People who have allergic reactions to cats have been giving a relatively new company, Allerca, large sums of money so they can take ownership of genetically altered cats that are supposedly hypoallergenic. Problem is, after coughing up $7,000, people are not receiving their mutant cats. Hence, lawsuits are starting to fly.

Long ago, I used to be allergic to cats. The I surrounded myself with cats, buried my face in their fur, suffered for a few days…and oila! My allergies went away after the prolonged exposure and never came back.

From MyCentralJersey:

Andrew Reale, of Warren, has filed suit in the Civil Division of state Superior Court, Somerville, against Allerca, also known as Lifestyle Pets.

In the suit, Reale states he signed a contract with the company on Sept. 11, 2007 to buy the kitten. Reale paid $5,950 for the kitten, plus $1,950 for “premium placement,” which included delivery of the feline in eight months.

According to Allerca’s Web site, the cats are specially bred to produce a genetically engineered protein that will not not cause an allergic reaction in humans.

Allerca told Reale the kitten would be delivered by Sept. 16, 2008, according to the lawsuit.

In response to an e-mail that Reale sent to the company on Nov. 18, 2008, Allerca said the kitten would be delivered on Dec. 6, 2008. Then Allerca said on Dec. 1, 2008 that the kitten would be delivered in January 2009, the lawsuit said.

2,000 British pet owners were polled in a recent survey about their ideal animal companion.

Results were:

49% Dog

35% Cat

9% Horse

7% Rabbit

From Metro:

Pete Markey, who helped conduct the research for insurance firm More Than, said: “This experiment has provided great insight into exactly what it is about their animals people love, both in terms of looks and personality, and it goes to show what a pet-obsessed nation we are.”

I can’t say as I’ve ever given the ‘handedness’ of cats much thought. I just assumed they were ambidextrous, but new research out of Queen’s University reveals a very different story: the overwhelming majority of female cats are dominant with the right paw, whereas male cats prefer you talk to the left paw.

From Discovery News:

The findings also add to a growing body of evidence that male animals tend to be left-handed, or in this case left-pawed, more often than females. While 90 percent of all humans are right-handed, of the remaining southpaws, more tend to be men.

The differences are even clearer among cats.

“Our results suggest that there are two distinct populations of paw preference in the cat that cluster very strongly around the animals’ sex,” Deborah Wells, who led the study, told Discovery News.

At least twice a year the news media covers a story about some strange lady who has been found living in a house with over 100 cats. These reports are full of gruesome details, like how high the cat crap stretches and how many of the poor felines will need to be put down because of disease and neglect. These people who hoard cats have some kind of problem and don’t mean to harm the cats. They always seem to think they are doing the right thing. So what is going on? Why does this happen?

Enter Cat Ladies, a new documentary:

CAT LADIES is a one hour verité documentary that unravels the real story behind the oft-ridiculed ‘cat lady’ – a cultural stereotype and figure of ridicule for women of a certain age with too many furry companions. Through the intimate portrait of four unique ‘cat ladies’ we create a sensitive and emotionally honest portrait of women whose lives and self-worth have become intractably linked to cats.

It’s not the number of cats that defines someone as a ‘cat lady’, but rather their attachment, or non-attachment, to human beings. They create a world with their cats in which they are accepted and in control – a world where they ultimately have value.