All she wants to do is meow

Janelle the cat has a new favorite hobby: meowing.

She has always meowed, but lately it is getting a bit ridiculous.

I will be upstairs laying in bed or just upstairs on my laptop and I'll hear from the bottom of the stairs a long MEEEEOWWWWW. I'll scream "WHAT?" and this will just continue. She will meow, meow, meow and meow. I will shake a bag of cat treats which will get her to come upstairs, but after she gets her treat she goes back downstairs and meows.

Another instance is when I leave. When my boyfriend and I just leave for two seconds to maybe go put the laundry in the dryer or washer (less than 100 feet away) we will walk back to the house and hear MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW from the outside. We wonder if when anyone walks by our house when we aren't home that they can just hear her meowing all the time.

Sometimes she will just start meowing randomly and I go downstairs and look and just see her staring back at me.

Sometimes it concerns us, because we are good cat owners. We will be watching a movie and all of a sudden we hear MMEEEEOOWWWW, and we want to go see what's up, and usually she is fine.

The other day last week for a photo project Dennis had to do for class he took pictures of me on the back porch, Janelle was inside, behind the door which has glass so she can see where I am, and she kept meowing. She was staring at us and knew we were right there, but she just kept meowing and meowing and meowing.

When we are opening cans of food or eating it's normal for her to meow and when we come home and she is greeting us or when she is hungry, but this random meowing throughout the day is really getting a bit ridiculous. I can predict though that the reason behind her meowing isn't too serious - she is probably just seeking more attention, even though she always gets attention, but we will see how this progresses.

Here's a video to show you what I mean:

Clipping your cat's nails

Clipping your cats nails can be an extremely difficult process. The first time my boyfriend and roommate tried to clip Janelle's nails they tried wrapping her up in a blanket like a kitty burrito and doing it that way, but she ended up slicing through Dennis' shirt and causing him to bleed. It was not a fun experience. Since then we have figured out a way to make it easier to clip her nails, sometimes she is compliant and sometimes she will still put up a fight, but here's some tips on clipping your cats nails:

You want to make your cat comfortable with you touching her paws. So play with her paws sometimes and practice just holding her hand. Press down on the little pads on her paws so that her nails become visible, make it so she gets comfortable with you holding her paws and knows that she's not in danger.

Make sure you have treats readily available, to try and coax your cat into letting her nails be clipped give her treats between every nail getting clipped.

It is going to be a process, you cannot clip your cat's nails all at once in one sitting unless you have a really relaxed cat, but I know that my cat is not like that at all. Do one paw at a time, and then take a break and then resume.

When you go to do the first clip make sure you don't clip the "quick." The quick is the red part and if you clip that part there will be blood and your cat probably won't trust you the next time you try to clip her nails. So, take her paw and push on the pad so that the nails come out.

Next you want to be fast with this. Take the clippers and as quick as you can clip the nail. She may not be cooperative after the first one, she may start to try to bite your hand or try to scratch you, but offer her a treat and she'll most probably be a bit more compliant, or she'll run away.

The process of clipping the cat's nails will probably take half an hour or more, depending on the cat. If your cat is really skiddish you may need to hold her down, clipping the cat's nails is usually better if there are two people involved. One person holding the cat and giving the cat treats and the other person doing the actual clipping of the nails.

You should clip the cat's nails every week or so. Some people are against clipping nails, but it's better than getting a cat declawed - which is considered amputation!

Cats and Human Food

Cats are not like dogs, and when I first got Janelle I was so over protective. I went to all sorts of cat web sites and looked at all the human food that was dangerous to her and tried to keep her away from it, I soon realized that if she only had one lick or bite of something it wouldn't kill her, but I was rather annoyed when I found out my boyfriend tried giving my cat beer when I was away - but what is more common from Janelle is for her to beg for food.

Whenever someone gets any food, even if she has no interest in it, she will climb up to that person and bat at them relentlessly. She will try to take anything off your plate just so she can bite it, play with it or eventually eat it.

If I go into the kitchen and take out a can of anything she will automatically assume it is a can of cat food for her and starts meowing relentlessly. She will meow and meow and meow when someone is making a tuna sandwich, the trick is to not give her any. She will harass me the most because I am the one who feeds her her own food so she can always try to get me to give her some of my food. That's probably why she is gaining so much weight.

Here are five foods that you should definitely keep your cat away from (knowledge I picked up from various internet searches over the past 8 months):

1) Onions - Onions are very bad for cats, I read on Pet Safety that onions contain a substance that destroys red blood cells and can cause anemia within cats! Garlic also contains that substance, but to a lesser degree.

