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How much do you know about your cat's whiskers? Besides looking elegant, these long, stiff, protruding instruments are much more than just hair extensions to your cat! They are a critical detection system that helps keep your cat safe. Your cat's whiskers are embedded deeply in the skin and are surrounded by nerves that make the tips very sensitive to even the slightest movement or touch. Your feline friend uses his or her whiskers, or vibrissae, as touch receptors to roam safely in the dark and indicate whether fitting through a particular opening will be possible. The tips of your cat's whiskers are a sensory organ called a proprioceptor, giving your cat a sense of self-awareness by relating the position of the body to the changing surroundings. Your cat also uses facial whiskers to express mood. Ever notice that intense look of determination when playing with your cat? That's your cat's hunting instinct at work! Your cat has whiskers on the jaw, eyebrows, and back of the front paws. These all serve as signals to your cat when deciding how far or high to jump onto your lap or out of harm's way. So, don't ever clip or groom these wonderful tactile hairs! They are crucial to your feline friend for making sense of their environment.
Those Wonderful Whiskers             by: Diane M. Boyle
Thank you!
Thank you so much to everyone who donated to my birthday fund raiser for the spay neuter program! Your generosity raised $1834. to help the cats! Your kindness will allow us to fix 41homeless cats, preventing the birth of hundreds of homeless kittens from being born.  Thank you thank you thank you! YOU too can donate your birthday to help the cats details are HERE
Keller & Ginny
Keller and Ginny are both senior kitties who have been diagnosed with hyperthyroid. What is hyperthyroidism you ask? Hyperthyroidism is a disease caused by the overproduction of thyroxine, a thyroid hormone that increases metabolism in the body.  In fact, hyperthyroidism is the most common hormonal (endocrine) disease in the cat population, often seen in late middle-aged and older cats. Signs of cat hyperthyroidism can include: weight loss. increased appetite. increased activity and restlessness. a matted, greasy or poor hair coat. a fast heart rate. increased water drinking. vomiting. diarrhea Lumps and nodules in the neck Weakness and listlessness Panting or difficulty breathing
Treatment Medication.  Down side is it is hard to get regulated and the pill tastes terrible, having a cat refusing to eat is not unknown. There are serious side effects including diarrhea, liver damage and bone marrow suppression. Keller was hyperthyroid 6 years ago and we treated him with medication until he became toxic on the  medication. We had episodes of him not eating and losing weight. He ended up with feeding tubes twice.  We knew there had to be a better way. Surgery - Surgical thyroidectomy Surgery has lots of adverse reasons not to do it. Read this article and it will discuss more about during surgery. Radioiodine therapy This is considered the gold standard treatment.  It is safe and usual successful. There are no serious side effects from this procedure. It is not painful, they do not need to be anesthetized. This is the treatment we choose with our cats.  Keller was treated 5 years ago and needed no more treatment until now. Mack  was treated this way when he developed hyperthyroid. Ginny has had her treatment and is still in Raleigh.  She will be coming back with me Monday when I take Keller for his treatment.  We are hoping this treatment will also help Ginny’s hypertension.  Often illnesses are secondary to another.  One is causing or making another one worse. This treatment cost $1500. each cat. If you would like to donate to help with this treatment cost we would be very grateful.  
Your vet will run blood work to test for hyperthyroid. I will tell you something we have learned from this go around.  If there is a a strong suspicion of the cat being affected, have your vet run  a 2nd tyroid test (depending on your lab, it could be the T-4 free, or T-3 free.  Ginny’s regular T-4 was in the normal range, but the T-4 FREE said differently.  We ran both tests  at the same time because we had a strong suspicion she was going to be positive and we knew Rad Cats required it to treat her. We are glad we did both tests or we would have thought her weight loss was due to kidney disease and the outcome would not be a good one.
Meet Carley and Charley
Charlie is a young leukemia positive kitty who came to us from a hoarding situation. He is a fun playful fellow who loves to play.
