Cat Chit Chat

Sumo from Brisbane, Australia is not only a large, big boned cat, he is also very overweight and as a result he weighs 31 pounds or just over 14 kg. The average cat weight is around 10 pounds or it should be. They say that domestic cats in the West, especially the UK and USA are becoming more and more obese in line with their owners (I regret to say) but it appears something similar may be happening in Australia judging by the size and shape of Sumo. Sumo is the largest cat that the RSPCA have looked after over the preceding four decades and I can well believe that. I think that his exceptional weight is, as mentioned, in part due to his physical size.  This is a big grey tabby and white cat . Sumo was brought to RSPCA because his owners were moving home and they couldn't take Sumo with them. I regret to say that I have heard that excuse before and it may be a genuine reason but very often it is a rather glib excuse to abandon a domestic cat which it is clear they were unable

This is the 20,050th video on how to give your cat a pill!!  The reason why I made it was because I found a way that works and which is relatively easy.  In the past, like anybody else, I have struggled to get a pill down my cat.  The trick in this instance is not putting the food inside a wafer thin piece of high quality human grade chicken breast but to use an antibiotic pill which is tasteless and odourless or even better than that which smells and tastes as if it is something like cat food and of course to ensure that you are wrapping it up in food which your cat loves and which he is desperately keen to eat at that moment in time.

Alcoholism And Cat Ownership I want to briefly discuss whether an alcoholic can look after a cat properly.  This is a cross post from the main website. I do this to boost one of the pages so that Google search finds the article more easily. I happen to know an alcoholic who is recovering.  I happen to know a lot about alcoholism and the underlying causes and how difficult it is to manage.  Indeed, alcoholism pretty much ruins a person's life because it controls the person unless they have managed to control it on a day-to-day basis.  These people are called recovering  alcoholics. There are two main problems with alcoholics looking after a cat.  Firstly, the alcoholic has lost control of drinking therefore he will drink when the urge takes hold.  It becomes the first priority and nothing will stop it.  The alcoholic, at that moment, has a complete disregard for other things.  All responsibilities are thrown out of the window and the alcoholic's mind is focused on getting

John Dolan has spent a total of 12 years in prison.  It was mainly for theft and drug offences.  He was living rough in east London in 2010 when he was given a Staffordshire bull terrier called George.  Dolan says:  “Just before I got George I was on drugs, it was terrible.  The day I got the dog I wasn't sure what to do.  I realised I had a big powerful animal on my hands that needed a lot of looking after and there was I, barely able to look after myself...  What George has given me over the past three years is a belief in myself and my ability to draw." Dolan credits George with helping him to transform his life from a homeless criminal into a successful artist.  He now sells his drawings to £2000 each.  John Dolan knew he had some talent because he used to dabble with art when he was a teenager.  While he was sitting on the pavement doing nothing as a homeless person with George he decided to draw the buildings opposite.  I suppose it kept him occupied. Up until that t

You will never see a stranger place for cat to be trapped. This cat was shoehorned into left rear suspension spring of a pickup truck. There appears to be no way to get into the space. But there he is, nonetheless. Fortunately, due to the patient efforts of a group of men, he is freed. They had to dismantle part of the suspension and remove the component to release the cat and even then it wasn't that easy.

The conditions are strict if your cat is to receive some veterinary services without monetary payment but veterinary schools and large veterinary clinics, in the USA , will probably provide services in exchange for a blood donation from your cat. Such services may include: pet food routine physical examinations blood work potentially heartworm preventative action screening for numerous infectious diseases (I presume this is part of the actual blood donation process) haemoglobin level testing metabolic screens The value of this services amounts to something in the order of $700-$1000. Not to be sniffed at...but of course you are agreeing that your cat will donate his or her blood and that is the responsibility of a cat guardian. It requires responsible decision making otherwise it could be deemed to be immoral. There are some strict requirements, however, regarding the sort of cat that they will accept as a blood donor. The ideal cat blood donor meets the following requireme

