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In this issue: Cat-related Sayings and Phrases The True Story of the Downing Street Cats Article on Spaying or Neu- tering Cats Funny Cat Quotes and Links to Fun Stuff Meet the Next Feline Star! The February, 2012 Issue of the Cat-alogue Issue 22

February 2012 Cat-alogue

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The Cat-alogue is a monthly cat-lovers' magazine produced by the editor of www.felinefrenzies.com . It contains regular articles, feline phrase origins, breed profiles, true cat stories and much more for all ailurophiles everywhere.

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Page 1: February 2012 Cat-alogue

In this issue:

Cat-related Sayings and Phrases

The True Story of the Downing Street Cats

Article on Spaying or Neu-tering Cats

Funny Cat Quotes and Links to Fun Stuff

Meet the Next Feline Star!

The February, 2012 Issue of the

Cat-alogue Issue 22

Page 2: February 2012 Cat-alogue

Contents:

Why Spay or Neuter? 2

What About the Strays? 2

True Cat Story 3

True Cat Story (continued) 4

This Month’s Cat 4

Enough to Make a Cat Laugh! 5

Cat Sayings and Phrases 5

Feline Phrases 5

What the Cat Drug In 6

Feline Stars 7

The Canterbury Tails: Fight or Flight 1 + 8

Calendar Print-Out 9

Welcome to another edition of the Cat-alogue. This month, Ms Tizzy shines as a Feline Star (page 7),

while Bindi and Ollie Oscar show us how beautiful the Ocicat breed can be (page 4). Also in this issue is

an article on why it is important to spay or neuter your pet and a short article about the Feral Cat

Spay/Neuter Project in the U.S. and the Cat Alliance of Australia, Inc. Be sure to visit their websites if you

are concerned about feral cats.

I hope you enjoy this issue of the Cat-alogue and like the new cover design.

Stephanie McNeill editor

visit my website at:

www.FelineFrenzies.com

The Canterbury Tails: Fight or Flight

The skylarks started in surprise and the pigeons scattered as the cage door shut, trap-

ping the larks inside. A man approached the cage and began to gently lift it down. Fanny

got a good look at him, memorizing his description. Then she jumped down with a yowl

onto a black hairy head! The man yelled too and dropped the cage. Fanny bit the man’s

arm and jumped off him. She pawed the cage door open and the larks flew out at top

speed. Fanny again turned to the man. What with yowling and yelling and crashes and

bird calls, it wasn’t long before a policeman was upon them. Fanny ran one way and the

man ran the other way. The cage was left on the ground for the bobby. Fanny waited

long enough to see him pick up the cage and mutter “dratted bird-catchers!” and then

she headed for home.

I wish tomorrow was Saturday so I can tell the Tails what happened, Fanny thought as

she ran through the strangely empty roads. As it is, I can’t be sure that everyone will be

at the alley on a Wednesday morning. And this can’t really wait until Saturday, although

it’s not much. Oh, well. You can’t have everything. So Fanny trotted down to the Tails’

alley the next morning. She didn’t stop for Fluffy and she avoided when possible places

where Mother of Pearl might see her. As she was trotting down the road, a bird

swooped overhead. Then it circled back. Its mate joined it and they circled back again

together. Finally, they landed on a letterbox, side-by-side.

continued on page 8

Page 3: February 2012 Cat-alogue

What About the Strays?

House cats aren’t the only ones that should be fixed. Thou-sands of feral cats roam wild through the country-sides, mating and producing kittens which also roam wild, producing more kit-

tens, or end up in shelters, unwanted and eventually euthanized. Something has to be done and that’s what the Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Project is doing. Based in Washington State, USA, they have altered over 50,000 cats since their inception in 1997. They alter more cats than any other organization in WA state, as well as giving each free-roaming cat a basic health exam, rabies vaccination and an ear tip to identify the cat as altered to avoid future unnecessary fuss. They offer spay/neuter services for any cat needing ac-cess to surgery, not just the strays. Visit their website at www.feralcatproject.org and consider making a donation to help them help the cats. Also, the Cat Alliance of Australia Inc. are working on reducing the number of feral cats in Australia with TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return). Cat Alliance of Australia aims to help full shel-ters by “offering support and advice to the community, by supplying information on hu-mane cat control programs and partnership with compassionate veterinarians offering high volume low cost cat desexing”. They are working building a stationary clinic followed by a mobile “spay and neuter clinic”. Visit their site at www.catallianceaustralia.org and consider helping them help the feral cat population of Australia.

