Timid Tomcat Continued…

If you have a particularly timid cat, or if there are other pets in the house try putting one room aside to work with the timid cat. Set this up with its own bed, toys, litter tray, food, and a cardboard box as a safe haven. Do not place the litter tray near the bed or food. The cat is likely to be in here for a while, maybe even a few weeks, so make it comfortable. Leave the cat carrier in the same room as the cat. Place the box in a quiet corner, facing the opening into the wall. Cats feel more secure in a small dark environment. Also if you leave the carrier out the cat will not be as fearful of it should you need to take it to the vet. It is quite normal that when you get a shy timid cat back home it will become even more introvert. It is important at this stage to allow the cat to come to terms with its new environment at its own pace. Never attempt to drag the cat out from wherever it has taken refuge.

Timid Tomcat

We all hope that our cat will be the loveable little soul that will want to sit on our lap for hours and have endless cuddles, but some of them are just not like that. The most important time in a cat’s life is the first 8 weeks. Any experiences in these first few weeks will form their characters. Bare this in mind if you want to ensure a loveable pet: Hand feeding is the quickest and easiest way to gain a cats trust. If proving particularly difficult use tuna, ham or prawns to get started with and then feed her normal cat food. As she becomes more confident move the food further away so she has to come towards you to get her reward. This method can also be used with cats that will not sit on your lap. Sitting on the floor at her level, offer her the food - then bit by bit start to move the food a little further over each time, so she has to put one paw on your leg.

Agro Kitty

Pain Related Aggression - First and foremost you must see a vet. If your cat has suddenly become aggressive for what appears to be no reason at all then you must first rule out any medical problems. An abscess or wound from a fight may not be visible to us but can cause the cat extreme pain. There could be any number of reasons why a cat is in pain so you MUST get the cat checked by a vet first to rule out any medical reason before looking at the situation from a behavioural point of view.
Fear Related Aggression - the period from 2- 8 weeks of age in a kitten’s life is very important. They should be handled for at least one hour a day and should see at least 8 different people during this period. They should then grow up to be comfortable with being handled by humans. Kittens that are not well socialised learn to fear humans and will be defensively aggressive towards us. Kittens soon learn that if they hiss and spit then we back off - in the end the behaviour is done automatically as soon as a human approaches.

How to prevent your cat from spraying in the house

Firstly, distinguish between spraying and urinating: spraying is a deliberate act of communication, which will be done on a vertical surface such as a wall. Urinating is the normal passing of urine onto a horizontal surface like the floor. Spraying can be a sign of serious upset but is usually a normal marking behaviour in un-neutered cats and in most animals out of the house. Some of these apparent toileting problems can have a medical basis so if you are unsure always get your vet to check your cat.
For any kind of spraying/urination, cleaning the area properly is very important to prevent recurrence, try the following:

1. Clean the area with a 10% solution of a biological or enzymatic washing powder / liquid.
2. Wipe area down with cool clean water and dry.
3. Spray area with a low-grade alcohol such as surgical spirit through a plant mister.

Pheromone sprays can be obtained from a vet to make your cat feel more settled but the area must be properly cleaned first. The longer this problem continues the more difficult it is to stop.

Eight Steps to building a relationship with your Cat (Part 2)

5: Establishing a grooming routine for your kitty.

If your cat has long hair he/she should be groomed everyday. If, on the other hand, your cat has a short-haired coat, then he/she only needs to be groomed twice a week.

6: Always look out for any signs of sickness!

While grooming your cat, have a look for fleas, ticks or any other parasites. Also look for any skin disorders, lumps, bumps, or skin lesions and treat it accordingly and a soon as possible.

7: Set some ground rules for your kitten and stick to them!

Ground rules help prevent your kitten from developing bad habits, as it teaches your kitten the difference between right and wrong.

8: Make sure that you start litter box training as soon as possible!

The litter box should be placed in a secluded area so that your kitten associates that area with having to ‘do his business’. Also, it is important to keep the box clean as cats don’t like to use soiled litter.

Eight Steps to building a relationship with your Cat (Part 1)

1: Ensure that your kitten has enough human contact!

Handling your kitten frequently during their first month increases and improves their learning ability.

2: Take time out to play with your kitten as it aids in development.

This teaches your cat about its environment and how to negotiate it. It also encourages instinctual behaviour in your kitten.

3: Make sure that your kitten pays a visit to the vet as soon as possible.

It is vital to ensure that your kitten is vaccinated against diseases and worms, and ask your vet for diet advice while you are there.

4: Make sure that your kitten is receiving a balanced diet.

A balanced, and nutritional, diet is vital to the development of your kitten – it ensures that he/she has enough nutrients to develop physically and mentally and makes for a strong and healthy immune system.

