Month: April 2012

A tribute to Steeler

Pet Loss| 22 Comments

Steeler

When a friend loses a cat, my heart aches for my friend. Today, the world lost a very special tortie named Steeler.

I never met Steeler. She belonged to my friend Bernie, but she also “belonged” to a group of friends who met via one of my blog posts about Tortitude: The Unique Personality of Tortoiseshell Cats.  Bernie found the post when she did a  Google search after Steeler first arrived on her door step, because, as she said “I was curious to see what kind of a cat I had taken in. She just looked so exotic to me.”

Bernie found the abandoned tortoiseshell cat crying at her backdoor one night. She had never had a cat before, and knew nothing about cats. The little cat wanted in. Bernie did not want a cat. When it became colder, and no shelter would take her, Bernie decided that any cat that wanted a home that badly could stay.Continue Reading

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Book review: A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen

Books| 16 Comments

A_Street_Cat_Named_Bob

I love stories about people who change their lives for the better. I love those stories even more when the catalyst for that change is a cat (pun intended). I was pretty sure that I would love A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope 0n the Streets. I wasn’t prepared for just how much I loved it.

I had head the story of James Bowen, a down on his luck British street musician who was busking the streets of London with his orange cat Bob. Bowen and his cat caught the attention of Mary Pachnos, a literary agent who had represented the British edition of Marley and Me. One day, Pachnos asked Bowen whether he’d ever thought about writing a book about Bob. A little over a month after its publication, the book has landed on British bestseller lists, and already, translation rights for several different countries have been sold. I wouldn’t be suprised at all if Hollywood snapped this story up.Continue Reading

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When Hairballs Are More Than Just Hairballs

Feline Health| 24 Comments

big_cats_hairballs

Hairballs are often the topic of jokes and cartoons, but there is nothing funny about a cat who gets frequent hairballs. While the occasional, isolated hairball may be nothing to worry about, there really is no such thing as “just a hairball.”

What is a hairball?

Traditionally it has been thought that hairballs develop because of how cats groom themselves. As cats lick their fur, the tongue’s tiny barbs pull off excess hair. Inevitably, some hair gets swallowed in the process. Ideally, it passes through the body and ends up in stools, but hairballs form when hair wads up in the stomach instead.

However, more recent findings show that hairballs also form because the affected cat’s intestinal motility (the movement of food content from the stomach to the intestines) is impaired, something that most commonly occurs secondary to inflammatory bowel disease, which in turn is caused in almost epidemic proportions by grain-based diets and their adverse effect on the gut flora.Continue Reading

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The Conscious Cat named one of the Top 5 Pet Blogs

Awards| 5 Comments

cat_blog

I am honored and excited excited that The Conscious Cat was named as one of the Top 5 Pet Blogs by SheKnows.com, one of the top 10 most visited websites for women!

“Cats are some of the most widely loved — and misunderstood — creatures out there. Luckily, websites like The Conscious Cat exist to give us feline lovers information we didn’t know we needed. For example: Did you know that you can over-vaccinate your cat? Neither did we, until the Conscious Cat told us. The blog came out of author Ingrid King’s love for her adopted cat, Buckley. She even wrote a book about the experience of adopting Buckley and the grief she went through when she succumbed to heart disease. Another must-read for all cat lovers.”

And we’re in some amazing company: the other four blogs are the I Can Haz Cheezburger empire, Continue Reading

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Let’s Talk Titers: Avoid Over-Vaccinating Your Cat

Feline Health| 11 Comments

cat_vet_exam

Guest post by W. Jean Dodds, DVM

Jeannie recently adopted a three-year-old cat from her local shelter. Determined to give her new friend a healthy life, she decided not to have him vaccinated every year. She’d heard that vaccine titers were a good alternative to annual boosters, so she found a veterinarian who offers this option and asked him for more information.

Compelling evidence implicates vaccines in triggering various immune-mediated and other chronic disorders (vaccinosis). In cats, for example, aggressive tumors called fibrosarcomas can occasionally arise at the site of vaccination. While some of these problems have been traced to contaminated or poorly attenuated batches of vaccine that revert to virulence, others apparently reflect a genetic predisposition in an animal to react adversely when given the single (monovalent) or multiple antigen “combo” (polyvalent) products routinely administered to animals. Certain susceptible breeds or families of animal appear to be at increased risk for severe and lingering adverse vaccine reactions.Continue Reading

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Go Green for a Healthier Cat and a Happier Planet

Conscious Living, Feline Health| 11 Comments

cat_with_globe

Today is Earth Day, and it’s a good day to remember what going green means: making conscious choices every day about protecting our environment. Recycling, buying organic, and using eco-friendly products are only some of the everyday choices that contribute to a healthier planet.

