Durned PetsMart

[JagFarlane]

-sigh- So, with the two cats in the house not being allowed outside till Josh returns, of course, their claws have grown. So, today I found myself at the local Petsmart, perusing their claw trimmers, and a good cat scratcher, eventually finding both. Problem was, right next to the cat dept, is the little section where they keep cats up for adoption. And they had a pair of kittens, age 11 weeks, that were just sooooo cute!
So as I stood there, I could just think of Josh going "I think I'm going to limit the number of pets allowed to two". Damn, while I am a dog lover, cats are very cool, and the kittens were already litter box trained. As for Pumpkin getting along, eh he's never given another cat living here a real problem. Ash, is well, she acts like a momma cat anyways. -sigh- Darn it, iffin it weren't for Josh's statement, the paperwork prolly woulda been filled out.

 

[Guest]

-sigh- So, with the two cats in the house not being allowed outside till Josh returns, of course, their claws have grown. So, today I found myself at the local Petsmart, perusing their claw trimmers, and a good cat scratcher, eventually finding both. Problem was, right next to the cat dept, is the little section where they keep cats up for adoption. And they had a pair of kittens, age 11 weeks, that were just sooooo cute!
So as I stood there, I could just think of Josh going "I think I'm going to limit the number of pets allowed to two". Damn, while I am a dog lover, cats are very cool, and the kittens were already litter box trained. As for Pumpkin getting along, eh he's never given another cat living here a real problem. Ash, is well, she acts like a momma cat anyways. -sigh- Darn it, iffin it weren't for Josh's statement, the paperwork prolly woulda been filled out.

Softie.

Hey - for kitties to scratch? And cheap?

Get a few carpet squares, turn them over. Cats really love that scratchy carpet bottom. You may have to duct tape them down - LOL - or get a bigger remnant and use that. They'll love it to pieces.

I wouldn't advise trimming claws yourself. It isn't tough to do, of course, just don't go down into the quick of the nail, but cats tend to not cooperate.

 

[JagFarlane]

Softie.

Hey - for kitties to scratch? And cheap?

Get a few carpet squares, turn them over. Cats really love that scratchy carpet bottom. You may have to duct tape them down - LOL - or get a bigger remnant and use that. They'll love it to pieces.

I wouldn't advise trimming claws yourself. It isn't tough to do, of course, just don't go down into the quick of the nail, but cats tend to not cooperate.

LOL yea I can be a softie. Trust me, the two cats here get loved on like crazy.

They already had a cardboard scratcher that gets used on occasion. I ended up getting a rope bound one that hangs from the doorknob. Rubbed a little catnip in it...ten minutes later I hear *THUD* as Ash full on attacked it.

Actually trimming the claws wasn't too bad. I used to have a ferret so got used to trimming claws because of him. Pumpkin rather well co-operated with the trimming of his front claws. Ash, was a little bit more squirmy but got it done without any incident. I found a set of trimmers that have a stopper in the back, that prevents you from going too far, nowhere near the quick. They did have a set of clippers, that you insert the claw in, it tells you when you're too close to the quick. But lol that was $33 and erm...yea its rather easy to see the pink quick vice the rest of the nail. Besides, I just wanted to get the tips off...have the scratchers for the rest.

 

[SlickTony]

I suppose that if you had to trim the claws of a ferret, doing a cat's claws might be a piece of cake.

For myself, I've totally given up. My cat, Doc, is the smallest of the three we've got, and he must have had a traumatic experience with having his claws trimmed because he just won't put up with it. Even though he only weighs 9 pounds, he gets just ungovernable. You'd think that it would be easy to overpower a 9 lb. cat but not so. He struggles so furiously we're afraid he'll break his own bones. Therefore, we've just resigned ourselves to the fact that before we sell our house, if and when we do, we'll have to replace the door jambs in the upstairs bath.

Downstairs, we have a pressure-treated plank left over from a project that didn't pan out. We brought it into the living room for some reason, and it leans up against a book case. Doc and Il Grigio, the Accidental Korat, both use it.