Moving your Cat to a New Home

Moving houses may be quite a traumatic experience for cats. The moving process is also very difficult for you, and your cat will easily pick up on it. It might be best to send your cat to a cattery, or to let it stay at a friend’s home, during the packing and moving process. When your cat is introduced to your new home, you should allow for some ‘settling in’ time. However, be sure to not let the house-rules go! Make sure that your cat knows where his/her food and water bowls are and where his/her litter box has been placed. Cats should be kept indoors for a period of two weeks, before they are let out, to allow them to settle into their new home. It is also important to give your pet the opportunity to explore its new surroundings and to get familiar with its new territory.

Naughty Cat!

Its spring time again and that usually means one thing: a restless kitty!! As cats come into mating season they become rowdy and extremely territorial, which often results in an injured cat or an injured bird! So how do you, if not prevent, at least mitigate your kitty’s behaviour? I suggest that you make sure your cat wears a bell around its neck so as to alert the nesting pigeons, robins and doves. This will give them fair warning of your cat’s presents. If the neighbourhood’s cat’s are having a turf war in your backyard, cut up some citrus fruit – lemons or oranges – and spread them across your lawn or where you know the cats tend to congregate. Citrus deters cats as they don’t like the smell, and this should leave your yard free of meowing madness in the middle of the night. If your cat’s antics are driving you nuts, it might be a good idea to consider spaying or neutering your cat. This is important in preventing ‘unwanted’ pregnancies and aggressive pets.

The Secret Lives of Cats

Ariel, who is of no particular feline bloodline, belongs to a very good friend of mine. In four years I have not actually seen this cat. She greets my friend with a punctual and frantic ‘meow’ nine o’clock every evening, and slinks out of the house before anyone has even cracked an eyelid. My question is… ‘Where does Ariel go’? (Or should it be ‘Is Ariel real??). As a dog owner myself, I can’t imagine not seeing, let alone not being greeted by my adorable canine, but cats are something else! I have a secret desire to strap a ‘cat cam’ to the feline’s neck and to review the evidence. However, I doubt that my friend will entertain this notion as enthusiastically as I have. For now I can only imagine the storm drains frequented, the households scavenged for catnip, and the birds terrorised by this little cat.

Common [kitty] sense

Did you know that the classic, and somewhat sentimental, image of the fireman being called to rescue the kitten from the tree is a complete farce. Cats are far more acrobatic and daring than some of us give them credit for. A cat’s agility, in fact, is one of its most important survival mechanisms. There are not many other mammals that can climb trees with such aplomb as your average housecat. This ability allows them to escape predators who might be chasing them on the ground. And, perhaps just as importantly, it can be a tool of attack that helps a cat disguise itself when stalking prey. The fact of the matter is that if a cat can climb up the tree, it doesn’t need a fireman with a really long ladder to rescue it. The cat can just as easily jump down on its own – literally “running down” until it hits the ground. It’s part of the way cats are designed.

Home-made kitty litter

I was browsing the Internet some time ago, and I came across this really inventive recipe for homemade kitty litter. Conventional litter can have some horrendous chemicals in them to neutralize bad odors. So if this worries you, then making your own litter is quite easy. You start by shredding some newspaper and collecting it all in an unused litter box. You then soak the paper in warm water with some gentle, biodegradable dishwashing liquid. The shredded paper will take on a kind of cooked oatmeal consistency. You then drain the water (using an old colander, perhaps) and repeat the soaking process but this time WITHOUT the soap. Proceed to sprinkle some baking soda on the wet paper, kneading it into the mixture. Then squeeze the remaining moisture out until it’s as dry as possible. Once it’s dry, put about two inches of paper crumbles into the litter box. You’d need to scoop up solids every day, but the litter only needs changing once a week. It takes about half an hour to make a two to three supply of litter, and with the exception of the baking soda it’s virtually free to make.

Acrobatic Kitty

Cats are so acrobatic. I was gazing outside my window the other day, and I saw my cat literally climb up a very high wall. In essence, she “ran up” the wall and settled on the top, perched like she owned the entire world. Later that day, she came back onto my property from another side and an even higher wall. I was in the garden at the time, and when she saw me she started meowing and walking towards me on the thin ridge of the wall. I was so scared that she’d fall off. This wall is really very high, and I thought there’d be no way that she would chance dropping down from this height. I know there’s the saying that says a cat always lands on its feed, but this wall was seriously high. In one, fluid movement she again “ran down” the wall, reached the ground, and then looked at me as though it were the most natural thing in the world to do. I was amazed!

Girl Power

I find it interesting that cats are so often portrayed as symbols of power. I’m thinking specifically of a character like Cat Woman. In Batman Returns, a now quite old movie, Michelle Pfeiffer plays a very meek secretary who is a doormat for her boss. When her boss (played by Christopher Walken) pushes her out a high story window, she comes back as Cat Woman, with nine lives! This shy, very passive woman now becomes a force to be reckoned with. She is no longer threatened and fearful of men which, paradoxically, is what draws Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) to her in the first place. In case you don’t remember, Cat Women ends up using eight of her nine lives, and the movie ends with her roaming the street looking for something (or someone!) else to hunt.

