Summer Zine 2003


Summer Places
~by Mewsette

Cats don't like to move from one home to another. I've moved twice in my life - it was horrible hard and it involved car trips.

All I know about cars is that I don't like them. Humans go out in them all the time and have accidents. Doesn't that tell them anything? Like maybe the world wasn't made to drive cars around in? It's got mountains to climb and rivers to cross; isn't that obvious? I guess all their places are too far away from their other places, and it would take two days to get home. So they gotta ride.

Having all those cars just encourages them to do things we don't want them to. Like leaving the house every morning and not coming back till dinner time. Like going away on trips in the summer, leaving us cats behind to be fed by relatives that don't smush up our food right, or cat sitters that expect us to come out from under the bed. Like moving us to whole other houses someplace else!

That's the one cats hate the most. Moving. And I'm not sure why they pick summer to do it more than other times. Maybe because that's when human childrens are out of school, or because they lose weight carrying stuff in and out of houses when it's 95 degrees. It was summer in Texas when I got moved away, but it nearly always is there. It was summer when I got moved to the city years later.

Most humans don't even understand why moving is so hard for cats. They know we get attached to our own places, but they know some of us like new places, too. They don't know that, even if we like a new place, we still expect to go home to the old one.

Shirley Rousseau Murphy explained best how we feel about it in a book I read. She explained that, though the humans take all their belongings with them, we are forced to leave ours behind. They have all their possessions at the new home, but we don't. We can't take our treasures with us.

In my first move, I had to leave behind all my special Texas possessions, all the things that formed my world there. My hay bale in the chicken house, my rose trellis down from the roof, my best mouse blind - a flat-topped fencepost I could sit and watch for mice in the grass from. My under-the-house corner, where my brofur and I spent so many summer days, 20 feet from where we were born. All those treasures were lost to me and left behind. Humans don't understand these things.

The second time, when I was 12 years old, I was an indoor cat, so I had a lot of indoor possessions of my own that got moved with us. Even my favorite old log to scratch on. But my own personal beautiful mountain, and my screened back porch with my cool firewood cave were left behind. I never quite got over losing them. I know humans can't put a mountain or a back porch into a moving van just to keep us happy, Wish they could.

In the summer, I'm sure we all have favorite summer places to be, whether we stay inside or go out. They belong to us, those summer places. They are our possessions, our treasures. We want our humans to understand, and let us keep them.




Down from the Attic: Clutter House
~by Mewsette

If we had an old fashoned attic in our house, I wouldn't want to be up there in the summer. Too hot. Even though we cats do like it warmer than humans do, we don't want heatstroke. If we had a deep old basement, I don't think I'd want to be there, either, for long. Too damp. My fur kinks when it's too damp. So the rest of the house would have to do anyway.

Well, the rest is fine. It has lots of nice little nooks and crannies for cats. The only problem is, they're all full of clutter. There are nice cool table tops in the living room that I'd enjoy lying on in summer. But they're all full of clutter. There are nice dark corners and behinds down in the den that I like, too. But they're full of - yup, you guessed it. The kitchen isn't too cluttered, and the kitchen table does belong to me. But kitchens aren't much fun, since I got too old to get in cupboards and play in the pots and pans.

Bedrooms are great for cozy places, lots and lots of cozies. Sort of among the clutter. My sisfur and I have our own kitty quilts all over in the bedrooms. That's better in winter than now. I like the back one best cause the door to my enclosed porch is there. I want out that door anytime it's open. Early in the summer, I love to lie in my open window there and watch the back yard. It's not as interesting as a country yard. It never had a cattle in it. But it'll do.

I really think we cats deserve uncluttered places in the summer. I could do something about that. I'm very good at telling my mom what I want her to do. She understands my language. When a litter box is in unacceptable condition, I go get her and tell her about it, and she fixes it. When I want her to come down in the den with me, I just go tell her. She's very obedient. And if she's not paying attention, I go under the kitchen table and pout until she does. Pouting is good. It gets you anything you want.

Then if this house wasn't so cluttered, we'd probably have room for more cats. Whoops. Nope, guess I'll live with the clutter. My mom has loved clutter all my life. She must, she makes so much of it. I guess if there wasn't enough all around me here, it would just get brought down from the attic.



Health Section


Arthritis in Cats
by Mewsette

Arthritis seems to be one of those things that are becoming more common in cats, especially as more of us live to ripe old ages. It is no longer a condition reserved for humans, if it ever was.. What is arthritis, and why in the world do cats get it?

Arthritis simply means inflammation of a joint, or joint disease. It affects us much the same as it does our humans. It hurts. Our joints are composed of cartilage and soft connective tissue. They are the shock absorbers between our bones, providing a surface that allows all that motion of our bones. Arthritis results from degeneration of that cartilage and inflammation of the soft connective tissue. There are several types of arthritis in cats, and the causes are often different for us than they are for humans.

Symptoms of Arthritis

We cats are experts at hiding illness and pain. We are never hypochondriacs or complainers. But admirable as this may be, it's not very helpful when our humans need to know that something is wrong. Some symptoms or signs of arthritic pain can also be symptoms of other diseases. When our humans notice, it could mean 40 different things. I wish we weren't quite so mysterious! But these are signs that it could be arthritis.

*Stiffness in our legs, bent front legs, or limping. *Places on our spine or legs that are sensitive to touch. *Not being able to jump up into windows or other high places any more. *Moving slowly and carefully and avoiding stairs. *Seeking heat sources, such as lying on the furnace vent. *Litter box avoidance or problems, due to pain in the spine or legs when stepping in or crouching.

