Every time I read about a pet which was reunited with his or her owner because of a microchip, I vow to myself to find out more about those things! I don’t let my cats wear their collars around the house, because to me the chance of getting hurt that way is far greater than the chance that one of my kids or the occasional visitor will let them outside. But they could easily get outside sometime; it seems that no one who comes to our house knows how to close the front door.   If someone let them out while I was away,  my cats could end up roaming the area with no collars and no way for anyone to identify them.

Last time I was going to take the kitties for their checkups, I didn’t ask about ‘chipping because I’d mistakenly thought they would have to be sedated to have the microchips inserted – sort of like how they have to be under general anesthesia to have their teeth cleaned. I didn’t know if I wanted to deal with that during that particular time period or not.  I finally decided to dig up a little information from the American Veterinary Medical Association about chipping pets, and I’ll share it with you here.

• Pet microchips are tiny electronic chips enclosed in glass, and are about the size of a grain of rice.
• The chip is injected into the skin using a hypodermic needle. Although the needle is a little larger than that used to inject liquids, the pet will most likely consider it just another shot – and won’t need to be sedated.
• The microchip only contains identification numbers, including a code to identify which manufacturer produced the chip. It doesn’t have your or your pet’s name or your phone number, so if you change phone numbers you won’t have to have the chip replaced in your pet! Instead, you’ll keep the database updated at the microchip registry.
• Unfortunately, there’s not just one chip manufacturer, chip frequency, or scanner frequency!   Competing chip and scanner manufacturers are free to produce chips which use different frequencies from those used by other manufacturers.  However, there are places to look up codes to determine which manufacturer made the chip, then the manufacturer’s database can be searched for a pet’s owner.  Likewise, there are universal scanners available which would read more than one frequency.   My plan is to find out what kind of chips/scanners they have at my local animal shelter and make sure my pets get those!

Ask your vet about microchips for your pet.  If your pet is lost and has a microchip, he stands a much better chance of coming back home than if he arrives at a shelter with no identification.  If you want to look deeper, here are the Frequently Asked Questions on AVMA’s website.   When I take my kitties for their checkup this year, they’re getting ‘chipped!

It’s shocking to me that a lot of people who have a real love of cats will get their cat declawed.  I think the reason they don’t think twice about doing this is that they are imagining a surgery that would involve something similar to getting our fingernails removed.  After all, a claw is just a nail, isn’t it?  Actually that is not the case.   The analogy between declawing and human hands is more like having our fingers amputated at the last joint.   Declawing involves the amputation of bone – the last joint of your cat’s toe.   Why is it necessary to remove the bone at the joint? It’s because the cells that will eventually become claw originate in that part of the toe, so if the declawing surgery did not amputate the bone above a certain point, the claw would grow back. This amputation is “necessary” sheerly for the convenience of humans.   This is a painful surgery and painful recovery. Many people don’t seem to realize how much it all must hurt, because they see that their cat is still going to the litter box or going to the food dish. Well, what else will your cat do? She must walk on those painful feet in order to eat and go to the litter box, and we need to remember that cats are great at hiding their pain or illness.

The drawback to declawing that seems to be obvious to the public is that the cat can no longer swipe a dog across the face with her claws or quickly climb a tree. Everyone I know personally who has taken his/her cat to be declawed proclaims that Kitty will always be an indoor cat!  And maybe that is true.  Maybe they do not have relatives, friends, or workmen who will leave the door open accidentally.   The thing about declawing is, aside from the horrible pain and the danger from other animals if the cat gets outside, cats walk on their toes! They depend on their excellent balance and agility every time they walk and jump, and certainly this amputation throws off that natural balance as the cat has to re-learn how to use every muscle to walk on what is left of her toes.  Scratching comes naturally to your cat, and cats actually exercise their backs and shoulders by digging their claws into something and stretching as f-a-a-a-a-r as they can.   Scratching and claws are just part of what makes a cat a cat!    Declawing surgery, onychectomy, is illegal in many countries but is still going on in North America.  Veterinarians in this country sometimes do onychectomy because the owner of a cat will claim that they will throw their cat out or have her put to sleep if the cat isn’t declawed.   This year, the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association has launched an outreach effort focused on the issue of cosmetic and convenience surgeries in companion animals, such as declawing for cats, devocalization in cats and dogs, and ear cropping and tail docking in dogs.  The HSVMA is producing materials to educate the public and also to give tools to veterinarians who are asked for these surgeries. 

