Jar Head

A cat in Wilkes-Barre, PA wandered around hungry for a week with his head stuck in a mayonnaise jar.  The cat was caught a couple of times by a cat-loving woman, but ran away.  Finally, this woman caught the cat and with the help of a local Animal Hospital, the cat was freed from the jar. The feline was named Miracle and then released back into the wild.

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Must. Puke. On. Carpet.

Our latest poll asked where cats seem to always like to puke.  100% answered right in the middle of the carpeting.  And isn't that true?  They eat.  Suddenly, their stomach aches and where do they run? Right to the carpet.  Is it because it's soft? Because it doesn't splash in their face?  Or just because they know it will tick off their human masters but they know that they're so lovable that they won't get in trouble? Who knows?  Obviously just the cat!

A Plethora of Answers

My recent poll about cats' idiosyncrasies produced votes that covered 4 of the 5 choices available. People felt that cats are idiotic, intelligent, conniving and hilarious.  If you've been around cats very much, you know that's true.  Their abilities to show such a range of emotions and personality quirks makes them an interesting creature.  They can elicit comedic reactions and seconds later a complete rage-filled desire to eliminate them.  And then they come back purring for more. What would the world be like without these fuzzy balls of mischievous entertainment?

Lactose Intolerant Cats

Milk and cats.  They just seem to go together. But research has shown that many felines are lactose intolerant. What does that mean? According to curiosity.com who partially quoted PetWebMD, "'When a lactose-intolerant cat drinks milk, the undigested lactose passes through the intestinal tract, drawing water with it.  Bacteria in the colon also ferment the undigested sugars, producing volatile fatty acids." What does that mean? An upset stomach, diarrhea, and maybe even vomiting-all common symptoms of lactose intolerance."

So giving your cat milk may not be the best thing in the world for them.  Lots of water, yes. Meat, yes.  But milk, probably not. 

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Peek, Poke, Pickle and Piggy

I'm sitting in bed perusing my emails and checking out the current news feeds when I hear a low rumble emanate from the foot of my bed. I look behind the foothills made up by my feet under the covers.  Just over the top lay Sassy, our female calico cat.  Her ears are perked up, she is staring in the direction of the bedroom door, growling.  Bewildered, I look toward the door to see what she is upset about.  I don't see anything. She quiets.  I sit back and the low rumble begins again.  I again look toward the door and the foot of my bed.  I see nothing but Sassy is definitely irritated.  Wondering what she is upset about I look toward the edge of the foot of my bed expecting to see another cat lying just out of sight.  But it is not to be.  And then it appears.

As I scan the bottom of the bed listening to the fuzzy semi-truck named Sassy idling in warning mode, I detect movement.  Just inches from her face two tiny points of fuzz begin to rise slowly above the foot of the bed like the sun rising in the morning.  Triangular points of fur begin to form and grow larger.  Then the rounded curve of fuzz between the triangular fur appears.  It continues to rise, almost in slow motion.  Sassy's growls grow in intensity.  Tiny whiskers rise above the bed covers and then two huge, dark eyeballs come into view giving the impression of a double moon rising in the east.  Sassy's growls are reaching a crescendo as the full face of Piggy, her brother, appear just above the bedspread.

Piggy's eyes are so full of mischief they appear as if the pools of darkness might spill out over the edge and stain the side of the bed with dark ink spots. As with any sibling, Piggy ignores the warning sounds of Sassy and peers at her with a taunting challenge.  Sassy is not amused. Piggy is totally amused and ready to poke and prod her into action.  Although Piggy knows that Sassy can shred him if she wanted and that he is putting himself into a very dangerous pickle, he could care less.  He is her brother, he wants to torture and irritate her and he will do just that no matter what.

As his face reaches full moon status, Sassy's growls culminate.  As I watch this, I know what's going to happen.  There's going to be a rumble.  Someone is going to get roughed up and all I'm going to hear is a bunch of fur-flying howls and shrieks.  I'm not in the mood for that.

"Piggy!", I yell. "Stop it!"

Piggy looks at me and jumps down.  His mischievous eyes still filled with prodding and an inherent need to poke fun at his sister.  He walks around the bed to my left side.  He disappears out-of-sight. I glance down and figure it's over. Then I hear the growl again. 

Not again, I think.  

I look over the side of the bed.  As Sassy's growl heightens in intensity, I suddenly see two fuzzy triangles begin to appear over the side of the bed.  Then the crescent fuzz and the pools of living ink show themselves. Sassy growls louder.  Piggy's face appears on the side of the bed full-faced and impish.  Sassy's ready to take his head off as her growls increase. 

Once again, wanting to avoid a fur-flying incident and not desiring to have to listen to the rumble-tumble sounds of two feline siblings fighting, I yell at Piggy to stop it and he drops to the floor and scampers out the door.  Sassy settles back down into a lagunoized pool of serenity.  Her eyes close, the purring ramps up once again and Piggy has gone on to other mischievous adventures.  

Siblings!  Whether human or feline, they always want to create havoc despite the fact that they will get themselves into a pickle. And once again I had to be the referee in order to have peace and quiet. It's going to happen again, I just don't know when.  Hopefully it's not in order to attack me!

Carpet Cuisine

Dinner is over. I have some scraps of chicken and steak left. So, being the nice guy I am I decide to share the scraps with the cats. I drop them in their dish for them to munch on at their leisure. I go about cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.

