A quiet stray cat adopted me and became hard work - help!

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SarahT1 [PLLE]
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Re: A quiet stray cat adopted me and became hard work - help

Post by SarahT1 [PLLE] »

Edgar, our ex stray boy, also eats as if there will never be another meal. He will scoff down anything, but especially interesting to him, of course, is the food the girls are given, even whilst they are in the very act of eating it. He too loves junk food, particularly Sainsbury's salmon chunks in Jelly. He likes good stuff too though, so I just give him junk as a treat now and then - the equivalent of taking the kids to MacDonalds before the footie. He wakes us up in the night for wet food even though there are biscuits down all the time. Like Daz, Edgar put on weight in the first few months with us, but he has levelled out now and looks a fine fellow. We had a session with an animal communicator and her advice was to keep saying to him 'There'll always be enough food' when we feed him or he is asking for more. My OH is very good at it. He says 'There'll always be enough food for Edgar, and for Lou Lou and for Pepsi, and for mummy and daddy. There'll always be food for catties BEFORE mummy and daddy. Mummy always buys lots of foodies for you' etc, etc... It might be worth trying a little dialogue like that with your boy. The animal communicator said it was in Edgar's blood to always be checking up on the availability of food and it would take a while for him to settle down about it given that he lived on the streets for most of his younger years. Now he can hear me open a cupboard in the kitchen from the bottom of the garden!

Sorry for the poor quality photo, but here he is checking out a bag which contained a packet of ham and some diced chicken, all sealed in their packets and then tied up in a plastic bag. He couldn't wait to get to it and by the time I stopped taking pictures he had torn open the plastic bag. Old habits are really hard to die with this lovely boy!
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Crewella
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Re: A quiet stray cat adopted me and became hard work - help

Post by Crewella »

Looks like the lovely Edgar would have made short work of the packaging too! I'm sure Daz thinks food tastes better when it's stolen - he was an urban stray, so also has a weakness for chips, pizza and burgers (he once stole all the pepperoni off our pizza dinner). He will eat pretty much anything - the only time I've seen him turn his nose up at food was when he was ill and I was trying to get him to eat a prescription urinary diet. We've had him 2.5 years.

Arnie, by the sound of it, is doing rather well with his new owner training programme ..... you're coming along nicely! ;)
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Lyn from Australia
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Re: A quiet stray cat adopted me and became hard work - help

Post by Lyn from Australia »

That purr is unreal!! I don't think I've ever heard such a loud one.
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bobbys girl
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Re: A quiet stray cat adopted me and became hard work - help

Post by bobbys girl »

Lyn - you've not heard Tommy! A purr like a little truck (built like one too) :D

Andrew - our Tom likes his MEAT. A real boy, just like your little man. Willow on the other hand has a thing for dairy - ice cream, porridge, yoghurt, custard anything with milk - she gets to lick out my cereal/pud bowl. :roll:
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Re: A quiet stray cat adopted me and became hard work - help

Post by andrewh1973 »

bobbys girl wrote:Lyn - you've not heard Tommy! A purr like a little truck (built like one too) :D

Andrew - our Tom likes his MEAT. A real boy, just like your little man. Willow on the other hand has a thing for dairy - ice cream, porridge, yoghurt, custard anything with milk - she gets to lick out my cereal/pud bowl. :roll:
Ah well he also likes cat milk and, when I make a lasagne, he loves to lick the lid of the white sauce jar!
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bobbys girl
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Re: A quiet stray cat adopted me and became hard work - help

Post by bobbys girl »

A real Garfield then! :lol:
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Re: A quiet stray cat adopted me and became hard work - help

Post by andrewh1973 »

bobbys girl wrote:A real Garfield then! :lol:
Well given that he's done many of his wanderings off on a Monday and seems to be depressed on those days too, I'd say he hates Mondays, so yes, defo a real Garfield though rather more active!

He seems to have learnt a new trick tonight... he's worked out that if he walks slowly his bell collar makes no sound. He can walk with stealth that way without me being able to tell if he's nearby or not!

However, he's currently outside seeing off a new intruder into the car park, a tabby and white we've not seen before, doesn't care how much noise his collar makes while doing that of course!
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andrewh1973
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Re: A quiet stray cat adopted me and became hard work - help

Post by andrewh1973 »

Sorry to dig up this old thread but events this past week lead to it...

I thought I had Arnie's wandering habit sorted. He's not been over to that other place near Weaste since August Bank Holiday and has resolutely showed no signs of wandering much further than the end of the street and constantly nosing around a building site close by (which he really shouldn't be going into!) but exactly a week ago Arnie went for a wander off again at 8:30pm, a wandering gap of 14 weeks.

I found him 1 hour later 1/3rd of a mile away across the other side of the main road here, by a crossroads on a 6 lane dual carriageway no less. Terrified and scared of the cars leaving after the ManU game and likewise of the fans walking by, my neighbour and I spent nearly an hour over there trying to coax him into a box or to come to one of us to pick him up. But he reverted back to scared stray cat mode and refused. He was either going to make it back by walking/running back or not at all. I couldn't leave the little fella to get on with it but by 10pm we were all frozen. Eventually I get him home by walking AWAY from home towards a huge roundabout at the start of a motorway so we can cross the road using the subway there. The little fella was happy, though still scared, to follow me all the way up there and eventually I manage to get an exhausted and nervous Arnie back home.

I thought that was a one off, but this is really freaky/scary/weird/whatever to me. Tonight he's just done exactly the same thing at roughly the same time. I find him at 9:10pm at the same place, wandering around less like a scared stray this time and more like the area is now part of his territory also (has he annexed it now?!). Was the effect of me guiding him back last week simply to teach him a way to get there again safely or is the little fluff-ball still playing chicken with the cars at this busy junction - I have no idea but it worries me! Why is he doing this and why now and, more to the point, why at exactly the same time one week later?! He otherwise hates that main road and most of the time stays well away from it, so I'm finding his behaviour difficult to fathom. It's not the distance I have a problem with really as to be fair 1/3 mile or so isn't that far for a cat is it, but what I can't work out is why he's suddenly going over there when he's got a well established patch here now and of course he's at serious risk of getting killed getting across that road. Any thoughts fellow cat folk please?

At least I managed to get him home unharmed though - he was rolling around on his back on top of a plant in a front garden there, perhaps that is what's attracting him? Maybe I should go back and see what that plant is?! I also fitted one of these:

http://www.loc8tor.com/uk/pets/pets/loc ... -pet.html/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

To his collar after last week's incident. It's absolutely useless for finding him from outside my home when he's over there, he's well out of range but as I walked near the junction it did pick up his signal. I wish there were something with a better range and that worked in real-time against a map that you could set up boundaries on, soon as the cat ventured outside of that zone it triggers an alarm, can you imagine how many people would pay good money for that kind of product, even if sold on a subscription model!?

Edit: Turns out there is going to be such a service launching in January: http://pawtrack.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; I think I should sign up!
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Re: A quiet stray cat adopted me and became hard work - help

Post by AhmedUK »

andrewh1973 wrote:Sorry to dig up this old thread but events this past week lead to it...
I am glad you did - I am sure most people would enjoy the update!

I wasn't here when you posted it before, so quickly skimmed through it right now - interesting read!

I am glad Arnie has someone who is taking care of him, and that GPS tracker seems pretty cool!
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