I'm getting a cat, but that doesn't make me a cat person

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

[QUOTE=Finagle]
See, this is why cats are weird. Every cat I’ve ever gotten has immediately hidden for several days after I brought it home. The last cat hid for almost a week (then crept into bed at 4:30 one night and spent as much of the next six months as possible sleeping on top of me.)
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That’s crazy. I think Dewey thinks that if he lets me out of his sight for too long I’ll up and leave him at the shelter again. He goes off and explores, but then I hear a frantic “miaow!!” like he just realized I might vanish, and then he comes in and checks on me. I don’t know how he figured out that I’m the one to suck up to - my boyfriend and I went together to pick him out, Aaron knows more about cats than I do, he’s really only known us together… but he knows I signed the check and that it’s my house, somehow. He likes Aaron okay, but he tries to follow me into the bathroom and to work.

42

For me, teaching my cat to stay off counters and tables was easy: I simply covered the surface with a material that the cat doesn’t like to walk on. First I tried little rolled up pieces of masking tape attatched to posterboard - very effective, but a lot of work. So then I heard about covering the surface with aluminum foil. This was easy, and just as effective. I left the foil on the counters for a few weeks, and effectively cured my cat of any temptation to go up there. Now the foil is back in the cupboard where it belongs, and my cat is in my lap, where she belongs. :slight_smile:

43

Does the foil have to be scrunched up, or does the cat even mind walking on flat foil?

(Er, guess I’d have to clean the tables off first.)

I don’t want to train him off all tables - there’s a console behind the couch that he’s been loving to sit on and watch the neighbors through the window. Do cats understand classes of objects, or just that they’re not allowed on a specific surface?

44

Putting gravel on the soil around your plants discourages cats from being tempted to use them as litter boxes.

Keep the kitchen closed when you aren’t at home. You can also improvise noise-makers by rinsing out a few soda cans, adding a few rocks or pennies, and taping the opening closed. Place near the edge of whatever you don’t want kitty to jump on.

He should calm down and not be so noisy at night once he gets more accustomed to having a home. He may get less “needy”, but then again he may not. As I am typing this there is a Siamese sitting 6 inches from my face. Staring at me. And purring.

Always support his rear when you lift him so he doesn’t feel as if he’s falling.

Start handling his feet at every chance, right now. It will make it much easier to clip his nails. You can buy special clippers, but human ones work just as well on cats. If his nails are clear, you will be able to see to quick - avoid cutting into it. If his nails are dark, cut just the very tip of the nail.

Plastic grocery bags work great for scooping litter - scoop, tie, throw into trash. If you don’t go to the store often enough to have a steady supply, you can buy cheapo trash can bags (Ruffies - something like 30 for $1 at Dollar General).

Have you introduced him to the dog?

You got a handsome fella there. I hope you two are very happy together.

And no matter what you say, you are now officially “a cat person”. Heeheehee.

45

He’s a cutie. Cat’s aren’t stupid, he knew to pimp himself to you at the shelter. When I got mine, she was content to let me hold her and scritchel her, now that she’s home, however, she doesn’t really like to be held and scritcheled.

46

I can feel your cat’s mindpower, Zsofia, just looking at the pictures. He’s making me want a new kitten.

You don’t have a chance of avoiding getting more little fuzzballs :smiley:

My old boy (tuxedo cat, 16 years old) started meowing at the bottom of the stairwell about a year ago. So does the Siamese (who is talkative by nature). If I meow back to either one of them, s/he comes running, happy to have found the big hairless cat with opposable thumbs and a neverending supply of food.

47

For scooping the litter box, I can’t recommend these enough. They’re just great (if you don’t mind the baby powder smell.) Babies R Us sells boxes of 250 for $7 or so.

48

If anyone ever figures out how to go to the bathroom without the cats please let me know. I can’t stand those tiny paws reaching under the door and the pitiful mewing.

