Conference misery::feline

    I don't know that mine qualify as extreme hazards, but they're
    definitely No Fun for the kitties:
    
    Empty plastic bags (like from the supermarket): if the kitty gets his
    head (or foreleg) through one of the handles and then walks fast or
    runs, the bag balloons out like a parachute behind him, making all
    kinds of crinkly noises and scaring the tripe out of the kitty.  Kitty
    then streaks around the house panic-stricken; it can be quite a chore
    to capture him so you can remove the bag.
    
    Similarly (a friend told me last night), a kitty can stick his head
    into a (mostly-) empty Kleenex Boutique box and then not be able to get
    it back out (the plastic around the opening hugs the neck).  Similar
    panic-streaking ensues.
    
    Leslie

We see several cats a year who've swallowed thread - sometimes the end of it
gets caught under their tongue. If not removed and some gets stuck in their
intestines, intestinal motion can cause the thread to cut right through their
internal organs. It isn't a cheap operation to have them opened up from
possibly stomach to colon to make sure it all gets removed.

							Trace

    re: mini blind cords.  These can trap small children
    as well.  Most miniblind places sell adapters where you can
    cut the loop of the cord and attach gizmos to the now separate
    ends.
    

    Along the line of cords....this is a common "toy" setup for kittens:
    
    A string with a piece of paper, stick, etc. tied to one end and the
    other end tied to a handle.  The kitten/cat can bat the object around
    and they usually have alot of fun with it.
    
    That is.....until I walked in and found my kitten with the string
    wrapped around her neck.  Fortunately, I was in time and she was none
    the worse but had I not been home it could have been tragic.  Now I
    hold one end of the string and let them play.  Then, I put the toy away
    until next time.
    
    

    
    My baby kitty eats through string and swallows it! I have to watch her 
    like a hawk when I play the string game with her!
    
    Nancy

    Hi everyone.. long time no see... 
    
    I had to reply to this note.  Many people have those wonderful "kitty
    teasers".  Usually a rod of plastic or wood with mylar or feathers on
    the end.  DON'T leave them hanging around.  Be sure that they are
    locked away in a place where kitty can't get them.
    
    A few years ago, I had been playing with the kitties with a teaser.  I
    placed it on the coffeetable afterward and sat down to watch tv.  I saw
    it move, heard a kitty shreak, hiss, then shreak again, and Kyra went
    running under my bed.  She SEEMED to be ok, just a little shaken up. 
    She developed a large lump on the side of her neck the next day.  It
    turns out that she had grabbed it and tried to run with it when it got
    caught on the rug.  It went down her throat and punctured her esophogus
    (sp??).  It came within half an inch from her juggular.
    
    Holly
    
    p.s.  Kyra's fine now.,

    CANDLES.
    
    I occasionally like to burn candles.  I knew enough not to leave the 
    room unattended, but Tenzing walked by one on her way to my lap and
    caught her tail on fire!  She panicked, I grabbed her tail, and 
    managed to put the fire out as she ran away.  She got off with some
    singed fur, but it could have been much worse if she had kept trying
    to run away from the fire.
    
    I NEVER use candleholders anymore that leave a candle flame exposed.
    I searched out and bought a number of hurricane-like candleholders 
    where the candle is recessed enough that a cat can't get hurt.
    
    Karen.

    Cotton balls, believe it or not.  Misty was batting one around (don't
    ask me how she found it!) and all of a sudden I saw her sort of 
    jerking her head up and down.  I opened her mouth and boom, there was a
    cotton ball sitting all soggy on her tongue.  She didn't know whether
    she should swallow it or throw it up.
    
    I would also be careful around marbles, hard candies, marshmallows,
    matches, aspirin, medications -- in other words, if it's something you
    would put up on a high shelf if kids were around, do the same thing for
    your kitties.

    Melody (the Maine coon kitten) *LOVES* packing peanuts!  You can tell
    even before you open it whether or not an arriving box has packing
    peanuts (as opposed to crumpled-up newspaper or some other padding
    material) by what the kitten does when the human slaves drag the box
    inside.  If there are packing peanuts in it, the kitten is all over the
    box until someone opens it and removes the contents that are only
    interesting to human slaves.  Then the kitten hops in and steals a
    packing peanut!  She has a great time with these things, batting them
    around, carrying them around in her mouth, and crunching them up.  I
    try to make sure she doesn't get them, or take them away from her if
    she does, because I'm afraid she'll swallow one, but she sure has a
    good time trying to get them.  It's especially funny if I am trying to
    pack something into a box and pad it with packing peanuts - you
    practically have to lock her up or the kitten will end up in the box!
    
    I get and send a lot of mail-order stuff, so there are usually several
    cartons of packing peanuts in the storeroom - I have to real careful
    that Melody doesn't "leak" into there when I go in that room to get
    something!
    
    /Charlotte                                                           

    
    Packing peanuts + dry winter interior + kitty = hilarious situtation.
    
    The more kitty struggles and rubs, the more static the fur gets and the
    more peanuts the fur attracts.                  
    
    
    Eva
    (after laughing hard for 1/2 hr, I do help the poor kitties)

    Melody would probably *LOVE* it if the packing peanuts stuck to her
    fur!  I guess I keep my house more humid since this hasn't occurred,
    even though my humidifier is currently broken (doesn't matter until
    next winter, but the part the thing needs is no longer made, and since
    it is an integral part of the furnace, replacing it with some other
    part is going to be real tricky!  Entropy spent the winter at my place
    - as Eva knows since she sits next to me here and can examine which
    sorts of grime I have under my fingernails on Monday mornings, I've
    spent the last several weekends frantically fixing all sorts of things
    that broke or were damaged by the severe winter!).
    
    /Charlotte

    My wife and I just moved into a new 2 bedroom apartment.  For which we
    baught a new hutch (Aprox. 6 feet high)  Taila, our youngest, and
    smaller of the two, Woke us up to such a fright one night!
    We were sleeping at about 4:00 am when SMASH!  I jumped out of bed to
    see what it was (I just knew it was the cats)  Well there was our
    hutch, fallen over onto the corners of both the couch and love seat. 
    All of the dishes from our recent wedding were on the floor!  
    I figured it was Taila (Oscar is to coward to jump onto anything) and
    that she had jumped up on the front and did'nt quite make it because
    our hutch has a lip at the top and she braught it down.
    	I was going kill her!  But when I saw her hidding under the bed
    shaking, her eyes the size of quarters.  I was immediatly thankfull I
    was'nt pulling the hutch off her or taking her to the vet with glass in
    her.
    	The next morning I rearranged the living room to eliminate
    adventerous jumping and exploring.   
        

    Q-tips.  Vernon used to wait for me to come out of the shower so I
    would give him one to play with it.  About a year later, I realized he
    saw what I was doing with them after and began emptying the basket in
    the bathroom to find them when I was gone to work. Ukk!  Anyways...
    years later I gave him one to play with, forgetting the fun he had with
    them until one got stuck in his throat and it took three of us to calm
    him enough to get it out.
    
    cj