Cat Chit Chat

The information in this infographic about osteoarthritis in elderly cats may surprise you. It is a major health issue about which cat owners should be aware as it affects cat caregiving. Looking after domestic cats entering old age demands a little bit more vigilance to spot changes in a range of activities and sounds etc.. Observant cat caregivers can see changes in their cat when they are ill. They might not be able to identify the illness but to observe changes in activities, vocalisations, gait, and general behavior can be a signpost to understanding an as yet unidentified illness.  The infographic below may help a cat caregiver in guiding them through these difficult times. This is a double cross-post from 2 other posts. They are overlapping topics concerning cats entering and during old age. I hope you find them handy and if so please leave a comment and share your personal experiences to expand on the topic.

This has happened before in other countries. I can remember a guy adopting a bobcat kitten in America thinking that he was rescuing a cute tabby kitten until the kitten's behavior made him suspicious that it was something else. It confirms what I have always said that the cute wild cats and wild kittens can be pretty wild and the sounds they make are sometimes extraordinary. Nothing like a domestic cat. The Asiatic leopard cat is actually wilder than the bobcat so I expect that this farmer quickly realised that the cute kitten that he had adopted was far too wild to be a stray domestic kitten. He stumbled across the ball of fur while working his hillside farm in south-west China's Yunnan province, we are told by The Sun newspaper. He had spotted the kitten strolling alone and thought that he or she had been abandoned perhaps and decided to take him home. He quickly realised that this was not a stray domestic cat. He struggled to care for the kitten as he would have because thes

This is my opinion, essentially, based on common sense and a general understanding of feline and animal behavior, although I did a bit of reading up on it before putting pen to paper. Cats don't decide to 'isolate' themselves to die. It's the wrong word. Firstly, in my opinion, domestic cats don't know that they are dying. They are not making a rational decision to go away to die on their own.  They do know that they cannot defend themselves against a predator because they are injured. And they do know they have to find a safe place to protect themselves from predators. The domestic cat is behaving as a wild cat. They don't recognise the fact, under the circumstances, that they have a human home to go to for help (when the injury occurs outside the home). Why do cats isolate themselves to die? Photo in public domain. And so domestic cats find a safe place to protect themselves when they are badly injured or very ill.  There is a complication here because if

NEWS AND VIEWS: You remember Joe Exotic, don't you? He is the former private zoo owner, addicted to big cats and breeding big cats who is currently in prison for animal abuse and plotting to murder Carole Baskin the owner of Big Cat Rescue in Florida. His jail sentence is 22 years. There were 17 charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for hire. Pretty serious stuff. Joe Exotic. Image in the public domain (assessed). And he developed prostate cancer but has refused further treatment. He has blood in his urine and his medical consultant is urging him to take further tests to see whether the cancer has spread to other parts of his body. He has refused and said that he wants to let the disease take its course. He added that he is not frightened of dying and simply wants to see his partner and fiancé, Seth. He said: "I want to stay here and just let it take its course. I could care less about dying, my birthday is coming up soon and all I want is to see Seth"

TikTok vet Ben says 'Dear God, never get a Munchkin cat'. He explains why. Screenshot. Here is Ben the Vet on TikTok explaining why people who love cats should shun the Munchkin, the founding dwarf cat.  I wrote about the diseases that these cats tend to inherit many years ago. The health problems are linked to the dwarfism which makes them cute. This is due to a genetic mutation. To the problems that he mentions I can throw my knowledge into the ring and say that they can inherit: Lordosis and Pectus excavatum. You can read about them by clicking on this link . If we are honest there is a moral dimension too. It is unacceptable really to breed dwarf cats. It is what the Germans would call torture breeding. Funnily humans see dwarfism as not cute in humans but cute in cats. It sheds light on the human-to-cat relationship. @ben.the.vet #stitch with @Margie the growing popularity of Munchkin cats is a great animal welfare concern #catsoftiktok #veterinary #animallover #lea

