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I've been looking into getting a cat for a while, had acquired all the necessary supplies, and then this morning I saw a 6mo old listed on the city shelter website, called them four hours ago, and... now I have a cat??  I've never owned a cat before, so I'm pretty terrified even though I did a lot of reading/research and feel like I ... probably know how to take care of a cat? She's six months old, according to the shelter, and is extremely friendly and fearless. It took her about one minute after leaving her carrier to decide that she wanted me to scratch her belly. She's already eaten some and had some water, so she seems to be settling in well, but I'm terrified that she'll decide she doesn't like the litter box or something like that. She really wants to be in whatever room I'm in, so my plan is to let her range freely during the day and maybe keep her in the bathroom with the litter box / water at night until I'm sure that she knows where it is and isn't going to create giant messes while I'm sleeping? Earlier she was going nuts with a toy, threw it behind her in her excitement, and then couldn't figure out where it went. 
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Jun 24, 2020 01:06
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| # ¿ May 8, 2024 21:06 |
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That's good to know! I definitely feel pretty neurotic because I've never had a pet before and so don't have much frame of reference for anything other than information I've read on the internet. The employees at the shelter said she had never had any issues, so it sounds like I should probably just chill a little bit and enjoy hanging out with her. EDIT: Litter box successfully used, so I guess now I can relax and enjoy having the actual best cat in the world. Jayne Doe fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Jun 24, 2020 |
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Jun 24, 2020 01:59
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Walked into the kitchen for a 1AM drink of water and discovered this malarky: Couldn't help but laugh, but also knock it off you dweeb, I'm tired of picking up all my magnets every morning  (I hope everything turns out okay with the kitten, ExtraQuiet)
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Jul 4, 2020 07:01
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I woke up to discover that my cat (kitten? ~7mo old teenager?) must have managed to get up onto a closet shelf that's above my head, as a 6'0" person, even though the tallest other surface in that room is below knee height. Many things had been knocked onto the floor, including a box of lightbulbs that shattered everywhere. Luckily she doesn't seem to have cut herself on any of the glass, but arghhh. I don't think I was really prepared for how impossible it would be to keep her from accidentally destroying things - she's a very well behaved cat in general and I spend probably a cumulative hour or so playing with her per day, but she has ... so much kitten energy. I've also had to make two rooms in my apartment off-limits. The bathroom because it has a drop ceiling that she figured out how to get into (shoddy construction means that there's a gap between the drop and actual ceilings by the window, which she of course immediately found and went through). My bedroom because, among other things, she kept jumping up onto hanging clothes and sinking her claws in and as much as I don't want to punish her for just being a cat, I also want to wear clothes without holes. I've been allowing her to come in with me sometimes if she's well-behaved and hangs out on the windowsill or bed or floor and she seems to have adjusted really well to the idea that most of the time those doors are just shut. No signs of unhappiness about it, at least. I've tried to make lots of things available to her - two horizontal scratchers, one vertical scratcher, a cat tree, lots of windowsills that are about shoulder height that she can jump onto and walk around on (I'm in a ground level apartment), toys for independent play, etc, and she really is a mostly well-behaved cat. I'm starting to worry that I'm just not well-suited to being a cat owner. It's embarrassingly hard for me to have everything be out of place all the time and to worry constantly about her causing damage. I feel committed to keeping her, but am definitely feeling like I somehow didn't manage to think this entire thing through even though I spent several years thinking about getting a cat before doing so. Anyway, that's my dumb venting about a cat doing cat stuff.
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Jul 15, 2020 17:34
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Thanks, dude. I probably just needed to complain a little bit. The scoundrel in action:  (She couldn't figure out how to get down and eventually just meowed until I stopped laughing and retrieved her) But how can I stay annoyed with a living creature that crawls into my lap and purrs and/or looks like this while she sleeps: 
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Jul 15, 2020 17:54
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HungryMedusa posted:I forgot how much I love cats and missed having them. This little guy is such a silly dork.  What a cutie.When I brought my cat home from the shelter, they told me that she'd been scratching her ears but had been checked for mites and fleas and had neither. Yeah... turns out that she did have fleas. And hopefully no longer does, after two baths with flea shampoo and a topical treatment, but oh my god I'm so annoyed that I kept telling myself "no, there's no way she has fleas, they checked for that!" when I suspected she did. Poor thing had to put up with being itchy for way longer than necessary because I was too much of a novice cat owner to recognize what was going on. (I swear to god I'm going to go insane if I see another flea after the second round of flea shampoo. I've already treated/cleaned everything fabric in my apartment but have been (hopefully psychosomatically) itchy and uncomfortable) Wet cats are hilarious and I have no idea how she still likes me. It only took about ten minutes of post-bath sulking before she was back to demanding to be pet.
