Ashton Archives - Page 35 of 90

Celebrating National Cat Day

It’s time for a very important holiday. No, we aren’t talking about the day when dozens of terrifying strangers ring the door bell and demand that your humans give them treats. Today is a much more important holiday: National Cat Day.

Many people say that every day is cat day, especially on the internet. It sure is national cat day every day at our house.

But it isn’t that way for every cat everywhere. National Cat Day was was founded in 2005 to celebrate the cats in our lives for the unconditional love and companionship they bestow upon us.

National Cat Day is also to recognize the number of cats that need to be rescued each year. 3.4 million cats enter shelters every year, and 1.4 million never make it back out again. That’s a lot of cats who need loving homes! Maybe you’re ready to open your heart and home to a cat to a cat who needs rescuing. If you are, please remember your local shelter or rescue organization has cats who need homes, especially “less-adoptable” cats, who may look less-than-perfect at first glance but will make loving family members.

If you already have cats in your family and aren’t ready to adopt more, National Cat Day is the perfect day to share them on social media to tell your friends how pawesome your cats are. Maybe you’ll inspire one of your friends to adopt a cat in need… or at least to give their cat an extra cuddle tonight. In the end, that’s what National Cat Day is really about: loving cats.

Resources and Further Reading

ASPCA, Pet Statistics

Ya Gotta Have Heart

We got three chicken hearts, one for each of us!

Newton: What is this? The head peep said “treat” when she called us in here, but…

Ashton: It looks kind of tasty, actually.

Pierre: You kitties can have mine. This isn’t food. I’ll be back when there’s salmon.

Newton: I’m not gonna try this first. YOU try it, Ashton.

Ashton: Why do I always have to try it first?

Ashton: I’m just going to take this…

Ashton: ….. over here.

Newton: I’m not sure the head peep is going to like that there.

Ashton: Don’t worry about it. I’ll clean it up later.

Newton: Wow, you really are eating that thing, aren’t you?

Ashton: It’s CHICKEN. Of course I am! I wonder if I can get more of these for my chicken emporium?

Ashton: Are you going to finish that? I’d hate to see it go to waste.

Newton: Something tells me this chicken heart isn’t making it to your chicken emporium…

Have you seen the rest of Ashton’s chicken capers? I you missed them, you can catch up any time.

Fresh Air Intruder

Ashton: We have finally had the first breath of not-summer here, which means my second favorite thing (after chicken): An open door to the front porch.

Ashton: I love to smell the wild things outdoors. * SNIFF * What’s that? It’s not a wild thing.

Newton: I can be wild sometimes!

Ashton: Wildly annoying, maybe. Code orange fresh air pollution.

Why do Some Cats Like Olives?

My friend Anna-Marie told me recently that one of her cats is crazy for olives. I was surprised, and I had never heard of that. Then again, since I don’t like olives, there’s no likelihood that one of my cats would find one around the house, either.

For the purposes of science, that was going to have to change.

In the meantime, I did some research. Olives are well-known for containing oleic acid. In fact, oleic acid is the component of olive oil responsible for its ability help to lower blood pressure in humans.

Oleic acid is also a component of the facial pheromones your cat spreads by rubbing her chin against you or objects in the house. In fact, the artificial pheromone diffusers for cats you can purchase to plug in around the house have oleic acid as an ingredient in the synthetic pheromone.

It’s likely that cats who enjoy olives are actually responding to the oleic acid in the olives. They aren’t hoping to drop one into a martini or anything.

Cats have been known to go wild over squished odorous ants, which also contain oleic acid. So there seems to be a connection. My cats may never have seen an olive, but we have had ant invasions in the past, and they were completely uninterested. Maybe the ants in Florida wear deodorant.

At any rate, it was nearly time to try this olive thing at home. Not knowing anything about olives except I don’t like them on my pizza, I went to Whole Foods and selected four different olives from the olive bar. My main criteria was that they were all different and that none of them contained garlic or onions in the ingredient list.

I cut up very small pieces and put them on a plate for the cats to inspect.

Pierre: What did you get on your ear? It smells funny!

Ashton: It’s not me! * SNIFF SNIFF * It’s the stuff on this plate.

Newton: What ARE those things? They’re on a plate like food, but they don’t smell like food.

Ashton: If it’s on a plate, I think you’re supposed to eat it, not play with it.

Newton: I don’t see YOU eating it, Miss Smartystripes.

Ashton: I was saving whatever it is for you. Go right ahead.

Newton: No, that’s all right. * SCRATCH SCRATCH *

Newton: We don’t know what it is, but we’re holding out for something more appetizing.

Our household test was a bit of a failure. Olives got twelve paws down here, but apparently there are lots of cats out there who really love them. Do your cats love (or hate) olives?

References and further reading

J Comp Physiol B., Dietary fats and body lipid composition in relation to hibernation in free-ranging echidnas
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, Oleic acid content is responsible for the reduction in blood pressure induced by olive oil
Google Patents, Properties of cats’ facial pheromones US 5709863 A