As if any further proof was needed of my woeful blog-novice-ness, but I will defiantly here link to a site which has surged its way round the, er, blogosphere several strillion times since last May, but which I do believe I may be about to give its first English national newspaper page lead... So. Yay. Go me... Or not, as the case most certainly may be...But anyway, I do like Kittenwar. And Fraser Lewsy's imaginative and entertaining, well, other sites (there are a few, the blog the best...) Gets the old green-eyed monster firing phaser-like optical lasers all the way across this shabby desk and into the dead-soulless-centre of the stained and scratched monitor screen...
But, anyway, before it gets the Changing Rooms renovation treatment by my friendly local sub, here is my hack-alias account of a little online chat with the Kittenwar creator...
NB - anyone reading this (should there be such a being, somewhere, anywhere), please do vote for ma boys, Barney and Tots together, or else just Barney, or if you can't manage that, well, Tots, or indeed my favourite Tots again, scandalously under-rated - aaah, just do it - as another advertising cipher-someone almost said, 'they're worth it...'
CATFIGHTS have never been quite this cute before.
More than 25,000 of the world's prettiest kittens have been fiercely waging war in cyberspace - and bringing office work to a standstill.
Kittenwar.com, one Londoner's online beauty contest for cats, randomly pits two kittens against one another and invites visitors to choose their favourite.
All results are stored, allowing pet-owners to keep track of how well their own is doing.
As of yesterday, 25,422 kittens had fought out 43,818,277 'kittenwars'.
Fraser Lewry, Kittenwar's creator, said: 'I'm a cat-lover and noticed that emailing a picture of a cute kitten round the office would prompt a chorus of "awwws" and "aaahs" from even the most stern of colleagues.
'I think it's because kittens have a magical, placating effect on people - if kittens were used during the peace negotiations in Iraq, our troops would already be home.
'So I thought I'd harness this power and combine it with the brutality of war, giving people a chance to submit their own pictures and discover how cute others found their pets.
'It is kind of addictive - I get emails from people who tell me they played for an hour, and 99 per cent of their selections tallied with what the majority of others thought.'
Although it makes no money, the site has proved so popular he aims to start selling Kittenwar merchandise such as calendars and T-shirts.
Porn star Asia Carerra is among those to submit entries, and her tastefully-shot Kitten Little briefly topped the 'winningest kitten' chart.
Others are not so fortunate - the aptly-named Scary Cat has lost 5,438 battles, winning just 842 and drawing 761.
Fraser does not actually own a cat himself, since his Kilburn flat does not have a garden.
'I think cats should be free to climb trees, bury their dirt in the soil and slaughter birds,' he said.
'I suspect if I ever do get a place with a garden, I'll become known locally as an eccentric weirdo with a house full of cats, who probably smells a bit funny.'
But his site's global appeal prompted him to set up two more - The Daily Kitten, which allows comments, and Cats In Sinks, devoted to, well, cats in sinks.
Perhaps inevitably, a similar site called Puppywar has followed.
Fraser said: 'It's nothing to do with us, although I'm happy to see it do well.
'I've also had requests to create similar sites for rabbits, babies and, rather strangely, owls.' For now, Fraser is keeping faith with kittens - but for one exception.
He revealed: 'Somewhere on the Kittenwar site is a very cute baby elephant we let slip through the net.
'I get emails complaining about this every day, from concerned cat-lovers who don't want to see a precedent set.'
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