Thursday, April 24, 2008

cute cat toy


I totally love this cat toy idea! The bag moves like there is something in it and that is very interesting to a cat! My cats are not kittens, but love bags, and things in bags! Of course, be careful not to let your pet play with a plastic bag.


You can make this toy at home very easily with a paper bag and a small wind up toy(can be bought at walmart, or Toys R Us for about $1). Wind up the toy and stick it in the bag! A new cat toy for everyones enjoyment!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Cat and Dogs

Naturally cats and dogs do not get along, but when they live in the same house they usually learn to get along just fine. In most cases the cat will even assert his/herself over the dog...maybe that's natures way of keeping the cat safe...make the dog think he's weaker than the cat maybe?



Sometimes Cats and Dogs get along very well! Here is a video from YouTube of a cat and dog who seem to be in love! Anyone who has a cat and dog living together will love this video!



Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Cat TV

I'm just getting over the flu, so a few times in the past few weeks, I've rediscovered Cat TV. My dog watches it everyday with great interest... and from a safe distance.




At my house, Cat TV has 3 characters, with BITS being the main character. Bits is my 5 year old overweight Calico male. It might be becuase of his extra X chromosome, or just his personality, but he ALWAYS has to be the center of attention. Sparky has learned that she can beat up and push around the other cat and the dog, but not Bits. Bits would just hold her down and clean and groom her, even when she is loudly howling.




Back on topic... Cat TV. Everyone with at least One cat has it, but it is better when there is a dog. My dog would've been a psychologist if he was a human. He spends most of his waking in house hours watching Cat TV, with the usual host, Bits.




Cat TV is also better when there are birds outside. Lucky for us, our house is surrounded by trees, and we have lots of windows. The cat run from room to room watching the birds, sometimes making funny cat noises...with the exception of Sparky. Because of her brain damage from seizures as a kitten, she has less depth perception than other cats. A bird in the sky looks like its as close of the bird on the window ledge. Sometimes she goes completely retarded trying to catch the bird, and sometimes she watches them very quietly...like she's watching Bird Tv.




Last spring, my husband was away at sea, and I was downstairs in the laundry room. I heard a lot of comotion upstairs so I ran up to see what was going on. As I climbed the stairs, I noticed my dog outside my bedroom, watching Cat Tv. Uh oh. There was a lot of noise coming from my room. I could feel my heart racing and I started sweating. To my horror, when I looked in the bedroom, all 3 cats were hunting JUNE BUGS. One of the cats knocked out the screen tryng to get to a june bug pounding against it trying to get into the room, attracked by the light.




I closed the door shut and left the 3 of them in the room with the huge bugs. It took me about 3 minutes to calm down and think of what to do. Mike was away. 13 year old daughter was out. It was just me and the bugs. Even the dog sensed my fear and was gone from sight. On behalf of military spouces everywhere, I had to be brave.


Armed with fly swatters, and wearing a big zipped up sweater, I bravely entered the room. First thing, I closed the window so no more would get in. Bits was chewing on something...good one bug down. Sandy was digging behind my night stand...I took a look, and that bug was trapped but flopping around. I left Sandy to his work.


Sparky was sitting on the bed watching...Cat Tv. She had a dead June Bug beside her, but she was more interested in the other cats. On closer inspection, her bug was HUGE. About 3 cm long and laying on it's back. I had to get a picture (I tend to exaggerate, so I needed proof on how big this bug was!!) When I looked at the picture later on my computer, I noticed it had RED GLOWING EYES! No wonder sparky didn't eat it. Bits did eat it though, lol.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic desease that is found mostly in cats but can infect humans and other animals as well. It is passed from mother cat to kitten, by eating infected meat or from infected faeces. Mostly however, it is contacted by a cat after eating an infected mouse or rat.

Pregnant women are warned NOT to change the kitty litter box if possible. Or to was their hands VERY well after changing the litter. Toxoplasmosis can cause fetal death in the first trimester.

Sparky MIGHT have been infected with Toxoplasmosis as a kitten, but there were no tests on this parasite. I did contact the vet who treated the mother cats and kittens before they were sent to the pet store, but they said no other cats were sick and nothing was reported back to them.

An few interesting facts about toxoplasmosis...

it seems to change the behavior on the infected host. Infected mice and rats are less fearful of cats. Some some of the infected rats seek out cat-urine-marked areas!

it's considered to be the third leading cause of death attributed to foodborne illness in the United States. More that 60 million men, women, and children in the U.S. carry the Toxoplasma parasite, but very few have symptoms because the immune system usually keeps the parasite from causing illness. Some syptoms would be a flu like illness, low-grade
encephalitis. The person may become very ill if they have a compromised immune system, such as with HIV/AIDS or chemotherapy patients.

it was once thought that toxoplasmosis might cause schizophrenia in humans. Haloperidol, an anti-psychotic used for treating schizophrenia, can actuallystop the growth of Toxoplasma in cell cultures.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Double Paws

One of the cutest things about Sparky is her Double Paws, or, polydactyly. Double paws... extra toes, is a genetic mutation, but is actually very common in house cats. Sparky has 6 toes on each of her back paws and 6 on each of her front.

A Canadian cat called Tiger was recognised by Guinness World Records as having the highest number of toes on a cat, with 27 toes. Tiger beats Sparky by 3 toes! Actually sparky has a toe on her front paw that is halfway split in 2, but it only counts as 1.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Sparky's history


I've been wanting to start this blog for a while now, and I am so happy I've finally gotten around to it.


I have a cat...her name is Princess, but I call her Sparky. We adopted her when she was 6 weeks old, from a pet store. We didn't plan on adopting a kitten, we were just "Looking". But this kitten separated herself from the other kittens in her litter and meowed at us through the glass. Myself and my 3 daughters believe she was asking us to take her home.
2 days later she had her first Grand mal seizure. At first it was hard to tell what was happening, she was so tiny and seizures in cats that young is very very rare.


We took her home and she was fine for a few days. She would follow me everywhere and sit on my laptop. Then she had another seizure. She was so sick she was hospitalized for 4 days...day and night. We would have to transfer her to the all night vet hospital every night, and bring her back every morning.
After this second seizure she had a permanent shake in her head. She had smaller Petit mal seizeures and lots of head shaking over the next couple of weeks.
We discovered during this time that Sparky would purr very loud and kneed on a certain green baby blanket we owned. We nicknamed this "Lovey baby". For lovey Baby to work she would need someone to look at while she purred and kneeded. She would pick someone(Usually me) and meow at us until we followed her to the green blanket. Then she would do her thing.
At 9 weeks, I brought her back to the vet to get spade. My regular vet was away so there was a new vet who was unfamiliar with us. She said she would not operate on my cat because her head shaking was actually seizuring!! She took some blood tests and sent us home.
The next day, Sparky had another Grand Mal seizure. This time the new vet put her on phenobarbital. I would give her this pink liquid medicine twice a day. Almost immediately we saw results. The shaking nealy disappeared. Lovey baby episodes also increased to at least 3 a day.
I never did ger her spade. Some vets believe she may not make it through the operation. My regular vet is divided. Since she has out lived her life expectancy and is a healthy 3 year old cat, she is just fine the way she is. She does go into "heat" regularily. When in heat you can pat her and scratch her back (you CANNOT attempt this at any other time, with the exception of lovey baby times). We have to spend a few days of all night howling however, and my 2 neutered male cats follow her around watching her oddly.