How many of us have heard that

“an un-spayed female cat and her

offspring can produce 420,000 kit-

tens in seven years”? I’m sure most

of us have heard that at some time

or other, but the reality is that those

figures are wrong. (see http://

cats.about.com/od/spayneuter/f/

MultiplyingCats.htm ) Although 100

-400 kittens is considerably less

than 420,000, it is still an awful lot

of kittens that need homes. So why

don’t you spay or neuter your cat?

“She needs to have at least one litter

before spaying.” Actually, there is

no medical research that supports

this superstition. In fact, spaying

will save her the misery of frequent

heat cycles and will also reduce the

risk of mammary cancer, uterine

and ovary cancer as well as pyom-

etra. Also consider the possibility

(or perhaps, probability) that not all

of the kittens will survive, or that

the mother might not either.

“Spaying or neutering will make my

cat fat and lazy.” All cats have the

potential of getting fat and lazy,

whether spayed or not. To reduce

the risk of obesity, you should feed

your cat an appropriate premium

cat food and play interactive exer-

cise games to keep her in prime

physical condition. Outdoor activi-

ty is also good for keeping slim.

There are many reasons why you

should spay or neuter besides reduc-

ing the number of homeless cats in

the world.

Neutering or spaying your

cat will prevent testicular

cancer in males and reduces

the risk of mammary cancer

in females.

Neutered cats will have no

sex drive and will not display

its associated behaviours

such as female-orientated

tom-fights and the pain (for

both cats and owners) of be-

ing “on heat” if they are

neutered early enough. If the

cat is left too long and begins

spraying and straying, then

neutering may reduce these

tendencies, but they will

probably still persist.

Several studies have shown

that neutering sharply reduc-

es the levels of Fel-d1 (the

major cat allergen) in males,

but not females. This aller-

gen is hormonally-controlled

with non-neutered (entire)

males producing the highest

levels. After neutering, aller-

gen levels drop sharply in

males, though not to the lev-

el of females. Siberian cats

seem to be the most hypo-

allergenic breed and Siberian

males have the same allergen

levels as females and do not

seem to be affected by neu-

tering.

Thanks to About.com and The Feral Cat

Spay/Neuter Project in the USA.

Why Spay or Neuter?

Page 4: February 2012 Cat-alogue

THE TRUE STORY OF THE DOWNING STREET CATS

There is a history of cats in the British Prime Minister’s residence, but some are more famous than others. For instance, there was the marmalade-coloured tom named Rufus of England, better known as Treasury Bill. He was a great hunter and used to bring trophies to his boss, but he soon realised that the cleaners simply picked his trophies up and put them in the bins, so Rufus began neatly laying his dead mice our by the bins for the cleaners to deal with. Wilberforce was a black-and-white male who moved from the RSPCA to Downing Street in 1973. He was a great mouser and outlasted several prime ministers. Margaret Thatcher is reputed to have bought him a tin of sardines in Moscow while she was visiting there, and when Wilberforce made a TV appearance with Ms Thatcher, it was Wilberforce who received more fan mail! Next, Humphrey walked into the prime minister’s London residence of No. 10 Downing Street in October 1989. He was about a year old and was named after Sir Humphrey Appleby in the comedy show Yes, Minister. He was given the official title of Mouser to the Cabinet Office and was paid £100 a year for his food. When US President Bill Clinton came to visit, Humphrey apparently narrowly escaped being run over by the President’s two-ton Cadillac. Several times Humphrey was inadvertently cat-napped by different people who thought he was a stray. Humphrey retired in 1997 died in March 2006. He was succeeded in September 2007 by Sybil, a black-and-white female who took over Humphrey’s mousing duties.

continued on page 4

Humphrey

Sybil

Page 5: February 2012 Cat-alogue

THE TRUE STORY OF THE DOWNING STREET CATS (continued)

Sybil was named after Basil Fawlty’s wife in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers, but unlike her namesake, she was slightly unnerved by the press call and retired after six months. On February 14th, 2011, a new Downing Street cat had finally been appointed. His name was Larry and he was a stray from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. Footage was taken of Larry’s arrival at No. 10 and the Press were constantly bothering the Tough Tom, but overall he settled down to his mousing duties quite well—except for that time when he scratched a reporter trying to pick him up to get a one-to-one ‘interview’...

