Feline Acquired.

[Gravekeeper]

She was so cute and tiny at the shelter. But of course now that she's home she's batshiat insane. She really is *tiny* though and full grown. Oh, and fast, friggan fast. I have to watch when I open the door. ><

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/2843/batshiatsb8.th.jpg (http://img524.imageshack.us/my.php?image=batshiatsb8.jpg)

http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/6691/batshiat2ht3.th.jpg (http://img236.imageshack.us/my.php?image=batshiat2ht3.jpg)

( Also, my groin! )

I proclaimed her Aashka ( Sanskrit for blessing if I remember right ). However that was at the shelter. Now I need to find the Sanskrit word for "Nutfuckle".....

[crazylegs]

You're a very lucky man GK, your new cat looks absolutely gorgeous!

More pictures as and when please! :D

[iradney]

( Also, my groin! )



I literally fell off my chair and laughed at that. Thanks for the bruises!

Kitty is very pretty - love the little white socks!

[Gravekeeper]

I just discovered if you stand straight up and hold your hand down to her she stands on her back legs like a meercat...

[ArcticChicken]

KITTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! kittykittykittykittykittykittykittykittykittykitty kittykittykittykittykittykittykittykitty

[The Gatekeeper]

What a pretty little calico.
What's Sandskrit for Meercat?

[XCashier]

KITTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! kittykittykittykittykittykittykittykittykittykitty kittykittykittykittykittykittykittykitty
Yep, that says it all! :D

What a pretty cat. She should calm down when she gets used to you and your home. Congratulations on the new kitty! :)

[LewisLegion]

*squee!!* She almost looks like Min, the asthmatic kitty I had just up until last year. What a pretty baby!

[Kara]

Aw, she's so adorable!

Cute, yet vicious. I think you found the perfect cat :D

[Saydrah]

D'aw! Good choice, GK!

[sms001]

I hate to say this GK, but after being around cats for over thirty years and after having looked at the eyes of yours in that first pic, your diagnosis is correct: "she's batshiat insane." Sorry.
Nothing you can do at this point except ride it out for fifteen years.
On the plus side, you'll be sleeping lighter, be more alert/high strung, and as they scab over/callous, your hands, wrists and ankles will become stronger and tougher.
So ya got that workin' for ya.

Seriously, she looks like a great companion. Thanks for the pics so promptly.

[Evil Queen]

:eek: My Gourd, GK! She's adorable! <33333333333

Calico's tend to stay small. I wonder if you can clock how fast she runs? :D

[BookstoreEscapee]

Aw, she's so cute!! What breed is she?

[Gravekeeper]

Aw, she's so cute!! What breed is she?

According to the SPCA: "DLH-Mix". I have no idea what that means. She seems to have a fetish for warm spots. If I get up, she occupies the space I was just in till the heat's gone, then she moves to where I am now.....watches me and waits till I get up for something.....then occupies the new warm spot.

She's definitely batshiat. -.-

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Dog person here, but that's an awfully cute cat.

[blas]

No need to worry, there are small cats just as there are small people.

Cute kitty!

[ThePhoneGoddess]

DLH Mix? Are you sure?

DLH Mix stands for Domestic Long Hair Mix. I would think she's a DSH Mix, Domestic Short Hair Mix.

She has beautiful eyes. As a cat person, I am very happy for you. It's about time you enslaved yourself to a feline master!

[myswtghst]

Awwwww.....she's adorable. And I'm pretty sure all cats are at least a bit batshiat insane. Mine have their moments, generally around 2am. :p Enjoy her, love her, and learn all her quirks, as they're endearing, no matter how annoying, because she is yours.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Lots of cats bogart the warm spots. And they're all insane in some way.

Yesterday my girlcat spent the whole day hiding under my dad's bed. They think it's because my mom threw her out of the bedroom when she went to bed the night before (the boy likes to get in the windowsill behind their beds, so the cats are not allowed in the bedroom at night); she did not want to go and there was a bit of a "tussle" as my mom put it. So apparently she decided she was going to spend the whole day in there where they couldn't reach her. I lured her out with a lint roller for a few minutes, then she came out later to eat, and when I was getting ready to go she was sitting in my mom's lap, which is unusual since she's a total Daddy's girl. I guess she decided to humor her for Mother's Day.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Coming from a totally devoted dog person but:

Cute fuzz-ball. She looks like a cross between my last two cats.

