Cindy Kemper, wildlife biologist and (indoor) cat lover says that "roaming cats aren't natural". That sounds like rubbish and it is rubbish. The most natural thing in the world for a cat is to roam and patrol territory. She argues that domestic cat predation kills hundreds of millions of birds and more than a billion small animals in the USA annually. She produces not a shred of evidence to support that wild assertion, which is surprising coming from a "wildlife biologist" (see for example: Domestic Cats Don't Decimate Bird Populations ) She says that "this is unnatural predation". Her argument is that Canadian songbirds did not evolve with domestic cats as predators. Well that is a very poor argument. The domestic cat has been in North America for at least 400 years and perhaps longer. It has evolved alongside birds over that time. And the domestic cat lived side by side with songbirds in the Golden Crescent some 9,000 years ago. Before that t

Here is a beautiful Burmilla cat, which I publish under a creative commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license: Beautiful Burmilla Cat - photo Marc Jordan (Flickr) This cat lives in Long Ashton, England. I think her name is Liessa. Wrong? and you see this please correct me!

In the Arm & Hammer® advert in Cat Fancy magazine (Vol 53 August 2010 - issued June 2010!), it says that cats and people prefer cat litter that destroys the worst odors. Well, it doesn't actually say that but there is a cat next to the litter and a line of text below it that strongly implies that a cat prefers litter that does not smell as cats and a person raise their hands. I can't quote it as it would be a breach of copyright. Is this true? I think the opposite is true. We (people) don't like litter box odors because we like a sanitised life so the advert is right to that point. But a cat's life revolves around scent and smell and as the litter box will smell of the cat that uses it (each cat should have their own litter box) a cat cannot dislike a litter that smells. In fact a cat will feel comforted by its own smell. Therefore I think this advert very strange indeed. It seems to be saying this... "We hate litter box smells. Because of that our cat do

A list of vitamins, what they do and some signs that there might be a deficiency. This page is for informational purposes and not for self diagnosis. That is the domain of the good veterinarian. Vitamin A - necessary for: proper vision, cell maintenance, bone development, teeth development, normal skin. Deficiency results in impaired growth and skin infections and lesions. Vitamin D - necessary for normal calcium absorption and metabolism. Deficiency is rare and results in rickets in kittens and osteomalacia (softening of the bones due to defective bone mineralization) in adults. Vitamin E - protects cells from oxidative damage. Deficiency results in impaired immune function, reproductive failure. Vitamin K  - for normal blood clotting. Deficiency leads to increased clotting time. Thiamin (B1) - for carbohydrate metabolism. Deficiency leads to anorexia and neurological disorders. Riboflavin (B2) - for "normal oxidative reactions and cellular metabolism". Defi

I am not sure that there is a truly successful treatment for overly fearful cats. Overly fearful cats are those that are extremely timid and who either freeze, run or fight when presented with a "stimulus" that elicits fear. The typical trigger to run for many cats is the entrance of a stranger (to the cat) into their territory (the house usually). The person may even be a certain type of person. This is certainly the case with my old lady cat. She is very sweet and a bit timid but has a fear of noisy men, usually workmen and even the lorries or vans that they arrive in! She runs to a secure bolt hole. At the moment, in the dry weather, that happens to be outside under dense undergrowth, where even I had difficulty seeing her. When the stranger has gone, I call her and in her own time (a long time) she turns up as if nothing had happened. There are many other types of stimuli that prompt fear responses. Of course, a natural part of any animal's make up is fear. It is

When cat experts give advice about cats they often aim too low. What I mean is their advice is too heavily compromised and modified by what suites us and not what is in the best interests of the cat. Let me give you a good example. The expert in this instance is Linda P Case who wrote a book I sometimes refer to and which is called, The Cat, It's Behavior, Nutrition & Health.  She writes on page 180-181 about, "Undesirable predation". How can predation by undesirable for the cat? It is completely natural for a domestic cat to prey on small animals. We all know that. This advise is too people orientated. In order to stop this undesirable behavior we are advise to bang up our cats, indoors, on a permanent basis. Job done, problem solved. Or is it? A lot of cats who are full-time indoor cats will find alternative outlets for their desire to hunt and some of these will be abnormal behavioral conditions; conditions that are stress related such as overgrooming or OCD co

The obvious fact that cats can't give informed consent places us in a position of responsibility that a lot of cat keepers don't recognise. How do I know that? Well, it's easy really. In the USA there are about 20 million cats that have been declawed for the benefit of the person and to the detriment of the cat. Clearly millions of cat keepers in America have not taken on the burden of responsibility to protect the rights of their cats. It is very easy for us to become complacent about the rights of our cats. They are in fact quite vulnerable despite being under our care. We have total power over them. The concept of informed consent, in relation to medical procedures for a human, means that we are clearly informed about the procedure and then we make a decision whether we should undergo it. The objective is to improve our health and wellbeing. In respect of medical matters regarding our cat we listen to the veterinarians advice and make a decision. We are the vet'

Litter box aversion is a favorite topic on the internet. Piles of words have been written on it. Here are some more! Litter box aversion is not spraying for territorial marking. It is when the cat simply stops using the litter box for urination and defecation. The cat will do it elsewhere on horizontal surfaces as opposed to vertical surfaces for spraying. For example, the cat might try to use the litter box, half in and half out, without touching the litter itself and dig outside the box. Two common reasons for litter box aversion are: a dislike of the litter (technical term: "substrate") - heavily scented litter although marketed as beneficial for the human might not work out that way if the cat dislikes it and pees on the carpet! Apparently finer clumping litters are preferred by cats over the coarse clay litters. less commonly - a dislike of the location of the litter box A dislike of the substrate could be because of its feel and smell. A change in the litter