How to train your cat to walk on a lead

Wondering how on earth are you going to get that cat on a lead? Here are some top tips on how get that kitty into it.

Firstly get your cat used to a harness, I was trained as a kitten when i was too young to go out by myself. This the best time to start but cat's are smart and most cats can be trained at any age.

When choosing a harness choose one with clips, instead of buckles,  it's a lot quicker to put on so less stressful at the beginning.

I have tried a few different brand and styles of collars. The best are the ones that do not go round the throat. Also i find the cushioned harnesses are better as i like to pull, alot.

NEVER- ever ever, put a lead on your cats collar. It will choke him and make him hate the lead and you for doing it.

With leads, the longer the better and extendable dog leads work well. When you start training your cat will follow you and run in spurts, if the lead is too short you will also have to run with the cat, which will make them freeze, turn around and stare and you with big please don't eat me eyes.

So you're back from the shops with all the goodies for the cat?
First time round let him smell the harness but don't make it the main focus, get the treats ready and as they are scoffing a couple try and put the harness on as quick as you can. If they try to stop you, just restrain until it's on and tightened ect.
 ( If your struggling and your just running around the house after him stressing him out, just stop and try again later. You don't want them thinking harness = bad things)
Reward with treats and your cat probably wont even notice the harness is on.







 Clip the lead on, pick the cat up and start walking around your garden. This is best done outside, along their normal patrol paths if they are already outside cats. Make sure its a quiet area, every time he gets spooked they will just want to freeze and hide. keep walking with the cat in your arms till he demands to be put down.  Start walking in the direction you want to go and he probably wont follow you or start to walk off in their own direction of interest or try and hide in a bush. pick the cat up and carry on walking till he demands to be put down then start walking in the way you want to go. This may take you 10 attempts it may take a 100 recreating the process over several months, i'm nearly a year old now so been doing this for 9 months and still improving . Eventually the idea is if he doesn't want to be carried he has to walk the way you want to go.

 Please respect that cat's don't like walking through the middle of a field. so instead stick to the going around the edges of the fields, gardens, until you get there.

This is not an overnight process. Do NOT drag your cat around trying to encourage them, we are much slighter than dog's and cant handle being yanked about.

 Understand the weather can be too hot or too wet to go walking in. Build up your cats stamina as it will be very tiring at first, take regular breaks to catch their breath. always carry around a bowl and water, treats are good too.

 Just because your cat follows you around the block doesn't mean you don't need to put a leash on them when anywhere unfamiliar. it could easily be scared by a dog/person/car/anything. This will cause them to seek a hiding place making them run off. Then try to imagine how long that might take to find them in the middle of the wildernes...

What my owner does if something is approaching us that i don't like, for example a dog, she will jsut pick me up untill we are past it. I feel safer high up and it stops me getting so stressed about having to cross paths with it.

Once you have mastered the leash and harness you can take your kitty everywhere! This has great rewards for both you and them. Cats love patrolling new territory and bonding time with you. It also means your kitty doesn't need to stuck indoors all the time. I have had many great adventures with my humans. Seeing things i never thought i would; like waterfalls, meadows, mountains and caves.

 So what are you waiting for?

who's a big boy? ok you're huge!

Today im tipping my hat to the wonderful creation of the Liger. For those of you who havent heard this term this is the off spring from a male lion and a female tigress. Pretty cool, but what's so special about it? Well in lions it is the male that carries the growth gene and the female in the case of tigers, so when you mix these two together the end result is a giant!

There's no hiding from Hercules as his owner takes him for a stroll....

Although this is super cool, in the wild this is very unlikely. a male lion meeting a bunch of female tigers.. sounds like a cat fight. Also being so big wouldn't be a great advantage in the wild. The amount the Liger needs to consume to survive is ALOT and being so large would probably make hunting/stalking harder. So as you can imagine this  has only been recorded in captivity, sometimes an accident!

A tiger on the left compared to the Liger on the right

It's not so surprising really, we cross breed dogs all the time. Horses crossed with donkeys make mules, you also might of heard the story about grizzly bears and polar bears making pizzlies!  They even think we may even be a result of cross breeding! But of all the hybrids i think the Liger is the coolest, mainly because of its sheer size and cuddly 'looking' face.

