Author: Trevor

Hello everyone. I took Tenzin to the groomer to get some mats removed. How do you get a big cat into the carrier that does not like going into the carrier? You take a nice big towel and place it over his head and front feet, wrap him up a little bit and just slide him into the carrier. Getting him out was harder. A person just has to watch that his feet don’t get hooked in the door. The groomer put a mask on him and he was a good boy for the whole session. We got his nails done and his ears cleaned and a good grooming.

There is a noticeable personality change among all the cats recently. Tenzin wants to play more now and he is sitting for brushing. I hope we can keep the mats down now. His hair is so fine it will mat in two days. Ariel is the same way, but he always loved getting brushed.

Have a great day and do something green for the planet.

Trevor

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This is a picture of Raymond before he was captured and taken to the vet. He was getting sick as a feral cat  and needed help. Your vet should be a trusted individual in the process of diagnosis and application of medicine. When things happen late at night or on holidays there is a desire to help somehow. If there is an after hours phone number use it. That number is there for a reason and do not feel that you are inconveniencing someone. Do not give people medicine thinking it can help. Most people medicine is toxic to animals. Some human medicine is used however it must be prescribed by a vet. When you have medicine to take home be sure to review the dosage and application instructions. Do not panic call the vet. It is better to take your kitty to the vet in a carrier. The carrier will give you peace of mind . It will capture a mess and you don’t have to fight a stressed cat in your car. All the best. That kitty in the picture is doing just fine now and is living a comfortable indoor life. See Raymond in meet the kitties page.

Trevor

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Here is a picture of Esther dining on dry cat food. After reading the link on the 13 best cat foods as shown in the Maintaining Your Cat page I read the labels of our current cat food. I thought I was feeding everybody properly, however much to my surprise this dry food was not that good. We have since purchased a dry food with better ingredients listed first. and no grains such as wheat and corn. We are giving our cats two feeding a day of wet food and a supplement of dry food. The cats really dug into the new food. The interesting thing is that they are producing two litres less cat litter per day now. The seven cats made six litres a day now we are down to four. When their bellies are processing the food they must be retaining more nutrients and not passing out all the filler. Read the link, learn to read labels. I really believe that the more money you spend on food the less you will spend on vet bills.

All the best,Trevor

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/acrocats-cat-circus-rescue-foster_us_59b17d72e4b0354e44102b42

This news article caught my eye. The key to training your cat is time, patience, practice and consistency. With leash training this is something that should start slow, probably the younger the better. Start with just putting the harness on in the house. Then quiet places out side with the leash.  Moving with longer outing as everybody becomes comfortable. Always be ready for the surprise noise or something that will spook your cat. A scared cat is fast and can really scratch you. When my cats get scared I pick them up and go in. With exposure comes tolerance. Be gentle, don’t drag the kitty. Maybe they want to be carried home? All the best. Please leave a reply. Trevor

I have had three of my cats sterilized. Soxs was neutered at six months. It was a typical surgery with no complications. There was some swelling which is natural. Soxs did not lick his surgery so he did not have to wear a cone around his neck. After a week or so everything was healed and we carried on. Ariel was the same story. He never licked and it did not slow him down a bit. On the way home from the vet he talked to me like he never talked before. He was probably giving me heck for leaving him somewhere for the day. When he came home he went to the cat tree and just relaxed.

When Roxanne came to live with us she was intact and soon after she went into heat. There was some night time howling and Tenzin developed feelings for her. She went to the vet and got spayed. This procedure is invasive and in effect is a hysterectomy. If you go to Wikipedia the are good explanations and pictures. Everything was generally going well. She ate well and good energy, however after a week the surgery was still weeping and there was swelling. I went back to the vet for an examination where she was given an  antibiotic and a cleaning of the surgery by squeezing some fluid out of the stitched area.

This picture shows her shaved belly and the swelling. After the antibiotic she healed quickly with no further problems. Why she got infected is difficult to explain for a layman. For me it means a person has to monitor all surgeries and go back to the vet if necessary. Roxanne is an active cat and was  hard to keep quiet and relaxed after the surgery. A spaying procedure should be healed up in about a week. My vet keeps a cat in the office for the day to monitor for complications both male and females.

That’s my story for today. Hug a kitty and leave a comment for me.

Thanks Trevor

 

 

I was going through Kijiji and I was looking at the available cats. What I saw was a vast array of free cats that need homes. The hard part for me was the cats that were being given away because they couldn’t move with the family for various reasons. Especially the older cats. When Lacy moved in with us she cried for a long time because of her new home and people. She also hid in the closet for weeks until she became comfortable with us. Alexis did her share of hiding too. If that cat is living a happy home and get displaced because of a move or new furniture I think its totally unfair. What happens if they don’t get adopted, do they end up at the shelter, or dumped.  In my opinion when a cat, dog or parrot comes into your home it should be forever.

