Anyone who rises to the 5:00 a.m. wake-up call of a hungry cat knows that this early morning meow has a clear meaning—Feed Me Now! But can meows alone carry clear messages in different contexts? Nicholas Nicastro and Michael Owren, both formerly in the psychology department at Cornell University, have an interesting answer. While Nicastro was a graduate student at Cornell, he recorded the meows of 12 cats in five different contexts—food related (prior to regular feeding), agonistic (when being petted too vigorously), affiliative (when the cat solicited affection from the owners), obstacle (when the cat wanted in or out),

Question: We have a five month old kitten who can’t seem to get the hang of using the cat door. Our other cats use the door and I’m sure he sees them, but he doesn’t seem to learn by imitation. Any suggestions? Answer: A kitty door is a simple contraption that many cats learn to use right off the bat, but others don’t know what to make of the flappy barrier. While some cats are actually afraid of the odd swinging contraption, others are just too polite to shove their way through. In either case, the solution is straight forward.

A reader once asked me, “My cat is an avid hunter, and in our area there appears to be a plentiful supply of rats and mice. He was bringing me samples on a daily basis and I had to export the live ones and bury the dead ones. I now partially closed the cat door so that he could get out but not in. However, this leaves him out at night and there seems to be creatures out there that could hunt him. Do you have any suggestions for what I should do? Can I program him to leave his

Even with the most recent advances in veterinary medicine, your beloved cat won’t live forever, but is the next best thing just around the corner? Will it someday be possible to resurrect your cat with cloning? Nearly a decade ago, on December 22, 2001, scientists at Texas A&M University announced the birth of CC, the world’s first cloned cat. CC, as in Copy Cat, has the same DNA blueprint as her genetic mother, Rainbow. So, like identical twins they share the same genetic code. That means everything’s the same—their looks, their mannerisms, their…. But wait. rainbowandcc Although Rainbow and her

It’s wonderful to come home after a long day of work to relax and spend quality time with your pet. But when quality time includes the following pet owner’s predicament, relaxation is far from the picture. “My Springer Spaniel barks constantly at the table when we eat dinner and it’s annoying,” says one perplexed pooch owner. “He gets table scraps occasionally but he always has dog food available. Any ideas or thoughts?” At this point, cat owners are gloating over their choice of a more peaceful pet, but before you feline fanciers let it go to you head, listen to

June is Adopt-a-Cat Month which means it’s a great time to adopt a kitten or a cat.  In honor of this month, I’ll be running a series of articles that will help you understand your cat and set up his environment for success. You’ll also learn to train your cat and modify his behavior so that you actually want to keep him beyond the first weeks. Let’s face it, a huge segment of the population will get rid of their cats as soon as having a cat is no longer convenient. For instance, if the cat potties outside the litter