Nervous golden retriever meets new family member: a tiny kitten

@katiesquibb

My moms retriever and her new kitten that was rescued! ##goldenretriever ##kitten ##dogsofttiktok ##catsoftiktok

♬ original sound - Katie Squibb

They got to know each other and are in a close relationship. The dog is timid and enjoys the kitten's company. The kitten is braver as they climb on top of the dog to rest and feel warm and secure.

Nervous golden retriever meets new family member: a tiny kitten. Screenshot.

One day the video will stop playing but, in the meantime, enjoy. I don't control the existence of these videos.

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Help for skittish kitties?

Your cat is skittish. You want to help. He or she is probably skittish for three main reasons (1) he is timid and shy or (2) he is in a new home and has not settled down properly or (2) the home is unsettled in terms of ambience.

Background animosity between humans and cats can make a cat skittish through anxiety. Image: MikeB

The last factor I think is a key one. It is now common knowledge that domestic cats like to live in a calm environment with solid routines and rhythms which are integrated with their human caregiver. If you add into that a home which is adapted, at least to a certain extent, to a cat's behaviour plus plenty of play a cat should not be skittish for environmental reasons. It would be hard to shake skittishness due to timidity which is inherited. The best you can do there is to once again create a very calm, friendly environment to enable a skittish cat to feel calmer and become more confident in their environment.

Skittishness is a product of anxiety or fear. This, as mentioned, can emanate from an inherently shy character. But if the cat is not inherently shy but is still skittish it's going to be environmental factors which cause this. In a multi-cat home, there may be bullying by a dominant cat or a cat might not get along that well with the other cats. It is said that at behavioural problems most often start in multi-cat homes where domestic cats are brought together in a confined space. This is especially true if they are all full-time indoor cats which is probably going to be common for the simple reason you can't let a lot of cats outside to roam freely.

The kind of person who keeps a lot of cats as pets is also the kind of person who keeps their cats indoors all the time. This can build up some anxieties in some cats if they lack confidence. It would be hard to beat this problem. What I mean is if a cat is skittish because they feel unsettled due to the other cats around them, there is no cure for that other than separating the cat from the other cats which is not going to be practical.

Play is a great way to bring a shy cat out of their shell. They forget where they are when they are playing because their instinct takes over and they chase and hunt a cat toy. It also helps to create a stronger bond between person and cat. With a stronger bond a cat is likely to feel more settled and therefore less skittish.

It all comes down to the environment. At one end of the spectrum, you might have a retired person like myself living with one cat. If that cat has a normal character i.e. neither nervous or overconfident, then they will be calm and they will not be skittish. It may occur temporarily for some extraordinary reason but in general they will be calm. At the other end of the spectrum, you might have a home where people come and go all the time, which is noisy, and where there is more than one cat. This sort of home opens up the door to a lot of potential conflicts or situations which could unnerve a domestic cat even one who is not inherently skittish.

It may be impossible to make that noisy, active and unsettled home into one which is calm and quiet for practical or functional reasons. In which case the cat will not lose their skittishness unless they are able to adapt to it. Domestic cats are very adaptable and they can get used to some extraordinary situations. I have seen a community cat in Asia sleeping at the top of an underground railway escalator at the exact point where the passengers leave the escalator. Clearly that cat is completely adapted to a noisy and active environment.

One big problem for domestic cats is ensuring that they have enough space i.e. their home-range. If they are able to enjoy their home range, which they feel they can control, it does help to calm them. And skittishness overlaps with aggression. Domestic cats who suffer intrusions into their home range can become defensively aggressive which may be perceived as agitated or even skittish by some observers. Once again it is down to the environment.

The last resort in dealing with a skittish kitty is to consider drug treatment. I'm talking about tranquilizers for domestic cats. It does happen but I think you have to be quite desperate to take this route. All the other normal steps must take place first because drugs simply mask the symptoms whereas what I discussed on this page gets to the root of the problem.

As an afterthought, if the problem is the other cats in the home, then creating a room or rooms which are for the exclusive use of the skittish kitty and their human caregiver will certainly help the cat to recover some confidence.

And it might be easy to forget about the skittish kitty because he or she is hiding some of the time. Out of sight out of mind is the motto and this can happen with domestic cats. People are too busy and they take it for granted that cats are "independent" when they are not in truth. But leaving an anxious kitty alone without plenty of human interaction of the right kind will make her condition worse.

And of course, it goes without saying, that patience is a vital ingredient in getting a wallflower to bloom. Jackson Galaxy calls timid cats 'wallflowers' but you can get them to bloom. They have to believe that the place where they live is not hostile but is very friendly. If you achieve that he will be relaxed and come to you.

To conclude, the key to helping a skittish cat to feel calmer is to ensure that the environment is as suited as best as possible to a feline character. In the words of Jackson Galaxy, the owner needs to tap into the raw cat beneath the domestic cat to find out what makes them tick. This will allow them to find their mojo which means to behave normally in a balanced way.

America's children fatter than ever. No chance of cats slimming down then?

We been told over and over again that America's domestic cats are overweight. There is a pet obesity epidemic we are told by the country's veterinarians. One reason, perhaps the overriding reason, is that people are losing their perception of what is a normal weight. If people think fat is normal then their pets will be fat. And today, The Times, tells us that America's children are fatter than ever. I take from that sad information that there is little chance that domestic cats will be slimming down in the future because America's next generation are going to be fatter than the previous.

