Some musings and tips on things like: dressing your cats up in costumes, the practice of not adopting out black cats for Halloween, and just some general tips for the scary night!
This about sums it up…
We regret that Jackson does not answer questions posted in the comments. This is due to his demanding schedule and the high volume of requests he receives. But most importantly, since he has not met your cat, it would be contrary to his approach for him to give specific personalized advice for your specific situation. That being said, general questions and issues are addressed throughout this blog, in his book CAT DADDY and of course, the show My Cat From Hell.
Ok, trying to type this with my cat Lucy on my arms!!! She is so jealous of me spending time online. Anyway, just wanted to agree about the dressing cats up. Lucy would tear me a new one if she knew the thought entered my mind, much less tried to. I have a friend that dresses up her cat, and he doesn’t fight her, but he just falls down in the floor and lays there until she takes said outfit off of him. That to me tells me he is not happy about it!!! ugh! Anyhoo, thanks for this post!
Until recently, I had a Charlotte city cop for a neighbor. He told me that they might find ” 3-4″ cats sacrificed every Halloween in Charlotte. He also told me that every couple of years, they would have someone’s home broken into to steal a black cat.
My advice if one is a black cat owner is to: Keep the cat indoors entirely for at least a couple of weeks before Halloween.and try not to allow them to sit in a window where passers-by could see them. Your advice to take care that kitty is not allowed to escape while trick or treaters are calling also seems to be a good one.
On a completely different subject, I’ve been told that it’s not a good idea to adopt young cats out yourselves but to find an agency to help. One of the reasons why is that, to certain nationalities, the phrase “free to a good home” translates to “free dinner.” Do you know if this is a legitimate concern and, if so, how common is it?
thanks
Hi Jackson-I would love to hear you give any of your thoughts on bully cats. I brought two kittens into my home to “bad idea” buddy up with my older cat Ginger after losing her sibbling. Grandma kitty is now 13 and kittens boys are two. My grandma cat is miserable..of course, I just brought in infants to a geriatrics environment! The kittens take turns bullying her, cornering her, she can’t eat or sleep in peace, and there have even been some bad fights-cuts on her face. The one male kitten especially has always competed for momma’s attention (really should have been in a one cat house) so I try to spend equal time with them, spoil them equally..but no doubt give extra attention to grandma kitty as she is just plain pissed. I hate to think that this will be her quality of life during her last years. After 9 months of being in our newest house Ginger finally attempted to sleep on the bed with us for two nights. She then was punished later, getting her butt kicked for two days straight. I try and break up fights, cornering, feed grandma kitty (Ginger) in a separate closed room and let her out to the front yard where the others don’t wish to go, as often as she wants. Any ideas here? I’m sure I’m not the only person with this issue in a multiple cat household. Would love to see you talk about this…Thanks for everything…you’re awesome. Can’t wait to see the new series!
Hi Jackson. I want to thank you for all this valuable information which I would think “should be” common sense to people, but unfortunately is not.
You have brought up excellent points and I hope and pray that people will watch, listen and learn for the safety and happiness of all our animal friends.
Keep up the great work Jackson.
Your fan and feline fancier, Lina
I agree with adopting black cats before Halloween. Our SPCA has so many black cats and kittens, many that have been with us over a year. If we get a good application and the person passes our screening process (which includes a vet reference), it would be a shame to deprive one of those black cats a good home just because of the time of year.
Volunteering at a shelter in an Asian country. During the screening process for adoption, interested parties are asked to complete a questionnaire. One question is what would you do with the cat if you moved home. A lot of people answer they would give the cat up to a friend or find someone to take the cat. This answer is grounds for immediate disqualification. I sometimes wonder if taking this approach instead of educating those people is leading to cats who might otherwise be adopted being re-released as stray cats to fend for themselves with an even more uncertain future. Then again, if those people are going to be irresponsible owners, there’s the risk of coaching them to give favorable answers in order to get the cat. What would be your approach?
I love your blogs!!!
My problem is a 5 month old male, neutered kitten (not declawed) horizontal marking. We also own 2 female labrador retrievers. One is 14 1/2 years old and the other is 2 1/2 years old. I think the younger lab has bonded well with our Kitten. I fostered his litter from 1 week of age, but he urinates on the dog beds and now on our bed. He is currently on valium and I am using Feliway and Cat Attract litter. I am one week away from his 30 days of valium. Do you have any suggestions on this issue?
His time with us could be limited per my husband. HELP!!!!
Hi Jackson,
I appreciate your video and I really agree with you. I never thought that a cat or dog loooooves to dress up. Yes, of course it`s funny and cute, but like the pet`s owner you should not make yourself believe that your pet loves it like you do.
Thank you again, Jackson! I always either learn something new from you or confirm what I’ve learned previously from other sources.
Thank you for all you do!
Thanks for the tips! You mention that you have been into animal adoption for quite a while. We recently took in, as foster parents we hope, two adult cats whose owner passed away suddenly. We’re struggling to find homes for these guys, maybe we haven’t tried hard enough. Most folks in rural areas where we live want barn cats, but these are definitely not barn cats. I have an ad on Petfinder but have no responses other than the scams from India. Any suggestions? Thanks!
I didn’t know anything about the black (and white) cat “sacrifices” until I adopted Scrappy last October 9. I wanted a black cat for 2 reasons; personality and because they are the least adopted kitties. When I began my search, I knew I wanted an indoor only kitty, and after hearing about these Halloween “rituals” I had no doubt, I needed Scrappy to be strictly indoor. The hard part is keeping him inside. He is such an adventurous kitty that, at times, it is difficult to make sure he doesn’t sneak past me when I open the front door. We’ve been working on his need for escape, though. He now has a table right by the front door to jump onto, which seems to have helped. I love my kitties (Cookie is my other) and I love learning from you! Keep it up!
Hi Jackson,
Just found you on discovery, I run a small rescue in Ireland, don’t look to closely at the website have a few probloms with it, hope to be up and running soon. In Ireland we stop adopting out cats a few weeks before xmas, but never heard of the b & w around holloween, I do think your right, it’s hard to get good homes for so many of these guy’s and if your not on the ball with your home check change it up, if you can’t say no have someone else ring them back.
I work from foster homes as well as my own so I bring the cats with me for the home checks for them to meet but I never no matter how good the home seems to be leave them with them, they always come back with me and I take a few days to go over every thing and if the home is good, they get a trial run, not forgetting I insist they return a form stamped by their vet to say an animal under six months has been neutered in due time or I will come back to retrive them. Make sure they sign the paper work, it’s the best back up you got.