I get squeamish when addressing the topic of declawing cats. I’ve never done it and never will do it, unless for medical reasons—the cat has a serious infection in the paw and must have a claw removed, for example.
More and more cities and states are banning the practice of declawing cats. New York state is seriously considering a ban along with California, New Jersey, Massachusetts and others. Cities that already ban this practice include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Denver. At least twenty-eight countries outlaw declawing. They include England, Israel, Italy, Germany, and Portugal.
Some say that declawing can cause an increase in the cat biting and possibly avoiding the
litter box, which often leads to surrendering the cat. In case you want to read the entire article published this month in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/nyregion/cats-declawing-law-ban.html
Cats clawing furniture can be a problem, but in my world I’d rather put up with mildly frayed furniture and cat hair on my clothes and even maybe a sleepless night because a kitten wants to play than to put a cat through what can become torturous surgery and recovery.
The assembly line keeps rolling. This week I continue to work on Book 37 while Book 36 is with the editor. I’m sometimes asked what’s my favorite part of the process of writing these cozy mysteries. That’s easy—every part of it—well, maybe except for the occasional glitch that occurs with Amazon when we go into production. Those are generally smoothed out fairly easily—but they make me crazy.
will I write about next? How can I keep my stories fresh? What will keep readers reading? Is my well of ideas empty? You should see the wide smile on my face when I sit down at the computer and a story begins to emerge.
Then I edit, edit, and edit some more—going through the manuscript over and over tying loose ends, perfecting concepts, strengthening characters, perhaps adding more kitty-cat action, maybe taming a scene that got out of hand or expanding on one. I also conduct a lot of research to make sure the facts are correct. And I double, triple, quadruple check timelines. This is the most intense of the processes and one of the most important. It’s not as creative as some of the beginning stages, but I love the process, so that’s a plus.
the manuscript over to beta readers—sometimes one, sometimes more. I listen to their comments and maybe readjust a few things. A little time has passed by now since I’ve worked on this story, so I do another edit or three or four before turning the manuscript over to the my editor.
We get to a certain point in our lives when we don’t 
allow close up shots of ourselves. No more selfies unless the selfie stick is six feet long. But when it comes to cats, all bets are off. At least in my world. I love close-up photography. And I’m always getting in Lily’s and Sophie’s face with my camera.
One thing that prevents some people from having cats is the fact that they have claws and they like to use them. Here’s a picture of a box that Smokey shredded over time. A nice piece of artwork, isn’t it? In this case, it was no big deal—it was a box stored in the garage.
items for the cats to do their scratching on.
Your cat doesn’t do these things to upset you. He doesn’t wake up one day and decide to destroy your furniture. Clawing is in a cat’s DNA. But shredding seems to fit into a different category.
used to steal faxes as they come in and shred them. Then what? She makes herself a little nest bed.
Cats love cubbyholes, tents, caves, and other hidey places. They curl up in boxes, drawers, closets, and even under the bed. How many times have you opened the linen closet and found a cat resting on a stack of towels or behind folded sheets? Or looked all over for a cat and found her sleeping in the closet?
their cats and most cats fall for it. You create a circle (or it can be a square) on the floor using blocks, pencils, the cat’s toys, socks—it doesn’t matter. But once you’ve made the shape, the cat will generally step inside it and sit down. Smokey (aka Rags in my Klepto Cat Mystery stories) actually moved the items around before he stepped inside the circle that I made for him. Yup, he’s creative.
In winter, we toss blankets over the furniture for our cats to cuddle under. They love this. We find it especially important when we’re going to be gone for a while and we’ve turned the heater down a few notches because their body heat inside the tent keeps them warmer.
drawer open for a moment and the next thing you know the cat’s in there. Kitchen cabinets—the same thing. We had a lazy Susan corner cupboard once and would lose kittens back in there sometimes. No worries, we’d always rescue them. They taught us to keep that cupboard closed.
I use a lot of websites and other online resources to locate information, news, and interesting stories for you. I thought you’d like to visit some of them for a few laughs, some hard facts, and entertainment.
are enjoying my efforts will be pleased to know I don’t expect to slow down any time soon.