The video shows endangered seabird burrows in the rugged rainforests of the mountains of Kauai in Hawaii where ferals cat attack the birds and feed on them. Scientists state that feral cats are killing the endangered seabirds in large numbers. I would like to know where they get their statistics from because a video such as this one does not confirm that large numbers of seabirds are being killed by feral cats. In the video you will see the cats pulling a Newell's Shearwater and a Hawaiian Petrel out of their borrowers and then killing them. Dr Andre Raine, a coordinator of an endangered seabird recovery project, says that this is yet more evidence of the impact that feral cats have upon the conservation of these birds. The population of these endangered birds is declining.  The reason for the researchers to find out why. “The cameras are showing that cats are regularly visiting seabird borrows in all of our monitored colonies." says Dr Raine. Dr Raine also states

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This is a bit of a warning message to anyone who would like to setup a cat or animal sanctuary where they are living, if they have sufficient land, or anywhere else if they purchase the land. The lesson is that if a threatened species lives on the land you may well require permission from the authorities before developing the site. One such example is of a retired person's plans to open an animal sanctuary in upstate New York, USA. Nancy Gibson didn't realise that there was a den of timber rattlesnake's living on her 80 acre property. She had already made some preparations in terms of construction for the sanctuary and has now been informed that she has to put development on hold while she awaits a decision from the state as to whether she can continue with her plans.  It is tough because 80 acres is a large area and it was probably impossible to know the rattlesnakes occupied a part of it. Perhaps someone might correct me. The Department of Environmental Conservation

Do you remember the scandalous story of the pet jerky treats made in China and people reporting over one thousand dog deaths and many more complaints of illness as a result of eating these treats?  The majority of the problems concerned dogs but some cats were also affected.  As I recall, the FDA was unable to establish hard evidence that the Chinese made pet treats were causing the deaths and therefore the product remained available to the consternation of perhaps hundreds of thousands of dog owners. Petco recently decided to remove it (in the near future) from their shelves . Well, I read today a post on the website of Dr Mark Peterson a veterinary endocrinologist which he is titled “Insect Repellent, Anti-Viral Drug Detected in Jerky Pet Treats for Dogs".  The post is dated May 22, 2014. This is not, therefore, strictly about cats but it is about pets and therefore relevant in my opinion.  Dr Peterson states that chicken jerky treats which are being eaten by dogs over the

Yesterday, I visited my veterinarian because Charlie, my cat, has a bacterial infection in his sinuses and nose. It is a form of persistent rhinitis. Anyway that is not the topic that I wish to discuss in this very short post. While I was in there with my cat I asked my veterinarian if he would let me ask a question about cat declawing in America and he kindly agreed. I asked him why the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), the governing body of British veterinarians, did not openly speak out against the declawing of cats in America as a way of putting pressure upon their counterpart organisation, the American Veterinary Medical Association . I have felt that if British veterinarians denounced declawing it may put some useful pressure on American veterinarians and support the campaign against it. My veterinarian stated that it was unethical to declaw cats and he remarked that it is banned in the UK. He also said that he didn't like the other non-therapeutic operations

There are three treatments for feline hyperthyroidism: surgery, medication in the form of pills or via the skin - methimazole (perhaps the most common option), and a third, popular option: to use radioactive iodine to destroy the cancerous tissue. Hyperthyroidism in cats is almost always associated with cancer.  Sometimes cats respond badly to the prescribed medication.  Surgery I suppose can be dangerous because care must be taken not to damage or remove the parathyroid glands which regulate calcium metabolism.  If these glands are removed, the cat will need supplemental thyroid for the remainder of his life. Nottingham Vet School Flickr photostream . Published here with their express permission. It is said that the cost of these three treatments are similar in the long term although a cat owner would probably believe that the medication administered orally would be cheaper but this may not be the case in the long term and is something that needs to be checked with the veter

