Fergus Looks Out

Some days I just feel like looking at photos of Fergus. This photo was taken at my in laws where Ferg's favorite spot was under this footstool. Brendan claimed the top level. From his spot, Fergus would keep an eye and ear on everything going on. You'd see his ears twitching and his eyes moving. He had the most expressive face I have ever seen on a cat.



See what I mean?

The end of a long day and a busy week. I didn't even make Feline Friday. I finished a new Pawprints and wrote a Caturday for the paper, then didn't have the photo to go with it. So I'll get that going next week. Also finished another short but complex video. Then we packed up both cats and drove to Portland and then we'll go to the Cape for the weekend to see my mom. Next weekend is my writing workshop and then friends from Texas and then I sure hope I will be going to NY to get Harper and Ramona. I haven't heard how they are doing since I talked to Lynn last week.

There are some lovely cats at the shelter. Three Katrina cats arrived and they look very content to be in their room warm and well fed. One, Arthur, an orange tabby, has a wonderful wise face. He seems like he has seen it all. I will try to get a good photo of him. The three little tiger kittens will be available for adoption soon and so is their mom, Lacey. She is Misty Willow's sister.

A couple of people have asked me to recommend books on health and nutrition. I will go through what I have and write about the ones I think I have learned from. Good nutrition for cats is really just common sense, though I didn't even think about it until after we lost Finnegan. I made the mistake of thinking that the food you can buy in your supermarket is actually good for your cat. Right now I think some of the best is the new Inova Evo dry food, which has no grain and Wellness. My boys are thriving on the Inova and I give Silas Wellness lite for his nighttime munchie bowl. He likes the Inova better so he doesn't eat much of the Lite but I can't put down just Lite because Brendan needs to keep weight on.

Brendan likes his food with a lot of warm water so it is soupy. He will sit in front of his dining area when he is hungry and silently let you know he would like something and at night he eats dinner from a foot stool in front of the TV. And he wants me to sit with him while he eats and I hold the food up or put it on his little table so it is raised up a little. Hey, he is old he can have some service.

For wet food, which I give Brendan twice a day and Silas doesn't care for except once in a while, I use Wellness and there is a Solid Gold Tuna they like plus there is a new brand with funny names like California Roll and New England Boil. Brendan really likes those and the ingredients are good. Cats are not grain eaters so it doesn't make sense that their food should have grain in it. Fergus reacted to grain and he would scratch himself. That's when my vet told me about Evo and it helped.

I did try some things suggested in books like The Natural Cat. I cooked chicken and rice with vegetables. That went down ok but not always. I tried raw food which no one would eat. Fergus just loved Fancy Feast so I would let him have it once in a while. I think it is junk food but hey, we eat junk food once in a while too.

We shot about an hour and a half with our vet and I learned a lot. There will be sections on Pawprints of health tips. The first one is on spay neuter. I didn't know the best time was before the first heat at in between five and seven months of age and that female cats can get mammary cancer, which is very often malignant. You can watch the video on the net as soon as I post the link.