My Cat, My Therapist

I know my cat makes me feel good, but medical reasearch supports it, so now it’s official. Cats and other pets have warm and positive effects on the elderly, the handicapped, and instutionalized people.

Way back in 1977, Drs Aaron Katcher (“Kat…?”) and Brica Friedmann of the University of Pennsylvania studied the recoveries of heart-attack victims and found that those with pets were more apt to recover and stablize their health in the form of lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, and “better attitude” such as an all over sense of well-being.  Medical tests prove that simply petting a cat tends to lower one’s blood pressure.  Heart patients without pets showed a tendency for having additional heart attacks, some resulting in death.

Got your cat, yet?

Another study maintained that pets act as a catalyst for feelings which are eventually transferred to other people.  Those who study pets and people say that animals can bridge the gap between those people who tended to reject others, aiding them in the gradual acceptance of personal relationships.  So, evidently, if you know someone who is a bit unsociable, if they gradually can accept an animal, they’ll be kinder and gentler with people!  Be careful, though, as too much pet company could cause one who is not used to it, to mistreat the animal!

It’s safe to assume, that care-giving, begets care-giving.

-Marisue, the Cat’s Meow!…so…Meow About Your Cat!

Cat Paws

Ever tried to get your kitty down from the tree?  It’s easier for them to go up than down.

Cats are wonderful tree climbers, but are extremely poor at coming down from trees, because unlike squirrels, all of their claws face forward, which makes descending almost impossible.  Don’t blame the kitty!

Many suburban firefighters, who are often called to rescue cats from trees, are aware of this fact.

The declawing of a cat is called an “onynectomy.”  Declawing is a controversy among cat owners.  When a cat rubs against a person with its mouth, it is marking or leaving its scent.  Single cats rub against their owners more than cats in homes with more than one cat.  Outdoor cats mark their owners more than indoor cats.

When a cat scratches at a tree, or your furniture, it is not only giving its claws some exercise, it is leaving its scent via the sweat on its footpads.

Originally desert animals, cats feel comfortable touching objects that are 112F, which a human being is averse to, and can handle items as hot as 124F without aversion.

Not MY Cat.  I keep her very comfortable, and she loves it.

-Sassy’s Mom, the cat’s meow

Your Cat’s Health and Physical Body

Did you know Cat’s have “belly buttons?”

Understanding a few facts about  your cat’s physical “make up” will help you provide special care to keep your beloved pet in good shape.

Here are a few general bits of information to aide you in being an informed cat owner:

• Bad breath in a cat may be due to dental problems but it also may be an indicator of kidney problems, when the body is not exreting properly.
• The average cat has a heart rate of 110 to 130 beats per minute, compared to 75 beats per minute for a human.  A cat’s heart can beat as rapidly as 240 beats per minute when excited.
• Did you know that about 10% of the catsin New England, New brunswick, Canada, and Nova Scotia have an extra toe.  Hm, I wonder if that goes for humans, too? 
• The average lifespan of a cat is fifteen years, but the oldest cat on record was “Puss,” a tabby from Devon, England.  It reached its 36th birthday on Movember 28, 1939, but died the next day.  Coincidentally, another Devon tabby lived to the age of 34, when it was put to sleep on Movember 28, 1939.  I had a cat, Prissy, who lived to be 27.  I miss her so, and my current cat Sassy, reminds me of her a great deal.
• Cats do have “belly buttons,” although they don’t  resemble human navels.  They appear as an elongated scar, covered by hair.
• As all cat lovers know, the cat is a very intelligent animal.  Using one physiological standard of brain weight to spinal cord length, the cat brain has a ratio of four to one, versus 50 to 1 for humans and 18 to 1 for monkeys.  Cats have a memory ability superior to monkeys and orangutans.
• While dogs rely heavily on their sense of smell and touch for daily existence, cats rely mostly on sights and sounds.
• Cat naps add up to the “big sleep.”  Cats  sleep about sixteen hours a day, off and on, twice a human’s requirement and more than any other mammal.  I wonder what they think about while sleeping?  I guess they don’t worry about paying the bills, but they might be thinking of their next nibble or snack!  I have found my cat curled up in the most unexpected places, one of which was a round fruit bowl on a pedestal, centered on the kitchen table. 
• Cats lack water-producing (eccrine) sweat lands except on their footpads.  Their apocrine sweat glands produce a milky substand that is usedin marking territory and leaving scents.   I would almost rather not know that.
• Are you right or left-handed?  Well, cats also have a preference.  Not only can cats be left-handed, (left-pawed) but they are more apt to be left-handed than  humans.  A study by Dr. J. Cole at Oxford University, England, showed that 38% of the cats studied were excludively left-handed and an additional 20% had left-handed tendencies, leaving 42 % of them right-handed.  By contrast, about 10% of humans are left-handed.
• Cats lack a collarbone,l or clavicle.  This enables them to walk through narrow spaces and to take long strides.
• Cats can lose a lot of body weight, 40%, and survive, but they can’t lose more than 14% of water and live.  I am realizing the weight loss fact, as my cat recently lost most of her weight due to a thyroid problem.  She is just now gaining it back, at the age of 17 and I hope will live several more years.  She is bright and alert and very sweet natured.

