Before and after photographs of Mikey a stray cat adopted in the West Midlands of the UK

I always like good before and after photographs of stray cats who have come in from the cold and the wet after adoption and found themselves in a place they can call home, where they should have been in the first place. 

Before and after photographs of Mikey a stray cat adopted in the West Midlands of the UK. Photo: Stray Cat Rescue Team West Midlands (believed).

Before and after photographs of Mikey a stray cat adopted in the West Midlands of the UK. Photo: Stray Cat Rescue Team West Midlands (believed). 

Before and after photographs of Mikey a stray cat adopted in the West Midlands of the UK. Photo: Stray Cat Rescue Team West Midlands (believed).  

These photographs, from the Stray Cat Rescue Team West Midlands, point to a success in cat caregiving but they are built upon failure. Somewhere in Mikey's past things went wrong. 

We don't know what it is. He might have been abandoned by his owner or he might have wondered away from his home. He might have been born in the wild and become feral but that's unlikely because judging by the "after" photograph Mikey was a domestic cat who just happened to be in the wrong place, stuck outside the home. 

That is why he is sopping wet in the "before" photographs. It is also why there is blood on the right side of his face. It appears that he got into a fight. That is the normal way stray cats end up with a bloodied face and broken and torn ears. It is, as the experts say, a harsh existence.

RELATED: Feral Cats Are Healthier and Live Longer Than Thought

But we shouldn't paint all feral and stray cats with the same brush. Sometimes they are well cared for by TNR volunteers. Under a good TNR program feral cats in the colony can live good lives. Sometimes their lives are better than that of a domestic cat.

P.S. The story comes from the FB page of the rescue concerned. Thanks.

Health checklist for all new cat arrivals

Is the kitten healthy? Checklist infographic by MikeB

Before you do a health checklist for all new cat arrivals you should have done a checklist as to whether you are in the right place physically, emotionally and monetarily to adopt a cat. I discuss the latter issues quite extensively on another page which you can read by clicking the link below;

Should I get a cat?

If you have adopted from a shelter your cat will have been through their standard checks and vaccinations. You should therefore both be in a good place. Likewise, if you have adopted from a purebred cat breeder, your cat will have been thoroughly checked and vaccinated and you will have received all the papers you need to prove pedigree and ownership et cetera. Once again things should be in place but here's a list nonetheless for those intermediate cases where you've adopted a cat informally and in case there are problems even when buying from a breeder.

Check list

It is advisable to watch your new cat's behaviour closely especially during the first 24-hours in your home. You can watch for potential health problems. The list below is prepared by Dr. Bruce Fogle and if you answer no to any one of the questions you should schedule a visit to your veterinarian on the same day or the next day he says.

1. Is your cat eating normally?
2. Defecating and urinating without any difficulty and without signs of distress;
3. No signs of diarrhoea or vomiting;
4. Breathing easily with no discharge, noise or effort;
5. Has nice, healthy pink gums and no unpleasant odours from the mouth;
6. Has a healthy, shiny coat without flea dirt towards the tail or indeed without any fleas;
7. Moves around in general such as getting up, jumping and lying down without difficulty;
8. Alert and active?

Number 4 might refer to lower urinary tract diseases such as typically cystitis, an inflammation of the bladder caused by a bacterial infection.

Number 4 refers to URIs; very typical of rescued kittens. They almost invariably have 'colds'; viral infections of the upper respiratory tract followed by bacterial infections of the eyes (pink eye).

RELATED: Diets to Promote Feline Oral Health

Number 5 is very typical of rescued cats with bad oral health. This is a reference to gum disease. And if the gums are not pink it is indicative of anaemia.

Number 6 is almost bound to be answered in the negative if you have rescued a cat because there will be fleas at the front of the cat and flea dirt at the rear end. You probably know that flea dirt is a reference to flea faeces which is processed blood basically.

RELATED: True or false: ‘Indoor only’ pets don’t get fleas and therefore don’t need a flea preventative

Number 7 is a reference to conditions such as arthritis or if it's a kitten to a congenital problem. It might also apply to ataxia i.e. a lack of coordination. 

Number 8 is a reference to general health and whether the cat is feeling well.

University of Texas looks after their campus cats

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-NEWS AND COMMENT: It is really great to read about this university which is sensitive to the well-being and welfare of the community cats living on their estate. One of the resident cats at the University of Texas (UT), Domino, appears to be a favourite. Perhaps he is well known because of his strong coat pattern. He looks well fed by the way and I reckon he has a good life because of the volunteers helping him.

