Your daily cat and kitten news

[High Voltage]

She's flopped out rather elegantly at the moment . . .

Peggy being elegant, earlier:

I think that white's a more "flattering" background colour for Peggy - how shall I say - it "softens" her natural outline

She's lovely and I can't believe that you've only had her for a couple of days - she looks absolutely settled in her proper forever home

 

[fakeplasticgirl]

She's getting bigger and fluffier! Love the large paw.

she's just too cute!

 

[Vintage Paw]

Shit happens...

...overnight on her third night here, it seems.

That was the final thing to tick off the list of "things I can stop worrying about."

I think we can definitely rule out her being 16, the way she leaped from the windowsill to the bed in the middle of the room earlier.

Is there a way for a vet to tell if a lady cat has been spayed? Like a scar or something? I don't have her previous records, and have been told different things. My friend who first told me about Peggy said she was a queen, so I assumed she meant in the usual sense of not having been spayed. I asked the people at the shelter when I first went and they said yes, she had been done. But the way that bum is in the air so much and the miaows that accompany it... I'm not so certain.

 

[Vintage Paw]

I think that white's a more "flattering" background colour for Peggy - how shall I say - it "softens" her natural outline

She's lovely and I can't believe that you've only had her for a couple of days - she looks absolutely settled in her proper forever home

Ha, yes, White backgrounds are rather... slimming for her. Now I've got her used to some wet food I'll be sticking to the ultra light for the most part, and tying to keep her nice and active. She's been cooped up with no room to exercise since May, so I'm hopeful she will just naturally lose a little anyway.

I think she's just so darned happy to not be in a cage anymore. She still gets a bit needy and over-excitable, but she also loves flopping out spreadeagled nearby.

 

[Schmetterling]

http://www.theguardian.com/artandde...-of-the-unexpected-the-craziest-cat-quiz-ever

'Cat-based' quiz
Miaow!

 

[Manter]

Radar is like that - he now has me trained so that when he wants a drink he will dash to the kitchen and jump up onto the side of the sink - my cue to go and turn the tap on for him. I leave it running for a few minutes until he has had enough water. He has access to bowls of water too and will drink from them if he really must. Tried a cat fountain once (which would have been ideal) but he broke it within 24 hours, his nickname is 'destructicat' for a reason

Idiot cat is the same. Except he used the fountain for playing- dropped things in the top then watched them go over the edge to the bottom, then batted them (and half the water) out onto the floor.

 

[Manter]

Not allowing cats on the kitchen worktops doesn't really work. The best-case scenario is that they will learn to wait until you've left the room before going on the worktops.

We have a pop up extractor fan that is touch activated. Idiot cat keeps touching it and so we know he is all over the worktop when our backs are turned. Busted....

 

[Vintage Paw]

It really is just easier to clear counters of whatever you don't want broken or licked, because it's their house, not yours, and they'll damn well go where they please thank you very much

 

[Vintage Paw]

Seems Peggy had a heavy night...

 

[Epona]

Her fur looks so soft and fluffy

 

[Vintage Paw]

Her fur looks so soft and fluffy

It is! Shorter than Charlie's but thicker. Like plush velvet.

Have you posted pictures of your gorgeous boys before? I don't remember seeing them, but maybe I've missed them along the way.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Seems Peggy had a heavy night...

too much catnip?

 

[High Voltage]

I. touched. Casper.

Granted it was a total sneak stroke, but I'm counting it as the first official "touch" of Casper since we got them back in early March

He was having some roast chicken breast (Waitrose, darling, naturally - or as the cats know it "left over sandwich filling") and I was alternating feeding Clive and Casper when Casper saw a bit that Clive had missed and started to eat it, which meant it had to come a LOT closer than he usually goes, result in said "sneak stroke" down his back a couple of times - and he's got lovely soft fur like his brother

AND

he's been coming a fair bit closer and looking at me, full on looks

 

[Vintage Paw]

I. touched. Casper.

Granted it was a total sneak stroke, but I'm counting it as the first official "touch" of Casper since we got them back in early March

He was having some roast chicken breast (Waitrose, darling, naturally - or as the cats know it "left over sandwich filling") and I was alternating feeding Clive and Casper when Casper saw a bit that Clive had missed and started to eat it, which meant it had to come a LOT closer than he usually goes, result in said "sneak stroke" down his back a couple of times - and he's got lovely soft fur like his brother

AND

he's been coming a fair bit closer and looking at me, full on looks

I'm telling you, he'll be a lap cat before you know it.

