Question for cat owners..

redrock

unlost dogs wrote:

My question for cat owners: Why don't you own a dog? Or three?

Where do I start????

81

unlost dogs wrote:

My question for cat owners: Why don't you own a dog? Or three?

my cat could kick your dogs ass. :P

Lizardjam

PureandEasy wrote:

unlost dogs wrote:

My question for cat owners: Why don't you own a dog? Or three?

I'm sure i'll have an answer when I'm done pet sitting my sister's two dogs next week.

My cat eats only dry food, whenever I give her the canned stuff, she vomits it up.

My cat vomited everything for a while. I eased him into eating it with the meat flavored baby food and a little taurine supplement mixed in. Eventually he could eat the canned wet food with no problem.

With the wet food, whatever you do, don't buy 9 lives. That stuff has a couple ingredients(I can't remember them offhand) that cause bladder infections in some cats. I just stay away from it completely.

PureandEasy

Occassionally I'll give her a little tuna, which she DEVOURS, but that's about it for non-dry food.

and then she spends the next 15 minutes licking her mouth and paws. She rubs her paws on her mouth and licks them, just to get every last taste of the tuna.

she's so cute.

mca47

I've had three cats in my life.
The one would pretty much only eat dry food. On occasion for a treat, we'd give her a half a can, but that was it. She lived to be 20 without any health issues.
The other we adopted from a friend. She was only fed canned/wet food prior to getting her. A couple months after we got her, she had to have multiple teeth removed because the canned food more or less rotted them. She switched to dry the rest of her life, had perfect teeth from that point forward and lived to be 18.
My current cat only eats dry. I could put down a can and she'd walk away. Hell, I could put down an entire salmon and she'd walk away!

I've had multiple vets over the years, and they all have said dry is the best way to go. Premium dry food isn't what it used to be and has everything they need, plus it's much easier to digest than that shitty store brand.

The the other poster somewhere ^. Cats do actually eat other things than just meat in the wild. They often eat grass, and other edible plants. While they don't eat rice, or oats or whatever they stuff into food as a "filler", they do munch on plants.

mca47

PureandEasy wrote:

Occassionally I'll give her a little tuna, which she DEVOURS, but that's about it for non-dry food.

and then she spends the next 15 minutes licking her mouth and paws. She rubs her paws on her mouth and licks them, just to get every last taste of the tuna.

she's so cute.

It's actually not to get every last taste of tuna, but rather to get the tuna smell spread over her face. It sounds strange and kinda gross, but it's true.
In fact, cats have pretty bad senses of taste. The main factor for why they eat and prefer something is almost entirely olfactory.

Lizard

mca47 wrote:

PureandEasy wrote:

Occassionally I'll give her a little tuna, which she DEVOURS, but that's about it for non-dry food.

and then she spends the next 15 minutes licking her mouth and paws. She rubs her paws on her mouth and licks them, just to get every last taste of the tuna.

she's so cute.

It's actually not to get every last taste of tuna, but rather to get the tuna smell spread over her face. It sounds strange and kinda gross, but it's true.
In fact, cats have pretty bad senses of taste. The main factor for why they eat and prefer something is almost entirely olfactory.

Then those sparrows my cat catches must smell really good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but I thought cats really cleaned well the same as lions, etc. They want to get the smell OFF them so their prey does not smell it when they are hunting.??

Lizardjam

mca47 wrote:

The the other poster somewhere ^. Cats do actually eat other things than just meat in the wild. They often eat grass, and other edible plants. While they don't eat rice, or oats or whatever they stuff into food as a "filler", they do munch on plants.

Our cat is like a dog and will eat anything. He loves carbs and anything wheat(bread, cereal) we have to hide those things or they will be munched on by morning. My daughter put a little sprig of mustard greens on his wet food once so it looked like he was "fine dining" and he ate it. He isn't picky at all. If it's edible, he'll eat it.

mca47

Lizardjam wrote:

Our cat is like a dog and will eat anything. He loves carbs and anything wheat(bread, cereal) we have to hide those things or they will be munched on by morning. My daughter put a little sprig of mustard greens on his wet food once so it looked like he was "fine dining" and he ate it. He isn't picky at all. If it's edible, he'll eat it.

