Mau Mew

There is a kind of stray cat harmony amongst my three stray cats now. For example, Binnie has frightened off my little Pippa. I miss Pippa but Binnie had to exert her authority over someone and that has to be Pippa as the lowest in pecking order. Pippa will be back, I am sure, as the food is just too damn good. As for himself, Timmy, the boss man with the wounds he now joins me on my bed all night. He has finally figured it out that life is better on my bed than in a shed. This works well for him as Binnie gets off when I go to bed because I move my legs around too much for her. So the night shift handover is smooth. The trouble with Timmy is that I am allergic to him and he makes me sniffle all night. This blocks my nose in the morning. Hellfire and damnation, it's a heavy burden. My girlfriend says that she would like it if he went on her bed! I said fine.

Yes, cat fights can cause an abscess and Timmy got into a bad cat fight, got bitten and then an abscess formed and I had to take him to the vet. Well, you know, despite being the only cat I am allergic to (true - I only have to look at him to itch), I love him and care for him. And I am glad to say that his abscess is beginning to subside gradually. Fortunately he still comes in every day for rest and food. This gives me the chance to feed him and bathe him. I put antibiotic power in his food. I break open one of the antibiotic pills the vet gave me and pour it over the premium quality (he only eats premium!) cat food and mix well. I have also prepared a salt solution and bathed his wound with it. There is still quite a bit of puss under the skin in the area of the wound (the area is raised and hard), so I was pleased today to see that the wound was seeping puss. I was worried that the infection would cause the puss to continue to build up. As I said. there was a hard bump on his hea

Stray cats can get on even when confined to a relatively small space. I should know as I have three stray cats in an apartment! Well Binnie is no longer a stray cat, she is a long term companion of mine. But Timmy the alpha boy cat and Pippa the girl all get on now. It really is a question of time. I see people asking questions about introducing a new cat to a household where there are already cats. There can be problems and certainly there can be initial problems but with patience and a little human intervention and management things gradually settle down. At first Timmy would hiss and strike out at Binnie and indeed Pippa but right now he has come in from the cold and plonked himself on my bed as I type this and he is about 12 inches from Binnie. He just sniffed her and Binnie made a little trill and that was it. He just curled up and she got comfortable. I think Timmy has come in because he is still a little poorly after the visit to the vet to lance, drain and treat his bite woun

There are more homeless cats and people right now. As people become homeless due to repossessions by lenders, so too do companion cats. The trouble is that people still treat cats as "objects", when push comes to shove. The net result is that the domestic cat is sometimes going to be abandoned. And I do not see the need for that. Binnie the cat on the left in the heading picture was abandoned about 16 years ago by one of my neighbors. I just saw here under a car on a cold evening. I knew she was abandoned by a neighbor because she would go back to the house she lived in (but was empty and locked) for a while. I feed her and eventually she became a wonderful companion animal to me. And anyone can be the type of person to abandon a cat. ASPCA (American organisation) project that there could be up to one million domestic cats and dogs at risk at this time due to the mortgage crisis in America. And the situation is nearly as bad in the UK. This is tragic news because there are a

Timmy's damaged nose. I'll show a picture of his wound next post. The cat fights of male cats can be heard at night around here. For territorial reasons male cats get into cat fights. This shows how close to the wild dometic cats still are. Obviously a cat has to be an outdoor cat to get into fights although it might happen indoors too. Only indoor cats living with other cats are so close together they will have adapted to the lack of territory and come to accept it - i.e. no cat fights for territory in the conventional sense. Timmy, the stray cat I feed, keep warm, rest up and generally care for when I can, gets into cat fights. There is nothing I can do about it as he is not mine. Well there is something I probably will have to do about it (see below). After the last fight he got sratched. He had small cuts all over his head and shoulders etc. and on his nose (see picture). I discovered late in the day what appeared to be a fairly innocuous scratch on the top of his head. Th

