The last few weeks have been one long adventure with Miss ShiShi - some of it good, and some of it completely nerve-wracking.  Over a handful of days, she escaped unsupervised from our house multiple times, until we finally figured the (numerous!) ways that she was making her escapes.  If we lived somewhere safer for cats, I might not have been so worried, but we live on a suburban street where cars routinely drive 50 mph, and the neighborhood has more than it's fair share of coyotes, osprey, eagles and snakes - way too many dangers for an unwary kitty.
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On the bright side, all of the outdoor leash training that I've done with ShiShi both around our house (and more recently around our neighborhood) really served us well during all of this chaos.  Each time that she managed another grand escape, I was able to walk right up to her outside (after a frantic search!) and she would meow a welcoming hello before letting me carry her back indoors.  By the end of that week, I was becoming understandably paranoid, using her Loc8tor collar tag to find her around the house every few hours and any time that the front door was opened (often - we are a large family).   It was a very, very long week, and my kitty-watching nerves were completely shot by the end of it.

After MUCH investigating, it turned out that my darling ShiShi had  utilized a number of different escape routes into the Great Outdoors over the week's time.  She managed to sneak out invisibly at least once through the front door, despite our many precautions (which include a cat gate placed directly in front of the door, meant to prevent those particular escapes).  But that wasn't nearly the end of it - the real problem, as it turned out, was the three separate (and camouflaged) holes that she ripped in the screens on our lanai (patio).   And, should you wonder, those ripped screens were a whole new never-before-seen problem after the past several years of letting her spend unsupervised hours/per day exploring and lazing around on the lanai.

What in the world happened to bring all of this on?  It's hard to really get into the mind of a cat and know for sure, but I have a strong working theory that seems to be panning out so far in terms of no further escapes.  Over the past many months, ShiShi and I have been spending more and more time exploring the outdoors together - in our yard, our neighborhood, and even local parks.  I try to get outside with her one way or another at least every other day if at all possible.  She's always had a tendency to  meow for company to come out and spend time with her on the lanai, and often Haku or else some human from the family caves in and hangs with her out there.  (Spoiled much??)  But this last month has been extremely busy, and she was being left by herself on her 'catio' more than normal.   I am thinking now that her growing love of companionship caused her to be distressed on her own, and she started a brand new and rather frightening habit of clawing through the screens when she was left on her own...  

But, all's well that ends well, right?  For now, we seem to have fixed the problem with new measures for cat safety and happiness in place (no new escapes in the last week or so).  ShiShi is back to her normal wild but affectionate self, and I'm starting to breathe more easily again.  Just a little, until something new comes along...

1.  I know that I've said it before, but this has been yet another lesson for me in the New Cat Habits Gone Astray category.  After three years of no problems with ShiShi alone on the lanai, BAM!  It completely took me by surprise.  I used to check the lanai screens after storms just to be sure that all was well, but now it is my new daily habit.

2.  Can't say it enough - I am so very grateful for the Loc8tor radio tags that ShiShi and Haku always wear.  Without them, I think I would have gone insane.  As it was, they helped me to find ShiShi quickly several times once I realized that she was missing.

3.  For now, any time that ShiShi is outside on the screened lanai, the sliding doors are always left cracked open for her to come and go at will.  This seems enough to keep her confident, although I'm finding that she's coming inside and checking in with me far more often than she ever used to.

4.  Once the truly hot summer weather hits, I'll be installing a Pet Safe Pet Door Sliding Door Insert to make sure that we don't run into these kinds of cat (and human!) anxiety issues again.  The lanai has always been ShiShi's happy spot - I want her to have access, but also to make sure that we keep the 'happy' part of that equation!

Well, he actually does.  Mostly in his backyard, but sometimes Haku really enjoys himself on longer adventures too.   I've run into a whole lot of roadblocks though with his wider adventure training recently though - most especially because of his anxiety about leaving behind the place that he calls home.  

