30th December – Accidents happen: Part 2

Apparently damaging part of the tail or limb in this fashion is a rather common accident for many cats and dogs, but unfortunately for Ripley because of the nature of the accident and the severe way the tail was injured an inch and a half of the tail had to be amputated. To perform that simple operation the vet said that he would had to use anaesthetic for the operation, and due to the fact that Ripley is one of those cats that it is almost impossible to give medication in the form of pills he had to give her instead a two's week injection to avoid infection, and of course she will had to have stitches (which they would have to come off in 2 weeks time which of course this will also mean another visit to the vet for the removal but at least this could be done in our local vet, which is only a couple doors away but opens at strange hours and for a very limited period only on week days) and finally and worst of all she would also have to wear an Elizabethan collar for a week.
Unfortunately when such accidents happen (because your partner was careless and didn't check whether there was a cat near by when he tried to close the bath door despite regular warnings about and particular Ripley's habit of following any human when going to the bathroom) the result is discomfort and pain for the cat or human who has the accident but also stress for everybody who lives in the same house (cats and humans), but at least after the wound has being treated, you then know that there is no immediate danger for the health of the cat anymore and you can relax a bit. At least now you know for certain what kind of injury your pet has suffered and what you need to do and how long it will take for your pet to fully recover. Losing a bit of a tail it is quite bad but at least it was only a small part which hopefully will not make a lot of difference to her behaviour. And of course it is also that kind of relief then that also helps us recover pretty quickly from the shock of the bill that the nurse presents you with. A bill of £150 for cutting a bit and shaving a lot of the tail and for a stupid and uncomfortable collar which could have probably made it yourself pretty easily and even made it to look a bit more comfortable and better looking than it is but then again at least your cat is insured and hopefully you'll get some of that money back. The important thing is that your cat has being treated and the injury wasn't that bad as you thought it was or was it?
So after a couple of hours of worrying while the operation is being taking place after all they are cutting off part of your cat's body and she is under anaesthetic, which can be dangerous in some cases, your vet tells you that everything is fine and your cat is ready to be taken back home. She looks a bit dopey but of course this is an expected effect of the medication.
So the journey back is not that bad either as the cat is still asleep and she hasn't realised yet that she is wearing a stupid and uncomfortable collar or that she is missing part of her tail while the rest is being shaved and stitches are hanging where the end of the tail used to be.
Finally you arrive home, you get her out of the basket and you then sign with relief. 'The worst is 'over', you think.
But of course you seem to have forgotten in the mist of worrying and stressing about the other cats who are waiting rather perplexed and a bit freaked out at home that the new appearance of till now familiar and friendly cat, the new smells that she brings with her of medication and strange place and people and of course the missing part of the tail with the stitches, the shaved rest and of course that funny looking and probably smelling collar will definitely freak them out and make them worry of Ripley and at first of you too. So to add to your already built up stress you have also to deal with Ripley's reactions when she finally realises that something is missing, something is different and something has being added to her neck and head.... So the first reaction as it was expected was that of panic when she got of the basket and struggled to stand to her own feet and then she attempted to free herself of what it looked and probably felt like a very uncomfortable neck wear...
Of course it is expected to take some time to get used wearing that horrible collar, to avoid pumping into things and miscalculating distances and spaces where her head now can fit in and of course to eat, drink, move, sleep, use the tray, etc while at the same time I will try to help her adjust with providing wider bowls for feeding and drinking and give her more attention and help her scratch in places where she can't reach any more while at the same time I need to try to help the other two cats realise that she is still the same cat they knew before the vet visit. It is going to be a very stressful week for humans and pets, but at least for now the stress of the day and the effect of the anaesthetic which hasn't worn off yet have helped her to finally go to sleep in her familiar, favourite spot which gives everybody else a feel for normality for a while at least.
(to be continued...)

29th December - Accidents do happen!!

