These days it can be difficult to keep yourself entertained, let alone your kids and cat too!
If you’re wondering what to do this weekend then perhaps this video gives you some inspiration.
And it’s also a bit of fun if you just need a break from work or the coronavirus news…
Well, in all likelihood because you are now working from home and your cat wants your attention!
Many of us are now working from home and this can be challenging for both ourselves and our cats. Dirk mostly sticks to his usual routine and seems perplexed to find both me and my husband working from home when he walks into the room. He will demand attention at some point though, usually around 4.30 pm 🙂
However, at times he also looks a little annoyed, as if he’s not getting enough ‘me time’…
Luckily, Vicky Halls has posted some advice on International Cat Care’s website about how to work from home with your cat.
How your cat responds to you being at home depends on their personality and their relationship with you – some will look slightly perplexed, if anything at all, and get on with exactly what they do when you’re not there. In which case, you can breathe a sigh of relief and know this information is not for you. Others however, particularly those that are really affectionate and demanding when you are normally at home, will see this as a great opportunity to use you in all kinds of entertaining ways. If this describes your cat… then click here to continue reading Vicky’s advice.
The most important thing is to try to maintain as many routines as possible: feeding time, playtime and normal mornings and evenings. It’s therefore only the bit in the middle, when you don’t leave the house at the usual time, that will feel different. Make sure you find a place to work where your cat doesn’t spend too much time. If you are very lucky and have been suitably quiet, your cat will not have noticed that you are still at home and leave you in peace. This may only be successful until you are desperate for a cup of tea or have to take part in a conference call, at which point your cover is blown. Once your cat establishes where you are, the games begin so read this sequence of events with care, it may happen to you.
1. The obvious first strategy will be for your cat to jump onto your lap, look lovingly at you and miaow faintly to demonstrate his level of hunger and desire for food. Be strong, remember that cats are described as ‘opportunistic feeders’ and this is an ideal time to be ‘opportunistic’ and get something tasty. Your cat is actually not starving and resisting at this stage is not an act of rejection, neither will it look like you don’t love him so just ignore this as best you can. Well done, you have passed the first hurdle and your cat will now be leaving the room with an audible ‘huff’.
2. Sadly, this peace won’t last for long, after having left the room for about 30 seconds, your cat is back and has jumped on whatever surface you are using as a desk. There is a lot of frenzied purring interspersed with more miaowing, noticeably louder than the previous ones when your cat was apparently too weak from hunger to ‘talk’ properly. Your cat now starts rubbing his face backwards and forwards on your hands as you try desperately to type on your keyboard. Every part of you wants to stop typing and give your cat some loving. THIS WOULD BE A MISTAKE! Instead, if you want to get any work done at all while you are home, you need to show your cat that this is not the time or the place. You are now typing nonsense but keep going as you can always delete it all when your cat eventually gives up.
3. Your cat regroups briefly but the third attempt to get your attention has to have impact so he will be trying harder. You may at this stage get a full body flop onto your keyboard (your hands may still be on the keys at this point and therefore temporarily trapped), a flicking tail and a bottom backing menacingly towards your nose or a set of claws dragged slowly and ever so slightly uncomfortably down the side of your face. Stand firm! Focus on the screen, say nothing, pretend you are in the office and your cat is sleeping soundly at home. This is just a dream.
4. If you are very lucky (and truly want this to work) your cat will sit down beside you and start to stare really hard in your direction. You are nearly there, you can do this. Do not under any circumstances look at your cat, even if you can feel his eyes burning into your right cheek.
5. Time is passing, it feels like hours but in reality, it’s probably only been a minute but as far as you can tell no further strategies are forthcoming from your cat. This is going well, you have managed to delete your cat’s contribution to your work and you are back on track. You are beginning to ignore your cat’s stare, you are in the zone and working just like you were in the office. Your cat is behaving impeccably, no messing about, no attention-seeking and you are thinking ‘what’s so hard about this? You just need to show them who’s boss!’. You notice out of the corner of your eye that your cat has stood up and, after a stretch and a yawn, he very calmly and deliberately walks across in front of you treading on the ‘off’ key as he goes. Never under-estimate the ability of the cat to have the last word.
Good luck everyone.
I’m sure most cat owners wonder what their cats get up to when they are home alone. I certainly do! Sometimes I find evidence he’s been playing as there are toys all over the room, other days I find no evidence of any activity whatsoever, apart from eating 😉
For everyone who is tempted to get a camera to keep an eye on their cats, I can recommend the Ezviz C1C camera. I tested version with the 1080 pixel camera (they also have version with a 720 pixel camera) which gives you a 130 degree view and super sharp images!
I won’t get into too much technical detail, you can find those here. Instead, let me tell you about my experience with the camera and why I think it could be useful – as well as fun – for cat owners. And for UK stockists please click here
Set up of the camera and the app is really very easy and after that you can place the camera wherever you want. It has a long cable and also comes with a magnetic mounting kit, which make it easy to fix to a wall, bookcase, cupboard or the ceiling. Once you’ve done that, the fun can begin!
Being a novice with this type of cameras, I was really amazed by how sharp the video is and how much of the room you can see. In fact, I cropped some of the images for privacy reason 😉
The app is very user friendly and I found it very intuitive to use.
What is this thing??
With this camera you can also talk to your cat. This is more fun for us than for the cat I image… The first few times I did this Dirk was intrigued and went over to check out the camera. However, after a few times he only moved his head or ignored it altogether. So it’s a fun feature, but after testing it a few times I no longer really use it. This feature is more useful if you’d use the camera to talk to people as it is a two-way feature.
