Cat thread

[Lantyssa]

If a cat hasn't been raised with dogs, it'll have a tough time adjusting.  As noble an idea as it is, forcing an old cat to live with two dogs might be cruel to it.

I say this having done it.  Two lab mixes that grew up from puppies with three cats.  One stray I took at a fairly young age took almost a year to be comfortable with them nearby and usually still kept her distance.  (The time I saw her lick one of the dogs years later was a moment.)  I also have a three inch scar on my leg where the dog who thought she was being friendly got swatted by the cat, who got attacked by the younger dog protecting her mom, then I had to physically separate that dog from the cat hanging upside down from her chest with my leg.  The brawl covered two rooms, a hallway, and took three of us to separate the animals.

If it has a decent area it can go without their presence then maybe it'll be okay, even eventually tolerate them, but I'd still worry about the stress you'd be putting on an older animal.

[Bunk]

The SPCA folks are usually pretty good about being able to set expectations for you with a given animal. Tell them about the dogs up front and listen to thier suggestions about which cat to take. It really varies from cat to cat. Mine has never been around dogs at all, yet when my parents showed up with theirs, she simply treated it as an annoying curiosity. Make sure she's got plenty of places (including high ones) she can get to when the dogs are around, and avoid situations where she'll feel cornered.

[Engels]

My cat, upon seeing a passing dog outside for the first time in her life, projectile pooped and hid under the bed for a day. YMMV

[Bunk]

Lol, projectile poop.

Odds are, a cat at the SPCA has been exposed to a few dogs.

Heck, just pick the cat up and walk in to the dog room at the shelter, see whether it shreds you or poops across the room. If not, all is good.

[proudft]

Ha, at our animal shelter any people entering the dog row ignites an unbelievably loud barking competition.   Maybe a deaf cat would be ok with that.

[Azazel]

Any cat is pretty much guaranteed to freak the fuck out on seeing two large unfamiliar dogs for the first time. Much like you're going to react when confronted by, say, 2 large Lions or Bears that you don't know well. Survival instinct pretty much says "get the fuck away from them".

[Sjofn]

Lizzie seems to not give a shit about dogs, at least when she's in her carrier, but Jack is terrified of them. He's scared of most things, seems like.

[Azazel]

We had to take her in today. After 18 years and 4 months, my wife and I are absolutely devastated. Looking into adopting a new one. Nothing will ever replace Little Girl, but we've always had cats, and maybe nurturing and loving a new little ball of fur will help us cope with the loss.

I'm absolutely shattered. We both are. Even though I'd been preparing in many ways for the day to come, and had spent more than the last year of coming home from work terrified that I'd find her dead (and more than a few scares when the little bitch didn't come running up to me when I got in, but instead greeted me with a tired yawn from wherever she had found to sleep when I'd eventually find her). Despite all this, I kinda felt that she was indestructable. She did beat cancer in the end. Damn I'm going to miss her. 

[Reg]

Sorry to hear it Az. But do go and get a new kitten. I did the same thing when my last cat died and it really did help even though I felt a little guilty about it.

[Cyrrex]

 

I'm so sorry Az.  She was beautiful.  Please get another kitty.

[tgr]

Lately, each time I read this thread I go and give both my cats ear-scritches.

I waited 1 month after I lost Cat5, but at that point I flat out decided I'd mourned her long enough and that Perl needed a playmate. Watching Perl wash Luna, and watching Luna change from a massive chicken cat to a big lump of cuddly fur, makes it all just so worth it, and erased any and all feelings of guilt I had.

[Lantyssa]

My condolences to your family Az.  You gave her a great life.

Yesterday I found out the cat we adopted is 13.  If we get as much time with this sweetie I'll be grateful.

[Sky]

Sorry, Az. On the bright side, that's a lot of years to enjoy with a little friend.

Like tgr, this thread has been making me more aware of spending time with Bart and not taking these years for granted. I don't so much ear scritch him as tackle him and growl in his belly. He's a big damn cat (head to butt about as long as my fiancee's legs).

But I've had a saying for a while now "There's always time to pet the cat" If I'm rushing out the door and he wants some attention, I always take a minute to stop and love him up a little. Brightens every day.

[rattran]

A sad loss, at least you got lots of time in with her.

[Sjofn]

Sorry, Az, that sucks. I hope you recover from the loss as best you can.

