That Was Fun!

Play this game to help feed sheltered cats and dogs. For every question you answer correctly, they'll donate kibbles of food to help feed abandoned pets. The more you play, the more shelter pets they can feed!

Spread the word, won't you?

(Via Julie at The Pet Blog.)

Cats, Cats and More Cats

Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos Tummy Time is being held over at Mind of Mog.

Tons and tons of feline goodness!

From today's Chicago Tribune:

Up a tree over dead cat's health plan

David Lazarus

Consumer Confidential
January 16, 2008
When Sarah Harper took her cat, Pete, to Banfield, the Pet Hospital, she was encouraged to sign up for one of the company's "optimum wellness plans."

For an enrollment fee of $69.95 and $16.95 in monthly payments, Harper was told, Pete would receive regular vaccinations and exams, as well as discounts on a variety of medical services from the nation's largest chain of veterinary facilities.

"They were talking about 'wellness' and 'healthcare,' " she said. "It seemed like insurance."

It wasn't.

Pete developed epilepsy last year and had to be put to sleep (as they say) in October. Harper subsequently contacted Banfield to terminate Pete's wellness plan. She said she was told she couldn't cancel because she'd agreed to a one-year contract.

So Harper, 29, a Chicago schoolteacher, is now paying $16.95 a month for a dead cat's healthcare.

"Pete was our little guy," she said, the tears starting to flow. "Charging for his healthcare after he's dead? That's just evil."

Banfield says it's all spelled out in the fine print.

"This is an issue we run into once in a while, when a client hasn't read the contract," said Kathy Baumgardner, a Banfield spokeswoman.

Banfield has 655 facilities nationwide, mostly attached to PetSmart pet-supply outlets. The company says it sees an average of 375,000 pets monthly, with about 2 million animals covered by wellness plans.

Banfield sees its wellness plans as a way for pet owners to manage the fixed costs of regular checkups and routine treatments. Payments can be made annually, but the company says most people opt for monthly installments.

"A lot of people couldn't afford everything a pet needs," said Karen Johnson, a vet who also serves as Banfield's vice president and client advocate. "A wellness plan spreads the cost over 12 months of payments."

That sounds straightforward enough, and Banfield's media kit states prominently that "wellness plans are not insurance policies." The materials that consumers see aren't as forthright.

The brochure for Banfield's plans describes the service as "the best preventive care your pet needs to maximize its life."

It lists a wide array of tests and procedures covered by the various plans, which range in price from $11.95 to $29.95 a month. By enrolling, it says, "your pet is on its way to a happier, healthier and longer life!"

There's also no explicit declaration in the customer contract that a wellness plan isn't insurance. But the fine print does make clear that pet owners are on the hook even if a pet goes to that big kennel in the sky.

It says monthly payments could be required "if the total amount of services rendered by Provider prior to cancellation (valued at Provider's full retail prices) exceed the sum of monthly installments retained or recovered by Provider."

That sort of language may sail over the heads of many people.

ConsumerAffairs.com, a popular consumer-advocacy website, includes numerous complaints about Banfield, ranging from overcharging to alleged malpractice. Other sites make clear that the company's wellness plans are often mistaken for insurance.

"My pet was put to sleep due to a terminal illness, and Banfield said I would have to continue to pay the premiums until the end of the contract," one person posted on complaintsboard.com. "Death was not a good reason to discontinue paying the wellness premium."

"SAME THING HERE!" another person replied. "Our puppy got really sick and could not fight the sickness off and passed away the same month we got the wellness plan. They would not let us cancel, or even change the plan to our other dog. We are still paying insurance for a dog we don't have!!!"

Banfield's Johnson said the company was aware of the online complaints.

"It's unfortunate that those are out there," she said. "We have 2 million pets on wellness plans. We take good care of them."

Harper said she received little sympathy when she first contacted Banfield after Pete's death.

"I told them my cat had died and they said I couldn't terminate the contract," she recalled. "I said that my cat was dead and didn't need a wellness plan anymore. They said only that I'd signed a legally binding contract."

At my request, Harper called Banfield back the other day and asked more specifically about why she was still being charged. This time, she was informed that the monthly fees were covering more than $350 in veterinary bills run up during Pete's illness.