What can we do to avoid having to replace our sofas and rugs every couple of years then?  One thing I did as a teenager was to clip my cat’s claws for her with an inexpensive cat nail clipper. Just clip the white tips of the claws off; don’t cut into the “quick.” Cats can learn to sit quietly and let you clip the tips of their claws if you don’t ever cut the quick and hurt them! Other ideas are a sturdy scratching post which is big enough for the cat to really get on and rip into, or if that doesn’t work, Soft Paws / Soft Claws . Remember though, if you decide to go with the Soft Paws, your cat will not be able to use her claws for defense and should stay indoors.

My own cats had not had much of a scratching problem, or so I thought. Then they started a habit of ripping into the back of a soft sofa in the den. The carpeted scratching post I had bought when they were kittens sat totally ignored, so I gave it away. I turned to the Sticky Paws line of products. The Sticky Paws for Furniture mild adhesive strips were simple to apply to the top and side edges of my sofa. The cats touched it ONCE and never returned to that sofa. To give them a place to enjoy their claws, I bought the Scratch This! It comes with a bag of very potent catnip. I sprinkled a little on the Scratch This, and my two cats FOUGHT over it, complete with spitting. Obviously a second Scratch This was in order, so that way they didn’t find some other target for their scratching. I put one Scratch This in the area where my cats do most of their daytime sleeping, and immediately when they awaken they always go straight to it to stretch and scratch!

If you have a great way to keep your cat from destroying your house while keeping her toes intact, please let us know about it in the comments!

Sally playing with kitty fishing pole

This post has been moved to my new cat care site. Please head on over and check it out!

Photo: Damian Dovarganes / AP

Trakr, the rescue dog who located the last survivor in the rubble following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, has been successfully cloned and his owner, James Symington, has received the five puppies cloned from Trakr. The dogs were given to Symington by biotech company BioArts International after he entered an essay contest in 2008 explaining why Trakr should be cloned. It’s a good thing the company did the cloning when it did and didn’t waste any time, because Trakr passed away just two months ago, at age 16. His owner, a retired Canadian police officer, had his first meeting with the German shepherd pups a few days ago. “They’re identical — down to the smallest detail,” Symington said. “Few dogs are born with exceptional abilities — Trakr was one of those dogs. And if these puppies have the same attributes as Trakr, I plan on putting them in to search and rescue so they can help people the way Trakr did.”

The cloning took place at Sooam Biotech Research Foundation of South Korea and the procedure was led by Dr. Hwang Woo-Suk, who produced the world’s first canine cloning in 2005. Hwang’s team actually replaced the genetic material in eggs from random dogs with genes harvested from Trakr. After stimulation, they grew into embryos and were then placed in surrogate mothers. Five puppies, genetically identical to Trakr, resulted from the surrogate pregnancies. The first of the pups was born on Dec. 8 of last year and the last arrived on April 4.

I think it’s cool that we are now able to clone animals, and I know James Symington is happy to have five replicas of his old buddy again.  Plus of course the world could use more hero animals like Trakr.   I wonder though, if the day comes when I can go and get replicas of all my favorite pets so that I have identical ones for the rest of my life, then what will happen to all the animals that are born to the unspayed/un-neutered pets that are running around?   Will everyone who can afford to do so keep copying their own dogs and cats so they never have to tell their kids that “Fluffy got old and passed away?”   What do you think?   Will cloning add to the problem of homeless cats and dogs, or will it not matter so much since many people already breed their pets or buy purebred cats and dogs instead of adopting?

