TIRANA (Reuters) - A cat chasing a mouse in Tirana’s main power station caused a 72-hour blackout across parts of the Albanian capital, the electricity company said on Friday.

“A cat and a mouse ran into the high-voltage cables,” a company spokeswoman said, showing pictures of the electrocuted animals. “We took pictures because we’ve never had anything like this.”

Albanians complain bitterly about the power cuts that have plagued them for decades, and are mostly blamed on drought and the dilapidation of the communist-era grid. Most homes and shops in Tirana rely on petrol generators

 From Reuters Oddly Enough

He is the cat that got the cream - and the cake and the biscuits too.

Orazi the ginger tom weighs in at a whopping 35.2lb (16kg), the same as a two-year-old child.

At 28lb heavier than the average moggie, he would struggle to get his front paws through a standard cat flap, let alone his broad fluffy rump.

It is not clear whether Orazi has a medical problem, or is being overfed with the wrong sorts of foods.

He is pictured here with with his owner, Laura Santarelli, with whom he lives in Eupilio, Italy.

 From the Sunday Mail

I came across this when searching for pictures of laughing cats.  It struck home for me as I am normally working at home and my cats provide that crucial break needed to recharge and refocus on my work.

It is a great Blog entry and she is a fantastic writer. Check her blog out here:  Karen Fuller

Here is the post i am talking about.

Cat on a hot tin roof

Tap.

I’m not one of those people who work well when there’s too much noise or distraction, especially when I’m stressed and under a deadline and trying to write.

Tap. Tap.           

I prefer to be at home alone when I write, but since my animals tend to follow me en masse, I’m usually at my computer with a curtain of cat belly draping my screen, my yellow pooch warming my feet, and our demented diminutive dog madly digging his beanbag chair like it’s a basin of dirt.  I’ve never minded their company. They’ve asked nothing of me except to share my room.Until recently.           

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.            

I long for those days.

“No,” I say to the tubby tabby who is repeatedly rapping his freakishly large cat knuckles against the window behind my computer. “It’s dark out. If I open the window, the bugs will come in.”

Tap.            

I suspect it was senseless to try and outstubborn a cat, but I had loads of work to get finished, so that’s what I attempted–until the rapping became more constant and Squirt began switching paws. He seemed to be pacing himself, preparing for the long haul. Three with the left left. Three with the right. Repeat as needed. 

I slid open the window.

Squirt politely allowed several aircraft-sized moths to enter before stepping out onto the roof, where he stretched dramatically, and then immediately turned around so he could jump back inside. 

“I don’t think so,” I said, raising my palm in that traffic-halting gesture known to both man and beast. Squirt casually sniffed the air, then strolled a few steps further out onto the roof and plopped down, then rolled immediately onto his back to make certain I understood that doing so was his plan all along.

It did smell good outside, and there was a nice breeze. I left the window open and began typing again.

Tap. Tap.

I looked up. It was Squirt, tapping again at the glass, only now from the opposite side.

“It’s open. Come in.”

Tap.

Prior to our move to South Charleston in May, two of our three cats were always indoors. The third cat came and went as he pleased, but after we moved, we’ve kept him inside, too. Except for the roof. The roof on the back of our little house slopes gently, with just enough of a pitch for the rain to roll off, but not so much that the angle feels scary. Not long ago, we began allowing our cats to go out onto the roof. It was too high for them (all fraidy cats) to jump off, so they had a perfect, safe place to stretch out in the sun.   Or, in Squirt’s case, to stretch out under the moon.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

If he wanted in, he’d be in. He wanted me to come out.

I reread the few paragraphs I’d managed to write. They were lame, convoluted, and forced.

Tap.

I climbed out the window, took a few steps out onto the roof and sat down. The sky was clear enough to see stars and a sliver of moon. The breeze smelled of damp leaves and freshly cut firewood and a not-too-distant promise of snow. I leaned back, arms folded under my head, and soon felt the warm mush of Squirt’s body as he leaned up against me. We stayed that way a long time.

Long enough for me to decompress. And to appreciate the wisdom of cats. 

Read More of Karen Fuller’s Blog here.

Read more about the Sawhorses of Doom!  Yes, cats are involved.

Many thanks to my brother Mike.

So I was making myself the breakfast of Champions this morning….. Poptarts and coffee.  What were you expecting me to say,  Wheaties!  Come on!  I am not that healthy! 

 Anyway, My cat, Squiggy,  decided he was going to get up on the counter and check things out.  He must of jumped 3 feet in the air when the toaster popped up my tarts! 

He hit the floor running and I haven’t seen him since.    Maybe he finally learned his lesson about the counters!

 So in honor of Sqiggy, today is cats and toasters day!  Enjoy!

Here is a cat that is lucky to be alive.  Thank goodness for Mr Vinson kindness! 

ACWORTH, Ga.
Construction workers at a high school were shocked to find a small kitten trapped inside poured concrete on Friday. The small kitten almost became a permanent part of a school under construction when it got trapped beneath concrete that was being poured to secure a set of stairs.  Michael Vinson is the construction worker who found the kitten. He said he heard the kitten meowing three days ago.
“I thought I heard it three days ago, but I wasn’t sure,” Vinson said. “It was real faint and then it stopped. I thought, ‘Surely there is not a cat in these stairs. It couldn’t be. There’s no way.’”
When Vinson returned to the work site Friday, he said he heard the noises again.
The kitten had apparently crawled underneath the stairs before concrete was scheduled to be poured.
“The cement had been poured around him,” Vinson said. “And then he had some fall down in where he was at. He had it on him and there were chunks around him. So he was kind of wedged.”
Vinson drilled a hole to find the cat and then he hit another hole.
“Every time I chiseled a little bit, he would come forward,” Vinson said.
The kitten was rescued and rushed to veterinarian Michael Good’s office, where he was treated for dehydration and shaved.
Good said the kitten is lucky to be alive.  “He’s had no food or water for five or six days,” Good said.
Vinson said he has decided to take the kitten home and name it ‘Stone.’  “Dr. Good suggested I name him Stone because he looked like a stone when I brought him in,” Vinson said.
Stone may not be a permanent part of the high school building, but his story may be.