Well, yes, but there are reptiles who go back to check on them periodically (the ones I remember are gators and crocs). I'm assuming she's a terrestrial turtle (tortoise), so she may have the same habit.
I got an email today from my brother, D in Chicago. He and his partner have a cat they called Buddy, due to his friendliness. D and Buddy were out in the yard and Buddy was chasing leaves. Buddy saw another animal come in under the fence and ran over to investigate. The other animal wasn't as keen as Buddy, it turned tail and ran off. D said Buddy ran back to him and seemed disappointed that the rat didn't want to play.
I have been grooming Elizabeth, and have compacted the combed out hair into a fist sized ball.
We have an ongoing problem in that Elizabeth is highly reactive to other cats and doesn't like seeing any of the other neighbourhood cats in our garden. Elizabeth herself is almost entirely an indoor cat.
If I tuck this ball of compacted cat fluff somewhere in the garden, will the scent help deter other cats?
My sweet cat, Lissa, passed on this afternoon. Age 17 years, 2 months. Which is a good age for a domestic short-hair tuxie. Even better, because about ten years ago she had a Medical Issue that resulted in her being on steroids for about 3 years--even though I was cautioned that the steroids would shorten her life. And she still made it to 17. That's my Sweet Stubborn Girl!
I've mentioned Georgia Dunn's comic strip "Breaking Cat News" before. One of her cats, Elvis, is a Siamese and Georgia always says that he is a great cat--if you happen to be her. That is the way it was with Lissa and me. With me, she was a sweet, lovey girl. If I wasn't around...100% certified hellcat. Even when I first met her in the shelter (after TWO other families returned her--their loss. We Don't Like Them.). The aide was about to warn me that Lissa had a bit of a temper...exactly at the same time as Lissa walked up and did a full belly-expose to me. The aide, a little spooked, said "I've never seen her do that before." And it continued. At the vet, her file contains notes to warn the assistants that Lissa...ummmmm.....has a temper. An assistant was quietly pointing this line out to a trainee--while Lissa was happily snuggling against me. The assistant (also looking a little spooked) murmured: "She's...different when she is with you." We finally ended up putting a note in her file that, no matter what the procedure, I was to be with her at all times. Not for her sake. For their's.
This week, her body started to shut down on her. She last ate on Tuesday morning. Weak, tired, she only gave a token protest meow to me when I took her to the Animal Hospital--which was unlike her. Normally, discovering that she had air in her lungs would cause her to meow. They took her back to triage. The doctor came to give me the bad news (that they could keep her in the hospital for a few days with no hope that they could really do anything, or we could just let her go now). She then mentioned that, as weak, ill, dehydrated as she was...Lissa still fought them in the back room. That's my girl! She was MY cat and she didn't take kindly to all the non-Me people around her.
Another trait: Lissa had NO interest in every leaving the house. I could leave the doors wide open for hours and she would not step outside. It is because of this that I have long been convinced that she will take up residence here as a ghost cat. She is not going to let a little thing like death keep her away fro HER house. I already feel her spirit here. Now that her pain is over, she is back to being the happy lover girl that she has always been. With me.
And she tirelessly defended the Earth from the Invisible Martians who, apparently, chose the entrance room of my house as their beachhead. She, as One Brave Cat, would spend hours staring into the room and meow warnings to them to back off. Who will defend us now???
Sorry to hear about Lissa @Hedgehog.
I watched the programme @Boogie. It's the sort of thing I usually avoid but it was good to see you and Spencer and see how much difference he's made to someone's life. You came across very well.
I have been grooming Elizabeth, and have compacted the combed out hair into a fist sized ball.
We have an ongoing problem in that Elizabeth is highly reactive to other cats and doesn't like seeing any of the other neighbourhood cats in our garden. Elizabeth herself is almost entirely an indoor cat.
If I tuck this ball of compacted cat fluff somewhere in the garden, will the scent help deter other cats?