I say that declawed cats are unloved . How can I say such a thing? There will be thousands who disagree. What I mean is that declawed cats are not loved perfectly or unconditionally and this is the only true love that can exist, I think all will agree. Love between animals can only exist when there is equality between the animals concerned. In the case of the cat and the human it is down to the human to accept and agree equality. Where there is a sense of equality by the human keeper the cat will not be declawed and the situation will foster a fine relationship. Where the human keeper maintains the old fashioned view that they are superior to other animals (and cats, of course) then the possibility of declawing is present. If declawing takes place the love or attachment between cat and human is conditional upon the declawing taking place. Conditional love is imprefect. Also, a more perfect love will allow and accept the perceived imperfections of one party and that includes claws in a

Based on (Rochlitz, 2005) the five freedoms for indoor cats are these (a) provision of food and water making up a balanced diet - this is obviously a basic (b) the provision of an environment that is suitable for a domestic cat (with a lot of wild cat traits lets not forget), including adequate space, good shelter, correct temperature, light, low noise and adequate cleanliness (c) adequate health care provision including correct vaccinations (and bearing in mind that vaccination policy has evolved and is a medical procedure not a routine practice), neutering , control of parasites (such as the ear mites , flea and tick) and ad hoc veterary care (d) provision of opportunities for the cat to exhibit natural behavior as near as is practically possible ( hunting in the conventional way won't happen but well organized play can substitute and (e) provision of protection for circumstances that would cause fear and distress. Those are the five freedoms for indoor cats . See cats indo

It is not the domestic cat's fault, but domestic cats damage the environment . This post explains how (and this is just one way). Take cat litter, the clay type, Fuller's Earth type actually (read about the history of Fuller's Earth ). Some of it, a lot of it, is dug up in open strip mines in Brazil and Wyoming ( src: Treehugger website ). I guess it is processed and converted to nice looking cat litter. After use it is disposed of in land fill. We know that we can't go on indefinitely disposing of rubbish in land fill as the space has a finite limit. Damage to the environment at both ends of this process. It all seems so unnatural to me. And we are talking about millions of tons. Lets remind ourselves that strip mining is very destructive. Thousands of acres of land is basically rendered useless afterwards. And I dread to think what happens in Brazil, where the companies doing the mining are likely to kick small holders off their land in the name of profit. All this to

Yup, we can reduce our cat's carbon pawprint if we feed our little treasures In Clover cat food supplements and I am not getting any commission for this, no sir. I just read a PR announcement that In Clover, an American pet food supplement manufacturer, have chosen to use wind power to power some (or all) of its machinery and plant. Great stuff. I found out about this because I also read that preparing meat products for humans creates a massive carbon footprint. For instance, if everyone in the United States had one vegetarian meal a week instead of chicken it would be the equivalent of getting rid of 500,000 cars. Big numbers so I thought if we, humans, can do something to help the planet then why not our little cat companions. And yes, they can. A cat carbon pawprint can be reduced if we buy supplements from In Clover. Now where is my 10%?

I don't suppose you want to know an oh so intimate secret as to why my cat leaves when I go to bed , do you. Well she is on the bed usually. That is her spot. She stays there most of the day being old and all. Cats sleep 70% of the time. For Binnie it is nearer 80%+ I guess. She sleeps at the base of the bed. When I turn the lights out, she gets off as good as clockwork because she has gotten tired of being kicked all night. When I dream I move my legs. She gets pushed around at the base of the bed. She decided enough was enough. When I get up she comes back on. She is always going in the opposite direction to me actually. When I come in she goes out and when I go out she wants to come in...etc..etc... My Cat Leaves When I Go To Bed to Cats are Smart

Cats calm me . I was a little wound up this morning. I have been for the past week or so. There are some problems brewing and it puts me on edge. And you know what, cats calm me, they always have. This morning it was the turn of Pippa. She is a time share cat. She lives next door in a big house, a very big and very expensive house. She is a very inexpensive cat (moggie), though, and a very sweet and photogenic cat. I'll have to try and do her justice one of these days. Pippa with Rhino and lamp Pippa just bowled in, with a new collar, a pink one with a pink bell. Yes, well, not sure about a pink bell. She asked for and got some food and then gingerly planted herself on my lap, kneaded me first and then washed herself. And I love the feel of a cat washing herself. The gentle rocking of her body against mine as she licks and the gentle placing of her front paws on me to balance herself while she stretches to her back. This was the most calming of feelings for me and I struggled to st

