Videos for Cats, Plus New Toys and Food

Yes, videos for cats.  We have one.  We've had it since before Ivan and Boo were even born - we'd purchased it for Aggie and Ian.  Ian was oblivious, and Aggie showed some interest.  But we were rewarded when Ivan and Boo were transfixed by it!

So what kind of video would cause cats to watch TV?  Why, videos of birds, mice, gerbils, butterflies, and several other prey animals running and flying around, with nice animal chattering and birdcalls for a soundtrack.  The specific video of which we speak is the original Cat Sitter, Vol. 1, on DVD. It's available on VHS or DVD at Pet Sitter Videos.  Our two city cats sit in front of the TV and watch intently, and as critters run out of the camera shot, to the right or left, the cats both jump and put their paws between the side of the TV and the entertainment console in which the TV is housed.  They also run to the side of the console, looking to see where those tasty-looking mice and gerbils and birds got to.  It is quite hilarious!

On that same theme, we were watching Planet Earth (the one narrated by David Attenborough)

and Boo sat and simply watched almost the entire two episodes we watched!  He did sniff and bat at the television screen several times, but mostly he sat intently and watched.  We wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that we were watching the program on a High Definition screen.

On another topic, you may recall that we have discovered Ivan and Boo really like "snakey" toys. They are attracted to snake-like movement.  So we have several toys that are long pieces of fabric on the end of a stick.  We can drag those and swing them around so that they look like snakes slithering along the carpet.  We found a new one.  It is longer and thinner than the last one we found, so it moves even more snakily.  The fabric is light but sturdy, not to mention colorful.  And while the photograph at right doesn't show how long the strip of fabric is, we measured it and it's 52 inches in length - long enough to drag around and wiggle it and get the cats' attention.  This product is made by Cat Dancer Products and was only $5.99!  You can find it even cheaper from pet product web sites - just search "Cat Charmer" toy on Google.

Now on to food.  We wrote about switching to EVO kibble and canned food, as well as Primal raw food.  Well, we went to Pet Food Express here in the Bay Area, and unfortunately they do not carry EVO.  They said that another pet food supplier in the area has a contract with EVO.  Well, that seems silly, to have an exclusive contract with one small supplier (of course, we found EVO at another place in San Jose, but it's not always easy to get over there).  Sheesh.  So we needed some canned food and checked out Weruva.  

Weruva is not all grain free, but each variety is labeled  as to whether it contains grain or not.  We purchased a few of their 3-ounce cans to tide us over until we can get some more EVO.  The cats tried the Weruva tilapia this morning and sucked it down.  Of course, we were going for EVO because it claims to be "minimally cooked".  But we did check out the Weruva web site.  They use some pretty amazing ingredients in their cat food:  prime, human-grade meats and fish.  Wow.  So if the cats continue to like it, we may feed that to them in conjunction with the other canned or raw foods we feed them.  We may try to eventually remove kibble completely.  Really the only reason we keep kibble is that we think it's good for the boys' teeth.  As the Weruva web site says, cats were not meant to eat kibble.  It's too dry, and cats are not ones to drink a lot of water - they evolved getting much of their moisture from their food (prey).  Weruva believes so strongly in this notion that they do not even make kibble, which is where pet food makers generate most of their money.  So if we can find the Primal "Raw Meaty Bones" somewhere near here, we'll try keeping those on hand instead of kibble, wethinks.

The cats were out of sorts today as we had a visitor.  Some visitors they warm up to fairly quickly, others they do not.  Today's visitor has a pet boa constrictor back home, so we wonder if the cats could smell the snake and decided they weren't too sure about it?  Just because they like snakey toys doesn't mean they'd like a living, breathing, real snake.  Anyhow, now that the visitor is gone, they are back to normal, sleeping on their backs in the middle of the living room floor, cruising around and asking for treats, head rubs, brushing, and play time.  We got a good shot of Boo yawning the other day.  Here he is: