Editors Note: When I originally wrote this post in 2015 for *National Feral Cat Day it was more of a provocative hypothetical to inspire thought outside of the norm of everyday thinking on what a feral cat was. It was based on stories I had heard from people in the field and information I had gathered over the years. It was not something I had personally experienced, just something I knew could happen in a “what-if” kind of way. In 2017 the hypothetical has become decidedly real. Cat carriers that were once kept in the garage unless I needed them are at arm’s length in my bedroom closet. My pantry is over-stocked with cat food and we always have more litter than we need on hand.  Any complacency I might have felt since this post was first written is long gone and I feel compelled to always be ready for the worst.

Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and most recently, the horrific fires in California have shown Mother Nature to be unrelenting and cruel over the past several months, as she redefines the daily life many of us live, including the lives of our cats. An indoor cat, suddenly found outside, is entirely possible and is happening with frequency in disaster areas across the world. That’s why I decided to share this post once again for National Feral Cat Day. If you’ve already read it, read it again. If you haven’t read it and have a cat, please take it to heart. Any cat could be a feral cat…even yours.

This cat is from Flamingo Gardens – a South Florida tourist site. It was originally dumped by someone on the property and is now part of an outdoor community of a dozen or so cats that are taken care of by the employees of the business.

All of my seven cats come from different circumstances and each of them has a distinctly unique personality, but one thing is common to them all – I love them from the bottom of my heart and they are my life. They are indoor cats and if one of them ever accidentally got outside and was lost, I don’t know what I would do. Nor do I know what they would do. Could they manage on their own? It’s easy to say it will never happen – I’m neurotically careful – but even with the best of intentions, accidents can and do happen. With this being National Feral Cat Day, it makes the point even more relevant. Read more

When I visited New York City in November of 2015, the weather was beautiful and I was able to enjoy some site-seeing. That was not the case for this trip – even though it was nearly spring, the weather was brutally cold.

Let’s see, I’ve been back from Cat Camp NYC for a couple weeks and what did I learn? I learned that my once strong, Upstate New York blood that could handle cold weather in a heartbeat, has thinned so completely that I’m barely functional in freezing temperatures. I was so excited to be going to the city – I had visions of site-seeing, eating in trendy vegetarian restaurants with my cat-loving friends, and browsing in some of the quirky and quaint shops of the city. You know, like Carrie Bradshaw of Sex in the City, only with cats, and no sex. Instead, I got bitter weather that was so debilitating I was nearly incapable of walking! Read more

Editors Note: I was driving to a dental appointment yesterday, planning in my head the new post I was going to write for World Spay Day. When I got to the office, naturally I had to wait, so I opened up my phone to check my emails. It was then I saw the devastating news that a dear cat loving friend of mine, Darlene Arden, had succumbed to her long fight against ovarian cancer. Darlene was a huge advocate for cat care and she and I initially struck up a friendship as fellow members of the Cat Writers’ Association back in 2012.

As time went on, our relationship took a unique turn. She turned me on to my most beloved, guilty pleasure – playing a game called Fairyland on Facebook. She warned me once I started the game that I’d become addicted and she was right! She and I had a ball growing our gardens and sharing conversations with one another that way.

She was also part of my most recent book, Makin’ Biscuits – Weird Cat Habits and the Even Weirder Habits of the Humans Who Love Them. When I reached out to her to let her know I included her book The Complete Cat’s Meow – Everything You Need to Know About Caring for Your Cats as a resource in Makin’ Biscuits, I know that pleased her to no end. She didn’t always love social media but she did love Twitter and I was so honored that she tweeted to her followers that they needed to add Makin’ Biscuits to their library! 

That was Darlene. She had a sharp wit and a sharp tongue. She was brutally honest and pulled no punches. She didn’t believe much in competition – her thought was simple – she wanted to help cats, so why not cross-promote the work of others? In her memory, I am sharing a post from last year that I wrote for World Spay Day. I’m just not capable of new words at the moment – I’m going to take a break and go play Fairyland while thinking of the times we shared together. 

It only takes one brief encounter for a female cat who is not spayed to become pregnant – please share this informative graphic to help spread the word.

While every day is a good day to promote the virtues of spay/neuter – not only as a safe and humane means of reducing cat overpopulation – but as a procedure to help ensure your cat live a longer, happier, and healthy life, with today being World Spay Day, it makes it all the more relevant. It’s a concept I like to call “Spay it Forward,” meaning we need to put as much factual and useful information as we can into tiny, digestible sound-bites so it can easily be shared to educate and impact change. To aid in the effort, to follow are some basic 101’s of kittens, cats, conception, cat overpopulation, and how spay/neuter relates to it all. Read more

Jazmine, a rescue cat herself, makes the perfect poster cat for adoption!

Many of us are excitedly waiting for season 4 of the wildly popular Netflix series, Orange is the New Black (OITNC). Based on the life of Piper Chapman, a woman in her 30’s living in New York City who is sentenced to 15 months in a minimum-security prison, the show gives us a glimmer into the day-to-day life she and her fellow inmates face in prison. I bring this up because it’s National Adopt a Shelter Cat Month and it got me to thinking of all the cats that are in shelters across the county – not necessarily a prison – but for many cats, it’s a lockup of sorts. Read more

It only takes one brief encounter for a female cat who is not spayed to become pregnant – please share this informative graphic to help spread the word.

While every day is a good day to promote the virtues of spay/neuter – not only as a safe and humane means of reducing cat overpopulation – but as a procedure to help ensure your cat live a longer, happier, and healthy life, with today being World Spay Day, it makes it all the more relevant. It’s a concept I like to call “Spay it Forward,” meaning we need to put as much factual and useful information as we can into tiny, digestible sound-bites so it can easily be shared to educate and impact change. To aid in the effort, to follow are some basic 101’s of kittens, cats, conception, cat overpopulation, and how spay/neuter relates to it all. Read more