Cat thread

[Hawkbit]

That cat is marking the shiiiiiit out of that kid.  It now owns that kid, permanently.

[Ard]

My parents' humongous cat does that to my wife, and nibbles on her hair too while doing it.  It's hilarious to watch.

[Lantyssa]

I got to see a bobcat the other day. 

[JWIV]

I got to see a bobcat the other day. 

I want one now. But I don't think my other three kitties would appreciate it.

[Engels]

Not a big fan of domesticating wild cats. Aaaanyway, here's a baby bobcat rescue video.

[Signe]

I would LOVE to have wild animals as pets but I don't because they're, well, like, you know... wild.

[01101010]

In undergrad, the boss I had for my student employment had a couple "wild animals" under her and her son's care. She actually had a license to keep the Serval in an enclosure on her property, which was pretty neat. However, you always got a weird feeling when they were close, even behind the fence... not like they were looking at you wanting to communicate something, but more like looking at you wondering if you were an aggressor or something to ignore. Very different feeling then what you get from house cats, even bitchy ones.

The Bengal Tiger her son owned was kept on a reservation and seeing the pictures was kinda insane. Especially the huge claw marks left in her son's leg from when he was playing with the tiger.

[rk47]

[Signe]

WAKE UP!
 

[Paelos]

MY EYES!

[Signe]

WTF is my cat trying to say??? 

[Engels]

Spay fail?

[Signe]

No, thankfully neither of my cats spray.  It doesn't mean they can't, they just don't.  Or maybe they never learned how.  They were neutered young, maybe too young in Lister's case, so there's very little chance they'd start.  Heather (VoodooLily) says she's "presenting".  Well, she presented right at my sister.  My sister can't compete, though.  Magenta has a giant butt hole for her size.  She freaks me out, man. 

[01101010]

No, thankfully neither of my cats spray.  It doesn't mean they can't, they just don't.  Or maybe they never learned how.  They were neutered young, maybe too young in Lister's case, so there's very little chance they'd start.  Heather (VoodooLily) says she's "presenting".  Well, she presented right at my sister.  My sister can't compete, though.  Magenta has a giant butt hole for her size.  She freaks me out, man. 

My alpha male cat never sprayed once in his life till I moved in with the Xgf and he met her two female cats - one of which was a rehabbed feral and dominant in her own right. All the sudden, he was marking everywhere he could. Not fun.

And back to topic, I think Engels said Spay.

[Signe]

[rattran]

So, one of the gf's cats apparently has a big heart. In that he has hypertrophic cardio myopathy, where his heart is now big enough to touch both sides of his ribs, and obstructs his lung function massively. So now I get to give multiple pills each day to a cat that doesn't really like to be handled. Joy. He's at least responding to the meds, but the medium to long term prognosis is dire.

Ceeaytee's an odd cat, his eyes are 3 different colors. Goes with his odd name.

[Engels]

Gah, I'm sorry rattan. You don't seem like much of a cat person, but you are doing the Lord..er, Bastet's work.

[rattran]

Gah, I'm sorry rattan. You don't seem like much of a cat person, but you are doing the Lord..er, Bastet's work.

I'm just a bit of a cat person, between the girl and I we have 8. All rescues.

[Engels]

good god. I take that back.

[Signe]

I knew you were a cat person and you guys are lovely people.    

I'm so sorry about Ceeaytee and his problems.  I hope he gets better in spite of his prognosis. 

[Hawkbit]

I like cats a lot.  We have three, though I can't imagine living with more than that.  I'm not sure how I would handle having eight.  Not a day goes by that I don't want to murder one of mine.  We've had cats for the past 15 years, but I think I'm done after this bunch goes over the rainbow bridge.  Maybe one, but no more than that.

Things that cause obsessive, repetitive meowing/howling: 

"It's 3am; the sun will be up in two hours, I just thought you should know."
"I just finished that bowl of catfood.  The other one is full, but you'll need to get the empty one filled ASAP."
"Other cat just hairballed in a corner of the basement.  Nothing is right in this world."
"Other cat won't kill that spider in the corner."
"Other cat just killed that spider in the corner and ate it."
"Other cat is sleeping quietly.  This cannot be."
"Other cat just crapped in one of the three boxes.  I can't go till that's cleaned."
"The dog is outside."
"The dog is inside."
"When you turned your back, other cat just stole pizza from the box or bacon frying in a pan."
"Oh, you're napping.  We can't have that."

[Ingmar]

Stop getting Siamese cats. 

[rattran]

3 is the prefect number of cats, 3 travel with me while 5 stay home, I only have 8 together for part of summer and over the winter. I'll be travelling with 4 next year though, my semi-feral needs more attention than my roommate can give her when I'm on the road.

Signe: He's doing much better on the meds, thanks for the wishes.

[Merusk]

Eight cats. Heh.  Growing up we had three then one died and mom got another.  But she was soft and didn't get her spayed.  Oops. Now dr have seven.  Then one of the little males dies after mom is fixed, but being that we could only afford to spay one mom keeps the sisters inside.   Well, until one sneaks out and now we have ten.

