ASK P&P - Jan. 20, 2020 by damommy |
This is an advice column for ALL animals with answers from Yvonne’s PC and Helen’s Patch. All animals, domesticated or wild, are welcome to ask questions. Your animals might even have some advice to share. Questions and answers are posted on Wednesdays alternately by damommy and lyenochka. PC’s answers are in red; Patch’s answers are in blue. Another question from LisaMay's young cat, Lily. I was hungry and ate my breakfast very quickly yesterday. Something wasn't right and only a minute later I threw it all up on the carpet right beside LisaMay's feet. She was in a rush to go somewhere and I feel she spoke quite insensitively to me. Why should I go and vomit outside or on the tiles in the bathroom if I need to get rid of something RIGHT NOW? She shouldn't have fed me something that was off, but she said it was probably because I gobbled it too quickly. She even threatened to put it back in my breakfast dish - said it had barely touched the sides going down then back up again. I am not a DOG! A Labrador wouldn't mind, but I have culinary standards. Dear Lily, It's most likely that you threw up your food because you ate too fast. Sometimes, one of my siblings does the same thing. The way he gobbles his food down, you’d think he was starving, and it comes up again. I don’t believe LisaMay would give you food that was ‘off.’ Dear Lily, You have to put up with your human. She does a lot for you. What if you had to take care of her? What if you had to fix your own food like this one? Elizabeth Emerald’s dog says: Puplet here. My cat brothers, Bixby and Socks, don't usually bother with each other. But sometimes Socks lays himself flat-out, face down and lets Bixby crouch on top of him. They look like a freakin' double-decker cathouse. What's up with that? My mother says she got the vet to fix them so they wouldn't do that. Well, they must have got broken right afterwards. Do you think the vet will be able fix them again? Or should we get a different vet? Dear Puplet, This is not about sex. Male cats often mount others to show control, to declare themselves Alpha Cat. You don’t need a different vet. He did a good job. These things just happen. Now that you know the reason, you can rest easy, I hope. Dear Puplet, I prefer to be an only cat but if there ever is any double-deckering, I want to be on top!   Jan’s friend, Winston, asked last week about Sassy the duck. He is still wondering why Sassy isn’t afraid of kitties. Dear Winston, I failed to address this issue properly about your duck friend not bein afraid of cats. If Sassy happened to hatch and the first thing she saw was you, she imprinted on you. That means you sort of took the place of her mommy. Our human had the same thing happen with her first turtle hatchling. She walked in just as he came from the shell, and after that, he would follow her around everywhere. Of course, he was only the size of a quarter, so he only got out of his cage when she could watch out for him. Oh, that’s what you call it! Thanks for asking again, Winston. And thanks, PC, for telling us more about imprinting. I think that’s what happened here.  PC’s neighbor, Teresa, asked: How do turtles breathe while hibernating? Dear Teresa, Thanks for asking this question. Turtles don’t need as much oxygen while hibernating. As it gets cold, their metabolism drops and they don’t need as much energy and oxygen to survive. Hibernation in reptiles is called brumation. Now, don’t laugh at this next part, but turtles have a cloaca (which is essentially their butts), and this is called cloacal respiration. In this way, they get oxygen from the water to survive the winter. Box turtles survive by lowering their metabolism very low, too, but they are burrowed underground. As the temperature drops, they burrow deeper. They need very little oxygen or food during this time. Prrrr-meow! PC, you are so smart! When you use words like brumation and cloacal respiration, you keep getting handsomer all the time. Thanks, Teresa, for asking. Now I feel sleepy. Think I can hibernate with a turtle? That’s brumate, dear Patches. And no, you cannot. Who would help me with this column? The photo below looks like some we have at our house.  Dear Patches and PC, I’m lost! I don’t know where I am. Will I ever be able to get home again? Dear Lost: Please don’t give up! I was lost as a kitten. I took a nap in my human’s truck wheel well. He drove to work and I got off that crazy ride. I was terrified. Then I didn’t know where I was and kept following my inner compass until my human found me. That was my previous human family. Since then, they got so many other cats and dogs, I left. But I still keep an eye on them now and then. Dear Lost, As Patches said, don’t give up. All my siblings and I were lost or abandoned when our human took us in. It’s possible you may find your way back (see story below). There are many stories where the lost one returned home. It always breaks my heart to see posters pinned up because I know how lost and scared the little pet is. Pam (Respa) shared a story about a cat and her family who got separated three years ago during a horrible mudslide in California. People died and homes were destroyed. The cat, Patches, lived in the wild for years until the ASAP found her and scanned her microchip! So, she was reunited with her peeps!! Those kinds of stories make me cry!   Hey, PC, did you hear the Americans will get a new president soon? I wonder if there will be a cat at the White House again. No, Patches, I hadn't heard. If so, we must stay alert. He/she will certainly need our help. 
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