Cats Site of the Week

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Cats Site of the Week
dateline 6/9/00

The Cats Site of the Week honors one cat site each week for excellence in web site design, format and content. Much like sites which have received the Best of the Net awards, Cats Sites of the Week simply leap off the screen and demand to be explored. They are really in-your-face web sites, and as such, deserve special recognition. This week's honored site is just that.

The Cat Fanciers' Association, Inc.

The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) is billed as the World's Largest Registry of Pedigreed Cats, and because of that distinction, many people who have only had "moggies" for pets over the years may think, "there's nothing there for me." Conversely, breeders and/or novices wanting to learn more about a given breed might navigate quickly to the cat show or breed directories. Indeed, there's a wealth of information in each of these pages to keep the aficionado of purebred cats happy for days. (Incidentally, most fanciers would prefer the use of "pedigreed" as opposed to "purebred", when describing their cats.) Cat "newbies" who just want to see photos of the pretty cats will find plenty of those in the 'winners' circle for Cats and for kittens.

However, there is much more to the CFA site than appears at first glance.

One small link transponds you to a veritable cornucopia of knowledge about all things feline, at Caring for Cats. Here is the heart of the site for the average visitor, and the heart of the organization for all cat owners who care about the health and welfare of their cats, which includes the vast majority of CFA members. CFA provides a wealth of articles on health topics, including the research funded by the Winn Foundation, a non-profit affiliate of the Cat Fanciers' Association, dedicated toward supporting health-related studies benefitting cats.

In fact, many of the veterinary break-throughs in recent years were supported by the Winn Foundation, including:

basic knowledge of the feline immune system
new anesthetic drugs to increase safety for cats during surgery
identified a new virus in cats called feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) that resembles human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
recognized that taurine deficiency in commercial pet foods caused feline dilated cardiomyopathy (heart disease)
initiated a controlled evaluation of early neutering/spaying in kittens to determine if there are any long term effects

An impressive list of studies can be found here.

The CFA and its members are proud of the contributions of the Winn Foundation toward the welfare of cats, and its work is a fitting tribute to the CFA and the CFA Member clubs that support it.

One last side-trip and one of the most exciting for me, is the brand new e-zine, Fanc-E-Mews. This bi-monthly online publication is geared toward the pet owner, rather than the breeder and exhibitor, and will include regular features including a featured book and review, a health article, a featured breed, cat show news, a breed profile, and more. The first issue is online now and you can sign up for notification of each issue. I did, and can't wait to see it.

See the previous Sites of the Week here:
http://cats.about.com/library/weekly/blsow_archives.htm
The permanent URL for Site of the Week is:
http://cats.about.com/pets/cats/library/weekly/blsiteofweek.htm

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