Blake Johnson
Bio
I am an animal lover who has a special place for cats, I have a podcast where I talk about cat behaviors and try to explain ways to help to help with the behavior. Most of my work is around cat behaviors and ways to help with them.
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Harder to adopt Cats
In this article I want to talk about the harder to adopt cats in shelters. Let's start with FeLV cats so FeLV is Feline Leukemia. Which as most people assume is cancer, it is not cancer it is a virus that weakens the immune system. This means that a cat with FeLV when they get sick they have a harder time getting better and if not addressed the sickness could be fatal to them. FeLV is also contagious through saliva, blood and to some extent, urine and feces. FeLV also can take a few years off their lives but most cats are able to live happy healthy lives however they can either be a single cat or they would have to be with another FeLV cat. Many people find this scary and do not want to adopt these cats because either they are afraid of the cat getting sick or they just don’t want to have to deal with it. FeLV cats are just as sweet as any other cat. They will make amazing cats in the right environment. Now let's shift to the next group of hard to adopt out cats, the next group are our FIV+ cats. FIV is like HIV for humans it also is an immune deficiency. It is contagious also but can only be transmitted through deep bite wounds and really bad fights. Most FIV+ cats can live with other cats as long as they do not get into fights. This is why most people are weary of adopting an FIV cat. These cats are not different from other cats aside from the immune deficiency which when they get sick it hits them harder and if not taken care of it can also be fatal. In the right home these cats will be an amazing addition. Our next hard to adopt out cats are our diabetics. These cats get insulin shots 1 to 2 times a day which can be a little scary. They are again just like any other cats; the only difference is they get insulin shots. This is one thing that makes people a bit unsure about adopting out these cats, also considering how expensive insulin is. These are the reasons I believe most people are unsure about adopting out diabetic cats. I know there are some shelters that will help provide insulin. The next group of cats I want to talk about are the ferals and semi-ferals. These groups of cats are really hard to adopt out mostly because they do not like to be picked up and held. Ferals are hard to adopt out because they do not like to be touched at all. Though most of these cats can be worked with and will most likely come to a point where they will allow you to pet them. These cats are most of the time born outside or cats that have been thrown out and have grown weary of people so they do not want to be touched, or even picked up by people, which makes it hard to get these guys adopted out. Now let's move to the last group cats that are harder to adopt out but these cats do get adopted out if the right person comes in. This group is our cats who are on medication. Most people don’t want to adopt a cat on medication because they do not know how to give them and would prefer not to learn how to give them because they are scared. Every once in a while shelters get people who come in and know how to do medications and are willing to adopt cats who are on medications or they get people who are willing to learn to do medications. The main reason behind this article is to help get these harder to adopt cats hopefully adopted.
By Blake Johnsonabout a year ago in Petlife
Declawed Cats. Content Warning.
When looking into the behavior of cats and why they act and do what they do we need to think like a cat. Cats do not do anything out of spite, they do not think or act like humans. Cats act out for deeper reasons whether it is because there is something in the environment that is causing them to feel threatened or insecure. They could also be hurting or they could have some type of illness going on which can cause their behavior. For example a declawed cat that is peeing outside of the box we need to take a look at the litter. Hard clay litter can cause pain especially when trying to move the litter around in the box. Now let's dive a bit into the declawing of a cat. When declawing a cat most people do not think of the harm it can cause and what it actually does to the cats. Declawing is the equivalent of removing all of a human's fingers from the first knuckle. This being said it can cause arthritis later on in life. This also causes cats to become nervous, and irritable. It also can make them unbalanced. It can also cause health issues, such as infection, tissue death, nerve damage, and bone spurs which is arthritis. If your vet does not remove the claw properly they can re-grow and this is very painful. Declawing also causes your cat to stress more. Most people declaw because they are worried about the destruction of their furniture. This is a behavior that can be helped cats do like to scratch things. It is a natural reaction for cats and the best way to redirect and help prevent them from scratching the furniture is by bringing in cat scratchers for them to scratch instead of them scratching your furniture. The cat scratchers are a big help with clawing furniture. You can also bring in cat trees that have areas to scratch which will also help your cat stop scratching your furniture. These tools will help you and your cat for the better. Declawing your cat as I said earlier can cause health problems and it can cause arthritis and joint pain. Which will cause them to be put on medication. Which will only help so much. When you become a cat owner you should always think of your cat and what is best for them. Declawing is a reckless decision, because it can cause problems later on which most people don’t think of and most vets did not know for many years. Nowadays some shelters will have you sign a paper that is an agreement to not declaw the cat you adopt. These shelters know and understand the damage declawing a cat can do. Though now it is illegal in New York, Maryland, Virginia. Texas, Colorado. Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin most other states have not yet been banned declawing. It is important to do research or even ask other cat owners for help and advice. Seeking out help is another tool that will help you and the cat you are planning to bring into your home. When looking for a cat there are shelters that may have cats that are declawed from previous owners. Though the cats they have are on the older side they still would benefit from being adopted and in a forever home. Sometimes it is hard to adopt out the declaw cats because of the issues that it caused the not using the litter box or them being on medicine for their pain and arthritis. This causes potential adopters to think is this really something we want to bring into our home. Most times they decide against it, this can cause these cats to spend their lives in the shelter and to never know a life outside of the shelter. This being said if you still are wanting a declaw cat look in shelters but if you can’t find one you could either keep looking keep going back because shelters are always getting new cats brought in, or you could adopt another cat and use something called soft paws which are fake nails that get glued to their nails. If you don’t want to use the soft paws you can get scratchers and cat towers to help prevent them from scratching your furniture. These tools can really help all of the cat owners out there and any potential cat owners.
By Blake Johnsonabout a year ago in Petlife