2) Chocolate - Vet Medicine on About.com talks about the toxicity of chocolate for cats and dogs. And Cat World talks about how chocolate acts as a diuretic to cats and can drain them of their fluids, the caffeine in chocolate can cause their hearts to race very fast and that's not good, and they could go into a coma, have a seizure or even die.

3) Grapes / Raisins - Cats can bat around grapes on the floor and play with them, but if a cat eats a grape or raisin they can get severe kidney damage, according to Cat World.

4) Sugar - Sugar isn't exactly a food, but it is in food. It can lead to obesity in your cat so you should definitely keep your cat away from anything that has a lot of sugar.

5) Dairy Products - As kittens cats can digest milk, but as they get older they can't digest lactose as well. Dennis and I will let Janelle drink the milk from our cereal that is left over, but we try to only let that happen a couple times a week or less. Milk and cheese can cause diarrhea and even vomiting, so maybe now and then give a little bit, but don't make it a habit.

Choosing the right cat food

It may seem simple, you go into PetCo and pick out some cat food that is reasonably priced, but for the longevity of your furry friend it's important to read labels and find out which cat food is the best.

When we brought Janelle home from the shelter they gave us a bag of "Science Diet" cat food. We noticed that she was going to the bathroom a lot and then we read the label. Science Diet claims to be number one recommended by vets, but it contains stuff that isn't good for cats. The first ingredient is chicken byproduct. The word "byproduct" in itself suggests that it would be something gross. What is chicken byproduct? Chicken byproduct is the heads,bones, feet, lungs, intestines, liver, etc. It is basically the stuff that we humans choose not to eat. The stuff is really just a filler for cats and doesn't have any true benefits for them. Another ingredient that Science Diet includes is corn, it may not be "common knowledge," but cat owners that are educated about the well being of their cats would know that corn is not something that cats should be consuming. It's just not healthy and it makes the cats go to the bathroom more.

The pet stores have all sorts of different cat food for those who need to lose weight, those with hairball issues, etc. I did a lot of searching at PetCo to find the perfect fit for my cat. The L.I.D brand (Limited Ingredient Diet) was a good one for a little while, my cat liked it a lot, but it was a bit expensive. Blue Buffalo claims to be the best with all natural products, but it is so expensive.

I choose Purina One Beyond. All the ingredients are natural and even the packaging is made out of recycled materials. A six pound bag can go for around $13 which is a really great deal. The flavor of choice that my cat loves the most is the Salmon flavor. It has brown rice as well which is good for cats and the first ingredient is salmon, real salmon, not any chicken byproduct or corn meal. Here is the list of ingredients in its entirety, taken from the web site:

"Salmon, chicken meal, whole brown rice, soybean meal, whole barley, whole oat meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), soy protein isolate, brewers dried yeast, dried egg product, dried beet pulp, natural flavor, fish oil, phosphoric acid, calcium carbonate, whole cranberries, caramel color, dried tomatoes, dried spinach, salt, potassium chloride, taurine, choline chloride, calcium phosphate, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, manganese sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite."

Always make sure to feed the cat the right amount. A cat that is 5 to 9 pounds should get 1/3 - 2/3 a cup twice a day, whereas a cat that is over 10 pounds can handle 1/2 cup to an entire cup twice a day. Make sure to always measure it out and to not just assume, luckily the shelter gave me a measuring cup so that I can make sure she eats the appropriate amount. She has gained some weight, but that's probably due to the treats she gets and when she gets human food (We will discuss cats and human food in the next blog post).

Janelle's First Trip to The Vet

At the end of July Dennis and I decided that it was time to make an appointment for Janelle to see the vet. This would be the first time we had ever taken Janelle to the vet, and this would be my first time every going to a vet's office in my entire life so it was an experience for all of us.

We woke up for the 10 a.m. appointment and put Janelle in the new carrier we had bought her. She seemed calm sitting inside of it, until we brought it outside. I can only imagine what was going through her head. Did she think we were giving her back to the humane society? I sat in the backseat with her as she meowed the whole way and tried to paw her way out of the metal bars.

When we arrived at the vet's office we signed in and I realized that we had left all of Janelle's paperwork at home - so Dennis drove all the way back home to get the paper work while we waited for the vet. There was a resident cat walking around licking itself and a man had brought his dog in. Janelle meowed and seemed scared, she wouldn't even eat any of the treats I tried to give her.

Dennis got back with the paperwork and then the vet's assistant saw us.

We took her out of the carrier and she seemed scared and worried. The vet assistant put Janelle on a scale, it read 10 pounds. When we first got her she was 8 pounds, and Dennis was worried that Janelle was underweight, but the assistant assured us that she was just the right weight.

