Cats Run Amok In The House
Transcript for:
Cats Run Amok In The House MR. SAM LITZINGER
12:44:35
I'm Sam Litzinger back with Dr. Gary Weitzman, the chief executive officer of the Washington Animal Rescue League. We want to hear about your four-legged friends. 1-877-610-3647. We're not limiting to four.
DR. GARY WEITZMAN
12:44:45
No, we aren't.
LITZINGER
12:44:46
It can be more -- more or less than four.
WEITZMAN
12:44:48
Or fewer, right?
LITZINGER
12:44:50
Animalhouse@wamu.org is our email address. The phone number again is 1-877-610-3647. Email animalhouse@wamu.org. Plus, you could play our animal of the day quiz. Go to facebook.com/wamuanimalhouse. Let us take a telephone call first from Patricia. Patricia, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary?
PATRICIA
12:45:12
Hi.
WEITZMAN
12:45:12
Hi there.
PATRICIA
12:45:12
I would like to know if you would tell me how I could keep my four-month-old kitten out of my bedroom and out of the bathroom.
WEITZMAN
12:45:22
Oh, that's all? (laugh) Okay.
LITZINGER
12:45:23
Yeah. What -- would you like him to have world peace solved very soon or something like that.
WEITZMAN
12:45:27
Yeah. I know. Yeah. Fix that Euro crisis.
LITZINGER
12:45:30
Right. Yeah. So if you could do that, and then help Patricia with her cat. Okay. Any tips for Patricia?
WEITZMAN
12:45:33
Wow. Okay. Well, first of all...
LITZINGER
12:45:34
So we've got an intrusive cat here.
WEITZMAN
12:45:37
We do. What's your kitten's name?
PATRICIA
12:45:39
(word?)
WEITZMAN
12:45:40
What's that?
PATRICIA
12:45:40
(word?)
LITZINGER
12:45:41
There's a story there. Do you want to tell us the story briefly, why is this cat named that?
PATRICIA
12:45:45
My wonderful son likes Japanese, so (word?) is male in Japanese and he wanted...
LITZINGER
12:45:51
(unintelligible)
WEITZMAN
12:45:53
Oh, okay.
LITZINGER
12:45:54
(speaks foreign language) Okay. Very -- go ahead.
WEITZMAN
12:45:56
Well, I think we can -- we'll give the whole answer in Japanese now. (laugh) So okay. First of all, you've got a four month old, so good luck. A four month old kitten, yeah, they are just all over everything.
LITZINGER
12:46:06
Is this another quick thanks for calling, but yeah...
WEITZMAN
12:46:08
I know. Thanks for calling, yes. You know what, if we drag this answer out long enough...
LITZINGER
12:46:12
Mm-hmm.
WEITZMAN
12:46:12
...like maybe another six months...
LITZINGER
12:46:13
Mm-hmm.
WEITZMAN
12:46:14
...I don't think it's gonna be a big problem.
LITZINGER
12:46:15
Okay.
WEITZMAN
12:46:16
But, you know, the first thing I would say is do all the usual things. Get this guy exhausted. Lots of fun stuff, lots of enrichment at home, lots of play and treat balls. Have you ever seen those? They dispense treats when a kitten or a cat is playing with them.
PATRICIA
12:46:29
No.
WEITZMAN
12:46:30
They're food-dispensing toys. They're all over the pet stores. They're the dog and cat nanny out there now, because you can stuff a Kong, you can get a toy that moves around and drops treats out, but you need things that will stimulate this little guy's head so that you can control him a little bit, and he'll be slightly more exhausted. Better at 9:00 p.m. than at 2:00 a.m. in the morning when he wants to jump on your bed and come in the bedroom.
WEITZMAN
12:46:55
So that's the first thing to do. Get him all exhausted from the normal good things you want to do and play with him, and, you know, we have to make sure he doesn't get bored, because these guys get bored really fast.
PATRICIA
12:47:05
Okay.
WEITZMAN
12:47:05
The second part is don't encourage him to go where you don't want him to go. If you don't want him in the bathroom, close the door. Put a baby gate up, although that's gonna hold him off for about two-and-a-half minutes. (laugh) But just so he knows he can't get in there. Same thing with the bedroom, and the hardest thing is, how many calls do we get, Sam, where somebody is saying their cats wakes them up at three o'clock in the morning every night.
LITZINGER
12:47:23
Sure.
