Cats and Refrigerator

Our cats love refrigerator! They like going inside to investigate the food, they like jumping to the top to relax. 

Especially Tiger, our Bengal cat. He enjoys sleeping and lying on the top of the refrigerator. It seems he likes the view from up there. He could stay there for hours.

Sometimes Tiger would share with Snowy, our Egyptian Mau. For Snowy, most of the time when she jumped to the top was because we were doing something in the kitchen and she is a foodie. 

Almost every time when I was busy cooking in the kitchen and Snowy wanted to participate, I would point to the top of the refrigerator and asked her to go there. She understood it perfectly and would jump from the counter top to there.

Our Bengal Cat Relaxing at the Top of the Refrigerator

Our Bengal Cat and Egyptian Mau Relaxing at the Top of the Refrigerator

Why they like staying at the top of the refrigerator? Maybe they like looking at things from a high place, maybe it is cool there. Other than that we have no clue. 

Those of you who have been following my posts may find the picture on the refrigerator familiar. Yes, you are right, that is the printout our vet gave us about what food cats can eat and what can't. If you are interested to know more about cat food, read here. 

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Hands-on Advice on Caring for Your Cat after Spaying Operation

Both our female cats have been spayed. Snowy, the Egyptian Mau was spayed eight months ago. Savannah, the Savannah cat was spayed yesterday. Since Savannah just came home from her operation yesterday, we are taking some special measures for her recovery, I would like to share our experience of taking care of the cats after their spay operation.

Cats are small creatures compared with dogs. Most of cats are spayed when they are still kittens, so they are especially fragile after the spay operation. 

Snowy, our Egyptian Mau Recovered Quickly from Spaying

I never knew how the operation was conducted until the night before Savannah’s operation when I watched a video online about such procedure. It is similar to C-section done on women. The cat’s lower abdomen is cut open and some stuff is taken out, and then the skin is stitched together. I am not a biologist or medical doctor, so I do not know how fast the wound heals, but based on what I saw, it must be pretty painful even in the healing process. 

Your vet might have given you some instructions on how to care for your cats after the operation, but not all vets actually have cats of their own. I am going to share with you some hands-on advice for a speedy recovery of your cats. My advice is particularly useful if you have multiple cats at home.

Nutrition: hand feeding is needed during first few days

Like people, a cat who just went through such a big operation needs good nutrition to recover. You do not need to buy anything special to your cat, just feed her/him the regular food. But because your cat will be wearing a recovery collar, it is extremely difficult for them to eat and drink normally. During the first few days, mostly likely you need to feed them by hand. We did this to both Snowy and Savannah.

Rest: separate the cat from other animals at home

During the first week or so after the operation, your cat needs a lot of rest. It is important not to let him/her interact with others (animals and people) too much. Activities like jumping and running may affect the wound negatively.

For both Snowy and Savannah, we actually put them in separate rooms for the first week after their operation. Each day we allowed them to get out of the room and interact with other cats for limited time, and we always monitored their interaction closely.

Hygiene: more cleaning is needed

A clean environment is crucial to the recovery of any patient. When our cats had their neuter or spay operation, I always cleaned the entire apartment before their return from the hospital, and maintained a high level of hygiene throughout their recovery process. All the cats’ utensils were cleaned daily. Now it is summer and it is quite hot here. I try to keep the rooms cool to reduce the risk of infection.

Lots of TLC (tender, loving, and care)

I have written about the changes of our male Bengal cat after his neuter operation. What surprised me most after going through our female cats’ spay operations is the extra emotional needs of our girls. If your cat just had the spay operation, or is going to be spayed, do pay attention to her emotional needs, and give her more love and care.

Snowy, our Egyptian Mau, slept with “daddy” every night, literally on his chest or neck. Savannah is doing the similar things. She felt most comfortable and happy sleeping on our bed.

Even though they need to be separated from other cats constantly, they do not want to be alone. You need to spend more time with them, talking to them, petting them, or simply staying with them. 

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Cat Neutering: a Sad Procedure

For the first few months after we got our cats, I was overwhelmed by their cuteness. Then my family began to poke me with the question “when do you want to spay/neuter them?” Initially I was very against the idea of spay/neuter. I thought it was too cruel and was against nature. But my family kept persuading me to do it, saying it was good to the cats’ health. Eventually I gave in.

