My Poor Ole' Cat!

[3113]

For those of you with cats, you well know that sometimes you have to do things to or for the cat that the cat doesn't like. The cat, mad, frightened, maybe in pain, might well hiss at you. Cats live in the moment, after all and they're not going to know that this or that is for their own good. Such a circumstance happened this morning with my long-suffering 13 year old cat. Understand, she'll endure a lot from my husband and me without hissing or fighting than she will from strangers. She'll let my husband cradle her like a baby (which she obviously hates) with only a sigh and, eventually, a mew of protest. She sit quite patiently still while we get gunk out of her eye or clip away matted fur.

But this morning was one of those mornings. Not going into details, she got really pissed with me and let out the most vicious hiss I've heard from her in a long time. And then....

...And then she started coughing. This is not the same as a hairball where the cat goes "ack! ack!" and spits up wet fur. This was an actual cough, and when cats cough they sound like they're gasping; kind of a wheezing "huh! huh!" and their little pink tongues stick out. It's pretty alarming and pathetic. You want to pat them on the back.

Once she was done coughing, and I was sure she was fine...well, I started laughing. She's 13 and it was so much like some old enraged geezer falling into a coughing fit after bellowing with rage. Poor thing. Her hiss is still pretty scary, but she's gonna have to watch it from now on. She ain't as young and fierce as she used to be.

 

[christabelll]

Too funny ===

I have three cats ranging from 2 to four years old... and every once in a while one of them goes and does soemthing like this and gets this look -
"I meant to do that" ....

 

[voluptuary_manque]

She ain't as young and fierce as she used to be.

You know anybody who is?

 

[rgraham666]

Old age and treachery will beat youth and beauty every time.

 

[neonlyte]

Ours does the hissy fit all the time... he's bloody minded. When he was a 'teenager' he spent a long time trying to talk to us, mostly when he got told off. He'd move his lower jaw as if mimicking human mouth movements and make funny guttural squeaks. Now he only does it when he's sulking. He's like a moany old man. Never had fur balls, never really cleaned himself till recently, even now he wipes his tongue on the stair carpet to get the fur off. I'm sure cats are descended from snakes, they grew legs and swapped scales for fur... but kept the hissing.

 

[sweetness6280]

You know anybody who is?

 

[Guest]

For those of you with cats, you well know that sometimes you have to do things to or for the cat that the cat doesn't like. The cat, mad, frightened, maybe in pain, might well hiss at you. Cats live in the moment, after all and they're not going to know that this or that is for their own good. Such a circumstance happened this morning with my long-suffering 13 year old cat. Understand, she'll endure a lot from my husband and me without hissing or fighting than she will from strangers. She'll let my husband cradle her like a baby (which she obviously hates) with only a sigh and, eventually, a mew of protest. She sit quite patiently still while we get gunk out of her eye or clip away matted fur.

But this morning was one of those mornings. Not going into details, she got really pissed with me and let out the most vicious hiss I've heard from her in a long time. And then....

...And then she started coughing. This is not the same as a hairball where the cat goes "ack! ack!" and spits up wet fur. This was an actual cough, and when cats cough they sound like they're gasping; kind of a wheezing "huh! huh!" and their little pink tongues stick out. It's pretty alarming and pathetic. You want to pat them on the back.

Once she was done coughing, and I was sure she was fine...well, I started laughing. She's 13 and it was so much like some old enraged geezer falling into a coughing fit after bellowing with rage. Poor thing. Her hiss is still pretty scary, but she's gonna have to watch it from now on. She ain't as young and fierce as she used to be.

You laughed????

You'd better sleep with one eye open tonight.

 

[starrkers]

You laughed????

You'd better sleep with one eye open tonight.

That's just what I was thinking!

Story did remind me of an obnoxious little dog that always flies down the driveway to bark at us when we walk our dog. It's all speed and teeth and noise and ferocity (I could easily launch this thing into orbit if necessary, it's tiny) until it needs to draw breath, then it turns into a wheezing, coughing old mutt that hobbles back up the driveway.

 

[3113]

You laughed????

You'd better sleep with one eye open tonight.

LOL! I've been making it up to her all day. Lots of petting and praise. I *think* I'm forgiven.

 

[rgraham666]

LOL! I've been making it up to her all day. Lots of petting and praise. I *think* I'm forgiven.

It's just letting you think that so you'll let your guard down.

 

[starrkers]

LOL! I've been making it up to her all day. Lots of petting and praise. I *think* I'm forgiven.

She's just lulling you into a false sense of security. Cats can bide their time for weeks if necessary

 

[Guest]

She's just lulling you into a false sense of security. Cats can bide their time for weeks if necessary

Years.

 

[christabelll]

check your favorite shoes in the morning .........

 

[3113]

check your favorite shoes in the morning .........

We napped together. That's one of three ways to make things up to a cat:
1) Take a nap together
2) Let them hunt you down
3) Feed them something special like that turkey from your turkey sandwich.

I suspect she'd have rather hunted me down, but the nap wasn't too bad as a way of making things up to her. She purred nice and loud.

 

[DesertPirate]

Old age and treachery will beat youth and beauty every time.

The way I heard it:

Youth, enthusiasim and talent can always be overcome by age, experience and treachery

 

[SeaCat]

LOLOL

This afternoon after working on the bike I treated the cats with their Anti-Flea Drops. None of them like this, they tend to react to it.

I did my ride and was sitting at the table, still in my jeans and boots when I heard a thump from the living room. I didn't move, I knew what was coming and was happy I was dressed the way I was.

Sure enough there was a blurred streak across the floor and I felt a weight hitting my right leg. I looked down to see Smokey attached to my ankle.

Attached is the right description. Her claws were exposed and she was digging deep with her teeth. I sat there and watched as she attacked until she was tired. Oh she was truly going to town on my leg. She was one pissed off kitty.

Thankfully I was not only wearing denims but I still had my riding boots on. (These are armored and extend almost to the knee.) The boots had some scratches in them but that was it.

Smokey is feeling better now. She has shown me what she thinks of my treating her with the Anti-Flea Drops.

The other cats just barf on the floor or the furniture. (It's alway an adventure looking for and finding the little deposites.)

Cat

 

[SlickTony]

Oh, these catses...

I once had a cat that would let me do almost anything with him. He was one of these cats that was always extraordinarily bothered by fleas; he was a flea magnet, and he'd have zillions of them and another cat living in the same house would hardly have any. But he'd let me comb him for fleas. I'd go over him with a flea comb, dropping the fleas into a bowl of warm water and detergent; in fact, he'd see me coming with the bowl and the comb, and he'd come running. He'd like down, and I'd do one side of him and then flip him over and do the other. When we lived in Lake Charles, which one year suffered from a flea plague of Biblical proportions, he'd let me bathe him once a week in the kitchen sink. I could even pill him. He knew when I was trying to help him.

But the cat I've got now...he's another shiny black cat who counts me as his favorite person, but I can't do thing one for him. I can't trim his claws. Someone must have hurt him at one time; he becomes ungovernable if you try. If I want to give him medicine, I have to mix it into a pouch of Upstream Dream.

I have a belt rack...one of those things you order and you can put your martial arts belts on it and hang it up; only I've never gotten around to hanging it up, it's lying on a table; the other night, I heard that unmistakable n-gack n-gack n-gack in the middle of the night and sure enough, someone had barfed on the belts and now they'll all have to be washed.

And so it goes...