Welcome to November's edition of the Happy Cat Ezine Hope you are all well and that you will enjoy this months newsletter P. S Don't forget that our CAT HEALTH GUIDE EBOOK has been revamped and is available to download from the site. The price is only $6.99 and this also includes a free copy of the "Homemade cat food recipe ebook" .   Remember if you have a cat story to tell us or a favorite feline poem to share it with us here. hope you are all well and i hope to see you soon on Our-happy-cat.com. See you next month Best Wishes Kate   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS 1. New Cat Gallery Photos This Month 2. Competition 3. Byron and Shelley's Latest Diary Entry 4. Cat Story - Cat Chooses Her New Home - A wonderful Cat Story 5.. Article - Keeping your Cats safe on fireworks night ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.New Cat Gallery Pages Lots more of your beautiful cats have been submitted to our cat photo gallery to see more visit the cat gallery . Enjoy. Don't forget to submit your cat to the cat gallery so that others can enjoy your cat as well. Click on their pictures to find out more about them. Cloudy Sacha Lolly Bobby Pounce Funny Face     ----------------------------------------- 2. Competition Number Nov 34 Here is November's Caption Competition. All you have to do is write a caption for this picture. . Simply send us your caption to go with this picture. Click here to submit Caption The deadline for this competition is November 27th. The best caption will be chosen and the winners name and caption will be posted on the www.our-happy-cat.com competition page. This month the prize is a copy of the Book "Cat People" A perfect book for cat-lovers everywhere! This hilarious journey through the lives of self-confessed "Cat Lovers" Michael and Margaret Korda introduces the reader to a wonderful assortment of people whose lives, like their own, revolve around their feline friends. GOOD Luck         -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Byron and Shelley's Latest Diary Entry October has been a particularly itchy time for our two kitties, Shelley and Byron. Although completely flea free and treated regularly for fleas, this month the two little guys have been scratching themselves silly. The culprit ah well now thats the trouble, we are in the process of tracking down the cause as we speak. we suspect a cat allergy of some sort but the trick is to discover the actual cause. So we started by replacing their feeding bowls with ceramic ones rather than plastic. No change. we then replaced their usual food with a different more expensive brand and although the cats absolutely love it, the scratching has continued. My latest theory is an allergy to flea bites which our dear Little Mo suffered from too. we have lots of foxes living in the area and I suspect that our two very noisy boys are investigating the foxes territory and perhaps even sleeping in similar areas. It only takes one bit from a flea to trigger a reaction if the cat is sensitive to them. So what to do. well I think it's time for another trip to the vets for a antihistamine injection which sorted Little mo out. i think it must also help to boost their immune system from future flea bites too. Lets hope that November will be itch free for Shelley and Byron so that they can enjoy their cozy naps a lot more. I will be adding regular updates about them on the web site so keep an eye on your RSS feeds for those. Here is their page -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Cat Stories and Poems we like to encourage our visitors to the site to share their cat story or poetry with us here. we certainly enjoy reading your tales of rescue, joy and sadness too. So if you have a story or poem to tell us please let us know HERE This month we were sent a Story by Patricia (Carnegie, PA) Cat Chooses Her New Home - A wonderful Cat Story This is an extraordinary story. My vet said she had never heard of such a thing in her entire career I was in New Orleans and had a home with a huge yard and a 4 foot chain link fence. I feed a family of 4...the mother and three feral kittens who lived in the wild outside my property in the woods. One summer day I was sitting in a chair about 50 yards away from the fence, reading. Suddenly, I saw one of the little kittens, the calico, struggling to climb the chain link fence! She struggled and struggled...falling several times. Her mother and siblings and I watched in awe. Finally, she made it to the top and fell over into my yard. She waddled toward me slowly. About half way to me, she turned and looked at her family...as if to say 'goodbye.' When she reached me, she circled me for about a half an hour. I talked to her in a soft, loving voice. Read the rest of ther story here ______________________________________________ 5.. Article - Keeping your Cats safe on fireworks night Fireworks night can be a frightening time for cats but there are things you can do to help them through the night. Here are some tips: Always keep them inside when fireworks are being let off Make sure your cat is let out earlier in the day before the fireworks start to have some exercise. Close all windows and doors and block off catflaps to stop pets escaping and keep noise to a minimum Draw the curtains If your animals are used to the sounds of TV or radio switch them on to block out some of the noise (not too loudly though) Make sure your pet is wearing some form of easily readable identification Prepare a den for your pet where they can feel safe – perhaps under a bed with some of your old clothes. They may want to hide when the fireworks start. Let them pace around, miaow and hide in a corner if they want to. Don’t try to coax them out or cuddle/comfort them. If they think you’re worried too this can make them feel even worse so stay relaxed, act normally and praise calm behaviour Try not to leave your pet alone and if you do have to go out, don’t be angry if you find they’ve been destructive when you get back