Time to clear our heads of all the awfulness we’ve been discussing this week. So today, nothing but kitties! (Feel free to post more kitties in the comments, of course.)
Let’s get the party started with these guys:
Ok, I lied. These aren’t kitties:
And neither are these:
Enjoy the rest of your Saturday, everyone!
Waitaminit — Hamlet both grunts *and* squeaks at the same time?! I’ve watched that video dozens of times! How’d I miss the cutest bit?!
“I’ve watched that video dozens of times! How’d I miss the cutest bit?!”
Volume levels? Volume should be up for maximal cuteness.
The beasts in that last photo are profoundly disturbing, and now I have to go about my business knowing that these horrors exist somewhere in the world. THank you. Thank you very much
PS: Is one of those things on me? I feel like one of them is on me, looking for an opening to crawl into and start devouring my innards.
All seven are here: http://www.ustream.tv/sevenkittens
OK I lied. Now none of them are onscreen.
Hamlet is the best name for a miniature pig ever.
I just swiped this from my son’s facebook wall. Nilla and Nutmeg on the bed
And this was on another friend’s wall. Bunny!, found on this pro-vegan group’s wall
Omigaw, fuckyeahcuteanimalss is, like, soooo many kitten yawns, it’s totally making me talk like a stereotype.
Non-kitty, but definitely misogyny: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/blog-post-about-sexual-assault-in-dc-unleashes-torrent-of-womens-stories/2012/07/13/gJQA65lLiW_story.html?hpid=z4
It just never changes, does it.
They wants the precious, yes.
The kitty on the antenna looks like he’s plotting something…something CUTE!
RE Animals that probably shouldn’t be pets no matter how cute they are…
Smokey in ‘stretch’ mode:
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/165986_10100289224433984_948645392_n.jpg
He’s the only cat I’ve known to do this. If anybody knows of any other cats that lie down in this position, post pics.
I need to ask some kitty advice because I’m kind of in a situation.
I never owned a cat as a child, but I did train and care for a dog. My mom hated cats to the point that she used to trap strays in cages when they’d wander into our backyard (one of our neighbors was a cat hoarder/stray feeder and there would be like 10-20 of them singing on the fence every night) and then take them to the pound. She used to laugh evilly when she talked about them being put down. It made me cry.
I have always liked the cats that my friends had at their houses, and always enjoyed the idea of an independent pet- one that you can play and pet and snuggle with but who also wants its own space.
So when I got my own place with my husband (who is a seasoned cat person), we decided to adopt a cat, preferably a young adult because we know that they’re far less likely to be adopted and we wanted to know about what size of cat we were going to be homing (we wanted an indoor-only cat because we live near a freeway).
However, the cat we adopted has really changed in personality as we’ve had him for longer. He’s really neurotic and needy, following us around meowing loudly all the time (he’s very vocal) even when he’s been fed, groomed, played with, etc. This wouldn’t be such a big deal but sometimes people have to be sleeping in the apartment (my husband works graveyard, our daughter needs naps, etc) and 99% of the time, the place he wants to be meowing loudly is the room in which a person is trying to sleep, or he’ll stand by the door and bang/scratch the door until he’s let in. He’s also gotten a fair amount bigger- we were told he was about 2 years old when we got him, so we’re pretty sure that’s full grown, but now he’s gotten bigger and longer. He’s all black so I am pretty sure he’s not some kind of wild-animal hybrid but it seems weird that he would still be growing. He’s also got one eye with an iris that is green and partially red in color- we’ve had the vet check it out but she says that it shouldn’t be anything medical- just natural color variance.
I am a huge animal lover, but I’ve never met a cat with a personality like my cat’s. And it’s really irritating to be petting him and then have him suddenly decide to attack my hand, even though his tail/ears are indicating that he’s super happy with the petting. I’ve had to get a special grooming mit to keep myself from getting clawed/bitten when I’m grooming him.
He also “talks”- does this purring mouth moving thing that I have *NEVER* encountered before, and I’ve tried google searching about it to no avail.
Sometimes, he’ll pee on stuff when he gets mad at us- but generally he’s been pretty good about not doing that lately (and yes, I’ve checked, he does not have UTIs and his litter box is cleaned out regularly).
