So this new cat, Glacier, is really strange. He runs strange, he eats strange, he looks strange...

Now we've discovered a strange habit- he steals photos and shoes. Glacier has a fascination with this ONE photo of Roommate and Boyfriend that they keep wedged in the mirror above their dresser. He steals it when no one's looking and "buries" it under the bathroom rug. WEIRD!

He also enjoys pulling Boyfriend's shoes under the bed so far that they're hard to reach. Got any ideas what these two habits are about?

And to top off your Friday, a funny video...

LOLs!

From aolhealth.com:

By Deborah Huso

With more than 100 cats living in her home, 65-year-old Diane of Toronto lives in conditions some would describe as squalid. She believes she is saving feral felines from a life on the streets, but has she gone too far?

Chances are you've met or at least heard about someone like Diane, whose pet obsession seems to outweigh every other consideration in life. You may have dismissed the person as a "crazy cat lady" and thought no more about it. On ABC's 20/20,, Elizabeth Vargas interviewed filmmaker Christie Callan-Jones about her latest project, Cat Ladies, which follows the lives of four Toronto women, Diane among them, whose devotion to their felines might strike some as out of control.

Click the video below to watch a clip from 20/20's "Inside the Hidden World of Cat Ladies." Story continues below.

Is there really such a thing as cat addiction, and should people who suffer from it be assigned to therapy?

Naftali Berrill, Ph.D., Director of the New York Center for Neuropsychology and Forensic Behavioral Science doesn't necessarily think so. Berrill says a number of people with schizoid personality disorder (SPD) rely on pets for emotional sustenance. "These may be people who have a very hard time expressing themselves to other people," he explains. "They may find the human need for affection is met most easily through a relationship with a pet."

On the other hand, individuals suffering from schizotypal personality disorder may also exhibit a particular affinity for pets. Schizotypals often prefer social isolation and can demonstrate eccentric behaviors, where pets can sometimes become a substitution for children or family.

Berrill says it's not uncommon for people suffering from depression to be particularly devoted to their pets. And he doesn't think that pet-human connection, no matter how odd it may seem to outsiders, is necessarily something to worry about. "The only time you should worry is if the person stops being functional, is spending money on the pets they should be spending on themselves, is living in unsanitary conditions, or the pets are reproducing uncontrollably." In those instances, Berrill says the individual might benefit from therapy to examine how they are or aren't getting their emotional needs met.

"Everything else," he adds, "is a matter of personal taste."

Berrill cautions people against being too quick to judge, pointing out that pets can often be a person's only source of unconditional love. "Think about elderly or infirm people," he says. "A pet may be the thing that makes the difference to them. There are two sides to this coin."

Watch a clip from 20/20's Cat Ladies: Why They Do It here.

From pawnation.com; by Jo Piazza:

A 10-year-old Russian Blue named Carmen terrorized her owners in their own home in New York City for a half an hour on Saturday before police arrived and were able to calm the animal down. The cat's owner, Rosa Davila, believes that her cat's violent behavior is due to a medical condition.

The 16-pound cat began making strange noises and suddenly launched herself at Davila's 27-year-old son Victor. Rosa and Victor hid in the apartment's bedroom while Rosa called 911 and asked them to rescue her family from the upset kitty.

Hordes of police officers arrived at the apartment expecting to find a wild cat -- and were surprised to find the portly Russian Blue instead. Carmen was coaxed into a cat carrier and taken to Manhattan's Animal Care and Control center where she may be available for adoption after she is evaluated.

Davila told the New York Post that Carmen was diagnosed as borderline diabetic with a thyroid condition; she wanted to be fed every five minutes and she was rapidly gaining weight. Davila was unable to afford proper medical treatment for Carmen and she believes that her disorder led her to become violent.

Really? I get it that cats can bite and scratch and that makes us a little scary, but next time- rather than call the police on your cat- how about get the comforter off your bed and throw it on top of the little ball of fur. Use it to carefully pick him up and put kitty in his own room while he calms down. If perfect strangers were able to coax the cat into a carrier, his owners should've been able to.

What do you think?

