Category: Cats

Posts just about cats.

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Pet Living Wills

Have you heard of Pet Living Wills? They’re like regular living wills except these are instructions concerning your pets’ care in the event you are not available to ask.  I can see how this might seem silly to some, but I think it’s an interesting idea and at the very least should get you thinking about your pets’ welfare if you’re not there to make decisions on their behalf.  (via Unusual Business Ideas That Work)

$49 a year ($39 to renew) will get you an online record will be kept of:

  • when treatment should be provided or withheld
  • under what conditions you would support withholding treatment
  • what level of treatment expense you would be willing to incur under probable outcomes

I’m betting you could draw up your own living will for your pet for free and post it online for pet caregivers and vets to reference.

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Pet Food Recall: Australia, Taiwan, & China

Three countries are recalling pet food. The recalls may not effect most of you, but they do highlight the continuing safety problems with pet food.

Australia is recalling Orijen Cat Food after over 20 cats became ill with symptoms of paralysis.  Some had to be euthanized.  The irradiation of the cat food is suspected to be the cause.  Australia requires that certain foods coming into the country must be irradiated.  Pet food must be irradiated at higher levels than human food.

Approximately 400 stray dogs in Taiwan died of liver failure after being fed Peter’s Kind-Hearted Dog Food in shelters.  The food was manufactured by Ji-Tai Forage Company and was contaminated with aflatoxin. It’s believed none of the food was sold in stores.  Aflatoxin is a toxic mold and one of the most carcinogenic substances on Earth.

China is recalling Optima dog food after it was linked with the deaths of at least 20 dogs in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou.  It too is believed to be contaminated with aflatoxin. There is some confusion as to the origin of the dog food. It may have been manufactured in Australia by Doane International Pet Products (owned by Mars Pet Care, U.S.), but Doane reportedly only manufactures in the U.S.  It is also possible the food is counterfeit.

I generally don’t run around like Chicken Little shouting the sky is falling, but the idea that gamma irradiation might have made Orijen Cat Food lethal is sobering.  Find out more about irradiation and U.S. policies concerning it from:

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DIY: Crocheted & Felted Pet Bed

crochetbedFor those of you who crochet, here’s a pattern for a pet bed (scroll down) called Kitty Cuddles.  It’s crocheted & felted and is based on the KittyPi Bed (which is knitted & felted.)

The bed is shaped like a flat-bottomed bowl.  It’s soft and comfy, but has some structure due to the felting.  The bed looks very different before felting.

You’ll need to use a natural fiber yarn to get it to felt.  Here are a few  tutorials on felting:  this one covers both hand & machine felting, here is a printable one on machine felting, and another on hand felting.

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Happy New Year! Recall, Rapper, First Cat, Second Dog

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PetProject is back from the holidays.  It was a pretty quiet here with an unusual amount of snow for us in the Pacific NW.  We hope you had a safe and happy holiday and we wish you all the very best in 2009.

Here’s some of the recent news:

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