The unfeasibly appropriately named Phillip Catt is in line to pay court costs of around £25,000 after his second appeal to keep a special Savannah Cat breeding enclosure in his back garden was lost. The Finchley feline fanatic built the first of four 10m by 8.6m cages at his home in Finchley Garden Village Conservation Area in 2006 much to the annoyance of his neighbours. Mr Catt now has 1 month to take down......

The wait is over. Flexpetz is finally here. We teased you with their pay as you go pup service way back in July last year so you poor, poor dogless wonders have been chewing the arm of the sofa, pulling our your own hair and weeing on the carpet in impatience for many, many months now. It's time though. Get out the chucking sticks, get out those poo bags (yes, you have to pick......

To celebrate World Rat Day we bring you a top tip from Mike Atherton over at Trusted Places: the Rat Race window display at Wieden + Kennedy. That is, a tube map made from real tubes, running around which are real rats. Cute ones too. These are no disease ridden, scraggy traditional London sewer rats, however, but 21st century, media savvy, Shoreditch types living in run-around rodent luxury. They're even on Facebook citing amongst......

This might just be an excuse for us to post a cute puppy pic on a Friday, but wouldn't you want to know if your dog hated your taste in music? At a kennel for seeing-eye dogs in Woodford Green, a caretaker noticed the penned-up pups would calm down when she put on classical music. She tested out different kinds of music, and found the little yappers responded best to classical. Now they let......

Remember the pigeon feeding turf wars of 2006? Well, the Pigeon Action Group are back in the news. A candlelit vigil was held at midday today on Trafalgar Square's north terrace (in daylight?) to highlight the plight of the poor starving birds. Westminster City Council closed the loophole that had allowed certain pigeon protestors to feed the birds on a daily basis back in September to make the public square more hygenic and pleasant.......

Scientists from the Zoological Society of London have bagged the first ever wild footage of the long-eared jerboa. The timid, nocturnal creature can be found, with great difficulty, in the deserts of Mongolia and China. It is now, officially, Londonist's second favourite animal, behind the numbat. We defy you to watch this footage without grinning like a tomfool. How cute is that? Not as cute as this. Very little is known about the elusive......

You'll forgive dear old Londonist for being a touch misty-eyed, but in our day a dog was a child's best friend, a source of companionship and a trusted pal through thick and thin. Times have changed though, and according to the RSPCA there's an increasing problem of pooches being used as status symbols and de-facto weapons, rather than the loveable pets who fetch slippers and chew the Sunday periodical. Last year saw a 42%......

Irusia Armattoe of Teddington was dealt a heavy blow when a fire not only claimed her house and badly injured her, but also took the lives of 16 of her 30 beloved bunny rabbits. Yesterday, however, she thanked her neighbours for proving that some of us took those 'Love Thy Neighbour' stitched samplers on our grandmother's wall to heart. Mrs Armattoe, 65, was badly burned in the fire that broke out nearly two weeks......

A survey of watery wildlife carried out this summer by British Waterways and enthusiastic public twitchers and nature lovers has confirmed that the flamboyant kingfisher is thriving in Regents Canal. Excellently, to make the canal an even better home for our birds, British Waterways are planning habitat improvement projects for Regents Canal including the installation of kingfisher boxes and tunnels (for them to nest in, rather than create their own underground network) and posts......

October hasn't been a great month to be a Royal. If it's not a blackmail attempt, or being immortalised in bronze for a controversial sculpture, now they can't even go out for a spot of recreational rare-bird shooting without some spoilsport kicking up a fuss. It's been reported that Prince Harry was interviewed by police after two rare hen harriers, a legally protected species of bird, were shot in flight at Sandringham. The prince......

Think Battersea and think Dogs Home. Or Power Station. Well, the Kennel Club and Sky Movies are about to change that by making Battersea Park home of the world's first Dog Walk of Fame. We're not quite sure why. The Kennel Club secretary says that the move "promotes the importance of dogs within our lives" but we think it's more about promoting the annual Discover Dogs show coming up in November and the sponsor/tie-in......

Well Londonist has run two animal stories into one here, on account of not wanting to look like we’ve gone soft. And to keep all parties happy, there’s a doggy one, and a kitty one. Although the cat one is actually rather sad: the business of an abused and diseased kitten which was abandoned to die at a West London recycling depot gets us as full of passion and anger as the next daft, animal-mad......

We Brits love our birds and animals. We love to shrinkwrap their body parts and burn them on bbqs on a Sunday afternoon, we love to take them for long walks in the park and we love to watch their majestic beauty on BBC documentaries with a Sigur Ros soundtrack. What we won't countenance is letting the little buggers run free in our green and grey and pleasant land. They do tend to shit......

So congratulations to the keepers at London Zoo's reptile house who have just become the proud parents to nine Utila Iguanas (Ctenosaura bakeri). These critically endangered critters, a rare species of spiny tailed black iguana, are native to a small area of mangrove swamp on the Honduran island of Utila and their hatching is another successful step in a wider programme to save them from extinction. After a ten year breeding programme, the domesticated......

Gorillas have been getting a rather good press of late in London. The Gorilla Kingdom at London Zoo, which opened in March, has seen huge numbers of visitors trudging up Regent's Park way to gawp at resident lowland gorillas Bobby, Zaire and Effie swing about their new home. Meanwhile, a television ad featuring a sullen simian being sparked into life by the crashing drum break of Phil Collins 'In The Air Tonight' has become......

Remember the tragedy of the Thames Whale? Course you do. The massive mammal meandered up the estuary and into every vaguely animal loving Londoner's heart like an extraordinary underwater beast from a faraway land before expiring, helpless, lost and crushed beneath its own weight, aboard its rescue boat. It was a sad day. However, it seems we shouldn't have been so surprised by the presence of one of the largest mammals in the world......

Fundraising events, for whatever cause, should always try to be novel and attention grabbing if they're going to reap the quids in. Londonist keeps up with the best of them. Lately, we've had the vet in a dog bowl, the bunny rabbit taxi and bid for a date girl. All excellent ideas to varying degrees. However, we've yet to come across a scheme that beats "Beards for Battersea". Yes, staff and volunteers from Battersea......