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Thanks, NKBurlington and GraciesMom! :)
And thanks for the links, PIF! :) I'm going to check them out this weekend when I have more time (heve been very busy this week).
Kirsten
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I like your site! Well done. Some comments:
On poisons: Automotive antifreeze is made of ethylene glycol which is somewhat sweet tasting and very poisonous. Many dogs and cats have been poisoned from drinking antifreeze that has been spilled on the ground from leaking car and truck radiators.
Indoor versus Outdoor: In the past incurable or deadly diseases like FIP and FIV didn't exist so allowing a cat to spend the day outside wasn't intrinsically dangerous. Now days allowing your cat to merely have contact with an unhealthy cat can become a life threatening situation.
Sense of touch: A cat's ability to sense earthquakes (one word) isn't due to a sense of touch but due to their ability to hear sounds we can't. An earthquake is proceeded by many ultra high frequency sounds and they quickly learn to associate the sound the earth is making to the upcoming earthquake.
When I was growing up we had a sweet long-haired female Tabby who lived to be 21 - back in the day when spending her time outdoors during the day wasn't so dangerous. She was a real homebody and didn't wander out of the backyard. She did like to run on the roof of the house... kind of a kitty racetrack. We live in Southern California where earthquakes of all magnitudes aren't that uncommon. She would come tearing through the house and up and over the couch to hide behind it... and a few seconds later an earthquake would hit. She knew. She could hear it coming!
I too was raised with cats. There has been a family cat as long as I have been alive. I really believe our cats see their relationship with us as being on a peer group level. We are family. Dogs are, by design, pack animals and expect someone to be the leader. (One dog trainer said he believed the reason a family dog might suddenly attack a small child in the family is to reposition or maintain itself in the pecking order.) Cats are so social and need so much attention ("solitary", ha!) they are more like children than pets.
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Thanks for your reply, Randy_K.
I'm going to work through your comments as soon as I have more time (probably that the weekend!) :)
Kirsten
