poplove wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 1:49 pm
We had a black cat, Bagheera, who loved olive juice. If I was eating black or green olives he would come over and get his nose right next to them and sniff. He wouldn't eat the olives, he just licked the juice. He could also find catnip no matter how old it was or where it was stashed. He became an indoor cat after he got two abscesses in one month and cost me $1200 in vet bills. The vet called him a repeat offender when I brought him in to treat the second abscess, just three weeks after the first one. He had to have stitches and wore the cone of shame for a while. But he transitioned nicely into an indoor life and lived until he was almost 17. We had to say goodbye when he got accelerated renal failure.
poplove wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 1:49 pm
We had a black cat, Bagheera, who loved olive juice. If I was eating black or green olives he would come over and get his nose right next to them and sniff. He wouldn't eat the olives, he just licked the juice. He could also find catnip no matter how old it was or where it was stashed. He became an indoor cat after he got two abscesses in one month and cost me $1200 in vet bills. The vet called him a repeat offender when I brought him in to treat the second abscess, just three weeks after the first one. He had to have stitches and wore the cone of shame for a while. But he transitioned nicely into an indoor life and lived until he was almost 17. We had to say goodbye when he got accelerated renal failure.
Of Jungle Book fame?
Yes. That was his name when we adopted him from another family who decided they didn't want him anymore because they wanted to get a dog. He was about a year old. We also called him Baggy, Gheera, and Lumpy Shadow.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 2:34 pm
by LM K
At 1:00 am, my mister discovered that Kyo* the kitteh escaped the house. She's an indoor only kitteh. We freaked out.
Kyo doesn't come when you call her. We've tried training her so she comes to us if there's an emergency ... like escaping the house. We're going to try training her again. My mister took her favorite rattle toy and rattled it to get her to come home. It worked. She got home before he did!
Kyo scared herself. Which is good. She thought she was in trouble when she returned, but she wasn't. Kyo is a Siamese. She NEVER shuts up. But she was silent for an hour after coming home.
Kyo was a feral cat when she was rescued. We're amazed that she's so content as an indoor only kitteh. The only reason she escaped is because she knew going outside is forbidden.
*Kyo is pronounced Key-o. It's Japanese.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 7:06 pm
by RVInit
I'm glad Kyo is back home safe!
Speaking of weird kitteh food, Poohie loved saltine crackers. If I had a saltine she would try to pull my hand down so she could lick all the salt off of it. And then she would continue licking the cracker itself, took her forever to eat one.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Mon May 10, 2021 8:33 pm
by SuzieC
LM K wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 2:34 pm
At 1:00 am, my mister discovered that Kyo* the kitteh escaped the house. She's an indoor only kitteh. We freaked out.
Kyo doesn't come when you call her. We've tried training her so she comes to us if there's an emergency ... like escaping the house. We're going to try training her again. My mister took her favorite rattle toy and rattled it to get her to come home. It worked. She got home before he did!
Kyo scared herself. Which is good. She thought she was in trouble when she returned, but she wasn't. Kyo is a Siamese. She NEVER shuts up. But she was silent for an hour after coming home.
Kyo was a feral cat when she was rescued. We're amazed that she's so content as an indoor only kitteh. The only reason she escaped is because she knew going outside is forbidden.
Chicago deploys an army of 1,000 feral cats to combat city’s rat problem
According to Tree House Humane Society, the feral felines are part of a “Cats at Work” program that places neutered cats, that “wouldn’t thrive in a home or shelter environment,” in two and three cat teams which “provide environmentally friendly rodent control.”
The working cats are then cared for by property and business owners who feed and look after the cats’ well-being in exchange for the feline rodent patrols, says the Tree House Humane Society website.
“Cats generally do not eat a lot of rats, although the cats will kill some rats in the beginning when they arrive in a new location,” WGN 9 reported, but the cats — who began prowling Chicago’s streets in 2012 — put in less work once they’re adjusted to their new territory.
The Tree House Human Society’s Sarah Liss told WGN 9 that rats are deterred by the cat’s pheromones. “That’s enough to keep the rats away,” said Liss.
“Our clients report an immediate impact on the rodent population and a near end to their rodent problem within a few weeks of welcoming their cats,” the humane society said of the “Cats at Work” program. “In addition to the rodent control benefits, what we love to hear most are the stories of the wonderful relationship that people form with these amazing, resilient cats.”
My calico kitty Siri is a predator and queen of all she surveys inside and outside the home. I haven't asked her if she is a god. I learned that lesson from Ghostbusters.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 8:18 am
by Foggy
We have no rats. Our poor, poor little kittehs are reduced to hunting lizards.
Great lizard hunters, though.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 8:55 am
by northland10
When I was growing up, our calico was the general finder, though outside since we were lacking mice indoors (or at least they stayed hidden because of two cats). I am not sure I can really call her a hunter because there were many times she did not kill things but just brought them to the house to present to us. We were moving a cabinet to the garage so had the screen door open and she decided to bring her latest catch, a grackle. She walked into the house and let it go. Suddenly we had an angry grackle flying around the kitchen.
We once spotted both cats working together on the bird hunt.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Sun May 16, 2021 6:54 am
by RTH10260
Re: Cats!
Posted: Sun May 16, 2021 7:32 am
by Maybenaut
northland10 wrote: ↑Fri May 14, 2021 8:55 am
When I was growing up, our calico was the general finder, though outside since we were lacking mice indoors (or at least they stayed hidden because of two cats). I am not sure I can really call her a hunter because there were many times she did not kill things but just brought them to the house to present to us. We were moving a cabinet to the garage so had the screen door open and she decided to bring her latest catch, a grackle. She walked into the house and let it go. Suddenly we had an angry grackle flying around the kitchen.