You have a very unique pet, play with them tonight, and let them know you care.  Cats can sense that with their special ESP…sometimes rejecting people for no apparent reason.  I trust my cat, when it comes to people, but she seems to love most.

-Sassy’s Mom, the cat’s meow

What A Cat Eats

What a cat eats is mixed in with their behavior and cravings. Here are some cat facts about food, milk, and some dangerous “nos.”

Cat’s Protein Needs

• A cat needs about twice the percentage of protein, 25 percent, in its diet than a dog, which eats about 13 percent protein.
• Cats require intake of more protein than most animals.  Enzymes in their livers absorb much of the protein before it is used by their bodies.

Stalking Prey

• Cats are much better at stalking mice than they are at stalking birds.  About 90% of birds escape the lunge of a cat, versus only 20% of “mice escapes.” Before a cat eats a bird, it removes it’s feathers. Feathers look great, but don’t taste great, and are practically unswallowable.

Road Kill

• Even though a cat looks dainty and clean, they can eat some pretty gross things.  After a cat kills a small rodent or mammal, it swallows the prey with the grain of the hair, head first.   Guess you have to be a cat to understand the attraction and swallowing process.
• Cats by nature, kill deer mice but rarely eat them.  Apparently they are not palatable food. 

Baby, Baby

• Americans spend almost 4 billion a year on cat food, more than they spend on baby food.  Who knew? 

The Cat’s Raspy Tongue

• The cat tongue is mostly raspy to enable the cat to remove as much meat as possible from the bones of its prey and to help in grooming. 
• The abrasive part, filiform papillae, of the tongue contains no taste buds.  The taste buds are at the tip, sides, and base of the tongue.

Mighty Tasty!

• Cat’s tongues react to sourness and bitterness but are not sensitive to sweetness. This may ge a protecive device because ingesting sugar usually causes digestive problems.

Picky Eaters

• Cats prefer to eat their food at 86 degrees F, which is why they don’t immediately gulp down the half-eaten can of food from the refrigerator.

Cat’s and Milk

• Cats cannot digest lactose and are therefore allergic to milk, which will give them diarrhea.  However, they can eat yogurt without any problems.  Put that saucer of milk away!
• The milk of a mother cat contains three times the protein of cow’s milk and six times the protein of human milk. 

Beware, Cats Like to Eat This!

• Cats love to eat liver, which is high in vitamin A, but too much of it is dangerous to the cat’s life and may cause hemorrhaging and bone problems.  Variety is the spice of life!

Aspirin – Not for your Cat!

• Aspirin, an all-purpose medicine for humans, is poisonous to cats. 

Watch out for AntiFreeze!

• Cats have an unusual preference for antifreeze, ethylene glycol, which, of course, is poisonous.  Keep them away from antifreeze!

Cat Laps

• When a cat laps up water, it takes several “practice laps” before it actually swallows the liquid.  I guess the tongue has to get in rhythm first.

Other Forbidden Food for Cats

• No Chocolate! As with Dodgs, do not let your cat eat chocolate bars.  They contain both theobromine, an alkaloid that is toxic to cats, and oxalic acid, which prevents absorption of calcium, necessary for the cat’s bone growth and maintenance.

Beware of Frogs!

• Toads are not the favorite prey of cats, although cats usually try to play with them because of their “hopping and moving” habits.  Cats may even try to take a bite, but don’t let them, as toads exude a poison called bufotalin, also not good for dogs.

Dining Out? Location, Location, Location!

• Just as you wouldn’t like to eat in the bathroom of your home, don’t put a litterbox near where you feed your dat.  By nature, cats do not like to perform these two biological functions in the same area, and will be  reluctant to eat if the litterbox is too close to their food.  Well, would you?

Poisonous Flowers and Plants for Cats

• andromeda
• azalea
• bittersweet
• boxwood
• crown of thorn
• Daphne
• dumb cane (diefenbachia)
• elephant ear (caladium)
• foxglove
• holly
• English ivy
• hydrangea
• Jerusalem cherry
• lantana
• laurel
• lily-of-the-vally
• mistletoe
• monkshood
• oleander
• philodrendron
• pine needles
• poinsettia
• prifet
• rhododendron
• sheep laurel
• snow-on-the-mountain

How Many Cats Is Too Many?

I think two is plenty, but not so for Felinophiles Jack and Donna Wright of Kingston, Ontario.  They spend about $250 a day on dat food and kitty litter, and about $300 a day on veterinarian fees.  The reason is that they own 600 cats!!  The Wrights say “We love each and every one of our 600 cats…our cats are like our children!” 

And I thought 250+ foster children was a lot of meowing!

