Boyfriends And Cats

Check out your boyfriend to see how he relates to your cat. If he gets on well, all is well. If your cat snarls and hisses at him - dump him!

Well not quite. But it is going to cause problems if you, as a cat loving girl or woman, love your cat companion but your cat companion simply does not get along with your boyfriend. And if that is the case, your boyfriend may make things worse by reacting to a less than friendly cat in the wrong way. He (the boyfriend) may be intimidated and be slightly aggressive towards your cat. The cat will sense this making things worse and there is only one winner in the long run - the cat!

If he likes cats, keep him! Photo dr burtoni (Flickr)

As the male human tends to prefer dogs, being a pack animal that he is, and as the female human tends to prefer cats, being an independent type creature that she is, you may get a bit of conflict between boyfriend and cat. What to do?

Well as I said earlier you could just dump him and start again. If he hates cats, do it! But if he is a decent sort and is unsure around cats, it may be more constructive to teach him to get on with your cat. Of course the whole thing depends on whether you want to keep him.

This need not, though, be a question of whether you get rid of your cat or your boyfriend. If your boyfriend does things that your cat likes and at a simplistic level this can be something as easy as feeding your cat, or playing with your cat, gradually your cat will come around to being more friendly with your man and vice versa.

So to recap. Your boyfriend should:

• not look at your cat directly in the eyes. This can be construed as a threat to your cat.
• feed your cat with his or her favorite food.
• play with your cat using his or her favorite toy.
• be relaxed around your cat. Be passive and easy going and move quietly and talk softly. Its about gently does it. The male human can be intimidating to a cat that is living with a women who is gentle and relatively quiet (that is not always the case of course!).

It's important that the man in a partnership gets on with an existing cat companion and the above common sense thoughts should help. Go easy and don't force anything with a cat. If a cat doesn't want to do something that you want done, he or she won't do it. Forcing makes it worse.



From Boyfriends And Cats to Home Page

Cat Losing Voice

The medical terms for a cat losing its voice is laryngitis, which is the inflammation of the mucous membrane of the voice box.

Healthy cat! I couldn't find a picture of a cat that had lost its voice. Photo by Mindaugas Lickus (Flickr).

The symptoms are loss of voice as mentioned and hoarseness. The common causes of a cat losing its voice are a chronic cough and excessive meowing. These strain the vocal cords.

Laryngitis can also be associated with:

• tonsillitis
• throat infections
• tracheobronchitis
• pneumonia
• inhalant allergies
• tumors in the throat although this is rare
• See Feline URIs

If excessive meowing is the cause, the reason for this needs to be assessed and removed. It will usually be due to stress and anxiety or the cat may be distressed about something.

Clearly if the cat is coughing a lot the cause needs to be assessed and treated. The page on cat coughing deals with when we can and can't treat a cat cough ourselves. Most often we cannot if it is chronic. In which case a veterinarian is required.

Some cats are very quiet and have silent voices. This is simply a cat characteristic. British Shorthairs are like this.



From Cat Losing Voice to Home Page

Laziness and Cat Caretaking

A lazy approach to cat caretaking is one reason why cats are declawed in the United States. Obviously there are others such as ignorance over the true nature of the declawing operation or the client (the cat's owner) being mislead by the veterinarian.

Cats can be lazy, we can't - photo Mark Bult (Flickr)

But where the cat's owner has the facts, it is plainly convenient for her (or him) to have her cat declawed because it makes life easier. She doesn't have to worry about training her cat to use a cat scratching post or protecting the furniture. There are no worries about being scratched either. Although, I have no idea why anyone can be frightened by the very odd scratch which is invariably caused by poor handling of the cat by the owner.

In short, the cat owner who has her cat declawed can have a lazier life in respect of the cat. It is about pure convenience dressed up with some feeble excuse that does not hold water.

To be honest, in the modern world where people are busier than ever, they want to minimize their work load in relation to the cat. The cat should be there to improve the household at minimum workload to the people of the house. This is not, therefore, purely about laziness. But to be honest we should make our minds up at the outset to set a proper standard in the care of our cat. If we can't we shouldn't keep a cat.

That is not being unrealistic. Over time excellence in cat caretaking will resolve all the problems with stray and feral cats and declawing would be a thing of the past.

Recently a person who made a comment on my YouTube channel said that as humans are at the top of the food chain they have the right to declaw their cat. He said that this is a realistic approach.

To me it is shocking that someone could link the food chain to declawing! We are the world's top predator but we are also the world's most intelligent species (or are we!). We should be able to make a rational and humane decision on the subject of cat declawing that is obviously completely removed from the fact that we are at the top of the food chain! The truth is he was a lazy cat caretaker and justified it in a most peculiar way.

