Meet Starsky, the resident cat at the River Road Pet Clinic in Tucson, AZ. Starsky is a Himalayan/Persian mix who sports quite a unique look with a lion’s mane and a poodle haircut!

Although often viewed as bad cat behavior, cat scratching is a perfectly normal and healthy activity for your kitty. To ask a cat to stop scratching, is like asking your kitty to stop being a cat.

There are several reasons for cat scratching:

• To shed the outer layer of it’s claws
• To exercise and stretch their muscles
• To mark their territory

So how do you get kitty to stop scratching on your furniture, in a natural and healthy way that still allows them to “be a cat”?

Cat Scratching Posts

Click Here to See Scratching Posts

Providing your kitty with an acceptable alternative like a cat scratching post is the best solution. This allows kitty to continue the behavior in a way that is more acceptable to you (and your furniture).

Introducing the Scratching Post to Your Cat

1. Cover the favored spot on the furniture with double-sided tape or a smooth surface like plastic.
2. Place a scratching post in front of the area. You can move it to a more convenient location after kitty has accepted and is regularly using the post instead of your furniture.
3. Place a second scratching post near the spot where your cat likes to sleep as they love to scratch and stretch their muscles upon awakening from their naps.
4. Add a little catnip or play with kitty by dragging a string across the surface to encourage use and acceptance.

How to Choose a Cat Scratching Post

• The post should be at least 3 feet high to allow your cat to fully stretch the length of it’s body
• The ideal scratching posts are covered in sisal or made from natural red cedar wood as they give your cat something to dig their claws into while encouraging clawing on a surface that’s very different in texture from your furniture.
• The post should be sturdy and not be subject to wobbling or sliding when your cat is clawing.

Cat hunts bird and fails. It’s reaction is priceless.

Each of these videos show a friendship between a young deer and a cat including the bathing of one another. An odd pairing, but VERY SWEET!!

DEER GIVES CAT A BATH

CAT AND DEER FRIENDSHIP (cat gives deer a bath and then they take a nap together)

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Over 35,000 participated in the online voting to give the Woodland Park Zoo’s 11 week old baby snow leopard his new name, Gobi (after the Mongolian Desert). Gobi’s twin sister was previously named Batu, which means honest in Mongolian. read original story

The baby snow leopards have grown a great deal since I posted their last video. They’re still totally adorable and look at the size of the paws already!

Check out their latest pics in the Zoo’s photo gallery

Mike Sigler and his 6 year old son were fishing on the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida when they heard a cat crying. After some investigation they found a kitten with her head barely above water clinging tightly to a piling. They got out a fishing net to rescue her. She’d been there for a while and had wounds that were bleeding. They wrapped her in a towel and took her home.

It’s believed that someone threw the cat off the bridge because she was in the middle of the river with miles of water to every side of her.

Nicknamed T.K. (Tough Kitty), she’s now a well-loved member of the Sigler family. Her paws are still raw and healing but she’s playful and happy in her new home.

WATCH VIDEO OF T.K. IN HER NEW HOME

Cat Clips is a funny video series following the lives of 4 “talking” cats in the suburbs. In this episode, Honey, the female cat tries to play the game of I Spy with the male cat.

Casper, a 12 years old house cat, boards the Number 3 bus at 10.55am from outside his home in Plymouth, Devon in the UK every day, and travels the entire 11-mile route before returning home about an hour and a half later.

He has been making the journey for so long that the bus company posted a notice in the office to alert all bus drivers to look out for him to ensure he gets off at the right stop.

Casper’s owner wondered where he was vanishing to every day until some of the bus drivers told her he had been catching the bus. Hence, how he got his name – because he “vanishes like a ghost”.

It’s estimated that the cat has travelled over 20,000 miles!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF CASPER ON THE BUS

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Two endangered snow leopard cubs (a male and a female) were born on May 25th, 2009 at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA. The female cub has been named Batu, which means firm, hard and honest in Mongolian.

The zoo is conducting a poll to name the male cub. Voting is open now, you can go to the zoo Web site and pick from one of four names:

- Gobi (go-bee), for the Gobi Desert in Mongolia
- Boke (sounds like poke), which means strong
- Irbis (ear-biss), which means leopard
- Vachir (voch-err), which means thunderbolt

Voting ends at midnight on Aug. 12. The winning name will be announced with the cubs make their public debut on August 15.
Click here to go to the Zoo website.

SNOW LEOPARD CUBS AT 4 WEEKS

SNOW LEOPARD CUBS GETTING THEIR 6 WEEK VET CHECK-UP

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In this funny cat cartoon video, Simon’s Cat trys everything to get his owner’s attention to get let inside the house.

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