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Articles/News for Cats and Cat Lovers Cats in the News
Persian News - contains articles about medical issues, cattery management, breeding, grooming tips, and more.
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Cats in the scullery
WHAT is possibly the only "cat museum" in Britain is to. be found in a small basement room in Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex.
It is devoted entirely to things feline, with about 250 items, ranging from oil paintings to a cat matchbox container. It is the result of 20 years' collecting by Kathleen Mann, who with her mother, Kitty, runs the shop
above. "I started by buying a cat sampler and a few cat antiques from a shop off Piccadilly," she says. At that time, her mother's shop sold antiques and so Kathleen would buy cat objects at auctions and from
other dealers. Her museum is proof that a good cat collection can be put together without spending a fortune. Only a few items cost more than 100 pounds. The oldest exhibit is an 18th-century Rockingham china cat and
the smallest a tiny coin with a cat on one side and the l,ord's Prayer on the other. Perhaps the strangest exhibit is a caricature of 1789 titled Old Maids at a Cat's Funeral. Each old maid is in tears carrying their
own cat following the coffin. As time passes so cats seem to grow in popularity for Kathleen Mann has several china felines a century on from the caricature - a Staffordshire white and tabby, a Doulton cat vase, a
charming fairing showing five cats having tea and a china Parisian cat wearing a sort of floral sweater. "I think cats were more popular than ever before at the turn of the century," says Mann. It is from this
period that she has some Louis Wain prints and a picture by Marcus Stone. On the back of this is a letter to his housekeeper saying how Timlums, the cat in the painting, is missing her. Mann opened the museum which is
free, because customers at the shop were frequently asking to see her collection. It is in a converted Victorian scullery and has room for only two people at a time. Exhibits are meticulously labelled and some visitors
spend two hours there. "I tried to get one of everything,'' says Mann. "I haven't quite stopped but there's really no more room and prices have soared." Her collection stops at about 1940 and Mann advises
would-be cat collectors without much money to start their collection from that date. "Auctions are better than boot sales. Always collect undamaged items." And in 20 years' time you, too, could have your own
cat museum. The Other Shop and Cat Museum, 219 High St, Harrow on the Hill, is open 9am-5pm Thursday to Saturday.
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Celia Haddon meets a couple caring for eldery
felines - Intensive Cat care 9-09-95,
NELLIE is a crone of a cat. She is 23 years old and
painfully thin and her black-and-white fur is a mess because she can no longer groom herself. Yet she has found a home with Shirley and Michael Maynard, in Derby, where she has joined 35 other elderly, ill or dying
felines in their house which they run as a cat hospice. The Maynards are supporters of the Cats Protection League, the charity which will celebrate National Cat Week on Monday. The CPL finds homes for most stray cats
but nobody wants the elderly, the disabled or the terminally ill. These unfortunates sometimes just live out the rest of their lives in a cattery run. "I felt there was a great need for somebody to give them a real
home," says Shirley. She specialises in cats with FIP or feline infectious peritonitis, while other CPL workers take those with other terminal diseases. Every day is a whirlwind of cleaning litter trays, filling 36
feed bowls, changing dressings and handing out medication. Her feline family includes blind Pippin, who was living rough until she took him in; Holly, who has had cancer in one kidney; 18-year-old Grace with arthritis;
emotionally disturbed Lizzie, who lives in a bedroom, and Robin and Rosie, two orientals with FIP, which will eventually kill them. The Maynards will even take in dying animals. Wemick came to them with a liver disease
and only lived for six days. "If a cat's only got a week left, he's entitled to that week," says Shirley. "Besides, he was enjoying himself - he ate chicken and salmon that week." In the past six
months, there have been eight deaths. "It always devastates me. It doesn't get easier," says Shirley. She will often stay all night with a dying animal. "I remember lying down with Charlotte on the rug
all through her last night. She paddled her paws and talked back to me. I was there when she went." Then there was Mr. Softee, a long white-haired cat who had lived underneath a shed. His last six months were spent
in the Maynards' home, before dying of cancer. "I never had such love as I did from that cat," says Shirley. "When I took him to the vet, he purred as I held him to be put to sleep." If a cat has
died at the home, the other cats are given a chance to see the body. Shirley believes they need to know what has happened. Michael tries to stay slightly detached at such times, if only to help Shirley through the pain
of it. Sometimes, apparently dying eats find a new lease of life. The vet, who visits regularly, gave Robin and Rosie four months to live; they now have passed the year mark. Captain Titchmarsh, a tabby cat, came to die
and has now recovered except for some brain damage. Tender loving care comes not just from the Mlaynards but from the fellow felines. A black-and-white moggie, Penny Briggs, is the resident Florence Nightingale who will
nurse ill cats. Quinn, another black-and-white welcomes new arrivals. Shirley works weekends at an old people's home to buy extras for her eats. Michael, who took early retirement to help her, worries about her stamina.
