At least once in her life, ust about every outdoor cat gets “stuck” in a tree.  The cat might have been chasing a bird, or squirrel, or simply running away from the neighborhood dog or kid.  Whatever the reason, she’s now stranded up there, meowing and looking terrified.

What do you do?  Many people think they should call the fire department to come to the rescue, but the fire depaartment may actually do more harm than good, if they even come and agree not to charge you.  The cat may become more afraid and scoot further up the tree. 

The fact is that most cats in trees are sure-footed enough to come down by themselves.  They just beed a little time to think about it and a little help from you.

If your cat is stuck in a tree, here’s what to do:

• Look carefully to make sure that it can move around and isn’t hurt.  It’s not likely that it will be injured, but if it is, you’ll need help.  Call your local humane society or your veterinarian for advice.
• Stay calm and quiet, keep other people and pets away,  The last think your cat wants is a crowd of noisy spectators watching.
• Open a can of its favorite food and place it at the bottom of the tree.
• Now go inside and wait.  It may take a few hours, but in almost all cases, your cat will get down the way it went up.

However, I had a cat that stayed stuck for 3 days.  She drove us all nuts and then on the 3rd day, all of a sudden she jumped to the roof and then to a shorter bush and then to the ground, as if she had known the way all the time.

Ahem.  Who’s in charge here?

So, when pets look at stoplights, red and green holidy decorations, green trees and red flowers, all they see are different shades of gray. 

Cats and dos can see blue, yellow and other colors, but because their eyes have fewer cones (color sensitive cells), than ours do, they see these colos as pale, washed-out pastels.

Sorry, mom and dad, those colorful toys are more for you than them…but stick with yellows and blues for your pets, at least it’s a change from gray.

Cats are active in the dark, where it is sometimes difficult for them to see everything, though they see very well in dim light or nearly dark.  Their whiskers gfive them another way of findiing out about their environment.

Because the whiskers extend to the cat’s shoulders, some people think they are used to let the cat know how much room she has to move in a tight space.  If a cat enters a dark tunnel with walls that brush both the left and right whiskers, that may tell the cat the tunnel isn’t wide enough for her to pass through. 

Cats also have a set of whiskers on the inside of each of their front legs above the paws.  Some people think these whiskers help the cat catch mice by giving her “touch information” about the prey animal.

Real cats were associated with the goddess Bastet and because of this, were treated very well.  Anyone who killed a cat was guilty of a crime punishable by death.  It was considered quite unlucky to come upon a dead cat in the street.  Whoever did so would beat his chest and cry loudly to let others know the animals death was not his fault.

The death of a pet cat was also a sad occasion, and the family members showed their grief by shaving off their eyebrows.  Cats were given real funerals, and even the poorest Egyptian family made sure the cat had a decent burial.  The pet cats of wealthy Egyptians were often mummified and laid to rest with jeweled collars.  Sometimes saucers of milk and mummified mice were placed in the tomb along with the cat so she would have something to eat during her afterlife.

The practice of mummifying cats was very common.  In the middle of the 19th century, archaeologists found over 300,000 cat mummies in a cemetery in Egypt.

Some people think that the Egyptians domesticated the cat for religious reasons.  Others believe that the cat was popular because of its superior mouse-catching abilities. 

I think that cats have secrets.  Stop and think about it…have you ever seen a cat that didn’t look like they had a special knowledge they enjoyed keeping from you?  That’s why they look so smug.  I am convinced they know of another world, and they are not telling.

Siamese have fascinated folks around the world since they were first officially exported from Thailand, or as it was known then Siam, in the late eighteen hundreds. Their sleek lines, striking color contrast, finely chiseled aristocratic heads, deep blue almond eyes, and short silky coats make them living art. Combine this beauty with acute intelligence, inquisitive personality and a loving nature and you have the essence of the Siamese cat.

Whatever the Egyptians’ original reason for domesticating the cat, it was probably the ability to catch rodents that was responsible for the spread of cats to other parts of the world.  In the fifth century A.D., barbarian invaders swept across Europe, bringing with them hordes of rats.  The cat became people’s ally in fighting disease by keeping the rat population in check.  Personally, I think that’s a waste of cats.  They are such good companions, when you pal around with them.

