Yes, this is me, being excited. What’s your point?! -Oliver
Hello Furiends,
Our Purrsonal Assistant received an email message from WildernessCat letting us know that they had featured us in their post, “The 33 Best Cat Blogs You Need To Check Out in 2020”. We were thrilled and wanted to purruse this blog that honored us. Meowza they are fantastic!
There are so many great articles about felines and feline care. Some of our favorites were the article on dealing with your cat’s anxiety (we’re dealing with Lily’s anxiety after the loss of Tucker), Boarding a Diabetic Cat (none of the Tribe is diabetic but with Jasmine’s health issues boarding or getting a pet-sitter is quite a conundrum), and their very informative article about CBD and cats.
Head on over to WildernessCat and check out their great cat articles.
Happy Wednesday My Furiends! The Tribe is slowly getting back to normal. The Female Human always makes sure she gives us cuddle time (Oliver is a bit more demanding than the rest of us).
“Human, you’re not done petting me area you?” – Oliver
Lily is eating better and Oliver and I are trying to keep from chasing her all over the house (the little water squirt bottle that’s sprayed in our faces when The Human catches us treating her like prey has helped as well)
Lily is relaxing more and here she is enjoying a brief moment by the fire
I spend supervised time with Jasmine in her “apartment” in the back of the house. She’ll tolerate Oliver and sadly, still connects Lily with the cat that came with her and bullied Jasmine so Lily is not a visitor. I like to hang out on Jasmine’s cat condo.
Well, it’s time to bring you my feline stories of the week. Enjoy!
If you follow my Wednesday web wanderings, you already know I feature many news items from Japan. Things like feline ID cards, condos designed for cats and their people, hotels where windows look into a feline playground and lots more. And now, those wonderful folks in Japan have created diapers for cats.
There are many reasons why a kitty might need a diaper, temporarily or permanently; diseases, post-surgery, spraying outside the litterbox, inconvenience due to age, etc. This “absorption wear”, as described by Unicharm, the product creators, were created after lengthy study of the feline body shape.
The high waist is said to help the snug fit along the cat’s body and will not hinder the cat from jumping and move with ease. Feline grooming and licking will not peel off the wide tape and the area for the tail will accommodate the floofiest of cats.
Each diaper is said to absorb moisture for up to 12 hours, and the absorbent, breathable sheet inside is made with ultra-fine silk-like fibers that are soft for kitty’s fur. There is no price noted at this time for the Manner Wear diapers. They will be released on the Japanese market on March 9th.
And here is more fantastic feline news from Japan. If you will be sharing your new home or apartment with a feline in Japan, call Necorepa Real Estate, Japan’s very first real estate agency that exclusively works with properties that allow cats.
Necorepa Real Estate is a collaborative venture between Neco Republic, an animal welfare organization that also runs a chain of cat cafes/adoption centers for rescue cats (plus a cat hotel) and Tokyo-based realtor Innov. The company doesn’t just list apartments that merely allow cats, either, but ones with features that make them extra attractive to the cats themselves, like the climbing/play ledges and places specifically designed for litter boxes.
If a property is very cat friendly, it earns the Nekorepa Seal of Approval . They must satisfy three criteria: abundant natural sunlight (to enhance cat naps), floors and walls with scratch-resistant surfaces, and a design that ensures your furry friend can’t slip out of the apartment and get lost while you’re away from home.
A portion of initial lease fees, as well as 222 yen (US$2) of each tenant’s monthly rent in properties managed directly by the company, is donated to Neco Republic’s cat cafes, to help keep the felines healthy and happy during their wait to find permanent homes. Most of Necorepa Real Estate’s apartments are in Tokyo, but it also has properties in Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, and Aichi Prefectures, with its full listings available online through its website here.
A London couple has let the cat out of the bag, at least regarding how they amuse their “super clingy” cat while focusing on their work-from-home jobs.
I do object to the word “clingy”. In our house we prefer the word “cuddly”. Lily is a great cuddler and has been called a “love bug” so she’s often referred to as Lily Bug.
A London couple’s cat Ziggy is a cuddle bug too. Both humans now work from home and Ziggy decided that their laps should be available 24/7. This put a crimp in the human’s work day so they came up with the idea of creating a “lap” out of sweat pants and sneakers, stuffed so that the lap would be inviting and soft. This faux lap was placed on the sofa with a heated map. Ziggy is in heaven. Hmmmm, maybe Lily needs one of these!
While we don’t get purrlitical on Feline Opines, Oliver did throw his hat into the ring in 2016 to run for Purresident. Sadly, his inexperience (he was a kitten) was his downfall. You can read about his campaign here. Since we haven’t had any feline Purresidents in the White House, we wanted to find out if any felines ever resided in the White House.
The first known cat in the White House was named Tabby, who lived with Abraham Lincoln and his family. There was another feline there too named Dixie. Lincoln treated his cats as family members (as it should be!). During one formal White House banquet he fed Tabby from the table with a gold fork. Mrs. Lincoln was appalled and told her husband this was “shameful in front of the guests.” (I hiss in her general direction!).
President Lincoln once remarked, “Dixie is smarter than my whole cabinet! And furthermore, she doesn’t talk back!”