This Month’s Cat:

Ocicat

HISTORY: In 1964, Virginia Daly in Michigan, USA, attempted to breed an Abyssinian-pointed Siamese. In the second generation she bred, she noticed among the Abyssinian-pointed Siamese a spotted kitten whom she named Tonga. Tonga was nicknamed an ‘ocicat’ by Ms Daly’s daughter and was neutered and sold as a pet. However, more spotted kittens were produced in later litters and these became the basis of a separate Ocicat breeding program. Other breeders also began breeding Ocicats with the same reicipe: Siamese to Abyssinian, and offspring to Siamese. The American Shorthair was later introduced, giving the breed larger bones and additional

colours.

PERSONALITY: Ocicats are friendly and affectionate, playful and curious, vocal and lively. They love to cuddle up with you, but the next their up for a lively game of fetch. They are good with children and are easily trained. Most are especially agile and very toy-driven and some even like playing with water!

BODY AND COAT: The 12 recognized coloures of an Ocicat’s coat can be classified as primary colours, dilutes and silvers. The primaries are Tawny, Chocolate and Cinnamon. The dilutes are blue, lilac and fawn. The silvers are black silver, blue silver, chocolate silver, lilac silver, cinnamon silver and fawn silver. Females Ocicats can weigh between 3.5 and 5 kg, while the male can weigh up to 8 kg. An Ocicat’s head is square-shaped with an average-length nose, relatively big ears and striking yellow, gold or green eyes. Their hind legs are slightly longer than their front legs and their tail is relatively long and darker at the tip.

MAINTENANCE: An Ocicat’s short hair re quires little grooming and there are no known health problems specific to the Ocicat breed.

information from Wikipedia.org , www.ozcatz.com and www.australianocicats.com.

OLLIE OSCAR

BINDI

Larry

Page 6: February 2012 Cat-alogue

Cat Sayings and Phrases

from www.moggies.co.uk

Muffled Cats catch no mice. Italian: “Gatta

guantata non piglia sorce”. Said of those who work in gloves for fear of soiling their fingers.

Not room to swing a Cat. Used to indicate that a space, room, house, etc., is very restricted and

small. There are various suggested origins of

the phrase. Swinging cats by their tails as a

mark for sportsmen was once a popular amusement.

Cat. Cat was an abbreviation for Cat-o'-nine-

tails and in view of the restricted space in the

old sailing ships where the cat was often

administered, it is most likely derived from

swinging this particular kind of cat. Cat is also an old Scottish word for rogue, and if the

derivation is from this, the "swing" is that of the

condemned rogue hanging from the gallows.

continued in next issue

Enough to Make a Cat Laugh!

Want to find out how to give

your cat a pill? Read it on Mog-gies!

Want to find out what “herding cats” is really like? Play the game

at http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g

3/cats.htm .

After scolding one's cat, one looks into its face and is seized by the ugly suspicion that it has

understood every word. And has filed it for future reference.

—Charlotte Gray

A cat is more intelligent than people believe, and can be taught

any crime. —Mark Twain

'There is no snooze button on a

cat who wants his breakfast.' —Unknown

FELINE PHRASES

Raining Cats and Dogs

This is an interesting phrase that we use all the time, but where did it actually come from? It is not a reference to the well-known rivalry between canines and felines (“fight like cat and dog”), nor does it reference any incident where cats and dogs fell from the sky. Some have suggested that it comes from a version of the French word “catadoupe” meaning “waterfall” and while this might explain the cats, where do the dogs come into it? A more probable source is the fact that in the 17th and 18th centuries,

England’s streets were filthy and heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals and other debris. The animals didn’t fall from the sky, but the sight of dead cats and dogs floating by in storms could have caused the coining of the phrase. The phrase was in use in a modified form in 1653 as “raining Dogs and Polecats”, although Polecats aren’t cats as such. The currently used version first appeared in 1738 in Jonathan Swift’s A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation. The fact that Swift had alluded to the streets flowing with dead animals some years earlier and now used “rain cats and dogs” is good evidence that poor sanitation was behind the coining of the phrase.

information from phrases.org.uk

Page 7: February 2012 Cat-alogue

Crescent Honeyeater

by Breanna McNeill

Identification: The Crescent Honeyeater is a small- to medium-sized bird. They have a long, down-curved bill and red-brown eyes. The male (pictured above, left) has dark grey above with yellow wing patches, a white streak above the eye and a distinctive dark crescent across each side of the breast, outlined below with a white line. The rest of the underparts are a pale brown-grey to white with prominent white markings on the tail. The female (above, right) is smaller and has olive-brown above with an olive-brown crescent on each side of the breast, white to brown-grey underparts and olive-yellow wing patches. Juveniles resemble adults, though without strong breast markings.