UT campus cat Domino. Photo: UT

It appears that the University of Texas is going through a bit of landscaping and refurbishment which meant they removed some bushes that had been damaged during February's winter storm. Domino used these bushes as hiding and resting place.

The university employs contractors to do this work. Carin Peterson, senior training and outreach coordinator for Environmental Health and Safety is coordinating the work. They use a business called Landscape Services and it appears to me that they are all on the same page about how to ensure that the work causes the minimum amount of disruption to the cats and Domino in particular.

For example, the contractor did not fill in the hole that Domino uses to go under a building and they replaced a shelter and a food bowl after removing the bushes. Peterson said that Landscape Services wanted to ensure that everyone knew what was going to happen before they started work.

Domino has temporarily moved himself to a new location but he should relocate back to his original position shortly. His caretakers say that he is fine. Although he has been frightened by the activity. He is eating okay at his new location.

The contractor plans to replant the bushes in the autumn and Domino can then safely return according to Veronica Trevino the media manager for financial and administrative services at the University.

However, one of Domino's volunteer caretakers, Albert MacKrell said that Domino is scared because his original shelter made him feel secure and it has been removed. He said that Domino is hiding more than usual. MacKrell is an assistant professor of practice in the College of Natural Sciences.

Comment: this sort of major maintenance work is bound to severely disrupt campus cats but on my reading of this story they are doing the best they can to minimise disruption. What I like about it in particular is that they are factoring in the cats' well-being. It is the exact opposite to what happens in some housing estates and even some universities where the general mood is against the presence of the cats. There are debates going on probably across the country about whether campus cats should be allowed or removed. The University of Texas should be commended for their attitude.

Can you feel that the world is going wrong?

Are you like me, can you feel that the world is going wrong or to put it another way becoming destabilised? I think a lot of people feel this way. I also believe that a major factor in this destabilisation is global warming. I'll explain my thinking.

Everybody is predisposed to fear. I think most people are frightened to varying degrees a lot of the time. Sometimes fear is subdued to the point where it is almost invisible but it is always there. So, bearing in mind that background fear in humankind, people have become particularly fearful now that they realise that they are destroying their planet, their home, through global warming. Climate change is potentially incredibly serious. It is the destruction of humankind in the worst-case scenario.

"We now have no alternative – we have to do all we possibly can in the short time left to us to avoid the enormous climate catastrophe that has already begun to show its face in the most terrifying ways, most recently in the Mediterranean,” - Prince Charles (Daily Mail). 

Note the use of the word 'terrifying'. Climate change is making people fearful.

Can you feel that the world is going wrong?

People can foresee the possible destruction of humankind through their careless behaviour. That is a powerful feeling which is bound to impact behaviour. And I think it is, right now. It is making people more desperate and more selfish. Selfishness or self-interest is a destabiliser in any case. It breaks cohesion. If one country is acting very selfishly while disregarding the interests of other nations, and the planet as a whole, it destabilises the world. I'm talking about China predominantly.

I believe that when people foresee the possible end of humankind through climate change it insidiously gets into their heads and affects their emotional state. As mentioned, I think it makes people more selfish. It makes people spend more and become more reckless. It is living for the moment which is also destabilising.

And in the UK, the police have lost control. This too is destabilising. UK citizens are on their own when it comes to protecting their property and finding justice. The lack of law enforcement is certainly a factor in feeding fear in individuals. Law enforcement the world over is generally poor. In the US the police have become SWAT teams. Or they are bent. They nearly always get away with criminal behavior. Poor law enforcement leads citizens into believing that they are alone; another destabilising emotional state.

Climate change is feeding into mass emigration. As the hot countries become hotter, they become less tolerable. People move to northern countries. 

And as people have more fear it is more likely that there will be conflict which also feeds into mass emigration because in countries where there is conflict life is intolerable. And so, people move to countries where there is more stability.

But mass emigration which is often illegal, but accepted because they are deemed to be refugees, also destabilises the world. It would be far better if the countries from which people emigrated were improved in terms of standard of living, the quality of governments et cetera. Far better for people to stay where they live and improve the country rather than run to other countries. The whole process is destabilising.

And China is going its own way and in doing so disregarding international opinion which is heading towards conflict. The thought of a large conflict in the not-too-distant future is also destabilising.

