The moment you lower a new fish into its tank without acclimatising it first, you are asking its body to absorb a shock it may not survive. Temperature and water chemistry can differ enough between the bag and the aquarium to cause real harm in minutes. Here is what happens inside the fish during that transition, and how to give it the best chance of settling in.

A house move strips away everything your cat uses to feel safe, the smells, the corners, the familiar hum of a place it has mapped over months or years. What happens in those first days in a new flat reveals more about how cats experience the world than almost anything else. Here is what the process actually looks like, and what it asks of you.

A few places on earth have become famous for their extraordinary cat populations, fishing islands in Japan, a medieval walled town in Montenegro, a Greek harbour village. This is not accident or sentiment. It is history, biology, and human behaviour working together in ways that repeat across very different cultures and geographies.

Across Bengal, the goddess Shashthi rides a cat. She guards children, blesses newborns, and has been worshipped in homes and neighbourhoods for centuries. Behind the ritual sits a real question: why a cat? This piece traces the belief, what it says about how cats were seen in the subcontinent, and what science tells us about the behaviours that made the animal sacred.

That waving cat on the counter of every Japanese restaurant and shop is not just décor. The maneki-neko carries centuries of folklore behind its raised paw, and the stories that gave rise to it say something real about how cats have lived alongside people, and what people have chosen to believe about them.

Long before cats became flat companions, they were working crew on ships crossing every ocean. The reasons sailors brought them aboard go deeper than superstition, rats, damp grain, and months at sea created a problem that only a cat could solve. Here is what made the ship's cat one of the most practical decisions in maritime history.

A cat in a Rhode Island nursing home became famous for curling up beside patients in their final hours. The story is real and well-documented. What it tells us about cat behaviour, and what it cannot tell us, are two different things, and the gap between them is worth understanding.

In October 1963, a small black-and-white cat named Félicette was launched into space aboard a French rocket and returned alive, the only cat ever to have made that journey. Her story sat in near-obscurity for decades before the world finally gave her the recognition she had earned. This is what happened, what it cost her, and why she matters.

In 1914, a tabby tomcat named Mrs Chippy boarded the Endurance and sailed into one of history's most punishing voyages. He was not a mascot in the sentimental sense, he was a working ship's cat who hunted, climbed the rigging, and kept the crew company through months of Antarctic darkness. His story is documented, specific, and worth knowing.

Most cats are content indoors, but some actively seek the door. If your cat watches windows, paces near exits, or vocalises at the sight of a leash, it may be signalling genuine curiosity rather than restlessness. Harness walking is one way to meet that need safely, but it works only for cats who choose it, not cats who are pushed into it. Here is how to read your cat and start right.