Obese and diabetic tabby cat. Photo: Pixabay.

It isn't just America, although it's the worst, which is suffering from an obesity epidemic. The report says that American children eat more junk food, are fatter and suffer more from diabetes than they did 20 years ago. The prevalence of type II diabetes in the age range 10-19 rose by 95% between 2001-2017. Cases of type I diabetes increased by 45%.

The study was funded by the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. In a second study it's been found that 33% of paediatric patients are above the expected weight for a child of their age.

At present, 10% of Americans, which is 34 million people, have a confirmed diagnosis of diabetes. Diabetes is a serious illness but unfortunately a lot of people believe that they can manage it so well that it is hardly any illness at all. However, if left untreated it causes heart, liver and kidney disease, and damage to nerves and blood vessels which can result in blindness and limb amputations.

Diabetes is preventable by losing weight and adopting a healthy diet. It is believed that the situation in America is so critical that an expert panel has advised that anyone older than 25 years of age who is overweight should be screened for type II diabetes.

There is an epidemic of diabetes and pre-diabetes by obesity in America and the same applies to their companion cats which is distressing for both creatures but, for me, particularly the cats because they are the innocent victims of wayward human behaviour.

90,000 evacuated from Afghanistan but what about pets?

This is a note, no more, but when I read about 90,000 people being evacuated out of Kabul to the West, to safety, I am naturally pleased but also concerned. This is a very large number of people and surely some of these families must have pets. There must be cats and dogs in these homes as companion animals to the families. So, what happened to them? 

90,000 evacuated from Afghanistan but what about pets?

There is only one possibility which is that they've been left behind to fend for themselves. There is no way that the UK and US governments would allow them to take their cats and dogs with them. Although I have seen a photograph of a dog in the passenger seat on a plane taking off from Kabul airport. The dog apparently was owned by an embassy staff member. There were some complaints because it was claimed that dogs should not take precedence over Afghani people.

So, embassy staff can take their dogs back home but Afghanis can't. And, it is almost certain that these cats and dogs are going to suffer tremendously and probably starve to death. And to add to the complexity and disaster of the situation, Nowzad, Mr Farthing's well-known animal rescue charity based in Kabul has permission to take staff and the animals out of there on a privately-funded chartered jet (after much wrangling and objections by the Ministry of Defence).

American service dogs given precedence over Afghanis waiting to be evacuated by air

So, there will be one less animal rescue charity available in Kabul to pick up the pieces if indeed there is more than one in any case. I would doubt that there are any animal rescue centres in Kabul but I could well be wrong.

The point of this note is that animals will suffer because of human madness. It took a lot of effort for Mr Farthing to convince the UK government to allow him to transport his animals out of Kabul because initially they did not want to see images in the news media of animals taking precedence, apparently, over Afghan citizens who have the right to be evacuated. 

This resulted in the UK government prohibiting him flying the animals out of Kabul even though the flight was privately funded and not a burden on the British taxpayer. A quite bizarre decision which has been overturned thankfully. Mr Farthing, his staff and animals, I believe, are making arrangements now to fly out of the country. There will be complexities over such things as bio-security i.e. rabies and Covid et cetera, but essentially the animals will be saved.

The Taliban have a very bad reputation regarding dogs because in the Muslim faith dogs are seen as unclean but cats are seen as more acceptable because of the faith's hadiths i.e. teachings, and of course the Prophet's reputation as being a cat lover. The future of dogs in Kabul is tenuous because of this gross act of speciesism.

P.S. Animals can't board RAF planes according to the MOD. This perhaps explains the lack of pets on planes?

Couple claim that their cat killed their 10-day-old daughter

NEWS AND COMMENT: A Virginia couple have been charged with the homicide of their 10-day-old daughter, Raven, but they claimed that her death was caused by the family cat who they say was sitting on her neck when they discovered her.

Couple claim that their cat killed their 10-day-old daughter. The father Mathew Sebolka. Police photo dressed up.

Elizabeth Sebolka. Police photo.

Matthew and Elizabeth Sebolka are being held in jail pending the outcome of the investigation. The father claimed that his daughter was sitting in a car seat at the time that he went to a bathroom. When he returned, he said that the family cat was sitting on their daughter's neck. The news media does not explain how this indicates that the cat killed their daughter but judging by the statement he appears to be implying that bruising to the baby's head, a fractured skull, and other suspicious injuries consistent with child abuse were caused by the innocent family cat.

It appears to have been a desperate attempt to pass off their alleged fatal child neglect and abuse on their cat. Raven was taken to the VCU Medical Centre which is local to this family because she had a rash and her eyes were puffy. It is reported that they went to the hospital in a public bus which seems unusual because they have a car seat but apparently no car or no functioning car.

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An autopsy was carried out and the Medical Examiner determined that the cause of death was homicide. The father was taken into custody just after 7 PM on Monday by detectives attached to the Richmond Police Department together with US Marshals working with the agency's Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Specifically, he was charged with abuse and neglect of a child causing serious injury and further charges may be placed against him.

Elizabeth Sebolka, the mother, was arrested just after 9 PM on Monday and charged similarly as well as making false statements to police which I presume partly relate to the claim that the family cat killed their child.

They are due to attend court on September 21 at 10:50 AM. A lawyer chipped in to say that they will have an uphill struggle to defend themselves.

Criminal records indicate that the father had previously been charged with animal cruelty in Richmond. The charges were dropped but he was found guilty on three separate accounts of inadequate care of an animal by their owner.