Getting a rebound cat (that's how I think of Jack, anyway  ) was good for us. I'm not sure if Lizzie would agree if I said it was good for her, but I think ultimately it has been. Jack challenges her a lot more than Gilly ever did, but they also cuddle more, so surely that works out, right?

[Azazel]

We adopted a kitten from The Lost Dogs Home yesterday. There is a rebound element to it, but basically as long as I can remember from earliest childhood, my family have had cats and I've always had them around. With Little Girl gone, the house was empty and desolate, since basically everywhere we'd look would be the place that she sat/played/groomed/was found asleep/doing something stupid/etc. While we're still gutted, getting Leonard (TBC) has at least let us smile and do something besides mourn, which we're still doing. Just not for every waking moment. And we can even smile again. It helps that Leonard is an awesome little kitten. And he chose us, too.

Photos forthcoming.

[tgr]

Thread, lift ye head up

http://embed.break.com/MTk4Mzk4MA==

[Hawkbit]

That is the near-exact behavior we are going through with our tub of lard tomcat that I described a few weeks ago.  While his isn't usually focused on food, rather attention, the antics are the same.  Ours does lots of jumping around, too.  It's gotten better, but I'm still not sleeping like I should. 

[tgr]

Luna only does something like that when the water bowl is empty. I like it, because that's something which can't be empty for too long. I almost always keep dry food out for them though, I've never found the reason to limit a cat's food intake. Makes me wonder what people do when their cat gets fat.

[Hawkbit]

We've got two normal cats and one fatty.  I leave food out all day at the expense of fatty's health mainly because the two normal ones get hungry/bitchy all day without.  The only thing I've found that takes the weight off fatty is if he gets outside for a week.  If we didn't have coyotes and stupid drivers I'd make him an outdoor cat permanently. 

[Sky]

Bart cries, but he can fuckin' deal with it. I'd love to give him more food, but he's a big cat and will eat all day out of boredom. I kind of wish I had gotten a second cat for him to terrorize, ah well. I have no idea how he can eat so little food without looking like skin and bones, he's actually very muscular. At 20lbs, he eats maybe a half cup of kibble and a 1/2 to 2/3rds a small can of moist, a day.

If I sleep in on the weekends he can escalate things. He starts with a nice quiet meow "Dude, I'm hungry. Get up." Then he'll creep up on me and stare eye to eye (which is my favorite, waking up to HUGE CAT EYEBALL). Then he starts charging back and forth around the house, conveniently over the bed and often on my nuts. Then he goes to plan B and starts getting into stuff, he knows I have excellent sleep hearing and will get up if he bats something around the kitchen.

[Hawkbit]

If I sleep in on the weekends he can escalate things. He starts with a nice quiet meow "Dude, I'm hungry. Get up." Then he'll creep up on me and stare eye to eye (which is my favorite, waking up to HUGE CAT EYEBALL).

My first cat would start with the intense staring and escalate into licking my eyelids when it was time to eat in the morning.  That shit hurts.  Good to see someone else had a precision nut jumper as well. 

[Bunk]

My cat is weird. She ignores most cat toys within an hour of getting them. She does have a toy that is her absolute favorite though:  a drumstick.

A plain old ordinary wooden drumstick. She'll play with the stupid thing for hours, batting it around and attacking it. She's learned how to jump up and knock it off the Rockband stand. If a dare to actually pick it up, she goes crazy.

I will say though, shes the only cat I've ever had that actually will sleep through the night and wait for me to get up. As long as I don't try sleeping past nine on a weekend.

Much nicer than the cat I looked after for my sister (named Hades) that would start licking your nostrils to wake you up. Obviously, she was decended from the line that started the breath stealing legend.

[Sky]

Bart is good about sleeping through the night. Problem is, he likes to sleep between my legs and it's like having a bowling ball on you, and I move around a lot in my sleep. He doesn't care, it's pretty funny. When he's out, he's out.

Bart likes drumsticks, too. Not so much drumstick as sticks. He loves to gnaw off splinters from the woodpile and then chew on them. I'm scared to take him to the vet "Excuse me, Mr. Sky...your cat seems to have multiple puncture wounds to his gums and tongue..."

[Bunk]

That's my sister's dog. You have to physically haul him away from the beach or he'll chew on logs and driftwood until his gums bleed.

[Sjofn]

Much nicer than the cat I looked after for my sister (named Hades) that would start licking your nostrils to wake you up. Obviously, she was decended from the line that started the breath stealing legend.

