Months ago, we reported the story of Sampson the cat from Scotland, who was found 500 miles south of his home. At the time, this was one of the most incredible feats of cat-travel we’d ever heard of, but today we heard about something even more astonishing.

Ravila Hairova and husband Lev Kondratyev left their cat, Karim, with neighbours when they decided to move 2,000 miles from Gulistan, Uzbekistan to Liska, Russia in 2008. Two days later, Karim disappeared; “we never heard another word about him” Hairova told the Sun. However, two years after moving house, Hairova spotted a cat waiting in the street outside their new home; “When I got closer I saw it was Karim; thin, and in very poor condition but it was him” she reported, to which Kondratyev added, “”There are certain marks on his body including a scar on his tail when it was caught in the door that show us he is 100% our Karim.”

To achieve this exceptional feat, Karim had to travel 2,000 miles across three state boarders to reach his owners, baffling experts across the world. At nine-years old, Karim is no whippersnapper either, making his journey even more amazing!

After her husband died from a heart attack before Christmas, Margaret Baker wanted some company – so she applied to adopt Lilly, a Bengal cat in a Feline Care animal shelter. However, when the charity discovered that Mrs. Baker lived on Abbey Estate in Thetford, Norfolk, they denied her application, on the grounds that she lived in too rough an area! Mrs. Baker explained, “They phoned and said due to my postcode I couldn’t have Lilly…I put the phone down and just burst into tears”.

Mrs. Baker’s daughter, Angela Rourke, calls it “discrimination”, but manager of the charity shelter, Molly Cutmore, feels otherwise; “We’ve heard reports of people training their dogs to attack cats and there have been cruelty cases on the estate…We don’t want to stop people who want one having a cat, but can’t re-home them if we think something will happen.”

Although we cat the Cat Health blog have great sympathy with Mrs. Baker, we’re on the side of the charity this time. As much as some people may want to own cats, it is the safety of the cat that is of paramount importance and cat welfare charities cannot be expected to give cats to people who live in areas that have been deemed unsafe. Owning a cat is not a right, it’s a privilege – some areas simply aren’t suitable and that’s too bad.

In my experience, cat owners are serial ‘Tweeters’ often don’t go together. It seems to me that people who consider their every mundane thought interesting enough to post on the internet just aren’t the kind of people who take to looking after and caring for a cat. Sony, however, think differently. Sony seem to believe that cats and Twitter got together so well that their Computer Science Laboratories have actually invented a life-logging tool designed for cats…

That’s correct; a collar is fitted with a camera, a GPS monitor and even an accelerometer, then attached to a cat and used to communicate with Twitter, to update the world about what the cat is doing. The collar can tell whether the cat is walking around, eating or resting and, let’s be honest, does anybody post anything more interesting than that on Twitter? Apparently the camera also recognises the faces of others cats, though I am dubious about how well this would work.

At the moment there are around a dozen phrases the collar can tweet, along the lines of “This is tasty” when the cat is eating. As if anybody could care! As a piece of social networking, this is nonsense. However, as a cat owner, I do see some advantages… I’m not always at home, for example, and it would be nice to check my cats’ tweets to make sure they are getting enough food, exercise and rest as they should be. It would also be very handy to know exactly where they are, on the countless occasions when they’ve gone AWOL! I wonder if it’ll bring the pet insurance down if I can prove I can trace my cat’s every movement…

In today’s society of designer pets, chickpea-based diets and rights for inanimate objects, it should come as no surprise to readers when I write than many pet owners are moving their pets onto vegetarian diets. Instead of tackling the issue of rights and the subject of ‘what people should do’, it is my job to give you the facts so you can make your own informed choices.

Cats are carnivores. From their bones, teeth and claws to their senses, stomach and bowels, cats are ‘designed’ to hunt, kill, eat and excrete meat. In the wild, almost 100% their nutrition comes from meat. However, let us bear in mind that, in the wild, meat is the only source of the nutrients that cats require to be healthy. This is no longer the case for a felis catus…

Although domesticated cats cannot get all their essential nutrients from a vegetarian diet alone, we humans have developed clever supplements which, when combined with a vegetarian diet, ensure cats get everything they need without having to eat meat. The same goes for our human diet as well – nobody ‘needs’ to eat meat. When combined with the fact that lots of companies conduct tests on animals, as well as the massive environmental damage that keeping livestock to slaughter for food does to the environment, it may be hard for cat owners to justify their pet’s meaty diet.

Image from adcnews.go.com

Another sad story today at the Cat Health Blog; we’re sorry to report that a man has pleaded guilty to charges of bludgeoning a cat to death in Canada. David Wayne Canaday was spending his Christmas holiday with a couple and their cat Groober in 2006. When the couple went out, Canaday attacked Groober with a broom, killed him and later claimed the cat had an accident.

The reason we’re bringing this to your attention is not, as you might think, to make you feel glum. Although this is a sad story, the most interesting part is that Canaday was sentenced to a mere 30 days in jail and pathetic $50 fine! When we wrote our recent report about David Tilley’s total neglect of 23 cats that landed him with a £5,000 fine and 100 hours of service, many people felt this wasn’t enough! I shudder to think how the British public would react if one of us beat a cat to death and got a month in prison and a fine you couldn’t buy your dinner for!

