Supercats
Health -
If you have any doubts at all about the health of your cat,you can always try http://www.vethelpdirect.com/
Your Cat's Life
From birth to one year old your cat is technically a kitten. A kitten should have a kitten type diet to encourage development.
From 1 year to about 8 or 9 it is a youthful cat and after this it becomes a senior cat. Just as a kitten has a special diet,so too should a senior cat have a modified diet as it gets older.
Thanks to good neutrition and tender loving care pet cats can live a long time these days. well over 15 years and 20 years is not uncommon.
By comparison a Feral cat that has to look out for itself will probably not live much longer than 5 or 6 years.
Unless you plan to breed from your cat(s), you should seriously consider having your pet neutered.
An unneutered queen that is allowed to go outside will quickly present you with a litter of unwanted kittens. Shortly after these have been weaned she will present you with another litter and another, etc.. It's not fair on your queen and she will be far happier as a neutered cat. An uneutered queen in heat makes a lot of very scary noise, jumps around a lot and rolls around a lot. This can continue for a week.
The unneutered male has problems of a different kind. They are very territorial and will fight to preserve this territory. This leads to all kinds of injuries and are a nice little earner for the vet. The unneutered male will also mark this territory, he may do this in your house, but even worse he may do it in someone else's house. This gives you the owner a real headache. The unneutered male is of course responsible for all the litters that the unneutered queen is going to produce and is responsible for the subsequent looking after and re-
Neutered pets may put on a little extra weight, but this is easily remedied by controlled diet, and they will live much happier lives.
Is your cat going to be an indoor cat ? Or will it also be allowed outside to wander the neighbourhood like mine are?
Cats that are kept indoors are usually quite content with their lifestyle. Usually the indoor cat is actually a pair of cats, that keep each other company while the owner is out of the home. Watch out for the type of household plants you have, some can be poisonous to cats and a few are fatal. You should definitley consider a scratching post or consider the rest of your life with cheap furniture. Indoor cats should have access to grass, and should have toys to play with.
There should be one litter tray per cat, water should always be available.
As with all cats be prepared to put your christmas tree up quite a few times.
Outdoor cats generally come and go as they please, although I always try to ensure that mine are indoors at night. Outdoor cats are more likely to get into trouble of one sort or the other and might end up on your vet's christmas card list, but that's life. They can disappear for hours on end and then saunter back indoors looking for food before ignoring you and going straight outside again. Cats that are allowed outside are generally quite happy animals, otherwise they wouldn't go outside. As I often say it's not rocket science. However you should try to ensure that the cat has a permanent means of entry to your house, a cat flap etc. Invented by Sir Isaac Newton. But beware the pet flap can bring its own problems.
Declawing
Generally speaking, in the Western world only citizens of the USA still perform this barbaric routine.
Why?
So that Mr and Mrs USA can have unblemished furniture.
And so that USA vets can have his or her share of a very lucrative market.
Vets are supposed to look after the welfare of cats !
Declawing is against the law in the UK and Europe. In the UK it can only be done with permission from the highest level and this permisson is rarely given.
"Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia."
-