Archive for the ‘Cat’ Category
Have you ever seen a cat with a cold? I did not even know that a cat could get a cold but the first year I had Barney, my large black and white cat, he had 3 colds! He sounded and looked like a toddler with a bad cold; sneezing, runny nose, sniffling, the whole bit. I wanted to hold a tissue to his nose and tell him to blow. What was worse was that he would get the cold first then my other cat Callie would catch it then I would get it! Don’t tell me that germs can’t pass between species.
A cat with a cold seemed so strange to me that I called the vet and asked if a cat could get a cold and he said yes. Luckily, Barney outgrew his propensity for colds, however I haven’t. But I have never noticed any of the cats catching my cold, strange.
Do dogs get colds? That question naturally leads to the next, do wild animals get colds?
Let me know if you have any information to add.
I use to have a large black and white cat who liked to use his paws like hands. He would use his paws to pull cat food out of the dish to eat. Sometimes he would eat it right from his paw like a hand. Barney would also dip his paw in the water dish and lick the water off. Once I had a tall glass with a little water in the bottom sitting on the coffee table. I watched to see what Barney was up to when he started looking at the glass. Soon he dipped his paw in to taste what was at the bottom. My other cat, Callie, was watching and as soon as Barney left she came over to try that trick herself.
Barney was so into using his paws for every thing that he naturally used them to pull the cat door open to go through, just like a human pulling a door open with their hand. The only trouble was that this particular style was a hard plastic, double layer system. It was meant for the cat to use their head to push their way through. The double layer consisted of a large rectangle with a cut out that would only swing one way. The cut out inside this large rectangle had a smaller rectangular flap fitting over it. A cat when going one direction would push against the flaps and the larger flap would catch on a stop and the inner flap would push open making a smaller hole for the cat to go through. Going the other direction the smaller flap would push against the larger rectangle and both would move up and out of the way making a larger opening for the cat to crawl through. The smaller flap could swing either direction but in one direction it pushed the larger rectangular flap with it.
Barney would use his paw to pull the flap open. This worked ok, sometimes. One day Barney pulled the smaller flap open and proceeded to go through, however this was the direction where the larger rectangle should be pushed out of the way with the smaller flap. As Barney went through the door the larger flap with its smaller opening caught around Barney’s large frame and the farther Barney went through the door the tighter the larger rectangle grabbed him. By the time I got over to the cat door, Barney was in panic mode.
Paul and I had to push him through backwards to unhook him. Barney then did not want anything to do with that door. But that was the way to go out to do his thing (we did not keep a litter box at the time). So Paul and I grabbed Barney and pushed him through making him use his head and not his paws. We had to push him through about ten times before we felt he was comfortable with the door again. At least he was smart enough to realize what was going on.
When we lived in the duplex in north Austin, we had a cat door insert for the sliding door. This allowed any and all stray cats in the area to come in and make themselves at home.
My husband and I had recently married, he had 4 cats and I had 2 (hey a guy who likes cats is something to hold on to). We bought the duplex and finally moved in together. All this shuffling around had confused the cats and they were not sure who was and who was not suppose to be with us anymore so our legitimate cats were very welcoming of strays.
One stray stayed on the outskirts of the back porch for quite a while, unsure of his welcome. He was very scruffy looking; the kind you really did not want to touch. He looked and acted like he had been kicked out of a lot of places. I thought he needed some food and kind treatment. He was a very ugly cat with a stub of a tail. I was never sure if it was natural or had been cut off. That tail is why we started calling him Bobbie. He also had a medical problem that I am sure kept anyone from taking him in. He had a tumor. His side bulged like a tennis ball was in there.
My husband and I decided he needed some kindness and some good food. We cajoled and bribed him until he finally let us close. The good food did help. His fur started getting smoother and shinier. He finally decided to make the plunge and he came in the cat door.
He liked it indoors. It was cool and safe; he did not have to worry about predators or the pit bull down the street.
Since he had moved in, I decided he needed his shots. At the vets, I asked about the tumor and he said that he could operate and remove it but it would come back. We decided to let nature take its course.
Bobbie stayed with us for about seven months and I could tell the tumor was taking a toll on him. His favorite place to sleep was in the bathtub with its cool sides. One day he disappeared. After being gone for several days I assumed he had gone off to die.
About four months after his disappearance, he showed up! He came in the cat door and in his weakened state managed to climb into the bathtub. Paul and I petted him and made over him and offered food and water but the timing was bad. We were just on our way out when Bobbie walked in. We had to leave; our bowling league was depending on us. So I left Bobbie in the bathtub. When we got back several hours later, Bobbie was no longer in the tub or the house.
We never did see Bobbie again. I think he came to see us one last time before he died. I like to think he was appreciative of our efforts to help a starving, sick stray.
Last Wednesday there was a story about a frog scaring a mom, today I have another scream for you. This is a story told to me by one of my college roommates (Forgive me for telling your story Holly). When she was a young teen her family moved to a large old house in need of renovations. They were constantly having construction workers and delivery men coming to the house. One morning the doorbell rang and Holly answered the door to find another delivery. The man was insistent that an adult sign for the materials so Holly left him in the front entry and went in search of her mom.