On the plus side Canady has been banned from keeping animals for 10 years (it should be for life) and order to attend counselling and psychiatric assessment. I don’t know what there is to assess – it’s obvious this man is insane!

55-year old David Tilley from Ashill, near Watton, has been charged with 21 offenses under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, after 23 cats were found living in “disgraceful and squalid environment” in his bungalow. An inspector on the case said
it would have been “totally avoidable if Tilley had asked for help. As it was, the cats undeniably suffered significantly throughout in the almost indescribable squalor.”

Chair of the bench, Elizabeth Hornegold, said the only mitigating factor in the case was that Mr. Tilley had not starved the cats. Otherwise, many of them had been soaked in urine and covered in faeces, carrying fleas and suffering with dermatisis. The hallway of the bungalow’s was covered in cans and rubbish, and “a black liquid underneath the debris [stank] of ammonia and decay.” Mr. Tilley was charged with failing to provide the cats with a hygienic environment, free from hazards, failing to protect them from injury, disease and pain and failing to ensure they could behave naturally. He was ordered to pay costs of £5,179 and do 100 hours of unpaid work, along with being banned from keeping cats for 3 years.

All the cats have now been rehomed, but it doesn’t seem right to us that, after all the suffering these animals went through, Mr. Tilley got a mere 3 years’ ban from keeping cats. The fines and work are acceptable punishments, but it’s unclear why this man deserves to ever keep cats again!

Image from edp24.co.uk

In our recent posts, we recommended keeping your cat relaxed and entertained to help deal with urination problems. In response, some people said they had trouble playing with their cat, or finding anything to keep it amused. In the next couple of posts, therefore, we’ll cover a few tips on entertaining your furry friend.

Toys are the obvious first choice for entertainment, but not all toys are created equal. The most important thing to remember when playing with a cat is that her natural instincts are to hunt prey; to get her interest you should try to stimulate that instinct. For one thing, consider a toy that looks and moves like prey; toys that scurry around, flutter about or dart from place to place will be almost sure to catch her eye. Toys that disappear will also confuse and interest her and she seeks to hunt them down!

Like dogs, cats can also learn ‘tricks’ that can help keep them stimulated both mentally and physically. Sitting, rolling over and fetching toys are all possible, though you should be warned that most training will involve some kind of food-based reward…

Next time we’ll cover play time. Image from pet-gift.net

When it comes to successfully playing with your cat, an element of routine can help. Remember a large part of playing relies of stimulating the hunting instinct in your cat, so try playing at times when your pet would be out hunting – mornings and evenings are the obvious choices. Since most of us have more free time before and after work, this works out well for pet and owner.

So set aside two regular times a day to play with your cat, for around a total of half an hour. That said, don’t feel you have to keep playing with your cat if she seems to be getting bored earlier. It is also sensible not to use the same toys over and over again and not to leave them laying around afterwards either, otherwise your cat will soon be bored of them. Hide the toys away when you’re not playing together and, when it is play time, vary which toys you use to keep things fun and interesting.

Make sure to inspect your cat’s toys regularly, to spot any broken or loose pieces that could be a health hazard. The last thing you want is your cat choking on a toy you bought to make her healthier! The best toys are those without any loose parts, parts that are glued on or any strings, ribbons and elastic bands. It should go without saying that toys should also not be small enough to swallow or made from toxic materials.

If you are really struggling to make your cat use the litter tray, here are some tips:

• Make sure you put the litter tray somewhere where your cat will feel safe and unexposed. Nobody wants to be watched while they go, it’s only natural!
• Try not to put the litter tray somewhere where it’s too enclosed or cramped.
• Don’t put the litter tray near your cat’s food bowl, or even in the room where your cat eats.
• Experiment by playing multiple litter trays all around the house and keeping watch to see which get used most. Then you can remove the lesser-used trays and leave trays where you know your cat feel comfortable using them.
• When your cat urinates outside of the litter tray, it is important you don’t punish her. There is almost no chance she will understand why she is being punished and the affect will only be to stress her out and mess with her urination problems even more.
• Ensure you cat is getting enough stimulation, especially if they are being kept indoors against their will. Anxiety is a key cause of most behavioural problems, including urination.

When it comes to understanding behavioural problems with urination, it is important to think ‘outside the box’, if you will. When outside, cats bury their excrement; hence, when inside, they are already far more likely to use a litter box for defecating than for urinating, even before being training. Although some cats aren’t particularly bothered about the state of their litter box, others are exceptionally picky and, if their owner doesn’t keep their litter box clean and tidy, they won’t use it. After all, they probably see no reason to wee in a tray!

If your cat isn’t keen on using the litter tray, it might be that she doesn’t feel particularly safe doing so. Consider moving the litter tray to somewhere sheltered and protected, where she doesn’t threatened. For more details see the solutions post. Similarly, if your cat is an outdoor cat and suddenly finds herself inside for long periods of time, because of foul weather for example, she can find herself stressed – which can have a major impact on urination. Playing with her or keeping her entertained will help reduce stress and encourage normal behaviour.

Always remember your cat shouldn’t be treated like a person; you can’t just tell her off and expect her to start using her litter tray more appropriately. A little time and consideration are far more useful.