Your Cat's Tail

Your cat has many emotional temperaments that he shows in his tail movements. I've put up a long-overdue page about cat tail expressions and I hope you will come take a look.

Cats have many ways of using their tails, and they (the tails) show emotional state, interest, and a lot of what a cat may be thinking.  If you can "read" your cat's tail expressions, you stand a much better chance of understanding your cat.

New Parasite Map Available

The Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) has redesigned its website for pet owners and now features a set of maps you can check for information on parasite prevalence in a specific area.

If you're only interested in heartworm disease, you can select your state from a drop-down menu on the right side of the home page to see the infection risk for your state. If you'd like more extensive information, you can view the entire U.S. map.

If you choose the second option, you can find out the risk for several different diseases for dogs and cats individually, by state. The maps include infection rates for:

        * Tick borne diseases (Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis)
        * Intestinal parasites (roundworm, hookworm and whipworm)
        * Heartworm

You can also click on a state and see infection rates for individual counties, then hover your mouse over a county to see its name.

According to Dr. Christopher Carpenter, executive director of CAPC, "Our unique parasite prevalence maps provide localized statistics about diseases that affect dogs and cats in consumers' backyards, and we update them monthly."

Courtesy of Dr Becker

When We Get New Cats...

When we get new cats, whether planned or by rescuing them, we have a responsibility to the new cats to care for them, and to our existing kitties so that they know they are not being replaced.

Once these responsibilities are met, and the new cats are calmed down, comfortable and on a similar schedule, then introductions can be made. One nose at a time to another nose. Supervised only, and with protection for each cat. This should be done in neutral territory - not near food bowls or litter boxes. Once kitties have started growling and hissing, separate them and give everyone some time out to calm down. Repeat as necessary.

If a new cat is feral and the existing cats are not, then you have a duty to tame that cat or release it. It should be spayed or neutered before release. If you choose to tame it, I suggest you come to the website for details on how to tame a feral cat. That will ensure that your new cat learns to trust humans and won't try to eat your budgie or your house plants.

Our existing kitties will best be served by play sessions. These let our cats know that we love and value them. I suggest a good, rousing play session of at least 15 minutes, twice a day. Use toys on strings. sticks, or balls. Once your bond is renewed, you can also use the play therapy to help the cats adjust to each other. Play therapy is the best technique to help cats bond.

Give your cat some catnip. However, do not  give catnip to your combined kitty family for at least a week or two after introductions. They need to learn to trust each other before you introduce that element. So, use play therapy for two weeks, then sprinkle catnip around for them. The bonds should be cemented after that.

WooHoo! Site Update is DONE!

It took a month. It took going over things two and three times. I cut, pasted, filled in, wrote pages, checked all the links, uploaded photos - and it's DONE! The navigation is all new, the look and feel is no longer green, but "Rebel Prince," my winking cat, is still there.

http://bit.ly/KXhRxX

The Website is Done! WooHoo! 

Please visit, check it all out and have a good time!
Morgen

Web Work

I've been working on the website. Every day, I'm building and updating the pages. I'm averaging about 8 pages a day. It's slow going, but the results are a clean website, with no duplicated content and good links.

All the products are being re-evaluated, and the referral sites are being checked. Some of the links I've had to other websites are no longer good, and one even got taken over by a webmaster posting konji characters only. So, I've been cleaning up all the stuff.

I'm also removing ads and cleaning the "invisible" code that folks don't see, so maybe the pages will load faster.

I have not yet added any new content, but I have some ideas. I want to expand the "elder cat" area, and post some information I've learned from the diabetic cats in my household. Things about diet, exercise, regularity of meals and routine, that may help others.

I still have to re-organize the navigation. It still looks like a mess, and I have not changed anything there. I'll be changing the linking to use something called a "breadcrumb" link at the bottom of the page. Basically it says that you are "here" and gives you links back the way you got there, one page at a time, or you can jump right to the home page.

