Hello all,
I work at the Center for Lab Animal Science at UC Davis. One of the research projects in my area, a lidocaine study involving cats, is ending and so, after a very small amount of deliberation Mr. Armadillo and I now have ourselves a kitty!
So we brought him home and he proceeded to go into total sensory overload. This is a cat who has spent his entire one and a half years in a single room with four white walls, white vinyl flooring, a couple litter boxes, two crates, and seven other cats. And that’s it. He didn’t know what carpet was, or stuffed animals, or television, or mirrors, he stared at my posters for days, and was especially intrigued by the ceiling fan. He loves people and is a shameless attention whore, but it takes him a very long time to get used to new rooms in the house–he still can’t handle the living room. He has yet to discover the windows and thus the Whole Rest of the World.
Meanwhile, to get on with my question–he seems to be really weirded out by the central air conditioning. Whenever the fan kicks on, he hunkers down and growls loudly. This is your basic, normal a/c unit, nothing especially loud or different. My dad speculated that it’s the 60 cycle (?) electric noise, and that’s what bothers him.
Any other ideas? Any other advice? This is my first “real” pet other than snakes and rats since I moved out of my parents’ house, and it’s been maybe ten years since I lived with a cat. I’ve got him on Felidae cat food and World’s Best Cat Litter and he seems to be pretty happy with that. He was eating Science Diet Feline Adult, but I switched him over immediately upon getting him home. He sheds less and is putting on weight since getting off the SciDie.
Anyway, any other cat advice would be appreciated–if anyone else here has ever adopted a lab cat and has advice on how to acclimate him, I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks,
~Mixie
Is he an indoor cat, and you always plan to have him as an indoor cat? You might wanna get him declawed, then. We always declawed our indoor cats (just in the front, they tend to not use their back claws as much). You probably also want to get him nuetered, unless you plan on breeding of course. Other than that, cats are pretty much independant. If they want to be petted they’ll come find you, if they want to be left alone, you’ll know it.
Heh. Of course he’s an indoor cat–he doesn’t know how to deal with ordinary household objects that won’t cause him harm, how the hell would he function outdoors when he’s never even seen a dog, a street, or any of the other 32892398428935 things that could kill him? Besides, I can’t get him to voluntarily enter the kitchen or living room, I don’t think I could get him out the front door, even if I wanted to 
I will not declaw him, as I think it’s fairly rude and unnecessary to hack off half of each of his toes just to save my furniture, especially since he’s already a year and a half old. I clipped his claws fairly short, and he hasn’t offered to scratch anything yet except the post I bought for him. He’s also been neutered since he was six months old. Besides, why would I want to breed a lab cat?
Thanks,
~mixie
I remember from a psychology textbook (sorry, no specific cite) that if cats aren’t exposed to certain things at an early stage in their development, they are unlikely to figure them out. The example given was jumping up on ledges and tables. So your cat might have some limitations based on his early environment.
It sounds like he would like some cozy places to hide. Maybe one of those cat beds that’s like a little quilted igloo.
No suggestions on the A/C noise. Hopefully he will get used to it. If there’s a part of the house where it’s quieter, that might be a good place to put his bed.
Glad the food and litter is working out great! I’m sure he loves you and his new home.
He seems to have figured out jumping up on tables–evidently he’s a shameless beggar. Woe to anyone who happens to be eating a tuna sandwich. We’re working on the whole “jumping up on the table and attempting to eat food right off of someone’s fork on the way to their mouth” thing. There was a bench sort of thing in room with a couple shelves, so I figure that’s where he got the jumping experience. I’d love to read any articles like the one you mentioned, if anyone is familiar with the psychology text in question.
He won’t sleep in a bed, for some reason. He spent his first night here cuddled up against me under a down comforter, and hasn’t slept there since. If I put him in bed with us at night, he might hang out and be petted, or might not, but eventually he jumps down and parks himself under Mr. Armadillo’s desk chair, where he stays until I get up around six, then he comes out yowling and begging for pettin’s and lovin’s. Even during the day he won’t get up on the bed on his own and sleep on the bed, blankets, or pillows. The only way he will sleep in the bed is if I go to take a nap, and pick him up and put him there, and pet him until he falls asleep.
Maybe I should appreciate this? Heh.
Thanks,
~Mixie
Make him a little bed with a cardboard box. My cats LOVE cardboard boxes. Put some pillows and blankets in there, and voila!
Pictures coming soon, I hope!
As part of your diabolical scheme to become an evil overlord bent on world domination, of course! 
Unfortunately, even if he weren’t already neutered, he was booted out of the study early for having a different genotype than the rest of the cats and thereby screwing up the data. That’s my boy
~mixie
We adopted a kitten from the shelter who had some strange phobias, including carpet. He would not walk on carpet (difficult given our entire appartment was carpeted), probably because he’d always lived in a metal cage and hadn’t experienced it. We made him pathways out of magazines (which he would walk on), slowy moving them further apart until he would walk on the carpet.
