Your daily cat and kitten news

[Vintage Paw]

The spiky purple biscuit frustrator continues to earn its keep.

Peggy has got into quite the routine of asking for wet food now. I give her a bowl of wet and at the same time sprinkle a small amount of biscuits in her frustrator (official name, as far as I'm concerned), and she'll eat 3/4 of the wet food, walk away for a little wash, go back and eat a few more morsels, have a wash, go and argue with the frustrator for a while to get a few biscuits, then have some more wet. She doesn't always finish all the wet, but every now and again she will damn as near. It has now, however, become a rarity for her to leave any of the sauce at the very least (this only happens when I push my luck and try something she really, really hates -- I've just given 4 boxes of HiLife Senior Terrines away because the bugger really won't touch them). I'm happy she's getting enough moisture in her diet now.

So, should any of you find yourself in receipt of a cat who eats dry and won't eat wet, I heartily recommend giving the spiky purple biscuit frustrator a go. After 8 months of trying different ways to wean her to wet, this is the only thing that has made any kind of difference. She's still not what I'd describe as a wet food eater, because it's obvious she's 'settling' - but she regularly eats wet food now (if not all of it).

 

[High Voltage]

Well done !

Although, if there is a vet visit close ahead, that might blow it even further.
If you have the time and opportunity, press ahead and get him used to being picked up for something like cuddles.

Ouch!11!! - well, that could've gone better - the second he felt his feet leaving the ground he went into full on wheel spinning mode and I ended up with a face full of sharp claws - one cut on my nose and 3 nice little digs on my other cheek

And I went and got them some "nice" food as treats from the pet shop as well - ungrateful little shits

 

[Puddy_Tat]

 

[High Voltage]

It's alright - the bloods stopped flowing freely now - through the miracle of alum

 

[Vintage Paw]

It's just a warning so you don't forget your place.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Heard a noise. Peg going crazy because a cat has jumped on the kitchen roof (which she can see from the living room). The cat is beautiful, lovely fluffy and grey, looks like it could be a BSH or even a Burmese. Quite stocky. No collar. I haven't seen it around before I don't think.

The cat jumps down into the garden, and Peg goes into the kitchen, jumps on the windowsill to get a good look. Grey cat spots her, jumps on the recycling bin, from there to the dustbin, from there to the outside of the kitchen window.

Oh boy.

Peggy really doesn't like cats.

She hisses at it, it hisses back. I usher her away because she's clearly distressed. Grey cat fucks off.

I let Peg back into the kitchen because she wants to make sure it's gone. She's sat on the window, really jumpy, jumping at everything that moves, including leaves, flies, air currents

From my kitchen, which is a long extension on the back of the house, I can see the backs of my neighbour's houses. I know next door has got a new cat (ginger). I idly look up at her back bedroom window. There's the cat. Sat on the windowsill. Staring intently at Peg.

Oh dear.

But Peg hasn't seen it. She's desperately scanning the back yards for signs of grey cat.

Except for when she glances up and... uh oh.

So now she's staring at ginger cat, ginger cat is staring at her, and grey cat has disappeared into the ether no doubt chuckling in a maniacal way thinking about the chaos it's wrought.

This is going to do wonders for Peg's stress levels

 

[High Voltage]

Face healing nicely, you can hardly see the scars <dramaqueen/>

Casper really is becoming a bit of a cuddle monster. It's interesting watching how things move around, we've got 2 rather large cat trees in our downstairs area

Originally FiFi used to have exclusive use of them, what with the boys being kept in their safe room. As we've let them out there's been a bit of a switch around, with FiFi being, and there's no easy way to say this, eased out and the boys have taken over both trees

Only now FiFi's starting to re-assert her position on tree one and Casper is starting to show interest in coming over to me when I'm sat on the sofa - he's just about jumping up onto the arm of the sofa and then onto the back of the sofa where he's starting to have strokes