The Afghanistan problem which the world is currently going through is another destabilising influence. It shows a failure in the West. Perhaps some countries look to America to stabilise the world but they've failed. They can't do it anymore. They can't be relied upon anymore.

At the root of all these issues is the mentality of humankind and if that becomes more fragile and more fearful it feeds into destabilising behaviour and the world goes wrong. 

What has this got to do with cats? What affects us affects our cats. Everything to do with cat welfare becomes irrelevant if the planet can no longer support life.

Police of Cape Town township disinterested in investigating serial cat killer despite good evidence

NEWS AND VIEWS - Manenberg, Cape Town, South Africa: Manenberg is a township of Cape Town, South Africa. It was created by the apartheid government for low-income coloured families in 1966. The population is an estimated 52,000.

Manenberg, Cape Town, South Africa. Image in the public domain.

The Animal Welfare Society of South Africa say that there is substantive and weighty evidence to prove that an unnamed suspect or suspects has been involved in the brutal killing of at least 26 cats in a serial cat killing spree. 

But the Manenberg police refuse to even open a file on the case. They simply refuse to investigate it. The person or persons slit the cats from head to tail and tossed them into people's yards. I'm sorry that I had to describe that.

The Animal Welfare Society of South Africa said: 

"We suspect there's more than one individual involved. Our investigation is ongoing. There is a fairly substantial lead we are following up on. It involves a young man from the area with a history of brutality towards cats."

Please call: the Animal Welfare Society of SA on 021 692 2626 or 082 601 1761 if you can assist.

Comment: does this shed some light on the attitude of law enforcement in South Africa on cruelty to cats and other animals? I think it does and it is in line with a poor attitude towards cat welfare in respect of lions, for instance. They abuse lions in South Africa by breeding them for canned lion hunts and by selling lion body parts to China where the bones are turned into bone wine et cetera. It is quite disgusting the whole thing and there's no doubt in my mind that animal welfare is very low priority in South Africa.

The story is in contrast I'd say to the UK's 'Brighton Cat Killer' saga which has recently come to a conclusion with the arrest, prosecution and jailing of the madman who stabbed 16 indoor/outdoor cats, killing 9 and severely injuring the remaining seven. His name is Steve Bouquet and he is all over the news media. 

He got more than five years in jail for criminal damage because under criminal damage it is possible to apply a more severe sentence than under animal welfare laws in the UK. It is just a way the law is drafted. 

But, yes, the British police eventually caught the bastard although it took them a very long time and to be perfectly honest the police in Britain are not that interested in animal welfare either. But at least they did something whereas in South Africa the police are terminally switched off with respect to catching the perpetrators of animal cruelty.

There is a worldwide issue with law enforcement lacking sufficient will and commitment in investigating animal abuse criminal cases. It indicates a red-necked attitude. A right-wing male attitude in line with a love of firearms and sport hunting. I am stereotyping but I feel the stereotype is reasonably accurate.

Six diseases that can be avoided if a cat is vaccinated

I'm taking this direct from Dr. Yuki Hattori's excellent book titled What Cats Want. Dr. Yuki Hattori is Japan's leading cat doctor. The book is recommended for beginners and those with a fair knowledge of domestic cat caretaking. It is written and illustrated very cleanly; easy to read.

Tabby cat having a stretch. Photo in the public domain.

The diseases that can be avoided if a cat is vaccinated are as follows:

1. Bronchitis/pneumonia: this disease develops from a cold but becomes more serious and requires urgent veterinary attention. The symptoms are breathing problems, fever and cough.
2. Feline lymphoma: this is a type of cancer affecting lymphocytes. The symptoms are weight loss and lack of appetite. This disease is often detected late.
3. Feline viral rhinotracheitis: this is a feline form of the common cold as I understand it. It is passed on through nasal secretions or saliva. When a cat contracts the disease, they become a carrier for their life. The symptoms may only present later on. The symptoms are, conjunctivitis (a secondary bacterial infection after the initial viral infection), fever, runny nose and sneezing.
4. Feline panleukopenia: a very contagious disease which proves fatal, often. There is a reduced white blood cell count and intestinal inflammation. The symptoms are variously: bloody stools, vomiting and fever. Kittens can vomit violently and have diarrhoea.
5. Feline calicivirus: another sort of cat cold described as a 'respiratory disease' transmitted through contact with an infected cat. The symptoms are sneezing, salivation, weepy eyes. There may be stomatitis or ulceration of the tongue. Younger and older cats are most at risk.
6. Feline chlamydiosis: a disease which is transmitted through contact with a cat who carries the bacterium. The symptoms are: cough, sneezing, weepy eyes and conjunctivitis.