I don't think so.
From my observations of neighbouring cats coming into my garden after Georgie-Porgy had died and her fur was still blowing around, but before I had another cat, others from the area still wandered through, slept in quiet corners and behaved much as they had when she was alive.
Much sympathy on the loss of your cat. We're not cat people, but have deeply felt the loss of our dogs over the years. Pets are in a very special category
I just turned on CNN as I saw this thread. What did they have? A report on a veterinarian that gives free care to the animals of homeless people in his community. Report here. Would there be other vets helping the pets who have no homes but their people.
Elizabeth sleeps on my bed, at my feet. When I wake up in the morning, she wakes up and comes up to lie on my chest for a cuddle, with her head tucked under my chin.
This morning she slept through me waking up and getting up. She's awake now and seems fine, but she does seem to be slowing down. I have a step to help her to get on and off my bed; she can't just jump on any more.
We were told she was 10 when she came to live with us in 2019, but the first time we took her for a check up our vet said she thought she was "at least 10." Our vet still thinks that a current age of 14 is a conservative estimate, and that were told "10" because an older age might have made it harder to re-home her.
We've really no idea, the vet says that 14 is at the lower end of the range of possible ages, but I haven't asked what the the higher end might be.
I wish I knew what her real age is; our previous cats lived to 18 and 19 respectively, and I don't know how close to that sort of age Elizabeth is. She was in an accident before we got her and had half her tail amputated. There was the start of arthritis in her back right leg, which was damaged in the accident, but you wouldn't have guessed it as she was still very agile when she came to us. She's now got some arthritis in her front left leg; she's been on on Metacam since just after we got her.
Well here’s hoping she has another few years. My 2 ( siblings) Stan the Man & Lily the Pink are 7 and a half. Their predessors Albertus Magnus and Sarah lived to be 16 & a half and nearly 16 respectively. Stan & Lil are my last cats; if I make it to 80 they’ll be close to 16. Best they don’t survive me.
I went to a church fair several weeks ago and bought 8 red ping-pong balls so Aroha could chase them. A birthday package arrived for me
the other day and, amongst other things had 12 ping-pong balls for us. I am exhausted and keep finding the balls in the weirdest places. Still the bending and stretching are good exercise.
I went to a church fair several weeks ago and bought 8 red ping-pong balls so Aroha could chase them. A birthday package arrived for me
the other day and, amongst other things had 12 ping-pong balls for us. I am exhausted and keep finding the balls in the weirdest places. Still the bending and stretching are good exercise.
We don't keep scores, that way we can both believe we have won. I do worry about tripping over her though.
Recently we have added a version of volleyball. Aroha lies on one of the platforms of her cat tree while I throw the balls to her and she bats them back. A few times,with the smaller coloured balls she has positioned her paw flat with the pad upwards and held the ball by extending her claws as if to enclose the ball. I've never seen a cat do that before, but then I haven't used ping-pong balls in playing with any of my other cats.
We have a few stray cats in our area. People put out food and water for them as they have all been fixed so no babies. We like that they are good hunters. We have seen dead rats. I was walking Molly on her lead and she went over to a cat water bowl I thought to take a drink. NO. She pees in it. I was so shocked. Yes I took the bowl and cleaned it.
Elizabeth has just had her annual blood test. Our vet thinks that the Metacam is adversely affecting her kidneys and has suggested two alternatives. One is a monthly injection which would be expensive. Elizabeth finds being put in the cat box and taken to the vet distressing, so that is also a consideration. The second option is a drug called Gabapentin, which might make her sleepy.
She is already sleeping more than she did as a younger cat. Does anyone have experience of Gabapentin?
With the dog, it was intended as a sedative (pre-vet visit) and, well... sort of did its job. A tiny bit. A friend with a cat reports he was a total space cadet, so it varies with individuals. With the human (me) it had No Damn Effect whatsoever. So the only way to find out is probably to try it.