In the entryway was a shelf on which rested several ornaments one of which was a large white rabbit. There was another resident in the house, Holly’s solid black Persian cat, Rover (her brothers wanted a dog, but that is another story). This day Rover had decided to sit on the shelf with the white rabbit. I could just see how they would complement each other; a solid white rabbit and a solid black cat, both looking very ornamental.
Holly was having trouble locating her mom so the delivery person was patiently waiting next to the shelf. Right after Holly located her mom, they heard a blood curdling scream from the front entry and a loud exclamation “It’s alive!”. I can just imagine it now, Rover sitting on the shelf real still in her regalness then slowly turning her head to look at the delivery man. That particular delivery man never came back to the house
I have another raccoon story this week. The year we lived in north Austin, we had a cat door installed. We also had a huge cat feeder outside. This feeder would hold a 7 pound bag of feed easily as it was made of a eight inch PVC pipe about four foot long. The bottom end had 2 round holes cut in the side for the cats to slick their head to eat and it had a funnel mounted inside the pipe to funnel the food to the center. There was a floor on the inside to act as a dish. The feeder would only let food out when the food was low in the dish part. Between the free food and the cat door, we did end up collecting stray cats.
However what we did not expect to collect were raccoons.
Several mornings we woke to find the feeder on its side and totally empty. We would stand it up and fill it with another 7 pound bag of food and the next morning find it tipped over totally empty. We started watching to see what was eating all the food. We soon saw raccoons coming up to the feeder. What we thought was weird were that the cats lounging around outside were totally ignoring the raccoons. We would open the door and start barking and the raccoons would take off over the six foot privacy fence. It was only when the raccoons were on the move that the cats would suddenly notice that they were there.
Maybe they just did not want to notice them because if they did they would have to confront them and they did not want a fight, anyway the humans would refill the food dish.
Well, we humans did not have the money to feed all the wildlife in the area so we decided to move the feeder inside. The second night the feeder was inside, I had one of the cats (Callie) in the bedroom, petting on her when her nose when up and she started sniffing alertly. I told my husband something was in the living room. We stepped out and sure enough there were 3 raccoons headed for the cat food. We barked and chased them out. The two other cats lounging around the living room acted like they didn’t know the raccoons were there.
We thought we were through with the raccoons for the night. We went back to the bedroom with Callie and started petting her again. It wasn’t too long before her nose went up again. I told my husband they were back.
We ran back to the living room and chased the raccoons around a bit. They were not very timid creatures, but they finally headed back out the cat door. As the last raccoon was squeezing out, Callie ran up to it and batted it out the door. After that we had to lock the cat door closed at night and bring out a litter box. Luckily we did not stay in that house much longer; we moved and left the raccoons to fend for themselves.
We once live in a mobile home on 68 acres. This home had a sliding glass door in which we installed a cat door. However, for a number of months we had no back deck and on the outside of the sliding glass door, there was a 3 foot drop to the ground. To make the cat door actually usable, we installed a one foot by one foot shelf on the outside of the cat door. The cats had to jump onto the platform to come into the house.
One night we woke up to a bump, bump, bump noise coming from the living room. My husband got up to investigate. I called out “what did you find”? and he showed up at the bedroom door holding a full grown rabbit by the scuff of the neck. It was in good shape and he took it outside, letting it go beyond the yard fence.
The only way we could figure out that the rabbit got in was by Callie. She must have caught the thing, jumped up on the platform and let go of it to shove it through the cat door! That was some feat! She was always amazing us.
Callie was one smart cat. My husband says she had the intelligence of a 3-4 year old child. I have to agree.
Several weeks ago, I mentioned how quickly she learned but she also took the initiative. She saw me opening doors and quickly learned how to jump at the knobs and slide one paw down faster than the other making the door unlatch. She would then either push the door open or reach under the door with a paw and pull it open. The only doors that were safe from her were the heavier latched exterior doors.
Another test of intelligence is the fear factor: very little scared Callie. Most cats run from a vacuum cleaner. Callie would just act annoyed. I remember vacuuming the curtains behind the bed while Callie was on the bed trying to sleep. She kept giving me dirty looks and finally moved when the hose nozzle fell off landing next to her for the second time.
But one event really stands out highlighting her intelligence. I had two closet plants that were not thriving in their new location. Two weeks before I had cleaned out all the dead leaves from one of the plants and I had finally gotten around to cleaning out the second one. I was sitting there pulling dried dead growth from the plant when Callie came in and sat down watching me. She then walked over to the plant that I had worked on two weeks before. She stuck her front paws on the rim and started rustling around in the plant. I was starting to get worried. Had she decided to give up the litter box for more natural surrounding? But no, soon she came up with a dead leaf in her mouth and laid it on the floor close to me. She was either saying “I can do that” or “you missed one,” both fit her personality.