Ok so ten cats is a lot even when they go in and outside.  Well now I break up with a girl in college she's abandoned the cat to me and my sister buys one because.. I don't even know

Twelve cats gets you letters from the city. And that's how I learned that lesson.

[Paelos]

I don't even really know what to say to that.

I had two cats once, that seemed like a lot of cats.

[Margalis]

Same. Had one cat, had two for a brief while. Can't imagine having 10 or 11 more.

When I was a little kid this stray cat would climb up on a tree or the roof of our garage or something (I don't remember) and meow outside our window until we let it into our room. This went on for a while until finally we adopted her.

Fast forward 10+ years later, new house, every night cat goes out, then sometime between midnight and 6 AM climbs onto the roof of our garage, sits outside my window and meows until I let her in.

[Sjofn]

Things that cause obsessive, repetitive meowing/howling: 

"It's 3am; the sun will be up in two hours, I just thought you should know."

For Jack the Cat it's more like:

"It's 3am; you need to feed me in a couple of hours, don't forget."
"It's surely 9pm now, right? Right? How about now? Now? I will fall down and die right now if it's not time for dinner." (bonus, Jack will gradually get closer and closer to my ear to make certain I hear him).
"AHEM, I am trying to start a game of fetch here, pay attention to meeeeeeeeee."
"You can't see me so I'm going to meow once in a while so you can tell I'm still here."
"I'm in the bathroom and I love the way my yowling sounds in here."
"Lizzie is growling at me and for some reason I feel meowing back is appropriate."
"HELP I AM IN THE CAT CARRIER."
"YOU TOOK US TO THE KENNEL WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT I AM GOING TO BITCH YOU OUT NONSTOP FOR THREE DAYS." (this one is currently ongoing)

He will also discuss baseball with me, but that's actually cute.

Lizzie isn't nearly so vocal, she just chitters once in a while if she doesn't think I'm opening their cans of wet food fast enough.

[rattran]

My cats at home will occasionally yell up the stairwell, I think just for the echoes. Almost never at night. Biggest problem with the travelling ones is that Mr B likes yowling in hotel bathrooms. From 3am to about 6am. I can sleep through it, until the gf starts yelling back at him to shut up, which wakes me, and encourages him.

[Polysorbate80]

Eight cats?   We're currently at 7 adults and 5 kittens, with one more litter due any day now and another maybe three weeks off.  I'm sure my wife and kids will insist on keeping at least 3 or four of the kittens.

But they're barn cats, and I don't have to deal with them other than to pet them when I want to, or to smack them when they try to catch the hummingbirds.  And watch the chickens beat the crap out of them when they foolishly think they're tough enough to take one 

[Hawkbit]

Bought one of these for my cats on Saturday.  It took them 24 hours of meowing about how hungry they were to actually spend timie to figure it out for themselves.  They've all got the hang of it now and I can see it is going to be a big help. 

Instead of them grazing out of bowls all day long, they have to work to get a piece of kibble out of the tubes.  It basically turned their normal trough feedings into more of an activity.  I'll be interested to see how it works long term, but I think they understand it. 

Fat cat only ate four pieces of food before it wore him out, so maybe he'll lose a couple pounds.

Aikiou Cat Feeder

[Rasix]

We're down to 1 cat after having 4 less than 5 years ago.   Surprisingly, the oldest one outlasted the others, who all succumbed to really weird shit.   Although, I suppose you could predict this, since he was the least crazy and never has had any health issues.

1 is a lot easier.  4, all while having a newborn in the house, was insanity.  I will not go back to that many.  My son, however, is at the age where he's now asking if we can get a kitten and always wants to look at kittens when we're at a pet store.  Luckily, when we were at the vet for a checkup, he didn't realize that the kittens there were up for adoption.  Also, I can always point out that perhaps the 15 year old cat doesn't want to do deal with a kitten(s) and is perfectly happy being the sole survivor.   

[Hawkbit]

I think that's the ticket.  I'm not sure I want to live without cats ever, but I'm not replacing any of the three until they all go.  One is perfect.  I want to save them all, just not in my house.

[JWIV]

I've got three right now, and it's definitely a bit much. Still, seeing how the pair I rescued play and annoy the living shit out of each other on a daily basis, I'd probably try to make my next set another pair of siblings.

[Lantyssa]

I think two is the perfect number as it gives them companionship when I'm not around.

They don't interact all that much due to the age difference and personalities, but every little bit helps.

[Sjofn]

I definitely prefer two over one, Lizzie was a huge pain in the ass as a solo cat. She and Jack don't hang out as pals a lot or anything, but her PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEE and IMA RASSLE YOUR ARM WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT fussiness went WAY down once she had another cat around. Plus they apparently cling to each other when they're in cat prison (they do NOT cuddle here at home, but according to the kennel people they are snuggled up on each other constantly when being boarded), so that's nice.

Three would be too many, though. Two is right at my Poop Limit.