L.A. council votes to ban stores from selling non-rescue dogs, cats

Los Angeles lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favor of an ordinance that will make L.A. the largest city in America to ban pet stores from selling dogs, cats and rabbits obtained from commercial breeders.
The ordinance, which the City Council voted 12-2 to approve, targets puppy mills and is designed to cut down on the tens of thousands of animals euthanized each year in city shelters.
Under the law, individuals will still be allowed to buy directly from breeders, and pet stores will be allowed to sell animals that come from shelters, humane societies and registered rescue groups. Stores found to be selling animals from breeders may face misdemeanor charges and a first-time penalty of $250.
Animal rights activists hailed L.A.’s approval of the ban as a signal to other large cities to follow suit. Irvine, Hermosa Beach and West Hollywood are among the more than 30 cities across the United States and Canada that have passed similar measures in recent years, according to Elizabeth Oreck, who has been leading the legislative effort on behalf of Best Friends Animal Society.
L.A.'s ban also sends a message, she said, to breeders who frequently cut corners to keep costs low at the expense of the animals.
“They’re inbred, they’re overbred, they're irresponsibly bred,” Oreck said.
But pet shop owners complained the ordinance is misguided and unfair.

“It’s just making us suffer,” said Candice Ro, whose family has been selling small dogs, including Yorkshire Terriers and English Bulldogs, at its Koreatown pet shop for 11 years.

Ro said her store, Olympic Pet Shop, buys nearly all of its dogs from local breeders who take good care of their animals. “If we were getting puppy mill puppies that were sick we wouldn’t have stayed in business this long,” she said.

The ban was championed by Councilman Paul Koretz, a longtime supporter of animal rights who said lawmakers have a duty to stick up for animals who “cannot speak for themselves.”

The measure was opposed by Councilman Mitchell Englander, who voted against the ban along with Councilman Bill Rosendahl.

Englander said the city doesn’t have the resources to enforce the law, and said it will put L.A. pet stores at a disadvantage. During economically difficult times like these, he said, government should be focusing on other things.

“With the limited resources we have, we’ve got to focus on the core services,” Englander said.

Because Wednesday's vote was not unanimous, it must come back for a second reading next week.

Familiar spirit       

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A late 16th-century illustration of a witch feeding her familiars from England.

In European folklore and folk-belief of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, familiar spirits (sometimes referred to simply as "familiars" or "animal guides") were supernatural entities believed to assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic. According to the records of the time, they would appear in numerous guises, often as an animal, but also at times as a human or humanoid figure, and were described as "clearly defined, three-dimensional… forms, vivid with colour and animated with movement and sound" by those alleging to have come into contact with them, unlike later descriptions of ghosts with their "smoky, undefined form[s]".
When they served witches, they were often thought to be malevolent, while when working for cunning-folk they were often thought of as benevolent (although there was some ambiguity in both cases). The former were often categorised as demons, while the latter were more commonly thought of and described as fairies. The main purpose of familiars is to serve the witch or young witch, providing protection for him/her as they come into their new powers.
Since the 20th century a number of magical practitioners, including adherents of the Neopagan religion of Wicca, have begun to utilise the concept of familiars, due to their association with older forms of magic.

Definitions

Pierre A. Riffard proposed this definition and quotations

A familiar spirit (alter ego, doppelgänger, personal demon, personal totem, spirit companion) is the double, the alter-ego, of an individual. It does not look like the individual concerned. Even though it may have an independent life of its own, it remains closely linked to the individual. The familiar spirit can be an animal (animal companion).

The French poet Charles Baudelaire, a cat fancier, believed in familiar spirits.

It is the familiar spirit of the place;
It judges, presides, inspires Everything in its empire; It is perhaps a fairy or a god? When my eyes, drawn like a magnet To this cat that I love…

A. P. Elkin studied the belief in familiar spirits among the Australian Aborigines:

A usual method, or explanation, is that the medicine man sends his familiar spirit (his assistant totem, spirit-dog, spirit-child or whatever the form may be) to gather the information. While this is occurring, the man himself is in a state of receptivity, in sleep or trance. In modern phraseology [spiritism], his familiar spirit would be the control [control spirit].

