We were recently asked to cat sit for a cat that was diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) – failure of the kidneys. Being diagnosed with this illness is emotionally and physically hard for the cat and the owner.

This case got me thinking a lot about the health of our own cats and how to prevent such a thing from happening to them and also what to do if (knock on wood) something like this were to happen to them.

I’ve included an informative link here below on some helpful information on Chronic Renal Failure:

http://www.felinecrf.com/managh.htm

Here’s hoping you never have to use this information.

If you’re concerned about your kitty’s health (why wouldn’t you?), you may not be aware that the common plastic food and water bowl you find in most pet stores aren’t very good for your cat (or pet for that matter).

Pet experts advise that these plastic bowls can allow for harmful bacteria to collect in your cat’s food and water bowl. The experts advise that it’s better to use metallic or ceramic food and water bowls for your cat.

When we changed Max and Timmy’s food bowl to stainless steel from plastic we noticed a significant reduction in cat Acne around Timmy’s mouth.

All cat owners have had the problem of having guests over and your furniture is completely covered in cat hair or showing up to work and your co-workers are pulling off cat hairs from your clothes for you. It’s a bit embarrassing isn’t it?

If you don’t have on of those hair remover rollers around, here’s something else you can try:

Find a rubber glove and start rubbing your furniture or clothes and it should catch the cat hair for easy removal. It’s probably a bit easier to use on your furniture than on your clothes (not to mention you’ll look quite silly rubbing yourself with a rubber glove…)

Any self-respecting cat will most likely fight you like crazy when it comes to feeding her medicine. Here’s a tip I recently read about:

Put some of the medicine (liquid only) onto your cat’s coat with an eye-dropper, your cat’s instinct to lick herself clean will also mean she licks up the medicine and voila, no struggle.

For tablet type medicine, we’ve had success crushing the tablet into a powder and delivering it with a syringe.

Ok, maybe the title is a little bit misleading. I certainly don’t think you should or want to take your cat(s) camping.

We recently created a mini-tent in our living room (basically a blanket covering ottomans) and found that both our cats loved “camping” inside.

It’s kind of like their home away from home.

Timmy likes to crawl under the tent when he wants to get some sleep and hide from Max from bothering him.

You can easily create temporary “tent-like” structures for your cats to sleep and hide in to keep them happy.