http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Sections/TVNews/Today%20show/Today%20Pets/2009/05%20-%20May/cat_wings.widec.jpg
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30967440/?GT1=43001
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a … cat?
A kitty in Chongqing, China, is getting some extra-special attention these days: The furry feline has developed wings! Though born looking completely normal, once the cat hit the age of 1, he began growing wing-shaped appendages on either side of his spine, the U.K.'s Daily Mail reports.
While some think the bony limbs may be a mutation of some kind — or even a Siamese twin growing inside the cat — others speculate it's a genetic change perhaps caused by chemicals ingested by the kitty's mother while she was pregnant.
According to the cat's owners, he doesn't seem to mind his new wings — and he’s loving the attention he's received because of them!
Strange as the case may sound, winged felines are not unheard of. Back in August 2008, the U.K. Telegraph reported that tomcats in China's Sichuan province developed wing-like growths on their backs.
Veterinary experts said then that despite the hard inner core, the "wings" don't harm cats' quality of life or safety. According to the Telegraph's report, scientists believe the appendages developed due to grooming habits, a genetic defect or a hereditary skin condition.
― Vokuhila (latebloomer), Thursday, 28 May 2009 02:24 (seventeen years ago)
It's almost as weird as when they grew a human ear on the back of a mouse. It's just wrong.
― Chaki Demus & Pliers (ENBB), Thursday, 28 May 2009 13:34 (seventeen years ago)
(at least "AWESOME!!!" until they start eating us)
― Obama seems to have the views of a 21-year-old Hispanic girl (HI DERE), Thursday, 28 May 2009 13:38 (seventeen years ago)
Yeah, I was gonna say . . . AWESOME!!! in theory maybe but . . .
― Chaki Demus & Pliers (ENBB), Thursday, 28 May 2009 13:39 (seventeen years ago)
ain't nothin but a kitten wing, y'all.
― i'm too hardcore to be bourgeois (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 28 May 2009 13:44 (seventeen years ago)
The earliest currently-known report of a winged cat is from Henry David Thoreau: A few years before I lived in the woods there was what was called a 'winged cat' in one of the farm-houses in Lincoln nearest the pond, Mr. Gillian Baker's. When I called to see her in June, 1842, she was gone a-hunting in the woods, as was her wont ... but her mistress told me that she came into the neighborhood a little more than a year before, in April, and was finally taken into their house; that she was of a dark brownish-grey colour, with a white spot on her throat, and white feet, and had a large bushy tail like a fox; that in the winter the fur grew thick and flattened out along her sides, forming strips ten or twelve inches long by two and a half wide, and under her chin like a muff, the upper side loose, the under matted like felt, and in the spring these appendages dropped off. They gave me a pair of her 'wings,' which I keep still. There is no appearance of a membrane about them. Some thought it was part flying squirrel or some other wild animal, which is not impossible, for, according to naturalists, prolific hybrids have been produced by the union of the marten and the domestic cat.
Says Wikipedia. I've seen photos of Victorian winged cats before.
― dada wouldn't buy me a bauhaus (aldo), Thursday, 28 May 2009 14:02 (seventeen years ago)
Those aren't wings, they're fins. Don't you guys know about chinese catfish?
― Subtlest Fart Joke (Oilyrags), Thursday, 28 May 2009 15:21 (seventeen years ago)
half shark-alligator, half cat
― gnarly sceptre, Thursday, 28 May 2009 17:37 (seventeen years ago)