During the siege of Petersburg in March 1865, (a few weeks prior to his assisination) Lincoln was distracted the sounds of kittens meowing. He found the kittens, brought them inside and cuddled them in his lap. Lincoln whispered to the cats, “Kitties, thank God you are cats, and can’t understand this terrible strife that is going on,” later remarking to a colonel that he hoped “these poor little motherless waifs are given plenty of milk and treated kindly.”
The first purebred cat in the White House was “Siam,” who was also the first Siamese cat to arrive in the U.S. in 1878. She was a gift to First Lady Lucy Hayes from the American Consul in Bangkok, Thailand. Nearly a century later, Gerald Ford’s daughter Susan brought another Siamese, “Shan,” to live at Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Teddy Roosevelt White House had Slippers and Tom Quartz, Woodrow Wilson had Puffins, and Calvin Coolidge had Tiger, who accompanied him around the White House. “Socks,” Chelsea Clinton’s cat, was a handsome tuxedo cat who came from a shelter. At this time there is no feline residing in the White House.
I love it when shelters dream up creative fund raising ideas and this one is a doozy. For a donation of $20.00 or more, the Concho Valley Paws shelter in Texas painted the name of your ex on the bottom of a litterbox and, as they said in their promotion, they will let their team of “well-fed felines super poopers cover your former #1 with plenty of #2.
Hello Furiends, I hope your week has gone well and that this week’s feline news report finds you healthy and happy.
We actually had sunshine this week. I must say though, I was a bit annoyed by the laughter from The Human when she came in the office and saw me soaking up some vitamin C. Seriously, I have no idea what she found so amusing.
Lily is still missing her buddy Tucker.
Lily is still adjusting to the change in the Tribe and the loss of Tucker. She is a tiny little feline and she hasn’t been eating so The Female Human went to talk to the people in the white coats about this. She came home with some food called Hills AD Diet for cats and dogs. Now I’ve never heard of a food for cats AND dogs but evidently this is what they give patients when they are not eating well. And I must say it works! Lily is eating again and perking up, even coming over to get her “before bed treats”.The hardest part of this is keeping the stuff away from Oliver who needs no appetite stimulation!
Jasmine enjoys watching what’s going on in the woods.
The Female Human was a little stressed out about Tucker’s sister Jasmine after Tucker crossed the Rainbow Bridge. She took Jasmine to have her blood work done and her regular wellness check. Well guess what….Jasmine’s kidney numbers are lower than when she was first diagnosed with kidney disease. Meowza, you should have seen our Human doing the happy dance.
Oliver misses the big guy too so he spends some quality time with The Female Human in the evening. He’ll even hang out with her when she has a glass of wine on the weekend (note, Oliver does not drink wine)
And, as far as the problem with Oliver and I giving Lily a bad time…..things haven’t changed too much but it seems lately Lily is standing up for herself more.
Well, that’s all the news about the Tribe, now, on to the news!
A few years ago we opined about cat music on our website (yes we have a website in addition to this blog that our Purrsonal Assistant does not promote enough). We have mewsic at our house and we quite like it. The Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery recently reported on the stress-lowering effects of music in cats. This study says that classical rather than pop or heavy metal soothes felines best….well DUH! I don’t think you need to be a scientist to figure that out!
Now they did dig a little deeper and said that cat-specific music with ‘melodic’ lines based on cat vocalizations (like purring) sooths us. We also purrfer frequencies similar to feline vocal ranges, which are two octaves higher than those of humans.
These scientists studied 20 domestic cadts, playimg 20 minutes of cat-specific music, classical music or no music at random veterinary visits 2 weeks apart. They used cat stress scores (checking the feline’s body posture., ear placement, etc.) as well as how the cat’s responded to being handled. They drew blood samples to mark the physiological stress levels.
And what did they find out? Cat specific music might indeed lower stress levels. Now, I don’t want to sound snarky here but when this scientific study ends with, ““[C]at-specific music may benefit cats by decreasing the stress levels and increasing the quality of care in veterinary clinical settings.” I’m not impressed. Even our Female Human knows that our cat mewsic may calm us down but at least I give the researchers an “A” for effort. You can watch the videos on our website and come to your own scientific conclusions as to whether we were less stressed when listing to our Music for Cats album.
Any company whose motto is, “life is better with cats!” is my kind of company! The company’s founder began this company after being inspired after she rescued a litter of kittens and their mother a few years ago. That rescue experience made her realize that there are thousands of cats and kittens who are not as fortunate as the ones she rescued. The company values are: Improving the Lives of Homeless Cats and Kittens – Advocating for Animals and their Rescuers – Compassion – Making a Difference.
Now who wouldn’t love to do business with a company like that! The Female Human loves their clothes and is going to order the pink hoodie. They have lots of great stuff like a “Cat Daddy” bottle opener, pawsome pins and bags, hats, jewelry and goodies for the felines in your life.
Every time The Female Human gets out h er yoga mat, Oliver and I head on over to snoopervise (well I snoopervise, Oliver splays himself out on the mat) and she gets her whiskers in a twist and shoos us away. Now that I’ve found Boris. the yoga cat I’m going to make a case for us doing yoga with our Human. If you check out Boris’ Instagram you will see there is not a pose that can’t be done with a kiitty!
I don’t think you humans pay enough attention to our tails as they can tell you a lot. I’m not going into all 11 of the tail signs but I will highlight a few. You can read about all of them here.
