The MSPCA rescued 101 cats, one turtle, and one dog from two Greater Boston-area households last week, all in a two-day period.

The cats were brought to the MSPCA Boston Animal Care and Adoption Center, where they remain quarantined due to their illnesses, which include ruptured eyes, chronic sinus infections, and extreme malnourishment.

MSPCA spokesman Brian Adams said that the organization is working to transfer healthy cats to other adoption centers in order to make room for the neglected cats.

“We continue to urge pet owners to contact our adoption centers and law enforcement department before they can no longer provide basic care for their animals,” Adams said.

Over the course of the past week, as temperatures have begun to dip down to single digits, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Angell shelter has found seven cats abandoned at the facility — at doors, in taped-shut boxes, and even in the bathroom.

More recently, a box of three young kittens was dropped in raw sewage at a landfill near Boston.

The irony is, the Angell shelter will never turn away an animal that is brought to it. It just seems as if people are too ashamed to show their faces when they are leaving their animals. So they are leaving them outside, in the cold, where they could die.

"The MSPCA will never turn away an animal that is being surrendered," said MSPCA Director of Animal Protection, Jean Weber, in a statement. "In addition to the valuable behavioral and medical information that pet owners share with us, the surrender process ensures a safe handover of each animal. Several of the cats that were abandoned on our property were left trapped in boxes and exposed to harsh weather conditions."

A grey and white cat, now named Frosty, was abandoned near the front door of Angell Animal Medical Center on December 5 during a rain and snow storm. Other cats were abandoned throughout the MSPCA-Angell including a kitten, Tinsel, who was left in one of the medical center’s bathrooms.

"If a pet owner needs to surrender an animal we urge them to do so properly," said Weber. "By informing us of an animal’s past we are enabled to make a much better match with a new adoptive owner."

Animal cruelty is a felony in Massachusetts punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $2,500.

And now, some cuddly kitty photos:

He’s holding the truck’s steering wheel with both paws. His orange and white face is contemplative, distracted. The caption reads: “Bob drove home slowly, deep in thought; he’d made up his mind”¦but how to tell Bernice he wasn’t going through with the neutering?” In another version, the same cat’s pensive expression holds a more sinister meaning: “It all happened so fast, a blurr (sic) of fur, a yelp of pain, the thump under the truck bed; Spot was dead, and Fluffy knew there were few options.”

Fluffy may have few options when it comes to disposing of Spot’s body, but for Icanhascheezburger.com enthusiasts, the possibilities for funny captions are endless. And that’s essentially all the site is: pictures of cats with funny captions. Simple? Genius? Lucrative? Yes, yes, and yes.

Since its debut in 2007, the site, which began as a joke between two friends, has exploded into an empire with a cult following. Pet Holdings, Inc., the company behind the site, has 18 spinoff sites, including Ihasahotdog.com, Totallylookslike.com, and Failblog.org. Ten of those sites, such as Thisisphotobomb.com, Pictureisunrelated.com, and Ugliesttattoos.com, all debuted this June, spreading humor like dogs spread fleas and giving us ten more excuses to put off doing anything productive”"not that writing funny captions isn’t productive in its own creepy-I’m-obsessed-with-my-cat-and-dress-him-up-in-cute-little-outfits kind of way.

The flagship site is visited monthly by 2.1 million LOLcat fanatics around the world, and approximately 10 million humor-loving Web surfers also check out the spinoff sites each month. So who exactly are the Cheezburger obsessed? According to Quantcast.com, the site”"ranked at 1,124^th for most visited by U.S. Web surfers”"has a demographic mainly of educated young adult Caucasian women who shop at Hot Topic. Who knew that purple-spiked-haired, all-black-wearing goth chick who sat behind you in chemistry class had such a soft side?

But it’s not just casual entertainment for some registered users of the site, which has reached subculture-esque proportions. Take user “jimincairns”, who has created a whopping 1,527 captioned pictures (known as LOLz), or user “Thecat” who has 1,917 friends on the site and 11,900 favorite LOLz. And take a peek at “10puppyluv10″‘s profile: “i luvs goggies, and we has wun, but den mai kitteh ran awai. Iz so sad! ["¦] dis iz wun uf meh top favurit sites! i luvs hoomans, so feel free to rekwest meh as a frend.” Ummm, what?

Ah yes, LOLspeak, a few funny pictures away from taking over the English language as we know it. Some common words and phrases? Goggie (dog), fud (food), ohai! (greeting), nom (verb meaning “to eat” also sometimes substituted for “fud” as a noun), interwebs (Internet), kthxbai (goodbye).