Last night we had Clive and FiFi both in tree 1 - Clive in low nest, FiFi in middle nest - both curled up and apparently not stressing - and Casper on the sofa - now I'm scoring this as a subtle change in the dynamic with FiFi re-claiming her nest at the cost of having to share the sofa with Casper - OK, this only lasted for 20-30 minutes but it was peace, of a kind

 

[twentythreedom]

Aaargh Colin killed a baby blue tit and chewed its head off He's been really good lately, the nightly curfew and jingly bells have helped, but he must've been unable to resist the urge

RIP little birdie

 

[Vintage Paw]

Face healing nicely, you can hardly see the scars <dramaqueen/>

Casper really is becoming a bit of a cuddle monster. It's interesting watching how things move around, we've got 2 rather large cat trees in our downstairs area

Originally FiFi used to have exclusive use of them, what with the boys being kept in their safe room. As we've let them out there's been a bit of a switch around, with FiFi being, and there's no easy way to say this, eased out and the boys have taken over both trees

Only now FiFi's starting to re-assert her position on tree one and Casper is starting to show interest in coming over to me when I'm sat on the sofa - he's just about jumping up onto the arm of the sofa and then onto the back of the sofa where he's starting to have strokes

Last night we had Clive and FiFi both in tree 1 - Clive in low nest, FiFi in middle nest - both curled up and apparently not stressing - and Casper on the sofa - now I'm scoring this as a subtle change in the dynamic with FiFi re-claiming her nest at the cost of having to share the sofa with Casper - OK, this only lasted for 20-30 minutes but it was peace, of a kind

I'm so chuffed about all of this. It barely seems like last week that you were fretting over whether the boys would ever settle and accept any human contact. This feels like a proper success story. It's only a matter of time before all three settle into a routine where they understand who's where in the pecking order. I think FiFi will be okay in the long run. It's good that she's seemingly reasserting herself a bit.

 

[Cloo]

As the kids got out of the car, this local resident spent a few minutes having a gander:

 

[Mumbles274]

T-minus 30 days until new kittens arrive

 

[trabuquera]

^ well that's MORE than enough time to get a new cameraphone and sixty memory cards/sticks together, isn't it? urban will be expecting no excuses...

 

[Vintage Paw]

Peggy's new 'thing' is hairballs, sometimes with no hairball production.

Poor love. I reckon she's got a big one at the moment. She did one last week, one this week, and has had a couple of big old hacking sessions which didn't result in anything other than a couple of minutes of misery.

Managed to get her to lick some anti-hairball paste off her paws this morning. Will persevere with that. She's shorthaired, but very fastidious, and seems to moult a fair deal. She hates being brushed, doesn't like oily foods, and is all-round a fussy bugger. I don't want to switch to an anti-hairball food if there are other ways to deal with it. Not nice watching her retching with no result. And when she did manage one earlier in the week it was a massive bugger.

 

[Vintage Paw]

I should add she eats grass almost every day, whether she's got hairballs or not. She loves her grass.

 

[CRI]

Breeze has started doing hairballs, too, and she only did them rarely until about 3 months ago. I need to brush her more, but she has grown less happy about me brushing her. When I get off here, it may be headlock and Furminator time.

I phoned to book her into the poodle parlour for a trim, hoping to get in tomorrow, or at least sometime next week. Nope - early June is the nearest slot they have! Seems quite a few kitties are opting for the fur dresser these days. She looked pretty weird for a couple months after the trim last year, but I think she as relieved from losing a lot of hair. Should I opt for one of those comedy cuts - with a fade, or to make her look like a tiger or something?

Getting on better with the pups, for the most part, as well.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I phoned to book her into the poodle parlour for a trim

Getting on better with the pups, for the most part, as well.

yes, i suppose going from a look of withering contempt to a look of indifference is an improvement

 

[CRI]

yes, i suppose going from a look of withering contempt to a look of indifference is an improvement

Yes, something like that might be fun - for about 5 minutes, then embarrassing! =D

It is hilarious how most of the time in photos, the dogs always look so eager, while Breeze emits variations on the, "What am I doing with these clowns?" look.

 

[Vintage Paw]

More dry heaving overnight.