Mircea Eliade:

The Goldi [Nanai people in Siberia] clearly distinguish between the tutelary spirit (ayami), which chooses the shaman, and the helping spirits (syven), which are subordinate to it and are granted to the shaman by the ayami itself. According to Sternberg the Goldi explain the relations between the shaman and his ayami by a complex sexual emotion. Here is the report of a Goldi shaman.
"Once I was asleep on my sick-bed, when a spirit approached me. It was a very beautiful woman. Her figure was very slight, she was no more than half an arshin (71 cm.) tall. Her face and attire were quite as those of one of our Gold women… She said: 'I am the ayami of your ancestors, the Shamans. I taught them shamaning. Now I am going to teach you… I love you, I have no husband now, you will be my husband and I shall be a wife unto you. I shall give you assistant spirits. You are to heal with their aid, and I shall teach and help you myself…' Sometimes she comes under the aspect of an old woman, and sometimes under that of a wolf, so she is terrible to look at. Sometimes she comes as a winged tiger… She has given me three assistants-the jarga (the panther), the doonto (the bear) and the amba (the tiger). They come to me in my dreams, and appear whenever I summon them while shamaning. If one of them refuses to come, the ayami makes them obey, but, they say, there are some who do not obey even the ayami. When I am shamaning, the ayami and the assistant spirits are possessing me; whether big or small, they penetrate me, as smoke or vapour would. When the ayami is within me, it is she who speaks through my mouth, and she does everything herself."

Descriptions

Amongst those accused witches and cunning-folk who described their familiar spirits, there were commonly certain unifying features. The historian Emma Wilby noted how the accounts of such familiars were striking for their "ordinariness" and "naturalism", despite the fact that they were dealing with supernatural entities.
Familiar spirits usually had names, and "were often given down-to-earth, and frequently affectionate, nicknames." One example of this was Tom Reid, who was the familiar of the cunning-woman and accused witch Bessie Dunlop, while other examples included Grizell and Gridigut, who were the familiars of 17th century Huntingdonshire witch Jane Wallis.

Relationship between magical practitioner and familiar

Frontispiece from the witch hunter Matthew Hopkins' The Discovery of Witches (1647), showing witches identifying their familiar spirits.

Using her studies into the role of witchcraft and magic in Britain during the Early Modern period as a starting point, the historian Emma Wilby examined the relationship that familiar spirits allegedly had with the witches and cunning-folk in this period.

Meeting

In the British accounts from the Early Modern period at least, there were three main types of encounter narrative related to how a witch or cunning person first met their familiar. The first of these was that the spirit spontaneously appeared in front of the individual while they were going about their daily activities, either in their home or outdoors somewhere. Various examples for this are attested in the sources of the time, for instance, Joan Prentice from Essex, England, gave an account when she was interrogated for witchcraft in 1589 claiming that she was "alone in her chamber, and sitting upon a low stool preparing herself to bedward" when her familiar first appeared to her, while the Cornish cunning-woman Anne Jeffries related in 1645 that hers first appeared to her when she was "knitting in an arbour in our garden".
The second manner in which the familiar spirit commonly appeared to magical practitioners in Britain was that they would be given to a person by a pre-existing individual, who was sometimes a family member and at other times a more powerful spirit. For instance, the alleged witch Margaret Ley from Liverpool claimed, in 1667, that she had been given her familiar spirit by her mother when she died, while the Leicestershire cunning-woman Joan Willimot related, in 1618, that a mysterious figure whom she only referred to as her "master", "willed her to open her mouth and he would blow into her a fairy which should do her good. And that she open her mouth, and that presently after blowing, there came out of her mouth a spirit which stood upon the ground in the shape and form of a woman."
In a number of accounts, the cunning person or witch was experiencing difficulty prior to the appearance of the familiar, who offered to aid them. As historian Emma Wilby noted, "their problems… were primarily rooted in the struggle for physical survival - the lack of food or money, bereavement, sickness, loss of livelihood and so on", and the familiar offered them a way out of this by giving them magical powers.

Working relationship

In some cases, the magical practitioner then made an agreement or entered a pact with their familiar spirit. The length of time that the witch or cunning person worked with their familiar spirit varied between a few weeks through to a number of decades. In most cases, the magical practitioner would conjure their familiar spirit when they needed their assistance, although there are many different ways that they did this: the Essex witch Joan Cunny claimed, in 1589, that she had to kneel down within a circle and pray to dark forces for her familiar to appear while the Wiltshire cunning woman Anne Bodenham described, in 1653, that she conjured her familiars by reading books. In some rarer cases there were accounts where the familiars would appear at times when they were unwanted and not called upon, for instance the Huntingdonshire witch Elizabeth Chandler noted, in 1646, that she could not control when her two familiars, named Beelzebub and Trullibub, appeared to her, and had prayed for a god to "deliver her therefrom".

Travels to Fairyland or the Sabbath

Familiars are most common in western European mythology, with some scholars arguing that familiars are only present in the traditions of Great Britain and France. In these areas three categories of familiars are believed to exist:

• human familiars, throughout Western Europe
• divinatory animals, Great Britain and France
• maleficent animals, only in Greece

Prince Rupert's dog

Prince Rupert and his "familiar" dog in a pamphlet titled "The Cruel Practices of Prince Rupert" (1643).

