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.
So What Exactly Does That Meow Mean?
#159: Jonathan Losos returns with his book “The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved From the Savanna to Your Sofa” and describes what we can gather from the many different meow sounds each cat can make.
Watch the Whiskers
#158: Tracie’s co-host, Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado, explains the anatomy of a cat’s whiskers and also what you can learn about a cat’s frame of mind from watching the twitch of those whiskers.
Rehoming Scooter and Scamper After a Mother’s Death
#157: Brian Porter (the author of “Dreams of Arcadia,” a novel about a country veterinarian) discusses the challenges of taking in 11-year-old kitties, who had spent their entire lives in one home with his mother, until she passed away.
Kitty Litter Spilled Everywhere? There’s a Fix for That!
#156: Carolyn Rafferty created the Scoop Buddy — a simple clip to hold a plastic bag on the end of the litter box to catch the litter when cleaning. Her company, Cat Savant, is a MissionMeow partner along with Tracie, supporting generous grants to cat rescuers.
What to Do for a Kitten with Feline Leukemia?
#155: A listener whose kitten had feline leukemia gets sick every 2 weeks with 3 really bad days. Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins recommends finding a cat-focused vet to consider broad spectrum antibiotics to manage the upper respiratory symptoms.
Is There Any Reason NOT to Spay or Neuter Your Cat?
#0154: The simple answer is: Good grief NO! Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado discusses the myriad behavior problems that arise from cats who are not fixed, which optimally needs to happen before a kitten turns 5 months of age (when they can start reproducing --- kittens having kittens.)
MissionMeow Grant Winner Full Circle MO
#0153: Christina Rutz runs Full Circle MO Feral in St Louis where they have just won a MissionMeow grant to help them continue supporting volunteer TNR trappers in their tireless efforts to reduce the population of community cats.
Who the Heck Invited This Foster Cat, Anyway?
#0152: Dr. Mikel talks about the challenges of bringing a foster cat into your home and the problems it can cause with resident cat(s). She suggests the simplest way to avoid unpleasant issues is if you have a separate space for the newcomer --- who won't be staying long anyway.
The Cat’s Meow
#0151: Jonathan Losos wrote “The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa” to address what he calls “the cat conundrum” of how most cats have changed little from the ancestral version, while a few have become radically different.
Do Cats Grieve?
#0150: Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado talks about the various ways that cats can deal with the loss of a housemate, but don’t expect it to be like your own emotional reaction. Some kitties become despondent over a death, but don't be surprised by a cat who exhibits no grief from the loss.