Some interesting things about cat naps

Your kitty may sleep a lot - on average 16 plus hours a day - but they can also be fully awake in a nanosecond. Cats are light sleepers for the most part. They inherited this survival instinct from their wild ancestors, which allows them to wake quickly and flee from predators.

I have one that wakes up if I even think about petting her.  My younger cat can go from sound asleep to wide awake before I finish peeling the lid off a yogurt cup. He would never miss having a taste. Cats sleep with one eye open ... in a manner of speaking that is. 

Unlike humans, cats don't have long periods of wakefulness during the day followed by long periods of sleep in the evening. They take "cat naps" throughout the day and night. 

It is a misconception that cats are nocturnal. The term that best describes cats is "crepuscular" meaning they are most active at dusk and dawn. You know this to be true considering how much they love you before the sun rises and how actively kooky they are as it is setting.

Domestic cats have retained many behaviors from their wild ancestors and hunting is one of them. In the wild, dusk and dawn are the best times for hunting and the rest of the time is spent resting up and saving their energy for that task.

It is important to keep domestic cats from roaming outside for the sake of their health and safety and also to prevent unnecessary predation of birds and mammals. It is also important to provide your cat with activities that will satisfy its hunting instincts and exercise requirements. This can be provided through enrichment. Read this great post Enriching Your Cat's Life by Pets Web MD containing suggestions for both mental and physical activities.

My boy Sunny

No Hump Day - Because poison is a terrible thing

A recent news item has gotten a lot of attention regarding the proposed use of a poison known as "curiosity bait" to eradicate feral cats in Australia.

The situation in Australia is not an isolated one. Behind the scenes, eradication campaigns have already been completed worldwide. It just isn't something that is widely publicized. The following is an excerpt from a report published by the ISSG (Invasive Species Specialist Group). It's important to consider that this only pertains to eradication of feral cats on islands and does not include the number of eradication campaigns that have been completed in other parts of the world.

"Feral cats are a substantial threat to native and endemic fauna on islands and are being eradicated with increasing frequency. Worldwide, 87 campaigns have been completed on 83 islands, for a total area of 114,173 ha. Nineteen unsuccessful eradication attempts are known on 15 islands and lessons learnt from those failures are provided. At least five campaigns are currently underway. We review past cat eradication campaigns, and the methods used to eradicate and detect cats in those campaigns. We also review recent advances in eradication and detection methods. We outline proposed eradications and document a trend for increasingly larger islands being considered, but note that although post-eradication conservation impacts are generally positive, there have been some negative ecosystem impacts." Read the full report "Review of feral cat eradication on islands". 

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