Leo’s On The Move Pt 2

Date: June 8, 2017 Author: Debbie Comments: Leave a reply

Part 2

“Where he was going I suspect, I wonder where that is?

Well, not to worry, all I want is to look.

I’m not bothered about all the other stuff that is his,

So long as I check out what might be easily took.”

“Hmmm there’s that smell again that smells so delectably nice!

A little peek over here might allow me

To find out just what would my instincts entice.

It is just over there near that small Box of tea.”

 

“Aaah catnip I should have been aware up till now

That Smith has some plants in his garden.

Of course if he’s moving, he’d want to use the plough

And take with him his favourite Bernadine.”

 

“I always laughed when to his favourite plant he referred

Giving it a name that so suited his pocket.
A name that to me was just a big word,

But it was he who planted it next to the Rocket.”

 

“Aaaah catnip you smell just so gloriously right

I so badly would like some this minute!

It won’t take too long and I can keep the crate in my sight.

Aaaah catnip there’s truly no substitute.”

 

So over to the small box of tea Leo sauntered

Drawn in by that catnip his favourite

Already his thoughts and ideas being distorted

Immediate plans for the crate being thwarted.

 

In the meantime the orange-suits had altered their pace

Their comings and goings had just then been ceased.

Poor Leo was so under he’d not heard them close up the space,

That they were now heading back up to southeast.

 

He lay down beside the small tea box and snuggled

Right up to the plants named Bernadine.

His brain was quite totally and rightly befuddled

By those plants that had come from Smith’s garden.

 

The crate had totally gone out of his head.

Dessert with Cleo and Todd was forgotten.

He was so away with the catnip that by now was spread

All around on the floor.  It was awesome.

 

In the meantime Sergeant Todd and Cleo were concerned

That Leo had not come back from his venture.

They had seen him jump up but had not yet returned.

They had the feeling that he had gone by misadventure.

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We are moving

Sergeant Todd

On The Motorway

Catnip Plant

Small Box Of Tea

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Leo’s On The Move Pt 1

Date: June 7, 2017 Author: Debbie Comments: Leave a reply

 

The Adventures of Leo continue.

 

Part 1

Leo ventured out onto the street corner

He wasn’t too far from the bleachers

After all he was known as the Great Explorer

And he puzzled about old Smith’s procedures.

 

The moving van was outside his gate

And orange-suited men walked in and out

Carrying boxes, lamp shades and even a crate

He’d not seen before in Smith’s house.

 

After all, old Smith and that daughter of his

Were regular customers in his business

Surely if things were going to be found

That crate would have been home to great wealth.

 

“I must see for myself,” said Leo out loud.

“I must see just what is inside her.

That crate looks suspicious although it is bound

Up by rope I need to get up and untie her.”

 

“It seems that old Smith must be moving away

Those men just keep on a-coming

It won’t take much to get on the driveway

I might have to move by my jumping

 

Up high I could leap and land right beside

That crate that keeps beckoning me forward

And even if I miss I could easily slide

It just might be a little bit awkward.”

 

“Oh there is my Cleo and who’s that up with her?

Why Sergeant Todd must have come by to see us.

He would pick today when it’s vital I transfer

Myself to check out all the fuss.”

 

“That crate is mysterious, it has to be looked

at by me who is known as the expert

I hate to be guilty I might have overlooked

I could be up and back before she serves up the dessert.”

 

The Allied orange-suits keep up the good work

Of transferring boxes, the stands and are those plates?

The books and the pots and the pans and the artwork.

“I’ve got to get up and check out that crate.”

 

Leo quietly walked around the big wheels on the back

Of the truck that was housing the crate

“Hmmm, it smells like there might even be a nice snack.”

Up he leapt and tumbled into the freight.

 

He found a sharp rock and he carefully chiselled

At the rope that was so neatly bound

The writing on the crate was so carefully initialled

By old Smith who’d addressed it to the town

Click here for Part 2

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Click here for Part 4

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Life Happens Volume 1 A Collection of Funny Emails and Facebook Messages Dating From The 1980s To 2012

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We are moving

Moving Truck

The Crate

Leo Leaping

The Rock

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Which Is Best, Wet Or Dry? Pt 6

Date: June 6, 2017 Author: Debbie Comments: Leave a reply

Part 6

And what’s more, the water should be fresh and clean – try a pet water fountain – they are great for an endless supply of fresh clean water.  Just make sure the filters are cleaned and replaced regularly.

I also think that I should point out here that just as you are subject to diabetes through poor food choices, so is your cat.  24 hour access to dry food is not a good thing which I have mentioned in one of my earliest chapters.  Dry food contains a whole lot of fillers that provide more than is required in the carbohydrate group of foods.   Have you noticed your cat putting on weight recently or seems to be far heavier than the last time you took notice? Perhaps you should change their diet and quickly.  Whatever you are feeding your cat is not good for it.  Trust me – as my own weight packs it on due to suspect medication, wrong food choices and not enough exercise time, your cat can suffer just as much from the very same sources. If you wish to avoid feline diabetes, then get some new food for your cat today.