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Jul 19, 2020 01:45
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I use a top entry box and clumping litter and get a very small amount of tracking. (As another data point)
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Jul 26, 2020 03:29
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Bioshuffle posted:Thanks! I'll look into ordering the honeycomb pattern litter mat and top entry litter box. I haven't had any problems! It might depend on how well your cat tends to bury their poop - maybe if they're not good at burying then things could be left in inconvenient places? In case it's at all helpful, this is the box that I've been using. In unrelated, more self-centered news: holy crap I really did not understand what a process it is to get rid of fleas. The topical preventative that I used turned out to be very ineffective (and based on reviews, it looks like that preventative is just ... ineffective, so I don't think it was an issue with getting enough on her skin vs on her fur) but I can't give her another until it's been 30 days because there's a toxicity risk. So I've been using a combination of capstar, a flea brush, frequent washing/vacuuming, and flea spray to try to combat them until I can give a more effective topical treatment. I bathed her twice, but I don't know if I have the emotional fortitude to keep doing that on a regular basis. I keep thinking that I've killed all the fleas and then, predictably, two or three days later some amount of eggs that I missed will hatch and there'll be tiny adult fleas in her fur again. Fewer and fewer fleas each time, so hopefully that's at least indicative that I'm making actual progress? But really discouraging and horrifying on a visceral "I'm living in an environment with fleas" level. Tl;dr: Hartz brand flea treatments suck.
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Jul 27, 2020 23:29
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Yeah, I made an incredibly dumb decision based on "what is available at the only pet store I can get to before everything closes for the night". (Which was severely limited by the fact that I don't drive, so I had to be able to get there via public transit within a <1 hour timeframe) Once it's safe to give it to her, I have Frontline that I've bought since. I feel extremely, extremely lucky that she didn't have an adverse reaction to the Hartz topical and learned my lesson about not reading online reviews before using a product. Maybe out of naivety, it had just never occurred to me that a pet store might sell something that could kill my cat. Jayne Doe fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jul 27, 2020 |
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Jul 27, 2020 23:49
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Dude. Thank you so, so much. I was just doing research about flea powder to figure out how to deal with my carpets more effectively so this was an extremely timely recommendation. I'm trying very hard to be level and calm rather than hysterical, but as someone with (diagnosed) OCD who already had a lot of obsessive anxiety about contamination, this whole thing has basically been one of my worst nightmares.
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Jul 28, 2020 06:30
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Buff Hardback posted:PT Alpine Flea & Bed Bug Pressurized Insecticide is also fantastic and pet safe once the vapors clear. It knocked down our flea problem while we were waiting for the topicals to take effect. DarkHorse posted:Kitten ownership going real well so far Her coloring/pattern is beautiful.
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Jul 28, 2020 20:02
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I think my cat may actually be too dumb for puzzle feeders. I tried putting her evening meal in an egg carton to make it a little more challenging to fish out and she's moved to nap on top of the fridge because there's clearly no accessible food after lying next to it and whining for a while.
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Aug 25, 2020 02:15
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DarkHorse posted:I just can't with this kitten I don't understand why cats sleep like this, but thank god cats sleep like this.
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Sep 2, 2020 02:52
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Every time.
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Sep 8, 2020 19:43
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While we're talking about food - I switched what I was feeding my cat about a week or so ago and I've noticed that she's more vocal/aggressive about asking for food than before. I'm mildly curious if that's because the new food is more calorie dense so she's getting less volume and feels hungrier (and is therefore something that should go away as she adjusts?) or if it's just way more delicious or something. Or cats, I guess.
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Sep 14, 2020 17:22
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I've always read that the way to respond to a cat playfully biting (like, light bites that would never break the skin and are meant to tell you that they want to play or want food or whatever) is to make some type of "ow, that hurt!" noise and then ignore them. I've tried several different types of noises - ranging from "ow!" to hissing - and always follow up by ignoring her, but my cat is ... very persistent in using this as a way to protest that it doesn't matter if it's not food time yet. Is there something else that I should be doing, or is she just an extra big jerk about wanting to be fed?
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Sep 21, 2020 00:46
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kw0134 posted:She's a jerk. If you cat is being fed then you're reinforcing it. If she's still doing it despite you ignoring her and not being fed, then she's not learning because...cat. One of my boys will want to play with the other cats but this devolves into biting that makes the others hit him and stop playing. To date after nearly two years he still doesn't get it and is all confused when they hiss at him. Cats gonna cat, I guess.
