Tips on how to keep your curious cat safe at home

You share your home with a feline or two. You acknowledge that items can no longer be left on the counters. Cabinets must be closed or locked. Plants are moved up high. Are they ever high enough? Valuables and breakables are kept in a hutch with a door. You may be asking yourself if you are living in a home with felines or if you are living in a sinking submarine where everything is tied down? Just when you think you have your feline friend safe from household dangers, something you overlooked pops up.

Here are a few more suggestions to keep your curious buddy safe, so you can say with pride, "curiosity did not kill the cat"!

Sir Walter Scott made some interesting observations when trying to characterizes feline traits. "Cats are a mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware."

A utility or laundry room can be a feline sanctuary for them and a nightmare for you. Hot water heater, furnace, washer and dryer can all hold hidden disasters. Try to keep all lids and doors closed and check the contents as a precaution before loading or turning on an appliance. Spaces behind an appliance should be checked to prevent your feline from crawling into a tight trap.

Gas dryers are famous for this problem. The coil that vents the dryer to the outside often requires too much space to prevent kinking. If you find this to be a problem, there is a product on the market called a dryer box that allows the coil to recess on the wall behind the dryer. This product allows more airflow to the vent and allows the dryer to be placed right up to the wall, to block a space your feline might normally investigate.

Laundry soaps, bleach and other cleaning agents can also be potential hazards. If toddlers find the cleaning pods attractive to eat, your feline will also find them tempting to bat around until they burst and the soap is everywhere. It will not only be a soapy mess on your feline's paws, but they may ingest it, too. Not mention the ensuing cleanup. Therefore, all cleaning products need to be placed in cabinets out of your feline's reach with childproof or feline-proof latches.

The bathroom is a feline paradise of mischief. The toilet, sink and tub are true trouble. Keep all the lids closed and free of chemicals. Some felines cannot resist water and all the games they can play in it. Try and make an extra effort to tighten all the faucet handles. Fresh water is a great temptation for some felines, even if you provide a moving water fountain for them.

Our felines seem to be quite proud of themselves once they master this skill of turning on a faucet. When you leave the bathroom try to remember to check that all the stoppers are in the up position, or you may find a flooded room when you get home hours later.

For a tiny room, the bathroom is sure a lot of work to cat-proof. Besides cleaners, you have medications, mouthwash, toothpaste, antiseptics and adhesives as just a few potential problems. All of these items need to be secured in a tamper-free cabinet. Dental floss is of great interest to our felines so do not leave it on the counter or in an open trash bin. My felines think they have discovered floss as the next-best, newly invented toy. Dental floss, like yarn, can cause serious intestinal obstructions. You can consider yourself lucky if you find floss in a neat, little hairball.

If you store your curling iron or hair dryer in the bathroom, keep it stored away to avoid burns or cord chewing. An appliance plugged in unattended or cooling is an attractive potential disaster.

In other larger rooms, placement of decorations and breakables will be a challenge that must be well thought out. Crystal, glass and ceramic items are not safe within a feline's jumping range. They can harm your feline when the fall and once shattered they are a continued hazard as sharp objects.

If you are not willing to give up live plants in totality, be sure you are familiar with the properties of all plants that enter your home. Anything toxic needs to stay outside.

Reclining chairs and collapsing tables may not be items you associate with danger to an animal. If your feline has ever fallen asleep under one and a paw or tail is pinched, you already know what I am referring too. Before you sit in a recliner you might check who might be snoozing down below.

In time, your feline will teach you on a day-to-day basis what perils it wishes to investigate. Feline-proofing your home is an ongoing, exhaustive process, so just accept the fact that you can never let your guard down. When you do, it is off to the emergency room we go!

Upcoming:

Buddy Foundation Chipotle Fundraiser: 4-8 p.m. Thursday, July 9, Chipolte, Randhurst Village, Mount Prospect. Eat at Chipolte from 4-8 p.m., and 50 percent of the proceeds will be donated to The Buddy Foundation when you present Buddy's flier to the cashier. Download and print the flier at www.thebuddyfoundation.org/images/forms/chipotle.pdf. The Buddy Foundation, 65 W. Seegers Road, Arlington Heights, is a nonprofit, all volunteer, no-kill animal shelter. For information, (847) 290-5806 or www.thebuddyfoundation.org.

Featured felines:

• Trey is a white and black male that arrived at the shelter with his siblings. They all got a late start being socialized and as a result spent most of their kittenhood sharing a set of five cat condos. During that time Trey was the most outgoing of the group and appeared to be the group leader. He recently graduated to one of our cat rooms where he is doing well. He is still a bit shy around people he doesn't know but can be friendly once you get to know him.

• Spicy is a beautiful female calico. When her humans had to move to a smaller home they couldn't take all of their furry friends with them. So several of them came to Buddy looking for a new home. Spicy currently resides in one of our cat rooms and is getting along very well with her new roommates. She can frequently be found sitting in a chair by the door or in a cat tree watching through the window at the activity in the reception area. She is a very curious cat and her eyes always seem to be full of wonder. Spicy is quite friendly and will come to greet you when you enter her room. She loves attention and will follow you around the room and sit by you if you sit down on the floor. Spend a little time with her and you will find she is a really wonderful cat.

• The Buddy Foundation, 65 W. Seegers Road, Arlington Heights, is a nonprofit (501c3), all volunteer, no-kill animal shelter dedicated to the welfare of stray, abused and abandoned cats and dogs. For information, call The Buddy Foundation at (847) 290-5806 or visit www.thebuddyfoundation.org.