MSI Press Blog

  A new pleasure emerged this week. It turns out that Bear, who loves the outdoors but is an indoor cat, is quite willing to tolerate a leash. Now, he will take off like a dog, running with the wind and causing me take more than big strides to keep up. Both of us g on flat-out runs. Murjan , a much-beloved cat, who died in 2021 at the respectable age of almost 19 after 3.5 years of chemotherapy for lymphoma, loved to be taken for walks. (He never ran; he ambled -- perhaps the age made a difference since Bear is only a couple of years old.) Murjan even developed a special meow that sounded like "out" -- mwout -- that he would insistently repeat until the leash appeared and the door opened. the only other cat I have had who showed any interest in walking outside, but, supposedly, most cats can be trained to walk on a leash with patience and persistence although it's important to keep in mind that not all cats will take to it. Here are some steps to help with the process: 1....

  Learning the Ropes: Kitten Moo following big brother Bear (peek inside) into the litter robot For years, we have had one litter robot per room -- at times four, at times five. They held great promise of reducing the workload. Just plop in a bag, let the robot do its work for a few days, then pull out the drawer, toss the old bag now full of used litter, and plop in a new bag. Every seven minutes after a cat used the robot, the drum would turn and whisk the litter into the drawer with bag. Initially, they did work pretty good, but they quickly broke down. Nearly every day one or another robot has to be cleaned and repaired -- the pincers are not touching, the plates are dirty, litter is in the gears, etc. Sometimes, turning the robot off and then on gets it back on track; other times pressing cycle, reset, or reset & cycle works. Sometimes, a slap works. Other times, though, it is a matter of disassembling and completely cleaning the robot, typically a 20-minute task that cann...

  Bear drinking from a faucet Our Bear has lots of water--in every room. Still, he prefers to drink from the sink faucet and comes running any time someone approaches a sink. A recent article explained why, along with explanations of many other "odd" cat behaviors:  Weird cat behaviors that you’re worried about. Behaviors include: making biscuits (kneading) drinking from faucets curling lips eating plants (not) covering poop/pooping in an uncharacteristic place/poop face hiding food exposing belly arching back vs arching back with hissing bringing "presents" chewing claws scratching furniture licking privates hissing sniffing a person's face yelling/loud meowing sleeping on a human stalking sitting in boxes midnight zoomies head butting knocking things over See more  Caturday  posts. Read more  posts about cats . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter (recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, author advice, and more -- st...

I know why Bear is staring. He wants the water faucet to be turned on so he can drink from it. Continuing in the Caturday meme of understanding cat behavior, I found an interesting explanation why cats stare:  Vets Reveal How to Decode the Secrets Behind Those Eyes See more  Caturday  posts. Read more  posts about cats . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter (recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, author advice, and more -- stay up to date)   Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC?  We help writers become award-winning published authors. One writer at a time. We are a family, not a factory. Do you have a future with us? Turned away by other publishers because you are a first-time author and/or do not have a strong platform yet? If you have a strong manuscript, San Juan Books, our hybrid publishing division, may be able to help....