Pet(s): Photos & Discussion

[theredhead77]

Every day, for the last two weeks the kittencat has decided to be whiny, chirpy and an overall cathole anywhere between 3 and 5am. Sometimes he'll playing loudly by himself (with quiet toys), sometimes he'll wake the cat-cat and they'll fight loudly, next to my legs, and sometimes he'll just walking around making kittencat noises.

I play with both of them before bed, I've even woken the kitten cat to play with him for 45 minutes before bed. I can't lock them out of my room because closed door = endless meowing.

I'm at a loss, and so, so tired of it.

[Jaded]

1 minute ago, theredhead77 said:

Every day, for the last two weeks the kittencat has decided to be whiny, chirpy and an overall cathole anywhere between 3 and 5am. Sometimes he'll playing loudly by himself (with quiet toys), sometimes he'll wake the cat-cat and they'll fight loudly, next to my legs, and sometimes he'll just walking around making kittencat noises.

I play with both of them before bed, I've even woken the kitten cat to play with him for 45 minutes before bed. I can't lock them out of my room because closed door = endless meowing.

I'm at a loss, and so, so tired of it.

My cat has started to try and wake me up in the middle of my sleep time too. He just started it early last month. He'll meow or make noises he knows will wake me up. It's usually enough to get me up to go pee. Sometimes I stay awake for a bit before going back to sleep and more times then not he'll go to sleep while I'm awake. 

[isalicat]

Between 3 AM and 5 AM is natural cat hunting time so your cats are just responding to their innate biorhythms. When we lived in the wilderness, my big hunter cat would get up every single night around that time to have the laundry room door opened so he could go out the cat door (we put the cat door in the door going from the laundry room outside so he could not get back into the house when he returned, almost always with some victim (ground squirrels, etc.) that were not always dead). One winter he brought in a mouse, apparently uninjured, and snuck it into the house later in the day when we were not properly vigilant - the mouse escaped and went under the refrigerator and lived in our kitchen all winter long, finding enough food by going around the back of the cabinets (this was a forest cabin and rather porous) to the trash. The mouse got so fat that when we put out one of those humane traps with peanut butter in it (intending to release the mouse back outside in tribute to its bravery) that it went into the trap and suffocated, poor thing. Now that we live at the beach my current cat, Louis, has nothing to hunt but lizards and I take those away immediately as they make him sick. As Louis is a senior cat he is less motivated anyway and tends to wait for me to open a can first thing in the morning as opposed to getting up for nothing before dawn.

[theredhead77]

53 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Sometimes I stay awake for a bit before going back to sleep and more times then not he'll go to sleep while I'm awake

I came back from the bathroom and the cat-cat had curled up and gone to sleep where I was sleeping. Jerk.

 

19 minutes ago, isalicat said:

Between 3 AM and 5 AM is natural cat hunting time so your cats are just responding to their innate biorhythms

They live indoors; they need to get with the hooman program and knock this shit off.

[DeLurker]

18 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

They live indoors; they need to get with the hooman program and knock this shit off.

That sound you hear is kittencat, and all other cats, laughing hysterically and thinking "Are you new?".

[Bastet]

Every time I cat-sit at my parents' house, and get woken up at 5:00 a.m. by Bandit and then 7:00 a.m. by Chester (both of whom I have at least conditioned to knock it off in fairly short order and go back to sleep until I'm ready to get up at 9:30, but still), I am reminded how lucky I am with Riley, and was with Maddie and Baxter, all of whom sleep/slept through the night and, when they did get up earlier than me in the morning, they just went and sunned themselves for a while before coming back to bed.  "Mommy Doesn't Do Mornings" is the number one rule of the house, and I have/had the perfect cats for it.

[Jaded]

1 minute ago, Bastet said:

"Mommy Doesn't Do Mornings" is the number one rule of the house, and I have/had the perfect cats for it.

I thought Captain fit in that category too until recently. I'm hoping he'll stop as randomly as he started.

[theredhead77]

30 minutes ago, DeLurker said:

That sound you hear is kittencat, and all other cats, laughing hysterically and thinking "Are you new?".

Not new. Just annoyed.

2 minutes ago, Jaded said:

I thought Captain fit in that category too until recently. I'm hoping he'll stop as randomly as he started.

Me too!

 

7 minutes ago, Bastet said:

"Mommy Doesn't Do Mornings" is the number one rule of the house, and I have/had the perfect cats for it.

