Pet cremation

The cremation of humans used to be rare in America and Europe, but it is becoming more and more common. As it gains acceptance among humans,...

Pet on board

pet inside the home. The goal is that, if you yourself are absent or injured, emergency workers can tell that there are pets inside who nee...

Computer in your cat

idea of having microchips implanted in human beings so that each of us carries around identification (and other sensitive information) on a ...

Reunited, but not often

Animal shelters do more than take in strays and abandoned animals. They also are a place where frantic pet owners go when beloved pets disap...

Evil touch

Would you believe that your cat can get a rash on her mouth because of contact with a plastic food dish? It is rare, but not unknown. Human ...

Pot cats

Lots of people grow marijuana for medicinal purposes (wink, wink), and some growers have found that their cats chew the leaves and get the s...

Keeping the lawn (and cat) green

As noted in the last entry, any toxic substance that your cat walks through is dangerous, since the cat will lick herself and her fur in the...

Cleaning themselves to death

rodent populations. These poisons are meant to stick to the feet and fur of rodents, eventually causing death. Regrettably, if a cat walks ...

Killing the rat-killers

It’s sad but ironic: over the years, cats have died from eating rodents that had eaten rodent bait. That is, humans set out bait to poison r...

Are all bowls the same?

food and water bowls are made of hard plastic, and your cat probably shows no ill effects. Some of the more persnickety cat fanciers claim ...

The dryer scenario

warm from a previous load, and the cat sees the door open and decides the dryer would be a warm and cozy place for a nap. In comes the ne...

Getting a buzz off electricity

It looks dangerous, and sometimes it is: a cat gnawing on an electrical cord. Apparently the cat gets an actual buzz from doing this and may...

The worst kind of cat death

Though the poet Thomas Gray wrote a famous poem on the drowning of a pet cat , cats rarely do drown because they can swim when they have to....

How the agile are fallen!

Everything has to be given a fancy name and an acronym these days, so try this one on: high-rise syndrome, or HRS. In laymen’s terms, HRS in...

The nervous human’s friend

The tranquilizing drug Valium (generic name diazepam) has been around for years, and many a nervous, stressed-out person is thankful for it....

Chasing those stinging things

A cat is as fascinated by a bee or wasp in flight as by any other small, moving object and may swat at the insect and get stung in the proces...

If it’s hotter than me ...

glands , but they don’t function exactly like human sweat glands; plus, a cat can’t (or won’t) do all the things humans do to cool down, suc...

Forgetting you in their pain

Owners who have had to deal with an injured cat are often bewildered, because the cat seems to lash out viciously, as if she didn’t know her...

Forcing the pill

You’ve probably heard this before: a dog can be fooled into taking a pill mixed with food, but a cat cannot. It’s true, which means you have...

The Black Death—not dead yet

Europe in the Middle Ages, is still around and still caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Then as now, the germ is carried by flea-beari...