There are roughly a bazillion books and Web sites dedicated to our animal companions, and nearly every local newspaper has a weekly columnist. What follows is a purely arbitrary, incomplete and eclectic assortment of the practical and informative, on the one hand, and the amusing (to us) and entertaining, on the other.
General Information
- Mar Vista Animal Medical Center
Pretty much anytime I've done a Web search for anything medical relating to pets, I've ended up here. And here we thought Mar Vista was only a wonderful neighborhood with a great public golf course.
Specific Conditions
Diabetes
- www.petdiabetes.org
- Blood glucose testing: www.petdiabetes.org/ear_prick.htm
- www.felinediabetes.com
Ringworm
- DoctorFungus: www.doctorfungus.org/mycoses/veteri/ringworm_cats.htm
- Mar Vista Animal Hospital - Ringworm FAQ: www.marvistavet.com/html/body_ringworm.html
- Feline Advisory Bureau (UK): www.fabcats.org/ringworm.html
Products
- Ssscat (Multivet)
This is the greatest — most effective, humane, simple — innovation in behavior control in eons. It consists of a can of compressed air with a motion sensor "head". Triggering the sensor produces a high-pitched beep, followed by a blast of air. Great for counters or those problem corners. More effective (for us) than Feliway, easier to work with than reversed contact paper, and certainly less smelly than citrus rinds or menthol muscle cream. - Purr…fect Fence (www.purrfectfence.com)
Eureka! This looks like the solution long sought by cat owners wanting to give their felines a safe outdoor experience. A co-worker who's installed it reports it's working as advertised: the cats stay in, and non-household members stay out. - Nature's Miracle, Just for Cats formula
It's still the best, IMHO, for everyday accident/incident clean-up and deodorizing. - See Spot GO!
Nasty aerosol, but it's perfect for those *special* occasions when you need to treat a spot or two on the subfloor before having new flooring or carpet installed. It dries completely very shortly (a few hours versus a few days for Nature's Miracle). - Cardboard scratchers
Scratching outlet and catnip fix in one low-cost unit. - Clomipramine
Okay, here's where some of you will tell me to get lost and stay that way. All of our cats were spayed or neutered as soon as the vet deemed them old enough — generally from two to six months old. Still, even with conscientious odor control, lots of love, lots of space and cozy spaces, and lots of frequently cleaned litter boxes, a few of the crew have persistently sprayed. We tried everything; Ssscat units and clomipramine saved us. It's a mild sedative; in much larger doses, it's given to anxious dogs under the brand name Clomicalm. We give it only to the one or two worst offenders, and then generally on alternate nights during the peak summer months. It's dose-adjusted depending on animal weight, and must be compounded by the pharmacy. Ask your vet.
Smiles and Guffaws
Web sites
- catsthatlooklikehitler.com
- kittenwar.com (tip o' the hat to The Colbert Report!)
- catsinsinks.com
Videos
- Cat House on the Kings: This is an amazing story about an amazing sanctuary.
- An Engineer's Guide to Cats (bonus - one of the orange tabbies is named Oscar!
- Everyone's favorite stock footage of a monkey washing a cat
- Nora, the piano-playing cat, in "Practice Makes Purr-fect"
- Nora, the piano-playing cat, in "Better than the original!"
- Cat Videos on the Internet - a rap paean to, well, cat videos on the Internet
Miscellaneous
- Mutts and pretty much anything issuing from Patrick McDonnell (www.muttscomics.com)
- The Bad Cats calendar (Workman Publishing)
- The 365 Cats calendar (Workman Publishing)