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piscesbobbie
Apr 5, 2012

Friend to all creatures great and small

Testekill posted:

I'm trying to figure out what breed my cat is. My sister thinks that he's an Egyptian Mau but I actually think he might be a Bahraini Dilmun.






He has the kinda webbing under his legs which is why she thinks that he's a Mau.

You can order a dna test kit!

http://www.amazon.com/DNA-My-Cat-Feline-Heritage/dp/B00HCH444C

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JohnnyCanuck
May 28, 2004

Strong And/Or Free

...please don't do this

Arriviste
Sep 10, 2010

Gather. Grok. Create.




Now pick up what you can
and run.

Knifegrab posted:

So soon I will finally be the owner of a kitten. And by sometime within a year. I work at a shelter and spend a lot of time with cats and dogs so I am very good at dealing with them on a superficial level. I will be getting a kitten as young as is healthy for the cat to be removed from its family, and hopefully raising it alongside a puppy of equal youth. (Before anyone says, get an adult cat, I work with shelters, and yes adult cats can be very sweet but I want a kitten for several reasons and am set on this).

I have a few concerns, one is scratching, how do I deter a cat from scratching things other than what I want them to scratch? I have a nice new couch and am really worried a new kitten will ruin it. Secondly, how do I litter train a kitten, I literally have no idea and haven't ever done it at the shelter. I am sure I can ask a lot of my co-workers/volunteers these questions, and I will, but I figured I'd ask here too to get a fair amount of varied advice.

As far as scratching on furniture goes, giving the kitten an acceptable alternative nearby (i.e. a scratching post or the like) worked for me in the past. I haven't had a couch since adopting him, but Luther ignores the bed or anything else a cat might be inclined to scratch in favor of his post in a corner near a strategic show-off-to-humans spot.

Litter training is easy. I bottle-raised Luther and as soon as he started tottering around on his own, I set him in his litterbox (first was a flat box that held small food cans from the pet supplies store with a good layer of wood or corn or wheat -type of litter. He went to the bathroom in it right away. Every cat, no matter the age at which I brought them in, always understood how to litterbox. Except Luther is broken and doesn't know that he can pee or poop outside when he's on the leash.

More broken cat: Covering messes is a strong instinct in cats, so much so that when Luther eats too fast and upchucks, he paws at the wood floor vainly for a few swipes then will find a toy-or-three to cover it if I don't intercede in time. Thanks, Buddy. :thumbsup:

Disco Salmon
Jun 19, 2004
Ok, so my cat is an idiot...(what else is new :( ) Well, all of them are, but Finn took the cake the other day.

Apparently, this adorable little dumbass thought that he was SuperCat and jumped up on the stove (where he is NOT supposed to be...the bloody idjit ) while I was making dinner the other night. He was not hurt, but his tail fur got slightly scorched and it stinks to high heaven.

Ugh its horrible....I trimmed it so the burnt pieces are off but he still reeks. I mean burnt cat hair...my god the smell (ugh)

So, any ideas on how to get my moron smelling nice again?

Organza Quiz
Nov 7, 2009


Arriviste posted:

More broken cat: Covering messes is a strong instinct in cats, so much so that when Luther eats too fast and upchucks, he paws at the wood floor vainly for a few swipes then will find a toy-or-three to cover it if I don't intercede in time. Thanks, Buddy. :thumbsup:

It always amazes me how some cats have such a strong burying instinct that they'll go and fetch things to cover up something they need to bury even if it's on a hard surface, whereas other cats (like mine) will just kind of paw at the ground outside a litterbox after crapping because that's what some instinct is telling them to do, then wander off leaving the crap totally unburied.

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

Sometimes the instincts are just plain broken. I had to switch to large wide pans before Cookie would bury his poops reliably. Before that, with a top entry box I'd look in while he was pooping and he'd just wave his paws in the air afterwards.

Gorgar
Dec 2, 2012

Organza Quiz posted:

It always amazes me how some cats have such a strong burying instinct that they'll go and fetch things to cover up something they need to bury even if it's on a hard surface, whereas other cats (like mine) will just kind of paw at the ground outside a litterbox after crapping because that's what some instinct is telling them to do, then wander off leaving the crap totally unburied.

I find weird things in the wet food bowl because one of mine is really intent on burying the food. Her brother is equally insistent about burying after using the litter box, but he's not good at it, so there's all this paint missing from the wall. Cats.

