Having Fun with our Secret Paw Gifts

Last week, we opened a Christmas package from Summer and her family at Sparklecat featuring Summer. After Pierre finally stopped eating the bows, we were able to get down to the real business… enjoying the gifts inside those beautiful packages.

Newton: It’s an oversized bug. I must kill it!

orange tabby cat plays with toy

Pierre: You look kind of busy, Newton. While you’re doing that, I’m going to take this gift. Or maybe just the bow.

gray tabby cat lifts gift by bow

Newton: You can have the bow. Look what’s inside! It’s catnip. Give me give me give me catnip!

orange tabby cat plays with catnip toy

Newton: If I lick this enough, I may be able to eat the catnip and turn into Super Catnip Cat.

orange tabby cat plays with catnip toy

Pierre: Whatcha doing, Newt?

Newton: I’m playing with my awesome catnip fish. What are YOU doing?

gray tabby cat steals toy from orange tabby cat

Pierre: Oh, nothing. Just streeeeeetching.

Newton: I’ve seen how this ends before. I don’t like the look of this.

gray tabby cat steals toy from orange tabby cat

Newton: Hey, where are you going with that?

Pierre: Oh, look, the catnip fish just jumped right into my paws.

gray tabby cat steals toy from orange tabby cat

Newton: Can you believe he just did that!?

orange tabby cat reacts to gray tabby cat stealing toy

Newton: It’s all right, he can have it, because Summer also sent a catnip donut. I like that this has a bell because I will hear when Pierre steals it.

orange tabby cat and donut toy

Newton: Give me give me give me catnip!

orange tabby cat and donut toy

Ashton: I thought you said there was a donut. I love species-inappropriate food, but I can’t eat this!

one-eyed brown tabby cat and donut toy

Ashton: Lucky for me, Summer also sent us some freeze-dried chicken. Can I have another piece? Pleeeease?

one-eyed brown tabby cat begs for treat

Pierre: While Ashton is distracted by chicken, look what I found! It’s the best toys in the whole package.

gray tabby cat bites bow

Pierre: I’m going to play with bows, and I’m not going to share with anycat!

gray tabby cat lifts bow

Pierre: I’m out of here!

gray tabby cat carries bow

There were also some pawesome cat socks in the package for the head peep, and she wore them immediately. She was so busy chasing Pierre and his bows that she didn’t get photos of them, but they’re purrrfect for her.

Big thank you to Summer and her family for the wonderful gifts. We’ll be enjoying these for a long time!

Safety Note

Ribbon can be dangerous for your cat if ingested, and bows are really just ribbon in disguise. So avoid potential big vet bills don’t let your cat chew on bows unattended. When we finished taking these photos, these bows were placed in a plastic food container to keep them safe… and to keep Pierre safe from them, too.

Newton the Brave

Newton was a kitten when he came to live with us. So we are sure that he has lived in an all-cat household since he was about eight weeks old.

orange tabby kitten

Outside of the veterinarian’s waiting room, he was never nose to nose with a dog until our neighbor Bella came to say hello at the screen door.

These photos were taken on a phone, but we wanted you to see how brave Newton was. He didn’t exactly give Bella his “I’m excited to see you” tail, but he wasn’t all fluffed up, either.

Orange tabby cat looks at white dog through screen door

Bella grew up with cats, so she was very well-behaved. She didn’t bark or act threatening, and Newton didn’t seem sure what to think of her.

Orange tabby cat looks at white dog through screen door

Newton: You don’t smell like any cat I’ve ever seen.

Orange tabby cat looks at white dog through screen door

Newton didn’t even use his airplane ears when having his little nose-to-nose visit. Talk about brave!

Orange tabby cat looks at white dog through screen door

Newton and Bella did really well saying hello, but be careful not to introduce strange dogs and cats in an uncontrolled environment. We don’t want anyone to get hurt!

Hard Water and Your Cat’s Urinary pH

Newton would really like it if he could stop showing you photos of him going to vet.

orange tabby cat peers out of carrier

But this time, it was for a followup. He spent about a month on a prescription diet from the vet for his urinary tract. He didn’t get any crunchy treats when Pierre did. There were no unauthorized table scraps when he begged. He didn’t even get anything special for Thanksgiving because we didn’t want to risk altering his test results.

Newton is not a fan of the prescription food. He’s a good eater who always finishes his food, and he didn’t finish his meals. So in a way, he was ready for this vet trip, because he was crossing his paws he could go back to a diet he liked more.