Our Bengal cat whose name is Tiger, was neutered when he was about six months old. That was the biggest medical procure on him so far. Prices varied greatly for cat neuter operation. I called at least five different clinics to ask the prices, the cheapest was around $200, and the expensive ones were over $400. We chose the one on the higher end because we did not want to risk anything.

Our Bengal Cat at Four Months Old

Several weeks before the operation, our vet did some blood work and checkups to make sure that Tiger was healthy. One day before the operation, we took Tiger in. He spent a whole day and night there to get familiar with the environment, so he would not be too scared before the operation. We had to bring some dry and wet food for his stay as well.

It felt horrible to walk out of the clinic without Tiger. We did not know how it was like staying there for the night. Was he cold and scared? We thought about him constantly. Even though Snowy, our Egyptian Mau was at home with us, it just felt much quitter without Tiger there. Yeah, it was sad. The next day Tiger had his neuter operation on the early morning. He stayed there until the late afternoon when we picked him up.  

The staff at the clinic was nice enough to send us pictures of Tiger during the day and right after the neuter operation, so we got to see how Tiger was doing. The pictures showed that Tiger stayed in one of the caged areas with his own litter box and the carrier that we brought him in. He seemed rather confused and scared.

When we saw him after the operation, he was very happy. I often wondered what his thought process was at the time. Was he thinking we abandoned him? We never know.

It took two weeks for Tiger to recover fully from his operation. During those two weeks he had to wear a cone. During the first several days we had to feed him by hands because it was so difficult to eat with the cone on. It took some time for Tiger to learn to live with it. The discomfort of the cone was obvious.

When everything returned to normal after Tiger’s full recovery from the neuter operation, we gradually noticed some changes in him. The major one was the reduced energy. Tiger was very active and playful before the operation. But after that, he spent most of his time lying around. He was not as curious and playful as before. Before the operation he was able to jump to the top of the refrigerator, to the kitchen counter top, but he did not do any of those even three months after the operation.

It has been about five months after his operation, only in the past two weeks or so did we see some increased energy in him. He became more active after I began to take him out for walks.

After going through Tiger's neutering process, I think cat neutering is a mysterious and sad procedure. I am not sure if it is really that good to the cats’ health. From the cats’ perspective, it is almost a terrifying experience. It is like being kidnapped by the aliens, put to sleep, and when they wake up things have changed.  

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3 Reasons You Need a Good Cat Carrier

               1. Make sure your cat will not run away when visiting vet

Yesterday I heard an alarming true story at the vet while taking Snowy to have her vaccine. A cat who was recently brought to the vet managed to run away right outside the vet’s office. How? Her owner put her in a carrier and drove her to the vet. After they arrived at the parking lot of the vet’s office, the owner took the cat outside the carrier and took the cat inside the vet’s office. That went well. However, after the visit, when the owner took the cat to the car, and tried to put her into the carrier again, the cat managed to slip outside the car and run away. Fortunately, after several hours of searching, the owner was able to catch her.

It was horrible just listening to the story. I cannot imagine how bad the owner felt at the time. That just reminded me again of the importance of good cat carriers. With a good cat carrier, we can simply put the cat in it and carry him/her to the vet’s office. After the visit, we put the cat inside and take the carrier to the car. Once we get home, we release the cats from their carriers. It is simple. We will never have accident like the one I described above.

This is where cats differ greatly from dogs. With dogs, we can simply put harness and leash on and take them by the leash. With cats, they are often too timid outside home and can be easily scared away.

              2.   In case of emergency, you can evacuate your cat quickly

About one month ago, when I was at home alone with our three cats, suddenly the fire alarm of the apartment building went off. I was never in that situation before, so it took me several minutes to realize that it was the fire alarm and I needed to get out as soon as possible. Then I realized I had three cats and I had to take them out with me. You can’t imagine how anxious I was at the time. Luckily we had purchased this huge Petmate Sky kennel for our Savannah cat. So I decided to put all three of them into it so I only needed to bring one carrier with me. It took me some time to catch the terrified cats, but I managed to take out the cats safely.

