If you are lonely this holiday, please consider giving a home to a lovely cat or dog.  If you are over 55 you can adopt a cat for free!!!  Contact People for Pets–Magic Valley Humane Society, Inc. at 736-2299 or better yet…go see the lovely animals that need a friend at 420 victory Ave.  Their hours are M-F 10 AM –5:30PM & Sat 10 AM –2PM.  Closed on Sunday and Hoildays.  If you want to just help please consider donating for a year-end tax tax deductible donation in honor of your beloved pets. 

Today I am not going to be political except maybe to say that we need health care and affordable pet insurance. Good luck with that one, huh. Instead of ranting about Lieberman or climate change, I am going write about an angel. Not the type of angel you would see hanging over a manager or sitting on skyscraper ledges like Nicolas Cage in City of Angels, but a four-legged, as Native Americans sometimes call our animal friends; my beautiful, white long-haired cat.

I was lucky enough to be with my Angel cat for over 10 years. She was a rescue kitty that found me at the Twin Falls Animal Shelter. Someone had abandoned her and some dogs, Rottweilers, I think. She was hanging out with the big dogs and wandering around loose because naturally she hated being locked in. I was looking for a cat that could handle my two rambunctious bulldogs. Angel might have looked foo foo with her long white hair and furry pantaloons, but she was all tiger and Rottie inside.

Angel not only liked to hang with the dogs, she thought she was a dog. A door bell got her attention even on the Dominions commercial. She would greet me at the door and ran to meet any guests. She usually came when you called unless you were going to the vet. She was cautious of small children, but came to my grandson. She left her soft hair everywhere which looked like duck feathers when wet.

I understand that she was adopted out just before I got her to a family whose father was a mortician and they had to bring her back because of the white fur on his black suits. That was their misfortune and my fortune. I just carry hair extractors with me everywhere. You know those sticky roller things. .

My dear husband put up with white hair on his suit jackets and her fondness for fine leather. She stapled shoes, purses, and even my friend’s motorcycle boots. We learned to put up all leather shoes and even had a back up stash for phone cords before cell phones come around. For a time I covered most of my exposed cords with tin foil making my visitors wonder about my sanity. They probably thought I was afraid of wattage.

During the 2000 presidential election Angel caused havoc between me and my daughter. We were heatedly talking no arguing about the tight Gore/Bush results. I, who had dreamed of being a Nader’s raider in the 60s, but voted for Gore was arguing with my daughter blaming Nader for Gore potential loss. Jenn was hardcore Green party Nader supporter. I had my 10 foot long phone cord stretched out from the kitchen to the family room to watch the tightening race in horror. In a move that reminded me of my friend’s husband Daryl cutting the phone cord when his wife refused to hang up on one of her numerous, expensive long distance phone calls to a friend, Angel delicately bit the cord in two. My daughter, naturally, thought that that I had hung up on her in the heat of the minute. She didn’t return my phone calls for days. I think she still is suspicious about the timing.

Angel, with her wise, eyes-closed, Buddha smile, would sit at the top of the stairs or on the CD player (she seemed to favor Big Band tunes), or in front of my computer screen for hours. She loved to bat around spiky, shining soft balls. We had a nightly ritual for years of chasing up and down the stairs for one with me tossing and her doing the chasing, I think! She would go crazy over a loose coffee bean or crumpled paper. A few months ago I noticed that she wasn’t as playful and her dull coat was even duller. I thought that she was just aging and, well, she was about my age in cat years. Enough said about that.

So, to make a long story short, I didn’t go in for the yearly shots like usual and like everyone else money was tight. I will never know if I could have saved her, but I am sure I would have had more time to bat around paper with her. Please, please everyone get regular shots and check-ups for you and your pets. I know that finically times are tough, but I am sure that I would have still had my kitty and spent far less money in the long run if I had done that. The sad fact is that I failed to take her in for shots for the last few years because she was an indoor cat. I justified that and even though her coat was looking very dull for the last few years; I just started giving her some moist food that probably even contributed to her death. Unfortunately my vet would have most likely ran some tests if I had followed through. Her kidneys were failing and by the time she was noticeably sick, it was too late.

