Trap, Neuter and Return for Feral Cat Day

We have a great story about a feral cat and me in our family. To sum it up briefly, I attempted to lure one into our car one evening in the drive-thru of a fast food restaurant, much to the delight of the rest of the passengers in the car. The cat declined my invitation of French fry morsels, and now the running joke when we see a feral cat is if I’m going to get out and try to “catnap” it or not.

Looking back, I know my heart was in the right place, but what if that cat had been dangerous? My child was in the car, after all! While I shouldn’t be prowling the streets, trying to abduct and “save” homeless cats in our already pet-filled home, there are still things that I can do for feral cats in general, and I hope that you are moved to do so, as well.

October 16 is National Feral Cat Day. To participate, all you need is an open mind and a caring heart for cats.

One thing that’s great for feral cats, who are actually often rather happy and healthy on their own terms, is the Trap-Neuter-Return program. This allows the cats to continue living the lifestyles they have lived—without harming any humans due to their wildness and possible inability to be adopted—without reproducing.

We know that reproduction of cats and dogs is simply off the charts and needs to be controlled; there are so many abandoned critters out there that wouldn’t have been tossed away into a life of suffering if their parents had been spayed or neutered. But feral cats that are neutered can also take care of themselves in the wild. Natural predators, they can fend for themselves, eat, sleep, and live happy lives—without a cluster of kittens, that is.

I know that sounds like a heartless mother ready to abandon her triplets and run off to be a waitress in Reno, but for feral cats, it’s the truth; they get impregnated by other feral cats and then must care for a litter in the wild. And while Mama Kitty may have enough resources and food for herself, she suddenly has to share with six more kittens, who will either die on her or force her to become unhealthy as she cares for them. It’s a lose-lose situation for all involved.

That’s why it’s so important to have spaying and neutering clinics, especially Trap-Neuter-Return, which fixes feral cats and then released them back to their homes in the wild.

To learn more about the program and to get involved, click here.

CATcerto

Lithuanian conductor and composer Mindaugas Piecaitis and Nora The Piano Cat perform his CATcerto. The world premiere took place on June 5th, 2009, with Nora and the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra in the Klaipeda Concert Hall in Klaipeda, Lithuania, under the direction of Piecaitis. You can find the CATcerto Web site here.

Youtube Nation: A Word About Cats

Back in the days when I was a useless drain on society (re: college), I visited an academic advisor for general education requirements. Unlike Major advisors, general education types got shoved into windowless corners like a shameful secret. In the sub-basement of one of the Humanities buildings I met with this woman to discuss the progress of my education, only to find myself surrounded with cat paraphernalia in frightening density. The wall was lined with cat mugs, snow globes, photos, plush dolls and office supplies. For some reason, this behavior still isn't considered a sign of mental imbalance.

I feel it's high time you cat people started to explain this nonsense to me because I am at the mortal limit of flabbergast. What's your deal, anyway? Why is it that every other variety of pet owner on the planet manages to be reasonable and sane about the filthy, non-food animals in their midst while you seem to have willingly gone off the deep end? Did the ancient Egyptians place a curse on all Western peoples after Alexander kicked the Persians out and conquered them? Did I just waste my time with a historical reference on the Internet?

I'm not saying that there isn't something inherently off about keeping a lower species of creature in your house for purposes that are entirely inventions of the mind, but the amount of crazy in cat ownership seems to be disproportionate to the ownership of other animals. Dog people certainly come a close second, though they exhibit far more lucidity when it comes to the true condition of the beasts they call friends. Dogs do respond to a small vocabulary of simple words, they try to make themselves useful in quaint but well-meaning ways and in their limited capacity for food-inspired sympathy they even show concern for their owners. As for people who keep fish, birds, reptiles and even spiders as pets, I can only assume they do so in an attempt to stroke a latent God Complex.

But while most dog owners know that their pets can only vocalize in four ways (bark, growl, howl and whine) and some bird owners have pets that can verifiably speak, cat owners exercise an astounding amount of wishful thinking when it comes to the speech capabilities of the thumbless wretches they call their friends.