 

[Bakunin]

I'm telling you, he'll be a lap cat before you know it.

Our esteemed fellow poster will be expected to earn the privilege, naturally. And to watch out for the dreaded Venus Hand Trap, a submission hold beloved of any practitioner of the feared art of Mogjitsu. And beware of the warning sign of this feline finishing move, the dreaded Glare of Doom representing your final opportunity to choose not to scrubble the Royal belly without the appropriate command to do so, lest your soft, warm, cuddly kitteh suddenly mutate into something resembling a Satanically-possessed threshing machine.

 

[toggle]

Shit happens...

...overnight on her third night here, it seems.

That was the final thing to tick off the list of "things I can stop worrying about."

I think we can definitely rule out her being 16, the way she leaped from the windowsill to the bed in the middle of the room earlier.

Is there a way for a vet to tell if a lady cat has been spayed? Like a scar or something? I don't have her previous records, and have been told different things. My friend who first told me about Peggy said she was a queen, so I assumed she meant in the usual sense of not having been spayed. I asked the people at the shelter when I first went and they said yes, she had been done. But the way that bum is in the air so much and the miaows that accompany it... I'm not so certain.

not really. the scar would most likely be on her side, and quite small, maybee in inch, inch and a half long. be pretty much impossible to find if it was done years ago.

however, sometimes when a cat is speyed, a small but of ovary may be left behind, which can be enough to trigger the behavioral changes. but it's very unlikely that this wouldn't have been noticed long ago

 

[purenarcotic]

As toggle says, Vintage Paw, cats who have been done can still sometimes show signs of being on heat. Apparently it's quite awkward to get to and successfully remove all the womb etc and a small piece left behind can grow a bit and give off heat like symptoms.

Jangles sometimes does all the stuff she used to do when she was on heat but we know she was done as it was us who did it.

You can get the leftover bit removed but tbh we see no reason to as it's unnecessary stress and upset for her. Perhaps they could do a scan of Peggy to see what's in there?

 

[Vintage Paw]

Well she's an indoor cat so there's no reproductive reason to see if she's been done or not, but I'm aware of the increased cancer risks associated with not having them done. That said, I don't know whether it's worth the sedation to scan her to see if it has been done or not?

I've not experienced proper heat behaviour before. Presumably it's not an all year round thing? So if this was just her being overly-friendly I'd expect to see it continue and not wane, but if she was in heat, or heat-lite, it'd stop after a while, then come back again? How long are their heat cycles? Does it even work like that? Do they only stop being in heat when they get knocked up?

Someone explain the birds and the bees to me

 

[toggle]

Ok, a female cat in heat is probably the most unsubtle creature on the face of the planet. plus, she smells enough to let every male within miles know about it and congregate on your house. When i had kittens, I speyed late; she was an indoor cat at the time. The day after she started showing signs, I heard a noise on the conservatory roof and checked out of the upstairs window to find 3 cats sitting on it.

the thing i'd be looking for is whether every male in the area is hanging about, and whether the bum in the air pose also includes the back legs out behind the hips, padding the back paws and the tail held out to the side. if you scratch a female cat on her lower back, 1-4 inches above the tail, many will respond by dropping their front paws and holding their tail out like they do in heat. worth doing so you can see the position she goes into if she's comfy with that. and there's loads of vids on you tube that will show you what they do.

and on average, they cycle on heat for about a week every 3 weeks. but cats can vary in that.