During the English Civil War, the Royalist general Prince Rupert was in the habit of taking his large poodle dog named Boye into battle with him. Throughout the war the dog was greatly feared among the Parliamentarian forces and credited with supernatural powers. As noted by Morgan, the dog was apparently considered a kind of familiar.

Witch trials

Most data regarding familiars comes from the transcripts of English and Scottish witch trials held during the 16th-17th centuries. The court system that labeled and tried witches was known as the Essex. The Essex trial of Agnes Sampson of Nether Keith, East Lothian in Scotland in 1590, presents prosecution testimony regarding a divinatory familiar. This case is fundamentally political, trying Sampson for high treason, and accusing Sampson for employing witchcraft against King James VI. The prosecution asserts Sampson called familiar spirits and resolved her doubtful matter.
The English court cases reflect a strong relationship between State's accusations of witchcraft against those who practiced ancient indigenous traditions, including the familiar animal or spirit.
In some cases familiars replace children in the favour of their mothers.

"The Love Potion" by Evelyn De Morgan: a witch with a black cat familiar at her feet.

Legacy

Folk tales

Historian Emma Wilby identified recurring motifs in various European folk tales and fairy tales that she believed displayed a belief in familiar spirits. She noted that in such tales as Rumpelstiltskin, Puss-in-Boots and the Frog Prince, the protagonist is approached by a supernatural being when they are in need of aid, something that she connected to the appearance of familiar spirits in the Early Modern accounts of them. She believed there to be a direct connection between the belief in and accounts of familiar spirits with these folk tales because "These fairy stories and myths originate from the same reservoir of folk belief as the descriptions of familiar-encounters given by cunning-folk and witches".

Historiography

Recent scholarship on familiars exhibits the depth and respectability absent from earlier demonological approaches. The study of familiars has grown from an academic topic in folkloric journals to a general topic in popular books and journals incorporating anthropology, history, women’s studies and other disciplines. James Sharpe, in The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: the Western Tradition, states: "Folklorists began their investigations in the 19th Century [and] found that familiars figured prominently in ideas about witchcraft."
In the 19th century, folklorists fired the imagination of scholars who would, in decades to come, write descriptive volumes on witches and familiars. Examples of the growth and development of familiar scholarship are found in Folklore, which consistently contributes articles on traditional beliefs in England and early modern Europe.
In the first decades of the 20th century, familiars are identified as "niggets", which are "creepy-crawly things that witches kept all over them".
Margaret Murray delves into variations of the familiar found in witchcraft practices. Many of the sources she employs are trial records and demonological texts from early to modern England. These include the 1556 Essex Witchcraft Trials of the Witches of Hatfield Perevil, the 1582 Trial of the Witches of St. Osyth, and the 1645 Essex Trials with Matthew Hopkins acting as a Witch-finder. In 1921, Murray published The Witch Cult in Western Europe. Her information concerning familiars comes from witchcraft trials in Essex in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Cat Familiar

The witches familiar is a companion of a witch, they are drawn together as if by a magnet, each intuitively knowing they are meant to be together, they are similar in character as both are astute, wise, and independent. When the witch and cat are at work together the magic pull is extremely powerful and they know instinctively that it is meant to be, a bonding takes place and the two form a lifelong alliance. Cats have a mysterious air about them and have for centuries been linked to all matters occult.