They're usually so good but the past few weeks they have been catholes. Maybe it's the weather changing.

[ABay]

After many, many years of my old man cat waking me up at 4:30 every morning for first breakfast, I kept waking up then for weeks after he died. Now girl cat usually gets up on the bed just before the 6:00 alarm and curls up next to me and is sometimes still there when I leave for work. It's still odd waking up so "late".

[MargeGunderson]

Kitty Gunderson the Elder had her first laser treatment today:

Edited April 13, 2018 by MargeGunderson

[Bastet]

She's rockin' those goggles.  I hope the treatment helps.

[SuprSuprElevated]

9 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

@SuprSuprElevated Here you go...I tried the website that you suggested and found it easy to use so here’s my first attempt. It’s of the mama squirrel raiding the bird feeder upside down! 

                                                           It worked! Pictures of boy and girl cat to follow soon. Again thank you very much  

You're welcome!  For this pic, you could probably even go to 25%.  So funny.  Our squirrels entertain us a lot.  They're very smart little creatures.

[bilgistic]

That is a precious picture, @MargeGunderson.

I've heard very good things about laser therapy for pets. I first read about it when Schoep the dog was getting it for arthritis. It really improved his quality of life in his last year. He lived to be 20.

If you don't know of Schoep and John, read the article and the links to other articles about them. John Unger is an amazing yet humble man who has such remarkable love for and bonds with his dogs.

[bilgistic]

I have made a tentative appointment through my vet's app for Monday for Little Mama. I'm hoping the threat will force her into acting right. She's been inappetent for a while now and just picks at food; she had always voraciously eaten before recently. The night howling has me concerned, too, after I talked about it here. I'll get some bloodwork done on her and hope it's something minor and treatable.

She has started being very loving, insisting upon a daily 15-minute (or so) cuddle session during which she kneads me and crawls up into my arms and has me hold her while she loudly purrs and restlessly changes positions from me cradling her to her putting her head on my shoulder, etc.

Little Girl isn't eating as much either. They used to eat every four hours except overnight. I'm rotating among SIX different brands/flavors of food based upon their daily whims. I hope I'm imagining it all and it's because of the weather changing or that dog downstairs barking/howling his head off or the planets are misaligned...who knows.

Edited April 14, 2018 by bilgistic

[Sandman87]

Over the weekend Mom's cat started acting sick and stopped eating. Then she stopped drinking water. Since Mom has trouble getting around it was up to me to take the cat to the vet. (Incidentally the vet's office is new to the area within the last eight months, with brand new facilities including a small stable and corral area. Very highly rated.)

In the waiting room I let Mom's Cat out of her carrier while we waited for the vet. She reclined on the exam table purring and kneading my arm while I scratched behind her ears. The doctor came in, did the exam, the news was bad. It was her kidneys. She had had kidney problems about six years ago which had nearly killed her, but this was worse. All the doctor could do was recommend euthanasia. Several phone calls back to Mom later we had given consent for the euthanasia. The doctor asked if I would rather wait outside, but  damned if I'd let someone I love die surrounded only by strangers. I was able to keep her purring until the end. And then she just...stopped.

I managed to make it back out to the car and get in before completely losing my shit. Took a while before I could see clearly enough to drive home.

I couldn't deal with posting about it until now.

Anyway, I'm just about cried out. I'll post some more pictures of Mom's Cat in a day or two; sort of a little online memorial. Ironically, Mom wasn't as attached to her as I was, so she's just somewhat sad about the whole thing.

In the meantime, I find myself cat-less for the first time in sixteen years. Going to have to fix that. Maybe next month. And I like the new vet in spite of everything, so whatever new kitty we end up with will be going there.

 

9 hours ago, MargeGunderson said:

Kitty Gunderson the Elder had her first laser treatment today:

"Are we not cats?"

"We are DEVO!"

[AgentRXS]

@Sandman87 I am so sorry about the loss of your kitty.

[bilgistic]

I'm so sorry, @Sandman87. I know it's so hard. Try to take comfort in knowing you were there for her when she needed you most and was comfortable and loved to the end. ♥️

[SuprSuprElevated]

So sorry @Sandman87.  As with most, been there, too many times.  Our only comfort is to know that we performed the most loving act possible for our friend, in the face of and despite our own misery, so they suffer no more.

Hang tough~

[walnutqueen]

I am so very sorry for your loss, @Sandman87.

[ABay]

@bilgistic, fingers crossed for the bilgisticats.