 

[Epona]

A queen in heat (according to breeders I know) usually rolls around and paces and tries to get out and yowls really loudly pretty much non-stop for a few days. Doesn't sound to me as if she is in heat because you'd not be likely to mistake it - and you may well be tearing your hair out at this point! How old do you reckon she is? Because obviously that can make a difference, they have limited reproductive span like us women.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Hmm, well to start with we're not quite sure how old she is. I've heard conflicting things from different people at the shelter, and anywhere between 8-12 seems likely, so I'm ball-parking it at around 10-11, but really I don't know. They first had her there in 2007, but there's some confusion as to how old she was back then.

She's very chatty, gets very over-excited several times a day, which I initially put down to her just wanting affection, being very sociable, but I've never known a cat quite like this before so I'm second-guessing myself now.

She drops her front end down and leaves her back end up in a very purposeful way, whenever I'm stroking her and giving her a fuss when she's up and about and miaowing. Different to how cats usually do when you scritch the base of their tail. I haven't noticed whether her tail goes to one side when she does it or not, I'll keep an eye out for that. She'll do this a lot when she's in a headbutting mood, so I get headbutts, she rubs her whole side along my head, and then I get the bum. During all of this, she lays down on her side a lot, flopping down, her bum still clearly out/up, and she'll roll over onto the other side, all very excitable like she can't settle, in a frantic kind of way, then up she comes again, more head rubs, and bum in the air, lots of mews, lots of purrs. Often, if she's in an excitable, lovable mood, and she goes to sit down (the kind of sitting down where all 4 paws get tucked in underneath and they look like a loaf of bread - the position I call the kitteh loaf) everything gets tucked under at the front but that bum stays up in the air for a while. At first I thought she had something wrong with her legs! But after watching her for a couple of days she clearly can bend her back legs properly (although she really does flop down heavily when she lays down in her cat bed, as if her legs won't take her all the way down so she thinks "fuck it" and just throws herself down).

I've got a few windows open, but is that enough for males in the area to get a whiff? I presume it's not detectable to the human nose?

I'll take a look at some videos. If it tends to last for about a week once a month, I'll see how she is this time next week. Maybe she is just ridiculously affectionate.

Edit: I should add, there were other cats in and around her bit of the shelter, and none were showing any interest in her. Of course, I don't know whether they were male or female, so... They had tried to introduce her to other cats a few times during her stay, but she hated them. Presumably they wouldn't have done that if they weren't confident she'd been spayed? Unless they were all female, I can't remember.

 

[Epona]

It's hard to say really, I mean everything you describe could actually be Jakey when he wants some affection, and he is a neutered male. (He actually will put his head down on the floor, bum in the air, and sort of collapse in a purring pile of soft cat) I think she's just really friendly

 

[Vintage Paw]

Charlie used to stick his tail up too, but he never dropped his front end down like this, and he wasn't even half as affectionate.

It doesn't seem that her tail is going to the side, just straight up. I didn't notice her back paws kneading, or treading, either. She has been rubbing against every piece of furniture she can get to, but that could equally be that she's marking everything in her new home. She is very vocal, but she's not pacing around yowling morning, noon and night, nor is she seemingly trying to get out for a night on the town. She does lots of little chirps and mews of recognition, and she will be a bit louder and more insistent when headbutting and sticking her bum up and being excitable, but it seems to be confined to those instances.

I guess I'll have a better idea if it dies down in a few days and then comes back again a couple of weeks later. I'll hold off taking her to the vet until then, most likely, in case she does need spaying after all.

I've never had a super affectionate cat before. It's disconcerting! Where is the typical cat standoffishness?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

It's hard to say really, I mean everything you describe could actually be Jakey when he wants some affection, and he is a neutered male. (He actually will put his head down on the floor, bum in the air, and sort of collapse in a purring pile of soft cat) I think she's just really friendly

like so -

(from 'cat' by b kliban)

i've known boy kitties that do the bum / tail in the air thing when they are being stroked, so it may not mean anything.

although i've not lived with girl kitties so not at all expert here.

is peggy due a vet's check-up? vet may be able to tell you whether she is speyed or not. i think at one time it was common to make a small nick in a girl-kitty's ear as a mark she had been speyed, but think this has become less common.

