Your Cat

I start the magazine on a sad note, as after three decades, this issue marks the end of Your Cat magazine. We’ve poured a lot of initiatives, passion and energy into keeping the magazine format achievable, but unfortunately, the numbers just don’t add up in today’s digital age. We understand that many of you will be upset (us too), as over the years, the magazine has brought immense joy to cat lovers, created a community of like-minded individuals, and provided invaluable cat care information. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the entire team, from the creative minds behind design to the dedicated professionals handling production, editorial, sales, distribution, accounts, subscriptions, and marketing. There’s a long list of individuals, both past and present, whose contributions have kept Your Cat the number-one…

I had been painting landscapes, people and urban environments for a few years before my two cats came into my life. Beautiful grey and white Maine Coon x Norwegian Forest cats - and inevitably, my cats were the subject of many of my paintings. After several previous exhibitions of figurative paintings, I held my first cat painting exhibition in 1995, which proved very popular. Later, letting my imagination run wild, I began to give each cat I wanted to paint a back story, like the cat who wants to be a pirate, the artist cat or the intellectual cat who invents a time machine. This year, a collection of some of these paintings was published in a book, “Fozzlemuffin’s Friends - Some Extraordinary Cats”. When I take on commissions, I…

Bella, a 14-year-old moggie cat from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, has broken the record for the loudest purr by a domestic cat. She achieved a purr which measured an astonishing 54.6 decibels - equivalent to the volume of a boiling kettle. Whiskas is on a mission to make all cats purr more, so when they heard that Bella was a fan, they set out to see if their cat food could help her break the Guinness World Record title and secure the coveted title of the loudest purr. Nicole Spink, Bella’s proud owner, said: “We’ve always known Bella had a really loud purr – we even have to turn up the volume to hear the TV over her purring – and that’s always after mealtimes. So, when we saw that the record for…

Four-year-old Charlie from Hemlington, Middlesbrough, had to be saved by a team from White Cross Vets and the local fire service after he scrambled inside a car engine when he took fright while exploring on the road. Charlie first came to live with Cheryl Bullock and her family as an 11-week-old kitten, along with fellow black kitten Harry, when they were adopted from Cats Protection. “There were two black kittens and I just couldn’t choose between them!” Cheryl said, “People don’t really want black cats as much as they don’t think they’re as “pretty”, so when I went to adopt a kitten, I said I wanted a little black kitten, and they showed me both of them.” “Charlie isn’t a people person, despite being the size of a panther!” The…

“In July a young tabby began to appear, strolling around the bowling green, sunning himself on the bank, and completely unconcerned about the activity around him,” explains Tony Kerpel, who is on the club’s board of management. “Once established the visitor was not chipped and therefore linked to an owner, he was adopted by members who by now were making a great fuss of him. First, they organised a feeding rota and then he needed a name. In the game of Bowls, the small target ball is called a jack. So it was agreed that Jack would be a suitable name for the cat! “Concerned that the clubhouse, when locked, would be too restrictive for Jack’s sleeping requirements, he was bought a clamshell bed with which he appears very satisfied!”…

Curious cats can get themselves into all sorts of sticky situations resulting in injury, but would you know what to do if your pet came home with a wound or suspected broken limb? What about if your cat suddenly started choking or had a seizure? Learning the basics of feline first aid can enable pet owners to keep calm in situations such as these and even help to save a cat’s life through early intervention. As a responsible pet owner, one of the most important things you can do is to be prepared for a medical emergency. “Knowing what to do in an emergency may be the difference between life and death,” says PDSA vet nurse Nina Downing. “Some injuries can become life-threatening very quickly – like a bleed, or heatstroke…