I will add that I discovered its potency goes off after some months/maybe a year. So don't get one bottle and expect to use it for six years. Ask the vet, they'll know.
We decided to try the injection first and see how that goes. She had her first injection today. There was the usual caterwauling distress whilst she was in the cat box, but we left the house at 9.45 and were home by 10.17, so the time spent in the cat box was minimal. She has been giving me the evil eye all day, but hasn't had her usual post-cat box stress reaction of throwing up on the carpet and peeing behind the settee. So that's a plus.
A Difficult Relative has budgies, which free-fly round one or two rooms of her house. The main room is a sort of budgie paradise with numerous perches, water bowls, seed dishes, dangly toys etc.
Yesterday she phoned and said she was getting two kittens. I was appalled and asked how she thought that free flying budgies and kittens would mix? She said if it didn't work out she had a Plan B and a Plan C.
Plan C was that we would take them as companions for Elizabeth. I said definitely not, Elizabeth is highly reactive to other cats, absolutely hates them and would be massively distressed if another cat came into the house.
Difficult Relative then tried to convince me that I didn't know my own cat, and that Elizabeth has no aversion to other cats. (Difficult Relative lives some distance away and has not met Elizabeth in person, but apparently knows her better than I do.)
Obviously I'm not going to be pressured into taking the two kittens if it doesn't work out, but I'm quite worried about all the potential outcomes here, for the budgies, for the kittens, for the Difficult Relative, who loves her budgies very much.
Your difficult relative hasn't got dementia or the start of it has she? That sort of lack of reasoning and the assumption she knows better than you about your cat sounds rather like it. Is there anyone else who can persuade her what a bad idea it is?
Difficult relative is almost two years younger than me, so I'd hope no dementia, but I am puzzled and worried about this. The budgies are loved and cared for to a very high standard. It seems a bizarrely stupid thing to do.
I'm hoping my reaction yesterday has made her think again. She said she'd already bought "loads of stuff" for the kittens.
Gee D, I don't want to argue with an animal whose teeth and claws are sharper than mine.
I've decided I probably need to upgrade my glasses. I was walking home and saw a cat I thought was Aroha. Certainly it looked lighter, but it definitely wasn't Bob from next door because it had a long tail and hers is
short. When I arrived home there was Aroha, , doing her usual happy dance on the driveway, so it wasn't her after all.
So we now have 3 houses in a row that are graced with grey tabbies.
One of my two cats has taken to at times peeing on the bed or the sofa if he's not fed at whatever dark hour of the morning he decides is breakfast time. For years I just put the cats out of the bedroom and shut the door when he was trying to get me up before sunrise, but if I do that now he might pee on the sofa (a futon with a waterproof cover and a fitted sheet, so not a disaster but certainly irritating). If I let him stay in the bedroom but ignore him, he sometimes pees on the bed (another waterproof cover, thank goodness). I stayed up too late last night so didn't respond quickly enough this morning - so laundry at 6 AM today.
He did not pee on anything when my partner and I were gone for a week and I had someone coming in every day to take care of the cats. He did pee on the bed and the sofa three times when I was gone for a week and my partner was in charge of the cats.
The vet gave him a clean bill of health. If I put out food before I go to bed, he'll eat it then and still demand to be fed early in the morning. I can't/won't shut him out of the bedroom when I go to bed - he is the cuddliest of cats and sleeps curled up against me every night.
So far the only thing that's working is feeding him on demand at oh dark thirty, and I'm prepared to do that if necessary - there may be no negotiation possible with this terrorist - but if anyone here has an idea, I'm all ears.
When I got my cat she had been at the shelter for 6 months in a cage. I brought her home and fixed a cage for her with the door open and she would go in sometimes during the day. At night I put her in and shut the door. After a week when she was ready for bed she went in on her own. No waking me up in the morning.
