Category Archives: cats

Tuesday animals!

Posted on September 7, 2021 by | 3 comments

~E

3 Comments

Posted in cats, dogs, God's creation

Tagged , ,

Wednesday animal chuckles

Posted on September 1, 2021 by | 4 comments

~E

4 Comments

Posted in cats, dogs, Funnies, God's creation

What happens when your cat bites/eats a toad?

Posted on August 17, 2021 by | 7 comments

Here in Oklahoma we have a lot of Woodhouse toads. They come around on our front porch at night to feast on the bugs and stick around on the front porch during the day.

None of my cats ever chase these toads and I always wondered why. That question was answered today when a co-worker told me about the wonderful self-defense mechanisms God gave frogs and toads!

The co-worker told me that cats and dogs stay away from these creatures because they stink. And they are toxic to our pets. From HowStuffWorks:

“Nature provides all life with some means of protection. With certain toads it is the saliva, which is thought to contain a potent toxin. The poison contained in a toad’s saliva is so strong that once it comes in contact with the mouth or eyes of the cat, it causes severe symptoms within minutes.

Toad poisoning affects the heart and nervous system to such a degree that death can occur within 30 minutes if the cat is not treated. Some warning signs that indicate your cat has experienced toad poisoning include excessive drooling, a shaking head, trembling and shaking body, lack of coordination, difficulty breathing, convulsions, and coma. Signs may develop around the mouth or eyes of the cat immediately after contact with the toad.”

My co-worker told me that most cats and dogs “foam at the mouth” and have drooling and vomiting. The cure for a cat that has been afllicated by biting/eating a toad or frog is to flush their eyes/mouth with water. If it was me, I’d be getting kitty to the vet ASAP.

Here’s what it looks like when a cat eats a frog:

So glad I learned about this today. And very happy that my cats have the good sense to stay away from the toads!

DCG

7 Comments

Posted in cats, God's creation

Tagged ,

Sunday Animal Funnies!

Posted on August 1, 2021 by | 6 comments

~E

6 Comments

Posted in cats, dogs, Funnies

Ever had a cat that itched like crazy? What was your solution?

Posted on July 17, 2021 by | 17 comments

For over a month now my 19-year-old kitty “Baby” has been scratching and itching like crazy. He’s got patches of hair missing from his body and seems a little miserable. 🙁

First time we took him to the vet they gave him an allergy shot to control the itch. He was back at the vet the following week for another allergy shot. At the first visit, Baby had a couple red spots on his skin and they have disappeared. The red spots have not come back.

Third time I took Baby to the vet I was told that the problem was “psychological.”

We do have two other cats that Baby does not interact with, Little Black Kitty and Cujo. LBK and Cujo were abandoned by neighbors and we adopted them. They both came into our lives in 2018, shortly before Baby’s brother “Lucky” passed away in December 2018.

Now, after almost three years with these other cats, Baby appears to be fearful of/irritated with them. He seems to be looking for them when exiting a room and he’s taken to itching pretty badly.

I’ve tried some new foods for skin/fur issues, every “calming” product available at PetSmart, and Dinovite. I now keep Baby isolated from LBK and Cujo as much as possible although I’m sure he can still hear and smell them.  Nothing is stopping his itching.

Have you ever had an itch issue with a cat like this before? If so, how did you handle it?

Any suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated. I know my Baby is very senior in cat years and I would like to make his last months (maybe year?) as comfortable as possible.

Baby in 2015 showing off his mouser skills.

THANKS!

DCG

17 Comments

Posted in cats, God's creation

Tagged ,

Wednesday Funny: Cats like to sit even in illusory boxes

Posted on June 30, 2021 by | 9 comments

Cat owners know that their fur-babies love to sit in bags, baskets, and boxes.

But a new study found that cats would sit even in “boxes” that are optical illusions!

Emma Young reports for the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest, May 24, 2021, that a new study by Gabriella E. Smith at City University of New York and colleagues, published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science, found that cats treated an illusory square as a real square.

Of the 500 pet cats and owners who signed up to take part, 30 completed all the trials. The owners were not told the purpose of the experiment. 

Every day for six days, each owner put their cat out of the room while they taped a pair of stimuli to the floor. The researchers instructed them each day on which two of three stimuli to use:

  1. An actual square.
  2. An illusory Kanizsa square, in which four Pacman-type cut-outs are arranged to suggest the lines of a square.
  3. The Kanizsa control, in which the Pacman-type cut-outs face the other way, so that there is no illusion of a square.

The owner then put on sunglasses (so their cat couldn’t use the owner’s gaze as a cue to what to do), brought the cat into the room, and started videoing. If, within five minutes, their cat sat or stood within either of the shapes, the trial ended. Either way, after five minutes, they submitted the result.

Of those 30 cats who completed all the trials:

  • On 8 occasions, a cat sat inside an actual square.
  • On 7 occasions, a cat sat inside a Kanizsa square.
  • A cat sat inside the Kanizsa control only once.

This suggests that cats treat the illusory Kanizsa squares just like real ones.

~E

9 Comments

Posted in cats, Funnies, God's creation

Tagged ,

What your cat’s sleeping positions mean

Posted on June 26, 2021 by | 4 comments

Some of this intuitive, but I didn’t know about what other sleeping positions mean.

~E

4 Comments

Posted in cats, God's creation

Friday Animals!

Posted on June 18, 2021 by | 4 comments

~E

4 Comments

Posted in cats, dogs, God's creation

Tagged , ,

Tuesday Funny: My cat is a thief

Posted on June 15, 2021 by | 6 comments

Some cats are cat burglars, like this cat with a penchant for shoes.

In the case of Kate Felmet, 50, an ICU doctor in Beaverton, Oregon, her cat Esme has a fondness for gloves.

Ben Cost reports for the New York Post, June 14, 2021, that Felmet “devised an unorthodox way to pay penance for her thieving feline — by posting a sign asking neighbors to reclaim items snatched by her klepto kitty, Esme.”

Kate Felmet said, “The neighbors in my community know where to look for their stuff.” She had previously returned the items during door-to-door “apology rounds.” .

Cat burglar Esme’s scavenging spree began in the summer of 2019, when she began bringing birds and pieces of trash back to the house as gifts. Then, at the start of the Wuhan virus pandemic, Esme started curating her collections by retrieving discarded masks, amassing as many as 11 face covers in one day.

Felmet said: “It does seem like she has some sort of uncanny ability to bring on stuff that has to do with what we’re doing at the time.” Once, Esme brought her patient human tape and paint roller covers while Felmet was painting her daughter’s bedroom.

Beginning this past April, Esme turned to stealing gloves. Felmet said: “One week in late April, she brought two pairs per day. At the end of the week, I had 14 pairs, and I thought that if I didn’t do something about it I’d be swamped by the end of the summer.”

That was when Felmet posted the sign, which led to the return of 10 pairs of gloves, several masks and a running belt to their original owners. Esme recalled one time where a school bus drove by “and the guy got out and got a few things.”

In the case of one neighbor, Esme has stolen the same pair of kneepads out of their garage three times.

~E

6 Comments

Posted in cats, Funnies, God's creation

Tagged ,

Tuesday Animals

Posted on June 1, 2021 by | 4 comments

~E

4 Comments

Posted in cats, dogs, God's creation

Tagged ,