Category Archives: Cats

I was wasting time, mindlessly watching cat videos on Facebook, when I ran across this horrifying video. At first glance, a cat using a clothes dryer as an exercise wheel

When we recently reviewed our top performing blogposts, we found something interesting: the oldest post and the only top post specifically about cats focused on chronic kidney disease. Fourteen years later, the topic remains just as relevant. With World Kidney Day on March 12th highlighting Kidney Health for All, it’s worth remembering that kidney health matters for our feline family members too. A diagnosis of kidney disease in your cat can sound frightening. But in many cases, especially when detected early, feline chronic kidney disease can be managed for years, allowing cats to maintain an excellent quality of life.

A recent article in the New York Times described a number of research studies on “gifted word learning” dogs that can associate spoken words with objects, sometimes after very little exposure to the object. But what about cats? Do they learn language in a similar way? In this blogpost, I’ll explore what science tells us about how cats understand human language, how this differs from dogs, and whether it’s possible to teach your cat words.

The winter holiday season is the setting for Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale The Little Match Girl. The story features a child, alone and outdoors in the freezing cold, sustained by visions of warmth, delicious food and a loving family. Like many fairy tales, The Little Match Girl does not have a happy ending. The tale of Esme the cat—told in the blogpost below—is very much like the story of The Little Match Girl, except Esme’s story will have a happy ending.

Cats are wonderful creatures with whom to share our homes and lives. They entertain, comfort and sooth. While cats, like Mary Poppins, are practically perfect in every way, they do have one annoying habit: vomiting up hairballs. Cats never seem to vomit a hairball neatly in the corner. Instead, they always choose the exact spot you’re most likely to step on it—soggy, squishy and simply revolting. So why does your cat vomit hairballs? And when might hairballs indicate a medical condition? Let’s take a closer look at what’s new in our understanding of feline hairballs.