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.

Lilica a tender and kind dog feeds her animal buddies

Humans barely share things. This dog travels four miles daily to collect food from a really nice lady to take back to her junkyard animal chums including a cat! I had weave a cat into the story. But this is about a dog who shows tenderness and kindness that teaches us a lesson.

Lilica was a homeless dog but made a home for herself in a junkyard in Brazil. In her search for food she bumped into Lucia Helena de Souza who lives four miles away. Lucia is an animal lover and she feed Lilica. Then one day the dog grabbed the bag in her teeth and took it away. The bag was open so the food was spilled. The next time Lucia made sure the bag was closed and eventually Lucia decided she had to find out where Lilica was taking the food because this routine had been doing this for a long time.

She discovered Lilica travelled the four miles back to the junkyard four miles away along an unlit and dangerous road where Lilica shares her food with the other junkyard animals including a cat as I understand it.

How about that? Shouldn't we learn from that? A lot credit must also go to Lucia who feeds Lilica and as you can see waits for her to turn up daily. This is a very tender-hearted woman who has taken on the responsibility of caring for Lilica and her junkyard buddies at a distance.

Paw Project-Utah Reconstructive Paw Surgery Demystified

By Kirsten Doub - Paw Project-Utah

The Paw Project-Utah reconstructive paw surgery demystified!! There have been questions as to what exactly we do for these cats. This should answer all your questions! Truth be told: Medicine is an art!

The goal of Paw Project-Utah surgery, under the care of Dr Kirsten Doub, DVM and several DACVSs who she consults with, is to help shelter declawed cats achieve an improved quality of life, so that they can live pain free lives and use their declawed paws for ambulation.

This is in the hopes of finding PAWMAZING permanent homes who will keep them and love them FOREVER. PPU’s study data has shown that 70% of declawed cats in Utah shelters have P3 fragments left over from a botched declaw. Most of these cats have fragments which are >5mm and include the ungual crest; because the ungual crest was not removed during the initial declaw, these cats have pieces of nail regrowing under the skin, abscesses on many toes, and deformed painful toes. The majority of these cats have a monocytosis on lab work. They also have toes that are painful on palpation; because of this pain, some of these cats do not want to move or play, are aggressive, or do not want to use their litter box.

PPU takes a very holistic approach to these cats.... and we aren’t talking about shaking the shaman stick here! We are talking about evaluating the WHOLE cat. Before surgery is even considered, we run a comprehensive lab panel on each cat, including a 5 way differential CBC with reticulocyte count, full chemistry panel, T4, urinalysis, feline leukemia test, FIV test, and stool analysis with giardia.

We look at the declawed paws and examine the paw pads for callouses, abscesses, swelling, and difficulty moving toes. We observe these cats ambulating to see how they use their paws. We evaluate for referred nerve pain in the lumbar spine. We also radiograph all declawed paws and non declawed paws with 2 orthogonal views. With this information, we come up with an individualized detailed plan to fix the cat 100%, in order to make them an amazing pet!

A PPU reconstructive surgery candidate is a cat who is metabolically stable, and who has P3 fragments which are causing a stress to the animal, either psychologically or physically. These cats have moveable toes (albeit some are not 100%), but have toes that are misshapen and infected from surgery that was performed so haphazardly that extensive damage was done to the remaining anatomy.

Dr. Doub likes to call this reconstructive surgery, because we are reconstructing these cat’s lives. We are taking mutilated shelter cats with little hope of escaping the UT shelter system alive, and transforming their lives in a very progressive loving way.

PPU finds loving foster homes for these cats BEFORE we start the surgery process. These cats learn to receive affection and learn to become well-loved family members, so that they are emotionally ready to start their paw rehabilitation. Foster parents are counselled extensively on the issues each cat faces overall and with paw health. Foster parents administer daily medication to improve joint health and improve post-operative success rates.

Surgery for these cats is “reconstructive” in that it involves taking someone else’s “bomb field” of a declaw surgery site, which in no way resembles a paw, and removing all the “shrapnel” left behind (P3 fragments, hematomas, bacterial contamination, necrosis surrounding glue, and abscesses), also debriding the dead and diseased tissue, to leave a declawed paw that is bacteria and scar tissue free. An infected, painful, scarred, and misshapen toe is reconstructed into a healthy one that is missing P3. Dr. Doub also will reposition all the paw pads permanently, so that it will cushion P2 and prevent paw pad abscesses and callouses for the remainder of the cat’s life. While it is impossible to reconstruct a half mutilated P3, surgery with PPU will reconstruct the cat’s declawed paw so that it is as functional as possible given that P3 is no longer part of the toe.