Yeah, my first cat was like that. She'd eat anything you put in front of her. When I was a kid, she jumped up on the chair next to me while having dinner. Turned my head for a second, and she grabbed the chicken breast that was on my plate and made a run for it! Damn cat!

guitar59

AllNiteThing wrote:

unlost dogs wrote:

My question for cat owners: Why don't you own a dog? Or three?

Dogs are a lot of work/responsibility. And they eat their own poo.

This is the exact answer I give my 8 year old everytime she asks for a dog.

Lizardjam

mca47 wrote:

Yeah, my first cat was like that. She'd eat anything you put in front of her. When I was a kid, she jumped up on the chair next to me while having dinner. Turned my head for a second, and she grabbed the chicken breast that was on my plate and made a run for it! Damn cat!

My cat takes everything to the next level. He has opened the freezer(which is on top) and defrosted everything. he has torn off half our blinds in the kitchen when we're gone so he can look out. if you have any cups of water anywhere in the house he will find then and do whatever it takes to dump it. He looks at it sideways, raises his paw and grabs the cup or glass and pulls it sideways. He loves to put half his body in the shower so you can pet him, he doesn't care about getting wet. He loves to taunt our lizards by lounging on their cage and just staring at them. If our cupboards aren't baby proofed he opens every single one and empties its contents. If it's food it will be all over the house in minutes. He likes to play but doesn't really want to be touched. He just wants to be near people. I know this was about food but I've never in my life had a cat this crazy. he attacks everyone that comes over. He tried to climb the cable guy's leg. He's fixed but if we're gone for the day he will drag any blanket or stuffed animal(even the ones 3 times his size) and drag them to the front door or hide them in corners, under tables...we caught him doing it once. He humps some of them.

PureandEasy

mca47 wrote:

PureandEasy wrote:

Occassionally I'll give her a little tuna, which she DEVOURS, but that's about it for non-dry food.

and then she spends the next 15 minutes licking her mouth and paws. She rubs her paws on her mouth and licks them, just to get every last taste of the tuna.

she's so cute.

It's actually not to get every last taste of tuna, but rather to get the tuna smell spread over her face. It sounds strange and kinda gross, but it's true.
In fact, cats have pretty bad senses of taste. The main factor for why they eat and prefer something is almost entirely olfactory.

Really? Oh now I'm going to have to check it more closely. That's funny.

mca47

Lizardjam wrote:

My cat takes everything to the next level. He has opened the freezer(which is on top) and defrosted everything. he has torn off half our blinds in the kitchen when we're gone so he can look out. if you have any cups of water anywhere in the house he will find then and do whatever it takes to dump it. He looks at it sideways, raises his paw and grabs the cup or glass and pulls it sideways. He loves to put half his body in the shower so you can pet him, he doesn't care about getting wet. He loves to taunt our lizards by lounging on their cage and just staring at them. If our cupboards aren't baby proofed he opens every single one and empties its contents. If it's food it will be all over the house in minutes. He likes to play but doesn't really want to be touched. He just wants to be near people. I know this was about food but I've never in my life had a cat this crazy. he attacks everyone that comes over. He tried to climb the cable guy's leg. He's fixed but if we're gone for the day he will drag any blanket or stuffed animal(even the ones 3 times his size) and drag them to the front door or hide them in corners, under tables...we caught him doing it once. He humps some of them.

My cat now is kinda like that. Nothing can be standing upright to her. If something is standing there...a candle, a glass, anything...she has to knock it over. I used to keep an open glass of water by my bed at night. She knocked those over multiple times, and one time I woke up and she was putting her paw in the glass! :shock: Sick!
She also hates anything that she doesn't have "access" to. She knows how to open all my closet doors, she can open my bedroom door, and all the cupboards. When she as a kitten, she'd keep my up all night. Ugh!
She's calmed down a lot (I think she's 3 or 4 now), but she also is very deceptive. I can leave my place for 5 minutes, come back and everything is knocked off my kitchen table, my office desk, the bathroom counters. It's insane how fast she moves! One day I set up my PS3 camera to record her when I left. As soon as the door closed, she ran up to my office desk, was snooping around, knocked my mouse off. Runs into the kitchen, and pulled down all the kitchen towels, knocked over the paper towels and dragged them into the other room. In the next 3 minutes I can see her running back and forth in front of the camera. I get back and watch it and it was INSANE! She hears my car pull up and she runs back to the exact same spot she was in when I left like "I haven't moved". What a little whore!

