Four Other Companies Recall Pet Food

We have heard about the Diamond Pet Food recall and its subsequent expansion. The company's name is Diamond Pet Food Processors of SC, LLC. The place where the contamination took place was at their facility in Atlanta: Gaston, SC 29053. The facility was inspected by the FDA on 12th April 2012 and several health problems were reported in three observations such as, "failure to maintain equipment, containers and utensils used to convey, hold and store food in a manner that protects against contamination".

This is the company's page on their recall.

Salmonella was found in bags of pet food. In one case the open bag of pet food at the home of a person who had salmonella poisoning. There were other cases where testing on the pet food revealed salmonella bacteria.

At least four other pet food manufacturing businesses manufacture their products at the same facility or at least some of their products at this facility. Diamond Pet Food Processors manufacture it for them. That surprises me a little. Is this pet food different or the same as Diamond Pet Food but just repackaged to look different? No idea.

"Several other companies with products manufactured at the Gaston, S.C. facility have issued voluntary recalls" (FDA). These are:

• Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance
• Apex Pet Foods
• Canidae, Wellpet LLC
• Solid Gold Health Products for Pets

The links go to the relevant FDA pages. These businesses are clearly just taking precautions. For instance with respect to Van Patten's Natural Balance there appear to have been no reported cases of illness but that was in May and a check is advisable as we are now into June and things might have changed.

I think, however, people need to know that Diamond manufacture for other companies in the same facility and this begs the question: how different is their pet food? Dry pet food is kibble which can shaped and coloured at will.

This website says that we should avoid Diamond Pet Foods because of long standing quality control issues.

British Royalty Keeping Cats

With it being the Queens's 60th wedding anniversary and with the massive jubilee celebrations taking place in the UK I thought I would find out if I could add the domestic cat into the mix and see whether there are any royals who keep cats and if so what type of cat.

By the way, I'm going down to the Thames tomorrow to have a look at the flotilla of boats accompanying the "Royal Barge" that cost a million quid - we can't afford it, I say.

I came to a rapid conclusion that the royals of Britain are dog people. That probably would not surprise most visitors who read this (very few!). The royals are sort of upper class (actually very upper class), hunting, shooting, fishing sorts and with that kind of background you are much more likely to prefer dogs. You know...the outdoor life, country sports lifestyle with hunting dogs etc.

The Queen is famous for her Corgis and that is about all I know about the Queens's animal preferences other than her love of horse racing. She kept or still keeps some racing horses.

One person who is part of the royal family but not at the heart of it is HRH Princess Michael of Kent. She has various talents including writing and interior design. She's a cat person.

People say that she is pushy and unpleasant. I don't know her but anyone who likes cats can't be unpleasant!

She keeps cats (plural). I have seen a picture on her website with two cats. One appears to be a rich dark brown/black cat  (a moggie it seems) with a studded collar and the other is a Siamese as far as I can tell from the picture. You can see a photo on this page.

Blue Persian cat of 1901 the kind Queen Victoria cared for.
The cat is Lady Marcus Beresford's blue Persian "Gentian Landor".

Even royals from the past usually kept dogs it seems. For example, Wallis Simpson who married King Edward VIII liked dogs. Although she owned a diamond bracelet of a panther worth £4.5 million ($7 million) in modern money.

If we go back a bit further we discover that Queen Victoria cared for two blue Persian cats. Victoria was the Queen from 1837 until her death in 1901. This was the era of the beginning of the cat fancy. Persian cats were one of the relatively few cat breeds of that time and very popular they were.

There is a picture of Princess Victoria ("Toria"), daughter of Edward VII & Queen Alexandra (1868-1935) holding a cat on the royal yacht (see picture). I don't how significant this is. It does indicate that a royal personage kept a Siamese cat. The picture was taken in about 1914.

I can find nothing else that indicates that British royalty liked and kept cats. It's a doggy family.

However Siamese royalty was different. Siam is now Thailand and the Siamese cat as you probably know originates in Thailand. At one time, it seems (cat history can be a bit vague) that the Siamese cat was confined to the Royal Palace and the King of Siam. This was clearly a special cat in Thailand in the 19th century and the King of Siam, at the time of the cat's export to the West, was a cat person.

Siamese Cat History
King of Siam 1853-1910

The King of Siam allowed a foreigner to export the Siamese out of Siam to start the breed in the West. The story of the Siamese cat's kinked tail is bound up with the creation of this breed in the West. See also Siamese cat history.

Creepy Cat Cartoon

Creepy cat was a bungling cartoon cat who appeared in two issues of Film Funnies from 1949-1950). This was the golden era of Marvel Comics.

Creepy cat has a similar role to Tom in the famous Tom and Jerry series. Creepy had to catch a smart mouse in the home where he lived.