I had just read a comment on another page on this website from an anonymous person who says that he looks after 3 cats.  He says he is about to go to prison.  It also says that he lives alone, has no family and nobody he believes who can look after his cats when he is in prison. I say 'he' but the person maybe 'she'. It doesn't matter. The problem is who does she contact to look after her cats when she is in prison.  It is the first time I have been asked that question and the answer may be difficult to find. Normally, a prisoner who is about to embark on a short sentence will ask a friend or family to look after their cats until they are released.  If, notwithstanding that the prisoner has family to help, she is to embark on a road long prison sentence than it would seem necessary to re-home the cats.  This is regrettable but it seems to me a natural consequence of the crime that the person has committed. It is simply an additional loss or punishment. A sho

A proposal for what is in effect a cat leash law has been rejected by the Weymouth town committee and the council will probably take up the recommendation to reject the proposal at the next meeting. Under the proposal cat owners would be required to: Keep their cats leashed or under their control when outside the home and; clean up after their cats and; the animal control officer would be charged with the duty of picking up stray cats. The committee decided against the proposal for the following reasons: Animal control receive very few complaints about stray cats - three complaints in three years. The town would have to be responsible for picked up stray cats for 30 days or more (presumably this would place a financial burden on the town that would be unacceptable). Collars attached to leashes can choke cats. The proposed ordinance was unworkable because the wording was imprecise. The proposed ordinance was probably unenforceable. Leash laws are often discussed by local

Quick note: US Food and Drug Administration allow a much lower standard of food to be sold for pets than for humans. It is called "diverting food" from human consumption to pet consumption because for a host of reasons it is at least unpalatable and at worst poisonous to humans. FDA has authorized the salvage of human or animal food considered to be adulterated for its intended use by diverting that food to an acceptable animal feed use Commercial enterprises which intend to use adulterated "food" which I presume can be almost anything including euthanised pets (I don't have firm evidence to support that), have to apply to the FDA: requests for diversion should be submitted in writing to the appropriate FDA District Office This page provides details. This shouldn't in anyway surprise cat owners. The way these adulterated products are dealt with is to heat treat them to kill the pathogens etc. This heat treated food is like cardboard and the flavour is

This is a different approach to making raw cat food.  It's a bit like going to the grocery store and buying some extra items for your cat and then mixing them together.  Normally, when we see raw cat food being produced at home we see large quantities being ground up and then stored, whereas this has the appearance of simply making a meal for your cat on a one-off basis so perhaps it is something that is easier to try if you fancied having a go at feeding your cat a meal that is completely different to what he/she is used to if he is fed a commercial diet. Everything he says in the video appears to me to make sense.  I will bet, however, that domestic cats fed a commercially made cat food diet may well struggle to adapt to this far more healthy and natural diet.  Any changes in diet should be gradually introduced if the new diet is dramatically different to the former. Although the domestic cat is an obligate carnivore, as this gentleman says, when the cat eats a mouse there

When I watched this video I wondered what would happen if they were in the wild and they had not been spayed or neutered.  Reports indicate that bobcats maintained  in captivity show little interaction between males and females during non-reproductive periods.  This applies to bobcats who have not been neutered or spayed. In fact, females were extremely vehement in repelling males that approach too closely. Of course, things change with the onset of oestrus whereupon the behaviour of females changes to include more pacing and more affectionate movements. We can't expect to see that sort of thing happening in this video because they have both been fixed so it seems to me we are looking at two bobcats who may or may not become friends.  The video indicates to me that these two could be friends although there are unsure and their initial encounters are defensive with a hint of something better to come once they get to know each other.

We are told today that Americans don't find car driving sexy anymore. Young Americans prefer an iPad app to a Mustang. For 2014 70% of 19 year-old Americans have driving licenses down from 87% 20 years ago. The sprawling American suburbs will no longer continue to sprawl.  Suburbs were built around the car. In San Francisco, Google is planning to move its suburban HQ to the city where it can integrate more with others, meet face to face, bounce of ideas. The coffee shop mentality. This is a reshaping of the urban environment. If more people live in cities in the future it might be good for the wild cats and bad for the domestic cats. There should be a reduction in the increased erosion of wild cat species' habitat so a slow down in the interference from people. As for the domestic cat, it means more apartment cats or full-time indoor cats. For me this is not good because I believe that domestic cats should smell the grass sometimes. It makes them happier and connects wi

