Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 3 minutes We’ve heard it before–cats are not small dogs. They differ in nutritional requirements, training techniques, and body language. People often find feline communication more difficult to interpret than that of dogs because it can be so subtle that nonverbal communication cues are completely missed or misinterpreted. Misreading a cat can land us on the wrong […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes The feline nose is the cute-as-a-button spot we love to “boop” and is of course responsible for the sense of smell, but a cat’s nose is also an important part of feline communication. Besides sniffing out food or danger, one of the most important tasks it performs is to help cats feel comfortable with humans. […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes As soon as I sit down, my cat Natasha becomes my yoga partner. She helps me stay focused when she swishes her tail under my nose while I’m in Half Moon pose or swats my ponytail while in Downward Facing Dog. She’s a master at shavasana, the relaxation pose at the end of practice. Cat-loving […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Kids and cats go together like mac ’n’ cheese. Cats offer warm companionship for children and the life-long value of compassion for sentient, living beings. In children, cats have a built-in playmate and attention-giver. What can be a special relationship takes work to build, though, to ensure that cats and children enjoy a stress-free experience […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes “Daeli receives regular acupuncture sessions. She was once very afraid of the needles and she still gets a little worried right before, but she relaxes as you can see here,” says KristyAnn Brock, DVM, CCRP, CVA, Fear Free associate veterinarian at Viking Veterinary Care in Portland, Oregon. The idea of sticking needles in your dog […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Stress: we can’t live with it; we can’t live without it. Defined as emotional strain or tension resulting from environmental challenges or demanding circumstances, stress is an integral part of being alive. No living being or environment is completely stress-free, no matter how sedate the existence. Stress jump-starts the body to meet challenging situations. The […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ivan, my 12-year-old Siberian, is a brainiac. It’s a challenge sometimes to stay one step ahead of him. When he was about four months old, he learned to open a cabinet door to get his favorite toy. He then transferred that knowledge to other cabinets and various types of closet doors not only in our […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes My grandfather and his dog, Trimmer, a Redbone Coonhound, went about their daily routine of feeding the cows. When they didn’t come home at their normal time, my uncle and a neighbor went to look for them. They found my grandfather slumped against an old oak tree where he had collapsed from a fatal heart […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes My dynamic feline duo express their personalities in everything they do, including litter box practices. Ivan hums while he fervently excavates the depths of the box. Natasha “aims high,” plus she engages in bouts of what I call “litter boxing”— she scratches the sides of the litter box, wall, mat, floor and occasionally the mirrored […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Communication is key to any relationship, and conflicts arise when we misunderstand a message. We can usually decipher a person’s emotional disposition by expression and body language, but cats are mysterious and wear a poker face so their emotions aren’t as easily read. Most humans aren’t adept at reading a cat’s normal behavior when dealing […]