Using the breadcrumb link should increase the length of visits, which is something that has needed to improve for a long time.  Folks that come to see one page, then "bounce" to another website hurt the statistics of my site, and that has contributed to the poor performance and decreased traffic from the new Google algorithm. This should fix that.

I'm not updating the RSS feed at all right now. I want all the content to be spidered and listed before I update that.

There was a lot of copying of the website across the internet, and instead of requesting the other webmasters to honor my copyright, I've decided to abandon that and change the content on my site. If the other webmasters get caught with duplicate content, then it's on them.

I'm also taking precautions so that my website is not copied again. That's one of the reasons to not update the RSS feed. I'll have the first listing date in search results, and can "prove" copyright a bit better. I'll also be getting a full copy of my site every 6 months from here on out.

The pdf files that were directly accessed by other websites, the files have been either renamed or just removed permanently.

As for my ebook, it is being reworked and will be released in either Kindle or bound form in a few months. It will no longer be offered free, regardless.  I will probably add a lot to it, including drawings, pictures, and sketches, and extend the content to other areas of cat care.

Benign neglect is NOT the way to run a website, and it's my fault that I've let this happen. So, I'm taking responsibility and fixing the problems. I hope my visitors will like the final result.

Stay tuned. I'll reveal the "new, updated" site in a couple of weeks.

Website Re-Evaluation

I've been re-evaluating the website again. I do this every year, about renewal time. This year, however, Google has played some mean games with their algorhythm, and it's hurt me pretty badly.

My traffic, which is the backbone of any website, has dropped to a small fraction of what it should be. It's down to about 30% of what it was just a few weeks ago. That means it isn't getting found, sales aren't made, and no one is asking for counseling.

 I haven't done much to it, or added anything new, for a while now, so part of it is my fault. The poor thing needs some new content, and I could make folks dig a little deeper for information, instead of laying it all out on one looooong page.

If I re-do the site, those issues will be addressed. I've learned a lot in seven years, including what mistakes I made seven years ago.

There are other issues, and I've been working on them, too. Broken product links, for one. I've also learned who I want to work with and who I don't.

Back in 1998, when I first began playing around on the internet, looking into what are called "monetization models" or ways to make money on the internet, I joined up with a few folks who were making it possible.

I've since found better partners - ones who make it easier for me, not who pay me more, although that's always a nice idea. I've partnered with them, and made some strong ties.

How I get paid is through commissions - like any other sales person.

I buy stuff on the internet, and figure it's kind of nice to get a small discount, in the amount of 2%-5% as a commission, when I buy from my internet partners. Some of my partners are a bit more generous, hoping to stimulate sales, I guess.

It sure helps, but I look at the product and how it is used before I recommend anything. And then I try it myself. If I like a product, I'll tell you and give you a link to get it yourself, if you have a need. That's my way. I don't "gush" over stuff very often. I just tell you how it is and how to use it.

If I don't like it, sometimes you hear about it, but most of the time you don't. If I don't like it, I won't give you a link to it. That's just my way. And if I've had a link to it available, I'll pull the link or re-direct it to a better product, instead. It's just easier to not make you think I love something when I don't.

So, that's been my philosophy for a while now, about the website. Sure, I want to give quality information, timely information, and accurate information. I want to give you referrals to places that enhance your experience with your cat.

It's all about the cats, anyway. It's just nice if the website pays for itself, because hosting a website isn't free, and my time is worth something.

 So, I've been re-evaluating again, and wondering if it's worth continuing. Right now, it's a toss-up. On the one hand, yes, the site is paying for itself, but on the other, I'm not making anything for my time.

And if I'm going to spend time on the website, e-mail, counseling, finding products, posting information and sharing updates and notices, I need to get a little something out of it, too. After all, I have 5 cats to support, and I'm barely making ends meet.

