We've Moved!

Be patient while I make the page pretty, but we've officially moved back to the blakkatz.com web site.

Wet Cats

Who says cats don't like rain? If there's something interesting outside, it doesn't matter if it's raining or not. This morning it was raining very lightly, just a bit more than a heavy mist. Nettie still went along for our walk. Ted considered it, but he stayed up on top of a round hay bale under a heavy bush until we got back. These cats just want to interact with their environment as much as possible, rain or not.

Fleas and ticks and worms oh my!

It's funny how things happen. I meant to ask one of my friends who is more up on various drugs than I am if there were any new drugs out for flea and tick prevention on dogs and cats. I had had read on various mailing lists that fleas and ticks were becoming resistant to the brands of flea and tick preventatives that are available. Last night I saw on television a commercial for ProMeris, a new flea and tick preventative. ProMeris uses metaflumizone (a compound that fleas have not become resistant to [yet]) to kill fleas and Amitraz (not a new compound, but previously only available as a collar or dip) to kill ticks.

The tick medicine is not available in the cat product. It's rather interesting that even though there are a lot of ticks in my area and my cats do go outside, I've never seen a tick attached to a cat. We haven't had to deal with fleas in several years now. That's all a very good thing.

And talk about timing, I saw on a mailing list today that there's now a new drug for worming livestock because worms have become resistant to the three major classes of wormers normally used. Good thing we have scientists who are researching new chemicals to kill worms, fleas and ticks.

You have to wonder what the long-lasting effect of all these chemicals is going to be. It seems a much more viable approach to work with the underlying health of the animal, to make it more resistant to worms and parasites than to douse it with chemical after chemical after chemical. Parasites are not going to go away, no matter how many new chemicals are developed.

Upper Respiratory Infections

Sorry it's been so long since I've written. As usual, been busy with the dogs.

Interestingly, an upper respiratory infection ("URI") went through my young cats recently. The older cats (all my purebreds) didn't get sick, but all the young (20 month old or so) cats did. I cannot recall who started it, but, except for one, they all expressed pretty much the same symptoms namely: sneezing with a good amount of mucus.

I know most people would have had the cats at a vet's office, but I look at URIs as a cold. They are viral in nature and antibiotics are of no use in viral infections. That doesn't stop most veterinarians from putting kittens and cats with URIs on antibiotics. Often the antibiotics suppress the symptoms and the cat seems better, until its off the antibiotics, then the symptoms come back, usually worst. I get a lot of e-mails from people with cats who have been suffering with URI symptoms for weeks, months and even years. The cats simply are not healthy enough to right themselves. They go through course after course of antibiotic with no lasting relief.

One of my black cats is still a bit sick. Her symptoms went from the nose into her chest, which is not a good direction for them to go. They went from the nose to a more vital organ, the lungs. She was hawking up a good amount of cream-colored mucus, wasn't eating well and seemed quite miserable so I chose a homeopathic remedy based on her symptoms, which seemed to work, but failed. The indicator for her next remedy was that the mucus she was coughing up was thick and stringy and she was having a hard time expelling it. This remedy seems to have done the trick. A day or so after I gave the remedy she was up and about looking for food. She's still sneezing and coughing a bit, but she's much better.

Who knows why this happened. No new cats have come into my household. When I brought the slew of kittens and cats that I rescued from a local flea market into the house almost two years ago now, that triggered URIs in my older cats. Stress often triggers URIs in susceptible cats. My memory is that none of the kittens or cats coming in got sick or if they did, it was so mild that I didn't have to address it. What triggered it this time will be a mystery, but it was good to see that their vital forces were strong enough to express the symptoms of acute illness and then recover, all except one, without any intervention on my part.

What do I mean by "their vital forces being strong enough to express the symptoms of acute illness and then recover?" Acute illness, such as colds, stomach upsets, etc. are a part of life. As of now, there is no cure for the common cold or even the flu, despite the stupid vaccinations they try to get you to get every fall. The same goes for cats. While they vaccinate cats for various types of URIs, many cats still get sick. A healthy individual (yes, I do mean healthy) may get sick with the cold or the flu, but after a few days of feeling miserable, they do get better. Some people never get sick and that could mean that they have a strong immune system, but it also could mean that their vital force is so compromised that they cannot express symptoms of acute disease. Expression of symptoms of acute disease is a sigh of health, unless the individual is not able to right itself in a reasonable amount of time.

