Help your cat find her way home again

To add a dramatic element in Cries and Whiskers, my heroine's cat, Musetta, gets lost. Turns out, she's involved in some foul play – but for a brief moment, my heroine breathes easier knowing that her cat is microchipped. If Musetta is picked up or turned in to a shelter, she'll be identified and returned. This is based on fact – my cat is microchipped – and I can't speak highly enough of this unobtrusive and vital technology. Well, it turns out that one company is making it easier for you to microchip your pet! What are you waiting for?

This post is taken from Darlene Arden's PerPETually Speaking blog. Darlene is a writer and radio personality, focusing on animals (and a member of my beloved Cat Writers Association) and she's right on the money here.

For longer than I count, dog owners have always turned over every leaf and stone searching for their lost pets. Cat owners, who were even more likely to allow their pets to roam seldom used to look for their lost felines, assuming they'd run away or found a new home. It's really hard to fathom that attitude these days although I suspect some people may still feel that way.
I now see nearly as many posters for missing cats as I do for dogs. Still there is a good way to help ensure that your lost pet will be reunited with his family: microchipping. It is becoming nearly as popular for cats as it is for dogs but we still need to make more people aware of microchipping, especially cat owners.

One microchip company, Home Again, has gone the extra mile for cats and their people, not only providing a safety net of microchipping but helping in another way as well. Home Again Proactive Pet Recovery Network has promised to donate $1. to the Winn Feline Health Foundation for every cat microchipped and enrolled in Home Again during the months of June, July and August. You still have time to take advantage of the company's generosity in helping feline health studies while taking that extra step to provide for your own cat's recovery in case he is lost.

While some cats wear a collar, a cat who gets loose can easily lose his collar and thus his tag as means of identification. Microchipping provides that added measure of security. If your cat is taken to a shelter or veterinary hospital, he can be scanned for a microchip, his number can be called in to Home Again and the owner will be notified.

It's sad to think that microchipped cats are fewer in number than microchipped dogs. It's a relatively inexpensive and painless way to protect your beloved companion. And by taking advantage of Home Again's generous donation offer, you'll be helping all cats have healthier lives through Winn Feline Foundation's studies which will greatly benefit from Home Again's generosity. They will be as generous as you are a responsible owner when you get your cat microchipped and enrolled in Home Again by the end of August.

The planned extermination of pets?

What follows is a guest blog by Diana Engelbart, a retired breeder of Birmans. She's also a co-founder of Birman Rescue and former treasurer of CFA Purebred Rescue and serves as a state coordinator for the Winn Feline Foundation. Do you think she makes the case? Let me know by posting below!
- Clea

The Planned Extinction of Pets

Way back in 1951 as I was learning to use my legs, Mom and I encountered a black bulldog owned by a neighbor. All of the children in the neighborhood would run in terror from the ugly dog. Not me. As hard as my stubby legs would allow and as hard as his stubby legs would allow we would drag our respective Moms toward each other until we were within a slobbering hugfest of each other.

And so it has been from that time until now. The cats I share my life with provide a wealth of enrichment and love. I hope that I enrich their lives as much as they enrich mine.

If the Humane Society of the United States, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, The American Humane Association, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Animal Liberation Front, et al have their way pets will become extinct.

It is happening now, town by town, city by city and state by state. It is called mandatory spay/neuter. Rhode Island enacted mandatory spay/neuter last year, as did Albuquerque. Bills are on dockets in several states, including Massachusetts and California.

Ostensibly to control the overpopulation of cats that we all know exists; these ordinances do not deliver on their promises. Where these ordinances have been enacted, to a one, they have failed: the populations of unowned cats continues to climb, administrative costs skyrocket, promised revenues never appear and euthanasia rates climb as people “dump” pets they can’t afford to sterilize and/or don’t want to be surveiled by the “Muffy and Fluffy” patrol.

You see, some of these ordinances strip you of your Fourth and Fifth Amendment Rights (Unlawful search and seizure and self incrimination). The jack booted thugs of the Animal Cops can search your home without warning any time of day and they know who you are because you had to register to receive this abuse.

Mandatory spay/neuter does precisely nothing to address the problem of increasing populations of unowned cats, and the attendant problems that such increases bring, while neatly stripping you of your rights,

It is highly unlikely that Fluffy Tomcat will apply to city hall for a license to breed. Equally unlikely is that Muffy Momcat will sashay into the nearest Veterinary Hospital and request to be spayed.

A more effective, non invasive to human civil liberties, and humane approach is that of Trap/Neuter/Return. These programs exist, run by volunteers gasping for funding. Only one TNR program in the country is legislated; that one is in Cape May, NJ. Cape May’s TNR program is at risk after its facilities burned. One has to wonder how that fire happened.

Seattle tried to enact TNR, but was blocked by the HSUS.

My friends, the agenda is NOT the welfare of the animals; it is the elimination of all “uses” of animals, including the ones who purr in your laps or guide you when you can not see.