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Animal companions in our happy homes

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  • Don't think I reported back about the kittens. We adopted a brother and sister via cats protection, now 15 weeks old...they are delightful, but getting more and more naughty each day. When we are out we shut them in one room which is relatively kitten proof, but in the evening we open up some doors so they can run around more....but tonight they were getting so destructive, pulling things down off shelves and tables, pulling and chewing on wires behind TV etc etc..they need constant supervision! Never expected it to be quite such hard work....had a kitten before years ago and don't recall this sort of destruction, but I think with two of them they get egg each other on!
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    I don't remember any of my other kittens having done those kind of things either, but Aroha does. Last night I searched for her and she was in the gap between the security screen door and the glass panel door. It's only 8cm deep (about 3 and an eight inches).
  • Did she look at you in puzzlement when you found her? She knew where she was!
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    ..they need constant supervision! Never expected it to be quite such hard work....had a kitten before years ago and don't recall this sort of destruction, but I think with two of them they get egg each other on!

    Pups are the same - they need constant supervision.

    I have a pup every year and forget this every single time! 🐾🙂

  • Fifteen years ago today I fell in love at first sight with an adorable, furry, white puppy. It's been a wonderful fifteen years of love, companionship, and fun. She's showing her age now, has developed some health problems, and she's not as lively as she was -- but neither am I. I literally thank God every day for having her in my life.
    :heart: :heart: :heart:

  • Molly the dog does not understand fall back at the end of daylight saving time. No way to assure her that it was now only 6 AM when she was sure it was 7 AM and tim for a walk and breakfast. It is going to be a long week.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    @Pigwidgeon, that is wonderful!

    @Graven Image, thanks to the miracles of automatic feeders and litter pans, the cats are fine with it. Deo gratias.
  • Love all these stories. My dog has done fine in the mornings but that last hour to wait for supper has been tough.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    When I had 3 cats I used to start a 4 of weeks before Daylight Saving and feed them quarter of an hour later (or earlier) to s-l-o-w-l-y get them used to the idea. Now there's only Aroha it's much easier.

    Today I was weeding my roses, with feline assistance. I pulled up a large weed and the dirt that came with it meant there was a hole in the garden. Aroha promptly sat in the hole and peed. I hope she is not going to expect to have her holes dug for her in the future. I try to be a good slave, but that's above and beyond the call of duty.
  • :killingme:
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Aroha is a brilliant opportunist!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    MaryLouise wrote: »
    Aroha is a brilliant opportunist!
    Aren't all cats? :smiley:
  • These days Maisy is mostly opportunist about laps and food lying around. For several years now she has sent Monty to claw at my hair if they want feeding in the early hours.

    Fortunately neither of them seem fazed by fireworks. This is useful when the council's big display is a few hundred metres from the house.
  • Truffles gets spooked by bangs and fizzes, so I try to be home as much as possible between Halloween and New Year, or leave a CD playing to make the outdoor noises less obvious. Yesterday we were snuggled reading a book when the bangs began, and I remembered my neighbours are away with their cats outdoors, so I invited the one I could find in - he was having none of it! Either he’s scared of Truffles or he likes fireworks! (Robbie would sit on the windowsill watching them)
  • Graven ImageGraven Image Shipmate
    edited November 2019
    Well this is a first, Molly sleeps on the foot of my bed, last night she rolled over and fell out of bed. She is fine but seemed a little frightened at first. I happen too be awake and saw it happen, so I could offer a comforting pet.
  • Poor Molly.

    My 15-year-old pup can no longer share my bed. She can't get up there by herself; I can lift her up, but she eventually jumps down which is the worst thing for her arthritic back. She won't use a ramp or steps -- old dogs, new tricks. We miss each other at night. :cry:
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Would she jump on a pillow if you scattered some on the floor around your bed?

    My furry bedmate though 5.30 am would be a good time for us to get up this morning. I decided an hour later was more civilised, then we went and watered the garden before it gets too hot. The hose at the front of the house has a couple of pinhole leaks which she loved playing with, then she had a run-in with Stormy, the elderly cat across the road who visits because of the Georgie-Porgy fat'n'fluffy Memorial African Watering Hole*. It is amazing the number of cats who come, especially on hot days.

