Do Cats Fart?

Domestic cats do fart but, in my experience, it is silent. Put it this way, all the cats that I have looked after have passed wind at sometime or other but not very often and I've never heard the process taking place.



There is no reason why a domestic cat should not pass wind just like humans. Their anatomy is very similar to ours. In fact, I am sure that most cat owners have smelt the effects of their cat passing wind. If it happens a lot I would ask questions such as whether your cat might be ill or whether the diet is correct. A cat should not pass wind regularly or to the point where it becomes an issue or noticeable.

The reason why I have written this very short post is because people search for the phrase: “Do Cats Fart?". I'm not sure why people are so interested in that particular aspect of the domestic cat's anatomy but there it is. It just goes to prove that the domestic cat is very similar to the human in many areas.

1,500 Kittens Graduate from ASPCA Kitten Nursery

Because Of the influx of kittens during the summer breeding season, we know that animal shelters throughout the USA are inundated with young and newborn cats who are effectively homeless. Because of this perennial problem the ASPCA opened a new facility in 2014 to deal with the regular influx. The facility is dedicated to the treatment of newborn cats. These cats are too young to survive on their own and they need specialist care which is resource-intensive. The facility provides a service to the Animal Care Centres of New York City in 5 boroughs. The facility has 200 adjustable cages which can accommodate either a nursing mother or orphaned kittens. In all, the facility can accommodate 2,000 kittens during the breeding season which is between April to the end of September.



The ASPCA are proud to announce that between the date that the facility opened in May to November 10, 2015, 1,500 kittens have passed through the facility. The staff decided to celebrate the moment and their achievement. They had a “pomp and circumstance" ceremony. Two dozen kitten nursery staffers attended wearing suitable T-shirts and even mortarboards as if it were real graduation ceremony. The kittens are then moved on to the next phase in their life which is to seek an adopter.



The level of care provided at this kitten nursery is awesome. During the 6 months it was open to the 10th November more than 50 ASPCA workers worked 24 hours per day in up to nine-hour shifts to provide top quality care. I don't think you could do more than that. The Nursery's Medical Manager, Sabrina Velasquez said that the experience has been extremely positive.

The last stage for the kittens before adoption is to pass through the spaying and neutering process. The Medical Administrative Assistant, Chrissy Martinez-Munoz, works out the schedule for the operations. She said: “I'm the last stage before they go to adoptions, so by the time they reach me, they're halfway home..."

One of the staffers, Teandra Hendry said: “It's rewarding to see them go from not wanting to eat, to putting on weight, then developing personalities and becoming ready for adoption."

This is a fantastic facility and they deserve to celebrate their success. I'm pleased to write about it. It is always a pleasure to write about successful cat rescue particularly when it concerns the most vulnerable.

Real Fur Cheaper Than Fake Fur Resulting in Fresh Fraudulent Activity

In a perverse reversal of roles retailers and manufacturers are misrepresenting, sometimes fraudulently, the sort of fur that is on the products that they sell. What I'm saying is that the price of real fur from animals usually bred or stolen in China and brutally slaughtered for their fur has fallen to such a level that is now it appears to be cheaper than fake fur.

As a result, manufacturers use real fur rather than fake fur. As a further result, in order to prevent animal lovers from knowing about this, they represent real fur as fake fur. This is an extraordinary development and a worrying one because it indicates that there is an oversupply of real fur which further indicates that the production the real fur is increasing while demand is saying static or reducing.

I fear that production is increasing which means that there's a lot more animal cruelty of the most horrendous kind taking place in places like China where for example the raccoon dog is farmed for its fur and domestic and stray cats and dogs are rounded up from the streets and stripped of their skins.

Apparently the price of a 70 cm strip of real fur is about one dollar, which is quite extraordinary and shows the pitifully low value of the lives of the animals which have been forced to give up their skin to satisfy consumer demand.

One disastrous aspect of this development is that animal lovers who purposefully purchase items trimmed with fake fur are now being conned into wearing clothes which contains real fur. If they knew about that they would be shocked. It is very difficult for a consumer to tell the difference between fake and real fur.