Yes, whatever you do, don't stop your car on the highway to help an animal get off it because you could very well be looking at a prison sentence for life! This is what Emma Czornobaj, 25, a Canadian is facing at the moment. Emma, stopped in the fast lane of a highway to help a brace of ducklings. She faces a life sentence because she caused the deaths of a motorcyclist and his daughter who drove into her parked car while she tried to get the ducks into it. Emma stopped her Honda Civic on the inside lane (the fast lane in Canada) to rescue the ducks. As soon as she stepped out of her car the motorcyclist, Andre Roy, 50, and his daughter, 16, Jessie, slammed into it at 90 kph. Roy's wife was travelling behind him on another motorbike but avoided the parked car. Emma was convicted after three days of deliberations of causing death through criminal negligence. The crime carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in jail. In addition she was found guilty of two counts of dangerou

Fort Wayne City Council are seriously considering changing the city's animal control ordinance from trap and euthanise to trap neuter and return.  My reading of the situation is that the ordinance will be changed and an efficient and organised TNR program will be set up by a coalition of organisations which include Animal Care & Control, the Allen County SPCA and the Humane Organisation to Prevent Euthanasia (HOPE).  I believe that they are calling this a Community Cats program. For the past 30 years the approach of the leaders of the city of Fort Wayne was to trap free roaming cats and then kill them.  The peak year for this policy was 2010 when Animal Care & Control trapped more than 8,000 cats and euthanised about 7,000 of them.  In 1980 the figure was 2,000.  You can see it's been an ever increasing number which in itself is a sign of failure of this policy which no doubt encouraged the City Council to decide upon the only alternative, TNR. Jessica Henry, director

The moral of this tale is to bear in mind the wishes of your domestic cat companion if and when you decide to move home if, of course, you have a choice about moving. If you wish to move home out of a preference then your cat will disagree with you judging by the stories that we read on the Internet and this one is a particularly good example. The story concerns a 2-year-old orange tabby cat and he was very used to his home in the St Johns' area of Portland, Oregon, USA. The family moved across the town to East Portland. This was 12 miles away from their previous home. Their tabby cat, whose name by the way is George, pretty well immediately set off to return to the place he knew. The only difficulty was that it was, as I say, 12 miles away and and it is known that there are coyotes in the area plus there were 3 interstate highways and I am sure many other roads in between where he was and where he wanted to be. George made it but it took him 3 weeks and he lost a bit of weig

A Scottish fire service spokesman said: "As a fire and rescue service we are regularly called to assist in animal rescue situations." So with a revised 2004 law ( Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 ) which permits the fire service in Scotland to charge for their services under certain circumstances, notwithstanding it is essentially a tax payer funded public service, they decided to make some money.....Why not under the current budgetary constraints. The amount of money mentioned in the title is for one hour's attendance at the tree where the cat is stuck! If it takes more than one hour they will charge pro rata, I suppose. No one has mentioned what happens but perhaps they will charge for every subsequent 30 mins with a call out charge of one hour or the full £342. The cost is inclusive of VAT (value added tax). What do the fire service do where you are? I'd bet they don't charge like this. Can you imagine getting an invoice from the fire service for hundre

You might love this but I am not sure about it.  I am not sure that I like this sort of thing.  Obviously Gabriel, the cheetah , has been raised by people all his life and you can tell he is still quite young because he has long hair from the nape of his neck to his shoulders. The video was made at Volunteering at Cheetah Experience in South Africa where the man in the video, Gary Getz befriended this teenage cheetah Gabriel.  Gary says that Gabriel loves giving affection more than receiving it. I think when Gary says that it hurts at the beginning of the video he is referring to Gabriel's tongue as he is being licked. As you know a cat's tongue is quite rough with hard keratin spikes on it.   Cheetah's seem to have many domestic cat traits and are quite friendly relative to some other wild cat species.