What about tendon contracture? Based on a study by Cooper, Laverty, and Soiderer: “Bilateral flexor tendon contracture following onychectomy in 2 cats, it is hypothesized that the etiology of the flexor tendon contracture was postoperative inflammation. Suboptimal surgical technique when performing onychectomy may result in excessive tissue trauma. Errors in surgical technique may include excessive or rough tissue manipulation, use of a dull scalpel blade, improper use of tissue adhesives, or poor aseptic technique. The combination of bacterial contamination and tissue trauma may then incite an intense inflammatory response. This may result in flexor tendonitis, fibrosis, adhesion formation, and flexor tendon contracture.

Tendonitis results in fibrosis, vascular hyperplasia, and infiltration of inflammatory cells around the tendon and tendon sheath. Other less commonly observed histopathological findings include ischemic necrosis, edema, cartilaginous or osseous metaplasia, and vascular dilation. Histopathologic examination of the deep digital flexor tendon from the 2nd case was consistent with granulation tissue, explaining the adhesions seen intraoperatively.” Surgery with PPU does address this possible, but very rare tendon contracture, by removing the inflamed tissue and breaking down adhesions around the tendons and carefully examining the entire remainder of the paw for any other pathology.

PPU has no need to cut tendons like some other salvage declaw surgeons advocate, because we have a fancy laser. Not the laser you think of when you hear about laser declaw. This is a therapeutic laser, and this is the face of cutting edge human orthopedic and sports medicine programs applied to veterinary medicine. This deep penetrating infrared laser addresses bacteria, inflammation, and infection deep in the tissues. Over time, with frequent laser therapy, we can see contracted tendons begin to relax so there is no need to drastically change anatomy by cutting tendons. You might remember PPU cat Angel? Her toes were so contracted initially that her wrists were completely curled in to compensate….she was walking on the tops of her knuckles with the few steps that she would walk. Angel had big P3 fragments and very abscessed toes, but was a poor surgery candidate due to failing kidneys due to lymphoma. After 3 laser treatments and aggressive oral joint support, Angel was able to extend and contract her toes to make little muffins. Angels little muffins were her gift to Dr. Doub one week before lymphoma claimed her life.

We hope this will give our followers a better understanding about what we do for our PPU cats! If you still have questions, you are welcome to message us, and we will be more than happy to clarify anything for you.

Attention Seeking Behaviour in Cats

Attention Seeking Behaviour in Cats

I might be out on a limb but I don't think that cats, through certain types of behaviour, seek attention from their human caretaker. I think we are anthropomorphising cats when we say that our cat is seeking attention through vocalisations or being naughty or touching us with their paw etc..

You see, my theory is that the act of seeking attention is a human behaviour. It is the behaviour of a child perhaps who might feel vulnerable and needy and also perhaps excitable for whatever reason. The reason will often be down to how the child has been raised but attention seeking behaviour is about needy and vulnerable people who need other people to pay attention to themselves. Once people pay attention to them they are satisfied but they are not seeking something other than that.

By contrast, the domestic cat who vocalises a lot, directed at the human caretaker or the domestic cat who is, in human jargon, misbehaving, is seeking something which is not attention to himself per se but is seeking food or play or to go outside through a locked door etc.. There are an endless number of possibilities but the cat will be seeking something tangible from his human caretaker which goes well beyond simply paying attention to him.

The purpose of a cat's behavior described as an attention seeking behavior is to receive something which furthers his cause and meets his objectives but the cat is not seeking reassurances as is the case with a human who is involved in attention seeking behaviour.

If I am correct attention seeking behavior in cats is anthropomorphising the cat; treating the cat as a human family member, usually a child. People generally relate to their cat as a mother relates to a young child.

Note: this is a personal view. Many people have different views which I accept.

Photographs of Japanese Cats in Japan by Japanese photographers

I think that photographs of Japanese cats by Japanese photographers have a certain quality about them. There are a lot of good Japanese photographers and the street cats are distinguishable from the stray cats of other countries. Here is a small selection. If you click on the photographs you are linked back to the photographer's photostream on Flickr.  These are all Flickr photographs.

The photographer says the following about the above photograph:

Get along very good two cats living in the cabin of the field work of Tomei Yokohama Aoba Inter nearby. Tiger cat big male, Goriza. Tortoiseshell cat small female, Holmes. Goriza in contact gently to Holmes, Holmes is a yearning Goriza.

This cat seems to be polydactyl looking at the left forepaw.

Below is an extraordinary looking cat - big boss cat:

A visitor comments: WOW! Is this perhaps a man in a catsuit? The color balance is wrong but as is on Flickr. I altered it here.