Our apartment only allows one cat and it’s a one-bedroom apartment, so I can’t get another cat (and I would feel uncomfortable having two cats share one litter box, since there’s nowhere to put a second one), and I know that my daughter can sometimes stress him out (she likes to chase him, but she knows how to pet him nicely and she does not pull his tail).
I guess I’m wondering if anyone has any good suggestions for how to help him feel more at ease and less neurotic. It just seems like he’s become more and more whiny about *everything* all the time, and I’m not sure how to help curb his chattiness when our household calls for quiet time so that people can sleep and function.
PS: I do not want to get rid of my cat, and even when he is irritating, I do not “punish” him beyond making the spray air noise (not in his direction, just making the noise in the air because he hates it) if he’s doing something really bad, like sharpening his claws on furniture instead of the five or six cat-scratch things that I have for him. I want to come up with creative, positive ways to help him feel like a happy kitty.
This is my kitty, Neb, on his window perch:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/Oni-Angel/IMG_3690.jpg
Wow, angry lynx is terrifying.
In terms of behavioral training that’s more complicated, but if part of what’s going on is stress this product might help.
http://www.feliway.com/us/
The attacking hands while being petted is just something some cats do when they get overstimulated. My old cat used to grab on to my hand/wrist with his front paws while kicking with his back feet. Apparently it’s a play behavior that simulates hunting, lots of cats do it. Also some cats just have particularly needy personalities, especially rescues. If it is stress related, though, the Feliway might help. Don’t let him know you’re stressed too or yell at him, that will just make him more stressed and the behavior worse.
Also re the biting issue, I found that what was best was to just say “no” calmly and walk away. With my old cat it was kind of too late because I let him bite while playing when he was a kitten and didn’t have teeth yet, so he still did it sometimes even after I started trying to train him no to, but it did decreased. The idea is to try to get them to associate the biting with you stopping an activity that they enjoy, like being petted, so they learn that if they bite then the pleasant activity stops.
@Cassandra- That’s helpful to know about the biting/playing thing. Having never actually had a cat in my house growing up, I’m not sure all that much about cat behavior when it comes down to long-term petting (most cats that I’ve petted at friends’ houses or on the street just love pets pets and more pets without attacking, so it confused me).
I also do use feliway spray but it is a bit expensive, especially since it’s mainly an anti-marking deterrent- he’s still really mouthy and meowy and needy.
He’s also kind of a stomach- *everything* is about food with him, even if he just ate. He gets sick if I leave food out all day for him, so I have to feed him at certain intervals during the day or he’ll gorge himself sick. He is missing one of his claw digits- the shelter said that he was a stray and may have been hit by a car in the past. I think that the purr-talking thing might have something to do with that, but I can’t be sure.
He loves my daughter, though- often he’ll curl up right at her feet while she’s sleeping and glare at anyone who walks by, which is hilarious, since he also enjoys meowing and stomping around at 3 IN THE FREAKING MORNING.
Case in point: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/Oni-Angel/IMG_0367.jpg
PS: Has anyone else realized how hard it is to take good photos of black cats? It’s like….they just kind of melt into a blobby dark shape.
With a lot of cats it seems to be an overstimulation issue, so if you see them start to get a bit antsy, that’s when to stop and walk away, at the first move in a bitey direction.
The more I hear the more this sounds like trauma from whatever happened to him pre-shelter. The gorging could be food anxiety. When I first got my current (rescue) cat she would wolf down food immediately and then freak out if her plate was empty, it took months for her to calm down about that.
Also, yeah. The reason I don’t have more pics of current cat is that she’s a tuxedo and so much harder than my last cat to take photos of. A lot of time you just get a blob with glowing eyes.
See, that’s interesting. I got my last cat from my sister’s neighbor, and she had this one spot on her back that would make her bite you if you patted her there. Apparently she was injured at some point, and it left her with a kind of permanent tender spot that made her all bitey.
She was also extremely active and vocal and needy. I don’t how much of that was the hyperthyriodism, though.
That’s a good point. Has the cat been screen for hyperthyroid? Relentless appetite plus very vocal could point to that.
The “talking”; is it a kind of chattering sound?
She would frequently eat until she threw up too.
OT but I’m sad that my current cat doesn’t make the chittering sound when she sees bugs. Last cat did and it was adorable. This one makes up for it with her hilarious meow-yawn, though.