Lizardjam

mca47 wrote:

My cat now is kinda like that. Nothing can be standing upright to her. If something is standing there...a candle, a glass, anything...she has to knock it over. I used to keep an open glass of water by my bed at night. She knocked those over multiple times, and one time I woke up and she was putting her paw in the glass! :shock: Sick!
She also hates anything that she doesn't have "access" to. She knows how to open all my closet doors, she can open my bedroom door, and all the cupboards. When she as a kitten, she'd keep my up all night. Ugh!
She's calmed down a lot (I think she's 3 or 4 now), but she also is very deceptive. I can leave my place for 5 minutes, come back and everything is knocked off my kitchen table, my office desk, the bathroom counters. It's insane how fast she moves! One day I set up my PS3 camera to record her when I left. As soon as the door closed, she ran up to my office desk, was snooping around, knocked my mouse off. Runs into the kitchen, and pulled down all the kitchen towels, knocked over the paper towels and dragged them into the other room. In the next 3 minutes I can see her running back and forth in front of the camera. I get back and watch it and it was INSANE! She hears my car pull up and she runs back to the exact same spot she was in when I left like "I haven't moved". What a little whore!

That might mean we have 2 more years of cat insanity, ours is only 2. I think your cat and mine might be related! My cat also puts his paw in the glass to dump it. It puts it in and pulls. He was never trainable. Most cats you can train with the spray bottle and some water. ours thought it was a game. I wish I had a camera. The one wonderful thing our cat does is eat bugs. Every so often if there's a spider or a cricket(we have lizards) he will play with it until it's dead, and then just eat it. We don't have to deal with the dead bug bodies.

whispering hands

Cats are great I have a cat that is partially blind due to a serious bout with Distemper( He'd even had his shots and STILL got it!!) So we've nicknamed him the Distemperfried Kitty. He's named after the Primus song Tommy the Cat, and he lives up to his name!! But the best part is.. when this first happened he had to adjust to seeing everything in blurry shadow versus clear vision, so when we moved the Pythons in, he FREAKED.. suddenly leashes on the ground, bathrobe ropes, anything that resembled a snake got attacked in violent spasmatic fashion! AND he memorizes things in the house and how they are set up..So every-so-often, just to keep him on his little kitty toes, I like to move things.. He hates when I do this.. but it's so funny to watch, cause he'll straight walk into things, cause he doesn't realized I've moved them..That and he loves to go for car rides with me.. He loves the dog, even though the dog is a little freaked out by living with a cat for the first time..And he steals socks.. I'll find socks on my curio cabinet, on my dresser, in the cat tree, and one on the china hutch.. he's a weird cat.. I always tell people I'm gonna write a book called Cats Are Natural Born Crackheads

Lizardjam

whispering hands wrote:

Cats are great I have a cat that is partially blind due to a serious bout with Distemper( He'd even had his shots and STILL got it!!) So we've nicknamed him the Distemperfried Kitty. He's named after the Primus song Tommy the Cat, and he lives up to his name!! But the best part is.. when this first happened he had to adjust to seeing everything in blurry shadow versus clear vision, so when we moved the Pythons in, he FREAKED.. suddenly leashes on the ground, bathrobe ropes, anything that resembled a snake got attacked in violent spasmatic fashion! AND he memorizes things in the house and how they are set up..So every-so-often, just to keep him on his little kitty toes, I like to move things.. He hates when I do this.. but it's so funny to watch, cause he'll straight walk into things, cause he doesn't realized I've moved them..That and he loves to go for car rides with me.. He loves the dog, even though the dog is a little freaked out by living with a cat for the first time..And he steals socks.. I'll find socks on my curio cabinet, on my dresser, in the cat tree, and one on the china hutch.. he's a weird cat.. I always tell people I'm gonna write a book called Cats Are Natural Born Crackheads

Just from this board you'd get a million stories on crackhead cats.

mca47

Lizardjam wrote:

That might mean we have 2 more years of cat insanity, ours is only 2. I think your cat and mine might be related! My cat also puts his paw in the glass to dump it. It puts it in and pulls. He was never trainable. Most cats you can train with the spray bottle and some water. ours thought it was a game. I wish I had a camera. The one wonderful thing our cat does is eat bugs. Every so often if there's a spider or a cricket(we have lizards) he will play with it until it's dead, and then just eat it. We don't have to deal with the dead bug bodies.

