CAT LOVERS SITE

Archive for the ‘articles’ Category

Years ago I had a friend who knew how to card and spin wool.  She had quite a few llamas and made some extra money by shearing them and selling the finished yarn.  This gave her an idea to try saving dog fur and spinning that into yarn, which she then knitted into a sweater!  It was very soft, but the big problem was if it got damp, it smelled like WET DOG.  So I guess it wasn’t such a good idea.  I’ve always wondered if the same could be done with cat fur, and lo and behold, I’ve found a video about a woman who is a groomer and gathers up the cat fur, cards and spins it, then knits handbags with the yarn.  This is a very interesting video:

I found a whole website dedicated to dancing with your cat.  No kidding!  Here is the Dancing With Cats homepage, and it includes links to “The History of Feline Dance“,  “Pre-Dance Exercises“, and “Dance Tips”.

Here is the album cover to “Dancing With Cats” by David Parsons:

This album is $83 on Amazon!!   So there you have it, everything you need to know about the unique art of dancing with your cat.

Bella doesn’t really like to be held, except occasionally when she is in the mood, but she didn’t seem to mind hanging in a towel like this, in fact she seemed to enjoy it!

Feline’s Pride is announcing a voluntary recall of Feline’s Pride Raw food with ground bone for cats and kittens, Natural Chicken Formula, Net Wt. 2.5 lbs. (1.13 kg., 40 oz.) produced on 6/10/10, because it may be contaminated with Salmonella

The recalled cat food was purchased online, packaged in uncoded plastic containers and sold frozen to consumers nationwide. For more information, consumers can call 716-580-3096.

After losing his two rear paws in an unlucky encounter with a combine harvester in October, Oscar, a green-eyed black cat, has been given metallic pegs for legs.

After Oscar’s farming accident, which happened when the 2 1/2-year-old-cat was lazing in the sun in the British Channel Isles, his owners, Kate and Mike Nolan, took him to their local veterinarian. In turn, the vet referred Oscar to Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick, a neuro-orthopedic surgeon in Eashing, 35 miles southwest of London.

Together with biomedical engineering experts, Fitzpatrick gave Oscar two metal prosthetic implants that are a bit wobbly, to imitate a cat’s natural walk. But first, he covered the brown implants with black tape to match Oscar’s fur.

Fitzpatrick said he and biomedical engineers designed the artificial paws so that they would be fused to the bone and skin. “That allows this implant to work as a seesaw on the bottom of the animal’s limbs to give him an effectively normal gait.  Oscar can now run and jump about as cats should do.”

The veterinarians then inserted the peg-like implants by drilling them into Oscar’s ankle bones in his rear legs. The metal implants are attached to the bone where Oscar lost his paws and were coated with a substance that helps bone cells grow directly over them. Oscar’s own skin then grew over the end of the peg to form a natural seal to prevent infections.

“This is a pretty lucky cat,” said Dr. Mark Johnston, a veterinarian and spokesman for the British Small Animal Veterinary Association. “Giving a cat artificial limbs is a very novel solution.”

Well, this is something I never knew: The saponins in Aloe Vera are toxic to cats AND dogs.

The clinical signs are:vomiting, depression, diarrhea, anorexia, tremors, change in urine color.

Before I moved, I always had quite a few aloe plants.  Guess I was lucky that the cats and dog never chewed on them.

Vindication is a memorial that is dedicated to pets and pet owners that have suffered because of contaminated or poisoned pet food.

Five acres of land at Keystone Lake in Oklahoma have  been donated to all Pet Owners.  Five acres in the very center of the United States given to us; a memorial to focus on the very center of the problem.

From the 2007 melamine pet food recall alone, some estimates are as high as 300,000 U.S. and Canadian pets became sick, died, or are still fighting kidney disease. Countless thousands more pets have become sick from recalls or silent recalls of tainted pet food since.

No laws have changed, no lawsuits have been settled, none responsible have been jailed.  No one has told us how many died or remain sick; no one tells us how many continue to become sick and/or die from new recalls.  Today, we barely even know the partial truth of pet food risks.

One shattered pet family, fed up with the continued snubbing of industry and government, decided enough was enough.  Every single pet that has died or remains ill because of a pet food will be remembered; why these pets became sick and/or why they died will be remembered too.

