We are just a week away from the premiere of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and I'm so excited I feel like a kid who's caught Star Wars fever again, only with less action figures, less Ewok plushies and no Darth Vader Underoos.

In order to properly prepare for the premiere I've been watching all the Star Wars stuff, from the trailers to the interviews to the parodies, and even though this video is based on Episode IV rather than Episode VIII it's my favorite by far- because cats.

Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope. With Cats by YouTuber klusmanp is an amazing blend of costumed cat actors, nerdy humans, ridiculously low budget puppets and equally low budget special effects, so basically it's the awesomest!

(YouTube Link)

-Via Geeks Are Sexy

New York photographer Brooke Goldman offered to walk her boyfriend to the train station early Sunday morning. On her way back, she was in a hurry to get some more sleep, but came across an outdoor nativity scene that had to be photographed.

And just like that, Goldman's day had been brightened by the unwitting kitty.

"I guess you can definitely say he brought me joy while I was walking home. It was mood-lifting, most definitely," she said. "Laughing that hard that early in the morning makes the rest of the day much more positive."

That still doesn't answer the most important question: What has a this cat done with the baby Jesus? -via Boing Boing

Competitive creative dog grooming is an activity that makes dogs into an art medium. The biggest competition is the annual Groom Expo, which took place in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in September. Watch as dog groomers Adriane Pope and Angela Kumpe negotiate the four-day grooming exposition and sculpt and dye their poodles, transforming them into magnificent, if odd, works of art.

(vimeo link)

As with other obscure pastimes, creative dog groomers know each other, know the rules and trends, and work diligently to make a name for themselves among those in the creative dog grooming community. The short film Well Groomed by Rebecca Stern is being developed into a feature film. -via Laughing Squid

(Image credit: Sir Toby Toblerone)

Meet Sir Toby Toblerone. This British cat was picked up by an animal rescue group as a kitten and then was adopted from a shelter by his foster parents. Toby has never been able to walk, although the exact cause have never been pinpointed. But Toby leads a good life with the other cats Hattie and Nigel and his Mum and Dad, who take care of his every need.

(Image credit: Sir Toby Toblerone)

Toby loves to cuddle and enjoys trains, so his humans dress him up and take him on adventures, like riding on a train or just watching one.

(Facebook link)

Toby's adventures are regularly shared on Facebook. -via Metafilter

Kids often give their grandmothers trouble for taking in strays like a crazy old cat lady, but this act of kindness really shows that she's a good person so they generally don't dissuade her from continuing to collect cats.

But when Eric Hertlein went to visit his grandma at her home in Kansas he saw something that caused him to be concerned about her cat collecting and her eyesight- because one of the strays she was taking care of wasn't a cat at all.

His grandma thought she'd been taking care of three stray cats, but one of them was an opossum imposter pretending to be a cat so he could live the sweet life indoors:

“She reassured me it was one of her cats,” he told The Dodo. “I told her it wasn’t what she thought it was.” The sweet woman even named him Tete, and though she was shocked to realize the truth, she didn’t mind too much at all. “Well, he hasn’t bothered me yet, so I’m OK with him being here!” she reportedly exclaimed.

-Via Bored Panda

MarkXXD built this shelter for a cat that hangs around outdoors near his home in Hungary. Yeah, he'd like to have a cat, and he even let this one inside for a while.

You would assume from that update that MarkXXD now has a cat, because that's how you get a cat. But his mother doesn't want a cat inside the house. If you find yourself in this situation, here are instructions for making a comfy winter cat shelter for outside cats from Alley Cat Advocates.  

Sea lions don't look so tough when they're just laying there looking all peaceful and lazy, but if you piss one off you'll see why so many animals fear those blubbery bastards- because they can be intimidating as hell.

A crew filming Blue Planet II for the BBC weren't aware the docks they were filming on were guarded by an ornery sea lion, who should be nicknamed Gandalf because if he could speak human he'd be screaming "You shall not pass!".

(YouTube Link)

-Via Laughing Squid

The idea of a dog and cat who love to go on hikes together sounds like the plot of a kid's movie,  but add avid human hiker Cynthia Bennett and you've got the true story of three free spirits who love to get lost together.

Cynthia and her boyfriend adopted their dog Henry in 2014 and he took to hiking like an otter takes to water:

“I think we only had him for three days when we took him on our first hike,” Bennett told The Dodo. “He found the steepest, tallest rock around, and he ran up to the top of it to look over the edge.” That’s why they started calling him their “little mountain goat.”

Recently they decided to expand their family of outdoor enthusiasts by adding a rescued Siamese kitten named Baloo to the mix, and now the spunky little kitten and Henry the Colorado Dog are inseparable.

See more from This Cat And Dog Love Travelling Together here

This tortoise must really love his buddy the cat. He's learned to put it in high gear to keep up with the feline as she travels all over the backyard.

(YouTube link)

This reminds me of what it's like to be the mother of a couple of preschoolers. They didn't care where I was going, they were just going to follow me, single file, period. If I turned around suddenly, we all collided. -via Laughing Squid

Max is not allowed in the library. But everyone wants Max to go where he wants. Max has an Instagram gallery that he shares with his sister Gracie, and fan art has been filtering in about Max and his quest to visit the Macalester College campus library. 