@Sandman87, I'm so sorry. 

[harrie]

Very sorry to hear of your loss, @Sandman87.  

Best of luck with your upcoming appointment, @bilgistic.

[Mindthinkr]

@Sandman87 You have my condolences. Very sorry to hear about your unexpected loss. 

[riley702]

@Sandman87, I'm sorry. That has to be so difficult. How is your Mom dealing with it?

[ratgirlagogo]

I press your hand Sandman87 - I've had to do it a few times and it never gets any easier.  Bless.

[Bastet]

@Sandman87, I'm sorry to hear about the death of your mom's cat.  I'm glad you got her in to the vet when you did, as nature taking its course would have sucked under the circumstances, and that you were there with her in the end, but it's still heartbreakingly awful.  I look forward to those pictures when you're ready to share.

@bilgistic, I'm hoping the root of the appetite issues are minor and easily dealt with.  They're really putting you through the wringer in their early days with you, and I'm sorry for that, but glad they wound up with you who'll see them through whatever it is.

[DeLurker]

@Sandman87 - I'm sorry - I am sure it was hard to do, but you kept her calm until the end.

[AgentRXS]

Ella's feeling a bit upside-down today...

[MargeGunderson]

@Sandman87, I’m so sorry about your (mom’s) kitty. You acted out of love and compassion.

[bilgistic]

I've decided the cats have been screwing with me. I tried tough love yesterday and today and didn't give into whining. They got one flavor of food at four-hour intervals and if they didn't eat it, they had to wait until the next feeding time. They both ate well today and quit howling. Let's hope I can keep up the facade of pretending I'm the one in charge.

[Sandman87]

As promised, here's some pictures of Mom's cat, but first some memories:

To start with, we usually called her Stinky, so that's how I'll refer to her from now on. More on that in a moment. She showed up on our doorstep in the summer of 2002, about 6 months after we adopted my Big Guy (nickname Goofy). I got a call at work from Mom, who told me that there was a starving kitten sitting at the bottom of our front steps demanding to be let in. She had tried to come up to the door, but Goofy was on guard and wouldn't let her up. Mom asked "What do you think?". I told her that it sounded like we had been adopted.

By the time I got home, Mom had fed and watered The New Kitten and shown her where the litter box is. Goofy was disgusted, but seemed willing to completely ignore this intrusion. Mom had also made an appointment at the nearest vet for the next day. Unlike most new felines, this one immediately wanted a lot attention, and I quickly discovered that she was covered with ticks. I spent the next hour de-ticking a kitty who kept trying to stick her head under my hand for a scratch.

Next day: We took The New Kitten to the vet, who gave her shots and a de-flea-ing (just in case), and also informed us that what we had was a cat, not a kitten. A cat who was severely malnourished, I might add. Since she had just magically shown up the previous morning on the front lawn, Mom decided to name her Dew. That's her official name.

The following morning she used her litter box for the first time. The stench was ungodly because she hadn't eaten anything for a very long time before appearing on our doorstep. And that's how we ended up calling her Stinky.

After the usual couple of weeks of resentment and hissing, Goofy decided that maybe it was all right having another cat around...as long as she didn't annoy him. Naturally she spent the next fourteen years pestering him in every way a cat can, especially while he was trying to sleep. She basically pushed him around, even though he weighed three times as much as she did. Eventually he taught her the trick of opening cabinet doors, so we never knew when we might go to get a towel or a pot and find a cat or two staring back at us.

She turned out to be completely fearless. She'd walk over to the fence and try to say hello to the neighbors' gigantic guard dogs, and they had no idea how to react. They'd bark and back away. She'd also immediately approach visitors and try to make friends. Eventually she learned to be wary of strangers for a few minutes while she scoped them out.

This was the cat that would watch TV with us and occasionally react to what was on the screen. This was the cat who would sit next to me in her best princess pose and very daintily prod me with her paw when she wanted attention. This was the cat who would lay on my arm while I was reading in bed and watch the book as if she were reading too. This was the cat who in later years took up sleeping on my pillow in the winter time, leaning against the top of my head for warmth. This was the cat who would lick the bowl after I had made a tuna sandwich, very carefully getting every drop of mayonnaise without eating any of the tuna. And this was the cat who was always willing to let you give her a quick head rub or ear scratch. Or a long one, for that matter.

And now, the pictures:

Feeding time at the zoo, back when Stinky was a bit pudgy. It was just a couple of weeks after Goofy had had one lung removed, and you can see where the vet had shaved his left side.

