What's the latest?

Battle of the kitty tunnels

10/08/2016
Chirpy Cats
28 Comments
Cat Enrichment, Wordless Wednesday
catio, environment enrichment, multi-cat household

When we completed our catio is was a 12’x10′ area with ramps, perches and a cascading vine surrounding it. We wanted to add more ‘places of interest’ for the cats to explore without modifying the layout completely and doing minimal adjustments to the catio.

Building cat tunnels is the perfect solution to extending an existing structure. We added a ground tunnel which eventually became the ‘catnip tunnel’ where cat-safe nasturtiums and catnip form a canopy of shade in late Summer. You can imagine this is the most sought-after hangout!

Our elevated tunnel leads to two other secondary catios and meets at the ‘central station’ which is off limits to the humans. Anyway, we now know that what happens in the central station, stays in the central station!

Sly Pie waits at his ‘pretend’ ticket booth at the entrance to the ground tunnel and he takes his job quite seriously. Anyone who tries to pass without paying the fee gets a powder puff.

31/07/2016
Chirpy Cats
12 Comments
Catnip Chirps
catdad, catmom, forever home, rescue cat

Charlie loves his garden and likes his picture taken next to the flower pots.

As we have highlighted in our Canada Day post, we bring you another ‘moving day’ rescue story of how Charlie joined the Chirpy Cats crew. It was December 2014 when I received a text from my husband with a photo of a cat behind bars with large alert eyes and a confident stare. The text read “Our new cat, see his big head”. He must be joking. I thought our Chirpy Cats clan of five was just the right number, you know, like the “Big Five”, in fact, we called them our “Little Big Five” and now he decides to adopt another. That was not in the memo, that was not the plan! He was supposed to just take two of our cats to the vet for their yearly checkup and vaccines, not to be looking at adopting more cats. But what struck me was the reason for abandonment, he was a July 1st cat or as I call them, ‘moving day’ cats, yet another of the many that are abandoned on ‘moving day’ in Quebec. Once my husband has his mind made up about something, he follows through with it all the way, so I knew Charlie was coming to stay and that was that. He wasn’t joking. Below, Charlie speaks his heart out about his brief brush with homelessness and how he spent five months in a shelter before coming to stay with us.

01/07/2016
Chirpy Cats
7 Comments
Catnip Chirps
abandoned cats, Canada day cats, rescue cats, shelter cats

Canada day is also “moving day” in the province of Quebec, Canada, where leases expire and there is a mass exodus of people moving to their new apartments. Great news if your new lease allows you to bring your pet with you. But not so great if you are faced with the gut-wrenching decision of having to give up your cat or dog due to a no-pet clause. This is common in Quebec where only 4.2% of landlords accept dogs and pet-friendly accommodation is very hard to come by.

According to the Montreal SPCA, during the months surrounding moving day, July 1st, the number of animals abandoned at The SPCA nearly triples, from around 600 a month to approximately 1600.

08/05/2016
The Lady Cat
15 Comments
Catnip Chirps
cat mom, cat-human bond, crazy cat lady, Mother's day

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!

09/04/2016
Chirpy Cats
13 Comments
Catnip Chirps
cat tips, geriatric cats, playtime, Senior cats

It’s Caturday and it’s my Birthday!

Hello friends! Today is Caturday, the day when I get to spend extra long morning snuggles with my humans. But what’s different about this Caturday is that I am officially a geriatric cat. Today is my birthday and I am 15 years old in human years which means I am actually 76 years old in cat years. Although I have slowed down in recent years I am still King of my castle. Being the oldest of the bunch certainly has its perks like having access to my favourite sun puddles and getting extra supplements for my old bones. I would like to share a few tips that my humans do to make the latter part of my years as comfortable for me as possible and to keep me young and healthy at heart.

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

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.

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?

What’s the craic, my friends? I’m excited to be wishing you a Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I have many good memories of my home country of Ireland, where I stayed with my The Lady Cat in green and hilly Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. My friend, Sarabi and I, used to go for long walks on the nearby beaches, climbing over boulders and savoring the sand between our paws. Those were the good old days of my youth.

leash walking cats — Walking on a beach near Letterkenny, Ireland, 2002

I’m a retired show cat who was born in County Cork, Ireland and I used to travel all over to strut my stuff and show off my good looks and temperament in shows around Ireland and once in England too. I got to travel on a ferry! I am an Asian Blue Ticked Tabby, originating from the silky Burmese breed and we come in all color types. I don’t get too caught up in titles but I have earned a few. My full name is Coomakista Ninh Earl Grey and I am also a Supreme Premier and Tara Grand Premier. I am also the first Asian Ticked Tabby to hold these titles and to have three Best of Varieties at Irish Supreme Shows. Despite my grand titles, I’m a very mellow and down to earth old chap, preferring these days, to rest in my catio condo and watch birds. Although I have a calm demeanor I am not a pushover and when the young punks need some training on proper kitty etiquette and basic house rules I’m always showing them the ropes with a firm paw.

14/03/2016
Chirpy Cats
7 Comments
Catnip Chirps
cat health, geriatric cat, multi-cat household, pi day

March 14 is celebrated annually as Pi day and the tradition of eating pie is welcomed and encouraged by Math geeks and non-geeks alike. Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter and this number, regardless of the size of the circle, is always the same: 3.14159….an infinite decimal. It’s a great excuse to get away from your desk and join your colleagues and indulge in a slice, or two. But I’m a cat and I don’t work so I’m hoping I will be handsomely compensated when the humans get home from work.

I have discovered I have a lot in common with Pi or π (the symbol). Like Pi, the ratio of my circumference to my diameter was also a mathematical constant, and like Pi, eventually, I lost approximately 3.14 lbs. But before you go ahead and stuff your face, please read my story…

What’s the latest?

Battle of the kitty tunnels

How Charlie found his forever home

It’s Canada Day! But what does that mean for our furry friends?

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

Celebrate that special bond

12 Tips for keeping your senior cat comfortable

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

Declawing – why it needs to stop

Happy St. Patrick’s day, with Love

So it’s Pi day – A Cat Weighs In