And since wet food is 75% water, it costs a lot more per ounce of real nutrition, so the same rationale goes here: unless they need wet food for a specific reason, dry will do fine. What with the recession and all, it makes sense to save money on regular purchases (like food) to serve as a cushion in case of unexpected medical bills, or whatever.

Of course, none of this means you shouldn’t buy cans of salmon or fancy treats for your dear cats. Just use them as treats, not everyday meals!

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, an 8-month-old Himalayan showed up at a vet with a racing heartbeat and other signs of nervous distress. The owner’s wife admitted it could have licked from "plates of cocaine" they had put out for their dinner guests.

But along with the cocaine, the cat apparently licked up Valium or one of its sister drugs (known as benzodiazepines, which were found in the cat’s bloodstream as well). The Valium would have had a sedative effect, canceling out some of the cocaine and possibly saving the cat’s life.

The vet gave the owners a good talking-to, but apparently they lucked out on police action this time!

Some of the things our cats say to each other are rather nasty. No wonder cats are renowned for getting into fights!

Luckily, Susan is a regular Dr. Doolittle and is in a position to understand most of this.

The other day, Panther came by the bedroom, where we have Glory behind a steel security gate for everyone’s protection. Susan missed the opening salvo of the exchange, but she did hear Glory call Panther an "unkempt vagabond". Panther drew himself up with as much dignity as he could muster in such circumstances, said to Glory, "Well, your breath smells bad", and stalked away.

After Susan told me what the to-do was about, I straightened Glory out a bit, reminding her that Panther was quite a well-groomed gentleman, even if he was (and he was!) formerly a wandering cat. I didn’t remind her that her breath does smell bad, courtesy of some periodontal problems that we’ve been working on with her.

I don’t know what set Glory off, but she’s not the only one to exhibit bad manners in conversation. A few weeks ago, Glory went to the vet because she had been under the weather, who told us that she should put on some weight (she was around 6 1/2 pounds at the time, and although she is quite petite, that is still too light). After we brought her home, I was carrying her through the kitchen past Jennifur, who said something that suddenly got Glory extremely agitated. I asked Susan what had happened, and she advised me to bring Glory into the bedroom.

After I had done that and came back out, I found Susan trying to stop herself from laughing out loud. She whispered at me, as though Glory shouldn’t hear and get riled up again: "Jennifur called Glory a ‘sickly pipsqueak’"!

(Anyone who doubts that Susan actually hears the cats talking like this should reflect on the fact that Susan never uses words or phrases like "unkempt vagabond" and "sickly pipsqueak". At least, I’ve never heard her talk like that, but then I’ve only known her for 27 years…)

Even if you have your cats in a fenced enclosure, they can climb, they can dig, and strangers can come by and just open the gate — see the true stories in the article "What To Do If Your Pet Is Lost Or Missing" .

The stray cats we feed have dug places under our fence that they can slip through to come in and eat in safety. OK, we helped a bit by removing rocks near the gate bottoms.

One of our four indoor-only cats, Panther is also known as "Houdini Cat" because he has demonstrated expertise at getting out of our home. He can lift out screens from windows with his claws. He has appeared out of nowhere and streaked out of a sliding door that was open only briefly. In honor of these accomplishments, Panther now has a microchip implanted between his shoulders.

We have trained both Panther and Glory to wear harnesses and walk on a retractable leash (or they trained us to follow them, we’re not entirely sure . This helps them get the "outside time" they want in a safe manner, and forces us to have some exercise too.

There are several methods to identify your pet:

Collar and tags: Any vet or large pet supply store offers individualized imprinted ID tags for sale. Both metal and plastic are offered at stores; we prefer metal as it will not crack or become damaged as easily as plastic. You must imprint a way of contacting your family, should your pet be lost. The downside is that collars can tear off and with them the ID tags.

There are a number of options as to what you can have imprinted:

• Your pet’s name
• Vet’s office phone number and a unique identifying number for your family that is in their records
• Your cellular or home phone number
• If your county keeps registration numbers on pets (ususally only done for dogs), this unique number and the county agency phone number can be on the tag.

Microchip: About the size of a large grain of rice, this is injected by your vet between the shoulder blades. It has a unique number that is read by a low level radio frequency scanner (the chip only emits energy when it is being scanned, so it is considered perfectly safe for your cat’s health). The chip manufacturer (or another pet search entity chosen by the manufacturer) has a list of all microchips sold and which veterinarians (or breeders) bought them. It can be read by a hand-held scanner which animal shelters and many vets own. Once read, the unique number is traced to the vet or breeder, they are called, and the vet or breeder in turn calls you as her records show that microchip is in your cat. Microchips have quickly become the best way of positively identifying your cats, no matter how far they happen to roam; there are many happy stories out there.

Tattoo on inside of hind leg: An older method, in which your vet tattoos a family member’s social security number or AKC (American Kennel Club) number (for dogs). This is mostly useful for "proof of ownership", rather than locating you as the owner, unless your cat happens to be registered with AKC.