Vet Helps Cat Save Face After Car Mishap

Experimental procedure mimics deer antlers

(NEWSER) - A British cat is up and walking after a first-of-its-kind experimental surgery that could have implications for human medicine, too. Oscar, who lost his back paws in a farm accident, has two prosthetics fitted directly into holes drilled into his bones at the amputation sites. The pegs were coated with a chemical that will encourage bone to grow around them. The effect is designed to mimic the way deer antlers grow through the skin. More»

(NEWSER) - A column suggesting that housecats murder babies out of jealousy has earned the Houston Chronicle a lot of, well, catcalls. It's not true, the paper now reports. “It’s funny that someone would still actually think that is true,” said a veterinarian and SPCA official. “That is a very old wives’ tale that has since been debunked.” Leaving infants unsupervised with any animal is unwise, but cats to not present a homicidal threat. More»

Man arrested after neighbors report screeching, smelling 'awful meat'

(NEWSER) - Disgusted cops in Bakersfield say they've arrested a man on suspicion of cooking and eating cats. Jason Louis Wilmer was charged with animal cruelty and using a pet or domesticated animal for food after neighbors heard cats screeching at his house and called police, AP reports. "I heard a cat cry. It was a weird cry, real loud," a neighbor told KBAK-TV . He said he went outside to peer into Wilmert's backyard, where he saw "a little burner going" and smelled "awful meat." A search of the home turned up evidence that indicated Wilmert "had the intent to use a cat for food," investigators say. "I've never seen anything like this," said a sheriff's spokesman. More»

Jaroslav Felgr's quest to study Toxoplasma gondii

(NEWSER) - Jaroslav Flegr has a theory: Cat poop is rewiring the human brain, including his own. The Prague-based biologist has been pursuing the theory since the early '90s, but he's only recently beginning to garner scientific respect, with some of the biggest names in neurobiology backing him up, the Atlantic reports. The theory revolves around Toxoplasma Gondii, a parasite that lives in cats, and is excreted in their feces. From there it can infect humans, making them briefly sick, but then lying dormant forever more in their brains. Or so conventional wisdom holds. More»

Italy's Tomasso inherits owner's $13.4 million estate, sort of

(NEWSER) - Now that's some serious scratch—Tommaso, a 4-year-old former stray, is now the world's richest cat, the inheritor of $13.4 million worth of properties around Italy, reports the Guardian . Tommaso's rich owner, a 94-year-old childless widow, died last month, leaving her entire estate to her cat. However animals cannot inherit property directly in Italy, so the widow named a cat-loving nurse she met in a park as Tommaso's trustee. "I had no idea the signora had such wealth," said the nurse, identified only as Stefania. More»