On Cats

[doilum]

One of my daughter's running friends has a young small cat. They also have a large healthy rat now resident somewhere in the house. Their cctv caught the moment when cat brought rat through the the flap and then sat down and watched it munch it's way through the bowl of cat biscuits. Some chaos and collateral damage ensued before professional help was sought. Rat remains free and this story may run for some.time...

 

 

 

 

[Tim Dubya]

6 minutes ago, doilum said:

One of my daughter's running friends has a young small cat. They also have a large healthy rat now resident somewhere in the house. Their cctv caught the moment when cat brought rat through the the flap and then sat down and watched it munch it's way through the bowl of cat biscuits. Some chaos and collateral damage ensued before professional help was sought. Rat remains free and this story may run for some.time...

 

 

 

 

 

Friends of mine took a week to catch a similar visitor (in quite a serious looking trap).  George, their kitty, doesn't bother offing rats anymore and does exactly the same... bless!

 

A major clean up resulted after the visit, they are rather smelly visitors, them rats.

 

 

[Dagworth]

Jessica and I have come to an agreement.

She wont claw my ankles if I don't stand on her tail.

 

Fortunately I don't wear shoes indoors so no harm done (to her, my ankle not so good!)

 

Andi

[Il Grifone]

We could lend out Rowena to deal with a rat problem (see my earlier post). Unfortunately distance precludes this solution.

[JZ]

[Porkscratching]

A place I worked had a brilliant rat killer cat, a skinny black and white one that just "turned up" and became a regular inhabitant. 

I watched him once in one of the shabby old 19th cent buildings, he was staring at a 3 or 4 inch hole in the wall where a pipe had been (the walls were about 18 ins thick), he suddenly shoved his arm in the hole, right up to the armpit, wriggled about a bit, and pulled out a huge rat from the depths of this aperture.. I was stunned at such an incredible and impressive piece of handballing.. He trotted off past me with this thing wriggling & hollering in his jaws, to despatch at his leisure no doubt. 

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Porkscratching said:

shoved his arm in the hole, right up to the armpit, 

 

Arm?

[Porkscratching]

31 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Arm?

Front leg most effectively used as an arm.. Ye know what I mean! 😁

[franciswilliamwebb]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Arm?

 

Try giving one a pill.  There's not the slightest doubt the beggars are armed!

[Porkscratching]

1 minute ago, franciswilliamwebb said:

 

Try giving one a pill.  There's not the slightest doubt the beggars are armed!

I tried one of those plastic pill popper tool things on one of ours, he just bit the end off the device and spat the whole lot out.. Then just scowled at me. 

[J. S. Bach]

I never had a bit of a problem giving Whitefur a pill. I suspect that she knew that it was fer own good.

[didcot]

Try getting drops into their eyes!

 

Max has cottoned on that when we have two small bottles in our hands that they are meant for him.

 

Poor chap is in the vets at the moment for tooth extractions, X Ray's and blood tests. Hopefully he will feel better. I doubt we will given the estimated bill. 

[Michael Hodgson]

2 hours ago, didcot said:

Try getting drops into their eyes!

 

Max has cottoned on that when we have two small bottles in our hands that they are meant for him.

 

Poor chap is in the vets at the moment for tooth extractions, X Ray's and blood tests. Hopefully he will feel better. I doubt we will given the estimated bill. 

 

Well you can't blame them.

They had as much trouble putting drops in my eyes when I had to go for a diabetic eye test the other day!

And don't get me started on dentists - I've got an appointment tomorrow.

[didcot]

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Well you can't blame them.

I must admit Max is a lot easier to give medication too than our youngest Son used to be.

First we had to catch him and then it took two of us to give him the injection followed by vomiting as he was so worked up. Even as a young teenager he would be sick. Fortunately he's been of the medication for about 2 years and as he is 16 next month its onto the adolescent clinic. Then it will be down to him.

[Il Grifone]

I've just found this which I prepared some time ago (July!), but seem not to have posted....

 

Currently I'm in Airstrip One the UK and my Daughter rang this morning from Italy. Apparently Freya, our latest rescue kitten*, has been out on the town celebrating her first season, but shot inside as soon as the door was opened. Dylan and Whiskers (both rescues too) are showing great interest, despite both having
been attended to (as above)....

