Lil Bub

One of the OG internet-famous kitties, Lil Bub hails from Indiana and is recognized by her distinctive features, including a shortened lower jaw, dwarfism, and extra toes. Born in 2011, she was the only kitten in her litter to survive. Her physical differences give her a permanently curious, wide-eyed, and kitten-like appearance that captures hearts.

Despite health issues, Lil Bub’s online videos and pics depicting her enjoying life inspire many fans. She promotes awareness and funds for special needs pets. Over 2 million Instagram followers enjoy keeping up with her adventures. Even after retiring from public appearances in 2019 due to health decline, this senior kitty remains a top cute internet cat today.

Suki Cat

This Scottish Fold cat from Canada has earned over 800k Instagram followers. Suki’s blue-grey soft, fluffy fur blends beautifully with her large round copper eyes and adorably folded ears. Her owner posts regular pics of Suki in cute poses and outfits.

One especially popular theme features her snuggled in miniature doll beds and rooms. Clever captions from Suki’s perspective entertain fans as much as the heartwarming pics. This well-dressed feline definitely qualifies as one of the internet’s cutest cats.

Venus the Two-Faced Cat

Hailing from North Carolina, Venus has an unusual split facial fur coloration: half ginger tabby and half jet black with a mustache. She was born part of a feral colony in 2020. Her heterochromia and chimerism grabbed attention across social media as a Janus cat – named for the Roman two-faced god statue.

Despite her anomaly, Venus lives a completely normal, healthy life following her rescue. Her “yinyang face” instantly draws in over 575k TikTok followers and 264k Instagram fans eager to see the latest photos showcasing her unique features. Videos of Venus chilling in cute poses or playing happily highlight her character beyond her striking looks.

Snoozy Cats

These senior rescue cats from Israel find internet fame capturing adorable cat naps in anthropomorphic poses. Alon, Amira and Alfie range from ages 11-18. Their owner created social media accounts in 2019 to share their softer side in retirement.

Over 159k Instagram followers swoon over photos depicting these grey-muzzled sleepyheads curled up together in baskets, miniature couches and beds tailored just for their naps. Clever captions add imaginative details about their dreams. This trio proves senior cats deserve just as much virality for their cute content.

Smush and Pancake – Box Loving Cats

Housed together in Canada, these brother-sister tabby pair measure their small statures against various cardboard boxes in their iconic social media photos. Born in spring 2020 with genetic dwarfism, tiny 4-year-olds Smush and Pancake only weigh about 2.3 kg each at full growth. Their stumpy legs and close sitting positions earned them the monikers “loaf cats.”

Over 234k TikTok fans and 171k Instagram followers tune in to enjoy their silly box antics and adorable loafing. Despite their perpetual kitten-like size, these two live fully enriched lives controlling their cardboard box kingdom one nap at a time.

Tora – Waving Lucky Cat

A Japanese lucky waving cat figurine inspired this 2012 orange tabby’s silly online fame. Owner Hsin Yu posts TikTok videos capturing beloved pet Tora flawlessly posed behind clear glass or plastic floor spaces “pretending” to be a waving lucky cat statue.

With clever editing tricks, it appears as if the friendly feline waves continuously to grant good fortune upon 840k smiling TikTok followers. Tora’s convincing performances and playful personality net an average of over 140k TikTok loves per viral video post.

These remarkable internet-famous felines represent only a small sampling of the growing number of cute cats capturing hearts online right now in 2024 and beyond. From their silly antics to their unique features and endearing personalities, cute cat content continues trending hugely across today’s inter-connected world.