"This is something I had to do," says Shirley. "It hurts me every time I lose a cat but I've got to stand back and just accept the pain." Donations to Derby Cats Protection League. 49 Rowditch
Avenue, Derby DE22 3LE.
Pet-hater kills 24 cats in one Hamlet 22-09-95,
A HAMLET is being stalked by a cat-hater. Two dozen pets have been killed or have disappeared in the past 12 months. One owner lost nine kittens from two
litters within six weeks. The 176 people of Simonburn. Northumberland, have frequently found their cats peppered with shotgun pellets or poisoned. Rat bait has been discovered in the hedgerows. If anyone knows who is
responsible, no one is talking. Many locals will not answer questions for fear of reprisals which has left the RSPCA with little evidence to catch the culprit. Inspector Tony Jackman, who is leading the society's
investigation, said: "It is very mysterious that over such a short period of time such a high number of cats have gone missing. Clearly it is not just down to natural causes. Obviously somebody is out to do
this." Among the first victims were two tomcats, Byron and Wordsworth, which disappeared last autumn. Stephen Sutton, 41, their owner, said: "They went out one foggy night and just never came back." The
missing kittens were his too. Mr Sutton, a lawyer who, with his wife, Edna, lives in the former rectory, said: "People in the village have their suspicions, but no proof." Now the couple have just two cats,
Shelley and Coleridge. Mr Sutton, a lay reader at the parish church, said: "This is a remote community where you expect you are safe with your pets. There are a lot of elderly people in the village who enjoyed
having pets running around. There is a lot of poisoned bait being left around." Another owner said: 'We found our dead cat stuffed down a rabbit hole in very suspicious circumstances. It is terrible." Whoever
is responsible faces a stiff penalty if caught. Anyone convicted under the 1911 Protection of Animals Act of causing a cat suffering may be fined up to 5,000 pounds or sent to prison for six months. But that is little
comfort for a village bereft of its pets. In Simonburn's only shop, a customer pointed to rows of tins and boxes of catfood and said: "They certainly don't shift much of that these days."
Spiritual 'cure' for sick pets 25-09-95,
PET owners are turning increasingly to spiritual healing, acupuncture and aroma-therapy to cure animals which have failed to respond to conventional treatment
writes David Brown. Homeopathy, herbalism, osteopathy and physiotherapy are also becoming popular. Leaders of the veterinary profession, who gathered in Winchester yesterday at the start of the association's annual
four-day congress said that the demand for alternative medicine was so great that it could no longer be ignored - even though most vets dismissed the treatments as "bizarre". A debate will be devoted to the
issue tomorrow, despite the fact that the BVA refuses to allow the Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons to become a semi-autonomous division. Homeopathic vets claim that they deserve division status because
they number far more than the 100 practitioners usually required to warrant division status for a speciality within the BVA. Tomorrow's debate will examine demands for greater recognition by these "alternative
vets". It will also tackle the lack of scientific evidence to support claims of cures using alternative medicines. Paul de Vile, president of the BVA, said: here is no doubt that demand is growing for alternative
medicines for pets. Same treatments are now pretty commonplace but we have to be wary of the more bizarre treatments, like spiritual healing. "Some owners may believe that their pets have got better but they may
only appear to have been cured." Vets will try to decide whether alternative medicines should be subject to the strict EU and government regulations which now apply to conventional veterinary medicines.