Feline vaccinations are recommended. See your vet please! :) Although the protocols of cat vaccinations have been pared back over the years as vets were overdoing it in the past because of a desire to bring clients into the clinic where they could be sold services and products. Boosters have been reduced in frequency.

P.S. The Russians have developed a vaccine against Covid-19. Some zoos are vaccinating their animals. I'd expect a Covid-19 vaccine to be developed in Europe and North America in due course as there is a fear of a reservoir of the disease being created among domestic animals.

Blood pressure is significantly higher in cats aged 11 years and over

In line with people, domestic cats who are 11-years-old or older have significantly higher blood pressure than cats of a younger age. A study found that blood pressure rises with age in domestic cats and this applies to systolic, diastolic, mean arterial and pulse pressure. 

Squirt. She’s about 11 years old. She was thrown outside to fend for herself after her elderly owner died. Squirt’s the neediest of all and needs a special human for her golden years. She is a senior with arthritis and is FIV-positive, and she really deserves a forever home to call her own again. Squirt will paw at you for attention—she’s desperate to be someone’s lap cat and best friend. Note: the photo is from several years ago and it is here to illustrate the page, no more. I don't know if she found a home.

Systolic blood pressure is the pressure inside the artery when the heart contracts to force the blood around the arteries. It is the high blood pressure whereas diastolic pressure is the pressure of the blood in the arteries when the heart is between contractions i.e. when it is relaxed and the heart's ventricles are allowed to refill with blood.

Also, the study found that cats suffering from clinical renal disease, which I take to mean chronic kidney disease, a common disease in elderly cats, suffered from higher blood pressure than cats who did not have the disease. The same goes for cats with hypertensive retinopathy, which is when high blood pressure causes damage to the retina's blood vessels which limits the retina's function and puts pressure on the optic nerve which can cause vision problems.

The study is titled Epidemiological study of blood pressure in domestic cats published on June 28, 2008 on the Wiley Online Library.

• Associated;
• Elderly cat health
• How many calories does an elderly cat need?

Indian celebrity actresses such as Disha Patani indirectly promote cat welfare

We are seeing more news media articles about celebrity Indian actresses with their domestic cat companions in loving embraces and I love it because it will boost cat welfare and I would hope animal welfare generally in India. 

Disha Patani with her purebred cat. Photo: Instagram.

It appears that the best-known Indian actresses are admired by Indian citizens and therefore they have a role to play in modifying the behaviour of people. They can lead the way and we often see, nowadays, these wealthy Indian actresses living in fancy apartments in cities with glamorous, full-time indoor, purebred cats. 

They make for good photographs but the underlying message I would hope comes across which is that cats should be treated in a kindly way and looked after well. They should not be street cats living miserable lives as so many do in India and of course in other countries. I'm not going to criticise India for this because there are far too many unwanted, stray and feral cats in the world for my liking. It is a symptom of a failure in the domestication of the cat. It is time we made more effort to stop it.

So here we have Disha Patani, an Indian actress who works primarily in Hindi films I'm told by Wikipedia. I am also told that this is her real name and it seems that she is trained as an engineer. Is that correct? It might well be.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by disha patani (paatni) (@dishapatani)

Note: This is an image from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

In the photograph on her Twitter tweet, we see her cuddling what I believe to be a Himalayan purebred cat which is a pointed Persian cat. In this instance I think this is a lynx-pointed Persian. Or the cat is a Ragdoll. The cat is certainly purebred. The photograph has received 1.6 million likes in 19 hours!! She has 44 million followers! That is the power of female celebrity. Let her use it to the betterment of animal welfare, please. She can do so much. I don't know whether she is involved in animal welfare matters and whether she campaigns on animal welfare issues. I hope so because, as mentioned, she has the clout to make some changes in the right direction. And there is a real need in India to improve animal welfare.

There are too many sad, street cats for my liking but, as mentioned, that applies to very many countries in the world. So, we can't single out India as that would be unfair. India does have a fledgling cat fancy by the way. I think I may be partly responsible for instigating the beginning of the cat fancy in India. They do like their purebred cats but they seem to be confined to the Persian which is by far their favourite and which they call the "punch-face" Persian. Not a great description because it implies that you punch the face of a cat to squash it and make it flat which is the requirement under the breed standard (the flatness not the punching!). That is another story because flat faces are not healthy faces! It distorts the facial anatomy leading to breathing and other problems.

