Two cats are actually easier to keep than one cat. Sure, there’s an extra cat’s worth of waste in the litter box, but if you have to clean one box, you might as well clean two.
Two cats will keep each other company, and they will tackle and wrestle each other at 2 AM. Otherwise, a single cat will do this to the humans in the household.
Yep. Out here in a college town in Washington, there’s a no-kill shelter and they’re always full. There’s simply not enough demand for pets to get animals out of here. But at every Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Spring break, they send a load of their best-behaved animals up to the shelters in student’s cars up to the shelter in Seattle, where the animals typically get adopted within a week. Works out for everyone.
I have a Ragdoll too (he’s a rescue) and he is wonderful with kids. He is very social and friendly. When my daughter picks him up, or tries to, since he weighs 16 lbs, he pulls his claws even further in so as not to hurt her. Ragdolls are wonderful pets, but uh…mine sheds like a mofo. I heard they don’t shed “much” – yeah.
Weird. My mom’s Maine Coon hardly sheds, and does so a lot less than her short-haired cat.
There’s another consideration with Maine Coons and little girls: they’re not lap cats. I’ve read books that confirm what we’ve seen with mom’s - most hate being held on a lap. I’m sure a little girl expects kitty to sit on her lap and purr, so MCs are probably not a good match for a kid that young.
I know you’ve all been waiting with baited breath (heh heh) on the outcome. Our daughter picked a kitten from the shelter.
http://a.imagehost.org/0138/IMG00006-20091003-1218.jpg
http://a.imagehost.org/0151/IMG00007-20091003-1219.jpg
His name is Sugar and he’s six months old. He’s already started wearing out his welcome :D. One the drive home he tried to kill us all by jumping onto the back of my seat and driving his claws into my jugular. Not sure if he realized by murdering the humans in the car he would die also. His 9-lives notwithstanding. Then at dinner he jumps from the floor to my lap to my plate before I could blink. Of course he doesn’t start eating my food, it was just a path he chose. The final indignity was waking at 2:00 am to a purring cat lying on my face.
I’m SOOO happy to own a cat. I think next week I’ll go buy a millstone.
Dude, you do not own a cat.
You serve a cat. The cat owns you (and, cleverly, manages to make you pay for the privilege of being owned :D).
Cute fellow!
For future reference, I strongly recommend using a carrier when transporting a cat by car. You’ve seen one very good example of why. Another one is when you stop for gas at 11 PM and wind up asking total strangers to help you find the cat that has just bolted. Found this out the hard way myself :smack: (I was able to retrieve the cat, a few hours later).
HAHAHAHAHA:D:D:D!
God, if the dementia doesn’t kill me, I’ll die from laughing at posts like this one!
Sugar looks like a younger version of our Bert, G0sp3l!
G0sp3l? (BTW, I just “got” your nick!).
Thank you for adopting and saving that little kitten’s life!
Quasi
Squee! Kitty!
You need a cat carrier for any time you need to transport him in the car. Your local Petco, Petsmart, or other pet supply store should have them. I’m surprised the shelter didn’t give you a cardboard carrier. As you’ve seen, it’s not safe to let a cat run around free inside your car while you’re driving. Make sure everybody understands that this is a rule.
Many cats associate being put in carriers with trips to the vet, and will run and hide when you bring the carrier out. The solution to this is to leave the carrier out. They might even go into it on their own (mine used to). Pick up the cat and carry it over to the carrier, don’t pick up the carrier and bring it to the cat. They don’t know what’s happening until you are actually putting them in the carrier, so there’s less of a chase and a struggle.
If you don’t want this behavior to continue, work on it now. It’s much easier to train a kitten into good habits than it is to let him get used to being able to do something when he’s small and cute, then trying to stop him from doing it when he grows up. Put him down on the floor when he gets up on the table- no petting him or feeding him on the table. You can make a hissing noise at him when you find him on the table- that’s what a mother cat would do if one of her kittens were misbehaving. My cats are trained to stay off the table when we are watching, and they’re pretty good about it (only rare transgressions). It can be done.
Oh, and don’t feed him first thing when you wake up in the morning, unless you think you’d like having a meowing alarm clock who does not understand the concept of “Saturday”. Go through some of your morning routine first (maybe take a shower), then feed the cat. That way, he doesn’t get the idea that if he wakes you up, you’ll feed him.
