Cat thread

[tgr]

Thanks, and yes, she was a cutie, both how she looked and how she behaved. She was the favorite cat of the two (Perl can get a bit clingy), but I'm not regretting for a second getting cat5, and I'm quite glad I have gotten Luna. As I said, she was skittish the first few years I had her, but she's also so adorable when she gets in the cuddly mood.

Luna's also the first cat I know of that'll come running when I whistle.

[Sjofn]

Lizzie played fetch with me to cheer me up yesterday. She doesn't know it, but she is quite the therapy cat. She helped me not completely melt down after we had to send our rabbit Usagi off to the farm, too.

[Engels]

Thanks for sharing, tgr. GF's going into hypercutemic shock over here.

[Jimbo]

My son and I both are busy and not home a lot (some days we leave @ 0600 & don't get home till 2100) we have the cats @ my mom & dad's house/farmstead.  Sorry for all the losses recently & thanks for sharing the pics, makes me wish I had more time to care for an animal.

[Evil Elvis]

I'll just leave this here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdoHHK27RMM

[LK]

Absolutely hilarious but there is something wrong with that cat's wiring. :P

[tgr]

I've gotten nigh-on all cats to start licking themselves furiously by scratching them on their backs/legs/etc. None of them have been that vigorous about it, though. I'm envious.

[Samwise]

I'll just leave this here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdoHHK27RMM

Brilliant homage to this Python sketch IMO.

[tgr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82P5m4YWkOE

[Mattemeo]

Thankyou for reminding me how much I fucking love Bengals. Difficult to own in the UK, sadly - their hybrid nature puts them in the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act, you need specific licence and insurance to have one - regardless of generation.

[Signe]

They're really pretty.  Righ likes them a lot, too.  I'm not so fussed about what my kitties look like as much as I want them all to be rescues and indoors.  As for the rest of it, it seems pretty similar to a day in the life of my cats, too, especially Magenta who has EXTREME energy.  I spend a LOT of time playing with her and if Lister doesn't respond to her taunts, she's not beyond attacking him (with claws retracted of course) over and over until he does.

[Righ]

Thankyou for reminding me how much I fucking love Bengals. Difficult to own in the UK, sadly - their hybrid nature puts them in the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act, you need specific licence and insurance to have one - regardless of generation.

Incorrect. This changed in 2007:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/wildlife/protect/dwaa/hybrid.htm

[Mattemeo]

Incorrect. This changed in 2007:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/wildlife/protect/dwaa/hybrid.htm

If I wasn't so thoroughly manly and reserved, I might just have squeed when I read that. Not that I'm in any position to own a cat right now, but come the time, if I ever decide on a specific breed; Bengal is going to be top of the list.

[Lantyssa]

You totally squeed.  I heard it from here.

[Signe]

I'm amazed by the different fur patterns on Bengal cats.  Too pretty.  No wonder he squeed so loud!

[rattran]

I like some of the exotics and hybrids, but there are too many cats that need rescues.

[Sky]

I had myself set on a russian blue and bart showed up all tiny and sick outside the library. I'm quite happy about that. Maybe someday I'll have some cool purebred, but I'm not really sweating it.

[Ingmar]

I like some of the exotics and hybrids, but there are too many cats that need rescues.

Yeah this is my problem, I would love to have a Scottish fold but I have a hard time passing on the rescue cats since they need the attention. I don't get that way thinking about what kind of dog to eventually get for whatever reason, though.

[Signe]

Me too.  Lister was likely to have been ignored because he would go to the very far dark corner of the cage.  Somehow, he and Righ found each other.  The people at the rescue centre even commented that it was the first time he actually showed signs of life.  They're still very tightly bonded.  Magenta was the very last kitty of a family at my vet's rescue and was obviously very lonely.  She doesn't like being alone at all even now.  She literally shivered with excitement and couldn't stop rubbing against the side of the cage when people came into the room.  We weren't really looking for another cat but there she was.  I love those Scottish fold kitties, too, but even the rescue ones have a much better chance of adoption than the lonely, black kitten.  Evidently, black cats are the hardest to find homes for.  I'd have them all if I could! 

[Mattemeo]

I like some of the exotics and hybrids, but there are too many cats that need rescues.

Yeah, hence the 'if I ever decide...' part, heh. The likelihood is if I ever do get a cat, it'll be a rescue shelter moggy of indeterminate origin.

Evidently, black cats are the hardest to find homes for.  I'd have them all if I could! 

