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Getting ready for a big move is tough, especially when you have a cat. Fortunately, this video shows you just how to box up your kitty so you the move to your new house is quick and smooth as possible.

Via I Can Has Cheezburger

This is why the Internet exists. The long march of human progress has finally ended; we have reached our destination. Rest and rejoice in our accomplishments. Then:

1) Take a piece of bread
2) Cut a hole approximately 1 inch larger than your cat’s head. This trips some people up. Remember: the bread has to fit around not just the cat’s head, but it’s ears, too.
3) Gently place the bread around your cat’s head.
4) Take a picture & post it! We love Cat Breading!

Link -via Nerdcore

By killing mice and rats in barns and grain storage areas, cats are vital for keeping those pests in check. In India, Beck said, cats are believed to play a significant role in lessening the amount of grain loss caused by consumption or contamination by rodents. In other words, it may be true that humans feed cats, but without cats, humans would have less food in the first place. [...]

And if the rodent population shot up, this would of course trigger a cascade of other ecological effects. On that same island in New Zealand, for instance, ecologists observed that, as rat numbers increased in the absence of cats, the population of seabirds whose eggs rats preyed upon declined. If the approximately 220 million domestic cats in the world all bit the dust, seabird populations would likely fall worldwide, while the populations of non-cat predators that prey on rats would be expected to increase.

Link -via @AlexisMadrigal | Photo: Flickr user wapico

A cat makes a great listener, and therefore makes a great sidekick for pop culture characters. How well do you know feline sidekicks from movies, and TV? The challenge at today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss is to match 10 kitty sidekicks with the main character he/she goes with. I only got half of them correct. You will do better! Link

But the details of who can purr and who can’t is not so simple. In a review of purring in cats, G. Peters tabulated that 20 of 36 species of cat have been said to purr, including lions, leopards, and other big cats. (As for the other 16, Peters wrote, there is not yet enough information to know whether they purr or not.) The question is whether the noises made by the big cats within the genus Panthera are true purrs — a sound created by moving air modulated by vocal folds as in smaller cats — or are actually different noises that only vaguely sound like purrs.  The “rolling, gurgling growl” female big cats emit while in heat may be a kind of purr, or it may be something else entirely. And, Peters says, big cats might have the ability to purr but simply don’t. Somebody is going to have to make careful, close-up acoustic recordings of these purr-like sounds to better understand how they correspond to purrs of smaller cats, although I imagine finding volunteers for taping tigers in heat is a difficult task.

How much more frightening would it be to try looking down the throat of an actively purring big cat? Still, there is some research on the subject.

In 1989 anatomist M.H. Hast published a study on the larynges of big cats and found that lions, tigers, jaguars, and leopards had “a large pad of fibro-elastic tissue” near the forward portion of their paired vocal folds. (The exception was the snow leopard, a big cat that has never been heard to roar.) These expansions, in addition to the ability of these cats to lower the larynx thanks to the flexibility of the hyoid bone and its attachments, allowed lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars to better transfer the energy required to make loud, low-frequency roars.

So it is possible that the biological differences that allows some big cats to roar has left them unable to purr. Read more about purr research at Laelaps. Link

(Image credit: Brian Switek)

These sleeping positions may be awkward to us, but cats are liquid, so they settle in just fine anywhere. The real reason you should check out this collection of cat pictures is because they are both funny and adorable. Link 

Sure he looks cute, but the toppings are far from evenly spread…and how on earth would you divide it up between your guests? Worst of all, it probably is covered in cat hair.

Link Via My Food Looks Funny

An “image enhancement engineer” explains how he cleans up images of outer space so we can make out the details. His most common challenge? Photobombers. -via Buzzfeed

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We’ve shown videos of the Big Cat Rescue group before, but one thing left out of their usual videos are all the tiny cats and the non-cat species living on the organization’s property.