To be fair, hoping in a car has never been Haku's happy thing.  He was quite ill as a kitten (which we didn't know when we picked him up from his breeder), and he both threw up and had diarrhea  within minutes of getting into the car for our 6 hour drive home that day. (Turns out that a special raw food diet is our best weapon with his tummy and allergy issues).  And even though he doesn't normally get sick on car rides anymore, I'm pretty sure that it's still hovering there in the back of his kitty mind. 

Training Haku to go further than our lanai was a long, slow process.  It actually took a number of months of leash training before he was comfortable even adventuring all the way around in our (tiny!) backyard.  It was even longer before he was ready to go a little further away from our house, such as down the block a short ways.  Finally, about 7-8 months ago, we began going on the occasional park visit.  And it's been (was!) awesome - he mostly did quite well with those huge adventures (except for the fatal Park Misadventure - no more open spaces with water for him!). 

But, somehow, someway, somewhere Haku suddenly decided all over again that he truly hates car rides, and he wasn't even too enthused about those tiny neighborhood voyages to the Turtle Bridge down the street.  How did this happen?  Who knows!  That cat's mind is a complete mystery to me some days...  All I know is that I'm now having to slowly and step-by-step go back through nearly our whole harness training/adventuring process with him.  And it's working.  But - dang!  I sure hope it sticks better this time around!
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In a word - yes.  I think that it is.  My quite large family is (finally!) getting older, and there is the real possibility of  travel to wider destinations in just a few more years.   If at all possible, I want to bring ShiShi and Haku with me as I fulfill at least some of my travel dreams and explore more of the US - and Canada too.  (It is currently quite easy to bring pets across the border there.)  Already ShiShi is doing well enough on our expanded adventures that I think my goal of travel with her in a few years is quite realistic.  But then there's Haku... 

The furthest goal from my mind is to have a stressed out cat who hates going on adventures, or worse yet doesn't even want to go outside.   And, far more that those eventual trips across the US and Canada, I want Haku to be comfortable simply exploring around the area where we live.  I am a deep believer in the healthiness of sunshine and exercise for nearly everyone, not least of all for my cats.  And we've had many, many of times over this past year where Haku simply glowed with happiness after a good time in the outdoors, whether close by, or a bit further away.  We just need to find our way back to that happy point again...

When all is well, Haku has a marvelous time wandering around our yard, or even poking around in new places.  In fact, after the past few weeks of re-training, he is already excited within the first moment of actually getting his head out the door - but he's still sometimes nervous when he first sees his harness.  It looks like I'm going to have to be even more careful this time around as we move through our adventure training process to make sure that he doesn't stress.  I'm honestly not sure what set this whole problem off in the first place - maybe a perfect storm of tiny issues with our last car ride/further away  but seemingly awesome Tree Park Adventure.  One way or another, we are already back on the road to bigger adventures. 

This is one of those keeping-it-real posts.  Because I try my best to stay real all the time on this blog, but it's also very easy to get into the habit of showing only the most 'interesting' or 'pretty' stuff instead of including the rest of it.  And my biggest reason for doing this blog is to share my very real experiences with my cats.  I hope that other people can also find the kind of nurturing and heartwarming experience with their own feline family as I have with mine.   Really getting to know cats, and getting the very best out of a relationship with cats, can take a whole lot of human tolerance, imagination, patience, and sometimes sheer grit.  It's very rarely the picture-purrfect romance that I think it will be - but every once in while, it's even magically better.   
 
When I first started training ShiShi and Haku  to walk on leash, I had this vision of exploring long forested trails with them, taking them on occasional day-trips , and even of (maybe) taking my fluffy companions on some outdoor restaurant expeditions during said trips.  At this point, however, I've been pretty much disillusioned of all those ideas (although I still dream of them for the far future, after LOTS more training). What I have found, though, during our times outside together has been unexpectedly precious.  Cats have none of a human's preconceptions about their environment, and my sweethearts often coax me into seeing beauty in places where I might have ignored it.  They also teach me that slowing down and really being present can be the best part of my day.

