Ingrid King's Blog: The Conscious Cat, page 438

ASPCA’s New Mobile App Puts Pet Safety First – Enter to Win a Pet First Aid Kit for Your Cat

The ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has launched its first interactive mobile application, which is available for free download on iPhone and Android. This mobile app offers a new tool to help reunite pet owners with lost pets. It includes step-by-step instructions on what to do if a pet goes missing, tailored to each specific circumstance and a pet’s individual personality. The app also allows pet guardians to store medical records, and it provides informati...

Can Cats and Pet Birds Live Safely Together?

Cats and birds are natural enemies, and anytime you put a predator and its prey together, you’re probably asking for trouble. Even the friendliest and laid back house cat may find her hunting instinct triggered by a high-energy bird. For this reason, cats and birds don’t usually make good housemates.

If you want to keep both, it is imperative that you carefully manage all interactions between the two species. In a recent article on Answers.com, I provided some tips on how to ensure that cats a...

Behavior Study Seeks to Improve Aggression Between Housemate Cats

Do peace and harmony reign in your multicat household, or do your cats barely tolerate each other, or even get into fights? As many of you with more than one cat know, feline housemates don’t always get along. Aggression may include fighting but often occurs as passive blocking and staring. Feline victims may hide, flee or scream.

Now there is new hope for peace and harmony. Your cats may be eligible to participate in a clinical behavior trial on the management and resolution of aggression bet...

The Optimal Litter Box for Your Cat

The average cat uses the litter box three to five times a day. It would make sense that something that is used so frequently on a daily basis requires that we humans put a lot of thought into it. Unfortunately, cat guardians often select a litter box for all the wrong reasons – or at least for the wrong reasons from the cat’s perspective.

I was delighted to see that the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) devoted an entire section of its new Feline House-Soiling Guidelines to d...

Conscious Cat Sunday: Just Say No to Drama

When you are not honoring the present moment by allowing it to be,

you are creating drama. – Eckhart Tolle

I like a good drama as much as the next person. Intrigue, passion, mystery – what’s not to like? But when I say I like drama, I’m talking about fiction, not real life. When it comes to real life drama, I don’t want any part of it.

This past week was a week of high drama in an online community I am a part of, and even though I watched from the sidelines, it reminded me of just how toxic dram...

Mews and Nips: Black-footed Kittens Charm Visitors at Philadelphia Zoo

It doesn’t get much cuter than this: the Philadelphia Zoo recently introduced the offspring of its two Black-footed Cats to the public. Kittens Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion were born in April. n The black-footed cat’s natural habitat is southern Africa. They are the smallest cat in the world and are even smaller than the domestic cat. For more photos and a video of the adorable trio, visit The Huffington Post.

If you missed any of the stories featured on The Conscious Cat this week, here’s a r...

ECO-Wise Cat Litter Winner

Congratulations, Brutus Duffy! You’re the winner of our ECO-Wise Cat Litter giveaway!

Look for an e-mail from Ingrid*.

*Winners were selected by random drawing. Winners need to provide a physical address to which the prize will be mailed within 72 hours of receipt of notification e-mail. If this information is not received, an alternate winner will be chosen.

The post ECO-Wise Cat Litter Winner appeared first on The Conscious Cat.

Review and Giveaway: The Cat Sitter’s Nine Lives by Blaize and John Clement

The Cat Sitter mystery series, featuring Dixie Hemingway, a pet sitter who lives on one of the Florida keys, has been a favorite of mine ever since the first book in the series, Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter, came out seven years ago. The series was originally written by Blaize Clement. Her son, John Clement, continued the series after her death in 2011. Blaize had been collaborating on plots and characters for future novels with John.

In The Cat Sitter’s Nine Lives, Dixie witnesses a head-o...

Giveaway: SmartCat All Natural Cat Litter

SmartCat All Natural Cat Litter is a lightweight clumping litter made 100% from grasses grown in the USA, with no added chemicals or fragrances. It is virtually dust free to minimize respiratory problems for both the cat and the pet parent.It has a creamy, sand like texture. It quickly absorbs urine, which helps reduce tracking outside of the litter box. The odor causing components of the urine are trapped in the clumps. The litter begins dewatering the clump to minimize the biodegradation (b...

The Cats at Shasta Abbey

A king, a cat and a monk will all sit in the highest places. – Zen saying

Located in a rural area on 16 forested acres at the foot of Mount Shasta in Northern California, Shasta Abbey is a Buddhist monastery of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. Founded in 1970, the monastery serves as a training center for Buddhist monks and a place of practice for lay people.

It is also home to 12 cats, ranging in age from 3 to 18 . “The kitties just somehow make their way to the abbey,” says Reverend Hele...