Walk Through The Web Wednesday 6/5

siamese cat on a leash walking through a garden

Hello Furiends,
Alberto here with my Wednesday web wanderings.  Nothing much new around the Tribe except for Oliver’s diet. I think he’s being a bit dramatic about the whole thing but I’ll let you decide.

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“Life has lost it’s meaning. I’m not sure if I can hang on. Diet may be the ruin of me.” Oliver

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“Please send kibble..soon”Oliver

Have a wonderful week and don’t believe everything Oliver says!
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       Feline High Five Pays Off Big Time

High Five

Did you and your human enter the High Five contest sponsored by GreaterGood.org and Jackson Galaxy? Meowza, the prizes were pawsome including a $5,000.00 grant for the winner’s shelter. And Lil Bub was a judge!

Lest you think this was just a fun and frivolous event, the Cat Pawsitive Program is a life-saving program for shelter and rescue cats that aims to increase feline adoption rates by instructing shelter/rescue staff and volunteers how to implement positive reinforcement training for cats, that includes teaching them to high-five. You should find out how to get a Cat Pawsitive program started in your shelter.

Why Can’t My Cat Be A Vegan?

CatVegetables

I never thought I’d have to say this to my readers but….People, cats cannot be vegetarians!!! Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of meowing about vegan kitties and I can’t stress enough how dangerous this is. I’m not going to go into all the details here but you can find them in this ASPCA article.

Here are the major points. We felines are obligate carnivores. That means we need to eat meat to survive. Our digestive systems are not built for a plant only diet (it’s kinda like feeding cows meat, just doesn’t work).

We need the amino acid taurine to survive and taurine is only found in animal sources.  Taurine deficiency leads to heart disease.  We also need high levels of protein and we don’t digest carbs too well.

Bottom line, you could kill us if you don’t feed us what we need. And if you are feeding raw, you need to make sure we are receiving the nutrients we need. You may see us gnawing on the random blade of wheat grass but this does not mean we want a veggie diet!

Suki the Canadian Adventure Cat

Suki

Suki the Adventure Cat

Some of you out there are still poo-pooing the idea of adventure cats so I give you Suki. Suki has been to 12 countries and even spent two months in Europe last year. Suki’s human says, “She’s just a regular cat. I don’t think about it much until we are on the trail and she’ll get recognized. People are so ecstatic to meet her. Generally, it’s not something I think about much. We’re already out there taking photos [as a career] but getting to do it with Suki is amazing.” Evidently her 1.4 million Instagram followers and her jet set lifestyle hasn’t gone to her head. I need to get the staff busy and up our Instagram followers!

Meow-troid? Cat-slevania? Either Way, Gato Roboto Is Excellent

cat game

I know many of you humans are fond of video games. I played the Friskies Cat Fishing game on my mini iPad when I was a kitten but I grew out of it. Still you humans are fans and now, there is a video game that features a  space pilot named Gary who  crash-lands on a small planet, gets stuck in his ship, and sends his cat (who caused the crash in the first place) on an adventure to find help.

Kiki the Kitty explores an abandoned research facility that’s crawling with hostile enemy life, she collects weapons and suit upgrades on her journeys. She is a brave feline who swims and pilots a submarine.  I say, with a feline as the main star of this video game I might need to try this stuff again!

Researchers strapped video cameras on 16 cats and let them do their thing. Here’s what they found

CatCamera

So this happened. Scientists strapped cameras on 16 cats and followed them for four years. They published their findings in Applied Animal Behavior Science from Manchester Metropolitan University. I watched the video with The Female Human and what I saw was that these scientists noted we felines greet each other with nose bonks, sometimes charge our enemies, cover up our poop and play with things. Hmm, I wonder how much this study cost.

When asked why they used cats the researcher said it sprung from her own questions about her cat’s behavior outside. Evidently they started with 21cats but 5 of them were not having the camera around their necks. The researcher also noted that when inside; we felines follow our humans around thereby indicating they were attached to their humans.

Forgive me for sounding snarky but anyone who lives with cats, who loves their cats and who spends time with their feline furiends could have told you all of this. Evidently humans are not always so great at seeing the obvious.

 

 

20 thoughts on “Walk Through The Web Wednesday 6/5

  1. Heck, I’m a human and I hate dieting too, so Oliver, I’m with you!
    And about this scientist’s study; the sample group is much too small, so all of the other scientists won’t believe any of it, and they are all full of bollox anyhow…cats are lovely, social beings and that’s all there is to it!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thank you,
      I feel myself getting weaker by the day. The Female Human is blind to my plight and continues to put the low calorie kibble in my bowl. Life has lost its meaning.
      Purrs & Head Bonks,
      Oliver

      Like

  2. Dear Oliver,
    We feel your pain. It turns out one of us, Rori, is developing diabetes. No more free feeding! Measured amounts of food AND a time limit at the bowls… This may be the time to begin Operation Feline Overlord.
    Yours in catnip and dreams of wet food –
    Cleo, Rori, Lelu, Beep and Egypt

    Liked by 1 person

    • Ah, so sorry for the diabetes thing and The Female Human says she needs to bite the bullet and just stop the free feeding too.
      The rest of the Tribe however are not happy and say that just because we have one fat cat, why should they suffer? But then again, I know they love me so it would be the least they could do, to stop free feeding in solidarity with my weight issues.
      Purrs & Head Bonks,
      Oliver

      Liked by 1 person

  3. we cats laughed so hard at that camera survey. Sometimes humans cannot see the obvious answers right in front of them. Oliver, perhaps your humans could just stop treats and free feeding? Diet cat food is soooo nasty! If humans had to eat food like that when trying to lose weight, all of them would be fat. Free-feeding is what made us overweight. When we couldn’t eat all the time we all lost weight. We finish our food and wait for the next meal! It is awful at first but then we lost weight and did not want to eat so much.
    We send love and head bonks,
    Lady Charlotte, Linnet, and Chaucer

    Like

    • Hi Lady Charlotte, Linnet and Chaucer,
      The Female Human agrees with you about the free feeding but I think the thought of changing the eating habits of all five of us is daunting to her. Two of The Tribe are 16 and need to keep up their weight but she says you are right because the “diet” food is not going over well with me!
      Purrs & Head Bonks,
      Oliver

      Like

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