Dalael
Oct 14, 2014
Hello. Yep, I still think Atlantis is Bolivia, yep, I'm still a giant idiot, yep, I'm still a huge racist. Some things never change!

ilysespieces posted:

My fiancé and I adopted an 11 week old kitten almost a year ago (it'll be a year on the 6th) and she's home alone more days from 8 to 6. She seems to be alright with this arrangement, whoever gets home first gets screamed at for food (even if there's food still left in her dish) and assaulted for snuggles and cuddles, but she entertains herself well enough and we play with her at night/on the weekends.

Kittens can manage on their own for that long. We even occasionally leave her for a long weekend with an autofeeder (and a friend stopping in because I'm neurotic and worry about her all alone).

Plenty of people may not realize this, but cats are perfectly fine to be left alone. They actually seem to like it in plenty of case.

For example, I often have to put my cats in the bedroom for a few hours a day so that I can let my birds out. You'd think they hate being sequestered like this for hours at a time right? Well, now I can't open my bedroom door without one of my 2 cats running to get in. If I try to get him out, he'll try to sneak back in.

After a few hours of him being in, if I open the door to let him out, he looks at me with an annoyed look and I have to shoo him out of the bedroom most of the time. Cats are weird for this. They are social animals that enjoy their alone time. :shrug:

Blimpkin
Dec 28, 2003
Friend of mine has a cat, a little black cat with a janky leg, that he wants me and my girlfriend to catsit here at our home. We have a cat of a similar age who is VERY VERY VERY comfortable at home here. Tesla knows this is his domain and has no fear here. He's also respectful of our things and doesn't scratch what shouldn't be scratched or explore what shouldn't be explored.

Since our friend wants to drop of Jon Snow off on a Thursday and pick him up on Sunday, I'm feeling like unless there's a quick friendship it would just be better to catsit Jon at his home rather than ours right? I don't want to have to deal with two stressed out cats, one of which would have been here only once before? (we are going to do a testing play date this weekend to introduce the two here.)

I'm also concerned about invisible things like illnesses and habits. Tesla's quiet, meows only when asked a question, "Are you hungry?" mrrrrrow "What do you want?" mrrrrrrow "you know you aren't allowed on the counter!" mrrrrrrow

But Jon Snow incessantly meows about every little thing and is extremely vocal about his needs. "WHERE ARE YOU" "PET ME" "IM VERY HUNGRY" I don't want Tesla to adopt these mannerisms.

Also, I'm fairly certain that Tesla's got a few pounds on Jon, and is much more athletic, and I'm afraid that Tesla may beat up Jon, or vice versa.

Thoughts about cat sitting a visiting cat?

duckfarts
Jul 2, 2010

~ shameful ~





Soiled Meat

Blimpkin posted:

Friend of mine has a cat, a little black cat with a janky leg, that he wants me and my girlfriend to catsit here at our home. We have a cat of a similar age who is VERY VERY VERY comfortable at home here. Tesla knows this is his domain and has no fear here. He's also respectful of our things and doesn't scratch what shouldn't be scratched or explore what shouldn't be explored.

Since our friend wants to drop of Jon Snow off on a Thursday and pick him up on Sunday, I'm feeling like unless there's a quick friendship it would just be better to catsit Jon at his home rather than ours right? I don't want to have to deal with two stressed out cats, one of which would have been here only once before? (we are going to do a testing play date this weekend to introduce the two here.)

I'm also concerned about invisible things like illnesses and habits. Tesla's quiet, meows only when asked a question, "Are you hungry?" mrrrrrow "What do you want?" mrrrrrrow "you know you aren't allowed on the counter!" mrrrrrrow

But Jon Snow incessantly meows about every little thing and is extremely vocal about his needs. "WHERE ARE YOU" "PET ME" "IM VERY HUNGRY" I don't want Tesla to adopt these mannerisms.

Also, I'm fairly certain that Tesla's got a few pounds on Jon, and is much more athletic, and I'm afraid that Tesla may beat up Jon, or vice versa.

Thoughts about cat sitting a visiting cat?

Easy solution: quarantine new cat off to a specific room or two for their stay (which is pretty short anyway)

cash crab
Apr 5, 2015

all the time i am eating from the trashcan. the name of this trashcan is ideology


What's the deal with airline food? What's the deal with cats stealing stuff and moving it to different rooms? The thing where they pick up socks and howl and stand over it, looking dazed. She always did that before I moved in with my boyfriend, but in the last few days she's ramped it up. Yesterday's inventory: bath towel, dish towel, a pair of shoelaces, an empty pack of cigarettes she plucked out of the garbage, some socks. Specifically, she does this more often if we've fallen asleep or gone out to get groceries, but she likes to do it while our roommate is home and awake.

