Cat Care, Breeds and Resources Blog

We’ve had indoor cats for over 30 years and never had any problems with cats spraying until a couple of years ago. My alpha cat, Kira, a female who had reached the age of 13 started spraying while we were fostering a large litter of cats — mom and 6 kittens.

We have been unable to break her of this nasty habit. When she is unhappy, she sprays the backs of our leather recliners. They are fairly easy to clean up, however, the spray tends to drip onto the carpet below and getting that smell out is not easy. The enzyme cleaner works pretty good but it’s not what I’d like my house to smell like either.

We are still fostering and well, Kira was really upset about our last fosters: Poppy (the little feral momma) and her 4 kittens. She actually sprayed our computer! Yep, a MAC BOOK laptop computer that is no longer functioning — dead, dead, dead. Here’s a cartoon my friend, David Booth, created when he heard about it:

My little stinker, Kira

Can Vanilla help?
A couple of days ago while visiting an old friend, she mentioned that her daughter uses vanilla flavoring and that stopped her cat from spraying and covered the smell. Well, I’ve been trying it for 2 days and so far so good. Here’s what I did…

1. I put vanilla flavoring (actually imitation) into a small spritzer bottle I bought at the drug store in the area where they sell small travel items like shampoos.

2. I cleaned the areas Kira sprays real good, let it dry, then spritzed the vanilla on the spots and also on the carpet below.

3. I spritzed the vanilla again before I went to bed and when I woke up the second morning.

So far so good. No spraying and my house smells wonderful!!! It’s worth it just for the smell. lol

I’ll let you know how it goes. Try it yourself if you have a cat that sprays and please leave a comment letting us know if it worked for you.

Purrs, Frankie

P.S. For funny cat pictures, animations and other fun cat stuff, click Cats Just Wanna Have Fun

P.P.S. For dozens of articles on cats and cat breeds, click Cat Articles

Most cat scratching posts and trees are covered with carpet or wrapped with sisal rope. But which is better?

Benefits Of Sisal And Carpet
Both are pretty durable and both condition your felines nails. Sisal is touted as being superior to carpet because carpet can snap nails. Also some people say that having the tree made of carpet encourages your cat(s) to scratch your other carpeted surfaces.

Give Them Both
I’ve found that having both sisal and carpet the way to go. Some of my cats prefer one over the other. And, I try to have the cat tree’s carpet a different color to keep it separate in the minds of the cats. My cats get trained early and I keep on them (just like with kids) to make sure they do their scratching on the posts or trees NOT my furniture or carpets.

We’ve had an 8 foot tree for 15 years. The carpet came off the leg after 12 years and we wrapped it with sisal rope, which is coming off — however, that is probably because we did it ourselves and didn’t really do a good job. But you can see carpet lasts a long, long time. We have a lot more wear and tear than most people because we’ve had any where from 5 to 13 (with fosters) cats at one time using this tree over the 15 years.

This cat tree is made of pressed wood and comes in Sky Blue, Faux Fleece with a base board size of 20″ X 14″. The overall size of this 3-level cat tree is 24″ long, 14″ wide, and 26″ Tall. It has 1 perch, 2 posts (1 wrapped in Sisal). Nice tree with both sisal and carpet. For more information and/or to purchase click Cat Tree 01.

Purrs, Frankie

P.S. For funny cat pictures, animations and other fun cat stuff, click Cats Just Wanna Have Fun

P.P.S. For dozens of articles on cats and cat breeds, click Cat Articles

Here’s proof that dogs and cats can get along. It’s a picture of rare white tiger cubs nursing from a Golden Retriever. The photo was taken at the Safari Zoological Park near Caney, Kan. The tiger cubs were abandoned by their mothers so Isebella, the golden retriever took over as surrogate mom. Here’s the photo:

(AP Photo/The Daily Reporter, Rob Morgan)

Enjoy!

Purrs, Frankie

P.S. For funny cat pictures, animations and other fun cat stuff, click Cats Just Wanna Have Fun

P.P.S. For dozens of articles on cats and cat breeds, click Cat Articles

Rocket, our little foster kitten was adopted into a wonderful home. He also has a new brother — a little Jack Russell Terrier named Nuchi. Oh, yeah, Rocket’s new name is Jack (Jack the cat and a Jack Russell terrier). And, he is blossoming into quite a character from what I hear. The first night, the 2 were already playing and by the 4th night, they slept together.

Here are a couple photos:

Jack and Nuchi Playing

Jack and Nuchi Taking a break

I’m thrilled that Jack aka Rocket found his forever home!

Purrs, Frankie

P.S. For really funny cat pictures and and more fun stuff, click Cats Just Wanna Have Fun

P.P.S. For dozens of articles on cats and cat breeds, click Cat Articles