Thank you for reading.

Well, my first thought was, why are you asking my opinion if you already feel you are doing the right thing.

I wrote her back and told her that cats who were born 20 years ago would likely be healthier than what cats as a species are today.  In Pottenger’s studies, he noticed that in progressive generations, his cooked-food-fed cats became less healthy.  It stands to reason cats from multiple generations of kibble-fed cats are going to get progressively less healthy.  Also, you need to take into account vaccinations.  Vaccine damage travels through generations.

I told her this and she wrote back saying her two elderly cats died within the past year (well, yea, but they were still born 20 years ago) and that they both received annual vaccinations so she didn’t understand why I mentioned that it might be bad for them.  She said that she kept her cats indoors for their safety.  It is beyond me why people with indoor-only cats believe that they still need to be vaccinated.

She further said that she was considering putting her current kittens on “Blue” kitten food (whatever that is) just to up the anty in nutrition over the Purina Brand.  She said that there were no hard and fast rules, and every cat/dog is different (which I agree with) and that even her vet said if Alpo/Purina is keeping her pets healthy and living to this advanced age that he wouldn’t knock it (but I’ll bet he’s missing the extra income he might be receiving from her if she put her animals on a brand of food he happened to sell from his office).

I sincerely hope that her current animals continue to do as well as her previous ones; but I’d love to be a fly on her wall over the next ten years, just to see …

Some cats and dogs can consume poor quality food and be vaccinated every year and have no apparent health issues, but those animals are becoming fewer and further between.  Just during the month of October I received a half a dozen e-mails from people with cats in renal failure and having diarrhea issues.  Some were older cats, but several were quite young.  The other thing that needs to be taken into account is how I would view an animal that another person considers “healthy.”  “Healthy” is a very relative term.

Until then, enjoy these photos of Pumpkin and Confetti.  Click for a larger size.

All of my cats are doing well.  The four kittens that I adopted from the local feral colony earlier in the summer are doing great and are a delight to be around.  They are so energetic and silly.  Pumpkin thinks Fern is her mother.  Onyx is just a crazy black cat.  Mr. Red is a big, fluffy goof ball.  Confetti, Pumpkin’s sister, goes along with whatever everyone else is doing.  I’m enjoying them greatly.

Photos would be nice, huh?

A cat person recently discovered me via my Border Collie Blog.  Look at her web site.  Pretty neat, huh?

I’ll try, try, try to update NRN more frequently and get some photos up.

The day before we put Max to sleep The New Natural Cat by Anitra Frazier arrived in the mail. After our vet had come and gone, I began to read this wonderful book.

As I read, I realized that I had been doing everything wrong, that a five year old cat with a tumor between his heart and lung didn’t have to be. Somehow the empty grief I felt over my loss was filled with a new sense of purpose. I would learn everything I could about holistic cat care and not let another Max happen because I didn’t know about meat by-products or the perils of vaccination.

Max was the best friend a guy could ever have. He had been in two homes before he came to me as a six month old kitten - he had been found licking barbecue sauce off an outdoor grill. He was the first cat I had lived with and he was as interested in me as I was in him. Probably nobody since my mother had watched me pee with such interest. He also took a special interest in watching Iowa Hawkeye basketball on TV during the long cold winters. He even learned to turn on the bedside lamp with his nose.

Max was a great mouser, and the house we lived in on Summit Street was as full of holes for mice to enter as a piece of Swiss cheese.

Later, when my wife Hillary moved in, she awoke one night to hear a strange raspy sound which she thought was coming from me and she thought I was in terrible distress. When she turned the light on we discovered Max with a mouse in his mouth, facing off with his companion Corky - and with a growl, defending the right to keep his prey.

A few days after Max died, we were visiting friends in town and they gave us an amazing card, written and painted by a Cecie McCaffery. They had found it in a local card shop.

On the back of the card was a poem called “Max in Heaven’s Hands,” about a cat named Max who had just died. What the chances are of there being a card with consoling words about a cat named Max I don’t know. Probably about as great as having friends who could find such a card. The psychologist Carl Jung called it synchronicity - messages from the Universe. I called it a message from Max.

So Max was the inspiration for Tiger Tribe and later I wrote a letter to Cecie, telling her how much the card had meant to me and asking her about the story of the card. One day she called me on the phone and thanked me for my letter and told me that although she wasn’t quite ready to tell the story, in a few months she would write it down and send it to me.

What follows is that story, simply and gracefully told.

Shots, tests, good food, boarding costs, mounting uneasiness, and then the phone call. The test results were back and not good. This kitty was thin for the dreaded reason: feline leukemia. In the days to come, I searched for some sort of treatment or hospice situation that might be trying unorthodox treatments, searched for some hope, I couldn’t bring him home to our four healthy cats, nor could I return him to his old neighborhood to slowly succumb in pain and possibly pass the disease to others. The only decision that was left was to have him put to sleep, to euthanize him.

In a long conversation with a fellow animal lover, I was strongly advised to be with Max through his passing in order to insure that his death was easy and true, that is to say, he would not be said to be dead and then sent off to some ghoulish lab for vivisectionist purposes, a possibility if one’s vet was not truly “human.”

Many months before, our dear Nicolas had been put to sleep after a long battle with F.U.S.. I wasn’t with him and now I have many regrets that I had not been there for him…to love him…to show him and to tell him how very much! I was told he was brave…I was not.

I wouldn’t say I’m a religious person, but rather spiritual and seeking, and so that night I prayed. I prayed for three things:

One, that I would find the courage to stay, to be with him until the end.

And two, that somehow there would be some relief, some help with the ever mounting costs, as my patient and loving husband could only bear so much.

