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How do I make sure my Cat lives a long and healthy life?

I feed her one of the best foods I get from the pet store,

She has her vacinations and checkups up to date.

She is also spayed!!

I give her My Love and attention when she wants it.

Am I missing anything out? If so please let me know? I want her to live a long life!
I do keep her inside, I never let her out!

I think you have just about got it all covered. Just make sure she gets lots of physical and mental stimulation through playing with her regularly. Brush and comb her daily to prevent the build up of hairballs. Make sure she drinks plenty of water and offer mostly wet food, dry food makes the digestive system work too hard and can cause constipation. Avoid feeding her scraps or human foods. And finally examine her body and teeth regularly in between visits to the vet. Make sure the home is safe and be sure that any flowers or plants you have are not poisonous. Apart from these you are doing a great job! So well done.

Every cat owner eventually finds himself wondering how to get the cat to stop scratching the furniture. It's frustrating to see Fluffy making fringe of the sofa, but it's a 100% natural behavior for cats - they all do it, and it's even good for them.

Scratching serves a whole lot of feline purposes, from stretching to territorial marking. Scratching is just a fact of cat life, and trying to stop it through punishment (hitting, shouting, etc.) is stupid, useless, and downright counterproductive. Cats just don't understand or respond to punishment. Trying to punish a cat out of undesirable behavior will almost certainly destroy your relationship with the cat, and it won't do a thing toward stopping the problem behavior.

The key to happy co-existence with furniture diggers is to get them to answer this call of nature in a way that doesn't destroy your property. Here are some ways to do that.

1. Your best bet: set up a scratching post. If you have a cat with a bigtime urge to scratch, give him an approved place to do it.

There are lots of commercial scratching posts available and most are fine - just find one that fits your budget. If you select an upright model, be sure to get one that's heavy enough to remain upright when being scratched. Having the post fall over on top of the cat every time he tries to use it kind of defeats your purpose.

Put your new scratching post right in front of whatever it is the cat has been scratching. Granted, it might not be exactly the perfect accent to your decor, but then neither is shredded upholstery. If the cat really likes it, you can always gradually move it to a less conspicuous place. If you meet with a lot of resistance, try rubbing it with catnip.

2. Go on the defense. Cover the area that's being scratched with wide smooth tape, like postal strapping tape or duct tape (it looks bad, but it's better than a scratched-up sofa). One of the most effective measures is to cover the area with double-sided tape. Cats hate sticky surfaces.

3. Go on the offensive. If you can actually catch the cat in mid-dig, a quick shot with a water pistol or a spray bottle full of water is pretty effective. So is blowing a whistle or banging a tin pan. This is a tricky one, though, cause point here is NOT to punish the cat, it's to make her associate scratching the furniture with something she isn't nuts about (water or loud noises).

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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - How to Get a Cat to Stop Scratching the Furniture

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