[tropicsgoddess]

( Also, my groin! )


GK, what a cute little kitty!:love: My dog is only a 14lb. Schipperke, but he has some muscle on him! Whenever we have friends over, he gets amped and jumpy as hell. He always hits one of our friends in the nads when he comes to visit (the dog is a really high jumper and VERY agile as well). So, don't feel alone with the groin thing. :p

[Becks]

Awwwwwwwwwwww.

:girlie puddle:

Becks Seal of Approval™®

[Gravekeeper]

She is driving me a bit crazy. So I do hope she calms down in a few days.

[purplecat41877]

How about giving her a treat but make a game out of it? For example, you could put the treat on your shoulder, sit down, and have her come and get it.;)

[Evil Queen]

She is driving me a bit crazy. So I do hope she calms down in a few days.

uh... she's a woman?? :angel:

[Andara Bledin]

She's definitely batshiat. -.-

You could always name her some faux Egyptian name that is basically pronounced as 'batshit.' :p

She's an awfully pretty kitty. She'll be a bit excitable for the first couple of days, but hopefully she'll settle by the end of the week.

If you haven't already, get some kitty treats, stat! (that's likely what the 'meerkat' stance was about; our kitty has learned to do that for treats).

uh... she's a woman?? :angel:

Well, his mom did say he needed a girl... ;)

^-.-^

[friendofjimmyk]

AWWW!!!!! My heart is all pitter patter...she's adorable!!! I love puddies.

[BaristaTrav]

Welcome to the realm of the insane cat people. My wife and I have 2 and they never cease to amaze, entertain, amuse, and occasionally infuriate. Keep in mind if there is anything in your home she can physically possibly get to, and therefore taste, bite, scratch, eat, mutilate, or completely destroy, she will. Enjoy the cat. They are a lot of fun.

[Geek King]

Cute cat GK. My cat is small also, looking about half-grown when she's really nine years old, at best guess. The crazy will probably work itself out over time. Right now she just needs to get used to the new digs.

Oh, and DLH-Mix is official cat-person speak for 'mutt', much like my DSH-Mix. :D

[morgana]

all cats are at least a bit batshiat insane.

Quoted for truth. Between the roommate and myself, there are five cats in the house. Not a sane one in the bunch.

That said, she's adorable, GK. May you have many happy years of insanity. :p

[Gravekeeper]

She's calmed somewhat. The previous owners must have been an entire family so she was use to being able to suck up to multiple people. Thus ensuring attention at any given moment. She's having a little trouble adjusting to me who actually has to do other things during the day aside from remain stationary and provide lap warmth. ;p

I have plenty of treats for her. She inhales treats but doesn't drain the cat food bowl very fast. She's small so she doesn't seem to eat much and she snacks periodically rather then gorges in one fell swoop at the dish.

One key problem is my mom offered to pick up the cat supplies at Costco. So I have a ton of food and litter.....but its a 50 lb bag of litter and I'm not allowed to move it. Because I'll re-cripple myself. So it has to stay where it is by the door for another month or so when I'm back to 100%. ><

[LewisLegion]

I'll come move it for ya :D

*wink*

[Gravekeeper]

I'll come move it for ya :D

*wink*

There's a pick up line. =p

"Hey baby, wanna come over to my place and help me move something? It's too heavy for me, the back you know, so I'll just sit over here and supervise. <wink>"

[crazylegs]

There's a pick up line. =p

"Hey baby, wanna come over to my place and help me move something? It's too heavy for me, the back you know, so I'll just sit over here and supervise. <wink>"

Hmmm, that was a little tame, I thought you were going to go for the

Come back to my place and work with my giant sack... white font used as this is a PG site!

:lol:

[LewisLegion]

Course it was a pick-up line! I was offering to go and pick up the heavy cat litter.

*looks innocent*

What? *GRIN*

[Gravekeeper]

Technically its a cardboard box of litter. A 50 lb box of litter. Because this is Costco we're talking about. ><

[Soria]

Ah Costco, gotta love it. She is a sweet looking gal GK. My brown tabby is a little one to, compared to the fluff ball monster that is my orange tabby, very affectionate as well.

As for insane.. it could be worse... you could have a border collie/ Aussie shepard mix puppy on your hands. Now that is freaking insane.

[Nekojin]

...she snacks periodically rather then gorges in one fell swoop at the dish.

