Nya has improved substantially. After 10 days of antibiotics, I got a urine sample by cleaning out her litter box and washing it. The vets gave me a sampling kit including a little bit of non-absorbent litter, a syringe, some instructions, and a collection bottle. So, I put the non-absorbent litter in the litter box and Nya peed in it eventually. I sucked up the urine and put it in the collection bottle, put a label on it (my idea), and put it in the fridge until I can take it to the vets. I'll soon find out the results of the urinalysis, but I trust that it will be normal because Nya seems normal. She finished her run of antibiotics today. Pushing a pill down her throat everyday was a two person job. My wife holding her, while I opened her mouth and pushed the pill to back of her throat. I timed the urine sample with the arrival of the new bag of pretty litter, so once I cleaned up the litter box after the urine sample, Nya got a fresh refill. I'm so glad she is all better. It's so nice to have a happy cat.

 What a time over the last couple of days: up all night at the emergency veterinarian and all day at the vets. Nya was going back and forth to her litter box every five minutes to pee and only doing a dribble each time. We noticed this at bed time. We figured she needed immediate attention so after a phone call, it was off to the emergency clinic for animals. They tried unsuccessfully to get a urine sample. Her bladder was empty. So, they told us to call the vets when they open. We were able to get an appointment at lunch time, so between appointments I had a fitful sleep. The veterinarian at the vets was able to get a urine sample and confirm that Nya had a bladder infection. She was prescribed some antibiotics and a pain killer. Nya doesn't like the cat carrier. The only time she meows is in the cat carrier. She is the quietest cat in the world. The doctor said that Nya was a good girl. She said some cats want to take her arm off. Nya was very gentle the whole time and sought comfort from us while we played the waiting game. So, after two days, Nya is feeling better. When she finishes her prescriptions I have to collect a urine sample and take it in. We were given a kit for this procedure; real easy to do. I'll let you know how that went next post.

 Cats that are strangers to each other are rarely friendly unless the female is ready to mate. If the cats are neutered then mating is out of the question. When one cat meats another strange cat a fight could break out after some caterwauling that will quickly get you off your sofa or wake you in the middle of the night. We do our best to keep an eye on our timid feline when we let her out for a short time. She doesn't appreciate an orange tom coming around. She has no use for him since she's fixed. She stays in close proximity to her home in contrast to the tom cat who wanders all over our neighborhood. My wife has spoken to the owners of the orange nemesis but they are determined to let their cat roam all day and night. One night he was at our back door in a cold windy rain storm. Our cat's caterwauling woke us up. There was nothing that we could do to help the poor thing because if we let him in, our own cat would be upset and we would not get any sleep. The only thing I hope is that the Orange Guy would have taken refuge under our shed. Therefore, the moral of the story: keep your feline friends close.

Kittens are blind at birth, but the touch receptors in their noses are already developed. Rubbing noses with their mother may help them feel secure. My cat likes to touch its nose to my finger when I stretch my hand towards her. I wonder what she's saying.

There are more than 20 muscles in each ear to help cats rotate their ears in many directions enabling them to easily find the source of a sound. A cat may be ignoring you, but their ears give them away. Feline hearing is five times greater than us humans.

The gene that results in the orange, tortoise-shell coat pattern of a calico cat is linked to the cat's gender, which is usually female, but occasionally it will be a male. My mother-in-law had a male calico. She named it Tootsie after the movie.

Cats step with both left legs then both right legs when they walk or run, and they always walk on their toes making them quiet hunters.

Never give chocolate, anything with onions in it like gravy, anything with garlic in it like hamburger to your cat. These things are poisonous to them.

What you can do is give them lots of love and feed them a healthy diet. Talk to your local veterinarian about what's best to feed your cat. Different cats may have different needs based on age or health problems, etc. Most of all enjoy your cat.

 Our feline friends love their humans as much as we love them. We show it by: keeping them safe, feeding them, snuggling, caressing, understanding them as best as we can, playing with them and providing a clean toilet. This is not an exhaustive list by any means. Cats will show their love in may ways such as: sleeping on our laps and purring, rubbing against you to say you're theirs, giving us a slow blink, even the position of their tail is telling you something. Cats love it when you talk to them in a sweet voice, which our furry bundle seems to find it comforting. When your cat gives you a slow blink remember to give a slow blink back. It says, "I love you too." Every cat has its own personality, so you can likely expect variations on the theme. A senior cat will react differently from a kitten. A nervous cat will behave differently from a confident one. Each one has its own quirks that you get to know and identify with your own cat. So, let's enjoy loving and learning something new each day. I also have another blog at alongredemptionroad.blogspot.com for you to check out if you so wish.

It's sometimes difficult to understand what a cat is communicating. It must think that we are quite stupid in not being able to comprehend its language. The language of a feline is very different from human language. Cats mostly talk with body language. The shape and position of the tail for instance. If the tail is down, the cat may be indicating disapproval. If the tail is pointed straight up, it may be a happy cat. We had a cat who would go out the back door, scratch at the front door, and with its tail pointed straight up, go through the house and straight out the back door. I could never figure out why it did that but I'm sure he thought it was funny. That was Simon. He used to do lambie pie too. If I picked up a stick in the garden and I held it toward him, he would walk along with me wherever I went with his tail pointing straight up. My wife thought it was marvelous. I don't know why he did that for me, but he seemed to enjoy it as much as me. I could tell by the position of the tail. So, as you can see a cat's tail is very useful in communication. Something that us humans lack, obviously. Maybe if we had tails, we would be better at communicating with each other and with our friend, the cat.

 I will talk about my cat, Nya again and how she points. When she wanted to play with a string she would go to the kitchen closet and stare at the door until I opened it and get out the string. I would say, "string, Nya?" This way I taught her to understand the word string. When she points with her eyes at her cat dish I know she wants to be fed. I say, "crunchies Nya?" So, I give her some crunchies. I also give her some soft stuff. She doesn't know that word though. She doesn't meow. That's kind of interesting because Nya means "meow" in Japanese. She makes other interesting sounds which are impossible to type with any degree of accuracy. She points at a lot of things with her eyes. Since she makes very few sounds, this is one of the major ways she communicates with us, and makes it easy to teach her to understand some words. Some of the things she points at with her eyes are: the back door, up the bedroom stairs, down the basement stairs, and my lap. She'll look at my lap until I pick her up and let her purr in my arms. Sometimes if she's looking at me, I'll look at my lap until she comes near so that I can pick her up. More on communication with Nya next time.