Straight Up: When we stand with our tails straight up, pointing at the ceiling, it means we are happy, confident and willing to be friendly so come on over and give us a pet!
Fuzzy Tail: Well, that’s what we call it at our house. It’s when our tails get fuzzed up 3 times their regular size. If we are startled, scared or feeling threatened we will floof ourselves out to appear as big as possible. Trust me, you don’t want to pet us when are tails are fuzzy!
The Fast Flicking Tail: When you see us flicking our tails from side to side, the message we’re sending you is that something is wrong. It can be fear but it can also mean we are annoyed or reacting to something we don’t like.
The Slow Moving Gentle Tail Flick: This means we are zeroed in on something, that we’re very focused. We may be getting ready to pounce on a toy, another cat or a mouse. Basically it’s showing our intention to make a move.
I’ll let you read about the rest of the tail signals for yourself. Just remember, we are telling you a lot with our tails!
“It’s quite all right human, go back to bed. I’m just helping you arrange this mess.” – Alberto
Evidently, the fact that we get the zoomies at night is not because felines are nocturnal. Shelly Zacharias, DVM, VPM and vice president of Medical Affairs at Gallant, in an interview by POPSUGAR, said that cats are actually crepuscular, meaning their waking hours are at both sunrise and sunset.
Well that information is all well and good but our Female Human wants to know how to keep us from waking her in the middle of the night with our antics. Some suggest that you humans play with us before bedtime. Also, some interesting toys for us to play with while you are sleeping will help keep us busy.
If you have any foodaholic felines in your house (I shall not name names) you might want to consider splitting the evening meal in two. Feed us one earlier in the evening and the other one right before you go to bed. This is supposed to keep us from bugging you for food but evidently ,the expert that suggested this has never met Oliver.
They also suggest puzzle feeders. I don’t know about the rest of you felines out there but The Female Human tried that on us. We quickly let her know we do NOT work for food.
The article also suggests that you humans ignore us if we wake you up. That might work for some but when you suddenly find a 17-pound feline on your chest, your desire to breathe will take over your desire to ignore us.
Our Female Human has decided that the best remedy for our nighttime zoomies is to close her bedroom door (and then prepare herself for the havoc she sees in the morning). MOL
Hello Furiends, We’re getting used to the “new normal” at our house since Angel Tucker crossed the Rainbow Bridge. As my brother Oliver and I are still young-ish felines we are easily bored and always looking for a bit of fun. Lately, our “fun” has consisted of chasing Lily down the stairs and then not letting her come pack up the stairs. The Human keeps telling us to stop being “hooligans” (whatever that means, I’m sure it’s complimentary because we are such good kitties). Lily has taken to sitting on the ledge by the stairs and watching our every move. The Human is spraying pheromone stuff all over the house but so far, it has not had the desired effects.
“Human, would you PLEASE tell Al and Ollie to stop bullying me? “Frankly, I think Lily is being a bit over dramatic.” – Oliver“Okay, I admit I have a twinge of guilt for ganging up on Lily.” – Alberto” I could care less what you two knuckleheads get up to. I have my own domain in the back of the house, safe from hooligans!” – Jasmine
If any of our furiends have advice for The Human as to how to keep us from treating Lily like prey, she’d sure like to hear it!
Okay, enough about us, let’s get on the the feline gems I found this week.
Purina Pro Plan LiveClear will be sold in veterinary clinics, online and in pet specialty retail outlets in three formulas—Adult Chicken & Rice, Adult Salmon & Rice, and Adult Sensitive Skin & Stomach Turkey & Oat Meal.
I’ve reported on many methods attempting to stop or mitigate the cat allergies that many humans suffer from and now there is a product coming to market in April that purports to do this. Purina Pro Pan LiveClear is formulated with a protein sourced from eggs that contain an anti Fel d1 antibody. Humans react to the protein Fel d1, produced by cats in their salivary glands. The protein is transferred to he cat’s hair and skin during grooming and it is eventually shed into the environment. It took more than ten years of research but the Purina Institute says this cat food, the first and only cat food capable of reducing the allergens in cat hair and dander is ready for the market.
Statistics show that about 20% of adult humans in the world are allergic to cats (meowza, that’s a lot!) but a study that was published last year in Immunity, Inflammation found that 47% fewer allergens were found in the hair and dander of cats eating Pro Plan LIveClear. These results manifested in the third week of feeding the cats the new product on a daily basis. The same study also found that active Fel d 1 production decreased in 97% of cats (with individual variability).
How does it work? As the cat eats the kibble coated with the special egg powder it neutralizes the Fel d 1.
Now our Human is very picky about what she feeds us and her first question was, “Is it safe for the cats?” Purina’s Director of veterinary technical communication, Jason Gagne said that the safety of the feline consumers was a key consideration. The goal was to neutralize the protein without impacting the physiology of the felines. The egg coating is perfectly healthy for cats to eat.
If you want to read more about the “sciency” details, be sure and read the article. We’re keeping our paws crossed that this will work and that more kitties will find furever homes because their humans no longer have to worry about sneezing, itching and other allergic reactions.