Via I Can Has Cheezburger

This makes no sense at all, but does that matter when a video has cats and boots and other stuff? It’s even got a catchy chant! Animation by Henry Edmonds, with music by Robert Clouth. -via Buzzfeed

You love movies; you love cats. Put them together, and you have seven delightful movie posters! See the rest at Next Movie. Link -via Buzzfeed

While some people criticize the efforts put into these prosthetics, particularly in species that are not under threat of extinction, it is important to realize that these developments could help save a critical breeding member of an endangered species one day. Additionally, many of these techniques are brand new and by testing them on animals, researchers are developing useful insights to see if they may one day work on humans. If you end up losing a body part and get a bionic replacement twenty years from now, you might just have a cat or dog to thank for your top-of-the-line prosthetic.

Oscar the Cat

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Oscar lost his two rear legs in an accident with a combine harvester. After losing so much blood, his owners were told to expect the worst, but even after he survived the ordeal, their vet warned that cats rarely live happy lives with only two legs. Fortunately, he referred Oscars owners, Kate Allen and Mike Nolan to a veterinary surgeon who specializes in state-of-the-art animal medicine.

After looking at Oscar’s situation, Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick agreed to take on the new patient, surgically fitting him with implants that can eventually be attached to prosthetic paws. The surgery makes Oscar a notable kitty as he is the first cat to ever have prosthetic paws.

While the process was a success, Oscar’s paws haven’t yet been perfected for outdoor use. He has been made to be a house cat for the rest of his life, but really…that’s not all that bad now is it, especially when you consider how he was injured in the first place.

Storm the Dog

The first animal to receive such treatment though was Storm, a Belgian Sheperd, who lost his paw after it became infected with a tumor. The same vet that would later provide Oscar with his bionic paws, Noel Fitzpatrick, was the first to offer this service to any animal and Storm was the perfect candidate. Fitzpatrick says that he hopes his developments can eventually be used to help soldiers returning from Iraq and victims of the July 7^th bombings in London.

Naki’o the Dog

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Earlier this year, Naki’o became the first dog in the world to be fitted with a full set of bionic paws from Orthopets, a leader in the pet prosthetics industry. Far from just helping him walk easier, the paws are so well attached that he can now run and swim just as he did before the accident. Naki’o lost his paws due to severe frostbite after his previous owners abandoned him to fend for himself throughout the freezing winter in Nebraska. Despite the fact that the poor pup had to crawl on his stomach to move, he still found a loving adoptive family who worked tirelessly to raise the money to get Naki’o the prosthetics he desperately needed. Their efforts paid off as Naki’o is now thrilled to have his bionic paws and is eager to run, jump and fetch with his new family.

Boonie the Goat

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Boonie was a happy little goat, until he got tangled in a rope and broke his leg trying to escape back in 2008. Unfortunately, the break was so bad that his leg had to be amputated. Fortunately, Boonie’s owner cared enough about her little goat to get in touch with Orthopets, the same company that would later help Naki’o. He now happily frolics and forages with his own specially-designed leg.

Coal the Dog

Coal was eight years old in 2008, when his left paw had to be amputated due to cancer. Vets warned that he might have to be put down because his other legs were too weak to carry him. But his loving owner, Reg Walker, refused to accept this fate and instead shelled out more than $15,000 to get Coal his own bionic leg that was completely compatible with Coal’s tissue. The titanium alloy used is specially designed to mimic the dog’s skin so the natural skin and bone will seal with the metal implant without being rejected by the body. Veterinarians involved with the process are hopeful this new technique can be adapted to help bombing victims recover from their traumatic injuries much more quickly and easily.

Fuji the Dolphin

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Fuji was a popular inhabitant at the Okinawa aquarium where she lived…that is, until an unknown disease started eating away at her tail fin. To save her life, veterinarians had to amputate almost all of her tail. Unfortunately, for a dolphin, that is practically a death sentence in itself as it leaves them unable to swim, jump or dive in the water.

Fortunately, the Bridgestone tire company heard about poor Fuji and stepped in with a team of researchers dedicated to helping the little dolphin get back to her old hijinks. They tried design after design, carefully perfecting a prosthetic tail that Fuji would feel comfortable with that would also be strong enough to support her swimming. Eventually, they got it right and now Fuji is back in the limelight where she is most happy, swimming and jumping with a new lease on life.