However, if the consumer looks at the tip of the fur it goes to a point when it is real. Fake fur does not have that same feathering towards a tip. In addition, if the fur is parted and the base of the fur is observed you will see that it is affixed to the skin of the animal. You don't get that with fake fur. Purchases of items which contain fur should check these points before buying it because, as mentioned, there is a considerable amount of fraudulent misrepresentation of products in shops in the UK and almost certainly anywhere in the world.

This develop most concerns me because I know, as many other cat lovers know, that cats are brutally killed in places like China and Vietnam for their fur and sometimes eaten for medicinal reasons. It's all quite bizarre to me. It is quite harrowing and utterly immoral.

Trading standards officers in the UK have been fooled because they were unaware of this fraudulent practice. There is a lax attitude as far as I'm concerned with fur trimmings on items and there's lots of items such as gloves and jacket hoods which contain fur. Purchasers should be aware.

This problem is also big in America. There are insufficient controls. It is time that the trading standards authorities became tougher on Chinese importers.

"Pompous Albert" Is a Purebred Haughty Version of Grumpy Cat

I think that Pompous Albert is the first purebred celebrity cat as far as I'm aware. Not only that, he is quite a rare purebred cat because he is a Selkirk Rex. Not many people look after a Selkirk Rex. They look a bit like sheep! They have this thick wavy coat and their appearance underneath the coat is somewhat like a British or American shorthair.



Talking about appearance, Pompous Albert, certainly has his own distinctive look which as his name indicates is pompous with a certain amount of grumpiness combined with a haughtiness resulting in a unique un-catlike appearance.

When some visitors see him they ask whether he is actually a domestic cat such is his arresting appearance. He lives with Susan and Michael Singleton of Salt Lake City. He is seven years old. His appearance has remained unchanged since the day he was born.

He spends his days in the offices of the Singletons' fine art publishing business with two cat companions. Cats are great in the workplace. He is named after Albert Einstein apparently so we will have to assume that Albert Einstein was quite pompous.

He has the grumpy cat glare, while the haughtiness comes from the upward turning eyes, I would say. The Is
eyes are marked out very nicely with heavy black eyeliner. It's more a glare actually, a glare which says he does not suffer fools gladly.

He is a typical cat with one or two small exceptions. For example he likes to be vacuumed! Most cats run away from vacuum cleaners but apparently he likes to be vacuum cleaned. Rarely cats like this because it feels good but normally the noise terrifies cats. He attacks paper shredders and photocopiers and printers. He likes kids (that's an excellent quality).

He has 30,000 followers on Instagram which is fantastic but it's a long way short of the fame of the all conquering Grumpy Cat. Grumpy Cat has earned an estimated hundred million dollars for her owner, Tabatha. We don't know the exact amount but that's a guesstimate. No cat is going to beat that ever.

Is Scaring Cats with Cucumbers the Funniest Thing You'll See?

On one website it says that scaring cats with cucumbers is the funniest thing you'll see today. I don't think it's particularly funny. Why should it be funny to scare a cat? It might look amusing to a person but it is still scaring an animal and, personally, I do not see any pleasure in doing that and I certainly don't see it being funny.



It seems to me that people find the reactions of cats to certain stimuli as funny when the reaction is extreme and strange. But this is natural behaviour for a cat. If the cat is frightened of a cucumber which is placed behind him then there's a good reason for his reaction. Perhaps the cat believes that the object might be a predator of some sort or a danger to him. Cats are not familiar with the appearance of a cucumber. Why should they be? If the cat is uncertain about what the object is then he initially will be anxious and in some cases scared. However, not all cats react in this way. It is about individual cat behavior. We should not imply that all cats are scared of the same things.

I'm just making a point in this short note. Lets be more sensible and stop thinking that it is funny to scare a cat even if the cat's behaviour might look amusing to a human. If a human thinks it is funny to scare a cat then the human has a problem in my opinion. Unfortunately, many humans have this sort of problem. It is human behavior born out of a sense of superiority over animals. Humans are not superior to animals.