<p>If you hate cats and don't understand why anyone with a brain in their head would have one, please spare us the vitriol.</p>
<p>What qualities do you love about your cat that you wish cat haters could appreciate?</p>
<p>My black cat with the lime green eyes loves to jump on my lap when I am on my laptop. Purring and insinuating herself onto the field, I find myself going into contortions to type over her body.</p>
<p>Yesterday I took her to the vet. She would not come out of her crate. I tried to pull her out, but her body would not be cooperative. I finally turned the whole crate upside down-and NOTHING! I looked in and she had spread her body out like Spiderman, limbs outstretched, to keep herself from falling out. We had to take the damn thing apart to get to her, at which time she gave all of us the stink eye for the remainder of the exam. As soon as we got home, I let her out and she ran off in a great huff.</p>
<p>10 minutes later, she was back on my lap, purring loudly, and bodily contortions to type ensued...</p>
<p>I love cats! We have had so many, with so many different personalities. And we come to appreciate each and every one for who they are. We have a cat right now who is so perceptive of the emotions of the humans around him. He arrived two weeks before we had to put down our aging and declining St. Bernard. H was devastated at the loss and this cat seemed to make H his special project. H needed a friend and some love and new cat provided it and adopted H. Another example, last fall, H was away for a few nights while hiking a part of the Appalachian Trail. D and I were quite worried about him as the weather turned very hot and very humid. Long story short, when H did get home, exhausted and 17 lbs lighter, he took off his hiking boots leaving them in the family room. This new cat took one of his treasured toy mice and placed it on top of H’s boot. It was so symbolic. </p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like much just reading this over, but I guess you would have to understand this cat, lol! It was amazing.</p>
<p>I love cats. We have two boys - twins - who are sweethearts and very gigantic. Each of my human boys picked them out about 9 years ago. Now both of my boys are in college and the cats rule the house. Fun thread!</p>
<p>My cat is lovable, but I do so wish I could find a way to have her stop barfing on carpet and bedding. Any cat lovers found anything that works?</p>
<p>^^^Okay my black beauty was barfing her breakfast a lot. I started giving her just a tiny bit of kibble in the morning instead of her normal serving. It’s enough to take the edge off her hunger, but not enough to inhale the whole amount, only to upchuck in minutes. About an hour later, I give her just a little bit more if she wants it. This has cut way down on the barfing up of practically whole food.</p>
<p>When we finally got her out of her crate at the vet, they weighed her and said she is at a PERFECT weight, especially for a 12 year old cat. So maybe it’s working.</p>
<p>^^^somemom - I have the same problem w/ my Maine Coon throwing up any and every kind of food. I did put golf balls in his dry food and reduced the amount of food in the bowl so he couldn’t wolf it down, he had to nose the golf balls around to get to a few bites of food before they fell back in his way. This helps with eating dry food too fast but he still throws up the wet food - no matter what I buy. Vet says he’s healthy just a barfer. I spend my days running around behind him with a spray bottle of Resolve. We just lost our 15 year old gray American shorthair - she was so sick in the end and she died in the Vets arms a few weeks ago before my son came home from college for a visit. I didn’t tell him until he came home - too hard to talk about her now, maybe later.</p>
<p>BTW we were always dog people until that stray little gray American shorthair showed up at our door…we became cat people that day.</p>
<p>We just lost one of our precious Ragdolls 2 weeks ago at age 6. He was perfectly healthy- until heart disease struck without warning. His name was Waylon Jennings and we miss him SO much. We still have 9 1/2 year old Ragdoll Willie Nelson, who is a sweetie. And- a female tortie who is sweet to my H and me, but hisses at everyone else! I just put a deposit down on a new Ragdoll kitten who we will get in 3 weeks from Texas! I think cats can sense when you need some love and ours are my constant companions when I’m home. We also have a giant Golden Retriever, but I grew up as a cat person. I don’t think I’ve been without a cat since I was in college - and even then I had an illegal cat in my college dorm for awhile.</p>
<p>I like all animals. We currently have 2 cats and feeding a 3rd who lives in the yard.</p>
<p>As to barfing, try a different food. Talk to the vet. Some breeds vomit a lot. Some only vomit when they have fur balls - and there’s food for that - and some do better on different food.</p>
<p>We had one cat who was like velcro, putting to lie any notion that cats are always stand-offish. You would knock her off you 50 times and you look away and she’s on your lap in a ball purring. She also chewed on fingertips, a weird nursing behavior that Siamese sometimes have. And one of the most individual things I’ve seen: she’d stick out a single claw and put it in your nose to tip your face closer. Genuinely odd and a little frightening. And anyone who’s had a Siamese knows: they don’t give ground. You want to sit here? You have to push that cat off. My wife and the cat had epic battles in the night because the cat would wiggle up under my wife’s arm and then resist loudly and strenuously. I once sat on her as she drank from the toilet because any rational cat would move but not her.</p>
