Mews and Nips from around the internet

Welcome to our first 2012 edition of Mews and Nips! We’ll start the year off with some happy news. George, a cat once believed frozen to death at the Edmonton International Airport, was found alive in a nearby town the week before Christmas, three months after he escaped from his kennel in the Air Canada baggage area. He was taken in by the owners of a nearby home. When they went online to see if anyone had posted anything about a missing cat, they came across the Facebook page that had been created for George. Read the full story at CBC News Edmonton.

If you ever need to fly with your cats, you owe it to yourself to read B.J. Bangs’ oustanding article Due Diligence Counts When Flying or Relocating with Your Cat. The article is packed with great information and links to resources that will help keep your cat safe when traveling.

Life with Cats reports the story of a mother cat who saved the lives of her dangerously sick kittens after giving them an emergency blood transfusion at a hospital run by UK animal charity The Blue Cross. Mom and her two four-week old kittens were rushed to the animal charity’s hospital in Merton, south London, after they became seriously ill in the days before Christmas. There was no guarantee that the transfusion would save the kittens’ lives, but after five days of intensive care, the kittens and their mother were allowed to return home to their relieved owner. Read the full story on Life with Cats.

Health professionals and researchers are finding increasing evidence that living with cats is good for our health. Anyone who reads this blog already knows this, but I thought you’d enjoy an article I came across listing 17 Health Benefits of Owning a Cat. One that may come as a surprise to many is that living with a cat can actually decrease the chance of developing allergies. There are some studies that show that newborns that live with animals are less likely to develop allergies.

Don’t forget to tune in to Animal Planet tonight at 8pm Eastern for the premiere of Season 2 of My Cat From Hell! You can find out more about the show in last week’s exclusive interview with Jackson Galaxy. If you’re on Twitter, Jackson will be tweeting live during the show @JacksonGalaxy. Use hashtags #MyCatFromHell or #TeamCatMojo to follow the conversation.

Today’s video comes with a major cuteness alert – watch at your own risk!

Have a great weekend!

Photo sources: photo of George from CBS News Edmonton, photo of mom with kittens from Life with Cats, photo of white cat Wikipedia Commons