Savannah's Paw Tracks

29 Apr 2016

Cheers for National Hairball Awareness Day! #spons

HELLO, MOM L HERE

I don’t think we have ever posted on National Hairball Awareness Day, mostly because Savannah and The Kid Sage seldom have hairballs worth mentioning. As readers know, Savannah has had a long time battle with vomiting, but it was hardly ever related to the passing of hairballs. We have the vomiting under control now that both Savannah and TKS are on a raw diet.

However, last week, Savannah hacked up big time right after eating a snack of her prescription dry food. I thought it was due to stress and she had just given TKS a smacky paw for getting in her way to go upstairs. YIKES! Was I ever surprised and horrified. I saw something dark in the middle of the hack-up, which came out almost in the shape of a sausage. I looked closer and I found the biggest, literally THE BIGGEST hairball I have ever seen a cat hack up. It was dark gray fur, about one half an inch thick and about four to five inches long!!

Sorry for the mess Mom L

“Savvy, don’t you worry. I’m just sorry I have not been brushing you the RIGHT way.”

Savannah must have been saving that up for months! And I brush her every morning with a soft brush and every night using a slicker brush. I thought I was doing a good job. Apparently not good enough.

That night I used the Furminator and I must have pulled enough fur to fully cloth TWO kittens! I have been doing this every night for a week and it is really paying off. Hairballs are REAL! And after reading blog post from 2010 by Ingrid King, I realized she is right, “there is no such thing as Just A Hairball“.

The very next day I received an offer from Wellness Pet Foods to use an infographic they have created to promote National Hairball Awareness Day. I said heck yes, I’ll post about all the things we cat guardians can do to help our cats’ control hairballs!

Given my experience with Savannah, I agree with five of the tips in the graphic below. Brushing consistently, being sure to give special attention to our long haired feline companions, making time to play to keep our cats focused on something other than grooming, giving them lots of hands on attention to reassure them they are safe and have no need to be anxious and providing water, water everywhere! Hydrate, hydrate!

The tip I am not sure I agree with is the need to add fiber to their diet. While I absolutely appreciate the quality Wellness has put into their Natural Hairball Control dry food, my experience with Savannah is that after four years with me, and eating wet food and now raw, this is the first real hairball she has ever hacked up. We do not find a need for fiber in her diet. I have included a link to Ingrid King’s post from 2010 at the end of this blog post. Please be sure to read it. I found it very informative and useful. (click to be able to read the fine print, and even bigified, it is not easy)

My thanks to Wellness for allowing me use their infographic and for giving me a tool to be able to step up and eagerly promote National Hairball Awareness Day!

Some Startling New Thoughts on Cats and Hairballs, published 2010

FCC Disclaimer: We were compensated for the time it took to tell you about this infographic created by Wellness Pet Foods. However, all our opinions are our own. We will not share information or products unless we believe they can be of benefit to our readers.

Have you brushed your cat today?

THANKS FOR VISITING, MOM L

27 Apr 2016

30 Comments

UPDATE: Feline Express™ Driver

HIYA! SAVANNAH HERE!!

All my long time readers know that Mom L , with my support of course, is now a Certified Feline Express™ Driver for Outcast Cat Help (OCH). OCH has an agreement with Contra Costa County Animal Services as their Return to Field transfer partner. For those of you who have joined me recently you can catch up on this life saving program in the links at the bottom of this post. Paw pats for checking out those links—guaranteed to put a smile on your face, seriously.

Times change and the Return to Field (RTF) program is kicking in big time. That means Mom L needs HELP!!! (click to bigify next image)

Returning feral cats, spayed/neutered one at a time

Who ya gonna call??

Guess who stepped up?? Come on, all of you who have known me for a while recognize this CATMAN to the rescue!!

He has opposable thumbs! YAY!!!

And clearly just by being present with Mom L, the Feline Express™ Driver, he MUST be good with cats. After all, I am his very special Savannah, The Princess. My Dad P totally loves me and I am now showing him how much I love him. More to come about that new development in my purrsonal progress.

I have digressed, let’s get on with Mom L’s most recent assignment. We had three kitties to Return To Field. One was a youngster, about six months old, brown tabby girl. This little girl was sooooo scared. She kept her back to the front of the Feral Den. The front of the den has a clear plexi-glass door which is why Feline Express™ Drivers always cover it with paper.

I am so scared. What is gonna become of me?

Another was about one year old, again brown tabby girl. (can you see Mom L’s reflection in the plexi glass door? So hard to not have reflection as all must be done so fast as to not cause these kitties any further stress)

What is happening to me!??

And the third cat was a very handsome male, Mr TomAboutTown cat, maybe three years old.

Please let me be free

All were returned to the same address and all were welcomed back by their caregiver. In transit, all cats have their plexi glass front door covered in paper for their privacy and need for seclusion.

Please protect community cats’ need for privacy

At last the beginning of the release.

“hush, hush sweet girl” You are in my care

And here she goes—

Next Mom L released the other tabby girl—

And last, the Tomcat. He was reluctant to leave at first.

The next try with Tomcat was so fast it challenged Mom L’s new Assistant Driver’s smart phone reactions. All they captured was this—

Community cat rescue totally rocks!! Here is hoping all of my readers will push their local rescues to adopt the Return To Field program for community cats. Let’s all “humanely manage the community cat population”.

Paw It Forward

PAW PATS, SAVANNAH

PeeEss—links to previous blog posts about Return To Field and Feline Express™ Drivers

Give Life to Free Roaming Cats

Approving Feral Rescue

A Day At the Races

Official Feline Express™ Driver

Posted in Community Cats and tagged paw it forward, return to field for cats

25 Apr 2016

27 Comments

A Special Sun Puddle for The Kid Sage

HIYA! SAVANNAH HERE!!!

As you all know, I have my sun puddle room which is now called “The Princess Savannah Sun Room” (TPSSR). Well, and sometimes the “guest room”—sigh.

Summer is coming so I stay in my Alfie One Wing beddie for indirect sun puddle time

This is the only room in our current home where the sun always shows up. I have my special Alfie One Wing Beddie on the guest bed where I get maximum light, but not a lot of direct sun to scorch my Russian Blue fur. I do share with TKS, but often I prefer she take a hike and find her own sun puddles, which is a real challenge believe you me.

TKS is using one of the cat towers I allow her on in TPSSR

TKS is on one of the cat towers I allow her to use in TPSSR

I guess TKS is getting a bit too hot and bothered with the warmer sun we get this time of year. So she has searched the house through to find a sun puddle with her name on it. At last, as Ms Sun keeps moving around, she found just the spot.