Clearly, this empire has attracted more than the attention of sullen cat-loving goth chicks. Icanhascheezburger.com won a 2008 Blogger’s Choice Award for Best Animal Blogger, and that same year won two prestigious People’s Voice Webby awards for the Humor and Weird categories. In 2009, Failblog.org won two People’s Voice Webby awards for the same categories as its predecessor.

It may seem to be at the top of its game, but Icanhascheezburger’s popularity isn’t about to dwindle. The site has a page on Facebook, a surprisingly difficult and addictive online game called NomNomNom4Fud, an application for IPhones, and even a book.

Blast wanted to peek inside the genius minds behind the LOLcats, so we spoke with Pet Holdings, Inc.’s CEO, Ben Huh, who answered our tough, probing questions about this growing empire.

Blast: Can you briefly tell us how Icanhascheezburger.com began?

BH: Icanhascheezburger.com was started by two friends in Hawaii back in January of 2007. They exchanged some LOLCat pictures over IM and the site was born the next day.
Blast: So. What’s with this elusive cheezburger? Do cats like burgers? Did I miss something?

BH: It takes a cat to understand the mind of a cat… I’m pretty sure we’re missing everything.
Blast: Do you know about the online LOLspeak glossary? And do you foresee this taking over the English language as we know it? Can people actually misspell LOLspeak, or is it constantly evolving?

BH: We started speaklolspeak.com. It’s an evolving Internet-based language that’s incorporating parts of text-speak, IM-speak and l33t-speak [a language that substitutes numbers for letters, as in "n00b" for "newbie"].
Blast: There are “Star Trek” conventions, “Star Wars” conventions, “Lost” conventions… will there ever be a LOLcat convention? And if so, will there be cheezburgers?

BH: *shrug* I don’t see why not?
Blast: Do you have a favorite LOL? If so, what is it?

BH: I have lots of favorite LOLz here:‚ http://cheezburger.com/pictures-by-I-Can-Has-Cheezburger/favorites
Blast: Do you make LOLz yourself, or just sit at a desk reading them all day? Oh, and are you hiring?

BH: I do make them myself, but NOT A SINGLE ONE has ever been voted on to the homepage. And yes, we’re hiring.

Blast: So who invented much of the LOLspeak? Geniuses over at corporate or obsessed fans? Or both? Any you are responsible for?

BH: I think we’re all a little bit responsible for LOLspeak. Like any real language, it’s a cultural evolution.
Blast: Why do you think your sites have become so insanely popular and have attracted such a following?

BH: I think there’s a great sense of community behind them. They’re powered by the very people who enjoy the content. That tells you about what a little bit of effort can do for Internet culture.

If you’ve turned on a computer in the last two years, you’ve probably seen Lolcats, those funny feline photos, the ones that use misspelled captions and capture cats, as John Hodgman puts it in his introduction to this new book, “at the precise moment they are talking.” ‚ 

Now comes‚ The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out, a collection of distantly related comics drawn in an old-timey style. The book’s premise is that the comics, written by cartoonist, walrus hunter, spy, hobo and retired U.S. senator Aloysius Gamaliel Koford, first appeared in newspapers between 1912 and 1914. None of this is true, of course, and the book is probably (definitely) the work of “Aloysius’ great-grandson,” Adam Koford, who is real.‚ 

Written in that distinctly “Icanhascheezburger” speak, the book is a series of single-frame escapades involving the hobo-cat duo Kitteh and Pip, all of which take place in the early twentieth century. There’s no real plot, just a series of recurring themes, such as Pip’s obsession with “Caturday” and things being invisible (Invisbl everything? Kitteh: No, itz snow”) References include‚ Lord of the Rings‚ and Lovecraft.

Hodgman writes in his introduction that the production of the original online Lolcat pictures is a “challenging hobby” that is “much, much harder than just sitting down and drawing an old-timey picture of cats.” This is apparently him joking, calling attention to the superficial creation of this viral phenomenon and the often-underrated artistic street cred of cartoonists. (Hodgman later calls Koford a genius.) But in fact, Koford’s cartoons do, in the end, leave the question of what work is being done by their creation. They reference things, yes, and are occasionally stand-alone funny. But an original Lolcat picture, when done right,‚ is‚ without question a kind of work, a situation and a funny punchline in the form of the caption.