Cats became so valuabgle that in 936 AD the Welsh Prince Howell the Good passed laws setting the worth of cats.  Not surprisingly, a cat was worth more if it was a good mouser.  Prince Howell decreed that a kitten was worth one pence.  A grown cat that had not yet caught a mouse was worth only two pence; but after it had learned to catch mice, its value rose to four pence.  If someone bought a cat that turned out to be a poor mouser, the buyer was entitled to one-third of the money back.

It was not until 1750 that the first cats were offically imported into the American colonies to control rodents. 

What is the most popular pet in the United States?

THE CAT!!!  More than 50 million of them lilve in households across America.

Even a normal-sized Chihuahua is very tiny, usually weighing between four and six pounds.

The ancestor of the modern Chihuahua is a breed called the Techichi, which was developed in Mexico by the Toltecs almost 1,000 years ago.  The Techichi was very important in the religious ceremonies of the Toltecs and the Aztecs.  According to Aztec custom, whenever a person died, mourners sacrificed one of these dogs and buried it with the corpse.  The Aztecs believed that the dog would lead the human soul through the underworld, fighting off evil spirits.

For their size, Chihuahuas have a loud bark and can be very bold and aggressive, often taking on dogs several times their size.  I guess their brain is too small to know better than that!  Cute dogs, but the barking drives me nuts and I never met one that didn’t shake all the time.

In spite of their size, however, most mastiffs are gentle and friendly.

The tallest dog is the Irish wolfhound, which measures up to three-nd-one-half feet tall at the shoulder when standing on all fours.  On his hind legs, the Irish wolfhound can stand over seven feet tall – considerably bigger than most people.  As his name suggests, the Irish wolfhound was originally used to hunt wolves in Ireland! 

If you re thinking of getting one of these breeds or any other very large dog, such as a Saint Bernard, Newfoundland or Great Dane as a pet, you should make sure you have enough space for the animal to exercise.  Big dogs are usually not very happy in apartments or houses with small back yards.  You must also have enough strength to walk your dog, and enough money to feed him:  the biggest breeds will eat several hundred dollars’ worth of food each year!

For example, a working dog must be large, strong and patient.  A hunting dog must be a fast runner and have good vision and hearing.  Dogs used mostly as indoor pets should be small and sociable around people.

So, starting with the basic dog, which looked a lot like a wolf, people began to select the look and personality they wanted and breed only the dogs that showed those traits.

After many years of selective breeding, there are over 100 different breeds of dog in the US alone, including Saint Bernards, rescue dogs; Shetland sheepdogs, herding dogs; Siberian huskies, sled dogs; bloodhounds, tracking dogs; and many more. Not only do different breeds of dog look and act very differently but each is suited to a particular kind of work.

Cats, on the other hand, are kept mostly as pets and have never been expected to do any specialized work, except catch mice.  Because of this, people have had little reason to select for different personalitites and body types.  This is why most breeds of cat look and act pretty much the same.

Fossil remains of dogs dating back to the Mesolithic period, 12,000 years ago, have been found in Israel and Iraq.  In this country, canine fossils estimated to be 10,000 years old have been uncovered at an archaeological site called Jaguar Cavin in Idaho.

No one really knows why dogs were domesticated, but scientists have some ideas.  When domestication occurred, humans were gradually giving up their wandering, nomadic lifestyles and settling down into permanent communities.  Some scientsts thnk that wild dogs strated to spend time near these stettlements looking for food, and were at first tolerated  and finally accepted by humans.

Other people think htat humans deliberately tamed dogs to serve as guards or to help with hunting.  One of the most popular theories, though, is that people domesticated dogs simply because they liked them and wanted their companionship.  Their useful qualities, such as being good watch dogs, may have been discovered only after they had already become pets.

To hunt successfuly, catgs must be able to see and stalk their prey even on very dark nights.  Cats see at least six times betterin the dark than people do, and they have the vest night vision of all domestic species.  Contrary to popular belief, however, cats cannot see in total darkness.

One reason that cats see so well in the dark is because their eyes are so big.  In fact, the cat has about the biggest eyes, in proportion to its body weight, of any mammal.  Another reason is that the cat’s retina, the light sensitive part of the eye, contains many cells that are very active in dim light.

Cats also have a special layer of cells at the back of the eye that makes their eyes even more sensitive to light.  Whenlight hits the eye, these cells act as a mirror, reflecting light back through the retina.

Because the eye is gettiing a double dose of light, direct and reflected, very little light is necessary for good vision.  These mirrorlike cells also cause a cat’s eyes to shine in the dark.

Meow about your cat!