If your Pet died or remains ill due to a pet food,
Click Here to include your Pet in Vindication

Now THIS is one fluffy tail:

Mango showing off his beautiful plume of a tail

Share your fluffy friends with us every Friday! Whether it’s a favourite stuffed toy or an adorable pet - basically anything fluffy, we’d love to see your pictures & stories! Leave ONLY the POST URL here and grab the Fluffy Friday badge at Meow Diaries. Any unrelated links will be deleted.

Powered by MckLinky

Click here to enter your link and view the entire list of entered links…

In the tobacco industry’s ridiculous attempt to prove that their product doesn’t actually kill people, they have invested literally millions of dollars into animal testing facilities.

In laboratories built by the tobacco industry, or in contract laboratories, beagle puppies are attached to gas mask-like devices and forced to breath in cigarette smoke for hours on end. After enduring months, if not years, of this torture, the dogs are killed so their lungs and other organs can be examined to study the impact the smoke had on them. 

Pregnant Rhesus monkeys in these laboratories are forced to breathe in cigarette smoke during the duration of their pregnancy and, shortly before giving birth, the mother and her unborn baby will be killed so her body may be dissected and her baby removed to observe the side effects of smoking on pregnancy and fetal development.

All scientific evidence points to the same conclusion: using cigarettes and other tobacco products leads to cancers, emphysema, birth defects and a host of other physical ailments in humans, yet tobacco companies and research laboratories continue on with what appears to be not only a complete disregard of scientific findings, but a lack of concern for the lives of other beings.

You can help stop these cruel tests by signing this petition.

ConsumerAffairs.com has over 500 consumer complaints in the last two years regarding Nutro Pet Foods.  Journalist Lisa McCormick confirmed (in April 2009) that Nutro Pet Food was under investigation (by the FDA) yet no recall has been issued.  http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/04/nutro_foia.html

You can click HERE to read the story and investigation of a cat that nearly died from an overdose of vitamin D in Nutro Chicken Meal and Rice cat food. If the cat’s owner had not figured out that the illness was from the food and had it tested, this cat would have died, (makes you wonder how many have,) yet the FDA refuses to take action.

Natura Pet Products have been bought out by, of all corporations, Proctor and Gamble.

All the products, Innova, Evo, California Naturals, Healthwise and Karma are now a partner food to Iams/Eukanuba.If you’d like to see just some of the horror and suffering that goes on in the name of Iams/Eukanuba PLEASE CLICK HERE.

P&G’s products are loaded with harmful synthetic chemicals, which are tested on millions of animals who suffer and die.  These chemicals are linked to cancer and other diseases, including endocrine disruption and birth defects. They continue to cause illness and death to wildlife after they contaminate wastewater.

Each year, thousands of animals die in Procter & Gamble laboratories — the victims of painful, archaic and entirely unnecessary product tests. Caustic chemicals are forced into the eyes of rabbits and applied to animals’ shaved and raw skin. 

Laboratory workers place the animals in restraining devices so they cannot struggle while the workers apply the chemicals, which burn into the animals’ eyes and skin. P&G “scientists” do not sedate the animals or give them pain killers.

Animals sometimes break their necks or backs attempting to escape the pain. Those that survive are used in yet additional painful tests … until they are finally killed. The victims include rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, ferrets and other animals.  THESE TESTS ARE NOT REQUIRED BY LAW.

If you buy P & G products, you fund animal torture.

I know I WON’T BUY WHILE CATS AND DOGS DIE.  WILL YOU?

This probably doesn’t look very fluffy:

But it’s a “hair broom” made with animal fur  stuffed into nylons and it’s used to clean up oil spills!  Turn this: into useful hair brooms to soak up oil spills!

Here is a “hair mat” also used for soaking up oil spills: 

You can CLICK HERE to donate your fluffy cat/dog/horse furs-or any fur or hair for that matter!  Help clean up the Gulf Oil Spill by donating today!  Here is a video on how to make hair brooms and it also gives info on what the program is about.

Please pass this along to groomers and hairdressers so they can help clean up the oil spill too!

Share your fluffy friends with us every Friday! Whether it’s a favourite stuffed toy or an adorable pet - basically anything fluffy, we’d love to see your pictures & stories! Leave ONLY the POST URL here and grab the Fluffy Friday badge at Meow Diaries. Any unrelated links will be deleted.

