Cat Chit Chat

Smallest wild cat: rusty-spotted cat from Indian and Sri Lanka The smallest wild cat is the rusty-spotted cat. According to the renown book on the wildcat species, Wild Cats Of The World the minimum size of this cat is 0.8 kg and the maximum size is 1.6 kg. That is 1.7 lbs to 3.53 lbs. Even at the maximum size the rusty-spotted cat is the same size as the smallest of the domestic cats, called teacup cats or miniature cats . Below are the vital statistics taken from another PoC page: Rusty-spotted cat where you can read a lot more about this tiny cat. Characteristic Measurement Length of head+body 35-48 centimetres (14-17 inches) Average weight (approximate) 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) Average weight females 1 kg (2.2 lbs) Average domestic cat weight – for comparison 8-10 lbs Average weight of miniature domestic cat for comparison 3.5 lbs Average weigh

Here is the definitive answer to the question, "Why do cats purr?" The answer that is usually said to be the obvious one - that the purring cat is showing his or her contentment - is not true. This is because cats in great pain, those who are injured, in labour and even dying or even sometimes at the vets being euthanised, purr loud and long (or it can last a second 3 ). Kittens purr when they drink mother's milk purr and the mother purrs back. They also purr when being groomed by mother or by siblings. Kittens start purring when a few days old 1 . All domestic cats purr. Sometimes cats purr when hungry. Body contact between the sender of the purr and the receiver may be an important factor in instigating it 3 . Cats purr when contented also but it does not only happen when the cat is content. How do we find a reason for cat purring that encompasses all the circumstances under which it might happen? Dr Desmond Morris in his famous book, Cat Watching , which is still

I want to write about cat declawing but I don't want to alienate people who keep cats and who are good cat caretakers except for the fact that we disagree about declawing cats. As you might know I strongly dislike the operation and its sister operation the cutting of the tendon to the claw ( tendonectomy ). I'd like to explain why I dislike declawing. I hope that people with the opposite view or people who are wavering in the middle ground, will listen and present their alternative ideas in comments. There are numerous reasons why cat declawing is wrong. I'll present just the main ones here. I'll also present the reasons why vets support and encourage ( yes, lots do ) declawing. Actually there is only one reason that they can come up with. The cat owners who declaw also can only come up with one reason to declaw. Some cat owners may have a misunderstanding about the operation, so I would first like to show you the bits of cat that are cut off after the operation and

I have got to show you this photograph of an F3 Savannah cat. The cat's name is "Shine". You can see why - her silver spotted coat shines. The photographer is Kathrin Stucki , the proprietor and manager, with her husband, Martin, of A1 Savannahs, the number one Savannah cat breeder anywhere . F3 Savannah Cat "Shine" photo: copyright Kathrin Stucki Shine is a silver Savannah cat. The photograph was taken at Kathrin's own photographic studio on her farm where the breeding cattery is situated . Savannah cats are not meant to look like Bengals . This is solely my observation but the Savannah cat is, I think it fair to say, more natural looking than the heavily developed (through selective breeding) Bengal cat. While the Bengal has a variety of coat markings from the classic blotched tabby coat to a rosetted spotted coat , the Savannah has what I would describe as wildcat spots. These are the sort of spots that you see on wildcats not selectively bred

Chilled out - Photo by abbesses DVD for cats means music for cats. One fine cat lady who knows a lot about cats says she is very happy with her Amazon purchased cat music. Her name is Elisa Black-Taylor and she refers to cat music in an article that discusses whether cats can tell the time. She doesn't mean reading a clock! Just whether cats get a feel for the time based on sensory markers, routines and the light (dawn, dusk etc.) - Can Cats Tell Time? There is no doubt that cats can tell the time. This is important when cats are left alone at home for hours on end. What happens? If we live alone with our cats we don't know how they react when we are out. We might be out all day at work. Or we might visit a relative overnight. We provide good food, plenty of fresh water and a nice clean litter box so all is well. But is it? What about the cat's expectations and emotions. Is she stressed? It is almost impossible to tell except that she will probably be very pleased

No problem. This person has the right attitude. Photo by cseeman I don't advocate indoor cat repellent or any cat repellent. And I don't think any of them are necessarily that successful. I also reject the idea of cat punishment as a method of training a cat. That said, people search for the stuff, so what is indoor cat repellent? It can only be one thing in practice and that is a substance that creates a smell that cats object to, which enables cat owners to keep their cat off counter tops and away from certain areas of the house. There happens to a number of substances and objects that cats are meant to avoid. I have listed them here: Smells That Cats Hate My personal advice in respect of keeping cats away from certain areas (and I understand that this is personal) is to re-evaluate what is really important and why. What areas are meant to be out of bounds to a cat indoors? I read, as mentioned, that counter tops in the kitchen should be out of bounds. Cats c