Now would also be a good time to get on the same page with everybody in the household, including your daughter, about what the cat will and won’t be allowed to do. Is he allowed on the dining room table? Allowed there only when you are not eating? Is he allowed to sleep in people’s beds? Allowed outside? Allowed in every room of the house, or not in certain rooms (laundry room, etc)? Training a cat is a lot harder if everybody’s not teaching him the same rules.
Speaking of laundry, don’t leave the washer and dryer open when you’re not using them. You don’t want him thinking that they are good places to hide. Cats like small, enclosed spaces. And, of course, whoever is doing laundry needs to check very carefully that the washer or dryer is cat-free before starting it. If he shows interest in them, scare him off. Banging on the washer or dryer would be a decent way to do that. Cats can die from being shut in a running washer or dryer.
Keep the toilet lids closed at all times when the toilet is not in use. A kitten can drown in a toilet, and do you really want him drinking out of them? Ewwww. Don’t use any of those kinds of toilet cleaners that you leave in the tank (2000 Flushes and similar), just in case someone leaves a toilet lid open (this will happen, sooner or later) and the cat manages to drink from a toilet or play in the water.
Be very careful with string, yarn, thread, tinsel, and other string-like objects small enough for a cat to swallow. If a cat swallows a string, it can actually saw through their intestines. This can result in a vet bill of several hundred dollars, a dead cat, or both. Never leave string-like objects unattended anywhere the cat can get them, and remember that cats can get into places where you think they can’t. String-like objects belong in a closed drawer or closet when you’re not using them.
Don’t leave drink glasses with liquid and/or ice in them unattended. My cats used to love to put their paws in glasses and fish ice cubes out (often knocking the glass over to accomplish this). It’s adorable, but it makes a mess. It’s especially bad when the drink is something like cherry soda, grape soda, or wine, and it gets spilled on a light-colored carpet.
Never leave a lit candle unattended, for reasons that should be obvious.
Awwwww!!! I wish the Neville kitties would do this.
If you don’t want him in your bed, though, there’s a simple and obvious solution- close the bedroom door.
You just wrote a lot of stuff I didn’t know, and I have owned and loved cats (and dogs and horses and mules, and goats, and rabbits and birds…etc.etc) all my life!
We may need to get you your own tv show: “THE CAT WHISPERER”.:)
J/K, but did you know that the only animal that the late Gunther Gebel-Williams said he couldn’t train, was the “housecat”?
True story. Got it from his auto-biography!
Thanks for the tips about the cat-carrier! He gets in my guitar case just fine, but let me bring the cat carrier in the same room as him, and he’s GONE!:eek:
Quasi
PS: I KNOW. Take him in the guitar case, right?
My daughter is also turning seven and also really wants a kitten of her own so I am anxiously reading this thread.
We already have a Maine Coon and a shelter adopted cat but I’m open to one more cat. We’re probably going to go with another Maine Coon because I love them so much and I want a kitty from my favorite breeder. We’ve been to cat shows where she’s shown and her kitties are always just the sweetest animals there.
I called the breeder the other day and she has kittens that will be about four months old in December just in time to adopt for my daughter’s birthday.
This is another good use for the carrier.
When it’s dinnertime, put his dinner in a dish, and place it inside the carrier. Then once he’s inside & eating, close the door. So he learns that dinnertime is when you humans eat at the table, and he gets his dinner in his carrier. Eventually, he’ll go there as he sees you set the table, and you won’t even have to shut the door on him (unless he eats faster than you do).
Oh and awwwwwwwww!!!
What a cutie pie.
This one’s not available.
Yeah they do, but so do all unwanted pets, and I just thank OG that there are people such as these (here on the Dope) willing to give them a home.
As I say on my blog: “We domesticated them!”
And that makes us responsible!!
Please, please, please: if you have room in your house. heart, and life. give them a home if you can?
And if you can’t, then just spare a few bucks for your local shelter.
God! The “Four-Footed Ones” have no VOICE!
Thanks!
Q
Ahaha, I wish my four footed one didn’t have a voice. Mew. Mew. Meow. Meow. MRRRROOOOOWOWWWERRRRRRR!!! (repeat x100) I know what you mean though and I agree 100%, I love hearing about adopted strays and shelter animals.
For the record the shelter did give us a carry case for the kitty. The lady that helped us said don’t open the case ON THE COMPOUND. I gave the ok to open the case in the car (What could go wrong?)
I was reading the documents to see what breed we had selected. It reads Domestic Short Hair, which I take as some euphemism for ‘back alley tryst’.
