Herd your cats here

[Ruralguy]

All this stuff about cute cats makes me fell like a bad person for not wanting a new critter after the last of our 4 cats leaves the planet. We are down to the sole  survivor, almost 15 and the only cat that has never been ill.

[Thursday's_Child]

Congratulations, Puget!  That "behaviorist" sounds like a nightmare.

Ruralguy, don't beat yourself up about not wanting another animal.  You've done your share of being a good provider - you can take a break without guilt.  I've often felt the same but haven't made the transition yet.  Not having pets makes things like travel so much easier.  It keeps you from worrying about what could happen to them if something unexpected happened to you.  Etc.

[Puget]

Congratulations, Puget!  That "behaviorist" sounds like a nightmare.

I'm sure she's well-intentioned and I can imagine something like that being necessary for introducing two adult cats who are strangers, but these are kitten sibs who just spent a little time apart. I may study humans and not animals, but it seemed pretty obvious to me that prolonging the separation and having them establish their own territories in the new house was the wrong way to go.

Right now they're sharing a chair and he's washing her head.

[OneMoreYear]

Right now they're sharing a chair and he's washing her head.
[/quote]

Squee!  Kittens! Kittens cuddling with eachother are the best.  When we adopted Ninja and Ricochet-the-Squirrelly-Tortie as litter mates 4 years ago, they played together constantly and slept curled up together (my favorite picture is of them attempting to demonstrate the yin-yang symbol in a laundry basket), but now they mostly ignore each other. 

We would like to add another kitty to the household now that we own rather than rent, but Ricochet has not yet figured out human-feline interactions, and we are concerned another cat may disrupt her slow progress.  We think Ninja would likely ignore a newcomer as long as they agreed that she is queen.

[FishProf]

We finally got a 3rd cat to help fill the void since Bunga the King passed in February.  So the Thundercat sisters now have a little brother (but not little for long, he part coon).  They are highly displeased, but are avoiding rather than attacking.  I can work with that.

Joy to all the new cat owners as well.

[Thursday's_Child]

All these new kitties made me dream about adding another to my household.  Until, that is, I realized that I have quite enough excitement already.

Recent examples include:  older cat stalking a squirrel across two neighbors' yards and then chasing it into the street; younger cat figuring out how to leap onto the top of the tall bookcase in order to lean down and swat two rolls of garden twine off of the top-most shelf - where I'd put them to keep them out of her reach b/c she's already had to be saved from choking on dental floss; frantically trying to find older cat this morning after three large husky-shepherd mixes managed to get out and take themselves for a run around the neighborhood; tripping over younger cat in the middle of the hall at night b/c she either doesn't seem able to learn to move away from feet or is actively trying to wind around them.

Nope - I think it's best if I just vicariously enjoy the new Fora cats!

[Parasaurolophus]

My partner's friend's two cats were poisoned with antifreeze. Both died today. It seems highly likely her neighbour did it--at least in part because they leave paw prints on the car after it's been washed.

It makes me so. Angry. Like, apoplectic with rage. I just can't even.

[Thursday's_Child]

My partner's friend's two cats were poisoned with antifreeze. Both died today. It seems highly likely her neighbour did it--at least in part because they leave paw prints on the car after it's been washed.

It makes me so. Angry. Like, apoplectic with rage. I just can't even.

I have no words - people like that are a waste of oxygen.  A police report needs to be made and all the neighbors interviewed.  Even if proof can't be found it starts to build a paper trail and may stop the behavior b/c if they get away with it once, they'll do it again.

[backatit]

We are fostering 3 kittens. UGH. We have a full house already. Fish_Prof, we would have been happy to have you take one of these little daemons off our hands - one just climbed up my leg (note that I am not wearing long pants) and onto my shoulder. They have been through diarrhea, constipation, diarrhea again, and are now hopefully out of THAT bottlefeeding fun part (they are weaned and using the litterbox -yeah!). I am ready to have them gone, though - I forget how much I love our adult cats. Our daughter (who lives in another state) has a teenage cat and she is constantly cackling to me about the kittens - hers is into curtains and cords these days, so her house looks like an overactive toddler with a a climbing problem lives there.