1.  Be Patient.  And, really, be patient.

​2.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  ShiShi and Haku have taught me more about the natural beauty to be found in bugs, lizards, piles of sticks and stray blades of grass than I ever imagined.  They enjoy inspecting those stick piles just as much as the flowers that I would naturally pay more attention to, and are just as likely to get cozy on a drain spout as to choose the 'prettier' spot only a few feet away.

3.  Take some time to breath and be peaceful - you might as well!  Walking with a cat means LOTS of standing (or sitting) still in one place.  Our modern world can be so fast paced - take advantage and slow down for just a little while.

I'd hate to say that cats are my life.  But in a way, they kind of are.  Don't get me wrong - I absolutely adore my family and friends and the entire rest of the life I've been blessed with, but I really, really love my cats too.  There's just one problem - I also happen to be quite allergic to most cats.  And over half of my (rather large) immediate family is as well.

That said, I've loved cats and had them around me pretty much always.  One of my earliest memories is of helping to pick out a kitten for my family.  Her name morphed into Kiki, because I was too young to even pronounce the word kitten yet - and I absolutely adored her.  Much later on, though, I was diagnosed with migraine-causing cat allergies - and that was no fun at all.  My family didn't know a thing yet about all the natural and alternative medicines that I have in my arsenal  today, so I received the typical allergy shots in hopes of relief (no way I was giving up our cat!)  And when I got my first apartment after college?  I went (literally the next day) to a shelter and adopted my very own kitten/best-furriend.

Long story short, eventually I had to stop those allergy shots after they became dangerous to me (anaphylaxis).   And over the past 20 years my cat allergies gradually became worse and worse.  It was pure torture, because I found myself pushing away our cat much of the time, or instantly scrubbing face, hands, clothing after giving in to enjoying a cuddle with him.  And unfortunately, during that same time span, some of my (human) kids were starting to show allergy problems too.
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So, what did I do?  For allergic cat lover's around the world (and there are a surprisingly high number of us), how to fix those tragic allergies is the sixty million dollar question. 

Once I was (forced) to admit that our cat allergies were getting completely out of hand, I began researching like mad!  Information is power, and I was absolutely determined to win the cat allergy war.  And then I started implementing everything that I could, slowly over time changing both our habits and our habitat. 

I prefer to tackle things in bits and pieces with any project like this that may involve a lot of changes for either myself or my family.  If I try to jump in whole-cat (so to speak) all at once, I'm far more likely to just give up and find the whole thing too overwhelming.  In this case, though, the benefits (of millions of cat cuddles) were a huge motivation for me.

Knowing the enemy ( not my furry loves!) is really helpful dealing with cat allergies in the most successful and natural way possible.  The predominant cause  is a protein that the cats produce called Fel d 1.  It excretes primarily through their skin's oil glands and their anal glands, and also through their saliva and their fur.  The bulk of it, however, really does come from those skin and anal glands.  (Yup - that's why changing litterboxes and kitty kisses/head bumps can really set off allergic reactions.)  All of the information can be really confusing - there's a lot of it, but it's not always the most accurate stuff.  Much a what is floating around on the internet these days is actually based on older myths and defunct research - for instance, all those statements that cat saliva is the main problem.   (Check out the Fel d 1 Fact List and Resources at the bottom of this page 👇)

I work hard to keep everything to do with my cats clean.  Anywhere my little darlings like to hang out needs to be either wipe-able or easily washable.  And carpeted cat trees are a huge no-no!  They just can't be cleaned of allergens properly.  Fortunately, ShiShi and Haku adore our Armarkat Solid Wood Cat Tree  - they love it for the hiding cave, great perches (it's also where I feed Haku), and the best kitty hammock ever.   (If you notice fuzzies in the photos of our cat tree,  it's because I cut up a bathroom rug to fit on the perches - super easy to wash, and the kitties like the fluff.)  I also keep my cats extra healthy with their raw diet and lots of exercise, and keep their fur clean with daily wipe downs.   And, while it isn't the right choice for everyone, this time around when it was time to adopt cats, I very carefully chose a cat breed (Siberian) that naturally produces significantly less of that darned Fel d 1 protein.  