I'm not sure that this is ethically correct. This is a story from British Columbia, Canada. Just over the border from the USA is a town called Cranbrook. The map shows you where it is. Last Friday, a couple of days ago, a resident of the town, Karen King, found two dead cats outside her home. She telephoned the conservation officers who had a look at the dead cats. The conservation officers confirmed that cougars were involved in killing the domestic cats. "We confirmed that, yes, cougars were involved with killing domestic cats," said Jared Connatty, one of the COs It seems that the way they worked out that two cougars were involved in the killing of these cats was because they carried out an investigation by asking questions of local residents and the residents confirmed that two cougars had been hanging around the area for a few weeks before there were notified. So what they did was to deploy tracking hounds who picked up the scent of the cougars at the last know

I am sorry to say that cat news is often bad news or it is about cat celebrities.  That is the nature of the world today. In this instance I am simply spreading the word in the low expectation that somebody might pick up this post and call the RSPCA on the number in the title to pass on useful information which may lead to the prosecution and conviction of the person who did this act of cat cruelty. This is a cat that was tied up to a railing at a building site by the neck with a nylon cord.  It's about as straightforward as that.  The cat's name is Archie and he went missing for 8 days so it is entirely possible that he was tied up for 8 days and as you can see from the photograph it very nearly killed him. In fact, I'm surprised that it didn't because often cats restrained under these circumstances struggle and end up strangling themselves. One of the workers on the building site discovered him and Archie's caretakers had distributed a leaflet in their se

Shelby, disappeared from her home with the Jalong family in Australia 13 years ago.  Then she suddenly turned up covered in lice with heavily matter fur. Her owners, apparently, didn't recognise her at first until they checked against a photograph. I can understand the difficulty in identifying her after 13 years. Shelby's return has been described as mysterious and very strange but something very similar happened to my mother's cat. I'm not sure that it is strange to be honest. My assessment is that some domestic cats don't like domestication too much so they leave the family home and live in the wild or semi-wild. Their natural wild traits, which are just below the surface, trump their domestication/socialisation. Then when they get older, say at about 15 years of age, they are tired, perhaps arthritic and unable to chase prey, so they decide to come home. It is a bit like a person going into a residential care home for the last years of their lives. They co

This is a photograph of a cat that has been shot with an air rifle pellet.  It happened in the UK because in the UK the cat hater and cat shooter only has access to an air rifle and so whenever you read a news article about a cat being shot it is invariably with an air rifle.  The alternative is a crossbow bolt. Cats are shot for the fun of it. So, in the UK it is air rifle pellets and in the USA because of the far greater access to guns people who shoot cats often use .22 bullets. This is a small calibre. The cat is Daisy, who lives on Raine Avenue, Haverhill, UK. The photo comes from the Cambridge News . Daisy was let outside for a while and within 15 minutes she was back home crying loudly. The vet thought Daisy had been shot at close range. She may have to have a further operation. Daisy is a tortoiseshell cat.

It is time we moved on and let the domestic cat be himself. It is time people stopped training their cat to perform tricks and stunts to make money spinning YouTube videos of "funny cats". Perhaps (unlikely) the super cute sloth will push the super cute funny cat into second place for a while. Surely the public has tired of funny cat videos by now. There must be a lifespan for them and we should be near the end of it. Funny cat videos spawned celebrity cats, the new film stars of the catwalk! I just want to return to the good old days when cats were cats. I don't like seeing celebrity cats worshipped while millions of cats - who happen to not look quite so fascinating - are deliberately killed ("euthanised") at places where they should be saved ("shelters") because they are unloved. Come on cute sloth from slothville! Beat the competition. Go viral. Spread the word. You're as good as a cat and we, the cat and animal lovers, want to see you

About Zylkene This is a medicating food supplement that comes in the shape of a pill and it calms cats and dogs down. It was launched in April 2008 but this is the first time I've heard about it. The active ingredient is stated to be a natural product derived from casein, a protein in milk. The product website says that the active ingredient is a molecule well-known to promote the relaxation of newborns after breastfeeding. The medication or food supplement is given daily. The capsule is opened and the contents mixed with the cat or dog's usual food or it can be mixed with liquids. This calming food supplement should be given to your cat or dog a few days before it is required. The sort of situations for which it is designed are for example the introduction of a new cat or dog to the household or going to the vet perhaps or taking your cat on a long journey.  In fact, any number of circumstances and environments under and in which your cat or dog might become agitated