 

[toggle]

some cats are needier than others, or go through needy stages.

actually, you've made me think, we'd known midnight a while before we actually took her in permanently and moved her to our new house. she went really needy for a while. and very, very vocal. like more than she had been when she visited us on her own terms in our old place.

and your place smells of other cat. the rubbing is probably primarily about making it smell like her and making you smell like her.

 

[Vintage Paw]

like so -

(from 'cat' by b kliban)

i've known boy kitties that do the bum / tail in the air thing when they are being stroked, so it may not mean anything.

although i've not lived with girl kitties so not at all expert here.

is peggy due a vet's check-up? vet may be able to tell you whether she is speyed or not. i think at one time it was common to make a small nick in a girl-kitty's ear as a mark she had been speyed, but think this has become less common.

I want to take her so they can give her the once over, plus they didn't vaccinate her at the shelter and didn't know when her last owner last had her vaccinated, so she will likely be ready for that (which is another thing I'm not sure about -- if there's no way of knowing how long ago she was vaccinated, how do you go about knowing when to do it, can they 'overdose' if it's done too close together, and presumably she'd need the 2-stage vaccination in case she hasn't been done in years). I'd like them to weigh her, check her teeth, just the general wellness kind of check, see if they can do any better at estimating her age. I was planning on taking her once she'd had a couple of weeks to settle in, but I'll stretch that to 3 weeks or maybe 4, to see if her behaviour changes in a way that might indicate spayed or nay.

some cats are needier than others, or go through needy stages.

actually, you've made me think, we'd known midnight a while before we actually took her in permanently and moved her to our new house. she went really needy for a while. and very, very vocal. like more than she had been when she visited us on her own terms in our old place.

and your place smells of other cat. the rubbing is probably primarily about making it smell like her and making you smell like her.

The people at the shelter said she was really friendly, and indeed as soon as anyone approached her cage she ran at them and started rubbing her face against the bars and mewing. It makes sense she'd want to infuse the house, and me, with her scent. Charlie used to rub his face vigorously against stuff when it was time to be fed, I suppose it comes across as a cross between attention seeking and being excited, which would be in line with how Peggy does it, although hers is more frequent and in more places. But she doesn't do it randomly, nor constantly, but when she's excited and seemingly either wants food or wants affection, probably 4-5 times a day (which would probably be more if I actively egged her on). She gets very excited about going upstairs with me, and will bound up in about 4 jumps and start vocalising and rubbing her head on everything she can find. She will lead me around the bedrooms, finding different things to rub against, flopping down on the floor once or twice, sticking her bum up while I stroke her, rub around my legs, and then eventually jump onto the bed for lots of headrubs, after which she'll settle and lie down, but is quick to jump back up and rub me again and mew.

I mean, I think it's adorable! But it's just one more thing for me to be uselessly neurotic about

 

[toggle]

now you describe it like that, it sounds a lot more like madamme when we moved. affectionate and needy to the point we felt guilty about the times we both had to be out of the house for more than 20 mins.

 

[High Voltage]

The boys settling down for the night - and yes, that is quite a small box for 2 large cats



They really are devoted to each other - I dread to think what one would be like if the other "went away" for any length of time

 

[High Voltage]

Hmm, well to start with we're not quite sure how old she is. I've heard conflicting things from different people at the shelter, and anywhere between 8-12 seems likely, so I'm ball-parking it at around 10-11, but really I don't know. They first had her there in 2007, but there's some confusion as to how old she was back then. . .

Count the rings on her tail - from her first picture where her tail is clearly visible I count 12 - so that'll make her 12 - 12 "what's" I'm unsure, but she's definitely 12

 

[Vintage Paw]

In other news, she's definitely using her scratching post a fair bit, and her claws aren't getting caught as much anymore. It still sounds a bit awkward as she goes up and down stairs, but not too bad. It was likely that metal-bottomed cage for months wot did it.