Cat myths first began in ancient Egypt they were worshipped as the embodiment of the gods. the stories of cats soon reached Greece, Asia and the rest of Europe and they became synonymous with witches, though at the time it was thought that the cats were sent by devils to help witches with their evil workings.
You will learn almost everything about magic from talking to your cat and using a cat in your magic will double any spell’s power. If you are speaking secrets you can be utterly certain your familiar will not betray your trust. Cats are creatures of habit, and like the witch they must have their own sacred space where they sleep, dream and eat, the familiar requires a bowl of cream at the same time each day, she also requires a bowl of water per day and the highest quality cat food available, she needs to be crooned to and stroked as she loves attention, except when she needs time alone, then she is to be left to her own devices and her needs must be headed. You will learn a great deal more about magic from a cat than you would from any witch, a witch would sooner turn you into a toad then give you assistance in witchcraft.
When shopping for a cat you must remember that you don’t choose the cat, the cat chooses you. if you wish to take a cat as your familiar, you must ask permission first, they most likely will agree. When a cat enters a new home it will investigate the area to make sure it is safe before getting comfortable, they are resourceful and will quickly adapt their surroundings.
A cat enjoys its own private area with all accoutrements, nice pillow, blanket, bowl and close to a fireplace. Just like people cats like their privacy so keep their litter tray in a private location, they may refuse to use it otherwise. Cats enjoy quality foods and their meals served in the same place and at the same time of day, they are intelligent, so if you try to switch a brand label cat food, for a generic label, the cat will notice and probably refuse to eat it.
A cat will be of great assistance to any witch or wizard as cats themselves are very powerful witches and can perform a variety of spells, they are very intuitive and their sixth sense cannot be matched. A cat will definitely be a lifelong friend, and as a cat is a magical animal, you will always have mystery and magic within your home.
As soon as the witch and her familiar have chosen each other, the cat and witch will choose a magic name for the cat. Cats with their particular magical abilities are invaluable in the making of magic and magic potions. Cats also help with divination and they enjoy working with the energy within a sacred circle.
The witch is able to telepathically communicate with her cat familiar and has trained her cat to be on the alert for earthly visitors and ghosts, and spirits, the cat also alerts the witch to people who are good or bad.
The familiar always travels with the witch on the back of her broomstick. The witch and her familiar become more bonded as time goes by, the cat, from a kitten has a certain air of worldly knowledge and from young is admitted to the witch’s spiritual rituals. Cat familiars always should be thanked for their assistance and given treats for the support and love they offer the witch, the familiar loves catnip.
The cat talks to her witch companion and lets her know what is going on in the outside world, she lets her witch friend know if there are any changes occurring that she should look out for, the cat can also call or chase away unwanted spirits.
The Egyptian goddess Bast is part cat and part human and sacrifices were once made to her to insure her blessings, the remains  of cats that had been mummified thousands of years ago reveal the sacred role that cats played. The cat can be traced back to the Egyptians who treated their cats as sacred creatures..
Whenever we see an image of a witch and her broomstick, her loyal cat companion is always close by, and when a cat is there as a witch is working the spells she is casting are always more powerful. It is important that the personality of the cat matches the personality of the witch, once the familiar is chosen, aside from naming it she places a magic ring of protection around the animal.
Familiars are very loyal and serve their owners well, witches throughout time have had cat familiars and their familiars are always black, the witch and her familiar ( companion ) become very attached to each other and the familiar helps with powerful magic when spells are being cast. If you have forgotten which ingredient to use in a spell because you didn’t write it down, your cat familiar will knowingly move through your herb and plant area and place her paw on the ingredient you need. A witch and her familiar are spiritually bound and have a telepathic connection, a witch’s familiar always knows when there are spirits around, and have no difficulty communing with both worlds. The witch’s familiar is able to guide the witch between two worlds.
Cat familiars are magical beings with supernatural powers and have helped witches for thousands of years. In the mid 1500′s cats were recognized as the archetypal familiar for all witches, it was thought that a witch was able to turn herself into a cat.
When the witch’s familiar grows old and dies, she is able to guide the witch, from her spirit world to find her new familiar, and she watches over the witch and her new companion. Know that when you are looking for a cat familiar your cat will very likely see you before you see it.
Myths, facts and legends about cats
House cats hate lemons or any citrus scent.
A women seeking a husband should own a black cat to keep plenty of suitors by the door.
Washing a cat can be a useful way to use the cats magic to bring rain.
If a cat sneezes or washes behind their ears in means it will rain or the weather will change.
If the cat scratches at furniture storms will be soon.
If you drown a cat, you will fall victim to a drowning.
To kill a cat brings seventeen years of bad luck
To dream of cats means good luck for you and your home.
Seeing many cats in your day is a sign that good fortune awaits you.
A cat has more bones than a human being; humans have 206 and the cat has 230 bones.
Domestic cats can sprint at 31miles an hour.
If you find a white hair on a black cat, this a sign of great luck.
If a cat sleeps with all four paws tucked under this means that cold weather is approaching.
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
Tigers have striped skin not just striped fur.
If a black cat walks towards you will have good luck, if the cats walks away from you will have bad luck.
Like humans cats are left or right handed.
Cheetahs are the fastest of all cats.
If a cat scratches behinds its ear, rain is coming.
A cat can see six times better then humans at night
A cat uses its whiskers to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through.
If a cat sneezes near a new to be bride she was will live a long and happy life.
Cats step with both left legs then both right legs when they walk or run.
In ancient Egypt when a family cat dies whole families would shave their eyebrows as a sign of morning
Cats will spend 30% of their lives grooming themselves.
Stroking a cats tail will cure you of sore eyes.
Tigers can eat up to 40kg of pray in one sitting.
Cats are very powerful at the art of hypnotism.
Cats are the only domestic animal not mentioned in the bible.
A lions roar can be heard five miles away.
Cheetah is the only cat in the world that can retract its claws.
Cheetahs can go from standing to running 45mph in two seconds.
Dreaming of white cats is good luck

If a black cat appears on your front porch it is a sign of good luck
if you see I one eyed cat, make a wish it will come true
To undo the bad luck from seeing a black cat, walk backwards in a circle and count to 13
Abracadabra

China: Stray cats keep Beijing's Forbidden City clean

Stray cats found in the Forbidden City are neutered then released

Officials at Beijing's Forbidden City have a policy of keeping about 200 cats at the imperial palace complex to keep rats and vermin away from the cultural relics, it's been reported.

