Three ways for the elderly male cat owner to improve their health and lifespan

Me and my girlfriend, Michelle. Touch wood I am healthy at 75. The frog?! Michelle loves him more than me. He is Jezza.

I am an elderly male cat owner! In The Times newspaper today, in a single publication which I think is unusual, there are three tips about one's health, one of which is directed at the elderly male and the other to anybody.

24-hour fasts

You may have heard that the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, likes to indulge in 36-hour fasts at the beginning of each working week. The man has extraordinary self-discipline. But he is convinced that it improves his health. He has a great BMI.

This ties in nicely with a story today in The Times about 24-hour fasts and how they may help to lower risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Regular periods of fasting with 24-hour is between meals could reduce the risk of diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer's according to a Cambridge University study.

This must interest elderly people or even younger people for that matter. In fact people of any age because a lot of old people die of Alzheimer's disease which is a form of dementia. My dad did for example.

And apparently it works like this. Fasting increases the production of arachidonic acid, a fatty acid. This fatty acid reduces the activity of an inflammasome specifically the NLRP3 inflammasome. And therefore there is less inflammation which is why a person is healthier. This particular inflammasome is very important in a number of major diseases such as obesity and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Kimchi

Daily kimchi is linked to leaner waistlines. This is a traditional Korean diet and has been for centuries. It's based on cabbage which is soaked in salt and allowed to ferment. Fermentation is when the bacteria that is naturally present in foods breaks down into their compounds providing a sour flavour and releasing lots of probiotic bacteria which can contribute to a healthy gut microbiome. There you go.

Get 3% fitter to cut the risk of prostate cancer by 33%

A study found that improving fitness by just 3% (a tiny amount) can reduce men's chances of developing prostate cancer by more than one third. There are numerous ways to get fitter by 3%! And prostate cancer is highly prevalent among older men. And it can kill men. The King has just gone to hospital to have his prostate shrunk. It was not a cancerous prostate but it was enlarged which is very typical for old men and it was stopping him peeing normally.

There you go, three little tips to improve health, two of which are for anybody and the third is for old men! I would recommend them.

I'm going to try fasting for 24-hours once per week but it will be very difficult for me. I try and keep fit by doing exercises and walking a lot and I will probably try kimchi but I do take probiotic tablets to ensure that my gut bacteria is in good condition! Good gut bacteria helps to maintain a good immune system. It is important.

---------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Litter box problems: the big why. Three categories.

Litter box problems are very common cat ownership problems and even more commonly written about on the Internet! It's got quite tiresome reading about them but I would like to very briefly mention the three categories which describe the reasons for inappropriate elimination i.e. litter box problems. 

This is a discussion article using Galaxy's book Total Cat Mojo as a source.

There are three primary umbrella categories and they are. As mentioned, I am referring to Jackson Galaxy's writings of which I have been critical sometimes. Unless I am misunderstanding him which would be entirely possible as his writing is impenetrable sometimes. 😢 Sorry. He is a great guy though. I just don't like his books.

RELATED: What is the best location for a cat litter tray?

Territorial stress: Jackson Galaxy says that one cause of litter box problems is territorial stress. He appears to be talking about the establishment and retention of a home range by domestic cat which is instinctive to the cat. And if their home range is invaded they might mark their territory at the extremities of the territory to tell invaders to stay away. But I don't think this is anything to do with inappropriate elimination i.e. peeing in litter box. Spraying urine on vertical surfaces is not about eliminating urine from the system. It's about sending a message to other cats. Although it might look like inappropriate elimination it isn't.

But Jackson does go on to say that when domestic cats are able to fully express their behaviours, in Jackson Galaxy language "the cats have total cat mojo", and they are unable to express their mojo because of territorial stress then they might urinate but this form of peeing will I believe be spraying rather than elimination. Perhaps the means that stress per se can disrupt the used of the litter tray. Certainly in multi-cat homes there is a great chance that the cat will be stressed because of territorial issues.

Mr Galaxy says that "If the mojo is missing, there will be pissing."

These threats within the territory might come from within the territory or outside the territory. If it outside the territory it will be an invasion which might shrink the territory. If it comes from within the home range i.e. territory it might be due to broken or non-existent relationships or changes within the "rhythm of the territory or the territory itself will threaten the mojo balance". This is typical Galaxy language which is almost impenetrable. But I think he means that there will be a limited hierarchy in multi-cat homes which should be in balance. If not it can stress cats.

Litter box aversion: this applies to cats that don't want to use a litter box for a number of reasons. It applies to using any place within the home other than the litter box to urinate and defecate. It may be due to declawing which makes their paws sore. It might be due to the substrate i.e. the material in the litter box. It might be to do with the size of litter box being too small. Litter box might be covered and this might upset the cat. Or it might be in the wrong place (too exposed). 

RELATED: 26 facts about ‘inappropriate elimination’

And it may be because other cats are using the litter box i.e. it's shared which is not a good idea. And there might be challenges from one cat to another to use the litter box which might cause litter box aversion. Sometimes in multi-cat homes, one cat bars other cats from using a single litter box or getting at food et cetera. It's a form of domination.

Medical issues: this overlaps with the above. In the words of Jackson Galaxy, "There can be a number of physical maladies that trigger eliminating outside the litter box. Left untreated, many of these can lead to, or serve as an indication of more serious health risks." He recommends a visit to a veterinarian without fail at the first sign of any litter box issues.

