Pet Gazette

As the temperatures drop and the hours of darkness lengthen, cat owners who allow their feline friends to go outdoors need to be a little extra vigilant to ensure that their cat keeps healthy and safe throughout the winter.

The first thing that you cat needs is some kind of reflective collar.  Although you may not be keen on the bright luminous yellow, pink or orange offerings in the pet store, there can be no denying their effectiveness for showing where your cat is in a dark area.  If you are in a mainly residential area with a lot of cars coming and going, a cat can easily be lost amongst the darkness but a bright collar that reflects the headlights of the car helps a driver to see it.  If you’re in a mainly rural setting then perhaps you don’t need a full luminous collar but could put one of the more trendy ones that have reflective strips or motives around them.   It goes without saying that you should always have an ID tag of some description on your cat year round, but if you have changed the cat’s collar specifically for the dark nights, make sure you take the time to transfer the cat’s ID tag to the new collar also.

Temperatures are cold enough during the day, but overnight they’re often around freezing or lower.  If your cat usually goes out, and you don’t have a cat flap where he cat let himself back into the house when he’s had enough “fresh” air, try to encourage him not to go out at all later at night.  If he is out, see if you can train him to come back in (shaking food cans or packets is often a good way of doing this) before you go to bed.  This way you can be sure that no matter how low the temperatures drop, your cat is going to be safe and warm in the house.  If he doesn’t like the idea of being locked in at night, consider fitting a cat flap to one of your doors so that he can come inside if it gets too cold.  An older cat especially should be protected from being out too much in the cold weather as this could bring on health issues such as rheumatism from sitting on icy or damp places.

Cats are quite self sufficient and are not likely to go outside if they think it’s too cold, but by ensuring that they are well seen if they are out, and able to get back indoors when they choose, you are keeping them as safe as possible without the need to make them into indoors cats.

The dark winter nights are here and so it’s time to think about keeping safe when out walking your dog.  At one time there was little you could do other than hope that the drivers were watching the road and would see you and your dog, but these days are a number of items that you can buy to ensure that you are seen and safe even in most badly lit of areas.

The first thing you can get is some kind of reflective collar for your dog; this will show up in the cars headlights.  You could get one that is completely reflective, or you don’t fancy that, you could buy one that has reflective parts to it.  An alternative to this would be to put a temporary reflector – such as one you’d attach to a child’s jacket to the dog when you’re taking him out.

The dog’s leash is another good thing to have reflected, although having it in some kind of luminous colour won’t just show a driver that there’s a dog nearby, it will also let you see where the dog leash is so that you don’t fall over it.  If you can’t find one of these to buy, or you use a retractable leash that isn’t night reflective, buy some luminous/reflective fabric paint that glows in the dark, and paint a line up the centre of the leash (keep it taut out of the hand grip until it dries).  Depending on how this works on your particular leash, you may have to apply this again during the winter as it may wear off with the leashes retracting mechanism making it scuff against itself, but it should work well for letting you see where the leash is especially if your dog’s managed to get himself a good 3-4 meters away from you!

Lastly, you also need to think about your own personal safety in the dark.  If you don’t want to wear a bright jacket, at least wear a reflective strip around your arm, or across the back of your jacket.  You may also find some things at a cyclist’s supply shop that you mightn’t be too reluctant to wear!  Remember that winter clothes are dark, and at night motorists may not see you (especially if they’re gossiping on a mobile phone, or to someone in the car) so wear something that will be picked up in their headlights and make sure both you and your dog can be seen in the dark.