I know we have not settled the debate about whether which is best wet or dry?  I can only recommend the following:

  • Provide variety.
  • Provide quality.
  • Read your labels before purchase just as you would for yourself.
  • Animal protein is far better than a vegetable protein.
  • Be fussy what your cat eats just as you are fussy for yourself.
  • Don’t’ skimp on price for your cat just as you don’t skimp on prices for your own favourite foods.
  • Provide plenty of fresh clean water and make sure your cat drinks it.
  • Make sure your cat does get 6 monthly dental treatments just as you do.

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Debbie Nicholson

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Life Happens Volume 1

Life Happens Volume 1 A Collection of Funny Emails and Facebook Messages Dating From The 1980s To 2012

Our Favourite Links

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Cats
Pet Education
Obligate Carnivore
Wet Or Dry
Cat Breeds
Cat Food
Feeding Your Cat
Pet Food
Eating Grass
Cat Behaviour
Water Fountain
Feline Diabetes
Fat Cat
Cat Dental Treatments 

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Which Is Best, Wet Or Dry? Pt 5

Date: June 5, 2017 Author: Debbie Comments: Leave a reply

Part 5

Have you ever given any thought as to the hydration value of food you give your cat? When animals are in the wild, the prey they eat are alive and well before consumption and therefore are made up generally of around 70% water.  Tinned food might average perhaps 78% water content.  Dry food, however, is known to only contain around 10% of any type of included fluid; therefore it is safe to say that a cat on only dry food will probably suffer health problems like Chronic Renal Failure and/or kidney or bladder stones. Now being a chronic sufferer myself of such an illness, I can just imagine the pain that a cat would suffer.

A cat’s water intake needs to be in great volumes, not just small sips. Their food needs to contain a maximum amounts of fluid in its makeup.  Dry kibbled food does not provide this for them.  I think the ratio of water to dry food would be 1 cup of water for every 10 pounds of body weight and that is over a 24 hour period.  Of course, in warmer weather, your cat would need more.  However, as with children, I have never seen our cat drink a lot of water before during or after a meal of dry kibbled food, have you?

Go ahead and provide the appropriate amount of water, however, then it is your job to supervise that your cat actually drinks it all up as well. Even with tinned food, your cat would need to drink at least 1/3 to ½ that amount of water as well.  A tip from a reader is perhaps to mix your food offering with plenty of water to make sure the water intake is being taken advantage of.  That way, if your cat just still will not drink enough water, then it is getting it directly from its food anyway.

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Debbie Nicholson

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Life Happens Volume 1

Life Happens Volume 1 A Collection of Funny Emails and Facebook Messages Dating From The 1980s To 2012

Our Favourite Links

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Debbie’s Other Blog
Cats
Pet Education
Obligate Carnivore
Wet Or Dry
Cat Breeds
Cat Food
Feeding Your Cat
Pet Food
Eating Grass
Cat Behaviour
Hydrated Food Is Needed
Japanese Water Cake
Water
Food mixed with water

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Which Is Best, Wet Or Dry? Pt 4

Date: June 4, 2017 Author: Debbie Comments: Leave a reply

 

Part 4

Knowing that now made me cringe as sometimes it is so easy just to pour into a bowl rather than take the time to cut up and put out.  I certainly never made it a habit to feed my children fast foods, so I am not sure why I encouraged it for my cat.  I remember at the time, thinking that if she got hungry while I was away, there was always something she could refer back to, whereas wet food needs more supervision to ensure that pesky flies don’t blow it before it is eaten up.

Being now far better informed, were we ever to go back into a house again and to share it with a cat which is rather likely with my husband’s fondness for such creatures, we both will be better parents to our 4 legged creature in the way of food offerings.  Mind you, we would both be home with our cat by then anyway, therefore more control could be put into feed times and what to feed it.

A warning here – if you only ever offer dry food, your cat is going to be far less better off than the neighbour’s cat who only eats wet food.  Dry food contains fillers and who is to know what they are doing to your cat’s digestive system?  Usually carbohydrates can be obtained from mice and birds and lizards.  However, a factory can be known to put anything they wish into such food – even sawdust – I hate to write that, but it has been true in the past.  Nowadays many businesses only think about profits – having the health of their customers on their minds is given the least amount of attention when making up recipes to fill those tins for your animals.

Read the labels; be very careful and selective of what you buy to feed your treasured pet.

