September 2016 - Chirpy Cats

Why does my cat refuse to use the litter box?

27/09/2016
The Lady Cat
5 Comments
Cat Behaviour
litter box, litter box problems, litter tray, uncovered litter box

The wonders of the litter box, cat toilet, cat washroom, kitty potty or whatever you wish to name it, is something most of us cat guardians love to hate. Sure, there is no dog walking involved and no poop to scoop up in a park, little Fluffy comes toilet trained. I was always fascinated with the cat’s innate ability to cover their waste. It’s just what cats do, it’s in their DNA. Put a kitten in front of a litter box and they immediately know what it’s for and start digging a hole to take care of business. These fastidious habits of washing up after eating and burying feces stem from their link to the wild before they were domesticated. In order not to attract any attention of potential predators they would wash off any remaining scent after eating and bury their feces after doing their toilet business.

When I look back at the cats I’ve had, I’ve only ever encountered litter box problems when they were frightened by something, bullied by another cat in a multi-cat household or sick. And now that my oldest cats are twelve and thirteen years old and I have never had a soiling problem ever – not even during the car rides to cats shows around Ireland and on two plane trips to two different countries!

Problems arise when we, as cat guardians, don’t recognize the signals that our cats are sending us. When your cat starts to eliminate in inappropriate places it is important to examine when and where the problem started and from there figure out how to stop the behavior. Remember that cats do not understand punishment, like rubbing their faces in their mess, or isolating them in a bathroom.

There are many factors that come into play when kitty starts to soil inappropriately and that can include any of the below:

There’s nothing wrong with wanting it all.

Determination and tenacity will eventually earn you the prize, but sometimes you need a trick or two up your sleeves. If you’re a squirrel surrounded by five pairs of glaring cat eyes while gathering up your sunflowers heads, your bag of party tricks should include more than just being nimble. You need to fly, or at least pretend that you can. Mr Squirrel and his bandit friends had their eyes on the largest sunflower heads near the catio and no amount of cat threats were going to deter them from getting their paws on the bigger booty. No, he had his eye on the prize so in one fell swoop he jumped from the balcony onto the roof of the catio, and then bounced onto the main catio beams, trying to dodge Ollie’s paws that were trying to reach out and grab him. What he did next was straight out of a scene from the Looney Toons…

I will just sit here motionless and pretend I’m a flower pot

24/09/2016
The Lady Cat
15 Comments
Cat Enrichment
cat enrichment, cat garden, cat safe plants, kitty salad bar, non-toxic plants, watering hole

Kitty Salad bar and watering hole. Executive cat lounge for exclusive members only

There are many ways in which you can keep us kitties safe and entertained but we would like to talk about our favorite cat-safe plants, grasses, and herbs. Yes, we’re obligate carnivores but there’s not a cat in town that doesn’t like to graze on greens. Experts and veterinarians are still baffled as to why we enjoy eating grass and theories abound. Some experts think we eat grass to aid in bringing up furballs, or in the wild, to aid regurgitation of undigested parts of prey such as bones and feathers. Others think it provides much-needed fiber to our diets and that grass would be a naturally occurring substance in the stomachs of prey so it would make up a small part of our diet. It may also provide trace elements of vitamins and folic acid. The Lady Cat thinks we may just like the taste and texture. But what is certain is that grass is not essential to our wellbeing, but it most certainly is a welcomed treat in any cat household.

With the start of Autumn and the cooler weather, we’re excited that the humans have begun setting up our watering hole/salad bar for winter. Essentially, this is when they bring the outdoors, indoors for the duration of the winter, during which time our catio is a blanket of white. The kitty salad bar is an area in the house where we like to lounge, groom, drink, share sun puddles and snack on our greens. There are many plants that appear on the toxic list and it seems that there are no safe alternatives for us cats. Cat grass and catnip are the most popular snacks on the menu, but I’m here to tell you that you can broaden your tastes and that there are indeed many other safe varieties of plants that us Chirpy Cats have tried and tested. Of course, our plant-eating habit comes with leaving a few recycled remnants of regurgitation on the carpet, but fret not humans. Cleaning it all up is a very small price to pay for the precious purr therapy we provide to soothe your stressful living. By creating these little kitty garden watering holes around the house, you’re stepping up your cat environment enrichment game. Below, our big lady cat explains further on greening up our living spaces and tips on keeping us out of your plants. (as if!)

