Tag Archives: cats

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.

About ten years ago, I developed an educational presentation for veterinarians titled “A Cat Is Not a Little Dog.” This presentation highlighted diseases that affect these two species very differently. For example: Diabetes: Dogs can develop Type I diabetes, while cats develop Type II diabetes Thyroid Disorders: The most common endocrine disorder in dogs is hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid gland), while cats more often have the opposite condition, hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid gland) Mast Cell Tumors: These skin tumors are most common in dogs, while in cats they often occur in the spleen. However, there are a few medical similarities between dogs and cats that might surprise you. Today’s blogpost highlights three key areas where our feline and canine companions face similar health challenges.

The second Sunday in September is National Pet Memorial Day—a day when we remember those animal companions who live on in our memories. Both humans and pets grieve over the loss of an animal companion, and there’s new research about grief in cats to deepen our understanding of our feline friends’ feelings. I’ll share these new findings in this blogpost.