The first Scottish Fold was found by a shepherd on a farm in Perthshire, Scotland in 1961.  He noticed a white, female barn cat, whose name was Susie, who had ears that looked different.  The ears were folded like those of a puppy.  Other kittens in the litter were normal and as a result the folded ears were thought to be due to a spontaneous mutation. The cat with flat ears was allowed to reproduce and two more folded eared kittens were created; and so a new breed was established.  Initially this new breed had considerable opposition in the cat fancy in England.  The premier cat association in England, the GCCF, would not accept the breed for competition.  Although the Scottish Fold continues to be controversial, it is still quite popular in the United States.  This is a medium-sized cat and you will see this cat in all colours and patterns except chocolate, lilac and, point. The ears show a definite fold line resulting in a forward fold giving the impression that the cat is wearin

Is there a lifestyle link between the soaring numbers of young people treated with Crohn's disease in the UK and the increase in feline inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the USA? The causes of both feline IBD and human Crohn's disease are not completely understood.  One of the causes of feline IBD is thought to be the constituent ingredients in commercial cat food which triggers an immune response in the intestinal which is unnecessary and which aggravates the intestinal tract.  An alternative viewpoint is that an excess of bad bacteria in the gut causes the problem.  Both could be involved.  There is quite possibly, though a link between feline IBD and commercial cat food and antibiotics because antibiotics kill good bacteria and upset gut flora. As for human Crohn's disease the condition attacks the intestines and is thought to be triggered by problems with the immune system.  Sally Mitton, a consultant gastroenterologist at St Georges Hospital in south-west London

Almost Forty Percent of Declawed Cats Have Issues Walking The Paw Project is doing some sterling work at the moment in studying the damage that the declawing operation does to cats. They've already discovered that there are many more botched operations than the rest of us ever imagined and now they have come up with this startling conclusion from a recent study that 38% of the declawed cats  have some sort of issues with the way they walk. They also make the important point that this figure of 38% only applies to those cats that have not modified their gait completely by walking on their wrists.  In other words some domestic cats stop walking on their toes ( digitigrade ) which is what they're meant to be doing and walk on their wrists instead.  This avoids putting pressure on their very sore and damaged toes which as you well know are all partially amputated on the front paws (sometimes all four paws are done). If you work out what 38% means in terms of actual numbers

It is common knowledge today that the people of Guangzhou Province in southern China like to eat the stray and, I'm sure, the domestic cat .  It is part of their culture.  We have learned that they eat about 10,000 cats per day. Obviously, this is a very large number. I have also read that because they consume some many cats they have to ship them in from other parts of China. I have read that there are lorry loads of cats coming in from the North.  The same incidentally applies to dogs, to the best of my knowledge. Recently, there has been a report that in Hunan Province which is adjacent and exactly north of Guangzhou Province there is a plague of rats.  We are told that the country suffers from a plague of a reported 2,000,000,000 rats which were displaced by a flooded lake.  I believe that this lake is in Hunan Province. you can see it on the map. So my assessment of the situation is that in Hunan Province, China they have a plague of rats and they're also shippin

In October 2013, I reported that the Nova Scotia Veterinary Medical Association were debating whether to ban the declawing of cats by changing their code of ethics. If they did, would it have actually stopped them declawing? I am not sure because these associations have little authority it seems to me . Anyway, the bad news is the predictable news; the esteemed senior veterinarians of Canada decided it was OK to partially amputate the toes of a cat for the convenience of the owner. I am not surprised one bit. In fact the vote was predictable. We are told that 34 vets votes against the ban. Eight voted for the ban. If the vote is representative of Canadian veterinarians it means that almost a quarter of Canadian vets are for banning declawing in Canada. In the parlance of football coaches we can take some positives from that! They also voted to form a committee to further study the issue - a big joke to be frank. What do they need to study? Declawing for non-therapeutic purposes

I love this. The stray calico cat wandered into the lynx enclosure at St. Petersburg Zoo and made buddies instantly. Then they engaged in mutual grooming. It is like the domestic cat wanted to support his wild cat friend because he is in prison. I wish the domestic cat could have got him out. Why can't he take the lynx back the way he came in?! This is probably a Eurasian lynx .

