Supa Fluffy

Axel, the 43-Pound CatAxel is a real chonker. An absolute unit. He was surrendered to a shelter at 43 pounds! For context, I have three cats that weigh around eight pounds each, and the big orange cat weighs 13 pounds. Axel was definitely overfed at his previous home. The rescue organization Ferdinand and Friends placed him with their director Christina for fostering, and she was worried about all that extra weigh the cat carried. He had trouble hauling himself around, and he suffered from arthritis due to the stress on his bones. They had to get special equipment for him, including scales! But Axel is well on his way to a healthy weight. You can follow his weight loss journey at Instagram and TikTok, where he goes by his stage name Biggie Smalls.If you are dealing with an obese cat, there is help. Axel's Instagram page led me to a guide for helping your cat get trim and fit. 

An Appreciation of MuttsFame and fortune may follow a champion purebred dog at dog shows like Westminster. If your family dog is a purebred, chances are that it was eliminated from such competitions at birth, with a breeder designating it as "pet quality" as opposed to "show quality." They keep those dogs. But what advantage do these champion purebred dogs hold over our beloved pets? Sure, they could win at dog shows, but it comes at a cost. Purebred dogs are bred with other purebred dogs that display the standard attributes of that breed. Over time, this will involve some measure of inbreeding, a situation that tends to protect recessive genes and mutations. This leads to a tendency toward chronic health problems. In mixed-breed dogs (mutts) that mate fairly randomly, these weaknesses appear much less often, and even die out. While they are all good dogs, the "imperfect" mixed breeds tend to be healthier. As a Fark member put it:Gumball is a pure-breed.His father was a dog and his mother was a dog.That makes him pure dog.I couldn't have said it better myself. Read about the advantages that mutts have over show dogs at Time. -via Fark (Image credit: Andrea Arden) 

Should You Train Your Cat to Use a Toilet?One of the bigger considerations when deciding to adopt a pet is taking care of their toileting needs. Dogs will have to be trained and then taken outside often if they are going to live with you, and you must be willing to accommodate them. Cats are bit easier, because they naturally use a litter box, but you still have to clean it. Some folks get around this by training their cat to use a human toilet, especially since the renowned jazz bassist Charles Mingus published his guide for toilet-training your cat in 1972. It takes time and patience, and he ends the instructions with "good luck." But is it a good idea? Maybe for you, since this eliminates the need to clean a litter box, but what does the cat get out of it? There are several reasons that training your cat to do something that is counter-instinctual and against their nature might not be good for your cat's overall quality of life. Dr. Ian Malcolm said it in Jurassic Park: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." Read what training your cat to use a toilet means for the cat at Inverse.(Image credit: Reward) 

The Dedicated Squad of US Army CatsThe Army Building at 39 Whitehall Street in New York was a large building infested with rats and mice in the late 19th century. But there were talented recruits to fight against them, a squad of cats! The New York military cats got a write-up in 1898, at which time they were led by General Weyler, the oldest of the cats, and the troops included Queen Regent, General Blanco, and Alfonso, all named after figures in the news, as the US was involved in the Spanish-American War at the time. The army took bids on the delivery of seven pounds of fresh beef every day for the cats. This daily pound of beef, divided between the cats, kept them healthy and loyal to their duties. If anyone objected to the expense, the cats only cost the government five cents a day, while the rats and mice would otherwise ruin hundreds of dollars in supplies every year. And New York wasn't the only supply depot to recruit cats for pest control purposes. Read about the feline soldiers of the New York Army Building at The Hatching Cat. -via Strange Company

This Swan Lives a Double LifeLola the swan was hatched in a lake in Orlando, Florida. But Lola was the last egg in the nest to hatch, and when the mother and the other cygnets left, she was too young to follow them. If this were a fairy tale, Lola would have joined a family of ducklings and would have been labeled "ugly." At least she would have had a family. Lola's fortunes turned around when a local couple stepped in and volunteered to raise her with the hope of returning her to the lake. That plan didn't work out, and Lola is now a permanent pet. The family had gone above and beyond to give Lola a good life, building her her own house and protected area of the lake to swim in. But Lola prefers to spend her time with her people and the family dog! So Lola, now three years old, spends her days outside and in the lake like a swan, and the evenings inside with her family. She even rides in the car with them! Check out more of Lola at Instagram.

What Your Cat Dreams AboutYou've no doubt seen your cat sleep and make body movements and noises as if they were dreaming. I have two cats that regularly talk in their sleep, mostly humming sounds, and I once caught another one chattering in his sleep. Will we ever know what they are dreaming about? You might be amazed at how well science has figured that out. By recording brain waves during the activities an animal does while awake and comparing them to brain waves recorded during sleep, we can match them up and see what's going on in our critters' dreams. Rats replay the new tasks they've learned that day. Birds sing their songs in their heads while they sleep. Cephalopods practice threat response while they sleep, which sounds like a nightmare. Cats also replay their daytime activities in their sleep, as Savannah Geary of SciShow explains. This video is 6:45; the rest is an ad.