Friday, February 28, 2014

Book Review: How to Pet a Cat

How to Pet a Cat, The Complete Hands-On Guide by Peter Farrow
This book is about how to overcome your cat's Tactile Deficiency (TD) caused by neglect (lack of proper petting), and I mean the proper ways to pet a cat so that it is completely satisfied. The book describes how to recognize TD and use various stroking methods such as the blades, the occiput, drubbing, the socket, jowling, ruffing, puddling, the swipple and many others to give your feline the love it needs. Apparently, more than 90% of all cats suffer in silence from the lack of a satisfying tactile relationship with their owners (servants). So don't ignore your pet and get to it.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

A Moving Experience

Sorry it has been a while. We've been busy trying to sell our house.
We've been wondering how to move our four cats when we relocate. We have only two cat carriers and four cats. My mother-in-law has two cat carriers so maybe we can borrow them. Moving can be a traumatic experience for our feline friends. It literally turns their cosy world into chaos. Moving is traumatic enough for some people and it can be difficult knowing that your pets don't understand what's going on.
The last time we moved was 25 years ago. We put the cats in a bedroom in our new house before the move happened. Water, food and a litter box rounded out their essentials. A familiar blanket was included. We closed the bedroom door and put a sign on it: "Cats - Keep Door Closed". When I opened the door after everything was moved in, the scaredy cats climbed the walls. Poor things, but it didn't take them long to settle in and adjust to their new and better home.
I picked up a business card on the last visit to the vets that advertised a pet taxi. They even offer long distance commutes. They have a kennel service too. Since we may be moving as much as 100 km (60 miles) or more, this alternative maybe better. It may be easier on us, but our pets might be even more traumatized by the moving experience if we do that.
We could have one of us take the cats on ahead, and prepare the new house for the movers, while one of us stays behind and cleans up after the moving company and answers any questions. Since we have only one car, this arrangement may be costly to rent a vehicle, or else drive back and forth a bit. We'll see how it goes.