It’s another Feline Friday, so another batch of fine fotos of our feline flock (a flock of cats? Why not?).

Mr. Romeo managed to get injured in another fight. No outward signs, but apparently he got a claw in the face. We didn’t even know it until a small abscess on his forehead started oozing. Poor thing. Out came the hydrogen peroxide and the stand-by antibiotics. Luckily, Romeo is pretty good about letting me get pills down his throat.

I found this photo among my father’s many old pictures. There were two envelopes with dozens of negatives, probably from an old Kodak Brownie camera. I’ve looked through them and, of course, zeroed in on the cat.

This cat is sitting on the steps of my grandmother’s house in Long Beach, California. I don’t really remember if she had a cat, or cats, when I visited there as a kid. But the camera doesn’t lie!

So perhaps I can attribute my affinity for felines to her.

Here’s a bit of advice that came in an email last week.

I follow you on twitter & just saw the post about your kitty’s eyeball.

I took a plant healing class & have used the following remedy on myself and most recently, my dog! If you don’t know what wandering Jew looks like, ask any person who likes to garden – it’s the bane of our existence because it takes over!

Figured this would help alleviate your cat’s misery before you can get it to a vet next time this happens 🙂

Erin

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Paste from a post last week:

Last night my dog messed up his eye. It was swollen, irritated, oozing and he was blinking and pawing at it – generally miserable.

I remembered my native plant class lesson (and double checked my textbook) that the sap of Wandering Jew (hono hono) is great for eye irritation, conjunctivitis, corneal scratches, grit in the eyes, etc.

I grabbed a long stalk from the yard, broke it in a few places & squeezed the sap into pup’s eyeball. The blinking stopped, the pawing stopped & within one hour all of the swelling and irritation was gone. This morning he looks like nothing ever happened.

Works on humans too – my teacher actually showed us in class when a gal showed up with a scratched cornea! I’m going to try this the next time my eyes go nuts from VOG. I put a drop on my eye last night & it felt very nice – the closest thing I can imagine to having your eyeball massaged 🙂

Be sure to wash the plant as not to introduce Rat Lung Worm through the eyeball!

It seems that while we’re used to sports bars, in Tokyo they’re getting into the cat cafe. I caught a little story about Cafe Calico, where visitors pay for the opportunity to sip a cup of tea while interacting with a room of pampered cats. The story is a couple of years old, but worth noting.

Calico is one of at least three cafes that have opened up in Tokyo this year where visitors can mingle with cats as they enjoy a cup of tea.

Takafumi Fukui, the 34-year-old owner and a long-time cat lover, quit his job at a television game company and started the cafe in March.

“In Tokyo, it’s not that easy to have cats,” he said, explaining that tight housing regulations often forbid pets.

Visitors to Calico pay 800 yen ($7) an hour or 2,000 yen for three hours in a big room where 14 well-brushed and shampooed cats hang out. After a thorough handwash, the visitor can play with the cats, read comics or just relax.

If you have trouble visualizing it, here’s a little YouTube video. Actually, there are quite a few of these short videos of the Tokyo cat scene. A growth industry, it seems!

And if you aren’t familiar with the ultimate in cat life, do check out The Cats’ House. It’s another great time waster.