Scented Cat Products
I am writing to caution cat owners to think twice before using products that contain a lot of scent for their cats.
A product featured in the August issue is what finally prompted me to write. It was a dry dog and cat shampoo that was peach scented.
Please remember how sensitive our cats' noses are compared to our own. I no longer use any scented litter for this very reason. My cats used to come from the litterbox smelling like the perfumes used in the litter (probably in the dust that gets on their hair). Knowing that I could smell the scent, I began to wonder how strong and overwhelming the scent likely was for my poor cats.
I am also beginning to use eco-friendly cleaning products around my home, which can often be purchased "scent and dye free." I know I do not like to spend a lot of time in a perfume shop, and I wonder how many of us are doing this to our cats every day without even thinking about it.
Amy S. Hilburger
Oakdale, Minn.
Cat Portrait Provided Hope During Recovery Process
Upon receiving your December issue, I was reading it with my usual zeal when I was suddenly short of breath. My drawing of my Ragdoll cat, Hamlet, had been featured in your Cats for Kids art section! Not only was this a very remarkable moment, but that drawing is of utmost importance to me. I drew it when I was 12, in the hospital recovering from anorexia. By then, I had just begun receiving CAT FANCY, and I was enjoying it almost as much as I was regretting my whole life at that point.
Your magazine was a spark of hope in my life and sending you my drawing provided me with something to hope for. Through my ten months of recovery, I continued to read CAT FANCY and continued to love cats. Now I am 14, and that drawing symbolizes the part of me that had, at that sad time, begun to recover and to embrace life. To see it in your magazine only makes it more special. Thank you, CAT FANCY.
Bretten Sullivan
West Falls, N.Y.
Solution for Gophers
As a long-time subscriber, I have never read a letter about a problem that I have a solution for. If you have a gopher problem in your yard, my solution is to place cat poop or poop and used litter in the gopher hole. Gophers don't like cat "gifts." This gopher solution has worked in several areas of our yard. It always works. Gophers stop using that area.
Barbara Witmer
San Bernardino, Calif.