considering a cat

aw mooks, I'm so sorry. hang in there and get another kitty when you are ready. she/he will be different from lyle, but awesome in his/her own way and will love you very much.

That is very very true.

our newish dudes woke us up last night biting our feet. v cute but a little disturbing. also the friendly black one is besotted with my other half and is never happier than when he's 'grooming' her, licking her hair and holding her in position with his paws. the ginger one still hisses when we get within six inches of him, but it used to be a perimeter of a foot, so its improving. and he likes the taste of our feet.

i have thought about getting another cat so that my cat can have a friend to play with but then the thought of two cats in my studio apartment, and twice the food expenses, and the thought of two carrying cases when moving...and i get overwhelmed. I wish cats could do playdates.

she turns into a sharp, dangerous, panicked, indiscriminate WMD when she gets wet.

WCD

the weirdness of cats is weird. i have a cat named snow cat who was a tiny unweaned foundling at first, later a human-avoiding semi-feral backyard dweller for several years before i took her on. she's become an indoor cat under my care, but a very timid one. this worked okay in my old apt, where she had a lot of room to creep warily around, but since i've moved into my gf's house, she's basically confined herself to a single room. she likes me but won't let anyone else get close to her, basically spends her entire life in the bedroom, sleeping most of the time, interrupted by occasional bouts of dashing about and/or playing with stuff. gf has three other cats, but snow cat won't have anything to do with them, and they consequently regard her with suspicion. i worry that she is depressed, but she was hardly thriving as an outdoor cat.

^ cat therapy thread

sorry to hear mookie, as quincie said when the time is right, you will know and will find a new friend, or maybe a new friend will find you, lizzie is also sad too http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7184/6920969120_d6035027db.jpg

contenderizer - that sounds so sad! our orange cat is still crazy timid, though he's only lived with us a month or so. he keeps trying to connect - he climbs on our bed with us at night, and likes nothing better than lying on the floor with me as we yawn at each other (don't laugh i read about it on the internet), but if i get close enough to stroke him he hisses at me and looks enraged. it seems to be an instinctual thing, and we're not sure how to get around it, beyond just giving him space and getting him to slowly trust us. his brother is crazily affectionate, weirdly enough.

stevie, that cat hasn't lived with you that long. I can tell he'll come around; it just might take awhile.

contenderizer, how long have you lived in your gf's house? Cats really dislike change. It's super stressful for them and it takes them some time to feel comfortable. Not only did you move into a new apartment with another person, but there are three other cats there! The fact that Snow Cat comes out to play sometimes is a good sign.

I mean, it took a couple of years for our littlest cat to feel really comfortable with us, and she still hides under the bed when people come over* and if she's sitting on the floor and we walk by, she gets that hilarious, saucer-eyed panicked look and then bolts to one of her hiding places (we know where all of these are but she doesn't know we know).

*she'll start growling when someone walks up the stairs (she can tell when they are coming to our apartment) and as soon as the doorbell rings, she is gone.

I should say that this cat really likes ILX's own n/a.

She does not care for Jesse, however.

thanks carl agatha! we are in this for the long haul!!

that sounds so sad! our orange cat is still crazy timid, though he's only lived with us a month or so. he keeps trying to connect - he climbs on our bed with us at night, and likes nothing better than lying on the floor with me as we yawn at each other (don't laugh i read about it on the internet)

i understand completely. when i first got snow cat, it took me a week or two of lying on the ground, blinking and talking in a low soft voice to get her to come out from under the couch. she's much more comfortable now, but i worry that i'm not encouraging her to interact enough. i feed her in the bedroom, while the other cats eat in the kitchen. she seems content and is very affectionate w me (like to where it's a problem, cuz she always wants to sleep on me at night, so i wake up w cat face). bottom line: she is a v good cat. just wonder why she's so antisocial.

I'm beginning to understand why people throw cats out of windows. This boyfriend came with two cats, both of whom live in basically one room. They're remarkably well-behaved and neurosis-free, considering, but if the little one tries to sleep on my face one more time, I'm chucking her.

Noooo that just means she loves you.

I need her to love me from a little further away, because between her and the bf who talks in his sleep, I'm awake from about 5.30am onward.

Hold and cuddle her all the time. Then she'll never want to sleep on you.

^a total lie btw

my cat never tries to sleep on my face but she does like to spoon

who is so jaded as to reject neurosis-free kitty love

one of my cats sits on my face as I sleep and just purrs all night and it happens to be the fat one jesus

If she knows you don't like it, Laurel, she will only want to sleep on you more.

been kitty-less since january. but i dreamed about him last night

gonna have to explain to my new roommate why there's a milk-jug ring under the welcome mat

Maybe your cat was dreaming about you the same night.