NEWS AND COMMENT: In the UK, there has been another spate of cat killings - 20 in all - on a council estate in London (Pleydell Estate in Islington). From time to time these criminal events happen in the UK. The residents on the estate became concerned because dead cats were appearing. Police night patrols by undercover officers catch alleged cat killer. Police tent outside the block of flats. Image: The Sun. They raised their concerns with the police and it is nice to report that in this instance the police demonstrated some commitment to catching the perpetrator. They appear to have sent out undercover police officers on night patrols. Amazing. They were doing some night shift work. I am surprised they did that. Perhaps the senior police officer in this department is an animal lover. My experience in reading about these sorts of stories is that the police can tend to be ineffective and show a lack of commitment. One of the problems of course is finding the criminals because they oper

NEWS AND COMMENT: The RSPCA have named her Big Bertha. She is a young two years old tabby cat. The past owner appears to have grossly overfed her and then abandoned her. She was dumped in Calthorpe Park, Birmingham, UK and weighed 11.8 kg in pounds (26 pounds). The average domestic cat might way around 8-10 pounds. Picture of a grossly obese and grossly matted abandoned cat is shocking. Image: RSPCA. The Birmingham Animal Center's supervisor, Emma Finnimore was shocked. She said that "This is the largest cat I have seen in my 22 years working for the RSPCA". They found her in this bag: The bag in which Bertha was found. Picture: RSPCA. So, what did they do? The only thing they could do was to clip off all her matted fur and put her on a gradual weight, reduction diet. The clipped off fur weighed 0.3 of a kilogram incidentally. Dieting of this sort needs to be gradual to avoid fatty liver disease. She was too large to go through a cat flap and the RSPCA had to adapt a cat

Physician, Dr. William Powers, is known for being the man who owns two world record domestic cats: the domestic cat with the world's longest tail and the domestic cat who is the tallest to the shoulder. The former is a silver tabby Maine Coon and the latter is an F2 Savannah cat whose name is Fenrir Antares Powers. The Maine Coon's name is Altair Cygnus Powers. He is also known for losing 2 world record-holding domestic cats in a devastating house fire . Powers and his overweight world record holding F2 Savannah cat. Image: Photo: Guinness World Records  When I read that he spent upwards of $500 per month on pet food it made me perk up a little bit and I ask myself why and how because it seems to me to be an enormous amount of money. And the reason is this: firstly, he has six cats in all including the two mentioned. And perhaps more importantly, he prepares a special diet for his F2 Savannah cat who is always hungry.  The last point is an important one because not that long ag

I am both surprised and pleased to read this story in The Times today. They are going to release European wildcats into parts of Devon and Cornwall in the UK. As I recall, the last wildcat in England was shot by a rich landowner in the middle of the 19th century.  The European wildcat is very similar to the tabby domestic cat but a little larger and definitely fiercer! Image: in the public domain (believed). Before that they were killed by hunters looking for their pelts. They were exterminated completely in England, Wales and Ireland but it is believed that around 200 remain in Scotland. The problem with the Scottish population of wild cat is that it is probable that most if not all of them are hybrids being first-generation offspring from matings between a genuine, purebred wildcat and a feral cat or even a domestic cat wandering around outside as these two species can make quite freely.  This is unsurprising because the domestic cat is a domesticated wildcat, specifically the North

This is a pill which apparently entirely substitutes giving a diabetic cat insulin jabs. It is therefore highly convenient. The drug is called Bexacat and it works by lowering blood sugar levels by causing it to be excreted in urine. Made by Elanco Animal Health Inc., Bexacat was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December and is expected to be available in the U.S. in the next several weeks. Pill treats diabetic cats without daily insulin shots but is it a good idea? Image: MikeB RELATED ARTICLE:  How common is diabetes in cats? It varies depending on where you are . Often, domestic cats with diabetes in the USA have contracted the disease because of obesity. And as obesity rates are rising among the feline population so is diabetes.  I'm told that between 1 in 100 and 1 in 500 cats in the US have been diagnosed with diabetes. Feline obesity apparently is approaching 50% of the domestic cat population in the USA. This figure is constantly being forced down our t

