The cat appreciation thread

[Podaar]

Putting up the Christmas tree this morning and I'm missing Maggie pretty hard. You see, she loved the Christmas tree and for the past 18 years she's been my constant shadow as soon as I drug the box in from the garage. She would be underfoot the entire time I was setting it up and trimming the tree. From the day after Thanksgiving until we took the tree down after New Years, she could generally be found napping under the branches. I would come home from work and find ornaments in the middle of the living room floor, package ribbons shredded, and the lower branches chewed on. When it was finally all put away, she would bitch at me for it absence until mid-January.

[King Postwhore]

I'm dreading the day we have to put our 2 cats down Gregg.  Brother and sister.  15 years old.  Those little moments that they touch you, you'll never forget.

[The Walrus]

Aw man, Podaar

[Podaar]

Yeah, I know.

I got the tree put up and the lights all checked. I'm leaving the trimming to Mrs. P and middle-daughter. I just can't bare it this year. Thankfully, we're flying out to Palm Springs tomorrow morning so I can avoid thinking about it for a week. 

[millahh]

I hear ya, Podaar. It was the same with us and Watson this year.  J and I have never had a Christmas without him, and putting up the tree yesterday was very bittersweet (his urn is about eight feet away from the tree, on top of the shelf we were always yelling at him about getting on).  We still have the other two cats, but neither of them have the, uh, "Christmas spirit" that Watson did.

He's been gone three months, but I think the holidays are going to be tough.  Thanksgiving was weird, without him being underfoot and/or countersurfing throughout prep.  Nobody had to guard the turkey. We ate in piece without him demanding to be fed scraps from the table. He wasn't trying to pull the tinsel out of our hands, or nest in the ornament box.  He wasn't there to get pissed that we got an artificial tree (so, no tree basin to drink from).  We won't be there to jump/hide in wrapping paper, or to "help" me build a fire.  And in a couple of days, we'll have our first snow...his favorite thing in the world was to sit in a window and go nuts for the big, slowly falling flakes. I'm sure we'll cry.

I've seen it put that you can divide people into two categories..."order muppets" (e.g. kermit) and "chaos muppets" (e.g. Animal, Cookie Monster), and I think the same can be said of pets. Even approaching 15, he was a chaos muppet.  It;s too quiet, too predictable without that.  Even if the other two are quite happy with him gone, we may need to add a little chaos back into the mix soon...

[Harmony]

We are really missing our boy this holiday season as well.  It's weird how 7 months later, I find myself thinking I caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye or looking at his favorite spot and being sure he's there before I remember.   

[Nick]

Here's a photo dump that includes recent shots of our 4 cats, a foster we had for a few weeks, and one of the neighbor's cats.

[jingle.boy]

Here's a photo dump that includes recent shots of our 4 cats, a foster we had for a few weeks, and one of the neighbor's cats.

So your'e saying that *you're* the crazy cat-house/couple on the street?

[EPICVIEW]

great stuff   love to all animals

[cramx3]

Sorry for your feline friend losses this year Podaar, Millahh, and Harmony

Here's my Buddy this morning, frozen in this position which is weird because he never sits still for a picture but I found him frozen in this position and he stayed long enough for me to get my phone and take a picture... and then he moved. 

[Nick]

Here's a photo dump that includes recent shots of our 4 cats, a foster we had for a few weeks, and one of the neighbor's cats.

So your'e saying that *you're* the crazy cat-house/couple on the street?

Unapologetically yes.

[Harmony]

Beautiful big cats there boys.   

So we let our 12 year old adopted cat, Willow, open her Christmas present early this year.  She is obsessed with scratching her chin and gums on things.  So I was sure she'd love this:



She couldn't be less interested.  We even rubbed cat nip on the base.  Nope.  F-ing cats, man.   

Edit to add a photo of her so you can see why we forgive her flaws 

[cramx3]

Cats being cats 

[PetFish]

RIP L'il Bub:

https://www.instagram.com/iamlilbub/?utm_source=ig_embed

[Dream Team]

I'm dreading the day we have to put our 2 cats down Gregg.  Brother and sister.  15 years old.  Those little moments that they touch you, you'll never forget.

Our cat is 15 also and has been eating a lot but continuing to lose weight  . Afraid it could be expensive to treat.

[chknptpie]

I'm dreading the day we have to put our 2 cats down Gregg.  Brother and sister.  15 years old.  Those little moments that they touch you, you'll never forget.

Our cat is 15 also and has been eating a lot but continuing to lose weight  . Afraid it could be expensive to treat.

Had a cat like that and it was hyperthyroidism. 1 pill a day and they weren't that expensive.

[millahh]

I'm dreading the day we have to put our 2 cats down Gregg.  Brother and sister.  15 years old.  Those little moments that they touch you, you'll never forget.

Our cat is 15 also and has been eating a lot but continuing to lose weight  . Afraid it could be expensive to treat.

Had a cat like that and it was hyperthyroidism. 1 pill a day and they weren't that expensive.

Fingers crossed for this, Watson was 14, eating a lot and losing weight (from 12 lbs down to 8.5 lbs).  It...wasn't hyperthyroidism, I'll say that.

[EPICVIEW]

Here's a photo dump that includes recent shots of our 4 cats, a foster we had for a few weeks, and one of the neighbor's cats.

