Many people have cats and think they might be taking care of it correctly, but could actually be harming them. It’s not that they are trying to harm the cat(s) or neglect them, but instead they might just not know what they are doing could be potentially harming their cat(s). Some also don’t have cats and have been thinking about getting a cat or kitten and don’t know exactly what to do or where they should start.
According to prnewswire.com, about 52% of cat owners, in the USA, are neglecting their cats’ health.
HHS science teacher Ms. Vera Weis has two cats of her own at home who are named Marbles and Dewy. She had a few pieces of advice to give to students who’ve just newly adopted a cat or were thinking about getting a cat or kitten.
“Having the two of them is good too because we’re not home a whole lot just because we’re both busy, and we’ll come home and they will just be cuddling each other and they’re like ‘we got each other,” Weis said.
When having a kitten or cat it’s really good to get them a lot of toys so they are able to keep themselves entertained when you can’t exactly be there to give them attention, especially when you have a new kitten with a lot of energy.
“Honestly they just like playing with toys a lot, the more toys you give them the better plus when they were really young they had their other brothers and sisters with them so they could play with each other,” Weis said.
A cat and dog foster from 4PAWS4RESCUE, Nicole Uebel, has some advice for people who’ve already adopted a cat before but are planning to get a new one. She also explains the importance of getting your new cats tested and vaccinated.
“Yeah, so anytime I bring a new cat into my home, I’ll keep them separate from the other cats,” Uebel said. “Whether it’s in a separate bedroom or I have these wire cat condos because most of the time when they come in they are not fixed, they’re not up to date on their vaccines if they’ve ever had them”.
When you go and get a cat it is best if they are up to date on any vaccines they need so they don’t get any other pets sick and so they don’t end up getting sick
“We also have to get them FIVs and FELV tested which an FIV is like an HIV in cat and FELV is feline leukemia which are both contagious to cats, so I keep them separate until they have all the tests done and they get their first set of vaccines,” Uebel said.
We also have a family member of a HHS student, Deneise Boshers, to talk about the importance of getting your cat(s) fixed.
“Always get them fixed, so they don’t have litters and litters of kittens, they are hard to get rid of and a male cat will spray” Boshers said.
If you are a new cat owner you may be asking the question, ‘what exactly do I need to get for my cat?’ Well, a HHS student, Melody Pennycook has some suggestions for new cat owners as well.
“Get them some scratching posts, get them some good kinds of litter” Pennycook said,” It’s best if you get an automatic cat feeder and an automatic litter box it makes it a lot easier.”