Powered by MckLinky

Click here to enter your link and view the entire list of entered links…

I got Mango when he was 3 years old. Nobody could tell me much about his background other than that “he’s really strange”.  He was going to be “put to sleep” just because nobody wanted him, so of course I took him in. 

Right from the start, he was afraid of everything, but eventually he fell in love with me and calmed down some.  For many years we didn’t let him outside, not only because he was so fearful, but because I didn’t let any of my cats out.  Mango spent those years peeing by the door, obviously expressing his displeasure at not being able to go outside.

Eventually, I started letting the cats out because it made them SO happy (especially Mango) and they really were miserable being inside.  They come in at night before dark and they are monitored frequently when they’re out, so it usually works out.  Mango stopped peeing by the door (no, I can assure you he does not have a bladder problem, and I’ve seen him use the litter box…when it suits him).  The only problem is, Mango demands to be let out at odd hours, he can’t seem to adjust to our schedule, and if I don’t let him out he promptly pees in some place that he has chosen for it’s negative effect.  Lately it’s been the couch. Now, the couch has folding chairs on it to deter my buddy from using it as a litter box.  Gross. 

Yesterday the cats came in early because we were leaving at 2 PM.  When we got home at 11, exhausted, Mango was begging to go out. No way was I going to let him out unsupervised, so I brought him up to the litter box, and then went to bed. Not ten minutes later, he was scratching around in the clothes I had thrown on the floor, and he PEED IN MY CLOTHES. Direct message “Let me out when I demand, or I will get back at YOU”.  Not only that, but some time in the night he pooped in the bathroom.  We keep the door shut at all times because Mango chose the bathroom to do his dirty deed a  few times when it was too cold and he didn’t even want to go out.  OK, so he opened the door, went in, crapped on the floor, and then closed the door behind him? Whatever.  Apparently he hates the litter box, which all the other cats use with no problem.   What do I do with him?  I just can’t let him out every time he wants out, I have a life…really.  Usually I’m just about to leave the house, or it’s too late, or too early.  This is a busy parking lot AND I’ve seen coyotes in the neighborhood, so there are only certain times when it’s safe for the cats to be out.

I’m thinking a separate litter box, just for him…how do I keep the other cats out? How do I make him use it?

Any ideas?                   

Or at least the leaves, stems and seeds of apples because they contain cyanide. Make sure your kids never eat apple seeds!  The leaves are particularly toxic when in the process of wilting.  Cats love to munch on greenery, but I’m not sure how attracted they are to apple leaves.

Clinical signs in cats, dogs and horses are: brick red mucous membranes, dilated pupils, difficulty breathing, panting, shock.

Crab apples are just as toxic. 

Here are just a few quotes from some well-known veterinarians who have dared to investigate and learn about vaccinations. You may just save your pet’s life by learning the truth about vaccinations.

Bob Rogers, DVM - “We are harming pets by causing fibrosarcomas, possibly hypothyroidism and IMHA. The research has been done to support reduced vaccination recommendations. More importantly research shows that unnecessarily repeating vaccines has no effect.”

Dr. Christina Chambreau, DVM - “Routine vaccinations are probably the worst thing that we do for our animals…”

Dr. Pat Bradley, DVM -
“In a general and frightening context, I see the overall health and longevity of animals deteriorating. The bodies of most animals have a tremendous capacity to detoxify poisons, but they do have a limit. I think we often exceed that limit and overwhelm the body’s immune system function with toxins from vaccines.”

Chrissie Mason B.R.C.P., Ph.D. - “I am becoming seriously concerned at the increase in the cases of Auto-immune disease, and the Canine/Feline vaccination programme which I consider to be inextricably linked. Certainly, I do not stand alone in holding these views, as a number of Orthodox Veterinary Practitioners have expressed their concern over the incidence of certain types of illness suddenly appearing after a vaccination has been administered.”

Dr. Charles E Loops DVM - “The first thing that must change with routine vaccinations is the myth that vaccines are not harmful. Veterinarians and animal guardians have to come to realise that they are not protecting animals from disease by annual vaccinations, but in fact, are destroying the health and immune systems of these same animals they love and care for.”