No matter how much doted and careful cat carers might be by keeping for example our cats your cats indoors to keep them safe and healthy and to avoid serious accidents and illnesses that they can be caused when venturing outside from other pets, humans, cars and wild animals, still not always, seem to be able from preventing some accidents from happening. You might keep your wires hidden, having in the house only cat friendly plants, keep away or locked poisoned substances but even so you can't always avoid some accidents from happening, stupid accidents, like having for example the tip of the cat's tail being caught by the door because you didn't see the cat before you've tried to close the door.
The worst case scenario is when such an accident does occur then you don't seem to really know how bad your cat might have being injured until the moment when you've seen the amount of fur that has come off from the tail or the state of the tip of the tail when you have finally managed to coax your cat to come out from hiding since she has freaked out and she is now terrified of you. Unfortunately cats are very good in hiding till at same cases is really late, any form of pain and physical discomfort that they might be feeling so in some cases you can't tell how much they have being injured or how serious that injury might be and of course vet's emergency calling numbers are not that useful in many cases with their conflicted diagnosis and advice. 'Yes you should put some form of natural antiseptic cream on it and the cat would be fine', or 'Do not put anything, just let her be as the stress will make the bleeding worse, the bleeding will stop eventually'. So you are usually left confused, feeling really guilty because your cat got injured mainly because you were careless and decided to close the bathroom door, while you've already known that cats don't like closed doors and you will always find one where there was a shut door...and worried that your cat is seriously injured and you are not doing anything to actually help her.
So first thing in the morning you ask a closed relative who has a car (and who, poor soul, was working night shift) to take you to the near town before 9 o' clock in the morning as it is Saturday and the vet's only opens between 9 and 10 for emergencies on Saturdays. So you get up early in the morning after you've have spent the entire previous night checking on the cat every half an hour because the tail looked bad and the bleeding didn't really stop and you dig out the cat basket and then you will spend the next hour or so trying to put her in the basket without further stressing her and make the bleeding worse. Of course it doesn't help with the situation the fact that the injured cat is the most timid of the three who doesn't like going outside or even sniffing the air outside when the window is open for that matter, or she likes people and other pets in general. So after an hour of trying to catch her and get her into the basket without causing her too much stress and provoking defensive attacks from the cat and obtaining yourself unnecessary scratches and bites she is finally inside and ready to go to the vet. Of course by now you are worrying sick because she looks that she is in distress as well as in pain, while at the same time you are in pain yourself as well as your hands are now covered in scratches and bites and have turned a red colour, but at least she is in her basket.
At least the journey to the vet's is not that stressful and the cat seems quite relaxed and not as stressed as you thought she will be (of course natural remedies and Feliway have helped too) and even the waiting in the vet's is not as bad despite the consider number of dogs and cats in the waiting room.
Finally you see the vet and the diagnosis is not that good... (to be continued).

December 12th – Cat Carers mistakes

It is true that the behaviour of a cat would be at least 50 per cent down to the influences of the environment she grew up and the one she now lives in. A timid born cat if she is living among other pets and people she will eventually become a lot more confident than she would have been if she was living on her own with only one human carer. The same applies to cats that they might have shown traits of exploratory behaviour and were also shown to be in general rather extrovert and although in their home environment they might appear to be brave, curious and in some cases a bit of a bully when strangers are visiting their house or when for an example an opportunity appears for them to explore unfamiliar territory they will quite possibly show an unexpected timid behaviour and they will more likely go into hiding or they will simply refuse to explore. These are behaviours which the cats have learned under their current living environment. But of course these types of cats that they have already the traits of being rather fearless are much easier to train to overcome their fears than cats who are timid by nature as they are going to be rather conscious when it comes to any kind of changes.
Of course fear and weariness of anything new and unfamiliar it is a natural trait for predators small as the cats and vulnerable to other larger and more dangerous ones, a trait which they need if they are to survive. This is why quite often cats that they are rather scared of people and other pets and who spend considerable time outside tend to survive longer than the ones that they are very friendly and trustworthy. In which cases it might be better if the cat is going to spend time outdoors then not to be trained to lose all her fears if possible. A bit of aggression and defensiveness might be required for survival.
As cats are generally weary of changes and other pets invading their territory it isn't also unusual to have regular confrontations with the new member cat and often to take a long time for one cat to get used to another. Cases of cats that they finally learn to tolerate the presences of other cats vary from one month to two years plus. Cats that they grew up in an environment in which only humans were around find it really hard to accept another pet in their territory as quite often have a difficulty to understand the other pet's body language. So while the other cat might be inviting the older cat to play, the older cat then wouldn't find really difficult to understand the younger's cat body language and as a result she will more likely interpret it as an imminent threat and she will then try to defence herself. Those cats that they have not grown up among other cats are more likely to understand better humans' body postures and even human voice tones than other cats. So this is why introductions and acceptances in such cases take a long time, the cat needs not only to protect her territory from a new unknown cat but also to make sense and communicate with that cat, she has to learn more or less a new body language.
Unfortunately in many cases humans seem to run out of patience and to expect things to settle down in a few days and the two cats to become the best of friends in a very short period of time. But of course this doesn't happen with many cats as some cats are more trustworthy, friendlier and have perhaps lived with other cats and have learned the important body language while others are the totally opposite and therefore they will as a result require a longer period to trust and understand.

November 27th - Where is my mouse?