This comic is from Macalester art student Mariah Jo. 

Sevinth made him a library card.

@librarianrover Please allow this kind and gentle soul the right to good literature that he deserves more than anyone pic.twitter.com/y6e9gFCLNV

— Sevinth (@SevinthStreams) November 29, 2017

Until it's a book, here's a coloring sheet for your kids.#librarycat #max pic.twitter.com/r3GlAX8KAS

— Scott Moore (@AwedJob) November 29, 2017

And there's poetry. In the replies to this Tweet, poet Finn, a Human came up with several verses about Max.

And Joey Michaels left a poem at Metafilter about Max that refers back to an earlier meme. 

ma nam is max
is plain to see
mah favrit place
the library

i sneak to it
cross fields and brooks
and wen im in
i lik the books

If there's more Max fan art, you'll find it on the new Twitter feed that Mariah Jo started for Max fans. And by the way, the project to turn his story into a children's book is real. -via Metafilter

We can't expect dogs to appreciate the holidays as much as we do, or even the way cats do. Dogs already appreciate everything we give them, every day, so the holidays are just another time to be their joyful, wonderful selves. Still, we share the holiday spirit with our dogs because they are good dogs.

(YouTube link)

Maggie Smith Kühn (previously at Neatorama) wrote a song about her little pug Lucy, set to the tune of "Carol of the Bells." From the YouTube page:

Lucy the pug would like to wish you a very merry Christmas. This is the dumbest video I have ever made, and was also a ridiculous amount of fun. What can I say, I'm obsessed with this dog.

You can see more of Lucy at Kühn's Instagram page.  -via Tastefully Offensive  

This sign is at the Macalester College library in St. Paul, Minnesota. Max is well-known on campus, and everyone likes him. He only looks grumpy in the drawing because he's not allowed into the library. Several college students recognized the sign and told us more about Max. Nicolaskg said,

The library isn’t the only place on campus Max visits. A few weeks ago, Max got into our science building and wandered into my class. Our prof laughed it off and tried to continue her lecture, but with no success. All the students were distracted with Max prancing around trying to play with everyone. Eventually after 10 minutes, Max got bored and left to presumably interrupt another class.

He has also snuck into our humanities building and even into my dorm building. It’s a tradition now to snapchat “Max spotted” if he’s seen on campus.

If you are lucky enough to meet Max, it is delightful. He is one of the friendliest cats I’ve ever met.

Keep doing you, Max, you little rebel.

Then uncle2fire posted several pictures of Max.

Why was Max banned from the library? We don't know, but it might have something to do with those books he never returned. -via reddit

Cats want ribbon, boxes, shiny toys, crinkly wrapping paper, and turkey for Christmas! But those things aren't always good for them. In this episode of Simon's Cat Logic, Simon Tofield and veterinarian Nicky Treverrow give us a guide to cats and Christmas. The first part is about Christmas hazards to watch out for. Cats can get tangled in lights, swallow ribbons, choke on bones, and eat poisonous greenery.    

(YouTube link)

The second part is Tofield explaining the inspiration for his Christmas cartoons. Then there are some classic Simon's Cat videos. So don't let the length of this video deter you from watching- the new content is only five minutes long.

Apparently fennec foxes make pretty good pets, but if fox owners can get their fox to stop tearing up the furniture, climbing the curtains and knocking over the kitchen trash they consider themselves lucky.

But the folks from the Foxes and Friends Rescue trying to train Edie the baby fennec fox are clearly way past these beginning stages of fox training, since they've trained Edie to sit, although not for very long.

(YouTube Link)

As the poster of the video points out training Edie was hard because she has "the attention span of a tea spoon", but I think it's amazing they were able to get that adorable little bundle of energy to sit at all, much less listen to commands.

And in case you're still on the fence about whether Edie is the cutest little animal ever watch her play with colored balls and savagely attack a camera strap.

(YouTube Link)

-Via Laughing Squid

Cats will lay pretty much wherever they want, and where humans see a box, bowl or computer keyboard they see a comfy place to catch some zzzzs.

This makes it hard to predict how cats will react when you bring home a bed, cat tree and other furniture made specifically for cats, but if you have a prissy kitty then they'll love this artisanal furniture made just for feline royalty.

Japanese design collective Okawa Kagu came up with the idea to make high quality cat-sized furniture when they realized the internet's obsession with cats could help revitalize the craft industry in the Fukuoka prefecture region:

Home to 150 furniture-manufacturing factories, Okawa Kagu came up with the idea to merge the internet’s love for cats with the skills of local artisans. The new production took existing full-scale designs and down-sized them to produce high-quality miniature versions that satisfy even the fussiest of felines.

The collection comprises of a pine wood sofa designed and produced by Hiromatsu Furniture, and a dark wood cat bed designed and produced by Tateno Mokuzai.

You can view the pieces at Okawa Terrazza—an information center with a focus on highlighting local design. Each product is available through the respective manufacturers.

(YouTube Link)

-Via My Modern Met