49

I’ve never had to pick out a cat. One picks me out or I don’t take any home. I’ve never left a shelter empty-handed.

I use plastic bags and a trash can with a lid. But unless you use the fancy odor-control cat sand (even if you do, really), I would suggest throwing it directly in the big ol’ trash thing that the trashman picks up.

(Awww! He looks just like mine!)

50

[QUOTE=kayT]
If anyone ever figures out how to go to the bathroom without the cats please let me know. I can’t stand those tiny paws reaching under the door and the pitiful mewing.
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Morning bathroom time, is Marty’s special time. He runs around between my feet and demands attention. He’ll even get on his back legs if I hold my hand up to get his chin scratched.

When he hears the paper roll going, he knows to wait by the door, because then we’re done.

I think they know you’re pretty much a captive audience at that point, and want in.

51

Any opinions on that supposedly flushable litter? (I can’t call my plumber in again, last time I did he had to dig up my whole yard and part of my neighbor’s to run new sewer line and he may no longer be speaking to me.)

Any idea why when I went home for lunch there was cat poo smeared on the wall behind the litter box, and cat poo on the edge of the litter box, but unless it’s buried no cat poo in the litter box? (He seems to aim better with pee.) It’s a standard sized litter box, does he need a bigger one? Practice?

I have not yet introduced him to the dog. The dog has smelled me since we got him, of course, and didn’t act very interested in any way about it, which is good. Tonight if we’re all calm I thought I might crate the cat, if I can, and bring the dog by on a leash.

52

[QUOTE=kayT]
If anyone ever figures out how to go to the bathroom without the cats please let me know. I can’t stand those tiny paws reaching under the door and the pitiful mewing.
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I kinda like it when two of our four cats keep trying to get under the door.

I end up playing with their paws when they do that. (As long as I haven’t got any pressing business on the throne, that is)

Plus, it reminds me of these.

53

Some cats will scratch the wall after using the box. Other cats just have bad aim. I highly recommend the high-sided litterboxes (I think PetsMart carries them). They’re not covered (which my cats won’t use) but the sides are high enough to prevent the “Wheeeee!! Let’s fling litter all over the floor!!” gritty feet blues.

54

Sigh. Third trip to PetSmart in three days. I can’t live with poopy walls.

55

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
Does the foil have to be scrunched up, or does the cat even mind walking on flat foil?

(Er, guess I’d have to clean the tables off first.)

I don’t want to train him off all tables - there’s a console behind the couch that he’s been loving to sit on and watch the neighbors through the window. Do cats understand classes of objects, or just that they’re not allowed on a specific surface?
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Try flat foil first, and if that doesn’t discourage him, scrunch it up a bit, so that it almost lays flat, but not quite. If this doesn’t work, there are other, more drastic methods you could pursue, such as covering the surface with baking trays full of water. Anything that lends itself to an unpleasant suprise when the cat jumps up onto it should work nicely, and I suspect that it’s to your advantage to have the deterrent not be visible from the floor, so that later, when you remove the foil (or whatever), the cat is never aware of it’s absence.

I’m pretty sure that he won’t avoid any surface that he doesn’t have bad experiences walking upon, so just put it where you don’t want him to go, and, being a cat, he’ll manage to go everywhere else without encouragement - including, perhaps, the ceiling, or - in the case of one cat I knew - inside the walls.

56

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
That’s crazy. I think Dewey thinks that if he lets me out of his sight for too long I’ll up and leave him at the shelter again. He goes off and explores, but then I hear a frantic “miaow!!” like he just realized I might vanish, and then he comes in and checks on me. I don’t know how he figured out that I’m the one to suck up to - my boyfriend and I went together to pick him out, Aaron knows more about cats than I do, he’s really only known us together… but he knows I signed the check and that it’s my house, somehow. He likes Aaron okay, but he tries to follow me into the bathroom and to work.
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If you haven’t figured it out yet…Dewey isn’t your cat, you’re his person. And you ARE a cat person now.