Watching a cat playing can be really entertaining and very insightful. Cats is believed they use play as a way to practice and improve their hunting skills as predators. This is why it is believed that kittens play a lot, through play they learn. But of course play in cats doesn't stop when the cats have grown and have mastered or not their hunting skills. As many cat carers will tell you cats like playing and pretending, well into their adult life and even in their senior years. For cats that they do have the opportunity to actual hunt and catch prey, playing and pretending or even treating a fake toy mouse as a real one, not and quite clearly knowing that it is not a real one and it is not going to move or try to escape, is a behaviour that often has us puzzled. What is the purpose of that behaviour if not for just having fun? If out and about hunting what is the need to pretend chasing a furry toy that it doesn't even look like a real mouse after all or more important smell like one (and not all toys have catnip)?
Sheng Chi, my youngest and very playful cat has a little play 'ritual' which she does on a regular basis and includes hiding her little black mouse toy under the box, which she uses for rolling, skating and sleeping, on purpose and then she pretends that she doesn't know where that toy mouse has gone and she looks around trying to find it. She plays a form of hide and seek with the little toy mouse and she spends some days a lot of time engaging in this activity like she would have done in a real situation with a real mouse (something that my other cat used to do – he passed away last year and he is still very missed – as well although when he was faced with a real mouse he has actually afraid of it). The fact that she hides the mouse, the fact that she knows that it's not a real mouse and the whole engagement in playing seems to show that she is doing it because she wants to entertain her self and have some fun. Another regular play activity for Sheng Chi and Ripley is to pretend that they are being chased by another 'invisible cat' and then to run in the house on their own or even playing hide and seek with an imaginary other cat. This behaviour is more commonly observed on my two female cats who never learned to play and interact with other cats but only with us despite the fact that they were never only cats in our house. Even Choo Choo who was used to interact and play with other cats, now after two year he has finally learned that if he wants to play he can play only on his own, either by chasing himself in the staircase or upstairs or by getting us involved in his playing as the other two do not want to play with him. But for all our cats play is a chosen activity and there is full awareness that this is just that, playing and not real, an activity for having some fun and to entertain themselves, something very similar to human activity, despite the fact that their after all a different species!!

November 19th – Cats and us

Some times it is really difficult, well at least most of the times, to know for certain which is the best way to behave and communicate with your pets. People normally consider their pets as members of the family and in some cases when there are no children in the household become the 'replacement' children. We normally care, pamper and quite often spoil our pets and we are at the same time convinced that they understand us and return, in their own way, the love and care they get from us.
There are many examples from cat/pet owners in which they describe situations when their pets have comfort them when they were unwell, or under stress, unhappy, etc. There are even examples of pets that they have even saved their human carers when their lives were in danger. Our cats seem to know when we are coming home, when we want to play and be entertained and when we just want some company. They never complain or get annoy with us and they are always there when we need them.
But sometimes we are told that we seem to forget one simple fact of life. That our pets are not humans, they are of a different species and that perhaps their behaviour might not be what we think that it actually is. Questions often have being raised (and answered for us) on whether our pets see things the way we do and whether we are just perhaps too 'enthusiastic' and we just put too much 'meaning' on our pets' behaviour. There seems to be a lot of disagreement on whether pets and other animals have similar cognitive capabilities and emotions with us and whether our pets can have a 'theory of mind' or self consciousness. A subject which is really hard to prove or disapprove since animals do not have the capability of language as humans so they can answer our questions about them.
But beliefs of simple 'natural' or innate and just evolutionary behaviour from our pets are just too hard to be easily accepted from most of pet carers since we strongly believe that our pets know and understand us and even in some occasions 'talk' to us as we are too attach to them and we have stopped long ago to just see them as 'stupid animals' and instead we see them as our bets friends, children, companions, etc.
Our domesticated pets have spent far too many years in our social environment to have not being influenced by the human behaviour and way of thinking.
No matter what scientists have found there is no way that they can convince me that when I'm ill and stay in bed and my cat decides to stay next to me all the time, and not even wants to eat till I finally I'm well enough to get up myself, that this is a natural cat behaviour wired to his brain from birth. Cats and of course dogs will often do things because they simply want and not always because there is something for them to gain. My cat knows that the little black mouse that she plays with is a toy and not a real one but still decides that she wants to play with it and have some fun when she feels like. My other cat also knows when my partner is coming downstairs as he can recognise him from the sound his footsteps make on the stairs so he can rush and sit on my partner's chair first. He also knows too well that my partner is the one that he will give in to his begging for food when it isn't dinner time and he will look for him instead of me when he wants a snack.
If all these actions do not show a self consciousness and awareness and a capability of mental representations and symbolic interaction then perhaps we need to redefine all these concepts. And if pets do not use language why cats always use different meows with their humans and not with each other, if this doesn't mean that they are aware that humans use and understand better sounds than body language and therefore we seem to be able to understand the meaning of their different meows? Who is to say that all these meows are not words and that our cats are capable of using a simple form of cat language with no syntax and grammatical rules perhaps that they just use to communicate with us?
The fact is that we don't a lot about our brains and we are in most cases assuming how it it possible might work and how it might affect our behaviour and that we know a lot less about other species brains to even assuming anything.

