Household Hazards and Your Feline Friends

Some random useful information:

Perdue Veterinary School lists plants that are toxic to animals, and especially pets. Click on each link for the plant photo, description, symptoms, first aid and more.

See my basic article called How NOT to Poison Your Cat for some general ideas on cat proofing — hint: it is a a lot like toddler-proofing your home — and for the same reasons! :-)

One of our cats was chewing on an electrical cord. Not good. It turns out her gums were bothering her. Nipped in the bud so to speak. More intensive at home dental care was begun.

With the holidays coming:

Keep wrapping paper, ribbon, scissors and tape away from cats. Clean up any bits leftover from wrapping gifts. Your cat may try to eat some of it!

No traditional holiday plants are safe for cats!!!
If you can reach the plant, so can your cat.

If you use a wood or pellet stove as many of our neighbors do, protect your cats from getting burned paws or singed fur.

Some Possibilities:

  • Keep your cats out of the room the stove is in
  • Don’t use your the stove
  • Clicker train your cats to avoid the area
  • Buy tall fireplace safe un-tippable three wall barriers to keep your cats at least 2 feet from the stove

None of these is actually foolproof, except not using the stove. Jennifur was taught to avoid the wood stove. Two winters ago, after one of her more exuberant mad dashes around the family room, we smelled singed fur. Haven’t used our wood stove since.

A Little Too Much Cat to Love :-)

At their annual checkup we found that both Charger and Agile are overweight. We take them in to our vet at the same time, as this saves us one office visit basic fee. When you have as many cats as we do, saving money in this way can be a Good Thing.

We are giving them high protein canned food to replace some of the kibble they eat (similar to what Panther is getting). Charger is a large male Bengal at 19 lb 12 oz. Agile is a broad chested formerly feral feline at 15 lbs. Our goal for the next two years is to get them down to about 18 lbs and 13 lbs respectively. So, much more exercise, combined with having to jump up to platforms for smaller quantities of food is in store for both cats.

Books for Cat Lovers

For some reason, a lot of our friends like cats, too. So I was recently browsing for gift ideas and thought I would share a few of the more unusual cat-related books I found.

The Sneeze-Free Cat Owner: Allergy Management & Breed Selection for the Allergic Cat Lover

100 Cats Who Changed Civilization: History’s Most Influential Felines

101 Best Businesses for Pet Lovers


Angel Cats: Divine Messengers of Comfort

The Feline Mystique: On the Mysterious Connection Between Women and Cats

More Resources for Traveling with Your Cat (or Dog!)

For travel by car, RV, motor home or plane in the U.S. with your dog or cat:

Traveling With Your Pet, 9th Edition: The AAA Pet Book

The Pet Travel and Fun Authority of Best-of-State Places to Play, Stay & Have Fun Along the Way: 35,000+ Accommodations, Pet Sitters, Kennels, Dog Parks … Tons-of-Pet Fun & More Guide! 12th Edition


The Portable petswelcome.com: The Complete Guide to Traveling with Your Pet

10-Minute Tech, Volume 3: Over 600 All New Time and Money Saving Ideas from Fellow RVers has a number of handy pet specific tips in their “In Camp” section

For Boaters:
Cruising With Your Four-Footed Friends: The Basics of Travel with Your Cat or Dog

First Aid at Home or on the Road:
Pet First Aid: Cats and Dogs by the American Red Cross

The First Aid Companion for Dogs & Cats (Prevention Pets) Rodale Press

Cat Food — Automated Feeders

There are numerous advantages to having an automatic feeder

  • less anxious or annoyed cats (and dogs)
  • regulated portioned feeding can help prevent or reverse obesity (versus free feeding out of a bowl)
  • feeding times can be specified with some models
  • your cat can be fed without you being there — good for short trips away from home or long days at work

A few disadvantages:

  • you have to keep it very clean
  • prevent ants or other insects from inhabiting the feeder
  • set the times correctly
  • with most models it dispenses only enough to be feeding one or two pets
  • each model presents varying degrees of difficulty being programmed — some are less intuitive than others

Notable for techies in Korea and Japan: Korean mobile operator SK Telecom has created a way to feed your pet using their cell phone feature. I wonder when someone will bring capability to the US…

Then there is the futuristic looking coffee maker sized automated and programmable Perfect PetFeeder is available in the US — for about $499.00US

Or the gravity fed elevated wheeled food or watering stations by Critter Cooler. For about $95.00US.

Having said all that, here are a few less costly models I have seen that you might want to consider:

Petmate’s Bistro Electronic Portion Control automatic feeder

Synchronic’s Lentek PD06G 6 Day Automatic Feeder

Radio Systems’ Petsafe PF5-11 5-Meal Electronic Pet Feeder

Blitz’ 11899 25lb Automatic Feeder

Plus there are a large number of gravity fed kibble feeders by Petmate that you can find in almost any pet store.

For any of these feeders look at:

  • the sturdiness of the construction
  • warranty
  • ease of cleaning
  • ease of emptying and refilling
  • food capacity
  • will it hold and dispense the type of food your cat likes to eat
  • anticipate a trial period for any new feeder
  • be sure the construction does not allow an industrious cat from pawing out additional kibble, or breaking the mechanism!
  • if you return the feeder, let the seller (and manufacturer!) know what went wrong — the pet food industry is a billion dollar market — the best way to bring about change is to provide consumer feedback!