaround possible given cats’ reproductive behavior, it’s not entirely clear whether cats actually looked like this or whether they were simply depicted as such by artists.)

. . . The art of commercial artist and illustrator Louis Wain evolved along with this emerging feline paradise, and his cats also became rounder-faced and more elevated in status—until eventually their society was as strange and complex as that of their owners. At the height of their popularity, Wain’s cats were everywhere, doing everything—selling soap and boots in advertisements, shouting patriotic slogans on postcards, riding bicycles, or bickering with spouses in newspapers and magazines.

Unfortunately, Wain’s business acumen was almost nonexistent. His fortunes, like those of the cats and cat lovers of his day, had considerable ups and downs. (His worsening mental illness didn’t help his financial affairs, but it didn’t seem to hamper his productivity or creativity either.)

How much influence did Wain actually have on the new cat aesthetic? Despite the author’s claims to the contrary, his work seems less a driving force than a reflection of the zeitgeist—seen from his own increasingly eccentric perspective.

“Catland” is indeed populated by other characters who, according to the author himself, were at least as deeply involved in shaping the emerging feline world. There’s Harrison Weir, who organized the first Crystal Palace cat show in 1871 and “launched the modern feline fantasy,” and the vicar’s daughter, Frances Simpson, who had a huge influence on cat culture. In addition to her involvement in breeding, showing and judging, she became an authority whose feline endorsements, pronouncements and opinions appeared in countless publications and in a column called “Practical Pussyology” (a lost Prince B-side if ever there was one).

. . . The sensitive reader should brace themselves: there are many stories of cruelty, violence, and animal hoarding—a difficult but necessary context. (Hughes does not bring us to the present, but the astute reader, especially one well-versed in cat rescue, TNR, and animal welfare, will find many parallels to our current moment.)

Likewise, those looking for a simple biography may be disappointed at first, but cat lovers, and even those who are indifferent to cats, are encouraged to put their trust in Hughes. “Catland” is a delight. This is history as told by someone whose knowledge of and infectious enthusiasm for her subject is matched by her obvious delight and warm, expressive writing.

In Louis Wain’s final illustrations of cats, his favorite subjects were freed from their confined Edwardian interiors, romping through imaginary landscapes and, in some kaleidoscopic, almost psychedelic cases, liberated from their own forms. Perhaps Wain really was both of and ahead of his time. In either case, it’s easy to see how much has changed—and, oddly enough, how little.

It costs $25.59 in hardcover (Amazon link above) and would make a great Christmas gift for the cat lover with a penchant for the bizarre. Here’s the cover:

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From SK-Popa website, we learn of the passing of a beloved cat I never knew existed. I can’t copy most of the text, so I’ve placed a few screenshots and tweets below. Click on the headline to read:

Screenshots of text:

“I am devastated to report that Cala has passed away. I adopted Cala because I thought she was young and full of life, but Cala had become ill and did not recover.”

Here is the video explaining her death:

@cala_en_elizabeth

Cala will live forever thanks to all of you 🧡🐱 #RIPCala #igomeow #catsoftiktok #cattok #orangecatbehavior

♬ Nighttime Troubles – Petit Biscuit

The popularity of Cala:

A tribute from The Kifeness:

. . . and a few Instagram reactions from Cala lovers (her Instagram page can be found here):

“I wonder if she was meowing so much because she felt her time was coming or because she felt the pain,” @pomkckase said.

“Her meow seemed to come from a place of experience. She was a wise old cat,” said @woldprospect.

“She will forever be my favorite singer,” said @edanmore_.

The cat’s official Instagram page, under the username cala_and_elizabeth, had amassed more than 500,000 followers. Other online reactions included:

“She will always be remembered, her beautiful voice will live on. Sending you all lots of love right now,” said @louietheraccoon.

“This is the kind of news that really breaks my heart. I send my love to her family,” @uriel.calderone said on Instagram.

Several Instagram users also added gifs of people crying. Others also shared loving tributes, which read:

“Thank you so much for the legacy you left in my heart,” said @dougggdimmadome.

“You finally crossed the bridge, kitty,” @mikejamesb3 said online.

Rest in peace Cala:

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Lagniappe from a news site (click to read and watch a one-minute video):

Can artificial intelligence tell when your cat is in pain? Japanese app CatsMe! claims it can. Worried about her 14-year-old cat Chi, Tokyo resident Mayumi Kitakata turned to CatsMe! in March to help her determine when to take her to the vet. Buzz60’s Maria Mercedes Galuppo tells the story.

The video tells you that the app uses facial expressions that correlate with pain to give an idea of ​​whether the cat is in pain. It doesn’t use the pain itself, but something that correlates with pain, so I’m a little skeptical. If it worked, vets all over the world would be using it.

thanks to: Divy, Karl, Winnie