"Now I see it's just a payment plan, like buying a car," Harper told me. "That's not how it was originally presented."

She and other pet owners might want to look into the real deal. The country's largest provider of pet coverage is Veterinary Pet Insurance, based in Brea. The company insures about 460,000 pets.

Brian Iannessa, a spokesman for VPI, said policies typically cost $25 to $30 a month -- about the same as a comprehensive Banfield wellness plan -- and reimbursed expenses for most tests and treatments.

If your pet dies, the coverage ends. Period.

"You would notify us that your pet is deceased, and the policy would be terminated a day later," Iannessa said.

Also, unlike Banfield's wellness plans, VPI and similar providers are regulated by the California Department of Insurance.

I related to Iannessa what happened to Harper and the payments she's still making for a dead cat.

There was a brief silence as he considered the situation.

"I can see how that would seem heartless in some pet owners' eyes," Iannessa replied.

Contract terms notwithstanding, it's hard to see it otherwise.

Consumer Confidential runs Wednesdays and Sundays. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com.

Copyright © 2008, The Los Angeles Times

Say What?

Someone is having WAY too much fun with PhotoShop:



Click here to see 'em all.

Cats & Diabetes

From today's Chicago Tribune:

Cat diabetes growing problem

By Jennifer Mann

McClatchy Newspapers

8:21 AM CST, December 3, 2007

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

We're all aware of the alarm sounding and hand-wringing over the ever-increasing numbers of children and adults diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

But we are not alone. The epidemic of diabetes is increasingly afflicting the kitties curled up on our overlarge laps as we have allowed our tabbies to get tubby.

While there is not full agreement as to the causes, in general experts say the soaring rates of diabetes in the pet population -- and cats in particular -- mimic the reasons that it has become epidemic in the people population: increasingly sedentary lifestyles coupled with copious consumption of highly refined foods.

Francis Kallfelz, a professor of veterinary nutrition at Cornell University, confirms that obesity in the pet population is burgeoning.

"The literature shows that there is a huge incidence of overweightness in our pet population that's getting to be a bigger and bigger problem," Kallfelz said. "Just like it is in the case of human beings."

While there is a debate on the cause of the rising numbers of cats with diabetes, one theory gaining traction is that much of the dry cat food is too high in carbohydrates and too low in protein.

University of Missouri-Kansas City biology professor Karen Bame was shocked when she found out her beloved black cat, Rachel, was diabetic.

Her cat's veterinarian, Eliza Sundahl, sat her down and explained that cats, as carnivores, need diets high in protein. "It sort of blew me away because I teach biochemistry, and I had just gotten through with a lecture with my students about diabetes in people and how they should stay away from proteins," Bame said.

But people and cats have vastly different physiologies. People (and dogs) are omnivores -- they'll eat animals and plants. Cats are carnivores, and, left to their own devices, eat other animals.

Bame switched Rachel from a high-carbohydrate kibble food to high-protein canned food. Four months after the switch, 15-pound Rachel went from 3 units of insulin a day to 1 1/2. And while not exactly svelte, she is a much healthier 11 pounds.

"When we first changed her food, she was not terribly happy," Bame said. "Now I buy organic food at Wild Oats that smells horrible. Rachel loves it."

Elizabeth Hodgkins, a vet in Yorba Linda, Calif., falls firmly in the camp of diet as the key to preventing and treating cat diabetes. She administers the www.yourdiabeticcat.com Web site and is the author of the recently published book, "Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life."

Hodgkins, who worked eight years in the pet food industry, thinks feeding cats dry kibbles is analogous to filling children's cereal bowls with sugarfrosted flakes.

She is trying to change attitudes among her colleagues, who she thinks are compassionate pet lovers but fall prey to habits. She contends that treating diabetic cats without making a switch in diets defeats the purpose.

"It's akin to treating a child for lead poisoning while continuing to feed them paint chips," Hodgkins said.

Hodgkins changed her outlook on pet food 10 years ago after her cat, Punkin, became diabetic and she took a close look at what she had been feeding him. Shortly after switching her kitty to a high-protein canned food, her cat was cured of diabetes, she said.

