Write an article based on this "Call your cat. Look for signs of breathing. Look at the cat's eyes to see whether they are open. Check the femoral artery. Feel for rigor mortis. Check your cat's mouth."
Say your cat's name in your usual high-pitched food call. A sleeping cat will often hear you and wake up. After all, what cat will miss a chance for food? If your cat is dead or very sick, it likely will not respond. This step won't work if your cat is deaf or hearing impaired. In this case, you can try waving the food near your cat so it can smell it. Otherwise, use the method you typically use to announce that it is time to eat. Is the cat's chest moving up and down? Can you see the cat's stomach move? Hold a mirror up to the cat's nose. If the mirror fogs up, the cat is breathing. If you don't see any fog on the mirror, this is a good indication that the cat isn't breathing. Cats' eyes open after death, since it requires muscle control to keep them closed. Its pupils will also appear larger than usual if it has died. Touch the cat's eyeball gently. Be sure to put on disposable gloves before doing this test. If the cat is alive, it should blink when you touch its eyeball. Also, if the cat is dead, the eyeball will feel soft, rather than firm. Check whether the pupils are dilated and fixed. If the cat is dead, the pupils will be large and unresponsive to light. Shining a light briefly in the cat's eye is one way to test brain reactivity. If the pupils react, the cat is unconscious but not dead. You can check your cat's pulse by placing your two fingers on the femoral artery, which is on the inside of the cat's thigh, near its groin. You can feel for it in the natural divot created by the thigh muscles, right in the middle of the leg along the bone. Put some pressure on that area and wait for 15 seconds. If the cat is alive, you should feel a pulse. Use a watch or clock with a minute hand to count the number of beats you hear for 15 seconds. Then multiply by 4. This will give you the number of beats per minute. The cat's normal, healthy pulse should be between 140 and 220 beats per minute. Check a few times, relocating your two fingers to different areas in the inner thigh. Sometimes it can take a few tries to find the pulse. Rigor mortis, or the stiffening of the cat's body, sets in about three hours after the cat has died. With gloves on, pick up your cat and feel its body. If it is very stiff, this is a good indication that the cat has died. If your cat's heart has stopped, its tongue and gums will be very pale and not the normal pink color. If you gently press the gums, there will be no capillary refill. This typically means that the cat is dead or will die very soon.