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Within the bodies of all mammals, a complex network of glands (the endocrine system) is responsible for the production and secretion of special proteins and lipids (fats) called hormones. In turn, these hormones serve to regulate many vital functions within the body, from growth and development to digestion and utilization of nutrients. Like the nervous …

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The nervous system involves a complex interaction between special elements designed to originate or carry unique electrochemical charges to and from the various organs within the body. Like its endocrine counterpart, the nervous system initiates and regulates bodily functions and ensures its owner of an awareness to the surrounding environment. Anatomy and Physiology The smallest …

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The musculoskeletal system in mammals is responsible for locomotion, plus support and protection of vital internal organs. The components of this system include muscles, bones, and a variety of supportive structures, including ligaments, tendons, and cartilage. Disorders of the musculoskeletal system can be quite debilitating to a dog or cat and be accompanied by a …

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The sense of hearing in the average cat is much more fine-tuned than that of a human, allowing it to detect much higher sound pitches. The upper range of hearing is thought to be around 60,000 kilohertz for cats, well above the 20,000-kilohertz norm for people. Anatomy and Physiology The feline hearing apparatus can be …

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The skin, or integument, functions to protect the body from outside foreign invaders and from water loss. It provides a focus for the sense of touch and assists in the regulation of the temperature within the body. In addition, special modifications of the skin, such as claws and pads, provide a means of traction and …

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The question about what to do with the female cat that is accidentally bred is not an easy one to answer. In the old days, all that a pet owner needed to do was to take her in to the veterinarian for a “mismating” shot or pill. What these treatments consisted of were formulations of …

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Diseases and conditions involving the reproductive tract tend to be either infectious or anatomical in nature. Prompt medical attention is warranted in any disorder involving the reproductive tract. Anatomy and Physiology The Male Reproductive System Starting with the male cat, the major parts of the reproductive system include the testicles (with associated epididymis and ductus …

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In the normal, day-to-day functioning of the body, lots of waste material is formed as a result of metabolic activity. It is the function of the urinary system to handle and to rid the body of these waste products. In addition, through its ability to dilute or concentrate the urine, it serves to regulate fluid …

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The digestive system of the cat is made up of a collective network of organs designed to supply the body with the nutrition it needs for growth, maintenance, and repair. It also functions to rid the body of waste. Because of this, diseases involving the digestive system can have a profound effect not only on …

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Nasopharyngeal polyps are benign, pendulous masses that are associated with chronic ear infections in cats. These polyps normally arise within the throat region and extend into the latter part of the nasal cavity. They may grow to significant sizes and actually interfere with the normal flow of air into the trachea and respiratory airways, causing …

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While black cats are tied to Halloween, black magic and misfortune, there’s significantly more to them than unpleasant stuff. Learn more about them, how they became Halloween symbols, the places where they bring luck, and how their qualities may, at some point, help prevent disease in people.

Witches Best Friends?

Dark felines are quintessential Halloween symbols—and one of the top choices when it comes to party costumes—yet do you know how they got such a scary rap?

Starting in the Middle Ages, black cats were thought to be related with Satan, witches, and black magic; a few people ventured to such an extreme as to say that dark felines were accomplices to witches or even witches who shapeshifted. This wide-spread superstition resulted in terrible mass killing of black cats—and sometimes their masters.

Beside the fact they’re still tied to spooky things, black cats are still feared today. Many shelters won’t place dark cats in homes during October so they’re not used for sacrificial purposes.

Dark Cats Can Help Your Love Life

Disregard the cliché portrayal of the perpetually single cat lady. There are places in the world, where it’s believed that black cats will enhance your love life. Just use your lint roller before going out on a date.

In Japan, for instance, single ladies who have black cats are believed to pull in more partners. In Great Britain’s English Midlands, a black cat is the perfect wedding present— they’re believed to bring good luck and happiness to the bride

Black Cats Will Bring You Luck

Not only can black cats better your love life, but they can amp up your good luck and improve your finances, too.

Historically, sailors brought cats aboard ships to hunt mice—and, presumably, for companionship—but British sailors believed a black cat would bring the ship good luck and ensure a safe return home.

It was a little more complicated for pirates, though. They believed a black cat walking toward you was bad luck; a black cat walking away from you was good luck; and if a cat boarded the ship, then jumped off, the ship was going to sink.

For those of us not in a maritime profession, a black cat arriving at your doorstep signals prosperity (a common belief in Scotland) and a black cat crossing your path signals good luck (in England and Ireland).

