Campaign finance reports showed that Smoke spent $14.37 of the $236 he’s raised on “dinner for campaign staff” from the pet store. But don’t worry; he wasn’t feeding college interns; his campaign manager, Sita the Cat, was the recipient of the free meals.

“It’s just a general protest against the way expenditures are handled,” he said of his billing his campaign for a household expense. “You have people dumping road signs all over the right-of-way, forcing the city to spend money to clean it up, all by candidates who give lip service to caring about the environment.”

He said his few donations came from personal friends, and he’s not going to hear from real estate developers about how he’s spent their money.

“My taking care of my cat is above what some of the people have done,” he said, referring to candidates donating money to each other to get more matching funds from the city, and candidates accepting money from developers with business in front of the city. “I think there are a lot of abuses, and I don’t partake of any of them.”

Boulder campaign finance administrator Dianne Marshall said the city code doesn’t say which campaign expenses are legitimate, only that expenses have to be disclosed.

“It’s not unusual that he would buy food for campaign helpers,” she said.

Later, Sita became a national sensation when she was the subject of one of the questions on National Public Radio’s popular quiz show “Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me!”

In the “Lightning Fill in the Blank” round, host Peter Segal asked comedian Paula Poundstone to guess what justification Smoke gave for using campaign funds to feed his cat.

Sita could not be reached for comment.

[LINK: DailyCamera.com]

Biologists in Colorado have been encouraged by the increase in the lynx population this year, after finding the first newborns documented since 2006:

DENVER (AP) — The discovery of 10 lynx kittens in Colorado this spring after finding none the last two years and the location of some of the newborns outside what’s considered the cats’ core area have raised the hopes of biologists overseeing restoration of the long-haired mountain feline to the Centennial State.

The seven male and three female lynx kittens found in five separate dens are the first newborns documented since 2006.

“This was very, very good news,” said Tanya Shenk, the lead researcher for the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s lynx restoration program.

A total of 126 kittens are known to have been born in the state since biologists began releasing lynx trapped in Canada and Alaska in southwest Colorado. The tuft-eared cats with big, padded feet, good for maneuvering on snow, were native to Colorado but were wiped out by the early 1970s by logging, trapping, poisoning and development.

Biologists think a drop in the number of snowshoe hares, the main food source for lynx, might have contributed to a decline in kittens the past two years. Shenk said a study of snowshoe hares showed high densities in 2006-2007 and low densities in 2007-2008.

A milestone for the restoration program occurred in 2006 when Colorado-born females started reproducing. This is the first year that biologists found kittens whose parents were both born in Colorado. Biologists made the determination using data from the adults’ radio collars.

“It’s certainly another one of those positive signs,” Shenk said of Colorado-born cats mating.

Another encouraging sign is that two of the five dens with kittens were north of what’s considered the core lynx area, southwest Colorado. Lynx released in the state’s rugged San Juan Mountains have roamed into neighboring states. Shenk said finding kittens in other areas shows that they are comfortable enough to reproduce outside the core habitat.

Division of Wildlife lead biologist Rick Kahn said the agency is close to achieving all its goals for lynx restoration.

” We are very encouraged by the results this year and are hopeful that these animals will contribute toward a sustaining population for Colorado,” Kahn said.

The Denver-based conservation group Center for Native Ecosystems said the existence of dens farther north shows the prevalence of suitable habitat and prey in the state.The group is one of four suing to force the federal government to designate more land in the region as critical habitat for lynx, listed as threatened on the endangered species list.

Federal officials said they didn’t set aside any habitat in Colorado because the state’s lynx program had not produced a self-sustaining population. The designation can trigger additional protections for a species.

A total of 218 lynx from Alaska and Canada have been released in Colorado since 1999. No transplanted cats have been released in the state for the past couple years.

Biologists don’t know how many lynx are in the state. They’re currently monitoring 49 lynx with working radio collars, but many of the original collars have stopped working. Most of the kittens born in Colorado haven’t been fitted with transmitters.

Because Colorado was at the southernmost tip of the cat’s historic range, critics questioned the wisdom of trying to restore lynx to the state. The criticism grew louder when four of the first five lynx released starved to death, prompting immediate changes in the procedures.

Instead of releasing the lynx immediately, biologists kept them caged for about three weeks to fatten them up and freed them later in the winter when prey is more available.

In 2000, just one of 55 lynx died of starvation. That strengthened biologists’ belief that southwest Colorado mountains are good lynx habitat.

[LINK: LA Times; PHOTO: Colorado Division of Wildlife]

Hi, evrybuddy, Skeezix heer. I was a little upset this week to reed about a lady in Grand Junction, Colorado, hoo got in a car wrek because her two cats were havin’ a cat fite in her lap. She got distrakted and drove the car off the rode just like Toonces, and the car overternd. Anuther car and a semi-truck had to swerve off the road to avoid hitting the woman. The cats ran off after the aksident and have not been found. The woman was hospitalized but was not seriously injured. But even tho I’m upset abowt the cats not being found, I’m more upset becuz if Mr Tasty Face (the man hoo runs owr house) reeds this story he will never let me ride loose in the car agin.

The Food Lady and Mr Tasty Face let me out of my carrier on rode trips cuz I git the sqwerts and need to use the catbox a lot, so they don’t wunt me to have an aksident inside my carrier. (Which wood be VARY distrakting to the driver cuz I produce a lot of stink molecules.) So I gess I’m gonna hafta go shopping on the innernets for a kyoot booster/safety seet like the hot pink pleather one on the right cuz I woodn’t wunt to miss a good rode trip. I know Mr Tasty Face woodn’t wunt me to end up being scraped off I5 like a scene frum that classik moovey, Red Assfalt.

If yoo have a cat safety seet to recummend, leeve a note in the comments!