kitties

A new study released today by the National Restaurant Association finds that take-out ordering was up 437% among cats in 2020. While take-out dining was already trending up, there was an extreme spike in March of last year as pandemic-related in-feline dining closures hit.

“This mirrors what we’re seeing across other species,” said Restaurant Association spokesperson Latoya Reynolds. “We saw similarly large jumps in take-away and delivery habits among dogs, horses, and cockatiels.”

Many restaurant owners had to scramble to shift-away from on-location dining to pickup and delivery.

“We didn’t have a paw-friendly app before last year,” said Joe Montez, owner of Carribe Grill in Pasadena, CA, referring to an online ordering experience with buttons large enough to accommodate appendages that lack opposable digits. “We partnered with a local developer to revamp the user interface of our ordering site and immediately saw a jump in pet-related orders.”

Other interesting findings from the National Restaurant Association study:

• The most popular dish among cats was Grilled Salmon followed closely by Lobster Newberg.
• For dogs, the most popular dish ordered last year was That Thing We Dropped on the Floor. Perennial favorite Is that Bacon? It Smells Like Bacon! came in second.
• As a group, cats tip at 25% below the national average.
• While dogs rate “delivery speed” as the most important aspect of the take-out experience, they were 5 times more forgiving of cold food than any other animal group.

Via imKohl.

Psychologists will tell you, most New Year’s resolutions start to fade around February or March. But not for one steadfast feline. When the clock struck midnight on December 31, 2020, Marty made a commitment.

“He decided it was time for an upgrade,” says Kate Heinz, Marty’s longtime life coach. “He’s been displaying at 1080p for the last 8 years. That’s fine for most cats. It’s HD.”

But in 2021, Marty went 2K.

“That’s a 1440p resolution,” says Heinz. “Not all the way to 4K. That would be too much of a leap. As I told him: Set attainable goals.”

And so far, Marty has held on to his native 2560×1440 resolution since that fateful day.

“It’s not easy,” Heinz elaborates. “That’s a lot of pixels. But I believe in Marty, and more importantly, he believes in himself.”

via place where cat shouldn’t be

It was just another day for Muffles, an area cat who enjoys squirrel watching, scratching his favorite armchair, and CrossFit.

That idyllic life ground to a halt when he discovered a new website.

“He stepped on the keyboard by accident,” says Walter Kratt, a source close to the situation. “It must have loaded a bookmark.”

The site in question is called This Cat Does Not Exist, and it uses artificial intelligence (specifically a generative adversarial network, or “GAN”) to create incredibly realistic images of cats that don’t exist in real life.

“Muffles refreshed the site a few times and … there he was,” Kratt explained, holding back some emotions.

Looking back from the Web browser was a picture of Muffles himself, down to every fine whisker.

“He’s freaking out right now,” says Kratt, who stepped in to support Muffles at this difficult time. “I mean, I’m pretty sure he’s real. He’s right here next to me. But being generated by AI puts a lot in doubt.”

Muffles himself could not be reached for comment, but his family says he’s taking the time he needs to come to grips with a new phase of his life.

Via This Cat Does Not Exist, by way of The Verge.