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Sep 21, 2020 01:55
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The cat I adopted from a shelter in July came with fleas. I got it under control using a combination of:
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Nov 13, 2020 19:28
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I keep my bag of cat food inside a large airtight plastic bin - prevents any worry about it going stale and keeps my cat from getting into it. She's very curious and will chew open almost any plastic bag / etc of food that you leave out, so pretty much any food product I buy goes inside something airtight or a cabinet now. I even have to decant those cardboard tubes of oatmeal into other containers or she'll gnaw them open to eat raw oats. (God help me when/if she learns how to open cabinet doors) I say "curious" instead of "food-motivated" because I think her primary objective is more "what is this thing? Can I eat it?" than being hungry - when she's gotten things open in the past, she just eats little bits rather than trying to eat as much as she can.
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Dec 9, 2020 07:21
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Okay, so, I have a cat problem that I would appreciate any ideas about. I rent, so I'm very limited in terms of modifications I can make to my living space (i.e., nothing permanent whatsoever). My building is very old and my apartment is particularly weird and hacked together as far as apartments in this building go. My bathroom is the only room in my apartment with a drop ceiling. This drop ceiling has one large gap by the window - it doesn't come out to meet the window and just ends a good ten or so inches away from the window, leaving a large opening that a cat can very easily fit through (there's a very easy path up onto the windowsill, then from there into the drop ceiling). This would be bad enough on its own, but I discovered when getting her out of the drop ceiling that there's a large hole in one of the walls that's hidden by the drop ceiling and leads into some abyss that I don't think she'd be able to get out of on her own. Okay, whatever, so my solution was to keep my bathroom door shut at all times to prevent my cat getting trapped in the walls. The door does not lock and is very poorly hung / old so she eventually discovered that if she pushed hard enough on the door, it would spring open. So now she can get into the bathroom whenever she wants and is doing so increasingly frequently. Right now she seems to do it solely as an attention-getting method, because she knows I'll drop everything and come running to get her out, but I'm worried that eventually she'll do it when I'm not around and/or in the middle of a meeting that I can't interrupt and will actually end up inside the wall. I did try building a cardboard wall across the gap, but she was able to pull one of the pieces off because I couldn't attach it that securely without making some sort of permanent modification (and am just overall not that skilled at that sort of thing). Is the only solution to just keep improving my wall building skills until I make something that's impervious to cats? Or is there some easy non-destructive way to improve the door's latching? The other interior door in my apartment doesn't seem to have this problem.
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Dec 14, 2020 18:43
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kw0134 posted:Alternately yell at your landlord fix the giant hole in your bathroom. Thanks for the ideas re: child latch and wedging something under the door. I'm a little embarrassed that I hadn't thought to try wedging something!
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Dec 15, 2020 02:48
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Buff Hardback posted:Other option: I guarantee you they're never going to lift a drop ceiling when doing a move out inspection, just get a plywood board and some screws and just patch the hole if it's small enough.
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Dec 15, 2020 18:29
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Hello Sailor posted:What I'm hearing is that the current owners have no way to prove it was you that installed a hot tub in every room of your apartment. Go hog wild Katya and Kimchi are SO CUTE together.
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Dec 16, 2020 21:48
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I recently moved into a new apartment and discovered that the city is ripping up and redoing the surrounding streets. The notice on the building door said that the project is projected to last until mid-September and it's been, uh, very loud for a week or so now. My cat has mostly been rolling with the punches, but I can tell that she finds the loud noises really disturbing (and probably especially so since she's in a new place, although she's generally pretty confident and didn't seem that scared of the new apartment). Does anyone have recommendations about how to make this situation as minimally stressful for her as I can, given that I can't reduce the exterior noise or activity?
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Aug 19, 2021 22:39
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Thanks for the advice! She definitely takes off and hides under the bed when there's a particularly loud noise, but otherwise she seems to be mildly acclimating to it. I'll try setting up some hiding places in other rooms and see if she prefers being able to hide close to wherever I am. She's pretty easy-going in general, I just worry about taking that for granted and not noticing that she's getting too stressed until it boils over. So I appreciate the preventative advice!Khizan posted:I run a white noise machine at night playing thunderstorm noises, and I also give my cat a treat before I go to bed. My cat has taken this to mean that thunderstorm noises mean that it is time for a treat, so every time we get a storm she comes up to figure-eight around my ankles because she heard thunder and that means that it is time for treats.
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Aug 21, 2021 01:46
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For more anecdata, my cat was 6mo when adopted and she was immediately comfortable and interested in exploring my entire one bedroom apartment.
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Aug 21, 2021 23:59
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my cat is norris posted:Cats are very fond of the lanolin oils in wool. Some find it irresistible! I have a few sweaters I can't wear around Kirk or he goes nuts. Wool toys are a favorite, though...
