The things you learn as a gossip blogger are usually completely worthless with a high amusement and shock factor. In this case, there’s nothing amusing about little animals turned into junkies by their abusive owners, but it’s still something that wouldn’t occur to me on my own.

Pete Doherty’s cat was said to be found with cocaine in its system after he brought it to a veterinarian a few weeks ago acting strangely. Tox screens on the cat came up positive for cocaine. I wasn’t really sure of the validity of that story as it sounded kind of out there, even for Doherty.

Now The Sun has a picture of a wee kitty taking a hit off what’s said to be a specially made crack pipe from a tiny bottle. Supposedly this picture is of Pete Doherty, but his face is not visible.

The story that accompanies it about how f’ed up the poor cat is as a result is just sad:

JUNKIE Pete Doherty is snapped appearing to give his kitten crack — from a mini-pipe he made specially for it.

Sickened pals who leaked the picture claimed the warped rocker regularly gets the pet smashed.

They said it PASSES OUT with its paws in the air, suffers MOOD SWINGS and even thinks it can FLY.

One added: “In Pete’s mind it is the only one who understands him now.”

The Babyshambles frontman’s cat Dinger — named after a slang term for a syringe — had five kittens in April.

The friend said: “One in particular has borne the brunt of his drug abuse. Pete thinks it’s hilarious to get it wasted.

“He even made a special mini-crack pipe out of a bottle so it can get the maximum hit.

“But the kitten is starting to get really bad withdrawal symptoms.

“It has lost some of its balance and takes huge risks jumping over things that are too high. It thinks it can fly. It’s really distressing to see.”

[From The Sun]

If I doubted that “cat on cocaine” story on Pete before, I don’t now.

The thing that is news to me is the secondary story in this article about how squirrels are supposedly getting high from crack rocks that are hidden in public parks. This sounds like an urban legend:

DOHERTY’S kitten is not the first animal with addiction problems. In 2005 The Sun told how squirrels in Brixton, South London, became hooked on crack cocaine hidden by addicts in gardens.

Residents said the tufties had bloodshot eyes and were “digging desperately” in flower-beds.

In the US, crack squirrels are a recognised problem in New York and Washington DC parks.

[From The Sun]

I sincerely doubt this is true, because if it is it’s too much like a scene out of cartoon. There’s nothing on snopes that I could find about these supposed crack squirrels, but there is a forum on urbanlegends on about.com discussing whether it seems likely.

Here’s the article from The Sun on crack squirrels. Disappointingly, there’s no video. The Guardian investigated this crack squirrel phenomenon and found only rumors and no hard evidence.

Maybe if squirrels were tame like pets they could really be turned into hardcore addicts like Pete Doherty’s poor kitty. How f***ed up do you have to be to subject a defenseless animal to your addictions?

The RSPCA said they can’t do much about the picture, because “there needs to be more evidence.”