Dark Cats Can Resist Disease

Put your lab coat and goggles on: Researchers at the National Institutes of Health discovered that the genetic mutations that cause cats to have black coats may offer them some protection from diseases. In fact, the mutations affect the same genes that offer HIV resistance to humans.

Since cats can experience many of the same health issues as we do—cancer, HIV and Alzheimer’s, to name a few—they make purrfect models for studying human disease. By figuring out how cats have evolved to resist diseases, researchers can, potentially, learn how to prevent disease in humans as well.

Black Cats Can Rust

Okay, so they don’t actually rust like a tin can or bike, but if your black cat has a tabby stripe gene and loves to spend his days lounging in the sun, his fur can turn a rusty brown color. Why? The sun’s rays break down the pigment in their fur to reveal the underlying tabby stripes.

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Friendly and attentive, this fine-boned cat is playful and energetic and has an attractive ticked coat. Named after its native…

This affectionate cat has a beautiful coat and a steady temperament that makes it an excellent pet for anyone. The…

A loyal and loving pet, this slinky, graceful cat is curious, full of energy, and needs space to play and…

A desert cat that is well adapted to home life, this breed is active and curious and retains its natural…

This strikingly patterned cat, with an alert expression and royal bearing, is the only naturally spotted domestic breed. This cat…

A newcomer on the pedigree cat scene, this rare and enigmatic cat is active, friendly, and easy to maintain. First…

This little-known breed is affectionate and easygoing with people, especially if socialized from an early age. The history of the…

The mingled colors in this cat’s coat give the breed an unusual marbled appearance. In a tortoiseshell (tortie), two coat…

This delicately colored cat with a sparkle to its coat is loving and enjoys being around children and other pets.…

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When they arrived at ports of call, many of these burgeoning cat families simply jumped ship, or were perhaps traded with local communities, while others accompanied pioneering settlers into the interior of the New World.

In the opposite direction, cats headed for Australia on convict ships and alongside colonists. There is a possibly apocryphal story that the first cats to reach Australia were in fact survivors of a Dutch shipwreck in the mid-17th century.

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For more than two millennia, domestic cats remained almost entirely exclusive to Egypt. Here, they became so revered that their export to other countries was, in theory at least, strictly banned.

But, with their strongly independent natures, domesticated or at least semi-domesticated Egyptian cats most likely drifted away into other regions. They are thought to have roamed along the trade routes of the Mediterranean, reaching Greece, the region that is now Iraq, and possibly even Europe.

Out of Egypt

When domestic cats first started their world travels in any significant numbers, which seems to have been around 2,500 years ago, their main exit route from the Fertile Crescent, and Egypt in particular, was via the ships of the Phoenicians.

It is speculated that this nation of seafarers and colonizers, who for centuries dominated maritime trade in the eastern Mediterranean, may in fact have started transporting cats, tame or otherwise, at a much earlier date.

The cats of ancient Egypt were valuable commodities. The Phoenicians acquired them—perhaps through barter or by smuggling them on board, or even as stowaways—and carried them for sale or exchange on their commercial voyages along the sea routes to Spain, Italy, and the Mediterranean islands.

Later, when the Silk Road opened up communications between Asia and Europe, cats went both east and west with merchant adventurers.

The ancient Egyptians themselves may have perhaps presented some of their cats as prestigious gifts to Chinese emperors or to the Romans, who were becoming increasingly powerful in northern Africa. After domestic cats reached Rome, the advance of the Roman Empire carried them even farther throughout Western Europe.

By the end of the Roman Empire, cats were probably widespread in Britain, where they were to enjoy hundreds of years of peaceful coexistence with people until they fell out of favor in the Middle Ages.

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Our relationship with cats reaches back thousands of years, although compared to the domestication of other animals, that of the cat was a somewhat random process. For example, people readily appreciated the advantages of owning horses, cattle, and dogs, because they could be turned to practical use.

Through selection of the best specimens and careful breeding for certain traits, such animals were developed for specific purposes and became even more useful. When the first cats wandered in from the wild—because it suited them to live in close proximity to human settlements—they proved their worth as vermin hunters, but they were most probably not otherwise seen as valuable assets.