That said a lot of people do see the world of animals as creatures that God put on earth for the benefit of homo sapiens and for us to use in any way we see fit. This really is a common notion, particularly in the United States where more people have religious tendencies. Europe is becoming more and more secular. This is beneficial to the cat!

Religion fosters the notion the people are superior to all animals - that people are not animals. This distances us from nature and promotes an abuse of nature and the planet's resources. We are destroying the planet.

Arguably, another form of lazy cat ownership is expressed in a desire to keep a cat indoors all the time. Yes, the cat is safer but a cat would live a fuller life if the cat was taken out on a leash or a cat enclosure was built etc. A declawed cat living full-time inside the home is the easiest form of cat ownership.

Good cat caretaking takes effort. It takes input both in time and money. If people are not prepared to do the work and spend the money stay out of it. The cat world would be a better place without you.

P.S. I can be a lazy cat caretaker so I know all the problems! I am not criticising; just making a comment.



From Laziness and Cat Caretaking to Home Page

Ragdoll Cat Lover Gifts

Ragdoll cat lover gifts are popular because the Ragdoll is popular. According to my very long standing poll (over three years) the Ragdoll is the 5th most popular cat out of about 70 cat breeds polled.

The popularity probably comes from this cat breed's fluffy, large body and laid back character - two major attributes desired by cat keepers. The Maine Coon is the world's most popular domestic cat breed on my reckoning and that breed has similar characteristics although it is longer and skinnier in the body. It is also larger overall; the largest pure domestic cat in the world (excluding the wildcat hybrids).

OK lets see some Ragdoll cat lover gifts. I have chosen two sources but there are many more I am sure. These are all for the North American market place as most of the visitors to PoC (Pictures of Cats.org) are from that region.

Ragdoll Cat Umbrella Nothing beats the exceptional look and quality of our Ragdoll Cat Umbrella. Among the finest made, you will be provided with great satisfaction and long lasting enjoyment. Why not pamper yourself or give a loved one a Ragdoll Cat gift to show them how much you care. The Ragdoll Cat Umbrella will make the perfect gift for any Ragdoll Cat lover. Shop with confidence, because all products come with a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. Click over now to see the big selection of Ragdoll Cat gifts we offer.

Next is a Ragdoll license plate frame. Americans like these. You never see them in Europe, certainly not the UK as they are probably illegal! Just click on the pic to go to the online shop for purchase:



Next up is a Ragdoll cookie jar - "biscuits" in England! "Cookies" are something to do with computer code...Just click on the image below to read about it and/or buy it:



Next a calendar. The picture of the Ragdoll on the calendar cover is the classic look. But there is a wide variety pointing for the Ragdoll - read more here: Ragdoll Cats.

Click in the image below to go to the online shop:



Finally from this shop some earrings for female Ragoll cat lovers:



Below you will see a Ferris wheel of Ragdoll cat lovers gifts from good old Amazon.com. These are for the USA and Canadian market I believe:



That is a fair selection of Ragdoll cat lovers gifts, I think. I hope this helps a bit.



From Ragdoll Cat Lover Gifts to Home Page

Laser Cat Claw Removal

I know people search for "laser cat claw removal" because I use software that tells me what people search for on the internet. In fact the software tells me the exact words used.

In this case the words tell us clearly that people are still unclear as to the exact nature of the declaw operation. Vets misleading the public is one reason. Another is a simple lack of knowledge.

Poster by Ruth

"Claw removal" indicates that the public think that the claw is removed. In one video a vet used the word "nail". Hear him speak by clicking on the following link:

Revealing: Declawing Vet Talks About Declawing - (the soundtrack from this video is on this page. It is revealing on the mentality of the US veterinarian).

The linked page is an example of how vets downplay the operation, making it sound much less onerous and painful than it really is.

I think that this behavior from the veterinarians is deliberate. After all declawing cats is a very profitable part of a vet's work. Twenty million cats have been declawed we are told. If it is not vets deliberately misleading their clients it is vets deceiving themselves.





The operation is neither the removal of the claw nor the nail but the last phalange of the toe that supports the claw. This is equivalent to the removal of the last joint of our hands.

I hope that the people searching for "laser cat claw removal" read this post. They should also realise that laser declawing is no better than any other form of declawing. The vet I refer to above who called the cat's claw a "nail" admits that laser declawing is not his preferred method because the burnt skin fails to heal as fast as it would with a surgical cut. That said, let's make note of the fact that the cut is across the tendons and structures that hold the last phalange of the cat's toe to the other.

So, all in all, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that declawing cats is a brutally unnecessary operation on usually ten toes - that makes ten amputations. Do you think the cats feels pain after that? And for what? To save some furniture from a bit of scratching, if that.

Please see over 140 pages on this subject here:

Declawing Cats



From Laser Cat Claw Removal to Home Page