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.
Ever been curious how old your cat is in cat years versus human years? Well, there’s no absolute or reliable scientific calculation for determining exactly how old your cat is in cat years, but there are good calculations that come close to estimating your cat’s approximate age. So here’s how to determine your cat’s age in cat years.
What Factors Determine How a Cat Ages?
There are many factors that go into a cat’s aging and lifespan including how well they have been cared for, whether they are indoor or outdoor cats, their daily diet and quality of food, whether they have received good veterinary care and annual wellness exams, whether chronic diseases and short-term illnesses have been treated in a timely manner, if they have received good dental care, the environmental stresses they have been subjected to, and their genetic predisposition to disease. Continue reading How to Determine Your Cat’s Age in Cat Years→
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.
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.
For the first time, I’m faced with making an end of life decision for one of my cats. Though I knew this time would eventually come, I always felt it was far off in the future and I didn’t need to think about it. But suddenly that time has come with my cat Pumpkin and I’m forced to examine what the best, kindest, and most loving path is for my terminally sick but beautiful 18-year-old cat Pumpkin—to let her die a natural death at home with pain-killers or euthanize her.
Some backstory: About two years ago, my once sprightly, independent “Princess Pumpeedo” (my friend’s nickname for her) started showing signs of slowing down. She was my first rescue cat in 1998. She had been living outside of my apartment in the parking lot for almost a year, living under parked cars where she hid from the constant rain and weather. I fell in love with her the day I set eyes on her. Continue reading Making An End of Life Decision for Your Cat→
With so many homeless, abandoned and feral cats living in our communities, our parade float in the Pleasant Hill 4th of July Parade raised awareness in our community about the tremendous need for spaying and neutering cats.
Champions of Spaying and Neutering Cats
Our Cat Spay and Neuter Parade Float
The 4th of July is associated with loads of venerable traditions including town parades, barbecues, picnics, fireworks, and events paying tribute to our nation’s independence. For me, this July 4th commemorated my first ever town parade that I participated in and one with a very important message to communicate—the need for spaying and neutering cats!
Our formal float name was the “Champions of Spaying and Neutering our Animals.” Our float was the creative idea of a woman in my cat rescue group who is a luminary in planning and executing events and has a history of participating in town parades. As visionaries do, she saw in her mind exactly how to visually communicate the message of spaying and neutering to a large audience, then took action to fulfill her idea. Continue reading Parade Float Promotes Spaying and Neutering Cats→
Sometimes miracles do truly happen. Or maybe they are simply second chances. My cat Pumpkin definitely got her second chance with giving her daily hospice care, which is keeping her alive and comfortable. Here’s her story.
Pumpkin Lived 1.5 Years Longer with Hospice Care
When I last wrote about her in November 2012, she was literally on death’s doorstep. Although she is a 19-year-old cat, she had previously been very healthy up to last year. She rarely had anything but “annual” or “bi-annual” routine vet visits. But early last year, we noticed her mouth smelled and learned she had Stomatitis, which was followed by dental surgery to remove several teeth, and she was put on the steroid Prednisilone to treat the Stomatitis inflammation. Continue reading Cat Hospice Care Extends Senior Cat’s Quality of Life→
There’s no shortcut to giving cats good dental care. Beware of the new trend in anesthesia-free dental cleaning for cats and dogs, and my advice – is avoid it like the plague.
The best dental care is always at the vet under anesthesia checking for and filling cavities, cleaning plaque and gums, extracting teeth if needed, and polishing the teeth. Beware of petfood stores advertising “Teeth Cleaning Without Anesthesia for Cats and Dogs.” Though it sounds good, my experience with two cats could not have been worse, and could have led to serious, long-term dental issues if I hadn’t gone straight to my vet afterwards for an in-hospital dental cleaning under anesthesia. Continue reading Anesthesia-Free Dental Cleaning for Cats — Warning, Proceed with Caution→
Learning how to treat my cat’s chronic diarrhea and inflammatory bowel disease has been a long challenge and effort.
Simba was a feral cat that lived in our back yard for a couple years until he was wounded by a severe cat bite that became infected and caused an abscess. We had trapped Simba the year before and neutered him and released him, feeding him daily and building an outside shelter for him. But with this wound, he needed medical care and surgery. So we trapped him again and brought him to our wonderful vet, Four Corners Animal Hospital in Concord, who promptly gave him the surgery he needed. After two weeks of wearing his e-collar—which he fought daily—we decided to keep Simba indoors and care for him for the rest of his life in the safety of our home, and not release him back outside where he could get hurt again. Continue reading Treating My Cat’s Chronic Diarrhea and Inflammatory Bowel Disease Through Traditional and Holistic Medicine→
Fostering cats is a rewarding and satisfying experience that I am honored to have. By fostering a rescued cat you provide a needed home for a cat that otherwise would remain homeless, or stay in a neglectful or abusive home, or possibly would be euthanized at a shelter. But when you take in a new foster cat, especially an adult cat, you never really know how long it may be before they are adopted—or how long it will take to find just the right home for that particular cat.
Rescuing Gigi
Gigi’s first night at home, after her rescue – She was very, very sick
I found Gigi—a beautiful, graceful Calico—abandoned and living along the Iron Horse Trail in Walnut Creek between two busy streets–just after receiving a hotline call to the cat rescue group I belong to called Community Concern for Cats (CC4C). The caller was concerned about a calico cat that looked thin, sick, and weak, and was seen falling down outside of the local feed store near the trail. Living close by, I walked the trail to see if I could find her near the described spot. I started feeding every night—putting wet and dry food out by some bushes along with a bowl of water. Two weeks later, I finally saw her! She appeared from a ditch right beside me that was completely covered by tree branches, probably hiding while waiting for me. She knew it was feeding time. Scared, hesitant, but trusting me—she allowed me to touch her and pet her. Once her trust was gained, I ran home, grabbed one of my cat carriers, walked back quickly to where I had left her, and the rest is history.
