Top of the meowrnin' to ya, pet parents of the internet. Did you miss us? We sure missed you! If you're looking for some funnies to satisfy your wholesome sweet tooth, we have a handful of feline posts right here for you, courtesy of the fanciest of feasts.
Caturday is reserved for:
- Being lazy on the couch
- Cuddling with your favorite furry friend
Are you participating in number one, number two, or both? It better be both! Heck, it's Friday as I'm writing this, and I'm participating in both! Thank you, WFH gods…
Enough about that. Felines purrvide us with all of the serotonin we need to weather even the most upsetting of storms, and they don't even need to try. Their adorable whiskers, their soft toe beans and paw pads, and their low hums when they're happy make coming home worth it. Who else would we share our laziest moments with? Well, yes, a romantic partner, maybe… but cats don't talk during a movie. Actually, I don't think I can confidently say that.
Scroll below to get a much-needed dose of serotonin delivered straight to your phone. Happy Caturday!
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There are bad neighbors, and then there are neighbors who try to have your cat arrested.
If you've ever lived with a cat, you already know: when they want attention, you'll know. Forget subtle hints. Cats are masters of the dramatic pawformance. They'll meow like they're narrating a soap opera, flop across your keyboard mid-email, or plant themselves directly on top of whatever book you dared try to read. Because clearly, your lap is the only page worth turning.
Cats have perfected the art of "accidental" chaos. That glass on the counter? It's now part of their improv routine. That important Zoom call? Consider it upgraded to a Zoomies call when your furball streaks across the screen. And let's not even start on the mysterious 3 a.m. purrsuasion tactics.
The truth is, cats just know how to keep things pawsitively interesting. They might act like aloof little divas one minute, then demand snuggles like you're their emotional support human the next. It's all part of their charm. At the end of the day, we're not just their owners. We're their full-time audience, servants, and adoring fans. And honestly? We wouldn't have it any other way.
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Last week, a warehouse shift turned into a full-blown catastrophe, but the good kind. While unloading a truck, the worker heard the unmistakable sound of tiny, distressed meows echoing through the garage. Like a seasoned pawfessional, they sprinted toward the source and discovered a skinny, scrappy little kitten demanding immediate attention. Naturally, the package was signed for and scooped up without hesitation.
But just when everyone thought the delivery was complete, a second surprise shipment revealed itself. An orange fluffball hiding in the pallet stacks, playing peek-a-boo like a feline Houdini. No matter the strategym sneaking, squeezing, or even climbing, the worker was repeatedly outsmarted. The orange menace clearly had nine lives' worth of tricks.
Just as hope seemed lost, the night manager swooped in like a true hero, snatching the orange escape artist mid-recon. The rescue crew erupted in victory mews. Mission accomplished. Both kittens didn't just get saved. They got adopted, trading forklifts and pallets for forever homes filled with warm laps, endless snacks, and zero overtime.
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Oh, that pesky Cat Distribution System, when will it stop delivering kittens? Probably never, and we would be lying if we said that we did not like it that way. But for the receiver of the kitten in question, it is a slightly different story. For you see, this rescuer already had a cat at home, an older, slightly grumpy territorial catto who was not willing to share their home with another cat really.
And after trying to find the rescued black kitten a home to no avail, it was clear that the CDS had intended for our rescuer to be this kitten's new pawrent. Proving that sometimes you put yourself in a kitten's life, and other times the kitten puts itself into your life. Thankfully, everything worked out in the end and now they live as one big happy family.
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Reincarnation is a concept that has been spoken about in various cultures for thousands of years. And if you consider your soul to be made up of some form of energy, and accept the scientific fact that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, then it is not a far cry to imagine that your soul's energy could be transferred upon your passing.
Which is certainly what this feline pawrent began to think when the kitten they adopted started behaving in ways that their soul cat who had recently passed used to. Whether it was sniffing around where the old litter box used to be, or the kitten's ability to comprehend far beyond its years, there was something oddly familiar about this kitten. We will leave the rest to be read by you, so that you can decide whether this is indeed a case of cat reincarnation, but what we will say is that whether it is or not, there are a whole load of creepy coincidences here.