She licked a bit of butter off her paw earlier, will try with more anti-hairball paste later.

Could be it's not a hairball at all, but a piece of grass stuck in her gullet, or something. She seems mostly fine otherwise. Maybe a bit off her food, difficult to tell because she's a fussy bugger. She's having a kip atm.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Oh for goodness sake. I might have to take her back the vet.



She's been asleep most of the day, been off her food for the most part. She just woke up, did a couple of irritated sneezes, then started her dry hacking thing again. She's just licked the sauce off some food, which is something, but she's not a happy bunny.

I'll give them a call for advice in the morning.

Right now I feel like any cat I touch turns to shit.

 

[toggle]

fwiw, madamme does the dry yacking thing quite a bit. no other issues and it's reduced by hairball pastes or oils but dosen't go away entirely. it is a little worse when she's shedding a lot. but it's mostly when she's been out ages (as in more than a day) and has probably eaten several rodents. nothing about her behavior indicates that she's anywhere near as upset about it as her people are. as in she is back sound asleep straight after finishing, or rolling over for tickles and purrs.

 

[Mumbles274]

Warning. The following pictures may cause you to squeeze whatever you are holding and make an involuntary high pitched squeal





lamb1979 's friend sent some pictures of the kittens. We are having the female tabby and one of the beige boys




You have been warned

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

 

[High Voltage]

We are having the female tabby and one of the beige boys . . .

But . . . that only makes two and I count four . . . unless you're getting the other two at a later date, that would make sense

 

[Mumbles274]

Ha if only it did!

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Mr. Kippers being A LION!!

 

[High Voltage]

Why is it, on what is being reported as "The first hot weekend of the year" - both of the boys have just come in damp

Great, and now they're fighting, probably a play fight, but it sounds pretty full on - no doubt they'll come hoppity skipping down the stairs in a minute wanting 2nd breakfast

 

[A380]

I think Ms A380 junior is playing with fire here.

 

[trabuquera]

Mumbles274 thanks for the warning. I really did go OOOOOUUUCCCHHH, aloud, from the cute. some almost unearthly bobble-head action going on there. *bates breath*

 

[Vintage Paw]

Warning. The following pictures may cause you to squeeze whatever you are holding and make an involuntary high pitched squeal





lamb1979 's friend sent some pictures of the kittens. We are having the female tabby and one of the beige boys




You have been warned

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

I'LL TAKE TEN

 

[Vintage Paw]

fwiw, madamme does the dry yacking thing quite a bit. no other issues and it's reduced by hairball pastes or oils but dosen't go away entirely. it is a little worse when she's shedding a lot. but it's mostly when she's been out ages (as in more than a day) and has probably eaten several rodents. nothing about her behavior indicates that she's anywhere near as upset about it as her people are. as in she is back sound asleep straight after finishing, or rolling over for tickles and purrs.

Thank you, that's reassuring.

I did end up taking her to the vet this morning, mostly because she does seem miserable at the moment and is sleeping a lot more than usual (and more heavily), and because she's not bringing anything up and is a bit spluttery sometimes I'd worked myself up into a lather worrying in case it was a respiratory problem. Her lungs sound fine, her heart sounded fine, he could feel no lumps in her tummy and she didn't complain when being prodded and poked around there or her throat. He couldn't see anything in her mouth or throat, as far as he can see without aid anyway.

He gave her something for irritation and nausea that doesn't last very long but might just give her a bit of relief if it's just an irritation from bringing up hair earlier on, with the advice to keep on giving the hairball paste and see how she goes.

Since she's sleeping so heavily I'm going to try a sneaky brush with the zoomgroom later. It's already meant I can slather on the hairball paste (all over her leg) without her realising, then pop a little bit on her nose to wake her up and irritate her sufficiently that she licks the rest off (begrudgingly). She hates it (as with most things that aren't biscuits).

 

[Vintage Paw]

I feel a bit like helicopter mum, but all the palaver with Charlie has firmly implanted a 'better safe than sorry' approach, since frankly he nearly died before he was diagnosed with his thyroid.