You Have a Cat So I Don't Have To

Salon's Broadsheet has some Good News for Cat Ladies! today:

So it is with great glee, it is with pride and satisfaction and cat hair attached to my clothing, that I tell you of a new study suggesting that cat owners are 30-40 percent less likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than people who don't own cats. The study added, "No protective effect of dogs as domestic pets was observed." Meooow.

Oh good. Cat people needed a pick-me-up, ever since that NYTimes ewwww cats! article was published way back in December. An excerpt from The Cat Lady Conundrum piece:

The basic facts: Toxo can infect many species, but it undergoes sexual reproduction only in cat digestive tracts. Once the parasite reproduces, the cat passes it in its feces, where the next unwitting host picks it up by digesting it (intentionally or unintentionally). Then the cycle starts again. In the long run, Toxo must find its way back to a cat’s stomach to survive. So the parasite has evolved a complicated system for taking over its hosts’ brains to increase the likelihood that they’ll be eaten by cats.

Bob Buttons and other cats across the globe salute you, Broadsheet!