A global alliance of environmental philanthropists from China, the United Arab Emirates, the US and India have joined together to try and do something about saving the wild cat species, which is entirely admirable but their agreement to provide funding of US$80,000,000 is nowhere near enough.  When set against the profits made from the business of trading and trafficking internationally wild cat species and their body parts, $80,000,000 as a pittance and don't forget you have to complete and beat very devious and very clever businessmen who know how to corrupt officials and politicians in order to get their hands on those precious tiger body parts. When you think of the wealth of the countries involved their combined funding towards conservation of the wild cat species truly is a very small sum of money.  There are many billionaires living in any one of these countries who could write a cheque for $80,000,000 right now without blinking. It would be like me writing a cheque for £1

Some residents living in north London think they have wild cat lookalike roaming around their back gardens and many find it a bit disturbing.  They really haven't seen anything like it before but they think it might be the same cat that terrorised the community in 2011, which they called the "Beast of Shepherds Hill". The area concerned in Highgate; quite a fancy area. Very domestic looking and far from a "beast"! This wouldn't happen in America, absolutely not because this "miniature leopard" is in fact a Bengal cat and what's amusing is that the newspaper which reported on the story describes the cat incorrectly in my opinion as a Savannah cat.  They are quite different.  The cat as far as I'm concerned is most definitely a spotted Bengal cat and the spots are what are called donuts (doughnuts) . At least no one shot it! That is something that would not happen in the UK. The Bengal cat is a wild cat hybrid but at fifth filial

There is a police officer (title: "humane officer" whatever that means - not much apparently) who works in an area around North Ridgefield, Ohio, USA.   About a year ago he shot 5 kittens who were hiding in a woodpile while children watched . The woodpile was in someone's backyard. The whole thing smacks of madness but the officer got away with it.  Nothing happened. The mayor of the city, Mayor G David Gillock, and the police chief, Michael Freeman, both turned a blind eye to this officer's behaviour. The officer's name is Barry Accorti (see photo). Of course, there was a public outcry but still nothing happened. How many times have you seen that? It doesn't just happen in America. It happens in the UK as well and many other places where police officers do bad thing and nothing happens despite a public outcry. It simply serves to undermine the police force and if you keep on doing it long enough you breakdown the trust between the police and the public.

Almost a quarter of British men talk to their cat on the phone A snippet of information which is quite interesting.  You can click on the link above if you want to read more and see more statistics about the Brits and their cats. An interesting extra bit of information is that not only a quarter of British men talk to their cat on the phone, more men than women talk to their cat on the phone.  That seems to go against the trend. And this slightly odd statistic begs the question as to how this happens. After all, a cat does not put a phone to his ear.  Perhaps, therefore, the man's partner who is at home puts a phone to the family cat's ear allowing the man who is at work to talk to his cat.  That is the obvious solution. However, there are devices that you can buy these days which not only deliver food remotely via your iPad but also allow you to talk to your cat.  The whole process is done wirelessly via the Internet.  This means that a single man can feed his cat, ke

A museum is to be built to house the work of William Heath Robinson (1872-1944).  The work will start this autumn (2014). The name of Heath Robinson is part of the English language.  “That's a bit Heath Robinson-like isn't it?!"  I've used that myself a number of times. His bizarre contraptions always consisted of wheels, pulleys, weights etc.  They always looked very fragile and totally impractical but fascinating nonetheless. One of his contraptions possibly gives us an insight into his thoughts about the domestic cat: the Multi-Movement Tabby Silencer. This is a device to spray water over noisy cats to silence them.  It is the classic way of stopping a cat doing something.  It is not recommended by me because it is a form of punishment and punishing cats is ill-advised as it tends to simply alienate the person's cat. The Heath Robinson Multi-Movement Tabby Silencer consists of an extendable arm and a long stick.  There is a wheel and numerous ropes which