I have nine animals in the house. I have lived with these animals for several years and I feel that I understand every one fairly well. I know their quirks and moods. I know when they have had enough attention and when just to leave them be. The point of all this is that even though I trust my cats and dogs a lot I would never leave them unattended with an infant or toddler. When my cats play they can get pretty rough. They will hug your arm and bite while bunny kicking with their back feet. Its all great fun until it hurts and the cat does not want to quite. I can defend my self. An infant can not. So be careful and monitor your infant at all times. I think it is great that a child can grow up with a furry friend around. I think it makes children healthier and with parental guidance a child can be taught to respect living things.  It would be a tragedy if something ugly happened and that cat or dog was severely punished for some thing that could be avoided. When my son was a toddler we adopted a big beautiful Samoyed dog. We monitored closely and that dog lived with us for the rest of his life. His name was Charlie.

Have a nice weekend

Trevor

When you get you new kitty home and have done all the vet visits with vaccinations, spay or neuter its time to enjoy the kitty. Kitties like clean litter boxes. In order to keep your stress down keep the litter box clean and filled with litter. Cleaning means every time you see a clump in the box scoop it out and be sure to scrape around to find every thing. Once a week my litter boxes are emptied and washed with hot water and soap. Then a splash of baking soda with 2 – 3 inches of cat litter on top. Good to go. I am using Purina Tidy Cats litter. It absorbs smells and cleans up nice. Be sure to vacuum the litter that comes out with the cats feet and that job is done for the moment. If your cat is scrapping down to the bottom of the box you probably don’t have enough litter in the box. I live in the country so litter disposal is easy. If you live in the city I would think that sealing it in bags and throwing it out with the house hold trash should work. Try not to make the garbage cans to heavy or it might not get picked up. Some folks don’t like clay based litter because of the dust hazard to the cat and dust in the house. This Purina item is quite dust free. There are wood base litters that are environmentally friendly and will not be a health hazard to your cat. It does not hurt to experiment. I tried wood chips. It absorbed smells but the chips went every where. A vacuuming task for sure. The bigger the litter box the better. There is less chance of missing the box. My boy Tenzin is so big that when his nose was touching one end his bum was hanging over the other end of the box. When Tenzin had just moved in  he was quite timid. Because of this he decided to pee in the pantry on some plastic bags. This was hard to find. He only did that once and now he is a regular litter box user. When you come home and the house stinks, it probably means somebody did not cover. This does not mean you keep a dirty house. I have had cats pee on blankets from cat beds and in the mitt and toque box. What can you do? Wash things up sanitize, deodorize and press on.   Then go and hug your kitty!

All the Best , Trevor

 

The above picture is of Raymond. He was a stray for about two years. He was an apprehensive cat and it was not until he was live trapped and in the house four about three months did he come around and want to be handled. Patience is the key here. Some cats will never be domesticated. Some times these types of cats can become good barn cats and make their living doing rodent control. A barn cat can have a good life, but they still need human assistance to live a long life. The necessity to go to the vet is still there. This prevents unwanted kittens and the spread of feline diseases. Believe it or not a good mouser still needs to be fed and have a good source of water. Winter shelter is required. This could be an assembled house or some bales stacked together to form a shelter.  Treat them nice and after a few years they might let you pet them.

All the best ,Trevor

Taking care of  stray cats has been easy for me. Of the four stray cats I have taken in three were kittens and one was two years old. The two kittens that were three and four weeks old respectively were of no significant problem. They were eating solid food . Because they were probably still sucking we fed them Purina kitten formula until weaning age. They were kept separate from the rest of the cats when no one was home. When they were free to run around the house we always kept an eye out for their safety from the dogs and adult cats. They socialized easily and now at almost a year old they are doing fine.  They had vet visits soon after being found . Needles and deworming is mandatory. We had the little Tomcat neutered at six months. The little girl is still intact. There is no one to get her pregnant so I am waiting to get her spayed. The two year old female was kept isolated from everyone for three days until her vet visit. I did not know what parasites or diseases she might introduce to the clowder so we took no chances. After the vet visit we brought her into the house and let her loose. She socialized well with only a few fights with the other adult females. Every body used the litter boxes with out any problems. Shortly after her arrival she went into heat. Lots of night time howling and the boys liked her. We got her spayed soon after. My very first cat was found at about four months old. He had to be live trapped as he was to scared to let any one near him. We got him in the house and he adapted to home living easily. My first introduction to cat health care came when he started leaving worms. A call to the vet and a couple of pills and we were  done with that.

My friend had a slightly different experience with her adult male feral cat. This boy was fed outside for a year until he came around sick. Being timid and impossible to catch a live trap was used and he was taken to the vet immediately. Vaccinations, neutering and a discovery of being feline FIV positive resulted. He was taken into the house and he hid for months until he was ready to get social. Now he is a loving and wonderful healthy cat. Socialization come at the cats discretion and everyone has to be patient and let things happen. A FIV cat can live to normal life span but should be kept inside and have regular vet visits to avoid any complications.