I have two solid black cats that I rescued named Zoe and Zest. They are sisters and I cannot tell them apart. I suppose I'm going to have to figure out a way to do so so I can keep an eye on the one that needed the assistance of homeopathy to recover from her URI. She may need further attention down the road so that she may attain a higher level of health.

It is going to be a lovely weekend, the grass is getting green. Maybe I can get my act together and get some pictures of the rotten beasts.

Until later ...

Finicky Eaters

It is most important not to let your cat dictate what you are going to feed him for supper. This is a photo of Blakkatz Mo Better Blues who now lives in Texas. He just finished off a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Doesn't he look satisfied?

Rescuing Frogs

Rescuing frogs in February doesn't seem right. The cats catch them and bring them in. During the warmer months I find a dead or live frog in the house several times a week. Yesterday the temperatures were in the mid 70's, they'll be the same today but there are severe thunderstorms in the forecast for this afternoon. I don't like to see such extremes in the weather and I pray that we don't have a summer like last summer.

I've been thinking about the posts on the Border Collie Boards that I mentioned yesterday in the Puppy Blog. I am aware that many dogs and cats will readily seek out and consume vegetables and fruit. Does that mean that these things are good for them? I'm sure in some instances they derive some benefit from vegetables or fruit, but digestion, especially if they are raw, is difficult for the dog and virtually impossible for cats. Dogs are scavengers and much more flexible in their digestive processes than cats who are obligate carnivores.

Was domestication of the dog a good thing for the dog? Man can live without dogs, we may not want to, but we can. Most dogs cannot live without man. Some will revert back to a feral state, but they do not do as well as cats in that situation.

Because domestication of the dog occurred when their ancestors gradually became more accustomed to the presence of humans while raiding the trash, did this make the dog more predisposed to eat anything it can get its mouth on? It's quite likely. Dogs still raid trash, but it is not a generally accepted practice today. Trash is much harder to get at with the invention of trash cans.

Cats became domesticated when they moved closer to humans to hunt the rodents consuming grains humans harvested. Did the method of domestication keep the cat closer its carnivorous nature than the dog? Probably.

Something to think about though, the "trash" that early humans accumulated is very different from the trash some people feed to their dogs and cats today. What is left-over from human consumption in this age is far less nutritious than it may have been when wild wolves were moving closer to humans. The normal diet of many humans today is far less than ideal with all the fried food, highly processed grains and refined sugar. Remnants of all this crap often goes into commercial pet food.

Back when I was actively breeding and showing cats I was quite vocal on cat-related mailing lists. It got me in a lot of trouble and all in all was a miserable existence. I find myself doing the same things now on Border Collie-related boards. I need to put a stop to that as I don't want to go down that road again. I have to play nice in order to fit in. This doesn't sit well with me as I am, by nature, an activist. In order to be a successful activist, you need to have thick skin. I am too sensitive to be an activist. Must keep mouth shut.

Until later ...

Flea Market Kitties

I got an e-mail last night from an individual telling me how much she enjoyed NRN. She reminded me of the e-mail that I received back when I rescued the eleven kittens and cats from a local flea market. The e-mail accused me of being irresponsible and that I likely wouldn't spay or neuter the kittens and cats and would add to the population of stray cats, etc. Well, I proved that person wrong as all of the kittens and cats were spayed and neutered before they could reproduce.

The Internet is a wonderful place, usually, but it can also be a cesspit where individual can say exactly what they want without repercussion. Some people have too much time on their hands such that they spend much of their day haunting the Internet, mailing lists, etc. looking for trouble. I'd like to take a few of those people and put them to work cleaning rabbits or clearing fence line. They need a job.

Would you kill for your cat?

Would you be willing to raise rodents or small birds for your cat and kill them prior to feeding them? I have done so in the past, and it's hard. Sure, it is the absolute perfect food you can feed your cat, especially if you feed the animals you raise a species-appropriate diet, but killing animals can be difficult for most people. Of course, everything you buy in the grocery store or butcher has been killed by someone, but it's easy to forget about that when you see it in the display case all nicely cut up and packaged.

I get whole rabbits from a breeder that I clean and feed to my cats and dogs. Handling rabbits who have been killed by a blow to the head can be gruesome, to say the least. I am not sure I could do the killing myself. I have raised and killed chickens in the past and refuse to do it now. It isn't worth it. I hate to see my cats bring in live animals and torture them to death, but that's what cats do and I usually do not interfere.

