Every Little Tips about Raise a Pet: Be Ready to Keep a Cat ⋆ China Life & Buying Guide

My daddy used to work in a large chicken and duck farming factory. When I was a kid, I often went to the factory to observe groups of little chicks and little ducks,and see these bubs playing in crowds and running around.

There are some of the local dogs in the factory, they are so enthusiastic that I can only stand still on the garbage can and am afraid to get down. A love for animals gradually develops in my heart.

I always want to keep a dog or cat for company as I was the only child in my family, especially when I am alone in the winter and summer vacations. But my parents didn’t agree. And I remember one summer vacation when I was in primary school, my dad brought home a two-month-old kitty in a cardboard box. There were no words can describe my excitement at that time.

The kitty kept hiding in the box, and I just sat by the box until I went to bed at night. It was really hot in the summer. We used iron wire to make a circle and put it on the neck of the cat. Then we tie a string to the corner of the table when we slept to stop the cat from escaping.

The next morning, I woke up to find that my father went to have the rabies vaccine and the kitty was sent away. Because he saw the cat trying to break free of that iron ring and stuck it in its mouth in night, and he was bitten by the kitty when reached out to help.

The starting and ending of the first story was so sudden and it is unexpected that it would be more than ten decades since the next time I had a pet.

I had been away from home for four years when I happened to find a litter of puppies were born in the family of my mother’s friend. In that summer vacation, my parents finally agreed to have a dog under my encouragement. And here it is, I raised the poodle for giving a lot of care in that summer vacation. And the mind of having my own pet just started to boom from that moment on.

In the first two years of working in BEIJING, my housing conditions are not allowed to have a pet. Finally, I owned my own little house in the third year. The idea of raising a pet has become more and more striking.

Considering that it does not take a short time to get to the company from home and the occasional business trip, I finally chose to keep a cat.

BE READY TO KEEP A CAT

Besides preparing pet products such as cat food and cat litter, psychological preparation are also needed before you have a cat. If you want to be qualified, this is what I want to focus on.

You must consult with the family first. The situation is absolutely unacceptable that you abandon the cat after a few weeks for you can’t stand it or surrender of family opposition. Leaving alone the economic losses, discard into the wild is irresponsible for the environment. And more importantly, it is not responsible for the pet. Family members objected to the idea of cats destroying expensive leather sofas, breaking rare porcelain, misconceptions about Toxoplasma etc. Perhaps I will clarify them in another post.

(The following picture is about kitty’s first day at my home. After hiding a little while, she soon got familiar to the new home.)

Another point I want emphasize is LOVE. The kitty does not have to eat top cat food for necessary. Actually even leftover food is okay. But she needs your love and your tolerance.

The cat will spend his whole life to be your side. And I do hope you are able to repay him with the sense of responsibility in this 10 years or 20 years.

WHERE TO ADOPT OR PURCHASE

When it comes to owning a cat, people will think in a way that “adoption instead of buying”. It is definitely right.

But I’d like to suggest that it’s best to go to a regular animal rescue organization if you decide to adopt one. A lot of people ask you to pay the deposit when you go to adopt it and make you buy expensive pet supplies. They are just makingmoney by pretending to rescue the animals.

Then regular cat house is recommended, which can be found by WEIBO(micro blog) or by participating in various pet competitions. Regular cat house is relatively taking a formal adopting process. The cats will only be delivered to the buyer after their growing up and sterilization.

Although the long booking time and relatively high price which range from thousands to tens of thousands, regular cat house is still the one I strongly suggest for the most guaranteed quality. Recommend it for you if you got enough budget.

When it comes to cat house, that irregular cat house is inevitable to mention. They were blamed to have nonstandard breeding process than regular house did, occasionally breed one fold cat to another which may cause a genetic disease risk. And the circumstance can be terrible such as the dirty environment, trapping cats in the cage and so on. Please choose carefully.

In addition, there are some pet stores. In my individual view, price in a pet store is not cheaper than irregular cat house because it has a formal store. Besides, the pet shop has a huge human presence. Then those weak cat might be vulnerable to bacteria and be frightened by people. So it is probable that environment in a pet store is even worse than an irregular cat house. It’s not particularly recommended to buy at a pet store.

And some unique ways are left such as DOUBAN, TIEBA, and all kinds of city-wide exchange BBS. There must be some cats born lately in a private home for sale. These ways require you to know well about them and identify the cat dealers from all sellers.

If it is convenient, it is better to check by yourself if the environment is clean and what kind of cat food is supplied. Ordinary people have a clean home without bad smell. Of course, it’s not saying that we only need to check the house. I think it’s best to check the cat daddy and the cat mommy to avoid a genetic tragedy.

The most ideal thing is of course get a cat from a colleague or a friend, who meets a group of baby cats in his house and look for people willing to have these cats. Well, this kind of opportunity is rare.

A lot of ways are mentioned above and I am gonna talk about my experience.

It is not easy to persuade my wife to adopt a cat. She said the cat must be beautiful so adoption is almost impossible for me.

I saw a private selling message from BBS by chance. The price is not expensive. And the description indicated that the seller should be a cat lover. He got some baby cats for his cat’s accidental pregnancy. I think it is not bad, so I visit his house to see the cat. We talked to find out that people who is renting a house and cat dealers are not qualified to have these cats. He is a total kitty lover. After bringing the kitty to my home, he was still very patient to explain my questions. Even seen cats video also requires after one year later.

EXTRA TALKING — THE CAT MOSS

The litter of kittens in the house was only one left. My wife even fell in love with her at the first sight. But there was a cat moss on her neck.

The cat owner said to bring her to us after the cat moss is heal. But I just can’t wait to bring her home and treat her by myself. Since I didn’t think about the cat moss before, the first thing I did when I came home was to check the Internet and buy medicine and supplements.

Cat moss is a fungal infection of the skin. Continuous medical spray is needed, I use PITFEN at that time. On the other hand, lacking of nutrition also leads to a cat moss. So I bought the nutrition of JUNBAO.

Every morning and evening i spray for her, take the Elizabeth collar for her, and feed the nourishing cream on time. I have been keeping doing these things for two weeks and finally got the cat moss cured. And I will buy a disinfectant specialized for pets and spray the home where cats usually played on.

As I was worried about the fungus spreading in the house at that time, I asked the kitty only to stay in the living room in the evening. It really stopped us to be very close and I am a little regret for it now.

DAILY LIFE

CAT FOOD: I advise directly selects famous-brand products such as ORIJEN, NOW, FROMM, EVO, etc. The main reason is that there are too many brands of cat food in China, which are all claimed as natural food, no addition. But it is difficult for consumer to distinguish. Much cat food of different brand stickers even came from the sane manufacturer. Rather than finding the best from a lot of terrible trying, it is better to choose a brand that is more reliable.

The following are some of the cat food that my kitty has eaten. The link is found on JD.com, which has no reference value.