Puppy Galaxy
Aug 1, 2004

It sounds like you have a cat.

Zaftig
Jan 21, 2008

It's infectious

cash crab posted:

What's the deal with airline food? What's the deal with cats stealing stuff and moving it to different rooms? The thing where they pick up socks and howl and stand over it, looking dazed. She always did that before I moved in with my boyfriend, but in the last few days she's ramped it up. Yesterday's inventory: bath towel, dish towel, a pair of shoelaces, an empty pack of cigarettes she plucked out of the garbage, some socks. Specifically, she does this more often if we've fallen asleep or gone out to get groceries, but she likes to do it while our roommate is home and awake.

I posted earlier about my cat continuously grabbing wet sponges from the sink and dropping them in my bed.

It's been a few months now, and I'm happy to report that she continues to do that.

Enjoy your item relocation!

Blimpkin
Dec 28, 2003

duckfarts posted:

Easy solution: quarantine new cat off to a specific room or two for their stay (which is pretty short anyway)

The issue with this solution, which I had considered, is that the only spare room we have is small, and already houses Tesla's food+litter. There's really no other place for that stuff outside of that room as our home is quite small. I'm apprehensive to basically 'give' that room to the new cat, and expect everything to go back to normal once the visitor is gone. If they have a bad introduction, wouldn't sealing that cat in that room for a few days just be torture for both?

toplitzin
Jun 13, 2003


Blimpkin posted:

The issue with this solution, which I had considered, is that the only spare room we have is small, and already houses Tesla's food+litter. There's really no other place for that stuff outside of that room as our home is quite small. I'm apprehensive to basically 'give' that room to the new cat, and expect everything to go back to normal once the visitor is gone. If they have a bad introduction, wouldn't sealing that cat in that room for a few days just be torture for both?

I'd just ask them for a set of keys and hang out over there a couple times a day.
Unless they are like an hour drive away or something.

Arriviste
Sep 10, 2010

Gather. Grok. Create.




Now pick up what you can
and run.

cash crab posted:

What's the deal with airline food? What's the deal with cats stealing stuff and moving it to different rooms? The thing where they pick up socks and howl and stand over it, looking dazed. She always did that before I moved in with my boyfriend, but in the last few days she's ramped it up. Yesterday's inventory: bath towel, dish towel, a pair of shoelaces, an empty pack of cigarettes she plucked out of the garbage, some socks. Specifically, she does this more often if we've fallen asleep or gone out to get groceries, but she likes to do it while our roommate is home and awake.

It can be the most :kimchi: thing in the world to witness. Luther relocates things, but without the yowling (he brings me the mail from the drop slot downstairs now instead of just trying to open it.) Only my female cats have done that. I just assumed it was some latent mommy urges to transport kittens or bring them food but the wires are crossed with a spay. Only one of my girls who did that was also a fetch-player, but late-night/lonely pack-and-yowl was a different behavior for her altogether.

Pucklynn
Sep 8, 2010

chop chop chop

Arriviste posted:

It can be the most :kimchi: thing in the world to witness. Luther relocates things, but without the yowling (he brings me the mail from the drop slot downstairs now instead of just trying to open it.) Only my female cats have done that. I just assumed it was some latent mommy urges to transport kittens or bring them food but the wires are crossed with a spay. Only one of my girls who did that was also a fetch-player, but late-night/lonely pack-and-yowl was a different behavior for her altogether.

My female cat does something similar. Usually at night, ten or fifteen minutes after lights out I'll hear her yowling from some other part of the house. Usually this means she's lost us and wants to know where we are, so I'll call her name and she'll keep yowling. A few minutes later, she appears carrying *something*. Sometimes it's my wallet, or a catnip banana, or a piece of crumpled up paper she found, and once a sock. She'll drop it next to the bed and jump up and I've yet to figure out wtf she wants me to do with this thing.

While we're talking about weird cat-habits: my male cat will occasionally wander around my apartment and just yell. If he's next to the window I assume it's a bird or a bug or something, but sometimes he just walks around the couch and yells about nothing (as far as I can tell). He knows where I am, I don't *think* he wants attention, or food, or w/e. Cats are weird, man.

floofyscorp
Feb 12, 2007

Arriviste posted:

Only my female cats have done that. I just assumed it was some latent mommy urges to transport kittens or bring them food but the wires are crossed with a spay. Only one of my girls who did that was also a fetch-player, but late-night/lonely pack-and-yowl was a different behavior for her altogether.

That's interesting, because my girl cat also does this(usually after midnight, drat her adorable little eyes) while her brother never has. Maybe she imagines she's bringing me a fresh kill.

duckfarts
Jul 2, 2010

~ shameful ~





Soiled Meat

Blimpkin posted:

The issue with this solution, which I had considered, is that the only spare room we have is small, and already houses Tesla's food+litter. There's really no other place for that stuff outside of that room as our home is quite small. I'm apprehensive to basically 'give' that room to the new cat, and expect everything to go back to normal once the visitor is gone. If they have a bad introduction, wouldn't sealing that cat in that room for a few days just be torture for both?

toplitzin posted:

I'd just ask them for a set of keys and hang out over there a couple times a day.
Unless they are like an hour drive away or something.
Yeah, if your place is too small, it seems like you should just do housecalls for your friend. Does the cat run on a feeding schedule or something? If not, you could just pop by every other day to scoop and put out a bunch of food and water. Having the cat hang at your place and trying to do introductions etc seems like trying to make things more complicated than they need to be just to see if the cats can get along and stuff for fun.

Dienes
Nov 4, 2009

dee
doot doot dee
doot doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot


College Slice

toplitzin posted:

I'd just ask them for a set of keys and hang out over there a couple times a day.
Unless they are like an hour drive away or something.

Seconding this. Cats already going to be stressed by owner leaving and new people doing the daily routine, don't stress the cat out more with an unfamiliar location and strange other cat on top of it.

Kubricize
Apr 29, 2010
How often should I be trimming a cat's nails, when the cat physically can't do it themselves? I called my vet and left a message asking this but haven't heard back yet and a Google search pulled up anywhere from every other day to once every week or two. I don't want to wait till she gets uncomfortable walking since we are trying to get her to be more mobile.

toplitzin
Jun 13, 2003


Kubricize posted:

How often should I be trimming a cat's nails, when the cat physically can't do it themselves? I called my vet and left a message asking this but haven't heard back yet and a Google search pulled up anywhere from every other day to once every week or two. I don't want to wait till she gets uncomfortable walking since we are trying to get her to be more mobile.

I trim my cats nails when they get sharp enough to get snagged in toys/sheets/me.

It comes out to about every two weeks on the fronts and once a month on the rears, depending on how much scratching/sharpening they do on the cardboard/carpet.

Blimpkin
Dec 28, 2003

toplitzin posted:

I'd just ask them for a set of keys and hang out over there a couple times a day.
Unless they are like an hour drive away or something.


duckfarts posted:

Yeah, if your place is too small, it seems like you should just do housecalls for your friend. Does the cat run on a feeding schedule or something? If not, you could just pop by every other day to scoop and put out a bunch of food and water. Having the cat hang at your place and trying to do introductions etc seems like trying to make things more complicated than they need to be just to see if the cats can get along and stuff for fun.


Dienes posted:

Seconding this. Cats already going to be stressed by owner leaving and new people doing the daily routine, don't stress the cat out more with an unfamiliar location and strange other cat on top of it.

Yeah, this is what I want to do. I just wanted reassurance that I was thinking correctly about it.

cash crab
Apr 5, 2015

all the time i am eating from the trashcan. the name of this trashcan is ideology


Arriviste posted:

It can be the most :kimchi: thing in the world to witness. Luther relocates things, but without the yowling (he brings me the mail from the drop slot downstairs now instead of just trying to open it.) Only my female cats have done that. I just assumed it was some latent mommy urges to transport kittens or bring them food but the wires are crossed with a spay. Only one of my girls who did that was also a fetch-player, but late-night/lonely pack-and-yowl was a different behavior for her altogether.

I love that he brings your mail. My childhood cat used to bring pairs of socks and drop them in front of the door, it was very convenient. I think I'm also in agreement about the crossed-wires-after-spay idea, because I've never had a male cat do that, and our cat now is so ginger when she picks things up, so if it's a prey thing than she's a lovely hunter (she is).

Tamarillo
Aug 6, 2009

Arriviste posted:

It can be the most :kimchi: thing in the world to witness. Luther relocates things, but without the yowling (he brings me the mail from the drop slot downstairs now instead of just trying to open it.) Only my female cats have done that. I just assumed it was some latent mommy urges to transport kittens or bring them food but the wires are crossed with a spay. Only one of my girls who did that was also a fetch-player, but late-night/lonely pack-and-yowl was a different behavior for her altogether.

