Cat thread

[Sjofn]

I sort of enjoy watching Lizzie meet new cats. She puffs up and growls but is mostly all talk so will scurry away when challenged BUT is also too nosy about the new cat to actually hide from it. I think her little brain would overload if I ever actually let her go outside.

[Ingmar]

Cats don't understand relative size.

Lizzie giving Jack a lesson on this topic:

[LK]

One of the benefits of my cats greeting me when I get home from work is that they show me their butts which is a great way to check for tapeworms. One vet visit later, Petra should be OK.

[Sky]

[Brogarn]

My 13 yr old cat Smoke lost his battle with lymphoma last month. We had a lot of history together. Thinking back on it is just... rough.

Anyways, last week we decided to head to the ASPCA and get a new kitten as our other cat was acting lonely. 6 rooms of cats later, here's the one we decided on:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/854620/031.JPG

That's the little devil asleep on my lap about 20 minutes before I was in a PvP match in AoC when he decided to stretch up and claw my nipple. He's goddamn lucky he's cute.

[sickrubik]

excellent. He is firmly in GIANT PAW AND EARS stage.

[Engels]

grats!

[Reg]

He's gonna be big when he's full grown. He's already about the size of my 10 year old guy.

[LK]

Daaaaaw.

[Sky]

excellent. He is firmly in GIANT PAW AND EARS stage.

My cat never grew out of that. He just added GIANT BELLY. *cough* Excuse me, primordial pouch. Makes him a better runner and fighter, he swears.

[Brogarn]

He's discovered the warmth of a laptop.

[Sky]

Love the typical cat rejection of things bought for it.

[sickrubik]

"Yeah, that toy is neat and all, BUT OMG THIS LITTLE BLACK TWISTY TIE THAT HELD IT ONTO THE CARDBOARD IS THE MOST AMAZING THING..."

[Brogarn]

"Yeah, that toy is neat and all, BUT OMG THIS LITTLE BLACK TWISTY TIE THAT HELD IT ONTO THE CARDBOARD IS THE MOST AMAZING THING..."

HAHAH. My wife has spent 30 bucks or something on random toys but his favorite is a balled up piece of paper.

[tgr]

I've a similar problem with one of my cats. She'll only bat tiny screws about on the floor, while normal toys are just scoffed at.

Damn queen.

[Sky]

When the guys were putting in the baseboard in the living room, one of them asked what I wanted to do with that. That being a pile of about twenty water bottle caps they had found in the crevices of the carpet. Bart loves those.

[Ingmar]

When the guys were putting in the baseboard in the living room, one of them asked what I wanted to do with that. That being a pile of about twenty water bottle caps they had found in the crevices of the carpet. Bart loves those.

Oh man those stupid things are always turning up everywhere. Lizzie's favorites though are the plastic rings that tear off of the lids of plastic milk jugs.

In other news Jack gained 3 pounds in 2 weeks, which is way faster than the previous two. I think we may be in for a monster.

[Minvaren]

When the guys were putting in the baseboard in the living room, one of them asked what I wanted to do with that. That being a pile of about twenty water bottle caps they had found in the crevices of the carpet. Bart loves those.

Mine either put them under the dryer or behind the fridge (tile action 4tehwin).  Though they have been disappearing slowly from there, so I am wondering where the new hiding spot is...  Maybe they're just trying to tell me to buy more.

[Sky]

I hadn't even thought about the living room being completely cleared of all bottle caps. Last night I was hunting around in the closet for the stupidfrigginwhereisit mounts for the curtains and there was a bottle cap in the upper shelf of the closet (!?). My hand brushed it and I hear blam blam blam behind me, the svelte 20lb Bart on an empty floor that is reverberating like a drum head. So I casually toss the cap at him, he bats it and proceeds to lose his mind and chase it all over the room (with the baseboard, it's not getting caught at the edges anymore). Ended up playing toss the cap with him for a long time, and forgot all about the stupidfrigginwhereisit.

He's been low energy with the living room and hallway closed off for the last three months (! mumblemumble contractors). Nice to see him charging around again having fun.

The fiancee's cat was in the vet two days ago, they kept her overnight. Not eating anymore. They ran tests and released her saying it was just sinusitis, but fiancee and her mom are calling BS on that (mom's a nurse). Gave her antibiotic and told them to make sure she eats plenty  I'm pushing for a second opinion at my vet.

We also took Bart to the vet on Tues for a normal booster/checkup. I think I'm finally going to have to give in and give him canned food. He's not morbidly obese, but he's bigger than I'm comfortable with (and my vet has always given me shit about dry food, but he's biased toward canned food anyway). My dry food is almost all animal protein (EVO), but I think the carbs and this three month lull took its toll on the boy. He's a volume eater, so should be a good fit for canned food. I'm on the dry food side of the bias, so it's a tough decision to make, can't really go back easily.

/catramble

[tgr]

Are you guys really having to spend time making sure the cat isn't getting too fat? because I'm just making sure they have dry food and water (and some wet food when I want to spoil them a bit), and they're not even close to being fat. Same goes for my parents' cats, but they're outdoor cats whereas mine are indoor cats.