Carley came to us from the same hoarding situation. She is very sweet but still adjusting to all the changes in her life. They are  very lucky to be alive.  They landed at a very small county shelter who did not have the space for 64 cats. They were struggling to find places for all.  Since most rescues do not take FELV+ cats, and they had 12 that test postiive, they were running out of time. Your support made it possible for us to save their lives. Thank you so much!
We are only 20K points from another pallet of litter!  The cats use 60+ boxes each month. If you have paw points that you will not use,  please consider sharing them with the cats!!  You may donate them on Freshstep  http://ow.ly/qded306ocWs  or email them to me   alana@blindcatrescue.com Thank you so much for helping!
A Great Way to Help us!
We are so thankful for everything our supporters have done to help us over the past years. Because of you, we have been able to save loving cats that were in danger and provide them love & sanctuary. Recently, we’ve partnered with a new Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky based company called Whiper Pet in a fundraising effort! They will donate up to $2.00 directily to the cats for every purchase.  We’ve tried a bottle of Whipper Pet in our “spcial room, “ (the room with sprayers) and it actually worked! Whisper Pet is a safe, new, non-toxic odor elimination spray that works instantly, without using perfumes, to get rid of pet odors instead of what most other eliminators do when they mask, cover, or attack the odor with enzymes.  Those methods aren’t as effective because they either fade over time or take time to work. Whisper Pet permanently changes the odor, which means those old smells you already took care  of will not come back.
Whisper Pet’s had two pet - and family - friendly products: Odar Eliminator and Cat Litter Spray.  For every purchase of Whisper Pet, they will donate up to $2.00 directly to the cats! There is a link below to Whisper Pet’s site where you can learn more about their products.
Thank you so much for your continued support! These wonderful cats are able to live because of you!
Cat Behaviors
Do you ever wonder why your cats do crazy things like Heat Butting, Howling at Night, Trying to bury their food? Mandy Cooper wrote us a great article about Cat’s Behaviors, you may read it HERE
We are very grateful to our wonderful eBay sellers and buyers for sharing so generously of their auctions with the cats.  We hope you will check out all their wonderful auctions  HERE
Thank you for reading!
Did you know that if you click the previous button,  you may read older copies of the newsletters?
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4-7-1017
Those Wonderful Whiskers             by: Diane M. Boyle
4-7-1017
How much do you know about your cat's whiskers? Besides looking elegant, these long, stiff, protruding instruments are much more than just hair extensions to your cat! They are a critical detection system that helps keep your cat safe. Your cat's whiskers are embedded deeply in the skin and are surrounded by nerves that make the tips very sensitive to even the slightest movement or touch. Your feline friend uses his or her whiskers, or vibrissae, as touch receptors to roam safely in the dark and indicate whether fitting through a particular opening will be possible. The tips of your cat's whiskers are a sensory organ called a proprioceptor, giving your cat a sense of self-awareness by relating the position of the body to the changing surroundings. Your cat also uses facial whiskers to express mood. Ever notice that intense look of determination when playing with your cat? That's your cat's hunting instinct at work! Your cat has whiskers on the jaw, eyebrows, and back of the front paws. These all serve as signals to your cat when deciding how far or high to jump onto your lap or out of harm's way. So, don't ever clip or groom these wonderful tactile hairs! They are crucial to your feline friend for making sense of their environment.
Keller & Ginny
Keller and Ginny are both senior kitties who have been diagnosed with hyperthyroid. What is hyperthyroidism you ask? Hyperthyroidism is a disease caused by the overproduction of thyroxine, a thyroid hormone that increases metabolism in the body.  In fact, hyperthyroidism is the most common hormonal (endocrine) disease in the cat population, often seen in late middle-aged and older cats. Signs of cat hyperthyroidism can include: weight loss. increased appetite. increased activity and restlessness. a matted, greasy or poor hair coat. a fast heart rate. increased water drinking. vomiting. diarrhea Lumps and nodules in the neck Weakness and listlessness Panting or difficulty breathing
Your vet will run blood work to test for hyperthyroid. I will tell you something we have learned from this go around.  If there is a a strong suspicion of the cat being affected, have your vet run  a 2nd tyroid test (depending on your lab, it could be the T-4 free, or T-3 free.  Ginny’s regular T-4 was in the normal range, but the T-4 FREE said differently.  We ran both tests  at the time because we had a strong suspicion she was going to be positive and we knew Rad Cats required it to treat her. We are glad we did both tests or we would have thought her weight loss was due to kidney disease and the outcome would not be a good one.
