I had that problem last night, it was really slow for some reason, it was so unlike the cat site, and it wasn't happening for any other sites. But don't worry it's sorted now-
Folks, the server is doing a backup automatically once a day and one mega-backup every Thursday. The time of the backup is noon my time, which is about the middle of the night in the US (where most memebrs reside). At those times, the server slows down for a few minutes. Thursdays it may even take 10-15 minutes. The database of the forums is absolutely huge! and I'd hate to lose in if the forums ever crash.
By the way you will also notice the slow down on any database driven parts of our sites. Those would be the forums, the cat pages and parts of Meowhoo.com.
So, if you come here at those times and get stuck, go get yourself a cup of coffe or something and give it a few minutes to finish the backup. The final solution will be if and when we move to a stronger server (which would cost us 5-10 times more).