This is normal, healthy behavior for a well-fed (IE, properly fed, not given-a-lot-of-food) cat. Cats usually only "pig out" at the food dish when they've become accustomed to not having food available whenever they want to snack - they eat everything they can if they're not entirely sure that their next meal is going to be along soon. This is also how you get tubbo cats - deprive the cat with irregular and inconsistent meals for a few weeks, and it'll start eating everything in sight when given the chance.

Our current cat, Hazel, had to compete with the dogs for her food (the dogs would wander over and scarf the cat food whenever nobody was looking), so she's a little demanding about food now. She KNOWS when it's breakfast and dinner time, and will start insisting on food about an hour before that time, and she gets louder and more pushy about it the closer it gets to that time. She'll even try to talk us into extra meals whenever circumstances are right - she knows that when Andara gets home from work, that's dinner time, so if we go out to a late movie and come back home, Hazel will try to convince us that it's actually dinner time (connecting "coming home from being not-here" with meals). =^_^=

[Jester]

So I have a ton of food and litter.....but its a 50 lb bag of litter and I'm not allowed to move it. Because I'll re-cripple myself. So it has to stay where it is by the door for another month or so when I'm back to 100%. ><

Easy solution to that is to just leave it where it is, and when you need some fresh litter, just use something as a scoop/transport to the litter box. A water jug, perhaps. Or a big ole bowl. Whatever.

Jester's Cat Hint #4: Tender Vittles. Trust me on this one. Tender Vittles. But only occasionally, as a treat.

[Saydrah]

That brings up a good point- whatcha feeding the crazy catbeast?

Hopefully a premium cat food with no corn, wheat, soy, or byproducts, right, GK, or transitioning her to a raw diet?

</nutrition nerd>

[AnaKhouri]

Aw, she looks sweet. Our calico started out small and scrawny and now she has worked her way to being fat (she's on a diet!) and the vet comments she's 'big for a calico'. So I hope Aasha stays small!

Mei Mei is also 3 years old and just now settling down...though she still has periodic freak-out moments when she runs around like a lunatic for a few seconds, bouncing off the furniture, then collapses in exhaustion.

[Pagan]

Maybe it's the perspective in the picture, but she doesn't look small to me?

One of my best friend's kitties has turned into a terrorist. Tasslehoff is not just a little pudgy, he got downright fat....and he's not a small cat to begin with. The vet put him on a strict diet and schedule. Now, when he gets done eating, he thinks he should still be allowed more and when he doesn't get it, he goes and finds something to shred. I saw the show the other day and almost died laughing at him!

[Gravekeeper]

No, she really is a tiny little thing. Makes her head look big. ;p

She gets good ol' cat chow + periodic daily goodies.

Tonight will be the big test. Whether or not I can go to work without her keeping my landlady and her family up all night. If she can't handle me being at work then this isn't going to go well. ><

[BookstoreEscapee]

Mei Mei is also 3 years old and just now settling down...though she still has periodic freak-out moments when she runs around like a lunatic for a few seconds, bouncing off the furniture, then collapses in exhaustion.

Mine do the same. They're 2 (this month!) and a lot calmer than when they were younger, but usually sometime around 8-9 pm or so they will come tearing down the hall into the living room; the boy goes around behind the loveseat and the girl jumps up on it, both at top speed, and then just stop short (though a couple weeks ago she went right over the loveseat and my mom said she thought she would fly right into the TV. By the time I got into the room she was just sitting there in front of the TV looking like "What?").

[worddork]

Mei Mei is also 3 years old and just now settling down...though she still has periodic freak-out moments when she runs around like a lunatic for a few seconds, bouncing off the furniture, then collapses in exhaustion.

My mom's cat is 12 years old, and still has the occasional freak-fest. but then again that cat has always been odd, if it weren't for the cat we had before get ole crazy one, I would never had known that cats' eyes have slits for pupils, hers are always dilated to the size of diner plates

[Sliceanddice]

ive seen the look on that cats face before.
Tonks gets it all the time
thats the look of doom, death and power.
yep you got one honey of a kitty there
oh and EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEE!!!!! kittykittykittykittykitty

oh and side note serentiy (my weird cat who loves attention of any kind and would snuggle with a brutel killer dog if he could) has developed a love thng for my fingers, he tryed to make love with them, and to use one to pick his nose....

[Fire_on_High]

Calico's tend to stay small.

Someone please tell my calico that?

http://www.othercreatures.net/images/kelli-dryer.jpg

[Gravekeeper]

They had a cat at the SPCA that looked *exactly* like yours.