Winter the Dolphin

Image via crimfants [Flickr]

While Fuji was the first dolphin to receive a prosthetic tail, Winter is certainly the most famous. In fact, after Winter received her prosthetic, a documentary was soon made about her, titled Winter, the Dolphin That Could, and not long after that, Warner Bros made a fictionalized version of the story starring Morgan Freeman, Dolphin Tale.

Just in case you haven’t seen either of the movies though, it all started when the three-month-old dolphin got tangled up in a crab trap line and ended up losing her tail and two vertebrae in the process. Like Fuji, she was left unable to swim. Fortunately, Hanger Orthopedic Group stepped forward to help provide her with a prosthetic. Eventually Winter learned to swim again and become a star attraction at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

Yu Chan the Sea Turtle

Images via Kawamura Gishi

Of course, dolphins aren’t the only critters that rely on their fins to swim. When Yu Chan was discovered without two front flippers, presumably due to a shark attack, the Sea Turtle Association of Japan stepped in to help her out with two prosthetic flippers. Many designs were tested, with the Association hoping to eventually develop fins that could be bionically attached to the animal, as the prosthetics will have to be very sturdy and attached quite tightly if they are to be expected to last throughout the rest of Yu Chan’s life, which could go on another 50 years.

Not only is the rescue a big deal for Yu Chan, but also for sea turtle enthusiasts throughout the world, as only one other sea turtle was ever fitted with a false flipper, but the attempt failed after her stump proved too small to hold the prosthetic.

Beauty the Eagle

Beauty lost her top beak due to a reckless poacher. She had difficulty preening her feathers, drinking and eating had become practically impossible for her until she was taken to a recovery center in Anchorage.

It took a full three years for researchers to develop a working artificial beak that would help her grasp food. Even so, the beak pictured isn’t even a permanent solution. This first model was created to help engineers develop more precise measurements for her second prosthetic. While the final beak will fit better and be designed with tougher materials, there are no plans to release Beauty back into the wild, as the team fears she has spent far too much time relying on humans to survive on her own again.

Motala the Elephant

Motala made headlines in 1999 when the Thai elephant lost her foot after stepping on a landmine. While vets were able to save most of her leg, it still was left shorter than the others. It took researchers six years to develop a prosthetic that would work for the pachyderm. She then had to use a temporary prosthetic made with wood shaving for another eight months until she became strong enough to be fitted with the permanent one made with fiberglass and silicone. That’s because poor Motala became so used to not using that leg that she had to become reaccustomed to walking with it.

Of course, there are plenty more animal prosthetic stories out there. In fact, while this article focuses on the newest and most high-tech versions, I’m sure many of you know an animal that has been fitted with a prosthetic of one kind or another. If you have any of your own stories, feel free to share them in the comments.

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Is triple Maru too much to handle?

Lulu hates cats that hide inside singing birthday cards. Be sure to watch until the end to see how passionate is her animosity.

-via Johnny Cat

Eagles love to perch outside of YouTube user pla1554alaska’s home. So do her cats, Gizmo and Suitcase. They’ve all managed to get along, even hang out within inches of each other.

-via Althouse

The cats from Kagonekoshiro (Basket Cat Blog) are ready for a holiday party! Which will keep their hat on the longest? My money is on Shiro -not only because he’s the most patient and balanced cat ever, but also because I’ve watched the video. -via Buzzfeed

Cats get a bad rap for not getting in to the the holiday spirit, but plenty of felines do have a soft spot for the holiday. In fact, BuzzFeed has a great collection of pictures of kitties celebrating Christmas. From cats climbing Christmas trees to kittens playing with presents, the pictures are all simply adorable.

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While that headline could be used for an article about modern-day Scrooges, I meant it quite literally. This fat kitty hates being dressed as Santa and its reactions are quite funny.