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Thank you to everyone who emailed me to let me know that the images in our SBTB Daily email newsletter weren’t loading this week!
Those were some very bare newsletters. YIKES.
I’m honestly baffled and we’re working on it.
This post is both to let y’all know, and also to test the newsletter images in tomorrow’s edition.
I have to add another image to this post so I’m typing more words – scintillating behind the scenes content here, huh?
So here are some things I’m really enjoying, and please feel free to rec yours in the comments:
- Big Freedia has a gospel album and it’s INCREDIBLE. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, you might remember hearing Big Freedia on Break My Soul by Beyonce, and Raising Hell by Kesha. Big Freedia’s gospel album, Pressing Onward, was released earlier this month and I heard an interview on The Sam Sanders Show from 8/8 while catching up on podcasts this week.
- Speaking of The Sam Sanders Show, the 8/22 episode about friendship in pop culture with Lindy West and Meagan Hatcher-Mays of the podcast “Text Me Back” is a banger right from the top. I rewound (skipped backwards?) twice to re-listen to things they said.
- I started The Thursday Murder Club adaptation on Netflix last night, and am watching it like a series even though it’s a movie. Better for my brain and bedtime, honestly. So far I’m extremely charmed by the nonstop “Hey! It’s Every British Actor Ever and Then Some!” casting, and the visible budget that was spent on this show. It is Well Funded in every respect, and I love what the set designers and production are doing with color to add nuance to the characters.
- I’m working on a theory that weed-infused seltzers are 38% more burp-inducing than regular-degular seltzers. Research continues into this important matter.
- Oh and a most jubilant Happy Great British Bake Off premiere week, y’all!
I’m going to be pinning this post to keep it at the top for RSS purposes so I can test what’s going on over the next few days. Thank you for your understanding and your help!
RSS is so annoying sometimes.
It is Friday, folks, and that means the weekend is mere moments away. Soon the trials and tribulations of the work week will be over, and you will be free to frolic around your home with your cute cat child in tow, meowing at you to give them dinner and stop messing around. But until that magical time comes, there are still a good few hours of cat-free work to be done.
So to keep you on track and to elevate your mental state, we made this list of mood boosting photos of cats caught in the midst of their madness to bring a little levity into your day. As well as to remind you that while you might be feeling like a potato that has been boiled, roasted and mashed, there are still creatures more mentally unravelled than you out there. So all you have to do is hold on tight and you will home with your feline fur baby before you know it.
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Good meowrning, lovely online cat community. We hope you got up on your good side today, which is the side that's full of cats, obviously. Because cats just make everything better, don't they? Even when your cat is being a total menace to society, they still make your day a thousand times better than it would've been with no cats in it.
Does your cat like chewing on your plants? Well, being a green thumb has never been more interesting to you. Does your cat like meowing at blank walls at 3 AM? You've never seen a night rave so vibrant as when your cat does that. Is your cat a little menace, wreaking havoc wherever they are, whenever they want? You'll still love them, because this is just how it is to be the pawrents of a purrfectly silly little demonic angel. Or, better known as… your cat.
So, what can we say? Cats are our everything, and we wish our everything was full of cats. And that's why we fill our day with all the cat funnies we can find online - because everything is better with cats, seriously. And we want to share as many of these as pspspssible - so here, enjoy this exceptionally long list of cat memes, to fill your day with lots of cats.
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When you trust your friends with a wish, with some dream that you have, you expect them to be… well, friendly about it. To listen and support, and maybe even help you reach that dream, that wish you were having. That's what friends are for - they support each other, lift each other, and sometimes even help us reach where we cannot reach ourselves. That's what this one aspiring cat mom expected from her friends to do, but she got utterly disappointed.
The two sisters, who were supposed to be friends with the aspiring cat mom, adopted a cat - which is always good in our book here at I Can Has Cheezburger. But when they told their friend that their new cat's name was Kuro, she was taken aback - this is the name she wanted to call her future black cat for years. She was dreaming about adopting a black cat and naming him Kuro (="black" in Japanese), and she didn't just wish it - she shared this deep wish with her friends. And what did they do? Well, exactly that. And the cat wasn't even black.