Unfortunately for Creepy, the mouse was smarter than him so his task ended in failure. Creepy studies the art and science of catching a mouse. He reads How to Catch Mice. The mouse looks over his shoulder!

In another episode, the smart aleck mouse puts a lobster in Creepy's bath. Creepy is scared and tries to run out of the house. Mr Mouse tells him to jump out of the window which Creepy fails to do because it is shut. He would have been hurt less if he had jumped into the bath with the lobster.

I think you can get the drift of this cartoon character's exploits. Creepy cat was a large orange cat with visibly sharp teeth. It is rare for cartoon cats to show sharp teeth.

Note 1: in real life orange cats tend to be smart and alpha types. I guess orange is a good color for a cartoon cat.

Note 2: I couldn't find pictures or videos of this forgotten cartoon cat. However, you will find a cat called 'Creepy Cat' on the internet but I don't think it is the original cat that I am writing about. Creepy cat is a generic type term so it can be used somewhere else.

Top Cat: The Movie 3D Review

2nd June 2012: This is a quick review of Top Cat: The Movie 3D. I have included a video trailer below. I have a page on the cartoon character Top Cat, based on the savvy television character Sergeant Bilko who was popular on both sides of the Atlantic.

The movie was released on 1st June 2012 in the UK. I believe the movie was released earlier in other countries - in 2011.

It was directed by Alberto Mar. He is either Argentinian or Mexican! I have failed to find out which (I think Mr Mar is Argentinian). What I think has happened is that the film was made in Spanish and distributed in Argentina and has then made its way to England having been dubbed in English and the titles changed to English. If I am incorrect please tell me! That transformation would account for the time difference between making it and its release in the UK.

Apparently, this is a poor film. The video trailer on YouTube gets more dislikes than likes (129 to 101), which is unusual and Kate Muir in the Times newspaper of June 2nd says that the 3D element of this movie is of poor quality, "the worst....I have seen".

The film is partly about criticizing the modern surveillance culture (disliked by many people) but the screenplay fails in this respect. Police Chief Strickland replaces Officer Dibble from the original television cartoon series. Strickland is a tech savvy cop presenting new challenges to Top Cat and team.

Kate Muir awards the film a single star out of five and says it is not fit "to be used as kitty litter"! Strong stuff.

Santa Ana Has Typhus Outbreak

by Elisa Black-Taylor (USA)

Santa Ana, located in Orange County, California, is experiencing a typhus outbreak and the feral cats in the area are getting caught in the middle of a bad situation that's not their fault.

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Officials set six traps at Frances E. Willard Intermediate School on the 1300 block of North Ross Street. They've also set traps at El Sol Science and Arts Academy. This is being done in an effort to catch feral cats after a child in the area contracted typhus last month and had to be hospitalized. The victim has since recovered. Due to privacy laws, all that's known about the victim is the disease was contracted in the Broadway-Washington Avenue area of Santa Ana.

Now Vector Control officials have set traps for feral cats, possums and other small animals that may carry the disease via fleas. They have said any animals trapped will be tested and euthanized. Officials have already handed out information to the public on the illness and how to administer flea products to prevent a flea infestation.

Endemic and murine typhus are both caused by a bacteria found in infected fleas and their feces.

The problem is this isn't going to solve the problem. For one thing, it's doubtful these feral cats are coming close enough to the population to allow the fleas to jump from the cat onto a human or for the flea feces containing Rickettsia typhi, and Rickettsia felis to be in contact with the human. I can already tell this is going to be a really bad year for flea infestations. And what are they going to do about all the dogs who wander loose, as well as the wildlife?

This isn't a realistic way to handle the problem. For one thing, if these feral cats are removed, more will come to take their place. The fleas would just jump on the new "host." There are probably stray dogs running loose in Santa Ana. There seem to be as many stray dogs these days as there are stray cats. My guess is more fleas can live on a large dog than a small cat. Yet nothing is being said about trapping and euthanizing the dogs.

The best preventative would be to treat the property in Santa Ana with products recommended to kill fleas that won't be harmful to pets. Treat the property and treat the pets.

Symptoms of typhus include high fever, headache, chills, body aches and a rash. These begin between a week and two weeks after exposure to an infected flea.

Alley Cat Allies, the only national organization dedicated solely to the protection of feral cats, has called out the Vector control officials in an effort to stop the trapping (the "vector" is the flea or lice) .

Several of the traps have been sabotaged by people throwing objects into them to make them spring shut. One trap did catch a possum.

Information on contacting Orange County Vector Control, as well as information on typhus can be found at www.ocvcd.org/typhus.php

Note: Flea-borne typhus is referred to as endemic typhus or murine typhus. It is transmitted by fleas. It is caused by the bacteria, Rickettsia typhi, and Rickettsia felis, which is in infected fleas and their feces.