When the test results came back, there was some good news and some OK news. The good news was that his urinary crystals were gone.

orange tabby cat looks at test results

The OK news is that his urinary pH was 7.5. This is down from the 8.5 reading that he started with in October, so it is progress in the right direction, but it’s nowhere near the 6.0 to 6.5 pH he should have.

I talked to the vet about putting him back on a raw diet, but this time, I was going to not rely on raw produced by anyone but me. That way I could control everything that went into it, all the way down to the water.

Water is Important

I started thinking about our water supply after reading a study by Trupanion pet insurance where they noticed that parts of the country that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)says have hard water also had submitted more claims for cats with urinary issues, including urinary crystals like Newton’s.

It turns out that Florida, where we live, is one of the places with hard water and a high number of cases of feline urinary issues.

Most of the water in public water systems here in Florida comes from groundwater in the Floridian aquifer, which runs through the limestone underneath the whole state. Rainwater seeps deep intothe ground through hundreds of feet of sand and rock. While this process filters the water, it also adds small amounts of calcium to the water.

The Water Cycle. Public domain image courtesy US Geological Survey

If your house uses water from a water utility company, they probably publish a water quality report annually. The report from our county doesn’t disclose whether your water is soft or hard, but if you call your water company, they will know. A call to the county water utility here found that in our part of our county, the water measures 7.8 grains per gallon or 133.2 ppm.

The water hardness scale according to the US Geological Survey and Water Research Center:

Classification	mg/l or ppm	grains/gal
Soft	0 – 17.1	0 – 1
Slightly hard	17.1 – 60	1 – 3.5
Moderately hard	60 – 120	3.5 – 7.0
Hard	120 – 180	7.0 – 10.5
Very Hard	180 & over	10.5 & over

We have hard water!

The high concentration of calcium and other minerals in hard water acts as a buffer that makes the water more resistant to changing pH. It acts like an invisible sponge in the water, preventing things from happening too fast.

Hard Water and Newton’s pH

This started me wondering what kind of pH Newton was taking in. His food is made primarily of chicken which has a pH of 6.5-6.7. But food is only part of his intake. There’s also water.

I bought some pH test strips (affiliate link) to have a look at the water. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to test Newton’s urine between vet visits, but even if I can’t, the test strips are really cheap. I tested our tap water, which goes through a filter pitcher before going into the cat fountain and bowls, and I also tested distilled water for comparison.

The results surprised me.

water pH test

The dark green strip is the one testing the tap water. The pH looks like it is about 8! I had no idea until I did this test and then did research that it isn’t unusual for water in a treated water supply to have a pH between 7 and 8. Harder water usually has high pH, and our water is at the high end of that.

The second strip tested the distilled water, which tested at about 7, which is the expected neutral pH for water.

Water with a high pH and a high calcium load is going to resist changing to a more acid pH. Maybe that’s what is going on with Newton’s urine!

orange tabby cat drinks from Ashton's Chicken Emporium glass

This is all a theory until we try it out on him, of course. But for now, Newton is thrilled to be back eating a raw diet, happily cleaning his bowl at every meal and drinking distilled water. He has another vet visit in his future to see if we have finally figured out how to keep his urinary tract just as happy. We’ll let you know if this finally solved the mystery for him once we have more test results.

References and further reading:

Trupanion Trends: Study finds Link between Pet Health and Drinking Water
United Utilities, The pH of drinking water
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Importance of General Chemistry Relationships in Water Treatment
Hospital for Special Surgery Journal, How Much Calcium Is in Your Drinking Water? A Survey of Calcium Concentrations in Bottled and Tap Water and Their Significance for Medical Treatment and Drug Administration
US Food & Drug Administration, Importance of General Chemistry Relationships in Water Treatment
US Geological Survey, Water Hardness and Alkalinity

Image credit: Public domain image from US Geological Survey

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Rooster Rustler Busted

Ashton: You are SO busted, Pierre. What are you doing to my rooster? That was for my chicken emporium!

one-eyed brown tabby cat watches gray tabby cat in barn with rooster

Pierre: You don’t understand, I’m totally innocent, Ashton.

gray tabby cat in barn with rooster

Pierre: There was an earthquake. Newton saw it, so he will be able to be a witness. It was so hard it made me fall down, and it knocked the barn right off its foundation! And it killed the rooster, too.

(dramatic reenactment)

orange tabby cat watches gray tabby cat on ground