News broke yesterday (2 September) of Opie, a Pennsylvania cat that saved the life of its owner’s son by getting between him and a bullet.
When a stray bullet went through the window of Angelica Sipe’s home, her first concern was for her three-year-old son Daemire. When she realised he was fine, however, her attention turned to Opie, who she credits with saving Daemire’s life.
Speaking to Fox News, Sipe said, “[The bullet] came in the top of his head, out the bottom of his neck, and back into his shoulder and out his armpit rib area.”
Against all odds, Opie has survived, albeit with medical bills of more than US$1,000 (a GoFundMe campaign has raised just shy of US$3,000 to cover them at time of writing).
He may have lived, but his near miss put us in mind of this writer’s childhood favourite – cartoonist Simon Bond’s classic collection, 101 Uses for a Dead Cat.
The collection, which was published in 1981, does – as Ronseal might say – exactly what it says on the tin.
In the pages of 101 Uses for a Dead Cat, see cats being used as oven gloves, pogo sticks, weights and hole punches, among, well, 97 other uses.
We’ve gathered 10 of the best right here.
Finally, the most appropriate, or possibly inappropriate, one of all…
And, as an added bonus, the 102nd use for a dead cat: artist Bart Jansen’s Orvillecopter drone.
Made from his real-life (or real-death, perhaps) pet – who lost his life in a tragic feline vs car accident – the Orvillecopter pays homage to the cat’s namesake, Orville Wright.
From Jansen’s website: “My cats, Orville and Wilbur, were named after the famous aviators The Wright Brothers. When Orville was killed by a car, I decided to pay tribute to his lost life by giving him a new one. Electronic life. How he loved birds.”
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Main image via Shutterstock
