Living with Cats: All About Attitude

  • Thread starter Ivan Seeking
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In summary, cats are all about attitude and earning their love. They bring in dead animals, but can catch a mouse. They like to play and cuddle, but can be vicious when provoked.
  • #1
Ivan Seeking
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We love cats and we've had quite a few - for me, about ten in total over the last forty years or so. As any cat lover can tell you, living with cats is all about attitude.

I saw that Chroot make a comment about training cats. First of all, you don't train them; they train you. The next piece of advice that I've heard is great: A dog will love just about anyone, but a cat's love must be earned. I think that about sums it up for me. :biggrin:

Oh yes, our biggest problem is dead things. Since we live in the country, the cats bring in all sorts of dead animals; mostly voles, gophers, and moles. However, one night Tsu and I had to sit and listen as the cats drug little bunnies out of their hole, one by one.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=16882"
 
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  • #2
I love cats. My cat was a good cat, she never scratched me nor anyone else. If you would play with her, she would grab you with her claws and bite you, and then proceed to lick you where she bite and clawed you. I have not once met a mean cat. Mean animals are signs of abusive owners that treat them bad. Anyone who doesn’t like cats is a bad person. My cat would love to kill birds. Sometimes she used to sit by the window as a flock of ~100 birds would fly by. She would start meowing out the window in excitement, but it would not be a full meow, it would be more like a, mew, mew mew mew mew mew mememememememememem mew. Dogs are good too. All animals are good. People who don’t like animals are rotten people indeed.
 
  • #3
Sometimes I cuddle my little 15-lb pikachu-like cat and I say. "Oh my goodness, you are such an efficient little killing machine, yes you are.. oh, yes you are.." and she purrs like crazy. It's all a lie, of course. She's too old and slow to catch a 3-legged valium-doped mouse these days, but it makes her feel better.
 
  • #4
From an email I got recently:

>As seen in a dog's diary:
>
> 7 am - Oh boy! A walk! My favorite!
>
> 8 am- Oh boy! Dog food! My favorite!
>
> 9 am- Oh boy! The kids! My favorite!
>
> Noon- Oh boy! The yard! My favorite!
>
> 2 pm- Oh boy! A car ride! My favorite!
>
> 3 pm- Oh boy! The kids! My favorite!
>
> 4 pm- Oh boy! Playing ball! My favorite!
>
> 6 pm- Oh boy! Welcome home Mom! My favorite!
>
> 7 pm- Oh boy! Welcome home Dad! My favorite!
>
> 8 pm- Oh boy! Dog food! My favorite!
>
> 9 pm- Oh boy! Tummy rubs on the couch! My favorite!
>
> 11 pm- Oh boy! Sleeping in my people's bed! My favorite!
>
>
>
>
>
> As seen in a cat's diary:
>
>
>Day 183 of my captivity...
>
>My captors continued to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.
>They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while I am forced to eat dry cereal. The
>only thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape, and the mild
>satisfaction I get from clawing the furniture. Tomorrow I may eat another
>house plant. Today my attempt to kill my captors by weaving around their
>feet While they were walking almost succeeded - must try this at the top of
>the stairs. In an attempt to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I
>once again induced myself to vomit on their favorite chair - must try this
>on their bed.
>
>Decapitated a mouse and brought them the headless body in an attempt To
>make them aware of what I am capable of, and to try to strike fear in their
>hearts. They only cooed and condescended about what a good little cat I
>was. - Hmmm, not working according to plan.
>
>There was some sort of gathering of their accomplices. I was placed in
>solitary throughout the event. However, I could hear the noise and smell
>the food. More important, I overheard that my confinement was due to my
>powers of inducing "allergies."- Must learn what this is and how to use it
>to my advantage.
>
>I am convinced the other captives are flunkies and maybe snitches. The dog
>is routinely released and seems more than happy to return. He is obviously
>a half-wit. The bird, on the other hand, has got to be an informant and
>speaks with them regularly. I am certain he reports my every move. Due to
>his current placement in the metal room, his safety is assured.
>
>But I can wait - it is only a matter of time.
 
  • #5
Tha landlady here doesn't allow pets so I'm reduced to feeding strays. They are all pretty much psychotic and distrust humans, but there's a certain satisfaction in seeing them fatten up and start taking better care of their fur when they've been fed regularly for a few weeks.

I was able to make friends with one grey kitten a couple years back, so I think it was born and raised around people. It got used to coming inside in no time. I put an add in the paper and found it some parents.
 
  • #7
a great video
http://www.grouper.com/GlobalMedia/MediaDetails.aspx?id=24515&st=2&s=7&q=funny_cat_videos [Broken]
 
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  • #8
russ_watters said:
From an email I got recently:
That's pretty funny.
 