Why do people hold their pets as tools for petty human squabbles? That's beyond our understanding. It's not the cat's fault, and we hope he's in good hands. But these sisters? They feel like they're entitled to a name wished so deeply by their friend. They could name their cat any other name (for goodness sake, there are cats named "Toolbox"! They literally could've picked anything) - but what name did they choose? The one that's the only unfriendly option.
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We've always said that we would start a cat sanctuary if money was of no consequence. You can check, we've written it in at least four other posts. Nothing would make us happier than opening our homes and hearts to all of the fuzzy felines who need our help. We would buy a mansion, make every room a cat-centered room (imagine the crazy cat trees we could buy) with a different theme (for variety, of course). Sure, we would have hairballs the size of kitchen tables, but we would also sleep surrounded by cats every night, and if that's not the ultimate cat-lover's dream, we're not sure what is.
It turns out that one woman is actually living our dream, where she devoted her life to rescuing stray cats. She even went as far as to turn her house into a cat sanctuary, making the whole property a safe space for a giant colony of rescue cats that she's saved over the years. She also houses dogs in this sanctuary, and that's great, but we're really here for the cats. You can even visit her house and see all the kitties! Anyone want to take a trip to the Cathouse with us?
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We gather here on this epic Furiday for a special meeting that's just family. If you're new to our lovely little online cat community, welcome! If you're a seasoned cat meme veteran like ourselves, welcome back, and it's good to see your bright and shiny faces again. And last, but not least, if you're a feline, your bowl of tuna awaits you, my lord. We don't want to share this with everyone just yet, but for those of you that we hold near and dear (sometimes too near if you ask our kitties), we can't wait to show you the memes we cooked up this week.
They're made by people who expurrienced the first memes of the internet, and they've been keeping the purrfect tradition of cat memes alive ever since. They're stoopid, silly, fluffy, fun - basically everything you want your cat content to be. It's not meant to be intellectual, it's meant to make you feel good - and if you're feline good after this, we're happy. It's meant to scratch that purrticular itch that only kitty comedy can reach. That's what we're here for, and we're glad you're part of the family. Now can you scratch our backs, please?
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Back when we first adopted our cat, we didn't know all the lingo. We didn't know the slang. We didn't know what the heck a cat distribution system is. But we still felt it. It still felt like the adoption was something greater, like it was written in the stars somewhere that it was meant to be, that our cat was the cat for us, and no other would do, at least not for that moment. It felt like our cat adopted us and not the other way around… because that is what it was.
That is what the cat distribution system is. We don't know who is operating it or how it is that it is literally the best, most smoothly running system in the world, but it is. Cats adopt humans, not the other way around. It really is written in the stars somewhere, you're not just imagining the feeling. The stories that we have for you today might just be the best kind of proof for that.
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The Lake House
The Lake House by Kate Morton is $1.99! This book has all sorts of elements: historical fiction, Gothic mystery, and a family saga. Elyse gave this book a B:
The Lake House had some issues–there is A LOT going on here, tons of threads to keep track of–but it totally sucked me in. Once the novel gets its momentum, it barrels at you like a freight train. Historical fiction and mystery fans might want to put this on hold at the local library, at least while it’s still in hardcover.
From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Secret Keeper and The Distant Hours, an intricately plotted, spellbinding new novel of heartstopping suspense and uncovered secrets.
Living on her family’s idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented sixteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure…
One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined.
Decades later, Alice is living in London, having enjoyed a long successful career as an author. Theo’s case has never been solved, though Alice still harbors a suspicion as to the culprit. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather’s house in Cornwall. While out walking one day, she stumbles upon the old estate—now crumbling and covered with vines, clearly abandoned long ago. Her curiosity is sparked, setting off a series of events that will bring her and Alice together and reveal shocking truths about a past long gone…yet more present than ever.
A lush, atmospheric tale of intertwined destinies, this latest novel from a masterful storyteller is an enthralling, thoroughly satisfying read.
Dare to Be a Duchess
Dare to Be a Duchess by Sapna Bhog is 99c at Amazon and $3.99 elsewhere! This is book one in The Elusive Lords series. I must say that blue dress is gorgeous on her.
