Is Fluffy Stressed Out?

Full Story here.

"TOKYO -- Wondering if your dog or cat is stressed? Just stick a special patch on the bottom of its paw and you'll be able to tell, according to a Japanese company.

The patch, developed by Japanese company Medical Life Care Giken, purports to measure the stress level of dogs and cats by detecting excessive sweat secretion -- believed to be a sign of stress -- the Nikkei Weekly reported Sunday.

The round, pin-sized patch is applied to the center pad of the animal's paw and changes color depending on how sweaty the pet is, the Nikkei said.

The company, which makes a similar patch for humans, says it worked with researchers at Toyama University to study the sweat patterns of dogs and cats, which secrete sweat from their paws, the Nikkei said.

The company expects strong sales amid a pet boom in Japan, the Nikkei said. The patches are expected to go on sale in Japan later this year, with the price still undecided, it said. It did not mention plans for overseas sales.

Doting Japanese pet owners are known to go to great lengths for their pets' well-being, taking cats and dogs to specialist masseurs and even acupuncturists."

More Funny Cat Videos

Cats Stuck in Cans

A story from NBC San Diego reveals the dangers of not crushing cans before disposing of them.

"Three cats were recently found with their heads stuck in food cans. One of the feline's heads was stuck in a ravioli can. The two others got stuck in soup cans.


Officials with the Department of Animal Services said the cats were found on different days in different parts of San Diego County. All three of the cats were put under anesthesia to get the cans off.The animals all survived. Officials said they know what happened to the cats."It goes in, and they're trying to get the food at the end of the can, or the soup, and they just can't pull it out," said animal-services director Dawn Danielson.Danielson said that the cats would have died from starvation if they hadn't been rescued. She's urging people to crush their cans before throwing them in the trash."

Meet Goliath, a HUGE Cat

Golaith is one huge cat. Check it out.

Click-a-Day to Feed Big Cats

http://www.bigcatrescue.org/icare.htm

With only a click a day, you can help feed big cats. It's so easy, why not just give it a click?

What is a Feral Cat?

Feral cats are the offspring of either feral or domesticated cats that weren't handled by humans as kittens and thus cannot be tamed, touched, or handled as adults. If they aren't spayed or neutered, they end up creating more and more cats and adding to the problem. Exponentially over 7 years, a single mating pair of cats and offspring can create 420,000 cats. That's a lot of cats.

In response to this, the FCC (Feral Cat Coalition) has a non-profit program where they trap, spay & neuter, then release feral cats. This policy has greatly reduced the number of euthanized cats across the country.

Britain Sees Sharp Rise In Unwanted Pets

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - The number of unwanted pets taken in by Britain's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) increased sharply over the last year, the animal charity said on Monday.

The number of pets left with the RSPCA rose to 9,506 last year, up more than 44 percent from 2005.

Cats were the most unwanted -- almost 3,000 were rescued, more than double the number of unwanted dogs.

The director of the RSPCA's Harmsworth Hospital, David Grant, told the BBC some of the animals were in a shocking condition, sometimes near to death.
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"Other times they're frightened, hungry, dehydrated. You name it, we see it," he said.

The overall number of domestic, wild and farm animals taken in by the RSPCA rose to 146,509 from almost 139,000.

"We rescue a staggering number of animals from a wide range of difficult, distressing and often surprising situations each year," said Andy Foxcroft, chief officer of the RSPCA inspectorate.

"But what strikes me particularly about our latest figures is the huge number of animals we rescue simply because their owners no longer want them."

Foxcroft said he hoped that the new Animal Welfare Act, which means owners are legally obliged to care for their pets, would help to reduce the number of unwanted animals.

Look at all Those Dog-Gone Cats!!!

All 36 species of wild cat live on every land mass excluding Australia, Antartica, and some small island chains.

The majority of species are indigenous to only one continent. "The great natural barrier of the Atlantic Ocean also serves to divide the 'New World' species from the 'Old World' - with the exception of the Lynx, which can be found as distinct sub-species in both North America and Eurasia."

African Golden Cat

Asian Golden Cat

Andean Mtn Cat

Bay Cat

Black-footed Cat

Bobcat

Caracal

Cheetah

Chinese Desert Cat

Clouded Leopard

Cougar

Fishing Cat

Flat-headed Cat

Geoffrey's Cat

Iriomote Cat

Jaguar

Jaguarundi

Jungle Cat

Kodkod

Leopard

Leopard Cat

Lion

Little Spotted Cat

Lynx, Canadian

Lynx, Eurasian

Lynx, Spanish

Margay

Marbled Cat

Ocelot

Pallas Cat

Pampas Cat

Rusty-Spotted Cat

Sand Cat

Serval

Snow Leopard

Tiger

Wildcat-African

Wildcat-Asiatic

Wildcat-European

*http://www.abf90.dial.pipex.com/bco/species.htm (List taken from as well.)

Cat Tail Wagging

A guide on how to tell what your cat is feeling. Funny, eh?

Who Will Speak for the Cats if You Don't

You will be able to find cat shelters, make charitable donations to animal shelters, cat rescue organizations, help feral cats and learn what you can do for cats... they do so much for us :)

The Many Moods of Cats

A Piano-Playing Cat?