“We just hit it off, and we’ve been together ever since,” – Gary and Rascal
Our Human knows many people who take their felines to places to share them with others. Lots of folks at the Green Acres retirement home look forward to the bi-monthly visits from the non-profit organization, Country Cat Lady. As a rule there are about 12 residents ready to meet the dozen cats who come to visit. The organization has been in existence a little less than two years after the founder realized what a help her cats were with her special needs son.
The Country Cat Lady’s cats are trained to be support animals through exposure to people. After they graduate from their training, they are adopted out as support animals. Even if some of the cats don’t make the cut, they are adopted out to loving, furever homes.
The top tier cats live with the Country Cat Lady and they are the ones who travel to places like Green Acres. This is how Gary DeLude met a black cat named Trailblazer (although Gary refers to him as Rascal).DeLude says he can walk into the room, depressed about something and sitting down with Rascal makes him “feel better all over”. The Country Cat Lady has promised Gary that his buddy Rascal will stay with her so he can continue to come and visit.
The Country Cat Lady is now seeking partnerships, donations and support so she can continue and even expand her work.
What a pawsome job the Country Cat Lady has and she is helping so many people.. I hope you have something like this in your community and, if you don’t, find a human to start one!
Naughty cat disrupts live orchestra concert and steals the show
Oh my whiskers, this is hilarious. We’ve seen cats racing across sports fields, hanging out in stores and other places but this has to be my favorite “cat bomb”. The feline loving musicians try to welcome the music loving kitty but clearly this cat is having none of it. He was there for the music and not to make new friends!
At first I had my whiskers in a twist and was quite outraged that a government would require felines to register. Then I read the article and realized this is an optional thing and might even help the humans of felines in the area.
Kanagawa Prefecture, Tokyo’s neighbor to the south, is home to 9.2 million people, just about all of whom have a form of ID. It may be a driver’s license, a student ID, or a resident card, but there’s some sort of document that says “This is who I am.” Now the felines who decide to have an ID can have one too through a partnership between the Kanagawa Prefectural government and pet-related media company PECO.
You can have the basic information on your card as well as your birth date, name of your human family members, special tricks or abilities you want the world to know about and even your motto. (Mine would be “I’m always feline fine”).
There are cards for doggos too but since this is a cat only blog I don’t feel the need to expound any further. Oh, and the cards are free!
Visitors enjoy a footbath while playing with cats at the Neko Yokujo cat bath house in Osaka’s Chuo Ward. (Mainichi/Ryoichi Mochizuki)
My last feature also comes from Japan. We’ve seen cat cafes, cat hostels, condos designed for cats ad their humans, cat ID cards and other fantastic feline stuff and this is yet another creative way the folks in Osaka are finding a new way to hang out with cats.
Neko Yokujo, “cat bath house” in Japanese, is operated by Gifu-based firm Neco Republic, which manages cat cafes across the country. The 15 felines at Neko Yokujo are rescues and all are available for adoption. And there is a hostel where guests can stay with cats, Neko Yokujo attached to the cat bath house. Meowza, I say it’s time for the good old US of A to catch up with all the fantastic feline venues in Japan!
Hello Furiends, I didn’t want to miss my regular Wednesday feature although things have been a bit sad at our house because of the loss of Tucker. The Female Human still gets leaky eyes when people talk about him but she is getting better and she’s thankful for all the kind words you furiends have been sending her. She is in the process of responding now.
The Female Human is spending extra time with us and giving us love. LIly is the one that misses Tucker the most as he was her cuddle buddy (and Oliver and I would never mess with her when the big guy was with her). They had a great bond and Lily is very sad now. This is the way you would always see them together.
Cuddle Buddies
It’s time to get to the feline news for this week. Stay safe and healthy my furiends and always make time to cuddle.
A Kent Online office has been targeted by a mysterious artist who has been placing cat stickers across the county. The new tag appeared on a door of the Kentish Express in Ashford – just hours after an article was published about the feline phenomenon.
Black cats have popped up across the county, often on entrance signs to villages and towns – including Sittingbourne and Fordwich. They are also used to mark hospitals like the Kent and Canterbury and businesses such as Ramsgate’s Royal Victoria Pavilion Wetherspoons.
The miniature moggies have been spotted as far away as Rye and Bexley.
Ashford and its surrounding areas are becoming a hotbed for the unknown artist’s activity, with one at the William Harvey Hospital, one near Wye and another on the Orbital Park industrial estate.
Many believe this is the work of Whitstable street artist Catman, but he has denied any involvement.
Belarus has chronically crossed eyes as the result of a condition called strabismus, which causes his eyers to point in different directions.
Belarus might look confused, but it’s only his eye condition. He has been hard at work earning thousands of dollars for other rescue cats just like him. Those eyes were the main reason his human, Rachel Krallk, fell in love with him the first time she saw him on her local shelter’s Facebook page. She went to the shelter that day and adopted him.
Krakk began selling shirts and hoodies featuring Belarus’ unique face. She donates 100% of the proceeds to animal rescues and has donated to date, several thousand dollars. Be sure and visit Belarus’ online Bonfire store if you want to support shelters. Our Female Human thinks that we should be doing the same thing with the items in our store.
If you want to purchase some Belarus merchandise of your own, be sure and visit his online Bonfire store.
As yu can tyell by Oliver’s face, cuddle time is greatly appurreciated at our house.