While stray cats are an annoyance for residents in the rest of capital, the museum curators have neutered over 180 felines in the last five years, state-owned Xinhua news agency reports. Some of them might even be descendants of royal pets, says museum official Ma Guoqing.

"They are a powerful deterrent to museum rats and we have not found a single piece of cultural relics damaged by cat claws," Ma says. The museum vaccinates the cats, gives them vitamins, and lets them stay inside in cold weather, the People's Daily newspaper reports.

But Ma adds the cats could "pose a threat to visitors, and their excrement is definitely an eyesore". There are about 200,000 stray cats in Beijing, one survey suggests. One female cat giving birth to three or four litters every year could add as many as 100 cats to the stray population in its lifetime, Xinhua reports.

Officials say that the immunisation programme has been cost-effective

Mom Cat talking to her Kittens. 20 min BONUS video

CAT Super Skateboarding Adventure! Go Didga! (ORIGINAL)

Video:How to Trim Cat Nails

Trimming a cat's nails is a task that takes a bit of education and some patience. Watch this About.com video to see how it is most easily accomplished.See Transcript

Transcript:How to Trim Cat Nails

HI, I’m Dr. Jeffrey Levy, house call vet NYC and I’m here for about.com to show you how to trim your cat’s nails.  I’m here with my assistant, Mr. Asti Spumante who’s going to demonstrate how we’re going to trim his nails.

Trimmers for Cutting a Cat's Nails

There are various types of nail trimmers on the market.  There are dog or larger animal trimmers.  I suggest the easiest, the most accurate is to use a white as in the color white nail trimmers.

Techniques for Trimming a Cat's Nails

There are 2 important techniques in successfully trimming your cat’s nails.  One is to remember to extend the arm through the elbow, the second is to press on the paw head to extend the nail.  When you trim the rear nails, it helps to hold them on your lap as if they were small child.  You’ll have greater access to trimming the back nails.

Notice when we push the nail, there’s 2 sections.  There’s the white or translucent section that’s where you want to trim but notice closer to the foot is the quick which is darker that contains the blood supply.  Your trimmer should cut only through the translucent section.  What we demonstrated is trimming a cat’s nails as opposed to declawing which is a surgical procedure to remove parts of the pet’s digit.

Tips for Accomplishing the Task of Trimming a Cat's Nails

Having your cat wrapped in a towel helps to relieve your pet’s stress and anxiety and also protects you for being scratched.  I suggest you trim your cat’s nails every other week.  Make it part of a regular grooming session including brushing their coat and perhaps, brushing their teeth.  For more information, visit about.com.

How to Trim Cat Nails

http://video.about.com/vetmedicine/How-to-Trim-Cat-Nails.htm

Understanding the animal mind      

Margaret Washburn insisted that animal consciousness could be experimentally studied.