Or a triangulation of sorts: the photo of a cat doing something-which we find all the more funny because the notoriously uncooperative animal is clearly not in on the joke-and the creative affixing of the anthropomorphism, just so, enchanting the scene so that now that cat jumping is actually riding an invisible bike! Then there’s the play between the facial expressions that are so spot-on, almost intelligently human, and the grammar that butchers the sentiment and reminds us that cats are cats and not as smart as us, that if they could talk and think out loud, well, those silly guys would still never master grammar. I mean, c’mon, they’re cats. ‚ ‚ 

So, like Chuck Norris facts, Lolcats succeed so frequently because they are an inherently silly premise that ultimately serves as a blank canvas. And the work with the online Lolcats has always been in the painting onto that canvas, even if there is no drawing being done. But with Koford’s cartoons, since the raw material is not the reality of a digital photograph but whatever he decides to sketch, there remains the question of what work is actually being done, of what the point of Koford’s cartoons are if they’re not to be consistently, well, laugh out loud funny. ‚ 

‚ 

What‚ is‚ done is something subtler. At first glance they appear to be a cartoonist having a little fun, meshing the old Krazy Kat style with this new Lolcat speak. But, Koford’s cartoons also raise a deeper question: just how do we categorize this current Lolcat phenomenon in the ever-thickening file cabinet our cultural legacy? Especially as these files now become electronic, where will these less-than-serious artifacts end up, say, when we are as far removed from Lolcats as we are from the original old-timey cartoons?‚ 

So when Koford sketches pip chasing after a spool and saying “I Love Where Dis Thread Iz Going!” we groan at the pun, and then realize how unsettling it is to hear this almost hyper-timely speech applied to characters in hobo cloths. And because these characters are using this i-can-has way of talking the scenes become not merely pat, linear jokes about how things are different now from how they were back then. These are not Plugger cartoons.

No, a project centered this boldly on something so recent and possibly transient has the effect of eviscerating any linear humor-time continuum, of asking, where will Lolcats-and cartoons and memes and humor, and possibly even the recently overdone concept of fake-premise humor books, for that matter- be when Koford is, as the fictional creator of this book is supposed to currently be, 117 years-old?‚ ‚ 

This is, I guess, what they are doing. It’s kinda cool. Still, call me new-fashioned, but I like the original (newer) version of Lolcats, where they just make silly faces.

Dear EarthTalk: I don’t eat meat, for a variety of ethical and environmental reasons, and I’d rather not feed it to my cat, either. Do cats have to be carnivores? — John McManus, Needham, MA

Unlike dogs and other omnivores, cats are true (so-called “obligate”) carnivores: They meet their nutritional needs by consuming other animals and have a higher protein requirement than many other mammals. Cats get certain key nutrients from meat-including taurine, arachidonic acid, vitamin A and vitamin B12-that can’t be sufficiently obtained from plant-based foods. Without a steady supply of these nutrients, cats can suffer from liver and heart problems, not to mention skin irritation and hearing loss.

As such, a cat’s ideal diet is made up mainly of protein and fats derived from small prey such as rodents, birds and small reptiles and amphibians. Some cats munch on grass or other plants, but most biologists agree that such roughage serves only as a digestive aid and provides limited if any nutritional value.

Of course, providing your domestic cat with a steady stream of its preferred prey is hardly convenient or humane-and cats can wreak havoc on local wildlife populations if left to forage on their own. So we fill them up on dry “kibble,” which combines animal products with vegetable-based starches, and meat-based canned “wet” foods, many containing parts of animals cats would likely never encounter, much less hunt and kill, in a purely natural situation. Most cats adapt to such diets, but it is far from ideal nutritionally.

Veterinarian Marla McGeorge, a cat specialist at Portland, Oregon’s Best Friends Veterinary Medical Center, argues that the problem with forcing your cat to be vegetarian or vegan is that such diets fail to provide the amino acids needed for proper feline health and are too high in carbohydrates that felines have not evolved to be able to process. As to those powder-based supplements intended to bridge the nutritional gap, McGeorge says that such formulations may not be as easily absorbed by cats’ bodies as the real thing.

Some would vehemently disagree. Evolution Diet, makers of completely vegetarian foods for cats, dogs and ferrets, says that its meatless offerings, on the market for 15 years, are healthy and nutritious, and, if anything, have extended the lives of many a feline and canine, even reversed chronic health problems. Claiming that most mainstream pet foods contain artery-clogging animal fat, diseased tissue, steroid growth hormones and antibiotics no less harmful to pets than to humans, its website posts testimonials from loyal customers who claim happy and long-lasting pets who look forward to their meals.

And Harbingers of a New Age, which makes “Vegecat” kibble and supplements that provide cats with nutrients otherwise only found in meat, says that its products allow owners to “prepare food in your own kitchen, choosing recipes that fit your lifestyle.”