Man, Lizzie does that, I'm sort of glad I'm not the only one on earth that's happened to. Because she doesn't do it to Ingmar. Only me. The cats are well aware which one of us feeds them. On the whole they aren't too beggar-y unless I'm standing near where I keep the treats, though. I don't free feed them because Jack is a PIG and would eat all day if I let him, and our vets are complete weight nazis and I hate getting scolded for having a chubby cat. 

Lizzie is also a fan of playing with sticks. The best is when Jack is running around holding the tassle end of the cat fishing pole in his mouth, and Lizzie is chasing the stick part like a madwoman.

[apocrypha]

Started insulin injections with Sputnik yesterday. She wasn't responding to the glipazides. We've ordered a veterinary blood glucose meter - cost us £100 including a big box of strips and sterettes but that's still cheaper than taking her to the vet every couple of weeks for a measurement.

Having the training and background I do makes this all very easy, but it must be really difficult if you're squeamish or unhappy about injecting your animals. Spose you just have to get used to this stuff really.

[Paelos]

Obviously, she was decended from the line that started the breath stealing legend.

When I was a baby, we had a black housekeeper who refused to let the cat into my room because of that legend. He was a Maine Coon named Buschard, who we called Boosh. He lived until he was 14. Great cat. Now my family has one named Evanrude, because he purrs like the motor.

[Lantyssa]

Dancer lets me sleep.  She'll sometimes gets meowy around five or six, but if I meow back she figures out she hasn't been abandoned and settles down.

[01101010]

Dunno why I clicked on this link. After both my cats had to be put down, I swore off having any association due to the depression. However, the tales on the morning wake up calls got me reminiscing. My one cat would patiently sit on the floor till I got up, his brother was much more assertive. It would start off with a little restlessness but escalate into deliberately leaping onto my sleeping corpse and then darting off before I could do anything in retaliation. Never had the staring thing... just brute physical force.

[tgr]

I just woke up to Perl snoring loudly.

[Sand]

Dunno why I clicked on this link. After both my cats had to be put down, I swore off having any association due to the depression.

Ill be honest, this has me scared to death. My wife and I have only been married a few years and while Im not young anymore she still is, so we started off  (rather than having kids immediately) with a cat for her (Tonkinese named Louis) and a yellow/white Labrador (named Denali) for me. I love them like a son and daughter.

Denali gets showers and baths with me, she is utterly my baby girl and much smarter than most people I deal with on a daily basis. She sleeps in our bed at the foot. She loves going to the lake during the summer and  going for trail runs with my wife through the park. She is small (65 lbs) for a lab being the English strain (true bred). She went through back to back to back puppy classes when we first got her and we continue to work with her at least 2-3 times a week on reinforcing commands. She has never misbehaved or been a chewer (she loves chewing but only on the right things like her toys or bones).

Louis is beyond words awesome. Tonkinese (half Siamese half Burmese) is awesome. Thin build with a beautiful silver coat and the brightest (uncrossed) blue eyes, and loves to ride around the house on my shoulders. He is bright and inquisitive. In the morning when my alarm goes off he will move from sleeping between my legs to curl up around my head, next to me on the pillow, while we hit the snooze and get a few more minutes of sleep.

I have no idea what I would do without them. Just typing this and having to think of it is making me tear up.

[Sky]

My dad's cat (18yrs old!) barely survived their trip to florida this year. Couldn't walk, they took it in and had to put it down, I guess it was a cancer on the lower spine and she was too old for treatment. As he told me about how he was holding her as the drugs took hold and she fell asleep purring for the last time in his arms....I was just devastated. I have no idea how I'm supposed to do that with Bart without being a total wreck.

[Bunk]

No advice for you from me, the only time I ever had to do the deed was with our pet rat, and yes even that was hard. I do remember as a kid, my dad taking the old dog to the vet one day, everyone was all sad, and then dad came back with the dog. Just couldn't do it. From that point forward I'm pretty sure mom always took the trip.

In all likelyhood I'm not going to have to worry about it for 12 - 15 years, but I can't imagine how Ill be able to do it.

[Sand]

Okay lets agree not to discuss it anymore then? And Im sorry I even brought it up. Lets just chat about happy cat and doggie stories and post pictures of same.
I get enough sadness in my life from the news and the politics forum. I dont need to be thinking about something bad happening to my two kids.

Here's a picture of my baby girl with friends. She's the one wearing the scarf.