Your daily cat and kitten news

[Epona]

And Sonic when he was a wee babby with mum and his brothers and sisters (we hadn't named him at this point - he's the blue one, same colour as his mum):

And a little bit older after he came to live with us (looks to be about 4 months there, I do have some in-between photos somewhere but my haphazard filing system seems to have swallowed them):

Don't have any baby photos of Jakey

 

[Epona]

Sonic and Jakey (now 9 years and 8 3/4 years old) last week - I think I must have caught Sonic in the middle of having a hunting dream, because his claws are a little bit extended ) :

 

[Epona]

I took some photos today of Radar but they turned out a bit blurry as the light was bad, I'll try again tomorrow!

 

[CRI]

OMG Epona your kits are SO gorgeous. And tiny baby Radar!

 

[Epona]

OMG Epona your kits are SO gorgeous. And tiny baby Radar!

Thank you - In some ways it seems like yesterday, but it's so long ago, they are all middle-aged cats now! Just sometimes need to look at their baby photos LOL

 

[Epona]

Say hello to Mistletoe

He came to live with us from Battersea on Friday. He's a bit scaredy still but when he does come out from behind the sofa he is a massive softy and sits on your lap for ages

I keep going back to look at this photo, he's really beautiful and his fur looks like velvet

 

[Epona]

I was the first to put my name down for a kitten from the litter, so had the choice of any of those, and they are all lovely cats. When I visited, I picked up each one of them at some point to see how we got along, but Sonic was very determined to have a cuddle from me, once on my arm he started purring and went to sleep there, happy as larry with me holding him. All other considerations went out the window at that point, this tiny little bundle had felt so safe with me, having only just met me, that he wanted to sleep in my arms. The rest is history.

He still does that btw, climbs into my arms and goes to sleep. (He weighs a lot more now though )

 

[Reno]

A cats first weapon of defence is cuteness. My office chair is still occupied indefinitely and I can't bear to move him when he looks so happy. Not getting my accounts done.

 

[Libertad]

A cats first weapon of defence is cuteness. My office chair is still occupied indefinitely and I can't bear to move him when he looks so happy. Not getting my accounts done.

Get into that belly quick, that's a blatant opportunity for a hot potato.

 

[High Voltage]

FINALLY - after coming up to 10 months

Clive "puts out"



Granted - there was an element of treats being involved and a nice warm fire and FiFi the other side of the room - but I'll take it, I'm not proud

 

[trabuquera]

VICTOREEEEE AT LAST High Voltage
Very much liking Clive's sceptical dismissive "yeah ok ok ok don't start getting used to this" stink eye expression as well.
A good cold snap and he'll be tamed for life I'm betting.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Congrats, HV, a momentous achievement considering how wary he's been

I feel so lucky that Peggy has such a lovely demeanor. Within moments of getting her out of her carrier she was headbutting my forehead and rubbing against my face furiously. And over the past few weeks I've seen a definite change, her wanting to be on my lap more, and all that.





A couple of weeks ago I put on a bird video for her, and after sniffing the screen and being very interested she spent absolutely ages trying to find them in the speakers. She knows they're in there somewhere. Clever girl.

 

[Mogden]

FINALLY - after coming up to 10 months

Clive "puts out"

View attachment 80885

Granted - there was an element of treats being involved and a nice warm fire and FiFi the other side of the room - but I'll take it, I'm not proud

You know he's been reading U75 when your back is turned, saw your indignant post about your lack of lap loving and is now in his "I'll show you laptime" phase

 

[High Voltage]

So this just leaves Casper - he's the real nervous one - he eats from my hand and he'll just about sit on the sofa to be hand fed but he's always very nervous and jumps down at the slight sign of threat - a threat in this case could be presenting a slightly larger treat or piece of food in a mildly "threatening" manner or a little bit too quickly

 

[Reno]

The cat is sleeping on the job ! He brought a mouse into the house, then he got bored with it and went to sleep and now he's left me to deal with it. There is a mouse running around the lounge and the cat is actually too lazy to kill it. Never had that happen before.

:edit: Now the mouse it hiding in the printer which I need for doing my tax.

