Recent Content by mistercatworks

I was glad to hear of so many cats who had the initiative to locate their toys, either from their box or those hiding places. I once moved a chair and discovered a little circular collection of toys which had managed to get pushed just out of paw's reach. I have never heard of a cat putting...

Over the years I have collected a number of superballs, belled-balls, strings, wire balls, fur-covered toy mice and feathered dangelers. I confine them to a plastic bin whenever I do a house cleaning. On the next rainy day, I open up the bin and, sure enough, sometime during the day, the cats...

Yesterday I found the cats huddled curiously near the back door. I discovered a three foot garter snake who had wriggled the first couple of inches into the space between the sliding glass doors trying to get OUT. I was able to pull it loose with my rubber tipped grippers. (If it had gotten...

I still see ridiculous postings stating that a cat will never learn to hunt if it's mother doesn't teach him. My cat Vivekat was a city cat for five years before moving to Santa Cruz. My neighbor was a veterinarian who have five cats. Vivekat watched them hunt for a year. When they moved...

Over the years, I have developed a toy popular with cats who enjoy fetching. Take four or five wire ties and make a wire frame ball by twisting their ends together. Be sure to bend the wire ends so they are covered and discard when the wire becomes exposed. Cats will bat it around and also be...

Oddly, I never had mice before I had cats. Earlier this week, I was sitting with two cats on my lap (this takes a recliner), when I saw a motion out of the corner of my eye. Kirby "Prince of the Redwoods" made a soaring 6 foot leap and landed on the mouse. My other cat Johnny Depp and I...

Have you ever come home to find your cat standing in the middle of what appears to be a serial killer's crime scene? For quick cleanup, I recommend using a grocery plastic bag as a glove (sometimes you just have to say "plastic" not "paper") to collect the remains. Do try to get to it before...

I made the mistake of encouraging "Monkey", a willful Siamese, in his habit of jumping up into my arms. The problem was that he was arbitrary about the moments chosen for this trick. My brother was angry when Monkey unexpectedly ripped his shirt, because of what Monkey considered a "missed...

It sounds like a good idea to pre-train a cat to "bag" itself in a tree rescue but the fact is, cats won't willingly step onto swaying flexible surfaces. Vivekat would purr every time the vet picked her up, which prevented him from hearing heart and respiratory sounds. He showed me an old vet...

I do take a number of photographs on each walk but even with image stabilization, there is rarely enough light in a redwood forest. However, my camera takes excellent video clips and the eye is more forgiving of things like grain and blur in moving pictures. I would be glad to post video...

Has anyone else heard of live cat actors on a radio broadcast? I used to do a weekdaily one-minute call-in feature as part of a news parody radio show in Santa Barbara. My cat, who became known as Wilamena the Radio Cat, would always, ALWAYS, meow when I picked her up. Sort of a "watch it...

I was housesitting/catsitting a beautiful Abysininan who had a Labrador Retriever playmate. I would sit at the top of the stairs and throw down a squeaky toy. Both the dog and cat would dash down the stairs. The cat would stop halfway and rejoin the dog for the dash back up the stairs.

Many cats will fetch. One of my cats would fetch enthusiastically the first couple of tosses. Then she would bring the toy halfway back, then a quarter of the way back...in no time at all, she had taught me to fetch!

When I lived in Pasadena, my cat Vivekat (named after the address Viveka Davis), would walk with me as far as the corner when I went to the store. There she would wait in a rock/desert garden and play with the cat who lived there until I came back. She was always waiting to meet me when I...

I've never had a cat show an interest in coffee but one of mine thought valerian tea was the most INTERESTING smell in the world. She would do everything but climb into my mouth when I was drinking it. Cat evolution has favored variety in all behaviors, which has led to the general observation...