Halloween Pet Safety

For many of us getting ready to celebrate Halloween, there is a strong temptation to include our pets in the festivities. Some people want to take their pets with them as they go trick-or-treating, or get a costume for their pets. The Humane Society of the United States warns us against it, with the following article on Halloween Pet Safety.

Since pets enjoy a regular routine, Halloween and other holidays can be a particularly stressful time. Strangers constantly ringing the doorbell and yelling "trick-or-treat!" is probably not your cat's idea of a good day.

The HSUS has a Halloween recommendation - that you keep your cat behind closed doors with a toy and some soothing music, and away from trick-or-treaters. This will also help to prevent your cat from slipping out an open front door when she shouldn't as well.

I've noticed a lot of interest in a halloween costume for pets. According to the HSUS, this is a bad idea. Most animals, especially cats, don't like being confined in clothing. The closest many cats will usually come to tolerating being dressed up is when they are wrapped up in a blanket, and even then, it usually has to be their idea, not yours.

Please follow the HSUS recommendations for Halloween pet safety. Even seemingly innocent holiday decorations can lead to tragedy. Read this article only if you are ready to read a sad account of a real Halloween horror.

I hope you and your pet have a safe and happy Halloween!

Cat Lovers Blog: Signal Noise: Cat Got Your Brain?

Cat Lovers Blog: Cat Got Your Brain?
Just to let you know, I've added a little update to my cat toxoplasmosis blog post. I've been researching zoonotic diseases, and came across some information relevant to this discussion.

In addition, if you haven't browsed my website lately, I've made a number of updates....

The pages on Cat Health and Cat Illness Symptoms have been updated, as has the Interesting Cat Facts page. I've added several other pages as well. I am currently focusing on cat parasites, cat diseases, and cat behavior problems before moving on to some more general cat health topics.

I'll also be working on some cat behavior topics such as litter box problems, spraying, and the like. I am still planning on puting together a breed specific information guide, but there just isn't enough time. Sorting through all the information and misinformation out there about cats is taking all of my time.

I've noticed that a number of websites seem to take only one source for their information and publish that, but that doesn't always tell the whole story. Even authoritative sources have conflicting information. In addition, some websites will cite a particular authoritative source for data, but that data is not easily found at that source. Worse, it sometimes is either incomplete, out of context, or just plain wrong!

The toxoplasmosis issue is a case in point. There are a number of websites out there with what I would consider out of context references to authoritative sources. What ends up happening is that I have to create two, three, or four pages on the same or similar topic in order to describe what I consider to be a more complete picture of the issue.

So, if you've been waiting for a particluar topic to show up on my website, please be patient! I am making every effort to get those pages up there for you!

Thanks for reading!

Cloned Cats To Make First Appearance At NYC Cat Show

Cloned Kittens To Make First Appearance At NYC Cat Show
Cloned cats? You must be kidding. Nope, I'm not kidding. Two cloned kittens will be on display at the Cat Fanciers' Association Cat Show in Madison Square Garden, NY, this weekend.

"Created" by a California based company called Genetic Savings & Clone, the two Bengal kittens will be on display at the show, but not available for handling.

The cats, named Tabouli and Baba Ganoush, are clones of a beautiful cat named Tahini. Tahini is owned by the son of the company's CEO, Lou Hawthorne.

This is not the first time a cat has been cloned, but these clones are "better." The story is that the method used to clone these cats, who were born to separate surrogate mothers, is "safer and more efficient" than other cloning methods. Chromatin transfer, as it is called, supposedly produces clones that more closely resemble the donor, and are "healthier" (read, not deformed).
Reportedly, they are going to clone more cats and sell them to the public at $50,000 each. Ironically, the most expensive cat ever sold was also a Bengal cat, at about $42,000 US. It has been reported that the record has been broken, but these cloned kitties may end up holding that record as well.