I had a few short months with her after it was discovered. Angel had such a sweet, calm nature that I even gave her IV fluids at home before her kidneys completely shut down for awhile. She endured numerous trips to the vet and allowed them to draw blood and insert IVs without protest. With tears in his eyes my vet said that she was the “best patient he had ever had!” It is too bad that I wasn’t a better caretaker of her. It may have been a congenital weakness or stress from being abandoned as a kitten that led to her early death, but I will never know. I want to let other pet owners know a few things I have learned from this tragedy.

I have spent numerous hours on the net reading horror stories about pet food. I don’t know if that was part of the problem. Angel did start to decline after 2007 when melanin was found in pet food nationwide. Even though I bought what I thought was high quality food there have been numerous recalls and outrage about pet food after that. Ironically this basic murder of pets by greedy companies has caused more scrutiny of pet food. The results are outrageous.

Melanin when bonded with formaldehyde is used in glue and totally harmful. The manufactures were basically putting plastic in the wheat gluten of some dog and cat food. Not only is wheat gluten useless in and of it self for cats, the manufactures of most pet foods have been making useless and poisonous crap for years. The same guys that show the lovely kitty daintily eating their “wholesome” cat food on TV have been grinding up beaks, bones, garbage, and even dead cats and dogs calling it animal by products. We know how over burdened the FDA is and how numerous problems have come up in our own food supply. Well the pet food in cans and bags is for the most part not what we think it is.

Remember that the first three ingredients on the can or bag should be meat, not meat by products or rice or wheat paste. By products can mean everything to hoofs, manure, and even dead lab animals. I gave my kitty moist food that was basically fish oil over rice. Don’t assume that because cat love it, it is good for them. Some of the nastiest stuff out there is full of fish oil and favors that they are drawn to but can be poisonous to them. Cats love this fishy stuff, but even tuna is not a complete food for them. It will actually harm them if given exclusively.

Of course, talk to your vet about good choices for what ever type of pet you have. There are pages and pages of conflicting advice on the internet, but I would trust the Humane Society http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/facts/pet_food_safety.html and the FDA http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/default.htm for recalls on cat and dog food. There has been a recent recall on pig ears and hoofs for salmonella which my dogs absolutely loved. This is a risk for the pet and the owner who can contract it through handling them. You need to check frequently on your brand because they are very specific and there are a shocking number of recalls. It is not as simple as just getting one brand of food.

The biggest way to keep your pet healthy is by knowing what your specific pet needs. Domestic cats are obligate or true carnivores that depend solely on the nutrients found in animal flesh for their survival; those gross mice they eat. The only reason that cat food is even a viable choice is because of the addition of an organic acid called taurine, which is present in the intestines of animals. Large ingestion by humans of taurine is under scrutiny right now because energy drinks are loaded with it, but that’s another issue. Even the “organic” pet food is tricky. Cats don’t need grains or avocados. One fancy organic cat food has avocado oil that is known to be poisonous to dogs. Grapes, onions, most lilies, and many houseplants are toxic to cats. Just one bit of some of those beautiful pink spotted lilies can shut down Morris’ kidneys for good.

I have since learned that even expensive pet food can be terrible. They are safe brands of inexpensive food and vet quality now. Please check on credible sites to see how your pet food rates. Sadly there have been hundreds of cats and dogs lost since 2007, but pet owners need to be aware first and foremost of all of any changes in their pets’ behavior or appearance. If I would have taken Angel in and questioned her poor coat several years ago, I most certainly would have had more time with her.

She was the best little four-legged Buddha cat ever and I miss her terribly, but if one person reads this and it saves their pet it won’t be for not.