 

[trashpony]

So yesterday I was defrosting a chicken breast for my dinner and I popped out to get some beans to put in my curry. Gone when I came back. I spent about 15 minutes wandering around the house looking for it and finally found it upstairs on the carpet outside my bedroom door. Not eaten as far as I can see, just mauled.

To add insult to injury, Bubbles then decided to attack my last roll of festive toilet paper so it's completely unusable. Since he went missing, he suffers from terrible food rage The problem is that he has gone back almost to his porcine self after returning very thin. I don't know what to do now - if I don't feed him when he wants, he just attacks things and breaks things deliberately. But if I do, he's just going to keep ballooning. Bullied by my son's cat - and not just me, even the dog gives him first dibs when I feed him

 

[Michael Hayward]

I missed the bus this morning thanks to my cat this morning distracting me in the window as I left for school.

Had to walk 2 miles.

 

[trabuquera]

Since he went missing, he suffers from terrible food rage The problem is that he has gone back almost to his porcine self after returning very thin. I don't know what to do now - if I don't feed him when he wants, he just attacks things and breaks things deliberately.

Feline PTSD rage-eating ... oh noez . Poor Bubbles.
Have you experimented with putting out dry food / crunchy stuff for him trashy? Maybe if he knows there IS food there all the time, if he really wants it, it might calm his rages. And dry food is not SO appetising that he'll eat a massive bag's worth of it in one go, surely? might be worth a go if you haven't tried it already

 

[Orang Utan]

Visited my old cat yesterday and she didn't shun me. She even subjected herself to a lengthy stroking session. She must have finally forgiven me. It's taken her nearly five years!

 

[trashpony]

Feline PTSD rage-eating ... oh noez . Poor Bubbles.
Have you experimented with putting out dry food / crunchy stuff for him trashy? Maybe if he knows there IS food there all the time, if he really wants it, it might calm his rages. And dry food is not SO appetising that he'll eat a massive bag's worth of it in one go, surely? might be worth a go if you haven't tried it already

I do but the dog eats it so he doesn't get the grazing opportunities he prefers. I don't blame him for being cross really

 

[Cloo]

Vastra's licked away a big nearly-bald patch at the base of her tail I wish I knew what made her do the overgrooming, but it doesn't sound like we'll ever know. I can't believe it's anxiety, as my last cat was an utterly anxious loon but never did it, whereas Vas is a really chilled, centred sort of cat, not at all flightly or aggressive or anything else that might suggest anxiety. I have spoken to a vet about it in the past, and he said we could have allergy tests, but most likely they'd be inconclusive. It's ever present since she was about 18 months old (she's 4 now), but some time, such as now, more noticeable than others. She used to lick her stomach bare, though that seems to be better these days.

I'm thinking about getting cod liver oil for her - the vet gave me some to put on her food and it did seem to make the licked away patches less red and generally less bare by just moisturising it all a bit.

 

[High Voltage]

Cloo is this mainly a winter thing and does she spend a lot of time lying in front of a fire?

I had a cat that used to lie in front of a fire and she'd get herself so damn hot that she'd end up licking herself bald AND she had an allergy to flea bites so at the first sign of anything like that she'd get flea zapped

 

[High Voltage]

And thinking about it more - base of the tail is often a tell tail (see what I did there) of flea bites

 

[Epona]

Cloo - sorry to hear that Vastra is still overgrooming. I can't really help much, just wanted to sympathise - Radar gets itchy and does this but usually in late summer (which makes me think it's a seasonal pollen allergy or similar, he overgrooms his thigh area and scratches anywhere he can reach with his back legs) but he's nearly 10 now and we've never been able to determine a cause or eliminate it. It's been bad enough a couple of times that he's had to have steroid and antibiotic shots to stop the itching and deal with inflammation and minor infections

We did have a flea problem once and he's definitely allergic to them too but it was quite different to his normal summertime itching - that happened in late winter and he shredded himself around the neck and base of the tail (we got bitten round the ankles too), dealing with the fleas put a stop to it.

So you have my sympathy.