Side bar: that reminds me, I've recently updated the interesting cat facts page, but I haven't included the clone info or the most expensive cat on record either. I'll get to that soon.

Presumably, clones would give pet owners the ability to have departed cats cloned. The promise, of course, is that you would have a pet that is identical in appearance, and in some ways, behavior, to the original pet. The pictures on the wall would tell the story...

This is "Fluffy" - this is "Fluffy1" - this is "Fluffy2" - and so on.

As a cat owner, and as a cat lover in general, I never want to see any of my cats (or anyone else's) pass on. I wish they could live forever. But, at the same time, I wouldn't want a "copy" of any of my cats either. Each one of my cats is a unique creature, and can never be replaced. If I want another cat that looks like the one I have now, I'm sure I can find one in the sea of cats that are homeless and waiting for adoption.

In addition, I think that the moral and legal implications of cloning pets should be enough to make us stop and think. The one question we need to ask ourselves is this... when it becomes more advantageous to have a cloned cat than it does to have a non-cloned cat, what then?

Yes, it's expensive and therefore only for a select few right now. But that was the case with TV's, computers, vcr's, and cell phones. Now, households often have more than one of each. I know, those are technological devices, but so is cloning!

When the price comes down, the demand will go up. What people will use cloned cats for, I don't want to know. And what about the discards? What about the cats that are no longer interesting or useful because they are not clones? What happens to them?

What about the clones that don't quite cut it? What if there is some difference between the clone and the donor that makes the animal not useful (for whatever the intended purpose)?

"How was your day at the cat factory today, honey?" "You don't want to know."

Stop scaring me. I need another cat nap.


CNN has a report on the subject...

CNN's take on the cloned cats

BBC News reported in February of 2002 that the first pet ever to be cloned was a cat - appropriately named, CopyCat...

BBC News on the first cloned pet cat

Cat LifeCare Program

Cat LifeCare Program
Seen it all? Not yet. For the right price, the California Cat Center, Inc. offers lifetime housing and health care for cats whose owners can no longer care for them.

Basically, what this means is that if you become ill, disabled, or die, your cat can live out her life in a "luxury cat-only living" facility with lifetime veterinary care. According to their web site, this includes weekly veterinarian visits.

It also includes a "stimulating feline environment with playful catwalks, music, bird-watching and lots of love. Peace of mind for the cat lover who can no longer care for their precious pet."

For the "ultimate in luxury," expect to pay around $5,000 per year for the life expectancy of your cat, which they consider to be 15 years.

Sounds great! Good thing my cats can't read or they'd sign me up for this one and then bump me off.

Why Do Cats Purr?

Why Do Cats Purr?
Why cats purr has long been the subject of debate and speculation, both among cat lovers and scientists alike. Researchers, however, may now have an idea as to why cats purr.

Your cat may be doing a bit more than just saying "I'm happy" when she purrs. It is widely known that cats purr when they are happy. What may not be so widely known is that they also purr when they are in pain or distress. In those cases, they may be purring just to make themselves feel better, but research has shown that it may be a lot more than that.

While controversy exists over why cats purr, there is also some disagreement as to exactly how the purr is created in the cat. Neither the area of the brain responsible for the purr, nor the exact mechanism in the body that produces the purr are known for sure.

One school of thought is that purring is a vibration of the diaphragm and/or throat, another claims that it is the vibration of blood vessels in the chest area. I've also seen the theory that it involves bones in the face and head.

Now for the really interesting part. Researchers have done a number of studies on the effects of low frequency vibrations on physiology. It has been discovered that vibrations between 20-140 Hz are therapeutic for bone growth and fracture healing, pain relief and wound healing, muscle growth and tendon repair, joint mobility, and the relief of dyspnea (abnormal or uncomfortable breathing). Some of this research includes humans as well as other animals, such as chickens.

