Cat Chat ®

#296: Mikel Maria Delgado of https://felineminds.com/ explains how cat lovers tend to have a bias towards certain colors of cats and have (mistakenly) ascribed personality traits to colors that they are projecting onto cats. In fact, a cat's temperament is not genetically linked in any way, but a cat's personality can be influenced by their gender. Dr Delgado explains how that works — but she and Tracie urge everyone to view each kitty as an individual with their own bag of attributes. 

#295: Rebecca van Laer's memoir, "Cat," is for everyone who can relate to her "love letter" to the kitties who have graced her life, using her own cats as a lens to understand what it means to be a "cat person." 

#294: Dr. Heather Davis from PRN (employee-owned by the veterinarians) explains why they developed Felycin®-CA1, the first weekly therapy developed for cats with subclinical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), since this heart problem affects 1 in 7 cats (and 1 in 3 senior cats). She suggests videoing your own kitty while sleeping so you can see whether he takes less than 30 breaths a minute (good) and share this with your own vet to determine if more tests or medication are needed to protect his heart.

#293: Jae & Adrienne talk about how their huge cat-loving following has grown organically, all from a place of mutually caring about cats and wanting them to be well, which is how their own supplement company evolved.

#292: Susannah Fullerton speaks from her home in Sydney Australia about the delight of researching her instantly sold-out book  “Great Writers & the Cats Who Owned Them,” with in-depth chapters chronicling the close relationship of 17 celebrated authors around the world who adored cats, with one in particular stealing their heart. Susannah also discussed the captivating  literary tours she leads around the world for Australians Studying Abroad.

#291: Rachel Geller — of the non-profit cat behavior practice All Cats All the Time — discusses Feline Non recognition Syndrome when one of your cats suddenly treats his former housemate as a stranger, often with hostility — usually when returning from the groomer or vet clinic.

#290: Mikel Maria Delgado talks about the variety of ways that cats communicate with different vocalizations, and the fact that cats meow almost entirely to humans and not to other cats (other than mama cats and kittens).

#289: Karen Dendy Smith is a trained animal communicator and devoted cat lover, who explains how her training as an intuitive guides her to receive messages from a person's cat, here or in the afterlife.

#288: Rachel Geller’s new book has won some prestigious literary awards and is named for her own philanthropic nonprofit (through which she helps people “work things out” with their kitties without charge). “All Cats, All the Time” is filled with solid advice and suggestions for managing feline issues in Rachel’s signature calm, patient nonjudgmental style.

#287: Kaan Kerman in the Department of Psychology at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, talks about getting international attention for his research study that showed cats vocalize more with the male humans in their lives than the women. The study was designed reliably — so what conclusion can we draw from its conclusion?

#286: Stephen Quandt (https://catbehaviorhelp.com/) says the time to get your cat ready for the new sights, sounds and smells of a newborn are before your baby comes home. Get a recording of baby crying sounds and play it quietly at first then increase the volume. Elevate the cat’s food and water bowls in anticipation of an eventually crawling baby. Bring in all the baby furniture and equipment you can and let the cat investigate it. And if you know someone with a babe in arms, ask them to come over and let your cat see and hear it.

#285: Jerry D. Moore’s nonfiction book “Cat Tales: A History” is a long look back at how cats evolved alongside humans and made a pact to cohabitate with us (on their terms!)

#284: Mikel Maria Delgado discusses the variety of positions in a cat’s tail and how it reflects their feelings and mood, which is very particular to each kitty. Tracie likens deciphering cat tails to learning to read Morse code signals.

#283: Stephen Quandt (https://catbehaviorhelp.com/) suggests ways to make a cat-centric city apartment including a space-saving cat climbing tree that is suspended from the ceiling and a window perch. 

#282: Keoni Vaughn, the Executive Director and caretaker of 767 cats (!) at the Lāna‘i Cat Sanctuary on the tiny Hawaiian island of Lāna‘i, explains its history and how they look after these previously feral cats (40% of whom become so tame they are adopted out to some of the nearly 20,000 tourists a year), while protecting a rare and vulnerable local bird population.

#281: Jennifer Mowdy of the Literary Cat Co bookstore and cat cafe (where you can buy the book) joins Tracie to discuss this beautiful, quirky posthumous book of collected works (prose, poetry, drawings) relating to cats, from the late renowned science fiction author, Ursula K Le Guin.

#280: Dr. Michelle Dulake discusses the ingredients in her Fera Pets Kidney Support for cats: how it binds the phosphate in their diet, which is the culprit in most chronic kidney diseases. Tracie recommends that the sooner you start the supplement (and switch to an all wet food diet!), the better chance you have to stave off the inevitable kidney disease that affects all cats as they age.

#278: Mikel Maria Delgado talks about how very much cats dislike covered litter boxes — which might be aesthetically pleasing to humans, but can be scary for cats who feel trapped because there’s only one way in and out and no way to guard against intruders.

#279: David Stirling wrote “The Cat That Followed Phantoms” and “The Cat That Chased Cadillacs” which Tracie compares to Richard Adams’ “Watership Down,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “Stuart Little" and “Alice in Wonderland,” introducing us to an utterly believable alternate feline universe in which cats have fully realized inner and outer lives in which they talk, wear nice outfits, solve mysteries, have interpersonal dynamics — and boil water for tea in their little kettles. 

#277: Jennifer Mowdy — owner of the Literary Cat Company book store and cat rescue — discusses this magical, allegorical Japanese best-selling novel by Yuta Takahashi, about a restaurant that appears only to those who need closure with a departed loved one and need to have one last meal with them.