The dreaded hairball!

digestive tract. Some cats never get them (my own hasn’t—knock on wood); some cats get them rarely and vomit them up with no harm to them...

Pedigreed puberty

neutered , for reasons discussed elsewhere in this blog. The usual rule is to have the cat neutered before the cat reaches sexual maturity...

Then on to real preying

mothers . So how old is a cat when he can do his own killing? Roughly two months, by which time most kittens can catch and kill a mouse. Her...

“Cat on a hot tin roof”

The playwright Tennessee Williams immortalized this phrase in the title of one of his dramas, even though the cat in his play was a woman, n...

Playing to prey

Roughly about the time of weaning (three weeks or so), kittens find a new source of pleasure besides nursing, namely play. It begins with gen...

Chatoyancy

Here’s a fancy French word, and if you know that chat is French for “cat,” you may have a clue what chatoyancy means: “shining like a cat’s ...

Polishing the cat

silk or chamois—the cat show equivalent of a “wax job.” Owners who fuss over their pets sometimes use this technique at home, too.