From having indoor/outdoor cats I am pretty sure it's actually a hunting thing. On occasions when my cat brings in a mouse or sparrow or whatever, first item on the agenda is to run through the house looking for us to show off his kill, all the while yowling in a muffled manner around whatever he's caught. Slowcat Hugo does this when he is reporting he has caught a leaf. It's a very specific meow that neither of them do any other time apart from when they have caught something they want to show off. Sometimes it's a live kill, but most of the time it's a toy. I suspect my boys yowl because they're both vocal - a childhood cat used to do the same thing but with no noise.

Oh and sometimes it's just 'play with me you dumb bitch' - coming out of the shower to find 5 toy mice by the door and an expectant cat.

marchantia
Nov 5, 2009

WHAT IS THIS
My cat is obsessed with running water and will wiggle between the inner and outer shower curtains in our standing shower and watch people like a creeper. The other will bring toys into the bathroom and wait expectantly on the rug for me to get out.

Yet I can't bring myself to lock them out. I am the crazy one here.

Arriviste
Sep 10, 2010

Gather. Grok. Create.




Now pick up what you can
and run.

Tamarillo posted:

From having indoor/outdoor cats I am pretty sure it's actually a hunting thing. On occasions when my cat brings in a mouse or sparrow or whatever, first item on the agenda is to run through the house looking for us to show off his kill, all the while yowling in a muffled manner around whatever he's caught. Slowcat Hugo does this when he is reporting he has caught a leaf. It's a very specific meow that neither of them do any other time apart from when they have caught something they want to show off. Sometimes it's a live kill, but most of the time it's a toy. I suspect my boys yowl because they're both vocal - a childhood cat used to do the same thing but with no noise.

Oh and sometimes it's just 'play with me you dumb bitch' - coming out of the shower to find 5 toy mice by the door and an expectant cat.

Reminds me of a cat we had when I was a little girl. People used to drop animals on a curve near our home and they'd usually end up with us. Topaz was a gray mackerel tabby DSH missing 1/3 of her tail. She was happy to accept food and the occasional scritch, but that was about it. Of course, she was dropped off pregnant and, while I was away at a slumber party, she delivered her litter.

My adopted mom had to assist her with one and from that point on, Topaz had her favorite person. It was non-stop gifts of dead or nearly-dead rodents and snakes every day, all heralded by Topaz's muffled MROW? MrrOoow! at the front door. She wouldn't drop her prey until my adopted mom acknowled the gift. Then Topaz would eat a select part of the critter and leave the rest. Who knew that the back of a snake's head was so delicious?

Her legacy carried on through one of the kittens from that litter, Bigfoot, a tuxedo polydactyl who was a mole murdering machine and my best bud for years. He quietly left his corpses in the same place his mom did.

ChlorophileAddict
Jun 15, 2015
My Cat Midnight is a black Bombay, and she's scary smart.
Before my health got bad I used to travel abroad extensively, sometimes for a weekend sometimes more. She'd be left with food and neighbours wold come to feed her three times a day.
At some point she figured out that each time I was about to leave I would look for my passport, so she started to steal it and hid it in her hidey hole under the couch. Did that four times.

Also for some weird reason she eats lettuce and sweetcorn.

meristem
Oct 2, 2010
I HAVE THE ETIQUETTE OF STIFF AND THE PERSONALITY OF A GIANT CUNT.
I, uh, am sorry to interrupt the cute stories with a question.

On June 3rd, a cat I know gave birth to two kittens. Hence, as of today, they are 23 days old. One of them looks, to my amateur eyes, pretty much all right (weight 450 g, has started exploring), but the other one is very weak and pretty clearly developmentally disordered. It weighs only 114 grams (1/4th of the other one!), it looks like it has too big eyes and skull for its size (basically looks like a tiny alien), sometimes, it has problems vocalising its cries. It opened its eyes about a week after the other one, and, in fact, in the beginning, had such problems suckling that we've started to feed it a 'kitten milk' formula we got from the vet. Despite its weakness, it's still pretty lively - it wants to crawl around.

Any idea what's going on / what we can do?

duckfarts
Jul 2, 2010

~ shameful ~





Soiled Meat

meristem posted:

I, uh, am sorry to interrupt the cute stories with a question.

