Cat thread

[Cyrrex]

Fantastic story, so glad it worked out.

Now, let the fur fly!

[Signe]

Good job, cat! 

[tgr]

Phone call from the hospital this lunch time - Nyx continues to get better and they think she should come home now!

Am taking the rest of the week off to look after her, but as of tomorrow my missing cat will be home. Still poorly, still got lots of mending but she improves every day and the vet feels she's on the road to recovery. Thanks to everyone for your support & advice!

Just when we had completely given up all hope...

Next up - CAT WARS! (and kitten pics. everyone should have kitten pics).

This is the method I was talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_mgXHAMDZI

On another note, how much does your bengal like water? This much? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNG4hFql0vA

[Nebu]

On another note, how much does your bengal like water? This much? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNG4hFql0vA

Beautiful cat... and the sounds that it makes are awesome!

[Maledict]

Ours looks very similar to that cat but possibly a bit prettier... ;-)

And yes, exactly like that. Possibly even more so - ending up with a cat in the sink when washing up or having a shave is very odd, and she even comes into the bathroom when I have a bath and splashes the water happily when I'm in it! Put her in a bath with water in it and some balls to chase and shes happy for hours. Bengals are a very peculiar (and beautiful) breed - she has tons of energy and plays constantly, and yet is the best cat I've ever met for just lying on your lap asleep. At night she goes to bed when we do at the end of the bed and won't move until we wake up in the morning.

The missing cat eventually didn't come till Friday evening as she had a bit of a set back with her liver, but she's home now and seems to be doing well. Tottering around the place and eating lots which is great - vets seem to consider it a miracle she has gotten better so fast gone how unwell she was on Saturday. It's funny how after the event they can be honest with you about their initial thoughts and how badly they were worried about her.

[Evildrider]

[JWIV]

Brought home the kittens yesterday and they are ridiculously affectionate and purr machines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdtNcwKyMpg


Edit - Thanks Bloodworth - Fixed!

Little less than a year later - they've grown . . . in Finn's case, by quite a bit.


Random Cat Picture by jwiv, on Flickr

[Signe]

Gorgeous!

[tazelbain]

A friend of a friend is coming to town with a Sphynx and I am going to see if I can tolerate it.  How hard is it to ship a rescue cat?  Seems like there is a bunch of rescue Sphynxes in CA and I am in AL.

[Signe]

I don't know about domestic shipping but to safely ship your pet overseas is really pricey.  There are agencies that specialise in that sort of thing and they're not cheap either.  Might be cheaper even to go pick him up.  You might need a health cert. from a vet, a special carrier, etc.  If you have to buy from the transporter, I'm sure everything will be cost way more than at Kmart.  Personally, I'd check the shelters in your own area first.  I saw several rescued Sphynx at my local shelter in PA when I got Lister.  I love those cats, odd looking as they are.  They're smart and friendly and weird.  I do know that you have to wash them often but that's still easier than brushing.  I have a friend who has a Maine Coon who never runs out of undercoat to be groomed.  Good luck.  Rescue two!!   

Here's one all curled up.  Not everyone can tolerate the look but I LOVE it.  It's like having a pet gargoyle!

[Sky]

After five long years, today was the day. Well, it was almost the day.

My big boy was intent on something, but that could've been where he saw a big three weeks ago. We ignored him. Then....*squeek!*

He was able to attack his first real mouse! He cornered it twice, but I don't think he knows how to kill it, so now it's off hiding somewhere. So not quite his first confirmed kill, but definitely Bart's happiest day thus far. He's in full no-nonsense prowling mode, it's hilarious.

[Cyrrex]

Well then, here's to some bloody mouse guts all over your sofa pillows.

[Sky]

I was all excited to tell the fiancee this morning and now she's convinced he wounded it and it crawled off to die. So I told her I saw it running toward her side of the bed. 

[Signe]

I used to put the cats in the bathroom (I used to have a HUGE bathroom), stuff towels under the doors and let a cricket loose.  I felt guilty (I always feel guilty about something) but the cats went insane.  It was both a riot and insightful. 

[penfold]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22567526

This was on BBC tonight. They put GPS on 50 cats in a village, and tracked what they did for a week.  They also put cams on some of them. There was some behaviour that was witnessed for the first time, most interesting.

[Sky]

I swear I've already seen that show. Maybe it was urban raccoons or something.

[apocrypha]

Horizon of course approached it in its usual way, i.e. by assuming its audience are all idiots. Here's a load of graphs that we think you're too stupid to understand so we won't even attempt to tell you what they are!

Anyway, my annoyances with the BBC being stuffed with the middle classes looking down their noses at everyone else aside, it was quite interesting, particularly the implication that cat behavior is changing fairly rapidly in response to things we're doing. They said at one point that "cat food has become much more nutritional over the last decade" (and a quick google supports that) and that this is possibly decreasing hunting by cats - they just go to other people's houses and eat other cats food as well as their own instead. Part of me thinks that's good because it means less murdering being done by cats, but another part of me feels sad that we're removing the last traces of wild behavior from cats in the process.

