Bringing groceries in the house, turned around and there she was......

IDK, Midwinter, we had a neutered male Russian blue, mom ran a daycare, one of kids in daycare couldn' bring cat to new apartment.. we took him an indoor cat about 3 years old.. with 7 kids friends daycare the cat got out.. then he, buddy, became an indoor outdoor cat.. literally came in front door got a bite of food and less than 2 minutes later meow to go out back door.. he was a natural hunter, pigeon seagull sparrow hawk .. we had him 22 years.. he ate everything he killed a seagull (he was proud of that one) found beak and feet that' it not a feather... only cat I really liked. ...

 

Wow, a seagull, that's impressive! Mine catches an occasional sparrow, and carefully carries them into the house, where she lets them go.

 

Yes, some of them were hunters; I know this because they would leave us 'presents' of their kills on the steps. No males I have ever had would bother hunting. And the females only did it due to instinct I believe.

Still, the point is that an inside cat cannot be hurt or killed by outside events. Hence my desire to keep this one in the house 24/7. To which end we bought a couple of air horns today. Again, recommended by the Vet. and used minimally, and discreetly, to train the cat that the 'door' is bad, rather than spraying them with water (water bottle), which trains them that Mom and Dad are bad, at least near the door.

Brian

 

Yes, de- clawing is hard on the animal and that is the only reason I am reluctant to do it. That said, my mother had three cats de- clawed (all gone now) and my youngest son has two cats that are de- clawed and all of them appeared normal, not in any discomfort and otherwise fine. One of my son's cats does have an unusual tendency to bite when offended, no doubt because she does not have claws but again, that is not really a problem, merely a modification of her behavior to compensate. If you do not annoy the cat, she does not bite. Of course she is quite independent and 'annoying' her can be merely giving her attention when she does not want it; picking her up will generally result in light biting of the 'pick up 'er's ' hand but it is a gently, controlled bite that does no damage. And if scolded with 'no bite!', she will stop biting and lick the hand pretty violently, which the kids refer to as her 'tenderizing' the victim for the next, inevitable, bite.

This is the first time I have had a cat and had this new- fangled 'clumping' litter in the box- great stuff! Makes it much easier to keep clean than the older, 'plain ole' ' litter. That stuff used to get wet on the bottom, weighed a ton and was nasty. Then again, my wife's potted plant has taken some of the 'load' from the litter box..... literally.

Yeah, the sharpening thing is a misnomer; their nails grow sharp but they are inside a husk- like material, violently pulling their claws through something tough (wood, carpet, the couch, wallpaper, etc.) clears off that husk and exposes a slick, clean claw. And that urge to 'sharpen' is way down in the brain stem apparently because they continue to do it even without claws.

Brian

 

Well, I had a little chat with Phoebe about the pound and as one would imagine, she is pretty upset about the whole thing.

During the 'chat':



Then her reflecting on the whole thing:



And the part where she likes the woodstove..... I cannot believe she has not spontaneously combusted yet but this is where she sits / lays.

 

Needs a little time to think it over, no?

 

HA! My wife left a bottle and a glass on the coffee table tonight and Phoebe cleared them both off with her tail while turning around! Too funny but that photo is pretty true....

Brian

 

Here is the thing, cats don't have to live in the house. Another stray found its way to my sister's house. She has taken in strays over the years; and every single one lived outside, they had a nice cat house with a nice warm bed. They live long and good lives. My sister hates to hear the TV anchor talking about it is going to be a cold night, bring your cat or dog inside. Her response is, "What about the cattle in the field? Guess we need to bring them in the house as well."

 

Just a quick update: Phoebe is being ever so carefully lulled into what she thinks will be a long and peaceful existence, all the better to make the surprise trip to the pound all the more unsettling for her!

She lives in terror though and spends most of her time being nervous.....






And of course, if the water is not running that does not mean there is nothing to do with a perfectly good sink:





Phoebe in my wife's Out Basket: little does she know it goes out to the Pound!



We have automatic lights in our kitchen cabinets and cupboards; when any one is opened, the lights inside come on. Lately I have seen a faint light 'flashing' in the kitchen while watching TV in the living room..... turns out Phoebe can open the cabinet door where her food is stored. And there is one cabinet with no doors that we use for dry goods- the other night, there is a little 'crash' in the kitchen, I walk in there to find a box of Milk Bones on the floor, with the flaps open and a tail sticking out of the box. Oh yeah, they are going to love her at the pound.....

I shave with straight razors, using traditional methods (read: old timey) and have removed all my razors and scuttle and put them inside closed cabinets. So far, she has not bothered either any of my shaving brushes (though the expensive ones have been removed from plain sight) nor my strops but yesterday, she DID find the stops and they seemed to be pretty fun to swat and watch swing. So into a cabinet with those too but at least I caught it before she 'got' my rare linen, Horween horse hide or <GASP!> my Kanoyama horse Shell strops. Sheesh. I did read a story about a gentleman who longed, lusted for and finally bought a Simpson Chubby badger brush in a larger size, had it a couple of days and had only used it for a couple of break- in lathers WHEN SUDDENLY, his new kitten found it. He found the handle under the furniture and the badger silvertip hair EVERYWHERE other than in the handle. A $300 + brush, shredded. I was kind of surprised he was not useing a 'cat's tail' brush after that

So we are 2 1/2 weeks into this and it seem like she has been here for years. She is turning out to be a really good cat; not destructive, keeps her aggressive clawing to her scratch pad and post, seems to like people and is almost always around at least one of us and she can actually play with humans (or as close as I have gotten to becoming one) with her claws retracted! I have never seen that before- she swats human hands without using her claws though she certainly uses them for string, yarn, her 'rattle' balls and about everything else. This is still the most dog- like cat I have ever met. And my wife has crocheted her several 'ball' toys filled with cotton balls and catnip on a long piece of yarn. Hey, we have to do something to pass the time before..... THE POUND!