Lastly, I asked that I could have some sign he was all right and was somewhere safe, somewhere where Nicolas was too.

The next day at the vet’s office I did find, or rather seemed to be given, the courage to stay with him…I hadn’t expected his tongue to drop from his mouth as life left him and I cried and cried thru jerkily-asked questions to the vet about souls and the afterlife. He was gone…no more pain…no more suffering…

That afternoon my sister-in-law called to say that her neighbor, who had in past offered Max food and shelter as best she could, wanted to contribute to his expenses, which was very kind. To my surprise, two days later a check arrived for exactly half of the vet’s bill, an amount unknown to this lady.

Sleep was to elude me that evening. I sat in the dark on the couch in the living room with our four cats in a half circle in front of me…then the sensation of soft fur passed over my arm. It wasn’t my clothing or any of our kitties…it had to be Max.

And so my prayers were answered, and life with all its joys and sufferings goes on, and above all, I know there is no death, it is only a door…

Months after this story unfolded, their daughter Nicole was diagnosed with Tay Sachs, a devastating terminal illness. Nicole died at home January 8, 1992. “We are, each to each, lessons of love and direction on our long voyage Home”

Reprinted with Permission from the May/June 1993 issue of Tiger Tribe. ]]> http://www.blakkatz.com/nrn/blog/?feed=rss2&p=148 http://www.blakkatz.com/nrn/blog/?p=144 http://www.blakkatz.com/nrn/blog/?p=144#comments Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:20:07 +0000 Michelle http://www.blakkatz.com/nrn/blog/?p=144 My friend, Helene, from Canada doesn’t usually write much about cats.  She did here and it is a perfect example of humankind’s belief that animals cannot survive without our medicine and food.  There is a colony of feral cats living up at my neighbor’s house.  He feeds them, but not a lot.  He doesn’t vaccinate them.  He’s had a couple spayed, but not too many.  I see these cats a lot and they always look good.  Of course some die, but many do not.

I fostered four kittens from that colony this year.  I’ve had them for about three months now.  They haven’t missed a beat and they are the most vibrant cats I think I’ve ever seen.  I haven’t had to do a thing with them other than feed them good food.

I recently had a to-do with a guy about raising pastured rabbits.  He said you cannot let rabbits live on the ground for fear of parasites nor can you allow a buck and doe to live together because you (the human) needs to decide when the doe gets bred so she doesn’t get “wore out” by breeding too much.  He keeps his rabbits in 3 x 3 cages, feeds them pellets and thinks that’s how rabbits should be raised.  Of course, that’s the normal way to raise rabbits.  That’s how the rabbits I get for my cats are raised.  Do I think it’s right?  Right?  What is right or wrong?  Do I think rabbits would be happier if they were living in a colony on the ground so they could eat their natural food?  Yes.  Would they be exposed to parasites?  Probably so, but ultimately, the healthiest ones would survive and reproduce and isn’t that the way things should go?

It only took me about three hours to get it fixed, but it is fixed now!  Yea!  Sometimes I surprise myself with my technological skills.  What it came down to was stopping and reading the release notes so that I set it up right.  It’s right now.

Click for a larger size

And Ted was going to go for a ride as well.

Click for a larger size

Have tissues handy as this will make you cry.

I’m glad that I have my meta tags set correctly so search engines found this post. I received an e-mail today from a woman who read this story and is now going to this vet’s office to get her cat out of their hospital. Apparently they’ve done the same thing to her cat.

A list member wrote asking how to get her cat to eat bone. I wrote back asking her to consider the size of prey a cat the size of our domestic cats would normally kill and eat. Pretty small, right? Now look at the size of the bone you are trying to get your cat to eat. Big difference, right?

I then told her that while grinding is not ideal, sometimes it is the only way to get a reliable amount of bone into a domestic cat. They must have real, raw bone in their diet. supplemental calcium and phosphorus does not cut it, at least not long-term.

I signed my post with my usual signature line:

Michelle T. Bernard
Author of Raising Cats Naturally
www.raisingcatsnaturally.com
Naturally Reared Felines Since 1993
www.blakkatz.com

My post appeared, but only my name was in my signature line! I only added this signature line as a means to express my “credentials.”

The List Mom wrote me accusing me of signing up to the list under a new identity ???? I signed up using the same user name I’ve always used for Yahoo Groups.

She also reminded me that she had thrown me off this list in the past for peddling my book and its recipes and supplemental taurine and the line. ???? I do not recall ever being a member of this list.

I do not need to peddle my book. It sells quite well on its own. If people find it and buy it, great, if not, then that’s fine too.

Now I know why I do not belong to any of these natural rearing mailing lists. With most (all?) of these lists you either abide by the rules of the list, i.e., no supplements, no recipes, etc. or you do not belong to it. Whatever happened to freedom of speech? Of making your own decisions?

If you are reading this, you are probably thinking, well, your lists used to be run that way. You are right, but things are different now. I do not have the time or energy to engage in warfare with people who are already feeding raw. If they are feeding raw, they “see” it; I don’t need to deal with their idiosyncrasies.

Regarding recipes: no, I do not think recipes are the ideal way to feed a raw diet to a dog or a cat, but some people would not switch their animals to raw unless they had a detailed plan, i.e. a recipe. If that’s what it takes them to switch, then great. Once they understand feeding a raw diet, then they can make the decision whether they want to stick to the “recipe” or start to do something different. Some people simply cannot manage to think outside the box when it comes to feeding their dog or cat and they need more guidance.

Regarding supplements: I do not think it is necessary to feed a lot of supplements, but if the caregiver is feeding primarily grocery store meat, as many people do, I think some supplementation is necessary. Factory-farmed meat doesn’t have the same nutritional value as meat that is raised in a more natural manner.