It used to be that unless you had an identification tag on your cat your chances of finding the cat if he or she went missing were slim to none. With modern technology, however, that’s changing. Although some people may be opposed to microchipping their cats because of religious or moral reasons, having your cat microchipped will help animal shelters and animal control officers reunite you with your cat if ever he or she becomes lost. Before you decide to microchip your cat or kitten, you should have a full understanding of what a microchip is and what it isn’t. A microchip identification tag is a small computer chip containing information linking you to your cat. The chip is inserted subcutaneously (under the skin) with a needle, a procedure which takes only a few minutes. It is common practice to insert the chip, which is non-toxic and about the size of a grain of rice, between your cat’s shoulder blades. It will not cause your cat discomfort or allergic reactions. Because the chip is skin deep you may be able to feel it occasionally, depending on the size and weight of your cat.

Additionally, the chip can migrate with age, though because it is only skin deep it will not migrate into any vital organs. Animal shelters and veterinarians are aware that chips can migrate and as a result will scan a lost cat or dog’s entire body to check for a microchip. KIttens may be equipped with a microchip as young as five weeks old, though the size and age of the animal being microchipped (in this case a cat) is not what determines the appropriate time to insert the microchip. House For Sale In Zihuatanejo MexicoRather, it is the health and stability of your kitten. Home For Sale Lynnwood Wa YahooAlthough the insertion of the microchip is noninvasive and does not require anesthesia, kittens younger than five weeks old are still very fragile and most likely still nursing. Discount Tires Manhattan Ks

In most shelters it's standard practice to wait until the kitten is eight weeks old (or about two pounds) to insert the microchip. It is important to know that a microchip is not a Global Positioning System (GPS) or tracking device. You will not be able to use the microchip to trace your cat if he or she goes missing. Additionally, in order for the microchip to be effective you should make sure your information (phone number, home address, and emergency contact) is up to date. The main benefit of having a microchip is pretty straight forward — when paired with the right contact information and a microchip, you can be reunited with your cat if she should get lost. And since most microchip companies serve as an intermediary during the reuniting process, your home address and phone number is more secure than if it was placed on a regular ID tag. (Note: If preferable, microchip companies also give you the option of allowing the finder of your lost cat to call you directly.) You can also update your contact information with the microchip company as frequently as you’d like by simply making a phone call or sending an e-mail.

In fact, it is recommended that change your contact information every time you change your phone number or address. Most of us don’t want to think of the worst case scenario until it happens. Often we can’t fathom the idea of our cats escaping (even indoor cats!), but there are plenty of reasons it occurs. Whether your cat runs away from the cat sitter, escapes during a party, or bolts after hearing a slew of fireworks, having your cat microchipped can be a lifesaver.9 Most Expensive Cat Breeds Here’s a look at the most expensive cat breeds.Tigers in Crisis is Produced by Endangered Species Journalist Craig Kasnoff to Promote the Plight of Endangered Tigers and the Efforts to Save Them.Sumatra is just half an hour from here. I’ve never visited it, but I’m awfully curious. So, I was excited to hear today that the World Wildlife Fund put cameras in the forest there and caught pictures of 5 species of wild cats! You can see them here: • World Wildlife Fund, Remarkable images of big cats urge forest protection.

I’ve been curious about the smaller wild cats of Asia ever since I met this absurdly sweet thing which belongs to a friend of mine named Julia Strauss: Julia lives in London, but she went all the way to Wales to buy this cat. Because it’s a Bengal. That means it’s a crossbreed of an ordinary domestic cat with a leopard cat! The leopard cat, Prionailurus bengalensis, is the most widespread of the Asian small cats. It has a huge range, from the Amur region in the Russian Far East through Korea, China, Indochina, India… all the way to the Pakistan in the west… and to Philippines and some islands in Indonesia in the south. It’s listed as ‘least vulnerable’ to extinction. So, it’s not surprising that leopard cats are one of the kinds the WWF saw in Sumatra. Here’s one in the Berlin Zoo, photographed by F. Spangenberg:It’s about the size of a domestic cat, but it has a different number of chromosomes than Felis domesticus, so it’s a bit remarkable that they can interbreed.

The resulting Bengals share some traits with the leopard cat: or example, leopard cats like to fish, and Bengals like to play around in their water bowls! Another cat the WWF saw in Sumatra is the marbled cat, Pardofelis marmorata. It’s again about the same size as a house cat, but it likes to hunt while climbing around in trees! This feisty fellow is listed as ‘vulnerable;—there are probably about 10,000 of them in the world, not counting kittens. They live from the Himalayan foothills westward into Nepal and eastward into southwest China, and also on Sumatra and Borneo. Then there’s the Asian golden cat, Pardofelis temminckii. These guys are two to three times as big as a domestic cat! I saw one at the Night Safari in Singapore—a kind of zoo for nocturnal animals. Here’s a picture of one taken by Karen Stout: They live all the way from Tibet, Nepal, and India to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, to down here around Malaysia and Sumatra. However, they’re listed as ‘near threatened’, due to hunting and habitat loss.

They’re hunted for the illegal wildlife trade, and some people kill it for eating poultry—and also supposedly sheep, goats and buffalo calves. Moving further up the size ladder, we meet the Sunda clouded leopard, Neofelis diardi. Here’s a great photo by ‘spencer77’: These guys are special! They only live on Borneo and Sumatra, they’re listed as “vulnerable”, and scientists only realized they’re a separate species in 2006! Before that, people thought they were the same as the ordinary kind of clouded leopard, Neofelis nebulosa. But genetic testing showed that they diverged from that species about 1.4 million years ago, after having crossed a now submerged land bridge to reach Borneo and Sumatra. I’ve seen the ordinary kind of clouded leopard at the Night Safari. But calling them ‘ordinary’ is not really fair: they’re beautiful, mysterious, well-camouflaged beasts—very hard to see even if you know they’re right in front of you! Indeed, very little is known about either kind of clouded leopard, because they’re so elusive and reclusive.

And finally, the biggest kitty on the island: the Sumatran tiger, Panthera tigris sumatrae! It’s a subspecies of tiger that only lives on Sumatra. It’s listed as “critically endangered”. The World Wildlife Fund estimates there are fewer than 500 of these tigers left in the wild—maybe a lot fewer. This beauty was photographed in the Berlin Zoo by ‘Captain Herbert’: Sumatran tigers have webbing between their toes, which makes them really good swimmers! They get up to 2.5 meters long, but they’re is the smallest of tigers, as you might expect from a species on a hot tropical island. (The biggest is the Siberian tiger, which I talked about earlier.) There are lots of palm oil plantations in Sumatra. People burn down the jungle to plant palms, and the smoke sometimes creates a thick smelly haze even here in Singapore. This deforestation is the main threat to the Sumatran Tiger. Also, many tigers are killed every year by poachers. On the bright side, in 2006 the Indonesia Forestry Service, the Natural Resources and Conservational Agency, and the Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program sat down with companies including Asia Pulp & Paper and set up the Senepis Buluhala Tiger Sanctuary, which is 106,000 hectares in size.