I never knew this... is it a regional thing, perhaps? Black cats are everywhere in the UK, we like the witchy ones.

[Signe]

The manager of our ASPCA told me that they're the most difficult to find homes for and the most physically abused in the US.  They're also very common.  Strangely, there were only two black cats the day we adopted Lister and both were already chosen.  She said there were usually a lot more.  Just my luck, we ended up with one light cat and one black cat so no matter what I'm wearing they leave their hairy mark.  I'll get another once we move, maybe.  Two is enough to fly home with!

[Sjofn]

I'd love a black cat but there's never been one in the vet's kitten bin.

I am starting to steel myself for getting another cat, Lizzie is CRAZY without her Gilly. She isn't depressed, exactly, but she's turned into a way huge attention whore with an absurdly high energy level and has started trying to playfully eat my head and arms again. I prefer that to moping, but man! Crazy!

[rattran]

There are always a pile of black cats and orange&cream cats around here to adopt, and the most common to see as strays. Which is odd, when I lived an hour or so west of here it was all tuxedo cats and gray tiger stripes.
Best of luck finding a friend for Gilly. I've been lucky with mine getting along reasonably, spending some time with 3 cats that didn't play well together makes me appreciate how well my menagerie does. Even if Dagmar does still try to eat the kittens occasionally.

[Lantyssa]

We have a lot of semi-ferals around the new place.  The plan is to get a puppy and a kitten at the same time so they grow up together, however I have a feeling we'll end up with a couple of extra cats over the years.

[tgr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLBPsZVI8Gc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxNg7ZP6E5E

 

[Mrbloodworth]

So, this is something I wanted to do for a while now.

[Sjofn]

Springer looks a lot like my family's cat Tyler. Springer sounds WAY NICER than Tyler, however. I love Tyler, but he is a savage beast.

[K9]

Cat meets iPad

almost makes me think that cats and iPads might be worth it 

[Signe]

I've had to put Lister on a diet.  He now follows me constantly around the house, meowing and rubbing against my legs and sometimes throwing himself in front of my feet.  He's doing it even a short time after I've fed him as if he knows he's not getting anymore for quite a while and it won't be as much.  I'm just a big food dispenser to him.  Anyway, I'm going from frustrated to amused to annoyed to laughing out loud.  I feel guilty because he loves his food so much.  When he cries it's so sad sounding that I want to give in but I really can't.  Magenta has taken to eating very loud all of a sudden as if she knows it makes him upset. 

[Hawkbit]

I've given in and let my one cat be fat.  The other two stay skinny.  Fat cat will literally go evil if I withhold food.  He's successfully tripped me twice, once going down stairs.  He is simply a raging dickhead without food.  About 4am he starts rifling through papers on the desk, knocking stuff over, scratching on carpet, talking loudly.  He's a dick.

[LK]

Oh shit, is that why my cat does that to get me out of bed and serve some breakfast? Clever.

[Mattemeo]

I've given in and let my one cat be fat.  The other two stay skinny.  Fat cat will literally go evil if I withhold food.  He's successfully tripped me twice, once going down stairs.  He is simply a raging dickhead without food.  About 4am he starts rifling through papers on the desk, knocking stuff over, scratching on carpet, talking loudly.  He's a dick.

Yeah. But you had his balls chopped off. It's a foolish Grand Vizier who ignores the starving, scheming eunuch.

[Reg]

I had a cat a few years ago who I had to put on a diet after he was used to having an always-full bowl of food. He never got over it. After that he was just obsessed with food. It was pretty sad really.

With my next cat I was smarter and restricted his diet right from the start so he wouldn't freak out if he developed a weight problem and I had to cut down his food. It's worked pretty well. He comes around and yells at me every night at supper time but once I've put the food in his bowl he's happy, takes a couple of mouthfuls and then wanders off. With my other cat the second I put the food in the bowl he'd dive in and eat it all in five minutes.

[tgr]

Me and my family's had cats for as long as I can remember, but we've never had issues with them becoming fat, ever.

I currently keep 3 bowls with different types of dry food, ox, tuna or salmon, and chicken. I also sometimes give them wet food, and they love whenever I do that. But none of them are fat, none of them eat to excess.

I pretty much love that arrangement, since it means I just have to throw a glance at their bowls and make sure there's food there, and apart from that there's not much at all to actually do.

[Sky]

I've got Bart on a restricted diet, his breed just loves to eat. At 16lbs, he's at 3/4c of food a day, and I think we've pretty much stabilized him. As the vet said, it's either that or administer insulin shots somewhere down the line.