Cat and baby deer play together (video) - interspecies relationships

The first thing I think about when I see video above - this sweet vignette of an example of an interspecies relationship - is the sport hunting of deer. Why do people find this relationship as shown in the video so charming (and it is) while at the same time allowing deer to be hunted in such large numbers in America? 

The sun of Northern Ireland gave this cat ear cancer

Northern Ireland is notorious for dull, damp, grey days or that is how I visualise the country. Rain constantly sweeps up from the south-west. One thing is certain, there is not a lot of sun in Northern Ireland and yet it was enough to damage this cat's ears to the point where skin cancer developed perhaps about a year or so later. When this white cat was found and fostered by a volunteer working for Cats Protection she had to be taken to a veterinarian to have her ear flaps amputated. As it happened, she had also been involved in a car accident and lost an eye as well.

 The sun of Northern Ireland gave this cat ear cancer. Photo: Cats Protection.

As you can see she is all-white and as you probably know all-white cats are particularly susceptible to sunburn of their ear flaps. This is because there is less protection of the skin because white fur is hair without pigmentation and in any case the fur on a cat's ear flaps, as you also know, is very thin indeed. There is almost no protection from the sun's ultraviolet light.

It is a precautionary tale with the summer coming up. She has been named Smurf and the moral of the story is that even in quite wet, overcast climates such as that of Northern Ireland the sun can cause sunburn on cat ear flaps. The Cat Protection central veterinary officer, Sarah Elliott, said that: "Even on a cold day, when the sun is bright there is still the potential for damage to occur. Pale-coloured cats like Smurf are particularly at risk, or indeed any cats that have unpigmented white noses or ears."

You can apply sunscreen to a cat's ears and you might ask your veterinarian for his or her advice on the best product. And of course on those particularly hot days you can keep your cat inside if that is practical. I know that outside cats find it very difficult to remain inside. This may encourage the owner to let them out in the interests of peace and quiet. Under those circumstances I would have thought that sunscreen on the ears would be essential particularly if your cat is light-coloured as mentioned.

Domestic cats' guardians are at the centre of their lives

It does us good to remember that cat owners are at the centre of the lives of their cats. A domestic cat's life revolves around the human home and their human caretaker. It is a human world that they live in and they have to do their best to adapt to it. There can be a bit of fiction sometimes because the domestic cat is not completely domesticated. That wild cat within seeps out often and it can cause a clash with human culture.

My cat when he was confined to the backyard (garden). Photo: MikeB

This is only a short note but something happens with my cat quite often which reminds me that the title to this article is correct. Although, the character of individual cats varies, I do believe that in the best households, where there is a strong bond between human and cat, the cat looks to the human as the centre of their world.

My cat is an indoor/outdoor cat nowadays although he started off living within the home and a back garden which was surrounded by a cat confinement fence. He broke out of it (only 1 in 1000 do I was told) so I gave up on that idea. But when he goes out for a quick patrol around his territory sometimes he comes back about 20 minutes later, walks through the cat flap, looks up at me, and immediately returns to his outside stroll.

He is checking up on me. He is checking that I am still there, a companion to come back to. An animal, in his eyes, who provides for him, gives him comfort, security and warmth both emotional and physical. So he is thinking of me sometimes when he is out there in the wild behaving as a wild cat. This reminds me that domestic cats' guardians are at the centre of their lives.

Perhaps you don't want your cat to think of you as the centre of their life. A lot of cat owners like their cat to be as independent as possible. This avoids them having to discharge their full responsibilities towards their cat's welfare. Perhaps I'm being unkind but I believe that to be true. A decent percentage of domestic cats are, to a certain extent, neglected. Their owners think of domestic cats as independent creatures and treat them as such. But, if you, through years of patient kindness and tender loving care, develop a close relationship with your cat both of you gain more out of the relationship and what I say above becomes a fact.

The equivalent of 120 million plastic water bottles fell onto the USA over 14 months

The title sounds ridiculous but the science is undeniable. A new study in the journal Science discovered that over a 14 month period more than 1000 metric tons of micro-plastic particles fell onto 11 protected areas in the Western US each year. 

Microplastics. Photo: Pixabay.