Lady releases trapped cat It happens everywhere especially, as far as I can tell, in the United States of America.  A neighbour likes cats and looks after lots of them. She can't help it. She just loves cats too much and can't stop herself from helping them. Her next door neighbour either dislikes cats or is neutral about them.  His young boy is allergic to cats. His neighbour's cats wander into his yard. They urinate in his yard and occasionally defecate there as well. He puts up with it but after a while he decided to put down traps then take the cats that are trapped to the local rescue centre. The cat loving neighbour finds out that she is missing some cats and then discovers what is happening so at 4 in the morning she sneaks out of her property onto her neighbour's property and releases the trapped cats. The person who trapped the cats figures out something is going on because he knows the cats were in the traps at one stage. We have the makings of a wa

GOATHOUSE REFUGE June 14th 2014 : I am astonished by this story. There appears to be a clear breach of planning regulations. However, I do not know the planning regulations for this area of the United States. The Goathouse Refuge near Pittsboro have been in existence in the area for about 7 years and they currently care for about 200 cats including some other animals such as goats and dogs. This is a cat sanctuary and the pictures of it indicate that this is a well managed organisation A business opened up next door.  The business is a shooting range, which is referred to as "Range 2A".  The range uses about 15 acres of a 71 acre plot owned by the business. They have plans to expand so even more noise seems likely! You can guess what I am going to say next, I hope. The shooting range creates an awful lot of noise. The domestic cat is very sensitive to noise and particularly the sort of noise that firearms make when they are fired. These are exactly the sorts of no

Owners contribute to cat obesity - 16-Jun-2014 - NZ Living & Travel news Surprised? No, of course not. New Zealanders are not alone. I should think that anywhere in the world about 75% of cat owners totally ignore the need to ensure that their cat gets some sort of exercise. A bit of exercise is like a good walk for a human; it is good for you both physically and psychologically and the same applies to the domestic cat. Exercise is the opposite side of the coin to feeding. The trouble is that the majority of New Zealand cat owners don't really exercise any control over the amount their cat eats. That, too, is not unusual. According to a Royal Canin survey of 315 cat caretakers 75% leave food out all day - free feeding relying on the cat to eat the right amount. You should be able to rely on your cat to eat the right amount but you can't if she does not exercise at all and if the food is high in carbohydrates and far from ideal. Boredom can lead to overfeeding and addi

16th June 2014 -- You will have to check it out for yourself. There is, though, anecdotal evidence which suggests that wheat litter produces the least amount of dust.  This is a timely post because I have recently written an article about a cat litter product that could be described as the cat litter which produces the greatest amount of dust . Dust from cat litter is a genuine hazard to both the cat and the cat's caretaker (especially if the person is susceptible to asthma). Cats sniff their litter. They are prone to inhaling dust and the dust is a chemical (silica dust or sodium bentonite) which absorbs moisture. Imagine what that does in the moist cavities of a cat's lung. As I said, this is a genuine health hazard. Wheat litter,  specifically SWheat Scoop,  gets a good write-up from a person who appears to be very sensible writing on the Yahoo website. It's quite expensive but as she states you can't spend your money more wisely than in the furtherance of the

Elephant Serengeti. Photo: Feans Richard Leakey, one of the world's best known conservationists tells us that the Kenyan government is working with (yes, not against ) poachers. This is a classic example of the well rehearsed dark-side of governments the world over which continues to have a catastrophic impact on wild species living in the wild . Leakey refers to the ivory of elephants and the horns of rhino which feed the insatiable market in China but it could equally well be the bones of a lion from the plains of the Serengeti . The body parts of these glorious and increasingly precious species of popular wild animals are desired by many people. The more they are killed the rarer they become and in turn more desirable; one of the distortions of human existence. Richard Leakey is the founder of the Kenya Wildlife Service. He says he is convinced that the Kenyan government knows who the criminals are. The "last great wildlife species" are being slaughtered beca