*She and Sofia, who we think is her mum, have been coming for food for some time and had decided to take up permanent residence in the shelter we threw together for them on the front terrace. Both objected stenuously when we grabbed them and brought them in, but soon decided that perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea after all. They soon got the idea of kitchen = food three times a day and present themselves along with the other cats, who have accepted them as family without any problems. (We are pretty sure Whiskers and Dylan ARE family!*)
Litter trays and the food ritual were learnt at once - fill bowl with food / call cat's name / present cat with bowl! (It doesn't always work, but usually they start scoffing at once. Maurice and Whiskers are not above finishing off any off any (unlikely) leftovers. The dogs, Lewis and Arran, are not above this trick either.

Whiskers arrived a while ago and took up residence on our front doorstep. Dylan (then a small kitten) appeared not long afterwards with him (we thought Whiskers was his mum at first), then disappeared again.
A day or two later he was back and shot indoors as soon as we opened the door closely followed by Whiskers.
We soon found out that Whiskers couldn't be his mum, but is possibly his dad!

Whiskers has taken up the habit of coming on walks with us and Lewis. One morning he had an altercation with another cat and came and called back Lewis. "Allora?/You were saying?" The other cat suddenly remembered an important appointment elsewhere. (I doubt Lewis would have done anything, (too much effort!), but just the presence of 30kg of white Maremmano sheepdog was sufficient.)

 

Since then Sofia has crossed the Rainbow Bridge due to a severe respiratory infection, probably resulting from her days on the streets, but all the others are fine. Whiskers is now my lapcat and insists on coming on walkies with the dogs or possibly with me as even if he misses the dogs he stiill expects his walk.

The puppies' Mum (she has been seen to and no more puppies) and Dad now hang out nearby and, while the dogs would soon sort them out (they usually just ignore their barking!), I would rather avoid risking the cat.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Il Grifone

[didcot]

 

Bruised and battered, like my wallet, Max is back home minus all but two teeth. He is camping in my eldest's room where he can have a soft diet unmolested by the rest of the cats.

[JZ]

[Il Grifone]

This morning, while I was having my morning livesaver coffee, Whiskers came to climb on my lap, but was very upset to find guest-cat Hilary already in residence. Luckily there was room for them both!

 

P.S.

He has just come back following our morning walk. The weather has turned chilly! (circa 10 degrees C)

[Harlequin]

Everyone, meet "Laddie":

 

He's an Abyssinian of uncertain origins. He has the golden sandy colour with ticking of a "usual" but also some stripes that suggest there's a bit of tabby in him.

 

He's very friendly and talkative but he's a big unit and he lived on the mean streets of Cardiff for a few months. You can see he's the sort of cat who can look after himself.

 

I can't call him "Laddie" forever, though. He needs a suitable name. "Jones"? "Ponsonby"? "Taffy"? "Denzil"? Maybe something more leonine? Any good suggestions?

 

[franciswilliamwebb]

6 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

I can't call him "Laddie" forever, though.

 

Why not? If it was good enough for Terry Pratchett in "Moving Pictures" than it's good enough for me 😉

[JZ]

23 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

Everyone, meet "Laddie":

 

I can't call him "Laddie" forever, though. He needs a suitable name. "Jones"? "Ponsonby"? "Taffy"? "Denzil"? Maybe something more leonine? Any good suggestions?

 

When I got my tabby, the kids decided to call him Kitt, because he was a kitten. I argued against it, so now, 13 years later, he is Kitt the Cat.

[bbishop]

28 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

Everyone, meet "Laddie":

 

He's an Abyssinian of uncertain origins. He has the golden sandy colour with ticking of a "usual" but also some stripes that suggest there's a bit of tabby in him.

 

He's very friendly and talkative but he's a big unit and he lived on the mean streets of Cardiff for a few months. You can see he's the sort of cat who can look after himself.

 

I can't call him "Laddie" forever, though. He needs a suitable name. "Jones"? "Ponsonby"? "Taffy"? "Denzil"? Maybe something more leonine? Any good suggestions?

 

He looks remarkably like our Abyssinian cross, of over 50 years ago.  Mum "got out".  He was a very good hunter and very good at "training" puppies.  His name was Timmy.

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, Harlequin said:

I can't call him "Laddie" forever, though. He needs a suitable name. "Jones"? "Ponsonby"? "Taffy"? "Denzil"? Maybe something more leonine? Any good suggestions?

 

 

Fluffy ?

[didcot]

Ivor!

[didcot]

Called our tabby Pepper as it seemed to be her colour.