@Ruth a pet behaviourist might be able to help, it sounds like the behaviour of waking you has become positively reinforced over time. The other solution might be a timed pet feeder for his breakfast.
I tried a timed pet feeder, and it's great for dispensing dry food. His Majesty turns up his pink nose at dry food in the morning. My other cat put on weight eating the dry food dispensed by the automatic feeder.
The retraining thing, though -- I think you've put your finger on it. Thanks!
I am so proud of my Molly. I have taught her not to go when I open the gate when we are out for a walk on a leash until I say okay. Also not to jump out of the car until I say okay. I was next door at a neighbors for about 15 minutes and while gone the water meter reader had gone out back where she was and did not close the gate, or perhaps did not secure it, whatever it was wide open. When I came home she jumped up and down to see me but stayed inside the yard until I walked in to her.
Comments
*Googles*
Ooo - pretty!
I have been grooming Elizabeth, and have compacted the combed out hair into a fist sized ball.
We have an ongoing problem in that Elizabeth is highly reactive to other cats and doesn't like seeing any of the other neighbourhood cats in our garden. Elizabeth herself is almost entirely an indoor cat.
If I tuck this ball of compacted cat fluff somewhere in the garden, will the scent help deter other cats?
I've mentioned Georgia Dunn's comic strip "Breaking Cat News" before. One of her cats, Elvis, is a Siamese and Georgia always says that he is a great cat--if you happen to be her. That is the way it was with Lissa and me. With me, she was a sweet, lovey girl. If I wasn't around...100% certified hellcat. Even when I first met her in the shelter (after TWO other families returned her--their loss. We Don't Like Them.). The aide was about to warn me that Lissa had a bit of a temper...exactly at the same time as Lissa walked up and did a full belly-expose to me. The aide, a little spooked, said "I've never seen her do that before." And it continued. At the vet, her file contains notes to warn the assistants that Lissa...ummmmm.....has a temper. An assistant was quietly pointing this line out to a trainee--while Lissa was happily snuggling against me. The assistant (also looking a little spooked) murmured: "She's...different when she is with you." We finally ended up putting a note in her file that, no matter what the procedure, I was to be with her at all times. Not for her sake. For their's.
This week, her body started to shut down on her. She last ate on Tuesday morning. Weak, tired, she only gave a token protest meow to me when I took her to the Animal Hospital--which was unlike her. Normally, discovering that she had air in her lungs would cause her to meow. They took her back to triage. The doctor came to give me the bad news (that they could keep her in the hospital for a few days with no hope that they could really do anything, or we could just let her go now). She then mentioned that, as weak, ill, dehydrated as she was...Lissa still fought them in the back room. That's my girl! She was MY cat and she didn't take kindly to all the non-Me people around her.
Another trait: Lissa had NO interest in every leaving the house. I could leave the doors wide open for hours and she would not step outside. It is because of this that I have long been convinced that she will take up residence here as a ghost cat. She is not going to let a little thing like death keep her away fro HER house. I already feel her spirit here. Now that her pain is over, she is back to being the happy lover girl that she has always been. With me.
I haven't watched it yet. Spencer is the star, if course! 🐾⭐💕
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0fd5lyk/reunion-hotel-series-1-episode-5
RIP Lissa.
@Boogie - I shall hie me to the I-player later!
And @Boogie, wish I could watch, but apparently it can only be viewed in the UK.
I watched the programme @Boogie. It's the sort of thing I usually avoid but it was good to see you and Spencer and see how much difference he's made to someone's life. You came across very well.
I don't think so.
From my observations of neighbouring cats coming into my garden after Georgie-Porgy had died and her fur was still blowing around, but before I had another cat, others from the area still wandered through, slept in quiet corners and behaved much as they had when she was alive.
This morning she slept through me waking up and getting up. She's awake now and seems fine, but she does seem to be slowing down. I have a step to help her to get on and off my bed; she can't just jump on any more.