The reason for this post is due to an e-mail I got from a woman in Canada. She was throwing out ideas for raising food for her single cat such as chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs. I wrote back asking if she was really going to be able to kill guinea pigs. She got extremely upset with me for asking. Guinea pigs are rodents like rabbits and the general public has no problem with killing and eating rabbits, but guinea pigs are, in this country, usually thought of as pets.

It is unfortunate that sourcing meat from animals who are raised in a humane manner and fed species-appropriate food is so difficult for many people, myself included. I am glad I have the supplier of rabbits. I get a lot of venison during hunting season. This year I'll have a steady supply of lamb to feed my animals. I'll have to process the lamb, but I won't have to kill them. I don't care to feed my cats and dogs meat from factory-farmed animals, but sometimes, I have no choice. It's still far superior to anything they'd get in a can or bag.

Cat won't eat meat

My description of the Bombay cat at cats.about.com often brings people to me asking if their cat is a Bombay or part Bombay. Yesterday I received an e-mail from a woman who has a Bombay who is scratching his hair off. Her veterinarian has given him numerous steroid shots, done allergy testing (he's allergic to rice, oats and, this is a new one on me, human dander, the cat is allergic to the caregiver). The woman has tried the numerous "special forumlas" such as duck and pea, which helped for a while, then the itching startd again. She wondered if this was a problem common in Bombay cats.

I suggested that she try Wysong all-meat canned food for a few weeks and see if that makes a difference.

She wrote back saying her cat won't eat meat. She also told me that her vet is suggesting a dermatologist vet and asked if there any real answer or just trial and error. I wrote back and told her yes, there was a real answer: her cat is an obligate carnivore and is not designed to eat plant matter. If she continues on the path that she is now with him, the dry food, steriods, etc. will ultimately kill him.

Bloody pet food companies!

I'm helping a woman from the UK with a cat who is experiencing irritable bowel disease symptoms. When I asked what she was feeding the cat, she told me Nature's Menu, 70% meat. I thought to myself, hmmmm, never heard of it, but it may be something that I can suggest to other people.

Nature's Menu is a UK company. Their cat food comes in pouches (warning bells going off at that). I had to do a lot of digging to find the ingredients which are: "Chicken min 43% turkey min 28% minerals, derivatives of veg, origin various sugars." Okay, that tells me a lot, "derivatives of veg?" "origin various sugars?" What the heck does that mean? That the cat, while eating this food, still has diarrhea tells me there's something in the cat food that is not agreeing with him, but with such a cryptic list of ingredients, I can't tell what. I also can't tell whether it's raw food or cooked food given the web site states the food comes from "naturally balanced raw materials."

Real food does not come in pouches.

Crazy Cats!

This morning I was in the back pastures with a friend of mine working our Border Collies on sheep. Now, you'd think certain cats would know enough to stay out of the way of sheep moving off Border Collies. Not Ted and Nettie. Both of them were out there with us. You've heard of running with the bulls? Well Nettie and Ted run with sheep. Ding bats! The sheep are quite curious about the cats and when they are out grazing and come upon a cat, they check out the strange creature who isn't a sheep. One day, that would make for some very nice photographs.

One of the dogs we were working was dragging a long line and that provided a great source of entertainment for both Ted and Nettie. I wish I could have got a video of it, dog chasing (well, not really chasing, but you get the idea) sheep and cat chasing dog (well, not really chasing the dog, chasing the line attached to the dog). It was quite amusing!

Puppy Growth Patterns

I was just reading my friend Helene's Blog wherein she writes about puppy growth patterns. Helene has Finn who is a sibling to Fern. Like Helene, I have been very happy with how Fern is growing. She's remained extremely balanced and coordinated her whole life. Like Finn, she hasn't had any growth spurts and still looks like a puppy. When I compare her to her sister Pyro who is kibble fed, I see a huge difference in their movement and how they have grown. Pyro is almost as tall as Gel (who is almost 23" tall). Pyro's caregiver has told me on numerous occasions he thinks she no longer looks like a puppy, which I agree with.

I noticed a similar pattern in my purebred cats when I was breeding and showing them. As kittens, my raw-weaned cats did very well in the show ring. Once they hit was the age the Cat Fanciers' Association considered "adult": eight months old, they lost ground to their kibble-fed competition. My cats still looked like kittens at eight months old (which I think they should have). While I know they weighed more than the cats of the same age, they didn't look as full, they were much, much leaner, which hurt them. If I was working with a breed that was supposed to be lean and sleak, like an Oriental Shorthair, I'd probably do very well, but American Shorthairs are supposed to be fuller.

