The Snook and I want a cat. Unfortunately I haven’t had one since I was little and the Snook’s only familiar with outdoor farm cats, so this morning I headed to the bookstore to buy a cat owner’s manual. I stood there looking through the pet section for ages. There were lots of books on dogs, lots on fish, several on birds, several on random pets like ferrets and bunnies, but only a tiny handful on cats. It amused me to see “Dogs for Dummies” and “The Idiot’s Guide to Budgies” and “Rabbits for Dummies” and “The Idiot’s Guide to Sharks”, while there wasn’t a single “Dummy” book in the cat section. I take this to mean that cat owners are just naturally more intelligent. Anyway, I got one and we’re reading through it. Cat ownership, here we come!
amy
February 29, 2004 — 12:53 pm
yeah for fur babies! You know how much I love Sparky. I’ve got heaps of books on kitties I can lend ya. I’ve got lots of recipes for healthy cat food too.
What kind of cat are you thinking of getting?
oh, oh, and you can go to the Easter Show and see the cat show.
Kris
February 29, 2004 — 2:25 pm
We looked through the various breeds but none particularly attracted us, so I think we’re just going to rescue a nice moggie from the Cat Protection Society. I wanted a kitten initially but now I’m thinking it might be easier to start out with a slightly older cat that won’t freak out when we leave him at home during the day. My only worry right now is about him climbing the bookcases and stuff (and potentially pulling them over). Is it just a case of training them to stay off certain furniture? My book recommends using a water pistol for training purposes, so that’s probably what we’ll try.
Any advice for first time cat owners? We’re definitely going to get him a bed and a scratching post, and hopefully one of those magic self-raking litterboxes everyone recommends. But where should we put the box? We’re thinking either in the laundry or the guest bathroom. Kitty needs his privacy.
Beau
February 29, 2004 — 4:06 pm
The best thing we ever did with our new baby kitties was to make sure and hold each one for 20 minutes, petting and cooing over them. Jeff had read that somewhere and I SWEAR, we have amazing cats for doing it. Of course, we also yanked out there claws because while we’re animal lovers we also love our expensive sofa and something’s gotta give.
Trust that your cat(s) are so much smarter than you that while yes, they will get into trouble and probably climb up the bookcase, the myth of their nine lives isn’t so bogus.
You’re gonna LOVE cats.
Beau
February 29, 2004 — 4:08 pm
‘their claws’ not ‘there claws’. I’ll have a certain Auburn English Prof thrashing on the floor like an epileptic if I don’t register a correction of that magnitude.
Kris
February 29, 2004 — 4:52 pm
I don’t think they declaw here, Beau. I asked the woman at the pet store about it and you’d have thought I’d suggested eating babies or something. “That’s just the cruelest, most inhumane thing I’ve ever…” she spluttered. I apologized profusely. What do I know? I just want to get the security deposit on the apartment back.
amy
February 29, 2004 — 5:46 pm
yeah, it isn’t exactly legal to I mean declaw cats here. Hence the evil eye from the pet store owner. Personally, I feel that if you don’t want an animal with claws get a fish. But I digress….
As for the bookcase thing. Just make sure they are weighted well (heavy stuff on the bottom) and you should be OK. Most of your stuff is the sturdy IKEA kind anyway so you should be fine. If you can find the book ‘The Cat’s Mind: Understanding Your Cat’s Behavior’ by Bruce Fogle. It might be out of print but I know my library has a copy. It is amazing!
And you know to put all of your knitting woll away right? If he or she swallows it it can wrap around his/her intestines and cause death. scary, huh?
And on the spray bottle as dicipline thing…add a BUNCH of vinegar to the water. cats HATE vinegar. they learn very quickly. Oh, and double sided tape stuck where you don’t want pussy to go does a heck of a job.
more later.
robert
February 29, 2004 — 7:01 pm
one of us, one of us… š
i cannot wait to see web-goddess become the home of proud mama photos and kitty posts!
and yes, declawing is truly terrible… cats need their claws! especially if you are going to let them outside the house.
doublesided tape is good, but mina actually started to like playing with it for some strange reason!
Kris
February 29, 2004 — 11:10 pm
I don’t think our kitty will be leaving the house at all. (We’re not technically supposed to have one anyway. Shhh!)
WeeB
March 1, 2004 — 7:05 am
Good luck with the cat! I like em but am allergic to them too š
Pity since my stepmum is a cat addict and has four back in Glasgow. Gotta get dosed up with allergy medicine before I go back to the Motherland.
meow!
rdh
March 2, 2004 — 12:50 am
Cats huh????? Well if ya want I will be glad to ship ya one, heck I’ll even ship ya two and I’ll pay for it, ya cant get a better deal than that. Now if I can just catch em, seems they run whenever I come into the room, for the life of me I cant understand why. Oh well…
Kris
March 2, 2004 — 9:16 am
Trust me, Dad, this is not the place to discuss your life-long antipathy towards cats. The cat lovers in here will tear you a new one…
brigita
March 2, 2004 — 9:40 am
dogz rule ‘n catz drool!
:::wink:::