Cats on Screen No. 7- The Aristocats

This Disney film from 1970 follows the adventures of cat Duchess and her kittens Berlioz, Toulouse and Marie. The cats live a good life in a Paris villa until the house’s butler kidnaps them and abandons them in the countryside on realising they are set to inherit their owner’s fortune. Crafty stray cat Thomas O’ Malley befriends them and helps them get back to Paris.

The secret life of a cat

What do cats do when we’re not watching? They disappear through the cat flap, sometimes spending a long time outside, so what do they get up to? There are ways of keeping track of what your cat is doing. ‘Cat trackers’ attach to a cat’s collar and can use GPS technology to record where you cat goes, sending the information to your phone or computer. Other products guide you towards your pet, picking up a signal from a device on their collar.

Last year, a TV programme aimed to find out what our cats do outdoors. They used micro-cameras and GPS tracking devices to map the movements of ten cats living in a village in Surrey. The results are interesting; it appears our moggies get up to quite a lot outdoors, with one cat roaming over seven acres. You can see the maps of where the cats go at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22567526. 

What does your cat do outdoors? Do they roam far or prefer to stay in your garden, or keep in the warm inside? 

Cats on Screen No.6- Puss in Boots

Puss in Boots is the fictional cat friend of Shrek, first appearing in the film Shrek 2. Voiced by Antonio Banderas, he is based loosely on a fairy tale character of the same name. He has appeared in four Shrek films, as well as starring in the 2011 film Puss in Boots, which tells the story of his childhood.

Social petworking

Cats have run the internet for years, but a new trend is cats having social networking accounts. More than 350,000 cat owners have set up online accounts for their cats, with over 3.8 million feline selfies posted every day. Research has revealed 15% of people setting up accounts for their cats were hoping for the feline fame of internet sensations like Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub, and 20% did so because they thought their cat was more interesting than them!
Tiddles decided she wanted to join in, so here is her selfie. I’m not sure she’s quite mastered the camera angle!

Worms and how to avoid them

Cats can get many intestinal parasites- worms- and some can be really nasty. Often cats will show no symptoms of having worms and can be infected for a long time, which is not good as worms can cause illness or even death. It is important to know the types of worms cats can get and how to protect against getting them.

Roundworms are the most common worms cats get. They are spaghetti like in appearance, and the adult worms get to 3-5 inches long. Cats can get roundworm from eating infected prey (such as rodents), coming into contact with an infected cat’s faeces or ingesting eggs from soil. Kittens can be passed roundworm through a mother’s milk. Symptoms include a dull coat, diarrhoea, vomiting, or, especially in kittens, a pot-bellied appearance. If a cat has roundworms it could lead to pneumonia or intestinal blockage, and as the worms compete with the cat for food it can lead to the cat becoming malnourished. Roundworm can be passed to humans, and can cause serious health problems. 

Hookworms are more common in dogs than cats, although they are still a problem. They are smaller than roundworms, up to about 1/2 inch long. Cats can become infected either by ingesting the larvae, or by coming into contact with the larvae (mostly found in most soil and vegetation) which then burrow into the skin. It is not known if hookworm can be passed from mother to kitten through milk or the placenta, although this can happen with dogs. Hookworms attach themselves to the intestinal wall, and feed on the cat’s blood and tissue. This can cause anaemia, intestinal bleeding and even death. There are not always symptoms, but if there are they can include bloody stools due to intestinal bleeding, diarrhoea or irritation, especially on the feet, where larvae have entered the body. Humans can catch hookworm, although they cannot develop into adults. They enter the skin, causing red, itchy skin lesions.

Tapeworms are long and flat,and vary from 4 to 28 inches in length. Usually they are not dangerous to cats, the main problem is they compete with the cat for nutrients so the cat can lose weight. There are often no symptoms; owners mainly notice their cat has tapeworm because of rice like segments of the worms around the cat’s anus, and in their faeces. Cats get tapeworms by ingesting an infected flea or rodent. You cannot catch tapeworm directly from your cat but you can catch it by ingesting an infected flea. 

There are several ways to protect against worms. There are tablets available, for example Drontal, which protect against the three types of worms mentioned above, which you can usually buy without a prescription. Milbemax also protects against these three worms (as well some other types), and the tablet is flavoured, so cats prefer to take it. You need a prescription to buy it. However, some cats refuse to take tablets, even if they are flavoured. Spot-on worming treatments are available, but you need to be careful as some spot-on treatments do not protect against roundworm, which is a very nasty worm. Profender is a spot on treatment that does protect against roundworm. It requires a prescription to buy it. Another option is a liquid wormer, such as Panacur which treats roundworm, some types of tapeworm and lung-worm (a worm that infects the lungs of cats and causes severe breathing problems, that is usually picked up when a cat eats infected birds or rodents). 

Cats on Screen No. 5- Blofeld’s cat

Blofeld is a villain from the James Bond books and films, appearing in three books and six films. Just as memorable as Blofeld though, was his white Turkish Angora cat. In some of the films, Blofeld’s face is not seen; his only appearance is stroking his white cat. Blofeld’s character is alluded to in many portrayals of an evil genius, as is the villain stroking a white cat.

5 Sayings that aren’t actually to do with cats…

There’s more than one way to skin a cat

This means there is many ways of achieving something. The phrase was probably first used in the Southern US states, and because of this it is though the phrase refers to a catfish, which is skinned before eating, as these fish were often eaten there.

Not enough room to swing a cat

This phrase describes a very small space. It means a cat o’ nine tails could not be used in such a confined space, and not a real cat.

The cat’s pyjamas 

Something that is very good, or sometimes good and new. This possibly originated E.B Katz, an English tailor from the 1700’s, who made the finest silk pyjamas for royalty. Another explanation is it came from the 1920’s, when the word ‘cat’ was used to describe the flappers, and pyjamas were quite a new fashion. Combined, the phrase described a new, exciting thing. 

A dead cat on the line

When something suspicious is going on, there is a ‘dead cat on the line’. This actually refers to fishing for catfish. The lines they were caught on where checked every day, so if there was a dead catfish on the line, it meant something was wrong as the line had not been checked. 

Glamour puss

A very beautiful person. The phrase originated as ‘glamour buss’, as ‘buss’ is an old word for the face, and in particular the lips. Over time it began to be pronounced as ‘puss’, and is now see as reference to a cat’s beauty and poise. 

 

These two aren’t sayings but they’re not to do with cats either…

Cat o’ nine tails

It is often said that the origin of the name of this whip came from it being made from cat hide. This is unlikely, however there are many suggestions as to the real reason for its name.One suggestion is it was made out of cat gut (see below). Another is that it left scratches on the backs of people who were punished with it that looked like a cat had scratched them. Some say because it had 9 tails it became a ‘cat’ because this number was already associated with cats (cats have 9 lives).  

Catgut 

This is used as a description for the strong cord violin strings, and other things, are made of. The word originated from the translation of the German word ‘Kitgut’, describing the material used for the strings of a ‘Kit’, a small fiddle. Another suggestion is that it came from a shortening of ‘cattle-gut’, as the cord was, and is, made from the intestines of animals such as cows, pigs and goats. It has never been made from cat intestine, though.