This is Hercules, a 64 stone Liger with his little brother.

There are thought to be around 20 Ligers and Tigons around the world altogether. Heres how you know what to call it:

Lion + liger = li-liger
Lion + tigon = li-tigon
Tiger + liger = ti-liger
Tiger + tigon = ti-tigon

Other Kitty hybrids:

Leopard x lion= Leopon

Bengal Cat x Ocicat = Cheetoh

African serval x Asian Leopard cat x domestic house cat = Ashera

serval x domestic cat = savannah

Bengal cat x tabby cat = Toyger

(A result of cross breeding its not a real hybrid but still, super cute!)

here my sources and some great links to check this out further:

http://ligerliger.com/ this is the homepage for the park where Hercules comes from, a great website and foundation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger good old wikipedia for those straight forward facts!

cats in the hall of fame

Hey guys going to start doing this regularly to honour those kitties that make this world a little cuter.

Today i gice you "Casper the commuting cat" a cute little cat from plymouth who was crazy for bus rides! He was adopted by his human who had no idea of his habits! Eventually the bus drivers found out he was sneaking on without a ticket but they continued to give him free rides for the rest of his life. Ofcourse casper became a local celebrity and a lot of humans got to enjoy his company. Unfortunatley Casper passed away at the age of 12 but his memory lives on on the busways of plymouth. 

The Scottish Wildcat numbers are down to 400!!

We have to take a moment for the largest wild mammal in Britain, before it's too late. 


The Scottish cat numbers have dwindled down to 400 and that's including the ones in captivity!! They were here before human kind and long before our domesticated cat had evolved. But soon our last large mammal predator will just be a statistic among the British Wolf and British Lynx.


One of the biggest problems is that our feral/domesticated cats are breeding with the Scottish Wildcat and diluting the species into extinction. So much so, that some specialists studying them have had as little as only 3 sightings of these cats in the 25 years of their career. They are extremely suspicious of humans it can be impossible to track clans and even more so the lone population of the cat's.

Infamous for being unable to be tamed a true wild cat. Once roaming over all of Britain's pastures they have been chased to the far corners of Scotland. Larger than the domesticated cat it hunts deer and Lamb. Of course there are old folk tales of them killing human beings. Dogs are the most common casualties. Many believe the fen tiger sightings in England are really the wildcat or the 'Kellas' its descendant which is jet black.








They eat nothing but meat and most of their water intake comes from meat too. In-fact if cats are fed a vegetarian diet they would go blind, so a killer instinct is rife. Ferocious, cats have been seen killing themselves to kill an eagle attacking their cubs nest. Their teeth are so sharp they are known to bite clean through a gauntlet or hand. If approached they hiss and their hackles raise but instead of trying to look big like our house cat's they mock charge, exactly what a big cat like a lion or tiger would do.

The wildcats brain has a third lobe at the front of the brain that acts as a spirit level. This is far more advance than the human's brain in this respect but probably comes in handy when you are trying to catch flying objects in the air.

Fortunately it seems there are some out there trying to save the small population left. Huge efforts are being made this year to try and get a better idea of how many are still true wildcats and how we can encourage their numbers. We need to act fast before they are forgotten forever!

http://www.highlandtiger.com/

http://www.scottishwildcats.co.uk/wildcat.html

 pictures sourced from the Wikipedia website

Fan art

more fan art. loving this one!!

I Cant stop killing...

Im a cat, have urges and needs, instinct and guts. I was born to hunt, catch, bite and scratch. No matter how much poor mummy tries to stop me from killing those beloved wood pigeons, I just can't help myself. Think a bell will stop me, no can do. They are mine, so far i've killed 5 in my first week of successfully bringing home dinner for mamma.

 

 Even though i look damned evil, i'm not. Cat's go blind if they eat a vegetarian diet so it is just natural to have a killers attitude.

please take away any kills your pet makes. It is a very easy way for them to pick up worms, bad bacteria and heart worm. also fleas and other parasites can transfer onto your kitty pretty quickly. 

