Alana, a.k.a. Bugly, was truly the happiest cat in the world. I could never imagine a happier cat, but she didn’t start out that way. In fact, her beginnings would go down in the annals of cat history as one of the most unfortunate and truly unlucky starts in life. But all of that changed, when 697 cats, including Alana, were seized from one of the worst cat hoarding cases in U.S. history. At the time, in summer of 2011, it was considered the biggest cat hoarding case and rescue in the country’s history, with nearly 700 domestic and feral cats rescued from severe and willful neglect. When the Humane Society of the U.S. came onto the sanctuary property, they witnessed sick, dying and dead cats everywhere at the now shuttered Haven Acres Cat Sanctuary in Florida. But for Alana and the other nearly 700 cats, that was their lucky day, and the beginning of whole new and better life.
Continue reading Tribute to the Happiest Cat in the WorldAll posts by Jennie Richards
List of Toxic Plants for Cats
There are many plants and flowers that are toxic and poisonous for cats to ingest. It’s important to keep these out of your home, or in an area that your cat cannot access. If you know that your cat has ingested a toxic plant, take them to an animal emergency hospital or to your vet immediately. Time is critical before irreversible damage is done to their liver, and the toxicity becomes fatal.
Comprehensive List of Toxic Plants for Cats
– Published by the ASPCA (ASPCA.org)
Adam-and-Eve (Arum, Lord-and-Ladies, Wake Robin, Starch Root, Bobbins, Cuckoo Plant) | Scientific Names: Arum maculatum | Family: Araceae
African Wonder Tree () | Scientific Names: Ricinus communis | Family:
Alocasia (Elephant’s Ear) | Scientific Names: Alocasia spp. | Family: Araceae
Aloe () | Scientific Names: Aloe vera | Family: Liliaceae
Why It’s Important to Microchip Your Cat
Is your cat microchipped? If not, one of the best and safest ways to increase the chances of finding your lost cat is to have it microchipped. One in three pets get lost during their lifetime and without microchips, 90 percent never return home. Unfortunately, only about 2-5 percent of cats that come into animal shelters have microchips and are successfully reunited with their owners.
A microchip is the size of a grain of rice (12 mm), implanted in the subcutaneous tissue of your cat’s skin, typically between the shoulder blades. The procedure is done in a matter of seconds using a needle, similar to a routine shot, and is considered relatively painless.
Building An Inexpensive Cat Shelter
All information on this page is from Alley Cat Allies (www.alleycat.org).
Here’s more information on building this cat shelter from Alley Cat Allies: http://www.alleycat.org/BuildaShelter
For complete drawings, the PDF is here (Alley Cat Allies): http://www.alleycat.org/document.doc?id=36 for complete drawings
Alley Cat Allies – Feral Cat Shelter Options Gallery: http://www.alleycat.org/ShelterGallery
How To Build An Inexpensive Cat Shelter
– (PDF Download from Alley Cat Allies)
Alley Cat Allies recommends that feral cat colonies have proper protection from inclement weather. Following are detailed instructions they have provided in a PDF download that are needed to build a feral cat shelter. These building plans are recommended for use throughout the United States. For extremely harsh, cold, and wet climates, insulation (as described) is advised. Alley Cat Allies recommends using straw bedding to keep the shelter warm, and not hay. They recommend against using blankets, carpeting or any materials like towels that will hold moisture. They also suggest using hardwood shavings, but not softwood shavings due to toxicity (and not cedar and pine).
A Tribute To My Beloved Pillow Kitty, Pasha
Pasha was a survivor. She was born fighting for her life, and her life ended the same way. Pasha was a fighter with a fierce life force and spirit to live, even when confronted with the most challenging physical problems to overcome. From the day Pasha was born in the drop box of the Martinez Animal Shelter, Pasha fought with all of her might to stay alive. She and her three newborn siblings and her mama were deathly sick with Feline Viral Rhinotacheitis (FVR), a common virus that spreads in animal shelters that can quickly devastate fragile, vulnerable kittens. When we brought Pasha, kittens and mama cat home to foster—one by one, the kittens succumbed to the virus following several visits to the emergency hospital to revive and treat them. But their tiny bodies could not defend against the virulent virus and they surrendered to the disease. Only Pasha survived along with her beautiful mother. Pasha had the life force of four lives in one. Now 18 years later, Pasha is fighting for her life again with every weak breath that is slowly taking her life and her vibrant, beautiful spirit with her. It is with so much sadness and heartbreak that we witness Pasha losing her battle to stay alive. In the last 24 hours, Pasha has developed rapid labored breathing, lethargy, weakness, and has stopped eating—as her physical body is letting go of life. And now, we are facing the toughest challenge, a day we wish would never come, the day we need to help our little Pasha go, to alleviate any further suffering for her.