November 14th - Responsible cat owners or not!

Having recently seen in a local newspaper an article about the rehoming of a cat that was not looked after properly by his owner as he was left for three weeks with a broken leg because the cat owner couldn't afford the vet's fee (we should have a NHS for pets to avoid such situations as vets can be really expensive without necessary providing the required care for the pets) and then after I saw on BBC South news and read on the website also about Sgt Podge, the cat that is being left to roam all night and then he is being picked by the 'proud' owner at the same spot and at the same time every morning after he has wondered for nearly 2 miles away from home, it kinda made me feel very sorry for the apparently very stressed cats and also wondering whether these people should have allowed to have pets in the first place.
Particularly the 'baffled owner' of Sgt Podge (what kind of name is this for any living creature anyway?) who can't seem to be able to figure out why her cat got into this habit.
Maybe because she has allowed it to become a habit (cats can be trained to follow routine and schedule)? Or perhaps because the cat shouldn't be outside at night in the first place or even simply because Sg Podge is not really happy with his current 'owner' and home? Since the lady has already another 5 cats it is quite possible that Sgt Podge doesn't like living under the same roof with so many cats and has found another more suitable home where he doesn't have to compete over territorial and hierarchical issues?
Cats that are being neutered and they are happy with their home environment and particularly cats of that age do not wonder that far away, it isn't a normal behaviour for a domesticated cat (my own ex-stray cat doesn't even bother to look at the door when it is open let alone wanting to venture outside and wander...)...and I speak from experience as I advise on cat behavioural issues.
The lady instead of phoning the BBC to have her story told and filmed she should acted like a responsible pet owner and she should have instead asked an expert for some advice on her cat's behaviour and have tried to keep her cats indoors at night and not allow them to roam at night time, a time when many cats are known to face many dangers in not only in big cities and towns but also rural areas as they are frequently seriously injured or die from traffic accidents animal attacks and human cruelty during the dark hours. Cat owners should be responsible for their pets' actions and behaviour and they should not just behind common beliefs of independent and hard to train or control cats as cats like dogs are domesticated animals who live in our environment whether we like it or not.

November 12th – Night cat visits

I'm one of the many cat carers who prefers to keep her cats indoors and in particular at night time since domesticated cats are most vulnerable and in danger at night time, independently from whether they live, in towns and cities or countryside. Cats are not safe outside at night time!
People often believe that it is cruel to keep cats indoors as they need to be free to wonder any time they like. No, that is not true. Cats can learn to live to any environment they find themselves into and the fact that they have adapted to all our living conditions all these years is a good example of this statement. Cats that they were born indoors and lived all their lives indoors they don't miss the life outdoors because they don't know what is to live outdoors and they have adapted to an indoor life. For these cats outside noises and smells are overwhelming and extremely stressful. Just imagine a human that had lived all his life in a city and all of the sudden he/she finds him/herself in the middle of a jungle with all the scary noises and wild life to cope with.
My cats do not feel the urge or the need to go outside when the window or patio door is open and if they accidentally put their head outside to sniff the air they get scared and start growling and hissing at the strange smells and noises and go to hiding till the window or the door has being closed. The same behaviour exhibits my ex-stray cat who doesn't show the slight interest to go outside when the door is open. They are all quite happy living indoors as they get all the attention, food and stimulation they need (our house is a cat friendly environment with more cat toys and furniture that human accessories and furniture).
But my cats do get upset when neighbouring cats are visiting our garden in the middle of the night and in particular when the neighbour's un-neutered tom cat visits the garden and sprays everywhere and even scratches at the door outside and hisses at my cats inside. Which behaviour quite understandable upsets my cats. Of course I could easily just pull the curtains and block the outside view to my cats but that would not be fair to them as they enjoy watching the life outside and in particular all the birds or small mammals that they are frequently visiting.
No, I don't think that blocking their view outside is the best solution. I think the ideal solution would have being if the visiting cat(s) was kept indoors at night for his own good and that his carer took responsibility and have him neutered which could make him less aggressive, not keen on roaming far and not wanting to spray all the time and to mark territory.
When cat carers would finally learn that they need to take responsibility for their cats actions like dog carers? They are responsible for the well being of their cats which means neutering them and keeping them indoors at night time to avoid get them injured and even dying from traffic accidents, other pets and wild animals attacks and even human cruelty. Cats are not wild animals, they are domesticated and as such they need to looked after appropriately by humans, they need to spend more time indoors for their own sake and for the wellbeing of the wild life that is visiting our gardens which includes small birds and other animals.