DEAR DR. FOX: I would like to thank you for your reply to my questions about our cat, Dusty, crying to go outside all the time. I followed your advice to get another cat. I tried to adopt a young adult, but I found that the shelters in my area don’t seem to share your opinion about cats living together. I was told repeatedly that every cat I inquired about would not be comfortable sharing a home with another cat.

Long story short, I applied for any kitten from the local shelter, and was matched with a 3-month-old female tabby whom we have named Abigail Road. Dusty was so mad! She howled at the scent on the carrier, at the door to the room where Abby was being sequestered, at us, and at the swapped bedding we brought to her. Upon introduction, she howled at Abby herself. I was worried. But what Dusty immediately stopped doing was begging to go outside all the time. She was alert and focused on the invader.

After a few days of supervised interactions, she stopped crying and hissing, started stalking Abby instead, and then they quickly transitioned to play. Soon I hope to find them curled up together, but in the meantime, they gallop around the house, wrestle, eat side by side and have even both been in my lap at the same time (briefly).

Abby is a wonderful fit for our household, and the humans are again able to relax in the living room. Dusty still gets outside time, and Abby will start being trained with a harness soon, but it is so nice for us not to have the constant harassment. Not to mention, to see that Dusty is happier now and that Abby is out of the shelter -- truly a win-win-win.

The only real challenge is that now, I have two kitties that want to sleep on my desk as I work from home. I’m running out of space! -- M.M., Port Townsend, Washington

DEAR M.M.: Thanks for the update, and for sharing your experience with these totally ridiculous “one-cat-one-home” policies that some animal shelters practice. As I emphasize in my book “Cat Body, Cat Mind,” most cats do quickly learn to enjoy each other’s company, as you so clearly witnessed. Two cats living together are generally happier and healthier than those who never have any contact with their own kind. Your cats are stimulating each other and getting lots of exercise, which will help prevent obesity and other chronic health problems so common in live-alone, kibble-fed cats.

Having two or more cats in a home is the answer to help reduce the high number of cats waiting for adoption in shelters, many of which eventually “dump” the “unadoptable” ones outdoors, euthanize them or engage in the harmful practice of TNR -- trap, neuter and release.

All animal shelters should provide information on how to introduce a new cat into the home. I provide some helpful information on the topic on my website (drfoxonehealth.com).

DEAR DR. FOX: Regarding your proposal of an “Environmental U.N”: It is difficult for people to receive the good news of the accomplishments of the United Nations these days. I remember at the close of WWII, we rejoiced that a body of people from many countries would be created to talk and solve global problems, and that we would no longer have war! We need to maintain our global responsibilities and communications that benefit all people and create trust and cooperation. -- M.K., Trumbull, Connecticut

DEAR M.K.: Thanks for your words of support. I received several from readers, which is encouraging! Yes, I know what you are saying, having grown up in England during WWII. We urgently need a United Environmental Nations to, for example, stop Brazil from destroying the Amazon forest, and stop the United States from opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. The U.S. must also cease rolling back environmental protections and anti-pollution regulations in service of an unsustainable economy that puts its citizens, wildlife and the rest of the world at risk.

TWO UTAH MINK FARMS QUARANTINED FOR CORONAVIRUS

Two of the largest mink farms in Utah are under quarantine after animals and employees at the farm tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. “There is no conclusive evidence that the animals played a role in spreading (the virus) to humans,” state veterinarian Dean Taylor said. (Full story: The Salt Lake Tribune, 8/17)

The era of trapping and raising animals for their fur should become a thing of the past. Progress has been made in the U.S. with awareness campaigns, but there is still a big demand for furs in markets around the world.

(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: Analysis of 410 species of birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals found that about 40% of those that are thought to be highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 are considered threatened or endangered. These include the Western lowland gorilla, Sumatran orangutan and Northern white-cheeked gibbon, which are predicted to be at very high risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2. Gray whales, bottlenose dolphins, white-tailed deer and Chinese hamsters are at high risk; cats, cows and sheep are at medium risk; and dogs, pigs and horses are at low risk.

This valuable contribution to our understanding of the potential threat of this virus to other species calls for One Health (onehealthinitiative.com) precautionary measures to minimize -- and ideally prevent -- infected humans from infecting other animals. Those animals, if infected, could then serve as reservoirs to reinfect people -- or, if endangered, they could become extinct.

Immediate steps must be taken by zoos, circuses (those with performances by wild animals, outlawed in many places), wildlife parks, marine aquariums and conservation areas to limit human-animal proximity and routinely test all staff, wildlife officers and anti-poaching forces. In addition, all visitors should be screened.

Precautions are called for with workers around cattle and sheep, which are considered at medium risk of coronavirus infection. Even though pigs are at low risk, workers also need to be screened, especially considering that hog confinement units generally have poor air quality and can be sources of influenza and other zoonotic infections.

White-tailed deer, currently overpopulating and spreading chronic wasting disease across North America, may be at higher risk, especially on farms where employees infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus could spread it to the deer. Such human-to-animal infection has happened in Utah, as well as in Denmark and the Netherlands, where infected workers on fur ranches infected mink.

Hamsters are very popular cage pets, and special precautions are called for in households that include a hamster and one or more infected humans. During an infection, physical contact with the hamster should be avoided. The hamster(s) should be kept in a separate room with only one healthy adult tending them, being sure to wash hands before and after cleaning, feeding and watering. Ferrets are also susceptible, and similar precautions are called for.

High vigilance is called for with all highly and moderately susceptible species since, as the Dutch government has shown, mink infected with SARS-CoV-2 contracted from workers subsequently passed the infection on to other workers.

It would be highly advisable for all pet stores to stop selling these and other animals, limit public contact and, if they must, sell only aquarium fish.

Cats must be kept indoors. Otherwise, infective pools of cats carrying the coronavirus could become established, with infected humans acting as constant sources of infection and reinfection into the surrounding cat communities. Some cats could bring the coronavirus into their homes since cat-to-cat transfer has been documented, although as yet, no case of cat-to-human transfer has been reported. Infected cats could put other wildlife at risk, especially indigenous predators like the foxes, weasels and mink in Minnesota’s forests and elsewhere.

Especially in light of trans-species passage, the development of a safe, effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine will be a challenge. Similar difficulties with constantly evolving strains of the influenza virus -- with its avian, porcine and human variant recombinants -- mean some vaccines, developed in anticipation of the next pandemic, do not give effective protection from an unexpected new variant strain.

Surely the thing for any sane and civil society to do is to practice effective preventive medicine from a One Health perspective, which first calls for a total revision of our relationships with animals.

TURMERIC COMPOUND MIGHT HELP DOGS WITH EYE PAIN

Turmeric may be useful in treating canine uveitis, a painful inflammatory condition of the eye that can occur after cataract surgery or secondary to some cancers and infectious or autoimmune diseases, says veterinary ophthalmologist Erin Scott. She and her colleagues have discovered that a nanoparticle formulation of curcumin, found in turmeric, is easily absorbed and effective for managing uveitis with no apparent side effects. Scott hopes to begin clinical trials of the compound soon. (Full story: release from Texas A&M University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, 8/27)

(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: 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.)