Friday the 13th Unlucky for Local Black Cat

Last Friday the 13th, while other black kitties were out crossing humans' paths and giving them seven years of bad luck, I was in the kitty prison, otherwise known as the Wichita Cat Hospital. Nehad had just spent two days de-furring his place so he went on strike.

As usual I hissed at all the other cats, and they had to cover my cell with a blanket because I kept howling.

After mom bailed me out, the vet gave me a prescription for Prozac, which isn't half bad. I make mom give it to me in tuna juice. She thought she could put it in kitty treats, but I smelled it. I'm so much smarter than her. So now I get fresh fish every night. Mom is complaining about the cost of human tuna, but I think if she's going to dope up her sweet little kitty, she better give me the best.

It's all good though. I sat down with my calculator and figured out how many years of bad luck mom is going to have. Since I've been crossing her path many times a day for a whole year, by my calculations, she's looking at about 500 years. My work is done.

Abnormally mellow,
Sasha

Cats de-mousing Russian museum

Here's an interesting article about museum guardcats. http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/08/21/museum.mousers.ap/index.html

Russians apparently know how to treat cats.

Meow,
Sasha

Very productive weekend

Well, this weekend I successfully impaired mom's ability to do her homework by constantly bugging her, sticking my bum in her face while she attempted to type, stepping on her keyboard, etc.

I managed to swipe some pizza toppings while mum left her pizza slice unattended. I just love onions and bell peppers.

Mom was happy because Grandma Meredith sent her a box of bling-bling. Ever since she became a bellydancer, she's gotten even more attracted to shiny things, so everytime I turn around, she's got a new rhinestone something or other. She actually found a place that sells kitty bling-bling, but I won't wear a collar so that's out. She really wanted a personalized rhinestone nametag for me though. Stupid humans, thinking we wear cheap jewelry. Doesn't she know I won't wear anything less than platinum?

I heard a nasty rumor that I was going to be boarded next weekend when mum goes to Oklahoma City. The Cat Hospital is the feline equivalent to Abu Ghirab prison. They poke and prod innocent little kitties with big needles, called "vaccinations" in the hopes that they'll talk.

Well, I better start making my prison shank, in case I have to stab a vet assistant to escape.

Meow,
Sasha

Attack of the Clones

Notice the names of these little kitties. Someone in the company must be Middle Eastern, or at least likes Middle Eastern food. Tabouli is my mum's favorite salad and she forces Nehad to make it all the time.

Mum says she's going to clone me and send my copy back to the cat shelter so that they might experience the joy that is Sasha Louise.

Company Says It Clones Copy CatsThu 5 August, 2004 13:05
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two cloned kittens have been born using a new cloning method that may be safer and more efficient than traditional methods, a U.S. company said on Thursday.
Genetic Savings & Clone promises to clone anyone's pet -- for $50,000 or so -- and started with chief executive officer Lou Hawthorne's own pet cat.
The two kittens, Tabouli and Baba Ganoush, were born to separate surrogate mothers in June, the company said.
Its report was not submitted for the traditional scientific review process and has not been scrutinized by cloning experts.
But the company is less interested in the scientific questions and medical promise of cloning and more interested in its business model -- helping people make copies of their beloved pets.
"These two remarkable kittens should finally put to rest the issue of resemblance between clones and their genetic donors," Hawthorne said in a statement.
"When performed by a skilled team using sufficiently advanced technology, clones resemble their donors to an uncanny degree -- just as we predicted. It's a happy day for our clients."
Some experts have argued that cloning pets is a gamble, as non-genetic factors, such as conditions in the mother's womb, can affect coat color and temperament.
The company used a new method called chromatin transfer, which had been perfected by cloning expert James Robl and colleagues at Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Hematech LLC. Hematech is using the method to clone cattle that produce human antibodies in their milk.
The traditional nuclear transfer method of cloning involves taking the nucleus from a cell of the animal to be cloned, putting it into an egg cell with its own nucleus removed, and then triggering this egg into growing as if it had been fertilized.
It is not efficient -- most eggs die -- and many animals are born deformed.
Chromatin transfer aims to produce a cloned embryo that more closely resembles a normal embryo.
It involves dissolving the outside of the nucleus of the cell to be cloned and removing certain regulatory proteins from the chromosomes, which carry the genes, and the proteins around the chromosomes.
This entire cell with its permeable nucleus is fused to an egg cell to create the clone.
Genetic Savings & Clone said it has tried the method to duplicate Tahini, a 1-year-old female Bengal cat belonging to Hawthrone. Bengals are specially bred crosses of Asian Leopard Cats and domestic cats.
The company has contracted to produce five more clones for clients by the end of the year.