The vegetarian pet debate is a contentious one among vegetarian pet owners and veterinarians and is one not likely to go away anytime soon. The best approach may well be to give some of the non-meat supplements and/or foods a try. If your cat won’t eat them, or does not do well on them-take kitty to a veterinarian for a check-up to see-you can always go back to what you were feeding her before.

CONTACTS: Best Friends Veterinary Medical Center, www.bestfriendsdvm.com; Evolution Diet, www.petfoodshop.com; Harbingers of a New Age, www.vegepet.com.

Dear EarthTalk: What is the “green cities” movement? – John Moulton, Greenwich, CT

Best described as a loose association of cities focused on sustainability, the emerging “green cities movement” encompasses thousands of urban areas around the world all striving to lessen their environmental impacts by reducing waste, expanding recycling, lowering emissions, increasing housing density while expanding open space, and encouraging the development of sustainable local businesses.

Perhaps the archetypal green city is Curitiba, Brazil. When architect and urban planner Jamie Lerner became mayor in 1972, he quickly closed six blocks of the city’s central business district to cars, delighting residents and business owners alike. Today the pedestrian-free zone is three times larger and serves as the heart of the bustling metropolis. Lerner also put in place a high-tech bus system, greatly reducing traffic, energy usage and pollution; the move also encouraged density around transit hubs and thus preserved open space in other areas that would have likely turned into suburbia. Today the bus system still goes strong, and three-quarters of the city’s 2.2 million residents rely on it every day.

Another green cities leader is Rekyjavik, Iceland, where hydrogen-powered buses ply the streets and renewable energy sources-geothermal and hydropower-provide the city’s heat and electricity. London, Copenhagen, Sydney, Barcelona, Bogota and Bangkok, not to mention Sweden’s Malmo, Ecuador’s Bahƒ­a de Carƒ¡quez and Uganda’s Kampala, also score high for their green attributes and attitudes.

Green cities abound in North America, too. In 2005, Portland, Oregon became the first U.S. city to meet carbon dioxide reduction goals set forth in the landmark (if ill-fated) Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement forged to mitigate the threat of global warming. Seattle, Washington also committed to meeting Kyoto’s goals and has persuaded 590 other U.S. cities to do the same under the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. And Vancouver, British Columbia draws 90 percent of its power from renewable sources while its metro area boasts some 200 parks and more than 18 miles of accessible waterfront.

San Francisco is a leader in green building, energy efficiency and alternative energy, and has been on the forefront of the battle to reduce plastic usage. Austin, Texas is fast becoming a world leader in solar equipment production and has made great strides in preserving open space. Chicago has invested hundreds of millions of dollars revitalizing its parks and neighborhoods, and has built some of America’s most eco-friendly downtown buildings. It is also working to provide affordable clean power to low-income families. Of course, many would argue that New York City-with its densely packed housing, reliance on mass transit and walking, and recent green policy moves by Mayor Bloomberg-may be the greenest of all.

While there is no formal green cities organization, per se, many groups have sprung up to help urban areas achieve their sustainability goals. GreenCities Events, for one, hosts conferences around the U.S. at which local experts, policymakers and business leaders share ideas for greening their region. And International Sustainable Solutions takes urban planners, developers and elected officials on tours so they can check out some of the world’s greenest cities to glean first-hand what works and what can be applied back home.

CONTACTS: Mayors Climate Protection Center, www.usmayors.org/climateprotection; GreenCities Events, www.greencities.com; International Sustainable Solutions, www.i-sustain.com.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php. EarthTalk is now a book! Details and order information at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalkbook.

Dear EarthTalk: Please help settle the debate about whether or not my cats should stay in or go out. My neighborhood is relatively safe for cats, vis- -vis car traffic, and I think it is more natural for them to be outside and not always inside. They do kill wildlife, including birds, but aren’t they just taking the place of natural predators that once did the same? — Bill Thomson, Bangor, ME

Most environmental advocates believe that keeping cats indoors is better for both the health of the felines themselves and for their prey. Scientists estimate that the typical free-roaming housecat kills some 100 small animals each year. This means that the 90 million domestic housecats living in the U.S. alone are killing hundreds of millions if not billions of birds, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians every year. And while housecats on the prowl may serve to replace the natural predators long ago extirpated by humans, their popularity as pets puts their population density far ahead of those that came before them.

