Foster Cats Get Valentine's Day Present

After being in a cat condo for a month and a half our foster cats Tommy and Biscuit were getting a little stir crazy and needed to be able to walk around and stretch their legs. We figured out a way to give them more room and do it inexpensively. We already had a patio in the backyard with four posts and shade screen on top. Two sides of the patio are the back of the house. We bought two rolls of plastic poultry fencing and stapled it around the posts, to the top and to landscape timbers on the bottom. On Valentine's Day they moved into their 10 ft. by 15 ft. by 8 ft. high outdoor cat-proof room! Complete with a warm cat house, a grassy area and lots of toys. They are loving it! The weather has been great. They spend their time rolling around, snoozing in the sun and watching our dogs running around. They have gotten used to the dogs and actually look forward to visits from Einstein and Duke in particular. They smell noses and rub up against the fence. Our cats make periodic visits and they seem to entertain one another. (Although our cats are a little bent out of shape because they can't lay on the patio any more.) Another good thing is our big bay window in the living room looks onto the back patio. I can watch them from inside and they watch us as well.  With a possibility of rain in the forecast, we have since put up a tarp covering half of the area. (The shade screen on the ceiling keeps out 80 percent of the sun's rays but lets rain through.) Needless to say, they are really enjoying themselves now and are constantly entertained!

Cozy Critters Fosters Two Cats

Cozy Critters has started off the New Year fostering two sweet male cats; Biscuit (bottom) and Tommy (top), ages 8 and 10. They belong to a client who has become homeless. With our house being full with our four dogs and four cats and considering that bringing in any new pet would upset the household, we figured out a way to take them in but yet keep them separate from our pets. We set up a cat condo in our shed in the backyard for them. They have settled in nicely and are doing well. Since it's gotten cold, they now each have a heating pad to lay on & I have covered up the whole condo with beach towels. They get good food, treats, toys and lots of pets of course. This is definitely a big change for them but considering the alternatives, at least they are safe and cozy and are being well cared until their owner can get back on her feet and find a new place to live. Our dogs know they are there and are curious about them (they like kitties!) but our cats haven't seemed to notice them or if they have, they don't seem to mind since they are not in their space -- the house. Please keep our client and her cats in your prayers that they will be able to have a home together again soon!

Another Feral Cat House Delivered

We were excited to be able to deliver another custom feral cat house for our Cozy Critters Feral Cat House Project. Just in time for Christmas! This brings our number of cat houses given away to ten so far! This house is made for two, is made out of cedar and is totally insulated. The roof removes for cleaning. Thanks again to Anne and Joerg for another outstanding job! Wow! Our clients were excited to receive it and couldn't believe how well made it is.  I know the cats will appreciate it too!

Click here to see the other fabulous custom cat house made by Joerg.

Feral Cats Receive Custom Cat House!



Front

Side door to upstairs loft

There are definitely angels among us and two of those angels are Joerg and Anne! They were so nice and generous to respond to my previous blog post about Cozy Critters Feral Cat House Project and offered to build some cat houses! Wow! Check out this custom cat house! It's incredible! It's two-story, made out of cedar and is completely insulated! There are two compartments downstairs than can be converted to one big living area if needed. The second story loft has stairs (for the older cats) leading to the doorway. The roof removes for easy cleaning and so does the second story floor. They thought of everything!

I was so excited to be able to deliver this house to clients who have seven feral cats, six of whom are a mother and her five kittens. Our clients were also very happy, not to mention surprised, to receive this fabulous custom cat house. (They had no idea they were on my feral cat house list.) They couldn't believe it! They've never seen such a fancy cat house! I'm sure the cats will be enjoying it! They have a nice warm place to sleep during the winter now and that makes it all worth while.

I can not say thank you enough to Anne and Joerg, who are two very nice, generous, kind-hearted people whom I had never met until I picked up the cat house. You did a fabulous job. Better than I ever imagined. I love it, my clients love it and I'm sure the cats are going to love it. What lucky cats they are now! Joerg has his own painting, home repair and remodeling business. Check out his very creative and talented work at http://www.dermaler.us/ or find him on FaceBook.

Thank you, Anne and Joerg! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!

Cozy Critters Feral Cat House Project

With winter approaching, I think about all the feral cats that do not have a cozy warm place to sleep. We have many clients who feed feral cats in their backyards. Most have been trapped, neutered or spayed and are given food and water but a lot of them do not have shelter or a cat house to get out of the winter weather.

We buy small dog houses or medium size pet carriers at garage sales and estate sales, clean them up and convert them into weather-proof cozy cat houses. We have given away four so far but need to make more. They need to be big enough for an adult cat to turn around in but not too big. Some people need multiple houses and have limited space to put them in. I wish I could supply houses like the one shown in the picture, but ours aren't quite so fancy. (Perhaps a future project?)

