Ingrid King's Blog: The Conscious Cat, page 417

Consumer-Funded Pet Food Testing Reveals Disturbing Results

The Association for Truth in Pet Food (ATPF), an advocacy group established by Susan Thixton, the publisher and founder of The Truth About Pet Food, recently published the results of an unprecedented pet food testing project conducted by U.S. labs late last year. The results reveal serious concerns for pets and for the human families that purchase and handle the pet food.

Testing results show that some of the most widely-purchased brands in the U.S. and Canada contained high levels of dangerou...

Giveaway: Autographed Copies of Catification: Designing a Happy and Stylish Home for Your Cat (and You!)

Catification: Designing a Happy and Stylish Home for Your Cat (and You) is the result of a collaboration between Jackson Galaxy and Kate Benjamin. In this beautifully designed book, Galaxy and Benjamin offer the definitive guide to creating a cat-friendly home environment by sharing design tips and DIY projects that can be accomplished by even those who may be afraid of using a hammer and nails. Projects range from simple wall shelves and kitty hammocks to elaborate cat trees and “catios” (ou...

Why Cats Thrive on Routine

Cats are creatures of habits who thrive on routine. Most cats will have a set pattern they follow every day. Cats are territorial animals, so their routines will develop around your schedule and your household routines. While such a routine driven life may seem boring to humans, it helps cats feel safe and confident. In fact, routines are so important to cats that having them disrupted can even impact their physical health.

Changes in routine can make cats sick

A study conducted at the Ohio Sta...

Why Your Cat Needs Environmental Enrichment

Environmental enrichment is a term that is used by many feline behaviorists, and it is crucial to cats’ physical, emotional and mental health.

Creating an environment that stimulates your cats’ senses and gives her opportunities to exercise her natural instincts is especially important for indoor cats. Jackson Galaxy, host of Animal Planet’s My Cat From Hell, calls environmental enrichment “catification.” Catifying your cat’s environment not only makes her happy, it can also prevent serious be...

5 New Year’s Resolutions for Happy, Healthy Cats

Most New Year’s resolutions are abandoned within a month of making them. There are a lot of reasons why this happens. They may be too much of a stretch, there may be a lack of commitment, or the timing isn’t right. And yet, the New Year is a good time to start fresh and create some healthy habits. The following five resolutions will keep your cats happy and healthy not just for a few weeks, but for the rest of their lives.

1. Feed a species appropriate diet

Nutrition is the foundation for good...

Conscious Cat Sunday: Adopting These 3 Habits Will Make 2015 Your Best Year Yet

How many of you make New Year’s Resolutions? And how many of you actually keep them? I stopped making New Year’s resolutions several years ago. I wrote about my New Year’s ritual of listing everything that no longer serves me and letting go of it, and setting intentions for the New Year in “The Space Between the Years” last Sunday. Today, I’d like to suggest three habits that are guaranteed to not only help you stick to your resolutions if you make them, but that will make this year your best...

Mews and Nips: Cat Accidentally Sold with Mattress Is Home Safe

Camo, a five-year-old cat from Portland, Oregon, went missing after he was accidentally sold with a mattress. Camo’s guardian’s boyfriend sold the mattress set on December 17 without knowing that the cat was hidden inside. After wandering Portland alone for ten days, Camo was captured when his guardian lured him with a trap of oiled sardines and familiar-scented clothing. The moral of this story: never sell any household items without first making sure you know where your cats are! Read the f...

Review: The Fur Person by May Sarton

It seems only fitting that the first book review of the new year is also one of my all time favorite cat books. Originally published in 1978, The Fur Person is one of the most endearing cat stories I’ve ever read. Featuring the true adventures of Tom Jones, May Sarton’s own cat, this little book captures the essence of what a cat is all about in the beautiful prose of this gifted and sensitive writer and poet.

Prior to choosing Sarton as his person, Tom Jones was quite the cat about town, but...

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

from Allegra, Ruby and Ingrid
May your year be filled with health, happiness and purrs!

The post Happy New Year appeared first on The Conscious Cat.

2014 in Review

2014 has been a very good year for all of us here at The Conscious Cat. Our readership and fan base grew rapidly, thanks to all of you who read this blog every day, comment here and on our Facebook page, and share what you read with your friends and followers. Allegra, Ruby and I appreciate your support more than words can say.

With more than 365 posts, it’s hard to highlight only a handful of posts. I choose some of our most popular ones for this year end review. I hope you enjoy this look ba...