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Hey cat thread, I have a possibly a dumb question. I'm trying a adopt a pair of cats from a local organization that rescues and rehomes them. The way it works is that the cats are temporarily living at volunteers homes, so there's not like a single shelter where I could go and meet all the possible cats at once. Instead, I have to pick cats from a list and then schedule a visit with whoever is hosting that cat. So what I've done is select a bonded pair of cute cats and agreed to a visit for next week. They were probably semi-feral when they were rescued but according to the volunteer who has the cats currently they have gotten much tamer since. Ultimately, after the visitation the rescue organization will make the decision if they want to give the cats to me or not. But here's my question: during the visitation, is there anything that I should look for that would suggest that I shouldn't adopt these specific cats? Like, I'm expecting that the cats might not be super excited about meeting strangers, so they probably won't run into my lap and immediately fall in love with me. I'm thinking that unless they are like visibly afraid or straight up hostile in my presence I'll go on with the adoption but are there any other behaviours that would suggest that these are not the right cats for me?
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May 14, 2022 19:25
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Sydin posted:Yeah I should be clear that I just kinda assumed these are adult cats you're talking about since you never used the word "kitten" in the original post. If you're planning to adopt kittens or even youngish cats (1-2 years old) they will have WAY more energy now than they will in a couple years. If the cats are 3+ years old though then their personalities are for the most part pretty well developed. Yep, these are adult cats. The rescue organization is also supposed to do some kind of follow up checks after the adoption, so I'm assuming that rehoming is always a possibility but I'll ask to make sure. Thanks for the answers to you and everyone else.
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May 15, 2022 08:31
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So I ended up adopting the cats that I posted about earlier - two adult females, they were rescued as ferals but they've been living with humans for the past six months or so. They have been with me for a week now. They were very scared at first but they are getting more comfortable each day which is great. One of them is now brave enough to stay out of hiding, but the other cat still mostly hides when I'm around. It would be fine by me otherwise but she has started using one of the litter boxes as a hiding place and that can't be very healthy. Is there any way to discourage the cat from staying in the litter box without making her afraid to use the box for pooping? I moved a cat bed that I know she uses when I'm not around near the litter box and placed some treats in it to encourage her to stay there instead but it hasn't worked yet. Any other ideas? Oh and as far as I can tell the cat has been eating, pooping and peeing normally. I'm pretty sure that this isn't a health issue since I know that she stays in other places when I'm asleep or away. Obfuscation fucked around with this message at 09:52 on Jun 3, 2022 |
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Jun 3, 2022 09:43
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pidan posted:I'd let her stay in the litter box for now if she wants, I don't think there's any health problem that's likely to result from that, at least if she's the only cat using it. Moving is a very stressful time for cats, some hide under the sofa for weeks. As long as she's coming out to eat and she lets you clean the box without a fight, I wouldn't treat this situation any differently. Great, thanks, as a first time cat owner I've been kinda low-key anxious about a lot of things but everything has seemed to work out fine so far. I guess the litter box is the most secure thing for her in my bathroom and she likes hiding there since it's the one room my Roomba doesn't enter. Jackson Galaxy mentions the towel thing a lot so I've been trying to set those down into places where the cats sleep and then rotate them into other locations. edit: here's a fresh picture of the scared toilet cat. I think her eyes are very dark brown all around so in photos they just turn fully black. 
Obfuscation fucked around with this message at 11:30 on Jun 3, 2022 |
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Jun 3, 2022 11:09
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Crocobile posted:Maybe giving her a box or cave bed or somewhere else she cat hide in to feel secure? Jackson Galaxy’s show would also recommend high places (like a cat tree or shelves). Yeah I have like... all of that stuff, the cat is just too afraid of me to use any of it when I'm around. Last night when I went to bedroom she immediately left the litter box for the cat tree, and this morning when I woke up she hid in the kitchen corner long enough to get her meal and then went back to the litter box. I just don't want this to turn into a weird routine for her.