Smart cats -- Here is a video of my girl Binnie who prefers to be let in through the door instead of coming in through the cat flap. Hey, why not, she's my girl, she's like us. </div

Pippa out of range of Binnie. Cats are smart and my little stray Pippa proves it. She knows how to get on in this household. The pecking order dictates that she is at the bottom and she knows that my cat Binnie is old and cannot jump as she used to. Pippa therefore spends her time on top of the microwave well out of range and as content as she can be. And when it snowed here recently she left paw prints in the snow, of course. What was cleaver was the fact that she used the exact same paw prints in the snow when she left. Pippa simply retraced her steps perfectly and kept her paws as dry as possible. Cats are Smart to ABOUT CATS AND CAT BREEDS

Fat stray cat - Lontra - not all strays have it tough! Although she might be ill. - Photo by * starrynight1 Taking in a stray cat is the easiest thing in the world provided you don't have any other cats. In fact, there are stray cats pretty much everywhere. Wherever I have lived I think I have bumped into stray cats particularly so in London where people live close together. I have never purchased a cat, they usually come to me and stay. Often you don't actually have to take in a stray cat as the cat will just walk in, take some food, do it again and then stay a while one day (provided we are pleasant to the cat). And voila we are on track to take him in. A word of caution, of course, as there are also a lot of cats that time share or visit and do overnight stays like children. We have to make sure that we are not teasing a cat away from the "owners" (keepers). That said, if a cat persists in coming to us there is possibly something not quite right about the place wh

Do cats sulk? - Yes. I have just split up a fight between my first adopted stray cat, Binnie and the last stray cat to come and stay (Pippa) and Binnie is now sulking. She is at the base of my bed and is not responding as she normally would. She refuses to turn to look at me. Obviously she wanted to see Pippa off, out of the home and I interfered in that. Also she might feel a bit p*ss*d off that I had to hiss at her to break up the fight. She probably sees me as top cat and might even feel a bit intimidated, which is not what I want to happen.

Pippa on top of the microwave out of trouble. I call it the mezzanine floor. There is a definite stray cat pecking order in this household. I don't need to read up about it as it's right in my face. Timmy is the alpha boy. Not surprising when you look at his face in the header photo. My Binnie probably doesn't like this too much (which actually worries me a bit) and seems to take it out on Pippa, who is the smallest of the three strays. Of course Binnie is no longer a stray but was found as a stray. For example, this morning, while I am typing this, Binnie had a go at Pippa for no apparent reason. I hear the usual noise and growling and have to split the cat fight up. Pippa being a lot smaller than Binnie hides under something to protect herself and when I tell Binnie to lay off she does (which is pleasing!). Who said you couldn't train cats. Pippa actually lives next door in a very large and expensive house in a relatively posh part of London, so why she wants to str

Binnie Do AKA Judders a sweet natured and gentle cat - the first of my three stray cats. Yes, I have three stray cats . Well not quite. "My cat", Binnie (aka Binnie Do or Judds) was a stray cat back in 1992-3. She was wandering around Notting Hill Gate, London, on a very cold November night. She was under a car outside my home, which wasn't far from the main road. She peeked out from under the car, looked up as I walked by. I talked to her and her tail shook, actually it looked like it juddered. She has always done that when excited. Well one thing led to another. And we got to know each other. I remember, as it was freezing that night, I put some food out in a vestibule in the basement and next to the food, I put a freshly boiled kettle of hot water to warm the area up a little. I went to bed and the food was gone the next day. And so the journey together began. At the time we had two cats, a boy and a girl. Eventually Binnie came in the house and sort of lived on top