Update a few days later! He adopted the cat. Fabulous and here is the latest image: Below is an earlier image (a video screenshot) after the rescue. They are made for each other. I just pray that the relationship stands the test of time.  Turkish Van cat rescued from rubble of Turkey earthquakes after 129 days. Screeshot. The caption to the video on Reddit.com is: The cat, which was rescued in the 129th hour of the earthquake in Gaziantep/ Turkiye, did not leave the fire crews that saved it. They named it "Enkaz" (means rubble in Turkish) . Firefighter Ali Çakas said, "If we can't find the owner, I will own it." A lovely little video. What a couple they make: handsome guy and equally attractive cat. I think it is a PR coup by the rescue department. If I was being a little bit cynical which I am prone to be I would think that this was a set up job! The guy is too handsome and it looks like it was a video produced by the Turkish rescue team's public relations

Sometimes the domestic and feral cat get a bad rap because some people think that they spread a lot of diseases to humans. It is a reason why they keep them off the kitchen counter for example.  And sometimes people want to kill and even eradicate feral cats in the area where they live because they think that they spread disease. These claims are highly exaggerated. The truth of the matter is that human spread far more diseases to other humans than cats spread diseases to humans.  So why don't we kill some humans instead? Crazy of course. It is equally crazy to kill cats for this reason. The obvious reason is that relatively few diseases which affect cats can be transmitted across the species barrier to humans. Diseases that can do this are called zoonotic. Covid-19 is zoonotic by the way. You may know that. Anyway, the Infographic just sets out some diseases which people might blame their cat for transmitting to them or somebody they know or a relative. The idea is to put the reco

In the army, there is an old adage, "Time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted". In a roundabout way, it is applicable to this article. You would amend the adage to, "Time spent in preparation before adopting a cat is never wasted". It's about learning about cat behaviour and the basic health issues that you can encounter which impinges upon the expenses of looking after a cat companion. Budgeting is very important. Diving in to adopt a cat companion without preparation is unwise. Perhaps that is common sense to most readers but it is not common sense to all people. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, there were some self-indulgent (as I would describe them) adoptions of cats and dogs in order to keep their owner company during long periods of lockdown. I don't agree with that unless these people were thinking about adopting a cat or dog for a long time and had made the necessary preparations. There is a lot to think about before taking on the resp

Date: Feb 13th 2023: Cats Protection, a very large and high-profile cat rescue organisation in the UK, need more volunteers to foster their cats after an increased demand due to the cost-of-living crisis. Cat fostering is very rewarding if you want to help in animal welfare and if you enjoy the company of cats but are not really in a position to 'own' a cat. Certainly, if you been thinking about being a cat foster carer but are yet to take the plunge, this could be an ideal moment. The Dorset Echo, a local newspaper, tells us that in Weymouth, UK, for example, there is an increased demand. The cost-of-living crisis as it is called is biting in the UK causing people to give up their domestic cats which is a very unhappy state of affairs. On that topic by the way when a person adopts a cat it should be for the lifetime of their cat and they really should be in a position financially to be able to take setbacks to their finances in order to allow them to retain their cat under di

This could just as well have been a cat or any other animal which is why the video is relevant on a cat website. It is remarkable and nice to see attention being given to an animal during this disaster which has claimed upwards of 20,000 people. The numbers are being constantly updated and the figures you see on news media are out of date at this time. They will continue to climb. Update: I have added a video of a cat rescue. Many animals have been killed. I'd like to see a bit more focus on them. The video gives a warning but it is not that bad. Nothing too unpleasant. In fact, it is an uplifting video of success and animal welfare. It almost seems fabricated as the video starts with the dog's head poking out of the rubble. What happened before that moment? The dog must have been covered in rubble in which case he would be covered in dust but he is not. I think it is genuine but I believe that the dog was never totally under the rubble. It fell on him/her and covered part of t