On June 3rd, a cat I know gave birth to two kittens. Hence, as of today, they are 23 days old. One of them looks, to my amateur eyes, pretty much all right (weight 450 g, has started exploring), but the other one is very weak and pretty clearly developmentally disordered. It weighs only 114 grams (1/4th of the other one!), it looks like it has too big eyes and skull for its size (basically looks like a tiny alien), sometimes, it has problems vocalising its cries. It opened its eyes about a week after the other one, and, in fact, in the beginning, had such problems suckling that we've started to feed it a 'kitten milk' formula we got from the vet. Despite its weakness, it's still pretty lively - it wants to crawl around.

Any idea what's going on / what we can do?

EDUCATED GUESS: feed it formula, keep it warm, wing it, and hope it survives past a month or two. Runts can survive, but it's not unusual to for them to not.

Puppy Galaxy
Aug 1, 2004

Also, do not step on it, even if you're absolutely certain it can't get out of the tub.

Arriviste
Sep 10, 2010

Gather. Grok. Create.




Now pick up what you can
and run.

meristem posted:

I, uh, am sorry to interrupt the cute stories with a question.

On June 3rd, a cat I know gave birth to two kittens. Hence, as of today, they are 23 days old. One of them looks, to my amateur eyes, pretty much all right (weight 450 g, has started exploring), but the other one is very weak and pretty clearly developmentally disordered. It weighs only 114 grams (1/4th of the other one!), it looks like it has too big eyes and skull for its size (basically looks like a tiny alien), sometimes, it has problems vocalising its cries. It opened its eyes about a week after the other one, and, in fact, in the beginning, had such problems suckling that we've started to feed it a 'kitten milk' formula we got from the vet. Despite its weakness, it's still pretty lively - it wants to crawl around.

Any idea what's going on / what we can do?

How is it's mouth? Does it have a cleft palate or hare lip? There is some good information on various kitten deformities at :nms: Messy Beast. :nms: Check out the "Skull and Facial Deformities" section and see if any descriptions match your wee one.

meristem
Oct 2, 2010
I HAVE THE ETIQUETTE OF STIFF AND THE PERSONALITY OF A GIANT CUNT.

duckfarts posted:

EDUCATED GUESS: feed it formula, keep it warm, wing it, and hope it survives past a month or two. Runts can survive, but it's not unusual to for them to not.
OK.

Puppy Galaxy posted:

Also, do not step on it, even if you're absolutely certain it can't get out of the tub.
I'll try.

Arriviste posted:

How is it's mouth? Does it have a cleft palate or hare lip? There is some good information on various kitten deformities at :nms: Messy Beast. :nms: Check out the "Skull and Facial Deformities" section and see if any descriptions match your wee one.
Oh, thanks, this is exactly the type of thing I've been looking for! I've done human developmental disorders during studies, so this brings back some "good" memories.

Now, here is a picture of Little Little Cat from today:


Here is a comparison picture of Big Little Cat:


The size difference does not really show from this perspective, so here is a top-down comparison from the 15th, when the volume ratio was still around 3:1:


From that website, it seems to me that Little Little Cat could be hydrocephalic, is that possible? If so, what do I do?

Specifically: 1. When is it safe to take him to the vet to have him looked at? (The vet lives literally in the building next door, it's a 2 minutes-walk, but I wouldn't want to stress him out.) 2. How would I know if he is in pain? (The website states that a hydrocephalic kitten had to be euthanised at 8 weeks, so, uh, I'd like to know what to look out for; sorry for the morbid question.)

Thanks everyone. :)

Rabbit Hill
Mar 11, 2009

God knows what lives in me in place of me.
Grimey Drawer
Why Are My Cats Doing This? Pt. 103n

I have two cats, a bonded pair of males. I adopted them together when Tobias was 3-4 months old and Raphael was 3-5 years old. They have been buds ever since the adoption agency placed Tobias into Raphael's cage, and in the two years I've had them, they still snuggle/sleep/play with each other, and they can eat from the same bowl with no problems.

Sometimes when they play, they'll go from the usual rough-and-tumble wrestling to this...strange thing. Tobias will be on the bottom on his back, and Raphael will mount him and bite him on his neck while stepping on his belly over and over, like he's trampling Tobias. Tobias, in the meanwhile, will be licking Raphael's head and face. This is unusual because Tobias hardly ever grooms Raphael -- 99% of the time, Tobias approaches Raphael to be groomed and just sits there passively while Raphael licks him.