 

Taken just a couple of seconds before she gave the camera a head-butt.

 

Bed pictures.

 

 

High-five failure. How embarrassing.

 

If she was hanging out by my desk, she'd be wearing my shoes more often than not.

 

A favorite winter snoozing spot; on the hearth, in front of a nice warm fire, with my dirty gauntlets as a pillow.

 

Watching the deer out in the yard one morning.

 

Her signature Princess Pose.

 

(Last one, which I've posted before) Happiness is a warm sunbeam.

 

On 4/14/2018 at 5:59 PM, riley702 said:

@Sandman87, I'm sorry. That has to be so difficult. How is your Mom dealing with it?

Mom's handling it just fine She wasn't as attached to Stinky as I was, despite technically being the one who adopted her.

Edited April 16, 2018 by Sandman87

[Bastet]

What a beautiful tribute; from your words, I feel as if I knew Stinky.  She definitely chose the right set of steps to camp out on, demanding to be adopted.

[DeLurker]

Friday I took Kook in for a dental procedure (teeth cleaning) and xrays to try to get to the root of why he has not been feeling well (it was possible that there might be a tooth problem below the gumline causing him pain and the teeth chattering).  The vet found ulcers in the back of his throat and so most likely he'll have them all the way into the digestive system.  She took swabs to send to the lab and sent him home with nice shiny teeth, an antibiotic and an anti inflammatory.  She never would have been able to observe his throat if he had been awake, so while I was very hesitant to have the procedure done, I also wanted to make sure that I didn't skip a step in diagnosing things.

He was pretty lowkey Friday when I brought him home, but each day he has been more and more lively.  He's eating more because I am putting a bit of heated broth in his dry food to soften it up.  The anti inflammatory is probably helping things a lot too.  The lab results should come back soon (we hope) - depends on how busy the lab they use is.  Hopefully that will give us more direction on what to do or not do.  In the meantime, he gets no unsupervised outdoor time in case there is something he's getting into that is causing the ulcers.

Where they shaved his leg for the IV looks funny.  His coat is all white on his body (his ears have a couple of beige-ish spots), but you can see his actual skin has some dark areas - like gigantic freckles.

[theredhead77]

What a beautiful tribute. She picked fine hoomans to love and care for her.

[harrie]

@Sandman87, I loved your reminiscences of Stinky. She sounds like quite a character.

 

@DeLurker, I hope the Kook mystery illness is solved quickly and easily. Glad he's perking up.

Edited April 17, 2018 by harrie

[walnutqueen]

Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful stories (and pics), @Sandman87.  They brought more than a tear to my eye, and reminded me very much of some of my dearly departed ones.

[ABay]

The photo with the sandal reminded me of one of previous cats who would try to shove his head in my loafer. If he couldv'e fit his whole body in there, I'm sure he would have.

[bilgistic]

I was sitting at the coffee table eating lunch and I heard the girls making their "Brrrtttt?" sounds but didn't see them. I finally saw one out on the balcony and realized they had managed to move the 10 lbs. of weights that I have blocking the balcony door when I leave it cracked open to get a cross-breeze with the bedroom window. They were partying it up on the balcony, smelling all the things. Points for teamwork, I guess, but very naughty. And heart attack-inducing for me!

[bilgistic]

Why can't we sit out there with you???

[theredhead77]

On 4/19/2018 at 3:01 PM, bilgistic said:

I was sitting at the coffee table eating lunch and I heard the girls making their "Brrrtttt?" sounds but didn't see them. I finally saw one out on the balcony and realized they had managed to move the 10 lbs. of weights that I have blocking the balcony door when I leave it cracked open to get a cross-breeze with the bedroom window. They were partying it up on the balcony, smelling all the things. Points for teamwork, I guess, but very naughty. And heart attack-inducing for me!

Worst nightmare for me!

I noticed my downstairs neighbor's kitty hangs out on his balcony. I'd be so afraid my kitty would hop up on the rail, or squeeze through and then I would no longer have a kitty (3rd floor, backing up to a wooded area). I'm too paranoid to open my windows more than an inch or two.

[ABay]

It's warm in the sun so I opened a couple of windows a few inches, just to get a little fresh(er) air in. Girl cat's eye started watering and my nose started running so I closed the windows...isn't it sweet that we're both allergic to the same pollen? 

[bosawks]

Happy Earth Day!

