cats

LOS ANGELES: Taylor Swift has been cast in a big screen version of the stage musical “Cats,” in what will be the pop singer’s biggest movie role so far, entertainment publications Variety and the Hollywood Reporter said on Friday. The 28-year-old “Look What You Made Me Do” singer will join Oscar-winning singer and actress Jennifer Hudson, talk show host James Corden and veteran British actor Ian McKellen in the movie, the publications said. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats,” based on a book of poems by T.S. Eliot, was…

The two greatest things in the life are food and cats. And when they come together, something magical happens. Take the Instagram account, Cats in Food, for example. Founder Ksenia photoshops cats and food together and the results are really something special. Black cat Oreos. Feline wantons. Kittie burritos. Some of them are mega obvious and others are more a spot-the-cat-in-the-bowl-of-food. And even better, all these cats are actual personas on Instagram, so if you like the look of, say, a cookie cat, you can then…

ISTANBUL: In Istanbul’s narrow backstreets, cats perch on rooftops and window sills, crouch on doorsteps and rest on nearly every corner. Whether lounging in sunlight, grooming themselves or scampering into shops in search of food, cats have become an inseparable part of neighborhood life in Europe’s biggest city. They are so ubiquitous that no one bats an eye at a cat padding across the lobby of a high-rise office building, or when one curls up to sleep on a nearby barstool. Shop owners and locals often know their…

SYDNEY: Feral and pet cats kill more than one million birds in Australia every day, new research showed Wednesday, with the staggering slaughter driving the decline of many species. The study, published in the journal Biological Conversation, estimated that wild cats wiped out 316 million every year, while pets killed 61 million annually. "Everyone knows that cats kill birds, but this study shows that, at a national level, the amount of predation is staggering," said lead researcher John Woinarski from Charles Darwin…

OGAKI, Japan: A Japanese civic group teamed up with a railway operator on Sunday to let some 30 cats roam on a local train at an event, hoping it will raise awareness of the culling of stray cats. Passengers on a local train in Ogaki, in central Japan, were greeted by meowing companions on a moving train, where some passengers mingled with the felines while others enjoyed lunch. “I think it’s great more people are aware about stray kittens through events like this,” said Mikiko Hayashi, a passenger from western Japan,…

LONDON: Having a pet dog or cat more than doubles the odds that humans will find a tick on themselves, and that could raise the risk of contracting tick-borne diseases like Lyme, researchers say. “Ticks can transmit disease to people and their pets, particularly in the warmer months when they are most active,” said lead study author Erin Jones of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in Baltimore. Jones’ team analyzed data collected by a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiative called…

LOS ANGELES: More than 60 dogs gave cats a rest and instead chased waves during the eighth annual Surf City Surf Dog competition at Huntington Beach near Los Angeles.