The essence of cute is something like a miniature cat, something small and wide-eyed that is completely incapable of surviving without us.
In connection with the release of a new box set of episodes headlined by the fan-instigated "Jake vs. Me-Mow," in which the dog has to do battle with a miniature cat assassin hiding out in his nose, I got a chance to talk with the show's creator, Pendleton Ward.
Mattel earlier this month announced its third recall of 848,000 Chinese-made, Barbie-branded miniature cats and dogs as well as some other items from GeoTrax and the Its A Big Big World line of toys that contained excessive amounts of lead paint.
Tami McLallen, a spokeswoman for American Airlines, said that although dogs are the most common service animals taken onto planes, the airline has had to accommodate monkeys, miniature horses, cats and even an emotional support duck.
Here's some miniature sleeping cats made out of some other animals fur. .
But that is not what Marilee Foster sees when she steps out of the converted corncrib behind her parents' farmhouse on Sagg Main Street, where she lives with her cat and miniature bull terrier.
Among other wonders at Heller-Washam (like a miniature mansion for a cat) there is a gorgeous lap desk: its polished surface is a complex, symmetrical pattern of geometry, dogs and birds, all made of lovingly inlaid wood pieces.
I thought my pre-literate daughter would be baffled by David Wiesner's near-wordless Mr Wuffles! – a miniature epic about a spoilt cat who rejects his owner's toys in favour of war with the ants and ladybirds inhabiting the crannies of his home.
Under his tree, Plop encounters several wise heads who love the dark – a little boy, an old lady, a Boy Scout, a girl waiting for Christmas, a naturalist, an astronomer, and, most memorable of all, the elegant hunting cat Orion, a miniature urban Bagheera, who tells the little owl about the beauty of the night.
She never loses her mind and cries in the closet while he rides his cat like a miniature pony.
Feline agility competitions, in which cats run through a miniature obstacle course full of hurdles and tunnels, have become fixtures on the cat show scene.