Mutant Cat: the Cornish Rex

The discovery of the Cornish Rex mutant was in a litter of barn cats from Cornwell, England in the early 1950's. The cat species is distinctively different, constantly charming and captivating. Rexes need people, and given a choice will spend most of their time with humans. When they are free to choose their own sleeping quarters, their first choice is the owners bed. This is partly due to their desire for warmth.

In spite of its delicate appearance, the Cornish Rex is a hardy breed and doesn't require any unusual care. An active cat who loves to exercise, it has no problems creating its own entertainment. While most mature cats outgrow their playfulness, a Cornish Rex never loses interest in games, and as an adult is as playful as a kitten.

Are Cats Trainable?

Apparently so. Watch this video to see how to train a cat to work a light switch.

How Cute is your Kitten?

How cute is your kitten? Find out, rate, and comment on kittens at CuteLittleKittens.com! Here are a few same pictures of CUTE kittens!

Funny Cat Videos

These are the reasons the human race loves cats and their shenanigans. Careful, don't watch this one at work because you'll be laughing! And if you think these are cut, spare a donation to your local pet shelter or cat charity!

My Cat has too Many Toes...

I personally have a cat with polydactylism. That is, he has one too many toes on each of his paws. Normally, a cat has 18 toes. The front paw has five toes - four toes and one dewclaw (the small toe on the inside of the foot that doesn’t touch the ground). Most polydactyl cats have one or two extra toes on each foot, with the extra toes appearing on the thumb side of the foot.

Physically and genetically, polydactylism is not a dangerous trait among cats. However, it is a dominant one. It can be assumed, therefore, if either one of a kitten's parents is polydactyl, chances are that the kitten will be too.

Polydactylism doesn’t adversely affect cats. However, It offers them no advantages. It is simply a quirk, neither bad nor good.

Choosing a Kitten

How do you choose a kitten? Some people choose a kitten for its looks - a particularly beautiful breed or a favorite color. Bear in mind that if you choose a long-haired pedigree or moggy it will require daily brushing to keep it beautiful. However color and appearance does not tell you very much about your kitten's personality. True, certain breeds do come with particular personality traits - the extremely vocal Siamese springs to mind, but with many breeds, and certainly with your common moggy, the color and appearance of a kitten is not much of a guide for future personality.

Can you predict what personality your kitten will have? Not entirely, but there are some things which will help you choose a cat which will fit in with your lifestyle. First you need to decide what type of cat you want. Most people are after a friendly cat that will be willing to interact with them in a non-aggressive way. As with most behavioural traits this is influenced by both genetics and environment.

Does this mean that a friendly mother will have friendly kittens? Unfortunately not. Though the exact method of inheritance remains unclear, the father is thought to have the biggest influence. Bad news when looking at your average cat's litter of kittens as the father is frequently unknown.

Weird Cat Facts

WEIRD CAT FACTS (Various Sources)

• Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
• The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th century England when it is believed that many cats and dogs drowned during heavy periods of rain.
• Cat urine glows under a black-light.
• Cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that paws?
• Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the deaths of their cats.
• Catgut comes from sheep, not cats.
• Cats have five toes on each front paw and four on the back.
  
• Kittens are born with both eyes and ears closed. When the eyes open, they are always blue at first. They change color over a period of months to the final eye color.
• If a male cat is both orange and black it is ( besides being extremely rare ) sterile. To have both the orange and the black coat colors, the male cat must have all or part of both female X chromosomes. This unusual sex chromosome combination will render the male cat sterile.
• Many cats cannot properly digest cow's milk. Milk and milk products give them diarrhea.
• Unlike humans and dogs, cats do not suffer a lot from loneliness. It is a mistake to project our social feelings onto our cats. Cats are social to a degree, but they are far more concerned with territorial issues than we can even imagine.
• A cat is pregnant for about 58-65 days. This is roughly two months.
• The oldest age that a house cat has attained and has been reliably documented is the case of a female tabby named "Ma." She lived to the ripe old age of 34!
• When cats are "de-clawed" they are actually having their 3rd phalanx removed. It is the equivalent of you having your fingers cut off at the 3rd knuckle.
• Tylenol and chocolate are poisonous to cats.
• The first cat show was in 1871 at the Crystal Palace in London.
• Today there are about 100 distinct breeds of the domestic cat.
• Genetic mutation created the domestic cat which is tame from birth.
• Like birds, cats have a homing ability that uses its biological clock, the angle of the sun, and the Earth's magnetic field. A cat taken far from its home can return to it. But if a cat's owners move far from its home, the cat can't find them.
• Hunting is not instinctive for cats. Kittens born to non-hunting mothers may never learn to hunt.
• Cats bury their feces to cover their trails from predators.
• Mother cats teach their kittens to use the litter box.
• Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day.

Why do Cats Purr?

Cats purr for numerous reasons, although the most commonly known reason is a sign of contentment. When Fluffy is sitting in your lap, it is only obvious that the vibrations you're feeling are due to happiness. However, purring can signify a problem.

Cats also purr to heal wounds. Excessive purring may be a warning sign of an injury. Quoted: "It seems that the measurable Hertz of a cat's purr lies between 25 and 150. Coincidentally (or not) it has been found that sound frequency in this range can stimilate bone growth and healing." ¹

¹http://cats.about.com/cs/catmanagement101/a/why_cats_purr.htm

Coming soon to a site near you...

You will son be able to help ute kittens in need of a loving home! Once CatCharity.com is in full swing, donations will go out to cats around the U.S. I mean, come on, look at this kitten!