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Jun 4, 2022 06:58
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I just wanted to post an update about my cats, feel free to skip it My rescue cats have lived here for nearly five weeks now. They are still quite shy and don't really like to be touched but there have been lots of small victories along the way. Mona, the cat who I posted about earlier, who spent the first couple of weeks hiding in the bathroom litter box, nowadays lives in the cat hut under my desk. She's there for most of the day but she comes out to eat and play whenever she gets bored. She didn't like wand toys at first, but it turned out that she's a friggin killer when she gets excited. The other cat, Elizabeth, just lightly swats at the feather thing at the end of the wand with her paws and then gets scared when it lands next to her. Meanwhile, Mona really plunges at the toy, grabs it with her mouth and then runs back into her hut in a split second, and it's quite a sight to behold. I guess I now know who kept the ladies fed back when they were homeless. What's fantastic though is that while at times Mona feels almost anti-social, at meal times she turns into the most affectionate cat you've ever seen. While I prepare their food, she starts headbutting Elizabeth like it's a competitive sport, she purrs so loudly that I'm worried that the neighbours will complain, and she is just visibly so stoked that it's insane. Until this week, I hadn't been able to touch Mona at all. All this time she has had a visible tangle in her lower back fur, but I couldn't brush her without getting clawed. Yesterday I learned that if she's eating, she lets me touch her as long as I move veeery slowly. Today I managed to lightly brush her all over and noticed that the tangle had turned into a gnarly mat of fur and there was no way that I could brush through it. So, for dinner time I was prepared with scissors, and what do you know, I actually managed to cut out most of the mat without bothering her. I was worried that the matted fur would start hurting her and I would have to trap her in a carrier and take her to a vet or something, but I'll try get the rest at the breakfast tomorrow and that should be the end of that problem. She looks bit silly with the lighter spot in her back but I don't think she minds. Like I said, there's no actual point to this post, but I was just so relieved about solving that problem that I wanted to tell someone about it. Whenever I talk to normal people about my cats, they basically just ask "well, do they sleep in your lap already?" and I've found it really hard to explain that no, they don't, but they are still fantastic cats and I'm just so happy that every day they get a little bit more confident, more trusting and more brave. Every day they do something that they didn't dare to do yesterday, and every time I'm just so happy to see it. Obfuscation fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Jun 21, 2022 |
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Jun 21, 2022 21:12
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My tiny dumb cat is sick  She vomited a couple of times yesterday so I'm taking her to a vet in a couple of hours. The vet told me not to feed her before the visit so now the cat looks super hurt since the other cat got breakfast and she didn't. Also the cat still doesn't like to be touched so I have no idea how I'm going to get her into a carrier. I'm madly anxious about this and barely slept last night, so good times all around. Here's Elizabeth the cat trying to shame me into feeding her by looking as cute as possible. You probably can't tell from the picture but she is really small for an adult cat, just a little above 5 pounds.  e: trapping her was horrible, how is this cat ever going to trust me again 
Obfuscation fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Jul 11, 2022 |
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Jul 11, 2022 07:24
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dervinosdoom posted:Hopefully your tiny dumb cat is going to be ok! Thanks, she seems much better already. They gave her subcutaneous fluids, anti-nausea medication and some kind of appetite stimulant at the vet, and she has been eating every portion that I give her without puking so far. I'm just honestly worried that she will hate me for a long time because she was absolutely terrified when I had to force her into the cat carrier.
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Jul 11, 2022 16:41
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Thankfully my cat seems to have mostly gotten over any traumas from the trip to the vet, she doesn't seem to be afraid of me but she's still avoiding the cat tree where I caught her. Unrelatedly, I bought one of those Cat Dancer toys that people have posted about. I was wondering what the big deal was when I unpacked it and was just waving it around when both the cats came to see what was happening and when nuts over it. They both chased it until they were visibly exhausted, so yeah A+ would recommend. Since it's so fast and hard to catch, I guess it works like a red dot that they can actually touch.
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Jul 13, 2022 09:20
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My cats were used to free feeding before I adopted them but I’ve done strictly meal times for over a month now. Thing is, they have started running into the kitchen every time I go there, even if it’s several hours until the next meal time. Does this ever go away?dpkg chopra posted:Just want to say that I really love my stupid cats. 
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Jul 30, 2022 18:22
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One of my cats gets these rough-sounding coughing fits occasionally - not every day, but maybe once a week or so. She also snores quite often. This has happened since I adopted her and I think it got better after I got an air purifier to get rid of the dust from the litter. Where does this fall on the spectrum between "take her to vet immediately" and "normal cat things"? Also the same cat has some visible dandruff when I brush her, mostly on her lower back that she can't groom herself. Is there anything that I should do to treat it?
