Many thousands of years ago, a man allowed a cat into his home. Since then, this cute mysterious creature with soft paws and bottomless eyes has accompanied people throughout history. Many different signs, beliefs and traditions are associated with cats.
Man has never been able to fully study the mystical nature of these animals. However, the fact that a cat is not a random guest in the house and brings good luck to the owner is a long-established fact.
Buy your cat a puzzle
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Cats love riddles, which is probably why these animals themselves are so mysterious. That's why it's so important for our purring friends to purchase the right toys, like the one you see in the gif above.
Simple design, but so much functionality. Throw down a ball, ball or other ringing, glowing toy - and consider that your pet is busy for the next hour. He will need a lot of ingenuity to figure out how to get all these items out of there.
Signs about the road
A sign known to everyone: a black cat crossed the road - to failure, there will be no way. You need to go back, take another road, or wait until someone passes first. If a person is about to leave the house or entrance, but suddenly hears a loud meow, he must return and wait a while, otherwise an accident will happen on the road.
If you are going to go somewhere, even for a short time, you need to ask your pet to save the house from uninvited guests, fire and other troubles. To do this, you should gently stroke him and say: “I’m leaving, and you stay at home, protect our home from harm!” The animal will fulfill the request by calling on its ally, the brownie, for help.
Before a long trip, people usually pack their bags. If the cat climbs and lies down in it, it means the journey will be easy and fun. If the fluffy one interferes with packing things or tries to throw them out of the suitcase, departure should be postponed. If this is not possible, you need to be especially careful on the road - meetings with unkind people, robbery, loss of property and other troubles are possible.
Get a drinking fountain for cats
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If you have noticed that your cat constantly strives to drink water straight from the tap, you are witnessing another strong natural instinct of cats. In the wild, running water is clean and safe to drink (there are exceptions, but these are just coincidences).
For this reason, to make life more comfortable for your mustachioed companion, grab a drinking fountain and see what happens.
Is it possible to talk about the difference in the character of females and males: pros and cons
All members of the cat family behave the same during childhood. They run, play, and explore the world around them with curiosity. Their pranks and attempts to climb onto the sofa or lap evoke a smile of tenderness. Babies accept affection with pleasure and allow themselves to be stroked. However, with age, the character of pets changes greatly - then the differences between male and female individuals become visible.
Pussycats
Affectionate creatures require increased attention from humans. They need to be close, to feel cared for and loved. Girls are able to subjugate not only people with one glance, but also other pets living in the neighborhood. Benefits of cats:
- cleanliness;
- pronounced hunting instinct;
- flexible character;
- lack of desire to mark territory.
However, against the backdrop of positive qualities, negative aspects should also be noted. For example, females love to sharpen their claws and use walls, furniture, and wallpaper for this. You can cope with this scourge using a special scratching post. It is necessary to trim nails from an early age so that the baby is completely accustomed to the procedure.
You should also remember about the rancor and touchiness of ladies. They can take sophisticated revenge on their offender, be it a family member, a guest or another four-legged friend.
On the physiological side, unsterilized females require mating, so the owner has to look for a mating partner and transport the bride to the groom’s territory. If the pregnancy occurred unplanned, then there is a need to place the grown-up babies in good hands.
Kotikov
Males are considered more independent animals compared to females. They do not climb into your hands, allowing themselves to be stroked only occasionally. Typically, friendly expressions are associated with the desire to get a treat or go for a walk.
The male loves to dominate, considering an apartment or house only his place. However, those who prefer a male to a female talk about many positive features of the mustache:
- active lifestyle;
- no problems with mating and placement of offspring;
- independence in a good way.
Experienced cat owners note their increased curiosity. They want to look and smell everything.
Boys love to sit in the kitchen and beg for a tasty piece. However, begging can be corrected through proper education from childhood.
The main problem with keeping males is the strong natural odor and odorous marks left everywhere. Careful care and castration will help solve this problem.
It is recommended to have a couple of trays for cats in a large apartment
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They say that there should be one main tray for a cat and one additional one, especially if there are several cats in the apartment. This is supposed to keep them from showing dominance (cats won't pee past it, showing their rival that it's their property) and vandalism from an angry animal. The upholstery and floors will thank you later.
How to carry out treatment at home?
Treating your cat at home is not a simple matter and requires detailed discussion. On the one hand, the diagnosis of most diseases, and even more so their adequate treatment, necessarily requires the participation of a veterinarian. On the other hand, timely assistance to your cat in case of accidents, as well as mandatory attention to the first manifestations of any diseases in cats, is the main concern of the owner.
So here are some useful tips.
Pay close attention to your cat's overall health. Only indirect signs can indicate that a cat is sick, for example: a change in body temperature (normally from 38 to 39 C), decreased appetite, apathy, and decreased social activity.
