What’s the best diet for a cat with kidney disease?

Posted on | February 21, 2010 | No Comments

Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

My cat is 18 years old. I recently found out that she has kidney disease. She was in the hospital for 3 days a month ago. The vet gave me an antibiotic and a supplement; she finished the course of treatment and now she’s eating quite well.  I’m feeding her a blend of the prescription diet wet food and beef broth and cooked chicken liver, and she loves it. Can you suggest what would be the best food to give her?

~Blessu Read more

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