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Aug 6, 2022 18:48
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I'm second guessing myself again with cat health stuff and would like opinions from more experienced cat owners. I posted few weeks ago about my cat Mona, who had a cough. I ended up taking her to a vet last week for a checkup. The vet suspected that the coughing might be mild asthma, and gave the cat a subcutaneous steroid shot with instructions to come back later if the issue returns and gets worse. I think the steroids helped and I haven't noticed any coughing since the vet visit. Last few days, the cat has started sneezing though. It's a clearly different from the earlier coughing, and it sounds exactly like humans do when you have a cold. I think my other cat has also sneezed a couple of times, so I think this might be some kind of cat flu? She might have even brought it from the vet office, although there weren't any other cats there at the time. The cats have had the standard cat vaccinations, and except for the sneezing I haven't noticed any other symptoms - no visible mucus, they don't feel feverish, appetite and activity levels are normal. I'm assuming that unless the cats get worse or stop eating, it's fine not to take them to the vet, right? Here's a picture of Mona for no reason except that I think it's a fantastic picture and she's a gorgeous cat.  edit: I guess the tldr for my post is: is cat common cold a thing that exists, since googling is giving me just sites that only describe horrible virus diseases Obfuscation fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Aug 24, 2022 |
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Aug 24, 2022 18:24
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My cats blink at me but I'm not sure if it's slow enough to count, also they occasionally wink
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Aug 25, 2022 18:25
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redreader posted:About the cat cold: cats can get colds from people. It doesn't affect them as much but does make them sneeze, sometimes on you. Internet says it clears up in about 7-10 days. You don't need to do anything. Yeah, thanks, I guess I'm worrying bit too much about some of this stuff but it's hard when I don't know what's serious and what isn't. The cat seems to have mostly stopped sneezing during the last few days too.
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Aug 27, 2022 17:11
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My cat success of the week: Mona now comes over when I call her if I'm holding a brush. She's still not a big fan of getting petted but she loves being brushed, with kneading and purring and everything. Just few months ago she didn't allow me to touch her at all  Less fun was that yesterday was also the first time that I found a poop outside the litter box. In a small neat pile, like a perfect reproduction of the poop emoji right in the middle of the living room floor. I know that the normal advice is that it's a sign of health issues but both cats have been to a vet in the last few months so I'm choosing not to panic over this just yet, especially since I don't know which cat it was. Maybe it was just a sign that I need to clean my bathroom where one of the litter boxes is.
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Sep 3, 2022 12:17
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I was quite ready to go to sleep after a long day only to discover that a cat had peed in my bed. It really is an experience that makes me want to rethink this whole cat ownership thing.
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Sep 15, 2022 21:14
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One of my cats thinks that she is not allowed to be on my dinner table. I'm actually fine with it since it's next to a window with a nice view. Both of the cats like chilling on the table, but whenever Mona notices that I can see her sitting there she runs away. I guess it's a rule that she learned in her previous life, so any ideas how to convince her otherwise? I've tried giving her treats on the table and approaching slowly to greet her when she is there but it hasn't worked yet.
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Oct 12, 2022 13:02
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One of my cats has been driving me nuts today... she keeps meowing for attention but then when I try to start playing with her she just sits and stares at the toy without doing anything. As soon as I leave she starts meowing again. You gotta work with me a little here, cat, you can't just sit there and expect me to wave the wand for you all day.
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Jan 28, 2023 22:14
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My cat once woke me up by walking on the robot vacuum until it turned on 
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Mar 8, 2023 21:27
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Maybe the can was spoiled somehow? I’ve had it happen with pouched wet food once or twice, cats refused to touch food from one pouch but ate normally when I gave them the same stuff from another pouch.
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Mar 15, 2023 10:49
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My cat does not like it when I try to clip her nails but she loves our new game where I try to hold her in my lap and she escapes by wriggling vigorously. Any good ideas? I’ve tried towel but she escapes those too and I can’t get a second person to help since she is afraid of anyone who isn’t me.
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Aug 27, 2023 16:00
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Organza Quiz posted:Do you actually need to clip her nails? Are they causing her problems? Yeah it hurts when she walks on me and she does that a lot. I managed to clip most of one paw by being a bit more forceful and insistent. I guess the biggest problem is that I’m just not good at handling cats since these are the only cats I’ve ever had and they don’t like being handled.
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Aug 28, 2023 12:57
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I’ve been throwing kibble at my cat for like a year now and she has gotten really good at catching it mid-air. Often I think that she likes the catching part more than eating it, even.
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Feb 21, 2024 21:40
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You can just buy the cheapest Ikea air purifier too, it’s not much more than $50.
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Mar 8, 2024 10:49
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Am I overreacting when I'm worried about my cat even though she hasn't displayed any actual symptoms of something being wrong? She all of a sudden started meowing really loudly and continuously for almost an hour straight today, which is very uncharacteristic of her. I actually took her to a vet based on that, they did a quick check-up and found nothing wrong but wrote a recipe for a pain medication just in case. Dunno, besides eating and litter box usage, is there something else that I should be keeping an eye on? She seems to move normally and besides the meowing her behaviour seems fairly normal although maybe bit restless.
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May 8, 2024 17:57
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xzzy posted:Might be reacting to something (like new noise outside or other animals in the area) I actually did notice other day that there's a new cat in an apartment that is kinda opposite to mine so that they can see each other through the window. I don't know if that would be enough to set them off if they can't smell the other cat, they have already seen plenty of cats in the yard under my windows and that has never bothered them.
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May 8, 2024 18:36
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