By Elizabeth Scarborough, PhD

Most psychologists don’t think of Margaret Floy Washburn (1871–1939) as a comparative psychologist. Rather, she is probably best known as the second woman to serve as APA president (1921) and perhaps also as psychology’s first woman PhD (she completed study at Cornell University in 1894).
Nevertheless, Washburn is included — and is the only woman — among the 38 people highlighted in Donald Dewsbury’s (1984) encyclopedic history of comparative psychology as being particularly important for the field by making it “the exciting discipline that it is.”
Many of the early contributors to comparative psychology quite probably benefited from the singular contribution Washburn made in 1908: her publication of “The Animal Mind: A Text-book of Comparative Psychology.”
Commitment to the experimental method
Washburn’s prominence in comparative psychology is not due to her having produced a wealth of animal research. Located at Vassar College for most of her career, she lacked institutional support and graduate students who could assist in research projects — advantages that were available to her male colleagues at the universities where she was not welcome because she was a woman. Washburn overcame that handicap by enlisting advanced undergraduates in conducting a series of discrete studies. These were published over 35 years, principally in the American Journal of Psychology, where she served in editorial capacities from 1903 to 1937. Many of her research articles dealt with animal psychology.
The publication of “The Animal Mind,” however, firmly established Washburn as a major contributor to the field of comparative psychology in its earliest period. The book detailed the experimental research of physiologists and psychologists that were scattered across a variety of journals. She framed these materials with her own commitment to the experimental method.
Trained by E.B. Titchener in the use of introspection, Washburn believed that access to the minds of other humans came by way of carefully controlled self-reports. While she acknowledged the temptation of anthropomorphism and controlled for it as a possible source of error, she maintained that the minds of non-human animals could be inferred from their behavior, based on the analogy of human conscious experience. Her focus was “the animal mind as deduced from experimental evidence,” a phrase she suggested might have been a more appropriate title for her book. Her intent was to produce a comprehensive collection of facts gleaned from use of the experimental method and to examine the relevance of such facts for understanding animal mentality. This approach set “The Animal Mind” apart from earlier works, such as those by G.J. Romanes (1882), who relied on the anecdotal method, and E.L. Thorndike (1898), who dealt with a limited number of species.
Regarding the evidence of mind in animals, Washburn maintained, “We know not where consciousness begins in the animal world. We know where it surely exists — in ourselves; we know where it exists beyond a reasonable doubt — in those animals of structure resembling ours which readily adapt themselves to the lessons of experience. Beyond this point, for all we know, it may exist in simpler and simpler forms until we reach the very lowest of living beings.”
Her book was widely accepted and became the standard comparative psychology text for 25 years, with subsequent editions appearing in 1917, 1926 and 1937. In his history of experimental psychology, E.G. Boring (1929) recognized Washburn’s important role in establishing “animal psychology” (his term), because “The Animal Mind” provided a compendium that marked the move out of adolescence for this new field of scientific research.
‘The decay of behaviorism’
Her 1921 APA presidential address defended introspection as a valuable method of inquiry against the rising popularity of behaviorism and its determination to rid psychology’s legitimate content of all things mental, including consciousness.
Writing the preface to the 1936 fourth edition of “The Animal Mind,” Washburn declared: “The principal change in the attitude of investigators of animal behavior is the decay of behaviorism as an interpretation” and “extreme behaviorism, which ignored the existence of all qualitative differences in sensations, would not have long endured.”
She was, however, mistaken in these beliefs. The text that eventually replaced Washburn’s classic was published in 1935 as “Principles of Animal Psychology,” written by N.R.F. Maier and T.C. Schneirla. The animal mind and consciousness almost disappeared with the rising dominance of behaviorism, which Washburn had steadfastly opposed. However, in the 1964 edition of their text, Maier and Schneirla noted the emergence of new research techniques: “Through the use of comparative methodology, psychological differences as well as similarities between man and lower animals may become known.” At just that time, the cognitive revolution was emerging in psychology and interest in animal mentality was revived.
By the 1990s, Donald Griffin had become a leading proponent of the position that animal mentality can and should be subjected to careful scientific research; he founded the area of inquiry known as “cognitive ethology.” In his 2001 book, he presents arguments favoring the existence of animal consciousness and addresses resistance to the notion. He asks whether scientific investigation can tell us that animals are conscious and answers, “not yet.” He cites the 1993 conclusion of ethologist Marian Dawkins, a woman who (like Washburn) is deeply immersed in the topic. Dawkins asserts that the weight of evidence supports the likelihood that species other than human, especially mammals and birds, are consciously aware: They share with humans a complexity in behavior, the ability to “think” and care about what happens in the world and to them. For Dawkins, to deny this now “seems positively unscientific.”
Although the topic has been controversial in its delayed rebirth, Washburn would no doubt be pleased that “The Animal Mind,” 100 years after it was first published, is being seriously debated among comparative psychologists, now joined by ethologists and neuroscientists. She would perhaps respond with a wry smile.

---

Elizabeth Scarborough, PhD, is professor emerita of psychology at Indiana University South Bend. Kathy Milar, PhD, of Earlham College is historical editor for this series.

Further reading

• Baars, B.J. (1997). In the theater of consciousness: The workspace of the mind. New York: Oxford University Press.
  
• Dewsbury, D.A. (1984). Comparative psychology in the twentieth century. Stroudsburg, PA: Hutchinson Ross Publishing Co.
  
• Furumoto, L., & Scarborough, E. (1987). Placing women in the history of comparative psychology: Margaret Floy Washburn and Margaret Morse Nice. In E. Tobach (Ed.), Historical perspectives and the international status of comparative psychology (pp.103–117). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  
• Washburn, M.F. (1932). Margaret Floy Washburn: Some recollections. In C. Murchison (Ed.), A history of psychology in autobiography (Vol. 2, pp. 333–358). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.
  

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My cat is very active at night and keeps waking me up - what can I do?

