Tips & Tricks - A Safe Home!

Bringing a cat home to a safe environment is vital to the beginning a new chapter in yours and their life.

Get a cat's-eye tour of your house! Get down on all fours and literally take a tour of your house to see from a cats perspective.

Some potential hazards include:

• Breakable treasures - such as vases or glassware. Cats are inquisitive creatures and 9 times out of 10 anything that can be broken will be broken.
• Poison & Plants - Ant traps, roach traps, mouse traps or poison can harm your cat. So you need to make sure your cat can't reach them! Some houseplants can also be hazardous to your cat so make sure none of your houseplants are poisonous.
• Cords, cords and more cords - all types of cords should be out of reach as they are very tempting for a cat and they can end up in a fatal shock. You can also spray them with a foul-tasting repellent substance so they don't try and eat them.
• Choking Hazards - Paper clips. Coins. Bits of string or thread. Thumb tacks. Left over Christmas tree tinsel. Anything small enough for your cat to get in its mouth might end up going further than its mouth. And that could mean serious health problems for your kitty and expensive vet bills for you.

Taking care of all of the above home hazards will get you off to a great start in making your home safe for your cat. But you also need to think about things that you’ll need to do on a daily basis to keep your cat safe.

Try to think of things that might be tempting yet dangerous to your cat. Washer and dryer doors left open, for example, or dishwasher doors left open.

Do you leave windows open on a regular basis? Better rethink that! It’s very common for cats to be injured or killed after falling from a high-level window.

Containment

Consider a quality cat carrier to be a must-have piece of equipment. Even if you never take your cat on a trip, you’ll use the carrier for taking your cat to the vet. A loose cat in a car is a very bad thing!

But you’ll probably also find a cat carrier to be a handy tool at times for keeping your cat safe at home. There may times when work is being done to your house – an exterminator is spraying; carpets being cleaned; etc. – that can be quite hazardous to a curious kitty.

It’s been said that it’s the little touches that make a house a home. And that will also be true for your cat. By eliminating the little, out-of-the-way hazards that you’ll spot when you take a cat’s-eye tour of your house, you’ll make your house a safe and comfy home for your cat.

And you’ll be more comfortable too, knowing that your home is a safe and comfy haven for both you and your cat.

Sources:

• Picture: http://communitytable.parade.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/cat-safety-ftr.jpg
• Author - Natasha Orchard