Memories of Halloween...

The leaves have turned yellow, and the street sweeper comes by everyday to vacuum up the leaves.  My winter coat is beginning to grow in, and I spend my days sleeping in front of the space heater.

Halloween is a only a few days away now.  The annoying human dressed me up as an angel so that she could post pictures of me on her Make Your Cat a Halloween Costume “lens”.  (Click on "Make Your Cat a Halloween Costume" if you want to see me looking ridiculous.)  I found it quite embarrassing, as cats are not meant to be dressed up!

She never liked me to get too close...

As I was saying, I remember two years ago on Halloween, when I was a free cat roaming the outdoors.  I didn’t have to pose in silly costumes back then.  Anyway, on Halloween night I was visited by my two friends at the time.  The reason they wanted to stay with me was because they were both black cats.  We’ve all heard stories about black cats being sacrificed in satanic rituals on Halloween, so my friends were scared.  Even though we didn’t expect anything like that to happen around here, us cats still needed to be careful.

The air was cool and crisp, with the faint scent of burning leaves riding on the wind.  I could hear the sound of laughing trick or treaters, but as the night grew colder, they went home to bed.  Usually I didn’t completely get along with my friends, but that night we didn’t get into any “cat fights”. We were afraid someone would hear cats yowling and come to torture us.  Even one of my enemies- a mostly black cat who liked to picks fights, came into my yard and joined us.

My enemy and me at a distance. Look at those eyes!

We huddled together in silence until we realized that nothing was coming to get us.  I was finally brave enough to speak.  After the silence was broken, we told one another scary stories until dawn, when our inspiration ran out.  We all parted ways, as our owners expected us to return home.  I ran home and was welcomed into the warm house.  I wish I could still hear the rustling of leaves under my paws… those were the days.  I bet this Halloween all I’m going to do is sleep all day.  At least it’s warm inside!

I've got Kitty Pimples

I'm sure you've been wondering where I've been this past month.  In fact I've been too busy looking out the window to even think about touching the computer.  You know, computers take time away from the family... these days all people are thinking about is what to put on their Facebook statuses.

See my larger pimple? 

I decided to have some quality time and actually take a nap on my adopted "mother's" lap while she read.  Usually I can't stand sitting on people's laps, but luckily she had a fuzzy robe on and I wanted to be nice.  The only other news I have is that my acne has gotten worse.  I know, I know, in human years I'm in my early twenties.  I really shouldn't be having the trademark pimples of teenhood.  Unfortunately that just isn't the case with me.

For a while now I've been having small black specks where my follicles are getting clogged with black sebaceous material.  Luckily they are mostly disguised by my chin fur.  One of my pimples got larger a couple days ago, got pink and bled a bit.  While cleaning it off with a bit of peroxide (a common treatment for feline acne) my adopted mother noticed that there was pus on it.  If only I could steal some of that ZapZyt from the human's cabinet, then I would be totally pimple free!

I'll leave you with some of the possible causes and treatments for feline acne.

Reasons we cats get acne

• Stress.  Just moved to a new house? You might get some acne.
• Plastic or ceramic food bowls.  Those are houses for bacteria! (I have a ceramic dish...)
• Poor grooming habits- Definitely not me!
• Over active sebaceous glands.
• Food allergies.  

How to treat feline acne

• If the acne isn't severe, use a topical treatment such as peroxide, iodine, Epsom salts, or antibacterial soap.
• Topical Vitamin A
• Topical retinoids
• If it's more severe you may have to use an ointment containing benzoyl peroxide.  
• If you find that the acne is getting so bad that the cat's chin is raw, you might want to consult a veterinarian.
• Cats can NOT use anti-acne treatments for humans! 

If you want to prevent acne all you need to do is switch to a metal food bowl, and you should stay acne free.  Ceramic is definitely better than plastic but can still house bacteria.  Make sure you wash food and water bowls at least once daily!  

Now I just need to figure out how to get rid of these things!