For me, I found it fun to use this camera and that is a good enough reason in itself! If you want to know how your cat is doing while you’re at work you open the app to look at the live feed. If he’s not active at the moment, but has been active while you weren’t looking then you can have a look at the video clips that have been saved. And the camera automatically goes to infrared night vision when there’s little light. Even in night vision mode the images are very sharp.
If you want to save video data you either need a micro SD card or you can sign up to use the Ezviz cloud.
However, this camera can also be genuinely useful. I am a cat behaviourist and I could imagine using this camera in a few situations.
For example, if your cat is no longer using its litter tray (and the vet cannot find a medical reason for this!) then you can set up the camera to monitor how the cat is behaving new their litter tray and how it is behaving prior to peeing or pooping somewhere else.
If your cat has separation anxiety, you can see how long this actually lasts. It’s horrible for us to leave the home while hearing the cat howl. You might feel guilty and worry the cat is feeling anxious all day. However, the camera might show you that the cat settles down again after a few minutes.
It can also be useful if you have more than one cat and there are some problems between them. We don’t know what happens when they are away and the cats might behave differently when we are home. At some point growing up, we had two cats named Boris and Binky. Boris was the dominant one and would chase Binky away or pick a fight. However, one night we discovered that at night Binky was actually the one in charge. This just goes to show that if your cats don’t get along it’s not always easy to see which one is being dominant and which one is the ‘victim’. If you monitor them with a camera while you are away you get a much clearer picture – no pun intended – of which cats shows what behaviour and how they interact when home alone.
Some cats live near a ‘neighbourhood bully’. If you have a camera you can keep an eye on cats visiting your garden or. If your cat has outdoor access as well you can keep an eye on their interactions with other cats. If you want to, you can activate a motion detection alarm which will tell you if someone is moving in the garden. I can imagine that the two-way audio feature could come in handy here: if you notice another cat is about to attack your cat then a sudden sound might startle it enough to run away. However, cats have territorial disputes, this is part of their behaviour. If you don’t want your cat to roam around the neighbourhood or other cats to visit your garden then install a fencing system (such as the ones from ProtectaPet).
Those are just a few examples of cases is which having a camera may be useful. Let’s be honest, for the most part it is fun. We all love seeing pictures or videos of our pets when we are away, we wonder what they get up to and most of us really miss them when we’re not home. I loved watching Dirk have his crazy 5 minutes on camera. For the most part though, it just confirmed that Dirk is basically asleep between 9am and 4 pm 😉
* Originally written by me for katzenworld.co.uk
Dirk couldn’t be happier because 4Cats has a new Cuddle Cushion!
You may have read the review about Dirk’s first cuddle cushion: he went absolutely mad. He loves this new one at least as much as the previous version, perhaps even more.
So what’s new about this Cuddle Cushion? 4Cats uses a different fabric for the new cushions. The fabric is soft but also a bit of texture to it. The previous one was soft and smooth and Dirk mainly cuddled with that cushion. With the new one he still cuddles a lot – he loves rubbing his face in it. He now also quite likes kicking this toy which he didn’t really do with the previous one. Rather than animal print these new cushions come in 4 different colours.
Those are the details, but I know you want to see Dirk in action 😉
Did I tell you he goes mad for it?
Part of it is undoubtedly the catnip effect as 4Cats use catnip of excellent quality. He rolls around with all through the living room and kicks it a lot.
Don’t try and take this cushion away from him – he’ll hold on to it with all his might! Use other toys to play tug-of-war 😉
Rolling and kicking are just two of Dirk’s favourite things to do with the cushion. The others are rubbing and licking/biting it. I have to admit he does this a lot. I think it looks super cute. It also makes this toy a bit different from other toys as Dirk doesn’t usually cuddle with his toys. The 4Cats Cuddle Cushions are an exception.
Even though these Cuddle Cushions are quite small cats of all ages will probably like them. Initially I thought it would be best for kittens, but I’ve since given several of my cat sitting clients’ cats a Cuddle Cushion and it triggers similar cuddle&rubbing behaviour in those other cats too. Fun to watch and I’m absolutely certain it will make your cat feel happy too 🙂
Get your 4Cats Cuddle Cushion in the Katzenworld shop.
* From International Cat Care
We are excited to be launching an Artwork Competition to raise money for International Cat Care and we need your help! If you have an artistic streak and would like to create a design to feature on a t-shirt to be sold in the iCatCare shop, then this is the competition for you. As some of you might know, we hold an annual photo competition – this competition is to give people who enjoy creating artwork the opportunity to get involved too.
Create a unique feline-inspired piece of art which would look good on a t-shirt. This could be a drawing, cartoon, rhyme or any other original work – be as creative as you like!
The competition runs until 10.00 am (GMT) on Monday 17th February 2020. There is no limit on the number of entries a person can make, so if you have more than one design please enter them, as long as it’s before the competition closes.
All entrants must agree to the terms and conditions, click here to view.
The size of the artwork can’t exceed 210 × 297 millimetres (A4) and must be submitted using Woobox or by post. Entries should be submitted in high-resolution format, either editable EPS or PDF file.
The winning artwork will be selected by the iCatCare judges and then be printed onto a t-shirt (and potentially other materials) which will be sold to raise funds for the charity’s work. The winner will receive their design on a t-shirt AND £50 in prize money.
We can’t wait to see what you create…
It’s time to get CATreative!
If you have any questions regarding the Artwork Competition please email jess.mcmahon@icatcare.org
Click here to enter the competition
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