Help for bored cats

Indoor cats like me can't help getting bored - unless, of course, our humans work at  home. (If so we can play with their keyboards and their mouse - so called but not as good as a real one!).

My human got me a Funboard - so that I can spend some time poking food out of it. There's a video at the end of this post showing how I work it.

I would really like a live mouse that I could chase round the house then grab and kill - just like cats do. But this is better than nothing. It won't work for a big cat like a Maine coon because the openings are too small for big paws, but it works for me, an average size cat.

It can be put in the dishwasher and wet food could be put in those little round bowls. Get your human to give you one. If your human can't afford one, get some home-made ideas from my Celia's website here. You could make a cardboard version of your own using old lavatory rolls.

 

Good news for cats world domination....

The human brain is getting smaller. They are beginning to lose their capacity to out-think animals. Read the scientific details here. This is very good news.

Our world take-over will speed up as their thinking capacity shrinks. Purrsonally I have seen signs of a shrinking brain in my human already.

• She's getting testy, unable to tolerate frustration. Some felines wonder if this is due to the heat wave. I think it is due to brain shrinkage.
•  She is much less energetic than she used to be. It could be cognitive dysfunction of the elderly but it also could be brain shrinkage of her species.
• She is getting more difficult to train even though I follow the excellent manual One Hundred Ways for a Cat to Train its Human. 
• Her general capacity to anticipate and fulfil my demands is falling away.

These, of course, are the unpleasant signs of human brain shrinkage but in the long view it must be a good things. 

Roll on the day when we cats take over completely.

Humans and a safe haven

 Why do humans insist on leaving their territory. They call it a "holiday" or a "vacation." They move out of their proper place and roam far afield - for no very good reason.

No sensible cat would do this. We cats live in our own habitual areas - a core territory with a safe den and then a hunting range. 

The hunting ranges is where we go about, even if we don't hunt. We patrol it. We make sure nothing has changed and, if it has, we sniff carefully and sometimes mark it with urine as a kind of post-it note to ourselves to double check and as a message to other cats if  they share our range.

If we are indoor-only cats, then this distinction between the core territory and the hunting range is not so clear. Even so we appreciate a safe haven area, like the core den, where we can retreat if there are upsets or changes within the house.

My core territory is on the bed of my human. That's where I go if there are strangers in the house. I feel safe there. And, if things go really bad like shouting or building work in the house, I can always go under the bed, itself. 

My friend Percy has his safe haven on the top shelf of the wardrobe! He feels safe high up.

Why don't humans have the same sense? They go hunting for food or for work outside the home, but why go away for a whole two weeks roaming far afield?

Humans really are a strange species.

Techie help for lost cats

 At last... we cats are getting the same techie help as dogs. A microchip for all of us.

The law is changing in the UK and after June next year all pet cats must be microchipped by law. Why? So that if they get lost they can be more easily reunited with their humans.

Of course, I am microchipped. So is Jimmy, whose photo I used at the top of this blog. All responsible humans give us cats a microchip.

But there are still unthinking or old fashioned humans who don't bother to do this. And there are some humans that save a little bit of money by not doing it.

What will happen? Well, the unthinking humans may now be reminded by a vet to do this.

The truly unsatisfactory humans, the ones that don't bother to neuter us, still will not bother. But at least they will be liable for a fine.

It will make life easier for rescue shelters. A quick check for the chip... Easy. Cats with responsible human pets go home. 

Cats without responsible owners can be adopt better human that make better pets.

Black is beautiful. And funny.

 Just some funny black cat photos of my uncle George, the founder of this column, to celebrate Black Cat Day last week and to commemorate his memory.