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While youre watching your favorite television show in the family room, you hear a familiar retching sound from the kitchen. Boomer is vomiting up his dinner again. As you clean up the mess, you wonder if its just hair balls - or something more serious that requires a trip to the veterinarians office. Cats vomit for numerous reasons, ranging from benign dietary indiscretion to potentially fatal systemic diseases such as renal failure or hyperthyroidism. The experts say that cat owners should pay close attention to a cat that becomes sick to his or her stomach.

Here are ways to prevent your cat from making that mad dash out the door.

With the economy struggling, its comforting to know that are plenty of ways to defray the cost of owning a cat without compromising your pets well-being. In fact, some of the most effective strategies can actually benefit your cat. According to Jodi Korich, DVM, former director of Partners in Animal Health at Cornell Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine, "One of the best ways to save money on your pets health is to pay attention to early disease detection and preventive health care." Just like oil changes and preventive maintenance result in fewer repair bills for your car, she says, regular check-ups and early intervention will save you money in the long-run.

Planters of catnip, beware! This perennial is a member of the mint family - like spearmint and oregano - and it reproduces by spreading runners beneath the soil. Put one catnip plant in your garden and in five years it may well have taken over. Veteran gardeners plant catnip in buried containers, or in above-ground pots that even the hardiest and most aggressive roots cant escape. Despite the voracious nature of the plant, however, its worth having around. Carolyn McDaniel, VMD, a consultant at the Feline Health Center at Cornell Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine, says, "Catnip is non-toxic, non-addicting and low calorie. It can definitely play a valuable part of an indoor cats environmental enrichment."

According to a recent Ohio State University, our pets can get sick from stress - just like us. The study found that otherwise healthy cats show signs of illness when stressed. And cats diagnosed with feline interstitial cystitis (FIC) became healthier when stress levels were reduced, the study showed. Twelve of the 32 cats in the three-year study were healthy, while 20 had FIC, a chronic pain syndrome that affects the cats bladder. According to researchers, lower urinary tract diseases occur in about 1.5 percent of house cats, and many pet owners cant tolerate the mess that accompanies it. As a result, millions of sick cats are put down or relinquished to shelters every year.

Consider this: One cat and her offspring can produce a whopping 420,000 cats in just seven years. Each year, from April to November, hundreds of thousands of kittens are born - often to feral or stray moms that scavenge out a meager existence on our city streets, in the suburbs, and in rural areas across America. Without human intervention, most of these newborns will die or, at best, lead short, miserable lives. The moms that are not killed by cars, other animals, or disease, will repeatedly become pregnant, adding to the already crushing pet overpopulation problem. Whats a caring animal lover to do?

As far as you can tell, your nine-year-old cat, Maxine, has never had a sick day in her life. If she has, shes certainly never shown any signs of it. Nevertheless, youve dutifully made a point of taking her to her veterinarian for a routine physical exam twice a year, just to make sure shes up-to-date on her vaccinations and is not harboring any obscure and subtle systemic anomaly that could eventually prove troublesome. Youre doing the right thing, says William Miller, VMD, medical director at Cornell Universitys Companion Animal Hospital, and all cat owners would do well to follow suit. "Its a very good idea to have every cat undergo a twice-yearly exam," he says. "This is especially true for geriatric cats - those that are age 10 and older - and for animals that spend time outdoors and are exposed to a host of feline diseases." A thorough checkup should also be obligatory, he advises, for any new cat that is brought into a household and for kittens when they reach one year of age.

For several days, your cat has been acting oddly, lolling about the house, uncharacteristically lethargic, off his food and seemingly depressed. Then one evening, while stroking his back to comfort the mysteriously dispirited animal, you notice a smallish but alarming lump just to the side of his tail. Although you touch the lump ever so gently, he reacts with a howl, hisses, leaps from your lap and scurries to a dark corner. The lump you discovered is quite possibly an abscess, and although your touching it caused the poor animal intolerable discomfort, its a good thing that you spotted it.

As cats reach the age of eight or nine (the rough equivalent of 40 or 50 in a human), they may begin to show signs of age-related physical disorders that may or may not increase in severity as the animals continue their transition into old age. Some feline geriatric conditions, of course, may ultimately prove fatal. Others, however, may be amenable to medical therapy that can extend the life of an elderly cat for several years. Hypertension (abnormally high blood pressure) is one of the latter disorders. If untreated, it can lead to blindness and possible damage to the heart, kidneys and brain.

Among all acquired feline ear disorders, the most common by far is otitis externa, an infection of the outer ear canal that, if untreated, can progress to the inner ear, damage the ear drum and seriously compromise an animal’s hearing as well as its sense of balance. The most common cause of this unpleasant condition and its potentially deafening consequences is an assault on the ear by an outside invader, the ear mite. In some cases, however, the culprit is an organism that normally resides harmlessly within a cat’s ear — a one-celled fungus, or yeast, known as Malessezia.

The best strategy to minimize a pet hair problem in your home is to remove loose hair from your cats coat before it hits the floor. And ironically, shorthaired cats often shed more than longhaired cats. Of course, you cant possibly catch all pet hair before it falls out. So when it does make its inevitable landfall, the following are ways to pick up pet hair as easily and thoroughly as possible. Tackling Upholstery.Vacuuming is the first approach to removing cat hair from upholstery; however, if your vacuum isnt removing enough hair, you can try one of several other approaches.

Perhaps the most important characteristic of a responsible cat owner is the ability to distinguish the signs of minor feline illnesses from those calling for an immediate trip to the nearest animal emergency care facility. Cat owners should be equipped ahead of time to deal promptly with such a crisis. They should know precisely where the clinic is located, the speediest route to get there, how to transport the afflicted animal, what documents they should take to the facility - and what to expect to happen upon arrival.