You know, mookie, if the universe sends you a cat that you don't have/get to choose and think about too much, I bet you will love it--in a different way than Lyle, natch, but love all the same. I'm hoping for a kitty to come to you. Also if you see an open cardboard carrier behind a tree outside your front door, just ignore it. I'm sure it's nothing.

I would like a cat to find mookie, too.

my new roommates have a cat, he has really sleek fur and is a little plump, his name is 'catpig'

Do you like living with a catpig?

i would like to see what catpig looks like

oh man, my ex posted a buncha pictures of our cats on fbook today. So much love,so much longing.

I would just like to say TO NO ONE IN PARTICULAR that if you go to the Union Square PetCo and talk to Kitty Kind, you can foster cats of any age that you choose, and Kitty Kind will PAY FOR the cat's food and vet bills, and you'll be giving a cat a home without committing to owning it.

If that arrangement is attractive to anyone.

I think the minimum is 2 weeks but you could volunteer for longer?

my cat won't stop peeing next to the bathtub. i sprayed that stuff on it and wiped it up but it doesn't work. she did it once after i think there was too much litter in her box, then it became her special spot :(

Try putting another litter box there in the special spot for awhile.

I will try to get a picture of catpig soon!

carl agatha otm. redirect.

u better xp. i imagine him with not only sleek fur & chub, but a snout.

but it's right next to the bathtub! there is another spot she used to like in the corner but i just pushed the litter box back to cover it. this hasn't been a problem for a while now. she must be sad about something.

Is 'im taking my cat to the vet' a good excuse for taking off work? I can't decide if I should just say that or if I should make something up.

it's fine my coworker is constantly taking afternoons off to go to the vet, it seems

and people always take kids to the doctor during work hours

is there a thread to talk about cat care? is this the thread?

i have to administer this medicine orally and i've only done it twice and it's horrible. like, my cat and i both feel that i am torturing him, as i am forced to sit on him and pry his mouth open to try to get him to take this medicine. gah. not a fun way to start and end the day! i don't even know if this med is 100% necessary, since the issue i initially took him to the vet for seems to have subsided, but they gave it to me for a reason, right?

Is it liquid or a pill?

Here is my technique for administering medication to my eldest, who is a total sweetiehead lovercat UNTIL she suspects someone is about to make her do something she doesn't want to do at which point she turns into a hellbeast and tries to murder anyone within swiping rage:

I load up the syringe or pill gun (pill gun - http://www.amazon.com/Mikki-Pill-Gun/dp/B00076HUB4. No way I'm putting my fingers in her mouth under these circumstances) and wait until she's asleep somewhere. Then I causally walk up to her as though I'm just going to pet her. No "Hi kitty!" or anything because she'll sense any attempts at deception. Then I give her a good scratch just the way she likes it and GRAB HER AND STICK THE SYRINGE IN HER MOUTH AND SQUIRT THE MEDICINE DOWN HER THROAT before she knows what hit her.

I almost always request liquid meds because she can hork up a pill like no biological creature I've ever seen.

If I have to use pills, I have had some success crushing them up in wet food. She normally gets dry so the wet food is a treat and she'll eat most of it before she figures out what I've done.

As for whether you still have to give it to her, call the vet and ask.

it's liquid--how do you get her mouth open? i squeeze the sides of his mouth which does the trick of OPENING the mouth, but he shakes his head around like crazy at this point that it's so hard to aim correctly. this stupid cheap syringe doesn't seem to be well aligned and i can't get it all in at once. i have to push the plunger multiple times. well, only 6 more days. he doesn't try to murder me and instead acts traumatized during and after.

That's how I get her mouth open. I stand along her side and grab her under my right arm, like a football, then reach up with my right hand, squeeze her mouth open, and assault her with the syringe in my left hand. Grabbing her with my arm pins her down and keeps her from moving too much until I'm finished.

My cat is an elderly cat and so far she's been really healthy. She ate a rubber band once in 2003 and she had a bladder stone three years ago, but aside from that, no problems. I'm dreading the increase in veterinary interventions (she also redefines "vet aggressive," like she sounds and looks like that video of the screaming cat in a cage when she goes to the vet). If she ever needs thyroid medication or subcutaneous fluids, I'm fairly confident neither one of us will survive.

If you have access to another human, you can also wrap the cat up in a towel and then have the other person give her the medication. This has never worked for me (she always manages to get that deadly back claw out of the towel and do some serious damage) but I think that's what vets suggest.

haha i was in the waiting room at the vet and they had these "how to" videos showing. One was how to put an IV drip on your cat, and I thought the video was going to show you how to properly restrain and subdue your cat, but no, they just demonstrated it on the calmest cat in the world! Most unrealistic video ever. God forbid I ever have to administer an IV drip to my kitty.