Some cats are active at night, or are awake and 'raring to go' very early in the morning. Since many owners are out at work or school during the day, the cat may spend the daytime hours in rest and relaxation and sleeping, especially if it is the only pet in the household. The cat's day then begins when the owner arrives home to provide the cat with feeding, play and social interaction.
Night time is also the most natural time for cats to be active since they normally are most active in exploration at dusk and dawn (this is known as crepuscular behaviour). Night time activity is quite a common issue for some cat owners and can include cats that nibble or pounce on the owner's ears or toes in bed, walking across the sleeping owners, night time vocalisation, or highly energetic play sessions across the furniture and/or owners during the night or early morning.
Management tips
Rule out medical causes
Talk to your vet as it’s important to rule out any underlying medical causes for the nocturnal activity prior to addressing any behavioural causes including pain and glandular issues like thyroid disease. Try changing the cat’s schedule gradually To manage night time activity cat owners can try to gradually alter the cat’s schedule by encouraging play time and feeding during the daytime and earlier evening hours, so that the cat's schedule more closely matches that of the humans in the household. This is a behavioural modification technique and can help to shift the time when the cat is active.
Feeding
Adjusting the timing of feeding may also help to alter the cat's sleep schedule. For example, by offering smaller but more frequent meals and by feeding the evening meals at a different time. Owners can feed a meal earlier in the evening and then another meal closer to bed time. This way the cat is less likely to wake their owners for a meal during the night.
Cats naturally roam and hunt for their food, so finding it in the same place at the same time everyday is quite unnatural. One way of improving your cats quality of life and curtailing its night time antics is to hide food around the house – on windowsills, bookshelves, mantle pieces, hidden inside paper bags, toilet rolls etc. This way your cat needs to expend energy to find its food, and one of its natural biological behaviours are fulfilled. Often you need to show your cat how to find the food at first, but after a few sessions they usually become highly attuned at finding it themselves.
Another alternative feeding option is to buy an automatic timed feeder to provide food in the middle of the night. You can set the time of the feeder to correspond with when the cat naturally becomes more active, but as with the above method, you will need to teach your cat during the day time that this device is responsible for providing food. There are also a variety of puzzle feeding devices which require the cat to do a little work to get their food which provides both mental and physical stimulation.
You may also consider offering a human-grade raw meaty bone such as a raw chicken wing for dinner a couple of times a week with a few days in between each serving. Always ensure raw meaty bones are raw and human-grade. Chewing on raw meaty bones takes a lot of work and energy and helps to tire cats out and keep them satisfied. Expending energy on chewing at night may help to settle them down for a good night's sleep. It can also preoccupy them for a good length of time. Please see the feeding articles "What should I feed my cat?" and "What should I feed my kitten? on the RSPCA Australia knowledgebase http://kb.rspca.org.au/ for safety information and check with your vet first.
Daily play time, attention and interaction with owner
Since night time activity may be a form of social play and attention seeking behaviour, the first consideration is whether the cat is getting sufficient amounts of social interaction and social play during the daytime and earlier evening. This may be particularly problematic for an only cat in the household and an owner who works all day. Offering several social play sessions in the afternoon/earlier evening will help to expend some of their energy and meet some of the cat’s social and behavioural needs earlier on in the day.
Owners may also provide a variety of safe cat toys. Ensure all toys are safe for cats and avoid string toys or smaller objects that may be swallowed as these can become an intestinal obstruction, which can be fatal. Play time using safe cat toys is a great way to provide daily exercise and to positively enhance the relationship between pet and owner. Cats often have different preferences – i.e. some will like toy birds while others prefer toy lizards – it is important to remember this when buying toys. Buy a few different varieties and see which ones your cat likes the best. Remember novelty is the key, so its best if you have 10 toys then only have a few out at a time then rotate them every few days.
Providing company and plenty of attention to the cat throughout the afternoon and earlier evening can help to reduce night time activity. Cats are creatures of routine and form habits quite quickly, so it’s a great idea to have these play and social sessions structured around the same time every day – that way the cat will start to anticipate high activity times and adjust their body clocks around that.
If an owner happens to be at home for the day, playing and interacting with the cat (provided the cat is naturally awake and interested in playing) should also help to expend some of that energy.
Young cats
Kittens and younger cats may be more likely to display late night activity as they generally have more energy and play interest than older cats, this is good news as it means with a little time and patience as the cat grows older they are likely to start sleeping more throughout the night.
Enriching the environment
Enriching the cat’s environment can help to keep the cat active and prevent boredom during the day which may also help to reduce activity at night time. Tips for enriching the environment:
• Provide several scratching posts as cats love to scratch to keep their nails in good condition – some cats prefer horizontal posts to vertical ones, so it is a good idea to mix them up.
Also remember the posts need to be sturdy and at least 1.5 x the length of the cat when it stretches. If you have any plants make sure they are safe for cats (check with your vet first if you're unsure) and be aware that certain common plants, such as lillies, are fatally toxic to cats so make sure these are not present on your property. Consider buying a catnip plant or some cat grass to provide some extra entertainment.
• Provide hiding areas. Cardboard boxes with holes cut into them are great for hide and seek games. • Cats prefer to live and rest at heights, so provide lots of different elevated areas within the house for your cat to watch the world go by or have a snooze.
• In their natural state cats prefer to drink moving water that is away from their food site, so purchasing a cat water fountain is a great way to enrich their environments. Some models even have an area to grow some cat grass in as well!
If the cat is an indoor cat, you should consider purchasing an outdoor enclosure to help stimulate the cat during the day time when you are at work. Please see the article ‘Is it okay to keep my cat contained within my property boundary all of the time?’ for more information including how to enrich an indoor environment. Access to an outdoor escape-proof enclosure, owner supervised walks outside and having two cats that get along well can greatly increase activity and stimulation for indoor cats.
If behavioural modification techniques do not work we recommend that you consult your vet for further advice. In very severe, rare cases and if all other options have failed, vets may prescribe medications to help.

