Midnight Monday

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What we know of Little Isis: She has VERY big eyes - the better to see dangley things hanging down, she's a kitten, she has one white hair on the top of her head and one on her neck but you have to look very closely, and she helps out Not the Mama at The Wren's Nest.

Like Spooker and the interlopers, she blogs at Purrchance to Dream.

And she makes a very good Halloween cat.



Monday's Events at Cat Blogosphere
Midnight Monday:
Come on House Panthers, show us your petty black furs!
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It’s Meezer Monday for all Meezers with Simply Siamese
Mancat Monday for all ferocious Mancats and mancats-in-training
Movie Monday for our Feline Fellini Furriends



Soothing the Savage Beast

(Article by Caroline Goldman
Part 1 of 2)

For nearly five years, Elaine Thomas' cat Sweetface endured regular fluid injections because of kidney disease. "At first, he feared them, growing agitated and struggling," Thomas says. "It was extremely difficult." Then one day, Thomas put on an Enya CD, "more to calm myself than him," she says. "I know it sounds absolutely crazy but it worked. It became a ritual: Sweetface would fall into a trance-like state for the few minutes the injection took each day."

Anecdotal evidence of how cats react to music is overwhelming. Stories abound about cats rolling around purring in front of speakers during particular.songs, howling when humans play instruments and even racing to sit in front of the television during Gilbert and Sullivan performances. My cats regularly curl into meditative states when a soft tune hums through the house.

For many owners, the idea that tranquil music might calm their cats comes as no surprise. After all, if music helps calm and heal the human soul, why wouldn't it do the same for our wild-eyed pets? Science has offered very little proof about music's affect on cats, and many veterinarians and animal behaviorists don't buy it.

CALMING POWERS

Many people appreciate a relaxing dose of music before bedtime, but science is only beginning to understand why. Civilizations as far back as the Ancient Greeks understood the connection between music and health when they named Apollo the god of both music and medicine. Several recent scientific studies of humans revealed that soothing music helps decrease the stress hormone cortisol while increasing the calming hormone melatonin.

Music also has been shown to lower blood pressure, increase pain-numbing endorphins and improve the body's immune system. Surgery patients exposed to music during recovery experience less pain, while people suffering from chronic pain report that listening to music regularly reduces both pain and depression.

FELINE SCIENCE

With cats, however, little scientific proof exists to support the anecdotal tales. Many veterinarians maintain that music has not been clinically shown to affect cats.

"For most cats, music has little to no affect," says Bonnie Beaver, executive director of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists. "There may be an indirect affect because of how it makes the owner feel, causing the owner to interact with the cat in different ways. Cats are very good at reading body language." Beaver does concede, however, that tranquil music might help calm cats by filling the void of silence when nobody is home.

Hermann Bubna-Littitz, a professor at the Veterinary Medical University of Vienna, is one of the few veterinarians to explore the relationship between cats and music. In a study with 21 cats, Bubna-Littitz found that when he played music, the cats huddled close to the speakers and displayed less aggressive behavior. Without music during the testing time, the cats' aggressive behavior returned. Bubna-Littitz became so convinced that his mix of soft, electronic and natural sounds helped relieve cats' anxiety that he started Pets and Music, a company that produces music CDs for cats and dogs.



Be a featured Panther! If you would like to be a featured panther, please e-mail me and let me know the location of your blog. There are so many members that I can't locate from the information on our blog, such as Apollo and Carmen. Other cats, such as Puddy at A Byootaful Life, I cannot use the picture for because the are too small a size. So I would need you send me images.

Please let me know if you are interested!



Want to join House Panthers? Our membership is open to members of the black, grey (Russian Blue) and dark brown (Bombay) clans. Ask Not the Mama to e-mail you an invitation!

Find a new friend at Petfinder.com, the temporary home of 245,845 adoptable pets from 11,827 adoption groups. Over 9,000 house panthers are available around the country!

Coming up this week: Tuesday is Black Tabby Tuesday for all you black tabbies out there, Wednesday is Blue Wednesday for our Russian Blue members,Thursday is Grrday, and Friday is Formerly Feral or Foster Friday.