Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Behold Wikipedia: “World Cat Day, August 8th, was created in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. World Cat Day is celebrated on 17 February in much of Europe and on 1 March in Russia.”

Why is it celebrated on February 17th and March 1st in other countries if World Cat Day is August 8th? This is a mystery. But it does prompt the occasional email. Here’s one I got a few minutes ago from a disgruntled reader:

Why are newspapers even mentioning cats instead of hard news? I might blame Mondays but this blog is in every edition. Guess what, cats are not important. They should not be wasting space in a news organization. I understand that you are pandering to the ‘madding crowd’ but for heavens sake, stop it and replace it with ‘REAL’ news.

Cats are not important? Hmmph. I think we all know what I have to say about that:

Isn’t she adorable? Who’s not important now, huh? Not this incredibly cute calico kitten, that’s for sure. She is now officially named Cinnamon, by the way, and she’s either peering into a bathtub or else her tiny size is making a sink look ginormous.1

1It’s a bathtub.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate