f13.net

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3283/2470938636_acea2e5653.jpg?v=0)

Proceed.

I sorta, kinda, definitely want to punch you right now.

Hmm, a cat punching thread sounds interesting.

(http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/39720/f13/cartman_angry.jpg)

I read all about that on Encyclopedia Dramatica.

(http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7885/dcsn1185.jpg)

Don't be a pussy.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/3060934279_e1ea3354ab_o.jpg)

(http://s2.thisnext.com/media/400x400/I-Love-Cats-But-I-Cant-Eat-A_C948FCD7.jpg)

Visual puns man, VISUAL PUNS.

Maybe we should've kept the derail in the other thread :|

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7ZA00Krz2Y

Bart likes Saranac Dark Forest best, but a good Hef is his second favorite.

That is adorable.   :drillf:

(http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t51/Xerapis/0012.jpg)

thread redeemed.

I have a question for the current cat owners here.  Does anyone know what needs to go into making a fence reasonably cat-proof?

I live in the city, and am planning on getting a cat or two.  I'd like to let them have the run of our back yard, if possible, without letting them get out into the street.  The yard is bordered on all sides by wooden fences around six feet tall, with no trees near them.  Seems to me like a cat would have a pretty hard time clearing those, but then the cat I had when I was a kid seemed to be able to climb just about anything when he put his mind to it, so I'm not sure if I trust my perceptions there.  Any advice?

make the fence of glass and make it about 30 feet high.  that MIGHT keep them in your yard...

My kitten from a couple days ago. He is a Tonkinese. He is AWESOME. Loves to snuggle and sleeps with me and my wife every night. Great cat with none of the stupid typical cat psychosis or neurosis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2-lwpUrW8w
 

This (http://www.purrfectfence.com/?gclid=CKOwo5GS9pgCFQrFGgodk3Hz0g) place says they do it, I guess you could try and copy that.  I'm thinking Magenta could get past that - she's always hanging upside down and flipping herself over to climb high shelves.  I know I'm happier having inside cats, just in case.  Here's a fun place, though.  I'd LOVE something like THESE (http://www.catsofaustralia.com/cat-enclosures.htm) and they would work much better, I think.  Damn those Australians and their clever building fingers!


(http://www.catsofaustralia.com/images/cat_enclosure.jpg)
So pretty!

Sam, you could hobble it's legs, but that's kind of cruel.

Seriously though, you aren't keeping a cat in the yard unless it's enclosed on all sides.  Wood is exceptionally easy for them to climb.

This actually looks pretty good (from the site Signe linked):

(http://www.purrfectfence.com/images/products/wood-fence.jpg)

Only downside being that it keeps cats in but not out.  So it'd have a lobster trap effect on neighborhood cats.   :awesome_for_real:

Forget it. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ov4LQFSQ58)

I'm with Engels.  Anything short of a complete enclosure (all sides and complete top) is just challenging them to a battle of wits.  Might as well try a staring contest.

--Dave

Took too long to get to the punchline but otherwise apropos.

Pfft.  That guy had a convenient platform right by the wall that reduced it from a 6' vertical jump to only about 3'.  He might as well have built an escalator.

Also, his solution doesn't have a spring-loaded pivot to fling the cat off if it manages to get that high.

(http://www.purrfectfence.com/images/products/rotating-2.gif)

But I'm actually tempted now to try implementing his PVC solution under more optimal conditions (which I have -- no platforms, no ledges, just sheer vertical fences).  For science.  And it'd save me about $400 over the Houdini-Proof solution.

Good luck.  Let me know how that turns out, and if the cat hasn't been fixed, maybe we can have a thread to name the kittens.  Meanwhile, I've got a cool idea for a "casual" base-building/platformer hybrid.

--Dave

Snort.

My cats run free and kill rodents (and then bring the carcasses back to the door, unfortunately). All my life, my cats have done this. They don't exist to be cute and trapped inside for my friggin amusement.

[edit] Pic of dead rat forthcoming.. umm sooner or later.

Good Luck (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRk_C9c8xYc)

You'll Need It (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgtYrlFwzF0)

This is the first time I've had indoor cats.  When I was a child, we had barn cats who roamed and needed minimal attention from us.  We always had dogs for pets.  Unfortunately, I don't live rural, which is the only way I'd have outside cats.  I don't keep my cats inside for friggin amusement.  I keep them in to keep them away from cars and garbage.  I didn't rescue them so they could continue to play in traffic.

Ya, in the best of all possible worlds, I too would let my cats roam free. But living in a 3rd floor apartment in the middle of a city that still somehow has packs of racoons roving about, I can't do that. And the other option for the cats is to be destroyed. So, uhm, lighten up on the Animal Liberation Front rhetoric.

You will always lose on a contest of wills and wits against a a cat.

You save yourself a lot of problems keeping them indoors.  They can get fleas/ticks/worms all from being outside even if they're caged.  We adopted a few cats last year and they both had frickin tapeworms, little gross creatures they are.  They got them from catching mice that were infected with fleas carrying tapeworm eggs, likely.  That's just one of the many fun stories of why you keep cats indoors. 

I'm an amateur cat furniture maker.  :awesome_for_real:  I built a tower in our condo that attached to the wall, went to the ceiling and had rests at each of the windows going up to the 12' one.  I glued/stapled carpet to all parts of it along with some hemp-like rope tightly wound for scratching and all.  It looked like a sooped-up version of the ones you can buy at pet stores.  I keep thinking up designs for them, but the wife keeps vetoing them.  I want to put a curly slide on my next one for them. 

Yeah.  It's really silly to believe you can outwit your owner.

I want to see a pic of that, Hawkbit.  We bought a big cat condo type thingy.  I wanted something heavy, well built and stable so it was expensive.  If you look at them, though, even the big pricey ones, they really look easy to build.  They love it, though, and use it constantly.

I'd love to own pets, cats or dogs but being single and working 50 hours a week makes this impossible or highly irresponsible.

So keep the stories coming so I can at least have cats by proxy.

Animal Liberation Front rhetoric? I just think cats need to go outside more. They aren't in danger of getting run over by cars, unless you live right outside of a strip. That's where I see all the dead cats. Some people do live near that though, granted. Many don't. Many live in comfy little suburbs, pointlessly declaw their cats, and make their cats stay inside (and usually the reasoning is weak. I heard one person tell me once that if cats were let outside, they'd knocked the bird population out of balance  :roll:).


Also, I hate anything approaching lolcatz territory.  :why_so_serious:

Call it a preemptive strike against cuteness. There are no lolcatz in this thread as of yet, but it could go there.

I don't live near a strip.  I live on a golf course.  I've seen run over cats.  And, unless you're rural, there's always a busy highway somewhere.  Sorry, but in a lot of areas, letting your cat outside is dangerous for it.  Any other opinion of this is just wrong.  I wouldn't think of de-clawing my kitties, though.  I think that's just awful.   

Well, the first post did have a Kitler in it...

I love that cats somehow assume that everything not going according to their plan is somehow your fault. The look that they give you is awesome.

My parents' cat once managed to drop off a guard rail because of cat ADD. Hey look how I can balance on that small railing.... Oh a butterfly. Yet somehow even that must have been the fault of my parents.

Also she likes to hunt for food, even if it's the steaks my mother prepared for our dinner. It's especially funny because she's such a tiny cat, we call her crumb because of that. It's a funny sight when a tiny cat somehow manages to head off with a steak twice it's length. She had to keep her head as high as possible to not step on the meat with her paws.

A good times.

Fair enough. But pardon me while laugh a bit.  :grin:

None of the outdoor cats I played with in my neighborhood growing up got run over and where we lived is bordered by major thoroughfares on two sides. Avoiding one of the neighbor's killer poodle was probably the biggest survival challenge to them (that thing loved to kill cats) and they managed to survive that too.

I live one block from a busy street, three blocks from a freeway, and a mile from coyote country.  Okay, the coyotes are a bit of a long shot, but still.  It never occurred to me to worry when I was a kid (my cats back then were indoor/outdoor and managed okay except for the occasional tussle with other cats), but I've read too much and gotten too paranoid since then.

Cat furniture is definitely on the agenda.  I built a pretty decent little cat condo when I was about ten, and am thinking it would be fun to build something on a slightly grander scale now that I have my own garage and power tools.  Store-bought cat furniture generally seems to be overpriced, made of cardboard, and beige.

Our first cat lived outdoors in the middle of an urban area in Barcelona, which had traffic all over. Plenty of feral cats. Harldy any of them got run over in large part because the cars had to go pretty slowly through city streets. This cat lived to be 19. She switched from 16 years of outdoor living to the last 3 of indoor and was not visibly unhappy about it. She didn't really WANT to go outside that much, even when leaving the door open presented the oportunity to scoot out.

On the other hand, a cat of our relatives, living outdoors in a suburban area got eaten by a pack of feral dogs.

Lets just put it this way; 'Born Free' isn't as liberating to a cat as you may think it is.

Stray, you dropped teh cute gauntlet, so I will let her rip. Our two cats at an early age:

(http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/82194/MVC-006F.JPG)

We moved from that condo a few years back, and I can't find any pics.  The center post was two 2x4s that I glued together and nailed, then notched (dado'd) slots into for the rests, which were made of shelves of an old bookcase that I carpeted over.  Here's a basic pic of it:


The green spots were mounted into the studs in the wall, the red is carpeted wood.  I also used the windowsills to help prop them up where I could.  From memory, the top windowsill was at 8'. 

A very basic scratchpost I made (and they've trashed) is here:


Three 4x4s about two feet in length on a 2.5' baseboard covered in carpet; the 4x4s are covered in sisal rope.  You can see that they trash pile carpet too fast; there's pieces of it all over.  The thing weighs nearly 20 lbs now, there's no way they can knock it over.  In fact, I broke my little toe on the base a few months back.   :oh_i_see:

The black and white cat above is Strider.  We rescued him last year as he was brought in because someone shot him with an arrow as target practice.  The arrow was lodged right above his clavicles across his back.  Nerve damage is gone now after a year, and now he's a big fat happy housecat.  He's literally a locally famous cat.  He's been on TV and on the frontpage of the Columbus Dispatch because he's one of the few animals that they've found alive by this person who is shooting animals with bow and arrow.  Last I checked the reward was up around $3000 leading to an arrest on whoever is shooting them.  Every other month someone tells me "Dude!  I saw your cat on TV!"... it's kinda funny but I hope they find the jackoff that's killing these animals.  Fucker goes after dogs too. 

Below are Ivan (the Terrible) and Isis; the former we rescued last year and the latter found us at the condo in 2003.  We've had really good luck with cats, outside of the $200 curtains Ivan just destroyed.  The foyer looked like a damn crimescene after those cats were done with it. 

Cruelty is another reason I won't let my kitties out.  People are horrible.  A few years back near the area where I was living, someone was shooting dogs left outside at night, even if they were in their own back yards.  I will only ever have rescue cats and  I don't see the good sense in taking a cat  off the street only to be put outside again.  There are several agencies that send emails out when someone loses a pet in your area.  I get several a day, mostly cats by a fair bit.  I reckon a lot of these lost cats have been "rescued" from people who leave them outside.

Our cats are outdoor-if-they-want-to cats, but they only have easy access to the back so they rarely go out the front where the road is. Also there's lots of other cats in the neighbourhood and their territorial rivalry tends to mean they don't wander far. When we started growing our own veg we decided to build an enclosure to keep the cats out cos we didn't want them shitting in the veg beds etc. Ended up basically making a giant fruit cage covered in plastic mesh. Works so far! But it's a total enclosure, only way.

I'm really struggling with this cat food thing atm. Every single brand of cat food that I can find says it's designed for cat health. All of them. The only grain-free stuff I can find is here (http://www.orijenpetfoods.co.uk/acatalog/orijen_cat.html). Does that look like good stuff to give them?

My parents have three cats living outdoors that only come home to be fed, petted if they feel like it, or get their feet clean on my fathers trousers if it rains outside.

I live in a small flat on the eight floor and have a cat of my own. He doesn't give that much of a crap if I am at home all the time. He wants his food, his water fountain refilled and his cuddling quota fullfilled at times of his liking. 50 work hours a week shouldn't be a problem. If you got the time to play computer games, your cat will sit in your lap to get its quota. It will curdle up beside you while you watch TV or on your back when you go to sleep. Most of the time cats will just ignore you when you are at home for prolonged times anyway. Only extended holidays will make them appreciate you for one or two days afterwards.

Since this is the cat thread...

Harmony (the people at the shelter gave her the name, not me), just after I brought her home last year:

(http://www.bunkphotos.com/Pictures/_MG_6132.JPG)

That looks nice and no grains, too!  I think you can also get Cosa at Zooplus.co.uk, which is just tinned meat in jelly I think.  There seems to be a lot more good foods to choose from in the US and I never had a cat in the UK or Europe.  I don't give them that much dry, really, even though Magenta seems to prefer it sometimes.  Mostly wet and some raw when I have it.  For a country that values it's pets over it's children, there is a surprising lack of good pet food and places to buy it!

I grew up with outdoor cats and spent a lot of tears prying them off of the road. More recently we had a cat disappear that we assume the coyotes got. (Cape Cod is full of them.)

In my experience cats that haven't been outside do just fine inside without getting neurotic or anything. Get a kitten or young kitty and they should be fine. However, as with the above victim of coyotes, if cats are used to roaming outside, they really really suffer emotionally from being confined indoors. The cat was utterly miserable, it sprayed despite being fixed, it wrecked things, and all the issues went away and it was gloriously happy when it was able to go out. Unfortunately, it only lasted two months.

The worst I've seen was this schmuck who adopted/found a wild cat -- don't think it was a full lynx, but he was pretty big guy, named him Bernie, and just confined him indoors. To top it off, he was a religious freak who talked in this psychotic baby voice about Jesus with Bernie. The cat was a mean little asshole. And rightly so. Hope it scratched that guys eyes out by now.

On that note, I've always wanted a Bobcat or some lynx type. IF I do move away from the city, I'd do that. And no, I don't think they should be let outdoors, let alone owned, if you live in a city. Not for their protection, but for everyone else's.

(http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss244/straykat627/Animals/Eurasian_Lynx.jpg)

Coolest cats in existence? I think so.


Here's my cat though.. She's practically my shadow.

(http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss244/straykat627/Animals/kitty.jpg)

Well, aparently if you move into a foreclosed home in California, you can get your own bobcat (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bobcats5-2008sep05,0,2286826.story)

Old picture from when the kittens were new, and scared to be more than about 3 feet from me. Little fuckers kept pissing in the bed (on my gf once, quite a laugh) and trying to nurse on my earlobes as I slept. Ended up with an ear infection, and two decent cats.

(http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/rattra/Picture022.jpg)

I think that's SWG on the monitor  :awesome_for_real:

I raised a litter of Bengal/feral mixes as bottle babies.  The boy is normal sized (a bit big, actually) but the girls are permanently kitten-sized (5 pounds or so).  Seems to have been just a weird combination of genes, Bengal females run small (8 pounds) in general, and mother (the feral) was pretty small to begin with.  When the kittens were 2 weeks old she got so aggressive it became impossible to keep her in the house (she'd charge and try to escape as soon as I opened the door to the bathroom we were keeping her in the closet of), so we sent her back to the Feral Rescue project (who spayed and released her) and raised them the rest of the way on bottles.

Kittens at two weeks, right after momma went back:
(http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/17/l_ecbfaef9c50271c9bdfb0d8725ccb0d7.jpg)
Spot:
(http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/41/l_6ecef7242d6e8d7f6e0b1e7a18a3e18e.jpg)
Ash:
(http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/47/l_b4c649996f28ae187677a78882e5551f.jpg)
Muffin:
(http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/107/l_e95ac82a919afb230866622714337474.jpg)
For scale on Muffin, that molding behind her is only 2 inches high.

Pictures as links if the inlining doesn't work:
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/17/l_ecbfaef9c50271c9bdfb0d8725ccb0d7.jpg (http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/17/l_ecbfaef9c50271c9bdfb0d8725ccb0d7.jpg)
http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/41/l_6ecef7242d6e8d7f6e0b1e7a18a3e18e.jpg (http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/41/l_6ecef7242d6e8d7f6e0b1e7a18a3e18e.jpg)
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/47/l_b4c649996f28ae187677a78882e5551f.jpg (http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/47/l_b4c649996f28ae187677a78882e5551f.jpg)
http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/107/l_e95ac82a919afb230866622714337474.jpg (http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/107/l_e95ac82a919afb230866622714337474.jpg)

The last one we refer to as "mini-cat", she never had that fluffy phase where the fur is too long for the proportions to look right.  As soon as she was walking around, her short fur (then not much longer than velour upholstery or thick velvet) made her look like a perfect 1/8 scale model of a real cat.  Even now she's the smallest full-grown cat I've ever seen, at 4.5 pounds.  She's also solid evidence for the "alien infiltrator" theory of cat evolution, being extremely good at figuring out causality.  She never fell for the laser pointer, within minutes she was looking at my hand, not chasing the bright red bug on the floor like the rest.  At 8 weeks old.

The other two inherited the Bengal tendency to completely fixate on one person, compounded by the bottle-baby imprinting.  The male (the one with a spot next to his nose) is imprinted on my daughter, the grey and white one on me.  The alien infiltrator actually attached herself to my wife's flamepoint fluffball (who protected her from the other cats), and has only recently started looking to humans for affection.

--Dave

I miss my kitties. :cry:

Mojave was like Numtini's cat.  He was raised indoors, and was terrified of going outside at first, but he was determined to go explore it.  Once he had a taste of it I could not keep him inside.  His biggest failing was he wanted to be friends with all the neighborhood cats.  They could be throwing a fit and he would still try to nuzzle them.  The big doofus got so many bad wounds from doing that.  He had the most beautiful tan-colored tabby coat.

i always wanted an Ocelot.  had a friend that had one...huge, kick ass kitties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocelot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocelot)

My brother and his cat getting ready for some skiing.. not particularly earth shattering, but hey there is my brother, and there is his Cat! and it does say "cat thread" up top :awesome_for_real:

(http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk112/Fraeg/2007_0623May20070006.jpg)

Keeping animals as pets that were meant to be wild is such a bad idea.  The minute someone complains, you chance having it taken away and destroyed.  I've read of entire wolf hybrid litters to be destroyed because people complained or authorities just decided it was too risky.  Even in places where there's no exact law against it. There are quite a few cat breeds that look like their wild relatives and need a home and are 100% domesticated.  Bobcats and lynxes have to be mostly hidden away.  You can't really chance them becoming aggressive with people - and you can't predict when they will.  It seems that owning a wild animal is an more of an ego thing and might be wonderful unless you're the animal.

PS  Righ and I both love Bengals.  If we hadn't decided on rescues, that's what we would have gone for.  I even checked to see if there were any Bengal rescues available in our area. 

There are some wild-domestic hybrids (the Bengal is one, crossbred with an Asia Leopard Cat) that get considerably larger than normal domestic cats, conserve some of the less dangerous wild cat behavior (such as Bengal dog-like imprinting and dominance behavior), and won't get yanked by Animal Control.  Bengal (Asian Leopard Cat), Safari (Geoffrey's Cat) and Savannah (African Serval) are the most common, but there are some others, plus second-order hybrids created by mixing those (some of which wind up insanely large, 40 pounds or so).  There are also some that are re-domesticated feral strains that were wild long enough to become very distinct from domestic cats (Scottish Wildcat and Maine Coon in particular).

--Dave

I had a "friend" who owned some form of hybrid cat. I want to say lynx but i am not certain. The cat hat a bobbed tail and wasnt heavier than some normal cats. It was stocky and compact but not overly large. It also just happened to be completely fucking feral.

There was no playing around without blood being drawn. It could run up your leg/chest to get at your face so fast that if you weren't ready for it you were fucked.. Was the most badass animal ever. It held back and never really tried to kill a person but was ALWAYS in destroy mode.

Ive refrained from pets untill they have long term area to mess around in. While there are benefits to having indoor animals i find it slightly fucked up to do so. They wanna be free (very rare for a cat to hate outside).

Sounds like a it was part Lynx/Bobcat.  Fairly rare, generally sterile mules, and known for their aggression.  We had one when I was young, sucker tried to bite my tongue out (and I was number 3 on his list of "humans I tolerate").  He used to bring home rattlesnakes (usually dead, but not always) and rode a Great Dane through the center of town because it had taken his favorite sunning spot.

--Dave

Can a lynx and a domesticated cat mate naturally? Because i want to say this cat was not bought from a breeder and was a product of a pregnant house cat. But i cant recall. Such an awesome looking animal, giant ass paws,tufts of hair on his ears.If only they would chill the fuck out sometimes and be petted.

Its amazing how much stronger pound for pound wild animals are to men. That cat could easily cause serious injury even if you were prepared to battle it. How exactly does a cat almost bite off your tongue?!

They can, but it has to be a large female domestic and small male lynx (any other way, one of them will wind up dead).  Scamper's mother was a barn cat, mostly Maine Coon (so halfway to feral herself) and pretty big.  Scamper "only" weighed about 20 pounds and took after his mother physically (ear tufts were the only lynx-like physical sign, and Maine Coons often have something similar but smaller, his tail was short but not bobbed, and fully furred like a Maine Coon).  He bit my tongue because I was blowing in his face and laughing at the reaction, he dived into my mouth mid-laugh, his teeth were about midway back and I don't know how he could breathe (maybe he couldn't, he did let go after a minute or so).

Only people he acted like a cat to were my grandmother, my cousin, and sometimes me.  Anybody else was risking fingers if they tried to pet him or pick him up (he never did that to me, but if I tried to carry him around he'd get pissed).  My step-brother was definitely *not* on the list, which annoyed him because Scamper was supposed to be his cat.  At 15-16 years old he finally ran into a pack of dogs he had gotten too old and slow to beat.

--Dave

He died as he lived a complete badass.

Fucking hell! Feline Chuck Norris ffs.

And cheers for the food advice Signe :)   Gonna order some stuff today and see if they'll eat it, and if they do I'm going to throw the rest of that 3kg sack of IAMS away!

Don't throw it away, transition them.  Abrupt changes in diet could cause them some problems.

An old buddy is a vet, one of his favorite expressions went something along the lines of:  "if cat's wanted to they could rule the world" that and "pound for pound there is nothing as dangerous as a cat"

Here's Macbeth and Othello.  We got them at a shelter 3 years back.  Macbeth is a Maine Coon and is pretty much completely fixated on me.  Othello is just an attention whore for any passing warm body.  Both weigh about 15 pounds, with Macbeth being slightly larger.  Not sure what they're staring at in this picture.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3445/3312344310_743054053e.jpg)

And one more of Macbeth:

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3490/3311545371_edd6443f2c.jpg)

I've seen a guy at the mall near my house a few times with this beast of an cat (http://www.lifestylepets.com/ash.html) on a leash (Southern California malls are mostly outdoors, so tons of people bring their dogs for a walk...and I guess cats). The first few times I saw him I was thinking, "Why is he wandering aimlessly around the mall with his cat on a leash?" and then later discovered it was a $35,000 cat. I guess he was cruising for chicks with it like a BMW. The cat totally hated him too, he was doing that passive aggressive preening thing every time the guy wasn't tugging on the leash getting it to follow him.

I don't really get people who spend big money on 'lifestyle' ego pets when there's so many that desperately need a home.

Not that I need to go out and find pets, they seem to adopt em no matter what I do. 3 damned kittens here now, I've found homes for 2 of them.

I have a theory, cats smell the other cat on you and identify with it as friendly cats. You don't want to meet the cats that stay away from you.

Although that's a gorgeous cat, I agree with Rattran.  I'm not saying that people shouldn't help with wildlife rescues, either.  I think that's great if you can make that sort of committment and give the animal a good home.  I can't make the sort of commitment and take the kind of responsibility entailed to rescue wildlife or even feral cats.  I won't, however, have any pet that's not a rescue.  Except maybe one of those giant chimps that you can dress up like people because we know what wonderful pets they make!

More importantly, rattran has a Young Ones era Alexei Sayle avatar which is just  :awesome_for_real:

And Lant: good point, thanks.

My dog (see avatar) is better than your cats  :drill:

also, he is the perfect cat fence. He's a border collie and our cats are not allow to go anywhere in the house without his permission (save the top of the fridge, he's too big to fit up there) He's faster, can jump higher and is a lot smarter.

If you've never seen a border collie heard cats, check youtube... it's pretty funny.

I love Border Collies.  They are amazingly smart and too too cute.  I've also never met one that was unfriendly.

They're too smart for their own good. They are guard dogs and if you don't challenge them they will start to shepherd anything. The border collie of friend of mine started to shepherd liitle kids because he was bored. Another collie herded horses.

Could be, and this little calico (named Signe now) follows me everywhere now. Except when I've left site, it hasn't been more than a few feet from me for days. Which is kinda nice, I sleep much better with a cat curled up next to me. I'll miss her once I find her a home.

I'd bet you'd regret not having a border collie the next time you are trapped in an abandoned well or mineshaft. 

(http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/images/smilies/catman.gif)

If I were going to blow money on a purebred cat, I'd get one from this guy (http://www.verismocat.com/), who bred this Guinness record-holder:

(http://www.verismocat.com/images/leo/flowers_t.jpg)

That cat is four feet from nose to tail, and weighs a healthy (not fat) 35 pounds.   :drill:

Is it trained for battle?

I'm pretty sure it came with the reflexes hard-wired.  Trying to train it would just take away the edge.

I love Maine Coons.  They are to normal cats what normal cats are to dogs: You have to work hard to earn their respect, all feeding them gets you is them not pissing in your shoes.  In the after-time, there will be human mutants, giant cockroaches, and Maine Coons ruling over both while they hunt the wargs for sport.

--Dave

(http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/3689/catcastle002rd7.jpg)

My cat would have that into a pile of shredded bits in about fifteen minutes.

A cat-thread? I want in.

Cats > dogs. Dogs are trained pets, slaves to human will. A dog comes when you whistle/call because he feels compelled to do so, and the humans punish them if they do not comply with their wishes. Cats are independent, they come and go as they please. A cat may come if you call, but there's a 50% chance that it will just ignore you and continue doing nothing at all. Until there's free food to be had, of course.

I miss my cats; Mother (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=div002.jpg) and son (http://img6.imageshack.us/my.php?image=div004.jpg). Here's a pic (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img2529.jpg) of them playing in the yard back when the son wasn't twice the size of the mother:

(http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/8070/div002.jpg)

(http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/2516/div004.jpg)

(http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1285/img2529.jpg)

Yeah i always saw Egyptian Maus at the pet stores at teh spectrum in Irvine...blew my mind how much $$ they were, BUT they did have fur that was soft like a rabbit's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Mau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Mau)

Oh hey, pictures.

Here's Leibowitz, the polydactyl and very good-natured cat that we adopted from the street as a kitten when I was in high school.  (He'd yowl outside my bedroom window at night hoping for food and/or shelter; after about a month of me not getting any sleep we finally took him in.)  He's getting on in years now but still lives with my mom.  She tells me that when her rabbits had a litter a few years ago, she carefully introduced one of the babies to Leibowitz so that he'd know they were part of the family and not to be eaten.  The effort of restraining himself was so stressful (MUST... NOT... EAT... TINY... THING) that he wet himself.


In the foreground being pesky is Ed the pirate kitty, aka "orange cat," aka "Little Stalin," a more recent acquisition of my mom's (courtesy of my aunt who runs a kitten foster home).  He had some sort of eye infection when he was little and now sees in mono.  His hobbies include bullying the Newfoundland (roughly ten times his size, not pictured here).  Better picture of Ed:

Hate to say it man, put that cat is now creepy looking. He needs himself an eyepatch. Yarr.

I think he looks fucking great! Arr, avast ye, I'm comin' aboard!

My boy had a great night last night, poppa had a couple Black Forest brews, his favorite.

Not a rat, but my cat doing her job with a lizard.  :grin:


(http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss244/straykat627/Animals/lizard_1.jpg)

(http://i580.photobucket.com/albums/ss244/straykat627/Animals/lizard_2.jpg)

Signe the calico turns out to be owned by a family of hippies with a bunch of dogs. She seemed scared of the dogs, but did run over to the little girl, then back to hide behind me. I let them take her, and mentioned I'd be over to visit a few times.

If she comes back, I'ma tell the hippies to go fuck themselves.

So we slowly swapped the cats over to this Orijen stuff, from IAMS, over 2 weeks, and they love it!

The food itself doesn't smell rank, like IAMS did, and the cats breath is like a million times better. I'm sure I'm imagining it because it's not been long enough I reckon, but I keep thinking their coats feel smoother and sleeker too, but like I say, probably imagining that at this stage.

Felt really good throwing away ~2.5kg of smelly IAMS too  :awesome_for_real:

When I started feeding my cats raw meat, gently cooked fish and a little no grain dry, the difference in their coats was really quick.  They also don't shed as much.  Lister, especially.  I give them a little dab of hairball remedy on the nose and/or a bit of yogurt, too.  They're very spoiled!   :oh_i_see:

If my cat's coat got any nicer, some swarthy canadian would show up and try to take his pelt.

Zebedee gets some yogurt every day - she insists on licking my bowl clean after I've had my breakfast oats/fruit/yogurt. Sputnik's not bothered and she's big and fluffy so regular combing to keep hairballs down is necessary anyway. Might have to try some hairball remedy if she has problems with this new food, but we've just sown fresh cat grass for them so they'll have stuff to munch on outside soon :)

my male cat eats broom straws. we've found pokey poop and 4 inch long hairballs comprised of straw.

cat are so awesome, I wish we could get one for our flat, but I'm alergic to them apparently :(

So, make friends with someone with a cat, and pet it for small amounts of time each day. Then wash up. You'll acclimatize. I'm currently trying this with all the dogs around here, I'm to the point where I only cough a bit, and my eyes don't water as much.

Or do what I did, get a fluffy kitten, and live in an enclosed space with it for 6 months. Weekly baths for the cat kept the dander down a bit, but it was mostly just getting used to it.

 :ye_gods:

An oldie but a goodie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9QwK5EHSmg

If you start when they're small, keep the water warm but not hot, and make it a game, it's not a problem. The cat in question would sit in the shower and chase shampoo bubbles. Didn't like immersion, but was fine with a shower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUNmLuNdiL8&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUNmLuNdiL8&feature=related)

I'd seen about half of these before, but still...  :drill:

I think the cat chasing the bear was the best one.

I need a better camera.. or at least one with motion stab. technology since apparently my wife has the DTs.

This is Perseus, he decided my wife's bag looked comfy.

Do you call him PER SEE OOOS like the guy in GTAIV?

Well my GF's parents got a cat and I always go pet him a bit, cause he's awesome but then I often get my eyes watering or buttons appearing on my hands :(

Pet him for a bit, then go wash your hands and face. Repeat each day.

Buttons, eh? That's a new one to me.

Rub your eyes with a kitten daily. I'm sure the entire "allergy" thing will eventually pass, because cats are awesome. :hello_kitty_2:

My wife and I have 2 cats. About a week after we had started dating, Deb calls me up and asks, "So how allergic to cats are you?" One of her friends was taking a walk and this tiny dirty pile of fur comes stumbling out of the bushes. My wife was thinking about getting a cat so this was a great opportunity. After washing all the dirt and fleas off, the dirty pile of fur turned into a tiny kitten:
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c217/ClydeJr/LGface.jpg)
He's grown up in the past nine years to be a big 15 pound cat.
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c217/ClydeJr/Lucas_Now.jpg)
He's been an indoor cat his entire life. Luckily he's always had someone around so he always had someone to play with an keep active. However when my wife decided to go back to work, he didn't have anyone to play with and started getting a little wide. We starting planing on getting another cat for him so they could play together. Luckily, a cat wandered a warehouse where Deb worked and was completely unafraid of humans, but very starving.

We brought her home and thought we'd have a nice couple of cats. Unfortunately Phoebe brought some stowaways, five of them. About a week before we were going to get her fixed, we noticed that she was putting weight in a weird way (all in her belly). Turns out she was about a week or 2 pregnant when she showed up at my wife's work. Deb got to play midwife. Me? I went to sleep. We found good homes for all 5 kittens which was good.

(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c217/ClydeJr/6HrOldKittens.jpg)

Phoebe stayed a tiny cat (6 lbs) even though she gets plenty to eat. Here she is trying to adopt my daughter as a pet. (http://vimeo.com/3700862)

I expected this thread to be adorable but it's exceeded all my expectations!  (http://www.sheknows.com/graphics/emoticons/love4.gif)

Damn Clyde, your cat looks just like my cat. Although I think "Eddie" is a big bigger, pushing 18.5lbs. Although that probably is the most common looking cat. Pic incoming.

Eddie and Ellie named for Oedipus and Electra, its their world, we just live in it.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3190/2812009367_e113a9544b.jpg?v=0)


Good morning, are you awake, hi, hello, play time? Oh your up. Feed me.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/2812007147_712128ab1c.jpg?v=0)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3006/3002734033_ecd7ee1925.jpg?v=0)



And his neurotic sister. Ellie.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3119/3160852620_4fcc6e9f69.jpg?v=0)

You just need more light. The camera chose a high sensitivity and slow shutter speed. But yeah, if you want to take pictures of moving subjects in available light, you may need a camera with better controls or a faster lens. :)

Controls?  It's a 5 year old 3MP point and shoot. There are no controls.  :awesome_for_real:

Eddie looks just like the striped, gray tabby I rescued from the pound five years ago.  He's the best pet I've ever had. 

My other cat is a white manx.  She's a great lap cap and very affectionate.  I find it interesting just how different their two personalities are. I also love the reaction when people first see her.  "What happened to her tail???"

(http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/jpgs-bob/manxsh.gif)

Note: this isn't her, but the pic looks just like her.  I'm terrible with cameras.

Ok, since everyone seems to love cat pictures. Here are mine:

(http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/82533/max.JPG)

Max is the mom and dad of the bunch.  Also, as you can see, the most photogenic. Great cat that basically acts like a dog.  Follows you around anywhere and loves to be sitting and sleeping where ever you are. All of the cats adore him and he's rarely alone.

(http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/82533/ivan.JPG)

Ivan is the youngest.  Still thinks he's a kitten.  Loves to hide under things and ambush anyone.  Terribly shy around strangers, however.  The only one really that is. 

(http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/82533/harry%26max.JPG)

Not many good pictures of Harry by himself.  You can't see it here, but he's the largest of the bunch.  He's a full head taller than any of the other cats and weighs 16lbs.  He's killed just about anything smaller than him that has ever made it into the backyard. Unfortunately, he's got that upper respiratory infection and it can flare up at times.

(http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/82533/jasmine.JPG)

Jasmine is a polydactyl with 6 toes on her left and 7 on her right.  She's really attached to max and has just recently in the past couple years started becoming very social.  We think before my inlaws got her (we took in Max and Jasmine in college) she was abused and wouldn't let anyone get near her except females in the family. She wouldn't even let males take a step toward her.  Now she lets me pick her up whenever and is very affectionate.

Yah, I've got too many cats. We did take in Max and Jasmine because they were the cats in the place we were renting from my inlaws (used to be her dad's commuter house when he worked in Tucson and they lived in Phoenix).  I used to be horribly allergic also.  Max is like a walking plague to anyone that has even the slightest cat allergy.  However, years of being around it has basically numbed me to them.

Necro'd for a pic. It was cold this morning, so they're all fluffed up. Otto Spooky and Fess.
(http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/rattra/SpoOttFes.jpg)

god I kinda wanna visit now

Go go basement cats!

I wish my cat didn't shed so god damn much.

Daily combing is the only answer. And hoovering  :oh_i_see:  Actually ours are shedding a lot less since we changeed their diet, but "a lot less" still means that Sputnik in particular throws of vast clouds of CPU-fan filling fluff.

I've thought about getting a cat, and my dad tried to convince me to get one when he was still alive.
I've always been worried about all the various stuff plugged into walls and cords and the various toys and bits I have laying about would either get shredded by kitty or hurt kitty.
Plus worrying about taking it to the vet, or providing enough attention and care and all.  (Not to mention getting it spayed/neutered and various health bits would cost some bucks.)

Am I overreacting? 

We never owned cats growing up as my mom hated them, and its been about 10 years since our dog that we owned from like 83-99 passed away.

I might be capable of owning a fuzzy pal now, but there are so many questions.

All of those things are easily dealt with.

Cats are very trainable (to an extent) - play with them regularly with specific toys and shoo them off when they play with things you don't want them to and they'll stick to those toys. Give them a scratching post from an early age and encourage them to use it and they'll eventually use that instead of your sofas. Keep an area in your garden as bre earth and regularly clear the shit out and they'll end up just pooing there (mostly). Spend a few $ a month on vet insurance and you won't get huge unexpected bills.

In general cats are easier to have as pets than dogs, imo. They don't need taking out for walks every day for a start! And you can always ask the assorted cat nuts here for advice :)

When I moved in with my gf 6ish years ago she was really concerned about having my cats move in too. She was worried they'd fuck up the garden and destroy her soft furnishings and carpets. We now have a section of our garden enclosed completely in a wood & wire cage to grow veg in which we don't want the cats shitting around and digging up and she's not even vaguely bothered any more about the damage they've done to the sofas and things (I've failed to train my cats to use scratching posts, my bad) because she's come to love the cats so much that the rest of it just isn't important.

I'd say go for it, as long as you're okay with the fact that they're living creatures that need care and attention and that you may end up making some small compromises and changes to your life & home, and are prepared to accept the responsibility of looking after them properly.

I think the biggest problem most people have with cats is what to do with them when they go away on holiday. We're very lucky, we have great neighbours who are more than happy to feed them every day if we're away, but it's something you should think about if you do decide to get a cat.

It's night and day, really. 

I grew up with dogs at my parent's house; we always had at one or two at any time.  I was pretty indifferent about cats until I met my wife and she had two cats.  I got used to them, even though both of them were assholes.  So I ended up getting my own cat.  He's passed on now, but when he was alive he grew up to be more of a pet than any dog ever could be.  Greeted me at the door every day after work, would lay the length of my chest cuddled with me at night.  Simply awesome. 

We've had two dogs (currently a 4 month old German Shepard) and the sheer amount of work involved is staggering.  Raising a child is easier than a puppy; that's not a joke.  You literally can't take your eyes off them for a second for the first six months.  Hell, for weeks 8-12 the dog needs to go outside roughly every two hours.... so one of us was sleeping on the couch the whole time, waking up for 10 minutes and then going back to sleep.  This is a great dog, but it's going to be the last one I have.  It's too much work to get it where you want. 

With all of the cats we've had over the years (2-3 at any time, all indoors), we pretty much showed them the litter box, the scratching post and their food/water.  They figure it out from there.  Yes, there's an occasional chewed cord or destroyed curtains.  Anything important you put away.  But they pretty much train themselves if you brush them and pay attention to them. 

And yes, vacations are a pain.  With a dog you've either got to board it or leave it with friends that will really take good care of it.  Cats though, someone can stop in for 10 minutes a day to feed, water a scoop the box and they're good to go. 

After being a dog person for the first 2/3 of my life, having cats for the last 1/3 has shown me that I'm truly a cat person, no matter what.  There's nothing like watching a cat hunt something. 

*oh, and don't declaw your cats.... imagine having your fingers cut at the second knuckles.  That's what you're doing to them.  If you have a pet, dog or cat, prepare to have some of your stuff destroyed.

If you're just going away for a weekend you don't even need to get a neighbour to look in on the cat. I just leave out a huge bowl of food and water and he's fine for two or three days.

About the declawing... Was it in this thread that someone mentioned laser declawing? Supposedly, it's much less painful than the old-style surgery. I investigated it a little and found stories both in favour and against it. Although, the vets saying it was no better tended to be the ones who hadn't invested thousands of bucks in the laser machine.

I had my first two cats declawed old style and I really had no idea how painful it was for them. My current cat isn't declawed and he hasn't been so bad. They do the most damage when they're kittens and you can't get them declawed until they're at least six months old anyway.  Still, if I was sure that laser declawing was humane I'd probably go ahead and get it done.

I was worried about a cat destroying my stuff. When I was a kid, we had tons of pets but they were never really allowed in my room. Bart's been great, though. He knows to stay out of my spaghetti tangle of cords, leaves the guitars alone, doesn't play with the wireless mouse, etc. He does occasionally start getting into stuff he shouldn't but he does it knowingly, he'll bat at something then look at me - it means he wants something, either attention or his dish is empty or there's a squirrel he wants me to look at.

I would never declaw a cat. It's cruel and dangerous if they get outside. You can clip them if you're worried about scratches, but even then it's risky if they get out and have to fight. Bart is really good about his claws, and he LOVES to use them. The only negative stuff is when he jumps, he digs in his back claws. I've just adjusted and learned to live with it, since it rarely is noticeable (on clothes, my skin is another matter). As far as actual scratching, he has a post and a designated rug, he never scratches anything else.

And you can train cats to a degree. Use a firm NO, and only use it when he's engaged in the prohibited activity. Not when he looks like he might, you have to be patient and wait for him to actually start getting into trouble before using it. And give him a second to process it. Then repeat a slightly louder firm NO. Never use his name when scolding and never, ever hit or lunge, because a lunge is a chase game to a cat. They will get into prohibited things just to get you to chase them. The firm NO works great for Bart. You're not supposed to let them bite/scratch your hand, but I do let him play with my hand. He knows it's only me that he's allowed to do that with, and he knows what his limits are. Again, a firm NO and then I get up and ignore him. Nothing teaches a cat faster than ignoring him...though that's also when they want to get into things to get your attention.

Couldn't have gotten him at a worse time, I had just bought the house. Hadn't moved in, so I fenced him into the front room and he had to stay there during all the construction. I ended up staying in the house in a sleeping bag most nights so he didn't feel abandoned (he was a stray we found outside the library, so I was worried about that). I put in as much time as I could with him, playing and just being there, but it was real tough with a full-time job, moving and renovating. But he turned out amazing, I've had several cats when I was a kid, and Bart is by far the best. Hangs out and drinks beer with me, greets me at the door with a big stretch (won't bother waking up for my fiancee, heh), watches me play EQ, sneaks in to curl up with me every night. Perfect cat, not clingy, not too aloof.

I wouldn't declaw a cat either for the same reasons as Sky mentioned.  So far my cats have been pretty good at only destroying things they're allowed to destroy.  We have a really large open floor plan downstairs and we've designated one big area as the play room.  I bought a really cheap 6' x 9' rug (hand woven by what is probably hard working Taliban women) and we play on it several times a day.  That, and the condo, castle, whatever it's called, is where they scratch.  I also trim their claws once a week.  It really does help. 

I don't know what I'll do when we have to go somewhere for any length of time without them.  Magenta would probably cope fairly well no matter what, but Lister would despair no matter what we did.  He only likes us and he doesn't like when we go places.  It would be painful for him to be boarded, too.   I think I've gone too far in spoiling them - especially him.  He copes poorly. 

They might not tear things up, but they do this sometimes: 

(http://www.democraticwarrior.com/forum/images/styles/desert_sand/smilies/x-actioncatlogo.gif)

It's so funny to watch, I can't get angry!

Ok, not all kitties are trainable, even if you get them young. They may have had a bad mother, an abusing environment, who knows, and even if you catch them at a young age, they may simply be unresponsive to training techniques. I have two cats, siblings, one male the other female. The female responds to verbal 'orders', such as the firm "No" Sky mentions but the male has a very advanced case of selective hearing disorder and short of charging him like a crazed gorilla, he's gonna do whatevs.

Also, declawing a cat is like taking its soul. Do not do it. Even if your cat's going to exist in an apartment with no need for self-defense, etc, its just too much part of what being a cat is about. Claws are part of the bargain.

If you think that a scratched up piece of furniture is a deal breaker, as in,  you will give the cat away if you can't get the cat to stop clawing up things, then I think you need to reconsider. 70% of the time, you're going to have a cat that can be trained not to, but sometimes it just won't work out and giving a cat back because it does things a cat does seems pretty lame.

The fix is to put the roll on the other way (underhand/unroll from the back).  They'll still spin it around over and over, but you don't end up with 30 feet of tissue strewn about the room(s).

No, no.  You must NEVER put the TP that way around!  It opens a gateway to hell!  Srsly.

When I first found my vet here, in with all the discussions of neuter/spaying, and recommendation for which vaccines to get and which to skip, was a very firm "We don't declaw cats, so if you want that you'd better just find another vet." They have all the nifty laser surgery stuff, chipped both kittens for $10 each, and don't charge for routine checkups. ymmv, but finiding a good vet makes cat ownership much easier.

And yeah, be prepared for kittens to shred/chew stuff until they learn the scratching post is for that. Teach them to fetch (plastic gallon container pull tabs work great) or some other game you can play every day to keep them from getting bored and into trouble. And having 2 or 3 means they always have someone to play with. The best part of coming home after being away for a few weeks for work is how happy the cats are to see me. The worst part is how they've covered my bed in shedded fur.


(http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/rattra/Oscar.jpg)

None of my cats have ever done that  :sad:

I'm gonna encourage them. That should be a fun way to waste an evening. And several rolls of toilet paper.

Your cats are happy when you get back from a vacation? Ours have always punished us by sulking, or peeing in a suitcase.

Generally they're happy, then shun me for a bit. After getting home a few weeks ago, they've never gone into the shunning bit. Oscar (the last pic) has been following me around constantly, and lying across the keyboard each time I sit at my desk. Makes it hard to type.

My oldest cat. Name's Quake.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3323/3424643310_a04c1cd3ba_o.jpg)


(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3633/3423835661_d8d348271b_o.jpg)


(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3344/3423835747_db0d8423d7_o.jpg)

Still him like 5 years ago.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3415/3423835847_ddc1dc1a54_o.jpg)


On a funny note, I am hosting a South Korean girl for a few days and today when Quake started pouncing and purring on her she seemed happy and said: "Wow, I have a dog back at home, and I love him... but this is weird, you know, this is the first time in my whole life I touch a cat..."   :awesome_for_real:

True story! :hello_thar:

You would like my life now. Used to suck single parenting the boy from 0 to 14 though. Quake (the cat) was there, he knows.

Love the brown tabby, Falc. They have awsome personalities I have found. Also, we now know you're a computer neck-beard nerd! <points and laughs>. Then again, I am not hoisting korean girls so maybe I should stfu.

Tell us more  :awesome_for_real:

Alas, I haven't lived with a cat in a long while, though I really miss it.  My other always had a cat or two around the house when I was growing up.

Cute photo but my god that keyboard :ye_gods:  get some rubbing alcohol and a rag and clean that bad boy up.  It looks like a great way to contract something nasty.

Nah, just get a black keyboard like I did.

I'm less concerned with the grubby keyboard than I am with the sequential cases, arrayed behind the deceptively cute cat, curled around a Finland beanie baby! It's the countdown to something.  :ye_gods:

Gravlax? Lutefisk? Appreciation of Formula One?

Haha!

My life follows the lines of pleasure and independence. You could say I finally turned into a cat myself. What's not to like there?

The grubby keyboard is like that so no one but me and Quake dares to touch it. It's a 2$ keyboard and after many experiments with more expensive ones, still the only one I can play Conan efficiently.

The sequential cases hold 10dvds each, roughly 44 GB each of backed up animes and movies straight from the pre-external Hard Drives era. Numbers match my digital catalogue, only way to find what you want when you want it. It's more than 200 full series  :ye_gods:

And despite my visceral love for Finland, I hate fish!


EDIT: and my face and my beard are no secrets. Plenty of pictures of me on facebook, they just don't belong here.

No you don't hate fish!  It is unpossible for a scandie to hate fish! 

But I am just a wannabee Finn, not (yet) a real one. And technically, the Finns are not scandies.

Having seen Lutefisk once, I'm pretty sure the Finns do, too.

Lutefisk isn't Finnish. Finns aren't Scandinavians. Play through. /derail

This my friends cat Little, aka the Shrub Cat. 

(http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk112/Fraeg/IMG_0008.jpg)

I would switch out Denmark for Finland, actually.  People in Denmark are much too carefree to be Scandies and Finnish people drive faster.  It would be a better Scandinavia without Denmark and Sweden, actually.  They all pretty much stink of fish, though. 

How the fuck can someone be italian and hate fish. What in the holy hell is that about?

I don't understand that one either.

I kinda like lutefisk. And Finnish drivers are  :drill: :ye_gods: and  :uhrr: in equal measure. I took some rally driving lessons from a Finn back in the late 80s, never done anything else quite as terrifying.

And I think I've posted this one, but I'm not sure.
(http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/rattra/DCP_0070.jpg)

Oh lawd. I should never have clicked on this thread. I now have a major case of the cat-equivalent of the feeling women get in the presence of small babies.
I've wanted a cat for longer than I can even remember, have always had an affinity with them. Alas my family home was animal-free if you discount tropical fish (and beyond the excitement of guppies inbreeding themselves into bug-eyed backwards swimming upside-downfish within a few months, they're not exactly cuddly) as for some reason my mother was and still is very much anti-furry animal.

Currently living in a flat with a no-pets (of the furry kind) policy. Can't win. :heartbreak:

When someone says 'Die from keyboard AIDS' in the Politics forum, that's the image that will forever more come to mind.  :ye_gods:

I love cats.  Small babies, however, make me want to run away, screaming in terror.  I am a-scared of them.  Growing up, we only had dogs, except for barn cats which are totally different.  I love dogs, too, but I am now a certified, card carrying cat person. 

I can't state this enough. I hate being Italian! And I am doing my best to quit.

Italy is beautiful. Italians, not so much. Not now.

But your Prime Minister says even more hilarious things than even Bush ever did!  How can you not like it!   :why_so_serious:
Is the certification test hard?

But Italian food is awesome (my favorite food to cook)! How can you hate Italian food?

It's just the people! The fucking Italians!

The scenery is beautiful, the (old) art is awesome, the food is beyond incredible... it's just those damn idiots!
And that makes me hate them even more! They are forcing me to leave this wonderful place! Aaawwrrrrr hate hate hate!

(And seriously, before you say I am exaggerating, have a drink with me and I'll tell you stories will make your hair curls, or curlier).

I'd really like my hair to have a bit more curl.

He means your chest hair.

Article about Alitalia that I think might point to some of what you're saying about Italians.: http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2009/03/the-worst-airli.php


Edit: Oh, and I had every intention of adding a cat picture to this post, but going through my Dropbox, I realized that all I have are very shitty ones taken with my previous phone. I'll remedy this and contribute. Maybe this weekend. Sorry for the off topic.

That's how Italians devastated Italy. That article is dramatically authentic. Seriously, whoever thinks I am exaggerating should read that to begin understanding what the hell I am always talking about.

Yes, Alitalia was in a very bad situation, and everyone there was stressed beyond recognition, the strike had its reasons, and yes, even in that story you can spot a few good Italians. BUT the average is humiliating. And strike or not, you can jam a service without stopping to be a decent human being.

While, believe me, (too many) Italians LOVE to be horrible human beings. They are proud of it. Addicted to it. Italians love to fuck people up. They do it and laugh at you. It's their favourite hobby, the only thing that makes them feel good. I want a fucking nuclear bomb over this people.

The whole article is 100% true, and stories like that happen every day with every kind of service. I could write 100 articles like that, from grocery stores to phone companies, postal services, transportation, restaurants. Everything. This country is done. Put a condom on your head before entering, and leave as soon as you visited the places you planned to see.

So, how big is the Italian population of New Jersey again?   :awesome_for_real:

Of course you would, you are female. If you had curly hair, you'd want it to be straighter.

I should also mention I grew up around italians. Definitely prepares you for life, makes just about anyplace outside central LA much nicer.

Even the good ones sounded like they had been broken by the rest.

My parents never seemed to have much trouble and my dad was over there for years working on some plants.  Does Venice have a different vibe going?

Different cities/regions have different vibes, yes. But the average sucks everywhere. That's what you have to deal everyday, the fucking average  :ye_gods:

EDIT: The average that keeps electing this buffoon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFJXWQm3XDA) since 1993.

Thats because, as I mentioned, the man provides better quotes by a head of state than any other in the world.   :awesome_for_real:

So the vet told us today our cat is a bit fat.  She only weighs 8 pounds but she is a little football-shaped, I guess (just a small cat). Time for a diet! She also seems to think that up on my shoulders behind my head is the only safe place to hide from the mean lady with the cold ass thermometer.

 :grin:

We just started mixing in some weight-control stuff in Bart's food. He's getting a swingy belly, probably north of 15lbs these days. We'll find out in a couple more months.

Holeee sheet, that Alitalia story is scary. And I lived in Spain for years and years, which I though was about as bad as Italy. I guess not!

Any animal is a huge shock when you first get them. You better like cleaning shit, lint rolling hair and, depending on the cat, love to either have them in your face all the time or be completely unaffectionate.

I find it's best to go all the way when you notice a cat having weight issues and switch their dry diet to some sort of calorie control food. One of my cats (Max) puts on weight really easy and we've had him on diet food for a while.  His weight has been stable for about the past 6 years now.  My orange monster that topped out around 25 pounds slimmed down to 19 on diet food, looked great, and had a lot more energy (died a while back sadly, awesome cat).

And since you can't have one type of food for one cat and another for the others.. they're all on the food.  When we got my black cat, Harry, as a kitten; Max would eat all of the kitten food and put on like 2-3 pounds really fast. For a cat with a ton of fur, you could really see the added weight gain. But all of the cats are pretty stable in their weight for being larger cats.  None with any health issues other than what they were born with.

Of course, we buy the expensive crap from the vet. Our tortie has horrible digestive problems with other store bought foods we've tried.

 

You can, it's just a lot more work. One of my best friends as a kid had two cats and one ate dry cat food and the other was the finicky eater than only ate canned/moist stuff.

Need to use up the bag of regular food. So we're mixing for a while.

I'm feeding mine blend of 1/3 Buffalo Blue 'wilderness' and 2/3 Dick van Patten's 'Natural Balance' now. Both are fairly expensive (25usd/12lbs) but the cats eat a whole lot less bulk than they were on any of the other stuff, so it works out about the same cost as the 15usd/16lb stuff. Less food intake also means less poop, so it's win all around.

NO WAI. 

Kittens from rescue operations are relatively cheap ($80 to take home).  One cat won't cost much to keep in clean litter and fed.  Kittens aren't puppies.  They're not going to eat your action figures.

They will, however, eat your chips and jump on your keyboard when they feel like it.

(http://www.maxminis.com/Portals/0/NTForums_Avatars/lab%20monkey.jpg)

(Might be a little hard to make out.)

The day I brought my new cat home he chewed through a pair of earbud wires.

I've spent over $200 bucks replacing earbud wires. The cat didn't cost as much.

Obviously you need to teach your cat to sing to you.

I'm trying to teach mine to say breakfast. One's getting eerily close.

Ok that made me laugh for some reason.

Our cat was a bit chewy at first, but she's totally mellowed on that for whatever reason on MOST things. She still wants to chew one particular phone cord, though. Nothing else, just THAT CORD. It wronged her in a past life or something.


Really, her thing is more I HAVE TO PUT MY PAWS ON YOUR ESCAPE KEY with a side of I NEED TO CLIMB ON TOP OF INGMAR'S MONITOR.

There's certain plastics and chemicals that taste good to cats & dogs and that's why they chew on 'em.  I just discovered last night mine likes licking photographs. I've had a bunch laying around as I got a new scanner and have been archiving them. Perseus walked over, gave a sniff to some and then began licking them.  Crazy animal.

I have wires strung everywhere in my apartment and the cat never touches them. She has three interests - moving string, ankles, and anything small that she can bat off of the table. I do a weekly pass of lifting the couches to retrieve dice.

If only we had a cat thread to discuss cats.

My cat normally curls up on a blanket next to me while I play EQ2. The last couple of weeks I've been dual-boxing with a wireless keyboard in his spot. He just slides himself into the little wedge of couch not covered by keyboard and sacks out. He's the greatest cat ever.

Be carefull, mine quickly evolved from licking to eating them...lost a few pics i really liked.

If I didn't know better, I'd have thought you two were talking about pussy.

Uh, they are. ;D

I'll see if I can find a sufficient length of rope to pull you out of the sarchasm.

One of my cats has yet to forgive me for switching to flat-panel widescreens a couple of years ago, until then whenever I was at the computer she was on top of the monitor.

--Dave

That's the thing, my monitor IS a flat-panel.

Yes, but haven't y'all declared her (lizzy?) crazy?

My cats have mostly learned to scratch and chew what and where they're supposed to.  Of course, we had to spend a fortune in play rugs, toys and a huge kitty castle.  That's just us, though.  Well, mostly me.  They are just as happy with a ball tied to a bit of string and a stick.  They love cardboard boxes almost as much as they love their castle.  With all these toys, Magenta's favourite game is chasing a kibble around the kitchen.  Lister licks the kitchen bin while he waits for breakfast.  I don't understand why.  He even does it after I've wiped it down with white vinegar!   :uhrr:

Mine doesn't 'say' breakfast, but she's become the world's finest alarm clock because she's absolutely sure that she needs to be fed at 6AM and will happily jump onto me from great heights and then proceed to paw my face (with increasing urgency)  to illustrate the fact.

I feel your pain, although Lister doesn't paw my face.  He meows really, really loud and if I sit up (like to throw a sock at him or something), he immediately jumps in my place and digs himself into the bed.  I'm not strong enough to pull him from it, either.  I can't remember the last time I slept until 7:00!

Mine has this annoying habit of getting excited when I start pouring food in to her bowl, so she starts rubbing her cheeks on the bag as I'm pouring it in. Which results in a flood of kibble accross the kitchen floor.

Put a scoop in the bag. 

As much as pet ownership can be an annoyance, it's all forgiven when you're just sitting down and reading a book when your cat jumps onto the arm of the sofa and then headbutts you because she's happy you're home.

Are you sure it's not because she wants her chair back?

Admittedly, that may be it too.

My old cat used to love menthol ointment. Like, he would come running whenever he heard me open it.

You've obviously dealt with too many cats haven't you.

Fun things to spent your evening on Number 102:
Being in a staring contest with your cat because you sit in 'its' armchair. What exactly does it say about its 'owner' (opener of cans) when the cat wins most of the time?

My cat held my sock hostage this morning. His claws are so razor sharp that even a light playful tap will draw blood, so I had to wait till he lost interest in the sock.

You only have one sock?   :ye_gods:

Old Woolly is a tried and true companion.

My cat's had reached that level of sharpness too. I was rather shocked that she actually let me trip her claws with very little fuss. Used a pair of large toenail clippers, was just verrry careful not to trim too far back (you'll know if you do when the blood starts flowing, from the cat and most likely from you).

Took two sessions to get them all, but they are much less razor like now.

My cat has a habit of scratching a chair she shouldn't. I found the best technique to discourage her was a bottle of water I would squirt in her general direction. She was always quick enough to run before I actually squirted her. Until last night.

She just spent the next hour staring at me from across the room with a disgusted look.

I clip the kitties claws at least every two weeks and try to do it once a week.  If they struggle, I stop and get Righ to hold them, which usually makes them less squirmy.  He's everyone's comfort blankie.  Since they were tiny, I've always made a point to include touching their paws during petting and play so they've become used to me fiddling with their claws.  I use the scissor style clippers and only clip the tip.  I keep styptic powder close by, just in case, but I never get anywhere near the quick.
(http://www.feedem.co.uk/cat-41/cat-grooming-58/scissors-nail-clippers-228/ancol-ergo-cat-nail-6084-4098_zoom.jpg)

I sorta take pride in the fact that my cats are a bit dangerous.

If they are indoor cats, that is a silly statement. Indoor cats need their claws trimmed from time to time. Since they are not walking around on hard surfaces their claws get longer that they should, and it can actually cause your cat pain and to have problems walking.

I use the same type thing Signe does.

I use regular toenail clippers for my boys. I can get through all of the front toes before the squirm out of my lap. Desmond used to purr and lick my hand while I trimmed his nails, but now he's kinda fussy about it.

Yeah, regular nail trimmers work fine it you're careful. And I only do the fronts, rears seem to wear down well enough on all the cats.
 It helps that I've got several scratching posts, and a couple pieces of cat furniture I encourage them to climb up.

I try to do Lizzie's front paws once a week (I often fail) and her back ones every other (they don't sharpen up nearly as fast). I can't do it alone, though. Not so much because she struggles, but because she NEEDS to SEE what I am DOING and moves her head into my line of sight constantly. She does sometimes get annoyed with the process and starts trying to grab the clippers (I use the ones like Signe's), but usually it's fairly trauma-free. Ingmar is forever on Holding the Cat duty because he's a lefty and can't handle the right handed clippers.

Brushing, on the other hand, Lizzie cannot get enough of. Eventually she pulls the brush out of my hands and just butts her head against it for a while.

I used to do ours with nail clippers but then my girlfriend bought a pair of proper clippers like Signe's picture and they're a *lot* better. Much cleaner cut, easier to do, less hassle.

I had used that kind on our bunny (who was WAY LESS TOLERANT of it), they are pretty nice and easy to use.

I miss my bunny. :(

There are little plastic sheaths you can put on your cats claws, so they don't get caught on carpet/etc. Some folks do this instead of declawing and they seem to last a month or two before you have to replace them.

Or you can make little velvet drawstring bags for all their paws, then let them go onto a newly refinished hardwood floor. Fun ensues. :awesome_for_real: :ye_gods: :awesome_for_real:

Best move-in ever.

I have a set of those scissor-style clippers, but quit using them because it was too easy for the cat to struggle at the wrong moment and get cut through the quick.  Human toenail clippers (the larger size) seem to work perfectly, even if the cat jumps, it won't go far enough down the claw to actually make them bleed.

--Dave

Of course its a silly statement. Its a freakin' housecat, for crying out loud, not a panther. As far as causing them pain, in my 30 years of owning cats, I've seen this happen on rare occasion with just one of the 6 cats I've had in my care.  I trimmed her claws. It tends to happen to older cats (our cats are 3 years old) when they no longer have the vigor to routinely use scratching posts to keep the length down.

Hahaha!  :awesome_for_real:

I found the opposite to be true.  I feel in better control with them.  I only clip the tips though, well away from the quick, which is why I try to do it often.  Geez, cat nails grow fast!  If the kitty struggles, I simply stop and do it later.  When they're sleepy is the most perfect time. 

Try and pick one up while it is in a panic. You will rethink the part about it not being a Panther. I have a scar on my hand where one of my cats bit down to the bone on my thumb. Thats what I get for trying to "save" him from a friendly dog.

So is my cat the only one using a scratching post?

Mine loves his carpeted post, but has never moved over to the sisal post next to it.

The only way I can get the cats to transition to new toys or furniture is by smearing copious amounts of catnip into them. You can also buy catnip essence in a spray can, and though they fear the spray (we use squirt bottles and sprays as disciplinary tools), they love it if you coat their things with the smell.

Yeah, did that. He licked it and then scratched the carpeted one again. He's a dumbass.

Because he didn't fall for your stupid ploy and still got the catnip?

That's just about enough out of you!

Ours uses her post to sharpen them back up after we trim them!  :x

The best is when she stares at you, wild-eyed and ears back, while she does it.

EDIT: I have to say, that was one of the best things about Lizzie when we first got her. She ONLY scratched her carpeted cave-post-thing for the most part, so we didn't have to do anything to get her to do it! Once in a while she'll claw something else, but all I have to do is say "Lizzie!" in an annoyed tone and she stops immediately.

The worst thing about when we first got her was her deciding to puke every day for about two weeks, which meant many fine vet visits at first. Best we can tell (she had a LOT of damn tests >< ), her tummy just didn't like moving to a new place very much. She's a stealthy puker too, she doesn't make that cat vomit sound or anything.

Ours seem to like the cardboard strip type.

I read somewhere that you shouldn't scold them with their name, so I've trained Bart to respond to a firm "No." Sometimes, when he's being a little bastard on purpose, just the "Nnnnn" is enough to set him off running.

Of course, this backfires when I'm goofing off with my fiancee and suggest something ridiculous and she screams "NO!" and the cat takes off running and hides out. I find it funny, but she gets wicked guilty. He even picks up on the word in normal conversation, "I don't even know!" will get him nervous.

Lister runs away when we yell at Magenta but Magenta doesn't run away from anything.  You have to pick her up and move her while she looks at you like you're insane.  It makes me feel guilty when Lister bolts up the stairs, but sometimes you just have to shout.  Having said that, they're not naughty often.  At least what I consider naughty - I'm very, very liberal.  They basically can do pretty much what they like, barring go after food on the counter, go outside or something else dangerous.  We have scratching posts and stuff everywhere and they almost always use those things to scratch.

Boy, I wish our boy cat, Burger, would pay one lick of attention to anything we say. He sounds a bit like Signe's Magenta. Our girl cat, Artemis, listens and is pretty obedient, but the boy is a total hooligan. We have bought him various scratching posts and put them right by the door jamb that he uses to scratch (now will need to be replaced, there went our rent deposit), even done the whole gentle 'no' thing and taken his paws and rubbed them up and down the new posts. He either doesn't get it or doesn't give a rat's butt. Artemis, on the other hand, has used her scratch pad from day one.

She was the protective sibling, since their mom was a negligent and fairly psychotic mom that needed to be removed from the picture lest she end up hurting the two kittens. The boy's essentially lived under the protective care of his sister, and sorta thinks the rules don't apply to him. I'm probably anthropomorphizing this too much, but heck if I can come up with a better explanation.

I've got a book on cat behavior (written by a tiger trainer) that espouses the same theory.  The idea is that whatever you use to correct bad behavior shouldn't be the same thing you do when you want them to come to you (i.e. saying their name), and that it shouldn't scare or startle them (because then they're treating you as a predator to be fled rather than as a parent to be obeyed).

Huh? The actual jamb or the trim strip? Either way, you should just fix it yourself, depending on what your rent deposit is. When I left my last rental, I did about $50 worth of replacements to get back my $400.

When my cats were babies, I trained them (using undergrad psychology!) by squirting them with a squirt gun coupled with a snap of my fingers. After a little while, I was able to drop the squirt gun and snapping still completely works.


Heh, we just signed to pay $5K to have all of the flooring in our upstairs replaced (plus $200 in paint) thanks to my alpha male cat. He has sprayed every vertical surface in the guest room and hits the wall at the top of the stairs about once a week. It started getting worse when we had an influx of male cats move into our neighborhood. They're not aggressive, but they all think they live on our back deck.

er, sorry, ya, the trim strip.  I think at this stage nothing short of sanding and repainting professionally will make it look good. That, together with the repeatedly-vomited-on carpet (Artemis has this whole bulemic routine going on), I think we'll count ourselves lucky that they don't send a collection agency after us.

Painted? Oh hell, that's easy. Score the edges with a blade so you don't ruin the wall by pulling off paint/paper/caulk. Use a catspaw or claw of a hammer to pop out the nails and just replace the trim, cost you maybe a buck or two at a home center. Slap some paint on it, it's a rental so you don't have to be Monet.

I admit I'm getting a bit nuts since I bought the house. I was at my mom's for mothers day and ended up fixing a switch that was improperly installed and made plans to replace a couple receptacles in the living room. Getting OCD about that kind of thing. I've been setting aside an hour a day to get small projects around the house done, tonight I will install a couple new dome lights and get rid of the eeevil round fluorescents in my front room. Also have to price some new baseboard heaters and measure out the corner for a built-in bookcase. But try to limit it to an hour. Having EQ2 canceled helps!

I'm pretty sure the 'strip' is glued into place. Or the nails have been so well painted over there's no evidence of 'em. I think I'm using the right term...The wide (3-4 inch) border along both top and sides of any door frame.

Ok, score the border like I said, then slip a 6" putty knife into the gap carefully. Then use a flatbar to pry the trim away, the putty knife will protect the wall (I learned that trick after I removed the trim in my living room). It is probably nailed, but the finish nails are small and probably were set in with a nail set and puttied over before they painted.

I've always trained my cats to respond to finger snaps and hand claps.  Cats have sensitive hearing and the concussion of clapping your hands together hard is generally punishment enough to get their attention and make them stop what they're doing.  Then they learn that finger snaps come right before the headache-inducing pop, and it gets a lot easier.

--Dave

The booming clap is for the really bad behavior, like when I catch Bock in act of spraying.

From what I've seen, boy cats either spray or don't, and nothing short of removing their balls will affect it. At least with housecats the volume of it isn't quite so much. I got sprayed by a tiger at one point. Worse than a skunk's spray, and harder to get rid of.

My cats are trained for 'Oy!' being the "you're doing something bad" noise. And golf claps to get them running for play time or catnip.

That's right, just leave an "I got sprayed by a tiger" anecdote hanging.

Meh, it happens when you're around big cats for any amount of time. It's disgusting and smelly and clingy. All boy cats mark things. Baby tiger poop is marginally worse, but comes out slowly so you can dodge or shift them to avoid it.

So which one are you:  Siegrfried or Roy?

Bock was neutered at 6 months (or whenever they're old enough) and didn't spray until he was about 5 years old, when my then-kitten Desmond reached full size. It's been off and on since then, but lately (over the past year or so) it's been pretty much on. We're installing a cat door to see if unfettered access to the outdoors helps (he seems to mostly mark areas around windows and doors, where he can see other cats outside), then putting him on Paxil as the last resort. He's been on it before, and it's the only thing that works, but he's so sad and mopey when he's on it.

She seems to understand the different tones. I've taught her to come and sit (I'm working on speak but it is not going well because if she knows I have a treat she won't shut up long enough for me to TELL her to speak), and I use her name in those commands too. Maybe we'll work on "No" instead though.

EDIT: Oh, and I've tried the clap thing, she could not give less of a fuck when I do it.

Oh, I've always waited on boy cats until/unless they start spraying to get them neutered, except one who came pre-snipped. Good luck with it, Petzyme seems to do a good job cleaning up spray and urine at least. One of the neighborhood cats seems to have started spraying our front door, and the enzymes get rid of the smell.

Never had a problem with cats spraying, and I've only caught it outside in planter where I don't really care.  We did have a problem with one of our cats pissing all over tile floor in the kitchen for a period of a couple months.  It stopped magically one day.  I think it was due to the giant neighbor cat coming up to the door/window and taunting Max, who considers himself the alpha male.

All of our boy cats have been pre-snipped. It's worked out well.

My cats are pretty well trained.  A raised voice from me is pretty much all that is necessary for them to stop whatever they're doing.  They ignore my wife as they don't think she's serious. As kittens I'd physically remove them from areas they aren't supposed to be on, so just standing up will pretty much get them off a counter they're not supposed to be on. 

They get supervised outside time and are really easy to get back in. Loud claps will send most of them inside.  Our female cat will sometimes ignore it and hang out under the pyracantha.  I've got a bamboo pole (plant stake) that I can use to herd her in.  The boys no longer require herding at all.


Are your cats outdoor cats? If not, they will be.  That's not really an option here as outdoor cats quickly become coyote food and there's a fair bit of other nastiness in the desert behind our house. 

Max has gone a bit bonkers lately and has been fastidiously grooming himself.  Rips giant chunks of fur out and eat them. His tail, normally bushy, is pretty thin at the moment.  Nothing physically wrong though, but the cat has always been prone to acting a bit weird (he used to lick the walls).

Heh, yes, my cats are indoor/outdoor. Scott's cats are strictly indoor cats, but the door we got has the special collars for both in and out access.

In Soviet Russia, cat is sprayed by owner!  Also this happens in my house.  There's no "NO" or clapping, it's a stream of water in the face and it works.

See how I merged the two topics?

Yeah, we have a compressed air thing for when she's really being bad in a way that needs to stop Right Now.

Someone taught me to hiss at a cat... seems to work well, and my cat grew up feral and crazy.  For me it helps to start the hiss with a "k" sound instead of the classic "h" so it can be more forceful, abrupt, angry-sounding etc.

I just tell the dog to 'get him!' if the cat is being bad. Seems to work, as we don't see him for a couple hours after that.

That would be great if I could do that.  Stupid shiftless dogs.

(http://media.canada.com/ec39df83-fe4a-4b86-8cf9-8fbd0bc59e03/bubbles.jpg)

Are you making a silly face, or is what your mother said true?   :oh_i_see:

The human's eyes are the same color as the cat's.  :awesome_for_real:

That's not me, lol, that bubbles. Hes a cat lover to extreme, so i thought he would kinda need to be in this thread. (Hes from the series Trailer Park Boys)

Been a hectic cat day today... I come inside after digging those fucking holes and Lilly has her entire right rear foot covered in deadline. No idea at all where it came from, we don't have any. So I have to wrap her up in a towel and torture her (clean the shit off her foot in the sink) so she doesn't kill herself trying to clean it. Then I go downstairs and Charlie is sneezing like crazy.

We started Bock on Paxil. He just lays down all the time now, but no spraying. Win?

How does that work on a cat?  Is it a forever thing?  Does it change their personality much?

My vet has recommended Rescue Rememdy (http://www.rescueremedy.com/pets/) for my cat (Max) that's over grooming himself. He recommended the same thing when one of the cats was pissing all over the tile.  That behavior went away and we never used it.  We're considering trying it because Max is getting pretty close to stripping part of his tail of all hair.

Plus, the newborn is going to freak them out pretty bad.

My cat Random was overgrooming down to bare sores, seems to have been a combo of stress and diet, a shot of cortizone and getting a less grain food has done the trick.

Currently all 6 cats are madly attacking my boots, apparently while weedwacking along the fence I found a patch of catnip  :awesome_for_real:

The effects are only as long as they are on it, it ceases aggressive and obsessive behaviors like overgrooming, urine marking, fighting, etc. Rescue Remedy has never worked for getting Bock to stop spraying, and neither has Felaway. Paxil doesn't really change his personality so much as it makes him mellow. He's still affectionate and comes when I call him, but he doesn't pace around all the bushes (and walls) spraying every 10 feet, and he's more apt to stay in one place for longer (instead of always wanting to be let in or out).

Lizzie finally figured out how to get up onto the kitchen counter.  :heartbreak:

Lizzie is one of those cats that is completely indifferent to catnip. She'll notice the smell, find where it is coming from, satisfy that curiousity, and then go back to what she was doing. It's sort of disappointing, but we'll always have plastic ring things from milk containers. She freaking loves those. <3

MY cats aren't interested in catnip either, but they love cat grass. We plant pots of it and they happily spend ages sitting there munching it - a sight I find incredibly satisfying for some reason :)

Bart's not into the 'nip, either. His thing is water bottle caps, I can just scratch the top of one and he goes into full psycho mode. Makes it funny when people come over and drink out of a water bottle.

Neither of my cats noticed catnip for the first year or so that and now they go nuts with it at least a couple times a week.  There's still hope.

Most of them here go nuts over catnip, they all love to play fetch with the milk-ring pulltabs, and if I open a bottle of water, Oscar comes running and demands to drink from the cap. A habit he picked up when we used to go for long walks of hiking. He'll drink an entire bottle of water, one capful at a time if you keep refilling it.

Cat grass is an occasional treat, but when we kept some in the house all the time they were uninterested in it.

Yes apparently even if a cat has the genes to get "excited" by catnip, young cats and old cats still might not react to it.

Lizzie, for whatever reason, likes to drink from her water dish by dunking her paw in it, then licking the water off. I wish I could figure out how to get her to fetch, she loves when I throw stuff for her to chase, but she never brings it back to me. >:(

Our girl kitty does something similar. She scoops up a kibble with her paw and dunks it in the water bowl, swishes it around and then eats it. She will eat a whole bowl in this painstaking manner. I believe she spends half the night doing just that.

Ha! That's hilarious. I would totally watch my cat do that for hours if she did. Of course, I  used to enjoy watching my rabbit eat parsley ... apparently I like watching animals eat.

I taught Random to fetch by throwing the milk ring, waiting until he picked it up, then calling him. If he came to me, he got pet, if he brought the milk ring he got pet and a treat. Didn't take long, and the other cats seemed to pick it up from watching him.

I'll have to try that, she is a sucker for treats.

Magenta drowns everything.  Toys, kibble, and most especially my hair ties and scrunchies.  When she drowns one of her little mice or fluffly toys, I stick it in the freezer and give it to her later.  She loves that.  Putting little wet toys in the freezer also got them both through their teething pains.  She's fascinated by water.  She'll dip her paw in her water bowl and then stare at it until the ripples are gone.  She can also spend endless amounts of time chasing kibble around the kitchen. 

Bock used to come running when he heard the toilet flush, then he'd bat at the water as it went down the drain (now we don't let him in the bathroom because he pees on the magazines and towel rack). He also drinks from his paw and dips his food. It's cuz he's so civilized. Except the whole pissing thing. That, not so much.

My sis's cat Evan loves drinking from the toilet. When I take care of him, I find little paw prints inside the bowl. He's like a dog.

My old cat that disappeared recently (Henry) wouldn't drink from a bowl, or cat fountain... Only toilets.

I have a recirculating cat fountain, all the cats prefer the sinks. I leave the bathroom sink on a slow drip (one drip every 3 secs or so) and Oscar will press his head against it so the water runs into his mouth.

This does backfire once every few weeks, as the idiot twins (Otto and Fess, pictured in avatar) tend to curl up and sleep in the sink. Which means a sopping wet cat wandering around howling.

For some reason, I bought this for my kitties:

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hDfSIkg%2BL._SL500_AA280_.jpg)

It was a huge hit when Righ was putting it together but afterwards, not so much.  It's a pirate ship, ffs!  How could it not work?

(http://www.thecatarena.com/forum/images/smilies/catredx.gif)

You bought it because it looks rad!

Grats!   :evil:

Anybody know a hack to get Firefox to use this for broken images?  I knew how to do it in IE, but Firefox doesn't seem to display anything for images it can't load.

---Dave

EDIT: Should check the Google (http://www.absforums.com/?showtopic=245&mode=threaded&pid=12289) before asking for help

I finally found a food the cats go more nuts for than grilled salmon. Grilled salmon with a masala sauce. Who'd have guessed?

My big fat black and white cat decided he likes Cheez-its today.  He ate four of them. 

Lister would eat Indian food if we let him.  Maybe it's his name.  He pays very close attention when we have it and goes after the plates if I don't tidy up right away.  The main problem, aside from the fact that he's already fat and lazy, onions are toxic to cats.  Garlic, too, but to a much lesser degree.  I usually get a Biryani which is just loaded with onions, of course.  Having a Biryani with Lister around is always a trial.  For all his fat and laziness, he can be very stealthy when it suits him.

My boy's been eating ants. Which sucks, because I've got ant bait stations set up. So he's been vomiting the last couple days.

I've got these freakish mega ants that started showing up, like twice the size of the regular carpenter ants. He goes for those.

What about diatomaceous earth?  That works on ants, too, I think, and it's not harmful to the kitties mostly, although I don't think they could tolerate large amounts of it.  I've never tried it so I can't recommend it from anything but a "someone told me about it once" stand point. 

Mine was out on the balcony with me yesterday, and saw her first bee. Decided it was a good idea to bat it out of the air. Suprisingly, it didn't end badly.

Diatomaceous earth works great as long as it doesn't get wet. It works on all arthropods (including ants and fleas) and gastropods.

Yep, did some reading on it and went around yesterday collecting the old ant bait stations. I think they were just drinking the toxins and doubling in size, since these mega ants only showed up after I baited the house. I should get a picture of them.

VL, how much experience do you have with DE? Some folks are saying you should only buy the pure food-grade kind, without any bait in it and then add it to bait. Some are saying buy the agricultural grade stuff as it's more potent (all agreeing to stay away from the more toxic pool filter stuff). There also seems to be some debate on the best way to deploy it around the house. Some people dust it everywhere, which I really don't want to do since I don't want Bart (or us!) breathing it in and developing any lung issues. The guy that had the most sensible sounding solution was a bit over the top for me, since he had an applicator + tubing and was routing it up into all these crevices.

Wish we hadn't just had a nice dry spell that has gone rainy, won't be able to apply it for the next couple weeks due to endless rains.

Apply it at known and likely critter entry points.

Adding bait to it makes no sense to me since it works by essentially scratching the target to death. It cuts right through chitin. I use only 100% DE and apply it along the edges of where ants enter my house (inside), mostly along the base of windows. Any ants that do make it in get sprayed with an eco-friendly spray cleaner, which kills them instantly and erases their scent trails. We only have the little sugar ants, nothing destructive. However, the little sugar ants have pretty much ruined our hot tub by continuously attempting to nest under the lid - they're tropical and like the warmth and humidity. I've had to hose them with the jet spray three or four times over the past year and the water gets ruined every time I have to do that (it's cloudy with dead/decomposing ants and their larvae).

I just use Advantage for fleas and beer traps for slugs (since slugs only come out when it's too wet for DE).

Edit - I read the Wiki entry on DE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth), and it actually works differently than I though.

Zebedee being a sun worshipper:

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3646/3568909767_f5766e9641.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/apocrypha/3568909767/)

 :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real:

Cats 'exploit' humans by purring (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8147566.stm) (watch the video, if you can)

<insert overlord joke here>

Yeah, no kidding.

Continued from Useless Conversation thread:

Lister's very tidy.  He digs so much in the litter because he buries everything.  Unfortunately, he flings it out of the box.  Luckily they have their own bathroom.  Magenta doesn't even bother burying her poop.  She's such a slutwhore.  It's my fault, maybe.  I'm obsessive about cleaning the box every time they do anything.  It barely has time to stink before it's all gone.  I probably check it 20 times a day.  I'm a bit of a clean nut.

Lister wipes his teeth on everything.  EVERYTHING.  Even toes.  He's tries to wipe his teeth on my nose but I stop him.  I don't know why.  I brush his teeth regularly and his breath is always nice.  I don't understand the teeth wiping thingy.  He doesn't chew, just wipes.  I can't find anything on that behaviour.  Anyone know?  I should put this in the cat thread.  It's not completely useless.

Gum irritation maybe?

Its a thing cats do to mark their territory - they rub their face/mouth/teeth on things as the scent glands are in and around their mouths. Which part of the cat gets rubbed most often seems to be down to personal preference, ours both seem to use the sides of their face more.

EDIT: I did go look it up after this and there are some random comments saying it might also be some kind of dental discomfort, but if he's been doing it for a long time and the vet has checked his mouth out at some point, its probably fine.

Yep, check with your vet the next time you have your cat in just to make sure the mouth and teeth look good.  Otherwise, he's just marking you.  Cats mark things they like by rubbing their cheeks and mouth on you.  Incidentally, cat saliva is the most potent carrier of Fel D1 (cat allergen). 

My cat Ivan rubs his teeth on me daily so I'm leaning towards this behavior being normal.  It's just his way of saying that he's happy you live in his house. 

My mom sent me this video today:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMxGvam5Ros

God I hope they didn't waste all that water.

Water is never wasted when cats being cute are involved. 

I really do not understand our cats. They SEEM to like each other 90% of the time (maybe a little less), but every day at least once a day they have a wrestling match that I am pretty sure is going beyond "whee, playtime!" and into "I WILL CUT YOU." I mostly suspect this because Gilly, the smaller, newer one, starts crying and meowing and (if I haven't broken it up already for some reason) hissing. Lizzie is always silent in these wrestling matches, so I don't know if she's just playing too rough or if she's a SILENT KILLER.

At the same time, if I seperate them, Gilly gets all  :heartbreak: . And the second I let them back near each other, she rubs against Lizzie and Lizzie is all, "Hey, 'sup."

Lizzie also grooms the fuck out of Gilly, but that seems to mostly be a YOU BELONG TO ME NOW BWAHA thing.

Dominance fighting never really ends. My roommate's somewhat stupid cat periodically starts wrestling then goes into full blown  :uhrr: attack mode against Oscar. Once he fluffs up and starts actually fighting, she loses some hair and blood, and runs and hides for a bit. Then she beats up one of the other cats. Happens about once every 2 weeks, but in 6 years she's never managed to win the fight. Sometimes Oscar runs to the second fight, breaks it up and beats her up more.

It's pretty amazing once Oscar is fluffed. He's a huge cat, who manages to look huger and completely ridiculous. Huge mane and tail like a bottle brush.

No, Lister's teeth and gums are lovely.  It's not discomfort at all.  I think the scent thing is probably it.  When ever I wash his beds and blankets, he goes nuts with his teeth.  He does it when I wash our stuff, too.  I really believe that he has now wiped his teeth on everything we own.  On us, too. 

Ours play fight a lot.  Even when it seems to go beyond normal, I know it's play fight because the claws never come out and the teeth ever break the skin.  Lister could easily kick Magenta's ass - he's easily twice her size - but he doesn't.  I only break it up when someone cries a little. Lister is doesn't always remember how big he is.  They mostly just tear around the house and roll around on the floor.  Neither one of them have ever bit, scratched or even hissed at each other or any one else.   

Lizzie used to play wrestle ME. I have scars up and down my arm because of it (I wouldn't fight back but it would still take her a few swipes to really notice I wasn't responding). She wasn't really trying to hurt me, she just ... thought I could take it like a cat could. Now that we have Gilly, I only get scratches when they decide to use me as a launching pad to somewhere else. I'm a mess.  :awesome_for_real:

I also sometimes wonder if Gilly is just a noisy damn cat. She'll make little "mrrt!" noises when she jumps up on something, and does mew and such a bit when she's wrestling a toy. That's why I can't say for ABSOLUTE CERTAIN it's actual FIGHT fighting. Damn cats!

Lister makes that sound, too.  A lot.  He's extremely vocal and makes all sorts of sounds.  You can almost always tell exactly what he wants.  He has a weird, deep, very loud meow when he calls Magenta to play.  I don't think I've ever heard Magenta actually make the "meow" sound.  She's pretty vocal, too, but she makes a very soft, high pitched "ah-ah-ah" sound.  It's sweet.  I love my cats!

Both our cats are noisy in their own way. When Lizzie is rasslin' she's silent, but otherwise she's talkitive as hell. She meows at me after I sneeze (and only me, she doesn't meow at Ingmar), I can't figure out if she's scolding me or what. I thought she was a pretty noisy cat until we got Gilly, who is somehow more vocal. Her purr is loud as hell too. Also she snores.

One thing I find funny is they meow exactly the same way when they want to be fed. It's the OH GOD IF YOU DO NOT FEED US RIGHT THIS SECOND WE WILL BOTH FALL DOWN AND DIE OF STARVATION meow.

 :ye_gods:

Someone doesn't know her place in the food chain.

That's typical of cats that didn't get enough playtime with other cats when young. I only have one that does it, but it's fucking annoying. Typical is grab the hand with the front paws, fall to the side, the lightly bite/rake with the back claws.

I got to see a new trick this evening, Otto did his unbelievably stupid 'sit back on his haunches and box' thing to get Oscar to play, Oscar grabbed him by the head, fell over backwards, and flung Otto across the room. Then got up and sauntered away. Otto is still hiding behind the chair.

I thought it was more a matter of not getting taught appropriate boundaries for play by Mom (or relevant human surrogate).  In the wild, overly rambunctious kittens get pinned and tongue-bathed until they settle down.  Ergo, you just need to lick your cat more.

I love when my cat is an idiot (most of the times). Too bad this isn't a video but I am sure you all can easily imagine the missing next few frames.

(http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs229.snc1/7624_133701197293_521427293_2401462_47669_n.jpg)

Why do you have one of those oversized cups like they used on the Central Perk set?

That's how I consume my daily dose of cold milk. And "Friends", loved and still loving it so much. Quake (the cat) likes it too.

Bart likes to fight my hand. Doesn't help that I make it into a sock puppet kinda shape. As my fiancee says "Man, there's that damn bald kitty again!" His nemesis, only rivaled by his tail. He's good about not biting too hard or scratching much, I trained him as a kitten. But when he does get a little too fierce, I just say a firm OW, which was the training word...and you won't see him for a half-hour or so as he runs in mortal fear.

He, too, is a litter digger. I often say in a chinese accent: "Oh, herro Bart, so grad to see you again!" when he's going to town. We got a litter box with the biggest sides we could find and he still flings it all over. I had to buy a cheap rug for him. Not sure what I'll do once I actually need to use that room, right now it's storage but eventually it'll be our library.

We had some mice attempt an invasion this year. Bart is an excellent pointer, so I knew right where they were. The fiancee was worried the mice might get in the house, imo that is the best possible outcome, the mice would not know what hit them, except a nightmare of black claws, more than any cat should rightfully wield. (the mice are dead now, I don't fuck around when it comes to vermin)

I just saw an advert for a strange, disposable mouse trap.  If I had mice and no cats, I'd give it a go if necessary.  Knowing me, I'm more likely to use one of those humane life capture mouse traps and then try and find it a good home or drive to a national park and let it go.  I don't know what's wrong with me!  I don't mind mind the wee tiny itsy bitsy mice that used to sleep in my ski boots a million years ago, but the giant juicy ones that live on garbage in the NE are different.  I'd much rather my kitties get the protein, if possible, but we don't have any vermin here.  I do get a laugh watching them go after bugs, though.  They're very good at it and I never see even a fly for more than five minutes anymore.  I try and save big spiders and set them free.  I have a soft spot for big spiders.  They're more like little animals than buggies.

Shuddup, Sky.  I know what you're thinking! (http://www.democraticwarrior.com/forum/images/smilies/1111th_smiley_baseballbat.gif)  I am NOT crazy!

Have you seen the spider thread?  Big spiders have absolutely no redeeming qualities.

This, and too many fall into the trap of using their hands as toys when the kitteh is adorable, tiny and has only little milk teeth that don't hurt. The cat grows up thinking of human hands as toys and acts accordingly. I got lucky to strike a balance in my cat between handling him enough as a kitten that he trusts me implicitly (I can put my face in his tummy and give him raspberries, and trim his claws with regular nail clippers), but he knows not to scratch or bite me, even when he's all wound up and rambunctious.

I had another cat who rassled with us, and he was DEFINITELY sent the message it was OK when he was young (by my youngest sister >< ). I didn't use my hands as toys or anything when Lizzie was a fresh new cat (unlike INGMAR, and I TOLD him not to), but she just straight up didn't care when I would yell "ouch," put her down and ignore her, or whatever else I could think of when she did the light biting + rake. Really what it was is she would get all hyper while I was petting her, but not paying attention to her tail, and she would strike. Most of the time when she chomped me, she was still fuckin' purring.  :why_so_serious:

Gilly, on the other hand, has only chomped me twice, very lightly, no claws involved. I don't know if it's because she gets it out of her system when she's fighting with Lizzie, or if she's just nicer. :P


EDIT: Also, our apartment used to have a LOT of spiders. About a week after getting Lizzie, they all MYSTERIOUSLY disappeared. :(

I've been having some trouble sleeping lately so I made myself a cup of chamomile tea before bed and something in it set Ivan off.  Imagine catnip in liquid form. 

He's attacking me, dive bombing me from my bookshelves.  Hit and run tactics.  Finally, he wraps his limbs around my arm and digs in; claws, teeth and all. 

WTF?  Does chamomile have catnip-like properties?

So my female cat had to go get an operation today. She has this issue where her gums are allergic to her teeth. Its horrible for her. We have been treating it every 6 months with antibiotics, but finally just got most of her rear teeth removed. Poor thing. She has 5 teeth out today.

Man that is a weird problem. Poor cat.

Poor kitty. :(

Also, that is weird about chamomile tea!



Lizzie doesn't give a shit about catnip. Gilly is too young to know if she likes it or not.

My cats go off and on with catnip.  It didn't even affect them until last year.  Evidently, it can strike after years of them  not even noticing it.  My sister's neighbour's cat didn't bother with catnip at all until he was five or six years old. 

I'm sorry about your kitty, Morphiend.  I hope everything will turn out okay. 

 :ye_gods:

She is home and doing good. A little wonky from being put under, but the swelling in her face has gone down a lot today, and I think she seems more happy.

My male cats just go insane for catnip.  Put some out and they go on a bender.  One cat will roll around on his back for a while leaving a giant drool puddle on the scratcher. Even my female cat likes it.  She just waits until the boys are done cracking out before she starts hugging the scratcher and rubbing her face all over it.

Haven't been bringing it out if the baby is around.  They just go a little too crazy.

Yes, Lister is much more goofy and drooly over catnip than Magenta.  They'll ignore the catnip for a few weeks and then pounce again.  I don't bother buying because my sister has it growing in her back garden.  She uses it in teas.  Yes, she's one of them.  It's supposed to be a sedative and calm an icky feeling tummy for humans.  I bruise some, sometimes put in a toy or just leave it on it's own, and Lister will go nuts for about five minutes, eat some and promptly fall asleep.  Magenta won't eat it so she just does the nuts stuff.

[NOT FOR PREGNANT WOMEN!  THIS MEANS YOU!] 

I'm pregnant? :ye_gods:

I'm a woman?   :ye_gods:

(http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/8172/kristenwiigaspenelopesn.jpg)
The cat was my child, I was pregnant with my cat, so... I gave birth to it, so... I had my cat baby in the hospital, and had a cat baby shower for it, so...

Now I can't have catnip? Pregnant women don't get to have any fun!  :cry:

I'm finally moving into my own place and thinking about getting a couple kitties because I don't have enough pussy ( :drill: ) in my life. Trick will be finding some...

My cat is really good about not treating my hand as a toy, she'll only do the biting/raking thing if actually put my palm right on her face, and even then she doesn't break the skin.

My problem is, she doesn't understand that my feet are a part of me, and not toys. Foot dangling off the end of the bed is a guaranteed pounce and nom. Walk past her in the room without paying attention, all of a sudden I have nine pound hairball latched on to my shin.

She is totally trusting though, she'll let me whirl her around, clip her claws, and snip knots out of her fur all fine.

Kittehs are easy to find! Go to a farmer's market or the pound and adopt a whole pile of 'em. That's what I want to do. I like to joke around with our 4 fat, old cats that I'ma replace them with younger, cuter models if they don't shape up.

Massage your kittens.  Seriously.  Almost every bit of them, especially their paws and around their ears and face.  It'll make your live much easier later when you want to clean them and clip their claws.  Magenta sometimes squirms a little bit when I clip but if I persist, she caves.  Lister lets me do just about anything and snuggles when I do.  They totally trust us.  Finding cats to adopt, any age any type, is one of the easiest things to do.  Really, it is.  It's right up there with scratching your butt and staring off into space.  There are bajillions of them waiting for people to adopt them.

When we found Bart, he had a bad cold and runny eyes. I had to wipe some go into his eyes and clean the gunk out, and he never fussed while I did it. Now he's hell on wheels...but he always lets me clean his eyes without a hassle.

I'm looking forward to the process. I want to start with two so they have company and so that I have company when I'm home. I grew up with four cats and up until 2 years ago I had lived with them in one place or another. But I've been dealing with dogs on an increasingly frequent basis. My current residence has a pair of dogs I can't stand anymore. One's a lovable corgi but not very cuddable and another is from a broken home that always growls threateningly at me when I'm at home and the owners aren't. It's stressful as fuck. Cats don't go fuck wild to their owners.

Watch this (http://cuteanimals.todaysbigthing.com/2009/09/17).  :awesome_for_real:

Bart does that to my nose. Goddamned little sandpaper tongue.

We now call noses 'the face nipple'.

My boy cat doesnt lick really, but he likes to rub his nose all over my and my girlfriends face when we are lying down in bed. Very forcefully. If you push him away he will use his paws to move your hand and charge at my face again purring like crazy. When he starts doing this we call it his "date rape" mode, cause he just wont take no for an answer.

Yesterday there were some strange shadows on the wall and I couldn't figure out what was causing them.  We have a line of trees back a bit from the house but that didn't seem likely.  Righ finally figured it out.  The sun was shining through about a thousand nose smears on the window.   :roll:  I have to wonder what the hell was out there that got them so excited!

God I'd love to have a cat like that.

I think part of it is that we always kind of treated our cats like dogs. And now he kind of acts like a dog. He will come when called. Answers to his name, and does understand, and even follow a few other commands like "Off", when he is on a counter.

Also, back in my old apartment where I had a dinner table (it was removed for a home office), we had 3 of us living, and at dinner time Eddie (boy cat) would come and sit in the 4th chair at the table. He would never do anything, but he always liked to sit with us at dinner.

The only probable with having a very physically lovable cat that doesnt understand "no", is some times when trying to sleep it can be a bit annoying to have him stick his nose in my ear while purring loudly. But, he is great.

Oh yeah, one other thing. He is constantly trying to pet my girlfriend. He uses his claws like fingers, and he likes to stroke your face or hair, its really weird.

Eddie on my Bed.

Eddie "loving" my girlfriend.

I think your girlfriend has a confession to make about her relationship with the cat.  :grin:

 :drillf:

Here's my cat, Sebastian. I've had him since he was maybe 5-6 weeks old. He was hiding behind my monitor - he doesn't like the flash much.

(http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/42220/Photos/Misc/sebastian.jpg)

He's super lovey and likes to snuggle. Which sucks when it's hot and you are trying to sleep.

He has puffy cheeks and a little double chin!  He's adorable!   :heart:

(he has eyes, right?   :ye_gods:)

My cat was the same way. Whenever we would eat dinner as a family she would jump up in a chair and just sit there until we were done, then eat her own food afterwards. She also came when called, though never in a big hurry. I'd go outside and call for her and she stroll around the side of the house a good five minutes later.

Nah we took those out when he was a kitten. Keeps him out of trouble.

And here we took off his balls. Should've gone for the eyes, boo!

Just got approved for my new apartment. It's only a matter of time before I will be drowning in kittehs. =^..^=

I hate you.

Also, yay kittehs!

Did I mention I hated you?

I have seven cats.  They are pretty meh.  You're not missing out and everyone here is crazy.

Everything you've said, from the minute I met you to now, makes a hell of a lot more sense now.

http://dreamingofkittens.com/

My favourite:

(http://dreamingofkittens.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/stretched-out.jpg)

Just put a picture of a wary Bart in the picture thread. He's all about being wary these days, we had a citronella ant swarm in the kitchen, so he hasn't been allowed in half the house for a week, the half where his water and poops were, so he's had to learn a new routine. Then I moved all the living room furniture around for a winter layout, then we lit a fire in the stove. I was also cooking outside on the grill while getting fire going, every time I'd come back in from the grill he had slinked up to the stove to sniff around, see me and bolt to a hiding spot. Repeat every time I left and entered the room. I was sure he was going to burn his nose, but he crashed and kept an ear on things.

Try clove oil for the ants. You can get it at health food stores or Whole Foods - just use a cotton ball and swab it. Ants and wasps hate cloves (it's high in eugenol, a naturally-derived pesticide).

I made some homemade ant bait for our Argentine sugar ants out of borax and corn syrup.  It's about as eco/pet-friendly as ant bait gets, and it seems to have done the trick.

I'll send you some pictures.

So we were away for the weekend and as ever I didn't get round to unpacking my case and just left it on the bedroom floor. Woke up to find that Sputnik had decided that was a nice, cosy looking place to sleep.... on top of my last clean pair of underpants.

I've never worn fluffy underpants before, and probably never will again.

(http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2658/105/2/1086507889/n1086507889_30326577_807384.jpg)

That's my cat druid, he can't seem to figure out how to get out of cat form. I'm sure he'll figure it out one of these days.

 :oh_i_see:

(http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/2/l_633522cbcfd0979753d95af262f89d49.jpg)

This is my cat.  She has an actual official name but by now responds only to bad kitty!

Your cat is telling you it's time to MAN UP and go Commando, soldier.

Our little one is pretty sick right now. In a poopy way.  :x

I need a ball of fuzz to snuggle, stat. ><

Yeg loans cats.. for a fee.

Has to be cheaper than the closest alternative: petting a stripper!

Companionship and the such are sorely lacking in my life.

That is a scaringly adorable kitty.  She looks so innocent even though her claws seem to be out and starting to dig into what is probably your duvet or something.  She looks like a shredder kitty like my Lister. 

Gilly had the runs bad enough last night that we had to lock her in the bathroom so she's only poop on easily cleanable surfaces. She spent the entire night begging to be let out and pooping on everything she could get her butt near. Took her to the vet today, they very kindly gave her a bath (I couldn't give her one before taking her because I was home alone and she is a two person job for bathing). Now she's passed out looking innocent, I don't think she slept at all last night, poor thing. :(

That must have been traumatic for your cat. I know I'd be messed up if I was locked in a room with the runs and was told to shit it out.

Did they figure out what was wrong?  Little kitties have so little mass to spare you have to worry.

Tests come back tomorrow-ish. Mainly we're hoping it isn't FIP (not likely, but you never know, and we don't really know much of her history before we got her.)

Not to worry you, but one time my mom took in some kittens from a pound because they were going to euthanize them. Couple days in they started getting the runs really bad, almost uncontrollable. Within a couple days all but 1 of the 8 kittens was dead. :crying_panda:

When our cat died about four years back, I discovered how much her dander had been affecting me, as some allergenic asthma I'd been having worsen slowly over the years improved quite strikingly. But I do sort of miss having her around, we had her for 15 years.

I nearly killed her myself though when I came back from having done my dissertation research abroad after about eight months, when she'd been living stateside with my wife. I still don't know what vague impulse made me take all my precious notes and tape-recorded interviews out of my bag and put them up high on a shelf, but it's a damn good thing I did, because we went out to dinner and when we came back, the cat had filled the entire bag with more urine than she normally did in three or four days. If that had been on my notes and tapes, I really would have gutted her slowly with a rusty knife.

I put my cat on Paxil when he sprayed my record collection.

Do you think he'll get stressy when the baby is born?  Lister was very very stressy and depressed when we first got Magenta, but he got over it in a couple weeks or so.  He was very young, though.  Now they clean each other's ears.

Yeah, I felt really bad about it, but the other option was to let her poop all over everything in the apartment and that ... was not really an attractive option.

Gilly is doing better, but her poop is still totally foul. Vet hasn't called about the test results yet. Instead they called about Lizzie, because Lizzie's pee concentration is off the charts and they're all "wtf, Lizzie." I'm already adding as much water to her food that she can tolerate, but she apparently just doesn't bother to drink any water otherwise. ><  She isn't dehydrated though, so that's good? I guess?

Fuckin' cats! They're lucky they're so cute.

My two cats are already getting used to the fact that they're not allowed upstairs anymore, but Sauced's two cats still try to slink up there if they see the gate is open (I have a suspicion that he lets them up when I go out of town, but he denies this  :oh_i_see:).

My cats have also been around babies a couple times, but generally avoid kids and don't usually need a lot of mommy time. Sauced's cats are probably never going to come out of the basement, will hide inside the upholstered chair down there until they can sneak out for food under the cover of darkness, and one will probably lick himself completely bald out of the PTSD of hearing and smelling a baby. His boys are kind of socially maladjusted, to put it mildly.  :why_so_serious:

One day when I was but a small boy, I came back from football practise and as I threw the front door behind me I heard the muffled thud of our young cats head getting caught between the door and its frame.
Unfortunately it was a very heavy wooden door with steel plating inside. Twice a year a craftsman would come by to rebalance the hinges because the old stone walls gave in to the weight of the doors massive plating.
The cat went mental and did that whirling around their own axis thing cats do when they break their spine (or so I presume they do). It scared the bejezus out of me and as I was home alone I ran three streets down to the veterinarian who had given her her first shots a couple of days earlier. I told him what happened and the old man took me by the shoulders, looked me gravely in they eye and said 'son, go back and if your cat is dead, bury it. If it's still alive put some food and water close to it and let it be'. They are though animals, he said and with that I went home.
The cat was still alive, she didn't move much and looked absolutely miserable. I rolled up a blanket around her, as she didn't tolerate no touching, and put some water and food close.
She didn't leave the hallway for two weeks but did drink a bit and after a while became cat again, although I never could shake the feeling I made her pleasantly retarded.
My cat and I shared ten more joyful years of growing up until some German tourist ran her over trying to find the massive church he had just passed 30 seconds earlier. Fuckers.

We should start a separate cat thread for downer stories. >L<

It's great the cat recovered but oh man I do not want to think about bad things that can happen to my kitties when I get them.

I hope you're OK with poop!  :awesome_for_real:

No cat downer thread please.  I'm likely to post and send myself into a fit of depression.

All my cat downer moments happened when I was really young, pretty much before I turned 4. Only one that has happened since then was my cat Henry disappearing suddenly a year or so ago. I had him for 14 years. Still miss him.

My cats are happy.

Random does occasionally get the whole ocd grooming thing going, he can turn a minor cut or sore into a major swollen bald patch in about a day. He then gets to wear his Stupid Hat for a couple days until he heals.
He's the one with the gimpy ear using Otto's foot a s a pillow.

(http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/rattra/DSCF0057.jpg)

A couple of friends of mine made this PSA. Enjoy!  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmlwXlZwwuA) :why_so_serious:

Not sure if I've posted a pic of my Bock yet, but I took a nice one of him today that I want to share. Isn't he handsome for an old man (he's 11)?

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3436/3982601068_4144ccc817.jpg)

That is one fuckin' charismatic cat. And gorgeous. The colour of his fur is amazing!

He's beautiful!

Here's me with one of my cats: (http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/images/smilies/rub.gif)

I will eventually, before I die, get around to posting a picture of my kittens even though they've grown up since the first time I actually said that.  (you know what I mean)

Gilly seems to be a lot better, although we still haven't heard test results yet. We did find some ...evidence... that indicated her problem might have been caused by stealing and eating one of those foil packets of parmesan cheese that comes with delivered pizza.  :uhrr:

Not going to stop holding my breath yet though.

Please tell me hes named after the beer.   :heart:

My wife does this to me, it's not a huge deal.

Protip: I got my most recent cats from craigslist.

I HIGHLY recommend adopting adult cats from the local shelter.  My cats are both fantastic!

For my last 2, I got one from the Humane Society and one from another local rescue organization.  Both as kittens.  This is mainly because the older male cat I have does really well with kittens and not so well with other adult males.    Of course, if I had to do it over again, I probably would have stopped with two cats.  Four is a lot of work.

Ours are both rescues as "older" kittens - like 3 months old, still small and cute but not in the fuzzy giant head kitten stage.

Bock is good lookin'!

Gilly and Lizzie are celebrating Gilly's ability to hold her poop again by running up and down the hallway every five seconds today. I'm glad Gilly seems to be better, because now *I* am sick and dealing with cat poop AND a cold is just not something I want to do.

We got Lilly when she was pretty small (1 or 2 months) and we got Charlie when he was around 5 months. Both were rescues.

I've had Goo (Bock's alt) since he was 8 weeks old. He's named after the beer, but mostly because he rears up and head-butts like a billygoat (bock means 'goat' in German).

Love the photos and am filled with envy.  Live by myself and travel too much to even have a cat.  At some point would love to have 2 or 3 cats.

Charlie has found out how to remove his collar, and of course never does it in the house. Anyone have ideas on what I should do other than buy him a new collar ever other day? I usually get the snap-together kind cause I'm afraid of it catching on something and strangling him, is there another solution? He's an indoor/outdoor cat btw.

We've used normal, non-snap-together ones for decades and never had a problem. Zebedee is a climber and explorer and she's never managed to either get her collar off nor get herself into any trouble with it.

The difficult bit is finding one in a colour that doesn't clash with her fur  :why_so_serious:

He's a tuxedo, so it's pretty easy to find one that matches really well. Lilly is kind of a buff colour so it can be hard to find something that doesn't clash. Certain shades of orange seem to work.

Lister takes his collar off within minutes so I leave it off.  I even bought him a smart looking royal tartan collar!  Hopefully, he'll never get out.  They're both chipped, which is a help.  I suppose non-safety collars are okay for indoor cats, but the SPCA around here reports several cats every year found dead because they hung themselves with non-safety collars.  I might be a worrier, but I'd rather be safe than sorry, I guess.  Magenta, on the other hand, likes her pink, crystal studded collar!  She's black, so it looks very pretty, too.

I was wondering why people bother with collars in the age of chipping anyway. Is it just for decoration? Or flea collars? Or what?

I'd guess not everyone checks for a chip before assuming an uncollared cat is feral.

I guess the chip doesn't do much good unless it gets picked up by the city who would have a scanner anyway.  My cats have always stayed inside so I never bothered with collars.

Our cats have a cat-flap with a magnetic thingy in it so they have to wear collars with the other magnetic thingy that lets them in. And not all the other cats in the neighbourhood at 3 am  :uhrr:

Bock ditched every collar I put him in until I got him the badass spiky leather collar (it was not a safety collar, and it was actuallly for dogs, not cats). He liked that one and kept it on for years (finally lost it a few months ago). You could try a harness if you really want to keep a tag on him. Though in your neighborhood, I'd be too worried about coyotes and cars to let my cats outside.

This.

I'm worried about someone packing him off. He's way too trusting, and I've had a cat stolen from me before (by some old woman, we could smell red door on Norman for a few weeks before he disappeared).

And about the coyotes and cars, we've really never had a problem with wild animals until a couple of years ago, when a few people lost some pets, then the coyotes/possum/raccoons all vanished again. We're in a housing development (gag), so that might be why. And I've never lost a cat to cars.

I bought collars for our cats entirely because if they get out, I want it obvious they are owned by SOMEONE, so people will check for their chips. Gilly hates hers, though, so she is not currently wearing it. She apparently hates collars so much, she occassionally tries to pull Lizzie's off. "Be free of your shackles, Lizzie!"

Gilly is all better, but I have to treat Lizzie for something Gilly tested positive for since Lizzie grooms Gilly. Good times. I can't remember the name of the PARASITE, Ingmar might be able to, though. Still, the poopfest is over, that's the main thing I care about.

I'll save the thread a downer story.  Tomorrow is going to suck.  :cry:

Having to make practical decisions about the lives of your animals is not fun.

Sorry to hear it :/

That's when having a good vet helps. Having someone who understands and can give good advice about what's best for the animal is a great thing, but damn rare from what I've found. Condolences.

Wish you the best, not a lot that I can think to type that isn't completely generic, sorry to hear

Having been there a few times, I'm sorry you need to go through this.

That sucks Rasix :(

Take strength from the fact that you can make rational decisions and that you can provide better treatment than they would get without you.

Sorry to hear, Rasix.  It's been two years and I *still* feel like I'm not over my first cat.  Miss him bunches.  I hope you can have the best of outcomes.

No, no it is not. I'm sorry to hear you have to make one. :(

Yeah, if you've had a lot of pets, you've had a lot of downer stories. Never gets better.

Always better to have cool pets and deal with the inevitable, imo. I've had some real horror stories thanks to some pets, but I wouldn't be without Bart the magnificent.

Speaking of the boy, he's a champion spotter. He alerted me to the mice in the wall, which I got rid of. Then I preventetively trapped the garage where they came in, and last night (a month later) he was pointing the back door, I opened it up and there's a mouse in one of the traps. Pity the mouse that gets in the house. I'm still dealing with the stupid Orkin people, and they were telling me how I wouldn't know if there were critters in unseen spaces in the house...I respectfully disagreed.

Having been through the whole decision thing multiple times, I feel for you Rasix.

Sometimes there are positive stories out of vet trips - We got a dog when I was younger, still leaving at home, that we hadn't really planned to get. Shilo was a great dog, but he was as big as horse. We don't know what all he had in him, but we know there was Chow, and he ended up looking like a barrel chested blonde shepherd, that weighed 140 lbs.

So this moster of a dog loved running the fence of my parents yard. Two years old, he's running the fence one day, and pop goes his MCL.
Vet tells us they can repair it with an artificial ligament for about $2k, but figures it will likely break within months. The vet suggested that we might have to put him him down.

The family debates for a while, decide not to do the surgery, but decide to give the dog a chance to see how he handles the injury. Two weeks later he's up and hobbling around on a gimpy leg happily. Eleven years later, he was still running the fence with a funky three and half legged lope.

Sorry about bringing dogs in to a cat thread. Shilo's been gone about five years now, but I still keep a picture of him here on my desk at work. Works well to brighten the day when I get in one of those kill the customer moods.

We only have had to make that call once so far (our bunny Usagi) and it was both easier and harder than I thought it would be. Easier in that we could tell it was Time, harder in dealing with it (guilt issues on my part that I don't really need to go into). I agree with Sky, though, shitty as it is (I imagine it's harder for pets that are cooler than rabbits :P ), I'd rather have awesome pets and deal with the hard parts 'cause the good parts are so good.

I suppose that's what some people say about having kids, but whatever, cats > babies.

Finally took some pictures of the new one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13756345@N05/4028467524/

She's about 6 months old now I think.

Is her name Gilly 2? Like there was an original Gilly that is no longer with us?

No, just half-assed numbering of the 3 pictures I just added.

I have two cats, the younger one is a 5.5 year old male named "Leijona" (Lion in English), pictures:

And the older one is a 7 year old female named "Viiru" (Stripe/Streak or something like that in English):


Viiru, the older cat, got diagnosed with cancer (lymphoma in nasal cavity) in October 2006. The vet that did the biopsy recommended euthanasia since Viiru was in a really bad shape at that point (estimated 2 weeks to live), but another vet at the same place told me there was another clinic that had done chemotherapy successfully in similar cases. So I went to the other clinic, their estimate was 6-9 months to live with chemo (if it works) and I decided to try it. Long story short, it's now almost exactly three years since the diagnosis and Viiru is in perfect health.

Viiru has been a special cat in other ways too. I got her from a cat shelter 2003 spring, she was a completely wild cat back then so no-one else wanted her. Took about 9 months until she was comfortable enough to be in the same room with me, and about a year until she let me touch her. Now she's quite tame, except when she's in the kitchen or in the bathroom (where the litterbox is) a slightest movement from me sends her to hiding, because those places are kind of dead ends she doesn't want to be "trapped" in.

The younger cat (Leijona) is pretty amazing too. He fetches rubber foam balls like a dog would do, he can spend up to 20 minutes looking for them if you throw them to difficult places. And whenever I put the cat toy basket on the floor, he goes around and collects all cat toys and places them back into the basket. 

Both of your cats are trying to compel me to go out and kill a couple of puppies. Through their pictures. Creepy.

Aw!

I'm glad you had a happy ending to Viiru's story. It's pretty amazing what they can do for pets these days, and how well some pets respond to it.

I took some Grown Up Lizzie pictures and Ingmar uploaded them (http://www.flickr.com/photos/13756345@N05/)! This one is my favourite:

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2625/4048535751_1ecc7b3698.jpg)

Fast lane a bit sleepy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcxhOGyrCtI&feature=player_embedded  :grin:

Yeah, she's obviously one of those annoying people that drive too slow in the fast lane.

Actually I was making a really stupid joke that I'm a bit ashamed of now that I'm reading it again. If you start at the bottom right it says "Fast Lane" then up another line for "ABIT" then the sleeping kitty. I don't get high, but maybe my coffee was spiked at the time.

Do people spike your drinks very often?  Because if that happened to me on a regular basis, I think I'd be worried about my sense of humour. 

Ha, I just thought you only making a joke about the WELCOME TO THE FAST LANE part. <3

Halp!

I went to the pound to look at cats. I want to get two.

One cat, we'll call Snow, is absolutely great, loves me from the getgo, smart, etc.

There are two other cats. One is lively, playful, little on edge but nice. Other is a ball of fuzz, sort of emotionless but shows promise of improving. Scaredy cat but would make a great third pet...

Problem is, Snow doesn't like other cats that much from the limited time I held her outside her cage. Hisses up a storm in a "he's mine, BITCH" sort of way.

It did that with the pair I was thinking of getting. What would be best? Give it a chance? I don't know much about cat psychology, but it would be great to have 2+ cats that got along. The pound is full too, so they'd LOVE if I took the cats.

All of them are 10 months to a year old.

Some cats do not like other cats. Some do immediately, and some will adjust over time. And some will still be occasionally attacking and trying to kill and eat the others after 6 years. Might want to see how the other two cats get along, or try bringing one of the other cats to see 'Snow' at her cage. If you're willing to put in the time to play with them, and have enough room to give them all separate facilities (having their own food/water/litterbox seems to help) I think you can get most cats to get along.

That said, when I added my third cat (Dagmar), she got along fine with my first 2. Added 2 more kittens in 2003, and she's still trying to kill and eat them today.

I think the get two cats rule is more about getting two kittens from the same litter. They're already used to each other and you don't have to worry about them not liking each other. Adopting a solo adult cat is fine.

I'll try that. Thinking about them animals being euthanaized makes me physically nauseous. There's a cat that's been there since April, a 7 year old, that I worry about. The shelter's really small, and there are so many small cages... not much play space or anything like that. Funnily enough, a lot of them look like bobcats.

As much love and attention as Snow was showing me, I might take the two others just because I know they get along and it'd be one more pet out of the pound.

The two kitties have similar coloration to cats I had when I was a child, which is affecting my decision-making process.

Get all three!   :awesome_for_real:

Sounds like who is the alpha is being worked out. Should be ok over time.

Yeah get all three and let them fight out who is boss cat between them. They will settle down over time.

Or one will still be trying to kill and eat the others years later. I'd get all three, but that's why I try to never go to destructive shelters. I can't stand to see the cats waiting on death row.

I tried the one cat to Snow thing. Snow didn't mind the male, but the more passive cat it hissed at. I read online that it's a territory thing.

I plan to get all 3 though.

Edit: I'm pretty much all stocked up. Grooming and nail clipping, one litter box (massive though, but there isn't any space for more), three water / feed dishes, three beds, some catnip, all electrical sockets protected, lots of space (no furniture in my apartment yet  :oh_i_see:).

Once I get the paper work I'll be getting these kitties a home. I only hope they do their part and get along.

I don't think I've ever seen cats in the same house actively antagonizing each other if they don't get along.  After a while (like a year or two) they tend to figure out they're not going to get rid of each other and they just try to pretend the other cat isn't there.  If you have the "alpha" cat scenario rather than mutual antagonists, it'll maybe cuff the other cats if they invade its space to remind them who's boss, but it's unlikely to spend all its time chasing them around the house.

3 cats at once?

This is a terrible idea. I demand photographs.

pfft.. you should go up to 5 cats!

Multiple litter boxes is the most important thing. Even if you just start with two, then reduce to one when you get furniture. Having separate food water at the start (in different spots, having all of them in the same place won't help) is nice, but I'd venture to say if you have 3 new cats, and one litter box, you should invest in a pair of heavy rubber gloves, a couple extra rolls of paper towels, and a gallon bottle of enzyme based pet stain/odor remover. Because at least once a cat will decide the box is it's territory and defend it from the others.

And I have an Alpha Male cat, he's not the one still trying to kill and eat the former kittens after 6 years. Shit, if we didn't have such a big house with plenty of defensible cat caves strategically placed, I think either Otto or Festus would have been eaten already.

Lizzie is currently the cat queen but I have to wonder how long that will last once Gilly is full grown. Gilly is on track to be bigger than Lizzie, and from watching them it's the size difference that's still keeping Gilly in her place for the most part. Still, Lizzie fights for keeps and just seems to care more about that sort of stuff. The only thing this isn't true for is food. Gilly will cut you if you try to get near her bowl when she is eating.

I do agree that you should probably try to get a second temporary litter box for the three new cats just in case. Gilly and Lizzie shared right away (I set up a second one for Gilly but they both pretty much started using whatever one was closest immediately), but I have heard multiple cats + one litter box = stray poops and pees, at least in the beginning.

I've never really had that, even when I had to replace one of my cats.

The replacement cat was 1 year old, obviously a stray or mistreated, and shy and skittish like nobody's business. It took her *three days* before she'd be out and about other than when I was sleeping, and my other cat was sleeping alongside, and prior to that she'd just go for food/water and taking a piss when she absolutely had to (cue mental image of cat crossing its legs to keep from peeing).

Nowadays though, they go along just fine. Oh, they still sound like they're going to eat eachother alive from time to time, but they also wash eachother. Or, really, the smallest cat is washing the biggest cat, but the smallest cat is a longhair so that might be part of the problem.

I would love to have more than 2 cats, but chances are I'd be "that cat guy" if I did.  :awesome_for_real:

I'll have to move down to 1 eventually, but two to start should be fine. The only "acceptable" place for the litter box is the restroom. Otherwise it's in one of the bedrooms (carpeted) or in the kitchen. But I'll put it in the spare room closet for the time being.

Once they're in a home, they'll have some spats over who gets what spots, or first crack at the food dish, and there may be some minor bloodloss involved.  But within a month or so they shouldn't be doing more than hissing at each other even if they never get along.  Cats are social creatures, just not pack hunters.  They tend to den in groups and fight over hunting grounds.

--Dave

I had two litter boxes but they would only use the one so I ditched the extra.  It's big, it's in their own bathroom and I scoop it about ten times a day and change the litter and disinfect everything once every week or ten days.  I don't think they go more than a few hours  where there's anything stinky in the box unless we've gone out.  Luckily, they seem to do most of their business during the day.  I know, I know, I obsess.  They're very good about using it, too.  Neither one of them has ever had an accident. 

When brought Magenta home, Lister was about fou ror five months old and went into hiding for a week or so.  Magenta loves everyone so all the issues were on Lister's side.  Now, I don't know what he'd do without her.  I don't have to clean their ears anymore!  Lister is very social but only with us and hides when anyone else is around.  I love my kitties.  I'd like to have another.  And three tiny white dogs.  (and a mini trampoline)  But Righ says no.   :heartbreak:

Ten times a day?? Think I could get away with two? (morning, evening)

Yes.  I scoop twice a day with three cats (one a kitten) and it seems ok.  It still smells a tiny bit, but that's mostly because kitten poop is more potent than a nuclear weapon. 

You do know where the term "catass" originates right? :wink:

Yes, you probably can.  I over-do it!  (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/Katt1/katdance.gif)

Craziness is ensuing. Landlord doesn't want me to have cats despite an apartment complex-wide policy of allowing indoor cats and the fact I made it clear during the rental process I wanted to have pets. Lots of shady, looking the other way going on between landlord and the rental management company (who sympathize with cats, wants me to have the pets, but has to look out for the landlord's interests, who is anti-cat).

We'll see how this drama unfolds but because this landlord is such a giant dick the rental company doesn't like renting out his properties and people aren't telling him when they are violating policy (bringing in pets without deposit and rent) because of his attitude.

I have to get the landlord's approval to adopt through the pound. Otherwise I could just bring any pet (except dogs) in and the rental company wouldn't care. Other people have done that. But I want to take the kitties out of the pound.

If that'd been in Norway, then chances are that you could've used a few rules to tell them to get stuffed, and demand that they get proof that it's actually a problem/an inconvenience for your neighbours.

If I ran an apartment complex I wouldn't allow dogs or cats. Cat piss stinks for just about forever and dogs have the tedency to have owners that don't pick up their shit. And they're loud and obnoxious. Animals are just tiny forms of living vandalism.

Edit: I should add: I love cats and a good number of dogs, but in an apartment complex, it's just too much of a goddamn hassle. Allowing animals pleases only a tiny subset of the population and adds nothing to the whole. And to reiterate, cat piss stinks.

The landlord sounds like a jerk but I can understand him objecting to multiple cats in an apartment.

Objecting to it is fine if you make it clear before the lease is signed. That doesn't sound like the case here.

Oh absolutely, if the lease doesn't set down rules about pets then he hasn't got a leg to stand on.  Now getting him to actually fill out a form for the animal shelter saying he approves might still be tough though. In Ontario landlords can't deny you a pet but they can regulate the number.  My last condo association limited residents to just one cat or dog per unit. Of course, that rule was routinely ignored but if they'd wanted to be assholes about it they could have.

Well, he doesn't know about the multiple cats part.  :oh_i_see: My contact at the rental property has made it clear that I should only tell upper management and the landlord I'm only getting one cat, despite the fact she wants to see me get all three cats. Hell, the complex has several ferals, one which this woman feeds.

But even before they talked to the guy upper management said he doesn't allow cats (a fact they failed to mention during the rental process). The lease does say that the Landlord has to sign a pet agreement as a section of the contract on pets, but nothing else.

Moreover, I think other people in my building have pets, though "unofficially." The other day I was walking near my apartment and saw a cat in the window. So I'm not the only objector to this guy's views.

Other people aren't a good argument for your own case. "Other people are a dick and don't care what you think, why can't I be?"

I mean, comeon.

If they talk to the Landlord and he still says no, then I'm going to be a dick too, it's just I won't be able to adopt from the pound. But there are other methods of acquiring cats, like friends who need to get homes for their kitties.

It sucks and I'll probably be limited to 1 cat, but the property management doesn't really care, and will look the other way when it comes to their tenants having cats in their property in a complex that allows cats.

Can't you just get a friend to adopt from the pound? Or tell them you own the apartment and don't need a note?

I might go that route too. It's stupid that the only thing keeping me from getting these pets is a piece of paper.

You should kick your landlord's ass.

That's alright, rental company did it for me. I haz a pet agreement. :D

Good on you!  Be sure to post pics, stat.

Now all you need is some pets!

And cheeseburgers.

 :uhrr:

So are you still going for three or does the permit limit you?

I'll let you know later. I'm going to go get the agreement then head straight to the pound to start the adoption process on my lunch. I want to pick them up Saturday.

And fajitas on Sunday?

Wait.  You're planning to EAT them?   :ye_gods:

Some are certainly cute enough. :grin:

I don't eat that kinda pussy. >_<

Edit: Yes, getting all three, but not all at once. One of the two cats in the two-cat cage has ear mites, diagnosed today, and won't be able to be adopted for 2 weeks. The third cat didn't even have its medical information handy.

I have to come in the day before I want to pick them up (so, Thursday) because they don't do holds (despite being told that by two different clerks), they won't hold the pets after I "adopt" them for more than a day, and well, the whole experience of adopting has been surreal and annoying so far.

If one of the cats in the two-cat cage has ear mites, both cats in the two-cat cage have ear mites. Not too hard to get rid of, you just have to do it before they get scarring from them, and have yeasty ears for life.

 :cry:

So two weeks until I can get the twofers. Plenty of time for Snow to mark all her territory. ^^;

Half the reason (OK, maybe more in Gilly's case) we got our cats from our vet's Cat Bin is because there isn't a big long process to get 'em. Pay 80 bucks, congratulations, you have a cat. I mean, I'm sure if we had just walked in off the street instead of already being clients they would've been more discerning (apparently they talked a couple out of adopting Gilly because they were obviously not really ... suited), but everywhere else we looked they all wanted to do home inspections and shit. Fuck that noise, I sez. I understand WHY they do that but still. Feh!

There are a lot of people who love cats who shouldn't be cat owners. My fiancee's best friend, another librarian, is one. She's basically a cat lady, but bought her house (so she had more room for cats) at the height of the market, so she's broke. She got three kittens at the same time I got Bart, 2 males and a female.

I'm not sure they even got their shots, and she lets them out. They definitely weren't fixed, and the female has already had two litters, small ones because the cat is undernourished (having to fight for food with multiple adult cats as a kitten)...and she's kept all the kittens (I believe five total). None of those are getting shots/fixed. She's about to be down a very bad road, my fiancee is in a tough spot because she doesn't want to rat out her friend but when she has to feed her friend's cats, she can't help but compare them to Bart, who is a massive monster and picture of health.

I mean, she loves cats and means well. She just doesn't understand that she's basically abusing the cats with her neglect.

Yea, don't feel bad about ratting her out. Good intentions or not, she needs a reality check in the form of the SPCA showing up at her door.

Good point, I should do it behind my fiancee's back, since her friend hates me (and all men) anyway.

You'll have to adopt all her cats, you know.  (http://www.thecatarena.com/forum/images/smilies/kittyhug1.gif)

Signe apparently has a smilie for every pro-cat statement she makes.

Ok, Daffy really had lost "teh funny" but you brought it back around for me with the addition of the Christmas hat. It'll lose its funny again, but I about spit when I saw it. Well played.

Sky's avatar, spreading the holiday "cheer."

Agreed, I saw the new hat and snortlaughed.

That's a bummer about your fiancee's friend and her cat issues. My youngest sister is another person who likes animals but probably shouldn't have pets. She doesn't like spending money at the vet. At all. Not even to get her rabbit fixed, which is important to do for their long-term health (as I found out :( ).  :uhrr: Basically she's one of those people who likes their pet and dotes on them until it is somehow inconvenient, then they turn into irresponsible assholes.

Ear mite kitties are in the clear. Petra, a 3 year old, and Mesa, a 9 month old, will be coming home with me tomorrow. I thought they were the same age. Their paperwork also said Mesa was female instead of male. >_<;

Lizzie (Snow) is still in Isolation with Upper Respiratory Infection. We'll see what happens after I get the two cats home. I thought Petra was also in the 9 month range but apparently not.

One of the cats I was looking at got really sick and was euthanized the day after I got to play with it. I was thinking of taking it. ;_;

Upper respiratory infections are common in pound situations. When I got Oscar, he's just gotten snipped at the pound, and dumped into their main area, and gotten pneumonia. So after having him a day, he went to the vet for 2 days on an IV, then a week of being home deathly ill, few and watered with an eyedropper, and generally spoiled. He's now huge, healthy, and loves me lots.

zomg cat name thief

Snow, or Lizzie? I actually felt bad when they told me their names because I wanted to name them. But Petra and Mesa is fine, and, well, I guess Lizzie is OK...

Just a quirk I guess where I can't change the name of something already named.

Unless they know their names there's no harm in renaming them. Our Lizzie was named Karma or something by the shelter, and Gilly was something really random like Peanut Butter Cup or something, I don't remember.

Shelter named my cat Harmony. Not a name I would have ever picked, but it seams wrong to change it.

The rescue place I rescued Dagmar from had a name on her cage that said 'Tatum' which would always remind me of the old 'Tatum Brain Syndrome' skit. And then I found out from the petsmart people that the rescue people replaced the cats, but left the same paperwork and names on the cages.

Dagmar is a much better cat name.

Yea, Tatum would bug me too much, I'd have to change that. It would constantly remind me of McEnroe's hot, drunk, fucked in the head ex-wife.

At least Harmony is morphable in to various forms of the word harm, as appropriate.

Our Ringo's pound name was "Marty".  Yuk.  Daisy was too young to have a slave name.

Lister was Pumpernickel because pumpernickel is orange, you know.   :oh_i_see:  Magenta was Hallie.  Now they're not. 

I had an aunt named Dagmar. 

Lizzie was named Karma, as Ingmar said, and Gilly was named Cher (her brother was named Sonny). The reason he was thinking she was named something weirder is because the Kitten Bin Residents in the batch after her were named shit like Sunny Side Up and French Toast.

If Lizzie or Gilly were older, I probably would've left their names as is, but they were kittens and didn't really know their names, so I didn't feel bad at all changing 'em. Not that I picked either name, Ingmar did.

I'm confused. You dye your cats? I've never seen a magenta cat.

I'm all about renaming cats. I get in trouble (with my fiancee) because my cat has about a thousand names. About half of them are obscene.

I say that about Lister because when I asked the people at the shelter why they named him Pumpernickel, that's what they said.  Magenta wears a magenta collar and she was named after someone, not because pumpernickel is orange.

Everyone knows that pumpernickel is made from pumpkins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bmhjf0rKe8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3PWNGoNX_A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkHBuh21AMg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKF7UvtYzqI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_xnSwbsUBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOb01tADQAM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUQzPk1CGeo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrEWmlQ2jjY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=464F1v8iBcg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRLfTL-bG94

And to sum up cats in one video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YniAmQkZBj0

Yeah, I had a bit of a kitty binge. Bite me. :grin:

1. Petra and Mesa, in the pound.
2. Petra, on my bed, her favorite spot to camp. Since it is the only piece of furniture in the apartment...
3. Mesa, from his favorite spot to camp, giving me his best "Eh, wot?"

Awww!  (http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/images/smilies/catman.gif)

Nice one!

Petra looks like the cat I imagined getting for my house, Mesa looks like our library cat.

I still want to get a grey cat and a white cat to go with my black cat.

Even better you could get cyan, magenta, and yellow cats to go with your black cat.

 :facepalm:

Hey, Zombie Feet already has a magenta cat!

(http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i137/squirrellywrath1972/pinkserious.jpg)

Mesa, the underbed kitty, was clawing at the boxspring on my bed. I checked out the damage; big ole hole in it. But that wasn't the biggest surprise. Turns out Mesa has crawled into the hole and now uses it as his home.

BOXSPRING CAT HAZ A HAMM0CK.

Seriously between the "Eh wot?" expressions and him holing up into my boxspring, I think I adopted a cat straight out of Dwarf Fortress.

:groan:

My cat Smeagol did this exact same thing with the lining on the bottom of the couch. My roommate used to have a ferret and I think he picked up his bad habits.

(http://i.imgur.com/z9x4t.jpg)

I guarantee that cat will take revenge on the perpetrators of that picture. Deep in the night, when least expected.

Going to have to declaw a couple of Bart's gimpy toes. Had one that's not shedding properly and he almost killed the vet when he clipped it. Claw was almost grown back into the pad, poor little bastard. Vet wants to take all the extra claws out, but the boy uses and properly sheds most of them, so I'm leaning toward just taking the couple of gimpy ones that don't get worked when he scratches his post.

 :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real:

(http://static.funnyjunk.com/gifs/3587uc0.gif)

Thing that gets me about that is that that is one happy cat.

The above post is slightly old, but well worth watching again.

Longer version (albeit darker and with a slightly annoying voice):

Although, word of warning, do not read the comments. The facepalm is strong within a lot of those.

And just to bring something new to the table:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_AbfPXTKms maru :grin:

I almost listed Maru in the 'best characters of 2000-2009 thread'.

I can't believe I watched that whole thing, but I did.  Do want.  What an adorable cat.  The thing with the boxes was win.

(http://xenophanessmith.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/butter.jpg)

That's an old picture, but the caption made me lol.

I, on the other hand, did not.

Captions suck.

Except wharrgarbl.

WHARRGARBLE

The caption on that image made it funny. That image without a caption would have been terribly disturbing.

That didn't change. It's still terribly disturbing.

As for the cat in the hoodie, very gangster.

Why are you in the cat thread, grinchy? Get a cat or gtfo!

But what if that caption read "Bukkake Kitty"

You...bastard!

I didn't do it to the cat...

In other news, I took one of our two cats on it's last trip ever, today - to the vet. Thanks for 14 1/2 years, cat.

Sucks to see them go, but sounds like he/she had a good run.

Awww.  My condolences.  It's always tough to let them go.  :(

Sorry to hear that. Having lost a number of dogs over the years, I feel for you. I don't remember my mom being as outwardly broken up about my dad passing as when the family dog passed. Maybe it's because animals are just better than humans.

If you're looking to get another animal, I'd recommend a rescue cat. We've adopted all 3 of our cats, and they're great. We got our last one about 6 months ago, and he is awesome.  :awesome_for_real: He was in very bad shape when we got him - skinny, wormy, dehydrated, missing hair on his ears, long ratty tail, and not just a little bit shell shocked.


And then he hung around for a while, resting and getting used to his surroundings. (You can still see his ratty tail though.)


We named him Bruno - the name suits his gregarious personality quite well. He charges around the house now and burbles out his own warcry. He plays really nice with the other cats - he adopts a submissive posture with the other male cat when he wants to play, even though he's 3x the size of the other cat. He likes to be pet roughly, almost like a dog. His favorite thing to do is go outside (but we have to watch him closely because he'll jump on the roof.) He's not exactly a lap cat, but he's always close by. I had to set up a cat bed on my computer desk because he lurves to be right there whenever I'm on the PC for a while.

In the last couple months he started to grow lots and lots of hair. Why anyone shaved this cat, I have no idea.


I'm not great at recognizing breeds, but I think he must be at least partially Maine Coon - I'm told his look and personality are much like the breed.

I took this picture of him today:  :drill:
(http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx11/dtrain858/Cats/Bruno_Portrait.jpg)

Here's a picture of our other male cat, Trouble:

And one of our female cat, Misty: (Yes, she is the boss.)

I am very envious of your Bruno.

Sorry to hear that.  My aunt's cat recently passed, she (the cat) was over 20!  I'd known that cat since I was a teenager, through high-school and an enlistment, numerous jobs, college and I can't even remember how many moves.  The poor thing was all skin and bones toward the end but she could still jump up on to the dinner table when she wasn't supposed to.

Xmas weekend, Bart first helped me with laundry and then saved us from the dangers lurking underneath the wrapping paper.

He's over two feet long now, not yet two years old. Also recommend rescuing cats, Bart was destined for the shelter if I hadn't adopted him.  Bruno's got whiskers like some grand handlebar mustaches or something. Bart's not a lap cat, either, but lately (when it's cold) he's been curling up in my right elbow on the mouse pillow or last night in my left elbow when I was playing Burnout with my controller. Then he bitches at me when I move and I crash because I'm laughing.

Bruno and Bart sound like awsome cats. We had a rescue cat named Jones before we got Burger and Binkie, who are only sorta rescues (obligatory pic
I don't have any pictures of Jones, which is unforgivably stupid since he was very close to my heart. This being a geek house, you can rest assured that he was named after the cat in Alien. He was the coolest, most collected cat ever. He wouldn't frighten at all. Turns out half the reason for that is that he was mostly deaf. I feel good about having rescued him, even if he only lived for 4 years in our care (he was an old scarred warrior when we got him). He probably wouldn't have lasted much longer out on the street, since hearing is pretty important in the  not-getting-hit-by-a-car department.

Yeah I expect Abyssinian rescues don't come up too often. Super pretty cats.

I'm sorry to hear that, it's never easy. :(


Lizzie isn't very lap catty either (Gilly is a whore for laps), nor does she like sleeping with us (Gilly loves sleeping right on our heads, purring). But it's been cold! So she has suffered though nights huddled on our bed, and she's been in my lap a lot more often. She also bitches when you have the NERVE to not stay PERFECTLY STILL at all times. It's really weird, but pretty funny.  :heart:

The other place they both like for warmth is the top of my computer tower. Basically whichever one loses the Battle for Sjofn's Lap (or the desk's cat bed, depending if I have one up there or not) goes there as their consolation prize. And usually they step on my damn power button on the way. ><

That red carpet in my photos is what we've been using for a hearth rug. Bart is front and center and all about the wood stove. On nights it stays above freezing I haven't been using it, since I only got less than two cords for the whole winter, and some of that isn't dry enough. Those nights he sits on the rug staring at the wood stove, as if to will it into flames. Then he looks at me and yowls.

They aren't purebred. They are half street tabby. Mom went a bit post partum nutty, started abusing them, so they were taken from her and kept in a cat rescue place. Hence the 'sorta' in the rescue. They were a find.

One of my cats has bad teeth, so in addition to tooth brushing regularly and crunchy things daily, he gets duck jerky treats to chew on. In the last several days, all the other cats have discovered them. Pretty amusing watching them all gnawing like dogs.

My cats don't eat just dry food.  I think I'll order some of that and give it try.  I tried the turkey jerky but neither of them would chew it.  They do like raw and tinned duck, though, so maybe that will work.   Strangely, my giant cat doesn't seem to like treats much at all and he's the one who's teeth I need to brush all the time.  How can he be 18 lbs and still be finicky?  Damn cat.

All three cats my family had were strays that just came in one day and never left.

Gilly is sick again and it seems pretty likely it's FIP. It's pretty depressing, she's only 9 months old. :(

I'm sorry.   :heartbreak:  I hope that's not what it is and everything turns out okay. 

What is FIP? Feline something something?

Feline something something is about right. Feline Infectious? ... Psomething. But basically it's a mutation of a different virus and there's not anything you can do about it except treat the symptoms while you wait for the poor kitty to pass on.

At least it isn't contagious or something. Bleh.

Feline Infectious Peritonitis.  Believed to be caused by a mutation of a benign/symbiotic intestinal bacteria into a lethal form.  Inevitably fatal, although steroids and interferon can delay the acceleration of symptoms and gain some life expectancy.  In spite of the name, not considered contagious (mutated form of the virus is not expelled from the body until the very last stages).

--Dave

Blech. I'm sorry :/

I remember awhile back my Mom wanted to get me a cat, but being the overly caring person she was, she ended up with a litter of 6 that was supposed to be put down because no one would take them. Over the course of 4 - 6 weeks they started getting sick, took them to the vet and the vet only gave 1 shot, said the rest were fine. Within a week all but the one that got the shot was dead. Not nice either, we would wake up to another kitten literally stuck to the tile floor.

I'd say do what you can to keep the cat alive as long as it isn't prolonging pain.

Bart likes to hang out on the rug in front of the fire.


If not hanging out on the rug, he can be found nearby...

Took Gilly to the vet again today to get some fluids injected, she's gained back a little weight (she had dropped half a pound in a week) and she is gorging herself on dry food suddenly, so if nothing else she is feeling better. We have some test results coming back today, hopefully the news isn't too terrible. Bitch of it is that the dry form of FIP (wet form builds up fluids) is really hard to diagnose concretely. Whee!

I know.  There's no good tests for some of this stuff, is there?  I'll cross my fingers and anything else I can still cross that everything is okay for you guys.   :heart: :heart: :heart:

Also, I've decided that Magenta and Bart are related.  They're very nearly the same cat!  (except I think Magenta is the tiny, female version of Bart)  Both my cats, especially Lister, have become very affectionate towards the fireplace, too.  Giant Lister curls up on the hearth rug and looks like a medium size dog. 

Signe's avatar is really distracting.

How many of you have pet insurance? ShelterCare is offering me a pretty good deal of $3000 per incident and $36000 lifetime coverage for a decent monthly rate ($20 I think). My cats are pretty happy and healthy though Gilly's story is depressing.

Petra's found her place as a princess who mews warmly for attention and petting, and Mesa's a homewrecker who seems intent to destroy my HDTV with his claws, but the two of them get along great both in play and in relaxing with each other.

After this whole business with Gilly, I wish we had it. It has been expensive.

Anyone have the problem of a cat peeing on the floor? The odd part is, he never did this before, its only since we moved into the new apartment. He has two spots he does this in, I have already scolded him a few times. But he continues to do this while we are out. This has already cost me some nights sleep and a 150$ steam cleaning vac.

Likely some other cat peed there before (a prior renter) and he's trying to mark it as his own.

Yeah, I figured this. One spot is directly in front of the door, the other is in front of one of the room doors.

I am open to suggestions on how to get him to stop, so I dont have to steam clean every weekend.

Forgot to mention, we have started using Feliway.

I think the name of the 'enzyme cleaner' I use is Nature's Miracle Advanced or some such. Gallon jug or spray bottle from Petsmart. My roommates cat developed a bladder infection and peed in a couple places, then all the other cats followed suit. Spray lots on/around the spot, put an inverted rubbermaid tub over it to keep the cats away, let it soak overnight, wet-dry vac it, and let it dry. Has worked on both spots for a couple months now.

Dunno the actual name as I put what was left of the gallon into a generic spray bottle.

I have pet insurance through the ASPCA.  It's not the best out there but it helps support the place where I got Lister.  It paid about three quarters of the operation Magenta had last year and it covers a few annual thingies.  If anything big happens, it covers $3500 per incident - I forget how much per year.  I took the coverage that was smack in the middle of almost nothing and way too expensive.

Whelp, the vet just called and he feels about as confident as he can given some test results that came in today that it is indeed FIP. This sucks. :(

I adopted a cat once, name him Duncan... anyway, Duncan got pissed at us for something, like we left town for the weekend maybe, so he shit in the house.  Out he goes for about a week.  We let him back in and the first thing he does - I mean like he was WAITING for it - was to drop a wet pile of shit behind my computer desk.  My diagnosis, Bloodworth, is that you cat is angry at you.

Duncan moved in with a neighbor family.

Duncan was just telling you that you aren't the boss of him!

Ingmar's sister had a cat (his parents have it now) who would poop on her bed when she displeased him.

This is the Cat Thread, dummies.

(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/26/103180399_0420019b97.jpg?v=0)

Removed the other stuff. Topics. We have them for a reason.

Also, Oscar's latest fascination seems to involve taking pieces of paper, crumpling them up, playing with them a while, and putting them in my boots.
(http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/rattra/DSCF0076.jpg)

Could've at least moved the sweater link to T&A :)

Also, on-topic conversation  :why_so_serious:

I told the boy to get his kicks with the xmas stuff, it all came down this weekend. I like the way the gold paper and the rim of iris work together.

(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4024/4265564217_f40d83e85f_o.jpg)

I call this one Long Arm of the Paw:

(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4042/4265567707_38bbf76a7f_o.jpg)

So, I've regalled Ingmar and Sjofn with stories of what our youngest, Bella, likes to eat. (Spoiler: Everything)

However, this is probably the most amusing thing we've come home to:

(http://www.koanate.com/shared/bellasavacado_sml.jpg)

That's a nice sized avacado there, so it wasn't just one bite. Someone went to town on that avacado.

Nom nom nom.

I have a new ragdoll kitten that loves honeydew melon.  I'll have to get some pictures of her.  

Wow, my cat won't even eat canned fish, I can't imagine her going near any sort of non-meat food. The only non-catfood things I've ever seen her eat are Tuna sashimi and KFC.

My maine coon mix eats veggies.  He'll fish green beens out of can.  He even eats baby food peas, which my son will not do.  The wet food we give our cats now is turky and vegtables, and he's done well before the other 2.

My recently deceased cat (looked remarkably like the white cat Signe posted) was a carb fiend.  He loved nothing more than stealing a piece of tortilla.

My cat eats his dry noms (http://www.evopet.com/products/default.asp?id=1703). And lint, wood, insects, hair, tinsel, and dental floss. Found that last one in his poop.

My cat doesn't eat veggies, but needs to have them "anyways", since the dog likes them, and the cat feels left out.  :grin:

I love maine coons.. Any dog and cat with big coats like that. I've never had one though. Feel like kidnapping a friend's cat though.

[edit] I hate the word "noms" as a noun. lol, in Thai it means tits.

Then why hate?  :awesome_for_real:

Magenta goes nuts when I cut melon (especially watermelon) and apples.  Lister wants meat, meat and more meat.  Especially very stinky tinned mackerel in gravy.  At $30 a case, he has champagne taste buds.   :ye_gods:

Might explain why my cats get all inquisitive and crazy whenever I bring food into the house. They have only experienced dry catfood so far.

Gilly wants to at least TRY anything she sees us putting in our mouths, basically. She seems to especially wish I would let her eat pizza (she has run off with crusts a couple of times). I could tell her medicine was making her feel better because she's started climbing all over me whenever I am eating ANYTHING again. Lizzie is slightly more controlled, but if I'm eating, say, a tuna sandwich, all bets are off with her too.

Is your cat giant?

My cat has spent his entire life eating dry cat food. My mom tried to give him some canned tuna once and he just turned up his nose in favour of more Purina cat chow.  It's what you're used to I guess. He won't eat cat treats either.

Just like humans, cats are individually particular. My cat, even though given access to chicken, turkey, etc, will not teat them. She only eats dry cat food, and sometimes wet. My fiancee's cat as well as the cat we adopted together both love "people food".

My cat likes tits. And has six. NOM NOM BNMOMy boy likes to check out everything I'm eating, if he gets too demandy I give him some of whatever I'm eating...slathered in habanero sauce.

He does like his beer, though. Dark Forest is his favorite, but he's taken a shine to the 1888 Bock I'm drinking right now (not RIGHT now, the current decent beer of choice).

I try not to let my cats have any people food at all.  By people food I mean anything with grains in it, too salty, processed, over-cooked, etc.  The odd rare tiny bit of watermelon or unseasoned turkey is okay.  Some things such as milk, grapes and raisins are bad for them.  Others, such as onions and some other root veg, raw potatoes, under-ripe tomatoes and chocolate are toxic and can be deadly.  At best, however, I'd rather not have to figure out what's bad for them by having to clean up kitty vomit all over the house.  

Cats might turn up their noses at canned or raw food - cats are odd that way - but if that's what they have, eventually they'll start eating it and probably liking it.  It's not all that hard to ween them from dry. Thing is, with no dry food (and most of it isn't the best food for them by a long shot), you have to be more diligent with their teeth.  I don't want to have to put them for teeth cleanings if I don't have to because most vets tend to sedate them to do it.  They don't enjoy sedation as much us humans seem to.

Yeah, we don't actually give them big helpings of anything, with the only thing giving them is unseasoned chicken when we are cooking some, or the occasional lick of something Mosty Harmless. Really, our youngest, Bella, just STEALS stuff when you're not looking. She's a god damn food ninja.

We feed them Dry Food mostly, and with that, Innova. We fed our cats some higher than mid grade stuff before, but after the pet food scare, we've gone pretty much topshelf.

Bart enjoys sedition.

The only time any of my cats were sedated was when Magenta had her poor little butt operation.  I don't think she liked it at all.  Most competent vets will even tell you not to sedate during long air trips.  Cats, with the exception of Bart, don't like feeling out of control, evidently.  Dogs seem to be able to sleep it off and cope a lot better with that sort of thing. 

Personally, I would much rather be sedated myself on long air trips.  In fact, I can't get enough sedation in some situations!

Sedition.

Oops.  Sorry.   :ye_gods:

(http://forums.f13.net/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=5086;type=avatar)

Lizzie is stupid and doesn't drink water, so she gets all wet food all the time (which is further watered down) to keep her pee from getting too concentrated. So because it makes my life easier, Gilly also gets nothing but wet food. I feed 'em Greenies treats (the dog kinds apparently had some sort of THEY GET STUCK IN THE INTENSTINES scare, mind). They're basically big kibbles and I can give them a bunch per day. It won't save them from having to have their teeth cleaned ever, but it does seem to help and there is no fucking way I am going anywhere near Lizzie with a toothbrush. I can barely get her claws trimmed as it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EVhj-YmM20

Furball! :awesome_for_real:

forwarded to SO for bonus points

Man, that thing makes me think of Ewoks.

(http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/funny-pictures-kitten-looks-like-ewok.jpg)

That cat is so precious. Petra and Mesa are short-hairs so grooming hasn't really been an issue. Scrubs, though. They love ze scrubs.

