There’s something about teaching an old dog tricks, and it is actually the same for old cats. If you want to train a cat, then let us imitate you as though you are our mothers. When we get older, it’s harder for us to change our ways and learn new things. Afterall, we cats are extremely independent as we have a mind of our own. Hence, teach the kittens early.

Shouting and growling at us will not work. It’s just like shouting at your own kid to do his Mathematics. He won’t want to do them. You need to make learning fun. Try to let we cats trust you. With trust, we will try to do what you want. Speak softly, give encouragement and reward us.

Cats love praise, and teaching them that they will get more from doing something that you want them to do, will ensure that they will be more inclined to obey you for the reward.

If you do have to reprimand your cat, don’t use its name when doing so as you don’t want it to associate its name with something that might upset it. We are very sensitive about our names.

Cats can get constipated too, and this can happen for a few reasons. This sensitive topic does not befit my status, but I feel it’s important to talk about it. If there is not enough moisture in my food, or we aren’t drinking enough water throughout the day and night, then we cats can get slightly dehydrated. This results in cats getting constipated.

Constipation can be very painful for a cat and it can result in the cat lying on the ground in pain panting and yelling for something to be done. The best solution obviously is to ensure that your cat is getting the correct food, with enough moisture, and a good supply of fresh water is available all the time to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Also if the cat has been lying about for hours on end and not getting any exercise then this can also cause constipation. This is definitely not a nice experience.
Where possible you should try to take your cat for a walk each day outside to make sure that all its systems are working correctly and in doing so help its bowels to move on a regular basis and stop it from becoming constipated.

Old cats sometimes need a bit of help as their bowels aren’t as efficient as they get older and one product that is excellent for this is Lactulose.
Lactulose will not raise the cats blood sugar levels so there is no concern there, particularly for cats that do have diabetes, and giving it a small amount on a regular basis, probably every second day, will help to keep our bowels regular and reduce the possibility of constipation.

If you do decide to use Lactulose, test with a small amount to see what reaction you have with your cat until you get the desired results and then try to keep using that amount regularly. Not all cats require the same amount.

Eating the wrong types of foods can also cause constipation for your cat so it is always necessary to feed the right food and not let your cat eat dog food or other types of foods that can cause problems.

Exercise, water, and good nutrition, will generally eliminate the problem.

I know cat grass sounds silly, but you should consider having some cat grass available for your cat to eat as we need to swallow it at times to help regurgitate hair that we have ingested while grooming ourselves. We love to look good, and sometimes, hairballs are an unfortunate result.

You can get this cat grass from pet stores and grow it in a specific area of your property where you know that it will be free from poisons and chemicals.

If the cat gets into the habit of using this grass rather than any other plants on the property to help regurgitate these hairballs, then this reduces the chance of it eating something that could be poisonous and cause it to become ill.

Cat grass is cheap and easy to grow, and can even be grown in a sunny spot on the deck if you’re living in an apartment.
It is also a good idea to grow a little catnip, as we cats love to nibble on this as well.

It is quite a good idea to get us accustomed to eating a little bit of greens while we are still young and you can do this by putting spinach or similar vegetables in a food processor or blender and mix it up fine enough to be added to tinned cat food. I know this is a little sneaky, but that’s what you do for human babies as well.

This will assist with their digestion and satisfy the need for some greens in their diet.
These little bits of extra vegetables that you can add to the diet will help to balance any missing nutrients, vitamins and minerals from the rest of the food they eat.

As can be expected from a cat, they will from time to time decide not to eat anything at all with vegetables in it, so you need to add a little bit of variety occasionally to ensure that they are getting good all around nutrition.

Baby vegetables that are sold for children are also suitable for feeding to your cat provided of course that there is no garlic or onions in the ingredients as these are detrimental to a cat’s health.

Also try not to get baby vegetable formulas that have corn in them as they can cause a spike in your cats blood glucose levels and can over the long-term cause diabetes. Remember, we cats have different diets from you humans, so do find out more before bringing us home.

Sometimes, my human pet has to go overseas for holidays. Most of the time, I’m happy to be alone, but food can be a problem. I actually do not mind going to a cat hotel on my own. These are known as cat boarding homes. There are some boarding homes that have a lot of different pets, and some are a little more specialised. I don’t really mind other dogs, but some puppies can be very noisy.

Treat it as a cat spa boarding place. I get to laze around, though sometimes, the humans must look carefully first. They must find out from other people who have already placed their cats in a boarding home, and find out how their cats have been handled. How a cat behaves when it is brought home is quite telling on how those boarding homes are run. In addition, check the condition of the cats. Sometimes, we may get too stressed over there, and our fur may drop.

Once the humans have done a bit of research and found recommendations from other people it is worthwhile taking the time to visit these boarding homes to see how they are run, and to look at the conditions that we cats will be living in for the period that we will be staying there.

Try to get a boarding home that is close to your house so there is less travel to and from the boarding home for your cat, which will relieve some of its stress.

Also, make sure that your cat will not come into contact with other animals that could result in health problems.

If your cat is on any special diet or medication, talk to the staff at the boarding home to make sure that they are happy to give your cat the specific diet that it requires, or the medication that it needs to remain healthy.

If you do your research well, we cats will be able to enjoy our holidays as well as yours. Of course, you must make sure you send mental images of how long you will be gone and when you will come and pick us up. That will also help to reduce the stress we may get while being away from you.

There are three different types of hair that a cat can have.
The Sphynx, which is virtually hairless, has a few awn hairs.
These are short curly type hairs.
Some breeds of cats have two types of hair and then there are cats that have all three types.
The awn hairs are a bristly type of hair.
The third type of hair is the guard hair which is the top coat.
Some cats can have a combination of awn hairs and guard hairs, guard hairs and down hairs, or all three.
With these combinations, and all the various different colors, it is easy to see how there is a huge variety of different types of cats to choose from.

Have you wondered why we cats have so many different types of fur? Well, it’s due to selective breeding and mutations. All cats initially came from the wild, and maybe that’s why some of us who live with humans still maintain our wild behaviour.

There are various different patterns in many different combinations of colors that go with these patterns from black, blue, and gray, ginger and so on to choose from.

In the wild, cat’s fur serves several purposes.
It acts as a camouflage to assist in their ability to hunt for food.
It is a source of insulation against the weather, and the various different locations that cats can be found generally determine the type of coat that a cat is likely to have.
Cats that live in colder climates will have a thicker coat to help protect them against the weather, whereas cats that live in hot climates are likely to have fur that is finer and less dense.

There are even cats that are almost hairless as they need to remain cool in very hot climates.