Treatment Medication.  Down side is it is hard to get regulated and the pill tastes terrible, having a cat refusing to eat is not unknown. There are serious side effects including diarrhea, liver damage and bone marrow suppression. Keller was hyperthyroid 6 years ago and we treated him with medication until he became toxic on the  medication. We had episodes of him not eating and losing weight. He ended up with feeding tubes twice.  We knew there had to be a better way. Surgery - Surgical thyroidectomy Surgery has lots of adverse reasons not to do it. Read this article and it will discuss more about during surgery. Radioiodine therapy This is considered the gold standard treatment.  It is safe and usual successful. There are no serious side effects from this procedure. It is not painful, they do not need to be anesthetized. This is the treatment we choose with our cats.  Keller was treated 5 years ago and needed no more treatment until now. Mack  was treated this way when he developed hyperthyroid. Ginny has had her treatment and is still in Raleigh.  She will be coming back with me Monday when I take Keller for his treatment.  We are hoping this treatment will also help Ginny’s hypertension.  Often illnesses are secondary to another.  One is causing or making another one worse. This treatment cost $1500. each cat. If you would like to donate to help with this treatment cost we would be very grateful.  
Thank you!
Thank you so much to everyone who donated to my birthday fund raiser for the spay neuter program! Your generosity raised $1834. to help the cats! Your kindness will allow us to fix 41homeless cats, preventing the birth of hundreds of homeless kittens from being born.  Thank you thank you thank you! YOU too can donate your birthday to help the cats details are HERE
Meet Carley and Charley
Charlie is a young leukemia positive kitty who came to us from a hoarding situation. He is a fun playful fellow who loves to play.
Carley came to us from the same hoarding situation. She is very sweet but still adjusting to all the changes in her life. They are  very lucky to be alive.  They landed at a very small county shelter who did not have the space for 64 cats. They were struggling to find places for all.  Since most rescues do not take FELV+ cats, and they had 12 that test postiive, they were running out of time. Your support made it possible for us to save their lives. Thank you so much!
We are only 20K points from another pallet of litter!  The cats use 60+ boxes each month. If you have paw points that you will not use,  please consider sharing them with the cats!!  You may donate them on Freshstep  http://ow.ly/qded306ocWs  or email them to me   alana@blindcatrescue.com Thank you so much for helping!
A Great Way to Help us!
We are so thankful for everything our supporters have done to help us over the past years. Because of you, we have been able to save loving cats that were in danger and provide them love & sanctuary. Recently, we’ve partnered with a new Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky based company called Whiper Pet in a fundraising effort! They will donate up to $2.00 directily to the cats for every purchase.  We’ve tried a bottle of Whipper Pet in our “spcial room, “ (the room with sprayers) and it actually worked! Whisper Pet is a safe, new, non-toxic odor elimination spray that works instantly, without using perfumes, to get rid of pet odors instead of what most other eliminators do when they mask, cover, or attack the odor with enzymes.  Those methods aren’t as effective because they either fade over time or take time to work. Whisper Pet permanently changes the odor, which means those old smells you already took care  of will not come back.
Whisper Pet’s had two pet - and family - friendly products: Odar Eliminator and Cat Litter Spray.  For every purchase of Whisper Pet, they will donate up to $2.00 directly to the cats! There is a link below to Whisper Pet’s site where you can learn more about their products.
Thank you so much for your continued support! These wonderful cats are able to live because of you!
Cat Behaviors
Do you ever wonder why your cats do crazy things like Heat Butting, Howling at Night, Trying to bury their food? Mandy Cooper wrote us a great article about Cat’s Behaviors, you may read it HERE
We are very grateful to our wonderful eBay sellers and buyers for sharing so generously of their auctions with the cats.  We hope you will check out all their wonderful auctions  HERE
Did you know that if you click the previous button,  you may read older copies of the newsletters?
Thank you for reading!
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