A survey of 1,000 cat owners conducted by Fresh Step Litter found that cat owners take seven photos of their feline daily. And 41% of cat owners have a framed photo of their feline. As to treating your cat as part of the family, 84% said, “You betcha’!” Some of you humans won’t buy a toy for your 2-legged kids without purchasing something for your four-legged kids. The study found that cat owners are not just partial to their own cats, they love everyone else’s felines too.
Most of those surveyed brought their feline home through adoption.-22% adopted from a county or state shelter, 16% adopted from a friend or relative and 13% adopted from a at specific rescue.
A whopping 60 % of respondents said their cats were loyal and 53% said they were well-behaved. Nearly half of the respondents said their cat often cuddles with them. In addition to cuddling, over three quarters of owners talk to their cats and they said it was like therapy. Their cats helped them through difficult times and 66% said they would rather snuggle with their felines rather than spending time with friends. My question to you humans is this, have you spent your 20 hours with y9ur feline(s) this week?
Four-year old Miss Rigby has spent almost her whole life surrounded by water.
Five years ago husband and wife Shane and Maryvonne both in their 50s decided to leave their fast passed careers to sail around the world. After the humans were at sea for about a year, they met their furry shipmate. Mis Rigby (or Rigs) was given to them by a Connecticut breeder. Before they took of for foreign ports they trained Rigs and she now lives on and loves the 50 foot boat. She’s a natural sailor. The Burmese breed is very loving and loyal and trainable and Rigg’s sailing skills prove this. Her humans cannot imagine sailing anywhere without her. If you want to follow Rig’s ocean adventures, you can follow her on Instagram.
A Swedish self-storage company has launched the Cat Flat, a cat house with space for your cat to play, sleep and feel at home-all inside a very attractive cabinet that won’t ruin your décor. The company describes the Cat Flat as “The world’s first non-ugly cat furniture” . The Cat Flat was designed in response to the rise of small space living in Sweden. According to cat psychologist Susanne Hellman Holmstrom, author of the book, :” The Cat Could Decide” when cat’s can’t fulfill all of their needs it will result in a change in their behavior. Cats need the opportunity to spy, hunt and have a place where they can hide.
Designed by Eleonor Moschevitz and built by Stockholms Möbelverkstad, the Cat Flat enables kitties to feel safe and secure inside their own enclosed environment and come and go as they please.
Cats can move freely throughout the three-level cabinet, which is made out of walnut veneer. The slats covering the doors of the cabinet function as an abstract interpretation of nature, while inside the cabinet is decorated with sisal mats and leather. The brushes are made of FSC-certified beech wood with boar bristles and the scrubs consist of ecological coconut.
The product will launch during Stockholm design week. The famous feline duo of Prime and Raven (who have 141k Instagram followers) were the first product testers. The product is being presented at Stockholm Design week this week. At the time of this report, no price could be found for the Cat Flat.
Hello There Furiends, How has your week been going? Things are still pretty boring at our house so I decided I’d have to find some excitement on my own. The Female Human has this thing she calls a “foyer” (I call it the hallway by the front door) which she likes to decorate for the seasons or holidays. She took all the Christmas stuff off and now has the winter thingies there. I have no clue why she does this but I’m not complaining as she puts out tantalizing little knick knacks for me to knock down and bat around the house. The following photos show me checking out this very interesting area.
“Okay, I’ve knocked a few things off, what other space can I clear?”“Look at all that stuff on the floor to play with!”“Now that shelf up there has some intriguing things. Look at the bushy tail on that squirrel! Let’s see if I can get my paw up there.”
A cat’s got to do what a cat’s got to do and, if The Female Human insists on leaving us alone in the house during the day, she shouldn’t complain about the mischief we get up to!
And now, let’s see what wonders I discovered on the world-wide web.
The slow loris has a venomous bite to ward off predators.
An international team, led by University of Queensland associate professor Bryan Fry, has been studying slow lorises in a wildlife reserve in West Java in Indonesia. Now you may be asking “Why?” and “What does this have to do with cats? Actually, quite a bit.
The bite of the large-eyed, and incredibly cute, slow loris can induce an allergy-like reaction in humans. They are the only primate that uses venom as a defense against predators. If you humans get bit by a slow loris, it will hurt and will also act and feel like an allergic reaction. These scientists think that studying the slow loris and it’s venom may help them understand why many of you humans are allergic to felines. Evidently the DNA of the protein in the slow loris venom is almost identical to what is in a feline’s fur that causes allergic reactions in humans. Cats secret this protein and coat themselves with it. The good doctor said, “Your pet cat wouldn’t know it, but it may have evolved a toxic defense to keep predators as far away from it as possible.”
Who knows, maybe the slow loris will be the answer to human/cat allergies. And, lest you think this is a hoax, the research has been published in the science journal Toxins.
Hazel, a former psychiatric nurse, has type one diabetes and if her blood sugar drops while she sleeps, she can suffer seizures and even fall into a coma — with potentially fatal consequences, but not on Walter, the 9-year old felines watch. Walter can smell the chemical change in her body that happens when her sugar is getting low, and pokes her around the face until she wakes up.
Hazel says Walter is her literal life saver and her hero. The first time Walter went into action, Hazel had no idea what he was doing. Walter refused to be ignored and smacked her with his paw. She finally gave up, turned on the bedroom light and realized that her vision was blurred, a sign her blood sugar was low. Since that day, Walter has never failed to alert her when her blood sugar dips.