Isn’t this an interesting concept? Cats certainly have some incredible credentials for managing situations. We see them become leaders in our home (leading us to the treat drawer or the water faucet or where we keep the catnip). Cats can negotiate for affection, food, outdoor time… Our cats will beg to have a tent put up where they can chill in privacy or for us to dangle or wriggle their favorite toy.
choose their allies and their opponents carefully and they love a peaceful existence. While their territory is important to them, they aren’t going out of their way to cause a rumble.
Stubbs served almost all of his nine lives as mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska. I asked for an audience with Stubbs when I was there four or five years ago, but, alas, Stubbs was not well and he died not too long after that. His term lasted for fifteen years, so he must have had a good record.
mayor in 2013 in Xalapa, Mexico. His slogan was “Tired of voting for rats?” And he promised to use his litter to fill potholes.
This is a fun topic. If you have one or more cats, you know that cats have opinions and desires and dislikes and some cats are quite the expert at communicating these. They use lots of body language. You know right away when a cat wants to be petted and when she doesn’t. Your cat will complain loud and clear when she doesn’t want a bath or her nails clipped or to be on the other side of a closed door.
you know why they do that? Some say it’s because the cat hears you talking and they think you’re talking to them. Of course you talk to your cat, right? And does she talk back? Ours do. It’s been reported and documented that cats do not use their voice with other cats. We, as humans, evidently teach them to “speak.” They meow, mew, yowl, in response to our voice. And some cats can become quite vocal. Some breeds tend to be more vocal than others. Does that mean they’re more intelligent? Do they really believe they’re creating words? Is there meaning to the sounds they make? And that brings us to another sticky wicket question. Do cat’s understand our words or our tone? It sure seems like it sometimes, doesn’t it?
Lily brings me her small stuffed toys and my cozy socks with a prrrrt sound or a yowl—I take it as a, “Hey, Mom, I brought you something!” Last week I’d been gone all day. When I stepped inside the house, here came Lily from the bedroom with one of my cozy socks. She dropped it at my feet, looked up at me and meowed. So sweet.
While I’m certainly no expert on cats, least of all their behavior, I write about them, live with them, advocate for them, and love them. And I get questions, and I attempt to respond. (I do know how to conduct research and I have opinions based on what I’ve observed and experienced—as we all do.)
show guests often and usually was able to help to a degree. He watched the cats’ actions and studied their personality and history to discover what each wanted, how they reacted to people and activities, and what might be lurking in their past to cause them to behave in certain ways. Then he’d try to afford each cat his pleasures–one might prefer being higher–create perches on the walls where he can sit and nap. One cat might have bad eyesight and when the other one comes near, he is startled. There could be any of a hundred reasons why cats rumble. Maybe one of them got the upper paw at some point and has taken advantage of that. Maybe the meeker cat needs more one-on-one human time.
Certainly there are others with this problem. In our household Sophie (14) and Lily (10) only tolerate each other. While Sophie loved playing with Lily when she was a kitten, the two of them are not particularly bonded. They don’t cuddle together, nor are they aggressive with each other. They do however, on occasion, have a “dust-up.” I call it a girl fight. They sit looking at each other for a moment as if saying, “I was here first.” “No I was here first—you move.” Then a paw goes up in a threatening manner. Then a second paw. One or the other (never the same one) will close her eyes and slap. The second cat slaps back. There may be a few additional slaps, then they step off and go about their business as if nothing happened.
competing for food, space, the human interaction. Of course, Fluffy will resent another cat coming in and disrupting her happy home, but not all cats will make it a huge issue. Most will simply ignore the other cat and maybe display cat-itude once in a while. Others become aggressive and will bully the other cats in the household if they can get away with it.
What to do? Here are some things that might help: feed the cats in different areas away from each other, bring in more litter boxes, use pheromones, provide more perches and hidey holes for them and, here’s a biggie, toss them treats when they’re behaving nicely with each other.
