A brilliant cat book for children by Rob Laidlaw

Rob Laidlaw has spent his life working with animals and wildlife protection, and has written a number of books on animal issues, aimed at children. A perfect balance between the sometimes tough ‘real-life’ aspects of animals’ lives, and the enjoyable and positive aspects of their lives, whether they be owned, rescued or feral. ‘Cat Champions: Caring for Our Feline Friends’ promises to be as awesome as his previous books – pre-order now to avoid disappointment or delay, this book comes out in March 2014.

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Cat Heaven Island – beautiful photos!

We can’t get enough of Cat Heaven Island (Japan), but recently Japanese photographer Fubirai finished 5 years of photographing and documenting the semi-feral cat population, and the results are spectacular! For a quick overview, click here. Alternatively, to enjoy the full photos, click here, although you may need to translate the website into English!

More cat art for charity!

While we’re on the subject of cat art, we need to apologise for missing this brilliant story a couple of months ago – this time, the cats themselves are making the art!

Cats at the Cats Protection centre in Belfast have been expressing their artistic skills using an iPad, with the aid of a squeaky mouse that passes across the screen. We particularly love the fact that Brutus the cat’s artwork appeared to have a ‘jungle theme’!! Click here for story. 

Cat Art Show in Los Angeles (USA)

A great opportunity to enjoy both cats and art, and an excuse to visit LA! This free event runs Jan 25th – Feb 2nd, 12-5pm, at Gallery 101/exhibit on Santa Monica Boulevard. There will be a little over 100 works for sale, and even better, some of the proceeds will be donated to the local stray cat charity! Here’s more information. 

If you can’t visit the show yourself, here’s a video with some interviews of the artists, at the show itself! Enjoy folks!

One BIG kitty! “Meatball’ starts his diet…

It is a relief to hear that a 36-pound (16kg) cat, who is so exceedingly obese he can hardly walk, has arrived in a cat shelter in Arizona where he can begin a strict weight loss regime. This news video shows him struggling to move around, but still managing to enjoy some human affection! Please don’t let your cats get fat, folks!!

Getting such a morbidly obese cat to lose weight must be done very carefully. Cats have a special liver metabolism that means if they are starved or made to lose weight too quickly, they can develop a liver condition called Hepatic Lipidosis. This is a potentially life-threatening illness that requires hospitalisation and intensive veterinary treatment. We recommend always getting advice from your vet about how to promote safe weight loss in your cat.

 

An Interview with John Bradshaw

Following our post about John Bradshaw’s new book, ‘Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet’, here is an interesting interview with the author, in which he explains why cats behave differently towards us compared to dogs, and why it’s such an honour to have a cat rub against your legs. Of course we all knew that already!

A new cat book! ‘Cat Sense’ by John Bradshaw

‘Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet’, by John Bradshaw (to give it the full name), has been widely and, for the most part, well reviewed. It is refreshing to read a book that looks at the ‘why’ aspect of cat ownership – why cats do particular behaviours, and show particular traits. It is written by a British author, and so assumes the subject is a free-roaming cat with outdoor access, and the book does discuss aspects of cat breeding, while not directing advocating it. You are not necessarily going to understand an individual cat’s behavioural problems by reading this book (those by Vicky Halls are better for this), but you will be better able to understand your cat in general, and what makes it the cat it is. A must-read for any cat lover!

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Remember to update your cat’s microchip details!

A lesson to those of us who move house and forget to change the address on the cat’s microchip – this cat had a Spanish microchip, but when the cat and owner moved to the UK, its microchip was still registered in Spain. After being found 30 miles away in a family’s garage, the owner’s name was luckily recognised by a local vets practice, and that cat was reunited with a grateful owner! Nothing like a happy cat story.

Changing your pet’s microchip details is easier if you know which company or database their microchip is registered with – your microchip registration documents will tell you this, or your vet may be able to help. The most common microchip databases in the UK are PetLog, PETtrac, and Anibase. There is sometimes a small fee for changing the details, but this is sometimes only a one-off, and well worth it!

Luxury cat hotel up and running (purring)

A luxury cat hotel in West Yorkshire (UK) opened its doors recently, to a well-deserved flurry of media attention. Offering cat massages, freshly cooked free-range meat and fish meals, individual TVs with cat-friendly virtual aquariums, and bespoke cat trees to its discerning feline guests, this really is a cattery of the luxury variety! It’s called ‘Ings Luxury Cat Hotel’ – do contact us if your cat has been there!