<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of The Huffington Post at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><a href="http://tinyurl.com/9x88vuv">http://tinyurl.com/9x88vuv</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">------------------------------------</div><div><h1 class="title-news" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 20px 0px 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cats Who Like Chicks: Natural Enemies Defy Laws To Become Bestest Of Friends</span></font></h1></div><div><p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; text-align: justify; "><img alt="cats baby chicks friends" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/820445/thumbs/r-CATS-BABY-CHICKS-FRIENDS-large570.jpg?6" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 20px 15px 0px; padding: 2px; border: 1px solid rgb(205, 205, 205); overflow: visible; float: left; max-width: 100%; height: auto; "></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It's <a href="http://jezebel.com/5952087/cat-is-slowly-buried-alive-in-adorable-chick-pile" target="_hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; outline: none; ">a confusingly cute picture</a>: tabby cat lies in a box, partially buried in a pile of fluffy yellow chicks. The downy mob is crowded into a corner of the box and one chick is perched atop the cat's back.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Posted on Jezebel, the image raises some interesting questions. Namely, is this an adorable example of domesticated bliss between animals that in the wild would be natural enemies? Or is this the troubling "before" picture of a pending massacre?</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">To be fair, cat and chick friendships are far from unprecedented. In this video, viewed over 800,00 times since it was posted at the end of August, a ginger kitten is in a very similar situation --<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=quzjuyomY9Y#!" target="_hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; outline: none; "> buried in a pile of incredible fluffiness.</a></span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For yet another example of cat-chick adorableness, meet Oscar and his fluffy friends (names unknown). They are the stars of a now-famous Youtube series that shows the<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/20/chick-and-cat-snuggle_n_1531619.html" target="_hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; outline: none; "> ins and outs of a very unconventional relationship.</a></span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><font color="#000000"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/tubbytubbytubtubs" target="_hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; outline: none; ">The videos, posted by tubbytubbytubtubs</a>, detail the exploits of a preternaturally patient cat and his "feathered friends."</span></font></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just like any pair of friends, the two have their ups and downs. In one video, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3augTz7tQvI&feature=relmfu" target="_hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; outline: none; ">Oscar calmly seems to be snuggling the chick</a>, which hunkers down underneath its paw. But in another, a clearly grumpy Oscar <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWfBcefAo4k&feature=relmfu" target="_hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; outline: none; ">does not appreciate an exploratory peck</a> from one of the chicks.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What's certainly not in dispute is that many cats, given the chance, would much rather kill these defenseless creatures than shelter them as Oscar does.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Case in point, an August feature in Mother Jones revealed the rather <a href="http://www.kittycams.uga.edu/research.html" target="_hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; outline: none; ">gruesome results of a University of Georgia cat behavior study</a>. Using "kitty cams," the<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/08/kitty-cams-shocking-truth" target="_hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; outline: none; "> researchers captured more than 2,000 hours of footage of domestic cats </a>in suburbia. A lot of the pets had a greater penchant for killing and torturing than their owners may have liked.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Additionally, the American Bird Conservancy estimates that <a href="http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/releases/120806.html" target="_hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; outline: none; ">cats kill more than 4 billion animals annually</a>, according to Robert Johns, a spokesman for the conservancy.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Oscar and his friends have clearly refused to bow to the pressures of popular social mores, and for that HuffPost salutes them. Who are we to say fur and feather can never flock together?</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">---------------</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Video</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: none; overflow: visible; "><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoVR2zUYNsM">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoVR2zUYNsM</a></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">------------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div> </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div></div></div></body></html>