Try, "The Cat Who.....," Mysteries for Great Summer Reading

I can't remember reading a series of books I enjoyed more than "The Cat Who...." series by Lilian Jackson Braun. These are some of the earlier ones on her list in case you want to start from the beginning. If they are not available at one of your local bookstores, or on Amazon, you should be able to find them at any good used book outlet near you.

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern
The Cat Who Turned On and Off
The Cat Who Saw Red
The Cat Who Played Brahms
The Cat Who Played Post Office
The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare
The Cat Who Sniffed Glue
The Cat Who Went Underground
The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts
The Cat Who Lived High
The Cat Who Knew a Cardinal
The Cat Who Moved a Mountain
The Cat Who Wasn't There
The Cat Who Went into the Closet
The Cat Who Came to Breakfast
The Cat Who Blew the Whistle
The Cat Who Said Cheese
The Cat Who Tailed a Thief
The Cat Who Sang for the Birds
The Cat Who Saw Stars
The Cat Who Robbed a Bank
The Cat Who Smelled a Rat
The Cat Who Went Up the Creek
The Cat Who Went Bananas
The Cat Who Dropped A Bombshell
The Cat Who Had 14 Tales (short stories about cats)






Counters

Check Out, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul

Photo by Harald Wehner

If you are a cat lover, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul, is a book that really needs to be in your own personal library. Even if you are not a cat lover, you may become one by the time you finish this book.

Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul, is an anthology containing more than 100 emotional stories about the cats in our lives; sad stories, joyful stories, funny stories, and comforting stories. Every story is true and each one is unique in showcasing such things a particular friendship provided by a cat, a miraculous rescue, a laugh-provoking and humorous cat adventure, a touching description of the bond between a cat and its owner, or how the death of a beloved cat was handled by a family.

Even if you can’t have a cat of your own, due to allergies or rules forbidding them where you happen to live, reading this book will help you understand these curious creatures and those who own them just a little bit better. And, if you have a friend who owns a cat, consider buying Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul as a gift for them. They will love you for it.

The book is probably available at your nearest bookstore or library, or if you can’t find it locally, you can order it through the Amazon link provided below. When you get your hands on this book and see for yourself what a great read it is, you'll wonder why you waited so long.

How to Find a Lost Pet

Don’t give up if your pet disappears, but the longer it is missing, the more unlikely you are to recover it. That’s why it’s so important to immediately use every possible avenue to help in your search.

If you own a pet there is always the chance that through a moment of inattention or carelessness, that pet may disappear. Hopefully, your pet’s absence will be temporary and he will find his way home or be found and returned home by a family member or neighbor.
Unfortunately, thousands of lost animals are never recovered. To avoid having your pet become a part of those thousands, here are some steps you can take to improve the chances of finding a lost pet, should the need ever arise in your household.

1. Like Boy Scouts, be prepared.

If at all possible, do have a microchip implanted in your pet, and alert the local animal shelter as soon as your animal disappears. Then, even if your pet does not have a microchip implant, make a personal visit to the shelter to fill out a missing animal report and give them extra information that will help in the identification of your animal.

2. Have pictures of your pet on hand.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words so be sure you have something more than just words to describe your animal if it should become necessary

3. Talk to your neighbors.

Check out people for quite a distance around your house to see if anyone has seen your pet. Show them some pictures. If your pet has been an indoor pet, your neighbors might not even recognize a new animal appearing at their back door as belonging to you.

4. Post lots of “Lost Pet” signs.

Scatter your signs for several blocks around the area where you think your pet disappeared. The sooner you post t hem, the more likely you are to get a response. Your signs should be large enough to be read by people in cars passing by, and have helpful information on them, like a picture of your pet along with its color, age, weight, and other identifying features.
Be sure to mention whether or not it has been neutered, and any unusual habits it may have. (One person we know had a cat that liked to sit in trees, and this was the comment on the poster that caused a lady to connect a cat she saw in a tree with the missing cat mentioned on the poster.) If your pet likes a particular food, list it, just in case the person who finds it wants to try a bit of luring.

Write your phone number in huge letters. If the weather is bad, slip the poster into a clear plastic bag so that it won’t get soggy and droop after an hour or two in the rain.

5. Offer a worthwhile reward.

People will be more likely to go out of their way to keep an eye peeled for your pet if there is a reward offered. Groups of neighborhood kids may even band together and look for your pet in hopes of earning the reward.

6. Enlist help from unexpected places.

Let the mail man and paper boy know about your loss. These people are in your neighborhood every day, and cover a lot of area. Give them a card with your phone number so they can reach you if they do spot your pet.

7. Place ads in the local newspaper and on supermarket bulletin boards.

The first thing most people who find a lost pet do is check the ads in the local newspaper to see if anyone has reported a lost pet, so get your ad in as soon as possible. Include the same information and reward offer that you included on your lost pet signs. Some supermarkets also have bulletin boards where you can post lost pet notices. Those within a mile or so of your home would be most useful.

