January 2005 Cat Connection Newsletter

What do we love the most about cats? Why, we love their very "catness," of course! We love the ruthless way they pounce upon invisible vermin, and the slow, languid way they flirt with the leg of an antique chair—those quirky idiosyncrasies that make felines so lovable, yet such bewitching little creatures.

Certainly, anyone who owns a cat has multiple stories of how their particular feline has managed to fluster, frighten, and delight its family members. Maybe your cat likes to do a tap dance on your fax machine, or maybe it has a neurotic fascination with empty Acme bags.

Most of the time, catness is nothing but a wonderful source of entertainment for cat lovers, and a host of cute photo opportunities. Occasionally, though, it can get our feline friends in trouble. The trick to keeping your pet safe—without cramping its frisky style—is to be aware of some of the more common oddities of the feline animal, and to recognize when a particular behavior is getting out of hand.

Flirting with Disaster
Cats are fascinated with heights—possibly a remnant of the days when felines needed to climb trees to escape danger. It may be that cats feel safe way up high. I know that my fragile flower of a 16-pound domestic shorthair has concluded that the top of my bookshelf makes a great lair and has no qualms about scattering my books all over the living room to make room. He seems to take great pleasure in pushing the books off the shelf and then watching with curious satisfaction as they kerplunk to the floor.

And then there is always the creepy feeling I get when I walk into the kitchen and just sense that I am not alone…only to discover that the maddening cat is perched on top of my kitchen cabinets. So far, he hasn’t actually jumped on me, but he surprises me every time. Once he has elicited the response he wants, he casually saunters down and begs for a treat.

Being a veterinarian, as you might imagine, my house is a very pet-safe place. But, there have been times that my cat’s daredevil behavior has had some unhappy results. Once, he fell off his bookshelf-lair and limped for three days.

If you have an adventurous cat of your own, you should keep in mind that leaping on unsteady furniture might be risky as well. As your cat’s ardent protector and caretaker, you want to make a serious effort to prevent unfortunate accidents.

You can always try to repel your cat’s climbing efforts, but I can tell you from personal experience that sneaky cats will find ways to foil your plans. I have tried lining the off-limits areas in my house with double-sided sticky tape—only to have the darling angel pull off the tape with his teeth and spit it out with a clean pitooie! And my agile beast navigates himself effortlessly through the maze of upside-down mousetraps I have set, not snapping a single one.

Ultimately, if your cat loves the highest of heights, you need to monitor the animal’s behavior, especially when it is in one of its playful moods. If you see your cat preparing to leap on top of a rickety armoire, be there to direct him into a safer direction, or to catch him when he falls.

You know what they say about curiosity and cats…
Like most cats, mine loves to sneak into bags and boxes—even ones that are really tiny, such as those meant for storing a scarf or a pair of shoes. It always astounds me that a cat will try to fit its body into the teeniest of places. When my cat gets into a shoebox, all that fits are his legs and his bottom. Yet he’ll sit there, in the middle of the room, this purring cat face peering out of what looks like a giant mushroom.

One Christmas, we almost lost my cat because of his odd desire to tuck himself into the size of a folded handkerchief. The strange beast had curled into a discarded Macy's box after all the presents were opened, perhaps trying to impersonate a cashmere sweater. He was discovered shortly afterward in a garbage bag when we heard him rustling in the leftover wrapping paper.

Of course, there was no real danger of throwing my precious cat away. I also feel free to indulge him in his box fetish, because basically, boxes are harmless hiding places. However, cats can get hurt or even killed when they hide in other contained spaces, like ovens, clothes dryers, and walls.

And not only can curiosity kill your cat—your curious cat also can "kill" certain household appliances if it gets stuck in there for any extended period of time. I know of some clients who have had to get rid of clothes dryers and other costly items because they were ruined by cat feces and urine.

It’s in the Bag
I miss the good old days when supermarkets uniformly packed your purchases in paper grocery bags. It was always great fun to throw the bags on the floor and watch the cat scamper from sack to sack in the glee of finding all these new hiding places.

With the advent of plastic bags, I have discovered a strange phenomenon that I call "Parachute Kitty." After attempting to get into the ever-elusive, shape-shifting plastic bag, my cat usually instead finds itself with the bag wrapped around a front leg and its neck. To be restrained by the strange plastic bag is of course unacceptable to the free-spirited feline, so the cat’s obvious next move is to flee. Unfortunately, flight causes the bag to inflate, and voila, you have Parachute Kitty.

Catching Parachute Kitty is also entertaining. After removal of the offending plastic bag, it’s always hilarious to watch the victim as he sits and grooms himself indignantly, as if to sniff, "Well, I never!" Dignity is everything to a cat. You would think that such a humiliating experience would deter my cat from plastic bags forever. Not so: I have to de-parachute him regularly.

The one thing I am vigilant about is never leaving my cat alone with a plastic bag. Truly, cats can choke or suffocate themselves in this way. A parachute show can be most amusing, but when you’re not there to be a watchful, protective audience, the results can be devastating.

All dressed up with no place to go
Clean clothes seem to attract cats and their attendant hair like iron shavings to a magnet. Light cats overwhelmingly prefer to sleep on dark clothing and naturally; dark cats prefer those white tennis shorts. I am lucky enough to posses a black and white cat. He can single-handedly mess up any piece of clothing I own…and he does. I should own stock in lint rollers.

No, clean clothes do not pose any legitimate danger to cats. But when your crisp black interview suit is covered with Persian fluff, you may entertain a few dangerous thoughts of your own…

The Cat: Destroyer of Evil Vermin
Most pet toys are cat-safe, but you wouldn’t know that, judging from the way some felines act as if they are a threat to the survival of the universe. My cat is convinced that those fur-covered cardboard toys are very, very dangerous and may in fact embody evil; therefore, they must be destroyed. Apparently, like the Wicked Witch of the West, fur mice can be melted with water. I have found the sodden little lumps of paper and fur in my cat’s water bowl, the toilet, and even in my iced tea glass—the last of which was, to say the least, a surprise. I had another cat that liked to leave things in my shoes. These shoe deposits ranged from paper wads to pom poms.

Cats can choke on toys that are too small, and string toys can require surgery if they are eaten. Most of the time, though, it seems that the toy is in greater danger of the cat than the cat is of the toy.

Witching Hour
Have you ever witnessed the 10 o’clock crazies? It seems that many cats at that hour feel the need to run as fast as they can and bounce off the walls of the house. At 10 p.m., you can truly tell long-term cat owners from the newbies. Anyone who’s owned a cat for a long time will continue to watch TV and ignore their flying feline. New cat owners, however, will call the veterinarian and with much agitation report that the cat was having a seizure but then at 10:15 p.m., it stopped seizing and began grooming itself in a normal manner. This is usually an easy diagnosis.

Aside from causing some owners’ blood pressure levels to skyrocket, the cat’s witching hour is more fun that it is dangerous. Keep your eye on your cat, though, if it seems to be flailing its limbs against the wall with unusual vigor. You don’t want to end up nursing a sprained paw.

The Joy of Catness
I think I speak for most cat lovers when I say that the world would be a duller place if it weren’t for catness. No one really understands what makes cats tick, but as long as they are kept healthy and safe, it is a joy to watch them behave in their mysterious, befuddling ways.

*Article courtesy of VetCentric.com
Originally published April 17, 2000
Written by: Elizabeth L. DeLomba, DVM
For more information on this article, please visit http://www.vetcentric.com