For Cat Lovers Only VI - Post Pics, Ask Questions, Comments, Etc.

[Sicy]

Kittens


Zoey actually sat still for a minute for a pic today!

And Saki was annoyed with me

 

[Liesje]

purrrrrty!

Today Beckham found his new sleeping spot - the cabinets above the fridge. (Yeah, I'm aware our "kitchen" has the most uninspiring decor)

The "If you had to spend all day with Marijke trying to play with your tail, you'd be hiding up here too" look

I've since dusted it off and put a towel up there for him. He's always been the good one as far as not going on the counters for food, so I don't care if he really wants to jump up there.

Posh's sleeping spot is always the same - laundry (clean OR dirty)

Marijke likes to sleep up on your shoulders or chest, but the back of the couch is the best alternative

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

I just want to throw a few Joey pictures in here, too, cause I took good ones tonight.

 

[bonosloveslave]

Kelly - pretty much all bags of kitten food will recommend feeding it until the cat is a year old. The main problem we see with that is they are almost always overweight at a year old if they are on kitten food for that long. We actually recommend transitioning to adult food around 6 months - they are still growing but their stomachs are big enough at that point that they don't really need the high calorie kitten food. Some cats are fussier than others so often it is just trial-and-error to figure out what they are willing to eat, but that is a good place to start with going to an adult formula within the same line.

 

[Liesje]

Marijke is about 6 mos and she's getting adult food now. Her kitten food ran out two days ago and she doesn't seem to care about the adult food, so I guess it's OK to switch.


That fish is really bright!


Here's my fish at work, not such a great pic but I can't get one up close

I suggested we get an office dog instead, but that didn't go over too well.

 

[Cleasai]

It turns out that Pita might actually just be a regular butthead!

So a while back you might remember that I had concerns about Pita possibly having an UTI. When then I realised how much water she's been drinking lately. So that got me thinking Diabities. Well I got the final bit of blood results. She's clean. She has nothing! Her Glucose was slightly elevated (but definately not Diabities). Her white blood cells were also slightly elevated (any higher and it could mean she has an infection of some sort). The only thing left to do would be the Urinanalysis. I would have gotten one done that same day but she freaked out and went in her cage as we drove to the vets.

We did find one thing wrong with Pita though! Her tail base section has been extremely sensitive lately. Turns out it might be because of an allergic reaction to fleas! The weird part is I've never even seen her scratch or have any fleas jump on me! Weird.


Now if only I can get her to stop peeing everywhere!

 

[indra]

Stoner kitty Rickenbacker Straticaticus late Saturday night.

 

[Sicy]

It turns out that Pita might actually just be a regular butthead!

So a while back you might remember that I had concerns about Pita possibly having an UTI. When then I realised how much water she's been drinking lately. So that got me thinking Diabities. Well I got the final bit of blood results. She's clean. She has nothing! Her Glucose was slightly elevated (but definately not Diabities). Her white blood cells were also slightly elevated (any higher and it could mean she has an infection of some sort). The only thing left to do would be the Urinanalysis. I would have gotten one done that same day but she freaked out and went in her cage as we drove to the vets.

We did find one thing wrong with Pita though! Her tail base section has been extremely sensitive lately. Turns out it might be because of an allergic reaction to fleas! The weird part is I've never even seen her scratch or have any fleas jump on me! Weird.


Now if only I can get her to stop peeing everywhere!

Great to know the bloodwork came back ok
She reallllly should have a urinalysis though. That's normally the first thing you want to rule out when they are peeing outside the litterbox. If she gets super freaked out going to the vets you could try to do a catch sample. It has to be brought into the vets though immediately. Saki will actually pee in the box with little or no litter in it so its pretty easy for me to get a sample.


P.S. Indra, Rickenbacker Straticaticus is so handsome!

 

[Lila64]

stoner kitty looks very

 

[Cleasai]

Great to know the bloodwork came back ok
She reallllly should have a urinalysis though. That's normally the first thing you want to rule out when they are peeing outside the litterbox. If she gets super freaked out going to the vets you could try to do a catch sample. It has to be brought into the vets though immediately. Saki will actually pee in the box with little or no litter in it so its pretty easy for me to get a sample.


P.S. Indra, Rickenbacker Straticaticus is so handsome!

On Monday morning I'm gonna try to get her to drink a lot of water then snatch her off. Hopefully she can hold it in this time.

 

[waynetravis]

Stoner kitty Rickenbacker Straticaticus late Saturday night.

you called your cat Rickenbacker??


thats awesome

 

[kellyahern]

Kelly - pretty much all bags of kitten food will recommend feeding it until the cat is a year old. The main problem we see with that is they are almost always overweight at a year old if they are on kitten food for that long. We actually recommend transitioning to adult food around 6 months - they are still growing but their stomachs are big enough at that point that they don't really need the high calorie kitten food. Some cats are fussier than others so often it is just trial-and-error to figure out what they are willing to eat, but that is a good place to start with going to an adult formula within the same line.