A cat did not provide substantial amounts of meat for food, and although it could be tamed and become accustomed to handling, it could not be trained to obey orders or perform tasks on demand. In the early history of the cat there are no obvious attempts at deliberate selection for quality or to “improve” behavior or appearance.

In fact, the first true house cats probably selected themselves, when some learned to trust people more easily than others and felt secure enough to rear their kittens under a roof shared with humans.

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For a long period, Western artists struggled, and largely failed, to capture the elusive nature of felines in drawings and paintings. It was Eastern art that led the way in portraying cats as they really are. In modern times, interpretations of the cat are as broad as artists’ imaginations.

One of the least popular domestic animals in the Middle Ages in Europe, because of its association with wickedness, the cat was poorly represented in European art until the beginning of the modern age.

A few early images of cats are found in medieval carvings in churches and cathedrals, where they can be seen preying on rats and mice around galleries or on misericords. Some of the most beautiful cat illustrations of the Middle Ages occur in bestiaries, illuminated manuscripts describing animals both real and fantastic.

These texts were not medieval field guides but were used to teach moral principles rather than natural history. Cats also turn up in the illustrated margins of medieval Psalters (books of psalms) and books of hours (prayer books).

Renaissance details

The great artists of the Renaissance occasionally included cats as a minor detail in their work. In the triptych Garden of Earthly Delights painted by Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450–1516), a spotted cat carrying a rat in its mouth can be found among the crowded allegorical scenes.

In another of Bosch’s works, The Temptation of St. Anthony, a cat emerges from beneath some drapery to seize a fish. With its gaping mouth and long, pointed ears, this animal looks more like a small demon than a cat.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was fascinated by the ways in which animals moved—in a sheet of drawings of various animals (including a small dragon), he sketched cats playing, fighting, washing, stalking, and sleeping. Leonardo also added a cat to his drawing of the Virgin and Child, possibly a study for an intended painting. Here, the infant Christ, seated on his mother’s lap, clutches a cat that is doing its best to struggle free.

The cat in medieval religious paintings—perhaps lurking behind a chair leg or hiding under a table—is usually interpreted as a symbol of sin, such as lust, deceitfulness, and heresy. However, viewing these pictures with a modern eye, it is difficult not to suppose that the artists might have included them simply because cats were a normal part of any domestic scene.

Even if they were not regarded with any particular affection, they were readily available as models. Certainly, the cat romping round an urn in The Wedding at Cana, a painting by the Venetian Paolo Veronese (1528–88) based on one of the miracles of Christ, looks merely playful rather than wicked.

Caring for the Sick (c.1440), a fresco by Domenico di Bartolo, is typical of Renaissance paintings in which cats appear as minor figures. Here, doctors and patients in the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena ignore an imminent cat-and-dog fight.

Feline companions

By the 18th century, cats were beginning to gain ground as house pets rather than as just catchers of vermin. As a popular subject for portraits, they still trailed a long way behind dogs and horses, but were given at least passing attention by some of the major artists of the day, particularly in England.

William Hogarth (1697–1764) included a family tabby in his portrait The Graham Children, and in one of his London street scenes a pair of fighting cats, strung up by their tails from a lamppost, are a reminder of the cruelty that was then casually accepted.

George Morland (1763–1804), who specialized in rustic scenes, painted his own, clearly well fed, cat; and the kitten portrayed by master animal painter George Stubbs (1724–1806) is much in demand as a reproduction in the 21st century.

In France, Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806), whose work was much favored among the upper classes, sometimes found cats useful as accessories in portraits of young women.

The 18th century also saw a proliferation of cats in run-of-the-mill portraits by lesser known artists. These cats were often the companions of children, and in scenes intended to be humorous were shown suffering such indignities as being dressed up in dolls’ clothes or made to dance.

Fluffy snow-white cats, similar to today’s Angoras, seem to have been among the most popular models. In the majority of such portraits, although the cats’ fur and features are rendered competently enough, the subtleties of feline character and movement have clearly eluded the artists. The animals remain strangely static and have neither grace nor beauty.