Burns
Try to calm your pet and carefully examine the burn area. Treat the affected area of skin with dexpanthenol spray and try to bandage it. Do not allow your cat to lick the burned area and avoid contact of the affected skin with dirty surfaces. After treating a burn, contact your veterinarian immediately.
Cuts
When you get a cut, first inspect the wound. If it is shallow and does not bleed much, treat it with an antiseptic solution (hydrogen peroxide, chlorhexidine), bandage it if possible and consult a veterinarian. But remember that you should not use iodine, brilliant green and other alcohol-containing solutions to treat wounds - they can cause a burn to the wound and aggravate the situation. If you find heavy bleeding, apply a tight bandage and immediately take your cat to the veterinary clinic!
Fractures
Falling from a height of one or two people's own height - the most common cause of fractures in humans - practically does not harm cats. In an apartment, it is difficult for a healthy cat to break anything. Most often, such injuries are the result of limbs being pinched by doors due to the carelessness of the owners.
If your cat is limping, do not try to apply a bandage yourself - without proper pain relief, you will only do harm. If the injury is accompanied by damage to the skin, treat the wound as indicated above. After this, you should limit the cat’s mobility as much as possible, put it in a carrier, and contact a veterinary clinic as soon as possible.
Poisoning
Often, domestic cats can accidentally swallow inedible and even life-threatening chemicals, for example, some household chemicals. Symptoms of poisoning: apathy, lethargy, decreased temperature, repeated vomiting, diarrhea. Try to give your pet some kind of sorbent drug (for example, activated carbon), and contact your veterinarian as soon as possible.
Never try to diagnose and treat your cat’s illnesses yourself! For any serious illness, after first aid, contact a veterinarian you trust.
Using hidden trays
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The advice is quite strange, but we’ll voice it too - maybe it will be useful to someone. So: it is advised to use “secluded trays”, hidden from prying eyes. For example, this one: a girl sits and smiles, not knowing that she is sitting, in fact, on a cat's litter box.
As an experienced cat lover, it is not clear to me how the owner combats the smell in the hallway. Even if you quickly clean everything up, the smell will still remain, and not in the restroom, but, in fact, in the living room. Not a very pleasant neighborhood...
The heart will thank you
Having a cat welcome you home and purr on your lap in the evening is a great way to reduce your daily stress levels. And where there is less stress, there is less stress on the heart and blood vessels.
In general, it is not surprising that the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases among owners of these tailed animals is significantly lower than among those who did not think of getting a cat.
Yes, scientists are quite categorical: they call the acquisition of a purring beast Cat ownership and the Risk of Fatal Cardiovascular Diseases. Results from the Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Study Mortality Follow-up Study is an excellent strategic solution for those concerned about heart health.
If your cat is curious and not afraid, take her for a walk
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This is not for every cat, but if you see that the kitten is brave and not afraid of strangers, it might be worth a try. It is clear that the cat must be on a leash (so as not to run away: the city is full of irritants that frighten animals), and not just on a leash, but on a harness - a special harness for cats that will not damage its neck or cause discomfort.
It is naturally better to walk in the park, on the grass or in the forest, if they are nearby. Before walks, it is necessary to have all vaccinations for walking cats (vaccination against panleukopenia viruses, herpesvirus (viral rhinotracheitis), calicivirus and rabies, and others, if necessary), as well as courses against the appearance of worms.
At the dacha, the cat is more at ease; there you can do without harnesses. Cats are very smart and have excellent spatial awareness. It is unlikely that your pet will get lost or disappear, even if it jumps over a fence. But it’s better to make sure that the cat walks only on its six hundred square meters. This way, risks are minimized, and all that remains is a good mood, exercise and health for the pet.
Why can't you kill?
For most people, killing animals is an unnatural and extremely cruel act.
Why cats should not be killed can be explained from several points of view:
- It has always been common for humans to kill animals: for food, for home improvement, for making clothes and accessories, and simply to demonstrate their superiority. But from a psychological point of view, killing cats is a special kind of cruelty. In our culture, they take the place of a person’s friends, sometimes they are full-fledged family members. There is an opinion that whoever raises his hand against a cat can harm a person. And this is not an unfounded assertion;
- From a scientific point of view, if you destroy cats, the population of mice and rats will certainly increase. And this threatens humanity with serious troubles. History knows many examples when rodents became the cause of famine and terrible epidemics;
- In the religion of Ancient Egypt, cats were deified. Anyone who harmed her would face the death penalty. However, in other religious movements these animals are given a special place. For example, a cat cannot be kicked out of an Orthodox church (unlike a dog), it cannot desecrate the altar with its presence;
- many signs also speak of dire consequences for the one who offended the cat. One of them claims that a person who kills a cat bears the black mark of evil, and for seven years he will be haunted by grief and misfortune.