[bhodi]

It has a lot to do with the type of food you feed them as well as their genetics.

If you go for signe-style premium meat packets, you're going to get a much better diet than a super cheap corn kibble diet.

[Sky]

He's a bombay, so tends to eat a lot. Also a neutered male living in a small house, which was even smaller for the last three months. You pretty much can't get much better dry food than what we're giving him, so now it's on to researching canned. I do not want to go the route of preparing raw food for him if I can help it.

We only had one overweight cat when I was growing up, and he ate the same as the other five did, but was a neutered indoor male. His brother never got fat, nor did his sisters or girl cousins. That was eating whatever cheap food my parents bought because they never gave any thought to pretty much anything they bought...so I lean more towards genetics, behavior and environment, in that order.

Also, Bart's not really all that fat, he's just huge and out of shape. So the whole thing is kind of tough to figure out.

[Engels]

We have a brother and a sister cat, and they are both neutered/spayed. The male is lithe, the female is a fatty. The male eats in moderation and is very energetic. The girl, Binkles, gorges and loafs about, as seen below:



So I don't think its only genetics. I think its about temperament as well. Binkles acts as the older sister/protector and is far more worried about not having food, since they were born in a fairly hostile/feral environment. The brother was protected, both physically and mentally, by his sister, so he's waaaaaaaaay more chill.

We will probably end up having to do some form of food regulation, but it is soo much harder with two cats.

[Rasix]

All of my cats are on high fiber food that I have to get at the vet due to one having bad digestive issues.  It's taken a long time to find the right food for her.  It keeps all 3 of my cats (used to be 4) at an appropriate weight (one's a bombay mix and another is a Maine Coon mix so they're bigger cats).  They all get regular wet food as well (they go through about 4 cans a week). 

It's funny, the two times we've gotten a kitten the Maine Coon has gotten fat as hell on the kitten food.  So the kitten just ends up eating high fiber diet food. 

[Mrbloodworth]

We will probably end up having to do some form of food regulation, but it is soo much harder with two cats.

God yes.... Makes your heart break in some cases. Poor kitty.

[Reg]

Having to regulate your cats food is horrible. As soon as my last cat realized that his bowl would no longer be automatically filled up as soon as it emptied he became horribly obsessed with food where he'd never worried about it before. If I'd known what an effect it would have on his personality I'd have let him be a fatty.

My current cat who is 10 years old, is active and in great shape. He expects more food to be added to his bowl every day at the same time but he doesn't care enough about it to bother gorging when he's not hungry.

[LK]

So what's the first thing you should do if your roommate carelessly leaves the door open to the apartment and one of your cats gets outside?

I walked around for a bit trying to find him but I'm hoping Mesa makes it back for dinner time and tries to get back in.

Edit: False alarm. Mesa was out *cold* underneath a very hidden spot underneath the couch. He missed dinner, my calls, and all sorts of activity. Unusual behavior for him. That must have been one good sleep.

[Engels]

Mine does that shit all the time. I'm running around everywhere in a mild panic calling Binkie's name and I finally find her, 5 feet away, under a chair obscured by some bag, just quietly watching me go batshit.

[apocrypha]

Yeah Sputnik does that all the time. She's not a small cat but she has this incredible ability to find new hiding places. Climbing into wardrobes, cupboards & clothing drawers and snoozing comfortable for an entire day is kinda her speciality.

Her mother, Zebedee, did actually go missing for a week once, many years ago. Turned out that someone on our street had gone away on holiday and locked their cat-flap the wrong way, so cats could get in but not out again. They opened their front door upon return and about 4 insanely pissed off cats exploded out of them hissing & snarling and scarpered off in all directions, leaving a shredded, shit-stained disaster behind them 

[Engels]

Do big cats like catnip?

[Bunk]

I have never had to worry about Harmony taking off. About two weeks after I got her, she somehow got outside my apartment and in to the hallway when I went to work. Came home to find a note on the door, the neighbour had found her in the bloody parking garage. That meant she somehow managed to get through two fire doors down four flights, and through a key fobbed security door. Plus, the lady who brought her up didn't trust her, so she locked her on the balcony all day.

Needless to say, I can leave the door open with little fear of her straying.

[Sky]

Trying to work in the Wellness canned food the last few nights. He likes it, but he's been getting frustrated because after two and a half years he has to re-learn how to eat. I'm glad the Wellness stuff isn't raunchy, because I've spent a lot of time with my finger in the bowl, stirring it to make it easier to eat or enticing him over to the dish. He's getting better every night, though, and his energy is through the roof. After he eats the canned stuff he zips all over the house like a madman.

Now the biggest hurdle is getting him off the grazing and into two meals a day. I haven't ruled out a combo diet, we'll see how it goes.

[Paelos]

Do big cats like catnip?

Hehehe! Awesome. So many doped up large animals.

Joseph was not a fan.  

[rattran]

I'm temporarily introducing 3 cats to my 6 for a month or so. Currently trying the vanilla trick, but so far it's a lot of circle stalking, hissing, and puffery.

[LK]

Can't imagine what they are feeling or thinking other than a perpetual voice in their head, echoing through the cosmos of infinity, and all it's saying is "Duuuuuuuuuuuude."