Saturday, December 14, 2013

Book Review: Cat Behavior Answer Book

I've been reading the Cat Behavior Answer Book by Arden Moore. It has really nice illustrations by Matt Ambre. IT's divided up into six parts with each part having many headings that are no longer than two or three pages of script. Each heading has a question and answer format. There are also tidbits of information highlighted in blue that are very useful. I would like to have seen this book  be able to be used in dictionary style, by looking up a cat behaviour that you may be particularly interested in. Part 1 is Feeling Fine about your feline is about the relationship between owner and cat. Part 2 is Chatting with your Cat. It is about how to read your cat's body language and different sounds it makes. Part 3 is Kitty Quirks and Funny Felines, which is about cute and not so cute feline behavior. Part 4 is Thinking Outside the Box. This section is about problems with the litter box. Part 5 is The Basics of Chowing and Grooming. Part 6 is The Ins and Outs of Living with Cats. These last two part titles are self explanatory. This is a good book to help you understand your cat better even if you are a seasoned cat owner or new at the experience. Cats are such a joy, it's hard to believe there could be so many problems, but each cat is different and each one posses different challenges. A cat is not going to fit into any mold you make for it. They are their own person.
I just want to wish my readers a Meowee Christmas and a very purry new year.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Caged Bird

          A laundry was happening in the furnace room during which time a noise was coming from the furnace. The furnace was off for the summer. It sounded like some kind of creature was living in the furnace. I couldn't investigate that day because the laundry machines were making too much noise to track down the cause. The next day the noise was still coming from the furnace. The first thing that I did was open up the duct work. Clean! The next thing I did was open up the bottom of the Selkirk chimney. I found a couple of feathers. Meanwhile the sound was still coming from the furnace. I opened the fire box and looked in. I could see nothing. I used a stick to keep the firebox door pried open and stood back. To my surprise a starling poked its head out the door. I left the room and closed the door. I stayed out for a few minutes and came back in. The bird was sitting on a bench. I put on a pair of work gloves and chased the bird around the basement as it flew from one place to another until it was cornered in such a way that I could pick it up. Squawk! I raced with it up the stairs through the house and out the back door. I let the bird go and watched it fly to the nearest tree as my four cats looked at me bewildered from their vantage points in my garden. The bird sat in the tree looking around for several minutes. Without looking back to took off toward the noon time sun.
      The little starling was living in the sooty firebox for at least 24 hours with no hope of escape. It had no light, no food. and no water. It was dirty, smelly and dark. What kept this small bird going for so long? I wonder if I was in a situation like that how I would react. That little creature showed marvelous tenacity, hope, determination, and the will to live; or was it just instinct that kept it going. I like to think that God's creatures are designed with more than instinct when I look at the wonders of nature. What a beautiful world we live in.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Book Review: Urban Tigers Two (More Tales of a Cat Vet)

Urban Tigers Two by Kathy Chisholm is definitely better written, with more emotion, fewer similes and more tidbits about Halifax than her first book, Urban Tigers. The stories are told in the narrative voice just like her first book but with more gusto this time. She doesn't hold back any punches and in two of her chapters she reminds us that our sins will find us out; even if she steps on the church's toes in doing so, which is so popular to do these days much to my dismay. Kathy Chisholm is the owner of Tuxedo Stan who was nominated for a candidate to run as Mayor of Halifax to raise awareness of the stray and feral feline problem in our neighbourhoods. I was disappointed when he wasn't on the ballot. This book is a must read for cat lovers, and if you haven't read her first book, no problem her books can be read independently of each other. Her first book is still available and I recommend both of them. I'm going to buy them for Christmas presents. I look forward to her third installment and wish Kathy the very best in her writing career.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Variety

Every summer I see an insect in my garden that I don't think I've ever seen before. There are enormous variations existing in the insect world. I was told that biologists could spend their whole life studying beetles and only scratch the surface, but that covers a range of species. Dogs on the other hand are one species and come in a wide selection of shapes and sizes. There is a dog for every person's taste. House cats on the other hand come in a few varieties from Sphinx to Siamese to Main Coon; from no hair to short hair to long hair. Colours vary from striped orange to different kinds of bi-colour to tabby, to white or black, to calico. It is a wonderful thing to have all these varieties. All of this is due to the DNA code written in each cell. As I ponder this, I think that there must be a master designer who was at work creating all this for His enjoyment. People come in all shapes and sizes too, some real smart, some talented, some big, some small, different ethnic groups, different coloured skin and hair, different likes and dislikes and different beliefs. The creator must like variety. Every living thing is unique; there is no other like it. So when I look at a living creature and think of the fingerprint of the creator left in the DNA, I marvel at His handy work.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Book Review: Urban Tigers (Tales of a Cat Vet)

Urban Tigers (Tales of a Cat Vet) is a fascinating collection of stories written by Kathy Chisholm. She owns Tuxedo Stan a black and white long haired cat who's name was advertised for Mayor of Halifax Regional Municipality during a municipal election to raise awareness of the feral feline problem in the city. This information is not included in the book but the stories are brilliantly written, albeit with an over use of similes. Sometimes the stories are belly laughing funny and sometimes I was trying to hold back the tears from the heart rending accounts. I recommend this book to any cat lover who loves to read. You can find this book in paperback or Kindle edition at Amazon. I'm now reading the sequel: Urban Tigers Two (More Tales of Cat Vet). I'll post my thoughts on that at a later date. I look forward to more from Kathy and wish her the best with her writing endeavours.