From pawnation.com, by Kirsten Taylor:

Move over, James Bond. The latest secret agent is a cat -- actually, 50 of them.

Purina Friskies recently undertook a brilliant study to find out what cats do all day when they're home alone. They fitted 50 indoor cats with collar cameras to get a cat's eye view of the world.

The digital cat-cams snapped a still photo every 15 minutes. By combing through the piles of photos, Purina animal behavior scientist Dr. Jill Villarreal was able to draw some surprising new conclusions about how our kitties fare when they're left to their own devices.
(You can see the photos here.)

Before the study, most of the cat's owners expected lots of pictures of beds, Villarreal told Paw Nation. After all, cats sleep all day, right? Think again. "Although they do spend 8 to 16 hours [per day] asleep, when they're active and up, they're active and up -- and seeking out sensory stimuli within the home," Villarreal said.

That wasn't the only myth that the undercover kitties debunked. "There's still that belief out there that cats are asocial and prefer to be solitary," Villarreal said. "What the cat-cam study showed was they actually have active social lives."

The cats didn't just hang out with their feline housemates. They also spent a lot of time with dogs and even bunnies. "If they grow up together, they see other animals as friends," Villarreal said.

The cats spent nearly 12 percent of their time hanging out with other animals, versus six percent sleeping and five percent playing with toys.Their hands-down favorite activity? Looking out windows -- something the cats did for more than 21 percent of their time!

Villarreal says the study offers clues about how to make your home even more stimulating for cats. "It seems like they're seeking novelty and variety," she says. "Now that we know cats like variety, we can provide it in the home."

She suggests hiding several small food bowls around the house so that the cat has to work a little to find his lunch. She also recommends mixing up his toys. Give him furry mice for a few days, then a catnip toy for a while, then maybe some bottle caps or other random objects that only a cat could love.

Villarreal also recommends giving cats a treat-dispensing ball for them to wrestle with while you're away. Change up the flavors of the food inside the ball to keep your cat guessing."There were a lot of pictures of them stalking and playing around that way," she explained. "If we gave them a treat ball, it would be a fun way for them to explore their food and have a multi-sensory experience."

"Now we have a glimpse into the cat's world," she added. "I think we underestimated what the cat was doing during the day. From a cat's perspective, they're seeing a world full of excitement."

Kinda makes us look at our furry friends a little differently.

Click here to read about this study at Friskies' Blog.

I've always thought hybrid animals were beautiful and kinda cool. Heck, even Napoleon Dynamite's fave animal is a Liger. But do you really have what it takes to care for a hybrid animal?

From pawnation.com, by Evan Jacobs:

Recently, eccentric model Bai Ling made headlines by adopting what she claimed was a cheetah/domestic cat hybrid, although experts agree that this would be impossible in nature. Most likely, what she had was a Savannah Cat. Still, people want to know how they can get their hands on their own hybrid pets. Well, be careful what you wish for; hybrid house pets can be a handful. Here is a quick overview of two popular hybrid animals.

The Savannah Cat: A cross between a serval and a house-cat, the Savannah cat is much larger than the typical house-cat, and can reach up to 30 pounds for a healthy adult male. They often have leopard spots, but can vary in color wildly, a symptom of hybridization. Similar to dogs in temperament, Savannahs are extremely loyal and affectionate, can be walked on a leash, and can even be trained to do tricks. They are intelligent and extremely curious, so you will have to cat proof your home.

The Wolf-Dog: With a similar appearance to an Alaskan Malamute, a wolf-dog is a cross between -- what else? -- a wolf and a dog. The dog half of the hybrid usually is wolf-like in appearance, i.e. shepherds, Malamutes, huskies, etc., resulting in varied coat patterns. The wolf-dog's temperament is highly unpredictable, extremely curious, destructive and can often have aggressive traits.

If you want to adopt an animal like this, be sure you extensively research the requirements for adoption and care, as many owners give up on these animals when they become too much to handle.

PS from Bug: Hybrid pets are often extremely expensive to adopt and costly to take care of. Why not reconsider and adopt a shelter pet? I'm sure you can find a cat that looks similar to a tiger or a dog that looks particularly wolf-like for a fraction of the cost of a designer hybrid pet.