This website provides general information which must not be relied upon or regarded as a substitute for specific professional advice, including veterinary advice. We make no warranties that the website is accurate or suitable for a person’s unique circumstances and provide the website on the basis that all persons accessing the website responsibly assess the relevance and accuracy of its content.

FeLine Friends of the High Line Cat Festival

Cats enjoy the sunshine, fresh air, and conspicuous lack of annoying dogs at our first FeLine Friends of the High Line cat festival.

Meow! The fur flew this Saturday during FeLine Friends of the High Line, the first annual cat festival on the High Line. From the Rail Yards Gate to the Gansevoort Woodland, hundreds of fuzzy felines and their human companions spent the day purring, napping, gossiping, and then napping again.
A bubble blowing machine, several dozen laser pointers, three 10-foot-long “Fun Tunnels,” and all kinds of cardboard boxes kept the frisky felines entertained from morning till dusk. Volunteer Lucy Redoglia marveled at the high turnout as she flicked a feathered cat teaser for a clowder of mesmerized calicos. “After the Walker Art Center’s Internet Cat Video Festival last August, I thought, ‘New York should be doing something like this!’” she said.
A rumored visit from Internet sensation Grumpy Cat left the human visitors breathless with excitement. Alas, the notoriously cranky kitty declined the invitation, issuing a terse refusal from her Arizona home. Nevertheless, visitors on four legs and two enjoyed the sunshine, fresh air, and conspicuous lack of annoying dogs. “It’s so awesome that I can walk Kitty, White Bear, and Grey Kitty on their leashes in peace, without fear that an army of pampered French bulldogs will mess with their flow,” said visitor Willa Köerner. Her friend Gretchen Scott insisted that the High Line’s very horticulture favored kitties. “Do you think the Giant Pussy Willow, hailed in cat legend, would unfurl its fuzzy catkins up here for a bunch of dogs?” she asked.
But not everyone was thrilled to see the park go to the cats. Visitor and known dog lover Ashley Tickle was dismayed that she couldn’t walk her French bulldog, Mr. Puddles, on the High Line while cats roamed freely. “This is ridiculous—dogs are just classier,” she said.
Classy or not, High Line Gardener Maeve pointed out that dog urine, unlike cat urine, harms the plants on the High Line. “Betula populifolia, Calamagrostis brachytricha, and—as we’re all aware—Salix chaenomeloides react very poorly to the pH of canine urine,” she explained. “But it’s perfectly safe to expose, say, Nepeta faassenii to cat pee,” Maeve added thoughtfully.
Our Nepeta faassenii, or catmint, was exposed to all that and more on Saturday when two portly domestic shorthairs ravaged the park’s catmint beds. Amadeus and Madame Meowsers, the feline “children” of visitor Carl Weber, ingested a large amount of the herb, which grows in the Northern Spur Preserve. In what appeared to be a drug-induced mania, the cats jumped wildly up and down the Seating Steps, sending visitors’ macchiatos and kombucha teas flying. Quick-thinking visitor Kim Drew saved the day by throwing a tinfoil ball toward the exit, prompting the cats to scamper off after it. Police are still investigating.
Despite this minor incident, the High LIne’s first-ever cat festival was a smashing success. “Coco is pleased with your event,” said local cat fancier JiaJia Fei, stroking the three-year-old tuxedo kitty she named after the glamorous Chanel founder. “’Satisfactory job, humans,’” Fei translated for Coco.