Habits: Crescent Honeyeaters live in a variety of habitats and are often found in damp gullies or in thick tea-tree scrub. They can often be seen in urban parks and gardens, especially during autumn and winter in coastal areas. Crescent Honeyeaters feed on nec-tar, fruit, and insects, foraging mainly on understorey shrubs. They usually feed in pairs, but they may be seen feeding in small flocks.

Voice: Loud ‘Egypt’ or ‘eejik’ calls, though males have melodic songs.

Breeding: Crescent Honeyeaters form long-term pair bonds, staying together through-out the year. Pairs nest on their own or in loose colonies. The female builds the nest alone, in a well-concealed position, usually low in the centre of a shrub and often near water. The cup-shaped nest is made from bark, grass, twigs, roots and other plant mate-rials lined with grass, down, moss and animal fur or hair. The female alone incubates the eggs and broods the young but both sexes feed the nestlings and may continue to feed fledglings for up to two weeks after leaving the nest.

Where They Live: Crescent Honeyeaters are endemic to south-eastern Australia and can usually be found in south-east New South Wales, most of Victoria, Kangaroo Island in South Australia, and all of Tasmania.

Similar Species: Adult male Crescent Honeyeaters may be mistaken for the New Hol-land Honeyeater or the White-cheeked Honeyeater and females may appear similar to the Tawny-crowned Honeyeater.

for more information, go to birdsinbackyards.net or Wikipedia.org

This page is about the small animals that cats prey on and invariably leave on your doorstep or—even worse—on a rug or (*gulp!*) bed. Some of you prefer to hold your

nose and use anything handy to get rid of it as quickly as possible, but this section is for those of you who are interested in what your cat spends most of its time hunting

(when it isn’t sleeping).

Page 8: February 2012 Cat-alogue

If you want your cat to be a FELINE STAR, simply fill in the above details to match your cat and e-mail them, along with a photo or two and a funny

incident involving your cat, if you have one, to [email protected] or write to PO BOX 1202, Bendigo, 3552.

COLOUR: tabby

AGE: about 9 years

BREED: moggy

LOCATION OF RESIDENCE: UK

LIKES/DISLIKES: LIKES being brushed, DISLIKES playing, LIKES looking out through a window, LIKES talking, LIKES her heated basket

STORY: Ms Tizzy arrived at her new residence in late 2003 as a rescue cat who was thought to be wild, but was really only terrified of everyone and everything. Despite her bad start, Ms Tizzy was soon a loving and trusting feline, even enjoying the company of her feline companion Sassy (January Cat-alogue). She now likes nothing more than sitting on a lap and getting a lot of fuss and food. Her favourite food is cooked beef, and she will climb up her owner’s legs when the beef is being diced for her! She also likes eating butter and cooked porridge with sugar and loves to lie in her heated pet basket. Tizzy has never been playful and prefers experiencing the Great Outdoors from an Indoor vantage point.

Page 9: February 2012 Cat-alogue

The Canterbury Tails: Fight or Flight

“Aren’t you the cat that saved us last night?” the male asked.

“Got us out of the cage?” the female added. Fanny nodded and stopped beside

the letterbox.

“Yes,” Fanny said, “if you got caught in a cage in Tasker Park last night.”

“We just want to say thanks,” the female said. “I think we forgot to last night.”

“I hope you catch that mean person soon,” the male said.

“As a matter of fact,” Fanny said, “I’m on my way now to tell my friends about

that man.”

“Do you know much about him?” the male asked. “Because we do. We’ve seen

him before.” And he and his mate began to rattle off such a good description of

the man that Fanny stopped them.

“I think you’d better come with me and tell the Tails all that!” she said.

“Besides, my people say that birds see more colour than cats do!”

“The Tails?” the female asked. “The Canterbury Tails? Were they the ones that

caught the cat-napper a while ago? We heard all about it from Sidney Starling.

The newspapers said that a woman found them, but Sidney saw the Tails lead

her to them. And he described some cats that look like you.” Fanny blushed,

though she didn’t know why. Others certainly seemed to remember her choco-

late points very well!

In due course, the little company arrived at the Tails’ alley. Fanny convinced

the skylarks inside. Most of the members were there, the exceptions being

Fluffy, Tinkle, Sophia and another. Smokey looked surprised to see two rare sky-

larks accompany Fanny. Then Fanny told her story.

“And what are your names?” Smokey asked the two birds.

“He’s Larry,” the female said.

“And she’s Louisa,” the male said. “Larry and Louisa.”

“Louisa and Larry,” the female said proudly.

“The skylarks!” they said together. Smokey groaned. He

could tell that these larks would be a bit difficult.

continued in next issue

Page 10: February 2012 Cat-alogue

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