This is the equivalent of over 120 million plastic water bottles. To put it another way: it's raining plastic. Micro-plastics come from the sea where they are taken up into the atmosphere and ultimately dumped over land. The world is not taking plastic seriously enough but if we don't deal with the problem there will be serious implications for human health. We have to include animal health and domestic animal health in particular.

Fairly soon it is hoped that people will start taking plastic rain seriously in the same way that they took acid rain and fossil fuels seriously. Over the next 10 years we are going to be talking more about the impact of plastics, particularly micro-plastics and their impact on human health.

Concerned people will have seen marine wildlife killed by ingesting plastic bags or seagulls eating bits of plastic believing that they are foods. They even feed plastic particles to their offspring. Whales have been killed by hundreds of pounds of plastic bags in their bellies. But not enough discussion has taken place about plastic rain.

Today's problem is the result of a carelessness with respect to the disposal of plastic in the environment over a period of about 70 years. And over the past 10 years there has been an explosion of single-use plastic. Some of these plastics have not worked through the system yet. This points to a huge problem in the future.

At present we don't have a way of filtering micro-plastics from the soil. Every human organ studied by scientists contain micro-plastics. Scientists have found micro-plastics in the most remote places in the oceans. It seems that every square metre of every ocean contains hundreds of thousands of micro-plastic particles.

PETA's horrific outside cat stories should shock but no pictures please

PETA has to force change to improve animal welfare. They set out to shock people to achieve this goal. They want to force reality down the throat of the complacent public. There is apathy and ignorance about a lack of animal welfare in society. People live blinkered lives and PETA wants to open their eyes.

I agree with their philosophy but personally I cannot look at the photographs which accompany their 'horrific outside cat stories' on their website. These are photographs of cats that are truly suffering with terrible injuries and illnesses. They are normally feral or stray cats.

PETA is against the existence of feral cats. I get that too. They don't want to see feral cats suffering and in the past it seems to me that they have recommended that all feral cats be trapped and euthanized. There was uproar in some quarters about that and this philosophy does not seem to be universally accepted among all senior PETA staff.

I digress...because this your post is about forcing people to accept failure in animal welfare while at the same time not putting people off reading PETA articles. Personally I will not click on a link which describes 'horrific outside cat stories' on the PETA website and which are thrown up in Google search results. This is because I know there are likely to be photographs of badly injured cats

I cannot look at these photographs any more. They damage me. I cannot get them out of my head. I would ask PETA to use words as effectively as possible to describe the plight of these cats but to restrict the use of gory photographs because if I am being put off by them them I expect other people are too.

Don't ever yell at or in the vicinity of domestic cats!

Don't ever, ever yell at or near a domestic cat. Don't even yell in the same house which there is a domestic cat. Don't even think about yelling when you live with a domestic cat. You are liable to frighten your cat and your cat may well associate you with being a hostile creature and if this happens it will weaken the bond between cat and human. 

Don't yell at or near domestic cats. Please.

It is not clever to make a video of you yelling at your cat as this complete moron did. His video has received more than 8 million views because it's been on the Internet for about 8 million years. And the only people who want to see it are voyeurs who have a curiosity about how a domestic cat would react to being shouted at. You don't need to be curious because the answer is obvious. Domestic cats are frightened by yelling at them or in the same room as them.

They respond well to the exact opposite: soothing sounds, quietness, calm, confidence and reassurances (make a cat calmer with food). This is what domestic cats thrive on. It doesn't take much to upset them with noise. Remember they have far better hearing than we have in terms of high frequencies. And the hearing is more sensitive than ours. So if we shout we don't know how they hear that but it is probably a very loud sound. I watched the video on this page about 14 years ago to see if I could put it on my website and it shocked me then and it is still on the Internet which shocks me now. It should have been removed by YouTube 14 years ago. Why? Because it is animal abuse. And it is probably in violation of YouTube policy.

The bottom line is: never yell at or in the vicinity of domestic cats. If you do it a lot then you are the wrong person to live with a domestic cat. And if you shout at your partner either male or female because you're constantly rowing then that too, I think, would disqualify you from looking after a domestic cat because you have created a home which is to hostile and too upsetting for a cat companion. Here endeth the lecture.....

Cat in mountains on leash. Bad or good cat caretaking?