When will it end? (rhetorical question - I've fostered animals and had cats and dogs my whole life, but I can clearly tell I'm getting too old for this ish).

[FishProf]

Thanks.  But we managed to find a beautiful (if shy) purr machine.

[mamselle]

My partner's friend's two cats were poisoned with antifreeze. Both died today. It seems highly likely her neighbour did it--at least in part because they leave paw prints on the car after it's been washed.

It makes me so. Angry. Like, apoplectic with rage. I just can't even.

I have no words - people like that are a waste of oxygen.  A police report needs to be made and all the neighbors interviewed.  Even if proof can't be found it starts to build a paper trail and may stop the behavior b/c if they get away with it once, they'll do it again.

I agree. Report it.

Condolences to your friends and their neighbors. The loss of smallfurryfriends over a few pawprints on a car is beyond reckoning.

M.

[statsgeek]

Chime to condolences and anger and I hope the person who did that pays the price. 

I'm fighting tears this morning because things are not looking good for StatDad's kitty (my furry little "sister").  Never lived with her full-time, but I still love her like one of my own.  And I'm a 4 hour drive away and won't even get to say goodbye or be there for StatDad. 

[Parasaurolophus]

Chime to condolences and anger and I hope the person who did that pays the price. 

I'm fighting tears this morning because things are not looking good for StatDad's kitty (my furry little "sister").  Never lived with her full-time, but I still love her like one of my own.  And I'm a 4 hour drive away and won't even get to say goodbye or be there for StatDad.

Oh no, I'm so sorry. :(

[Scatmanblues]

Wow, I almost missed the transition to this place entirely.  Knew it was coming, but got so busy I am just now checking back in.  I think it fitting my first post here is about the cat that inspired me to make my first post on the old fora so many years ago.

I'm sad to report that I lost Scatcat a bit over a month ago at 19yrs, 10 months old.  He almost made it to 20 after a kittenhood licking of antifreeze that left his stomach so sensitive I had to buy him special food for 18 years (15 years longer than his vet thought he would make it with that kind of internal damage).  By the end he was totally deaf, mostly blind, visibly slow, but still able to strike fear and cowering in my two 80+ pound dogs.  He passed in his sleep, in one of his favorite spots, while the dogs were at the kennel and I was out of town.  I am so thankful I didn't have to make the choice, and it was fully in line with his "I will do things only on my terms" life. 

I got him less than a week before I began my professional career, and he had been with me through a public school teaching gig, a toxic grad school culture, an almost equally toxic early-faculty experience, and now into my post-tenure stride.  It was a severely disconcerting feeling to walk into the office on the Monday after and realize for the very first time as an academic, he would not be greeting me at the door that night when I came home. 

I still don't sleep as well, because -from the day I got him- he slept at my head.  That is an absence acutely felt. 

Strikingly, Scatkitty (who is now almost 9!) has turned into a completely different cat.  Where before, he barely tolerated petting and scritches and preferred roughhouse play with me and the dogs (he weighs 21 pounds, so can hold his own); he now jumps into my lap every night and purrs.  He still gets the zoomies and is a high-energy cat, but since Scatcat passed, he spends at least 30 minutes a night laying on me and demanding pets and attention.  He also stays in much closer proximity to me that he used to.  He has even moved from sleeping at my feet at night to laying behind me near my shoulder. 

I'm still trying to decide if I want another cat.  I thought so, but the shift in Scatkitty's behavior threw me for a loop and I'm trying to decide if it means he is liking being an only cat and enjoys the undivided attention, or it he is showing his loneliness as well.  Every cat I've owned has found me, so I'm sure the universe will arrange a replacement when the time is right....

Scatmanblues

[Parasaurolophus]

I'm so sorry, Scatmanblues. But that's also a wonderful and heart-warming story (the antifreeze component is especially apt).