Cat Chat®

#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.

#222: Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado says if you offer the right toy[s] to your cat s/he might play alone with a racetrack style toy, a robotic toy, a few small toys to bat around or a wobbly weeble toy.

#221: Professional cat photographer Karen Hoglund says that the “sweet spot” for photographing a black cat is to place him at the edge of a sunbeam.

#220: Zazie Todd's book "PURR: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy," includes "scent as enrichment" on her "happiness checklist" — recommending you get toys with catnip, valerian, honeysuckle (that comes as a block of wood) and/or silver vine to discover which ones delight your particular cat’s amazing nose.

#219: Dr. Sameera Nalla discusses how being an intern at the Animal Behavior Wellness Clinic in Maryland is taking her beyond a lifelong dream of being a veterinarian, taking her on her way to becoming a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, a small and select specialty group.

#218: Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado talks about the dangers to a cat of any medication we put on our skin — pain relievers, hormones — and how your cat can wind up licking you or you can stroke and play with your cat and deposit some of the residue on their fur where they will groom it off.

#217: "Kitten Lady" Hannah Shaw talks about how she and her husband, Andrew Marttila, a distinguished professional cat photographer, created their book CATS OF THE WORLD to show us how philanthropic cat tourism can be a way for anyone to truly connect with like-minded citizens of the world who are looking after the their community cats. 

#216: Marlan Roberts, the Executive Director of Best Friends in New York City, talks about the 3-day adoption event Oct 12, 13 & 14 at the NYC Lifesaving Center in preparation for Best Friends being the beneficiary of the Premiere of the 6th Annual NY Cat Film Festival on October 15th.

#215: Nicole Tersigni created hilariously snarky captions to accompany stunning cat-inclusive paintings in her nifty little book “Cat People to Judge in Art and Life” [which will be in the gift bags of all the filmmakers attending the NYC Premiere of the 7th Annual NY Cat Film Festival on October 15th].

#214: Cate Conte's 8th book in her Cat Cafe cozy mystery series — “Shock and Paw” — is about the danger of losing the small newspaper on their island and an unscrupulous cat breeder attempting to create costly designer cats. 

#213: Michele Campbell explains how she turned a passion for her own kitties into popularity on TikTok with 600 episodes of her Cat’s Eye Witness News — three of which will be featured in the 7th Annual NY Cat Film Festival.

#212: Dr. Amy Pike, the board certified veterinary behaviorist who owns the Animal Behavior Wellness Clinic outside Washington, D.C., talks about the new anti-anxiety medication Bonqat, designed to calm cats before visits to the veterinarian. 

#211: Zazie Todd has a "happiness checklist" in her book "PURR: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy," which includes the importance of keeping a regular schedule for cats, who like the predictability of mealtimes and playtimes happening at pretty much the same time every day.

#210: Cat behaviorist and jazz singer Sara Goldenthal created "Angels Surround Us," soothing music for shelters to use free of charge to help lower the stress and anxiety of cats in shelters which she observed first hand.  

#209: Zazie Todd, author of "PURR," recommends grooming a short haired cat to get them to accept (or even love!) being brushed before they get old and actually need it. But no baths, please!