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...

  Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from Raising Happy Cat families by Luna Norwood Snyezhka, a Siamese-Tabby blend, was an easy rescue. Night after night on our house surveillance camera, we would see this small tan cat stop by our downstairs door, where we left food for the street cats, and eat with relish. One night, I was in our basement area in the early hours of the morning when Snyezhka came up our hill and to the downstairs door for her nightly feast. As she ate, two large tom cats pounced on her, clearly ready to mate her. But she was not in agreement, and she fought them off. Half their size, with twice their spirit. I opened the door, quickly grabbed her, and brought her inside. She did not fight me. She appeared relieved to be safe from her suitors. She slept on a chair in the basement room all night. I placed a disposable litter pan near her, the kind that come with a removable lid, seeded it with some poop from one of our litter robots, and she used it a couple ...

    Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from Raising Happy Cat families by Luna Norwood.  Here are some suggestions that tend to work in general with cats being integrated and that we have tried, sometimes successfully and sometimes not so (but alternatives worked): Control the Smells I put vanilla on each of the cats so that they would smell alike when we were trying to suggested to us when we were trying to integrate an independently oriented new cat (Wooper) and a demanding alpha cat (Murjan) long before Snyezhka joined the family. Well, it did not work all that well although some folks say it has for them. We had not asked Murjan permission to bring home another cat, and he let us know in no uncertain terms that we should have! Another way to control the smells, according to cat experts, is a pheromone oil dispenser that is plugged into an electrical socket. It was and is widely advertised as a great way to calm cats and help them get along. Well, Murjan wo...

  Carl and Murjan sharing a Thanksgiving dinner Gaudete Sunday is coming up--an oasis in Lent, and, like other Sundays, a time we can eat a full meal! If our beloved Murjan were still with us, he would be perching on his chair next to Carl (wish he, too, were still with us, 2021 stole two beloved members of our family), savoring the smells of the fat of the land (well, maybe, of pancakes -- he at those, too), and patiently (yes, he was a patient cat, almost humanly patient) for his share of the feast to be chopped up and presented for his enjoyment. Each of our cats had quite different personalities, but the two that stand in stark contrast to each other are Murjan and Intrepid . They were both born in Jordan, lived with us there, and came to California with us 15 years ago. Both are now on the other side of the rainbow bridge, ravaged by the same kind of cancer, feline lymphoma. Intrepid is interred with his devoted human to whom he was equally devoted, Carl, and Murjan's ashes ...

  How many litter boxes should you have? Now, that is an interesting question. The general advice floating around—from cat professionals to the cat-loving masses—is one more litter box than the number of cats you have. That means if you’ve got three cats, you should have four boxes. Five cats? Six boxes. But let’s be real—when you’re living in a multi-cat household, that rule starts to sound less like practical advice and more like a logistical nightmare. If you’ve got a big cat family, are you really supposed to turn half your house into a feline bathroom? Probably not. So, how do you balance feline bathroom etiquette with the realities of space and household harmony? The “One More Than the Cats” Rule: Why It Exists This guideline isn’t just about forcing humans to find space for an ever-growing collection of litter boxes. It’s based on some solid feline logic: Territory & Privacy: Cats can be picky, and some don’t like sharing litter space, especially in a household wit...