Pets

[random axe]

My brother and SIL have four cats at the moment, and three of them eat the gravy-and-bits and practically the bowls as well.  The fourth one doesn't eat canned food of any kind, although he'll eat almost anything if it's from your plate.

This cat is the first one I've had who got canned food on a regular basis, so my history with that issue doesn't go back all that far. 

[pdrake]

i've found that dachshunds eat anything. and as much of it as available.

she had weird mammal bacteria in her stool from eating feral cat poop.

[Talix]

Bo has picked a new place to pee - in the corner of the bedroom, by the closet and the clothes hamper.



I figured out that it's as close as he can get to wear he used to pee in the other room (where he'd still pee if we didn't keep the door closed).  I sprayed it with the stuff that's supposed to tell cats "Don't pee here", and he did it while we were in bed but after we were awake and could hear him.

I think it's a behavior thing and not a health thing, because he seems to be committed to that general area, except there were those incidents with the mats in the bathroom and by the back door.  He's never been put off by changing litter in the past and I've been making an effort to keep the box as clean as possible.

We're going to the vet to see if his kidneys have declined further.  These are the options I can see:

- Keep a towel (changed FREQUENTLY) or a litterbox in the bedroom
- Keep him locked in a closed room with his food, water, and litterbox when no one's home to watch him
  (Bathroom is very small; front room would need a door between it and the living room)
- Get a big crate to keep him in with the food, water, and litterbox
- Send him to the home - the place where Mom volunteers is a shelter where adult cats can live out their natural lives if they're never adopted.  I'm pretty sure he'd hate that.
- The Option Which Shall Not Be Named

Is there anything obvious I'm missing?  I spent part of the morning before I came to work crying and playing with him; my mind is certainly not at its objective best.

[mybabysmomma]

what if  you put the litterbox where he's peeing?

[Sidious]

Another tactic that sometimes works (with behavioral urination, not medical) is to put the cat's food dish where he's been peeing.  It can break the pattern that cats can get stuck in when they start repeat-offending in the same location.

[Talix]

I don't want to confuse him (he's old) by taking the litterbox away from where it's always been; I am considering putting another box in the bedroom (even though I really don't want one there; I'll have to move it to get into one side of my closet, not to mention smell and litter scattered on the bedroom carpet).

[Talix]

Another tactic that sometimes works (with behavioral urination, not medical) is to put the cat's food dish where he's been peeing.  It can break the pattern that cats can get stuck in when they start repeat-offending in the same location.

Easy enough to try!

[Sidious]

Sometimes they just pick a different spot, but sometimes they stop entirely.

Unfortunately, I have lots and lots and lots of experience with this.   

[feffer]

Our peeing problem is still going on.  Argh.  We got the Feliway spray, which didn't do anything for her.  We got a pheromone collar.  Meh.  We can't even shove the kitty Prozac down her throat.  She pees on coats and clothes.  It seems like this would be an easy fix - don't put that stuff on the floor!  Easier said than done.

[Talix]

I've got the Feliway too, Feff, and I'm pretty sure Bo peed on it while it was still wet.  Bo started off as a clothes peer, and V could never manage to live without clothing on the floor, so he came with me when I moved.  He peed on a couple of things on the floor but has been really good for years. This is by far the worst he's been with me.  I don't mind working around it - he is my boy - but I don't want to drive the Landscaper crazy.  He's a dog guy, though he and Bo are in love with each other.

[the other andrea]

A (belated) Christmas Cat story (a few details are missing, because this was related to me by my mother):

A lifelong friend of mine has a cranky male cat -- big, orange, neutered (we will call him BOC, but he is not related to the O. BOC).  He'd been acting up the week prior to Christmas, running around the house like a madman, and was constantly hungry.

This of course began to worry my friend, who made a mental note to take him to the vet the week after Christmas.

Well, on Christmas day, he came in the house with -- a kitten in his mouth. A live kitten.

So she immediately went outside to see where the kitten came from, male cat at her heels. Eventually, in some sort of outdoor hidey-hole, she found... a mom kitten with a broken leg -- and two other kittens.  One was dead, but one was alive.

So she took the mama cat and two living kittens to the emergency vet, where they were treated, and who were all doing fine, under the circumstances.

Now what is exceptional about this tale is that they noticed that the mama cat wasn't completely starving; in fact, there were dried up bits of canned cat food smeared around and on her when my friend found her -- and during the previous week, she had noticed the BOC had also, while acting as though he was starving, had canned cat food on him, around his mouth and head, and had been making a mess of his food dish as well.

These clues led her and the vet to deduce that the BOC had been bringing his food to the mama cat.

So the end story is is that the vet has a program where they split the cost of care for injured/abandoned animals with the person who brings them in, and also will help with adoption. In this case, a lady promptly adopted not only the kittens, but mama cat as well.

I told this story to Steve, who got teary eyed, as he will at these kinds of stories. I said, "See?  All cats aren't selfish."  To which he replied, "Wow, that cat almost acted like a... dog would." 

[random axe]

[mo]

 

Great story

[mybabysmomma]

That is a great story, but I'm not really surprised.  Cats are not the selfish people they are made out to be.  They just don't care about unimportant stuff.

On another note, my lab/shepherd mix brought me a fur coat yesterday.
Well, it was somebody's hide and it was still moist but I guess it's the thought that counts. (she also brought me the head but that was a little too not attached to a live body for me.)

[stormneedle]

Sweet story, TOA. And a relatively happy ending.

If it's the thought that counts, it's a good thing MBM. But, ewwww.