Except they had named her "Tomato"...although that does top "Creamsicle" and "Lightning" whom were also present.

[LewisLegion]

I've had lots of cats. Up until last year I had seven. Now I know there are breeds that are just 'large' (like Maine Coons for example) but none of my cats have ever been big. Ever. People are always commenting on how small my cats are, how they look like kittens, etc. It always confused me because my cats are average sized, normal 'cats'. Then I see their cats and OMG. Does EVERYONE keep their cats so frickin' OBESE? Seriously! My neighbor made this comment to me and when I saw her cats it looked like they'd swallowed basketballs and could barely move. She told me it was because they were 'big boned' and I told her 'bones don't ripple'. And she wasn't the only one. So many people seem to have cats that are big puddles of goo. I don't get it.

My Tsali is a tortie and she is on the small side. She weighs about six or seven pounds. Athena is a torbie and she weighs about eight or nine (though she is getting a tad bit paunchy as she gets older).

[Saydrah]

She gets good ol' cat chow + periodic daily goodies.



If you mean the actual brand Purina Cat Chow, I recommend you get her off it immediately if you want a sane-kitty.

I don't know if you have all the same brands in Canada that we do here, but some brands that are around the same price when calculated by metabolizable calories are Felidae and Blue Buffalo Spa Select. More $$$ per bag, but kitty needs less.

But the really bad thing for a hyper kitty about the Cat Chow brand is that it is mostly corn- literally it is corn puffs sprayed with animal byproduct meal and animal fat, with vitamin supplements ground in. The sugars in corn are addictive to cats (she'll act really hungry for a couple weeks after you take her off it) and cause nutty behavior in kitties. Cats don't need any sugars in their diet. In nature, the only sugar they get is a small amount of fructan from the stomach contents of prey. So getting a bunch of it in an artificial, manufactured diet makes for kitty ADHD. When I worked in pet nutrition, I met lots of people with nutty or aggressive pets that calmed down some when switched to a high protein diet with no sugary ingredients.

If you want to calm her down quicker than the couple weeks sugar withdrawal takes, try a Feliway wall plugin in the room where she spends most of her time. It's a pheromone dispenser that works like plug-in air fresheners to calm kitties.

A food without byproducts and fillers also means less litterbox odor and less waste, which is a plus with a bad back and an easily upset landlady. And, you're much less likely to find yourself spending money on vets and carpet cleaning due to UTIs if you feed a better cat food, less likely to step on hairballs in the morning, and long-term health as kitties age is much improved by premium nutrition.

[Geek King]

My Tsali is a tortie and she is on the small side. She weighs about six or seven pounds. Athena is a torbie and she weighs about eight or nine (though she is getting a tad bit paunchy as she gets older).

There's a difference between a big cat and a fat one. My parents have a big one. He's a shorthair mutt, but he's built like a bulldog the way his muscles are set. I have seen this cat walk up to to a Chow, wind up, and bitchslap the Chow accross the face without using claws. This was his announcement to the Chow that he wanted to play. :rolleyes: He's quite possibly the strongest domesticated (??!) cat I've ever seen.

[Sliceanddice]

i have a big cat- serenity and a fat cat- Tonks
Tonks is fat cause she wants ot be fat.
I know this because the eat from a communal bowl, and her whole life she has gotten the same ammount of food every day. 2 cups dry and 1/2 cup wet.
She also use to be really skinny cause she had two large litters and they sucled her dry.

[protege]

Maine Coons can get large. Baxter looks large, but nearly all of that is fur! His fur is very thick and very fluffy! If it wasn't as long, I'm sure he and Sally (the tabby) would be about the same size :)

[Nekojin]

It's also common for cats to become overweight when they go from being outdoor cats to being indoor cats. When they're outdoor cats, they get regular exercise. When they're indoor cats, they don't get nearly as much. We would let Hazel be an indoor/outdoor cat if we could, but we live in an apartment, and it's really not safe for her to be wandering around outside here.

For this same reason, and also for the "consistent diet" reason, it's common for pound kitties to become fat if taken home and kept inside. Not all of them do, mind you. Some cats find other ways to get some exercise.

[Andara Bledin]

Regarding feline obesity.

Most of the time it's the diet that does it. Often the culprit is lousy food, but sometimes the culprit is food restriction.

