Update  – we are very honored to report this article was the winning recipient of the Cat Writer’s Association 2018 Senior Well-Being Cat Award. as judged by Briony Scott, pet-sitting entrepreneur and certified cat behaviorist.

Zee, very busy assisting with our home renovation project.

Dan used to lament that Zee, our brown tabby Maine Coon I got for him as a kitten as a housewarming gift when he moved in with me in 2005, did not grow into the cuddly lap cat he was hoping for. But Zee was perpetually busy. It began with him instigating rabbit-kick fighting with our adult Ragdoll cat, Jazz, (twice his size), and when we renovated our house a few months after Dan moved in, he was curiously involved in every aspect of it, as the tell-tale paint on his tail and spackle on his ears would reveal. Cuddling? Who had time for that? Read more

Happy Meow-o-Ween! Have fun, but please keep it safe!

Happy Meow-o-Ween meow-valus friends! All of us at Zee and Zoey’s hope you have a spooktacular day, but don’t forget with cats it’s not about tricks or treats, but basic safety:

1. No candy, especially chocolate, as it’s toxic to cats and could be extremely harmful if ingested. If you think your cat has eaten something dangerous, contact your veterinarian or call the Pet Poison HelpLine at 855-764-7661.

2. If you expect a lot of traffic at your door, consider locking your cat into a room until the festivities wind down so they don’t get spooked and accidentally run outside.

3. Halloween costumes and decorations can have lots of strings, buttons, and tiny parts your cat might decide to eat that could cause harm. Be very mindful of what you leave out, especially if you leave to go to a party or trick or treating. Pumpkins with real candles are dangerous too – don’t ever leave a candle burning while unattended.

4. Costumes on humans might scare your cat, and putting costumes on them might scare them, too. Respect that cats are creatures of habit and that what we think is fun or cute might cause stress or anxiety to them.

Close the door? How dare you!

Bathrooms are meant to be that one scared and intimate place in our home where we can shut the door and retreat from the world to our own blessed sanctuary of aloneness and privacy. Unless you have cats, of course. There is literally nothing that will make a cat magically appear from thin air to break that privacy code than a closed bathroom door. You’ll hear that mournful, repeated, and frantic “Meeoooooooooowww” in tangent with a paw, paw, paw, dig, dig, dig under the door and a scratch, scratch, scratch on the door.

“Where are you? When are you coming out? What are you doing in there without me?” Read more

This beautiful stained glass window in our kitchen is the perfect filter when the sun is just right for what I call the “hairlight affect.”

Snowflakes softly twinkling, falling in a graceful dance, dusting all they touch with an exquisite blanket of untouched snow. I carry the memory of those moments from my days in Upstate New York where the quiet beauty of a freshly fallen snow can take your breath away. Living in Florida, we don’t have anything to quite compare, unless you consider what I term ‘hairlight” – those moments in a household with cats in which the sun is at that perfect setting in which it creates a glorious wash of sunlight that exposes every delightful bit of dust and cat hair that abounds on the floor, on furniture, on computer screens, on appliances, on televisions and more. This, I am very familiar with. Read more

While the worst of it is over and I’m grateful for the success of my recent vitrectomy eye surgery, the recovery period was intensely difficult and one that gave me an unexpected virtual perspective of the life of my cats. For nearly two weeks, I was confined to a 3’ x 4’ cushion on the couch. I had to remain in a seated position, with my head upright, including when I was sleeping. After day 10, I was in tears, exhausted from the monotony, and it hit me like a lightning bolt – this is what it must be like to be a cat, captive to the 24/7 same old, same old of whatever world we provide for them. Read more