WEITZMAN
12:47:24
And I say this really wonderful trite answer, well, don't respond. (laugh) But I know very well that that's the hardest thing in the world to do because it's very hard not to shower your beloved pet with what they're looking for, but you don't want to encourage it. So I would say, if you can do it, make sure that he doesn't have access to the places you don't want him to go. If he does, make sure that you've done everything to play the energy out of him all afternoon and evening, maybe even feeding at night so that he's a little more satiated and doesn't want to be the nocturnal cat that he is, and I would just say, get some things that will distract him that'll help you out, the food dispensing toys.
LITZINGER
12:48:00
Cat Disneyland.
PATRICIA
12:48:00
Okay.
WEITZMAN
12:48:01
Cat Disneyland. It's hard though. You know, telling a cat to do what they don't want to do, yes. Patricia, best of luck.
LITZINGER
12:48:08
Exhaust your cat and give him -- and you think maybe things will settle down in a few months anyway.
WEITZMAN
12:48:11
They will. They will, and they learn the rules, but really, at four months old, good luck. (laugh) You might as well be speaking Japanese.
LITZINGER
12:48:17
Call us -- yeah. Call us in six months when the cat's a little older and we'll see if the problem has been solved. Thank you very much, Patricia. (speaks foreign language). That's all the Japanese I remember.
WEITZMAN
12:48:26
That's -- well, you got to get it all in though. That was good.
LITZINGER
12:48:29
Yeah. I tried to learn that language, and I said, I don't know how to do this at all, so I gave up. Our telephone number is 1-877-610-3647. Our email address is animalhouse@wamu.org. Let's take a telephone call from Taryn. Taryn, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary?
TARYN
12:48:45
I have an alpha male cat who is the most outgoing of four cats in our household. Lately he's taken to breaking into our kitchen and stealing our food. We've put child safety locks on the cabinet doors, but he still manages to find people food. He'll eat it.
WEITZMAN
12:49:01
Aah. Really?
LITZINGER
12:49:02
This is the second invading cat question we've had.
WEITZMAN
12:49:03
Okay. I know. Intrusive, I think that was the other one.
LITZINGER
12:49:06
Intrusive, yeah.
WEITZMAN
12:49:07
Well, what's your boy's name?
TARYN
12:49:08
His name is Junior.
WEITZMAN
12:49:09
Oh, Junior, okay. All right. And again, how old is he?
TARYN
12:49:12
He's probably about three or four years old.
WEITZMAN
12:49:14
Oh, okay. So has he gotten better at this, or has he been a little criminal his whole life?
TARYN
12:49:19
No. He's gotten extremely good at this recently.
WEITZMAN
12:49:23
Aah.
TARYN
12:49:23
It was after we took him off of hard food because he had crystals in his urine.
WEITZMAN
12:49:28
Okay, all right.
TARYN
12:49:29
And we put him on straight moist food.
WEITZMAN
12:49:31
Okay.
TARYN
12:49:31
He gets about one can a day, half a can in the morning and half a can in the evening.
WEITZMAN
12:49:35
Yeah. Yeah.
TARYN
12:49:36
And now he's eating Cheez Its, he's eating crackers...
WEITZMAN
12:49:40
Oh, you've got a raccoon.
TARYN
12:49:40
...he's eating NutraGrain.
LITZINGER
12:49:42
He sounds like me.
WEITZMAN
12:49:43
Did you say picture frames?
TARYN
12:49:44
No. No. No. He's...
WEITZMAN
12:49:45
Oh, just food. Okay.
TARYN
12:49:46
Just food, yeah. Cheez Its.
LITZINGER
12:49:46
Oh, I was worried there that he was actually chew the house down.
WEITZMAN
12:49:49
Well, we've had a few that do it. That's a more a dog thing.
LITZINGER
12:49:51
So there's basically, Taryn, there's no food that doesn't enjoy, is that what you're...
TARYN
12:49:54
Exactly.
LITZINGER
12:49:54
Yeah.
WEITZMAN
12:49:54
Okay. All right. Let's do a little translation here. So Junior is now eating only canned food, and he wants to supplement himself with anything that's crunchy.
TARYN
12:50:05
Yeah.
WEITZMAN
12:50:05
So I would say, first of all, talk to your vet because I don't have his record in front of me. Talk to your vet about any appropriate food that he could eat that would be crunchy. Unless nothing's worked using dry food before, I'm a huge fan of canned food with cats, especially with urinary problems.
TARYN
12:50:21
Right.