Yes, ticks should be removed as soon as possible. What I like about this photograph - even though it is ugly because of the fact that there are tics attached to this cat's ear - is that it shows you where tics often end up on cats which is, as mentioned, inside the ear flaps.  I guess this is a convenient height for a tick because they sit on long grass and then crawl off the grass onto a cat that has perhaps been sitting in the grass for a while. Or they are passing through slowly. Ticks on a cat's ear flap. Image: u/PrashantThapliyal The ticks walked off the grass onto the cat and attached themselves to the insides of the ear in this case. This particular cat has several tics. Perhaps he or she goes to the same place outside the home all the time and it happens to be a place where there is an infestation of ticks. The owner asks on social media what they are and what to do about them and whether he should remove them. This leads me to the next issue. Ticks should be removed q

Realistically, you can't answer the question in the title. I will tell you why. There are hundreds of different Native American tribes and languages. The native-languages.org website lists the most popular Native American languages of which there are 30.  These are the most popular but, as mentioned, there are far more. It is simply impractical and I would suggest impossible to find out how these Native Americans used or still do refer to the mountain lion in their own language. Image: MikeB I'm going to presume that the word "panther" in this context is a reference to the mountain lion which is better described as the "puma". This is the most scientific term. The puma has the most names in any case, not including Native American languages, of all the wild cat species. This is a very complicated picture. Let's take one of the native languages of the Americas: Cree. I have selected them at random. It is spoken by more than 70,000 people across southern Ca

USA Today introduces the video below with these words: " A woman in China was locked out of her home after forgetting her keys. Luckily, one of her cats was able to unlock the door for her." Do you see the ginger cat unlocking the door? I don't. They don't question whether this is implausible. It has to be a false assessment. A lie - a fake. Strong words but I feel that they are true words. The cat lets the owner in by jumping up onto the door's handle and pulling it downwards using their weight. They did not turn any key or adjust any locking mechanism inside the door. They simply pulled down on the handle as stated. This means that the woman outside on the other side of the door was able to pull down the handle in just the same way.  Therefore, she was not locked out. Also, it means that this is a fabricated video as so many are to try and get some views and a little bit of internet fame for the video maker vicariously through their companion cat.  It is incre

Having read Annalisa Barbieri's article in The Guardian online newspaper, I can take from it two methods that she used overcome her irrational fear of cats. There is no doubt that she suffered from ailurophobia which is the scientific name for a fear of cats. It was a lifelong fear which she readily admits in the first sentence. Annalisa Barbieri and Sidney. Photo: Dan Burn-Forti/The Observer This fear ruled her life until she became a mother and her children asked for a cat. She said no. And then gradually, she decided to take the plunge and adopt a kitten. But she wasn't really prepared for it. She felt that she wanted to do this but I sense, reading between the lines, that she had not got her head in gear. She dived in and initially it did not work out. She admits that she thought that domestic cats were tricky and that they wanted to harm her. And then a friend of hers, Tasmin, a person that she describes as being "a cat pro" came over and spent the day with her b

Cool. What makes it even cooler is the homemade cat stroller (re-purposed) used by an elderly couple to give their equally elderly cat, Angus, some mental stimulation.  This is not the real thing but a neat substitute for an elderly cat who stays put. There's no roof on the 'stroller'. No problem. He has no intention of jumping out. They are a great elderly threesome, and I bet they catch the eye of pedestrians. 90-year-old man pushes a homemade cat stroller with elderly cat on a walk for himself, his cat and his wife who is the same age. Image: Screenshot. It is their granddaughter who posted the video below on TikTok. They've got some attention there too as the video is heading towards 1 million views. Although TikTok fudges the viewing figures because they put the videos on a loop which probably doubles the true number. Look, there is hardly anything better in the world of cat ownership and caregiving than seeing an elderly couple adopt an elderly cat (I presume from