If you have an old pet carrier or small dog house that you don't want or need any more, email or call me (281-788-6611) and I'll come pick it up. You will be helping to provide another feral cat with a warm place to sleep in the winter. On the otherhand, if you have feral cat(s) and need a house, email me and I will put you on the list.

Not Fit for a Dog! The Truth About Manufactured Dog and Cat Food

Not Fit for a Dog! is another good book full of information about commerical pet foods. Written by three veterinarians, this book provides an in-depth appraisal of the pet food industry and what people are feeding to their cats and dogs. It "highlights the dangers of modern pet foods--how it is unbalanced, creates addiction, and often contains ingredients that can literally poison your pet. It explodes the myths propounded by pet food companies that human food is "bad" for pets, and that natural diets are unsafe. It exposes the horrific truths that pet food manufacturers will sell you a "normal" diet for your cat that will cause diabetes, and then sell you another prescription diet to help control the diabetes, and how prescription diets themselves can cause illness."

In this book, you will learn how to read pet food labels and what you need to avoid for your pet's sake and how to save on vet bills by preventing your pet from developing one or more diet-related diseases. You'll learn why your vet may not have much to say about pet foods, what diet-related diseases your pet may already have, and how a change in diet can help. It explains how our health and our pets' health are interconnected and how we should all support organic farming practices and suppliers. This book is a massive indictment of the pet food industry, but also of our entire approach to growing and processing food--for us humans as well as for our pets. Get your copy now at Amazon.com or Half.com.

Food Pets Die For - Shocking Facts About Pet Food

The health of your pets depends so much on what you feed them. I cannot stress that enough. That is why you need to read this book, Food Pets Die For; Shocking Facts About Pet Foods by Ann N. Martin (2008). This book is a real eye-opener when it comes to the commercial foods we feed our pets. This book is well-organized, well-documented and full of facts you need to know as a pet owner.

Ann Martin, internationally recognized as an authority on commercial pet food, has been investigating the multi-billion-dollar commercial pet food industry since 1990. Sonoma State University's School of Journalism's "Project Censored" recognized her investigative writing on the pet food industry as one of the most important yet under-reported news stories. She has exposed the truth behind what is contained in many commercial pet foods. She also documents the ongoing animal experimentation funded by many major pet food companies in the name of nutritious pet food.

She first began to question the pet food industry twenty years ago after her two dogs, a Newfoundland and a Saint Bernard, got severely ill after eating dry dog food. She had the food tested at an independent lab and results showed a zinc level twenty times higher than the daily recommended dose of 50 parts per million (ppm). Zinc levels in excess of 1,000 ppm can be toxic to dogs.

She quickly learned that this multi-billion dollar industry in many ways is self-regulated. She "also learned that there are many deplorable ingredients that legally can be used in pet foods as sources of protein -- in particular, euthanized cats and dogs, diseased cattle and horses, road kill, dead zoo animals, and meat not fit for human consumption. In addition, fiber sources in many foods are composed of the leftovers from the food chain, including beet pulp, the residue of sugar beets, peanut hulls, and even sawdust sweepings from the floor of the rendering plant!" She talks about how researchers found traces of Pentobarbital in pet foods as far back as 1998. Pentobarbital is used for euthanizing animals. "The researchers surmised that Pentobarbital was finding its way into commercial pet foods through animals who had been euthanized with Pentobarbital and later rendered for 'meat meal'  in pet food", she stated. Research done in 1995 concluded that sodium Pentobarbital "survived rendering without undergoing degradation". 

Not only that, but while researching the latest information on the 2007 pet food recall, she came across disturbing information that indicates rendered cat and dog carcasses could be entering the human food chain. She found "evidence that leads to the strong possibility that shrimp, fish and eel grown on fish farms in China and other Asian countries could be eating 'tankage' shipped form renderers in California."  And speaking of the pet food recall of 2007, (which by the way, killed over 8,000 pets) you are aware of that one because it was so big and so many different foods were involved. She lists in detail several other examples of pet food recalls going back to 1995. I currently get notices of pet food recalls on a fairly regular basis.

She gives a detailed explanation of what all the ingredients are in pets foods, how they are processed and tested, what the laws and regulations are, what studies have been done and more! This lady has really done the research! She tells you how to read the labels, what to look for (or look out for!) in the ingredients. She has a list of recommended natural pet food companies and tells you about each one. She has recipes for home cooked meals for cats and dogs. She also has a chapter about bloat: a canine killer, a chapter on designer dogs and pet scams on the internet and newspapers. This book is full of information. Information you need to know as a pet owner. Available on Amazon and bookstores.