Marvelous Monday Haiku: Fall Interrupted

Hello, it’s Ollie here and I’d like to kick off another edition of Marvelous Monday Haiku to shake off that Monday blues. We spent all weekend trying our best to stay cool. It seems the heat and humidity are back for a brief period just to remind us that we’re still very much in a transitional phase when temperatures are all over the place. Some of us spent time inside, lying on our backs, belly up under the fans, and some of us who like the heat just chilled in our catio as usual. The African Daisies are still in bloom and the bees are hard at work. We like this slow transition, we’re not is a hurry for anything to change. Let nature take its course and we will follow along. In today’s gallery, I invite you into our world and hope this week’s haiku picks will inspire you to stop and savor the moment. Do not let that mountain of work overwhelm you, just sort through it one by one and reach out for help when you need it. My paws have the healing magic touch, just so you know.

Hello there human
My paw has the magic touch
To ease your troubles
Busy Busy bee
Make honey while the sun shines
You still have some time
I walk in beauty
Like an Autumn breeze swaying leaves
Not yet upon us
It's time for snoozies
Inertia is my best friend
Wake me up in Fall
Fresh petals pose bright
Berry centre bleeds anew
There's no end in sight
Slow down Mr. Grey
You walk with purpose knowing
The coming of Fall
Did you say the sun
Will hide its rays in Autumn
I will be waiting
Clouds of fur all bright
Your silver lining soothes me
Will it rain tonight?
I will chew on grass
Recycled for you later
On your kitchen floor
Trickling of water
I see the fleeting Summer
In my fickle thoughts

Love

How do you deal with your Monday workload? Do the shorter days affect your mood? Grab your first-morning coffee and tell us in the comments below.

What is your cat teaching you about the perfect scratching post?

17/09/2016
Chirpy Cats
24 Comments
Cat Behaviour, Caturday Doodles
cat enrichment, Catalyst Council, Caturday art, Happy Cat Month, scratching post

Sly wants to play, but what does Ollie have up his furry paws?

Hello furriends, I’m Sly Pie and I heard via the cat vine that September is Happy Cat Month. I would not have deemed it necessary to have a month dedicated to our happiness, because every month should be Happy Cat Month. But when I reflect back on my life before I joined the Chirpy Cats crew, I understand why there is a need to highlight a month for us cats. You see, I was not always pampered and fussed over, I was living the thug life, free to roam but always wondering where my next meal is coming from.

Marvelous Monday Haiku: Last Days of Summer

Hello there! It’s Scout again and I confess, I am saying goodbye to Summer with a bit of ambivalence. Yes, I said I am the Autumn girl, but I also enjoy staring at and posing next to pretty flowers. Last week in our Summer Highlights haiku, I invited you into a few of our favorite spots where we spent the lazy long days in the summer shade. In the gallery below, some of our plants look withered and forlorn. But not to worry, that’s a good sign that soon, the big Lady Cat is going to be preparing the harvest of our favorite herb – catnip. We can’t wait for that! But in the meantime, let’s just focus on the here and the now shall we?

Fall whispers to me
It's song clear but the flowers
Tell me otherwise
Agile paws landing
Is Summer gone already?
Spring into Autumn
The Summer halo
Glowing shaded canopy
It's my sunset crown
Summer high in bloom
Fiery faces waving proud
Little bandits feast
This is my curtain
Watch it turn from green to red
That is my calling
There he goes rushing
It's Summer still don't worry
Sunset comes too soon

Are you enjoying the cooler air? We’d like to hear from our furry friends and their humans.

love

5 Tell-tale signs your cats are singing breakfast Acatpella

10/09/2016
Chirpy Cats
16 Comments
Caturday Doodles
cat behavior, cat humor, Cat sounds, caturday doodles

Does your cat’s performance of breakfast acatpella wake you before your alarm goes off? You’re not alone. The human struggle is real!