-Sassy’s Mom, the cat’s meow

Walk Like An Egyptian

Cats walk differently, but not necessarily like an Egyptian, more like giraffes and camels, meaning they move the front and and hind legs on one side and then move forward thefrong and hing legs on the other side.  Most animals move on front let forward at the same time they move the opposite rear leg forward.)

However they do it, it’s a smooth move.  The domestic cat, a natural sprinter, can run as fast as thiry miles an hour versus tewenty-two M.P.H. for an extremely fast hundred-yard-dash human runner.

Cat in the News: In 1984, the fattest cat on record was an Tabby in Australia named Himmy weighing in just over 46 pounds.  Now that’s a FAT CAT.  Not on my lap, please.

Love them all, just the same.

-Sassy’s Mom, the cat’s meow.

The Cat’s Eye! Better To See You With, My Dear!

Cat’s eyesight is amazing!  They see 6 times better than humans!

Under total darkness, cat’s don’t see better than you or I, but under dim light conditions, they can see much better than do we.  The cornea, pupil hole and lens of th cat’s eye are pretty big and the cat eye processes light more efficiently.  Their eyes also contain more “rods” than “cones” than the human eye, which favors night vision.

We see 210 degrees, while a cat has a 285 degree field of vision because the eyeball of a cat is shorter and rounder than that of a human, which gives it a wider field of vision.  This “binocular” like field of vision, common to both eyes, of about 130 degrees, versus 120 degrees for humans, enables them to judge distances more accurately than people.

Have you noticed how your cat eyes seem to glow in the dark?  That’s because of their “tapetum lucidum,” a light reflecting mechanism behind the retina.  Almost eery, isn’t it?

A cat also has 3 eyelids, the 3rd being the “nicitating” membrane, thin whitish tissue that lies at the inside corner of the eyes.  When a human can see the cat’s membrane, it is usually a sign that the cat is ailing. 

Staring at cats provokes them and is an act of aggression.  It’s not a funny way to treat a cat, though I have read a recent blog about a cat owner who tormented their cat often using stares, among other things.

I was not amused and told them about it!  Some people do not deserve to be cat or any other kind of animal owner.  Have some respect, if you don’t like them, at least leave them alone! 

A cat, however, can stare at another cat for extended periods of time, not necessarily resulting in a fight, but hopefully, a “draw.”  They also like to “hypnotize” their prey.  However, my cat stares at me, but it’s in an adoring way…she’s quite addicted to me and it’s written all over her purring face.

We belong to a mutual admiration society… my baby and me.

-Sassy’s Mom.

A Few Facts To Purr About!

All cat’s are not alike!  I’ll be including many little tidbits of info as we write about our meow-er’s…so come back often.

The better to hear you with:

• The color of cats can indicate possible future hearing problems they may have, including the color of their eyes.  Not true in all cases, but indicators are, that white cats are more prone to deafness than other cats.  The white cats who  have those beautiful baby blue eyes have even even more susceptibility for loss of hearing.  White cats with orange eyes have less hearing loss than their blue eyed friends.

Who knew?

• Cats ears contain many more muscles than the ears of humans, which is why they can rotate their ears as much as 180 degrees to locate the source of a sound.  Information sources vary, but indicate that cats have at least ten ear muscle, and maybe as many as thirty!!
• Cats have one of the best senses of hearing in the animal kingdom.  From a few hundred feet, they can recognize the footsteps of their owners.  Most animals are tone deaf, but cats can distinguish between half tones.  Keep them away from bats, because when cats hear bats fluttering their wings, it sounds like a drum roll.  That’s got to be uncomfortable! 
• Cats are very sensitve to high-pitched sounds, hearing up to two octaves higher than the highest note that human beings hear.  Inside their cute little heads are two pretty large echo chambers, known as bullae, which are helpful in detecting the high-pitched sounds that their small prey make.  No wonder they catch those mice!
• A cat can hear sounds as high as 50,000 cycles per second versus 40,000 cycles per second for a dog and 20,000 c.p.s for a human being.  Better keep your voice down if you don’t want them to hear you!
• When a cat purrs, the sound does not emanate from it’s voice box where its meows come from.  Scientists are not sure how purrs are made, but one theory is that they are produced by a vibration of blood flowing from a vein in the chest cavity and amplified in the windpipe. 
• Some cats will respond to the sight and sound of TV.  Several companies have produce videotapes for cats to which they will react.  (Such as Video Catnip, Pet Avision, Inc. PO Box 102, Morgantown, WV 26507)

Cat Talk:

• Cats have a language but little is known about it.  Studies indicate that cats have a 100 “word” vocabulary and thirteen distinct vowel sounds and seven or eight consonant sounds.  It is known that mother cats make a sound that calls kittens back to the “nest.”  Another sound communicates the size of the prey a cat is chasing.  Cats have a larger “vocabulary” than dogs, according to Alphonse Leon Grimaldi, a Parisian professor. 

However, I know some animal lovers who might disagree, and certainly many dogs for the handicap have larger vocabularies, such as the Laboradors.  Guide Dogs can learn as many as 3000+ words, commands, and phrases in their lifetime.

Come back soon, for more about your cat!