July 22-28, 2004

naked city

Web site of the week

Cat Scratch Fever

Among the myriad Pagemaker shrines to domestic pets found online, the fang count is roughly as low as a typical fluffy friend's IQ. In search of more bruisers than placid Burmese? Sniff out

www.meankitty.com, a treasury of odes to hostile, aggressive and deceptive moggies. Though it would be fair to expect that this site would include terrifying anecdotes from hapless victims — Spooky "has bitten and clawed people, other cats, the vet staff and one very surprised Doberman that ran away yelping [and bleeding]" — the 10 or so pages of gallery pix alone prove that people are proud to own their bratty cats, and even flaunt them. But life can be hard when you come from the streets — most of the recidivists are adopted orphans — and, reading case histories and studying patterns of behavior, the more … interesting it seems. What terrible life lesson or past owner could have taught these cats to be so bad? (If those thoughts are keeping you up at night after cruising the site, please log out. Yes, the kitties need analysis, but likely so do you.)

—Juliet Fletcher