He’s a powerful duke. She’s his uncle’s ward. They have forever been at war, until one night, one masquerade, and one kiss…
Lara Ramsay is no stranger to scandal. As the orphaned daughter of a British colonel and his beloved Indian wife, whispers follow her everywhere. Not even the protection of the formidable Duke of Wolverton, a man she can’t stand, keeps the gossips at bay.
The audacious Lara has driven Tristan Wentworth, The Duke of Wolverton, to distraction since the day his uncle took her in—and he’s quite certain doing so is her favorite pastime. After catching her and his younger sister at a salacious masquerade, he’s had enough scandal and issues a marriage ultimatum: find a husband within six months, or one will be chosen for her.
Unfortunately, no one in the ton appeals to her. Except, perhaps, the duke himself. The battle of wills has only just begun, and when Lara kisses him, their fate is sealed.
Sometimes even the most proper duke needs to break the rules to win the heart of the woman he loves…
The Gentleman’s Gambit
The Gentleman’s Gambit by Evie Dunmore is $1.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! Lara DNFed this one. The comments were mostly split in terms of agreeing with Lara versus having a book hangover after finishing this one.
Bookish suffragist Catriona Campbell is busy: An ailing estate, academic writer’s block, a tense time for England’s women’s rights campaign–the last thing she needs is to be stuck playing host to her father’s distractingly attractive young colleague.
Deeply introverted Catriona lives for her work at Oxford and her fight for women’s suffrage. She dreams of romance, too, but since all her attempts at love have ended badly, she now keeps her desires firmly locked inside her head–until she climbs out of a Scottish loch after a good swim and finds herself rather exposed to her new colleague.
Elias Khoury has wheedled his way into Professor Campbell’s circle under false pretenses: he did not come to Oxford to classify ancient artefacts, he is determined to take them back to his homeland in the Middle East. Winning Catriona’s favor could be the key to his success. Unfortunately, seducing the coolly intense lady scholar quickly becomes a mission in itself and his well-laid plans are in danger of derailing…
Forced into close proximity in Oxford’s hallowed halls, two very different people have to face the fact that they might just be a perfect match. Soon, a risky new game begins that asks Catriona one more time to put her heart and wildest dreams at stake.
Force of Nature
Force of Nature by Jane Harper is $2.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! This may have been the only Harper mystery we haven’t featured on sale, so get this one if you’ve been waiting. It’s the second book in the Aaron Falk series, though it works fine as a self-contained story.
Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along a muddy track.
Only four come out on the other side.
The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and encourage teamwork and resilience. At least, that’s what the corporate retreat website advertises.
Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker, Alice Russell. Because Alice knew secrets, about the company she worked for and the people she worked with.
The four returning women tell Falk a tale of fear, violence and fractured trust during their days in the remote Australian bushland. And as Falk delves into the disappearance of Alice, he begins to suspect some dangers ran far deeper than anyone knew.
Whenever we're looking for interesting stories to write about for you guys, we come across some of the most insane things. Stories of people abandoning their cats of 15 years because their new partner doesn't like them, people demanding that their roommates clean up after their cats, neighbors having meltdowns because their cats said hello to someone else. We always think to ourselves that these things could never happen to us - we would never make those decisions, we would never get into those kinds of conflicts. But not this time.
This story is one that we can completely relate to. Being kind. You would think that being kind is something that people would be grateful for. Kindness, especially one given freely, is scarce. But no, some people only look to exploit, and that is unfortunately what happened to this woman. One favor turned into another turned into an expectation of them doing anything and everything for free. Now that - that is something that could happen to us, and we wish we would be able to handle it as well as this person did.
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Problematic Summer Romance is a friends-to-lovers romance/brother’s best friend romance, but it utilizes those tropes without any masculine over-protectiveness, which I appreciated. It’s also a romance that’s light on external conflict, but heavy on emotional growth, which was perfect for me.
Maya Killgore’s parents died when she was barely a teenager, leaving her to be raised by her overwhelmed brother (about fifteen years her senior). Said brother has an extremely lucrative biotech start up with his two friends. When Maya is away at college she has a bad breakup and calls her brother only to connect to one of his friend/partners Conor Harkness. Conor is nearby and comes to Maya’s emotional aid and it starts a friendship between the two that will last for three years.
