Cool Animal Facts

Top friendliest cat cities!

Cheers to the top 10 cat-friendly cities out there!

  1. Tampa
  2. Phoenix
  3. San Francisco
  4. Portland
  5. Denver
  6. Boston
  7. Seattle
  8. San Diego
  9. Atlanta
  10. Minneapolis

The CATalyst Council, a coalition of the veterinary community, academia, industry, non-profits and animal welfare organizations, just came out with their top 10 list in hopes of calling attention to the importance of feline veterinary care. This list was compiled after reviewing the top 25 metropolitan areas for the following:

  1. cat ownership per capita
  2. level of veterinary care
  3. microchipping, and
  4. cat friendly local ordinances.

The CATalyst Council also gave an honorable mention to Ithaca, N.Y., the beautiful home (“Ithaca is gorges!) of the Cornell Feline Health Center, which educates the public about felines and their health.

“Cats outnumber dogs by nearly 10 million among the pet-owning public. This list clearly shows cats are loved by many,” says Steve Dale spokesperson and a CATalyst Council board member in a prepared statement. “However, in my work as a journalist, I’ve spoken with animal control officials, welfare organizations and veterinarians across the country and often hear that cats are more likely to be neglected than dogs, more likely to wind up in shelters and less likely to be seen by veterinarians. Obviously there is room for the nation to improve the overall status and care of cats, but these cities are overcoming the current standard.”

Unfortunately, there are a higher number of cats (compared to dogs) that are surrendered to shelters nationwide, especially during this recession. Jan McHugh-Smith, Society of Animal Welfare Administrators (SAWA) secretary and president of the San Francisco SPCA and CATalyst Council board member stated that “We are eager to showcase these cities that demonstrate outstanding compassion and resources for cats and their owners in order to elevate the status of the cat.” For more information about the CATalyst Council or about the top 10 cities, check out www.catalystcouncil.org.

Dogster.com

Time Magazine recently included http://www.dogster.com/in a list of their “50 Coolest Websites”. Check it out for a wacky fun version of “MySpace” for dogs! Surrounded by over 250,000 fellow dog lovers registered with the site, you’ll find digital images, “paw-mails”, videos, and blogs from a dog’s eye view of living with their people from all over the world. For the cat lovers out there, there’s also http://www.catster.com/. Great fun!

Coat color and personality link?

A recent study published in the Journal of Applied Animal Behavior Science found a genetic link between a dog’s coat color and attitude! Evaluation of a large population of English cocker spaniels revealed that golden-red cockers were the most crabby, followed by the black ones, while the most congenial award went to the white-coated, multi-colored patched cocker. While we’d love to give your dog a genetic excuse, remember that 80% of aggressive behaviors are due to environmental factors (i.e., how you raise and train your dog!).

Rescue dogs

Good news! A study conducted by veterinarians from Iams Pet Food, the University of Pennsylvania, and the American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation recently found that all 10 working dogs (who were among the first responders) at the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attack are healthy! Veterinary researchers were worried that these dogs might have a higher risk for respiratory disease and nasal cancer due to potential airborne toxins, but fortunately extensive diagnostic studies were performed on these American heroes five years after the event. All dogs received a clean bill of health.

While we’d love to put protective respirator devices on these working dogs, their powerful sense of smell needed for search and rescue work would be impaired. Regardless, their help with this catastrophic event is but one example of millions in which dogs (and many other animals) positively affect our lives daily, oftentimes despite great risk to them. Please support service animals in any way possible as we would all be greatly hindered without them.

Cat lovers

Where are all those cat lovers?! In a recent national survey of American households who own both dogs and cats, pet people concluded the following when comparing the two species:

  • They spend more time with their dogs (50%) compared to their cats (10%).
  • They label dogs as more ‘fun’ (42%) compared to their cats (6%).
  • They view dogs (30%) as true members of their family over their cats (3%).
  • They feel that dogs (26%) ‘fit’ their family better than cats (8%).

According to these findings, cats everywhere are wondering, “Where’s the love, America?”