Declawing as mentioned comes to mind. Cystitis due to stress causes peeing on carpets and in baths. It is a bacterial infection of the bladder. It can be due to separation anxiety.

-------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Video of Siberian tigers killing guard dogs in Far East of Russia

'In my view, [increased tiger attacks are] associated with the destruction of the predator's habitats due to logging, excessive hunting of [the tiger's prey] and African swine fever, which has decimated the remaining wild boar population,' said zoologist Sergei Kolchin in environmental news outlet Kedr.

Putin prides himself in being a wildlife conservationist. He likes wild cats and has been photographed with a leopard. He likes to think of himself as a wildlife expert. He has promoted the conservation of the Siberian tiger which is the world's biggest cat. They are a larger species than the Bengal because they live in a cold climate. It is about evolution and reducing body heat by increasing mass compared to surface area.

It seems that conservation has gone wrong in the region around Vladivostok in the Far East of Russia where an estimated 400 Amur (Siberian) tigers live.

Siberian tiger attacking and killing a guard dog in Siberia. Image credit: see embedded credit bottom left of the image.

We don't know how many there are. Their home ranges (the territory that they call their own) are vast; much larger than for the Bengal tiger as their is more space, less people and the prey animals are less densely distributed.

Here is a map of the Siberian tiger distribution that I created years ago.

People are being killed by the tigers too:

In December, Viktor S was viciously mauled and killed in the Khabarovsk region in eastern Russia while he was looking for 'the place where his dog was killed', likely by the same animal. - Daily Mail

------------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Denver Zoo's Geoffroy's cat was smuggled into the US via Denver International Airport (DIA)

Geoffroy's cat. Photo: "Cloudtail the Snow Leopard" - Flickr user. The photo was taken at  Zoo Karlsruhe.

This is an unusual or perhaps almost unique way for an American zoo to acquire a small wild cat species; a Geoffroy's cat, which is a small wild cat from South America, specifically Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

It was smuggled into the US via Denver International Airport (DIA) in 2022. They have appropriately named the female Dia.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and Colorado Parks and Wildlife picked up the attempted crime and took the cat to their wildlife rehabilitation facility and from there she was homed at the zoo.

The investigation was taking too long. We don't know the outcome but she became a permanent resident at DIA where she is well cared for.

It makes me wonder what the smuggler had intended to do with the cat. Perhaps simply keep her as an exotic pet which would have been almost impossible to do successfully as wild cats do not make successful pets. Far from it although there are some people prepared to put up with the innate aggression due to the anxiety in being in a strange place and encountering humans which make them frightened.

It is a known fact that wildlife is almost always inherently scared of humans and for a good reason 😎.

RELATED: African wildlife more frightened of humans than big predators like lions.

I have some pages on the Geoffroy's Cat if this cat species interests you. The species is named after the French naturalist Geoffroy St. Hilaire.

RELATED: Geoffroy’s Cat Facts For Kids - nice and compact article on this cat species. Two minute read!

And click this link for more:

https://pictures-of-cats.org/geoffroys-cat.html

-------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Children waiting for an inheritance from their rich mom should support her if her cats and dogs do!

Children who are waiting for a large inheritance from their rich mother who loves her cats and dogs should be cautious. They should read this story and learn a lesson.

In this instance, an elderly woman in China with the surname Liu has left $2.8 million fortune to her cats and dogs in her will because she felt that they have supported her in her old age whereas her children have not.

She said that her children have never visited her. She is still alive but the change in her will has been reported in online news media including the Independent newspaper.

She is taking it out on her kids. She feels neglected. The problem is that in China, I'm told, you can't bequeath money to animals in your will. 😢

If that is correct, Liu's will, as it is currently drafted, will be ineffective. I suspect she's been told about that now.

She appointed a veterinary clinic to be the administrators of her will.

What she should do now if she wants to stick with the terms of her will is to appoint a person who she can entirely trust and bequeath the money to him or her on the instructions that they hold the money in trust for her pets to take care of them for the remainder of their lives and of any money left over to be given to her children.

That would probably be a fairer and more workable way to do this.

She has clearly made her point anyway and I suspect that her children, who are not named, will have picked up on this story and decided to try and convince their mother to change her mind.

I don't know whether in China beneficiaries under a will can challenge it. In the West they certainly can and it happens quite often. It happens, for instance, when the deceased makes a will when they did not have the mental capacity to do it. They didn't understand what they were doing and therefore it can be overturned on an application to court.

And therefore, a will which is unusual and which cuts out close family members especially the kids, might be overturned by the kids in court which should be considered carefully by Liu. There is no guarantee that a judge would overturn a will but it is a possibility and in any case you don't want litigation over a will. That said I don't know how things operate in China in this respect.

There's an argument that children should look after their parents but not to the point where it looks as if they are maximising their chances to get some money off their mother when she dies! That can lead to arguments between siblings if the sibling who cares for their mother gets the lion's share of the estate!

RELATED: Lagerfeld’s pampered cat Choupette to get paws on £150 million fortune.

It is not that unusual for wealthy single people to give a lot of money to pets. The most famous recent case concerns Choupette the Birman cat whose caregiver was the German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. He was besotted with Choupette and left her millions!

-----------

P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.