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Debbie Nicholson

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Life Happens Volume 1

Life Happens Volume 1 A Collection of Funny Emails and Facebook Messages Dating From The 1980s To 2012

Our Favourite Links

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Debbie’s Other Blog
Cats
Pet Education
Obligate Carnivore
Wet Or Dry
Cat Breeds
Cat Food
Feeding Your Cat
Pet Food
Eating Grass
Cat Behaviour
Fast Food
Dry Food
House Cats
Read Labels Carefully

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Which Is Best, Wet Or Dry? Pt 3

Date: June 3, 2017 Author: Debbie Comments: Leave a reply

Part 3

I would also watch out exactly what you buy in those tinned foods for your cat.  Anything with corn on them should be avoided.  While corn is a great protein, our house cats do not need it. And much of the tinned food nowadays is packed with corn – the manufacturers touting to you that it is a protein that is much needed food for your cat.  This information is very much incorrect – do not make it a habit to feed your cat such tinned food. It is not just a poor source of protein for your cat; it is also a known substance that can cause an allergic reaction with your cat.  So BEWARE and check the ingredients listed on the tin.

It is a very sad case that when a human professes to be a vegetarian, so they think it is their right to feed their animals on that same type of food diet.  Cats need taurine which comes from the tissues of other animals.  Please remember that.

At the same time, you might point out that cats seem to like grass and flowers.  I asked around my friends, and could not find any specific reason for this type of culinary habit other than that some grasses taste nice and if you insist on feeding your cat such things, then opt for the wheat grass which is super good for them and for catnip which they absolutely adore.  I can only assume from my own love of using nature to heal human medical problems before resorting to the more harmful to the system drugs obtained by prescription – perhaps they act in a dietary way to help eliminate when the need is impeded for some reason.

We are guilty of leaving out dry food for our cats during our absence from the home.  However, as soon as we returned we were always careful to make sure their next feeds would be for something tasty that came directly from the butcher.  Dry food has been likened to a fast food type of supplement.

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Debbie Nicholson

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Life Happens Volume 1

Life Happens Volume 1 A Collection of Funny Emails and Facebook Messages Dating From The 1980s To 2012

Our Favourite Links

Cathy’s Well Groomed Site
Debbie’s Other Blog
Cats
Pet Education
Obligate Carnivore
Wet Or Dry
Cat Breeds
Cat Food
Feeding Your Cat
Pet Food
Eating Grass
Cat Behaviour
Read Labels
Corn as a Protein?
Catnip

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Which Is Best, Wet Or Dry? Pt 2

Date: June 2, 2017 Author: Debbie Comments: Leave a reply

Part 2

With cats we could be looking at lately –

  • Holistic and organic diets
  • Food that comes in tins
  • Food that comes in cardboard boxes
  • Food that comes direct from the Butcher
  • Dry food
  • Semi-moist food

Such a variety, but then doesn’t your cat deserve the variety as well?

Of course they do. They’re not silly.

You know, recently I did a wonderful chapter on that amino acid Taurine for my health website and I was so pleased to find out that Taurine is actually something that is really good for your cat as well.

Taurine comes from the muscle meat of animals and cats need that muscle source of meat in the diets that you present to them on a daily basis simply because they are known as Obligate Carnivores.

Fish, turkey, lamb, chicken and beef are all essential meats for the well-being of your cat.  Each of them are muscle tissues from an animal other than itself and in order for your cat to thrive, then food based on these named here will help to keep your cat in tiptop condition. You could say that meat is a cat’s main source of essential nutrients.

I found it very interesting that Dogs don’t’ mind eating any types of food, whether it be plant based or animal based.  They are very much like us in that way.  However, cats are not omnivorous – their bowels are a lot shorter than ours, therefore they do not possess the ability to assimilate into their digestive systems nutrients that have their source in plant material. For a short period only, they could possibly get enough protein from plant material; however, their need for taurine has far greater significance in their lives if you wish them to have longevity while they live with your family under your roof.

Thanks for reading my blog.
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Debbie Nicholson

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Life Happens Volume 1

Life Happens Volume 1 A Collection of Funny Emails and Facebook Messages Dating From The 1980s To 2012

Our Favourite Links

Cathy’s Well Groomed Site

Debbie’s Other Blog

Cats
Pet Education
Obligate Carnivore
Wet Or Dry
Cat Breeds
Cat Food
Feeding Your Cat
Pet Food
Eating Grass
Cat Behaviour
Cat Bowel
Supermarket

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Which Is Best, Wet Or Dry?

Date: June 1, 2017 Author: Debbie Comments: Leave a reply

Part 1

Our experience with our cats gives a little bit of an insight as to what is best to feed your cat – it is an age-old argument – which is best – wet or dry?  Everyone has their own opinion and unless you can actually talk to your cat to find out its preferences then I think that this argument will never really be settled.

We have found with our cats that they soon tell you what they like and don’t like by their attitude towards their bowls.  This is how we came to know which brands our cats preferred as well.  Interesting isn’t it that an animal should have such a favourite.