Consider this… One dose of rabies vaccine costs the vet about 61 cents. The client is typically charged between $15 and $38, plus a $35 office visit. The markup on the vaccine alone is 2,400 percent to 6,200 percent—a markup equivalent to charging $217 for a loaf of bread. According to one estimate, removing the one-year rabies vaccination and consequential office visit for dogs alone would decrease the average small vet’s income from $87,000 to $25,000—and this doesn’t include cats or other vaccinations.

Stop the Shots! IF YOU HAVE A DOG OR CAT: DON’T VACCINATE until you read  this book!

WHAT VETS DON’T TELL YOU ABOUT VACCINES

A few months ago I wrote a post about the dangers of using clay litter, which prompted me to switch over to World’s Best Cat Litter which is corn-based.  Just a few days ago I read an article about 3 cats that had gotten very sick and one died, from the mycotoxins in that particular litter.  Well now that I think about it (and have done some research) it is clear that when grains, especially corn, get wet, they produce mycotoxins.  Mycotoxins are TOXINS.  Trust me on this one ’cause I had Crohn’s Disease for years and one of the many things I had to do to get over it was eliminate mycotoxins. 

Susan Thixton, author of Truth About Pet Food wrote to World’s Best about this problem and this is part of the answer that she got from them:

‘There are no possibilities of contamination and toxicity issue when the product is in the bag and fresh out the bag.  The product won’t have any mold or fungi issues unless it has been subjected to moisture in the litter box.’

HELLO!!! Cats PEE in the litter box, and that is MOISTURE!!

“Mycotoxins can show carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic, teratogenic or immunotoxic effects.”

On top of this, I discovered that they use GMO corn and in no way will I support Monsanto and their herbicides of death.

So I returned my giant (thankfully unopened) bag of World’s Best Cat Litter to the store and got Feline Pine…which I really hope is safe.  Do they use sawdust from treated wood? I will have to research this one too.  I would guess that SweatScoop, made from wheat, would be susceptible  to mycotoxin infestation also since all grains worldwide are contaminated or become contaminated easily with moisture.

Most cat food contains grain, and cats are NOT grain-eaters.  They do not have the proper enzymes to digest grain.

Dogs and cats do not produce an enzyme called amylase in their saliva to actually break-down carbohydrates and starches.

Unlike omnivores, cats cannot decrease liver enzymes when fed a low protein grain-based diet. This is probably why hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease accompanied by protein defiency) is common in cats fed a dry food diet, especially those that are obese.

While the label on dry cat food will show what looks like sufficient protein, a good amount of that protein is coming from grains, which is indigestible and poor quality.

The other important reason for keeping grains away from your cat is that all grains contain mycotoxins,(aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, and Fusarium mycotoxins) which actually poison your cat (or dog…or you).

Mycotoxins contaminate cereal grains worldwide, and their presence in pet food is a potential health threat to pets.

People are not grain-eaters either, and you’d be amazed at how much better you will feel if you don’t eat any grains at all!  CLICK HERE for more info.

Hi there folks, this is Yours Truly, King Taco.  It has come to my attention that this blog focuses entirely too much on how “adorable” we cats are, without much thought to proper education for cats.  I mean, if you are a Cat Lover, surely you would want your cat to be an expert in the fine art of Human Training, no?

So, with the aid of my well-trained human, I will commence this series with a most important topic: Waking Your Human.

Be aware that Waking Your Human on time, every morning, is not only your duty as a responsible Human Owner, it can be both a challenge and a pleasure.  And, as we all know, it is vitally important that our food and water bowls be filled by the prescribed time of day and attention be given to us as we demand it, even if that may be quite “early” (by silly human standards) in the day.

For starters, choose the time that is the most convenient for you, say 5 or 6 in the morning.  Of course we don’t need those silly “clock” things, our ability to “tell time” is far superior to Humans.

1) Try gently nuzzling your Human, with a few quick mews added in for effect. This may work well and get your Human up in a relatively good mood…unless she’s doing the horrible “sleeping in” thing-NOT ALLOWED, it SPOILS them.

2) Walking on your Human is quite effective, though if you get nudged off the bed repeatedly it’s time to move on to more obvious and annoying tactics.

3) If there are blinds in your Human’s room, definitely go for the pawing and clawing at the blinds effect.  This can be quite loud and should do the trick.