Once my husband was adamant about having only 2 cats in the house at any time. Then the Accidental Korat came into our lives and he decided that he needed to come in off the street before (a) he got hit by a car (b) his ears got Holyfielded like those of many of the outside cats we know, or (c) he became too wild.

About the other cat, Ziba the evil Aby-Tabby, the least said. I would not wish any abuse on her but if someone fell in love with her looks and promised her a good home and that she'd be the only cat, which is what she wants, I'd give her up in a heartbeat.

 

[SeaCat]

IN our house there are three official scratching areas. Two are carpet remnants that have been flipped then tacked down to plywood. The third is a cardboard scratch box. All three have been treated with Catnip, which is re-applied as needed. (So my cats are druggies.)

One scratch pad is in the bedroom and the other is in the living room. (The third is for Smokey and is attached to the top of the Fridge. A long story.)

Trimming claws? Not in this place. Our smallest cat is Squeek. Roughly three pounds of fluff with fangs and claws.

Trying to hold onto/control an outraged cat is like trying to hold onto a greased pig crossed with a weedwhacker from hell.

Cat

 

[SeaCat]

I suppose that if you had to trim the claws of a ferret, doing a cat's claws might be a piece of cake.

For myself, I've totally given up. My cat, Doc, is the smallest of the three we've got, and he must have had a traumatic experience with having his claws trimmed because he just won't put up with it. Even though he only weighs 9 pounds, he gets just ungovernable. You'd think that it would be easy to overpower a 9 lb. cat but not so. He struggles so furiously we're afraid he'll break his own bones. Therefore, we've just resigned ourselves to the fact that before we sell our house, if and when we do, we'll have to replace the door jambs in the upstairs bath.

Downstairs, we have a pressure-treated plank left over from a project that didn't pan out. We brought it into the living room for some reason, and it leans up against a book case. Doc and Il Grigio, the Accidental Korat, both use it.

Once my husband was adamant about having only 2 cats in the house at any time. Then the Accidental Korat came into our lives and he decided that he needed to come in off the street before (a) he got hit by a car (b) his ears got Holyfielded like those of many of the outside cats we know, or (c) he became too wild.

About the other cat, Ziba the evil Aby-Tabby, the least said. I would not wish any abuse on her but if someone fell in love with her looks and promised her a good home and that she'd be the only cat, which is what she wants, I'd give her up in a heartbeat.

I already like Ziba.

Once I had a cat called Max. A cat that scared even the vet. We always joked tha Max was a White Persian crossed with something like a Snow Tiger. (We're talking a 40 pound cat that came up to my knees.)

I loved that damn cat.

I would take Ziba off your hands but I already have five cats.

Cat

 

[JagFarlane]

Oh and since it got brought up in IMs, I should make mention. PetsMart does NOT sell cats or dogs. The cats that I saw there are from what some PetsMarts do, they have a small area set aside for cats from the local SPCA to showcase some of the animals they have for adoption, then help out with the adoptions.

 

[SlickTony]

Ziba is beautiful. She has a ticked coat--each particular hair is tri-colored. Her predominant color is kind of rufous, but she is all the colors of autumn and the desert, red, brown, orange--except for the end of her tail, which is monochromatic--gray and white striped. She has a cream-colored bib and caramel-colored stripes on the sides of her face. Her paws are the same color as the Florida cougar on the license plate. She has a spotted stomach that's spotted right down to the skin--when her stomach had to be shaved for surgery, it was spotted too. She has white-rimmed eyes like a wildcat's, and an orange nose. When you scratch her on top the head she sticks out her whiskers and smiles. She has a mysterious little notch on the left side of her upper lip.

However, she pisses in our foyer on a daily basis and our berber carpet is a lost cause. I'm glad she at least has switched to the foyer as it's easier to clean. Someone who runs a pet adoption place, who came to the Bausch & Lomb championship last April, said that this was because Ziba is a "queen"--and as long as there are other cats in the house, she'll always do this. However, if any cats depart the house, it won't be either Doc or Il Grigio, neither of whom piss in the foyer. Just not happening. We are at an impasse.