The farm cats were awesome, not nearly as fat and over-fed looking as all the domestic cats.

[Jeff Kelly]

You've never seen one of the fat, content, Marlon-Brando in Godfather types of male cats then that usually roam on farms? I grew up in the country and we've had a lot of those, purposefully striding along like a Don frpom some sort of cat mafia (and probably racking up protection money from other cats along the way)

[apocrypha]

Haha true, but they tend to get that way by just being meaner and tougher than the rest (at first anyway) rather than being given too many tins of Whiskas!

[01101010]

http://news.discovery.com/earth/kittycam-catches-cats-preying-on-wildlife-120808.htm

Yeah Discovery did something similar to this last year. Kinda trippy to see cats duck down into storm drains on the street.

[Ceryse]

They said at one point that "cat food has become much more nutritional over the last decade" (and a quick google supports that) and that this is possibly decreasing hunting by cats - they just go to other people's houses and eat other cats food as well as their own instead. Part of me thinks that's good because it means less murdering being done by cats, but another part of me feels sad that we're removing the last traces of wild behavior from cats in the process.

Fuck... almost makes me glad my cat died a number of years ago. She was largely an indoor cat (she preferred it and despite her being all of five pounds soaking wet she would attack any loose cat or dog she met when she did decide to leave for a jaunt -- and somehow win, according to those who'd talk to us after having seen her maul outside cats and a few dogs) and the only cat food she would eat was this hard food called Happy Cat that wasn't all that good for her, according to the vet. But it was all she would eat! Tried cheap stuff, expensive stuff.. never. Had to be Happy Cat or people food (preferably canned tuna or cheese if we had no chicken or turkey).

They went out of production for two months once and we had to feed her the aforementioned 'people food' for the duration because she wouldn't touch any other kind of cat food. You'd put it in her dish and she'd just look at you like you were dumb as a post. She went out and hunted a fair bit more during that stretch.. always looking pissed off when she'd come back with something to eat, like a bird or mouse. She'd tear stuff up inside the house if she'd been outside, as if enacting some kind of vengeance on us -- and that was the only situation she'd ever damage any kind of furniture or drape, if she'd not been outside? No damage.

Just the thought of having no Happy Cat and just some healthy stuff for her makes me cringe. That cat had her mind set on that food.

[Rasix]

I keep finding lizard heads in my dining room.  Just the head.  The rest of the lizard is nowhere to be found, and they aren't throwing it back up. I think they've found a species they like the taste of.  Usually, I just find the the lizards screaming (they do this, it's freaky as hell) and partially crippled.

But now, just the heads.  It's also stuck to the floor, as I guess their blood is a bit sticky when it congeals. I really wish they'd just eat the whole thing, but perhaps they're sending a message.  

[Trippy]

It's like The Godfather except with lizard heads

[MrHat]

Hmmm.

The cat we're sitting, Momo, apparently shed a little wormy looking larvae thingy.  Google says he's got the tapeworm.  I guess this also means that my cat, Taco, also has the tapeworm.

To the vet in the morning for some dewormer.

My house feels forever unclean now though.

[Signe]

You might have the tapeworm, too.  Ew.

[MuffinMan]

Hovering over a bowl of milk will draw it out.

[Paelos]

Hovering over a bowl of milk will draw it out.

That's horrifying.

[MuffinMan]

Smeagol birthday pictures from April.

[Samwise]

That middle one is comic gold.

[Hawkbit]

That middle pic is hilarious. 

[Sky]

800 pictures later they got lucky.

[Hawkbit]

We have friends staying with us. 

Cats 1
Air mattress 0

I don't have cats, I have demons.

[Merusk]

Here's something I just read thanks to Cracked.  Makes you ponder your kitties meowing a little more as they only do it around people, not other cats.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100708141620.htm

[jth]

I took my cats to the vet today for dental care, it was supposed to be just removing tartar from their teeth like usual, but it turned out they were among the 66% that develop tooth decay, I had never heard of it either until this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_odontoclastic_resorptive_lesion

The younger one (9 years old) had to have two teeth removed, and the older one (11 years) three, the whole thing ended up costing me about 1000€ but it's nothing really compared to what I paid for the older cat's chemo five years ago, and it's just money.

They can't eat any dry food for two weeks now, going to be difficult since both of them have almost opposite kind of food allergies and I had a dry food brand that worked for them both. Also I need to give them pain medication for 3-5 days and mouth disinfectant for a couple of weeks, that won't be easy... at least they got some good opiate based stuff at the vet, they have been chasing imaginary insects all evening.

[Hawkbit]

The big crazy tomcat we rescued that is now a housecat, he had nine removed in one day.  Tough as nails cat refused to eat wet food and would only eat his normal hard food.  Crazy bastard.