July 5th is the busiest day of the year at animal shelters — and most of the cats there had homes on July 3rd. Here’s how to keep yours off that list.

He arrived at a Richmond shelter too round to groom his own back — 42 pounds of cat. Three years and 54,000 Facebook followers later, more than half of Patches is gone.

Bengal owners know the shower is not private. You turn the water on, and within seconds a spotted cat is perched on the edge of the tub, one paw testing the spray, fully prepared to climb in with you. Every other cat on earth treats a running faucet like a threat. Your Bengal treats it

George slipped away during a family trip out of state and was gone for two years. Then a clinic hundreds of miles away ran a scanner over the back of his neck — and it beeped.

Cats don’t pant to cool down the way dogs do — so a panting cat isn’t hot, it’s in a medical emergency. Here’s the sign flat-faced cat owners miss, and what to do in the first five minutes.

That stuttering “ekekek” your cat makes at the window isn’t excitement — it’s a kill bite, rehearsed on a bird it can’t reach. And a wild cousin once used the same wiring to lure monkeys.

Most cats are full-grown by their first birthday. A Maine Coon keeps growing for three to five years — which is how the breed produced the longest house cat ever recorded, a 48.5-inch giant named Stewie.

A feral cat slipped into a hole in the basement bathroom and vanished into the walls. Rescuers cut four holes and searched for ten days. When they finally reached Luna after 11 days with no food or water, she bit the hand that saved her — and walked away fine.

He arrived at 43 pounds, too round to walk far. Instead of giving up on him, his Ottawa family built a sanctuary in his name — and helped him lose nearly 20 pounds.