Innehållsförteckning för January 2023 från Your Cat

Here a priest is blessing a cat in a long-standing tradition. Each year, hundreds of people bring their pets to San Anton church in Madrid to have their animals blessed during the feast of San Antón, the patron saint of animals, which is celebrated in January. Saint Anthony was said to have lived in solitude with animals as companions and instinctively had animals around him. The pet blessing tradition dates back to medieval times and its objective was to collectively take care of the animals that lived in the streets of Madrid. This picture was taken from last year’s celebration when people were wearing face masks to protect each other. If you look out in the news, you may see images of pet blessings from the 2023 festival.…

YOUR CAT GOOD CAUSES SEES GARFY STATUE FUNDRAISER HITTARGET In our November issue, we announced the launch of our Good Causes project with a £1,500 donation to help create a statue of Garfy — aka Mr Sainsbury — a cat who captured the hearts of the people in Ely, Cambridgeshire. Their fundraising has now reached the initial target of £6,500, after we donated another £300 to the Go Fund Me page. David Willers, Garfy’s owner, said: “I can’t thank Your Cat enough. They have done so much for Garfield’s Go Fund Me page, for his statue. Not only did they make a donation of £1,500, they ran the story in their magazine and donated another £300 for us to reach our target of £6,500! We want to thank everyone who…

Rosemary Fisher entered the cat fancy in 1974 when she purchased her first pedigree cat — a Chinchilla called Brylou Moonstone. She breeds Persians and Exotics, and judges in several sections. She is currently a GCCF Board member and also serves on the genetics committee. Do you remember Panorama’s ‘Pedigree Dogs Exposed?’ It was about 15 years ago but had an impact that has continued ever since. The concern at the time for GCCF was that pedigree cats didn’t travel the same route which was that pedigree breeding could lead to health issues, and this resulted in the GCCF Breeding Policy, Variant Policy, and Outcrossing Policy being written to avoid heading towards genetic bottle necks in the future. Three reports into dog breeding followed the programme, two done very quickly after…

Clare Hemington DipCAPBT is an accredited feline behaviourist. She has a cat behaviour referrals practice and runs her Honeysuckle Cat Toys business with the help of her Siamese, Billy. You can find out more from her website: www.honeysucklecattoys.co.uk In this series, we are helping you assess the well-being of your cats. Each issue will focus on a different aspect of cat care and feature a practical way for you to analyse your own cat’s situation. The third part of the series looks at how cats value their territory. For cats, territory is everything. As far as they are concerned, it’s the most fundamental reason for their existence. Unlike dogs for whom their caregivers are the be all and end all, most cats (and I hate to disappoint you) are more attached…

Penny Clarke, BVetMed MRCVS, graduated in 2003 from the Royal Veterinary College. She is a cat-loving clinician at a busy, small animal hospital in Warwickshire. Penny writes about all things veterinary and also human neurodiversity, particularly autism. “There are now treatments available that make it possible for cats to survive…” Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) is a complex viral disease that up until very recently was nearly always fatal in cats. The mere mention of it had vets quaking into their stethoscopes with fear! While it is still challenging to diagnose, there are now treatments available that make it possible for cats to survive and fully recover from an FIP infection. “The virus mutates into a harmful form once inside the cat…” WHAT CAUSES FIP? FIP is a disease that develops…

Rosemary Fisher entered the cat fancy in 1974 when she purchased her first pedigree cat — a Chinchilla called Brylou Moonstone. She breeds Persians and Exotics, and judges in several sections. She is currently a GCCF Board member and also serves on the genetics committee. Around 20 years ago, our club, which is a GCCF breed club, decided we would venture into rescue and rehoming our own breed (Persians) on a very small scale, as well as our other Cat Fancy activities. We were fortunate to be given a very generous donation by our Club President and purchased a purpose-built house and run which was erected in the garden of one of our committee members, who does show her cats but doesn’t breed, and she took on the role of…

✭✭STAR PIC✭✭ Tipsy wins an Ancol Premo XL Activity Centre, while the others receive an assortment of cat toys, including a Jittery Mouse, courtesy of Ancol Pet Products. For more information, call 01922 402428. (UK only) SEE YOUR CAT HERE! Email a clear (non-blurry) image of usable size (around 300dpi and 1MB) to pawtraits@yourcat.co.uk Please include your full name, address, and phone number, as well as your cat’s name. www.facebook.com/yourcatmagazine @yourcatmagazine pawtraits@yourcat.co.uk…

