by Nomi Berger
 
A cautionary tail: Never put your cat’s carrier on the front seat of your vehicle where it can be crushed and your pet killed by deploying air bags in the case of abrupt braking or an actual collision.
 
That said, have you ever wondered why, despite there being more cats than dogs in American households, they visit the vet far less frequently than their canine counterparts.
 
Studies have shown that our prescient pusses can SENSE what’s coming and that they both dread and detest the entire process of GETTING to the vet. Some kitties become so stressed that they vomit or defecate out of fear while others morph into hissing, spitting balls of fury.
 
Since annual (twice a year for seniors) wellness exams are essential for monitoring and maintaining your cherished companion’s health, consider the following tips for making the experience of visiting the vet as fear free for your feline as paws-ible.
 
1. Bring out your kitty’s carrier several days before your scheduled vet appointment so that she can get used to the sight of it. Leave the door open, thereby allowing her to enter it, explore it and exit it at her leisure.
 
2. Place some of her favorite treats and/or some catnip inside the carrier to encourage her to associate the carrier with a pleasant and positive experience.
 
3. Make the carrier appear less threatening and more inviting by lining it with one of her blankets topped by several of her favorite toys.
 
4. Spray the interior of the carrier with a synthetic feline pheromone product reputed to decrease and even eliminate stress 30 minutes before using it, then gently put your kitty inside and softly close the door.
 
5. Place the carrier in a secure place on the back seat of your car. This way, should you have to stop suddenly, your cat will remain safe. To be doubly certain, choose a carrier that’s easily and securely fastened in place with a seatbelt.
 
6. Practice making mock trips to the vet by driving around the block. Once ... twice three times ... increasing your driving time as long as kitty seems comfortable, and stopping if she shows any signs of distress. For most cats, the only time they’re crated and inside a car is when they’re going to the vet, setting the stage for a stressful encounter once they arrive. This exercise will hopefully de-sensitize your cat, preparing her for “the real thing”, and rewarding her with especially high-value treats should assist in her associating the drive with something pleasurable.
 
7. If none of this helps and your kitty remains stressed both by the drive to the vet and by the visit itself, ask your vet to prescribe a sedative to calm her down for any and all future visits.

by Nomi Berger
 
Did you know?
 
The color of a cat’s eyes originates with the iris -- the colored area encircling the pupil. Comprised of two layers, the stroma and the epithelium, both layers contain pigment-producing cells called melanocytes. Whereas in the stroma, these melanocytes are loosely arranged, in the epithelium, they’re more tightly packed.
 
The pigment produced by melanocytes is called melanin. The more melanocytes found in your purr-ticular cat’s irises, the darker their color. Unlike people, however, who have either brown or black eyes, the darkest color for a cat’s eyes is infinitely more interesting -- a deep, rich copper.
 
When the melanin-producing cells are highly active, they make a cat’s eye color much more intense. A cat, then, with a medium amount of these highly active melanocytes will have bright, golden-yellow eyes, while a cat with a medium amount of LESS active melanocytes will, in all likelihood, have pale, lemon-yellow eyes.
 
Because purebred cats must meet a specific breed standard (this often includes eye color), breeders will mate cats with either more intense colors or particular colors. Two examples: the breed standard for Bombay cats requires them to have copper-colored eyes and the breed standard for Tonkinese cats requires them to have aqua-colored eyes.
 
Blue-eyed cats have no melanin (pigment cells) in their irises, but because their eyes are naturally rounded, light refracts through those domed surfaces, thereby producing that distinctive blue hue. It’s similar to your gazing through a pane of glass that appears tinged with blue or green around the edges -- an illusion caused by the refraction of light through the glass’s clear surface.
 
Kittens are born with blue eyes simply because their melanocytes haven’t yet begun to function. As the kittens grow and mature, their melanocytes start working -- at between four and six weeks of age – and by the time they’re four months old, their true “adult” eye colors are clearly apparent.
 
Since different genes control a cat’s eye and fur colors, the melanocytes in her fur may be either more or less active than the melanocytes in her eyes. Example: a black cat may have pale hazel eyes while a purebred orange Persian may have dark, copper-colored eyes. The sole exception to this: white cats. Because the epistatic white gene is dominant, thereby masking every other color, white cats are statistically more likely to have blue eyes than random-bred cats with other coat colors.