Friday, July 19, 2013

The Whizzer

        We have an older cat, Nigel, that has started whizzing in odd places: the front hall closet; clothes left on the floor; on my wife's purse; under the set tub. We have two cat boxes that are kept clean for the total of four cats that we have at this time. Nigel is a stray we took in a few years back during a very cold February winter. We managed to find his previous owner during the next summer, but she said that we could keep him, much to the delight of my wife. When we got him, he was declawed. One noticeable trait this cat has, is that he doesn't like to be touched on his back. We find that very strange, because all the other cats we've known like to be stroked.
        About 15 years ago we had a cat named Mario, that my son bought at a flee market for a quarter. When Mario got older, she developed a bladder infection, and would whizz on the sofa instead of the cat box. Once she was treated for the bladder infection, she was okay for a little while, so we took her back to the vet and that was the end of her whizzing on the sofa.
        Nigel, like Mario was very nervous of our other cats. Nigel keeps to himself but likes to cuddle in my lap. One thing I noticed is that he hasn't been cuddly since he started whizzing in odd places. I think a visit to vets is in order to see if his problem is physiological which can be treated. If his problem is psychological, it won't be so easy to treat. Nervous Nigel is a sweet cat and we hope that he will have many healthy days ahead of him.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Greetings

After 18 months of retirement from the Canadian public service, I went to work for a manufacturing company. When I come home from work, Simon greets me at the door with his tail held high. After I grab a drink from the fridge I go to my easy chair where Simon immediately jumps into my lap and purrs and purrs while he expects me to stroke him. After he has had sufficient petting, he goes up on the back of my chair and lays down at which point I retrieve my laptop and return to my chair. While I'm surfing or typing or listening, he goes to sleep and snores. He's the only cat I've ever seen that snores; in fact, as I type this, Simon is keeping the back of my neck warm on the back of my easy chair.

I wonder what makes him snore. His snoring is very loud. When we go to bed at night, he sleeps on the bed with us and snores. It doesn't bother my sleep, but it is a concern because he's an old cat (about 16 years old), and we wonder what causes it. I wonder if it`s rare for cats to snore. He`s lived a long time (for a cat) and I love him and want him to be comfortable. Cats love to be cozy.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

I`m a Cat Person

Recently, I watched some youtube videos about cat friends vs. dog friends. They were funny while exaggerating the traits of cats and dogs, but if you never had a dog or a cat and had seen some of these videos, you probably would think twice about having one. My wife grew up with cats all of her life, and shortly after we were married she indicated that she was homesick. So one day I dropped by a pet store, and picked out two cats to bring to our nest. The female was a calico long hair that she called muffin, and the orange short haired male she named Clarence after the cross eyed lion that we watched on TV as kids. They became a joy to our home for many years; in fact, Muffin lived to be 18 or so. During our nearly 32 years of marriage since, we had 16 cats and never regretted any of them. Here is a list of their names:
Muffin
Clarence
Miss Moppit
Marshmallow
Chocolate
Taffy
Mario
Ira
Sunny
Star
Shadow
Garfunkel
Simon
Nigel
Teddy
Nya
If your thinking of getting a cat, don`t be discouraged by funny cat videos such as Simon the Cat or FB Funny Cat Videos or antics you see on Youtube. Although they`re hilarious, its usually not what you`re getting yourself into, its the blessing of having a feline friend.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Teddy

         The cat you see in the picture at the top of this blog is Teddy. Don't be fooled by the name. He's only cuddly to one person - my wife; and only when we're in bed. He's a beautiful looking cat with a coat of fur much like polished wood. He has a white undercoat that is truly amazing. He's a very muscular cat with a good running speed and jumping abilities. You would think that he would be the dominant cat among our 4 felines, but Ted bows out to them all - even our 18 year old arthritic long haired bi-colour cat, Simon. I think cats can feel inferior to other cats much like people do with other people. He was a stray when he adopted us 4 years ago. We brought him in before the Maritimes winter hit and he has never strayed since. I will never know what kind of life he had before we rescued him, or even if that has anything to do with his inferiority, but Teddy seems to be contented with his home otherwise, and we love him so much.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Undercats

When I was formulating the idea for this blog, my first choice for a title was Undercats. When I Googled undercats I found that the Urban Dictionary defined an undercat as: 'someone who does not have the motivation to do well in life.' I also found a jazz band who called themselves the Undercats who had a blog with that title so I had to come up with something different. Since I wrote a book which I self published on Kindle with the title 'Theory of Sevens', the natural extension of that is to call my blog 'Cat Theory'. I wanted this blog to be about cats because I had written another book entitled, 'Two Feral Waifs', which is about cats. I have had 16 different cats since I married and I now have four. I've read quite a bit about cats also, so I feel comfortable writing about the subject. I also go to a chat room called I Love Cats where I leave encouraging notes to other people who love cats. I hope you visit that chat room like I do. Best wishes for a prosperous New Year in 2013, and God bless.