He remains, 10 months later, terrified of certain electrical appliances, like heating pads. He would puff up and run every time our heat kicked on. (Like many Bay Area denizens, I don’t have AC, but I’m sure he’d be afraid of that too). I always attributed this to early-in-life sensory deprivation of some sort, and your cat seems to bear that out.
I may be biased, as we happen to be using the same litter and food (Felidae is fantastic), but it sounds like you’re doing great. What’s his name?
His name is Poe. I was originally debating between Poe and Pagan, as he’s an entirely black cat with yellow eyes–very witchy looking ;)–but Poe won out because I am a big nerd and it makes me chuckle.
That’s funny about the carpet. I noticed that Poe had this strange attraction to our shower the first couple days we were here, I found him hiding in there a couple times. I couldn’t figure it out, until I realized that the shower floor is very similar to the flooring in the vivarium room he was housed in, and maybe that was comforting to him since he wasn’t familiar with carpet. He doesn’t seem to be afraid of new things so much as cautious. He gets small and sort of… flows rather than walking. We called him SlinkyCat for the first couple days. He doesn’t puff and run and hide though, just slinks and looks and sniffs and maybe observes from afar.
I know cats can’t see a wide spectrum of color (blues and purples?) but he seems fascinated with my posters–mostly for bands and movies–I wonder why he’s interested in them?
Peace,
~mixie
By the way, for anyone considering getting a cat or anyone who has a cat and is using clay litter–World’s Best is fantastic stuff. It’s made of corn, so it’s non-toxic and won’t hurt your cat if it ingests it–the clumps break up fairly easily with moisture contact. It’s totally flushable and clumps beautifully, so I keep the litter box next to the toilet in the bathroom, and just scoop it out any time I’m in there and flush it all down the toilet, so he’s always got a clean litterbox. It doesn’t smell and there’s no sillica dust like with clay litters. Good stuff.
~Mixie
About the shower thing, it’s not that unique. I’ve known lots of cats which never saw a lab that enjoyed laying in the tub. One has to learn to look before turning on the shower in the morning, lest one get smacked by a wet kittie missile as it streaks out of the tub. :eek:
Two of my cats used to prefer to lap at the water in the drain, rather than drink from their bowls. Now, we have to leave a little bit of water in the bathroom sink for them.
some of the attraction (shower floors vice carpeting) might have to do with your cat’s internal thermometer.
our current 2 are opposites: one is a normal heat-seeking missile, liable to try burrowing under an afghan in the middle of summer because the air conditioning is on. the other, her (probable) sister, is a real hot-body. she may have given herself a mild case of heat stroke back when she was a kitten, due to overly-energetic toy chasing. she loves all cool surfaces–like the linoleum kitchen floor, plastic bags laying on said floor, plain cardboard boxes. she’ll usually only come on the bed at night in the middle of winter.
mixie, since your cat is used to having a crate (presumably as living space), why not get him one of the smaller travel crates as his own personal hideaway? (assuming you haven’t already.) if he can use that as his “safe” place, it may help reassure him in the times he’s overwhelmed by everything else. plus, it will always come in handy for the trips to the vet (with the added bonus that he’ll have good associations regarding it… at least in the beginning.)
He does have a crate, when we brought him home in it, we left it out in a corner of the room so he could hide in it if he wanted. He went in and out for about the first two days, and hasn’t touched it since.
Regarding good associations, I had to take him to see my dad due to an abscess on his tail which he presumably picked up at the lab, as the other cats in the room used to kind of slap him around and apparently one bit him on the tail. He was fine when I put him in the crate, and fine until we got into the car, but the minute I started the car he began this absolutely heart-breaking noise which I can only describe as a wail. When I brought him home from the lab, he didn’t make a sound the entire time, so it’s not as though he just hates cars or something. I hate to anthropomorphize, but all I could think was that he thought I was taking him back or something. The cry was nothing like the normal “pet me, love me” yowling that he does. He only stopped when I opened the top part of the crate and started petting him. Every time I took my hand out of the crate he’d start wailing again. I can’t think of a way to demonstrate that going somewhere does not necessarily equate to bad things, but we have to make a very long drive in a couple weeks, so my dad gave me some ace to mellow him out.
Okay, now I’m just rambling.
Peace,
~mixie
Cars make a lot of noise all over the range. It can send a cat into loopyville. They stink like nobody’s business, too (I’m sensitive to petroleum-derived odors). Then there’s the vibration and swaying.
Right, but the last time he was in a car, he didn’t make a sound the entire time. He just huddled against the back of the crate with his face pressed against the wall.
Maybe he’s just more outspoken now?
The AC thing may be related to minute air pressure changes he can feel when it comes on. I’d think that would feel really odd to him if he’s always lived in a large building where it wasn’t an issue.
Plus, you know his hearing is a lot more acute than yours, so maybe it’s just the overwhelming noise.