Of course, Youtube is utterly replete with videos of crazy people and their cats. It's a natural evolution of the many, many cat-related websites that popped up practically the instant after the Internet went mainstream. The Web is a place where all people, regardless of dysfunction, can fool themselves into thinking they're normal. It only stands to reason that you'll be able to gather a forum full of individuals who think just like you when your sample group is roughly 3 billion people.

I don't know how I can make this any more clear: Cats are not your friends, they are not your babies, they are not your precious little snuggy-wuggums who love mommy wery, wery much. Keeping a cat as a pet is a lot like taking in a high-functioning drug addict anarchist who weighs four pounds. As the following video demonstrates, cats are nothing but destructive idiots who antagonize everyone and everything for no discernible reason.

Can Your Cat or Dog Talk?

When I used to hear about talking pets on TV or through friends, I would always scoff. I’m usually open to pretty much everything, but I figured that these people had to be making this stuff up. If a cat or dog can talk, why can’t all pets talk, I thought.

It turns out that these people must be onto something. A few weeks ago, our cat, Fuego, a very handsome tabby, surprised us all with a little bit of cat chat of his own. Fuego is about six years old, but we’ve only had him for two of those years, since we adopted him from the Humane Society. Since then, he’s proven to be a rather stereotypical lazy boy, and we adore him. But he also did something that made me scared out of my mind.

He talked.

At first, when we heard this strange, ungodly sound—a very guttural, groaning, “Nonononononono!”

We thought it was our daughter in her bed—and boy, was that scary. I was having Linda Blair visions and thinking oh boy, this is my payback for all those scary movies I’ve watched and books I’ve read. My husband and I just stared at each other for a full second until we realized this noise was then coming from beneath our bed.

I jumped up and peeked in at our daughter, who was sleeping fine, and then hovered in the doorway, demanding that he look under the bed. He did, and found Fuego puking his guts out.

He’d been puking a little that day—mostly hairballs—and we had talked about taking him to the vet the next day. Whether protesting the vet or the puke itself, Fuego let us know what he thought of the matter.

Honestly, it may have just been a trick of our human ears—simply a sound he made before being sick. He’s since made other noises that I once found to be regular old cat noises that I now interpret as “Hello” or some other human-speak. Maybe it’s just my ears.

But there are other pet owners who seem to have taught their pets a trick or two on how to speak. After reading an article recently on how dogs can pick up many things a two-year-old can, I’m left wondering if words might just be one of them.

What do you think? Do you have a pet that can speak? Check out the pets below and post what you think.

HELP! I think my cat may be EMO!

I don't know how I didn't notice it as it was happening, but now I see clearly that my cat is an EMO. At first I thought it was the heat that was making my kitty moody, but it's been weeks now and he only seems to have gotten worse.  I found cd of My Chemical Romance in his stereo, and he's growing increasingly wimpy. 

I feel terribly guilty for not stopping this before went too far. Is there any chance that I can get my happy kitty back? Or is it too late? I need help!

 

Justice for Scatt, Help for Clark

Whether or not it's scientific, most pet owners would say their quality of life is better for the presence of their pet. In fact, I suspect most pet owners would laugh at the idea that there's even any question.

So in April of this year, when 48-year-old Tracy Clark was arrested and charged with felony animal cruelty after he attacked Scatt, the resident cat at the church substance-abuse shelter where Clark was staying, there was a good deal of outrage both on the part of other shelter residents and on the part of Seattle-area pet lovers in general. When the story hit the internet, there was an email and letter campaign, as well, encouraging county officials to prosecute vigorously.

At his May 6th arraignment, Clark initially pleaded not-guilty to the felony charge, and reportedly faced a deadly-weapon enhancement to the charge that would add an automatic six months to his sentence.

Clark pleaded guilty to first-degree animal cruelty, in June, in King County Superior Court. He apparently related how he flung Scatt (the shelter cat) against a wall, and slashed him with a knife. According to a Seattle PI article online, Clark was recently sentenced to nine months on work release.

Scatt showed up at The Cross Church shelter almost ten years ago as a stray. He's been a valued companion animal pretty much ever since, according to staff of the church rehab program.

