How do you tell the difference between a cat that is having a relaxing snooze and one that is sleeping because she’s sick? How do you know when it's time to visit the vet? When a cat isn't feeling well or is ill, instinctively she lies low. This is to avoid bringing attention to her infirmity because in the wild, to alert a predator to weakness makes her vulnerable. All …
Steps to Solving Cat Behavioural Issues
Imagine it’s the school holidays, but you have to work. You leave the kids home alone. . . but the TV’s broken, they’re too young to read, and you’ve locked most of their toys away. When you come home would you expect them to be perched like little angels on the sofa, hands folded in their laps, without a hair out of place? No! Of course not. You’d be lucky if the …
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Teach Your Child to Respect Cats
Kids have a lot to learn about the world around them. Unfortunately, during this exploratory phase, it’s not unusual for collateral damage to happen such as sandwiches posted into the DVD player, teddy swimming in the toilet. . . you get the picture. But when the object under investigation happens to be a cat, someone (two or four-legged) could get hurt. It’s a child’s …
Why Some Cats are Invisible: Which Cats Have the Lowest Adoption Rates?
At school, were you always the last kid left standing in line when sports teams were chosen? For some people, this lack of sporting ability as a child means we are familiar with the feeling of being invisible. And this is sad. But not as sad as being the last cat at the rescue shelter, the unadoptable cat that no-one shows any interest in, the cat who is passed …
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5 Alternatives to Declawing Cats
Are you familiar with the expression: “Taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut”? Essentially this means using over-the-top effort to achieve a simple end. A great example of this is declawing cats. OK, so what we want to achieve is the sofa not being shredded, but is surgically amputating one-third of each toe a proportionate way to achieve this? We think not! Keep in …
Reasons Why Cats Lick You
Does your cat lick you? Being licked by your cat is a bitter-sweet experience. On the one paw, it’s nice to think the cat loves you, but on the other it’s uncomfortable. . . to say the least! Indeed, there’s a deal of difference between the sandpaper roughness of a cat’s tongue and the velvet smoothness of her coat. Ironic then that it’s her tongue that keeps the coat silky, …
Helping your Timid Cat Survive House Guests
How does your timid cat feel about house guests? Cats are creatures of habit; after all it takes dedication to squeeze all those cat naps into the day. Even a confident, sociable cat may be less than thrilled by the arrival of guests coming to stay. But if that cat is timid or anxious, the inconvenience of visitors is akin to having their world turned upside down. Think …
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Pet Medicine Safety: Storage and Disposal
How much thought do you spare for the safe storage and use of pet medicines? You wouldn’t be the first person to leave the childproof lid off your cat’s meds and keep the open bottle on the countertop. But this invites problems on so many levels. There are veterinary poison advice lines and these are a first point of contact when a pet has been poisoned. They also keep …
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Holey Teeth, Catman! Resorptive Lesions and Your Cat
What do you think is the biggest cause of tooth loss in the cat? a) Gum disease b) Resorptive lesions c) Trauma (such as a fall or accident) d) Caries e) Something else. If you answered (b) then give your cat a stroke, because this is the correct answer. Indeed, resorptive lesions are startlingly common. Experts estimate that 20 – 60 % of all cats have …
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Is Your Cat Bored? 10 Ways to Prevent Boredom
How can you tell if your cat is bored? After all, she sleeps all day. . . Actually, it’s not as difficult as you might think to tell if a cat is bored. There are lots of clues when you know what to look for. In cats, boredom usually manifests itself as ‘trouble’, either to you, other cats, or the individual themselves. What do we mean by that? Here are seven …
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