Our Egyptian Mau in her Petmate Sky kennel

After this incident, I felt lucky that we spent some money on this large sky kennel. It is not a regular cat carrier that you would have in mind, but it comes super handy in emergency situations when we need to evacuate the cats quickly. Since then we have put this huge cat carrier near the front door, so it is convenient to take it out if needed.

              3. When travel, your cat can rest comfortably

Our Egyptian Mau with her Sherpa Deluxe Carrier

We investigated on cat carriers before getting our first cat. Due to our frequent travel by air, we wanted to get cat carriers that are accepted by airlines for in-cabin travel. The one we got for this purpose is Sherpa Deluxe Pet Carriers. Our cats really like this. Even when they are not traveling, they like playing with it or resting in the carrier. When they were younger, we also used this carrier to take them to the vets.

Our Egyptian Mau in her Sherpa Deluxe Carrier

Since our cats are really large compared with most cats, we use the Sherpa Deluxe Pet carrier when taking them fly in-cabin with us, and use the large Petmate Sky Kennel for all other purposes. 

Based on above reasons, cat carriers are very important to the safety and general wellbeing of your cats. If you do not want to risk your cat getting away, make sure getting a sturdy and roomy carrier for your cat.    

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Do You Need Cat Insurance? Look at My Numbers

When my family got Tiger and Snowy to me, they purchased cat insurance for each of them immediately. Being a Bengal cat and an Egyptian Mau respectively, we thought they might need some special care and knowledge regarding medical needs. We also assumed that cat insurance might help in expenses because of all the checkups, vaccinations, and neuter/spay during their first year. 

Our Bengal Cat at Six Weeks Old

We did some research about cat insurance before we purchased one. But there was not much information out there. Eventually we purchased one through our employer. The provider is one of the well-established insurance companies.

In this article, I will use Tiger’s expenses as an example to show you if it worth the money to get a cat insurance. Tiger did not have any pre-existing condition as he was only five weeks old when the plan started. Since then we have done all kinds of vaccines, blood work, and neuter operation. This would give us a good sense of the cost and benefits.

The Cost and Coverage of the Plan

          The insurance company offered three types of cat insurance coverages depending on how much copay we want to have and the maximum benefit amounts. We chose the one in the middle the Plus Plan (see table below).  

	Basic Plan	Plus Plan	Max Plan
Physical Exam: two exams per policy term	$50 $25 maximum per exam	$60 $30 maximum per exam	$80 $40 maximum per exam
Behavioral Exam and/or treatment	$30	$30	$30
Vaccination or Titer	$50	$75	$75
Heartworm or FeLV/FIV test	$30	$35	$35
Fecal test	$15	$25	$30
Deworming	$25	$25	$25
Nail trim	$20	$20	$20
Microchip	$40	$40	$40
Health certificate	$40	$40	$40
Flea control or Heartworm prevention	$50	$75	$75
One additional test: (1) Health screen (blood test); (2) Radiograph (x-ray); or (3)Electrocardiogram (EKG)	$50	$75	$100
Spray/Neuter	Not Covered	Not Covered	$200
Dental	Not Covered	Not Covered	$250

                        

For Plus Plan that we chose for our Bengal cat, here is the plan cost:

Annual Premium: $382.90 ($31.91/month)

Annual Deductible: $250 (No deductible for wellness care)

Actual Expenses and Reimbursement 

Our Bengal cat’s insurance plan started in December 2015, and was for one year. Since then he has been neutered and done all the needed shots and checkups. We do not expect any additional visit to the vet before the plan expires in December 2016. Below is our actual expenses and the reimbursed amounts so far.