WEITZMAN
12:50:21
I think that's the appropriate thing. But there must -- there will be something that you can use that will get this guy something that he can crunch as well, so I would talk to your vet about that.
LITZINGER
12:50:29
Is that what he's saying? I want something crunchy.
WEITZMAN
12:50:31
Could be. That's part of it. But he could also be saying, I'm a bad boy, watched "Ocean's Eleven" and I know how to break into this casino.
LITZINGER
12:50:37
No lock is safe from me.
WEITZMAN
12:50:38
Yes. No -- nothing is. So that's the second part. I think you have to...
TARYN
12:50:41
I think that's part of it.
WEITZMAN
12:50:42
Well, I think you should also think of him as a toddler who you have to keep away from the oven and the burners and the light sockets, and you have to outwit them, and I'll tell you, it's probably harder to outwit Junior than it is to outwit a toddler at this point in his life. But I think you got to get all those toddler locks and put food in bins. Pretend you've got an errant mouse in your house, so you've got to really food proof. And honestly, if he keeps going and he doesn't get any reward from it, he'll stop doing that.
WEITZMAN
12:51:10
And finally, he could also be bored. Who amongst us doesn't eat because we're bored. So make sure, again, food dispensing treats, toys, thing that will really stimulate his little brain, and make sure that he's got things to play with and fun stuff going on and appropriate treats that come out of there.
TARYN
12:51:28
Okay.
LITZINGER
12:51:28
He sounds like a smart guy though.
WEITZMAN
12:51:30
Too smart.
TARYN
12:51:30
Too smart for his own good.
WEITZMAN
12:51:31
Yeah. (laugh) Too too smart.
LITZINGER
12:51:34
Thanks Taryn.
TARYN
12:51:34
And he knows he's being bad.
LITZINGER
12:51:35
Yeah. Well, of course they do. It's like, yeah, but I can do what I want because you love me, don't you. You do, don't you? Thanks Taryn, much appreciated. I can see Junior going, with like a lock...
WEITZMAN
12:51:45
I know.
LITZINGER
12:51:45
...thirteen right, ooh, that doesn't work, wait a minute, I can get this figured out.
WEITZMAN
12:51:49
Too smart a cat.
WEITZMAN
12:51:50
Our telephone number is 1-877-610-3647. Our email address is animalhouse@wamu.org. Let's take a telephone call from Eric. Eric, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary?
ERIC
12:52:03
I recently got married, and it was a package deal.
WEITZMAN
12:52:06
Oh, okay. (laugh)
ERIC
12:52:08
I joined my wife alongside my Jack Russell Terrier, Nash.
WEITZMAN
12:52:13
Okay.
ERIC
12:52:13
And Abbie isn't a huge dog person, but she loves me and she's come to love Nash too.
WEITZMAN
12:52:18
Yeah. It's a package deal, you're right.
ERIC
12:52:20
Yeah. We've been talking recently about getting a cat. Abbie promises that she's not a cat person, but...
WEITZMAN
12:52:28
(laugh) Was that in the prenup? And is that a deal breaker for you?
ERIC
12:52:34
It's not a deal breaker for me.
WEITZMAN
12:52:35
Okay.
ERIC
12:52:35
If anything, I'm a hundred percent on board, but we both are concerned that introducing a cat into a home with a dog might be problematic.
WEITZMAN
12:52:42
Right.
ERIC
12:52:43
So I'm calling to see if there is any advice you can give, if there are specific breeds that are better for dogs, like get along better with dogs...
WEITZMAN
12:52:50
Mm-hmm.
ERIC
12:52:51
...or any other tips and techniques for how to do this.
WEITZMAN
12:52:54
Oh, okay. So Abbie is not a cat person, you have a dog, but you want a cat, who wanted the cat and has anybody talked to Nash about this?
ERIC
12:53:03
(laugh) No. We haven't filled Nash in on this just yet.
WEITZMAN
12:53:05
Okay.
ERIC
12:53:07
I don't know how he would respond. Abbie's more of a cat person than a dog person.
WEITZMAN
12:53:10
Okay. I think it's great.
ERIC
12:53:11
So she's interested in getting a cat. Yeah. And we think that, you know, we both work and Nash is home by himself a good part of the day, and we thought introducing a friend could be helpful.
WEITZMAN
12:53:19
Oh, it's fantastic. Yeah.
ERIC
12:53:20
Assuming it's a friend and not an enemy.
WEITZMAN
12:53:22
Yeah. Absolutely fantastic. Well, okay.
