Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Wordless Wednesday ~ Photobombing the Cat
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| There's always one joker in the photo....but who is it here?? |
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Collar Me Confused (or What Collar is Really Safest for your Cat?)
A funny thing happened to me when viewing a fellow blogger's post on FABULOUS collars available in the UK for kitties.....I began to doubt my choice of collar for my outdoor kitties. Since they were young (that'd be 10 years ago!) I've had them in elastic release collars. It made sense to me - they could pull out of the collar backwards and they'd always have the ability to free themselves. I also would wait til the elastic was threadbare before replacing it, adding to the safety with easy-breakage. I'd purchased "safety release" (the kind with the plastic pronged release mechanism) collars for my 2 indoor cats when they were young, but it seemed to take too much pressure to release the collar.. it made me nervous. (Indoor kitties are 11 lbs and 9 lbs) I never put collars on them at all....well, I tried several times and we had conniptions extraordinaire, complete with Cirque du Soliel contortions and acrobatics, so since everyone (including outdoor kitties) is microchipped, I gave up.
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| We don't need no stinkin' collars!! |
So here I was with the words "Google cat elastic collar injury" from the blog review stuck in my head. Had I made the right choice 10 years ago or had I just been lucky? Where should I go to find out which type of collar is safest? Yep...the cat boards, where the Raw Diet Fanatics and the Holistic Banshees and the ignorant cat folk collide via cyberspace. These folks (and I'm included in this!) have really strong opinions about EVERYTHING cat - from ultimate cat litter to colloidal silver (?) to diet. They seem to have HOARDS of knowledge of everything feline (even though it often contradicts) So I asked these opinionated folks: "What type of collar do you use on your cats: elastic or safety and why did you choose that type?"
(enter sound of crickets here)
Not ONE response. I tried another board (behavior issues).... nothing. Now these are normally folks that offend each other with their strong beliefs about right/wrong every day! Why had they suddenly gone silent?? Is it that no-one knows the answer and we all have fears about making the "wrong choice" in this matter? So I had to go it alone....
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| Safety or Quick Release Collar |
I went to pet stores and twisted and pulled dozens of safety release collars....then, much to the dismay of Pooter and Ivy, came home and pulled on their elastic safety collars...and pondered and pondered and pondered. Here is what I came up with:
a) Although an elastic safety collar will allow a cat to back out of a situation where the collar is stuck, a safety collar will allow a cat to either go back OR forward when the collar is stuck.
b) Safety release collars have different levels of "pull" needed to get the collar to breakaway. This can vary by brand, but also just simply between collars!
c) There are safety release collars that are "adjustable" to the weight of your kitty. I found this type on Amazon.com where I also found they had mixed reviews.
d) For outdoor kitties they make reflective collars, but 3M reflective collars are twice as reflective as the "regular" ones. Again, I found this type on Amazon.com.
e) To my mortification, they still sell collars with no safety release at all, and people are still buying them.
f) If you go to your local Petco, you'll shell out $7-$10 per collar. If you shop online, you can find the same collars for $5.
g) Tags.... if you want small....like CAT small... you're going to pay. Tags in general run about $7 each, but for tiny tags it's a solid $10 each.
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| Pooter in his new collar |
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
The Stare
Today I was reading a novel when I glanced up and saw Beastly staring at me from across the room. You know, that special kitty stare where it seems they don't blink and if you look for long enough you either get the creeps or are compelled to say something to them because it's so uncomfortable (or both). Every time this happens from across the room I stop and wonder "what are they thinking??" and then I never do. But seriously, what could they be thinking??
I have to admit, that I don't flatter myself by thinking I'm that interesting to the cats all the time.
First I check the food categories: Am I near food? Does my breath smell like food? Am I near the treats? (this, apparently, is a separate category.) Is it near feeding time (give or take 3 hours)?
Next check:
Have I just made a noise that can be translated into kitty language? I'll tell an embarrassing story here, for humor's sake...certainly NOT because it was some sort of accomplishment: I was once sitting watching tv with my cat Teatea and due to a bowl of vegetarian soup, I was...well...a little gassy. Well, you guess it - I made a little pooty that sounded like a kitty question (you know that meow that asks "are you here?" from the other room...yeah, that one) and Teatea, who was sitting across the sofa from me at the time, suddenly turned and stared at me and meowed "I'm right here, you blind idiot. " Yeah, that was humbling....once I stopped laughing.
I think as cat owners we are very tapped in to our felines. They are so much more subtle with their cues than dogs. Most of us know about the larger cues like the slow blink, tail language, body posture and some vocalizations....but the stare remains an enigma....perhaps because rather than species-specific, it's relationship specific...between an individual feline and his/her human.
Squeebert sleeps on my arm at night. Partly because of his heat-seeking behavior, partly because he can feel when I move to get out of bed, but also because it provides security. He's done this since he was very young. Now and again I wake up and find him staring right at me, head on the pillow next to me. It's always startling to wake up to someone looking at you, but what the heck could he be thinking? Was he watching my eyelashes in REM sleep and I perchance saved myself from being batted in the eye by a paw because I woke up? Was he willing me awake out of kitty boredom? Or was it something else? Could our feline counterparts actually ponder our differences....or perhaps just gaze at us with fondness and unconditional love? I sure would like to think so ~ because I certainly find myself wondering and staring at them in fondness and unconditional love quite often. In fact, it's one of my great pleasures in life.
What are your experiences with your kitty's stare? I'd love to hear about them!
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| Pooter giving mom eye contact... |
I have to admit, that I don't flatter myself by thinking I'm that interesting to the cats all the time.
First I check the food categories: Am I near food? Does my breath smell like food? Am I near the treats? (this, apparently, is a separate category.) Is it near feeding time (give or take 3 hours)?
Next check:
Have I just made a noise that can be translated into kitty language? I'll tell an embarrassing story here, for humor's sake...certainly NOT because it was some sort of accomplishment: I was once sitting watching tv with my cat Teatea and due to a bowl of vegetarian soup, I was...well...a little gassy. Well, you guess it - I made a little pooty that sounded like a kitty question (you know that meow that asks "are you here?" from the other room...yeah, that one) and Teatea, who was sitting across the sofa from me at the time, suddenly turned and stared at me and meowed "I'm right here, you blind idiot. " Yeah, that was humbling....once I stopped laughing.
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| TeaTea in her later years |
I think as cat owners we are very tapped in to our felines. They are so much more subtle with their cues than dogs. Most of us know about the larger cues like the slow blink, tail language, body posture and some vocalizations....but the stare remains an enigma....perhaps because rather than species-specific, it's relationship specific...between an individual feline and his/her human.
 |
| Squeebert |
Squeebert sleeps on my arm at night. Partly because of his heat-seeking behavior, partly because he can feel when I move to get out of bed, but also because it provides security. He's done this since he was very young. Now and again I wake up and find him staring right at me, head on the pillow next to me. It's always startling to wake up to someone looking at you, but what the heck could he be thinking? Was he watching my eyelashes in REM sleep and I perchance saved myself from being batted in the eye by a paw because I woke up? Was he willing me awake out of kitty boredom? Or was it something else? Could our feline counterparts actually ponder our differences....or perhaps just gaze at us with fondness and unconditional love? I sure would like to think so ~ because I certainly find myself wondering and staring at them in fondness and unconditional love quite often. In fact, it's one of my great pleasures in life.
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| Beastly in her younger years |
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