Evidently, some diseases, such as diabetes create a chemical change in the body that produces a smell that is too subtle for human noses but not felines.
She said: “When someone is suffering from a disease such as diabetes, chemical changes take place in their body that produce a smell that is too subtle for our noses.
This talent is usually one that dog’s exhibit and in fact, Hazel had gotten a dog with the intention of training her to be a diabetes dog but the dog “didn’t have a clue”.
File this one under, “You’ve got to be kitten me!” Evidently big cats are attracted to fragrance. If you decide you don’t like the perfume you receive on Valentine’s Day, re-gift it to a lion. The Banham Zoo in Norfolk, England, put out an appeal this Tuesday for any unwanted fragrances, explaining its big cats are running low. Who knew that, cheetahs, jaguars and ocelots really like perfume — and they have a preference for the designer labels.
“For some reason Calvin Klein perfume is a huge hit with all big cats but in all honesty any perfumes work well and we do like to offer them a variety of different smells,” Mike Woolham, the zoo’s animal manager, said in a statement, adding that donations of aftershave were also welcome.
The zoo demonstrated in a short video this week how the cats “respond very positively” to scents more typically found at mall department stores. The reason is the ingredient, civetone, The civet, a small catlike mammal found throughout Southeast Asia and parts of Africa, marks its territory by secreting a distinctive scent from its anal glands. For hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years, those pheromones have been used in perfume, although today most fragrances rely on civetone, a lab-made copy.
Although fragrances such as Chanel No. 5 and Jovan Musk also contain civetone, the scent that seems to be the most popular with wildcats is Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men. This has been confirmed with zookeepers all over the world.
Now this curious cat is wondering, do little cats like the scent as much as big cats? If any of my readers have a bottle of Calvin Klein’s Obsession around the house, give it a try and let me know the results.
This feline loving singer will be touring cat café’s during her Kitten Coma Tour. She will sell merchandise related to her song, “The Kitten Song,” with all proceeds from those sales going to animal rescue organizations. You can watch Smith sing that song and others on YouTube.
The Kitten Coma Tour will travel from Tennessee to North Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky and Ohio. Smith released her self-titled debut album in April of last year showcasing her blend of country, indie and vintage pop.
CBD Dog Health and Two Crazy Cat Ladies, an all-natural product brand for cats in Las Vegas, will be hosting a free online event Feb. 15 focused on cannabidiol (CBD) products and other homeopathic remedies for cats. The event, which will be broadcast via Facebook Live, is part of the Healing Naturally Tour.
“We share a common goal with Adrienne and Jae, [owners of the Two Crazy Cat Ladies], to get our pets off of dangerous and unnecessary medications and help them heal naturally,” said Angela Ardolino, founder of CBD Dog Health, a Lutz, Fla.-based CBD manufacturer. “I know that together, we have a lot of information to share with our fellow cat people, and I can’t wait for cat chat.”
The Healing Naturally Tour is an alliance between Ardolino and Julie Anne Lee, DCH, founder of Adored Beast Apothecary. The tour will continue through mid-February, and will include sessions at veterinary offices, grooming and boarding salons, and boutique shops throughout California and Nevada
Hello There Furiends, My how time flies. It’s Wednesday already! It’s been a loooong week for our Female Human. We’ve had lots of snow and she’s been busy pushing all that white stuff off the driveway. We felines purrfer comfort so while she went out there at least four times per day, we kept ourselves warm and comfy and cheered her on. (We were with her in spirit).
This was pretty much The Female Human’s view sincer last Friday. Every time she got the driveway cleared that white stuff started falling. It’s been a long, consistent bad hair day for her. MOLOliver stands…..err….lounges in solidarity with The Female Human while he warms himself by the fire.
Lily posed in front of the snow-covered trees and I crawled into The Female Human’s lap each evening and gave her a therapeutic purr session.
We hope that wherever you are, you’re safe and warm! And now, on with the feline news of the week.
We felines don’t always get the kudos we deserve which is why I’m bringing you the story of Max, the fearless cat. This kitty lives in southern California and ended up chasing of not 1, not 2 but 3 coyotes in his yard. And just so you know this isn’t some tall “tail” his humans got the whole dust up on their security camera..
Max’s humans heard the altercation and went out to chase the coyotes out of their yard and had no idea how much work Max had done fending them off until they watched the film from the security camera.
Poor old Max was just a whisker away from bring coyote dinner. Max’s outdoor days are now over bui his humans are talking about building him a catio.You’ve got to check out the security camera video!
A litterbox that keeps your tools handy and is easy to clean!
Tuft and Paw is an innovator in feline products and their latest kickstarter campaign illustrates this.
The Cove litterbox is simple, beautiful and has it’s own an integrated scoop, dustpan, and hand brush. It was created by designers, engineers, and cat behaviorists and made from recycled plastics that are completely toxin-free.
Double-walled, thick matte plastic looks and feels sturdy while a smooth interior is extremely easy to clean. Rubberized bottom firmly plants the box to the floor. Cove’s scoop is designed to sift faster and slide easily through coarse litter without much effort. The dustpan and handbrush allow for quick, easy tidying around the litter box. The litterbox can only be pre-ordered on their Kickstarter page at this time. Pre-order price is $99.00. Lining in a house with five felines, The Female Human isn’t sure that 5 Cove litterboxes are in our financial future but it does sound nice.