LITZINGER
12:53:23
All right. So this is like "Ghostbusters." Cats and dogs living together, how do we make this happen, Gary?
WEITZMAN
12:53:26
It really is. It is like "Ghostbusters." First question for you is what does Nash thing about other animals, dogs or cats?
ERIC
12:53:33
Nash is a bit of an introvert. He kind of sticks to himself and doesn't really pay attention to other dogs. When he does see a cat on a walk or something he tends to become alert and want to chase after them.
WEITZMAN
12:53:45
Oh, okay.
ERIC
12:53:45
I've never seen him interact with a cat where was he introduced to one and they were slowly pet at the same time, and...
WEITZMAN
12:53:52
Right.
ERIC
12:53:52
...that kind of thing.
WEITZMAN
12:53:52
Right. The answer to your question is, is there an appropriate breed or type of cat that would be good with dogs. Better yet, is there an appropriate dog that would be good with cats, because that's really the issue. There really is no cat out there that's necessarily good or bad with dogs, and most of the time cats and dogs get along. But what I'm worried about is the dog, and you have a JRT, Jack Russell, who is introverted, but gets alert when he sees a cat. He is proving that he has a pretty decent prey drive.
WEITZMAN
12:54:20
So my real answer to you is whether you want a cat or Abbie wants a cat, I think the only important thing is does Nash want a cat.
ERIC
12:54:28
Mm-hmm.
WEITZMAN
12:54:29
And if he's really alert when he sees a cat, he may not be a cat kind of dog, and that...
LITZINGER
12:54:34
How would we know this?
WEITZMAN
12:54:35
Well, there's a couple ways. First of all, if you go to a shelter, which you should, of course, to get a cat, most of us will know which cats are nonplussed by dogs.
ERIC
12:54:44
Okay.
WEITZMAN
12:54:44
And that's about the best we can do. So we can find a cat that doesn't care at all that there's a dog in the room. And we've got wonderful volunteer cats. I think they're volunteering, and then we actually...
LITZINGER
12:54:54
(laugh) They're paid well in food.
WEITZMAN
12:54:56
They are paid well. That we actually will test with dogs and we keep them...
ERIC
12:55:00
Oh.
WEITZMAN
12:55:00
...very, very, very, very safe, so we know our animals and we know which ones really don't care about dogs at all. But the real question is, what will Nash think. So -- and I don't think it's insurmountable. There's plenty of Jack Russell Terrier people out there that have cats and dogs. But I think what you're gonna have to do is bring your dog to the shelter and see how he is with good shelter professionals with a cat that you might be falling in love with at the shelter, and we can actually check the interaction and use our behavior people and training people to see if this is going to work or not.
WEITZMAN
12:55:28
Any dog, they'll see a cat and they'll actually get alert, and it may just be because they don't know what that is.
ERIC
12:55:34
Mm-hmm.
WEITZMAN
12:55:34
But I think we have to test Nash, and it doesn't matter what kind of cat, doesn't matter kitten or adult. I think it really depends on the Jack Russell and what his thoughts are on this.
ERIC
12:55:43
Okay, that's great.
WEITZMAN
12:55:44
But go to a shelter. Go to a good shelter in your area. Talk to them about getting an appointment with an adoption coordinator and -- that's what we call them anyway, whatever they're called wherever you're going, and take a look at the interaction and give you some advice on whether or not this is workable.
LITZINGER
12:55:56
And I'm assuming the answer will be apparent pretty quickly.
WEITZMAN
12:55:59
It will be. Well, it will be, but, you know, that's an interesting thing you bring up, Sam, because we've actually kind of stepped away from having people bring their animals in to check out the interactions in most cases, because when they come to a shelter, it's a completely foreign environment.
LITZINGER
12:56:11
Right.
ERIC
12:56:11
Mm-hmm.
WEITZMAN
12:56:12
So really, knowing what's going to happen eventually at home, it's kind of anybody's guess, but that's why we bring the behavior people in to give you a good assessment.
ERIC
12:56:20
There have certainly been people that Nash took a long time to warm up to.
WEITZMAN
12:56:23
Okay.
ERIC
12:56:24
But eventually he does.
WEITZMAN
12:56:26
Good.
LITZINGER
12:56:26
By the way, how did -- did he warm up quickly to your bride?
ERIC
12:56:29
(laugh) Well, it depends. When she started kicking him out of the bed...
WEITZMAN
12:56:33
Oh, no.
ERIC
12:56:34
...it turned a little sour, but...