 

[Cloo]

No fires in our place... it might be more prevalent in winter though.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Feline PTSD rage-eating ... oh noez . Poor Bubbles.
Have you experimented with putting out dry food / crunchy stuff for him trashy? Maybe if he knows there IS food there all the time, if he really wants it, it might calm his rages. And dry food is not SO appetising that he'll eat a massive bag's worth of it in one go, surely? might be worth a go if you haven't tried it already

Peggy would eat her own weight in dry food if I let her. But that's not a bad idea, to leave a bit out all the time.

trashpony Orijin is a very good brand, I believe it has the highest meat/protein content on the market, no grains, theoretically they will therefore need less as high quality protein gives them the fuel they need, rather than stuffing them with carbs.

There is of course the option of diet food. Royal Canin Ultra Light (wet or dry) has been my go-to and both Charlie and Peggy lost weight on it (the wet). Apart from Sheba (grrr) and dry it's Peggy's favourite wet food.

But as well as addressing what he's eating, you'll probably need to look into providing a way for him to take out his frustration and/or be distracted by something else when he goes into one of these food rages. It's hard work, but there are no short cuts to properly sorting out this kind of thing I'm afraid. It might mean being actively engaged in playing with him when he starts to act up, find a toy he loves (I highly recommend 'Da Bird') and invest some time in letting him work out his energy. It can be a mixture of wanting food and boredom and stress, so making sure all his other needs are attended to is probably a key part of this. I expect life was pretty exciting (and dangerous of course) while he was away, and the lap of luxury, even if he has access to outdoors, probably doesn't always cut it after getting used to the cut and thrust of the mean streets. Of course, primarily it's going to be an issue of anxiety over food insecurity, so the food thing needs to be dealt with as you know, but making sure everything else is sorted too can only be a good thing - plus getting in there with toys etc when he starts to get destructive is just a good way of distracting him so he takes that anger out on something else.

 

[trashpony]

Thanks VP - good ideas. I feed all the animals at the same time and today I've shut the dog on the other side of the stairgate from the cats so he can't finish his food and then immediately snaffle theirs. That seems to have helped as the cats have now eaten and gone outside which is what normally happens.

Neither of the cats have any interest in the stolen chicken - raw or cooked. Thankfully the dog liked it

 

[Epona]

Thanks VP - good ideas. I feed all the animals at the same time and today I've shut the dog on the other side of the stairgate from the cats so he can't finish his food and then immediately snaffle theirs. That seems to have helped as the cats have now eaten and gone outside which is what normally happens.

Neither of the cats have any interest in the stolen chicken - raw or cooked. Thankfully the dog liked it

I think Vintage Paw has excellent advice there. One method I would suggest trying is playing with him energetically (with something like 'da bird' or a laser pointer) for 10 minutes before feeding him. Cats are kind of hard-wired to hunt then eat, and he may not feel 'full' (in a psychological sense, if the 'hunt' part of their feeling of hunger has not been fulfilled) after eating if he has not had to work for it beforehand. I think that may explain the stolen chicken, if it gave him a sense of finding and 'wrestling' it, same with the loo roll. Could be his time AWOL triggered that latent instinct, if he frequently had to hunt for food.

A natural routine for a cat is to feel hungry (they are not by nature grazers and it is normal for them to feel hungry sometimes), hunt, eat, groom, and sleep. If you are at home most of the day, you could try splitting up his meals into smaller, more frequent portions, still at set times of the day, and play with him beforehand - that may not be convenient though.

 

[Mogden]

Cloo Sachin was an overgroomer when he felt neglected. Clearly he wasn't but when he felt he was lacking attention he'd bald himself in places. Just chipping in with suggestions based on my experience.

 

[Epona]

Sonic pesters me every time the bowls are empty of food. Odd thing is, he doesn't over-eat (he's actually quite skinny, and will leave food in the dish once he's full), he just wants the dish to have food in it just in case. He will leap all over me and climb up me, I can put 5 nuggets of dry food in the dish and he will ignore it and happily settle down for a nap once he knows I have fulfilled my duty and the routine has been adhered to by making sure there is food put down.

When it comes down to it, he's a bit of a bully