Within a few seconds, the cats heightened sense of smell quickly draws them to the food bowl like a tractor beam on an alien spacecraft.  Pulled relentlessly to the food bowl, the cats stop, staring at these meaty morsels of goodness.  Their noses waggle as their olfactory meters check out the newest snack.

Seems tasty.  Smells good.  Easy to eat.  All those thoughts race through their minds as their tiny mouths reach for a snack. And then the unbelievable happens.  They pick up the meat, wander away from the food dish, look for some carpet and drop their meat cube there to eat.  As I glance over and see this happen, I quickly retrieve the food and put it back in the dish. I tell them that is not the place to eat their greasy food.  They look at me with questioning eyes, glance at the bowl and back at me and then they pick up the meat and drop it back on the carpet.  Why?!

After another retrieval and placement of the food into the appropriate dish, the cats begrudgingly eat their meat.  They're not the happiest campers, if ever a cat would enjoy camping, but they eat it anyway.  And when they finish there's no "thanks" or acknowledgment of my kindness in their behalf.

So, I begin to wonder. What is it with carpets and food? Do the cats feel that adding carpet fiber to their meal enhances the flavor?  Is this their feline version of seasoning? Do they view it as a giant place-mat? Is it a fuzzy food dish?  I just don't know.  If there were no carpets in the house, would they carry the meat around in their mouths for minutes, hours, days or months searching for that one lone piece of carpeting upon which to lay their food?

It's similar with vomiting.  Why is it that when they get sick or have a hairball that needs expelled they always run to the carpet?  They could be standing on acres of hard flooring and yet if they felt the urge to hurl they'd hold it and run pell-mell as fast as possible to the nearest carpet upon which to discharge their internal refuse.

Cats have their own rules and ways of living.  I wonder what it would be like if I could crawl inside their brain and think like they do and see things the way they see.  I'd probably end up pouring my food on the carpet and eating dinner.

Wow! Amazing Cat Survival

Check out this news story about Percy the cat who rode 400 miles in a place you'd wouldn't expect and survived!

The World According to Cats

Here's an interesting article from MSN about cats and how they see the world according to science. It's an interesting, concise article, but fun to read.

Cats-Rulers of the World

On the Verge of Death

Right around 5:30 p.m. every day, our cats almost die.  That's when I come home from work and feed them.  But for them, waiting those extra few minutes for me to put things down, take off my coat and settle in seems like an eternity.

Running to the back door, the cats immediately start meowing, standing on their back feet trying to unlock the door with hands they don't have and feigning their demise if not fed within the next few seconds.  With forlorn eyes they stare at me and meow pitifully echoing feelings of emaciation and imminent death if their food bowl isn't filled with delicious food NOW!

Their meows carry the message of being on the verge of death if thou (me) dost not fill their bodies with nutrition sooner rather than later.  To wait to eat another second is a crime against felinity.  My name will become hated and despised on cat TV across the nation as one who cares little for the lives of fuzzy creatures in that I make them wait far too long to eat their evening meals. Should I wait another second or two, they would persuade me to believe their bodies will keel over, furry mounds of death dotting my floor and they'd expect me to live in misery the rest of my life knowing I allowed them to die within one minute of my arrival home.

The scratching continues, the meowing escalates to a crescendo, the eyes widen in sheer terror of possible death due to malnutrition and dehydration, so at 5:30:30 p.m. I drop everything, open a can of cat food, set it outside and watch as the human-like creatures begin eating without any hint of concern over the anxiety and guilt they've bestowed on me.  They look up from their bowls through the back window and glance at me as if to say, "what do you want? We're eating."

Cats. Dogs. Equal Intelligence.

Here's an interesting article discussing the intelligence between cats and dogs.  Seems that cats may be just as smart as dogs and humans according to new studies.  Read on.  What do you think?

Huddlefuzz, Spud and Pumpkin

You might remember the account in the Bible of the three Hebrew boys who were thrown into a fiery furnace for refusing to bow down to a pagan idol.  Well, did you know that they all had two names?

The boys Hebrew names were Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.  The Babylonian chief court official, Ashpenaz, by order of King Nebuchadnezzar, then changed the boys names to Babylonian names. They were then known most commonly as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

So, why bring this up?  What's it got to do with cats?  Well, it seems pretty common that in most households, animals may have a given name but based on their antics and behavior they often receive silly names or "pet" names as well.  Thus, the account of the three Hebrew boys got me thinking.

We have three cats named Baby, Piggy and Sassy.  Baby is really a baby in the sense that he feels he should be treated and coddled as if he deserved everything.  He's needy.

Piggy was named for his curled tail which resembled a pig when he was little. He's very loving, protective and adventurous.

Sassy is the only girl.  She's calico and when she was born she gave early indication that she would be in charge, be first and everyone would do as she said. Thus her name because of her sassy attitude.

Over the years that we've had them, they have all received other silly names.  So, while we were sitting playing cards the other day, new names popped into our heads based on their current activity.

Baby was outside in the cold looking in the window.  He was huddled tight trying to stay warm when the name Huddlefuzz popped into my head.  Then we saw Piggy laying in front of the fireplace. We laughed and said if he was named potato we could call him a baked potato.  And then the name Spud came to life.  And over the last year, Sassy has gotten bigger and lazier.  Being a calico, she has the coloring's of a pumpkin.  Thus, the new name Pumpkin became reality because she really is rounder than she used to be.

As any animal lover knows, pets can have multiple names that they answer to and that we know them by.  Years ago a so called "expert" said animals did not comprehend their names.  How untrue that is! Our cats know all their names and whether one person calls them one thing and another calls them something else, they know who they are and come running when called, most of the time!