Thanks, I'll pass that on to my sister .

 

[Liesje]

OK so help me out here. Why are the UK and US almost opposite when it comes to the indoor/outdoor debate? Here, you cannot adopt a cat if you have outdoor cats or would let the cat outdoors. In this city, roaming cats are a violation of leash laws and the owners are fined. I've heard that in the UK, you have to have a yard for the cat so it can go outside or you can't adopt one.

What's up with this? Who is right?

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

Trev, I'll keep you in my thoughts tomorrow for Pita's visit. Glad everything else came back ok, though!

 

[cruzila]

Erskine:

 

[Lila64]

Bissel Kitty Half Time Show (Animal Planet)

http://animal.discovery.com/beyond/?dcitc=w13-501-ah-0000&bclid=36994943

 

[BonosLil'Pal94]

 

[mandy1973]

OK so help me out here. Why are the UK and US almost opposite when it comes to the indoor/outdoor debate? Here, you cannot adopt a cat if you have outdoor cats or would let the cat outdoors. In this city, roaming cats are a violation of leash laws and the owners are fined. I've heard that in the UK, you have to have a yard for the cat so it can go outside or you can't adopt one.

What's up with this? Who is right?

Don't know about the US/UK thing - but here in Australia, at least where i live there are no rules about cats not being allowed outside - every now and then the local council brings it up, but the debate only ever lasts about 5 minutes and is forgotten again.
As for my 2 - they would go INSANE (Columbus in particular) if he had to stay in all day - he's gone outside since he was only a couple of months old. I hope they don't bring in laws saying you have to keep your cat in - i think that would be horrendously unfair to cats who have always spent time outside!
Personally, I think that well looked after cats don't stray anyhow - I know the furthest my 2 ever go is the house across the street, or next door, where there are cats too - they have no reason to stray any further than that, and 99% of the time they both just hang out in our front yard

 

[Galeongirl]

OK so help me out here. Why are the UK and US almost opposite when it comes to the indoor/outdoor debate? Here, you cannot adopt a cat if you have outdoor cats or would let the cat outdoors. In this city, roaming cats are a violation of leash laws and the owners are fined. I've heard that in the UK, you have to have a yard for the cat so it can go outside or you can't adopt one.

What's up with this? Who is right?

I'm not sure about the UK, but in Holland it's normal to let your cat outside, and I"m sure mine would turn crazy if she had to stay in all day!
she's a bit odd tho, in the morning, she usually goes outside to drink rain water, and then goes back in ... no matter how often I clean her water inside, she always prefers the rain water!

I loved your pic of Posh in the laundry basket btw... perfect fit!
Miep lately sleeps on the tablecloths draped over a bookcase, which she is doing right now...

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

Bissel Kitty Half Time Show (Animal Planet)

http://animal.discovery.com/beyond/?dcitc=w13-501-ah-0000&bclid=36994943

I loved that.

The Puppy Bowl was pretty cute, too.

 

[Liesje]

Don't know about the US/UK thing - but here in Australia, at least where i live there are no rules about cats not being allowed outside - every now and then the local council brings it up, but the debate only ever lasts about 5 minutes and is forgotten again.
As for my 2 - they would go INSANE (Columbus in particular) if he had to stay in all day - he's gone outside since he was only a couple of months old. I hope they don't bring in laws saying you have to keep your cat in - i think that would be horrendously unfair to cats who have always spent time outside!
Personally, I think that well looked after cats don't stray anyhow - I know the furthest my 2 ever go is the house across the street, or next door, where there are cats too - they have no reason to stray any further than that, and 99% of the time they both just hang out in our front yard

Yeah, I'm wondering what accounts for the huge differences in opinion? I'm not going to say either is right or wrong. It came up on another board where we were talking about cats. A girl from Germany said she's never taken her cats to the vet and doesn't think that is odd. Here, this would be considered neglect for several reasons: 1) an outdoor cat that is not harnessed or secured in an enclosure is a violation of leash laws, 2) in this area, rabies vaccinations are required, thus the cat HAS to see a vet minimum once every three years, 3) not seeking routine medical care and prevention can be considered misdemeanor or felony animal cruelty depending on where you live and what kind of shape the animals are in.

I'm just wondering if there are compelling reasons why a cat needs to be outdoors. We've had 7 cats in the past two years, three of which were feral outdoor cats before we got them (Maximus, Keena, and Eden). None of them ever went crazy or acted out because they were confined. On the contrary, all three developed into very content lap cats. One of them (Eden) died because of infections and a fatal disease she contracted from being allowed outside. It's a disease with no good vaccination and is ultimately fatal. Another still likes to go out on occasion, but he is harness trained and supervised.

