Laugh. Learn. Love cats.
Newton: Miss Jeanne from Random Felines sent this irresistible nip to us from the head peep’s BarkWorld trip, and I wanted to thank her.
*SNIFF* *NIBBLE* *SNARF* *DROOOOOOOL*
You can erase that photo, can’t you? Just keep the one with me sitting here looking cute and saying thank you.
Because looking cute is what I do best!
One of the pieces of advice that we often see given to people upset that their cat is scratching on their furniture is to give the cat an alternative item to scratch, like a scratching post. But that advice misses a key piece of information: how big the scratching post must be.
Often, scratching posts are barely as tall as an adult cat. Advertising or product packaging may have photos of cute kittens crawling and scratching on the post, which makes you not think about its actual height. But if you take that same scratching post home, your adult kitty is dismayed to discover that they can’t stretch out while they scratch on it.
Pierre shows that the well-used area of the scratching post is actually above his head when he is sitting next to the post.
The solution is to buy a tall cat tree at least one and one half times your cat’s body height to allow a good stretch while scratching. We cats think the taller the better, and we prefer scratching the 4 foot leg of cat tree rather than the 2 foot leg next to it.
Just keep in mind that the taller the cat tree, the wider or more sturdy the base needs to be to prevent it being wobbly or tipping over. A cat who has a tree fall over on them may never use it again out of fear or mistrust.
A little adjustment to the height of your cat tree can bring a big difference in your cat’s acceptance level of it as a good location to scratch. And your furniture will thank you!
It’s Veterans Day, which is observed every year on November 11 on the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I in 1918, is a day here in the United States that we honor our veterans for their service for their country and to sacrifice for the common good.
Lots of those veterans were deployed far from home and left home and family. And some of them left behind pets, who may have been the only family they had. We want to recognize the pets of the veterans who went through long separations from the humans they loved and trusted. Unlike human family members, cats and dogs can’t understand explanations about why their humans went away to serve. They just know that they were gone, and that must have been lonely and maybe frightening for them.
There are pets today who are going to be that kind of veterans, too. Their humans are deploying right now, and not all of them have a trusted human to take care of them while they are becoming veterans. It’s scary to think that many cats and dogs might be relinquished to shelters because they don’t have anywhere to go while their humans deploy.
While we often think of fostering as something you do for animals waiting for adoption into forever homes, did you know that there are also organizations that arrange foster homes for cats and dogs whose humans are deploying? These groups include:
Many local rescue orgnaizations also have fostering programs, so ask around your area if you would like to foster a cat or dog veteran-to-be so that they can celebrate with their veteran when deployment is over.
