Watermark: Neighbor Kitties; Lucky Kitties; Kinda Kitties

One of the fun things about holidays is the opportunity to take care of the neighbors' cats. This is Phoebe, who hated me on sight (when she was teeny) and has never changed her mind, except when Nancy is gone. Then, I'll do:

And this is Oscar, who appeared one day at the bird feeder, and after a week or so of advertising and neighborly negotiation, went to live with Phoebe and Nancy. Oscar is very very happy to have a home with a lap and a feline companion; when the outside doors open, he stays far away from them:

Cats in the news:

Miracle:

January 05,2006 | VOORHEES, N.J. -- Curiosity didn't kill one cat on a wild ride on the New Jersey Turnpike. The kitten, now known, for obvious reasons, as Miracle, hitchhiked a ride on the underbelly of a sport utility vehicle just before Christmas.

The gray and white feline traveled some 70 miles under the vehicle as it whizzed along the Turnpike on Dec. 23 . . .

Lucky:

January 02, 2006 MISSOULA, MT. -- A desperate cry for help startled a pair of passers-by early Tuesday morning as they crossed the California Street footbridge.

When they realized the sound came from the Clark Fork River below, the duo peered over the railing and spotted the source of the distress call. In the middle of the ice-covered river, a calico house cat was howling, trapped in a cage weighted down by a large rock.

Within moments of the discovery, Missoula Fire Department was alerted and Station One rolled to the rescue. Firefighters pulled on dry suits and lowered their rescue boat - a cataraft, appropriately - onto the ice to retrieve the abandoned animal . . .

Tommy:

January 02, 2006 COLUMBUS, OH -- Police aren't sure how else to explain it. But when an officer walked into an apartment Thursday night to answer a 911 call, an orange-and-tan striped cat was lying by a telephone on the living room floor. The cat's owner, Gary Rosheisen, was on the ground near his bed having fallen out of his wheelchair.

Rosheisen said his cat, Tommy, must have hit the right buttons to call 911 . . .

Fleur (OK, so Fleur isn't exactly a cat . . . ):

December 30, 2005 BELLINGHAM, WA -- It was 10 a.m. Friday, the start of a busy holiday weekend, and Bellingham International Airport had a problem.

A skunk was parked in the middle of a taxiway, its head wedged in the entry hole of a black plastic rat bait box. The animal had been exhausted by its efforts to escape, and nobody on the airport staff had training in dealing with this type of security threat . . .