Is this some sort of sexual dominance thing? Is it fine to let happen or should I break them up?

cash crab
Apr 5, 2015

all the time i am eating from the trashcan. the name of this trashcan is ideology


Tinycat Chat: Take him to the vet as soon as you can. If the stress is so much that it causes issues, he probably didn't have long. In any case, I had a few kittens like that a few years back when I was fostering. After a few weeks of force-feeding this weird fattening slurry my mom cooked up, they all gained enough weight to be adopted out. So, there's always hope.

Arriviste
Sep 10, 2010

Gather. Grok. Create.




Now pick up what you can
and run.
The vet trip should be just fine as long as you call ahead and can wait around as little as possible. That's really convenient to have one so close! Keep bubble head next to your body (warmth & heartbeat) with a lightweight covering over his/her face (protect the eyes from bright light) for most happy catte outing time.

I hope she/he can pull through if it is hydrocephaly.

Looking at Luther's first pictures (~1.5 wks old) now, I'm imagining that he might have been a little "special" at birth and that's why he was abandoned/separated. His vet didn't mention it if she suspected it. He's a goodboy now, for the most part, but definitely has some weird aggro spells that often start with him grooming, kicking his own chin repeatedly, then getting hella-pissed. He's also got some weird good parts to him, even if he might be neuro. Think I'll keep him. ;)

inkblottime
Sep 9, 2006

For Lack of a Better Name
Hi goons. I need some advice or maybe some reassurances in regards to a new cat. Now it's only been five days since we brought her home but she's acting weird and it concerns me.

Backstory: I volunteer for the local shelter as a foster and a cat cage cleaner. I've been doing this for about a decade now and have built up quite the resolve when it comes to resisting attachment, since I know I can't adopt them all. That being said, we lost our long time cat, Bono, last year and that has left a little space in our house for another pet.

Last week I arrived at the store, where I have been assigned to clean cages for the past few years, to a cat yowling. The store manager says the cat has to go, customers are complaining, etc etc. I totally understand and contact the shelter, offering to bring her back.

As I open the cage to let her out, she immediately climbs into my arms and nestles her head into the crook of my neck, with much purring and kneading. Needless to say, I was vulnerable to this and should have been prepared but I asked my wife if we could give her a trail and she agreed.

After spending a few nights at the shelter for an exam and observation, she came home with us for fostering as she is fighting off an upper respiratory infection. If all things worked out, we would adopt as soon as she was healthy again.

We kept her separated with plenty of fresh water and her own litter box and slowly introduced her to our dog and cat. For the most part she's very easy going, highly adaptive, and forgiving. She took nasal spray in great stride. The only hang up is she'll hiss when our pets are a foot away. My guys have been great, putting up with this by backing away or sitting down at a safe distance. She eats with them, sleeps nearby (cat on couch, dog just under her), and overall making great progress.

Fast forward to tonight. This is the first day we left her out unsupervised after she spent the previous day and night out with our supervision.

She was fine until we fed her. Then she started pacing from door to door, letting out yowls. So I put her in the sun room. She continued to pace from door to door, yowling the entire time and has only now started to settle down (about an hour and half later).

Now I can't tell if it's the heat (currently about 90 degrees), a sudden fear of the litter box, a newly uncovered personality trait, or if she's sick. I will be taking her in to the shelter tomorrow for the later. The former is what concerns me.

I checked her bladder and it's not full so she may have gone before we fed her but right now I'm just hanging out in the room with her, watching to see what she does.

I'm deathly afraid, after dropping my guard and getting attached, that we may have an incompatible cat.

Just now she got up and started pacing again, going from door to door while yowling. If I pet her she lifts her tail and rubs against me, then returns to the door, pawing, head probing to find a way out. She was turned in as a stray but I think she might have had a previous owner (pink collar with bell on it). However she hasn't shown this kind of desperation to get outside since we've had her. It's similar to when a cat is in heat but without the raised butt and the gawd awful musky smell. She's fixed, so I don't know.

She's 5 years old, spayed, and in good shape with an even, forgiving demeanor. Typical tabby with possibly some Siamese judging from her yowls. She's never scratched or bitten me or my pets and gives me love licks if I scrub her belly. She loves brushing, is malleable, loves being held, petted, cuddling, sleeping at the foot of the bed, pretty much everything that tells me she's a perfectly normal cat.

So why is she freaking out? Am I being too paranoid? And if so, do you have any advice for me (take my meds, have myself a beer) or the cat? Talk me down goons. I'm really liking this cat and I'm not emotionally ready to give up.