    * Georgie used to like drinking from a 10 litre bucket I re-filled daily for her. She dipped her left fore-paw in the water and lapped the water off it. After she died, and before Aroha arrived I instituted the watering hole in her memory, for the cats of the neighbourhood.
  • Huia wrote: »

    * Georgie used to like drinking from a 10 litre bucket I re-filled daily for her. She dipped her left fore-paw in the water and lapped the water off it. After she died, and before Aroha arrived I instituted the watering hole in her memory, for the cats of the neighbourhood.

    That is so sweet, I am glad you are doing that.

  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    Keir is now working in West Yorkshire. His owner is in her 40s, works four days a week and is visually impaired and profoundly deaf. He’s dual trained as a Guide and Hearing Dog.

    Clever, clever boy :heart:
  • So good to hear of his assistance, Boogie.
  • Boogie wrote: »
    Keir is now working in West Yorkshire. His owner is in her 40s, works four days a week and is visually impaired and profoundly deaf. He’s dual trained as a Guide and Hearing Dog.

    Clever, clever boy :heart:

    Beautiful, beautiful video. :heart:

    (My eyes are leaking.)
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    What an utterly beautiful, clever dog! :heart:
  • Excellent, Boogie. Beautiful video, wonderful doggie.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    Bravo, Keir!
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Wonderful , Boogie.
  • My animal companion is a cat named Harmony. I adopted her 8 or 9 years ago from the New York City ASPCA, on the advice of my friend Michelle, who accompanied me to the facility. Harmony was only about 8 months old at the time, right in the middle of kitty adolescence. She had aggressive play issues. She was a handful, but she was loaded with personality and intelligence, and I loved her from the beginning.

    She is now 9 years old and seems to be mostly contented. She has me wrapped around her little paw, and she knows just what to do to get whatever she wants from me.

    I still love her and I always will.
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
    Harmony is a very blessed kitty, @AuthorDiva !
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    God bless you, @AuthorDiva and Harmony!
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Aroha raced outside yesterday morning and the next time I saw her was walking over the roof of the house next door. I wasn't too worried as I had seen her navigate her way down the day before by jumping on the veranda, then two shed roofs before arriving triumphantly at my kitchen window, a pathway taken many times in the past by Georgie-Porgy fat'n'fluffy, Spooky and various neighbourhood cats. Yesterday however Aroha wandered around the roof looking at different possibilities (including the one she had used the day before) and rejecting them in turn. Finally she jumped onto the grass from the lowest part of the veranda, which is about 8 foot off the ground.

    I've seen various cats jump down from the 6 foot high fence, but they usually use their claws to slow themselves down (as if they are running down the vertical surface for a few feet). I have never seen one just launch themselves into the air like that.

    I've checked her over and watched her today and she is moving normally, but am still a bit worried that she seemed to forget the easy way down. Maybe I need to strap on a cat parachute.
  • We have two cats here. A male Abyssinian and a female rescued from a feral litter. Once called Chairman Miaow, she is now known generally as the very original Kitty. She has turned into watch cat.

    Upstairs has a balcony across the back of the house. Possums can jump from the tall grevillea onto the balcony. Kitty has taken to sitting on the balcony. No possum will attempt the Jump if she is out there.
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    What a lovely name for a cat @AuthorDiva :heart:
  • Lothlorien wrote: »
    We have two cats here. A male Abyssinian and a female rescued from a feral litter. Once called Chairman Miaow...
    Best cat name I've ever heard. Why did you change it?

  • Named by my son who has a very different sense of humour to many people. I think he found it a bit cumbersome and when he moved to family home, the others started calling her Kitty. By the time I got here, the change was pretty well over. I do not think she recognises any name, although Razz definitely does and will come when called.

    Other cats he has had have been Monty And Python and similar.
  • We got our cat Agnes from the Cats Protection League. They estimated that she was about a year old. She was a black longhaired cat, very regal, and we named her Black Agnes after Black Agnes Dunbar, a Scottish heroine.

    Several months later, I noticed she reacted to the word "Beauty" We tried dropping it into conversation and she reacted each time. Obviously that was her original name. A wee glimpse into her earlier life.

    Agnes was companionable, but she preferred sitting alongside me, to sitting on my lap. She'd walk alongside me, too.