I requested that the vet trim her nails, but when trimming Janelle's nails she can be vicious. The vet assistant wrote "CAUTION!" on the paperwork.

When the vet came out he looked at Janelle all over, but he couldn't give us a reason why she was grinding her teeth other than her tooth decay at the back of her mouth.

He went to clip her nails and we were expecting this to be a show - we were expecting Janelle to fight the way she does when we try to clip her nails. To our surprise, Janelle was more than compliant and she just let him clip away. The vet said it was because she was uneasy in a new surrounding and vulnerable.

I gave her some treats for being a good sport about it and then we left. On the car ride home we stopped to pick Janelle up some wet food for being such a good sport. Let's hope the next vet appointment goes just as well.

Things That Go CHOMP In The Night

Janelle loves sleeping in bed with her mommy and daddy every night, but the only downside is the routine that she picked up, luckily she has not done this so much lately, but the first few months we had her were filled with chomps in the night.

It was like our very own personal alarm clock - except far too early. We would be sleeping and all of a sudden we would hear "CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP" in our face. The sound of teeth grinding and chomping coming from Janelle was annoying. For two months straight I would get up at 3:30 a.m. and walk her down to her food dish which had food in it and watch her eat - maybe she was scared to go down and eat alone in a new home, or maybe she was just training me to do everything I can to make her happy.

It got annoying and we thought it would stop if we brought the food upstairs. At 3:30 she'd start to chomp in our faces and we'd just throw her off the bed and direct her toward her food.

We realized that it wasn't just her saying that she was hungry, but it was her way of getting our attention. Some people have cats who will just go about their day and hide under the bed, sleep, and not really interact much with humans, but Janelle is more like a small dog always wanting to be the center of attention and needing constant reassurance that she's loved, but what can you expect from a shelter cat?

She's so loving that we don't mind the chomping much anymore. We'll occasionally lock her out of the room but then she will just paw at the door and meow outside of it - further proof that maybe we don't own our cats, but our cats own us.

Welcome Home Janelle

Hi, I'm Nikky Raney and this is going to be a blog about my cat, Janelle. Before I just dive into talking about my cat I am going to make this post an introduction to my cat and me. So, here is the story of how it all happened:

My boyfriend, Dennis, and I had moved into our very own apartment in May of 2011 - the only downside was that his fraternity brother, Craig, would also be living with us. At the end of the month Craig had the idea that we should go to the Bangor Humane Society and look at cats. I had previously thrown out the idea that I wanted a cat, because I had never had a pet before and I love cats, but I didn't think it would actually happen. Dennis knew this was a disaster waiting to happen since Craig and I could never agree on anything.

When we arrived at the Humane Society it was not yet open, so we had to wait another hour for it to open. While we waited there was a fenced area where the cats could go and sit on a ledge or play around. The three of us went to look at the cats and there was one that I really liked. Dennis took a picture of the cat on his cell phone, and that cat was a 5-year-old named Janelle.

When the Humane Society finally opened I rushed in and saw Janelle. I started playing with her and immediately felt like we had a connection. Whenever another cat tried to come near me Janelle would hiss and attack that cat. I felt like she was meant to be my cat.

Craig was not so keen on Janelle. Craig found a gray cat named Phoebe which we found out had been moved from the open cat area for being too aggressive. Craig wanted Phoebe and I wanted Janelle. Neither of us had asked the landlord for permission to get a cat yet, so we ended up leaving without either cat.

I couldn't stop thinking about Janelle and how much I wanted her to be my cat. There were other people there that were holding her once I left and I was sad thinking that I would never see her again.

June 7 was my 21st birthday and Dennis and I were in New Hampshire celebrating with my parents. Dennis told me that for my birthday I could have a cat, and that he had agreed with Craig that I would be getting the cat for my birthday. I was so excited and I thought about finally being able to have Janelle. My boyfriend insisted that Janelle would not be there when we got back so I shouldn't get my hopes too high up.

We returned to Maine and on June 9 we went to Petco to buy all the essentials for having a cat including a litter box and litter. While we were there we saw two kittens that were for sale, but I insisted that I wanted to go to the Humane Society and get Janelle.

On June 10 Dennis got home from work at around 5 p.m. and the Humane Society was closing at 6. When we got to the Humane Society I ran in and there she was. In a cage that was right at the front desk was Janelle, my cat. There was a sign on her cage that said "Name Your Own Price!" and that alone made Dennis happy.

I didn't even look at any other cat. The man remembered me from the few weeks prior and he gave me paperwork to fill out. Janelle was put in a cardboard carrier as she waited to be brought home. The video attached is the car ride home:



We knew that life with Janelle would be full of surprises.