Thursdays Cat – Why An Adult Cat Needs Interactive Play

{ October 13, 2009 @ 11:00 } · { Archives }
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I think I’ll reserve Tuesdays for all things feline. It may come as a surprise, but we junkies do more than just use drugs.

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Taken of the kittens born 6 weeks ago at my place. They are simply adorable.

Bear (gray & white playing with Twisted Sister (silver tabby/tiger cat) and Little Sister in the background. Howwver me thinks Little Sister may now be Big Brother. I’m not completely sure, but the kitten in the background was the smallest of the litter, 6 weeks later she/he is now the biggest.

If you have, or have had older indoor cats, then you know finding ways for them to exercise and keep fit can require some imagination. Not all of us have the time or patience to help them get it either. Although in truth, it’s not all that time consuming and can greatly improve not only their quality of life, but  help extend that life as well.

Here’s an article that provides ideas and reasons as to why it’s a wonderful idea to toss a ball with your cat.

Interactive play sessions are beneficial to an adult cat.

These sessions help to:

  • build trust
  • build confidence
  • strengthen the bond you share with one another
  • reduce fear
  • provide exercise for an overweight or sedentary cat
  • encourage a normal and healthy appetite
  • ease tension in a house with multiple cats
  • build confidence in a nervous or shy cat
  • diffuse aggression
  • correct inappropriate biting and scratching
  • ease reactions to traumatic events
  • ease discomfort of a new environment
  • provide beneficial stimulation for depressed cats
  • accelerate acceptance of new family members
  • allow you to interact with an unpredictable cat without the risk of being injured

When owning an indoor only cat, the cat must be provided with opportunities for exercise and encouraged often to play games. Some welcome diversions you may offer to your cat are large, strong cardboard boxes, (be sure they never contained any hazardous material), corrurgated paper and tubes of cardboard. You may also wish to purchase an indoor ‘climbing tree’ from your local pet store. To remind a cat of its hunting skills, catnip mice and other similar toys will do nicely. Be sure to also provide some kind of a scratching post as it is essential.

I’ve aso found rolled up balls of paper (newspaper, foil etc.) have been some of my cats fav toys to chase, just throw them or flick the with your finger.

How to tell if your cats are playing or fighting:

It can be difficult to tell the difference sometimes between cat play or fighting. The following are a few general guidelines to help you determine which is which:

  • When cats are playing, they may each hiss once or twice, but if your cats hiss several times, most likely they are fighting.
  • Cats who play with one another tend to take turns in the offensive and defensive postures. While engaged in fighting, there’s usually no role reversal.
  • No yowling or screaming should be present in play.
  • Cats should not get hurt during play, unless it’s by accident. Cats fighting may give or receive a bite or scratch wound.
  • When your cats are done playing they should act normal with each other, not avoid each other. After fighting, one or both of the cats will tend to stay out of each other’s way.
  • If you have cats who don’t tend to get along with each other and they look like they’re playing, they may actually be fighting. If you are not sure, try to distract them with a positive noise, like the can opener or shaking the treat box. Be sure to keep it positive however. You don’t want to discourage a possible friendship if they really are playing.

Written by Laurie Buckley, a longtime cat lover and owner of currently five cats.

 

Morning has broken…

{ October 6, 2009 @ 10:11 } · { Archives }
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My bare feet drag themselves down the cold, dark hallway floor. Rubbing the sleep from my blurred eyes I can still taste what’s left of the late night snack in my mouth and on my tongue. Forgetting in my drowsiness to swallow the last of it as the dope slowly took me under..depositing me into a land of nod for the midnight and beyond hours.

Oh the disgusting reminders of an opiate stupor, they are what nag at the coherant mind when it comes up from its influence…what reminds us of a life before them.

All around me the dust is flying, it’s everywhere..my apartment is filthy. Lighting a 3rd cigarette in almost as many minutes I check for messages on the phone, there is one…I enter my 1234 password..easy enough to remember lest I forget. I hear my mothers voice on the other end..she sounds happy on this day and gleefully informs me of her pending noontime visit. “I hope you’ll be up schatz..if not I have the key.” I hear her blow kisses before i delete the message.

I’m starting to get edgy, I slept on edge, I woke up on edge, I am now on serious edge. “Fuck” I mutter to no one “fuck fuck fuck..there’s just no way I can clean this place before she gets here..I just can’t.” Working up the courage to let her down once again..I resolve to call and say I’m too sick to see anyone…but I already know her answer. “I’m you mother Mary..I’m not ‘anyone,’ if you’re worried about the place don’t be..it’s me..I know you sweetie, I know you before even you know you.”

