Here are some fun ideas for carving your own cat jack-o-lanterns.
Patterns you can print or download:
Inspiration:
Friday Fun: Cat Jack-O-Lanterns
Video Of How To Give Your Cat A Pill
Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine has developed a very good series of videos on how to give your cat a pill or capsule.
You can watch the whole video. It’s also broken down into segments:
- an introduction
- what to gather beforehand
- how to restrain your cat
- the finger method
- the pill-gun method
There are also a number of excellent tips:
- how to pill your cat without help
- what to do if your cat hides & how to keep the medicating of your cat from causing behavioral problems
- how to handle cats that are very difficult to restrain
- what to do if your cat keeps spitting out the pill
- what it means if your cat foams at the mouth after taking a pill
The tip to coat the pill in butter is a great one, especially for pills that are not already coated. I touched one pill to the tip of my tongue once when we were having a really hard time pilling a cat and that pill was one of the most bitter, lingering, awful things ever—blech. I would also add that you make sure you fingernails are trimmed short so you don’t jab the roof of your cat’s mouth when you push the pill to the back of its tongue. And finally, our cat, Raven, can wait a long time to swallow. We have found that blowing a puff of air in her face sometimes startles her into swallowing.
Don’t miss the instructional videos on how to trim your cat’s claws.
Friday Fun: Pumpkin As Toy
Proof that anything can be a toy to a cat. This is Charlene Butterbean from the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee—a really wonderful blog on fostering kittens. Charlene Butterbean is the resident cat who helps with the fostering. She’s a sweet pea!
No More BRAAAINS In Pet Food
(Cue zombie sound effects.) In a positive move to protect the safety of out pet’s food, the FDA is banning cow brains and spinal cords from pet food. These are the parts of the cow most likely to carry the prions that cause mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
So far, dogs appear to be immune to prion caused diseases, however, cats are at risk and can contract feline spongiform encephalopathy. The Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine has a good article on our pets and spongiform encephalopathy.