Licked into shape by a tiger 30-09-95,
Don't worry - they're only playing. And so could you. Jean Hawkes visits a wildlife park that takes pride in its 'paws-on' policy CAMCORDERS went into overdrive
and the crowd gasped as the young man leapt on to the tiger's back, wrestling it to the ground. But the 18-stone animal, only 13 months old and not fully grown, simply lay on its back, legs in the air, and waited to be
tickled. Bruno's keeper 17-year old Giles Clark, duly obliged. He plays with big cats as though they were domestie animals, even pushing them into a tank of water. Unusual certainly but then Paradise Wildlife Park in
Hertfordshire, where he works, is not exactly conventional. There it is quite normal for not only the young keepers to handle the lions and tigers but the public also. It is the only zoo in the country where visitors
are encouraged to literally enter the lion's den and romp with the cubs. The park, run by Angela and Steve Sampson, hit the headlines two weeks ago when it was reported that two pumas had died there in May from a type
of "mad cow" disease - feline spongiform encephalopathy. In fact, only one had died from the disease, which was identified in post-mortems carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. No
blame has been attached to the park, which has not had to make any changes in the way it is run. The "mad cat" death resulted from food given to the puma by its previous owner, says Mrs Sampson. The pumas were
also very old. "We were asked to take them in by a private owner in preference to their being put down. We thought they were about 12 years old but the autopsies showed them to be 17 or 18." The disease could
only have been contracted through them being fed cows' brains, she added. "Big cats need bones to chew and we only feed ours with horse head and horse meat, so it was nothing to do with what we had given
them." Paradise Wildlife Park covering 17 acres al Broxbourne, is owned by the Sampson family. Formerly coach operators, Angela and Steve had no previous experience of zoo animals when they took it over in 1984.
"We were looking for a leisure business when Broxbourne Zoo as it was then, came on to the market. It had a terrible reputation and we had to shut down for a year and virtually start from scratch," says Steve.
Bookings to romp with the cubs are taken for out-of-zoo hours and cost 40 pounds for half an hour. The bigger cats are taken for walks around the park during the day and also pose for photographs. An education scheme
taking the cubs and other animals into schools is operated, as well as sponsorship of various creatures such as Fred the fox and Buster the llama. "We operate a hands-on policy here so that the public, especially
children, can get close to the animals and handle them," Steve explains. "It's the only place where you can also touch and feed a zebra." The Sampsolls have established a reputation for handrearing cubs
to such an extend that they are almost domesticated. The lion and tiger cubs are bred within the park or come from other zoos where they have been rejected and orphaned. "They are sent to us to hand-rear and
returned when they are old enough," says Angela. Once she hand-reared eight cubs at home. "I was pregnant at the time so it was good practice." The "hands-on" - or "paws-on" - policy
has proved a big crowd-puller. Much of the money raised goes to Project Life Lion, a massive immunisation project to save lions in Africa's Serengeti National Park. It was Angela Sampson who realised the big cats'
potential for raising money. She had built up a special rapport with Padmimi, a magnificent Indian tiger. "She came to us as a baby but was very nervous. I spent time with her and finally she would respond only to
me. "We had to raise money to build her a bigger enclosure so I used to take her walking around the park and charge people to take photographs and pet her. We raised the cash but when she got too big and strong I
called it a day. Then I realised we could do it on a wider scale." Padmimi now lives by herself and waits for the day when Bruno is adult enough to become her mate. Project Life Lion was set up last year and so far
has raised 35,000 pounds. It is run in conjunction with the University of Minnesota in the United States, with the money going towards immunising more than 30,000 domestic dogs that roam on the borders of the Serengeti
and carry the canine distemper virus. It is passed on to the lions: so far 1,000 have died. "We set up our charity to fund vets and vehicles to go out to Africa and operate the programme, which the Tanzanian
government has agreed to also fund,'' says Angela. Paradise Wildlife Park, White Stubbs Lane, Broxbourne, Herts (01992-470490)
Making Cats Easier to Love 8-10-95,
There are, those
tireless statisticians tell us, 63 million cats in this country. There'd be a lot fewer if it weren't for one Edward Lowe. Cats, you see, do things that smell. They use water with enviable efficiency, but the downside
is that their urine... well, you know. People tried sawdust, sand, wood shavings, but they weren't much help. Then one day in 1947 - a watershed day in feline history - Mr. Lowe had a neighbour try a dried, granulated
clay used to sop up grease spills in factories. And, yes, Kitty Litter was born along with what is now a $600 million annual industry. And Mr. Lowe? In 1990 he sold his business for $200 million. And last week he died
at age 75.
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