Category Archives: animals & pets

feline harbinger of death…

26 Thursday Jul 2007

Posted by in animals & pets, life stuff, weird

≈ 9 Comments

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US cat ‘predicts patient deaths’

A US cat with an apparent ability to sense when a nursing home’s residents are about to die is baffling doctors.

Oscar has a habit of curling up next to patients at the home in Providence, Rhode Island, in their final hours.

The two-year-old cat has been correct in 25 cases so far and staff now alert the families of residents when he sits down next to their ailing loved one.

The case is the subject of a study in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

First seen over at Mudhook’s … you can also read about a typical day in the life of Oscar the cat on her blog.

I don’t actually find this surprising as my dearly departed Lua , usually the most undemonstrative of cats (quite franky, a total bitch on four paws), always knew if I was sick and would follow me around the house, ‘taking care’ of me … mostly by never letting me out of her sight and purring all over me whenever I sat down or took a nap.

It makes sense that some animals can sense death much better than humans.

my family and other animals

26 Thursday Jul 2007

Posted by in animals & pets, life stuff

≈ 4 Comments

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In fact, my lovely cats are my family.

Over on h2g2 there have been a few conversation threads started lately about pet owners and their responsibilities, as a shocking number of people seem to think that de-clawing, cropping of tails & ears, specialized breeding, etc are quite okay practices. Others think that even keeping an animal ‘in captivity’ (as in pets that don’t have access to the great outdoors) constitutes cruelty to animals.

I’ve taken these questions from this h2g2 Guide Entry and thought it might be interesting to discuss them here.

  • Do you have a pet? Do you consider yourself to be a good owner?
  • Should children be able to buy pets without their parents being present?
  • Should parents be made ultimately responsible for the welfare of animals owned by their children?
  • How can we define what is cruel treatment of domestic animals and what is not?
  • Should animal charities have the power to actively prevent bad treatment rather then having to wait until cruelty has taken place?
  • Should the keeping of exotic pets have a licensing system?
  • Is keeping dogs and cats in cities, where they might not get enough stimulation, cruel?
  • Is cruelty to pets a matter for legislation or personal conscience?

What’s your opinion?

Are there any other questions you’d like to add?

peace at last?

14 Thursday Jun 2007

Posted by in animals & pets, home, life stuff

≈ 19 Comments

siesta.jpg           amigos.jpg           reading-in-bed.jpg

After six months of dealing with pee wars and cat fights it looks as if peace has broken out at casa az. The middle pic was taken earlier this evening – even as little as a month ago I thought I’d never see them that close to each other again.

I’d love to see them sleeping together again too but, as you can see, they still seem to prefer sleeping with the Big Cats. They do both sleep in bed with us now, but in opposite corners – that’s Azar’s ‘safe place’ up there, on top of my head. Sunny, being a dog, usually prefers sleeping at the foot of the bed.

Awhile ago we started leaving the boys to roam free at night rather than keeping them in separate rooms. And it was Nog’s idea to start feeding them together in the mornings when the only thing they are concerned about is their brekky. Then we started keeping the food dishes in the same room all the time, slowly moving them closer together. It seems that sleeping and eating together really helped them get used to each other again.

They still have little spats, and we don’t yet feel comfortable about leaving them alone together when we’re not at home, but it’s a helluva lot better than before.

~ more cat photos ~