"Cat predation is an added stress to wildlife populations already struggling to survive habitat loss, pollution, pesticides and other human impacts," says the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), which in 1997 launched its controversial Cats Indoors! campaign to educate animal lovers about the benefits of keeping Tabby inside. ABC also points out that free-roaming cats are exposed to injury, disease, parasites and collisions with cars, and can get lost, stolen or poisoned. Cats can also transmit diseases and parasites such as rabies, cat-scratch fever and toxoplasmosis to other cats, wildlife or people. To help drive its point home, ABC produces a wide range of educational materials (including a brochure, "Keeping Cats Indoors Isn’t Just For The Birds") and public service announcements in the service of their ongoing campaign.

Nonetheless, many cat lovers believe that it is inhumane to confine felines indoors, since they have evolved as hunters and thrive on the natural stimulation only available outside. To help soften the blow and wean your cat off of the outdoors slowly, ABC suggests gradually curtailing your cat’s out-of-doors time over the course of a few months until it is eventually not let out at all. In doing so, you will need to provide your cat with a lot of attention and play indoors. New scratching posts and toys are a good bet as they may entertain cats that ordinarily occupy themselves chasing birds and rodents. ABC suggests hiding various toys around the house so cats can sniff them and not miss so much the thrill of the hunt outdoors.

One last bit of important advice: Many fear that confining their cats indoors will lead to more shredded upholstery. But de-clawing your cat should never be an option. According to Veterinarian Dr. Christianne Schelling, cats’ claws are a vital part of their anatomy. De-clawing is not simply fingernail trimming but the removal of the last joint in a cat’s "toes." It is a painful procedure and can lead to serious physical, emotional and behavioral complications.

Alternatives to de-clawing include providing scratching posts in various locations around the home, and trimming your cats nails occasionally. This involves trimming only the clear tip of the nail (never the pink or dark fleshy parts, which are skin) and should be done only upon first consulting with a veterinarian. Another option is a product called Soft Paws, lightweight vinyl caps that you apply over your cat’s own claws. They have rounded edges, so your cat’s scratching doesn’t damage your home and furnishings.

CONTACTS: Cats Indoors! www.abcbirds.org/cats/; Declawing Cats: More Than Just a Manicure, www.hsus.org/ace/11780; Soft Paws, www.softpaws.com.

Dear EarthTalk: The hospital I work at doesn’t recycle at all, not even plastic bottles and cans or food service trays. I was wondering how to get the facility to start up some kind of recycling system? – Adrianna Schultz, via e-mail

Getting a large institution or corporation on board with recycling is no easy job, especially when you are starting from scratch. A good place to begin is to get permission from higher-ups to solicit bids from waste haulers and recyclers interested in new business. Such service providers can provide you with both the supplies needed to gather recyclables as well as regular weekly or daily pick-ups, depending on needs.

If convincing your employer to look into recycling in the first place is a stumbling block, there are many resources available to help turn that tide. The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC), a state agency dedicated to helping Ocean State businesses manage solid waste in environmentally sound ways, publishes "In the Workplace," a print and online pamphlet that outlines the steps for setting up a workplace recycling and reduction program. According to RIRRC, wannabe workplace recyclers need to start by securing organizational support and commitment and educating fellow employees about the importance of recycling. The pamphlet also includes useful tips about reducing waste altogether.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s "Recycling Works" program offers a similar set of guidelines specifically for recycling at hospitals and health care institutions. Additionally, New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation publishes a free guide showing health care facilities how to evaluate their performance in preventing waste and pollution and identify opportunities for recycling and for cutting back resource use.

Another good resource for information on hospital recycling is the website of the nonprofit Waste Reduction Resource Center, which offers case studies detailing how several small and large health care facilities coast-to-coast have launched successful and money-saving recycling and waste reduction programs. Examples include a Vermont hospital with no budget for recycling that set up a self-sustaining, money-saving system for organics collection and composting, and a Pennsylvania hospital that now saves $150,000 a year due to the implementation of its recycling program.

Those looking to reduce waste in hospitals should be sure to consult the "Plan-Do-Check-Act" section of the Sustainable Hospitals website. The summary provides useful tools for getting management approvals and enlisting the support of employees in both recycling and lowering disposable product consumption. It also has a section on how to reduce energy usage.

Implementing recycling and waste reduction programs at hospitals makes sense not only for local ecology and for institutional bottom line, but also for the examples that can be set for the millions of patients and workers that pass through the health care system every day.

CONTACTS: Waste Reduction Resource Center, http://wrrc.p2pays.org; RIRRC "In the Workplace," www.rirrc.org/documents/10221%20Workplace%20Brochure3.pdf; "Recycling Works," www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/RECYCLE/Recywrks/recywrks1.htm; Sustainable Hospitals, www.sustainablehospitals.org/HTMLSrc/PlanDoCheckAct.html.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.