WEITZMAN
12:56:35
Yeah. Yeah. I know. As it would.
LITZINGER
12:56:39
It gets complicated, these relationships. Let us know if does work out for you, will you, if Nash ends up with a kitty companion let us know.
WEITZMAN
12:56:46
Yeah.
ERIC
12:56:46
Of course I will. Thank you so much for your help.
LITZINGER
12:56:47
Thank you very much, Eric.
WEITZMAN
12:56:48
Sure. Good luck.
LITZINGER
12:56:49
Here's a quick email question from Grace. "Is feline myesthesia common," asks Grace.
WEITZMAN
12:56:54
Okay. No. I don't think it is, and I wonder if Grace is experiencing that with her cat.
LITZINGER
12:56:59
What is that?
WEITZMAN
12:56:59
Basically it's a neurologic syndrome that we don't see very often. I'm wondering if I've ever seen it or diagnosed it, but we don't see it too often at all, and I don't -- I'm not sure if she's experiencing that with her cat. Does she say?
LITZINGER
12:57:11
If you are -- no, she doesn't. It's just the question. So Grace, if there's background information that would help Gary make a more informed decision on this, if you have experience with it, or some issue has come up, write back to us and we'll answer that question in more detail.
WEITZMAN
12:57:24
I'd like to hear how her cat is doing if he's got that.
LITZINGER
12:57:27
Yeah. Because that could be an unusual case. Feline myesthesia.
WEITZMAN
12:57:29
Yeah. It's up there in our differentials, but we don't see it very often.
LITZINGER
12:57:32
Up there in our differentials? What does that mean?
WEITZMAN
12:57:34
Ah, choices of what could possibly be the answer.
LITZINGER
12:57:37
You vets.
WEITZMAN
12:57:37
I know. We've got to use these words.
LITZINGER
12:57:38
That's great. You are a professional veterinarian.
WEITZMAN
12:57:40
There you go.
LITZINGER
12:57:41
For those who had any questions...
WEITZMAN
12:57:42
And that's not even Japanese. (laugh)
LITZINGER
12:57:44
Gary knows the answers to these things. Thank you very much.
WEITZMAN
12:57:47
Sure.
MS. SANDRA TSING-LOH
12:57:48
Hey bees, too busy for your beauty sleep? This is Sandra Tsing-Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Bees seem busy all the time, but turns out they need their sleep just like humans. In fact, bees usually sleep about eight hours a night unless, that is, they are being harassed by entomologist Barrett Klein from the University of Texas in Austin. Klein's team wanted to know if sleepless nights would make it harder for bees to communicate. To rob bees of their precious Zs, the scientists glued tiny steel discs on their backs.
MS. SANDRA TSING-LOH
12:58:21
At night they passed magnets over the hive every 20 seconds, jostled the bees and kept them awake. The results? Dramatic. Well-rested honey bees can point their hive mates to a flower patch by dancing the directions. The right waggle at the right angle does the trick. But the sleepy bees danced like they were, well, exhausted. Their waggles got sloppy and all their sister bees got was a garbled map. And that's why we need flower beds. Get it? Flower beds? So the bees can sleep.
NARRATOR
12:58:58
The Loh Down on Science online at lohdown.org. Produced by 89.3 KPCC and the California Institute of Technology and made possible by TIAA CREF.
TSING-LOH
12:59:11
This is Sandra. Follow us on Twitter @lohdown.
LITZINGER
12:59:17
Today's edition of "The Animal House" is almost a wrap. First we have the answer to our Critter Quiz. Earlier we asked if you knew the name of at least one of the three states that have an official state bat. If you named Texas, Oklahoma, or Virginia, you are correct. Thanks to our guests, Ann Froschauer, Carol Meteyer, Jackson Galaxy and Marlene Zuk. Also thanks to Dr. Gary Weitzman for his contribution today. Above all, thanks to you for joining us in "The Animal House." I'm Sam Litzinger.
Transcripts of WAMU programs are available for personal use. Transcripts are provided "As Is" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. WAMU does not warrant that the transcript is error-free. For all WAMU programs, the broadcast audio should be considered the authoritative version. Transcripts are owned by WAMU 88.5 FM American University Radio and are protected by laws in both the United States and international law. You may not sell or modify transcripts or reproduce, display, distribute, or otherwise use the transcript, in whole or in part, in any way for any public or commercial purpose without the express written permission of WAMU. All requests for uses beyond personal and noncommercial use should be referred to (202) 885-1200.