Just in case you hadn't heard, by the way, Scatt survived the attack after emergency treatment at a local veterinarian. Scatt's expenses were covered by Pasado's Safe Haven, an animal-protection organization based in Sultan, WA. He's back, living at The Cross Church rehab shelter with the staff and residents who love him, and for whom he does so very much good in return.

I've seen more and more discussion on the web regarding the value of cats as therapeutic companion animals, recently. It's not at all uncommon for a cat to be the much-loved resident of many churches, schools, shelters, and nursing homes.

Now, admittedly, there's not really any hard science to back up the value of a feline companion, in terms of quantifiable health benefits. There are studies that suggest that pet owners tend to be happier people than non-pet-owners, but it doesn't automatically follow that the relationship between pets and happier people is necessarily causal.

An article in Scientific American, last year, asserts that studies do seem to suggest that people with access to pets typically demonstrate less stress, when monitored, than do people without pets:

"Studies by psychologists Karen Allen of the University at Buffalo and James Blascovich of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and their colleagues demonstrate that the presence of a favorite pet during a stressful task—such as performing difficult mental arithmetic—largely prevents spikes in participants' blood pressure. In contrast, the presence of a friend does not. In addition, Allen's work shows that stressed-out, hypertensive stockbrokers who were randomly assigned to adopt either a pet dog or cat ended up with lower blood pressure than those who were not. These studies suggest that the presence of pets may lower our blood pressure and stress levels, although they do not tell us the reasons for this effect. They also do not inform us whether we would observe similar effects with other preferred stimuli, such as a good luck charm or a favorite doll."

Tracy Clark has expressed his regret and shame for the attack, and is ordered to spend the next nine months in addiction treatment during the day, and in jail at night. Clark has also been ordered to stay away from Scatt.

If Cats Could Talk (part one)

Setting: late at night, in the dark bedroom, in the dark apartment Enter Ten, the opinionated tortoiseshell cat. Loudly. Stomping.

Translation of cat-conversation as follows:

Ten: Oh, garçon? I need some of those delicious little chicken-shaped cat treats.

Me: Mmm-hmmm. I'm sleeping, cat. Stop swatting my nose. What are you howling about? And what did you just call me?

Ten: Whatever. Get up. I'm bored. Also, I'm hungry. Those little chicken-shaped cat treats should do nicely, I think. Right away, please? Chop-chop!

Me: Do you understand what time it is? I was asleep. Some of us work, you know, to pay for those kitty treats you like so much. And we didn't get the chicken treats, this time. You said you didn't like them anymore. Here. Have some nice salmon-flavored kitty treats.

Ten: I like them tonight. I don't like the little fish ones. At least not tonight. Tonight, I like the chicken ones. They smell better. Also, they're shaped like tiny little chickens. So they skitter in a most satisfactory manner when I swat them across the floor. Then I can leap on them and bite their teensy little heads right off.

Me: It's eleven pm. I'm not going to the store just to get you chicken-shaped kitty treats. We can buy that kind next time we go shopping. Here. Have some fish-shaped treats.

Ten: If you don't give me the chicken-shaped treats, you may not have a next time.

Me: . . .

Ten: *calmly begins grooming*

Me: Are you threatening me? Over kitty-treats?

Ten: I don't make threats. I make promises.

Are Cats Manipulative?

This is an entirely brave and quite possibly stupid thing that I am going to do on a site famous for Cat Lovers the world round. I am about to warn you about your cats. Yes, they are adorable and cute. Yes, they are much more independent than dogs (though maybe not as intelligent), but did you realize that it has been clinically proven that house cats are manipulative?

I know, imagine that, a manipulative feline.....How do our whiskered friends do it? According to Karen McComb of the University of Sussex, the cats hide "an urgent cry" or "otherwise unpleasant meowing sound" underneath a usually pleasant purr. Aha, now you know the secret language of cats.

She also believes that "cats learn to dramatically exaggerate it when it proves effective in generating a response from humans." The effect of this particular "meow" is that humans are unable to ignore it and the cats get what they want, which is probably food or the chance to go outside.

Hmmmm, what Karen McComb calls manipulation, I call communication......how is this different from a baby crying when it is hungry or someone whining that maybe they are ready for dinner? Is that really manipulation or more the only method the cat has of communicating?

Pages