Rebecca Quimby

It's the latest news in the world of pet physics; a study has been published exploring exactly how cats drink. As any pet owner can attest, cats sip water differently than dogs, who use their tongues like scoops. But just how do cats manage their distinctive lapping?

The study, which was published in Science, was the work of MIT associate professor Roman Stocker and his research team who captured hours of feline lapping footage. "The nice thing about it is that the cat laps with an impressive frequency of four times per second, so if you catch only a few seconds of lapping you have many laps," Stocker explains to NPR. The team also looked at YouTube videos of cats lapping (Watching YouTube videos of cats? That's a scientific method we can definitely get behind.), and even crafted a robotic version of a cat's tongue, according to an MIT article about the study.

Much of what was understood about the feline drinking action was informed by a 1940 film of a cat lapping milk, made by Harold "Doc" Edgerton, also an MIT professor. Edgerton showed how when cats lap, "they extend their tongues straight down toward the bowl and curl the tip of their tongues backwards, so that the top of the tongue touches the liquid first," as the MIT article describes.

Beagles are cute, cheery, and make great (if sometimes mischievious) family pets. You've probably met a beagle or two in your life, but how well do you really know the breed? Take this quiz to find out!



Learn more about your favorite breeds at the upcoming Meet the Breeds event in New York City on October 16th - 17th. For more information, visit MeetTheBreeds.com.

This summer, the Inchmarlo Continuing Care Retirement Community welcomed a new addition which may be its cutest ever: a bulldog puppy named Humphrey. The innovative community, set on bucolic grounds in Inchmarlo, Banchory, Scotland, offers luxurious homes for independent people over 55 who can then take advantage of the facility's nursing care once they need it. Adding regular visits from a therapy dog is just another way Inchmarlo is attempting to ease residents' transition into older age.

The public-service pooch is becoming somewhat of a sensation. He's appeared on the BBC, Scottish Television news and local radio according to Graeme Lindsay, who heads up marketing for the Skene Group owners of the Inchmarlo retirement community. Lindsay tells Paw Nation, "we were going to appoint Humphrey anyway, but we thought the media would be interested."

Press-savvy Humphrey even has his own blog, "Diary of a Bulldog." On the blog, Humphrey fans can follow his whole life, from his birth ("My official name is Warricks Son of Selkirk but my new owners have christened me Humphrey.") to his adoption by his new human parents ("We drove all the way back to Aberdeen. I slept in the back seat in my sleeping basket and I'm told that I was very good.").

The blog follows the travails of potty training, the difficulty of learning not to nip at people's shoes, the horrors of bathtime, the fun of car rides, garden romps, and of course, Humphrey's introduction and subsequent assimilation at Inchmarlo. The blog is fun for anyone who's interested in what it's like to have a new puppy and all dog owners will chuckle while reading of Humphrey's internal struggles with ankle-biting and sock-nibbling.

Do you love your big lug of a pit bull? Adore your sweetheart of a mastiff? If you lived in Vienna, Austria, you'd be facing major hassles. Last week, the city passed a controversial new law that will require the owners of so-called "fight dogs" to carry a license proving they can keep their pets in check. Alexander Willer, a spokesman for Vienna's main animal shelter, told the Associated Press that the list of affected dogs -- including rottweilers, pit bull terriers, mastiffs, and others -- was compiled "at random." He added that this kind of discrimination makes it harder for abandoned dogs of these breeds to find new homes.

Austria isn't the only country cracking down. Denmark recently added 12 more dog breeds to an outright ban on dangerous dogs. That list of the country's banned breeds includes pit bulls, Tosa Inus, American Staffordshire terriers, Brazilian mastiffs, Argentine dogos, American bulldogs, boerboels, Kangals, Central Asian ovtcharkas, Caucasian ovtcharkas, Southern Russian ovtcharkas, tornjaks and Sarplaninacs, according to the (Denmark) "Politiken." While Vienna city councilor Sandra Frauenberger says that "this is not about the criminalization of any types of dogs," the owners of these breeds have expressed concern that their pets will be discriminated against because of their breeds' bad reputations.

Some states in the U.S. have similar regulations or bans. Last year, Paw Nation reported on a pit-bull ban in New York City housing projects. Just last week, a Miami, Fla. veterinarian wrote in USA Today about how she couldn't keep a stray dog she'd rescued because the pooch is a pit bull, a breed that her county has banned despite statistics that breed bans don't curb violence.

Gattaras. It's the Italian name for women who feed and care for stray cats. It's not necessarily a flattering term, but at least two "gattaras" are happy to accept the mantle: Lia Dequel and Sylvia Viviani, who run the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary, which helps to care for the strays who occupy the Roman ruins.

"Yes, we are Cat Ladies," Dequel told Stripes.com recently. "And be sure to write that with capital letters!"

Practically everyone who's ever had a Roman holiday has come home with photo albums filled with images of the many stray cats that haunt the ruins of the Field of Mars, the Theater of Pompey, the Colosseum and the Forum. The famous felines have even been recognized by Rome's city council, which declared the city's estimated 300,000 cats an official part of its "bio-cultural heritage."

According to Dequel, "It's a tradition in Rome. When you see ruins, you can dump your cats. They'll find someone to take care of them."

And most times they will, thanks to the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary. Dequel and Viviani took over the sanctuary 16 years ago, and with the help of volunteers and the Anglo Italian Society for the Protection of Animals (AISPA), they changed it from a small, cavelike room under the street without electricity or running water into a clean, bright refuge.

The space itself is uniquely located under a busy street, and as Dutch volunteer Karen Cortese told Paw Nation, "We are still squatters and never completely sure if we will be allowed to stay or whether one day we will be evicted. We are still not attached to the sewer system, a big hurdle we have not been able to overcome yet!"

Despite these obstacles, the sanctuary has managed to make a difference for the felines of Rome. Cortese pointed out that many people don't know how most stray males are FiV positive, and many kittens are born with serious eye problems that will lead to blindness.

Medical attention, along with spaying and neutering, can help these cats, and for many of them, this unusual organization of dedicated volunteers toiling away beneath the street is a literal life saver.