I can’t say I’m all that excited about these choices, I’ll have to have a conversation with our Purrsonal Assistant who set it up. I have to say though, it’s about time a streaming company took some interest in feline mewsical preferences. The play list set up asks about your feline’s personality so I am hoping these tunes will suit me. Send your human over to set up your playlist.
Petcurean puts pets first and the purpose of this contest is to shine a light on the many cats who are overlooked for adoption because of health, weight, age or behavior or other issues, in other words, the feline “underdogs”. Rescue groups, shelters and cat adoption supporters from across North America are invited to purrticipate.
These entities will have until February 2nd to submit the details of their most overlooked, but utterly adoptable cats. Of the cats nominated, 12 finalists will be selected – six Americans and six Canadians. These finalists will be announced on February 18, 2020, and supporters will be invited to learn about the finalists, do their part to help raise awareness, and vote for their favourite cats. The public voting period will last until February 24, 2020, at 6:00 pm P.S.T. The winner will be announced on February 25.
All 12 of the finalists’ shelters will receive a cat food donation of 2,000 meals to support the important work they’re doing to help animals in their communities. Petcurean will also pay the adoption fee for all 12 finalists, and if they are adopted, they will receive year’s supply of food to take to their new homes. The cat who receives the most votes in each category will receive a three-year supply of food from Petcurean.
Let’s get our shelters involved and help these kitties find furever homes!
This odd couple in London is garnering world-wide fame for their relationship. A huge English bunny was recorded visiting his feline buddy. The cat’s human, Jessie Sayce recorded the bunny during his daily “hop over” to visit her cat. This has been happening since Leo was a kitten. She said, “”We thought it was really adorable, but didn’t think it would last, as Leo was getting bigger and thought he’d scare the rabbit,” she said. “This started 6 months ago, and they’re still super friendly!”
Their friendship has reached the point where the bunny has sneaked into the house via the cat door to look for Leo if he doesn’t find him outside. Sayce couldn’t figure out how the bunny was getting over the fence so she filmed him one day. She said he jumped on a chair to the top of the shed in her garden. She said they don’t always play, sometimes they just sit together and watch the world go by.
Hello there furiends, Yes, I admit it, I took some time off and I quite enjoyed the rest (you know we felines need our rest!) But the proverbial party is over and it’s time to get back to work. I have a lot to cover since I’ve been slacking (and gave our Purrsonal assistant some time off). The Female Human is not a fan of early mornings and she and Oliver enjoyed hanging out and having a conversation over coffee (Oliver doesn’t drink coffee, he just likes the warmth of the cup).
I on the other hand, have been chomping at the bit to get back to work. The Female Human has an office that is for working and for doing crafts. I must say I love all the craft goodies on the shelf. I have no idea why she gets her whiskers in such a twist when I help myself to some craft supplies, sheesh, how selfish can you get?
“Hmm, let’s see what I can get into here. She really needs to tidy up these shelves.” Alberto
The good thing about The Female Human having this craft/work situation is that she has a table rather than a desk and this table has an “Alberto extension”. This makes it much easier for me to snoopervise her while she works.
Well, it’s time for me to get to the feline news.
CHONK Statistics Revealed
For those of you who follow my Wednesday web wanderings, you know that our all time favorite Facebook group is This Cat is CHONKY. The humans and felines in this group are some of the greatest we’ve ever met (we’ll be writing more about why this is) but for now, here is only one example. A very mathematically motivated human in the group has created a Universal CHONK index so that the debate about whether your home is filled with CHONKS, SLONKS or FLOOFS can finally be steeled.
Ellis Mumford-Russell has taken on this herculean task and it has settled many debates in the CHONK community. We now have numerical and provable CHONK standards. If this is all a bit confusing to you I suggest you join the This Cat is CHONKY group and get to know the CHONKS AND the wonderful humans they live with and for heaven’s sake before you identify your felines as HEFTY CHONK, MEGA CHONK, etc. please refer to this index.
Universal Chonk Index Update
It is with great pleasure that I unveil the findings of our UCI survey. I charted the 54 data points, which you can see here.
A few things: 1. You’ll see cat names listed on the bottom. If people didn’t list cat names, I put the human’s name with an asterisk after 2. Remember, the smaller the number, the more chonky the cat
Most Chonky Cat = Matita w/UCI 1.17 Most Slonky Cat = Noel w/UCI 4.75 Average = 1.8657 Median = 1.7222 Mode = 1.7000
UPDATE: photos now included below for Matita and Noel so that we can see the scale of C H O N K –> S L O N K ??
Proposed Chonk Standards
Given that I presume that the sample group skews chonky, I propose the following standards: this cat is C H O N K Y ≤ 1.7 this cat is A V E R A G E = 1.71-1.9 this cat is S L O N K Y ≥ 2
Diving further into the data, here are my suggested parameters for the following categories of cat: some sort of snake cat ≥ 4 l o n g b o i ≥ 3 A fine boi = 1.71-2.9 He Chomnk = 1.6-1.7 A Heckin’ Chonker = 1.5-1.59 H E F T Y C H O N K = 1.4-1.49 M E G A C H O N K E R = 1.3-1.39 AW LAWD HE COMIN’ ≤ 1.29
LuluPet’s AI Litterbox will analyze your feline’s “deposits” and check for health issues
LuluPet’s intelligent litter box not only detects littering frequency and litter weight but also the condition of the litter (normal, constipation, diarrhea, etc.). After judging litter conditions through the use of AI image restoration, it uses this data to notify the owner of the cat’s health.