This friendship involves emotionally vulnerable phone conversations into the wee hours of the night and some form of digital communication every single day. Then when Maya confronts Conor with the fact that she’s falling for him, he cuts contact completely citing their age difference (again about fifteen years) and the power dynamic as being too problematic for them to have a romantic relationship or even continue their friendship.
When the book opens, Maya’s brother is getting married in Sicily and she and Connor will both be attending the wedding, putting them in close proximity for a week. Maya is still in love with Conor and determined to make him see that a relationship with her could work.
First of all, I really liked how the book handled the age gap and the brother’s best friend trope. A lot of books would have the conflict surrounding the brother being over-protective and their relationship being forbidden. That never made sense to me since it implies the brother can’t trust the best friend (in which case why are you friends?) It also infantilizes the sister.
The fact that everyone here is treated as an adult with agency was really refreshing.
There’s not a lot of external conflict, but there is angst. All of the angst belongs to Conor. He grew up with a shitty, wealthy father who treated relationships like transactions. Said father also had a second marriage to a woman younger than his own children.
Conor feels like he’ll be following his father’s footsteps by dating a younger woman, and since his father taught him that all relationships are about power and money, he considers the fact that he’s wealthy to mean that he’s also in a more powerful, and therefore predatory position. (FWIW Maya’s brother is also wealthy and she has access to his money so that’s a moot point).
The book is condensed to the week of the wedding, plus some flashbacks.
I think a week is a short enough time span that Conor’s emotional journey makes sense. Had this book spanned years it would have felt like he couldn’t get over himself, but the shorter timespan made it work.
Connor’s emotional journey felt genuine–he’s got a lot of shitty family stuff to unpack. It wasn’t just a “I’m a bad guy and I’m bad for you.” He had real work to do.
It would have been nice for Maya to have a little more growth versus just waiting for Connor to pull his head out of his butt.
…but honestly I’m in a mental place where I don’t need a ton of conflict right now. There are also some wedding shenanigans to lighten up the book since Conor’s navel gazing can get kinda dark, so that helped level out the narrative.
Problematic Summer Romance takes some fun romance tropes but presents them without toxicity, treating its main characters like adults who can make their own decisions. I loved Connor’s journey and would have liked more from Maya, but overall it worked for me.
Please join us as we puzzle through the reasons why historical romance isn’t as popular, and what led to the pivot that so many authors are making. Plus Valerie shares the differences and similarities in writing contemporary and historical romance, and what question she gets the most from historical romance readers.
Listen to the podcast →
Read the transcript →
Here are the books we discuss in this podcast:
You can find Valerie Bowman at her website, ValerieBowmanBooks.com.
And you can listen to her in Episode 586. Saying Yes to the Dress with Valerie Bowman.
…
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Support for this episode comes from Head Witch in Charge, the latest witchy romcom from USA Today bestselling author Avery Flynn, where two witches with a very tangled history are forced to team up on a road trip, one that might spell disaster for both of them.
“It’s the curse of every family’s heir to be the responsible one.”
My family being the most powerful family in all of Witchingdom doesn’t eliminate that fact, it only makes it worse—and that’s why I, Leona Amber Sherwood, never do the unexpected. Except for that one time I did.
Believe me, I have rued the day that I got married in a midnight ceremony under a full moon to Erik Svensen, the heir to my family’s deepest, bitterest enemies, and now, he won’t agree to a divorce unless we return an ancient spell book to his family’s secured facility.
But on our road trip to return the book, I learn more about Erik as we encounter trolls, nymphs, satyrs, and more. The longer we work together, the more I’m convinced that he might not be the evil trickster I assumed he was. Any more time together will leave me even more enchanted with my husband and that’s the last thing I want. And if I keep telling myself that, maybe I’ll start to believe it.
In the words of Lisa L on Netgalley, “Buckle up, witches – this book slays.”
And there are goodies and swag and coupons!
Several romance bookstores in the UK, Canada, and the US will have signed swag goodie bags for anyone who orders Head Witch in Charge while supplies last. Many offer online ordering, too! See the list and place your order at AveryFlynn.com.
Plus, Bookshop.org is offering a 15% discount to anyone who orders Head Witch in Charge and uses the code LOVEBOOKSELLERS.
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