8. Try luring your pet to come home on his own.

Set a bowl of water and your pet’s favorite food just outside a patio door. A cat or dog carrier left with the door open may give them a sense of a safe place to spend the night. A favorite toy or two near the food may also help. If there is evidence that your pet is in the area, or it has actually been sighted, consider renting a humane animal trap. Leave the trap unset and move your pet’s food bowl closer and closer for several days to get your pet comfortable with entering the trap before you actually set it. You may trap the neighbor’s cat instead, but that’s okay. Try again the next night.

Hopefully, one or another of these ideas for recovering your lost pet will work for you. Even if they don’t, don’t give up home too quickly. We had a pet cat disappear, without a trace, in the early part of December last year. After trying everything we knew how to try, we were adjusting to the idea that we would never see our pet again. One day about two months later, we heard a scratching noise on our bedroom window screen, and there was our cat.

He seemed a little thinner, but otherwise, healthy, so please don’t give up too soon. You never know when your wandering cat—or dog may decide that he or she has had enough of the wild life and decide to return to where a bowl of food and water is always on tap.

Just A Little Dab'll Do It! Well, At Least It Did For Me

If I told you how many times I have uttered the words, “Off,” “Down,” or “No, No,” “No,” over the last dozen years, you would wonder why I didn’t give up trying to be a pet owner long ago. There have been days when I wondered that myself.

And, if I told you how many items in my home have actually been ruined, by the several cats and dogs we have adopted over the years, you probably wouldn’t believe me, either.

Even that adorable little wire-haired terrier our family fell in love with changed from terrier to terrorist as soon as she crossed the threshold into our living room, and managed to demolish the fabric on a whole chair before we got her under control. Well, maybe not completely under control, but almost.

I know, some of you are shaking your heads and saying, “What kind of person is this who can’t train a tiny little cat—or dog? Everyone knows that you just need to let him or her know who is boss. Others of you, if you are honest about it, are also shaking your head, but your heads are bobbing up and down, to signify that you have been there, done that, and are about ready to throw in the towel when it comes to training pets.

Seriously, we had come to the conclusion that there would be no more living creatures in our house other than humans ever again when we accidentally stumbled on a simple, practically no cost solution.

The solution --- pepper.

No, I didn’t use pepper spray in my cat’s face; I didn’t put pepper on her tongue when she misbehaved; I didn’t rub it on her paws to teach her a lesson. None of the above.
I accidentally spilled some pepper on the counter when I was making deviled egg sandwiches. The egg smell attracted our cat and she was on the counter in a flash, heading toward the egg platter, accompanied by my usually ineffective screams of,
“No, Snoopy, No!” when all of a sudden she applied the brakes—or whatever it is that cats use to stop in their tracks.

She backed off a few steps, jumped off the counter and then walked away.

Hmm. “No, Snoopy, No,” had never worked before. In fact, it had proved so useless, I wondered why I kept on using it. Hmm, again. It must be the pepper. Oh joy. I grabbed the pepper can and headed to our bedroom where my computer desk and chair both reside.

Snoopy and I had engaged in a long-standing battle about my desk chair. If she even thinks I might be heading in that direction to work, she dashes up the stairs past me, sometimes tripping me on the way, and be zonked out in my chair by the time I arrived.
Before I could use my own chair, I had to drag a protesting cat off and sit quickly before she managed to regain the seat.

Sure enough, there she was, feigning sleep, even though she had been on the kitchen counter only moments before.

We engaged in our usual tussle, which some of you will probably tell me was just the cat’s way of playing with me, but I know better. That cat likes to show her superiority over the lowly humans in this house, and that is exactly what she was doing. But I was ready for her this time. As soon as I took control of the chair, I sprinkled just a tiny bit of pepper on it, one shake, and not even a hard shake either. Then I turned and walked away.

Snoopy was jubilant. She had won the battle. She jumped back on the chair, but before her feet had hardly landed, she was off again and running down the stairs. For two days, she didn’t even come in my bedroom, let alone try to get on the chair. After that, she very cautiously moved across the room and looked at the chair, and eventually took a snooze, on the floor under my chair. Now I was jubilant.

Since then, I have use a sparing dose of pepper on several other items that I really don’t want her on—like the kitchen table. It isn’t really noticeable and I always wash the table before putting a meal on it anyway.

Before you write and accuse me of animal cruelty, I would say that the only thing that seems to be injured is Snoopy’s pride. I try not to put pepper everywhere; just in spots that really matter to me. She still has lots of places she can call her own.

If you are an individual who has really had it with an animal that won’t mind, give pepper a try. It will cost you practically nothing, but remember, “Just a little dab’ll do it.”