Types and Causes of Arthritis

*Progressive polyarthritis, also called Osteoarthritis, affects multiple joints in a cat and becomes worse over time. The cartilage breaks down from the ends of bones and is destroyed, causing bony structures to rub against each other. That makes it painful to move. Changes and degeneration of our joints or spine can easily be seen in xrays. Damage to cartilage may be quite advanced before the surrounding tissues become inflamed and sore. Gradual degeneration of the spine is very common, and takes years to develop, being seen mostly in older cats.

Some causes of progressive arthritis may be poor nutrition, a direct injury or trauma to the joints, auto-immune disturbances, genetic malformation of bone structure (more common in dogs than cats) and yes, overweight. Those extra pounds put extra stress on the bones and joints, and cause trouble sooner or later. I've seen this myself. My dear furmama was quite plump in her middle years, and had bad arthritis of her spine and front legs in her old age. A word to the wise.

*Arthritis can be caused by calicivirus infection, a virus that causes respiratory disease. Calicivirus may bring inflammation in the joints and lameness, with or without any fever or respiratory symptoms. It is generally a self-limiting disease, which resolves on its own, and the cat will fully recover once the infection is treated.

*Bacterial arthritis is an infection of the joints, often as a result of bite wounds. The joint is swollen, painful, warm to the touch; the cat may be limping and feverish. This infection can spread from the joint to the bone and cause permanent damage, so it must be treated with antibiotics as soon as possible.

Treatment of Arthritis

There is not much that can be done about progressive arthritis, and there is no "cure", so attempts are made to reduce the inflammation and at least make us more comfortable. Some vets will treat it with steroids, which may reduce swelling and inflammation of the joints. Any use of steroids, especially long term, should always be questioned. Long term use can actually contribute to additional joint damage and breakdown. Steroids do not heal, they only mask symptoms; and some cats have bad reactions to steroids.

A vet may prescribe small doses of children's aspirin; something else that must be handled very carefully and only at the vet's direction. Most imporant, a cat must never, never be given Tylenol or Advil. Either of those could be fatal to a cat.

There are nutraceuticals and supplements available to help the pain and are said to slow the degeneration of arthritis, which are safer for cats, such as Glucosamine or Cosequin. But it is not a good idea to start any medication or supplement to treat a condition without discussing it with your vet, to get proper cat-sized dosages.

Simple things can help us, too, like a heating pad to lie on. As long as we don't reserve our rights as cats to be stubborn, and refuse to lie on it! So let your humans know if you have pain in your joints. They can help.



Water, Water
by Mewsette

Water. It is so important for us cats to drink plenty of water, especially in hot summer weather, and especially those of us who go outdoors in the heat!

Water is water, isn't it? Not really. Does it matter what kind of water we drink? It might. Maybe we haven't thought much about it, but humans sure do. We see lots them walking around with their designer water bottles these days. Maybe some of them share their special water with their cats. So let's look at some different kinds of water.

Tap Water

The most common water, of course, comes out of the faucet. Some cats really like that, and get very attached to their personal faucet drips. But I call tap water "water plus". Many chemicals, such as chlorine, are added to tap water to purify it and make it safe to drink before it gets to your faucet. (You don't want to know why that's necessary.) Others are added for other reasons, such as fluoride. (I have no idea why that's necessary!) This can vary a lot, depending on where you live. But those chemicals are not a bit good for cats. In some cities, the odor of chlorine in tap water is so strong that humans can smell it, so you know we cats certainly can. That doesn't make us want to drink much of it. Installed water filters that are good enough to filter out impurities and unpleasant tastes do improve tap water.

Spring water

Spring water comes from natural springs, in huge jugs that usually don't cost much. It can be much better tasting to us. I consider spring water good water for cats, and drink it myself. But nothing is perfect. Spring water does tend to have a high mineral content. Normally this would be okay, but some cats have conditions that make an overload of minerals bad for us. You can easily tell if water is "hard", or full of minerals, because a white crust builds up in our bowl, even when it's changed daily and washed often. Soaking in white vinegar dissolves the crust, but that vinegar smell must be washed away very well!

Distilled water

Sometimes we may get distilled water to drink, which is water that has been purified by reverse osmosis. Distilled water is very pure and might be very safe. It is also dead, flat and tasteless. Your meowmie might use it in her steam iron, because there's not a single mineral in it to clog the iron. It might help reduce an overload of minerals in spring water to mix it with a small part of distilled, but I wouldn't drink plain distilled water at all. Bleh.

Rain water

For those of us who go outdoors, rainwater is very attractive. Not only does it taste good to us, but whatever it falls into might have some real interesting flavors, too. Humans don't understand this, but we like that little pizazz in outdoor water. That doesn't mean it's good for us to drink it from questionable places! And doesn't mean rainwater is pure and good as it might have been long before our time. When our humans discourage this, and give us nice clean water in nice clean bowls instead, they are right.

The kind of water bowl we drink from deserves consideration, too. Plastic bowls absorb and retain chemicals and toxins, which can leech into our water (or our food). The plastic itself can cause allergic reactions in some cats. A ceramic or stoneware dish or stainless steel bowl is a much healthier choice.

Yes, it's very important for us to drink lots of water in these summer days. Important that our water always be fresh and clean. And maybe important to give some thought to what kind of water we drink!



Summer Poem on Writers Society Page