4) If your Human is still asleep (more likely pretending to be asleep in the hope that you’ll go away) it’s time to get serious.  Jump on every piece of furniture and look for the easiest stuff to push off onto the floor.  Your Human might be getting a bit cranky by this time.  Ignore it.  If you’re still not getting results, try swatting bigger, heavier, more breakable stuff.  Trust me, it’s a waker-upper.

5) If your Human is not panting heavily swearing under their breath at this point, there is one other option: ripping and shredding!  My very favorite is pulling the calender off the wall and shredding it to bits.  Well usually I don’t get that far, since I have accomplished my goal.

Now, if you get tossed out of the room, of course the only option is to scratch frantically at the door.  You can get other cats to aid in this and other ventures (more than one cat makes for MUCH faster results) and Mango is my scratching at the door expert.  He gets down low and claws the heck out of the bottom of the door, while I lean up over him and claw the upper part.  It works!

Mango has another trick that works well for him, clawing on the carpet right by the bed.  Mango can do it really LOUDLY and I have to give the boring old boy credit for that!

Anyway, your Human should be up and moving (albeit grouchily) towards the food bowl by this time, so take the time to show thanks by acting loveable and “happy”.  This is a good control measure, and your Human should respond well (though slowly) to some well-thought-out “cutesy” antics.  This also ensures an affable atmosphere in the home.  Remember: Humans are easily distracted, and more easily controlled.  Just purr, “chirp” and do some silly stuff and your Human will be placated and ready to do your bidding.  We are all unique and have our own little “tricks”.  Mango, for instance, does somersaults when he sees the Mommy.  He’s got her wrapped in his own little old-fart Mango way.  Experiment and use your unlimited imagination!

Wishing the cat blogosphere much success in Human Training, next topic will be “Five Ways To Sneak Outside” so watch for another post coming soon!

Yours Truly:

King Taco

I just came across an awesome blog, The Conscious Cat a resource for conscious living, health and happiness for pets and their people.  The author of this blog is Ingrid King, also the author of Buckley’s Story – Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher.

In honor of their one year blog anniversary, they are having a fantastic giveaway, a gift basket from Whimsy Cats which includes an autographed copy of Buckley’s Story and lots of fun surprises for your feline family members.

If you’d like to enter the giveaway, go to The Conscious Cat and:

• Leave a comment on the anniversary post.
• Tweet about this giveaway or share it on Facebook for an additional chance to win and leave the link to your tweet/share in a separate comment.
• Subscribe to The Conscious Cat via  e-mail.  If you’re already subscribed, you’re automatically entered in the giveaway.
• Blog about this giveaway on your blog and leave the link in a separate comment.

The giveaway is open until midnight Saturday, March 15.

Coal-fired power plants produce more than 100 million tons of the toxic-waste byproduct sulfur dioxide, the stuff that causes acid rain.

Called FGD gypsum, this synthetic powder is produced when coal plant “scrubbers”  remove sulfur dioxide from plant emissions.     

Last year, a coal ash pond just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, spilled and flooded about 300 acres of land with ash, killing many fish in the area. The spill damaged many homes as well, and cleanup costs are expected to be upwards of $1 billion. This catastrophe has prompted the EPA to draft regulations on how to handle toxic coal waste safely.  Guess what they came up with?

In 2001, the USDA together with the EPA began to promote FGD gypsum use in agriculture. Since that time, the amount of coal ash used by farmers on their fields has tripled. According to the American Coal Ash Association (ACAA), nearly 280,000 tons of the byproduct was spread on fields last year.

FGD gypsum contains toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and arsenic, but according to the EPA, “the mercury contained in FGD gypsum does not affect plants and runoff into water supplies at significant levels.”  Guess they never heard of PHYTOREMEDIATION, a technology which uses plants to absorb heavy metals from the soil.

If the waste from coal plants is toxic and must be dealt with in a manner that keeps it contained, I’m just wondering why the EPA would promote the same waste for use on FOOD crops.  Perhaps it’s just more cost-effective to sell toxic waste to farmers than to stop producing it in the first place.

Food that’s USDA-certified organic cannot be grown with coal ash.  I’m sticking with organic for my family, and that includes my cats.


Nature’s Variety Raw Food Diets Organic Chicken Patties 6 lbs.