Library Cats: The Long Tradition of Felines on the Public Payroll
Library cats, from Dewey and Baker and Taylor to honorary feline staff: the history, public debates and paperwork behind the tradition.
Author: Pudgy Cat
Félicette, the Cat Who Went to Space: The Forgotten 1963 Flight
Félicette’s 1963 suborbital flight, the research behind it, the Félix myth and the crowdfunded statue remembering the first cat in space.
Maneki-neko: The History and Legends of Japan’s Beckoning Cat
Explore the maneki-neko’s nineteenth-century records, temple legends, regional pottery styles, and the varied meanings of its raised paw and colors.
Songs About Cats: From Nina Simone to Radiohead
Explore feline pop history, from Nina Simone’s animated video and Japan’s Black Cat Tango to the Stray Cats, The Cure, and Radiohead.
Cat Simulator Games: The Design Problem of Playing as an Animal With No Hands
How cat games turn paws, movement, and mischief into design: Stray’s contextual jumps, Catlateral Damage’s chaos, and Little Kitty’s talking animals.
Ceiling Cat, Basement Cat, and the Imageboard Religion of Lolcats
How Ceiling Cat, Basement Cat, Caturday, and lolspeak became shared internet folklore, a collaborative Bible parody, and a museum artwork.
The Cat Distribution System: How a Joke Became Internet Folklore
Explore the Cat Distribution System meme, its 2022 popularization, real cat behavior, and why an unexpected feline may already have a home.
Studio Ghibli’s Cats: Catbus, Jiji, and the Baron Explained
Meet Studio Ghibli’s cats, explore their roles in the stories, and discover the directors behind Jiji, the Catbus, and the Baron.
T.S. Eliot’s Practical Cats: How a Poetry Side Project Became Broadway
How Eliot’s cat poems grew from letters into a book, a radio programme, and Cats: the musical, with the real history behind Grizabella and Memory.
Japan’s Cat Islands: How Fishing Villages Became Feline Colonies
Explore Aoshima and Tashirojima through local history, cat care, and the realities behind Japan’s famous cat-island photographs.