One of the most popular productions every panto season is undoubtedly ‘Dick Whittington.’ Captured in ballads and prose reaching back to the 15th century, the enduring tale has become part of English folklore and even has slightly different versions. The rags to riches story tells of Dick Whittington, a poor orphan who heads to London to seek his fortune, which he has heard is a city paved with gold. He is met with disappointment to find a lack of opportunities and just dirty streets. Dick ends up working in the kitchen of a wealthy merchant and uses what little money he has to buy a cat. When the wealthy merchant forces Dick to give up his cat, he gets fed up with life in London and goes to flee. However,…

As I write this, 2023 is not too far away. Heading into a new year is always a time for reflecting, to make it easier to look and move forward. With the surge in pet ownership due to covid and now a cost-of-living crisis, it is a challenging time for cats and owners. At Your Cat, we are trying to do everything we can to help. We’re providing hundreds of pages of expert advice on our website, we’ve launched Your Cat Good Causes which is pledging a percentage of subscription fees to feline projects in the UK, and we’re hopefully delivering content which you really enjoy and find value for money. As editor, my biggest hope is that you value being part of the Your Cat community. There are millions of…

Yvonne Martin is a freelance journalist who specialises in health and well-being features. She is a lifelong cat-lover and lives with a shorthair tabby called Rita who has her own instagram account @ritascatworld Some cats have a lot to say for themselves, whether it’s a cheery chirrup after they burst through the cat flap or a more insistent meow when they want to be fed. It’s tempting to imagine that the various sounds our cats make are something akin to language and who among us has not tried to meow back at our pet in an attempt at conversation? But in fact, cats don’t audibly converse with each other and wouldn’t meow much at all if they weren’t living with us humans. Among undomesticated cats, it would largely be confined…

BEST SPECIALIST DIET — BEAPHAR KIDNEY DIET Beaphar Kidney diet is a delicious, complete pet food designed to support cats with renal conditions. Available in salmon, duck, and chicken flavour, it is a pate-style pet food that has been scientifically balanced to combine specific levels of high-quality protein with low-level phosphorus to prevent the increase of waste products in the blood, helping to support renal function. Beaphar Kidney Diet contains Vitamins D and E, taurine, biotin, and zinc to provide your cat with all of the essential vitamins and minerals to support optimum health. Suitable for cats with temporary renal insufficiency and chronic renal conditions. ● www.beaphar.co.uk HIGHLY COMMENDED: Arden Grange Sensitive Grain Free Ocean White Fish and Potato (www.ardengrange.com); and Carnilove Duck and Turkey Large Breed (www.carnilove.co.uk) BEST DRY…

The Cats and their Stats report is an excellent look at how we’re doing with cat ownership in this country. It allows the identification of trends, themes, or issues that can help inform how we care for our cats. Over 10,000 owners took part in the survey with the data referring to the period of between March 2021 and March 2022. Here are headline findings: CAT POPULATION ● There are around 11 million owned cats in the UK, an increase of around 200,000 since 2021. ● Half (50%, 5.5 million) of owned cats are female and half (50%, 5.5 million) are male. GIVING UP CATS ● 8% of current cat owners had a cat in the last 12 months that they no longer own. ● 12% of current non-owners had…

VEGAN DIETS Q Can I feed my cat a vegan diet? A Whether for ethical, health, or environmental reasons, people are choosing to eat less meat. Demand for vegetarian and vegan food has increased by 350 per cent in the UK over the last 10 years, according to the Vegan Society, and popularity is growing. But, while there are genuine benefits for humans to consume more vegetables and less animal-based products, the same cannot be said for cats. We cannot force a vegan diet on our felines. Cats are obligate carnivores. This means they evolved to eat meat by necessity. You only have to look inside a cat’s mouth to see the evidence that our furry friends are designed to hunt and catch their own prey. Their teeth are perfect…

Peter Neville has spent over 30 years as a professional pet behaviourist, writer, and educator. In 1993, he co-founded COAPE International (coape.org), now a leading online provider of education courses in pet behaviour. Peter is the author of 16 books, including the international best-seller, ‘Do Cats Need Shrinks?’ He now lives in Helsinki, Finland, with his partner Stella, and two cats, Asla and Trista. Anxiety is, in essence, worrying about the prospect of danger in response to any signs that a negative situation is coming. Some cats are simply born worriers rather than warriors, and others that might have become warriors fail to develop as such through a lack of early exposure to the normal goings-on of life when they were young and incapable of being fearful of novelty. Then they…

Sonja K Steiner wrote for Cat World magazine for over eight years. She’s worked in veterinary practice and previously volunteered at her local rescue. Her cats Willow and Fifi are the Brand Ambassadors for Natures Menu and Natures Variety cat food. “We at the rescue are not here to judge…” Cheshire Cats Rescue, a not-for-profit registered charity, was set up in January 2020 by experienced cat rescuers Liz Wingert and Linda Ortyl. The original plan was to gently ease into the world of rescue, but the cats had other ideas! As Covid-19 progressed, they received a lot of calls from workers on industrial estates who would usually look after the resident feral cats but with factories shutting, they turned to the rescue for help. The rescue has 20 foster carers…

