Pets

Love Begins with a Wet Nose

Everything Earth’s Pets page showcases tricks, hacks and joys I’ve had with my own pets and with the nearly-100 animals my husband and I have fostered on their way to finding their forever homes. I am not a vet so I am not offering any medical advice. I may occasionally suggest a food or tincture that has made a difference in the animals in my life. But check with your vet.

If traditional western medicine has not worked for your pet, you may want to seek out a holistic, homeopathic or alternative medicine vet.

Cats Who Eat Plants

Sounds like a Dr. Seuss book, right? If you have a voracious plant-eating cat, it’s not funny. First and most important, many plants are toxic to cats. Before you bring any plant or flower into your home, you need to make sure that it will not poison your plant-nibbling kitty.

See this innocent- and debonair-looking fellow? He will do anything, go anywhere, jump valleys or climb mountains to get to anything green (except the greens I actually want him to eat, of course). I have looked endlessly for the source of his love affair and I have never found an answer.

So I started looking for ways to keep him out of plants and cut flowers. I’ve tried an exhaustive number of remedies:

• motion sensors that puff mists of odors-unpleasant-to-cats;
• spraying leaves with lavender, mint, lemon or orange essence;
• booby-trapping bouquets with startling pop-ups;
• covering the entire arrangement with a plexiglass box;
• rubbing chili power onto leaves; and last – and I’m not proud of this – even a light-shock pad.

In response, he:

• ignored the puffs and pop-ups;
• seemed to enjoy the herbal and citrus essences;
• tiptoed around the shock pad;
• knocked over the plexiglass boxes (What was I thinking?); and
• consumed the chili powder like it was his favorite condiment.

Sometimes the best solution is the easiest solution. Put the flowers out of reach. And I don’t mean on the highest “unreachable” shelf in the house. By boy Wink, normally a laid-back guy, transforms into an Olympic worthy athlete when it comes to getting to flowers. The only thing he seems unable to do when it comes to forbidden greens is climb walls. My very own garden peonies are his heart’s desire. Even if I snip off every leaf, he tosses them about, searching for the smallest green to nibble.

There are lots of shapes, sizes and styles of devices for hanging flowers or potted plants on walls.

Save yourself a headache and your cat a tummy ache or worse and just do this. Most important is ensuring that your cat will never become sick by snacking on your indoor plants.