I called this post “War Paint” because as agreeable and lovely as the cats in my life have been, I’m pretty sure no grown cat would stand for being painted. Happily, the stunning animals in Burton Silver and Heather Busch’s book, “Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics,” were photographed sans paint. The paint effects were Photoshopped in later. The book was intended as a parody of the internet’s obsession with cats, though that point may have been missed by the hordes of unamused animal rights protesters who girded themselves for war when the book came out in 2002.

Even if felines don’t interest you, the pure skill of the photo manipulations makes the pictures worth checking out!