Bonnie and Clyde
Kittens are, in my opinion, one of the most playful animals on earth. A few months ago I fostered a couple of kittens for Austin Pets Alive! and I was reminded just how much trouble and fun a kitten can be. Not only do kittens have a very high play drive, but the get into everything and can climb just about any vertical or horizontal surface.
So, why get two kittens instead of one?
For the very simple reason that if you have two kittens, they can play with each other.
Play related aggression (biting, scratching, and attacking during play) is very common in kittens. In fact, this predatory behavior is a normal part of play behavior in kittens. The problem begins when this behavior is directed at you (your hands, feet, etc) rather than at a toy or another kitten.
Read the rest of this entry »
Every cat owner can recognize it, and no cat owner wants to come across it anywhere but appropriately designated areas. It is the very distinctive and highly unappealing smell of cat urine.
I’ve been a cat owner since I was 4 years old and a tiny kitten crawled under our freezer in the garage during a rainstorm. The garage door, which was usually kept shut, had for some reason been left open.
Midnight, as the kitten came to be called, developed over time the unpleasant habit of occasionally using someone’s bed as her litterbox. I can’t really confirm this, too many years have passed, but I believe there was a direct correlation between the frequency of litterbox cleanings and her urinated on the bed. What can I say, I was a kid and I often forgot about the litterbox chore.
Read the rest of this entry »
My cat is driving me nuts. Aren’t you glad to find out that even the professionals don’t have perfect pets.
I have two cats, Timmy and Cubby. Cubby was raised entirely indoors. Timmy however was an outdoor cat until I adopted him at about 2 years of age. Timmy has been an indoor cat since that time. However, recently Timmy had decided that he is desparate to go outside. I’m not sure if it is the recent change in the weather or some other reason, but I’m having a very hard time keeping Timmy in the house.
Read the rest of this entry »
Over the past few years I have done a lot of fostering for various rescue groups in the Central Texas area. Therefore, my pets have gotten very used to seeing animals come and go. Creating proper introductions between my own dogs and cats and my foster dogs and cats has become very important if I want to maintain even a remotely sane environment.
For all animals, but particularly cats, first impressions are extremely important. As much as I wish I could just bring a cat or kitten home and have it immediately fit in to our furry family that is just not the case. A process needs to be followed so that each animal can adjust to the presence of the new addition one step at a time.
Read the rest of this entry »
I was reading a scientific study today on behavioral reasons that dogs and cats are given up to animal shelters (see references below). I spend a significant amount of time reading the scientific literature relating to animal behavior. But this one, just made me sad. Every behavior problems listed for the dogs and cats given up was a potentially treatable problem.
Is your pet’s behavior problem treatable?
Read the rest of this entry »
Cassidy
My parents dog Cassidy has chronic ear infections. She has had them for years. Every few months she follows the same cycle. She gets an infection, she gets medication, the infection goes away. And then the cycle repeats. Cassidy hates having medication put in her ears. So much so that she has become very wary of anyone touching her head. She doesn’t bite or become aggressive. She just pulls her head away and runs and hides if she sees you coming with a bottle of medication.
There was one point in time when Cassidy started biting. I reached down to pet her and she nipped at me. Was this some newly developed behavior problem. No. Cassidy had another ear infection and all the head shaking she had been doing had resulted in a painful hematoma on her ear.
Read the rest of this entry »
Cats have been a part of my life since I was 5 years old and a tiny black and white kitten took refuge from a storm underneath the freezer in our garage. Much to my fathers dismay (he’s a dog person), Midnight was soon out from under the freezer and a part of the family.
Read the rest of this entry »
I was watching a rerun of Friends the other day and in this episode Rachel brings home a hairless cat. It turns out though that she paid something like $1000 for a cat that she can’t even touch. She ends up carrying it around with oven mitts on so that she can avoid being scratched.
The next day, I ended up working with a couple of cats that were complete opposites of each other. One, similar to Rachel’s cat on Friends, was untouchable, even by her owner. The other was sweet and cuddly even in an unfamiliar environment with new people.
Read the rest of this entry »