You can also help the planet by making choices for your cat that will not only benefit the planet, but will also keep your cat healthy.

Feed natural and organic food

Natural and organic pet foods use meats that are raised in sustainable, humane ways without added drugs or hormones, minimally processed, and preserved with natural substances, such as vitamins C and E. Certified-organic pet foods must meet strict USDA standards that spell out how ingredients are produced and processed, Continue Reading

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Review and giveaway: Cat Girl’s Day Off by Kimberly Pauley

Books, Giveaways| 19 Comments

Cat Girl's Day Off cover

I read a lot of different books from a lot of different genres, but I had never read anything in the Young Adult Fiction category. Which is actually kind of surprising, because one of my guilty pleasures is watching trashy young adult dramas on tv. Shows like Dawson’s Creek (oh, the teenage angst!) and Gossip Girl (of couse, I watch that one strictly because it’s set in my favorite city in the world. Okay, and the glimpse into the “scandalous lives of Manhattan’s elite” is fun, too. ) But I digress.

When the publicist for Kimberly Pauley’s latest novel Cat Girl’s Day Off asked whether I would like a review copy, I was intrigued. This is how she described the book:

“Nat Ng has always tried to keep her “talent” of being able to converse with cats a secret. Continue Reading

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Meet Cat Daddy Jackson Galaxy’s Furry Family Members

Feline Behavior, Feline Lifestyle| 46 Comments

Jackson_Galaxy_Caroline

Jackson Galaxy is a busy man these days. He just finished recording the audio version of his upcoming book, Cat Daddy: What the World’s Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me About Life, Love, and Coming Clean. He’s gearing up for a book tour to promote the book, which will come out on May 10, and he is currently shooting the first of ten new episodes for Season Three of his wildly successful Animal Planet show My Cat From Hell.

I managed to catch up with Jackson last week while he was on the set of My Cat From Hell. We chatted a little about his busy life, and his book, but what I really wanted to talk to him about was cats. His own cats. Who are the felines he goes home to each night? Do they have behavioral problems, or are the Cat Daddy’s fur children problem-free?

Jackson shares his life with four cats.Continue Reading

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Musetta’s complaint: Life with a writer is for the birds

Feline Lifestyle| 10 Comments

Musetta_Clea_Simon

Guest post by Musetta Simon

What is it with these creatures?

I don’t mean the birds. Those little twittering things are amusing, in their way: hopping about, oblivious to the fact that certain death – in the form of a sleek feline killer – lurks just inside this glass door. I mean my humans. My mother, in particular. Instead of writing, or whatever it is she calls it when she sits at her desk, she has taken to lingering here, by the porch doors, with me. And while I appreciate the strokes I get, especially when I begin my morning commentary on the yard activity, it’s her frankly pointless fascination that I simply do not understand.

When my person first began feeding the creatures in our yard, I thought her motivations were obvious. She was fattening them up, clearly, Continue Reading

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High-tech medicine for your cat: MRI

Feline Health| 33 Comments

cat_getting_MRI

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of the most powerful and accurate diagnostic techniques in medicine today, and has become routine in human medicine. For the past ten years, MRI’s have been available for animals. An MRI provides detailed and valuable information without the higher risk involved in invasive procedures such as exploratory surgeries.

MRI’s are considered in the following situations:

  • Brain or spinal cord injuries or abnormalities
  • Futher diagnostics after x-rays or ultrasound are normal, or unclear
  • Lameness
  • Abnormal nasal bleeding, swelling or discharge
  • Chronic ear disease
  • Some foreign bodies

The benefits on an MRI include:Continue Reading

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Book review: How to Moon a Cat by Rebecca M. Hale

Books| 2 Comments

How_To_Moon_A_Cat

How to Moon a Cat, the third book in Rebecca Hale’s Cats and Curios series, featuring a protagonist also named Rebecca, who has inherited her uncle’s antique shop, and her two cats, Rupert and Isabella, is not your average cat cozy.

From the publisher:

When Rupert the cat sniffs out a dusty green vase with a toy bear hidden inside, his owner has no doubt this is another of her Uncle Oscar’s infamous clues to one of his valuable hidden treasures. Eager to put together the pieces of the puzzle, she’s soon heading to Nevada City, accompanied by her two cats, having no idea that this road trip will put her life in danger.

This summary doesn’t do the book justice. I’m not even sure I would classify this book as a cozy, because it’s so much more. Continue Reading

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