I think the problem is people never consider what is the right way to care for an indoor cat - they have to have scratching posts, perches, and toys so that they can act like cats while they're indoors. Just like dogs, they need exercise and stimulation from people playmates.

Personally, I can't find any concrete evidence, either in my experiences or scientifically, that proves that keeping cats indoors or training them to be indoor cats is mean/drives them crazy. Maybe others can add some insight?

 

[kellyahern]

I think some of it might be just the personality of the individual cat. I've only ever had indoor cats. We had one that always wanted to escape to go outside. We'd have to watch the door when going out to make sure he didn't sneak out (although the furthest he'd ever get was under a car in the carport).

Worf's never had any interest in even trying to get outside. You could leave the door wide open and all she would do is sniff at the air .

I know that there are 3 outside cats in our neighborhood that are pets (I'm not sure how feral they are, but I know that they "belong" to people and are fed kitty food). I guess there isn't a leash law for cats where we live (there is one for dogs though).

 

[indra]

Some more pics of a few of my cats.

Miss Myrrh. She's little but kinda chunky. And she doesn't put up with any shit from anyone!

Oscar on the left and Rickenbacker Straticaticus (Ricky) on the right. They look like best buddies.

Ricky and Alex (of the blocked urinary tract fame). Just like two peas in a pod. You can see the shaved part on Alex's leg where he had his IV. Alex also tends to like to stick his tongue out a bit.

 

[Lila64]

 

[indra]

I'll add my bit to the indoor/outdoor discussion.

I like my cats to be able to go outside, at least for a few hours most days. And for most of my life (until about 18 months ago), I lived in an area where they could do just that very comfortably and safely. It was a rural area and we lived well back (800-900 ft at least) from the lightly traveled gravel (and then tar & chip) back road. There weren't many people around and our dogs kept other dogs and other predators mostly off the property.

Not all my cats wanted to go back outside once they got in the house (all were strays and all but one were adults when I got them), and there were a couple I could never get to be comfortable inside. The ones outside had a barn they could go into or they could hang out on the porch (which was quite large and deep). I made them little houses on the porch which had nice fleece beds and I had a microwaveable heat disk I would warm for them every night for each cat.

Most of the cats would be in the house at night as I figured they would get into more trouble outside at night and then could go outside in the morning. Oscar loved to hang out in the fields and hunt all day. Alex liked to hunt too, but he wasn't as obsessed with it. Some of the older cats (like Max and Loki) loved to go out and sleep in the sun, or on very hot days, under the forsythia bushes. They were very happy, contented cats.

I moved to a urban area about 18 months ago and I can't let my cats out here (Max and Mitzi -- my two oldest -- on rare occasions when they are closely watched can wander around the back yard for a little while. They can't really move very fast, so they aren't going to dash off and we watch them the whole time). These cats grew up in the country -- they aren't wary enough to go out here. I doubt I'd let them out anyway as we are close to a pretty heavily traveled road and cars just move too fast on that street. Plus with more people about there is more chance that they could encounter people who aren't nice to cats, and I don't want that either.

It's been quite an adjustment for the cats that were used to going out every day though and I think many still pine for the outdoors. All of the cats (except Max who has hyperthyroid problems) who used to go outdoors, even just to sleep in the sun, have gained weight since we've moved. The house is pretty good sized and they are allowed free roam of it most of the time (and they tear aound like crazy cats in the middle of the night), but that can't compare to being able to run around in fields and woods and up big trees and such. The lack of exercise and eating from boredom is an issue.

If I was in an area where I could let the ones that want out safely, I certainly would. I think it can make for much happier cats, especially for the one which are used to that freedom.

 

[Sicy]

LOL I love this one


As for the indoor/outdoor debate. I am one that feels cats should be kept indoors. Especially if you get them as kittens or young kitties, they will never know the difference if you keep them inside and they can lead perfectly happy, healthy and SAFER lives inside. Once you let them out once or twice, they will always want to go out. My guys have no desire to go outside.

However, I do understand the other side of the fence, if you live in a big country or rural area and the cats are already used to going outside, it can be a big adjustment to start keeping them indoors. And I can see how they would love to run around in the fields and whatnot. I also live in the city though and would never ever let mine outside. I've seen too many of my feral cats dead in the street.

 

[vhroth]

I have a orange and white tabby female. Her name is Dewey.

 

[indra]

Cruzila -- I love that you have a cat named Erskine!

So many cute cats in here I just want to squeeze them all!

 

[vhroth]

Cool pics!