Pet Den

Caring for your cat

Does your cat scratch your household furniture and other valuable things around the house? This is a habit of almost all cats. Some people recommend the practice of de-clawing as a solution to this problem.

However, if you love your cat, one thing you should be strictly against is this cruel practice of de-clawing. This is actually an illegal practice in most countries. It is an extremely painful procedure where not just the claw, but the entire first joint of the foot is sometimes removed with a garden clipper - this effectively means that the cat's entire toe is cut off at the first joint. This not only means extreme physical pain for your cat, but also the loss of the use of its feet. Of course, we needn't tell you that cats use their feet for everything - from exploring the world to jumping up and down and playing. Unless you want to care for a maimed cat, de-clawing should never be done or encouraged.

If your cat scratches your furniture, what you should do is set up appropriate scratching posts. If you have several cats, you may have to set up several posts for each cat as most of them are reluctant to use other cats' scratching posts. Also, the tip of the cat's claw can be clipped off, which is a rather simple process which may take between five and 10 seconds. However, it is best to let an adult carry out this procedure as it requires some care and patience.

You may find that some cats are painfully shy and do not want to have relaxed contact with humans. Socialising them would be an extremely difficult process. Cats like these may probably have a feral (wild) background and may not have been touched, petted or socialised when they were younger.

When you try to socialise them later in life, it may be working against their genetic and early experiences. You cannot force, urge, coax or demand a cat to come out of its "shell"; in fact, you cannot force a cat to do anything for you. You have to let them come to you and ask for what they want in their own way. That would take a lot of time and patience and could be very frustrating for you, but when you finally succeed, it would come as a very rewarding experience.

My dear pets

My pets are two cats and a dog.The two cats are Tina and Breta, while the dog is named Brown. The cats are white and black; the dog is brown.Tina, Breta and Brown are good friends. They love playing with each other.Brown likes to eat meat and rice. We give it dog food too.

The cats like to eat fish. They all like to drink milk.Brown is a Great Dane; one cat is a Japanese Bobtail, while the other is a British Shorthair.

Every Sunday evening, my father takes Brown for a walk. It loves to bark and it also loves to play hide and seek.

I love my pets very much and they also love me.

Isuri Erandathi Ratnaweera,

Musaeus College,Colombo.