A Tribute to the Most Loving Cat— Angus
On Saturday, we became painfully aware it was finally time to say goodbye to our beautiful, loving cat Angus. A neurological condition had developed in the past couple of years, causing increasing discomfort and stiffness in Angus’s hind legs and back end, and it finally overtook him on Saturday. Angus could no longer walk or stand up, his hind legs collapsing and folding underneath him. The truth is Angus’s strong, once-muscled, 18-year-old athletic body—finally gave out and broke. He died the day before the anniversary of my father’s death and two days before my mother’s birthday—on July 11, 2020. But Angus was dearly loved by his human and feline family, and had a most wonderful life.
The Diagnosis of Malignant Melanoma In My Cat
My 15+ year old rescue cat Marcello was always the picture of perfect health. He passed his annual routine checkups with flying colors every year and only needed two dentals in the 12 years he lived with us. No sniffles, no sneezing, no coughing, no viruses, no infections. He could not have been an easier cat to care for. Until he started peeing outside the litter box. That’s when things started to change. That was a year and a half ago.
Marcello lived with three other rescue cats upstairs on our second floor. He would have been very happy as an only-cat, but unfortunately that was not his destiny as I was in cat rescue, and was actively trapping abandoned cats in our community, bringing them home to foster, medically treat, and socialize, before putting them up for adoption with my cat rescue organization. One by one, there was always a new rescue cat that Marcello had to put up with. He hated the competition for attention and would even punish and bully each cat for stealing affection away from him. He was a one-woman cat and that had to be understood by any new resident cat who came to share his home–those were Marcello’s ground rules and he strictly enforced them.
Marcello himself had been abandoned. Someone who owned him in his early years had left him behind and moved away, leaving him to fend for himself outdoors. Marcello survived, but he had been in his share of cat fights and had the scars and torn ears to prove it. But his real wounds were all on the inside—his trust in people had been deeply injured and his confidence in people shaken to the core. During the first two months of Marcello’s healing with us, he feared being abandoned again. Every time I came to visit him in his room, he completely let his guard down and would wrap, twist and curl his body all around me, then head-butt me over and over again, all with a big orange tail flared out like a bottle brush. But when I would get up to leave, Marcello would attack me like a police dog—and bite my ankles with a vengeance and leave me a bloody mess. That fear of abandonment slowly dissipated over time as he came to trust and realize that he was safe with us. In short order, Marcello became one of the most affectionate, loving cats I have ever come to know. He was a cuddle bug who loved nothing more than being stroked, rubbed, petted, caressed and loved every minute I could give him.
Continue reading The Diagnosis of Malignant Melanoma In My Cat The Latest Pet Food Recalls and Alerts
The latest pet food recalls and alerts from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) based on reports and alerts received from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and/or manufacturers. This page also contains the latest product safety recalls.
See the AVMA’s latest Pet Food Recalls and Alerts.
Treating and Preventing Feline Herpes Virus Infections
In our household of multiple cats, you could say we learned the hard way about feline herpes virus infections, how they are triggered and how to prevent them. We came home from a week vacation to a serious herpes virus infection that worsened for months before improving. This is our experience treating a stubborn herpes eye infection and how to avoid an outbreak in your cat in the future.
Feline Herpes Virus is extremely common in cats, with kittens often born with the virus from their mothers. Adult cats can carry the virus for years without showing any symptoms. Feline herpes virus can lie dormant until the immune system is weakened, or the cat experiences a stressful event, or even a particular medication can trigger the infection. In our case, it was our vacation that triggered the “stressful event” that brought on a raging eye infection and stubborn corneal eye ulcer that took five months to treat, heal and overcome.
Continue reading Treating and Preventing Feline Herpes Virus Infections
A Tribute to my Beloved, Beautiful Cat Marcello
Just over 12 years ago, a beautiful, lean and well-muscled orange tabby boy skulked and slinked low to the ground into our back yard—and started visiting our home. He was hungry and living outside during an exceptionally cold, wet winter when we were visited with constant storms and pelting rain. For three nights in a row, this orange beauty slinked across our patio to where our feral food bowls were located, right in front of our French doors, and scarfed up as much food as possible, before pivoting and discreetly walking away as quickly and quietly as he came. My first thought was that this orange tabby was a new feral joining our small band of neighborhood feral cats that I had taken responsibility to feed outside every night. These cats had come to depend on us for their nightly repast for many years now. But on second thought, I knew it was even more likely that this adult orange boy had probably been callously dumped and abandoned by some thoughtless person who decided to move away with one less belonging—tossing this helpless creature to fend for himself, while she or he went on their merry way. It was evident that he had been living outside for some time, as the tips of his ears were well chewed on—healed scars and wounds from cat fights that left him tattered, but alive. He was extremely fearful of seeing us in the window—so his physical contact with humans appeared to be long forgotten and now we were something to be feared. We were enemy number one for this boy.
