7-2-I-Search-PhilipTo

= What does it take to raise a cat? I-Search Inquiry = by Philip

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I was walking down main street flushing and we needed to buy fish food for our fishes. We walked in to the pet store and got the Tropical Fish Brand fish food. I looked to the left and so did my older brother and we saw this cat that was cute and we knew we wanted it. So we had to go to the bank and withdraw some money. The cat was a Persian. After that we brought the cat and negotiated a deal where we got a free cage and some free cat food. The way we negotiated was that my mom talked to him and told him that if he didn't sell it to us, somebody else might buy the cat for cheaper then us, which was a lie. The reason it was a lie was that my mom negotiated the cat from a price of 1000 dollars to 700 dollars where we also got free stuff as mentioned before. We brought the cat home and named her Happy after we brought some stuff but now there was a problem. How do we raise the cat that we love and just brought?

I was now lost. I had a cat but I did not know how to raise it, should the litter box go here, should I limit the cat to not go here, or what food should I feed it so it has a balanced and healthy diet. The next day, my mom came home with a cat book called Cat Facts that her co-worker who was a cat owner had. I read the book a lot and it helped me a lot. I now knew how to raise my cat, where to put the litter box (Schneck P. 22) (NOT IN THE KITCHEN because it will STINK the place up). When i checked the cat facts book, the fact was, it said that i should feed my cat a balanced and healthy diet so i was correct. Another thing was that I learned from the book is that wet food is better for the cat then dry food because their are more nutrients in wet food then dry food. I finally learned a lot more on my cat and I continued to read more about my cat. I learned some interesting things about my cat such as that Persians are one of the weak types of cats and that these cats will get sick easily. As long as you keep your house clean, your cat should be safe and sick free.

Because Persians were a weak type of cat, they get sick easily and because of that my cat got an ear infection a few weeks later. Now we were faced with a new problem that my new cute cat had an ear infection. I had to do research on WIkipedia on cats and what ear infections were in cats and to make sure it wasn't mites or other ear problems. Now we had to bring her to the vet and check her up and how to fix this problem. They gave us some medication and a check up and the bill was 200$ DOLLARS, which is quite expensive for a vet visit. After that the cat got better and now we knew how to take care of my cat better and to make sure she doesn't get sick we now have to sanitize the everyday to keep the place clean. So now my cat was much better since now I knew more about my cat and how to protect it from these not sanitized things and protecting it from getting sick. So now my family is much happier where as to before I was lost.

I also interviewed my neighbors because he has raised a cat for 16 years named Grey and he told me that cats also have to throw up hair balls once a while and to watch out because it's not a nice thing to see. That was some nice information to hear and another thing was that cats like mine are indoor cat my neighbor said. "They hate to go outside and if you do bring them out side, be sure to watch the cat jump right back on your hand" was the exact words my neighbor said in the interview. He also said that if you want to raise a cat, you have to give it attention and pet it once a day or twice a day, cats love that. The last thing that he told me was that "The more you know about your pet, the more you can make it so that your pet's life is better and yours is easier." That was the end of the interview and I used what I learned to help me raise my cat better and make my cat happier by petting it more.

I just did research for a short time and now I know how to raise my cat better and because of that my cat is happier and is gets sick a lot less. I learned a lot and something I learned was that cats would love you the more you give it attention. I knew very little before my cat and I now know a lot more then I ever knew about cat. As my neighbor said "The more you know about your pet, the more you can make it so that your pet's life is better and yours is easier." I have won the battle with my cat and now it doesn't get sick and also does loves me a lot. The only battle I haven’t won yet was the battle of expensive foods because my cat will only eat expensive brands of food and anything else it won't touch and will just wait by it's food basket.

Schneck, Marcus, and Jill Carvan. __Cat Facts__. London: Quarto, 1990. 6-160) "Cats." Wikipedia. 17 Apr. 2008 <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat>.] Carrion, Eddy, Personal interview, April, 14, 2008