Without the website, I can't make ends meet, and I'll probably lose the house - which means the cats will have to find homes someplace else.


So, I'm giving it a month while I work on it, and then I'll give it 6 months to grow my traffic back. If I don't see a marked improvement, I'm taking it down.

I have other things I can be working on, and I don't need the aggravation and worry.

Suspending e-Zine and Planned Site Overhaul

I'm suspending the e-zine for a while. It turns out that the articles I've been using are not "fresh" and are published elsewhere. I am changing the source of articles, and will be taking the time to write fresh articles myself. I've tried to bring in articles that had the same theme by using an article service, but it seems that the articles are published and then re-published over and over. That is not what I want to give my readers. I want fresh articles and information by quality writers and cat experts.

I have a few weeks coming up where my time is not as committed, and I will be writing articles and re-working the website. My hosting company has undergone a major interface upgrade, which adds a lot of functionality to the site if I choose to use it. I have not done much during this time except wait and watch, since I've been so time-committed.

However, with my upcoming "free time" I will include some of the upgrades in a site overhaul. As a result, I'm looking for original photos, with your permission to publish them, and comments from readers.

This is an important time for For the Love of Cats, and your input is needed.

If you are willing to contribute an article about cats, please send it by commenting with your e-mail address. Remember that any submitted article must reflect a love of cats, and if you are expert in some aspect, please include that.

I am sending this same article to my current subscribers, so please don't unsubscribe if you subscribe to the ezine and the blog. It may seem redundant, but I want to be sure that all my readers get this information, and not everyone subscribes to the ezine.

I Surrender!

I tried a cat food for my cats with diabetes, and I'm VERY unhappy with the results, after 2 bags of food. I even signed up for their "bottomless bowl" service, and had them set it up for 3 weeks, which was a closer interval than their website offered. At $40 a bag, I'm very unhappy with the food.

Firstly, my cats are always interested in what I put in their bowls. It doesn't matter which bowl, either. If I put something in a cat food bowl, all of them come to check it out. Not so with this stuff. They could care less. They truly only eat it because there is nothing else available.

Second, it gave everyone gas. The methane in the house is so strong, that if someone smokes near the house - say on the porch - I'm afraid the place will blow. It's truly bad. None of the cats can sit on my lap for long without getting pushed off. This damages the relationship with the cats and myself. And they are pushing each other away, too. Even they hate the smell!

Thirdly, there is a lot of diarrhea. The poop is not well formed, but is soft, instead. It looks like poop, not puddles, and it stinks to high-heaven! MAN! Each time a cat uses the litter box, the entire house smells for a while. If one of them runs away and doesn't cover it, then the smell stays around until I go cover it. This means that either I have to get self-cleaning boxes (three of them) or I go cover the poop in the box. I cover the poop.

Fourth, since there is SO much poop (twice as much as before) I am cleaning the litter boxes more often. This isn't such a bad thing, since the litter actually lasts longer when I pull the urine faster, but it does seem to be more work for me. The cats are really having trouble with all the clumps in the box, which never seemed to be such an issue before.

Fifth, the size of the food bag is a mere 8 pounds. For the price, I can get a 16 pound bag of another food and save $8. That food has no vegetables, grains, fillers or other stuff, either! And, I don't have to have a product shipped, but can go get it at the store here in town. That saves greenhouse gases, since I already pass the store that carries it twice a week on my way to and from school.

So, I'm quitting the cat food and I won't be "promoting" or "selling" it anymore. That's another thing. They came to me, asking me to try the food and to promote it to my readers. It seemed like good food, in smaller doses. But I have NEVER received a marketing report, or sales journal, so I don't know if any of my readers ever purchased it. Consequently, I don't know if I'm owed commissions or not, and I don't care at this point. While money is money, my cat's health is more important.