Via BuzzFeed

Now, here’s a year-end list we can get behind! They didn’t change the world, and they’re not technically all from 2011, but those are little things we can overlook while enjoying some sweet, funny, and crazy cat videos and pictures. Take a guess as to where Shiro, the chill cat in the middle shown here was ranked. Link -via the Presurfer

Tomomi Imura combined HyperText Transfer Protocol status messages with some of the Web’s funniest cat pictures. View the whole set at the link. I’ve never encountered a 418 error, but now I really want to.

Link -via Boing Boing

Since the death of his 94-year-old mistress last month, he has become a property magnate — or perhaps mognate — with flats and houses worth an estimated €10m scattered from Milan in the north to Calabria in the south.

In a handwritten will, signed on 26 November, 2009, Tommaso’s mistress — the childless widow of a successful builder — gave her lawyers the task of identifying “the animal welfare body or association to which to leave the inheritance and the task of looking after the cat Tommaso”.

Link -via Dave Barry | Photo of a different cat via Flickr user Willie Lunchmeat

GIFs of cats, much like their cousins the LOLCats, have taken the interwebs by storm with their furry animated antics, and if you’re a compulsive collector like me, then the massive collection of 50 cat GIFs over at BuzzFeed will feel like Christmas has come early. Right click, save, then share with someone who needs a smile.

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Humans love to hold a warm, furry cat in their arms or in their laps (with some exceptions, of course) but humans aren’t the only primates who like pets. Monkeys and apes seem to have a similar affinity to cats, as you’ll see in a gallery of cute pictures at Environmental Graffiti. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Salim Virji)

Lori Turnbull’s crocheted Mario and Luigi caps come with elastic bands to help them stay on your cat’s head. As though that would even be necessary! Cats love to wear hats.

Link -via Fashionably Geek

A litter of six Bengal kittens and their mother watch Japanese skater Daisuke Takahashi perform on television. And try to catch him. I was surprised by this, as my cats prefer nature documentaries to sports.  -via Buzzfeed

WebUrbanist has some great animal houses on one of their recent articles, but I have to say my favorite is definitely the fish tank adaptation that allows the fish to swim across the room from one tank to another. Do any of you have similarly cool adaptations at your home?

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Cute Overload reader Claire H. sent in this great picture of her little kitty playing dress up. Before you get too excited about how awesome it is to finally see some female feline empowerment, let me be the first to tell you this kitty’s name is Harold.

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Yeah, Fred the cat answers the phone. But like that roommate you once had, he doesn’t take a message or a callback number. The cat’s human writes:

We first suspected that he answers the phone when my sister called home, “someone” answered and she heard a meow. When she told us we realized that there was no one home at the time. Eventually we got to see it for ourselves and this is the prove that he does it.

People are saying that he does it to stop the sound. Well, that’s exactly what I do too. So let’s call it answering the phone.

-via Ace of Spades HQ

There can be awkward moments when you’re a house guest. But it gets really uncomfortable when you realize that one of the people who lives in the house is a weirdo, as this ad for the Shelter Pet Project illustrates.

Organization Website -via reddit

Heterochromia means eyes that come in two different colors. Complete heterochromia means the color of the left eye is completely different from the color of the right eye. In cats, this most often occurs in white cats or cats that have the white-spotted gene, but can occur in any color of cat. See a collection of beautiful odd-eyed cats at Environmental Graffiti. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user P!XELTREE)

The caption for this picture is priceless:

Hunting pumpkins is one of the most important skills a cheetah will ever learn…

It’s part of a photo series from Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Florida, posted at Cute Overload. Link

(Image credit: Matt Marroit/Busch Gardens)

Confession: sometimes I take Alex’s coffee mug, fill it with coffee from Miss Cellania’s pot, and then leave it on the counter for Miss C to discover. It works every time.

-via Blame It on the Voices

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Who knew big cats were so into pizza?…Or at least the residual smell of it left on the boxes.

Via I Can Has Cheezburger

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This just might be the most literal use of the term ever.

Via BuzzFeed

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It’s always hard to resist Maru, but when he’s up to his antics in slow motion, it makes you want to reach out and grab him for all the cuddles he could handle.