  • #9
we have 3 cats and they're all awesome. each one has a very unique personality. duke, our oldest is most mature and owns the place and knows it. he LOOOVES to be pet though and will drool all over you when he's content. if you stop though, he'll flex his claws a little to remind you he's there. he loves attention. Harley is the biggest furball ever. he's huge and fluffy and white. he's active, so we don't know why he's so fat, just loves to eat i guess. he likes to be pet, but not held. i think he's self conscious about his weight and doesn't feel secure. he loves to be around the dogs though. if he's napping 9 time out of 10 its in ceasar's arms. Mo, or moses or mosey as we call her is the little princess of the house. she's the best mouser and a bit of a tomboy. she loves to crawl onto your shoulder and perch there while your rub her body. she's a gorgeous cat and is full of spunk and energy.

most people who don't like cats tend to like ours a lot. ours are trained that they'll come if we call them and.. ya, that's as well as you can train a cat i guess. man, the best is when we bust out the cat nip and let them all play. they go NUTS.
 
  • #10
russ_watters said:
From an email I got recently:

:rofl: Yep, that's why I've always preferred dogs over cats. I'm not really a cat person. They're okay, and I'll play with them if I visit someone else with cats and the cats decide to grace me with their presence, but they just don't thrill me as a pet. Though, I was thinking maybe a pair of guinea pigs would be the best pet for me and my lifestyle. I had guinea pigs as pets when I was a kid, and they were really great pets...all but the one male that was a bit nasty and kept fighting with his brother, so we had to give him away...but once the babies were born and mom explained that BABIES are why I wasn't supposed to let the male and female "play" together, I was better about following the rules and only letting the females out OR the males out at any time, and not letting both out together. There were no more accidental breedings after that. (Note, don't tell a kindergartener not to let their two guinea pigs play together without some explanation of why, or else they will let them play together anyway when mom isn't looking.)
 
  • #11
Cats usually like me even if I don't like them. It's not very often that I don't like cats though.
I have trained two cats just a little bit before. Pretty much they just finally realized that when I wanted them out of the room it was easier to just get up and leave rather than resist.
 
  • #12
I have always had cats and dogs. And the dog and cat thing seems hit or miss, although I notice that our female cats and female dogs seem to get along, but the male dogs and cats have problems. Go figure. :rolleyes:

All of our cats have been strays from the street, except the last one, who we found at the SPCA.

Currently we have two cats (one male, Chester, and one female, Misty) and one dog, a Yorkshire terrier. Chester is orange and white, and he's the one from the SPCA. Misty is grey and white, and I found her under our front porch on Halloween night three years ago. She was a baby kitten, and she was covered in fleas and ticks. So we took her in, cleaned her up, and she's been with us since.

Chester was an abused animal, possibly semi-feral, so he took a while to adapt to us. He likes to nuzzle in the morning and at night. He sleeps by my side at night or occasionally on my chest. When I return from work in the evening or from a long trip, he greets me at the door. In fact, my wife knows I'm almost home because Chester runs to the door while my car is still about a quarter mile down the road! Chester is quite vocal, especially just before breakfast.

Misty is more aloof. She sleeps on my daughter's bed, but occassionally visits us at night, and especially in the morning just before breakfast. She's an excellent hunter, and she brings us lots of gifts. :biggrin:

Sassy, our Yorkie, sleeps on my sons bed. They have become very close. Sassy is also a good hunter and she manages to catch various small rodents, like mice, voles or ground squirrels (like chipmunks).

My wife and I had three cats from our days in graduate school. All three used to sleep with us in bed, especially at winter time. Unfortunately, all three are now gone.

Misty and Sassy are friendly, although Misty turns away if Sassy tries to lick her face. Chester and Sassy are mutual enemies.
 
  • #13
We've had quite a few cats in our time. We picked up a couple of kittens from an animal shelter about 16 years ago, Sandy and Jess they were. Jess ran off at Christmas a couple of years later while Sandy lived to a ripe old age and weight (he got up to 22lbs but then became regional slimmer of the year!) Sandy had the most awesome personality ever.

When Jess left we got Sultan, a half persian, who was a kitten who was going to be put down as he was a stray who used to get fed at a local pub. For some bizarre reason Sultan gets on well with horses...

A couple of years after getting Sultan our next door neighbour died and left us his ageing cat, TC. TC was practically ours anyway seeing as he ate our cats food all the time, and got into our house despite us not having a catflap. Tis a mystery.

At that point we had 3 cats, so required a fourth to make every family member have a pet. So dad went and bought a balinese kitten, called Michishio (Mitch for short). Poor Mitch never could play for long, and we found out he had a dodgy heart. He was diagnosed with two weeks to live and two years later he died aged four.