Me and The neighbour's cat play fighting. It's just play but we do test the territory bounderies as there are so many cat's round here. this was all shot in about 15 minutes. SO CUTE >.<

Play time

 


     This is just a few of my possessions. My scratch tree, some chase toys and i like to scrap with soft toys. Its great to keep me entertained when the folks are out the house but it's even more fun when they play with them with me. Even though i'm a big ginger tom, i still love company. Your cat may love roaming the outdoors but make sure you spend time with your kitty to bond. If your introducing something new to a routine try a few short calm bursts of something until they can get used to it and start to trust and enjoy it. Nine times out of ten though, your kitty will always have time to play with you.

Portrait

What a wonderful privilege to have an artist do a portrait of you. Thank you to Cisco Jones the artist.

taking a look back to the cats of the 60's

 Look at this great photo i found, it's a picture of a holly wood casting back in 1961. Only one cat would of been picked to play the role in the film 'The black cat' how would you choose? 

What strikes me is that they are all on leads! back then in the 60's! what an awesome world i live in!

Cats heavyweight lifting experiment, must watch!

Kitty Cats taking their lunch with them:

This video is in Japanese but they show the weights in English and is very easy to follow,

but i do suggest muting it >.<

Aren't they such lovely cat's? All animal experiments should only include giving us nice treats. Just so you know, it goes without saying, i'm against any experiment that causes an animal any kind of stress. This however is my idea of science!!  

Tasty big fish, some of them i don't recognize at all! Are you surprised how strong us cat's are?  

The Cat's Mystic third eye..

No, we aren't mystic moggies really. but us cat's, well actually pretty much any other mammal or bird other than monkeys and human's have a third eyelid. 

Imagine where the normal two sets of eyelids like your own meet vertically, on the inside of these cats have another eye lid that closes horizontally. its a bit of cartilage called the nictitating membrane...eww.

Here you can see the white membranes of the third eye 

creeping in

The purpose of this eyelid is not yet fully understood, it keeps the eye nice and clean with a tear substance that helps clean away dust and bacteria. It's thought that maybe its because cats descend from the African wild cat which is a desert creature, a third eyelid would be really useful with all the sand in a storm. 

Once in awhile you may catch a glimpse of our third eyes its an oddity and irregularity cannot be comprehended by humans, its why the Egyptians thought we had a third eye and that we could see things that humans can't. Maybe i can but that's a secret.

If your kitties third eye has stuck around its very important that you rush them down the vets, its a strong indication that they might be really ill. Do not ignore this it may be fatal and the vet will know what we need to get better. 

So why don't humans or primates have them? I don't know but that fleshy lump in the corner of your eyes, that's where yours used to be! So I guess you just don't need them anymore, not like me who's always in the tall grass, its good to have my eyes protected!

Hair Hair... Everywhere!!!

Man i'm hairy and this is what spring brings..

There's hair on the carpet, hair on the curtains, hair on my owners clothes and every time they stroke me... more hair!! But phew, i'm glad to be rid of this thick coat. Very important to brush or 'groom' your kitties to help us out with this.

A great tip that my owners use is a bowl of water, wet the palm of your hand and rub it against the surface your trying to clean, surprisingly efficient. Brushing your kitty outside stops a lot of the build up in our environments too.

This has all led me to think about how when its summer you miss those cosy cold nights of winter, but when its winter you long for those long summer days... like today i was sooo hot! seeking refuge in the big shadows i thought about the snow we had this year, it wasn't long ago.. i like snow.. and here's a pic

I love you or I own you?

Why kitties do it?

Humans are always confusing each other with their body language but what does it mean when its your kitty? I was just thinking about when you get home from work and your cat is oh so excited to see you, he's purring and stroking up your leg in an affectionate way...

But is this just the cat showing you they own you?!

Like most mammals cat's have scent glands: on their heads and lips, front paws and flanks, also on the rears. Now these glands are sweating out a potent mix of chemicals that another cat would be able to read up on when he was there, fertility status, what mood he was in and what direction he was travelling. 

All scents are unique so this helps your kitty feel safe in his environment knowing its just him there, now its all been marked as his. So really, when he's rubbing all over you and you think its cute he is really saying 'your mine, all mine!' which is kinda cute anyway.