57

He doesn’t look like a tabby to me… he looks like a marble Bengal!

And I am sooo jealous! :eek:

Grats on your new overlord. :cool:

58

You took the words out of my mouth Anastasaeon. I have a friend with a beautiful rosette/marble male Bengal, they are a gorgeous cat with a lot of personality. Zsofia you have been chosen, it’s out of your control now. We got Kazzpurr at the shelter seven years ago, and he mocks my feeble attempts to control his actions. He stays off the kitchen counters and table, but he sleeps wherever he wants to, and if he isn’t on my pillow, he is with one kid or the other. He’s also a bed hog, and he snores. I am humbled that he loves us as deeply as he does, he’s an awesome cat.

Okay, here’s Kazz: http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/kaiwik/Kazzpurrunderthesalmonberrybush.jpg

59

[QUOTE=Vestra]
Lillies are incredibly toxic to cats. They don’t actually have to eat them. Just walking on a little pollen and then licking their paws will do it.

Here is some good basic everyday info on being owned by a cat, including a list of toxic plants. And no, I wouldn’t keep a toxic plant and hope a bitter apple spray will stop the cat from eating it.

Try this for some cat info of basic health care tip (pics of trimming claws!), safety issues, feeding tips, behavior info, etc. -

Congratulations!!
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I love this board. I’d been thinking of asking for advice on caring for cats. Since I’m buying a place and the job situation looks like I may stop moving every few months, I may finally get one. And yesterday there was a cute little grey stripped one (sorry, didn’t have my camera on me) in the middle of the road, but I couldn’t take him so I just got hold of him and put him a distance away from the road with my best wishes. The local shelter doesn’t take cats, but many people who have un-neutered cats in factories and farms give away the little ones.

So I come in, and ta-daaa, info for me!

Thank you, Vestra

60

Well, last night was a lot better. I tried some of the advice in Vestra’ link - played with him hard in the evening, kept him awake until we went to bed (WAKE UP, KITTY!), fed him some of that gross nasty canned food. He was quiet until 5, when I got the crying and the trying-to-get-on-the-bed. Now, eventually, let’s be honest, that cat is going to be on the bed eventually. I don’t want him to get rewarded for crying at me at 5 AM, though, so we’re keeping him off the bed partly to try to train him out of that. I deeply suspect that even as we speak, however, Aaron is probably undermining me. He doesn’t come over to see me, anymore, just to see the cat. He calls him Smushface. How’s he ever going to learn his name if everybody has a different one for him?

So, to train them to be less noisy, obviously you don’t reward them for it. So what do you do when you’re in the kitchen or the bathroom or somewhere else you’re not yet allowing the cat (particularly the kitchen, I’d better take my time catproofing it) and the cat is begging for you to come out - you can’t always wait for it to shut up, you have to leave the bathroom sometime!

Oh, and that gross canned food. I just feed my dog dry kibble, and the vet says that’s best. Do cats need more than just the kibble? (When I’m not, er, trying to get it to go to sleep.) Chicken Hearts and Liver Feast, indeed. At least it was verifiably chicken hearts and liver - I don’t know why that reassured me, but it did. How much should I be feeding him, anyway? I hear a lot of people talk about their fat cats, will he feed himself obese? Will he want table scraps? (It was kind of a shock - yesterday I sat there with an animal companion and ate french fries and I didn’t have to be on constant guard mode for fry theft. I guess Dewey just doesn’t like fries.) If I have, say, an actual chicken heart from a chicken, would that be a nice treat for him? Would raw be okay? My dog gets a fair amount of table scraps, but then he’s got a cast iron stomach and very rarely throws up.

Are cats food-motivated? Can they be trained with treats like a dog? I got some kitty treats, and he seems to like them but if he were the dog he’d come running when I shake the bag, which he doesn’t.