We should never underestimate the intelligence of our animals – they were all given brains as well as we humans, and brains were put into our heads to use them not just to stuff something into a corner of our body just to fill up the space.

We were all given taste buds as well which are constantly sending messages to our brains the things that we like more than others.

So why shouldn’t a cat have their preference of food just like us?

We started out with a particular brand of cat food and for some unknown reason we changed it at some point – though it was tolerated, we found much was not eaten.  So with surprise at this revelation, we reverted back to what we started out with, and lo and behold, we were suddenly introduced to a smart cat!

There are so many varieties of cat food out there from which to choose.  Much like ourselves who don’t want the same thing every day – it would be a pretty boring world if we only ever had roasts, or just stews, or just fish or just puddings etc. etc. etc.

Thanks for reading my blog.
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Debbie Nicholson

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Life Happens Volume 1

Life Happens Volume 1 A Collection of Funny Emails and Facebook Messages Dating From The 1980s To 2012

Our Favourite Links

Cathy’s Well Groomed Site
Debbie’s Other Blog
Cats
Pet Education
Obligate Carnivore
Wet Or Dry
Cat Breeds
Cat Food
Feeding Your Cat
Pet Food
Eating Grass
Cat Behaviour
Which Is Best
Cat Brain
Human Brain
Smart cat

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Losing Sleep Because Of Your Cat Pt 8

Date: May 31, 2017 Author: Debbie Comments: Leave a reply

We were just lucky that we had installed a cat flap as soon as we had moved into the house; therefore there was never a problem with having to let her out or in.  Even when my children and I had been on our own in our little house, we had a cat flap so I was never bothered by her in that way either.

As to her crying and disturbing us – well that I remember was often as she was a great hunter.  And what do great hunters seek most often?  Attention and praise for their catches.

We knew when she woke us with her crying, you could be certain that she was sitting on the floor at the foot of our bed with something to show us.  We had to just live with that although there were some nights that Keith locked her out so she couldn’t bring her prey inside to play.  We never really could get over that performance on her part.  After all, why does one have a cat in the first place, but to eliminate the unwanted livestock around the house and section and one should never discourage that if you want to be great friends and feel great love between you.

All in all, I think we enjoyed our cat in our lives.  And that is the secret.  Cats are such warm, loving pets to have around and so long as you treat them right and return the love they so unconditionally surround themselves and you with, then blending your lives together can be so rewarding.  Sleep patterns need not be interrupted if you carefully plan with love in your heart.

Debbie Nicholson

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Life Happens Volume 1

Life Happens Volume 1 A Collection of Funny Emails and Facebook Messages Dating From The 1980s To 2012

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Getting Your Cat To Sleep

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Losing Sleep Because Of Your Cat Pt 7

Date: May 30, 2017 Author: Debbie Comments: Leave a reply

When Keith retired – and I should laugh at that statement – as he never will – I should really have started that sentence out with when Keith sold his business and the need to get up at 4am no longer existed – Mottel didn’t understand one bit.  It took Keith several weeks to retrain Mottel to stay asleep until he stirred.  While our Mottel loved his daily routine where Keith was concerned, the change in routine was not an immediate or happy transition for a very long time. As he told me with Whitey – I don’t remember a whole lot about Whitey, I just know he ran the place.  Well, from that experience, Mottel was not to get her way.  My husband had years of sleep to catch up on and no cat no matter how fond he was of her was going to get in the way of that much needed relief.

He started leaving food out for her – the kibbled type – she began to get the fresh food before bed so that was a change in her life she took a while to get used to as the feeding routine had to change as well as the sleep routine. Eventually the pair of them got it right – discipline was badly needed on both sides.  Keith eventually won after many early mornings of giving in.  However, Keith’s needs were greater and Mottel finally succumbed to an entire new daily routine.

She also had to learn to go to sleep earlier.  Keith’s previous life had been to arrive home at any hour in the dark – he was always the first in the gate and the last to leave – that was his priority as the boss of his trucking company – therefore it was nothing for Mottel to be out on the driveway waiting up for him long after I had failed miserable and crawled into bed myself.  Suddenly and without warning Keith was home at a decent hour to eat, have time to read his newspaper, get his shower and retire at a friendly hour of the night.  Mottel didn’t know where she was at first – being able to crawl around his legs around the table for long hours into the evening and enjoy sitting on his knee while he read.  Keith has never been a TV watcher, therefore the usual cat image of being on the knee while watching TV is not a memory in our house at all.  It took a while to retrain her, however, retrained she did become.

Debbie Nicholson

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Life Happens Volume 1

Life Happens Volume 1 A Collection of Funny Emails and Facebook Messages Dating From The 1980s To 2012

Our Favourite Links

Cathy’s Well Groomed Site

Debbie’s Other Blog

Cats

Getting Your Cat To Sleep

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