Mr. Tom - tamed feral cat Photo copyright Elisa The feral cat problem should read, "the human behavior problem". If there really is a feral cat problem, it is our fault and almost nothing is said or done to tackle the people who are irresponsible in their cat caretaking. Do feral cats serve a useful purpose by the way? It is interesting to note that we rarely hear from non-western countries about a "feral cat problem". We occasionally hear from Israel who in general mistreat feral cats in my opinion and Greece where they are poisoned out of season . In the holiday season they are an attraction for tourists. But they are not regarded as a problem in the same way as they are in the United States. In the UK we rarely talk or write about the feral cat . We don't see them. This must be due to one of two reasons (a) the weather is too cold and unpleasant for cats to routinely go AWOL and live feral lives and/or (b) UK cat "owners" (cat caretakers)

I 'd like to write about a particular aspect of cat talk and the popular videos that are built on it. I am not talking about us talking to cats in cat language. I am talking about cats talking to cats in cat language. The particular sound that I would like to write about is the sound that cats make when they confront another cat that has entered their territory or home range and they want to get the intruding cat to leave their territory without a fight. The language cats use to communicate this message is very particular and of amusement to people. That is why there are a good number of high hitting videos on YouTube that show cats using these sounds. People sometimes add human language to the sound because they are somewhat similar to those that we make as humans. Well not exactly, but they are so different to the usual hiss and meow as to be surprising. It appears that you could categorize cat sounds into three brackets: the purr , the sound that I am writing about in th

Some tips for the first time cat owner. Before starting to think about adopting a cat it is wise to get one's expectations right. I call it "expectation management". If we have the correct expectations were are unlikely to be disappointed. If we are not disappointed and do not struggle to care for our cat adequately, we are much less likely to relinquish our cat. This is so important in respect of cat welfare. People adopting a cat need to know about the realities of cat caretaking. Before I go on it is worth mentioned that I prefer the phrase, "cat companion" and/or cat "caretaking" to "cat owner". I explain why on this page: Should we "own" a cat? If you are buying a purebred cat this page might help: choosing a cat breed . If things go wrong this page may assist: How to sue on a cat contract . New Cat - I hope the owner understood cats - Photo by -Qualsiasi Here are some posts that provide tips and guides for the first

Cat with asthma using a bronchodilator - Photo: by jivedanson Cat asthma is feline allergic bronchitis. Bronchitis is the inflammation of the smaller bronchi. Bronchi are the passages of airways in the respiratory tract that conduct air into the lungs" 1 . The inflammation is caused by a hypersensitivity to allergens in the environment and sometimes it may be due to heartworm. Causes are not that well known, apparently. Allergens are substances the can cause allergic reactions. Examples are: drugs, pollens, foods, dust, smoke, litter dust, deoderants etc. Humans are sometimes allergic to a protein in the cat's saliva called Fel D1 which causes itching. Cat asthma is similar to human asthma. It affects about 1 in 100 cats. It affects a slightly higher percentage of Siamese cats . Siamese cats may have the greatest number of all the cat breeds of genetic diseases - diseases caused by the presence of certain genes - inherited diseases . This may be due to its

You are searching for a Savannah cat breeder? Search no more. There in one that is head and shoulders above all others and that includes all cat breeders. I am not getting a commission for saying this, by the way. You should contact this cat breeder and go from that starting point. I will guarantee that it is the best way of proceeding if you are looking to buy a Savannah cat from a breeder in the United States. And the USA is the home of the SAVANNAH CAT . I am talking about  A1 Savannahs . They are the premier Savannah cat breeder, worldwide. They do business with royalty in far flung places (e.g. Morocco) and they deal with "ordinary" people in the US, UK and Europe etc. The following F2 Savannah cat was sold to the King of Morocco: F2 Savannah cat - Photo copyright Kathrin Stucki I have visited A1 Savannahs on a couple of occasions.  They have a guest house for visitors who want to stick around for a while and see the cats before buying and going home. Or for