Image by chairman moneko

This post has been moved to my new site about cat care and cat problems!

This article has moved to a new site! Go to CatCareProblems for this post – and soon many more!

My cat Rosie with flea allergy a few years ago

This post has moved to my new site about cat care and cat problems!

I wrote to a pet columnist asking for a product that I could use to get rid of bugs but not hurt my pets. I thought that would be a great question and one that needed answering, but my question lay dead in his slush pile. Finally I turned to my friend Google and found that a 50-50 mixture of plain old baking soda and sugar will do the trick. Seriously. I took three little tops that came on gallon jugs of milk or orange juice and put the 50-50 mix in them. I put each one in an area where I had seen the bugs, each time putting it directly against a wall and behind something so it wouldn’t attract the cats. Starting the very next day, I have not seen another roach. That was two weeks ago, so I feel confident that this works! The story is that the sugar attracts them and the baking soda makes their little stomachs “blow up.” Yuck! But I have not seen a roach at all so I guess they are going to their nests to blow up.

Friday when I got home from work, I saw that one of my “baits” had been thrown out onto the floor by a curious kitty, but I assume a half a teaspoon of sugar or baking soda didn’t tempt her or harm her at all because both cats were fine. I simply made a new mixture, refreshed all the baits, and we’re still roach-free. This simple and safe solution has been SUCH a relief!

Over the past few months, I’ve been sponsoring a cat at the Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary, Inc. in North Carolina. What a wonderful place. They take in blind cats who are totally dependent on the mercy of humans and provide them a home until they can be adopted, or for the rest of their lives if they are never adopted. They do not put them down unless a medical problem comes up where it is deemed the necessary and humane thing to do. Of course they need money and they need people to adopt the cats, but for those of us who are far away or already have our max of pets they also will let you sponsor a cat! For $1 a day you can sponsor a blind kitty and provide for his/her needs. You will receive a certificate as well as pictures of “your cat,” and you’ll receive quarterly updates about the cat. In fact, every month when my Paypal money goes to the Sanctuary, I get a nice email telling me what “my” cat has been up to and how she’s doing. Then I also get pictures and newsletters each quarter. Your first name will appear on their website saying, “Sponsored by….” This would make a great gift for an animal lover of any age! If you don’t care to make an ongoing commitment like that, they also have a wish list, where you can click to purchase items they already have picked out, and you pay then the items are shipped straight to them. (That would be a lot of fun for a child or teen who is crazy about animals). Please have a look at the wonderful things going on at the Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary.  For the price of a soda or two per day, you can help an innocent creature to have a happy, comfortable life.

Photo by gopal1035

Are you a creative professional who loves animals and would love to help save some lives? If so, creativePAW could really use your help. They can use every sort of creative professional, like editors, graphic designers, illustrators, marketing professionals, musicians, photographers, PR professionals, proofreaders, translators, videographers, voice talent, web designers, and writers, to volunteer. They keep a database of these volunteers for registered animal welfare organizations to search when they have a project and need some help. Your work will go toward helping with spay/neuter education, homeless pets, feral cat trap-neuter-return programs, rescue organizations such as feral cat rescues and breed rescues, humane education, and puppy mill protests. This is a great way for those of us who feel strongly about animals and had been wondering, “What can I do?” to really make an impact.

I learned about this organization from the web designer/stray animal mommy I told you about before, and she does all she can to help creativePAW and to publicize their work. Many of us don’t/can’t adopt a lot of strays, whether we are limited by work travel, living space, our health, or something else, but if we have some talent in writing or anything else that creativePAW can use, we CAN help these animals. Check out their website to see if you might find a fit. Even if an amateur hoping to be a professional at one of these fields someday, helping creativePAW can get your work out there where it can be seen, and most of all of course, it will save some sweet innocent lives.