Catscapades

It used to be that cats were associated with old people—you know, the little old lady who lives alone with her cat. But that’s no longer the case. Even the hippest among us might have one or more cats. Young and old alike from all walks of life volunteer at animal shelters, manage feral cat colonies, campaign on behalf of cat welfare, solicit funds for local fire departments to purchase pet oxygen masks, and more.

Yes, men and women of all ages love and care for cats. Practically everyone I know has one or more cats. Is that because cat people are attracted to other cat people?

Here in the US, there’s certainly a large segment of society who can’t resist a kitten or a needy cat. But the Japanese win the prize for the highest percentage of cat ownership in the world. And they seem to be first and foremost with so many creative ideas with regard to cats. They came up with Hello Kitty, the cat train (where kittens ride in hopes of going home with a passenger), cat cafés, and, perhaps, the only island where there are more resident cats than people. They probably have the largest feral cat population in the world, too.

In Malaysia, cats are considered good luck. If traveling there, be sure to visit the Kuching Cat Museum. And you’ll even find cats in celebrities’ homes. You might be surprised at some of the celebrities who are crazy about their cats. Ricky Gervais, for example, from The Office. Actor, James Franco, has posed for a calendar with his cat. The rock star, Morrissey is a hardcore cat lover as is Drew Barrymore. Cher evidently often shares stories and pictures of her cat, Mr. Big, on Instagram and Twitter. Even George Clooney has a pet cat, as does John Travolta.

So we cat lovers are in good company even if some of us are crazy cat ladies.

Celebrate Your Tabby

Today is National Tabby Day. If you have a tabby—that is, a cat with either long or short hair and with shades of black, grey, and white or orange and white stripes, dots, patches and/or swirls, celebrate him or her today. Our Lily is considered a dilute torbie because her tabby markings also include smidges and smudges of orange and her markings are soft and subtle.

Did you know that the tabby coat pattern is the most predominant among cats? Maybe that’s because it was handed down from the original African wild cat. And many tabbies have the M marking on their forehead. Here’s a great site with a lot more information about our precious tabby kitties. http://savvypetcare.com/glorious-tabby-cat/

You’ve heard of the rare dog who has alerted his person to a tumor or some other illness. Well, evidently cats are just as capable of detecting cancer, diabetes, and even pending death. How can that be? It’s all in the nose. Animals have a much greater sense of smell than we do. And, when the body chemistry changes due to an illness, the animals can detect this. Not all cats and dogs will react to it and those who react might do so in different way. But there are some incredible stories out there.

One cat in Canada kept pawing at the left side of his owner. It was later discovered that the man had a large tumor in his left lung. A woman in Tennessee reported that her cat seemed overly concerned with a spot on her breast. Turns out there was a cancer in that area.

I think we’ve all heard about cats in nursing homes who seem to predict death. The cat will hover over someone and soon that person will die. The theory behind this, say the experts, is that there’s a scent emitted when the body begins to shut down—so a cat knows when the patient is about to die through the scent. And some cats will react by staying close to that person or avoiding him, perhaps.

It may not be unusual for a cat to sense death or illness. I think the difference between the illness-sniffing dog and the illness-sniffing cat is in the training. While a dog can be trained to react in some predictable way at the onset of a seizure, for example, or the scent of someone with cancer or low-blood sugar, a cat’s reaction to the same ailment might go unnoticed. In case you’re interested in more information on this topic, here are a few links:

https://pets.thenest.com/cancersniffing-cats-9722.html

http://kittymews.com/can-cats-detect-diabetes/

https://exceptionalpetsitting.com/can-pets-detect-diseases-in-humans/

Comment if you know of a cat who has detected disease in a human or another animal. I’m also interested in your stories of healing cats or comforting cats. In our household, for example, one of our cats seems to detect and sooth pain. Sometimes when Dennis’s chronic pain is exceptional, Sophie will jump on his lap and sit and stare for a while. Dennis says that within minutes, the pain will ease.

Yesterday we talked about seeing cats in unusual places. Maybe you’ve been to a cat café where you can cuddle with a cat while enjoying a cup of coffee. There are currently 72 such cafés in the US and dozens more throughout the world including, Taiwan, Australia, Paris, London, Russia and many of them in Japan.

If you seek out cats when you travel, you might consider visiting Ernest Hemmingway’s home and museum in Key West, Florida and meet some of the offspring from his original cat collection. Most of them have 6 toes.

In Belgium, they have a Festival of Cats every year where people dress like cats and there are cat-like balloon figures, etc. It’s called Kattenstoet and it will be held on May 13 this year, in case you’re interested.

You’ll even find cats in the theater. There’s a cat cinema in Thailand where you can watch horror and science fiction movies with a cat on your lap.

In Moscow, there’s a theater troupe that includes 120 cats.

And there are scads of celebrities who have one or more cats in their home. I’ll list some of them tomorrow.

I’m surprised when I see a cat on a boat. But I guess this isn’t so unique. Cats have been used for rat patrol on ships for centuries. I don’t recall ever seeing a cat on a cruise ship, however. But it could happen in this day and age of therapy pets being welcome most anywhere.