Balinese cats, like Siamese's are very much people cats, so Dad was heartbroken when Mitch died, vowing he would never have another balinese. Soon after we picked up two balinese cats (sisters), both aged four from a woman who was going into hospital and wouldn't be able to look after them. Both were retards, and had never jumped so climbed up the stairs, and up the sofa's and down the sofa's. They were kitten sized, had never seen a mirror or outside, and had never had to deal with carpets, so kept getting their claws stuck. Mysty and Jasmine provided us with much entertainment. Jasmine died about a year later due to kidney failure. Mysty died a few years after that with the same problem.

Whilst Mysty was still alive, we acquired another balinese called Kiri. And from her we have had 5 kittens. Hana, Hoshi, Kasumi (Sumi for short) Yuri, and Yumi. Yumi died a week after birth. The other kittens are happy being pests. Hana and Yuri are in Gibraltar with mum terrorising the cats there, Hoshi and Sumi are at Dads terrorising Sultan and Kiri.


It's sad that we have such a vast pet cemetary in our garden.
 
  • #14
I don't "have" a cat since my last one left. But my old cat liked to hang around with this homeless cat, which we now feed and it accupies my backyard.
 
  • #15
One of my cats, Moonshadow..a giant Main Coon..goes in my bedroom and shuts the door behind him. And when I peek to see what he's doing..he stops as if he's cought being naughty and gives me a innocent look. And just what is he doing behind closed doors?...sucking on the corner of my pillow!
 
  • #16
russ_watters said:
From an email I got recently:
:rofl: That was great! I'm saving this. :biggrin:
 
  • #17
hypatia said:
One of my cats, Moonshadow..a giant Main Coon..goes in my bedroom and shuts the door behind him. And when I peek to see what he's doing..he stops as if he's cought being naughty and gives me a innocent look. And just what is he doing behind closed doors?...sucking on the corner of my pillow!
Maine Coon's are really cool cats. If I wound up being pressured to get a cat by a spouse or kid someday, I think I'd go with a Maine Coon. My friends had one (just recently had to be put down :frown:...he was quite old) and I just thought he was a neat cat. The first time I saw him, though, I had to ask, "Are you sure it's a cat?" :rofl: He was a really timid cat though, but I seemed to be one of the few visitors to his house he wasn't afraid of, so he would come out to play when I visited.
 
  • #18
hypatia said:
One of my cats, Moonshadow..a giant Main Coon..goes in my bedroom and shuts the door behind him.

That's pretty impressive actually. I've got a cat who opens doors, drawers, etc, but I've never heard of one that shut the door behind him.

I've got 4 myself. I never wanted that many, they just seem to mysteriously multiply. I got the 2nd cat to keep the first one company. Then a girl I knew who was leaving for Iraq asked me to keep her cat whiles she was gone and never came back for him. Finally, I found a 4-week old kitten in the alley behind my house. I was going to give her away, but by the time she was old enough to adopt out I had grown too attached.
 
  • #19
Grogs said:
I've got 4 myself. I never wanted that many, they just seem to mysteriously multiply. I got the 2nd cat to keep the first one company. Then a girl I knew who was leaving for Iraq asked me to keep her cat whiles she was gone and never came back for him. Finally, I found a 4-week old kitten in the alley behind my house. I was going to give her away, but by the time she was old enough to adopt out I had grown too attached.
"One cat just leads to another." - Ernest Hemingway
 
  • #20
My cats would go into the upstairs hall bathroom, shut the door then pull out the drawer in front of the door so that when I would try to open the bathroom door it would hit the side of the drawer and I wouldn't be able to open the door more than two inches. The stupid cat would sit in the drawer.

After scaring the cat out of the drawer, I found that I could slowly inch the drawer shut by inserting the eraser end of a pencil through the small opening and dragging it along the side of the drawer until it closed. After the third time they did this, I permanently duct taped the drawer shut.
 
  • #21
Evo said:
My cats would go into the upstairs hall bathroom, shut the door then pull out the drawer in front of the door so that when I would try to open the bathroom door it would hit the side of the drawer and I wouldn't be able to open the door more than two inches. The stupid cat would sit in the drawer.

After scaring the cat out of the drawer, I found that I could slowly inch the drawer shut by inserting the eraser end of a pencil through the small opening and dragging it along the side of the drawer until it closed. After the third time they did this, I permanently duct taped the drawer shut.
:rofl: That's why we have cabinets with doors instead of drawers.

Both our cats open doors, particular our male cat. He opens the folding closet door by my side of the bed, which is a bit annoying in the middle of night.