We once spotted both cats working together on the bird hunt.
I saw a documentary about cats in which they said that although hunting is instinctive, cats have to be taught to kill. The mother cat will show them how. And that’s why many domestic cats will bring home a live prize.
We had two cats, both of which were feral when we got them. The older was about six months old; we got the younger a year later and he was less than 8 weeks. Later, the younger caught a mouse in our yard and was toying with it for a while. She watched him for about five minutes, then showed him how it was done. It was pretty interesting.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Sun May 16, 2021 11:03 pm
by Phoenix520
We live in a kind of canyon with a lot of wild critters. We had a mouse problem last year that we thought we’d fixed but…
Friday night the kiddos had a party. The dog and both cats stared at the bottom of the refrigerator for about an hour. Throughout the night I found 5 dead baby mice and one headless adult strewn about the place.
Which is upsetting but not as bad as having mice.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Mon May 17, 2021 4:08 pm
by RVInit
Many songbirds are killed by housecats. I also had a housecat that I got as a kitten that had never been taught by it's mother to kill, in fact it had never been outside before I got it. She got outside once and within minutes had killed a baby rabbit. She killed it by the same method a bobcat kills rabbits, she bit it in the neck and it died right in front of me struggling to breathe. It was horrible. I'm a little doubtful that cats don't have the instinct to kill. Unfortunately, sometimes bad information gets out into a book and other authors or journalists all use that same source as their information, repeating the same thing they read elsewhere. I do believe mother cats teach their young which animals to hunt, but how to kill seems to be something many housecats seem to know how to do. Which is good reason to keep them inside.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Mon May 17, 2021 5:11 pm
by realist
Does anyone here have experience with transporting cats across the country? Either by air or land? If so are there any companies you would recommend? There are so many out there.
I will also ask our vet, but thought I'd check if anyone here had prior experience, good or bad.
We brought mine here ourselves by air, but I have to drive back and don't really want to wrestle with two kitties for 3-4 days.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Mon May 17, 2021 5:28 pm
by Maybenaut
realist wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 5:11 pm
Does anyone here have experience with transporting cats across the country? Either by air or land? If so are there any companies you would recommend? There are so many out there.
I will also ask our vet, but thought I'd check if anyone here had prior experience, good or bad.
We brought mine here ourselves by air, but I have to drive back and don't really want to wrestle with two kitties for 3-4 days.
Didn’t tes deal w/this when she moved to Asia and back? She might have some info for you.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Mon May 17, 2021 5:58 pm
by sugar magnolia
realist wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 5:11 pm
Does anyone here have experience with transporting cats across the country? Either by air or land? If so are there any companies you would recommend? There are so many out there.
I will also ask our vet, but thought I'd check if anyone here had prior experience, good or bad.
We brought mine here ourselves by air, but I have to drive back and don't really want to wrestle with two kitties for 3-4 days.
realist wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 5:11 pm
Does anyone here have experience with transporting cats across the country? Either by air or land? If so are there any companies you would recommend? There are so many out there.
I will also ask our vet, but thought I'd check if anyone here had prior experience, good or bad.
We brought mine here ourselves by air, but I have to drive back and don't really want to wrestle with two kitties for 3-4 days.
Didn’t tes deal w/this when she moved to Asia and back? She might have some info for you.
She did. And I planned to seek her knowledge as well.
realist wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 5:11 pm
Does anyone here have experience with transporting cats across the country? Either by air or land? If so are there any companies you would recommend? There are so many out there.
I will also ask our vet, but thought I'd check if anyone here had prior experience, good or bad.
We brought mine here ourselves by air, but I have to drive back and don't really want to wrestle with two kitties for 3-4 days.
realist wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 5:11 pm
Does anyone here have experience with transporting cats across the country? Either by air or land? If so are there any companies you would recommend? There are so many out there.
I will also ask our vet, but thought I'd check if anyone here had prior experience, good or bad.
We brought mine here ourselves by air, but I have to drive back and don't really want to wrestle with two kitties for 3-4 days.
Are you moving back to AZ for good?
NM. But yeah.
That's the best thing about the internet. You can live anywhere and still be part of the community.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Mon May 17, 2021 10:40 pm
by johnpcapitalist
realist wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 5:11 pmDoes anyone here have experience with transporting cats across the country?
I hear that FedEx and UPS are a better choice than the USPS, because all those stamps have a tendency to stick to their fur. With the other guys, it's just one shipping label.
Seriously, PM me if you don't find any useful information. My partner thinks she has a friend who is in the business of doing exactly that.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Wed May 19, 2021 8:55 am
by bill_g
Airlines do it counter to counter. The animal has to be in a carrier, and you or a representative have to be immediately present to accept the animal at the far end. They do not board animals.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Wed May 19, 2021 9:05 am
by Foggy
I forgot which airline, but they dumped our cats' carry boxes in the middle of the busiest area of the Atlanta airport when we flew them here. Huge crowds all around, and nobody bothered to tell us where they were. Anybody could have just picked up the boxes and we would never have seen them again. It's been 18+ years, but the people at the desk for that airline are still having trouble hearing after I expressed my displeasure.
Re: Cats!
Posted: Wed May 19, 2021 9:22 am
by bill_g
Airlines are by no means perfect, but I am amazed at the logistical Gordian knot they manage as well as they do.