Via ICanHasCheezburger

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It takes a true Harry Potter fan to commission a carpenter to build a nine foot tall cat house that looks just like the Weasley family Burrow. That and a crazy cat lady.

Via BuzzFeed

A kitty in the UK was hit by a car and brought to an animal shelter, but released to the area she was found shortly after, since vets realized she had just had a litter of kittens. Right after she was released, she started howling and the person who brought her back followed her to her litter of kittens, who were severely dehydrated. Thanks to the cat’s quick thinking and the attentiveness of the RSPCA inspector, her kittens were saved and the whole family made a speedy recovery.

Link Via BuzzFeed

Cats doing invisible things are funny enough, but if you know someone who just doesn’t get it, plenty of folks are willing to explain it by Photoshopping the missing props into the pics. The results are not only unnecessary, but pleasingly odd. Link -via Rue The Day

This wouldn’t be nearly as sad if everyone who ever used YouTube couldn’t attest to the fact that it’s totally true.

Link Via Laughing Squid

Does your kitty always want to sleep on your turn table? Then perhaps it’s time to get them their own Cat Scratch -the kitty scratcher for wannabe DJ kitties.

Link Via Laughing Squid

New Scientist produced a new One-Minute Physics animation to explain the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment in a hurry. As if you could explain “collapsed realities” in one minute. Still, it’s a cute cartoon. Link

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Fizz Girl is the world’s shortest cat and while the video doesn’t show nearly enough of her corgi-like proportions, she is simply adorable.

Via BuzzFeed

These days it’s all too common to see celebrities like Paris Hilton trotting through the mall with their precious little puppies in their purse, but just imagine if they were as crazy as Salvador Dali with his pet ocelot or Lord Byron with his pet bear. For more strange celebrity pets, be sure to check out this great Flavorwire article.

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The Jedi Kittens are back! This time, there’s a frantic chase through a trench on the surface of the Death Star (or something approximate) followed by a lightsaber duel.

-via Nerd Bastards

How she got to New York, nearly 1,800 miles away, and the kind of life she lived in the city are mysteries.

But thanks to a microchip implanted when she was a kitten, Willow will be reunited in Colorado with her owners, who had long ago given up hope.[...]

Squires and her husband, Chris, were “shocked and astounded” when they got a call Wednesday from Animal Care & Control, which runs New York City’s animal rescue and shelter system.

Willow had been found on East 20th Street by a man who took her to a shelter.

Link -via Popular Science | Photo: AP

Etsy seller ToScarboroughFair makes utterly adorable hats for kittens, but I think the truly amazing thing about her shop isn’t her extensive collection of fashions, but how great her model is. Visit her shop for more delightful images and inspired hats.

Link Via Laughing Squid

I don’t know about you guys, but I absolutely love all those galleries of pictures taken at the perfect moment and this BuzzFeed collection is definitely a good one -particularly in the cat pictures. This kitty looks like he’s performing a gymnastics routine.

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The macaque restriction factor, TRIMCyp, blocks FIV by attacking and disabling the virus’s outer shield as it tries to invade a cell. The researchers know that works well in a culture dish and want to determine how it will work in vivo. This specific transgenesis (genome modification) approach will not be used directly for treating people with HIV or cats with FIV, but it will help medical and veterinary researchers understand how restriction factors can be used to advance gene therapy for AIDS caused by either virus.

The method for inserting genes into the feline genome is highly efficient, so that virtually all offspring have the genes. And the defense proteins are made throughout the cat’s body. The cats with the protective genes are thriving and have produced kittens whose cells make the proteins, thus proving that the inserted genes remain active in successive generations.

So far there haven’t been negative effects seen in the cats. If time proves that the experiment was safe and without consequences, I have three words: I want one.

Link -via TreeHugger

Last year, the folks at Big Cat Rescue showed us how big cats react to catnip. Here they investigate another burning question: will big cats chase a laser dot the way house cats do? Let’s hide and watch. -via The Daily What

This French telecom ad features lots of kittens! I don’t know what they are saying, but I love the fish vending machine. -via Everlasting Blort