Treatment Date	Submitted Amount	Reimbursed
2015 December	$149.57	$119.92
2016 January	$180.35	$65.85
2016 February	$138.26	$24.23
2016 March	$56.70	$56.70
2016 March	$343.34	$39.99

Our Bengal Cat at Six Weeks Old

Each visit included different items, and I separated them into three categories based on how much was reimbursed:

Reimbursed fully:

Home Again Microchip

Health Screen (Blood test)

Flea and Heartworm prevention (revolution)

Reimbursed Partially:

Flea and Heartworm prevention (prescribed generic)

Vaccination-Rabies

Physical exam

Feline Vaccination-FVRCP (had two shots, only covered one)

Feline Vaccination-FELV (had two shots, only covered one)

Not Reimbursed at all:

Neuter

So our total medical expenses so far was:

$149.57+$180.35+$138.26+$56.70+$343.34=$868.22

The total reimbursed amount was:

$119.92+$65.85+$24.23+$56.70+$39.99=$306.69

And, remember, we also paid $382.90 for the annual premium.

That means for this covered year, we have spent a total of $868.22+$382.90=$1251.12

But we only got back $306.69 from the insurance company.

Comparison: Is It Worth To Have a Cat Insurance ?

To make it simple: 

 (1) With the cat insurance, for all our Bengal cat’s medical needs, we actually spent: $1251.12-$306.69=$944.43

 (2) If we did not have a cat insurance, our total expenses would be $868.22

The conclusion:

Having the cat insurance plan cost $76.21 more than without one

Based on the above numbers, is it worth the money to get cat insurance? If your cat is fairly young and healthy, it may save you money not to have one. If your cat has some medical condition that requires more visits to the vet, it may be useful to have one.  

If you are interested at having a cat (or dog) insurance, besides getting quotes from regular insurance companies (those sell auto insurance, health insurance, and etc.) who carry pet insurance, there are also some companies that specialize in pet insurance such as Pets Best, a company that many people are using. 

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Cat Food Dos and Don’ts

Dos:

Make sure your cat gets the nutrition they need

Cats of different age have different nutrition need, just like humans. It is important to make sure that they get what they need. All of our cats still eat kitten formula even though Snowy turned one year old several months ago. They eat dry and wet food every day. Occasionally we give them treats that are good to their teeth and coats. We wanted our cats to be healthy and happy. Therefore, we did extensive research before picking the suitable food for our cats. 

Below is what we have been feeding our cat. We never changed the brand from day one, and our cats love them. They are all kitten formulas though. As our cats grow older we may need to switch.

Wet food: Wellness Complete Health Natural Wet Canned Cat Food

Dry food: Wellness CORE Natural Grain Free Dry Cat Food

It’s ok to feed your cats some human food

          But it is ok to feed cats most of the food humans eat. For example, meat, eggs, pizza. It is just not a good idea to let human food replace cat food completely.

Choose the right material for your cats’ utensils

          It is better to use ceramic or glass dishes for cats. Plastic utensils are more prone to make cats have acne on their chin.

Use different containers to separate dry and wet food

          Use different container for different type of food. Each of our cats has three containers, one for water, one for wet food, and a third for dry food. Make sure the dry food container always dry.

Cat utensils should be washed regularly

          Even if you get the right material for your cat’s utensils, you need to clean them regularly. We clean our cats’ utensils once every two to three days. So far it seems fine.

Make your kitchen cat-proof

          Cats are like kids. They are active and curious. More importantly, they can’t judge for themselves. When our cats were a few months old, before they learned to jump or climb to the kitchen counter, they did not know much about the kitchen. However, as they got used to the fact that tasty stuff seemed to always come from that area of the home, they became more and more curious to the kitchen area. They began to try all methods they could think of to get to the kitchen counter, and into the cabinet.

          To make your kitchen cat-proof, you need to put away your knife, put dishes inside cabinet. Don’t leave any poisonous items such as onion, garlic, nuts outside. Practically it means you almost always need to clean your kitchen after each meal.  

Don’ts       

Don’t feed your cat anything and everything

Since I have a more liberal attitude toward cat food, and tend to feed them whatever I was eating (assuming if I can eat, certain can they), my family, however, is more restrictive on that.  After consulting the vet, she gave us a list of food that shows what is healthy and what is poisonous (picture below). We have pasted the list on our refrigerator, so that every time when we want to feed our cats something (we all know how curious cats are, especially regarding food), we would check first.

Don’t feed cat raw meat

          Some people like feeding their cats raw meat. I recommend not do so. The main reason is because raw meat increases the risk for becoming infected with salmonella. It is always safer to simply boil the mean until it is fully cooked.  

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