Kitty Talk

[en480c4]

Love the cats but really love Neko. I miss my greyhounds.

While not strictly kitty related, we do joke that she's a giant kitty that poops outside...

The day I adopted her, and 4 or so years later:

[Absorbine_Sr]

That last pic reminds me of Gypsy, the little brindle girl my ex and I owned. Of the seven or eight dogs we owned in our time together, Gypsy was the sweetest. I'll never forget that girl. Thanks for sharing photos of yours.

[tkam]

jax-in-a-box

[swt61]

Cute animals make me smile!

Oh, and so does pie!

Edited September 21, 2012 by swt61

[Grahame]

Do sister-in-laws (zombie) puppy's ("rolo") count?

[boomana]

jax-in-a-box

[Dusty Chalk]

I want a grumpy cat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72DJZ7yT-HQ

[Dusty Chalk]

So my Bobby has taken to being Harpo Marx, and I don't know how to take a picture of it.  Sometimes he sits next to me, but then sometimes he indicates that he wants to be in my lap.  So he'll walk onto my lap from the chair next to me, and I'll wrap my arms around him like I'm giving him a hug, and he'll lift one rear leg over my arm, then the front leg, and then just...slump, put all his weight on my arms, and all of a sudden I'm holding him up.

 

Then I'll start giggling, and that will of course irritate him into jumping out of my arms.

 

EDIT:  Oh, another thing he's started doing, is the whole walking sideways towards me, back arched, tail and fur all fluffy.  I have to laugh.  It's better than any sitcom.  He just might be the perfect(ly entertaining) kitteh.

[Dusty Chalk]

Bobby just teabagged the camera, lollers.  This is not that picture, though.

 

Also the previous one.

[Absorbine_Sr]

Gumby hangin' out.

 

[boomana]

Nice kitty!

[swt61]

Gumby looks to be settling in nicely!

 

BTW, I miss sitting on those deck chairs!

Edited August 6, 2013 by swt61

[Dusty Chalk]

Bobby sniffing the camera, now with IR technology!

 

[skullguise]

Ghost Kitteh FTW

[Dusty Chalk]

'Ghost'?  I'm thinking moar like radioactive power-ranger angel of death...

[Absorbine_Sr]

Steve, you're welcome to come back and hang out on the deck any time you want.

[Absorbine_Sr]

OK, so we need some kitty expertise. We took Gumby to the Vet for an initial (and free, from the Humane Society) 1st checkup. Nothing out of whack except that she is overweight and needs a dental cleaning. Besides this the Vet declared her healthy.

 

Now our issue - since her initial intro to the house, she has been very lethargic, mostly wanting to hide under the bed(s). Tonight all she wanted to do, once coaxed downstairs, was to lay on the sofa and sleep. Add to this the fact that she has eaten very little since we adopted her and our worry level is pretty high. She ate very little dry food initially. We switched to moist food. No interest. The Vet suggested boiled chicken or canned tuna. Tuna held some interest for one feeding, no go for a second. Boiled chicken (Vet suggested) was a complete "fuck you, I'm not eating that." Not sure where to go from here regarding food. She had originally been in our laps when we ate people food, so we assumed maybe she had been fed a lot of table scraps, but tonight she showed no interest in pork chops so wtf?

 

We're not real happy with the free visit to the Vet provided by the Humane Society, so we are thinking of traveling a little farther away from home to go to a clinic I really trust, from my previous married life, to have a wellness check done. They do total blood work in that check which the closer Vet did not. That should tell us if there is any underlying issue.

 

So are we freaking out too much? I've owned cats before but never one as challenging as this. Feel free to tell me to calm the fuck down but I am worried about this little girl.

[Dusty Chalk]

Dew et.  Take her to the other vet.  The other suggestion is try to get a fecal sample to bring with you to test for parasites.  They'll have to send it out for analysis.

 

How about pooping, is she constipated?

[The Expanding Man]

How old is Gumby?

 

How long has he/she been in your house?

[Absorbine_Sr]

She's supposedly 5 years old. and tomorrow will be one week in the house.

 

Things feel much better tonight. When we first brought her home, we isolated her in the back bedroom as suggested by a lot of adoption sites. And she did very well. When she started trying to get out the closed door, we thought that maybe she was ready for the whole house. I now believe we were wrong. At first she was very active and affectionate but as the days went on she went to hiding under our bed most of the time. And you all have read my panic post from last night.

 

So I think we fucked up. We let her out of the safe room too soon and the whole house freaked her out. We decided today to go back to the safe room process. We moved food, water, scratching and litter back to the spare bedroom. Several hours have passed and we just popped in to see her - alert, affectionate, interested in food, drinking water. We also added a vaporizer that dispenses Feliway pheromone that is used widely to calm nervous cats. It's an excellent turnaround from last night. We plan on keeping the safe room environment for much longer this time so she can get used to us and the sounds and smells and maybe not freak out so much.

 

Bottom line - so far it looks like it was human error. We'll be watching her closely in case further Vet attention is needed, but I think we're back on a good track. Thanks for your help and concern.

[Dusty Chalk]

Yes, that could easily be the case.

 

Cats -- unlike dogs -- do not like to travel (e.g. in cars) and/or being relocated.  When I moved to the new apartment, Bobby (still a catpup) spent the entire night in the litter box, and the senior citizen never fully acclimated.  I was told this when I mentioned a "playdate" on Facebook, by one of my cat rescue org friends.  Basically, a play date is a bad idea, and moving is fairly traumatic to a cat.  So yeah, keep her isolated for at least another week, but even once you let her out, there will be an acclimatization period.  Best to keep an especially watchful eye on her for the next couple days (and perhaps spend extra time with her), and in the first week or so when you let her out.   Once she considers this her home, all will be well.

[CarlSeibert]

Enigma was kind of freaked out when she moved indoors. (Very different symptoms, but freaked all the same) It took her a good couple of months to be comfortable in her new territory.

That said,a good physical with blood work and whatnot seems a worthwhile investment. But if the critter isn't in any sort of distress, I think I'd wait until she feels more comfortable before dragging her to the vet.

[Absorbine_Sr]

I agree Carl. I just want her to have some peace and quiet in a place she feels safe. We'll see how the next few days play out.

[skullguise]

And don't forget to let her redecorate.....

 

Seriously, glad things are settling again.  When we moved to our house, our cat took to it VERY well, exploring every little inch.  And I would definitely have classified her as an anxious cat....who knows.....

[strid3r]

That sounds about right. I did a couple moves with cats and they take some time to be acclimated with new surroundings (ours luckily only took about 2 days). One cat would do nothing but walk around cautiously for an entire day and would ignore and even avoid you if you tried to make contact. The other would huddle in a corner as if you just put him in a time-out...for hours at a time. And as Dusty said...play dates are a definite bad idea...we found this out the hard way. Hope everything works out for you.