How to create an evacuation plan that includes your cats

Posted on | February 14, 2010 | 4 Comments

Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

I recently had to evacuate my apartment temporarily, with my two cats, as a result of a fire in the building next door. It occurred to me later that even though I got the cats out OK and I have an idea of how you’re supposed to prepare for evacuating with cats, I don’t know everything. I think it would be a great service to your readers (and to me, if I have to evacuate with my cats again) to write about what cat caretakers need to do in order to be prepared for disasters.

~Adrianna

Siouxsie: You make a very good point, Adrianna. This is really important information, and very few cat caretakers prepare for evacuating with their cats, even if they do think about it. Read more

Did my cat die because I left him?

Posted on | February 7, 2010 | No Comments

Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

My cat died a few days ago but I feel incredibly guilty. He was a family cat and we had him for 17 -1/2 years, but I was mostly the one who took care of him.

I left the family home a year ago. I couldn’t take my cat with me because I house share and they didn’t allow pets. I did go back home occasionally to see him. I knew he wasn’t the same and one morning my mum told me that he just didn’t look himself. She thought that he wasn’t going to make it so she started to dig a hole in the garden and she said that he sat in the hole. She then got a blanket and he lay there whilst she stroked him and then she went to work.

He died later that evening. If only I was there, I still think he would’ve been alive.

I’m so upset but feel stupid as well because he was only a cat, but I think that what killed him was that I went away and left him.

~Trickster

Siouxsie: First of all, it’s totally normal to feel upset and to grieve the loss of a beloved cat. Seventeen and a half years is a very long relationship — longer than a lot of marriages, in fact — and there’s no way you can lose a companion you’ve known and loved for that long and not grieve. Your pain is very real, and you don’t need to be ashamed of it. Read more

How can I get my cat to stop peeing outside the litter box?

Posted on | January 31, 2010 | 4 Comments

Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

I have two male cats that grew up together since they were tiny. They are both neutered but one, Loki,  seems to be more stressed out than the other. We brought Loki to the vet because he was standing in the litter box while peeing and pees against a wall (almost every day). They did find very small crystals in his urinary tract but she thought the behavior was stress-related. So we tried the Feliway and “Good Cat” herbal stress reducer. It seemed to work at the beginning, but now it’s back to his same routine. He pees in one location every day and defecates in the litter box. They both have their own litter box. We tried different boxes with different litter (wheat, regular cat litter, pellets, etc.) and he seemed to use the regular cat litter. We moved the boxes back to the regular spot they go to and now he’s back to his peeing on the floor thing. Is this stress related? And if so, what can we do to have Loki pee in his litter box? This is very frustrating and I don’t want to give him up. Please help!

~Geoff Read more