1 September

If dogs are man's best friend, you might say that cats are their master (you don't own a cat, they own you). And today we celebrate our aloof, feline friends, well, those of the marmalade variety at least, as today is Ginger Cat Appreciation Day.

Founded by American software developer turned animal rights activist Chris Roy, Ginger Cat Appreciation Day honours 'Doobert', the stray ginger cat that Roy found outside his home and subsequently adopted, who brought him so much joy, and inspired him to create the revolutionary Doobert app, which connects rescue homes and animal shelters with volunteers throughout the world. To this day, Roy's work spreads the message of, and facilitates, animal welfare across the globe.

But Doobert hasn't been the only ginger cat to make an impact on the world. We all remember the lazy, slightly rotund and cynical Garfield from Jim Davis' comic strip of the same name. Then there was Crookshanks, Hermione Granger's flat-faced ginger cat from the Harry Potter novels. And not forgetting "Cat" from Breakfast at Tiffany's, the stray marmalade tabby who adopted Audrey Hepburn's Holly Golightly as his own.

There's no denying that there's certainly something special about our ginger cat companions. So let's toast Doobert and ginger cats the world over with a Kentucky Buck, or a Gin Buck, or indeed any other cocktail from the Buck family. Why a Buck? Well, Bucks always contain ginger beer or ginger ale. Appropriately, our own ginger cat is called Buck.

Chicken Boy Appreciation Day

This unofficial national day celebrates a well-known landmark on Route 66 that has been described as "the Statue of Liberty of Los Angeles". Chicken Boy is a fibreglass statue of a chicken-headed boy grasping a bucket of chicken.

He stands 6.7 metres (22 feet) tall and is named after the 1960s restaurant he first graced. When the restaurant closed, he went into storage until a Los Angeles art director found a suitable location. In 2010, California's then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recognised him with a Governor's Historic Preservation Award. Today, let's salute him with a bittersweet, fruity sipper, the Salty Bird.