Cat Chat Feline Forum

This thread made me litter-ally laugh out loud.

As for our ability to cope, it is the randomness of it that is our main problem, if we knew we were going to get serious snow each year people would be more prepared. It isn't only the council that isn't willing to spend the money, how many people actually change to proper winter tyres or have snow...

And I've known cats who begged for and stole chocolate and spring onions ... :o A long time ago, when I didn't have cats of my own, I looked after a friend's cat in my flat for a couple of weeks while she was away. She was a bit worried because he was on daily pills at the time, but I practised wit...

My cats aren't very toy-motivated, and get bored quickly, but I find it helps not to give them all their toys at once. Every so often I collect up what's lying on the floor, and put down another set that they haven't seen for a while.

I'm not an expert, but until someone more experience chips in, I'd say that I wouldn't try to limit what a young kitten eats; I'd let them have as much as they want. They are doing a lot of growing. I understand you don't want them demanding food at random times. But could you try putting a bit more...

They don’t like being picked up so would struggle being pushed through When I adopted an adult cat who didn't seem to understand about cat flaps, I started by opening it for him, so he learned it was a doorway. Then to get him to open it himself, I'd sit him in front of it, take hold of both his fr...

Lilith wrote:Suddenly she could bear it no more - and leapt. And landed on the pasted paper and GLIDED gracefully along it until she fell off the end of the table!

I just decided to play safe and use a guard that would keep them away from it. Since the firebox of my stove is raised up, the cat-high bottom part doesn't get dangerously hot. But I had horrific visions of one of them jumping on to the top to see what the view was like...

I adopted a pair of 6-year-old cats, long-term friends. Six months later, one had to be pts for cancer. I thought that the survivor, Rocky, would be better for another cat around the place, and a couple of months after his pal died, I brought home a 3-month kitten, Ria. He didn't take to her, and av...

I agree with Kay. My garden is an irregular shape and cat-proofing the whole thing would be difficult. But with fence posts and netting, I constructed (well, paid someone to construct :) ) a 10 ft by 30ft pen for my cats. They can't go further and get lost, other cats can't get at them, and the peac...

I tried using the door on a covered tray once. The cat I had at the time was just getting used to it, when the door caught her tail, and that put her off that tray completely. So I took the door off, and I haven't used a door on a covered tray since then.

About 4-6 inches of snow here. My cat enclosure is about one-third of my garden. The bird feeder is in the remaining bit, so the cats can't get at the birds, but treat them as TV, something interesting to watch. Older, sensible Rocky tends to do his watching from the house, through a window. (Althou...

BTW Bree was also the name of the horse in CS Lewis's 'The Horse and his Boy'. Oh yes, I'd forgotten Bree from Narnia! (And that Bree would not forgive me - he had a high sense of his own importance!) I once called out ' hi there Fatty, how's it hanging?' Lines from a song in Andrew Lloyd Webber's ...

:D :D I didn't know that, wait till I tell my wife, she didn't like Lotr :D :D Not everybody does; I have no problem with that. I can see that that sort of fantasy won't be to everyone's taste. (And there aren't any cat characters! :D Although some named dogs and horses.) I know the books very well...

lazarus wrote: TBH my wife wanted Barley for the ginger white, I immediately thought of a nearby pub called The Barley Bree so I got to name the female kitten

Fair enough. Still a pub connection in LotR - a village called Bree, and the local landlord is known as Barley.

I was possibly thinking intersex. Well, that was my thought when I read your post. He's showing one testicle - might he be concealing an ovary? Hermaphrodites are rare in any species, but it's possible. Do you know TS Eliot's poem about "Magical Mr Mistoffelees," the original conjuring ca...

I'm going back 10 years or so, so my experience is probably out of date for current models. But just in case... I had 2 cats, one ate fast, the other grazed. So the fast eater would finish the slow eater's food. My solution was to feed the slow eater in a crate fitted with a PetPorte microchip flap....

lazarus wrote:Introducing the new kitties.

They are gorgeous!
Barley and Bree - I can think of a Lord of the Rings connection. Or did the names come from somewhere else?

Found this video of a cat that sits on a horse. I'm wary of videos that intentionally put animals into "cute" situations, but in this case I don't think either of the subjects was distressed - although on balance, I think the cat would have preferred the horse to remain a static "warm...

Lilith wrote:(Did I catch a sniggering meww?)

What about fitting your bathroom doors with cabin hooks, so that the door can be secured from the inside, but leaving about a 6-inch gap. This should give adequate privacy for you and your roommate, but would allow the cat to come in and join you if she wants to.

fjm, Sophy sounds a real gem.

Bobbys girl, I believe most humans who have to look after kittens resort to baby wipes...

(won't put salt down where paws can reach it unless things get very bad) :) I have some rubber "litter mats," supposed to trap litter from cat paws as they step out of the tray. I bought them when I was trying some lightweight organic clumping litter, but I gave up on that because the stu...

That's an interesting thought, Antonio. Maybe Lacox could try putting on plastic gloves and rubbing a handful of garden soil over the cat, or something else that would smell "natural," without being offensive to humans. I've seen a wildlife rescue programme where, if the rescuers have to h...

My cats don't react very much to cat noises on the TV, although Rocky did take a bit of notice of this one. Dumfries has had snow on the ground for the last two days; not very deep, but you need to watch your footing. An event I had planned for yesterday was cancelled this week because the organiser...

I know you can get powered litter trays that automatically rake out the faeces after the cat leaves. This would only help if your cat leaves the litter tray for a while before going back to it. If she deposits and immediately starts playing with it, it wouldn't solve the problem. I did a couple of s...

Interesting behaviour caught on camera. Thanks for the link.

alanc wrote:Well, I think you should have stuck with good wholesome books like Swallows and Amazons!

With a dad who thinks his children would be "Better drowned than duffers."!

Thanks, Lilith. I'm not very impressed with the show-off snake keeper in the film, but I appreciate the info. The other thing about the snake in the Sherlock story is that it was fed with a saucer of milk. ?? I don't know if a snake would drink that or not, but it's hardly a natural food for a repti...

Yes, "The Musgrave Ritual." I noticed that too! If you're going to write stories about a super-smart detective, you need an editor to check your facts more carefully!