What are some of the most unexpected places where you’ve seen cats? Inside stores, libraries, trains—there’s a train in Japan that is typically filled with kittens. There are also cities where multitudes of cats run free and are cared for by shop owners, residents, tourists… What about amusement parks? Did you know, for example, that there’s quite a gathering of feral cats at Disneyland? Here’s a story about those cats: https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/careersandeducation/disneyland-is-home-to-hundreds-of-feral-cats-who-have-free-rein-in-the-park-e2-80-94-and-you-can-adopt-one/ar-AAw8RFj

Here’s a blog site dedicated to cats being seen in unusual places. https://www.facebook.com/catcamouflage/ I love the one of the cat in the refrigerator.

Of course, there are working cat programs, wherein unadoptable cats are placed in businesses to earn their keep as mousers. Here’s one such story: http://www.startribune.com/working-cats-program-gives-felines-a-job-and-a-home/374560061/

Where’s the most unusual place you’ve encountered a cat?

Earlier this week, I wrote about cats being great alert systems—watch-cats, if you will. Those of you who have read some of the Klepto Cat Mysteries know that Rags, the starring cat, is a great watch-cat. He even attacks bad people, “paws” criminals in line-ups, and helps law enforcement by finding clues. While I write fiction, there are actually some real-life cats that save lives and property. Here’s a recent story of a cat who helped the cops nab a burglar. http://www.lifewithcats.tv/2018/04/10/this-just-in-angry-cat-foils-burglary/

A cat in Michigan saved a 97-year-old woman from a vicious dog attack. Her cat saw what was happening and jumped right in the middle of the pit bulls, scattering them in all directions. Yay, Tiger!

A cat in Wisconsin awakened his owner when she was having a diabetic emergency. When her cries didn’t wake up her son to the fact that she needed help, the cat ran to his bedroom and awakened him. The cat hadn’t been with the family for very long, either. There was no long-term bond. But he came into the family just in time. The woman had adopted the cat that very afternoon.

Many cats have been known to alert their owners when something is terribly wrong. A cat in Montana woke her owner up when their house sprung a gas leak. The authorities said the house could have blown up if the cat hadn’t intervened. A cat in Philadelphia warned his owners that their house was about to collapse. The man actually ran upstairs to wake his wife because the cat was acting so strange. The house collapsed around them, however, and no one was hurt.

Many cats have saved their families from house fires and even carbon monoxide poisoning by waking them up in the night.

Your cat might use a variety of techniques to get your attention. If the bedroom door’s closed, he’ll probably meow frantically and scratch on the door. She might paw at you trying to wake you up and meow—even bite. My cats pull my hair with their teeth. Ouch! But generally, they just want me to get up and feed them. Sometimes the cat will simply tense up and maybe run and hide if something frightens them.

It’s a wise cat owner who pays attention to their cat when he or she behaves differently than usual. It could mean that someone is lurking in your backyard or there’s some other imminent danger—a pending earthquake, perhaps. Or it could mean the cat is ill or in some sort of distress.

One thing I and many others have learned is that cats don’t typically cry wolf. If your cat tells you there’s a wolf at the door, you’d better well believe her.

Do your cats object to having strangers in and around your house? Do they react when someone is coming up your walkway? Some cats, when visitors arrive, rush to the door to greet them, while others head under the bed.

Cats can be relied upon as an alert system. Almost any cat will react in some way to a prowler, for example. They might not do anything to protect you when the masher breaks in. But they’ll let you know he’s coming. How? By tensing up and either quickly finding a hiding place or peering out the window with a worried expression or simple curiosity. But a cat will do this whether it is a malicious human lurking with ill intentions or a raccoon or neighborhood cat wandering through your yard.

What about when you’re having work done at your house? How do your cats handle the intrusion of people with noisy vacuum cleaners, drills, hammers and so forth? This activity freaks out our cats. When we’re going to have work done, we always devise a plan ahead of time hoping to make it as stress-free as possible for our kitties.

How do you help your cat through frightening experiences? If you’ve had the cat for a while you know how she’ll react to something like this—something that interrupts her routine and her peace. Some cats would do better when you’re entertaining, or having major work done around the home if you were to board them. This could be especially successful for the cat who is accustomed to the boarding facility. Some people use pheromone spray to help calm their cat in stressful situations. When we expect an invasion of guests or workers, we help our kitties to find their areas of comfort and make them as comfortable as possible.

We just had a restoration company come in and clean our home from top to bottom after the horrendous wildfire we had here in Ojai in December. They cleaned every inch of the house inside and out—even replaced the insulation in the attic and spent a full week doing it. In anticipation of this, we knew it meant it could be a stressful week for Lily and Sophie.

We weighed our options. We were pretty sure, after Sophie’s experience with the evacuation, that boarding her would be too hard on her. So we decided to keep both cats at home. First, we communicated with the crew leader to make sure he knew we had scaredy cats that are not allowed outside to manage throughout the cleaning ordeal. We needed the crew to work with us by letting us know where they’d be working each day. They knew we needed one of the three rooms with doors each day where Lily could hide out. Sophie doesn’t do well behind a closed door unless we’re inside with her. She needs to be free to find her safe place and she did so that week under our watchful eye.

Each day we’d put food water and litter box in one of the bedrooms with Lily and I’d visit her often throughout the day. Each day, Sophie would find a corner, usually close to where we were hanging out. One day, we all stayed in a room at the back of the house together.

Each evening, once it was quiet, the cats would creep out and spend several minutes sniffing and checking out what had been changed, who had been in the house, etc. It’s over now and both cats are back to their normal. Lily is in my lap as I type this. We all made it through the ordeal unscathed.