Our female though uses her paws like hands. She is the only cat who I've seen turn he paw upside down and try to manipulate something. I have to wonder if cats aren't evolving into more capable and sophisticated creatures. :biggrin:
 
  • #22
Astronuc said:
Our female though uses her paws like hands. She is the only cat who I've seen turn he paw upside down and try to manipulate something. I have to wonder if cats aren't evolving into more capable and sophisticated creatures. :biggrin:
I imagine cyborg cats of the future will have a can opener on the right front paw. Sort of a Swiss Army cat. Then they will no longer need us humans. :frown:
 
  • #23
Math Is Hard said:
I imagine cyborg cats of the future will have a can opener on the right front paw. Sort of a Swiss Army cat.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Russ too; great stuff!
 
  • #24
Meow meow meow meow,...Meow meow meow meow,...Meow meow, meow meow, MEOW, meow meow meow. (someone had to sing it).
 
  • #25
Math Is Hard said:
I imagine cyborg cats of the future will have a can opener on the right front paw. Sort of a Swiss Army cat. Then they will no longer need us humans. :frown:

Nah, I think we're safe until they start getting driver's licenses.

I thought my cat was pretty unusual for opening doors, but it sounds like it's pretty common. If I leave a door pushed to, but not latched, one of my cats will reach a paw in and pull the door open. Any of the other three will just push it shut like they're heading to the Midvale Schoolf for the Gifted.

I've also learned my lesson about naming cats based on what they look like as kittens. 'Tiny' is pushing 20 lbs. these days. Sci-Fi names are bad too. I named one cat 'Thufir' (as in Dune) and neither my vet or my parents can ever remember it. I finally just started calling him 'fluffy.' My mom put the 2 together and started calling him 'fluffer,' at least until I told her what a fluffer was. :rofl:
 
  • #26
Grogs said:
Nah, I think we're safe until they start getting driver's licenses.
Anyone remember Toonces the driving cat from SNL?
 
  • #27
http://www.westom.com/coolsite/toonces.jpg [Broken]

http://www.digitalshapers.com/whataboutcats/mpegs/toonces.mpeg [Broken]


http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/view?&h=105&w=140&type=msmedia&rurl=jerome.besset.free.fr%2Fvideos%2Findex12.htm&vurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjerome.besset.free.fr%2Fvideos%2Ftoonces6.wmv&back=ei%3DUTF-8%26p%3DToonces%26fr%3Dslv1-&turl=re2.mm-so.yimg.com%2Fimage%2F1848582062&name=toonces6.wmv&no=17&tt=22&p=Toonces&oid=7f97cd866566b562&size=1,005.4kB&dur=20 [Broken]

AHAHAHAH cats playing ping pong!
 
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  • #28
I have a cat, and was wondering if a cat's neutering (know the purpose, but not quite sure of its medical details) be "reversed." So that it'll be possible that kittens...he's a little over 5 years old now, but it'll be nice to have a kitten of his genetic make up around.
 
  • #29
Sorry GCT, can't put him back together now. Neutering=castration
 
  • #30
darn, well then, I'll just go for cloning:smile:
 
  • #31
cyrusabdollahi said:
http://www.westom.com/coolsite/toonces.jpg [Broken]

http://www.digitalshapers.com/whataboutcats/mpegs/toonces.mpeg [Broken]


http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/view?&h=105&w=140&type=msmedia&rurl=jerome.besset.free.fr%2Fvideos%2Findex12.htm&vurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjerome.besset.free.fr%2Fvideos%2Ftoonces6.wmv&back=ei%3DUTF-8%26p%3DToonces%26fr%3Dslv1-&turl=re2.mm-so.yimg.com%2Fimage%2F1848582062&name=toonces6.wmv&no=17&tt=22&p=Toonces&oid=7f97cd866566b562&size=1,005.4kB&dur=20 [Broken]

AHAHAHAH cats playing ping pong!
I can't wait to look at the links, I don't dare at work, they're probably blocked.
 
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  • #32
Does your cat talk to you? Our little buddy Einstein says hello with a dinstinctive "meh", when he hasn't seen us in a while, and he gives us each a peck [actually a tooth drag] on the forehead when he comes to bed.
 
  • #33
Foofer has this ritual that is now repeated by his siblings. He approaches me, bows his head down, and extends his left paw to touch my lips. They all do this like some sort of homage. It's really weird. They do this whenever they meet me. They keep their heads bowed until after they touch my lips.
 
  • #34
Toonces fans have to go here http://www.catass.com/toonces/ [Broken]

Check out "Toonces without a cause" and "The Tooncinator".
 
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  • #35
Both of my guys, Elvis and Wyatt come when you call them. They are incredibly smart...when they feel like proving it to you.
 
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