Cat is horrifying, copy is angering.

Could have cropped out the text.

More a response to the "This cat is an Ewok" too.

Persians are hardly cats. So damn inbred they have trouble drinking water.

They have trouble breathing too, no?

Why do they breed them to have such pushed in faces, anyway?  It's not like there's cat fighting rings or anything.  Or is there?  I don't even know!

Cat juggling.

Now that my gf and I are down to 2 cats (from 5  :uhrr:) and with her elder Himalayan on the way out, I am debating on getting another. I want a Maine Coon but the Savannahs, especially the spotted Savannahs, really have me by the throat. Granted, I am more the type to go to the shelter an adopt or even rescue, but I can't deny wanting a certain breed. 

Depends what you want out of your cat.  I enjoy an affectionate pet, so the Maine Coon was a great choice.  Mine would always curl up on my lap while reading.  I miss that. 

My cats have a bit of that. Unfortunately it's while I'm playing video games. And involves trying to attack the mic cord to my $100 headphones attached to my Xbox controller.

I bought Petra and Mesa a little straw ball or something the other day to add to their toys. The ball is now more like... well basically I hope they don't get ahold of any live toys because it would leave quite a mess when they are done with them.

I love talking to friends on Skype when one of my cats decides that they want to attack the foam microphone cover on my headset.  It must sound pretty odd to hear someone get a cat in the face in the middle of a conversation.  They also ravage the cords when I'm not paying attention.  It's gotten to the point that I keep a spare set of headphones around "just in case".

All my cats have been random shelter type adoptions, but I admit to having a certain level of desire to get a Scottish Fold. I blame Maru.

My wife's bastard of a cat sitting his fat ass in a recently cleaned baking dish. He's lucky I wasn't there to take this picture. We'd of been having Chinese food...

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/854620/catindish.jpg)

My mom's more elderly cat has gone a little senile and has decided he likes to sleep on the cutting board.  If the cutting board is put away he'll settle for the exact center of the kitchen floor.

That could come in handy if you ever decide to lay some tile.  My oldest cat has taken to sleeping in the bathroom sink.  I think it's to get away from the new kitten. She can't jump up there... yet! 

That is hilarious considering I refer to that as the full meatloaf position. (All paws and the tail must be tucked in for the "full" version)

There are Maine Coon rescues around.  A friend of my sister's rescued two a couple of years ago.  I think it was in Maryland.

My 18 lb Lister does exactly the same thing as Brogarn's cat.  If the container (anything and everything) is absolutely too small to get all his girth in, he'll lay his front half or ass half in and the rest out.  Magenta gets into anything left out, but at least she fits in just about everything.

My smallest is one pound larger than your Lister.

I suppose I should get around to the pic posting....

I'm going to steal that.

The kittens like to sleep in the bathroom sink. Oscar likes to drink from the faucet, and knows how to turn it on. It's great fun when he turns it to a slow enough drip that the kittens don't wake up until they're completely soaked.

That's awesome. Doesn't happen to know how to turn it back off, does he? Must suck to come home to the water being on all day.

I have the bathroom sink set so it can only be turned on fairly low, after he left the cold on full blast overnight once. And I doubt he'd shut of the water if he can.

Paging Yegolev.

Stumbled upon these pics earlier today, figured they'd fit in just fine. :grin:
(http://mindriot.as/cutepictures/KittenTie1.jpg)

(http://mindriot.as/cutepictures/KittenTie2.jpg)
 :awesome_for_real:

Cat shows.  Judging standard says that Persians have a "short, snub nose", and breeders chase that with the result of "ultratyping".  Same thing in reverse with modern Siamese.  If you're a breeder, you need to go to a lot of cat shows and get ribbons and earn points toward Champion and Grand Champion status.  So where the difference between a Persian and Siamese nose was originally about half an inch, now the Persian looks like it was hit in the face with a shovel and the Siamese like it was rammed into a funnel.

--Dave

I find generic 'cat' faces better than either extreme. Inbreeding for specific deformity in both cats and dogs makes me sad.

And I need to get a new camera. The cats keep doing unbearably cute things.

I'd really like it if those kennel/cat association guidelines included an, "If they start looking retarded or have trouble performing basic life functions they've gone too far," addendum to those guidelines.

Bart seems to have moved under the hearth rug. He'd been playing under there the last couple weeks, knocking a toy under and chasing it, but the last couple nights he's fallen asleep in there.

Kinda funny coming home to a giant lump in the carpet...that purrs.

Cat show people: best just to ignore them. Or at least be happy they aren't doing that pageant shit to their kids or something.

If I didn't know better, I would swear Lizzie knows how cute she is when she goes into her seal pup pose. She rolls onto her back and tucks her feet up and looks as fat as possible, and it totally reminds me of seal pups sunning themselves. I would take a picture, but the second you TOUCH a camera, she gets all excited and wants to see what that thing is. She is the nosiest damn cat ever.

We took her and Gilly on a field trip to a friend's house (cats love field trips, rite?), because they wanted to see us and they know we're reluctant to leave Gilly alone (although she's been doing great, so we really shouldn't be yet). Gilly spent the entire time under the couch, but Lizzie made herself completely at home. I think she actually liked the change of scene. Like I said, she's the nosiest damn cat ever.  :heart:

I just bought a Drinkwell for my cats.  It's kinda noisy, but the flowing water has all the cats drinking a lot more.  Extra water is supposed to be pretty beneficial to cats, I hear.  Surprisingly, they haven't made a huge mess with it yet. 

Give them time. They're probably deciding on the best way to make such a mess yet ;)

I'll just leave this here then.
(http://i.imgur.com/fMii0.jpg)

No, no, I think you should put it somewhere else. 

That's wicked! Especially having a black cat, where the butthole is, shall we say....glaring.

Bart now has a pink scar on his nose. Doesn't seem bothered by it, best I can figure he sniffed an ember that popped out of the stove and burnt his nose.

Do you mean wicked bad or wicked good?  I think it's awful.  It has to bother them, no?  Magenta is a black cat with a big butthole and it only annoys me when she insists on sticking it in my face as she's doing her circles before laying down or something. 

Wicked means good when not modified :)

Always makes me think of this:

(http://www.stickergiant.com/Merchant2/imgs/250/aad758.gif)

Yes, wicked usually means good but I just couldn't imagine you wanting to cover up poor ole Bart's butthole!

:facepalm:

My cat that used to have seizures somehow crushed or cut one of his back toes.  I put some cream on it and later some peroxide.  Today I find him with his right eye all puffy such that he reminds me of Columbo a bit.  I guess he's going to be one of "those" cats.

Related, I have a racoon that tries to pretend he is a cat.  He competes with the opossum for cat food, but I daresay the opossum wants it more due to how he jams his whole head into the cat food dispenser.  We are down to one opossum from two since the big one could not figure out how to get out of the pool.

 :ye_gods:

Was your pool also filled with a giant flotilla of fleas? We had an opossum crawl into a vacant cat carrier and die in our backyard when I was in HS, when I found it, there was a virtual carpet of fleas around it. Pretty nasty, and I lived at the time in an area that still has a couple of cases of plague now and again (right by the Santa Monica Mountains in western LA County.)

And the thread just got fucking weird.

Get back on track, thread.
(http://mindriot.as/cutepictures/pictures-of-cats-009.jpg)

Opossums are just cats that lay eggs.

wat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opossum#Reproduction_and_life_cycle)  :uhrr:

I was joking. :oh_i_see:  Marsupial not a monotreme.  More funny than racoon-cat comparison, also.

(http://www.funnycatsite.com/pictures/Cat_Sleeping_Train.jpg)

Oh look, it's the nap train. :awesome_for_real:

lol!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hoCKjhlzBo

Kittymassage!

That looks pretty comfortable if you ignore the extended claws.

I picked up my cats from a hotel they spent a few days in while I was on vacation. The hotel had given the cats a bath. A clean kitty is a happy master, cause they smell great! Warm ball of perfumy, purring fur in the face is a great way to wake up.

Our FIP cat is hanging in there pretty well - she's gained weight and her blood tests all came back with good numbers. Doctor seemed very surprised about the weight gain in particular.

Not sure if this has been shown already, but here goes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he4n-Wk9mRo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KswnjMa-MQ

Yep.

But I shall not evoke myself in name.

Girl I had lunch with today has a tuxedo cat, with one eye that's parti-colored, blue on one side of the pupil, green on the other. I'm going to try for a photo in the next few days. Seems the cat has some vision problems in the eye, making him skittish, but it looked neat.

Mesa has developed this habit of using my computer chair as a climbing post. So one brave leap up to the top while I'm sitting low causes the cat to dig a claw straight into my forehead in its search for a grip.

Ow.

Gilly the Sick Cat has gained SO much weight I actually have to put her on a slight diet so she doesn't get any fatter, because one of her drugs + being a fatty = diabetes. The vet seemed pretty happy it was something to even worry about though.  :awesome_for_real:

I've never actually had to put cats on a diet, either to fatten them up or slim them down. The only thing I've had to do is have one of my cats' teeth cleaned, and 4 teeth pulled due to some disease which apparently afflicts 60% of all cats which are older than 5-7 years old. Thankfully she's taken that in her stride, and are still eating dry food without any issues at all.

Bart is probably Bombay, prone to overeating. I let him eat his fill as a kitten so he'd get big but now we have to monitor his intake because he'll continue eating his fill as an adult and get fat. He's settled in around 15 lbs, just slightly overweight. He's obnoxious when he doesn't have food in his dish - while he's really good at staying away from the things he's not supposed to be into, he heads for those exact things to get my attention and then runs to his food dish and looks at me like I'm an idiot.

My big cat has problematic teeth, he'll likely have to have them all pulled soon. It's thankfully not Feline Infectious Peritonitis, just part of his weird genetic mix. His fangs are so big he can't close his mouth all the way, and toothbrushing and dental treats can only go so far.
Not too bad though, Oscar is somewhere near 11 now, the first vet I had him to thought he'd start breaking/losing teeth around 5.

Though Bart at 15# being overweight seems odd, is he really small framed, or just not getting enough exercise?

He's not fat, the vet just likes to bitch if they're not some lean ideal cat shape. He's got that big skin flap belly that some breeds get. The doc should know better, imo. It's hard to say, though, since he's looooong cat and solidly muscled. He likes to sit on his back (I call it the Bundy position (http://aleksandreia.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/al_bundy_vs_chobot.jpg)) and looks fat, but then he stretches out and he's long cat.

At first (when the vet first bitched about it) he was heavier, peaked at 17lbs. I think he's cool where he is now, just doing some final tweaks to the portions. He eats EVO which doesn't have grains and is 80% meat.

I've literally never done anything to limit what my cats can eat, they eat what they want, when they want, I just make sure they have excess food/water. vOv

Perl is short and long-haired, but I don't think she has much fat on her. HUGE paws though. She's a sucker for sleeping on my stomach while I try to play Eve, so that can be a bit awkward at times. Nova Luna is bigger, but she has tiny paws, and that flop-belly. Neither of them are fat, but they have a layer you can definitely feel is present, which I tend to think of as just normal. I just don't worry about it, and it all just seems to work out dandy.

Well, until Perl decides I've played too much eve or watched too much tv series, and sits at the desk right infront of whatever it is I'm doing. No matter what it is, or which monitor it's on, she covers it.

Very glad to hear this.  We've had cats that are always so lean that if they get sick and stop eating they have no cushion to fall back on. 

The "kittens" (5 years old now) are lean and mean, the two geriatrics are prone to getting fat so we have to pay more attention to who eats what to just let everyone free-feed.

Yeah, I'm glad Gilly still has her appetite, even if she is a little monster.

I can't freefeed Gilly even if I wanted to, because she does not stop eating. It's sort of amazing. I have very rarely seen her actually decide she's full and stop, usually she finishes her food down to the very last crumb, then stares at Lizzie's dish longingly until Lizzie decides she's finished, then licks every last molecule from LIZZIE'S dish too. This means, of course, I cannot free feed Lizzie either, which is just as well, since she's an idiot who doesn't drink water and thus is on a wet-food-only diet, and I don't think you're supposed to leave that shit out.

I seriously love that Lizzie is too stupid to drink.

Lister drinks much more than Magenta which worried me in the beginning when I was cat clueless.  Dogs just don't have these issues for the most part.  I've always given them very wet, gently cooked food and she laps up the juice like crazy.  Another thing that seemed to encourage her to drink was putting an ice cube in the water bowl.  She sits and watches it, now and then tries to fish it out, and ends up drinking some water while she's there.  Lister is afraid of the ice cube because sometimes it pops.  Anyway, I've heard those water fountains sometimes encourage cats to drink, too.  I've always wanted to try one but haven't yet.

We switched our cat to bottled water and he drinks much more now.  He likes Dasani.

Ha! That would be a great commercial. :awesome_for_real:

Our cats drink filtered water just like us, too.  I rarely buy bottled water anymore because of all the plastic bottles.  I think most of those water fountains for pets also have a filter.  I do remember Dasani as being about the nastiest of the bottled waters I've tried in the past.  That's the Coke one, right?  I think they're also the ones that were recalled ages ago in Britain for having unsafe levels of Bromate, too.  I'm sure it's fine now, though.  Just sayin'.   :grin:

I do have a water filter fountain thingy, but it didn't really help. Basically it was an awesome toy for the first few days (which was fine, Lizzie would bat at the water, then lick it off her paw), but now she ignores it completely. Gilly likes it, though, so it was not a complete waste.

Gilly's latest thing is to carry the cat grass (it's in a light plastic pot) into the computer room as a subtle hint that it is time for her to be fed.

The only thing my cat carries is one of his stuffed animals so he can fuck it in front of company.

One of my cats is absolutely terrible at picking up stuff like my SOCKS and dragging them all over the place. I've come home to seeing 20+ pairs of socks lying about everywhere in the living room.

And of course, one of the cats had vomited in the interim, and pulled 5-6 of them into a giant lump to cover the vomit. :why_so_serious:

Owning cats still own though. :grin:

I was a little disturbed when I realized my cat felt it was neccessary to hide vomit. It's pretty rare when she does throw up, but she'll use anything handy to hide it.

I also have to be wary of things like dryer sheets being on the floor, as she's been known to use those to "bury" suprises.

My cats puke proud, man, they've never hidden theirs.

OR HAVE THEY  :ye_gods:

Magenta just threw up.  Geez.  She always throws up almost at my feet and only when she eats really fast.  I guess I'm lucky or something.

ya, Binkie is bulimia kitty too. Binges on 2/3 lbs of catfood, then yerks it all up a moment later. I don't think we'll ever see a red cent of that safety deposit.

It's always fun when you find a hidden cache. 

The worst is when you hear it happening during the night and then can't find it anywhere the next morning. My cat doesn't seem to mind eating the same meal twice.

It's arguably just as bad or even worse when you hear what SOUNDS like the hac-hac-hac sound of a cat in the throes of throwing up ... and it turns out to be the neighbour in the floor above that's walking around in high heels or whatever.

False alarms are  :ye_gods:

Oh, my two cats are siblings. The sister yukes it up, and the faithful brother chows down like its just been served up warm and gooshy for him.

:ye_gods:

Heh.  Mine does the same thing.  Conveniently, she always warns me that she's going to hurl with a peculiar yowl, so I can scoop her up and deposit her in the bathtub to take care of business.

Lizzie's pukes are stealthy sound-wise. I have never heard her throw up, but she always barfs in obvious spots (OR DOES SHE  :ye_gods: ) so I can find it. Gilly will do the vluk-vluk-vluk sound. Neither really puke a LOT, especially since Gilly went on medication for her various woes.

Now I will wake up tomorrow to find a bunch of puke all over the place.

This thread sucks now.

Is a cat consuming toliet paper bad? Petra seems to like to eat and play with toliet paper, which gets all over the place...

If it's consuming it right off the roll, I'd say yes.  If it's been swirling around at the bottom of the bowl for a few hours, I'd say yes.

One of my cats eats paper, the other, eats plastic. Vet said the paper, is OK, and won't really hurt him if its infrequent, plastic is a different issue and we have to be very careful.

My vet told me that she's had to attend to some nasty infections in cats due to dried pine needles puncturing their stomach lining during Xmas holidays.  I'm assuming that some plastic thingies would be dangerous like that.  She sprays her tree with a bitter apple solution so they don't go near it.  Lister used to do this thing: 

(http://www.democraticwarrior.com/forum/images/smilies/x-actioncatlogo.gif)

but he grew out of it.  Well, for the moment.  Sometimes he revisits old habits.

TIME TO SHARE.

Meet Chi-Sai.

Meet Bella. Bella's sleeping in her favorite spot.

What happens when the spot is taken? She sleeps there anyway.

Meet Miss Cheiva

Miss Cheiva is a Big Kitty. A Big Kitty needs her room when sleeping.

Neat thing about failing to properly secure the plastic top on a tub of cat food is that you know the mess that erupts from the lid breaking off as you pour will clean itself up.

I <3 Miss Cheiva. It is a great sorrow for me that neither of my cats are giant monsters like her.

 Also Bella has turned into a cat!  :ye_gods:

Yay more basement kitties!

Bart's "birthday" this week. Got him as a stray, so just going off the vet's estimate of his age pins it to this week. His penchant for drinking irish stout pins it to Wednesday. For his birthday we got him a six-pack of the new Saranac Irish Stout, which is amazing (I might like it, too) and a little animal that looks like a chipmunk that you can stuff with catnip. Some fresh catnip and he had a busy night last night.

A 16lb cat on the 'nip is a danger to many things.

You should get him the non alcoholic beer.  Cats have lousy liver function and can suddenly and inexplicably suffer bad effects from alcohol (sometimes really really bad effects) even though they've had it before.  It's the smell that attracts him anyway - cats have terrible taste buds. 

Eh, he doesn't really drink it. He just licks around the mouth of the bottle after I've taken a sip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7ZA00Krz2Y

I guess I should be glad that beer seems to be the One Thing that Bella does not want in her at any given moment.

I have never had as much of a stubborn cat as she. Some of her favorite things: Turkey (duh), romaine lettuce, and ice cream. We tend to not let her have these, but if you aren't paying attention, it may be too late.

Oh yes. And avacados.

Witness


And that was a pretty hefty avacado. We're not sure how we ended up with a cat that is part goat, but we did. She is strange and hilarious.

My cats eat lots of earthy smelling things when they are feeling the need to throw up a hairball.  I wonder if that was the motivation beyond chomping on the avocado?

about a month after THAT avocado, my fiancee was sitting in the bedroom watching TV and noticed Bella come in parading around with a smaller avocado in her mouth like she had just made a fresh kill.

We brush the cats almost daily, and she doesn't have any other issues. She eats anything if we don't watch her. Including shoelaces/strings/headphones. She has a god damn iron stomache, apparently. We've taken to hiding maaaaany things in the house now. I think she just likes the texture.

Having seen Bella in action, I tend to agree that Bella just enjoys eating.

Gilly was like that when she was younger, now she keeps her appetite aimed at actual cat food instead of "anything I just saw Sjofn put in her mouth." I mean, there are still some things she wants and will climb all over me to get, such as cold cuts, but at least I don't have to eat standing up even when it's something like a rice cake anymore.

Well shit.  I came home and Kat didn't move.  Her 12 years finally caught up with her it seems.  :(

I'm very sorry. :sad:

Oh dear.  I'm so so sorry.    :heartbreak:

I am so sorry.

:cry: I am so sorry. Never easy to deal with.

You have my deepest sympathy.

Relatives dying don't make me sad, but pets dying  :cry:

That's a shame. It's hard to lose a pet you've lived with for so long.

Thanks to all for the sentiments.  I wish you and yours the best.

Coming home to a pet that's either died or is dying is the worst thing ever. You have my sympathies. :cry:

 :cry:

So sorry.  I have two older cats as well and can't begin to imagine how bummed you must be.

:sad:

It's never easy to lose a pet, my condolences.

Ah, shit. Sorry, Mr N.

Our cat Gilly, in an apparent show of solidarity with Mister Noisy's Kat, has also shuffled off to the Great Cat Beyond.

 :cry:

So sorry to hear that. That's rough. I don't know what's going to be sadder for me, when one of our kitties goes and leaves the sibling behind and bereft, or when the last one goes. Its still years away (I hope!) but just even thinking about it is a punch in the guts.

My wife, kid, mom and dad are still alive, but by far the worst death I've had in my 34 years on this planet was when my cat died a few years back.  My buddy would snuggle under the blankets and in my arms with me every night and I still miss him terribly.  Not sure if I'll ever get over that one. 

My condolences to all those that lost pets.  It's never, ever easy.

Gilly was like that, you could cuddle her like a teddy bear. Lizzie prefers to sleep on my head, if she comes to sleep with us at all (which she usually doesn't). She hasn't started really looking for Gilly yet, I'm not really looking forward to that starting up. :(

More <hugs> for y'all.

A co-worker had to take his kitty in on Monday after a long battle with runaway diabetes.  It's been a bad week for furry family members. :sad:

This thread has been very sad lately. Sorry to everyone who lost their kitties.

I've always thought of my guy as barely out of the kitten stage but thinking about it I realize he's got to be 10 years old now. He should be good for at least 5 more years if he lives as long as most indoor cats.

Damn.  I'm sorry for your loss.  :(

I'm so sorry.  Sometimes it takes a long time to heal. 

It's that way with my Jasper, in fact instead of burying his ashes in the back yard, I've kept them in the house. 
They sit in a pretty little box next to a small cat statue on top of my computer desk.  Strange maybe but its always given me a little
comfort to have them there.