“What greater gift than the love of a cat?”

Charles Dickens

Hi everyone, and a hugely warm welcome to all the newbies who braved the hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes and political shenanigans, to join our happy family.  Pull up a pew, plonk the cat on your lap and, with your tipple of choice to hand, enjoy the Mewsletter.

What a time I’ve had recently.  Mid-way through September my computer died on me.  I was in the process of sending out the Mewsletter again as I realised that a good number of you hadn’t received it.  Whether this was because AOL was playing up, or the hurricanes were responsible, I have no way of knowing.  I was without the computer for over two weeks and it felt so weird having each day stretch out in front of me without me knowing what to do with it! The house got cleaned and I decluttered the back bedroom which is my office.  Over 100 books went to various charity shops (thrift) and I recycled mountains of paperwork.  What WAS life like before we had computers!!

Thanks to those of you who responded to my question about dealing with Casey’s matts.  That was dealt with by the vet as Casey will explain in his latest piece, see below.

Annette in Canada uses a vacuum hose on her cat, Wynkyn, to get rid of loose fur and she said that she loves it.  Have any of you tried this? What did your cats do? How did they respond?

I have some very sad news to impart.  Phoebe, who had her own ‘fighting the flab’ column, very sadly passed away very recently with kidney disease.  Ellen Pilch, who writes the column: ’15 cats and meowing’ is devastated, having lost Snowball as well in May of this year.  She has lost four cats in two years. Please keep Ellen and her husband and their remaining cats in your prayers and if you want to contact her, please write to me and I will forward all emails on to her.

A worrying fashion trend is gaining popularity on social media, where pet owners are giving their cats and dogs ‘manicures’ with claw covers.  Intended as a humane alternative to declawing, claw covers are now being misused as fashion statements, raising welfare concerns for charities.

It’s extremely cruel to inflict this sort of thing on your cat, as it stops them from displaying their natural behaviour.  Claw covers are only recommended as a last resort to stop cats causing harm to themselves through scratching.  Advice from International Cat Care states: ‘There may be certain situations where claw covers could be considered a sort-term solution to health or welfare issues, such as preventing damage by scratching if the cat has a skin or wound problem.  This would be under the direction of a vet and the underlying motivation for the behaviour should always be addressed.’

This website does not – and never will – support declawing cats, or the use of claw covers as a substitute.  Cats should be able to behave in their natural way and strafing their claws – which is like you and I filing our nails if we have a jagged edge - is very much a part of natural behaviour.  A scratching post or pad in each room will help them to do this.

The home page message this month is given over to an advert for a wonderful book deal. ‘Tigger – Memoirs of a Cosmopolitan Cat’ by Susanne Haywood is on special as an e-book from Friday 20th October for five days.  You can get it from both www.amazon.comand www.amazon.co.uk.  Click on the links on the Home Page to get the deal.

Susanne’s book has just won the Stephen Memorial Book Award 2017 for books with cats of distinctive character and it would make the perfect Christmas present.  So, do get it while you can!

CAPTION COMPETITION:

We didn’t receive that many responses to Dreidel and his monkey in the last Mewsletter.  Whether that was because some of you didn’t receive the Mewsletter, I don’t know.  Congratulations to Andrew Lane from the UK for his winning caption.  Thank you to everyone who took part.

You can see all the entries plus the winning caption here:

Caption competition 68

Here’s this month’s caption.  As always, please send your captions, not more than 5, to pauline@thedailymews.comby 20th October.

Caption competition 69 

CAT QUESTIONS FOR SQUIRT:

Squirt, our resident agony uncle, is taking a sabb’cat’ical from answering readers’ queries.  In the meantime, Casey and Gibbs have stepped up to the plate and are happy to deal with any problems of a feline nature that your cat may have.

A tuna loving tabby called Tom has written to ask if he can eat just tuna alone as he’s gone off his biscuits.  Here’s Casey and Gibbs’ reply:

Can I eat just tuna alone?

FELINE FITNESS:

I’ve been meaning to write about overweight cats for some time now, and in light of Casey’s recent experience at the vets, now seemed the appropriate time.

Fat cats are not funny

FIGHTING THE FLAB, THE FELINE WAY

CASEY AND GIBBS:

Casey is still smarting with some life-changing news that came his way last week.

The ‘F’ Word

DIETING WITH DENVER:

Well, Casey certainly has more sympathy for Denver now that he finds himself in the same position.  Here’s Denver’s latest update on his progress:

Rats, plateaus and needles

LORD REGGIE’S RUMINATIONS:

Lord Reggie has been comparing his new life with his past life as a stud cat.

Chin, chin chaps

And that just about wraps it up for this month.  Sorry it’s a bit thin on the ground.  Many of my wonderful team of extraordinary writers are either on vacation, or busy writing books themselves.  They all give their time willingly to make the Daily Mews website the great website that it is and I think we can allow them some time off, don’t you?

Hopefully, technology prevailing, and health permitting, there’ll be another update towards the end of the month and a Mewsletter should be with you by the very early days of November.  Till then, take care and keep safe.

With love

Pauline – Editor in Chief

Casey – Assistant Editor with special interests in food and nutrition

Gibbs – Assistant Editor to the Assistant Editor to the Editor in Chief with no real interest in anything apart from food

xxx

 

In the Middle of a World...

"In the middle of a world that has always been a bit mad, the cat walks with confidence."

Roseanne Anderson