This tweet shows a beautiful grey cat on a leash high up in the mountains on a rocky ledge overlooking a beautiful lake. It's a great picture and for me it is the best sort of cat caretaking you can do. Do you think it is good or bad cat caretaking? If it's done properly with care and responsibility and with a healthy dose of common sense that it must be good for a domestic cat to do this. 

Video screenshot

It gives the domestic cat, who is perhaps confined to a home, the chance to smell the mountain air, feel the dirt and grass under their paws, and pretend for a while that they are just like their wild cat ancestor. If you can give a domestic cat the chance to behave safely as their wild cat ancestor did you have done them a good service. 

You've injected some mojo back into their lives. They really do need this and if you think I'm wrong I'm sorry because there is no doubt that I'm correct. I'm not saying people should take their cat to the mountains like this guy. I'm saying that somehow cat owners have to let their cats tap in to their raw wild cat personalities and satisfy that personality in order for them to be whole.

From @nassy_kitty ⁠: “Guess what attracted my attention? I am so excited to meet new wildlife😍” #catsofinstagram pic.twitter.com/xXMxUXZNc7

— Cats of Instagram (@catsofinstagram) November 25, 2020

---

Illinois state law allows law enforcement to take custody of cat exposed to life-threatening cold or heat

Frostbitten cat.

This is an interesting law. The Senate Committee Amendment No. 1 states that the Humane Care for Animals Act has been amended to make provision for a law enforcement officer to take temporary custody of a cat or dog exposed to heat or cold which places the animal's life at risk or which can cause injury through hyperthermia, frostbite or hypothermia. I can think of one situation where heat could kill a cat: in the back of a car with the windows closed on a warm or hot day. This would allow an officer to break the window and rescue the cat it seems.




If a cat or dog is in the custody of law enforcement under these circumstances the officer has an obligation to attempt to contact the owner and seek emergency veterinary care.

Comment: This is the first time I have seen such an animal welfare law. Stories of cats suffering in extreme weather are not infrequently encountered on the internet so this law is useful I'd say. Frostbite in cats is not that rare. It's the ear flaps that get it. You'll see cats with no ears as they have been amputated - see partial amputation of the cat's ears above.

Audio record of a British couple's thoughts on domestic cat ownership

This is a very informal interview by me of a British couple on the subject of cat ownership. They own a tortoiseshell cat. The objective is to see if visitors can obtain some insights into cat ownership and to give a feel for how the Brits look after their cats. It is a bit different to Americans. The citizens of each country have their own ways on cat ownership.

---

The audio player is loading......

---

The couple are Barry and Kammy (who is a Thai). Their cat is Piedie and she is about 7 years old. They live in the suburbs of Kingston Upon Thames in Surrey, England. Their house is situated in a cul de sac (a dead end road) and they have a large garden by British standards. I won't write anymore as it is all on the audio file except to say that part of the discussion is on indoor/outdoor cats.

Ninety-nine percent of Brits allow their cat to roam freely outside. It's the culture. Nearly all UK citizens don't think about keeping cats inside but I do and so does my neighbour. Also declawing cats is unheard of in the UK. Most cat owners have never heard of it.

Can you break the window of a car if there's a pet inside in very hot weather?

In hot weather sometimes a person will see a dog or even a cat inside a car with the windows fully up and it may occur to that person whether they are entitled to break a window of the car to allow air into it thereby quite possibly saving the life of the dog inside.

And it can be a matter of life and death. Even under moderately warm weather it can become unbearably hot for a dog inside a car as the heat builds up.

Whether a person can break the window of a car firstly must depend upon the law in the country where that person lives. I would suspect that the law is similar across many countries in the West and even in other parts of the world.

Technically, breaking the window of a car is criminal damage. It is a crime. The person doing it could be prosecuted and the sentence would be a fine.

However, the person has a defence. He could say that he believed that he would have the consent of the dog's owner under the particular circumstances under which he broke the window. This would be a reasonable assessment provided the dog was in great distress.

If the dog was not in great distress it might be considered unreasonable to break the window. In addition it would be safer and more sensible if the person telephoned the police first as an emergency and then the RSPCA or any other animal welfare organisation which is appropriate in the country concerned.

If the person believes that in calling the police they would take too long to get to the car to release the dog then it could be successfully argued that he had to break the window based on the defense, as mentioned above, that the dog's owner would have given consent.

As you can see is not black and white. There has to be some sensible considerations before breaking the window. If police were involved they would no doubt gain access to the car as would a burglar by releasing the locking mechanism using certain tools. Although on occasions police may well break the window.

