Shortly after the turn of the false millennium, or early in
the year 2000, I was cruising a favored Apple computer forum
and chanced upon the picture you see to your left. That's Frankie,
the progenitor of the Infinite Cat Project, admiring the beauty
of a flower. (Major kudos to Paul Hamilton, owner of Frankie,
for kicking this whole thing off.)
Not long after that another visitor to the same forum beheld
his cat growling at the picture of Frankie and summarily posted
an image of that event. I thought this sequence held promise
and had my own cat, Poozy, join the queue, a progression that
now boasts over 1500 cats.
There's always room at the table for one more kitty. So join
us, won't ye?
Simba
Meet the New Toms, Queens, Kittens, Felines and Felinettes.
And ye olde Infinite
Cat keeps on a-rollin' along. Everyone say hello to our newest
Infinauts: Nemo, Kaylee and Simba.
Welcome one and all!
The thumbnail images for all the kitties on this site are arrayed
in 25-cat groups for the convenience of those who wish to start
elsewhere other than the begining or the end. Choose the group
of your choice and have fun! BTW, if you
don't see "Select a cat group" below it means you
need to install the free Flash plug-in. You can download
it here.
"How Do I Make My Feline Buddy
A Star On the Infinite Cat Project?"
I'll be happy to add your kitty to the ICP but even rinky-dink
web sites like this one have standards to follow, so click
on the link
to the left to check out my minimal mandates and
to get a few good tips on achieving the best Infinite Cat
image.
July 2, 2009: "The
wise man will love; all others will desire." - Afranius
Good News! For the past
several years I've offered a daily cat comic for your
feline amusement, but now they're available
in
our
new and ever-growing Cat
Comics section. Enjoy!
A common problem with laptops is that they tend to get a trifle WARM
after they've been on your lap a while. That's why a friend of mine
developed
the LapCat. It's a thermally insulated barrier featuring tons of
storage space, a protective sleeve for your laptop and, of course,
the cutest little kitten applique on top. Check it out here.
(PS, yes, that's my lap in that picture.)
Moose, my 20-year-old cat, made her last visit to
the vet yesterday. The cause of death was kidney
failure, helped along by a carefully administered
overdose of anesthesia.
Dr. Marc Levine of South Orange, who is well-recommended
by Maplewood Online, said sometimes the best gift
you can give a pet is a good death. I guess that’s
what we did. I will likely second-guess myself, thinking
I should have taken her in more often, before she
started acting sick, but I’m glad we didn’t
put her through too many heroic measures at the end.
We didn’t have to fight with her, or about
her. She took her medicines pretty well. She mercifully
spared us the conversation I had been dreading with
my husband over one simple question: Do you put a
terminally ill cat down when she is perfectly companionable
and warms your lap for hours a day, but seems to
have forgotten where the potty box is? Worded otherwise,
is her quality of life high enough to excuse a house
that smells like, well, sick cat?
I almost wish I had let her outside during those
last six weeks, like one commenter, Harry, did when
his cat was deemed “terminal.” But I
didn’t want her running off and getting hurt
or lost.
In the end, I could tell from Dr. Levine that although
this was our call, it wasn’t very difficult,
at least medically. The level of toxins in her blood “weren’t
compatible with life” six weeks ago, he said,
implying that even if we insisted on making Moose
soldier on, she was basically shutting down.
It is of course hard to explain to my daughter, who
is quite busted up about it, but I suppose it’s
one of those necessary life lessons. That’s
why the preschool had hamsters and fish, instead
of turtles, the teacher once explained. The life
cycle, and its cursed brevity, is as important to
know about as subtraction.
So now we’ll find a place for her in the garden,
maybe under one of those Knockout roses Theresa Burns
says is fool-proof, and she’ll be outside,
and at rest, after a long, well-lived life that gave
our family so much comfort and companionship. I hope
we did the same for her.
Where
Do We
All Come From?
Since
first erecting this web site I was amazed by how many of its
visitors live outside the parochial boundaries of the United
States. Now, thanks to feedjit.com, I have a visual map of the
last 100 visitors to the ICP. Just mouse over the little red
dots on the map to your right for extra details on our foot-traffic.
This is a wonderful tool but it tells me I'm in Arlington, Texas,
rather than Dallas, Texas. But that's close enough.
Not
an ad...
Honest!
Need
a web site that's attractive, fast-loading, Google-friendly
and a great value? Then see my friends at X-Site-D Web Creation.
Tell 'em Mike sent ya!
Sign
of
The Times
If
you're interested in placing a graphic link on your web site
back to the ICP, here's the very thing you're looking for:
Click the
Paypal
link above and
help support the
Infinite Cat
Project
"My Infinite Gratitude"
The following is a list of those who have contributed in
support of the Infinite Cat Project. In lieu of listing
the names
in any intelligent way I decided to post them alphabetically.
It's not a perfect system, as those of you of Polish descent
get the shaft again, but at least it helps me keep the names
straight.
The green colors indicate donations in excess of $10 while
the single listing in orange is for one very exceptional cat
lover. You know who you are and I want to have your children.
I thank you, the cats thank you, and my web host thanks you.
M.
Adam, S. Adams, L. Aimone,
S. Almaguer, G. Ancell,
M. Axtell, A. Bachman,
K. Berenson, H. Bielefeldt,
T. Blassingame, P. Blassingame,
A. Bolt, R. Bruner, J.
Bullas, A. Chiang, M. Cogen, D. Conlin, M. Cracauer, M.
Dawson, J. Delton, T. Devrick, J. Diamond,
T. Dixon, C. Dofer, E. Dorfman,
B. Dutton, E. Fitzpatrick,
B. Fonteboa, E. Foss, B. Friesner, G. Garcia, M. Gordon,
A. Gunn, J. Hamblen, B.
Harper, J. Hays, T. Henry,
D. Herbert, A. Hertz, A. Hilbert, K. Hildebrandt,
A.
Hoger, P.
Houser, V. Huston, , J.
Ikeda, S. Jowett, W. Lee, M.
Lufkin, C. Lewis, M. Knight, K.
MacKenzie, M. Mcgann,
J. McGinnis, M. Mckercher,
S. Melhuish, T. Miles, D.
Morse-Kahn,
A. Neduha, A. Nelson, L. Nevins,
C. O'Brien, A. Ocean,
www.oldamericancentury.org, K. Orman, Pinky
& Bunny,
R. Owens, J. Pavlov, R. Perry, C. Phillips,
H. Pirani, C. Plant, R. Poletto, D.
Rakowski, R. Redman, R. Riitala, M. Ryan,
W. Ryngwelski, D. Sanders, M.
Schluter, H. Sherwood-Taylor, J.
Sokel, S. Somero, M. Stabile, F. Street, J.P.
Thompson, D. Thoms, G. Toland, C. Ullrich,
J. van Luyt, A. Walls, J. Weisenfeld, K.
Welles, B. Wilkinson, J. Williams.
The following merchant
has the Infinite Cat Seal of Approval