Cat skin cancer was in the news today, March 18th 2011 (GMT). The story concerns an earless cat looking for a home. I think he will find one in the not too distant future because he is a complete charmer. His name is Winston. He lost his ears because of cancer. He was abandoned by his "owners" who moved and left him behind. Yes, it's one of those stories again . How can people do this? He had been living outside for five years through fierce sun and freezing cold (20 degrees Fahrenheit). He is an all white cat and the exposure to the sun on his ears had caused the cancer. His ears were black (caused by the tumor) and his coat white. A very decent person, Marilyn Hendrickson, of the Kirkland’s MEOW Cat Rescue shelter took him to a vet who amputated his ears. He is now cancer free and looks a bit like a Scottish Fold (the cat breed with folded ears that lie flat to the head). He looks cute and is cute. I can't publish his picture because I don't have permission

Where do you buy a scuba cat bird bath? I have been trying for the past 30 minutes online to find a retailer that sells this bird bath without success. Oh...by the way, this bird bath looks like this (I think!): Scuba cat bird bath Well, it's an interesting looking object but I can't find one for sale on the internet like this one. There are some variants of this one for sale but not many. I think you'll discover them hard to find for sale. I am not sure where the idea came from to have a cat scuba diving bird bath because I am sure that bird lovers won't like it. Well some of them won't like it because they don't like cats. This works against selling the product. I guess the bird bath has a neat look because we have a cat pretending to dive into the bird bath and lurk underwater in waiting to catch a bird! Plenty of poetic license but a nice idea. From Scuba Cat Bird Bath to Home Page

Maine Coon Cat Texas is a search term for people looking for Maine Coon breeders or rescue centers that might have a Maine Coon cat. See a list here. The idea is to make it easier for people to find Texas breeders. I list all the ones I can find from the first two pages of a Google search and strike through those that I don't rate from the website . This is obviously an entirely personal choice with which people might well disagree. Breeders should at least say where they are. A full address need not be provided but a town or city should so customers can gauge travel times and distances etc. without having to contact the breeder first. I have rejected some for failure to provide location. I find it irritating and overly cautious. CH Snuglcoons Big Bopper & Silver Belle - Photo copyright Helmi Flick The first breeder to list is Snuglcoons . The beautiful cats beautifully photographed above are from this breeding cattery. They are located at: 7800 Mockingbird Lane #108,

I know there is a little bit of exaggeration and mysticism about the ability of cats and dogs to sense impending events . Cats sensing the start of an earthquake comes to mind. And we have the famous Oscar, a cat who lives in a hospice and who can tell when a person is about to die. He joins them and comforts them. There is a scientific explanation. We just don't know for sure what it is. It is more than likely going to be due to a cat's acute senses. Dogs are the same. Dogs have the most sensitive of noses but cats, although less sensitive, have a very acute sense of smell many times better than ours  - The Cat's Nose . Humans are relatively feeble with regard to senses compared with our companion cats and dogs. The all sensing cat - Photo by Simon Hammond One cat got into the news for her ability to sense her human companion's impending epileptic fit. Her name is Lilly. She is a darling cat. But let's not forget that all cats have the skills to do this.

Cat colony diseases are going to be similar to, or the same as, the sort of diseases that multi-cat households and cat breeders are subject to. A customer wrote about her purebred cat bought from a breeder: FIP In Breeding Cattery Cats . It is important to note that in a study of feral cats in Florida, the cats, "had similar or lower prevalence rates of infections [for FIV and FeLV the targeted diseases] than those published for pet cats in the United States." See: Prevalence of infectious diseases in feral cats in Northern Florida by Brian J. Luria et al (Science Direct). Feral cat colony. Longhaired feral cats are rare. Photo in public domain. The way I see it there are two types of cat colony disease. There are the usual upper respiratory infections and urinary tract infections that all cats and particularly outdoor cats are going to be more susceptible to and we also have the deadly, some of which are highly contagious, diseases that are probably responsible for the m

There is a full list of top quality cat breed descriptions that are illustrated by the best photographs on this website. To see them you can use the navigation bar on the left of this page for all the mainstream cat breeds (about 60) or start here: Page one of illustrated cat breeds . You can also see over 50 links to non-mainstream cat breeds on this page: Fringe Breeds . Phew...they are all here. By the way, here is a video showing 77 cat breeds: Background I would like to discuss cat breeds generally in this article. In effect, to introduce the subject of cat breeds because although it might seem a straight forward subject it really isn't that simple. And I am doing it from what I think is a different perspective. This is not a regurgitation of the usual stuff. Rightly or wrongly, this comes direct from me not from a book or another website. It is critical and it also praises. I hope I keep a fair balance. The first point of note is that all the cat breeds are a singl