We've really no idea, the vet says that 14 is at the lower end of the range of possible ages, but I haven't asked what the the higher end might be.
I wish I knew what her real age is; our previous cats lived to 18 and 19 respectively, and I don't know how close to that sort of age Elizabeth is. She was in an accident before we got her and had half her tail amputated. There was the start of arthritis in her back right leg, which was damaged in the accident, but you wouldn't have guessed it as she was still very agile when she came to us. She's now got some arthritis in her front left leg; she's been on on Metacam since just after we got her.
the other day and, amongst other things had 12 ping-pong balls for us. I am exhausted and keep finding the balls in the weirdest places. Still the bending and stretching are good exercise.
Who keeps the score?
Recently we have added a version of volleyball. Aroha lies on one of the platforms of her cat tree while I throw the balls to her and she bats them back. A few times,with the smaller coloured balls she has positioned her paw flat with the pad upwards and held the ball by extending her claws as if to enclose the ball. I've never seen a cat do that before, but then I haven't used ping-pong balls in playing with any of my other cats.
She is already sleeping more than she did as a younger cat. Does anyone have experience of Gabapentin?
With the dog, it was intended as a sedative (pre-vet visit) and, well... sort of did its job. A tiny bit. A friend with a cat reports he was a total space cadet, so it varies with individuals. With the human (me) it had No Damn Effect whatsoever. So the only way to find out is probably to try it.
I will add that I discovered its potency goes off after some months/maybe a year. So don't get one bottle and expect to use it for six years. Ask the vet, they'll know.
!
A Difficult Relative has budgies, which free-fly round one or two rooms of her house. The main room is a sort of budgie paradise with numerous perches, water bowls, seed dishes, dangly toys etc.
Yesterday she phoned and said she was getting two kittens. I was appalled and asked how she thought that free flying budgies and kittens would mix? She said if it didn't work out she had a Plan B and a Plan C.
Plan C was that we would take them as companions for Elizabeth. I said definitely not, Elizabeth is highly reactive to other cats, absolutely hates them and would be massively distressed if another cat came into the house.
Difficult Relative then tried to convince me that I didn't know my own cat, and that Elizabeth has no aversion to other cats. (Difficult Relative lives some distance away and has not met Elizabeth in person, but apparently knows her better than I do.)
Obviously I'm not going to be pressured into taking the two kittens if it doesn't work out, but I'm quite worried about all the potential outcomes here, for the budgies, for the kittens, for the Difficult Relative, who loves her budgies very much.
The woman’s an idiot & here’s hoping the budgies don’t end up slaughtered.
OTOH, less birdshit around the house.
I hope they see sense. 🤞
I'm hoping my reaction yesterday has made her think again. She said she'd already bought "loads of stuff" for the kittens.
I've decided I probably need to upgrade my glasses. I was walking home and saw a cat I thought was Aroha. Certainly it looked lighter, but it definitely wasn't Bob from next door because it had a long tail and hers is
short. When I arrived home there was Aroha, , doing her usual happy dance on the driveway, so it wasn't her after all.
So we now have 3 houses in a row that are graced with grey tabbies.
TABBY CATS RULE THE WORLD!
He did not pee on anything when my partner and I were gone for a week and I had someone coming in every day to take care of the cats. He did pee on the bed and the sofa three times when I was gone for a week and my partner was in charge of the cats.
The vet gave him a clean bill of health. If I put out food before I go to bed, he'll eat it then and still demand to be fed early in the morning. I can't/won't shut him out of the bedroom when I go to bed - he is the cuddliest of cats and sleeps curled up against me every night.
So far the only thing that's working is feeding him on demand at oh dark thirty, and I'm prepared to do that if necessary - there may be no negotiation possible with this terrorist - but if anyone here has an idea, I'm all ears.
The retraining thing, though -- I think you've put your finger on it. Thanks!