A cat must have a shelter, and more than one
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Cats consider the entire apartment to be their territory. If strangers come (your friends whom the cat has not seen before), most cats are frightened by uninvited guests, treat them with caution and try in every possible way to hide from them.
They hide anywhere in secluded places: under the bed, behind a thick curtain, under the bathroom, they crawl into any cracks and sometimes try to get into places where it is physically impossible to squeeze in. Give them this chance!
Cat tuning
Many people consider it necessary to change the structure of the cat's body in accordance with their own ideas. Not all improvements are created equal.
Sterilization is an excellent solution for apartment cats. But if your pet has to build relationships with the street community of four-legged animals, castration will definitely prevent it from taking its rightful place in the local hierarchy.
Surgical declawing. A barbaric operation that irreversibly worsens the animal’s relationship with its owner. The cat will never get used to the absence of claws and will experience stress for the rest of its life. “Anti-scratch” - silicone caps for claws - are less harmful to the limbs, but just as traumatic for the animal’s psyche.
Haircut to prevent overheating. It can help, but it can also harm. Typically, cats spontaneously shed excess fur as the warm season approaches. In addition, wool protects the animal's skin from burns resulting from contact with direct sunlight.
We have touched only on some aspects of a cat’s life with a person. In future publications we will continue to introduce readers to the features of keeping cats.
Cats are allergic
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Cats can have persistent allergies to flowers, plants and fruits. To know what your four-legged friend can sneeze on, follow the following link and, by translating the site using the translator built into your browser, read which plants can be dangerous or harmful to your cat: www.aspca.org
To detoxify, don't forget to purchase cat grass. It is also useful for removing hair and other impurities from the cat's stomach.
Skin and coat care
Short-haired cats are the least demanding when it comes to grooming and maintain almost all the hygiene of their skin and coat themselves. The coat of semi-longhaired and longhaired cats requires maximum care. It consists of regular (preferably daily) combing of the coat and combing out dead hairs. Movements should be soft and smooth so as not to cause discomfort to the animal.
If your cat has tangles, you can try to untangle them with your fingers. If it doesn’t work out, then it’s best to use a special tool – a tangle cutter. By carefully combing the wool with its metal plates, you can successfully deal with even neglected tangles.
Grooming your cat is a task for a professional groomer, especially if you want to give the animal some kind of hairstyle, and we are not talking about just a hygienic haircut, as, for example, in the summer. Long-haired and semi-long-haired cats are usually cut using special professional animal clippers. If you decide to cut your cat’s hair yourself, a lot will depend on the character and upbringing of the pet. Grooming some cats at home is almost impossible or dangerous for both the owner and the animal. And although there are animals that are calm about this procedure, you will in any case need an assistant who will hold the cat and a specialized clipper.
Some cats are terrified of clippers; such animals should only be cut at a veterinary clinic or grooming salon.
Haircut tips:
- using a machine, remove hair from the sides, back and belly of the pet. With great care and a secure hold, the cat's belly and perineum are trimmed;
- trim the fur in the armpit area. Afterwards, the croup and torso are cut from behind;
- the tail is either not cut at all, or a “tassel” is left at the end;
- carefully trim the hair on the paws;
- The head is cut last, usually simply shaped with safe scissors, rounded at the ends.
Weather signs
Many “cat” signs are associated with weather changes. These days this is not as relevant as in former times. At that time, natural conditions were of great importance for human life. Therefore, they tried to find out the weather in every possible way, for example, by watching animals, including cats:
- curled up into a ball, covering his nose with his paw - to cold weather;
- sleeps all day, refuses to play - there will be prolonged rains;
- presses close to the stove (heating radiator) - to frost;
- intensively sharpens its claws - there will be a strong wind (in winter - a blizzard);
- sleeping on his back, spread out - to warming;
- sneezes often - the weather will deteriorate, there will be rain (in winter - snowfall).
Signs about material well-being
Mystically minded people are sure that there are magical ways to get rich. Some of them are related to cats. For example, to get an irredeemable ruble, you need to bring a black animal to the crossroads at midnight, stand facing west and pinch the cat so that it meows loudly. In response to these sounds, an entity will appear and ask you to sell the screamer to it. You need to agree, asking for a ruble as payment. This coin will be irredeemable, that is, under any circumstances, it will return to the owner and over time will make him rich.
According to legend, if a cat washes itself while sitting next to an empty wallet, money will soon appear in it. You can strengthen the sign by saying at this moment:
“The cat washes itself, and my purse is filled with gold! Let it be so!".
Another sign is that the more dead mice a cat brings, the wealthier its owners will be.