Eastern expression

Cats have been important in Eastern art for centuries. Generally treated with great respect in Asia, even throughout the periods when they were disliked and mistrusted elsewhere, cats began to be depicted with sympathy and understanding much earlier in the East than in the West.

Some of the most exquisite cat paintings and prints are those by the artists of 18th- and 19th-century Japan. Executed with the lightest of touches in watercolors on silk and parchment, or printed from woodblocks, these Japanese cats play amid flowers, bat at toys with their paws, get up to mischief, and are petted or scolded by beautiful women.

Awake or asleep, they are very real animals, expressing all the natural feline liveliness and mystique so lacking in European art of the same period.

Impressionist cats

From about the middle of the 19th century, artists began to look at cats differently, concentrating more on character than fur and whiskers and bringing the animals to life. One of the most celebrated artists of the French Impressionist movement, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), successfully painted cats many times.

Despite most of his subjects looking distinctly drowsy—like the tabby in Sleeping Cat—Renoir’s cats still manage to convey the unmistakable self-possession that comes naturally to all felines. Another French artist, Edouard Manet (1832–83), whose work contained elements of both Impressionism and Realism, put his own cat into some of his paintings.

This comfortable cat, the epitome of respectability, is seen, for instance, in La femme au chat, a portrait of Manet’s wife. However, the black cat in Manet’s Olympia, a painting that scandalized the public when first shown in 1863, is part of a very different picture. Standing uneasily with arched back at the feet of a reclining and naked prostitute, it suggests a return to the depiction of cats as a symbol of lust.

As the 19th century moved into its last decades and the post-Impressionist movement gathered momentum, artists continued to be beguiled by the charm and character of cats. Their interpretations were highly individual, although some well-known cat paintings are conventional enough, such as the delightful Mimi et son chat by Paul Gauguin (1846–1903) in which a chubby toddler plays with a ginger and white cat

The cats painted by Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) were mostly big ones—wild-eyed lions and tigers inhabiting exotic, dream world jungles. But Rousseau’s subjects also included more homey animals, such as the stolid looking pet tabbies in The Tiger Cat and Portrait of Pierre Loti.

The powerful geometric lines and vivid colors of Expressionist artist Franz Marc’s cats are repeated in the background, making an inseparable whole. Bold and dramatic, the painting is a startling portrayal of the endless variations of feline form and movement.

Modern felines

By the beginning of the 20th century, cats in art saw an even more dramatic change in style. There is nothing reassuringly domestic about The White Cat painted by Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947). This humorously weird creature hunches on exaggeratedly long, stilt like legs, narrowing its eyes to sinister slits.

The German Expressionist painter Franz Marc (1880–1916) superbly captured feline form and movement but using vibrant blues, yellows, and reds and curvy geometric shapes. Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) loved cats and they are a recurring presence in his work, their killer instincts acknowledged in gruesome paintings of cats ripping birds to pieces.

The cat as hunter was a theme explored by other modern artists, including Paul Klee (1879–1940), who made it obvious in Cat and Bird that the stylized cat glaring from the canvas has the thought of a bird very much on its mind.

Andy Warhol (1928–87), leader of the Pop Art movement of the 1960s, was the enthusiastic owner of numerous cats (all apparently sharing the name “Sam”). He was another artist who loved bright colors, and his series of rainbow-tinted cats in various poses, which he painted working from photographs, are among his most popular prints today.

Not all cats in modern art are stylized or unconventional, although some appear in disturbing contexts. For example, the perfectly ordinary cats lolling and prowling around the adolescent girls painted by the French artist Balthus (1908–2001) do much to heighten the erotic atmosphere of the that he called The King of Cats, presenting himself as an arrogantly slouching young man with a massive tabby cat fawning around his legs and a lion-tamer’s whip in handy reach.

But possibly few cat paintings are as unsettling as the one in Girl with Kitten by Lucian Freud (1922 –2011). The girl of the portrait, modeled by Freud’s first wife, Kitty Garman, is rigid with tension and seems to be unaware that she has a stranglehold grip around the neck of her blank-eyed, unresisting kitten.

