DEAR DR. FOX: We have an almost-1-year-old kitten who is both a terrible bossy little thing and a much-loved addition to our home. We live in a small town with a large wild animal population that we want to protect her from -- and also protect from her -- so we don’t allow her outside on her own.

I have leash-trained her, which now feels like a huge mistake. She loves it, and we have committed to getting her outside for at least an hour each day, but it is hugely boring for my husband and myself. It involves standing in the driveway to watch ants, staring at the neighbor’s fence and looking into bushes for long periods. But I know this is important to her!

She believes anytime we are in the living room and kitchen area, we are available to go outside. She does not harass us to go outside unless we are in the main area of the house, but when we are, it is relentless and insistent crying. Understand that we play and cuddle with her; she has a handmade climbing structure that is periodically rearranged for variety; we introduce new toys regularly, and have windows where she can sit and listen to/smell the outside world. We are not able to build her a cat structure that she can independently access, as we have a coyote den across the street and a raccoon family in a spruce tree in our backyard. And I fear that wouldn’t be safe anyway, as I know many people who have had their chicken coops broken into.

How do we stop the crying? Sometimes I put her in the back room where she has a backup litter box and water, just so it’s quieter. I feel guilty, but I need to do chores -- or just sit and eat -- without listening to her cry. We normally take her outside in the early evening, and she spends the day in the office with me happily.

I’ve tried preempting the crying by going outside earlier in the day, but as soon as we sit on the couch, start to cook or sit at the table to drink coffee, she is there yelling at us. In general, it seems she needs more stimulation than other cats I’ve had. I want to provide her with a life that is happy and meets her needs, but the crying is too much. If I take a work break in the bedroom, she comes and cuddles, but if I take it in the living room, she demands to go outside. As soon as she comes inside, she is back to demanding to go out again, and only stops if we leave the room or she falls asleep.

Please help! -- M.M., Port Townsend, Washington

DEAR M.M.: Many readers will appreciate your description of “walking” your cat (always in a well-fitting harness, I assume). It is quite different from taking the dog for a walk. We must follow at the cat’s pace! Sometimes they just collapse -- they want to sun-bask and bake on the hot trail or sidewalk.

Then there are things to see and sniff and hear for cats that are way beyond the realm of our normal senses (until we enter the cat’s mind, as I strive to do in my book “Cat Body, Cat Mind”). Cats have taught me a lot in this lifetime, and there is much more to learn.

Your cat has trained you -- yes, they do learn ways to control us -- and now demands constant walks outside. Considering the coyotes and raccoons, my usual suggestions -- building an outside “catio” or putting your cat on a safe running line -- are out of the question. Instead, consider getting another cat: a friendly, neutered, slightly younger one that tests negative for feline viral leukemia and immunodeficiency viruses.

Cats have taught me that two cats living together are generally much healthier, less obese and happier than those who live with only human companionship. We humans cannot fulfill all the social and emotional needs of other species we take in as “pets.” They can only do it for each other, and they do it best!

M.M. REPLIES: Thank you for your response. Armed with your professional input, I will encourage a visit to the local shelter and adopt another cat!

BIG DOGS NEUTERED EARLY ARE AT RISK FOR JOINT PROBLEMS

Mixed-breed dogs that weigh more than 44 pounds as adults are more likely than smaller dogs to have joint problems if they were neutered or spayed before they were 1 year old, according to a study in Frontiers in Veterinary Science. Shelters, breeders and rescue organizations might reconsider policies for spaying and neutering in light of the finding, says co-author Lynette Hart, a professor at the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. (Full story: ScienceDaily/University of California, Davis, 8/13)

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)

DEAR DR. FOX: In case you need it, this is just to commend your speaking out about what’s wrong with this world, the environment, animal health and public health.

Keep up the fight. -- C.H., Naples, Florida

DEAR DR. FOX: I never paid attention to your column until I happened to notice your connecting animal advice to environmental issues. I don’t “own” any pets, but now I look for interesting tidbits in your articles that confirm my feelings about how the destruction of the natural world impacts all of our lives. It’s not ”politics” -- it’s reality. -- A.T., Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

DEAR C.H AND A.T.: I appreciate your words of support. Anyone with even a grain of empathy certainly needs such support, given these times of an economically and socially disruptive pandemic, political pandemonium, corruption, disinformation and the in-our-faces climate and extinction crises.

The more one knows, the more one suffers -- especially when confronted by the denial and lies of others. Lies abound, whether about the suffering of factory-farmed animals, the starvation of marine animals from our overfishing and ocean pollution, or the desecration and decimation of wildlands and indigenous peoples around the world.