When I was showing cats I used to brag that I didn't need to bathe my cats prior to a show and I didn't. I could just clip their nails, put them in a carrier and off I'd go. It's the same with my dogs, I rarely have to bathe them, their coats are soft, shiny and they smell good. Pyro is going to stay with me for the weekend next week. It will be interesting to see if I notice an odor to her given that she's fed kibble. While she's with me, I won't feed her kibble, her caregivers know that. Luckily, she's able to continue to digest raw meat even though she's fed kibble on a regular basis.

Ted

Ted is one of the flea market kitties and while there are times he really aggravates me, in general, he's terribly entertaining. This morning I went out into the back fields with the two dogs and the sheep to work Gel for a bit before I went to work. Ted went along with us. Those poor sheep, not only do they have to move when Gel asks them to, they need to avoid the puppy (who is more afraid of them than they are of her) and whatever cat chooses to get in their way. Yes, the sheep will run from a cat.

One of Ted's favorite hang-out places is in the duck pen. I imagine he samples their food (carbo junky!) but he's also there in an attempt to catch one of the birds who fly in for the duck food. I don't know if he's been successful or not, but he tries. He also will sometimes chase the ducks. Ted is a terror, no doubt about that.

Last night, Fern (the puppy) learned a new trick: take a flying leap and land on Mom's lap while she's sitting on the couch. This is not a trick that I'm going to support as dogs are not allowed on the furniture unless invited. The first time she jumped in my lap, I let her stay up there for a while. Ted was lying next to me at the time. Fern will not let the opportunity to mess with a cat pass her by, so she started in on Ted. Of all the cats, Ted can handle Fern the best. When he's had enough of her, he grabs hold of her head with his two paws and bites her nose or ears until she cries uncle.

Poor Fern, Gel rarely plays with her so she's forced to play cat games. She's going to grow up into a very confused creature: am I a dog or a cat?

I don't know how anyone lives without the marvelous entertainment I receive on a daily basis.

I broke down and put Raising Cats Naturally back up on Amazon. The book gets good exposure on Amazon so I guess it's worth the fee that Amazon takes off every sale. I offer it for sale as a reseller rather than allowing it to be sold directly through Amazon because Amazon had the bad habit of loosing any books I shipped to them.

Rabbits

I was thinking this morning, early, before I even got out of bed, that I've been skinning, gutting, cutting up and grinding whole rabbits for about ten years now. Agh! I must be some kind of nut to be doing this ... well, maybe not, but it is a lot of work.

I've become very good at it. A while ago, the man who supplies my rabbits came to my house for a rabbit cleaning session. He had some rabbits that he wanted to clean, debone and then grind (with my grinder) for himself. He started to clean his rabbits and I cleaned mine. He did his in the conventional manner: hanging them up by the rear feet and removing the skin using a skinning knife.

Me, I do it much quicker. He was still cleaning his first rabbit when I already had two done. He quickly learned my method.

At least I am no longer picking up dead deer on the side of the road. I connected with the owner of a local game processing outfit and for a couple of cases of Coors Light, I get tons (and tons!) of venison scraps and all the bones I could ever want.

It sure beats grocery-store-bought meat, which I rarely feed to my cats these days.

It's all for the love of my cats (and dogs) that I do this.

Old NRN Posts

I tried to pull my old NRN posts into Blogger, but it was just too much work. If you want to read old NRN posts, go to the NRN Section of my Blakkatz web site and just keep going backwards.

Coming Soon

I wrote Raising Cats Naturally using a Dell Inspiron 3800 notebook computer. At that time, at about six or seven pounds, it was one of the lightest notebook computers available. It came loaded with Windows 98 so that gives you an idea of how long ago I bought it. I also had another Inspiron which was very heavy that I used as a desktop computer. I carried the lighter notebook around with me to and from work and to libraries on the weekends while I was writing Raising Cats Naturally.

When I moved to North Carolina, that notebook was stolen. Luckily, the contents of my book were contained on the 3800 so I didn't loose it. Unluckily, a lot of the artwork that I planned to use for the book were on the other Inspiron.

I digress here.