Putting the phone back down in its cradle I give up before I even begin. The cats pace nervously..tails twitching, all too aware of my mood..7 pairs of uneasy emerald..gold & copper slitted eyes watch me from out of their corners, they are hungry for breakfast. I do not heed their wants. Today..today has not started out well. I plug in the kettle for coffee, cats tredding all over the counters, still waiting, wanting breakfast, I stare at them..hostile, swear through my lips, bang a few things around, they scatter, they run, paw prints left in the dust where they were but nano-seconds ago. They’ll be back soon enough. Water is raging and boiling, demanding my attention..I roughly yank the electric cord out of its socket and all but throw a spoonful of instant into my cup..missed grains scatter all helter skelter like on the counter..on the floor…leaving little pools of greasy lakes where some have landed in spilled drops of water. I poor the boiling water into the cup, ice cold milk impatiently waiting to combust in the bottom. It all melds & blends together..reminding me of my lifes blood as it mixes with the heroin in my syringe when I pull back the plunger, swirling together until the darker red eats away at the golden liquid. Shaking my head to loosen the webs of confusion..I raise the cup to my lips and take a long but hurried sip, more like a gulp really. It’s not hot..I haven’t the patience for hot..for it to cool down..hence the milk going in before the boiling water.

It tastes like shit..like you’d expect it to taste, oily something floating around the top..a grain or two still visibly bobbing about in defiance..refusing the melt into oblivion that ate up its brother & sister grains. I laugh as I imagine even coffee grains, genedred coffe grains at that, fighting to live..resisting death. Survival of the fittest coffee grain..yea right..but my good God girl..are you losing it or what.

One of the cats creeps back in, looking quickly at me..making..but not keeping eye contact, used to my erratic behavior, she knows I’m not ready, she sits..looking downwards..pretending to busy herself with grooming. She waits ever so patiently, statuesque like.. safe in her knowledge that inevitabley I will get to her and the others. She..the matriarch of our tamed, housebroken pride has surely telepathically related this back to the other six..for there is an air of stillness all about the house. Not a creature was stirring, no sir-eee not even a sacrificial mouse.

Somewhere deep inside my heart I feel pangs of guilt at her kindness..her patience..her catlike understanding. She who once saved my life by licking & howling me back into consciousness while my mattress smoldered heavy smoke besides my head..or so I will believe until my dieing day. By the time I actually got up I could see nothing..not even my hand in front of me..her howls led me to the front door.

My Baabsy..my Baabalicious…my briiliant, tiny but very tough..black domestic heavy lidded..copper-eyed cat..who at no more than 6 weeks old found me in the woods one late August after-noon, picking the last of summers sweet plump strawberries. I hadn’t the heart to leave her for some fitter carnivore to toy & make supper of. Seventeen plus years later she’s earned her place hundreds of times over..being a far better friend to me that I too her.  Gently rubbing her ears as I leave the kitchen..muttering I’ll be back soon Baabs, be back real soon.

Slowly I make my way over to the computer..coffee cup & methadone in one hand..cigarettes..lighter squeezed in place under one armpit..I switch the power bar on. Without warning the smell from the litter boxes assault my nostrils, burning them. I really can’t take living like this for much longer. God please, a heads up, what is wrong with me? The puter revs itself into life, screen flickering, waking too for another day, it is my lifeline, of late anyway.

I light my fifth cigarette of the morning…the smoke curls & dances up around my face, the cats prepare for another day of lung assault, I look away and close my eyes. A familiar voice pierces the silence….

“You’ve got mail.”

What to do with all those left over garden veggies

{ October 1, 2009 @ 15:08 } · { Net Find }
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garden_community

Not quite sure what to do with all those left over fruits & veggies from your magnificant garden? I mean delicious and fresh as they are, we can only eat so many juicy tomatos and lucious salads right. Well fret no more Veggie Trader has come up with a fast and easy way to ring all proud gardners & fresh veggie/fruit wating Americans together.

How it works:

Using Veggie Trader is free, and as easy as 1,2,3. It works like a classified
ad. You post a listing describing the excess produce
you have and what you’d like in return, and then you wait for
a response…

Or, if you’re looking for local produce, you simply enter your
zipcode and see what your neighbors have available. You can
also post specific produce you’re looking for in our Wanted
section and see which of your neighbors answers your request.

Get started here —-> http://veggietrader.com/howitworks.php

Looking for the Lost Ladybug

{ September 28, 2009 @ 09:47 } · { Animal House }
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lsdybuglost

 

Scientists are asking children, adults, families, educators and everyone from two to 102-years-old to join a citizens-science group to help our ladybugs.