The Cat from Outer Space – Wednesday Animal Story
Posted by: Ann
Callie was from outer space. That is the only explanation. She was the most unusual cat that has ever owned me. Last Wednesday I told how she would get on the roof and back down. I did not tell you about her jump.
You see other cats jump. They make this nice arc in the air and land on a surface. Callie did not arc. She went straight up then over and down with her legs hanging loose under her. It was like she levitated. When she walked, she marched, left, right, left, right, lifting her left side in unison and then the right legs. I always wondered how she managed not to fall over (she probably thought the same about us).
At one point while Callie was with us, we moved out on to 68 acres with a mobile home. About 50 feet behind this house was a barbed wire fence and a lot of scrub and thorny vine growing close to it. One day as I watched, Callie headed toward the brush and disappeared into it. I paced her through the brush although I could not see her. I was wondering where she would come out. Soon she came out about 100 feet down from where she had gone in and I was staring straight at her. I had paced her correctly however now she had a shrew in her mouth! We always joked that she had a refrigerator of shrews back there.
While living in this mobile home we installed a cat door with a small 1foot x 1foot platform outside just large enough for a cat to jump up on and then come in the cat door. One night we awoke to a “thump, thump, thump” coming from the living room. Paul got up to see what was going on. There hopping around the living room was a full grown rabbit and Callie looking smug.
We could not figure out how she had managed to jump (excuse me, levitate) on to the small platform three feet off the ground with a full grown rabbit. I know she had to let go of it to push it through the cat door and that was why it was hopping around the living room. We put the uninjured rabbit back outside past the fenced in yard. Maybe Callie had decided to move her refrigerator into the house.
Callie was an agile, medium sized cat. Barney was a LARGE 18 pounder all bone and muscle and very clumsy. Barney would try and keep up with Callie. I think Callie deliberately lured Barney into places he could not get out of easily. Callie would get on the fence and jump onto the roof. Barney would follow her. Callie would jump down from the fence. Barney would be stuck.
There were a number of times I had to pull Barney off of the roof. I finally decided that Barney had to learn how to get off the roof himself. If he was going to climb up there he could get down just like Callie did. There were a couple of times that Barney came into the house limping after jumping down and I would pull out the hot pad and he would lay his sore back legs on it.
Callie would also jump up on the fireplace mantle walking in and out of the objects up there. Sometimes Barney would follow her and either knock stuff over or manage to fall off himself.
Barney finally came to terms with what he could and could not do. He realized that there were some things that he just could not do.
The lesson from Barney is that we often have to come to terms about our limits. Why do we keep trying to do things that we are not good at when there are many things we are good at. Barney was a great people cat. He loved meeting people and people loved him. Barney exuded personality. If he were a person I would give him a job in public relations or entertainment.
What are your strengths? Are you spending too much time in an area for which you have no natural ability?
I introduced Barney and Callie last week. This week I want to tell a story about Callie.
One evening, about two months after I brought these two home, Callie was sitting on my breakfast room window seat. The window was open with just a screen between her and the world. Outside the window, a stray cat walked by and all of a sudden Callie jumped through the window screen to get to him. It was then that I learned Callie loved a good fight. This incident also scared me, not because my clawless cat wanted to be involved in fighting (hey it was her choice to fight, and no I was not the one who declawed her) but because I had no control after they were out of the house. What if they were about to run into the street? It was time to teach these two their names or more precisely, to come when I called them, especially if they were going to get loose.
I took them both outside with some cat treats. Callie caught on real fast. Barney took more work.
I was so impressed with Callie that I taught her to come, and stay! I could just you hand signals and she obeyed!
Callie had another unusual quark, she loved water. She would even get in the shower with me while I was showering! She also loved drinking out of the sink faucet and would jump up on the vanity in the bathroom whenever the water was running. This became a problem. I had contacts and insisted on a hairless, dander free area as I dealt with them. At first I would use the stay command to tell her she was not welcome, then after dealing with the contacts I would say “come” and she would jump up. There were a few times when I was through with the contacts but had not given the all-clear command and she had jumped up anyway. I also noted a couple of time when I started working on my contacts when she was not in the room, then she would come in and my hands were busy so I was not able to do the hand signal that went with the stay commands, but she would stay grounded until I was through. I started thinking about the whole thing, it was like she was reading my mind. I then noticed that I tensed my back when she came in while I was working my contacts. When I was through my back relaxed. Callie wasn’t reading my mind she was reading my body language and acting appropriately! I was able to stop with the commands altogether and just use my back muscles. She was able to read my energy through my clothing!
Even though Callie was easy to train, there was one battle that Callie finally won involving the top of the refrigerator. I do not allow the cats on any food preparation or serving areas. However Callie loved to be on top of the refrigerator to survey the happenings in the kitchen. But to get there she had to jump to the kitchen counter first. I fought with her on this for several months. We finally came to a compromise. She could only get on the small section next to the refrigerator and only to jump to the top of the refrigerator. This has been the only time I have compromised with one of my cats about one of my hard and fast rules.