Haha! Mine was "trainable" to a degree. She's not allowed on the furniture, and when I got my new living room set, I enforced that pretty tough. She'd jump on and I'd spray her. Only happened a couple times, but now even if I'm gone, she never goes up there.
It just drives me crazy how she'll be so...good when I'm around, then the second I leave she goes nuts! It's almost like she gets all these ideas of what she wants to do while I'm around, then as soon as I leave she marks them off the list. hahaha!

Lizardjam

mca47 wrote:

Haha! Mine was "trainable" to a degree. She's not allowed on the furniture, and when I got my new living room set, I enforced that pretty tough. She'd jump on and I'd spray her. Only happened a couple times, but now even if I'm gone, she never goes up there.
It just drives me crazy how she'll be so...good when I'm around, then the second I leave she goes nuts! It's almost like she gets all these ideas of what she wants to do while I'm around, then as soon as I leave she marks them off the list. hahaha!

I swear the cats party when we're out. The house certainly looks like it when we come home. Our older cat doesn't do any of the things our younger one does. Oh, and did I mention the younger one also has his entire body in the litter box but, hangs his butt over the edge and craps on the floor???? What in the world does he even bother getting in the box for?! I just don't understand.

EmBleve

These stories are so cute and funny! I have a cat (now he's 17, so a little slower, and going blind ), but he was a crazy nut for the first 16 years of his life before he started losing his sight...about bugs, I used to live in an apartment that I later discovered was infested with these horrid looking bugs people told me were 'mole crickets'...omg, gross... and I could not get rid of them. I would come home from work and find like 5 or 6 laying around my place dead because my cat had gotten them. I started picking out any bugs I saw and I would call him and do this thing where I said 'get it get it get it' in this monotone, jaws-theme-song sounding rhythm, and to this day whenever I do that, he comes to me like 'where's that bug'. And food, my brother only feeds his dry food, and he's good. My cat eats 1/2 small can of food in the morning, and the other 1/2 at night, and he has a small bowl of dry food there for anytime. He loves them both. Must be okay because he's lived this long (and he has weighed 7 lbs his entire adult life. however, I had another one who weighed 15 doing the same thing, rest in peace whitey).

Lizardjam wrote:

mca47 wrote:

My cat now is kinda like that. Nothing can be standing upright to her. If something is standing there...a candle, a glass, anything...she has to knock it over. I used to keep an open glass of water by my bed at night. She knocked those over multiple times, and one time I woke up and she was putting her paw in the glass! :shock: Sick!
She also hates anything that she doesn't have "access" to. She knows how to open all my closet doors, she can open my bedroom door, and all the cupboards. When she as a kitten, she'd keep my up all night. Ugh!
She's calmed down a lot (I think she's 3 or 4 now), but she also is very deceptive. I can leave my place for 5 minutes, come back and everything is knocked off my kitchen table, my office desk, the bathroom counters. It's insane how fast she moves! One day I set up my PS3 camera to record her when I left. As soon as the door closed, she ran up to my office desk, was snooping around, knocked my mouse off. Runs into the kitchen, and pulled down all the kitchen towels, knocked over the paper towels and dragged them into the other room. In the next 3 minutes I can see her running back and forth in front of the camera. I get back and watch it and it was INSANE! She hears my car pull up and she runs back to the exact same spot she was in when I left like "I haven't moved". What a little whore!

That might mean we have 2 more years of cat insanity, ours is only 2. I think your cat and mine might be related! My cat also puts his paw in the glass to dump it. It puts it in and pulls. He was never trainable. Most cats you can train with the spray bottle and some water. ours thought it was a game. I wish I had a camera. The one wonderful thing our cat does is eat bugs. Every so often if there's a spider or a cricket(we have lizards) he will play with it until it's dead, and then just eat it. We don't have to deal with the dead bug bodies.

mca47

Lizardjam wrote:

I swear the cats party when we're out. The house certainly looks like it when we come home. Our older cat doesn't do any of the things our younger one does. Oh, and did I mention the younger one also has his entire body in the litter box but, hangs his butt over the edge and craps on the floor???? What in the world does he even bother getting in the box for?! I just don't understand.

We had a cat growing up that would do that. She'd put her front two paws in thinking she was in, and then pee on the floor. It was pretty rare, and it wasn't until she was old...but what the hell? It's almost like as if she was thinking "I'm old, I made it this far...fuck it!"