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| A clouder MSN pic |
When some kids go to camp, they soon beg their parents to
let them leave. But not when they attend
“Cat Camp”!
Last Saturday’s “spring forward @ home!” edition of
Jackson Galaxy’s Cat Camp attracted hundreds of attendees, who from the get-go
were excited to be there. The multi-hour
virtual event offered so much to see and learn, with cat specialists and cats of
all kinds.
(Rest easy if you’re only hearing about this now; it’s
all still online for you: www.catcamp.com.)
Having heard about it for years without knowing its
principles, I was especially interested in “clicker training,” and sure enough,
the discussion and demo of this art convinced me to “just start,” as one
speaker urged.
The clicker training session also attracted Sandra Obi, aka the
“cat lady” with the Animal Protection League of NJ, and more formally, that organization’s
TNR director. It’s basically positive
reinforcement training, she notes; it rewards the behavior you want so that the
cat will repeat it.
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| Domino |
Every click (signaling the cat has done something desired) must be followed by a reward, which can be consumables (food), activities
(pets) or play time (toys).
train before a meal (3 a day are recommended), when the cat’s hungry, and it’s
important to keep the edible treats “tiny” – remember: a cat’s stomach is about
the size of a ping pong ball!
Clicker training’s a bonding occasion for cat and owner as
well as a confidence-builder.
Kitten crisis & fostering
“Kitten Lady” Hannah Shaw detailed her “full-circle strategy”
to stop the kitten crisis at its roots.
With an estimated 80% of all US kittens born outdoors, it’s crucial to
track rescue kittens back to where they came from, then possibly find more
kittens and the mom too.
Finally, if possible, re-unite moms with their kits to
assure the best care, and spay the moms. These steps can go along way toward stopping
the annual kitten production at that site.
A session on fostering picked up on that mom-kitten
combo. For new fosters, a good place to start
is with a mom and her kittens. That way,
the mom takes care of feeding and training her own offspring – and she’s usually
the best one for the job.
. . . And there’s so-o-o-o-o much more useful info from the
Cat Camp sessions! You can check the
afternoon’s schedule at catcamp.com and take it from there.
Everybody’s doing it!
Remember the sign using animals to remind people to stay 6 feet away from others? It showed the required
social distance space to be about 2 Great Danes or 7 Chihuahuas long. Pretty neat.
At a nearby farm, I found another distance chart and of
course it used a different animal. (If
you’ve
seen any others, please take a pic or tell us about them.)
Nudge Gov. Murphy
The trunk fighting bill (S975), which would ban a horrific
practice, passed both houses and is now on Governor Murphy’s desk.
He has till May 10 to act on the bill — sign it or not act on it and it becomes law;
or veto it. Please urge him to sign the
bill into law.
** E-mail Governor Murphy constituent.relations@NJ.Gov
** Message Governor Murphy through Twitter (@GovMurphy) and Instagram (@GovMurphy).
We
can do this for dogs!
Bats
about ‘em
Sneaking
back into print about bats, who some readers now automatically associate with
viruses in general and Covid-19 in particular. Not true! There
are myriad good bats in our world, and some who are even kinda cute. Try this video from the Dodo (www.thedodo.com) and see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFH0nj0evy0&t=12s
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| Ailurophobia |
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