Sorry for the wall of text. I'll keep monitoring her and see what the shelter says tomorrow. Fingers crossed it's just me.

bowmore
Oct 6, 2008



Lipstick Apathy


if charlie was awake i'm sure he'd say hello

Puppy Galaxy
Aug 1, 2004

inkblottime posted:

Hi goons. I need some advice or maybe some reassurances in regards to a new cat. Now it's only been five days since we brought her home but she's acting weird and it concerns me.

Backstory: I volunteer for the local shelter as a foster and a cat cage cleaner. I've been doing this for about a decade now and have built up quite the resolve when it comes to resisting attachment, since I know I can't adopt them all. That being said, we lost our long time cat, Bono, last year and that has left a little space in our house for another pet.

Last week I arrived at the store, where I have been assigned to clean cages for the past few years, to a cat yowling. The store manager says the cat has to go, customers are complaining, etc etc. I totally understand and contact the shelter, offering to bring her back.

As I open the cage to let her out, she immediately climbs into my arms and nestles her head into the crook of my neck, with much purring and kneading. Needless to say, I was vulnerable to this and should have been prepared but I asked my wife if we could give her a trail and she agreed.

After spending a few nights at the shelter for an exam and observation, she came home with us for fostering as she is fighting off an upper respiratory infection. If all things worked out, we would adopt as soon as she was healthy again.

We kept her separated with plenty of fresh water and her own litter box and slowly introduced her to our dog and cat. For the most part she's very easy going, highly adaptive, and forgiving. She took nasal spray in great stride. The only hang up is she'll hiss when our pets are a foot away. My guys have been great, putting up with this by backing away or sitting down at a safe distance. She eats with them, sleeps nearby (cat on couch, dog just under her), and overall making great progress.

Fast forward to tonight. This is the first day we left her out unsupervised after she spent the previous day and night out with our supervision.

She was fine until we fed her. Then she started pacing from door to door, letting out yowls. So I put her in the sun room. She continued to pace from door to door, yowling the entire time and has only now started to settle down (about an hour and half later).

Now I can't tell if it's the heat (currently about 90 degrees), a sudden fear of the litter box, a newly uncovered personality trait, or if she's sick. I will be taking her in to the shelter tomorrow for the later. The former is what concerns me.

I checked her bladder and it's not full so she may have gone before we fed her but right now I'm just hanging out in the room with her, watching to see what she does.

I'm deathly afraid, after dropping my guard and getting attached, that we may have an incompatible cat.

Just now she got up and started pacing again, going from door to door while yowling. If I pet her she lifts her tail and rubs against me, then returns to the door, pawing, head probing to find a way out. She was turned in as a stray but I think she might have had a previous owner (pink collar with bell on it). However she hasn't shown this kind of desperation to get outside since we've had her. It's similar to when a cat is in heat but without the raised butt and the gawd awful musky smell. She's fixed, so I don't know.

She's 5 years old, spayed, and in good shape with an even, forgiving demeanor. Typical tabby with possibly some Siamese judging from her yowls. She's never scratched or bitten me or my pets and gives me love licks if I scrub her belly. She loves brushing, is malleable, loves being held, petted, cuddling, sleeping at the foot of the bed, pretty much everything that tells me she's a perfectly normal cat.

So why is she freaking out? Am I being too paranoid? And if so, do you have any advice for me (take my meds, have myself a beer) or the cat? Talk me down goons. I'm really liking this cat and I'm not emotionally ready to give up.

Sorry for the wall of text. I'll keep monitoring her and see what the shelter says tomorrow. Fingers crossed it's just me.

My cat did this for a few days when I moved and it probably took him a month to really get settled. I think it's normal when bringing an older cat to a new territory.

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cash crab
Apr 5, 2015

all the time i am eating from the trashcan. the name of this trashcan is ideology


A few years back, my ex and I rescued a cat from a friend who sucked at taking care of cats. We were about to move across the country, so we gave her another friend. My ex came back to visit her, and the cat was half her original weight and missing a lot of hair, plus a lot of dental problems, so we packed her onto a plane and took her home. For the first THREE MONTHS, she would sit in the edge of the couch and hook her claw into the soft spot on the back of your knee and just stare at you, as if daring you to try and remove the nail. She was aggressive with other cats, and would hide on top of the fridge, refusing to eat. She'd bite, hiss, etc. I considered having her put down. Eventually, she calmed down and became very annoying in an adorable way. Some of them take a while to chill out, sadly. (Also, some of them are just screamers.)

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