Posts Tagged ‘safety’

Keeping Your Pets Safe This Christmas

This is a truly fun time of year for all of us, including our pets! A lot of the decorations can pose a serious threat to our pets. Here are a few things to think about:

* If possible, put your Christmas tree in a room that is off limits to your pets. This can save you a lot of redecorating and also your pet from harm’s way. A baby gate around the tree can help as well.

* Tinsel and any other sort of string that can be swallowed are potentially deadly, as they can become entangled up within the intestines and will require surgery.

* Electric lights should be unplugged when your pets aren’t supervised. They are tempting to chew on and can cause electric shock.

* Glass ornaments look like toys and shatter easily, causing you and your pets painful cuts.

* The tree could fall on top of your pets, not only scaring them, but possibly hurting them.

* Some Christmas plants, such as poinsettias, mistletoe, and amaryllis bulbs, are poisonous, yet tasty. Keep these out of your pet’s reach.

* Tell your guests not to feed your pet holiday foods, such as chocolate and fatty or sugary foods. Keep pet treats around for your guests to give them instead.

* Make sure your guests keep all doors to outdoors closed and that your pet is wearing the appropriate identification.

* Keep your emergency vet and pet poison control numbers handy.

* Enjoy your holiday!

As a pet sitter in Gwinnett County, I do quite a bit of driving all over the many cities, including Lawrenceville, Suwanee, Snellville and Grayson. Being that so much of my day is spent on the roads, it’s hard not to notice how many unfortunate kitties are hit by cars. If you do allow your cats to go outside, please make sure that they are up to date on vaccinations, spayed or neutered, have collar with ID, and are micro-chipped.

Although cats love to go outdoors  for many reasons, the truth is that outdoor cats have an average life span of 3 to 5 years, when indoor cats have an average lifespan of 12 to 15 years old. That’s quite a difference! Being owned by 4 cats of my own, I know how it is to have a cat constantly yowling to get outside. Besides the guilt, it can get pretty loud when you’re trying to sleep or concentrate! There are a lot of things that you can do to “compromise” with your cat. I’ve compiled some good ideas for you to try out with your frisky felines:

Fence: Ok, ok, so keeping a cat in a fence can be nearly impossible. They can jump it or find holes. It’s definitely not fail proof, but to limit escapes, you can hang wire mesh at the top of the fence at a 45 degree angle. This would probably work best on a high, wooden fence. There are also invisible fences that use collars that as the cat gets closer to the boundary that you don’t want them to cross, it will tingle and as they near closer, it will actually give the cat an electric shock to tell them to stay away. Obviously the wire mesh is a bit less harsh.

Leash: There is nothing I love more than harnessing my cats and taking them in the backyard. They don’t really know how to act and it definitely takes some training to get them used to it. You want to make sure you have a well-fitted harness, snug but not tight, and perhaps a retractable leash to give your kitty more free reign. Patience is necessary to leash your cat, that’s for sure! When you start, I suggest starting at a quiet time of day, like early morning or evening.

Cat Door: Our cats have a window that they go out of into our screened porch. We have lattice work around the bottom of the screen so that they can’t claw their way out. They love it out there and we think that they are mostly satisfied with this “outdoor” time, although Comet never stops trying to fly past us as we’re going out or coming in! Some things never change. A fenced yard with the wire mesh on the fence is another place that the cat door can lead to.

Runs and Pens: You can use a wire dog crate to let your cat have some time outside, but there are great alternatives to that. There are a number of habitats, pens and runs that you can buy or build yourself at a huge range in prices, from cheap to extremely expensive. I’ll list a few of the companies and their websites at the end of this blog post.

A few things to keep your indoor cat happy besides supervised out doors time are cat grass and cat nip that you grow yourself (make sure that what you buy is for cats; for a list of poisonous plants to cats, go to http://www.bestfitpetsit.com/archives/201 ), cat trees that they can climb, window perches and boxes, and lots of interactive toys that you and your cat can play with together.

Here are a few of the companies that I found online that sell great enclosures so that your cat can enjoy the outdoors safely:

Habitat Haven

Cages By Design

Purr…Fect Fence

Kittywalk Systems

Safecat Outdoor Enclosure

Cats-On-Line.com

Drs. Foster and Smith

Wild Whiskers

Cats On Deck

C & D Pet Products

Prowling his own quiet backyard or asleep by the fire, he is still only a whisker away from the wilds. – Jean Burden