Picking up your cat

Do you ever wonder why when some people pick up your cat she just stays and purrs in their arms, but when others do this your cat just wants to break free immediately and starts clawing her way free? One of the reasons for this could be the way you’re hold her. When you pick up a cat, the most important thing to remember is to make sure that you’re supporting their back legs in some way. When you support their back legs, a cat naturally feels more secure in your arms, and you make it far more comfortable for your cat to be there. Cats generally don’t like the cradle position (which, as the name suggests, is where you hold that cat like a baby in a cradle), because it doesn’t afford them any control. Try draping the front paws of the cat over your shoulder while supporting their back legs with your other hand.

Cat Urine

So what’s the best way to treat a urine stain or smell on your carpet from a cat? Firstly, it must be said that the earlier you treat the urine stain the easier it will be for you to remove the foul odour. As the urine decays while sitting on your carpet or sofa, it will partly convert to a gas form, which causes the strong ammonia smell. If left untreated, the urine can seep below the carpet to the tiles or wood underneath. One of the best ways to treat cat odours or stains is by mixing white vinegar and water, and then blotting it using a thick (and old!) bath towel or heavy cloth. If the urine has been there for some time, you may need to investigate some specific products intended for stain removal, but give the white vinegar and water mix a try first and see if you come right.

Night time visitors!

One night, as I was sitting at my desk working, I heard a rustling in the bushes outside. Because I was sitting so quietly, the cat intruder jumped in through the window and walked straight past my bedroom and into the kitchen, where I heard it start munching on the biscuits it had been stealing for weeks on end. Now, I knew I needed to evoke a response in this cat such that it would stop coming into my house at all hours and spraying on my carpet. So, I slowly got out of my chair and began stalking it. When I was close enough, I yelled as loudly as I could, “Get out!” This cat got such a fright that it did a half somersault in the air. It bolted right under legs, and back through the bathroom window. Suffice it to say, I’ve never seen it since!

Love your Cat!

Where did the phrase “cat got your tongue” come from? Apparently, there are number of theories about its origins. According to one theory, it derives from a practice in the Middle East where liars had their tongues ripped out and fed to the king’s cat as punishment. Another theory is that it came from the Middle Ages. If you a saw a witch, her cat (witches always seem to have black cats, don’t they?) would control your tongue in such a way that you would be unable to report that you’d seen her. Yet another theory comes from English maritime and the cat-o’-nine-tails (which is a whip with nine knotted cords). If an officer had been privy to something secret, but he told people things he wasn’t meant to, he would “get the cat”. When others wanted to know these secrets, they said ask if the “cat got your tongue” i.e. “are you not telling us because you’re afraid of the cat?”

Unexpected Visitors

Cats are great pets, no doubt. But what do you do when you get some unexpected visitors coming in at night? Something like this happened to me, recently. There was a cat from a few houses down the road who found my secret little window. I always keep this window open for my cat: it allows her access in and out of the house as and when she needs it. Unfortunately, this intruder cat was using this window to come in at night. Not only was he eating my cat’s supply of tasty biscuits, he insisted on leaving his mark by spraying on my carpet. Cat urine, especially from males, has a very pungent, ammonia-like odour. And day after day I’d wake to this awful smell in my house. I knew something had to be done it, but I’d have to catch this cat in the middle of his crime.

Getting to know your cat

I was never a “cat person” until I was forced to be. My neighbors decided they were immigrating to Dubai and needed homes for their cat and her eight kittens. The kittens found homes almost immediately, but for some reason no one wanted the mother. She was still very young: three years is not at all old for a cat. Now, I’m terribly allergic to cats. In fact, I have to take an antihistamine whenever I’m around them. One day, as I was walking down the street, my neighbors came up to me and told me they’d found homes for all their pets except this one cat. They said that they’d be forced to put her down unless I took her, because no one else wanted her. In essence, they were putting the life of the little guy in my hands! I decided I’d take her, albeit that I was allergic. I have to say it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. She is such fun to be around, always racing around the house, and chasing almost anything that moves. And on really cold nights, she snuggles up close to me, and purrs like a gentle tractor.

Moggies Away!

Do you have a little stray running around in your back yard? If you do, then I’m sure you find them wonders to behold. Just like any ‘breed’ in life, it’s often the commoners that provide the backbone of life as we know it. Moggies, as we call them in South Africa, are stray cats that come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They have a sense of roguishness that compels us helpless humans to fall in love with them. A rough and untamed, or not constructed, spirit that bubbles through these pets personalities is that which attracts us. So the next time you chase away that stray eating your pure-breds food, remind yourself of the horrible plight that these colourful creatures have, the plight of un-appreciation.