We signed a contract with the adoption agency where we got her that if we were dissatisfied with her, we'd return her to the agency rather than just turn her out or give her to someone else, although I daresay Purrfect Love would be Ok with a rehoming as long as they got to supervise it. But she's just a cat--she doesn't know how unhappy her destructive ways make us, and we can't explain to her. (She is not the sharpest knife in the drawer--she's the only cat we've ever had that had to be operated on because she swallowed 4 feet of blind cord.) She likes us and trusts us, and I'd feel terrible just popping her in a carrier and taking her back to where she was before. When we first got her, we took her to the vet for her first physical, and the vet said that due to the stress of living in a shelter, she had no undercoat. Now her coat is as plushy as it can be.

Doc loves me. He waits for me to go to bed, and then he comes up for a nightly snuggle before I fall asleep. When I come home from work, I have to sit down and let him sit on my lap or he'll dance around tensely until he's managed to jump up on my shoulders, where he'll roll around joyously and rub and bump and massage the rims of my ears with his fangs and almost fall off, and dig his claws into my shoulders to save himself, until he's gotten his jubilation out of his system.

As for Il Grigio, he's the handsomest and politest (to people) cat we've ever had. Every time I look at him I marvel how a cat so elegant and special looking could come of such ordinary origins (his parents are just big raggedy gray cats.) He gets along with everyone in the house except for Ziba. The first time he ever came into the house she mounted him, just to show him who's boss. He's never been able to see past that, and to this day--two years later--he does not speak to her save in snarls and hisses.

 

[SlickTony]

This is Ziba:

 

[SlickTony]

Another view of Ziba:

 

[Guest]

Ziba is lovely.


Here are a couple of LOL cats just out.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/LOL%20Catz/LOLraccoon.jpg


http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/LOL%20Catz/lolothertrees.jpg


http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/LOL%20Catz/LOLpantrykitty.jpg


http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/LOL%20Catz/LOLpoordecision.jpg

 

[glynndah]

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/funny-pictures-cat-makes-a-wish-for-you.jpg

 

[SlickTony]

Those are great.

 

[SeaCat]

Slick,

We have our own brood, or shall I say Zoo?

Our oldest and most psycho is called Smokey. (A.K.A. Crack Head because I pulled her out of a busted Crack House when she was a kitten.) She has issues with other cats, as well as other people. The only cat we have that she gets alog with in any way is Bubba. The rest terrorise her even though they aren't trying to hurt her. She loves to do things like piss in the kitchen cabinets or shit on the stove. She is a loving cat though. She is 13 years old.

Bubba is our next oldest and our largest. His true name is Shay but we call him Bubba because he is just a big goofy cat. He is one of the most loving cats you would ever meet. He is what is called a reverse colored Seal Point Siamese and weighs in at 17 pounds. Bubba has two problems though. He creates the worst smelling shits you have ever dealt with and he always has gas. Bubba is roughly ten years old.

Our other three are the same age. They are Magi, Scrapper and Squeek.

Magi weighs in at about six pounds. He is a black and white male who loves attention from my wife and myself. Extremely playful he sees a moving digit as an object to attack. If I stretch out for a nap during the day he somehow knows it and will crawl into my lap to join me.

Squeek is just a little loving ball of fluff. She might weight five pounds but is always underfoot. She has an attachment to my wife that you wouldn't believe. If my wife sits down Squeek is right there curled up in her lap.

Scrapper is the outcast in some ways. The smallest she is also the shyest. If you try to scratch her during the day she will shy away. She might weigh in at four pounds. At night though she will jump onto the bed and sing until I give her a scratch, then she curls up on my pillow and falls asleep.

My cats are my kids, if you haven't noticed.

Cat

 

[SlickTony]

They all sound like very good cats, even Crack Head, who makes me realize how lucky I am.

If anything ever happens to them, let me know and I'll drive down with Ziba. You can show me your favorite diving places while I'm there.