If you restrict a pet's food, you have a good chance of having a pet with a food fixation. All of my family's pets have been constant feed pets, and none of them ever had weight problems.

Otherwise, it's the food that does it. As Saydrah has mentioned, most commercial cat food is terrible. While cats can survive on a constant diet of cheap vegetable-based crunchies, it's not that good for them, and they have to eat a lot more food to get close to the same nutrition. For absolute best results, they need a raw diet with bonemeal for healthy teeth. Barring that, there are commercial solutions out there that come a whole lot closer to their natural diet than cheap crunchies.

...

As for lousy food making for hyper kitties, I don't recall any partiularly hyper kitties from when I was young, and my parents got Cat Chow pretty much all the time. We had the usual mix of loafers, hunters, psycho-cats, and love-sluts. *shrug*

^-.-^

[Saydrah]

Andara, the quality of Cat Chow has anecdotally gone WAY down in the lifetimes of most people. About 20 years ago, it might have actually been good, because there weren't so many other uses (think: Slim Jim) for the beef and chicken byproducts that were actually fairly nutritious, such as organs. I hear from most everyone over 30 (dunno if you are) who had pets as a kid that their pets lived longer, healthier lives on Dog Chow/Cat Chow than pets fed those foods today. The technology of vitamin supplementation has also advanced so they can put less actual nutrition and more artificial supplements in the food.

In addition, higher and higher protein gluten meals are partly to blame for the decline in quality, because you can get up to the AAFCO standards for protein with JUST corn gluten as an actual protein source, and with some creative labeling make the food still look meat-based. Some corn gluten meals are up to 60% protein. Unfortunately for pet carnivores, that protein only serves to damage their systems if it does anything at all- they can't process it the same way as meat sourced proteins.

I think my first cat came right around the time grocery foods got really bad. He was healthy for most of his life, but at 10 he developed hypertensive retinopathy. I was a kid, but had I known then enough to read labels, I think maybe some diet improvements could have helped get his blood pressure down.

[LewisLegion]

Oh, I have seen some big cats, trust me...that are actually BIG cats without being FAT cats. But it seems like more and more I'm seeing people's cats that are just tubs of lard and they think its normal. Whatever the cause...diet, lack of excercise, or genetics...something seems to be trending toward cats being big bowls of pudding with eyes.

[Gravekeeper]

Oh, I have seen some big cats, trust me...that are actually BIG cats without being FAT cats. But it seems like more and more I'm seeing people's cats that are just tubs of lard and they think its normal. Whatever the cause...diet, lack of excercise, or genetics...something seems to be trending toward cats being big bowls of pudding with eyes.

Kind of sounds like North America as a whole. -.-

[LewisLegion]

Sad....but true, alas.

Sad but true.

[Andara Bledin]

About 20 years ago, it might have actually been good, because there weren't so many other uses (think: Slim Jim) for the beef and chicken byproducts that were actually fairly nutritious, such as organs. I hear from most everyone over 30 (dunno if you are) who had pets as a kid that their pets lived longer, healthier lives on Dog Chow/Cat Chow than pets fed those foods today.

I am, and that does make sense.

Speaking of Slim Jims, my cat loves them. I hardly ever eat them, however, so she only gets little bits when I do, which is like once every 3 months, or so.

^-.-^

[Broomjockey]

I think the question's become, how's the fuzzball handling being alone while you're at work?

[Gravekeeper]

I think the question's become, how's the fuzzball handling being alone while you're at work?

That's been the problem I've been wrestling with. Because she wails when I leave and if she keeps that up at night my landlady's patience will run thin because it sets off her dog.

Then when I do get home from work she doesn't like the fact that I go to bed. If she does let me sleep she wakes me up when she thinks I should be up ( Which seems to be exactly 6 hours from when I get into bed. Like clockwork. ).

So it's been somewhat rocky. I'm hoping she settles down before she brings me to the brink of death through exhaustion.

[purplecat41877]

How about some toys to keep her occupied while you're at work? Also, maybe turn on the radio to a station the cat will like.:popcorn:

[Gravekeeper]

How about some toys to keep her occupied while you're at work? Also, maybe turn on the radio to a station the cat will like.:popcorn:

She cares not for toys.

I'm convinced her previous home was a meth lab and thats how she ended up at the SPCA.

[Sliceanddice]

i would suggest weird cat home things oh and im so for the radio but with claire when shes overly attacted when i leave, its animal planet, or tnt