"How in the world did intelligent people miss this?" she asked. "I don't have a good answer for that, because I was part of that group of intelligent people."

Some in the $11 billion U.S. pet food industry have taken notice of the trend.

Deborah Greco, a senior research scientist for Purina, started researching the diabetic diet connection in the late 1990s, eventually helping create a food with a nutritional makeup that mimicked cats eating mice.

The food, which was introduced in 2001 and dubbed "Catkins" by many, is 3 percent carbohydrate, 55 to 60 percent protein and the rest fat.

"All I can say is I keep an individual file of people who have called and e-mailed me thanking me for saving their cats," Greco said.

Kallfelz "wholeheartedly and respectfully" disagrees with the premise that high-carb dry food is the culprit.

"I have seen no published evidence to the effect that feeding cats dry foods is a risk factor for diabetes. To make the leap of faith ... that dry food is causing the problem is not a rational leap of faith," said Kallfelz, a member of the National Pet Food Commission. The commission was formed this year by the trade association, the Pet Food Institute, after the widespread recall of pet food thought to be tainted by ingredients imported from China.

Kallfelz pointed to a recent study from Utrecht University's Department of Clinical Sciences of Companion Animals in the Netherlands, concluding that indoor confinement and inactivity were the biggest contributors to cat diabetes.

Bame's veterinarian Sundahl thinks both viewpoints have validity. She thinks cats need to follow the same medical advice often given their owners -- watch their diet and get more exercise. She is a proponent of getting our fat, lazy cats off the couch.

Our cats would be better served, she said, if we got them up and about, advice she had for her receptionist, Pat Landwehr, whose tuxedo kitty Sparkle is overweight and has diabetes.

Sundahl recommends pet owners move their cat's food bowl every two or three days. Make it hunt in the house. More important, she said, understand and control portions.

Before society turned cats into house-bound pets to protect them from the dangers of the outdoors, they roamed neighborhoods in the cover of dark. Sundahl said that for every 30 to 40 attempts at catching prey, cats scored four or five times. Not only did that supplement their diet, it gave them exercise.

"That's a lot of activity," Sundahl said. "Now, our cats lay on the couch, know where the food bowl is, saunter over, eat and saunter back."

PSA

PET HEALTH MANUAL, WRITTEN IN EVERYDAY LANGUAGE, AVAILABLE WITH DONATION TO MORRIS ANIMAL FOUNDATION – A PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT IDEA

The Merck/Merial Manual For Pet Health, Home Edition is the Complete Health Resource for Your Dog, Cat,Horse and Other Pets – Written in Plain Language

Media Contact:
Michael Burke, Morris Animal Foundation
303-790-2345
mburke@morrisanimalfoundation.org

Denver, Nov. 14, 2007: Here is the perfect gift idea that will not only be invaluable to the pet owner/animal lover on your gift list but also will directly benefit the health of companion animals and wildlife. Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) is offering the new Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health on its Web site: www.morrisanimalfoundation.org. For a minimum $100 donation, MAF will send a complimentary copy of this complete new pet health guide, written in everyday language, to you or the person you identify. This complete pet health resource covers dogs, cats, horses and many other pets. Place your holiday gift order for the pet health manual at www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/merck_book_form as soon as possible for receipt by Christmas. Shipping will take a minimum of seven to 10 days from date of order.

###

About Morris Animal Foundation: Morris Animal Foundation, established in 1948, is dedicated to funding research that protects, treats and cures companion animals and wildlife. MAF has been at the forefront of funding breakthrough research studies benefiting animals in some 100 countries, spanning all seven continents on earth. MAF has its headquarters in Denver, Colorado. The Foundation has funded nearly 1,400 humane animal health studies with funds totaling more than $51 million. One hundred percent of annual donations go to fund health study programs. For more information, call (800) 243-2345, or visit www.morrisanimalfoundation.org.

Friday Cat Blogging

The Friday Ark is up at the Modulator. Remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 180th edition, 9/3, is up at This Blog Is Full of Crap . The 181st edition will be hosted on 9/9 by Mind of Mog. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #118 hosted on 9/8-9 by What Did You Eat?

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Have a great weekend, all!