Many people would readily break the window of the car and take the risk of prosecution. They would do this because of great concern for the pet's welfare inside the car.

In addition, even if the person breaking the window did so without taking the precautions referred to above, it would be unusual for the car's owner to seek a prosecution in my opinion. Perhaps the worst case scenario might be that you would have to pay for repair of the car although that would be unlikely considering the dog's life might well have been saved.

You can't bring back a dog killed through heat exhaustion in the back of red-hot car but you can replace a car window.

When the news is so bad how do you write about cats?

When people are behaving so badly, it is harder to write about cats. This is because we have to behave well if we are to improve the life of cats. The worse we behave between ourselves the more the welfare of the domestic cat becomes less of a priority.

The recent Malaysia Airlines MH17 disaster puts me off writing about cats. This is an extraordinarily crazy example of careless and callous human behavior which has resulted in the deaths of 298 innocent people, 80 of which are children.

If the world is so crazy that people can fire a surface to air missiles which can travel to 72,000 feet, in a place that is considered to be Europe, to shoot down an aircraft that looks like a troop transport aircraft but which is a commercial airliner, then we are all lost.

If people can't even behave half decently then what chance have we got? We don't know for sure what happened in the MH17 airline disaster but the current general consensus is that a sophisticated Russian manufactured surface to air missile (SA-11 or BUK) was fired from the pro-Russian area of Eastern Ukraine in an attempt to shoot down what was thought to be a Ukrainian government troop carrier.



If this allegation is true the missile must have been supplied by Russia. Russia is behaving in a defensive manner trying to muddy the waters and hide evidence (I believe). This indicates guilt.

The missile referred to carries 75kg of explosives and explodes just before impacting the aircraft to cause maximum damage. MH17 was blown up in the air and rained down over 10 miles! The air accident investigators are allowed limited access by the pro-Russian rebels. What does that tell you? How good will the investigation be? No chance it will be good and true.

Ukrainians saw bodies falling from the sky. The black box is missing we are told? I don't know if that is true.

The Malaysian Airlines MH17 Shot Down Story

I am sure that you are as shocked as I am about the Malaysian airline aircraft being shot down over Ukraine by his alleged pro-Russian rebels using a ground to air missile. The aircraft was shot down over the area occupied by the rebels and the Ukrainian government has denied using these missiles as I understand it. The plane broke up in the air and hit the ground over a 9 square mile area indicating a explosion in the air.

If the allegation is correct that this civilian airliner has probably been shot down accidentally by a missile fired by pro-Russian rebels in Eastern Ukraine then it creates despair amongst all people on the planet because it just reinforces our thoughts that these ridiculous conflicts end up hurting everybody.

"We warned you not to fly in our sky" - a Russian separatist boasted they had just downed Ukrainian transport plane, minutes before news of crash emerged indicating they thought they had shot down a Ukrainian forces plane and not the Malaysian Airliner carring 295 passengers and crew.

If these stupid conflicts hurt - in all ways, physically, emionally and economically - people who are not involved in them then they hurt cats as well. Everything that we do which is destructive damages the life of the domestic cat either indirectly or directly one way or the other because their lives are our lives.

It is impossible to believe that pro-Russian rebels shot down the aircraft deliberately.  Perhaps they fired a missile from the ground at an aircraft belonging to Ukrainian government forces and missed and the missile carried on and impacted with the commercial airliner or as mentioned believed the aircraft was Government transporter.

The question is why was the airliner flying over a pro-Russian held area of the Ukraine? I don't know whether that is a legitimate thing to do or whether the airlines were advised not to fly over Ukraine. I would very much doubt that the pilot made an error in flying over the Ukraine. In which case any aircraft flying in the area would be susceptible to being shut down by a stray missile fired from the ground.

Update: it is not as yet a no-fly zone (it will be though today). The aircraft was flying at 33,000 feet. The pilot was saving time and thought the plane was safe due to the height it is believed. However, the missile (Russian made BUK) has a range of 31 miles.

It is highly distressing to everybody to read this story because it is so destructive and so pointless. The death of the passengers is utterly pointless. It is a stupid accident perpetrated by stupid people fighting over a stupid cause. Russia is to blame. Russia wants the eastern Ukraine to be part of Russia and they don't give a damn about the consequences. Russia is run by Vladimir Putin. We have to blame Mr Putin the president of Russia for this loss of life and destruction if the allegations are proved correct.