<p>Another guy - best cat ever - would bring in stuff. Cooked chicken legs. A working nice quality watch. And then there were the bee years: he’d catch bees in his mouth, bring them in and drop them on the floor and then swat at them after they shook off and tried to take off. We’d find dead bees on the floor at night. The bee years were followed by the giant beetle years. Nothing quite like a huge beetle clacking to life under the table. He’d also bang on the door to get in … so he could use the litter box … and then he’d run back outside. What kind of a cat comes inside to use the toilet? He liked to press the top of his head to mine, like a Vulcan mind meld. He would reach out and tap on my arm to get my attention.</p>
<p>Our older cat used to come inside to use the litter box. Lately her thing is to rush over and use the litter box when I go to empty it, like, “here ya go, take this too”.</p>
<p>Some of you probably remember back in April when I had trouble introducing my new rescue to this old calico. Well, she no longer keeps him trapped in the basement. I went away for two days and left them home alone. Now she lives in the kitchen and attached family room. and he has the run of the house. I should’ve left a video camera running to see how that got worked out.</p>
<p>My cat showers with one of my sons every day. If she gets tired of waiting, she cries very loudly, which usually gets them going. I’m not sure what I’m going to do when they are both gone this fall. My husband doesn’t want her in our room, so I may have to move to the mall bath. (You see who’s in charge here) </p>
<p>Mr B confessed to me that prior to meeting me he had never thought of humself as a cat lover! I love cats. I love dogs, too. When we bought our first house, he made it his mission that we would get a calico cat, because I has a calico cat when I was a kid (that was the calico that barfed on my mom’s favorite carpet and used her favorite drapes as her jungle gym, lol). We ended up with two kitties that lived with us for many years until they passed away (one died of old age and the other grieved herself into an infection after the loss of her buddy). Now we have 3 cats: our resident kitty and the two cats that D brought from her 2 year fellowship in Central Asia. The new kitties are absolutely darling, but the resident cat is still adjusting to the fact that her days of being an “only child” are over, so there is some minor hissing and chasing aound the kitchen. I asked my sister (who breeds cats) how she introduced her new cats to the old ones, and she said that the best method was just to let the newcomer into the house and leave the cats alone. She has never had a Third World Cat War erupting in her house - the cats usually sort their hierarchies out on their own. </p>
<p>My 2 are best of friends with opposite personalities. Penelope aka Kitteh is a cuddler who will lie splayed on her back and let me scratch her belly. She loves to block my computer screen when she thinks I’ve been on too long. At a recent vet visit she let everyone pet her and purred extra loudly. Lily, aka Bitteh, is also known as the Bratling. She is flat out adorable and loves to play with jingle balls and toys on sticks, but gets pointy really fast when you pet her, and loves to push limits (knows she’s not allowed on the kitchen table, will get on and wait until I have the spray bottle aimed at her before she jumps off). She was a maniac at the recent vet visit, wouldn’t get out of the carry case, yowls could be heard throughout the building!</p>
<p>Speaking of vets, please give me suggestions–they each need a pill and Lily especially is impossible to restrain and give medicine too (and if I did would avoid me for 3 days straight). I bought pill pockets but they both thought they were disgusting. I keep trying foods (cheese, etc) to find something to hide the pills in, but haven’t found anything they love so much that I know they’ll finish it.</p>
<p>I had a cat named Bud who was red-labeled at the vet’s office. When they tried to treat him for a urinary blockage he ended up spending time above the false ceiling of the treatment room.</p>
<p>I pilled him by squatting over him and trapping him between my thighs so that he could not back away, and popping his mouth open for the pill, then holding it shut until he swallowed. He forgave me afterward. Have you tried hiding the pill in a bit of baby food chicken? That gets the flea meds into my cats (indoor-only cats with fleas - whole other issue).</p>
<p>OMG, do you remember “The President wants a calico cat” line from the movie Wag the Dog?</p>
<p>I so rolled at that whole scene.</p>
<p>I am DYING at some of these cat stories. I loved our late yellow Lab with all my heart, and have had some great dogs, but I know that after our golden doodle is gone, we won’t get another dog. But I have always had cats, and will until I die.</p>
<p>Love cats and dogs, but only have cats now. Two ginger cats, a boy and a girl. </p>
<p>Girl is fat and easy going. She will sleep with me when H is out of town. We got her as an adult to be a companion for another cat we had. Boy is very high strung and fearful. S and I rescued him from a parking lot when he was a wee kitten with a broken leg. Boy cat is tightly bonded with girl cat, must think she is his mom. She tolerates him, but has also tried to train him, like brought him lizards and birds. He is strictly indoors, she is indoor/outdoor. She will herd him back in if he tries to go out. I enjoy watching them interact.</p>