I recently sold the 3800 as a Christmas present for a thirteen-year-old girl. I hope she gets as much use out of it as I did. Prior to selling it, I took all the old files and e-mail off the computer. I recently bought a Dell Latitude D400 which weighs about four pounds. I carry that with me to and from work: why? Just because I guess. There was a lot of old e-mails on the 3800 from back when I moderated the Natural Cat List which I put on to the D400 for safekeeping. I thought, in my free time (ha!) I might post some of those old e-mails as the questions asked, discussions, etc. were interesting.

Off to shower, iron my monkey clothes and head to work.

Vegetarians and feeding a raw diet

I got an e-mail this morning from a woman who has been a vegetarian for 30 years. She went from feeding commercial crap food (Science Diet, etc.) to her cat to Wellness canned. She see a difference in the cat's energy and appearance, but she noticed that his stool smelled very strong.

While I usually recommend Wellness canned food to people who cannot or will not for whatever reason feed a raw diet. It doesn't surprise me, however, that the stool of a cat consuming this food has a strong odor. There's a lot of ingredients in Wellness canned which are unnecessary for an obligate carnivore. Unfortunate, but true.

Wysong makes an all-meat canned food which may be a better option, but it needs to be supplemented. Wysong recommends their Call of the Wild powdered supplement, but with that, you add back in a lot of extra crap.

There are not a lot of options. I won't recommend a commercially prepared raw meat product. I feel that feeding a raw meat diet that was prepared by a company has the potential to cause illness. You just don't know what's in it. Cooking destroys most of the potential contaminants in meat.

I can understand, however, if a vegetarian cannot bring herself to prepare a raw meat diet. There was a time I could not, but I've become much more relaxed in my views and opinions. At least I think I have.

Compliments and Good Reports

I get e-mails from people quite frequently asking questions about their cats, well really, asking for help with their cats' health problems. Sometimes I can help, unfortunately, often, I cannot. I love it when my advice helps the caregiver and the cat and when they e-mail me back and let me know of the good ending.

I received this e-mail today:

Hi Michelle,

You emailed me to answer some questions awhile back about my cat who had had 2 blocked urinary episodes. He's been on canned food plus a little added water since then (late Oct) and knock on wood is doing OK so far. A lot more pee which is good.

I had some time to really sit down and read through your book over the holidays (I have 4 young kids so reading doesn't always happen when I want it to!) and I just wanted to tell you it is EXCELLENT. It's straightforward, to the point, full of relevant information, and you obviously really know your stuff.

My sister, who raises grass fed beef, was amazed you knew the difference in makeup between conventionally raised beef and grass fed - not too many people are up on that.

Anyway, my copy is going back to the library to day so I ordered your book, this is a reference I will always want on my bookshelf. I will keep you posted on how my cat does - keep your fingers crossed!

Karen Pedersen

I was pleasantly surprised to discover my book made it to the shelves of a public library! I was concerned in October and November when my book sales seemed off. It isn't about the royalty payments, although the extra money helps feed my cats, I was concerned that people were no longer interested in natural cat care. Right after the pet food scare, my sales went way up. I wonder how many people are actually following the diet or still feeding a raw diet to their cats. I hope all of them.

Belated Happy New Year

This is the first time I've posted to NRN in quite a few months. Sorry about that. I hope you are reading my Spellcast Border Collie
Blog which I do update almost daily. I believe if there was something you go do with purebred cats other than conformation showing, I might still be breeding cats, but I believe breeding for a particular look (a "standard") is to the detriment of the animal.

All of the cats are doing well. As I write this, I'm home sick with the flu. It's quite cold outside, about 30 degrees with a wind chill. I have a kerosene heater going and a pile of cats next to me on the couch. Very, very cozy.

A friend asked me if I was going to rewrite Raising Cats Naturally. I've thought about it, but in general, the information contained in the book is still solid and accurate. I'd like to expand on the vaccination section, but other than that, I don't know how much I change about the book.

This past weekend I got two separate e-mails from people with older cats who were quite ill asking for my help. One had already started administering homeopathic remedies and herbs based on Pitcairn's book. I used to try to help these people, but for the most part, I don't any more. I don't know that they can be helped. It is unfortunate that a raw diet and homeopathy are considered when all else has failed: as a last resort. A properly balanced raw diet is a wonderful tool, but it is not a cure-all. Nothing is. I felt bad saying I couldn't help, but I can't.