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Sep 1, 2021 19:46
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It would just be mean to move the cat sleeping where my legs are supposed to go.
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Sep 7, 2021 03:34
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My cat recently discovered the shower and will now bolt across the apartment to jump in as soon as I finish showering. I can't figure out the appeal, because she doesn't lick or drink any of the water - she just sits down facing the faucet, stares for a while, then jumps out and complains loudly about me drying her off. (I would just leave her alone, but she was leaving damp spots on furniture/etc that aren't meant to get wet) Sigh.
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Nov 15, 2021 01:03
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Takes No Damage posted:Mine are equally enamored with falling water. My tuxedo will plow through shampoo bottles lined up on the counter like a bowling ball to jam her head under the faucet when I'm washing my hands, but they all but ignore the little fountain-style water bowl I got them
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Nov 16, 2021 00:58
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I got a cat bed for my desk because my cat kept trying to sleep with her head on my laptop and she turned out to be afraid of the texture of the cat bed, I guess?? She won't even sit on it for a high value treat - she'll gingerly put one paw on top of it and stretch out as much as she can to reach the treat. Cats.
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Jan 19, 2022 03:27
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My cat only wants to sleep where my feet should go and latches on with her claws if I extend my legs too close during Sleep Time. So I end up sleeping diagonally or in a tiny fetal ball. Before I actually start nodding off, i.e. while I'm just reading bullshit on the internet as a totally healthy wind-down activity, she insists on curling up against my side with her head and one paw stretched across my chest and will sit there and stare at me silently until I properly configure for her to lay down. She also has an entire routine for settling down that involves walking across my chest a couple times, turning in a circle while she's standing on my goddamn sternum, sitting down, getting up and doing some laps around my feet, etc, that's essentially identical every night. If I interrupt her, she demands to start over. What I'm saying is it's her bed and I'm being bossed around by a cat.
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Jan 25, 2022 05:54
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Takes No Damage posted:OOF Size: Medium. I'm a dude and my torty is only about 12 lbs, but if she takes one paw and puts all of her weight directly down onto one of my nipples it still hurts like hell
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Jan 25, 2022 16:43
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I was just woken up by my cat very enthusiastically licking my big toe. Not the worst way she could have woken me up, but weird to try to make sense of while your brain is mostly still offline.
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Mar 9, 2022 09:02
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I adopted my cat during Covid, so I wasn't doing any of my usual semi-regular travel for work. Now that travel is starting to pick up again, I'm curious about how to judge what's a reasonable vs. cruel amount of time to be away from my cat. I did a week long trip in the fall, with someone checking in on her daily to scoop her litterbox / try to play / check that the autofeeder wasn't malfunctioning, etc. She seemed to survive that, although was clearly unhappy when I got home and pretty clingy for the next week or so. This summer, I'm looking at slightly longer trips - at least one two week trip, maybe a three week trip. Is that too long to leave her at home with someone checking in? Should I be looking at boarding her somewhere instead? I figured it would be least stressful for her to stay in her familiar territory, but 2-3 weeks feels like an awfully long time for her to spend mostly alone and I don't want to be unintentionally cruel or unfair to her.
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Mar 13, 2022 21:32
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Organza Quiz posted:Yeah definitely keep her in her territory but if you can get a sitter to stay with her that would be ideal. Elvis_Maximus posted:We have a lot better luck with having a cat sitter come over and check on them though. Boarding always seems really stressful for the cats
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Mar 14, 2022 20:34
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Elvis_Maximus posted:So you don't need someone there full time really (unless there's a medical problem that would require that of course), just someone swinging by to check in on the cat and give them a little attention seemed to be enough in our cases
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Mar 14, 2022 23:08
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My cat has two modes: stealth and elephant.explosivo posted:One of mine does a trill whenever she jumps up or down from something.
Jayne Doe fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Mar 27, 2022 |
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Mar 27, 2022 00:49
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I guess a fringe benefit of being a vegan is that my cat mostly ignores my food now that she's an adult, except sauerkraut which she desperately wants but may not have. It was a different story when she was a kitten. She once chewed open a cardboard container of quick oats to taste.
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Apr 2, 2022 05:49
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| # ¿ May 8, 2024 21:06 |
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I adopted my cat from the city's animal control shelter and they gave her to me with fleas. I'm still annoyed that the employee who went through all the paperwork with me even said "we've noticed that she scratches her ears a lot, but we checked and she doesn't have any parasites, ear infections, etc and we gave her all the usual treatments". The fleas were ... not subtle after a few days and not fun to deal with as a first-time cat owner.
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Apr 15, 2022 00:32
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