 

[bilgistic]

1 hour ago, theredhead77 said:

Worst nightmare for me!

I noticed my downstairs neighbor's kitty hangs out on his balcony. I'd be so afraid my kitty would hop up on the rail, or squeeze through and then I would no longer have a kitty (3rd floor, backing up to a wooded area). I'm too paranoid to open my windows more than an inch or two.

I have the same fears. I'm scared the screen will fall out of the window. I'm on the second floor and don't leave the window open at all if I'm not home. Cats fall from windows, balconies, ledges, etc. often enough that the phenomenon of their falls and the injuries that result is called high-rise syndrome.

[Bastet]

Normally, my windows are open pretty often, but obviously when I adopted Riley I had to take a good amount of time to observe how she was with the screens to see if I could resume that habit, so her first summer my electric bill was astronomical - I wasn't yet comfortable leaving the bedroom windows open overnight lest she suddenly get screen-happy when I was asleep, so I'd turn the AC on in there some nights, which is something I normally never do (I don't have heat or air on overnight).

Thankfully, it turned out she thinks screens are as impenetrable a barrier as glass (which is really good, because I have retractable screens [with casement windows] - I don't like the look of screens, not to mention cleaning them, so I have the kind that only need to be pulled down and snapped into place when you need them - so they're easy to get out of if one tries), so even when there's a bird outside or a critter in the tree, she doesn't try to get out.  I was quite relieved to see that, as I was really going to miss fresh air if I had to keep the windows closed!

She half-heartedly tries to follow me outside sometimes, but in general she runs away from an exterior door when I open it -- with how scared she is of new things (I had to introduce the house to her one room at a time, after all, and it was months before she roamed it comfortably rather than just staying in the office or bedroom), I think the outdoors is a big, unknown "room" to her and she's afraid of it.  Works for me!

Edited April 22, 2018 by Bastet

[theredhead77]

When I was a kid / early adult one of my cats would climb the screen, the screen would go forward and the cat would be outside.  I freaked out then and my mom would always tell me to go inside. I could only imagine how freaked I would be now. 

I do leave the windows open if I have a window fan in them and am looking a removable thing to block the screen so I could leave the windows open.

[theredhead77]

I have two gravity feeders with a gravity water bowl between them. Both cats always eat from the feeder on the right (even if I switch them, so it's not the physical feeder). They'll eat from the feeder on the left, if the one on the right is empty. It's the oddest thing.

[ratgirlagogo]

7 hours ago, bosawks said:

Happy Earth Day!

Hey, where's the Earth Day themed bandana?:)

[bosawks]

7 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

Hey, where's the Earth Day themed bandana?:)

Dammit! And I even asked her if we had everything.....

[DeLurker]

Got my cat a new litter box for downstairs - it is the one below.  I'm trying to keep the dog from getting into the litter.  He was hesitant to go in, so I took off the swinging door so he could go in and out without figuring out the mechanics* of the door.  He used it just fine.  After 2 days I put the door back on, but taped it open.  He's used it since but not without protesting a lot. 

Anyone got ideas that can help make this transition smoother?

*He's figured out how to open a lot of doors - apparently I can't use the bathroom without supervision so if I close the door, he'll have his paw underneath and be pushing up against it until he gets it open.  He also opens cabinet doors to hang out inside or just to repeatedly let the door closed if he wants to get me up.

The cat in the picture looks just like the office cat in my vet's office - Smokey.  Smokey has a colorful past evidenced by the various scar tissue he bears, but he's not talking about it.  I think he's got outstanding warrants.

 

 

 

[Mindthinkr]

@DeLurker How easy is it to get the top off and clean that box? I’d love to eliminate that litter that always surrounds the box. No ideas on how to help with the transition but your cat should get used to it within a week (if not you’ll be finding “evidence” near the box.) Where did you get it? Amazon? 

Lol...my girl cat can also open my bathroom door and I don’t find it amusing when I have company. I don’t always remember to lock the door. Of course then my company gets the treat of hearing her scream bloody murder. She knows where I am and what I’m doing...sigh. Boy cat is too lazy to bother. 

[AgentRXS]

I had that exact box for Diamond and Ella  and I opened it so much that I end up breaking the side handles. Diamond loves to throw half the litter outside of the box and that model was easy for her to do so.

I just got this model for them:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GIWVP3A/ref=twister_B001JAH3YQ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

So far no litter had been thrown out of the box. I am sure she is trying to figure out away to kick the litter out as I type.