If our Female Human had a dollar for every time she’s had to describe to the vet the appearance and texture of the poop of The Tribe of Five, she’d be a rich woman, And gathering this information accurately when you have a multi cat household and numerous cat boxes is like searching for the holy grail.
But take heart humans, LuLuPet has a litter box with “built-in stool and urine image recognition” to analyze our… deposits. And why have an AI litter box that does this? It’s for the health of your felines, of course. The Female Human paid purrrticular attention when she read that the LuLuPet device can be set to determine which poop is from which cat.
When the cat walks into the litter box, the information is sent to an app on the human’s phone. The company says that the litter box is Alexa- and Google Home-enabled. This offers more questions than answers. Whose voice does it respond to? If it’s the felines, do we have to learn special meows? If it’s the human, what is the voice command? The next feature has Oliver’s whiskers in a twist because the litter box can weigh your feline and determine whether the cat is too fat. That brings me to another question; will they be employing the CHONK data information noted in the article above?
Evidently this wonder litter box can also determine if the cat needs more food or water.
LuluPets joins many other smart litter boxes but most of those boxes focus on cleaning the box and not analyzing the cat’s health. And there’s even a built in camera although this causes me to wonder, can’t a cat get some privacy?! The thought of my human watching me “do my business” over her phone app is a bit off-putting and frankly, an invasion of my privacy. LuluPet says that these photos are uploaded to the LuluPet library and are used to compare the different “deposits” of the other felines.
Now don’t get me wrong, this thing could really be a help with cat health, but I’m having a bit of difficulty believing that it will be as effective as the company says it will be. But, time will tell. This smart litter box is slated to be sold on Amazon in March for $149.00.
Canyon Ranch Inspired Resort for Felines…Human send me right meow!
Cat’s Meow resort was founded by Kim Thomas who took her business acumen and love of cats and created her feline resort, Cat’s Meow. She refers to it as the Canyon Ranch for felines. She began her feline career with a pet sitter service and said that she noticed many of the cats she cared for were in need of grooming. She did her research, connected with the National Cat Groomer’s institute and became a master cat groomer.
She loved grooming felines, bet felt something was missing in the marketplace. She wanted to create a place where cats could enjoy luxurious, stress-free, happy cat boarding without the distraction and fear of dogs —- along with the latest in cat grooming. and Cat’s Meow Resort was born.
The spaces at Cat’s Meow are pawsome and very elegant and the grooming options are amazing. If you want to up your feline’s star quality, this is the place to stay. I would be tempted but traveling. If I didn’t find the idea of being stuffed in a carrier and traveling the 2682 miles from my home to the resort holds no interest for me! If any of my east coast feline furiends have a stay or a grooming session there, let me know.
. Gus also enjoys paddle-boarding, cycling and hiking. Photograph: Alec Smart
The Scotland Island dog swimming race has been held for 44 years in the Sydney area. This year an entrant nabbed Gus shook things up a bit as he is an 11-month old Tonkinese cat. Gus’ human, Glenn Druery had been training the feline in Middle Harbor. Gus enjoys other water sports like kayaking and paddle boarding.
The Tonkinese breed is a cross between Siamese and Burmese and is known for not being fearful of water. Still, Gus is nowhere near the size and strength of the dogs that compete in the 500 meter swim. Druery checked the rules and noted that a human can swim alongside the four legged contestants.
Needless to say, ther4 was controversy about Gus’ entering the race with many saying that it should be kept as a dog race, stating reasons such as, “it’s cruel to the cat, it’s dangerous to the cat and it will upset the dogs.”
Druery assured the sceptics that he’d be swimming alongside Gus and, if Gus ran into any trouble, he’d climb on Druery’s shoulders.
Druery’s black Border collie, Bob, swam in the race twice and finished third and was declared the overall winner in the 2015 race. Sadly, Bob passed away from cancer.
Gus came in first in his category and is now a feline Australian sensation.
Each room has an observation window looking into the cat’s play area
There are hotels for cats and now there are hotels for cat lovers. Neko Hatago is a hotel where guests can watch 16 resident rescue cats chilling in the adjacent cat café Neko Yokujo through an observation window in each hotel room. The hotel opened in mid-December. It has a traditional Japanese aesthetic, with traditional wooden fixtures, tatami mats and a rainbow Mt Fuji mural presiding over the cat café. The hotel is more hostel than a luxury property. The rooms have individual bunks for one or two people with a separate shared bath facility. There is an observation window in each room that looks into the cats play area. The windows are designed so you can observe the cats but neither you nor the other human guests can see each other. There are radio controlled toys that you can use to play with the cats.
Rates run between 8500 Yen ($79.00 USD) to 11,500 Yen ($105.00 USD) and include a two-hour session in the cat café outside of regular hours. And, if you and one of the kitties connect you can adopt a new friend as all the cats are available for adoption.
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