Posted by Hazel C | 1 Comment

Google Translate for Animals

Check out the Google Translate for Animals

Making the world’s information universally accessible is a key goal for Google. Language is one of our biggest challenges so we have targeted our efforts on removing language barriers between the species. We are excited to introduce Translate for Animals, an Android application which we hope will allow us to better understand our animal friends. We’ve always been a pet-friendly company at Google, and we hope that Translate for Animals encourages greater interaction and understanding between animal and human.

Translate for Animals is an application for Android phones that recognises and transcribes words and phrases that are common to a species, like cats for example. To develop Translate for Animals, we worked closely with many of the world’s top language synthesis teams, and with leaders in the field of animal cognitive linguistics, including senior fellows at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

A great addition to the April Fools Day tradition.

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Posted by Hazel C | 2 Comments

Ghost in the night?

For the second night in a row we’ve had a stray cat in the house. He has been visiting us regularly for about a year now, I only ever catch glimpses of him in the garden, a grimy big white cat with black ears and tail.

He mews mournfully as he wanders thru the house late at night and early in the mornings. The night before last at 1am Stole joined in with warning growls on guard duty at the top of the stairs. This morning at 4:30am he must have been in my bedroom from the sound of the meows, I didn’t move, he’s scared of people, just listened to his woeful meows as he wandered off again like a ghost in the night.

This was the cat I saw on the Lane last year when I went looking for Babe. I asked him to send her home if he saw her and a day later she was back home. So now he is welcome to come in the house and help himself to the leftover food.

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Posted by Hazel C | 3 Comments

Is it Spring yet?

I’ve been outside today – there’s a hint of warmth in the sun. Is it Spring?

I decided it was ideal weather to walk around the lawns picking up twigs and as usual I had my little helpers. Danny Mittens and Babe Cattykins love when anyone comes outside to play with them.

I tried to get a photograph of them together but they move too quickly, I got quite a few pictures of just grass. I wish I had a video camera…

No picture of Stole – she was busy indoors sunbathing on a windowsill.

Technorati Tags: Babe Cattykins, danny mittens, photos

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Posted by Hazel C | 8 Comments

Duplex Outdoor Cat House

I think this outdoor cat house is an absolute dream and perfect for a two cat household. Your cats can either have their own rooms or share a large room by removing the slide in partition.

The house is self-assembly and comes with seven predrilled panels.  There are vinyl doors for protection from the weather and a deck and veranda for lounging in the sunshine.

Made from cedar wood which is a natural deterrent to fleas, ticks and termites. Wood is the best insulator known to man and is significantly cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

Technorati Tags: Outdoor Cat House

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Posted by Hazel C | 3 Comments

Oscar, The Grim Reaper

Oscar the cat has the uncanny ability to detect when a patient in a nursing home for dementia is about to die.

The cat, who has lived at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation in Providence, Rhode Island since he was a kitten, normally wanders from room to room. But when a patient is hours from death Oscar remains at their bedside. If he is shut out he will scratch at the door until he is allowed in.

Professor David Dosa wrote about a day in the life of Oscar  in The New England Journal of Medicine claiming that Oscar is the cuddlier, feline equivalent of the Grim Reaper.

Dosa says that Oscar’s presence at the bedside of severely ill patients is viewed by doctors and nurses alike as an almost absolute indicator of impending death.

The tale of Oscar is now available in a new book by Professor Dosa which expands on this compelling story.

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