I just want nothing else to do with this company. When I question something, I'm not really given a solution. A company like that is like one of the global business shape-shifters of today. They can't be trusted. Yeah, there are laws that say this or that, and legal departments are all over any statement made by anyone at a company - but a question needs a clear answer, not a double-speak answer.

If you have a company with a product you would like me to try, don't be put off by this. Send me a trial or sample and your write-up. I'll give it a try. If I like it, I'll pass that on to my readers. But if your company is all balled up with attorneys and legal-speak, don't come to me. Pet people are pretty straightforward folks. We want clear communication and answers to questions. I try to eliminate all that marketing and legal-speak when I talk with my readers, but sometimes, even I get balled up in it.

And sometimes, it takes a larger test to really see how a company will deal with you. That's what happened here. The cat food is made in the USA, but it isn't good for my cats. Maybe it doesn't have the threat of Chinese ingredients, but it still isn't good for my cats. And my experience with the company is not that good. I will say that every e-mail has gotten a prompt response. But the words are all doublespeak.

Oh well, ENOUGH! I hope my cats have not been done any permanent damage by this food - kidneys and liver and so on. I'll nurse them back to health and toss this food in the garbage.

Vet Programs for Students

The Feds have a program for vets and vet students that is newly available. Check their website for more information. This is for 2012!

http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/default.htm

Cat Doings Around the Web - Ohio, USA

I found an interesting blog from Cleveland, Ohio. Below are some extracted bits...

$1,000 raffle for cats
Caroline's Kids Cat Sanctuary is again raffling $1,000. Tickets at carolines-kids.org are $5 each or six for $25 for the Friday, April 27, drawing at the shelter, 7394 Morley Road, Concord Township. The last $1,000 raffle netted $3,215 for the care of 250 cats. The group also hosts a Polka for Pussycats event from 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday, April 14, at the Kirtlander Party Center, 9270 Chillicothe Road, featuring sideboards, a cake walk, German food and music by Ralph Szubski, the Accordion Man. Tickets are $42; call 440-449-3496.


Cleveland cats
Residents of the Broadway and Slavic Village neighborhoods, ZIP code 44105 in Cleveland, can get owned and stray cats neutered for free through the Public Animal Welfare Society. Call 216-739-0705 to schedule a surgery. Details: 440-442-7297, pawsohio.org.


Feral cats
Euclid Beach Feral Cat Project volunteers in Cleveland's North Collinwood neighborhood have captured more than 640 cats and kittens since April 2009. Most were taken to the Cleveland Animal Protective League for adoption. More than 100 feral cats were vaccinated, neutered and returned to small shelters, where they're fed daily. More volunteers and donations are needed to continue the progress; ebfcp.org.



Cats in Medina County
Save Ohio Strays, based in Wadsworth, offers vaccinated, neutered cats for $9.99. Details: saveohiostrays.org, 440-567-3585.



PetFix
Low-income pet owners and stray-cat caregivers can have dogs and cats neutered by PetFix Northeast Ohio for $30 to $70 each in the PetFix mobile clinic, which visits humane societies, rescue groups and pounds in Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Portage and Trumbull counties. The nonprofit group has neutered nearly 22,000 pets since January 2006. Details: petfixnortheastohio.org, 216-536-0930.

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U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and Rep. Dennis Kucinich continue to prod the Food and Drug Administration to step up its search for toxins in dog treats made in China.

"I'm urging the FDA to expedite this testing, and to complete the 153 tests still pending as soon as possible. I will continue to press the FDA on this issue because Ohio consumers shouldn't have to worry about the safety of their pets' food," Brown said in a news release.

The FDA began testing chicken jerky treats in 2007, after receiving the first reports of sickened dogs. Since then, about 600 dogs have become ill or died of kidney or liver failure after eating treats from China, according to reports submitted to the FDA. The agency has issued three warnings about the treats, but has never ordered a recall because a contaminant has not been identified. "

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Yep, lots of interesting stuff available in Ohio! Does anyone else have stuff from another state?