Although if you have two cats you may sometimes (rarely) see them rubbing faces or almost head butting, this is called bunting. Even though cats are mainly solitary, when two cats feel deeply content around each others presence they show this by rubbing there facial scent glands together to make a cocktail of the two. this is to create a group scent and is a way for kitties to show there trust to each other and to create a mutual territory. Ever had your kitty rub their face all over yours?

 Even though these acts are strictly territorial, i think that there is a way us kitties purr and rub up against you, that there is some kind of affection intended.

 After all, love is when you belong to each other right?

Here's to water..

Do you know why the cat's loved Egypt...? because there is no water there. well there is but most of its in the Nile. Anyhow you know how sunny it was in England today, well it wasn't where we were per example:

View from the Dam

We went to the Avon Dam in Devon and i think its actually a bit of a hidden gem, didn't see a single dog and it was totally deserted. Head down there if your local for a free and rewarding walkies. 

http://www.swlakestrust.org.uk/lakes-and-facilities/the-lakes/avon 

Erm..wading through rivers.. I dont think so, carry me!

I hear there is one more day and we are going home...

Poisenous Plants in your back garden

After roaming around the wilderness I thought id look up some plants, you would be so suprised how many common plants are bad for kitties. here a just a few really common one which are also poisenous to horses and dogs. If your a pet owner and looking to do some gardening this spring maybe you'll avoid these:

English Ivy: Vomiting, abdominal pain, hypersalivation, diarrhea. Foliage is more toxic than berries 

Horse Chesnut or conker tree: Severe vomiting and diarrhea, depression or excitement, dilated pupils, coma, convulsions, wobbly 

The cherry Tree: Stems, leaves, seeds contain cyanide, particularly toxic in the process of wilting: brick red mucous membranes, dilated pupils, difficulty breathing, panting, shock. 

Daffodils: Vomiting, salvation, diarrhea; large ingestions cause convulsions, low blood pressure, tremors and cardiac arrhythmias. Bulbs are the most poisonous part.  

Hyacinth : Vomiting, diarrhea, dermatitis and allergic reactions. Bulbs contain highest amount of toxin. 

ALL Lillies: only applies to cat's it's highly toxic and causes kidney failure, not even a good idea to have them in your house as flowers as they transfer there pollen very easily! 

And there's a lot more than just these.... and now i'm scared :( meow.

The White Lady

I say, it's lucky i am a cat and can sleep at all times as my owners had me up at 6am this morning. Not sure i like the hotel, it's clean and tidy but when you are paying for luxury, don't you think that if they are going to give you 6 different sachets for hot drinks then surely only putting out 2 milks would never be enough. Being rationed on the milk now, can you believe this is the world we live in.
Anyway the reason we woke up so early is because we went to see a waterfall...why???
We all should know I wouldn't be the fondest of water and when it's falling down from a couple of hundred meters at some silly it doesn't excite me too much. So i didn't get too close, but i guess its something new. The waterfall was called The White Lady and unfortunately i refused to stand still for a photograph. :)

Hopefully there is much more to see!

6 whole hours!

And this is how much i like cars....

How far is Devon away from my territory? Only about 6 hours in light traffic!!
Are they serious?!? I was a very good boy though; i must say, sat on their laps as they drove, i slept and slept .Best of all no accidents, very smug.Then i got bored and was hungry and stole some fast food burger from them.. hungry humans? Other than my love for cheese, i haven't seen much at all other than the inside of that car. At least i didn't have to go in the travel case that just gives me the creeps.

I have noticed the air is cleaner here though, you wouldn't be able to tell, but i'm a cat and i notice these things.

Not met up with any local cats yet, although iv spotted lots of stupid dogs. looking forward to actually travelling by foot and exploring. Cars make me sick and i hope we don't go back for a while as i'm not looking forward to the journey home!!



This is me being carried in to the hotel, sleepy and moody :)

Strike a pose!

I am the man of your dreams :)

Tomorrow is another day..

I cant believe it i'm so excited, i was just told we are going to Devon tomorrow!! I really cannot wait its brilliant, i wonder what birds they have there? i'm doing some research now on my laptop, very nice isn't it and the big keys are perfect for my paws.