The Animal Friends and Humane Society, in Hamilton, Ohio have come up with an imaginative fundraiser on their Facebook page. They are asking visitors to provide them with the name of an ex-partner who they believe behave badly towards them. That name will go onto the base of a litter box and the litter box will be used for the rescue cats in their care. Humane Society fundraiser goes viral on news media. Image: MikeB They are accepting donations between February 1-12 and on their Facebook page there are instructions on how to make the donation. It is via an American mobile payment service called Venmo which is owned by PayPal. There is a QR code on their Facebook page which you can scan using your smartphone or "search the Charity @AFHStreasurer2011." Your chance to kill 'two birds with one stone' to use an appropriate saying. You can clear your conscience of that pesky relationship that you had which bugs you and you can do some good for animal welfare.

This story on social media irritated me. All I have is the headline. And it is this: "This cat was handed into my shelter for eating the family hamster". I think that is a pathetic reason for giving up on your cat and putting them in jeopardy (unless they lied).  Putting a cat into a shelter does indeed put them in jeopardy because it depends upon another person coming along to adopt him or her. If they don't, they are in dangerous territory; they can be euthanised. So why is the reason for relinquishment pathetic? The people who adopted the cat in the first place either had a hamster at that time or they bought a hamster while they had their cat. Either way, they knew that there would be a danger of their cat attacking the hamster.  A pathetic reason for giving up a cat to a shelter or they lied. Image: skeletonclock on reddit.com They created the conditions under which their cat eventually did attack and kill the family hamster. If fault is to be apportioned it goes a h

New Zealand's Ministry of Education encourages children to kill non-native mammals including cats which they label 'pests' (yeh, not 'pets'). It is state sanctioned animal abuse and the abusers are indoctrinated kids. Horrible. In an astonishing conclusion to his lengthy analysis, Michael C Morris of the Royal Agricultural University, concludes that "even the Ministry of Education resources, encourage children to kill non-native mammals, show them how to set traps, and emphasised to teachers how they need to impress on children the importance of eradicating pests." New Zealand's state sanctioned animal AND CHILD abuse by indoctrinating kids to kill non-native species. Image: MikeB Other organisations in New Zealand including four government agencies, three conservation NGOs and one education NGO, promote the killing of non-native species by children. "Non-native" means a species of animal which has not evolved in the country concerned. The do

There are a couple of news items in the press today about Larry, Downing Street's resident mouser to 5 prime ministers. Interesting to me, is how he was selected above four other candidates at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.  Larry, Downing Street's cat was selected because he was calm and unbothered when picked. Image by MikeB at PoC. He was selected by a guy called David. We know this because a woman, Helen, wrote into Times Radio to mention it. She'd met David while queueing to see Queen Elizabeth lying in state at the Palace of Westminster. And David told Helen that Larry was chosen because he was calm and unfazed about whether he was picked or not. The other four candidates were more needy. They meowed and wanted attention. David was and perhaps still is a Downing Street staff worker and he was selected to choose the resident cat. He is an Australian incidentally. It seems that the criteria for being a Downing Street cat is that they should be unruffled by all the comi

Answer (my answer!): the cat is listed as one of the 12 zodiac animal species as the tiger , a specific species within the cat family. The creators of the zodiac therefore included the cat but as a distinct species and not generically as at the time of creation of the zodiac - 2,500 years ago - there were no domestic cats in China. There are 12 Chinese zodiac signs, in the following order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. There is ostensibly a shocking omission: the 'cat'. With the domestic dog, the domestic cat is the most popular companion animal in the world. However, the cat is listed in the zodiac as a specific species namely the tiger . If you read the serious version set out below, you'll see what I mean. Chinese zodiac of 12 animals. Image: MikeB There are 2 versions for the reason for the omission. One serious and the other a myth.  Serious version The Chinese Zodiac was created about 2500 years ago. It hasn't