Once, humans could communicate with other species as gatherer-hunters who gave thanks to the lives they took to sustain their own. Once, farmers could read the weather and know when best to plant and harvest. But now this weather-wisdom has been supplanted by computer-assisted “precision” farming with climate-monitoring satellite telecommunication systems. All of this seems justified now, because we have created unpredictable climatic aberrations -- for instance, the devastating drought and fires in California and floods in China. Another dire warning is the recent derecho that destroyed so many homes and millions of acres of Iowa farmland.

Artificial intelligence is no substitute for natural intelligence and indigenous wisdom. It is a distraction from the tasks of recovering our sanity and relearning how to listen to the Earth. The One Health worldview calls for reducing our use of fossil fuels for food production and transportation, as well as limiting our over-reliance (in more affluent countries) on using animals as a primary food source. I see these issues as the proper, primary agenda of every government and of every conscientious consumer.

As the late Dr. Albert Schweitzer advised, ”A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.”

DEAR DR. FOX: I saw your 2016 article that contained information on the American Kennel Club’s involvement with unethical breeders. My family suddenly lost our beloved dog Rex, an AKC-registered Rottweiler, at only 7 years old. He had multiple joint problems requiring surgery on all four limbs during his life, and ended up dying due to complications from a rare form of highly aggressive osteosarcoma.

We are devastated from losing him so quickly and so young. There were obvious genetic issues at the root of his joint problems, and likely his cancer. After his death, I am now realizing that his issues were in part due to breeding.

Do you have any recommendations on who I could contact (at AKC or otherwise) to try to prevent any future litters that may be impacted by the genetic issues my Rex experienced? -- A.M-W., Washington, D.C.

DEAR A.M-W.: I regret hearing of the demise of this poor dog and how much he must have suffered. Advances in genetic screening for inherited diseases in dogs offer the opportunity for ethical breeders of purebred dogs to improve the health and well-being of our canine companions.

I think it is long past time for the AKC to stop making money simply as a dog-breed registry (notably for puppy mill-bred dogs) and as a manufactured dog food industry-promoting dog show business, and get with the times. Anyone purchasing a purebred dog or “designer” breed (like a Labradoodle) should have a certificate of assurance of freedom from any inherited disease or anomaly that could lead to health issues at any time during that animal’s life. For details, see my article “Recovering Canine Health,” posted on my website (drfoxonehealthcom).

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)

DEAR READERS: I received this release about a new frontier in veterinary treatment, and share it with you out of great interest:

“A human placenta-derived compound developed by a University of Florida faculty member in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering is being used with promising results by veterinarians at UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine to treat animals with severe bone loss.

“Without the compound, the animals, which included a giraffe at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens and two pet dogs, would have almost certainly faced amputation of the affected areas, the veterinarians said.

“The product’s developer, Peter McFetridge, Ph.D., the Integra LifeSciences Term Professor in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, studies the engineering of viable ‘living’ tissues and organs for the repair and regeneration of diseased tissues. Stan Kim, BVSc., an associate professor of small-animal surgery at UF, learned of McFetridge’s work and was intrigued about the placental compound he had been testing in rodent models with some success.

“McFetridge and Kim began discussing possibilities for the product’s additional use in small animals. Kim treated the dogs with the new compound at UF’s Small Animal Hospital earlier this year.

“’Both dogs had very bad fractures that did not heal and had lost a lot of bone,’ Kim said. ‘Typical treatments usually fail in these types of cases.’

“The dogs were completely healed after the placental treatment, he said, and are doing very well.

“’The most exciting thing about the placental compound is that it seems to regenerate bone in a remarkable manner,’ Kim said. ‘Although our main excitement is with regenerating bone, we have also had very positive results with wounds.’”

DEAR DR. FOX: Please keep up the good work re: your advocacy on the subject of animal and human health. It has changed how I hope to source my food supplies.

Incidentally, my 10-year-old Shih Tzu has nearly perfect teeth, and I attribute that to a daily dental chew from Ark Naturals. It is the only oral care I provide. -- B.H., Naples, Florida

DEAR B.H.: Thanks for confirming one of many good dental products now on the market for dogs. Not all dogs enjoy chewing, so it may be necessary to try different kinds of safe, chewy products to find which the dog likes best. Avoid pig and other animal parts -- dehydrated and/or smoked -- that may be contaminated by bacteria, chemicals and radiation sterilization.

Some dogs prefer to chew on one side only, so dental cleaning from chews in these cases is far from complete. This is why I advise from puppyhood on to get our canine companions used to having their teeth brushed, or rubbed with a gauze wrap around one finger soaked in a paste of equal parts sea salt, baking soda, aloe vera gel and green tea.

STUDY CONFIRMS DOGS TRY TO RESCUE PEOPLE IN DISTRESS

Dogs are likely to try to rescue their owners if they perceive distress and can figure out how, researchers reported in PLOS ONE. Dogs were more likely to try to open a box if their owner was inside signaling distress than if the owner was calmly reading aloud or if food was dropped into an empty box.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)