What do I do for any remaining allergies?  They do still crop up once in a while, especially if my immune system is down because of fatigue or having a cold.  Heartbreakingly, I had to stop volunteering at our local no-kill cat shelter.  And I still do a crazy wash my face, rinse my eyes, rinse my sinuses, wash my hands, change my clothes routine whenever I love up somebody else's furry darling.  But, in my own home, with my (mostly hypoallergenic) Siberian cats, I do extremely well.  Check out my self care tips below for more info on my personal anti-allergy regime, and also for the rest of the fabulous protocols that allow me to be a happy and healthy cat owner.  And yes - I happily and healthily face-plant and rub noses with ShiShi and Haku at least a billion times a day now. ❤

An Update on Molecular Cat Allergens
Study about cat allergens, and possible medical solutions for the future.  Lots of great background info.

Myths About Siberians
Article about myths and facts pertaining to low Fel d 1 in Siberian cats.

Kitten Saliva Testing for Fel d 1
Explains saliva testing, accuracy, and sources of current testing.

Jackson Galaxy Cat Allergy Blog
I don't agree with absolutely everything in this article, but Jackson offers some great tips and solutions for people who  own a cat that they are allergic to.

 I'm a tight spaces addict - and a closet connoisseur.  Not everypawdy wants to admit to this indiscreet kind of love affair - it can be quite embarrassing fur some.  But one cat's weakness is most certainly another cat's strength - and most especially when it comes to a passion fur all things hidden  and tucked away.  After all, if one day the giant d.o.g. bomb goes off, I'll know all of the best places to wait it out in safety.  

Back in the day of Haku's endless chasing, before meowma  helped to fix things fur me, those little hiding spots were often my saving grace. (Haku's behavior modification, and mine, really have worked out fur us  - you can find out more here and here.)  Haku's bad old habits may be why I love closets and hidden corners so much.  Or purrhaps, as meowma often says, it's just in my purrticular kitty nature.   ​Even now, I often find the exploration of quiet spaces to be quite helpful to my meowditations.   As an added benefit, whenever meowma has lost a little something, I can almost always find it fur her under the bed, or tucked into a furgotten corner of the armoire.  (Of course, this special bit of helpfulness on my part may stem from close acquaintance with our resident ghost kitty...)

And speaking of that ghost kitty, she has been most active of late!  While we've never quite managed to meet face-to-face, she has become quite the inspiration to myself and Haku.  Just past the stoke of midnight, nearly every night, she ventures out from her secret castle under the bed to look fur special bits of mischief.  She adores hiding away all kinds of special little items while out on her adventures, and always leaves them in the most interesting of places.  Thanks to that fun-loving kitty, I've been able to help meowma to 'rediscover' all kinds of little treasures just this week alone - hairbands, bottle caps, and even her favorite lipstick (I looked like quite the heroine on that splendid morning fishing that out from under the sink, let me tell you!) 

Miss Ghost Kitty's nightly adventures lead me to discover all kinds of new and wonderful hiding spots around our house.  Sometimes we play tag and I follow just behind her noisy paw steps, listening fur the clanks and bangs so that I can try to see her once and fur all.    Of course, meowma thinks that it's just me racing through the house at night, but that only proves that she has no imagination at all!  Just the other night, I learned about a charming little corner behind the china cupboard that I had somehow missed before.  It was purractically a treasure nest, filled to the brim with furgotten toys that my ghost kitty must have placed there (who else could have done it?!)

I've been thinking lately - what if there are many, many ghost kitties in the world?  Not just the one who is living under my meowma's bed...  Would that mean that every kitty's house has a treasure stash of toys, just waiting to be discovered by a fearless explorer of tight spaces?  Those toys I found were the BEST surprise - even Haku was impressed.  If there is any pawsibility of a ghost kitty living in your own house, I highly recommend befriending him or her - the side benefits are simply ameowzing!