They turn heads. They headline social feeds. The breeds capturing search interest right now—namely the Maine Coon, Bengal cat and Savannah cat—are not just pets; they’re statements. But with great beauty comes great responsibility.

By analysing different types of tumours from almost 500 pet cats across five countries, experts at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Ontario Veterinary College in Canada, the University of Bern, and their collaborators, discovered the genetic changes that drive cancer formation in cats and found similarities between these and ones seen in humans.  

Think you know cats? Think again. While often seen as mysterious or hard to read, cats are actually expert communicators—especially when interacting with humans.

In the wild, cats rely on body language, scent, and vocalizations to keep peace in colonies, avoiding unnecessary fights. At home, they’ve adapted these skills to communicate with us. Adult cats rarely meow at each other, but they meow frequently at humans, showing they’ve fine-tuned this vocalization specifically for our benefit. Beyond meows, cats and their favorite humans often develop unique “dialects,” a personal language of gestures, sounds, and behaviors.

As a cat parent, there's no denying that you love your feline friend—but there’s one behavior that can be a little, well, annoying: scratching. Whether it's your favorite couch, the leg of your dining table, or your brand-new rug, your cat's claws seem to have a mind of their own when it comes to where they want to scratch. But before you pull your hair out (or worse, toss out your furniture), let’s talk about how you can redirect this natural behavior to a more suitable target—the scratching post.

The US is in the midst of a powerful winter storm, with much of the state buried under well over a foot of snow, heavy winds, and bitterly cold temperatures that could linger for days. Officials have declared a state of emergency, imposed travel bans, and urged residents to shelter in place as snowfall rates and single-digit temperatures create harsh conditions.