Brian

 

Sad to hear that Phoebe just isn't working out for you! But, at least she is so homily that maybe someone will adopt her out of pity!

(That is when she gets to the pound.....)

 

Thanks for the update. Cute pictures.
Cinnamon has a date with the Vet tomorrow for vaccinations. No problems here with her except one night she knocked the roll of paper towels off the counter. Don't know what she was attempting to wipe up, but it must have been a large spill. She had half the roll spread out over the floor and most of it shredded.
Ride sharing offer is still on the table when we are ready to go.

 

Great stringing them along, thinking they have it easy for 10, 15, 20 or more years, only to spring THE POUND on 'em, ain't it?

Phoebe got to a roll of paper towels too; shredded about 1/3 of the roll and puckered up the rest about a half- inch deep. We are still pulling sheets off that roll we can look through.....

But yeah, it sure is amazing that something that weighs less than six pounds can have such an impact on a household and a lifestyle.

We ran out of cat food last night and so this morning she got 1/3 of a can of tuna (human tuna). Yep, still loves the stuff and will still chew off a tuna- smelling finger or two. I would have given her more but honestly, she was eating it so fast (like an animal I tells' ya') that I figured we would get it all back if she was allowed to eat what she wanted. Her regular food should be here later today.... though she will get the rest of the can of tuna in small amounts.

Brian

 

Luca Brasi may sleep with the fishes but Phoebe sleeps with the splits.

Not having a working porch yet, I am forced to bring in firewood using a sling and Phoebe really, really likes checking out and smelling the splits when I bring them in. Finally, it resulted in this:



Some old, wet silver maple splits so I cannot agree with her choice of what she sleeps with but still, I think Phoebe could be the wood burner's feline mascot! She loves the woodstove, watches the fire 20 minutes at a time, sleeps in front of the stove and loves firewood fresh from outside (there were some kittens living in that holz haus, so she may find the splits smell like cat).

Notice the purple yarn? That is one of the toys Andrea made for her- there is a ball on the end of that stuffed with cotton balls and catnip. So Phoebe dragged the toy over to the splits and bedded down for her daily 22 hour 'nap'.

Brian

 

BDF That cat is a lot smarter than we give her credit for. I wonder just how long it took for her to decide "this is where I'm going to live"!

 

We have a problem with "strays" following my daughter home. She & I took our older cats to the vet in mid-September. While we were there she was attacked.



When the nurse opened the office one morning there was a box on their stoop. Inside were two kittens, about 5 to 7 weeks old. One had respiratory problems and could hardly breath. The other had major eye infections and could barely see if at all.



The black one is blind and attacking my daughter's feet by sense of smell. Of course my daughter wanted both of them. The vet took me aside and said he would tell her they were too sick to be adopted if I needed help. He reminded me that my daughter would be going to college soon and he didn't think she would take the cats with her. Was I willing to have 2 more cats? He also said the blind one would need a lot of care, is somebody home most days?

He was hoping to find a home for them together. Watching them we realized the one that could not breath would lead the blind one around. As we talked he told me he left a message with a woman who had two blind cats that were his patients. Depending on her reaction he would decide what he could do with both kittens. We told my daughter they were still too sick to leave the Vet's care yet and we would keep in touch.

My daughter agreed that maybe two more cats would be a little too much. End of story, the lady now has 3 vision-impaired cats and "my daughter" has a kitten. Her kitten snores very loudly. Here is "my daughter's" kitten helping with some printing:



KaptJaq

 

Yeah, it is tough when they are sick or have something wrong with them in the first place.

I had a dog that developed a malignant tumor in what would be his hind 'knee'. We had his leg amputated and he actually did very well; he could do everything with three legs that he could be with four except climb stairs. He could go down stairs but not climb them. Otherwise, he had a fine quality of life without the leg.

Brian

I would actually think blind cats would adapt to a specific house fairly well. I have not actually seen one but would think they would learn where things were, find the edges of rooms, etc., pretty quickly. As long as the enviroment was safe, and all the humans were aware of the situation and realized the cat could not watch out for them, I would think they could actually have a pretty good quality of life.

Congrats on the new kitten. If you want, you can sign up for the 'Going to the Pound' list and get a good seat, up front in the bus, when the time comes..... which is any day now, oh yeah, any day....

Brian

 

We have to watch out for our cats that can see. The older ones are both gray, one a little darker than the other. When they need a nap, which for cats is fairly often, they curl up and sleep wherever they are. During the day it is not a problem. When it is cold out they will be in front of the stove. When the stove is cold they could be anywhere. The problem is at night. They trust us and the house so they don't react when we are coming. Unless you turn the lights on you cannot see them and have to be careful where you step.

How big is this bus? As long as it is a "no kill" pound you better reserve a seat for me and up to THREE cats. After the holidays sounds good. Let them break a few tree ornaments first. Maybe let it coincide with one of the GTGs to save travel? Is there a GTG planned for the end of the summer?

KaptJaq

 

Our therapy cat. He even has a diploma, but I think he cheated to get it.