Cat Chat®

#249: Spyq Sklar, a co-founder of Earthly, describes how Cat Sushi came to be — from his visits to tuna processors in Japan and securing bonito flakes as cat treats.

#250: Mikel Maria Delgado talks about purebred cats and how limiting the gene pool for physical characteristics can lead to inborn physical problems. Selecting for appearance not for temperament can backfire.

#247: Meet Yosh, who traveled the world with his Bombay cat Simon, then decided to build his house for Simon’s pleasure.

#246: Cat behaviorist Rachel Geller, with her own nonprofit All Cats All the Time, has helped more than 1,000 cats and their people to have a better relationship and stay together — and she’s done it without changing her own style of patient insight and support.

#245: Behavior tips from cat behaviorist Stephen Quandt about living with a blind cat, whether blind from birth or she becomes so later. He recommends starting with a compressed space, giving them a chance to explore their litter box, food and “cat cave” safe space before you slowly expand their physical world.

#244: Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado published a research project with other feline experts in England to ascertain what keeps people from playing with their cats? Turns out, changing human behavior is harder than changing that of kitty cats! 

#243: Cat behaviorist Stephen Quandt [CatBehaviorHelp.com] describes how he adopted blind Jenny as a kitten and realized she had “sight without vision” — she spent 8 hours nonstop roaming his entire apartment when he first brought her home, only resting once she had made a mental map of new territory. 

#235: Understand how a cat’s whiskers function, then Mikel Delgado tells you how to watch them to discover your cat’s feelings.

#228: Veterinary behaviorists are called "psychiatrists" in France, where Dr Claude Beata is one of a very small number of these doctors who are helping treat emotional issues in pets, including the use of psycho-pharmaceuticals.

#229: Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado discusses her scientific paper on whether cats play fetch.

#240: These two cat lovers have a loving following for a reason!

 #242: Matt McGlasson's delightful book "How to Rate a Cat: Rate Any Feline Friend From Their Boopable Nose to Their Sweet Toe Beans" features his hilarious Cat Rating System (CRS) that rates all aspects of cats. He has three special needs cats himself and says anybody who can should get one because they give us a great perspective on life: they never feel sorry for themselves and j...

#239: It takes patience and time, but novelist Brian Porter explains how he made it work when he inherited a pair of cats after his mother passed away.

#227: Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado recommends a carrier the cat can enjoy as a resting place and bed that you keep out all the time in your home — not a soft-sided carrier but a hard-sided one (Sleepypod is her favorite — if you can afford one or put it on your wish list for Santa Claus!) 

#237: Wonder what your cat is thinking and feeling? The answers are in Lili Chin’s book “Kitty Language: An Illustrated Guide to Understanding Your Cat.” 

#226: Zazie Todd’s book “PURR: the Science of Making Your Cat Happy," has a nice checklist of what you should set aside in a bag for emergency preparedness if you have to leave in a hurry.

#241: Dr. Maria Mikel Delgado discusses how to care for outdoor cats in the winter by providing a warm and dry shelter and food (using the insulation of straw) — while also making the indoors more fun for your house cat, offering a heated bed inside and using tips from her book PLAY WITH YOUR CAT!

#234: Dr Hodgkins recommends finding a feline-specialist veterinarian who will know how to use broad spectrum antibiotics to deal with the kitten’s upper respiratory symptoms.

#233: An overweight cat should not lose more than ¼ lb a week or risk life-threatening Fatty Liver Disease — which Dr Elizabeth Hodgkins says you can avoid by removing dry food from their diet and feeding quality high protein wet food to help safely and naturally remove fat packed around their liver. 

#232: Each cat has many ways of saying “Meow,” as Jonathan Losos explains in his book “The Cat’s Meow.”

#231: One lady invented a simple clip to hold the bag on the box for efficient litter clean up.

#230: Find out from feline behaviorist Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado that the answer is “No!” and all the ways your life would be miserable with a cat who is not “fixed.” 

#225: Cat behaviorist Rachel Geller from All Cats, All the Time, suggests ways to replace unwanted behavior with something you want the cat to do that he will like better. Cat jumping on the kitchen counter while you’re preparing food and cooking? Give him a puzzle toy on the floor — or add an appealing cat tree near the kitchen with some treats on it - or tie a shoelace to your belt so the cat ca...

#224: Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado says all cats need a safe place to retreat to, it’s an "environmental necessity.” Make sure your cat has options of private nooks and crannies to dash to when he’s feeling unsafe or overwhelmed.

#223: Zazie Todd's checklist from her book PURR says that the 3 rules for avoiding out-of-litter-box problems are: location, size and cleanliness.