Cat Chat®
Brought to you by Dr. Elsey's
CAT CHAT ® was Tracie’s own weekly, live call-in show on the Martha Stewart channel of Sirius-XM for 7 years – until the channel was canceled. Since 2015 it has been a weekly podcast carrying on her mission to educate and inspire cat lovers to optimize their relationship with their kitty cats by giving them the best possible nutrition and environmental enrichment.
Tracie’s frequent co-host is Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado of Feline Minds Cat Behavior Consulting and author of the new book Play With Your Cat! the Essential Guide to Interactive Play for a Happier, Healthier Feline.
Sponsored By:
Dr. Elsey’s, who developed America’s #1 kitty litter and also created a healthy dry and canned food for kitties called cleanprotein™ inspired by a cat’s natural prey.
What Makes Ten Lives Club So Special?
#0133: Kimberly LaRussa, from Ten Lives Club in Buffalo, discusses how they became the largest No-Kill cat Shelter in New York State. Tracie asks the rhetorical question: does their success come from the leadership of the founder, Marie Edwards, who for ten years has united all the cat-saving groups (and the local media) in the area to work together on behalf of the cats?
The Five Freedoms
#0132: Zazie Todd — author of “PURR: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy” — wants people to know what animal welfare groups in the United Kingdom call the Five Freedoms, which consist of freedom from conditions that might surprise you.
Does a Cat Ever Need a Bath?
#0131: Dr. Mikel says there’s no reason to subject your kitty (or yourself!) to a bath — they do a very good job with their own tongues! Tracie suggests wiping down a cat with a grooming glove or damp cloth to remove the sticky residue from self-grooming. Otherwise they both recommend grooming a cat “one leg at a time” — finding out the kind of brush and grooming your cat actually likes and then not trying to get their whole body (or claws) groomed in one sitting.
How to Know You’re Picking the “Right” New Cat?
#0130: Any cat or kitten you choose isn’t going to blossom into their full personality until they have lived with you for a while, so let nature take its course and let yourself be surprised. (Also, don’t be so sure you’re the one doing the decision-making. How do you know the cats aren’t measuring you up, too, to decide if you’re the right home for them?!)
32 Cats Flown from Ukraine to Washington D.C.!
#0129: Shana Aufenkamp talks about volunteering with Homeward Trails Animal Rescue founder Sue Bell, to bring some cats from Ukraine back to Washington, D.C. To create this happy ending they worked with the British-based nonprofit Breaking the Chains, which focuses on war torn areas and animals in need.
Operation Catnip Means Snip Snip
#0128: Melissa Jenkins talks about the non-profit Operation Catnip in Gainesville Florida, which can do up to 200 surgical sterilizations of stray cats in a day. They have worked for years in M.A.S.H. style clinics staffed by veterinarians and a team of 75 volunteers, already surpassing 65,000 cats neutered (and millions of stray kitties who won’t be born to suffer).
Don’t Throw Out the Cat with the Baby’s Bath Water!
#0127: Cat behavior expert Dr. Mikel (FelineMinds.com) talks with Tracie about planning ahead when you are expecting so you can take time to prepare a cat for the eventual arrival of the new baby. Tracie laments situations where people abandon their cats with misguided notions about cats and babies not being a good combination.
The Art of Kitten Raising
#0126: Tracie’s longtime cat-loving pal Sally Bahner (“The Art of Kitten Raising”) has written a lovely book about “bringing up baby,” explaining all the ways you can get a kitten off to a happy healthy start in life.
What’s a Cat’s Thermo-Neutral Zone?
#0125: Cats crave warmth — which everybody knows who has seen cats curl up to fireplaces and radiators. The reason is because their bodies do not regulate their core temperatures as well as ours do. The solution: heated cat beds! Your cats can be as comfy as Dr. Mikel’s if you put a heated K&H cat bed in every room as she does for her contented kitties.