Author - The Lady Cat

1
5 things I learned about making a bed with cats
2
I see the world through my heart
3
Why does my cat refuse to use the litter box?
4
How to Prepare the Perfect Kitty Salad Bar
5
Why your cat needs a catio superhighway. Let’s go up!
6
How to facilitate harmony between rival cats with this easy tip
7
Sprint to the finish line
8
Embrace your cat mom coolness, it’s here to stay!
9
Why we decided to stop declawing cats – Interview with two no-declaw clinics
10
Declawing – why it needs to stop

5 things I learned about making a bed with cats

cat playing in sheets

Most cat owners know all too well the daily struggle of making a bed with cats lurking about. There you are removing the bedding, shaking out the sheets and cats come from all corners of the house to make a mad dash for the bed to pounce and ‘tent’ under flying sheets. Cats have a built-in radar for hearing the rustle of sheets and bedding no matter where they are in the house.

“Someone’s making the bed, let’s go pawticipate!”

The more you shake out the sheet, the more excited your cat becomes, thinking this game is most definitively ten times better than that silly wriggly new toy you had bought last week. On a cat’s list of things to do, only ‘boxing’ or sitting in a box, tops ‘helping the human make bed’, which comes in at a close second.

These are the 5 things I learned about making the bed with the help of cats

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I see the world through my heart

senior Blind cat

“He’s gone blind” I texted my husband, just a week after invasive dental surgery on our 15-year-old CKD cat, Earl Grey.
“That can’t be possible, I saw him climbing on the bridge this morning.”

I observed every step he took, watched every movement closely. Yes, our cat has become blind, overnight. Our beloved Earl Grey is struggling to find his way around the house. He is trying to desperately rediscover every corner, sniffing every inch of surface, treading lightly with each hesitant paw. His slow movement is not just weakness from the surgery or muscle atrophy from his kidney disease. His eyes are dilated black saucers, trying desperately to catch any light, just any at all. His head sways in the general direction of my voice as I try to soothe him with calming words.

At this moment I try to recall if this was a sudden onset or was he like this when he returned home after spending two nights at the vets after his surgery. Were his pupils this dilated and vacant? I can’t recall through my utter devastation. But how was he able to climb up to the bridge?

Our vet confirmed he has high blood pressure and this, coupled with the four-hour long surgery to remove ten teeth and the myriad of drugs administered to keep him alive during his surgery, were all contributing factors to his loss of sight. Having kidney disease did not help his situation either.

In every situation, there is light at the end of the tunnel, albeit for him, a very dark tunnel. We know his mouth is pain-free now as he is wolfing down his food. A huge relief!

My mum asked, “but how will he get by?”

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Why does my cat refuse to use the litter box?

Why does my cat refuse to use the 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:

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How to Prepare the Perfect Kitty Salad Bar

cat grass and fountain

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!)

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

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”
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Sprint to the finish line

Cat running through tunnel

I’m not quite ready to quit just yet.

Fifteen year old Ninhsy Earl Grey, also known as Puma boy, has seen some interesting things in his life. He has even been to the beautiful Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, his country of birth and has travelled in three different countries with his pal Sarabi. These days he takes it slowly and loves spending time atop his favourite perch or just teaching his humans that patience is a virtue and that every moment with loved ones is priceless.

In May he was diagnosed with CKD (chronic kidney disease) and we’re doing all we can to make him feel good and enable him to enjoy the Autumn years of his life. Below are some photos of him having a ‘sprint’ in the tunnel, in his moment of sunset ‘zoomies’. Puma Boy has never been known for speed. Even in his youth he did things in his stride. He surprised us with quite a display of athleticism that we haven’t seen in a while, as if to say “I’m not ready to give up just yet.”

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Embrace your cat mom coolness, it’s here to stay!

Cat Mom

Cat Mom and her thinking cat

Celebrate that special bond

It’s Mother’s day and us cat moms deserve a place at the table. Let’s embrace our cool cat lady-ness and relegate that mythical creature, The Crazy Cat Lady, to the history books. We should proudly celebrate the special bond we share with our feline friends because we have almost come full circle where cats are earning their rightful place as cherished members of our families. They have reclaimed their ‘cool’ badge courtesy of the Internet, the dog park for kitty lovers. Cats have been in vogue for a while now with the likes of celebrity cat ladies, Taylor Swift and Katy Purry Perry flaunting their furry felines on social media. There’s a Grumpy cat meme for every situation and who doesn’t like cats in bowties? But more importantly, there are more scientific studies being carried out on cat-human relationships and us humans are delving deeper into understanding cats better in order to live in harmony with them. Hooray for the kitties and their humans!

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Why we decided to stop declawing cats – Interview with two no-declaw clinics

 

Cat with toy

There are a few veterinary clinics in Montreal who have decided to take a solid no-declaw stance and have stopped performing declaws. The Pierrefonds Animal Hospital and the Centre Vétérinaire Riv Sud are two such veterinary clinics. I have reached out to them for an insider view of declawing and why they have taken this major step to stop practicing it. The good news is that both clinics report a growing awareness among their clients about what declawing is. These clients are very willing to accept the many humane alternatives. However, there still seems to be that tiny percentage who will insist, but they now happily decline them. Eventually with persistence and education, hopefully these requests will be a thing of the past. Below is my interview with Anita Cuisinier DVM and Susan Brown DVM.

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Declawing – why it needs to stop

paws need claws, a tortie cat showing off her beautiful claws

Scout proudly shows her claws, in true tortie style.

Declawing in North America is a controversial topic. I had never heard of declawing before until I moved to Canada. I knew that North American cats, for the most part, lived an indoor pampered life of luxury and comfort and that of course, like everywhere else, are valued members of their families. What I didn’t know was that there existed a culture of declawing for reasons none other than to spare the couch from damage. Roughly 31% of these pampered North American cats are missing a vital part of their anatomy, their toes. Try as I may, I could not come to grips with the fact that it is done purely for the convenience of the owners with zero benefits to the cat. As someone who has had the honor to have been owned by many clawed cats all her life, the idea of declawing is not only cruel but totally absurd. Why remove a body part that is as vital to them for their functioning and well-being, as our limbs are to us? As many as 28 countries all agree that there is nothing controversial or debatable about the amputation of cats’ toes, it’s just outright inhumane and shouldn’t be practiced.

March 29 is National Declaw Awareness Day. The goal is to create awareness around this heated topic, educate cat guardians about what declawing entails and help put an end to this unnecessary procedure which is still very much rife in North America. But what exactly is declawing and why is it still practiced here?

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