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…

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

Today, ladies and gentlemen, we may have a winner. Of all the cat videos we have seen, including those sent in by your fine selves, this has to be the cutest of them all! In this video, two adorable kittens nestle down together in a duvet for an in-depth discussion about…whatever it is kittens talk about.

Although it doesn’t have the same immediate ‘aaaaw’ factor as this kitten video or the overwhelming feeling of warmth and happiness generated by the suprised kitty, this cute cat video still wins in my opinion because it’s cute on various different levels. They look sweet, they’re all snuggled up in the duvet, they’re talking to teach other in their little kitten voices and then they even have a cuddle towards the end! Every time you think this video can’t get any cuter, they’ve got another trick up their sleeves!

I wonder what they’re talking about… Any ideas? Here at the Cat Health Blog we think it’s probably the election. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if somebody made a Youtube remix of the campaign speeches dubbed over the top of this video! Gordon Brown snuggling up about the Liberal Democrats in a feeble hope that it might make him less hated.

Any cat owner will be familiar with their cat running herself on objects and people. I wonder, though, how many understand what their cat is actually doing…

By rubbing her head and mouth against objects, a cat is marking her territory using scent glands to deposit facial pheromones. Unlike spraying, which is considered a response to a perceived threat, marking by rubbing is thought to be a positive and social expression, as well as something that makes a cat feel more comfortable in her territory. To this extent, cats who share a household will often actually rub against each other, even when simply passing one another by in the corridor!

Slightly different from this is a behaviour most cat owners will be familiar with, if not by name. ‘Bunting’ is the action of your cat rubbing her head against your face and is considered a very friendly and lovely gesture. Spraying is also normal cat behaviour but, rather than being a friendly and social gesture, it acts as more of a method of reducing confrontation by quickly communicating information about a cat’s age, health and rank. Although perfectly normal, spraying can be something of a problem for cat owners – check the rest of the blog for help and information regarding spraying.

Although spraying is perfectly normal for cats, it can be something of a nuisance for cat owners. In the next couple of posts I shall explain spraying; what it is, why cats do it, what causes it, how best to clean it up and what you can do to prevent it.

Spraying is a method of communication in cats; it carries information regarding a cat’s gender, age, health and even their social status and rank! Cats spray whilst standing, at a level that will be nose-height to other cats. It is a very common behaviour when there are lots of cats around, as it helps establish a hierarchy without confrontation.

However, cats will sometimes spray without an obvious cause or reason – when they are alone in the house, for example. Sometimes this may be because they perceive a threat outside, though other times cats like to mix their scent with your own, as a way of making themselves feel more comfortable in their territory and environment. As nice a gesture as this is, it can be frustrating!

Finally, there can be medical reasons behind behaviour similar to; lower urinary tract disease can cause urine to be deposited around the house, yet is nothing to do with marking territory. Although easily treated, LUTD is potentially fatal if left undetected and we highly advise taking your cat to the vet if you are even slightly concerned.

When I got home yesterday, my niece flung herself at me in tears saying, “Aristotle hates Plato! He hates him!” At first I had to stifle a laugh at how unintentionally poignant the expression was, in philosophical terms, but it was only seconds before I realised what she was talking about.

You see, Plato and Aristotle are my two cats, who had had been ‘fighting’ whilst I was at work – much to the horror of my brother’s 7-year daughter. Although I managed to comfort her at the time, by telling her they were “only playing”, it wasn’t long before they were at it again. Luckily, it turned out I was right – they were only playing! So today I thought, in case this happens to you, here is how to tell whether your cats and fighting for real or just playing.

1) Noise. When cats fight, you know about it – hence the term ‘catfight’ I suppose. They yowl, screech and hiss enough to literally wake the neighbourhood! If there’s not much noise and only the occassional hiss, they’re probably just playing around.

2) Behaviour. When playing, cats tend to take turns attacking and defending; when they’re done, it’ll be like nothing ever happened. If it seems one-sided or they avoid each other afterwards, they’re probably fighting and you should think about keeping them apart for a bit.

3) Results. When playing, cats shouldn’t get hurt, unless it’s by accident.

It’s quite obvious, but it’s best to be certain!

With the Year of the Tiger just around the corner, this week China announced that it will be launching a multi-million dollar effort to save the world’s biggest cat, the Amur Tiger.

Image MJCdetroit

The Amur Tiger is also known as the Siberian Tiger, can be known to be up to 500 pounds in weight. With two of nine subspecies of tigers extinct in this world, this is definitely a welcome move. The Guardian reported that

Since the last tiger year, in 1998, the wild population of the animal worldwide has almost halved to about 3,200 due to habitat loss, economic development and poaching for hides and traditional medicine.

China will be working with various NGOs and the World Bank to ensure that not another tiger subspecies will be lost forever. We hope that the Amur Tiger will indeed survive several more generations and continue to enjoy the privilege of being the world’s largest cat.

Worse than the myth of Bonsai Kittens, the Daily Mail paper has reported that Holly Crawford, a dog groomer from Pennsylvania have been selling pierced kittens for a few hundred dollars online.

PETA was alerted of this cruel act by an anonymous caller. According to Melinda Merck, an animal cruelty investigator and veterinarian, the ear piercings altered the cat’s hearing and neck and tail piercings hampered balance and jumping.

‘They were maimed and disfigured,’ she said, adding that if infections had become severe, the three-month-old kittens could have died.

In her defense, Crawford has said that she was not ‘acting maliciously’, yet the harm done to these young kittens means that it would cost over $1000 to rehabilitate. And yet if she had pet insuance, will she be reimbursed for this?

The trial continues.

As winter drags on and both ends of the day remain dark, I’m sure many of you are starting to feel a little down in the dumps. This is commonly referred to as the SAD (seasonal affective disorder) or the ‘winter blues’ and is a huge cause of depression across the world.

What is interesting about SAD, however, is that a recent report has suggested owning a cat can actually help alleviate the depression caused by the lack of daylight in winter! A five-year study carried out by Dr. June Nicholas in Haywards Heath found that, during SAD times of the year, cats have a soothing impact on both physical and mental health! Dr. Nicholas discovered that we cat-owners are less likely to get depressed than non-cat-owners, to the expect that we suffered 60% less headaches and 21% less colds and flues, as well as less tension, impatience and insomnia! Now if that’s not an impressive list of benefits to owning a cat, I can’t imagine what is!

I must admit it’s hard to stay gloomy with a furry friends rubbing against your leg, or purring in your lap. What’s more, the added company of an animal is far preferable to being home alone – making cat owners far less likely to get lonely. Good news all round for us!

Hello and Happy New Year from the Cat Health Blog!

As part of our New Year festivities, we have introduced a Best Cat Videos competiton to the blog!  This means you can submit your findings for various categories of cat video, including cutest, smartest and funniest. We’ll put our favourite ones up here on the blog, as well as some of our own findings as well.  Who knows, perhaps we’ll even have a prize for the winners – cat insurance for the whole of 2010 or something!

To start with, check out this adorable kitten – our first entry for the potential cutest cat video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k_LZbS5oig[/youtube]

It’s a shame it’s not a bit longer!  I was secretly hoping for it to fall over asleep – that would cement it as the cutest out there!  If you think you’ve found something cuter, send it in!  Also send in any other cat videos you think are worth a show!