Author Unknown



I have been reading a booklet called Why Do Cats Sulk? It has been very interesting and sometimes thought provoking. Why do they walk the way they do? Well, I never really thought much about it. When Rufus comes strolling into the room, I call it his John Wayne walk. It never occurred to me that he was really walking differently than the dogs do.

“Only three animals walk by moving the two legs on one side together first and then shifting to do the same on the other side: the giraffe, the camel and, you guessed it, your cat. This method of walking – which is basically diagonal – uses a minimum amount of energy and helps ensure speed, agility and silence.”

Yes, that is what he is doing all right but I never understood it until I read this.





Did you know that Oxford University has done paw preference tests on cats? They found that the majority are left “pawed” making the cats “right brain dominant”. With this in mind, I have been monitoring Rufus to see which one he seems to use first – yes, he is using his left paw much more than the right to defend himself or grab something he wants. I am interested in knowing what your kitties turn out to be. Let me know.
I had a young lady contact me recently who took the paw test a step further and did her science project on whether cats were right or left pawed. She tells me 65% of the cats tested were left pawed, 23% were right pawed and 12% were ambidextrous. I guess I should include Rufus in with that 12% group since he seems to use both. Lucy uses her right paw exclusively. She also got an A- on her project. Con"cat"ulations, Katy.



Did you know that cats and dogs can get sunburned? They can even get skin cancer if they spend a great deal of their time outdoors, particular animals with white hair. Look for it on the tips of their ears and face area first. You can use sunblock on them to help, but I know that mine would just spend all their time licking it off. This is particularly true of both dogs since they like to eat soap and other icky tasting things. And since Lucy only behaves for other people, I would have to take her to the vet or the groomer in order to put any sunblock on her. Since my cats are indoor kitties it isn’t too much of a problem but they still like to catch the sun coming in the windows.





Cats and Water

Not bathing water, drinking water. Many cats don’t ever seem to drink the water you put out for them but drink the water you have sitting out to water the houseplants and the fish tank. Many don’t like the smell of our tap water because of the chemicals from all that I have read. But I also know many with cats who will only drink from a running tap in the sink. Rufus likes fresh cold water from any bowl or glass. Here is a picture of him when he thought the dog’s water was the best place to get a drink. A glass bowl is preferrably to a plastic one - they are easier to keep clean and they keep the water cooler.

Good thing he didn't fall in.

RULE #6 LAWS OF CAT PHYSICS (Law of Milk Consumption)
A cat will drink his weight in milk,
squared. just to show you he can.

After that he discovered that whatever I was drinking was probably the best stuff to have.  He's drinking my milk in this picture.  Milk isn't very good for cats because cats are lactose intolerant.  If they get too much they can get diarrhea. But he likes to drink my water too.  He doesn't drink pop, thank goodness. Now I have made a compromise with him, if I give him his own glass next to mine of the table, he usually will leave mine alone - go figure.

Cats and Food

You may have noticed that your cat likes the canned food you just opened but turned his picky little nose up at the canned food you just took out of the refrigerator. Grrrr.

Cats prefer their food at room temperature or warmer. You might try putting it in the microwave for a few seconds. This will also make it smell more attractive to kitty, if you can imagine. And if kitty has a cold and isn't eating, try this. We do it at the shelter when they have colds. If they can't smell the food, they won't eat it.

Lucy loves canned food and it doesn't matter whether it comes out of the refrigerator or you just opened the canned. Once in a while Rufus will eat canned food if you just opened it, but will rarely eat it after that. I call him "Mr. Picky" because he won't eat any meat I might bring home from a restaurant that my Mom gives me (I don't eat any meat).

I read somewhere once but I can't remember where that cats are the most likely animal to be anorexic. I don't think Rufus will ever be that though because whenever I come home he heads to his bowl of dry food kept on the counter and eats - like clockwork every night. It is almost as if he thinks I am going to eat it. I find it extremely funny.

Cats also can't see dirctly under their nose, which is why you may find your kitty searching franticly for their treat. They are having trouble finding them on the floor.

Cats are also pretty funny about what they eat in the way of the 4 basic food tastes: sour, bitter, saltie and sweet. Sweet is supposed to be their least favorite taste. I know for a fact that Rufus likes saltie best and is crazy about popcorn but Lucy, who likes sour things, won't even taste popcorn. Lucy likes to eat grapefruit and fresh pineapple, proving again what a strange little kitty she is. NO ONE EATS GRAPEFRUIT!

As a footnote, Lucy lives with us now that my Mom has died. She has been with us since the end of January and Rufus is eating more and more canned food. I guess she told him it was good. And Rufus has developed a strange taste for sweets and has been trying to take the lid of the sugar bowl so that he may dine at his leisure - very strange.

When Rufus was little he had a strange attraction to asparagus. He would sneak up near me while I ate and reach over with his tiny little mouth and steal it right off my plate. He may have been attracted to it because of the butter, I don't know, but he would eat two or three pieces of it before he would walk away. And Lucy and her poodle cousin, Doogie, sat on the couch at my Mom's eating canned green beans as fast as I would feed them. It was like feeding baby birds.





More Kitty Paws

Cats normally have five toes on each front paw, and four on their back paws. It is not uncommon to find kitties with extra toes. These are called "polydactals" and they are supposed to be good luck kitties. I never saw one until I started volunteering at the shelter and they were a pretty common occurrence - sometimes only one kitten in a litter - some times many of them. The cat with the most toes known had 36 - eight on each paw. Yikes.



“The all-time senior-citizen cat record is still held by Puss, a cat who lived with Mrs. T. Holway of Devon, England, until she died on November 29, 1939 – just one day after her 36th birthday.” This information was also pulled from Why Do Cats Sulk? I found the same information on The Cat’s Protection League. They also have many other interesting facts for you to check out.

If you were thinking about trimming your cats whiskers just to make them look pretty - think again. Whiskers serve a valuable purpose with cats. Their whiskers are stragically located above their eyes, under their chin and on the sides of their faces. The inside ends of their whiskers are surrounded by sensory nerves. They help them judge size - if the whiskers don't fit, neither will kitty. They may get stuck someplace they shouldn't - it might even be lifethreatening if they are an outside cat. They could be blinded if they start through underbrush and don't get the signal to close their eyes too. They may try to run into something to get away from someone or something and not fit or get stuck. So please don't trim those whiskers. They do it themselves too much with candle flames. And one other thing I read recently, whiskers also help cats smell odors. Interesting.