MSI Press Blog

  This is a series of Caturday posts on the topic of taking in  feral cats .  General information (from pervious posts): For a few decades, we have rescued feral cats. In fact, with only one exception, our "domestic" cats have been ferals that we brought inside to join other ferals, already domesticated, as part of a bonded cat family. Right now, we have five cats (alas,  Murjan , the single non-feral cat we had, died from cancer last fall), all of whom get along pretty fabulously. Of course, all of that is easier said than done, and the bonding took time -- lots of it. Here are some of the things we did to create our cat family, some of which is not at all typical of what others have done, but it has worked for us. We don't trap the feral cats at all; we win them over and invite them in. We do this by feeding them a distance from the house and walking away, then moving the dish closer and closer to the house and walking less and less far away, until they are eating at ou

 Taking a little step back from book publishing and a stride into read life, this Caturday I share with you a piece of daily life. Every morning I find a  toy monkey on the floor when I wake up. This toy monkey sits on the bureau every night, and every morning, there it is again on the floor. This morning it was lying on its back. Our cat Wooper (I caught her doing it) swipes it onto the floor and plays with it. She learned that from little Intrepid, who died three years ago but not before he taught Wooper how to play with big toys. A new wrinkle appeared today. Wooper took her monkey to bed with her! I found it on the bed when I walked into the bedroom this afternoon. Intrepid, Wooper's trainer, was barely double the size of the monkey. He earned his name. His favorite toys were dog toys and human toys. He now lies together with his owner in a grave that gets regular family visitors. (Some cats are more human than people!) For more Caturday posts, click HERE . For more posts abou

 Wooper (inside, on the catio) communicates with Nellie, a neighbor's cat, on the outside. Wooper is our gatekeeper cat, always checking up on anyone outside who might try to come in. Our Wooper , quite a character on a regular day, some years ago took to licking off all her hair. Concerned, when both her sides were showing a lot of skin -- we wondered how she could not be cold -- we took her to the vet for help.   The vet scratched his head. He had never seen anything like this. (That is Not what a pet owner wants to hear from a vet.) He suggested that maybe she was itchy and gave us some anti-itch crean. We applied it faithfully even though it turned her skin and our hands black. But she continued licking, and the hairlessness of both her sides grew. We read everything we could find online. Nothing seemed to fit among the few pieces of information we came across. After a while, she had no hair on either side of her body. For some reason -- happenstance, for sure -- she had grown

Bobolink (below) and Wooper (above) are bunked on the catio. We have had two cats lose their fur, each for a different reason.  Wooper licked all of hers off until she had alopecia. Our vet tried one medicine after another. Nothing worked. Another vet suggested it was anxiety, but it turned out it was not. We stumbled upon it by accident when we learned how to give a cat massage. Wooper loved the massage. She would ask for me, and she would want a deep massage. Normally standoffish, she would come and tap one of us on the shoulder. That was her way of asking for a massage. After a few weeks of massaging her, we noticed that her hair was growing up. She now has all the fur she ever had -- but she still wants her massages. Bobolink , a long-haired domestic cat, is sick. He, it turns out, has amyloidosis, in addition to FIV and autoimmune hemolytic anemia. His prognosis is not good. Tonight, I found him lying in a pool of pee, looking up with sad, surprised, and apologetic eyes. I cleaned

 Murjan, born in Jordan, traveled to the USA when he was just a couple of years old. He is the only domestic cat among the six cats, but he quickly established himself as the alpha cat. He sometimes thinks he is human and likes soft and warm sleeping spots. Other times, he is certain he is a dog, likes to be walked on a leash, and rolls over to have his belly rubbed.  Murjan loves to communicate, especially having night time discussions with his human.  He will even listen to and obey little ones.   For many months,  Happy Cat hung out in the bushes, waiting for the other feral cats to finish eating the food that had kindly been set outside. Then, one day he became very ill, climbed the 17 steps to the Leaver front door, where he fell, exhausted. Betty Lou discovered him there, scooped him up, and took him to the vet. Happy Cat had a serious lung infection. Once healed, it was not safe to let him outside. That did not matter because he was delighted to have found a home and will not ve

Simone (middle) and Wooper (right) would like to take Murjan (left) for a walk.   Happy Caturday! I hope you enjoy the picture of two of our cats trying to take a third for a walk. Beloved Murjan crossed over the rainbow bridge last year, but the picture still makes me smile. And, for Caturday, I hope you enjoy this helpful article I came across recently:  12 Unusual Cat Behaviors to Look Out For – and What They Mean! (msn.com) . For more Caturday posts, click  HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC?  Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@m

  his is a series of Caturday posts on the topic of taking in  feral cats .  General information (from previous posts): For a few decades, we have rescued feral cats. In fact, with only one exception, our "domestic" cats have been ferals that we brought inside to join other ferals, already domesticated, as part of a bonded cat family. Right now, we have five cats (alas,  Murjan , the single non-feral cat we had, died from cancer last fall, and Intrepid , closely bonded to Murjan, died three years ago from the same kind of cancer), all of whom get along pretty fabulously. Of course, all of that is easier said than done, and the bonding took time -- lots of it. Here are some of the things we did to create our cat family, some of which is not at all typical of what others have done, but it has worked for us. We don't trap the feral cats at all; we win them over and invite them in. We do this by feeding them a distance from the house and walking away, then moving the dish clo

  With rescued street cats (we have 6 of them, mostly older ones), the things inside them that are always unknown in the beginning start to show up as they grow older. Jack is the simplest and healthiest—and youngest. Just missing an eye. Happy Cat has recurring skin cancer. Wooper has IBS and asthma. Bobolink (Boulder) has feline AIDS. Simone si reacting positively to a new medicine, injected once a month, for arthritis; after 16 years she is now jumping up on the bed and snuggling in with me for the night, which she was unable to do with just cosequin. She also has two cysts that cannot be removed without surgery, and the vet considers the surgery at her age too risky so we do at-home management of the cysts. And then there is Snyezhka. Snyezhka survived breast cancer—discovered four years ago and in remission for the past two. We thought she was in good shape until four months ago when lung cancer struck. The immunotherapy did not work, and she has been just on Metacam, an NSAIDS. L

  Left to right: Wooper, Jack and Happy Cat, cats of various breeds and origins in a modern-day home. Cats were first domesticated in the Middle East, specifically in the area of modern-day Turkey, Cyprus, and the Levant. They appear to date back to around 7500 B.C. on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Cats spread from the Middle East to Europe and the USA through a combination of trade, exploration, and human migration.  Cats were revered in ancient Egypt and often traveled with traders and explorers.  As the Roman Empire expanded, cats were brought to Europe and continued to spread, accompanying ships and traders. During the Age of Exploration, cats were taken on ships to control rodent populations. European settlers brought cats to the Americas, where they spread and adapted to new environments. Cats essential domesticated themselves by forming mutually beneficial relationships with humans, especially in farming communities where they helped control rodent populations. See more  C