5 Things You Can Do on Earth Day and Every Day

It’s Earth Day, a day to think about how the health of the earth and its environment is in our paws.

At first glance, sharing your life with cats doesn’t seem like it has many opportunities to help out our environment, but there are actually lots of things you can do! Here are five ideas to get you started:

Use Non Toxic Cleaners

It’s easy to forget that everything you use to clean your house is likely to end up in your cat’s system in one way or another. They walk across your floors, lay on your furniture, and groom themselves, ingesting the chemicals you have chosen to use. Some of the cleaners available in your supermarket cleaning supplies aisle should never come into contact with humans, and humans are a lot larger — and can absorb more chemicals before showing signs of illness — than cats! Using alternative, natural cleaning agents such as vinegar, baking soda, and even steam can help. Our friends at The Cat in the Fridge have some great suggestions about ways to replace your cleaning chemicals with more natural alternatives.

Recycle

Many parts of the country and even parts of the world require recycling, but even if your community makes recycling optional, it’s good for the environment to recycle whatever you can. Did you know that over 65% of aluminum recycling cans are recycled, but pet food cans are recycled at a much lower rate? You can make a difference by making sure your cat food cans make it into the recycling bin instead of the trash can. Since it takes 95% less energy to make a can from recycled aluminum than it does from raw materials, recycling your cans from pet food is a big win for the environment.

Use Earth-Friendly Cat Litter

Clay and silica for cat litter is gathered through strip-mining, which is very destructive. Mining with a strip-mine is much more cost-effective than making holes in the ground and it takes less labor, but it requires huge amounts of reclamation on the part of the mining company to try to make the land usable again All of your used litter has to go somewhere, and, it takes decades for materials in clay litters to break down in landfills. Consider cat litters made of more eco-friendly materials such as corn, wheat, pine, and recycled newsprint.

Play with Toys Made of Recycled Materials

There are more and more cat toys entering the market with the environment behind. Many use post-consumer waste, including fabrics made of former soda bottles. These toys are generally competitively priced with their counterparts that use less eco-friendly materials, but you can know that you’re doing your part for the environment while you still get your playtime in.

Donate Old Toys

You know that stuffed mouse your Aunt Effie brought you and you never played with? Your humans may think that it’s a lost cause for you to play with — and if you have ignored it this long, they’re probably right. Instead of throwing it in the trash where it will add to the bulk of waste in the landfills, donate it to a shelter or rescue who accepts gently-used toys. That way, it can bring joy to lots of other cats, and you’re off the hook for not playing with it. Win-win!

Cautionary Tale

When you live in Florida this is the time of year that the days that you can leave the door open for the cats to go out onto the porch are coming to an end. It’s getting too warm and humid for that. So last weekend may have been the last chance for the cats to enjoy the porch for a while.

Ashton decided to make the most of it and caught a lizard.

Being a blogger, the first thing I thought to do was document the incident, so I grabbed my camera, turned on the flash since she was backlit by the outdoors, and started snapping photos.

I expected her to let the lizard go and then catch it again. That would have given me plenty of time to come to the lizard’s rescue.

Ashton had other ideas. She skipped directly to second breakfast.

Ashton: Did I miss any?

The moral of this little story is that when your cat catches something in the house, if you don’t want your cat to eat it, don’t grab a camera. Grab the cat and get the prey away immediately.

Ashton is none the worse for her little snack, and she has been hanging around the front door a little more ever since, just in case another lizard happens to run in. She’ll be right on it.

Don’t Forget ID for Your Cat

It’s National Pet Identification week. Do you know if your kitty has the right ID for your cat necessary to find her way home to you?

Your cat doesn’t have pockets to carry a wallet, so ID for cats takes the form of a microchip and tag. Only two percent of cats who end up in shelters have some form of ID, and until your cat learns to talk, that’s the only way your cat can tell people where she lives.

“A pet’s looks and fur can change drastically in only a few days or weeks on their own,” says Kim Freeman, pet detective and owner of Lost Cat Finder. Cats covered in dirt or wet can look surprisingly different than a nearby lost cat sign that has their photo on it, so ID is the best way for someone to tell it really is your cat.

Microchips

A microchip is a small transponder about the size of a grain of rice that is has with a unique identification number. The chip is implanted by a simple procedure at your vet or even at a local shelter. Reduced-cost and sometimes even free microchips are available at events in your community at various times during the year.

Be sure to register your chip so that if someone finds your kitty, they can get your contact information. Your chip isn’t registered automatically!

If You Move to a New Home

Update your contact information with the microchip registry so that if someone finds your cat, they will be able to contact you. Animal shelters run into heartbreaking dead ends when they scan a cat for a chip but the phone number on the chip is disconnected. Don’t let this happen to your cat!

After moving, access your cat’s microchip registry to update the information. Photo: depositphotos/ots-photo

Collars

If your cat will wear a collar, make sure you use a breakaway collar that will come off if your cat gets it caught on something. Safety first!

Include daytime and evening contact information on your cat’s tag, since you never know when someone might have to try to call you. If your cat has a medical condition like diabetes, you can include that on the tag, too, so that if your kitty is lost, he can get the appropriate care until you are reunited.

If the noise of a metal tag bothers you or your cat, there are lots of options available, including silent silicon tags and metal tags that slide onto a collar so they don’t dangle.

If You Move to a New Home

Make sure your cat’s tag includes a cell phone number or the number of someone who knows how to reach you.

Microchip Plus Collar

The ASPCA recommends your cat have a registered microchip and also wear a collar with personalized ID tag. Anyone who finds your cat can read an ID tag, while the microchip reader requires the good Samaritan to go to a veterinarian or shelter where they can read the chip.

Collars with tags make it easy for anyone to get your cat home to you. A microchip, hidden beneath your cat’s fur, won’t be lost like a collar can, so it’s a great way to be sure your cat won’t “lose her wallet” and not have any ID when lost.

We all hope our cat never gets lost, but make sure your kitty has the best chance to get back home to you as quickly as possible by chipping and collaring your cat with ID for your cat.