WELFARE Battersea urges Government to prioritise animal welfare as legislation stalls one year on Battersea, along with other UK animal welfare organisations, and a cross-party group of MPs has teamed up to renew their pleas to Government as more than a year has passed since the Kept Animals Bill was debated in parliament. The bill proposes significant action to address some of the most pressing animal welfare issues of our time, including puppy smuggling and ear cropping of dogs overseas. Battersea MP Marsha de Cordova has sent an open letter, signed by 19 cross-party MPs, calling on the Government to push the bill over the line. The action is being supported by nine leading animal welfare organisations. The group joined together on 9 November — one year since the bill…

Your Cat Good Causes has donated MDC EeziCatch Cat Traps and carriers to independent cat rescues throughout the UK to help assist them with their essential Trap Neuter Return (TNR) programmes. We spoke to two of those rescues to find out more about their amazing work and how our donation is valuable to them. INCREDIBLE COMMITMENT Female cats over the age of four months can get pregnant. This is one of the reasons why feral cat populations can explode in numbers in such a short time. With an estimated 250,000 stray cats living in cities across the UK, independent cat rescues are reaching breaking point with all of the time, hard work, and effort their volunteers are putting into their Trap Neuter Return (TNR) programmes to bring feral populations under…

Chris Pascoe is a cat-sitter and author. He has written five books, including ‘A cat called Birmingham’ and ‘You can take the cat out of Slough’, which are available to buy from Amazon. While I’m slaving long hours, sitting on sofas, stroking cats, and watching TV, I often dream of one day winning the lottery and being able to leave all this hardship behind me. Actually, not exactly behind me. I’ll still do exactly the same things but with two major differences: 1) nobody will need to pay me to do it and 2) I’ll live somewhere with enough room for a great big shed in which to do more lounging and TV watching — the man dream. New Year, new wealth, new shed. I’ll also have a multitude of shed…

Shivam Patel and Ashmi Hindocha first met when they were both studying at Bristol University 12 years ago. They got together two years later and celebrated their tenth anniversary in August. When they decided to start living together, there was no question that they would bring home a pet as they were both big animal lovers. Shivam said: “Neither of us were allowed to have pets when we were younger and when we moved in together, we both wanted to fill that void that a pet left because we love all animals.” The couple started looking around at options and at first considered a rabbit, but, as Shivam explained: “Nothing we saw had an affinity with us, then we considered a dog but we thought that would be a lot…

The competitions are now all magazine only, so we need to explain this clearly in this issue: NEW YEAR, NEW START We want to reward your loyalty to us, therefore ALL of the competitions you see across these giveaways pages are now entirely exclusive to you, our Your Cat members. To be able to enter these giveaways online, simply visit our website (www.yourcat.co.uk/competitions), log into your account, and answer the simple question. All of these competitions will now also remain open for the whole month online (as well as via the printed form), giving you plenty of time to make your entries! Please note, if you have purchased this copy of Your Cat Magazine from a retail store, you will need to enter the giveaways via the printed form. Or…

● KEEP THEM AWAY FROM ANTIFREEZE Ethylene glycol, better known as antifreeze, is deadly to cats. While it is often used in cars to stop things freezing, if even a small amount is ingested by cats, it can be fatal. Worse still, it has a sweet smell that attracts cats to it. So take care to keep it away from your pets, clear up any leakages from your car, and never use it in ponds. If your cat does ingest antifreeze, take them to the vet’s immediately. Symptoms include seizures, breathing difficulties, appearing ‘drunk’, vomiting, and lethargy. ● PAWS FOR THOUGHT During the colder months, cats can accumulate grit and snow in their paws. You want to avoid cats ingesting the rock salt used to grit roads when they groom…

Lucy Briggs is a registered veterinary nurse (RVN) at Belvoir Vets in Grantham, Lincolnshire, a gold standard cat-friendly clinic. Early one Tuesday morning when the Belvoir Vets staff got to the practice, we were greeted by some local builders who were cradling a very poorly female cat in need of attention. When the builders arrived at work that morning, they found a little black and white cat stuck under a large slab of concrete. The poor cat’s leg was trapped under the slab, which was so heavy it required mechanical equipment to lift the slab off. As soon as the slab was lifted, the cat was released and they rushed straight to Belvoir Vets. It was immediately apparent that the cat had an open fracture on her left hind leg and…