Our most riveting ‘Acatpella’ performance at breakfast time!

There are not many things us cats do together as a team. Of course, there’s synchronized sleeping and grooming, but those things are largely accidental and form part of the random humdrum existence of cat life. But there is an activity that unites us all towards a common goal, and that is performing our morning song to be fed our breakfast on time. If you have never heard of ‘A-cat-pella’ before, you have never lived in a multi-cat household. This is the moment when we set aside our differences with the dawning of each new day and unite as “team cat”, performing our morning song with unrivaled purpose and vigor. Our harmonies are sweet, yet tinged with an urgency that screams “hear the cry of our starving clan”.

07/09/2016
The Lady Cat
16 Comments
Cat Enrichment, Wordless Wednesday
cat climbers, cat ramps, catio, inspiration, outdoor enclosure, super highway

All cats want to go up! The catio highway or better known as the “superhighway” if you’re a Jackson Galaxy fan of ‘catification’ is the perfect platform for surveying territory and owning space. Here, best friends George and Mr. Jack are enjoying the peace and tranquility of their superhighway in the catio at sunset after dinner. Seeing George assert his presence confidently by scratching and climbing is a wonderful site.

Because it wasn’t always so…

Cat scratching on post on the catio — I would like to say “George the cat was here”

05/09/2016
Chirpy Cats
11 Comments
Haiku
catio, Haiku, marvellous Monday haiku, outdoor enclosure, rescue cats, summer

Hello, my name is Scout, the Tortie and I present this week’s Marvelous Monday Haiku. Summer is the season favoured by most of my pals and until we see the first hint of yellow or red leaves in our catio, in the coming weeks we will be highlighting some of the best times we had this summer. The humans had extended our catio with some extra tunnels this year and we had plenty of zoomie sessions chasing each other in there. My favourite season is Fall because I am known to ‘decorate’ the house with all sorts of pretty leaves and I collect the best ones for the Big Man Cat which he loves, I think.

04/09/2016
Chirpy Cats
22 Comments
Sunday Selfies
cat humor, catio, outdoor enclosure, sunday selfies

It’s Sunday Selfie time and it’s Mr. Jack here, also know as Jackaboo to my people when I’m being cute, like today. You see, we are not the only ones who love our catio. We have plenty of other company ranging from yummy earthworms on the grass patch which surface after our thunderstorms, to hairy worms (yuck) and then the most invasive and audacious of all, the spider! These eight-legged little beasties weave their webs all over our plants and we mostly just admire them from a distance. The Big Lady Cat used to fear spiders but has learned to live with them as they are a part of the hot humid Quebec summers and they help to keep many other undesirable pests away. Besides, trying to exterminate them will cause us and our ecosystem much harm too, so us cats don’t mind them either. When she comes into the catio with her morning coffee she has to ‘release’ some of these ‘itsy bitsies’ from their webs with a wave of a stick in order to get through, and they go scurrying to the corners. This is my chance to introduce myself. But as you can see below, Mr Spider is not willing to play with me. He is known as the Cross Orbweaver

Itsy bitsy spider, where are you?

Archive - September 2016

Why does my cat refuse to use the litter box?

The Cats and the Squirrel and the Chirpy Toons

How to Prepare the Perfect Kitty Salad Bar

Marvelous Monday Haiku: Fall Interrupted

What is your cat teaching you about the perfect scratching post?

Marvelous Monday Haiku: Last Days of Summer

5 Tell-tale signs your cats are singing breakfast Acatpella

Why your cat needs a catio superhighway. Let’s go up!

Marvelous Monday Haiku: Summer Highlights

Along came a spider