Hypoallergenic cats

I was trawling through an ancient b3ta.com newsletter, as you do, earlier in the week, and came across these profundities. But since the profundities concern cats, I saved them until today, Friday being catblogging day, or so I seem to recall reading somewhere. Anyway, this is what b3ta.com says, so profoundly:

We can’t imagine anything worse than being allergic to cats – it’d be like having an allergy to life itself. However, help is at hand for sufferers. Boffins are busy meddling with nature to create a moggy that won’t provoke an allergic reaction, and the first kittens are due in 2007. A snip at just $3500. BTW: When people claim they’re allergic to cat fur, what they mean is that they’re allergic to cat urine, cat skin or cat saliva that’s become airborne by being secreted on the fur.

And b3ta.com then supply this link to allerca. Says allerca at the top of its website:

WELCOME TO ALLERCA. ALLERCA is working to produce the world’s first hypoallergenic cats. These cats will allow some of the millions of people allergic to cats to enjoy the love and companionship of a household pet without suffering from allergy symptoms.

If you obsess only about the doings of politicians, you are liable to miss good news stories like that. Name me one politician who ever did anything as splendid as inventing a non-allergic-type cat. Actually, do not name any such politicians, because there may have been one or two. But you get my point.

Boffins meddling with nature, enough to make you purr, eh? Remind me to return to this topic in 2007, because strictly speaking it has not yet been done.

My apologies to all those readers of samizdata.net who are allergic to catblogging. Also, it seems that I am about six weeks late with this happy announcement. But, it is the kind of thing you can miss, so never mind about that.