Alongside such provocative images, “Percy,” the white cat temporarily given that name for the double portrait Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy by David Hockney (born 1937), seems to be in a reassuringly normal situation, perched on Mr. Clark’s lap. However, that has not stopped commentators from attaching symbolic meanings to Percy’s presence, including the age-old suggestion of infidelity.

In 1891 Mrs Kate Johnson, possibly America’s greatest cat enthusiast, commissioned artist Carl Kahler to paint a portrait of some of her 350 cats who all lived in great luxury in her California home.

Poster icons

Paintings and drawings of cats have by no means been confined to mainstream art. Cats have long been a favorite subject for illustrators of ephemera such as posters and greetings cards. One of the most prolific cat artists for the popular market in the late Victorian era was Louis Wain (1860–1939).

His vast output of amusing and fanciful cat and kitten paintings for cards, books, and magazines are still much sought after by collectors. Wain’s best-known work typically features anthropomorphized cats wearing clothes, playing games, and generally enjoying a human-style social life.

Another popular illustrator whose work has endured for over a century was the Swiss painter Theophile Steinlen (1859–1923). He often painted cats and made some exquisite naturalistic sketches, but is most famous for his poster art. Steinlen’s Art Nouveau “Le Chat Noir” advertisement for a 19th-century Parisian nightclub and artists’ salon is a familiar icon on tote bags, postcards, and T-shirts.

21st-century muses

Cats are still acting as artists’ muses in the 21st century. Conventional, kitsch, weird, and whimsical, they appear in paintings, prints, photographs, and videos. Major art galleries devote exhibitions to “cat art” from all centuries. For a modest fee, any cat owner can commission an animal portraitist to immortalize a favorite pet in any chosen style.

Much fun with felines is also provided by an internet craze for digitally altering world-famous paintings to include a cat. Masterpieces “improved” by the addition of a colossally fat ginger cat range from Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus to Salvador Dali’s Dream, in which the surrealist’s leaping, snarling tigers have become something much more benign.

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None of these are considered to be directly ancestral to the cats living today. Saber-toothed cats appeared at the start of the Miocene and survived until about 11,000 years ago, which meant that they would have been known to early humans.

They had impressive, backward curving canine teeth in the upper jaw that were so long—up to 6in (15cm)—they ran down the sides of the lower jaw outside the mouth when it was closed. To be able to use these teeth effectively, saber-toothed cats had an enormous gape—they could open their mouths about 120 degrees.

The “sabers” broke more easily than other teeth because they were so large, but their serrated edges could be used for cutting through tough hide or biting off chunks of flesh.

No one knows why the saber-toothed cats became extinct. Some scientists think a decline in prey led to their demise but there is evidence to refute this. Others suggest that they were unable to compete with the more recently evolved pantherines and cheetahs, with which they latterly coexisted. Certainly, the newer cats were swifter hunters and possessed teeth less vulnerable to breaking.

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Little is known about Proailurus, but fossil remains show that it was not much larger than a domestic cat and had short legs, a long body and tail, and claws that could have been at least partially retracted. It would have been adept at climbing and probably stalked its prey among the trees.

About 20 million years ago, Proailurus, or another species very like it, gave rise to Pseudailurus (“pseudo-cat”), a predator considered to be the first of the true cats. More terrestrial than its predecessor, Pseudailurus had a long, flexible back and hind legs longer than its forelegs. This early cat is important for two reasons. First, it gave rise to three groups of cats.

These comprise the two modern groups—Pantherinae, which includes the big cats, and Felinae, among which are the smaller wild cats and the domestic cat—and also the now extinct saber-toothed cats (Machairodontinae). Second, Pseudailurus was the first cat to migrate to what is now North America by crossing over the Bering land bridge that for a time linked Alaska with Siberia.

In the warmer, drier climate of the Miocene—the epoch following the Oligocene, 23–5.3 million years ago — environmental changes favored the descendants of Pseudailurus. The decline of forest ecosystems and an increase in more open habitats such as grassland allowed hoofed mammals to diversify—and so the cats that hunted them diversified, too.

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