By recording and analyzing the purrs of various cat species, it was discovered that the frequency range of the study animals was between 20 and 140 Hz. A number of the species had purr frequencies that were either close to, or exactly on, a frequency that had been shown to promote one of the physiological changes discussed here.

By the way, I have seen a number of times, websites that have stated that only the domestic cat species purrs. This is NOT the case, according to my research.

I have also read on some websites that cats supposedly purr at the same frequency as a diesel engine, stated on those sites at about 26 Hz. Again, acccording to my research, this is NOT entirely true. Different cat species purr at different frequencies, with various harmonic frequencies as well. I'll ignore the diesel engine variations for this discussion.

But I digress.


Most of us have heard that cats have nine lives. This is an obvious reference to their resilience. Veterinarians will tell you that cat bones heal relatively easily, especially as compared to dogs. In addition, it has been shown that cats suffer relatively few bone and joint disorders, and fewer postoperative complications than dogs.

There is a veterinary tale that says, by various accounts, that if you put a cat in a room with some bones, the bones will heal. A variation on this is that a cat can reconstruct itself if all of its parts are placed in the same room.

While that may be a bit much to ask, it just may be that a cat's extraordinary ability to heal comes from that mysterious cat behavior, purring.

Cat Ring Worm Symptom List

Cat Ring Worm Symptom List
Ring worm is the most common infectious skin disease in cats. It is contagious, and can be spread to humans and other animals. As part of my weekend update to the website, I've added this page on feline ring worm symptoms.

As a result, I've also updated the following related web pages...

Cat Illness Symptoms Guide
Cat Health
Cat Ring Worm

Additional updates to the web site over the last few weeks include new or updated pages as follows:


Kitten Names
Catnip Oil and Its Effects
Ear Mites in Cats

and a major update to the Interesting Cat Fact Guide.

I've got a whole collection of new cat facts that I'm going to be incorporating into that page within the next month or so - please look for it.

I hope you will have a look at the site when you get a chance.

Cat Names

Cat Names
Looking for a name for your new cat or kitten? Would you like 5,000 suggested cat names to choose from? Here's a cool site that let's you search their database for kitten names by category and sex.

They have an easy to use search function with a ton of categories and subcategories. You can search for name suggestions in categories such as appearance and color, personality, and many others like TV, places, and even cars.

If you've got a new cat or kitten at home, then here's what you need to do. Go take a look at my page on kitten names and follow the recommendations. Then go to the kitten names database and choose your name!

A new resort complex threatens a Japanese paradise

A new resort complex threatens a Japanese paradise

Well, the following quote from this article by Jeff Shaw says it all...

"The Iriomote cat is a survivor. For centuries, it employed the surest survival technique of all -- avoiding humans"

The yamaneko ("mountain cat") lives on a sparsely populated island in southern Japan. It is a relatively small animal, about the size of a domestic cat, with a relatively long body and short legs.

The species taxonomy information is under discussion, with some saying that they are a sub-species of the leopard cat, and others pointing out differences that would make them cousins, instead. While some controversy over their status as a separate species (Mayailurus iriomotensis) exists, these wild cats are said to have existed for two million years. They closely resemble ancient felines, perhaps more than any other living cat.

Since monitoring began in 1982, their numbers seem to have remained stable at somewhere less than 100, but all that could change quickly if their habitat is further diminished by development. Previously, their most serious threat has been competition and interbreeding with feral domestic cats. In addition, about 10 cats per year are killed by automobiles.

But now, with a new resort open on the beach, in an area so important to their habitat, the Iriomote cat faces a possible big change to an ecosystem it depends on. Some are fearful that the shy cats will not return to the area near the resort any longer. Ironically, locals on the island who make their living from ecotourism are some of the strongest opponents to the kind of growth this resort represents. They want to do minimal harm to the environment.


More Information including some species taxonomy information on the Iriomote cat can be found here:

International Society for Endangered Cats (ISEC Canada)
Lioncrusher's Domain
BBC - Iriomote cat