Category Archives: Living with cats

Global Cat Day

Alley Cat Allies are launching the premiere of Global Cat Day today. The motto of the day is : kindness for all catkind.

Alley Cat Allies is an organization dedicated «to transform and develop communities to protect and improve the lives of cats.»

“On October 16th, compassionate people around the world come together to stand up for policies that protect the cats in their communities.”

You wouldn’t bring a wild animal into your home, and that’s what a community cat (feral cat) is : a wild animal. Pet cats are socialized and domesticated, community cats live outside, and this is their home.

Community cats are not abandoned or lost. They are not pets in distress, but they are often mistaken with socialized cats who have been abandoned. Feral cats are born outside, and are for the most part unadoptable. If you bring them to a shelter, they risk to be killed because they are unsocialized and cannot be re-homed.

Local laws sometimes punish caregivers of community cats. Authorities don’t always understand that the best place for feral cats is outdoor. This must change.

In some areas, it’s allowed to kill cats who don’t have an owner. To us, that’s just cruelty. There are other ways to control feline population.

TNR (trap-neuter-return) is the BEST way to solve the problem. Cats are trapped, they are seen by a veterinarian, they are spayed / neutered, and returned to their home : the outdoor. Every TNR cat has the tip of his ear cut, you can recognize them easily.

If you want to help, advocate for community cats and educate your own community about «compassionate cat management».

How do cats get ready for winter ?

We had cold, rain and wind yesterday, a real autumn weather ! Leaves begin imperceptibly to change color and to fall, and we begin discreetly to get ready for winter.

How do cats get ready for winter ?

They moult.

The renewal of our coat accelerates, and we lose many hairs : our summer hairs fall and are replaced by our more thick winter hairs. It’s important to brush us regularly ! Indeed, we spend a lot of time to lick ourselves to have a wash, and the excessive ingestion of hairs can cause digestive problems : hairs gather together in our stomach and form balls. If we can vomit these hairballs, so much the better, but otherwise, we risk an intestinal obstruction.

They eat more.

Zorro increases his daily ration of about 50 grams. His weight increases by at least 300 grams in winter ! He bards literally himself with bacon, eeh, fat, to protect himself from the cold, because he goes out almost as much in winter as in summer.
As for me, there are few differences between my summer rations and my wintry rations, because I go a lot less outside as soon as it gets a little bit chilly.

They sleep longer.

As there are fewer small critters to be observed, we get a little bored… Fortunately, our human is attentive to play every day with us to make us move ! She also places puzzles feeders in strategic places to distract us.

They spend more time inside.

It’s normal, we get cold pads after a while !

Indoor cats are also subject to these changes, but in a much less marked way.

All that water ! How to help animals affected by hurricane Harvey ?

After three months of temperatures around 30 C (86 F), it’s finally cooler : the temperatures fell in a few days from 30 to 18-20 C (64-68 F), and we had rain, a lot of rain, too much rain as here in the area of Graubünden :

However, what we lived in Switzerland is not commensurate with the damages caused by hurricane Harvey.

Several actions are in progress to help animals (and humans !) affected by this disaster. One of the communities of bloggers of which we are a member, BlogPaws, published a list of ressources. We also mobilize for our friends, and we’re going to take part in the action carried out by Dash Kitten in favour of the organization Austin Pets Alive.

All these organizations bustle to evacuate animals and their owners, get back the wandering animals, and place them in safety. They need supplies, food, and premises for storage or reception. The work to be carried out is titanic, and we are happy to help them thanks to our modest contribution.