<p>It is the subtle things that I was never aware of before we took in our two. Take sounds for instance: they have some characteristic sounds for some events - the calico loves to steal socks and expects one of us to play with her with it, but it makes a much longer, sadder sound only when it’s trying to attract one of us for the sock game. Similarly, when DD2 was in middle school doing a project with a lot of colored pipe cleaners, one of the cats took a liking to getting us to play with it. To this day she loves the same sport, and makes the same unique call when she finds a pipe cleaner and wants a playing companion. Both kitties, more so the sister engage in a weird "stationary walking " motion on soft surfaces and on laps. If they stand on something like a pillow they just keep pumping their paws up and down in the same place for several minutes. </p>
<p>The interaction with other animals has also educated us - We used to leave the doors not tightly closed so that they could push their way in from outside. We stopped after they developed the habit of bringing birds, squirrels, and mice, not eating them, but just dumping them inside the house. We noticed, especially the birds, were very adept at playing dead right till they were dumped in our living room, at which point the would take off and unfortunately keep hitting every window. </p>
<p>Our weirdest animal encounter was this summer when one of them was sitting on the lawn and then we noticed it was refusing to move as we were gathering the leaves. When we finally carried it off, we found it had been sitting all that time on a foot longs snake…</p>
<p>I’m leaving for college in 2 weeks and am heart broken that I have to leave my cats behind. I have two at home, a calico longhair named Ruby and a black and white longhair (with a very fluffy tail and a white mustache across her face) named Penny. They are both pretty young, Penny will be a year sometime this month… I found her in someone’s backyard October of last yeAr… She was a tiny little wild kitten and I had lost my 14 year old orange and white tabby named Bob a few weeks before that so I brought her home to stay (I really wasn’t suppose to but I knew my mom and step dad would eventually give in:). My older cat named Ruby lived on a porch and was a half grown starving kitten when my mom and I rescued her… Now she known as our fluffy hippo during the winter when she gains weight:). I love them dearly and even if they can be brats sometimes they always find a way to make up for it! </p>
<p>I also consider the cats on my grandparents farm to be mine which has ranged to just a few kitties to over 20… A few weeks ago my aunt was doing some garden work and heard some distressed meowing and found a poor little black female kitten in the ditch. Her back leg was broken, bad bruising inbetween her hind legs, and her tail just hangs limp. We came to the conclusion that someone decided that they didn’t want a kitten anymore and through her out of their moving vehicle… This makes me so angry since she is the sweetest little cat. She jumps right onto anyone’s lap and has such a loud happy purr. At least she has a good home now at the farm.</p>
<p>Let me just say this… Cats tend to have a way of landing into my life:) I will save the story of me bottle feeding and raising a week old kitten to adulthood some other time:) but it did involve me taking her to school for finals lol</p>
<p>^^^aww, 1prettykitty, your babies will be there for you when you return…but I understand your pain.</p>
<p>The other night I watched a video on AOL where some zookeeper somewhere was massaging a leopard’s head, and the cat was purring loudly at the same time it was bearing those scary fangs. It was fascinating and scary at the same time. Well, of course that next night I dreamed a leopard was trying to attack me. I was pushing my hand on its face and pushing it away from me (yeah, right, like it’s teeth and claws couldn’t have taken care of that), but all the while it was purring loudly. I got so scared that I startled awake, heart pounding and racing, breath panting frantically, only to see my black beauty sitting on my chest, staring at me and purring loudly. Oh good grief! I looked at her like WTH?! Her answer was to lay her sweet face onto my chin and purr like an engine. Well, you can’t get upset at that, so what can you do?</p>
I love cats. I love dogs, too. When we bought our first house, he made it his mission that we would get a calico cat, because I has a calico cat when I was a kid (that was the calico that barfed on my mom’s favorite carpet and used her favorite drapes as her jungle gym, lol). We ended up with two kitties that lived with us for many years until they passed away (one died of old age and the other grieved herself into an infection after the loss of her buddy). Now we have 3 cats: our resident kitty and the two cats that D brought from her 2 year fellowship in Central Asia. The new kitties are absolutely darling, but the resident cat is still adjusting to the fact that her days of being an “only child” are over, so there is some minor hissing and chasing aound the kitchen. I asked my sister (who breeds cats) how she introduced her new cats to the old ones, and she said that the best method was just to let the newcomer into the house and leave the cats alone. She has never had a Third World Cat War erupting in her house - the cats usually sort their hierarchies out on their own. </p>