    Our current Elizabeth is completely different and adores snuggling up.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    I think Aroha must be the laziest cat ever. I was doing some early evening garden and pulled out a big clump of weeds whereupon she sat it the resulting hole and peed. This wasn't the first time she done that. Maybe just the smell of newly dug earth acts as a diuretic.

    She's still cute though.
  • Several months later, I noticed she reacted to the word "Beauty" We tried dropping it into conversation and she reacted each time. Obviously that was her original name. A wee glimpse into her earlier life.
    So it’s true that cats have three different names, as T.S.Elliot told us.
    Huia wrote: »
    Maybe just the smell of newly dug earth acts as a diuretic.
    I sometimes wonder that about newspapers on the floor - I’m cutting out a newspaper pattern for sofa cushion covers at the moment and Truffles seems to pay too much attention to that but maybe that’s how she was trained. Or maybe it’s just because she simply has to sit in the middle of anything on the floor.

  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Proud cat slave reporting in. This morning Aroha dragged in her first prey. It was truly dead.

    She didn't eat it though as it was a dead convululus (sp?) vine that I had pulled out of the garden a few days ago. :smiley:
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Let's hope Aroha stays with plant-based hunting!
  • MaryLouise wrote: »
    Let's hope Aroha stays with plant-based hunting!

    Look out for a compost heap festering away behind kitchen door.

  • Many cat slaves would be happy with Aroha’s offering!

    Today was a big day - Truffles went out of the cat flap before I left for the day, and when I got home early this evening she’d already come in by it. This is a major success, and apart from coming down for tea I’ve not seen her since - I suspect she’s sleeping the excitement off. I do hope this continues because it’ll make my holidays much easier - she has someone come to feed her each teatime and for the last few years she’s more or less lived outside, refusing to use her catflap. She used to be perfectly ok with it (especially when she lived a couple of doors down!) so I think the mean neighbouring cat spooked her. So, major success - she deserves a treat but doesn’t “do” anything out of the usual.
  • I only have a dog, yet every morning on my front steps are a youngish black kitty, and a lovely older mixed gray cat. They look healthy and well feed. I know all of my neighbors and their pets, these are not local. They appear too be new kids on the block. I can only wonder where they are coming from. The pop keeps them out of the back yard, yet here they arrive each morning. Mystery.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Yesterday evening and this morning Aroha refused her wet food. I went to the pet shop and was told it could be due to the high temperature (25C+). Spooky got in and cleaned up any left overs. Today I bought her the gravy version of the food and it vanished in minutes despite the 30c temperature. Spooky didn't even get a look in.

    I think I will get a simple water fountain to augment the Georgie-Porgy fat'n'fluffy Memorial African Watering Hole.
  • We got Elizabeth a "better" litter tray - it's larger, but is entered through a flap. We put it exactly where her old litter tray was. She is doing her business next to it. I have taken the top off, in the hope that she will get used to using it, and then I'll replace the top. Or is this a lost cause and I should go back to the old one?
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    Many cats refuse to use a litter pan with a top, I'm afraid.
  • Her old one had a top, but was three sided- the front was open. I think / hope she has been peeing during her brief forays into our garden. If she hasn't, there's a nasty surprise lurking somewhere in the house....
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    Echo enjoying zoomies.

    :mrgreen:
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Her old one had a top, but was three sided- the front was open. I think / hope she has been peeing during her brief forays into our garden. If she hasn't, there's a nasty surprise lurking somewhere in the house....

    Your sense of smell should let you know soon enough. :confounded:
  • Boogie wrote: »
    Echo enjoying zoomies.

    :mrgreen:

    In my next life I'm coming back as a puppy! (And I'm hoping you'll adopt me, Boogie.)
    :smile:

  • Our printer is broken; there is some paper jammed in it, and it makes a horrendous squealing noise when switched on. Elizabeth seems to like the squealing, and also seems to have figured out that if she jumps on top of the printer there's a good chance she will land on the "on" button and the squealing will ensue.

    I have unplugged it. Let's hope Elizabeth doesn't figure out how to put the plug back into the socket.
  • BelisariusBelisarius Admin Emeritus
    I truly try to like all dogs, but this winning the 2019 AKC Championship? Bah.

    At least Andy the Golden Retriever won Best in Group.
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