Ladybugs were once one of the most common bugs found across the U.S. and Canada.  Controlling pests that attack farm harvests, balancing the ecosystems in forests and fields, their industriousness is an important part of the ecosystem.

During the past two decades as invasive look-alike ladybugs expanded their territories and pollution and habitat loss have crowded them out, species of Native ladybugs began vanishing and the invasive species began increasing. These include the multicolored Asian ladybug, checkerboard ladybug and the seven-spotted ladybug.

The larger, rounder multicolored Asian ladybug had been introduced as a biological control for scale bugs then mass produced across the lands. It even eats ladybug larvae. The checkerboard ladybug, which is small and yellow, hitched a ride from Europe through the St. Lawrence River in the 1960s and has since been traveling steadily southward. The seven-spotted ladybug, also from Europe, came to North America in 1956. Its population extended its range as the Native nine-spotted and two-spotted began disappearing.

“This has happened very quickly and we don’t know how this shift happened, what impact it will have, and how we can prevent more native species from becoming so rare,” said John E. Losey, Cornell University entomologist.

In June 2007 the Lost Ladybug collaborators, headed by Losey, received a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to expand the program throughout New York and extend it nationally. Their goal is to use citizen science to bring more participation in the search for the bugs. The ladybugs are collected into viles with twigs and drops of water. The date, time and place they were found are written down.  The discoveries are placed on a gray square and their pictures are taken. Digital images are sent to the projects website, or color prints can be mailed to the university. The ladybugs are returned to where they were found.

The database will help scientists understand the shifting changes on earth, help farmers with crops and further understanding of rare species and the ecosystems in which they live.  There are more than 5,000 species of ladybugs around the earth. About 450 are Native to North America.  It’s not yet known if the new species inhabiting the continent will serve the same function or favor the same habitats as the native species.

In turn, youth will learn about the place of the ladybug in the community of nature and the importance of biodiversity and conservation for the web of life through hands-on participation in research. Educational materials, books, collection viles and nets are provided through Cornell University. 

The project’s website will post instructions for finding collection sites, making nets, photographing ladybugs, submitting data and uploading photos. The website will also offer an automated identification feature to provide people with real-time feedback on species that have been collected. Ladybug lore, myths, songs and culturally based stories are being posted to explain the relationships between ladybugs, pests and our food.

As of this year, more than 3,000 ladybugs will be in the new data display sent in by hundreds of participants across the U.S. and Canada.

For more information visit the Lost Ladybug Project.

 

Source:

http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/looking-for-the-lost-ladybug/

Gotta love talking cats-Or-What’s up with me anyway?

{ September 22, 2009 @ 14:32 } · { Animal House }
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So those of you who read my blog (if you can call it that these days)..might recall my love of all things feline. I haven’t been posting on any regular basis and when I do manage to squeeze one out..it’s not a result of any all out effort on my part. No..usually they’re half assed posts or ideas..often times borrowed or a run off on someone elses thoughts, etc. I’m sure I’m not unique when it comes to deserting said blog..leaving days, weeks or months even..between ones posts.

It’s funny how the urge to not write comes out of nowhere..comes many times when one is all pumped up and ready to write even. I suppose all bloggers go through stages of the blahs..of sitting down in front of the pc..coffee..cigs..Meriam Webster link and whatnot on standby. Hands poised above keyboard..fingers fluttering in anticipation..phone at the ready..and nothing..nada comes forth..at least nothing satisfy-able or printable does.

This past week I was struck with one of our modern day viruses (or I hope it’s a virus, and not prolonged nausea caused by some underlying problem). It came out of nowhere..some friends picked up two air-conditioners I no longer had use for. Right after they left I’d no sooner sat down to a cup of mocha java when this overwhelming urge to upchuck came over me. I never actually did (puke), but this waterlike spit (I know..yuck..but that’s what it was), came pouring out of my mouth. And so has been the rest of this week.

Yesterday I woke feeling better and thought..yay it’s gone, by late afternoon it made an appearance again, and this morning I still feel like woozy lou-lou. I can’t be pregnant..and I’m not on a boat so day 4 of this..and the mystery illness carries on. Getting my daily methadone in OJ down wasn’t & isn’t easy..the tatse just made me gag, so a hit of jazz calms my stomach a little and does what the ‘not going down methadone’ wasn’t doing. As such, this virus or whatever it is, has ixnayed any plans I had of trying to follow a methadone only regime.

For this week anyway.

Okay..back to the reason for this post or first title..since I’ve sort of covered the second title..that’s done with for now.

Click Here

Like I said..it made my day, nausea and all.

Hope it makes yours..even a little bit.

Later people

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