Discovery Press Web United States

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(Silver Spring, MD, February 15, 2012) -- This March, Animal Planet kicks off kitty mania with all-new, must-see episodes of MUST LOVE CATS, beginning on Saturday, March 10, at 8 PM (ET/PT).  These six new cat ventures feature Animal Planet's favorite songwriting cat enthusiast, John Fulton, as he travels across the country and around the world to meet fantastic felines and their adoring owners, all while writing his infamous "kitty ditties."  On his travels, John meets a daredevil cat that survived a jump from a 20-story window; explores an island in Japan, where cats outnumber people; sees a bionic kitty in action; and watches cats go crazy playing custom smartphone games.

In new episodes of MUST LOVE CATS, Fulton focuses on feline fun in cities across the U.S. and packs his bags to explore kitty culture in England and Japan for two special international excursions.

Highlights of Fulton's latest trips include the following:

• A visit to Japan to visit cat cafés where people pay to play with the resident kitties while they drink tea and an emotional meeting with cat lovers risking their lives to save felines left homeless due to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami
• A trip up the California coast to check out the latest advances in feline physical therapy, including getting cats to work out on underwater treadmills
• A trip across the pond to a town in England to hear the loud cat that holds the Guinness World Record for having the loudest purr
• A stopover in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, to learn all about incredible feline kidney transplants, which give cats second chances to live out their nine lives
• A taste of the glamorous kitty high life in New Jersey, the Hamptons and Los Angeles including cat couture, gourmet meals made by a personal kitty chef and fancy feline hotels.
• A stop in Oregon to get a peek into one woman's crusade to teach cats how to swim
• A chat with a jeweler in San Francisco who specializes in creations made from her cat's fur
• A visit to a shelter in New York City, where the kitties are high tech, connecting and playing with feline fans from across the globe using special software that allows people to control their robotic toys for a virtual kitty play date

     Adding an international twist to an already diverse glimpse into all things cats, MUST LOVE CATS gives guitar-playing Fulton fresh material for his feline-focused songs and a chance to show that other countries share America's passion for cats.

"We're really telling some amazing and different stories in these new episodes that people likely haven't heard, and I can't wait to share them with viewers," says host John Fulton. "I learned so much during my travels and have an even greater understanding and appreciation of the relationships people in the U.S. and abroad have with cats."

            MUST LOVE CATS is produced by Powderhouse Productions for Animal Planet. Joel Olicker, Tug Yourgrau and Seanbaker Carter are executive producers for Powderhouse. John Tomlin is co-executive producer for Powderhouse. Erin Wanner is the executive producer for Animal Planet.

Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment.  APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 96 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.

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