My daughter fell in love with this little firecracker. The hard part was leaving with just the one. The pod we were in had about 50 cats and 30 of them were meowing and reaching out as we passed. There was one huge (16 lbs) dust-mop that we liked but he was 13. He was friendly enough but a bit too ‘dignified’.
I’m sure I’ll have more episodes to relate over the next few weeks. Thanks for all of the advice, I’ll be sure to put it to use.
Just wanted to add, I couldn’t answer every post individually but I did read them. My daughters not allowed on message boards but she sends her thanks also. And the new lord of the manner.
A few more tips:
If you have trouble putting the cat in the carrier, set the carrier so the open side is facing up. That way, gravity is on your side when it comes to getting the cat in. A human or two plus one of the four fundamental forces of nature is almost a match for a vet-shy cat. And it’s easier to get gravity to help you put a cat in a carrier than it is to enlist, say, the strong nuclear force for this purpose.
Cats are crepuscular, which means they’re most active around sunrise and sunset (or sunrise and whenever lights-out is in your house). Take advantage of this. If you have to do something that the cat may be hard to catch for, or that the cat may object to (such as clipping its claws), try to schedule that activity for a time when your cat is less active, if possible. They’re much easier to catch then.
Flea collars are obsolete. There are new liquid anti-flea products that you put on the back of your cat’s neck about once a month that work much better. However, be sure to buy a good brand (Revolution and Advantage are good brands), and be sure to buy one that is specifically for cats. The ones made for dogs can harm your cat. If you have a strictly indoor cat, you may be able to get away without using flea-control products at all.
There are treats that can make giving pills to your cat much easier. The chicken-flavored ones are highly recommended by Luna the Treat Connoisseur. When I had to give her an antibiotic, I put the pills in these, and she begged for them.
Some cats get hairballs. The traditional remedy is a hairball gel. But there are also hairball remedy treats. Katya recommends these.
Have high places around the house where the cat is allowed to be. Cats like to be in high places that allow them to keep an eye on what’s going on around them. If the highest piece of furniture in a room is something (such as the dining room table) that you don’t want the cat on, consider buying a cat tree or tower (Petco and Petsmart have them) for that room, so the cat can be up high without being on the forbidden furniture.
A good location for a litter box is a low-traffic area of the house that is free (as much as possible) from sudden noises or other things that could scare a cat. Ideally, this area also has a hard-surface floor, no carpeting. Next to the washer and dryer isn’t a good place, since those are noisy. Next to the furnace probably isn’t optimal, either. Make sure the litter box isn’t somewhere where there will regularly be closed doors between the cat and the box. If cats don’t like the location of their litter box or are blocked from getting to it, they find their own solution.
Find a litter box and litter that your cat likes, and don’t vary them. Do not buy whatever litter is on sale this week. Stick to a brand your cat likes. Different cats like different things- some like covered litter boxes, some don’t. Scoop the litter box at least daily. There are various kinds of automatic litter boxes that can make this chore easier- I like this one and, to a lesser extent, this one. Remember, if they don’t like their litter box, they will find somewhere else to go.
Don’t vary your cat’s food. Find out what the shelter was feeding him, and start off feeding him that. If you want to switch him to a different food, start by mixing a little bit in with his familiar food, with a bit more and more of the food you want to feed him each day. Remember that your cat has the final veto on food, though. Cats, unlike dogs and children, will refuse to eat to the point of health problems if they don’t like their food. Changing a cat’s diet can also lead to vomiting and diarrhea, and they don’t head for the litter box like a human feeling vomiting or diarrhea coming on would head for the toilet.
Here’s a list of plants that are poisonous to cats. I wouldn’t have any of these indoors as houseplants or cut flowers. A lot of cats will nibble on houseplants, and mine have shown interest in flowers in vases.
Onions, garlic, and chocolate are toxic to cats. Feeding them anything too fatty can cause stomach upset or diarrhea. I avoid giving mine anything spicy, since spicy food can cause diarrhea in humans and I don’t want to deal with any more cat diarrhea than absolutely necessary.
A significant percentage of cats become lactose intolerant as they get older. If you want to give your cat milk, give him milk formulated for cats (Petco or Petsmart sell these). I wouldn’t give my cats significant amounts of any dairy product.
Cats have individual preferences for different types of toys. Get him a variety of toys at first, and once you figure out what kind of toys he likes, get that kind. I don’t buy any fragile plastic toys (the kind that would be damaged by stepping on them), because cat toys show up in unexpected places.
Your cat is delightful! Give him a hug from me. If you can catch him.