LOVE IT

[Harmony]

My new stinky boyz.  Meet brothers Jax and Finn.  They are 14 weeks old and we've had them for 2 weeks now.

I haven't had kittens in 18 years.  They are exhausting.  Good thing they are so cute!     And literally EVERYTHING is a toy.

[chknptpie]

I've built a cardboard box fort for one of our newer kitty cats. Just used boxes that we got delivered. Even using the paper packing material as toys. Also use toilet paper/paper towel rolls to make some toys. Shoe strings are also fun as well as balls of aluminum foil. There is literally no reason to actually pay for cat toys lol well unless you want the catnip, but even that you can grow.

[cramx3]

Cute orange kitties Harmony!

As for cat toys, I bought an automatic laser pointer.  Push a button and it spins shooting a red LED in random locations (all downward so towards the floor, but I have it high enough to spin around the room) and my cat has not gotten bored of it in a year now since I got it

[Podaar]

My new stinky boyz.  Meet brothers Jax and Finn.  They are 14 weeks old and we've had them for 2 weeks now.

Cute cats, and good names. I think I would have named the one on the left, Farkas. "I swear to god, he had yellow eyes."

[Harmony]

Yeah, we are getting a lot of "How can you tell them apart?"  And of course, for me it's easy because there are really a lot of differences but for people just meeting them it comes down to the eyes.  Finn has these gorgeous green eyes and Jax has more golden eyes but his pupils are larger and sometimes they look dark brown.

So I would love advice on helping our 13 year old female adjust to these bundles of energy.  Of course, they are curious with her and want to play.  She does a lot of hissing and growling and mostly stays upstairs in my kid's room.  We had a mini break through yesterday when she was on the couch on the lap of my kid with Jax a few feet away playing with a toy (ignoring her).  No hissing or growling at all!  But she was giving them the evil eye the whole time.

We try to feed them in the same room but apart which has only been moderately successful.  She'll only eat a few nibbles then she takes off.  Some of us think we should just let them work it out and not put off the inevitable by keeping them apart.  They don't have the run of the house at night, for example.  We keep them in a room together and she has access to the whole house.  I am 99% sure she'd not harm them seriously but she would likely take a few swats at them.

I had kinda hoped she'd take the youngsters under her wing and teach them a few things about adult-catting.  I'd at least like them to tolerate each other if not become pals.

[cramx3]

I was under the impression it's best to keep cats segregated completely for a bit while introducing new ones into a home.  Let them smell each other out before actually seeing and interacting with each other.  Having said that, I have no idea what works best.

[Harmony]

cram that is exactly what we did.  They were pretty much kept apart for a good week.  We'd bring down towels they'd slept on so the older cat could get their scent.

She really stood her ground with them last night around her food dish.  I kinda liked watching her let them know they'd better not be crossing that line.  They backed right off but then she retreated and before we could process what had just happened the little shits darlings had eaten all her food.   

[Chino]

Cats are freaking weird. Mine's got a house in my office with a bed inside, and a bed on top with a view, and the dude would rather lay on top of all my shit.

[dparrott]

My 2 year old cat weighs 10 pounds.
My 14 year old cat weighs 5 pounds.
Yea, we're weird.

[ReaperKK]

That's my cat, she always needs to lay right in front of my keyboard. She also hates the sound of laughter

[chknptpie]

One of my cats can not stand singing. Her ears pin back and then she gives you this hateful look lol

[T-ski]

Recommendations needed.

Our cat is about 15 and is getting worse and worse about cleaning his paws after using the litter box. Our new kitchen floor is printed almost every morning with tracks and the cat always has it caked in his hind paws because he steps in his fresh pee EVERY. DAMN. TIME.

We’ve tried the mats that are supposed to help clean their paws after using the litter box but it doesn’t help. We try to change the litter more often, it doesn’t help. The cat has zero interest in us cleaning his paws for him as evidence by all the scratches on our arms.

Any ideas?

[millahh]

Would a bigger litter box make him less likely to step in the fresh pee? Also, a non-clumping litter would be less likely to stick to his paws if/when they get wet.

[Harmony]

Yeah, I'd probably try some different kinds of litter.  But at age 15 I'm guessing he's pretty set in his ways. 

How are his nails?  Have they been trimmed lately?  That might be a reason why he isn't cleaning them.

Good luck!

[cramx3]

So I woke up to this gift today next to my office chair:



I didn't know I had a rodent problem, but glad my cat took care of it.

Also, my cat loves to eat the centipedes in my basement.  But I'm starting to wonder if there's a connection to my cat's eating habits and... Nightwish.  A few months ago while I was watching a Nightwish concert, I saw my cat dart across the floor and so I figured he was onto something so I turned the lights on and filmed this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BUN25AOr-Q then last weekend I put the same Nightwish blu-ray on (Vehicle of Spirit) and literally the exact same thing happened once I started watching    I recorded that too, but I don't plan on putting it on youtube.  He loves to eat the legs first and then once it's just a body, he eats it.

[jingle.boy]

Maybe it's the centipedes that have an issue with Nightwish?

[cramx3]

Maybe it's the centipedes that have an issue with Nightwish?

Floor's voice brings them out?