Cats and Kittens

[Berzerker]

Well I'm stuck with another cat until tomorrow... I was putting on the green today in our mens league championship and I heard the other players talking about a tiger. I didn't know what they meant but when I finished I looked up and saw a striped orange kitten rolling around just off the green.

As we left the green somebody else rolled up in a golf cart with a can of cat food. The guy said he couldn't take the kitty but one of my competitors said he would. When we finished our round he couldn't find the cat but I did, so I brought him home. I'm delivering the kitten to him tomorrow. The golf course is home to bald eagles and foxes so a bright orange kitten wouldn't last very long out there.

kittens are so cool...then they grow up

 

[Zardnaar]

Well I'm stuck with another cat until tomorrow... I was putting on the green today in our mens league championship and I heard the other players talking about a tiger. I didn't know what they meant but when I finished I looked up and saw a striped orange kitten rolling around just off the green.

As we left the green somebody else rolled up in a golf cart with a can of cat food. The guy said he couldn't take the kitty but one of my competitors said he would. When we finished our round he couldn't find the cat but I did, so I brought him home. I'm delivering the kitten to him tomorrow. The golf course is home to bald eagles and foxes so a bright orange kitten wouldn't last very long out there.

kittens are so cool...then they grow up

Softy.

 

[Berzerker]

Damn near every pet I ever had was a stray, including the family of 3 cats we have now... Thats why I cant keep this kitten, one of our cats is real jealous and mean about it, she'll attack other cats even though she's smallish. I'm worried she might kill or maim the kitten, and this guy said they have 1 cat so it should work out better.

Besides, orange cats dont do well in coyote country

 

[Valka D'Ur]

kittens are so cool...then they grow up

Most are cool after they grow up, too.

 

[Cutlass]

 

[Berzerker]

Most are cool after they grow up, too.

eh, they're alright... but I defy people to come up with a cooler pet than a kitten.

 

[Zardnaar]

eh, they're alright... but I defy people to come up with a cooler pet than a kitten.

Not possible.

No kitten since 1989 for me.

 

[Berzerker]

Well thats too bad, the people who took the kitten cant keep him. Their large male cat is freaking out. I think they should give him more time to get used to having a kitten around, but maybe they're worried he might hurt or kill him. If my cats wont accept him - and I'm only worried about the momma cuz she's mean - I'll ask my vet if they can find him a good home.

Any tips on introducing a strange kitten to an adult family of 3 cats? The one good thing is the momma cat is so small it wont take the kitten long to match her size.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Well thats too bad, the people who took the kitten cant keep him. Their large male cat is freaking out. I think they should give him more time to get used to having a kitten around, but maybe they're worried he might hurt or kill him. If my cats wont accept him - and I'm only worried about the momma cuz she's mean - I'll ask my vet if they can find him a good home.

Any tips on introducing a strange kitten to an adult family of 3 cats? The one good thing is the momma cat is so small it wont take the kitten long to match her size.

This vet has a website of good advice. Here is one of his blogs about introducing new cats.

https://drjeffnichol.com/dr-nichols-blog-considering-a-second-cat-think-twice/

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Well thats too bad, the people who took the kitten cant keep him. Their large male cat is freaking out. I think they should give him more time to get used to having a kitten around, but maybe they're worried he might hurt or kill him. If my cats wont accept him - and I'm only worried about the momma cuz she's mean - I'll ask my vet if they can find him a good home.

Any tips on introducing a strange kitten to an adult family of 3 cats? The one good thing is the momma cat is so small it wont take the kitten long to match her size.

Keep in mind that there's no one-size-fits-all-scenarios solution.

I got lucky with Maddy, as she was 3 years younger than Chloe and 14 years younger than Gussy. Gussy didn't like her much but tolerated her as she wasn't aggressive with him and I gave him lots of extra attention. Chloe's momcat instincts kicked in (even though she'd been spayed) and she started grooming Maddy as her own mother would do. That cemented their friendship and even though Maddy bullied her at times (over food; it's why I had to change their entire feeding routine), they remained friends until Chloe died 3 years ago.

Not all situations were successful. I've had cats who hated each other and one night an argument started... and was defused by tossing a honeysuckle twig into the fray. My cats never responded to catnip, but honeysuckle made them all very mellow.

So... if fights start, have something handy to drug them. Stoned cats just lay there with goofy grins on their little whiskered faces and don't fight.

That said... it might not work with some cats. Just like mine aren't into catnip, others won't respond to honeysuckle.

Some things to keep in mind are whether the cats in question have been spayed/neutered (if not, they might see the new cat as a rival). Or they could be very territorial about food.

I tried adopting a new cat a couple of years ago. It didn't work*. She was already adult, and so Maddy immediately saw her as a rival. I might have had an easier time if I'd tried before Maddy got used to being the only cat here. And if I actually do try to introduce a second cat, it would have to be a kitten so Maddy would still be the senior cat.

*It's a good thing it didn't work. Turns out that cat had medical issues her human hadn't told me about. She ended up surrendering the cat to Whisker Rescue (no-kill shelter for problem/special-needs cats).

 

[Berzerker]

Damn... this might get complicated and take a few days. I remember 3-4 decades ago we got a stray kitty and just threw him into the mix - we had 3 very different adult cats at the time. He wanted to play with Beefy - ya, the name describes him - and Beefy trounced him. The kitty got this surprised look on his face like, whats wrong with you, man. The cats got along relatively okay after that, but Beefy could have easily killed him.

 

[Birdjaguar]

@Berzerker We've almost always had multiple cats from different places and at different ages. Getting them to live nicely together takes time. Each needs to have its own space for napping and hiding out. We found that buying a nice stiff brush and using it to brush each cat around the head is a big help in them getting used to each other. Top, sides and even down the back. It may take a few weeks, but it definitely helps.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Damn... this might get complicated and take a few days. I remember 3-4 decades ago we got a stray kitty and just threw him into the mix - we had 3 very different adult cats at the time. He wanted to play with Beefy - ya, the name describes him - and Beefy trounced him. The kitty got this surprised look on his face like, whats wrong with you, man. The cats got along relatively okay after that, but Beefy could have easily killed him.

Sometimes all that's going on is the older cat is saying, "Look, twerp, I'm the boss of you, get it?" and if the younger cat respects that, they'll get along fine. That's how it was when I had the 3-generation cat family. Maggie was the oldest, her daughter was Lightning, and her grandson was Tomtat. Maggie resented the hell out of Tomtat, because she no longer had Lightning's full attention. She was upset that her kid had had her own kittens, and was a more devoted mother to them than Maggie had been to her own kittens.

One day Maggie was sitting on a chair, Tomtat wandered by, and Maggie thumped him on the head. There was an audible sound of this happening; Maggie clocked him hard enough to make him shake his head and look at her ("What'd I do? " ).

But later on... go figure. Maggie finally realized that Tomtat wasn't going anywhere and he wasn't as annoying when he was older as he was as a younger kitten, so she licked him on the head to indicate her acceptance of him. They got along reasonably well after that, even though she was a bit disgusted that he was hopeless at learning how to hunt (he didn't make up for that until a few years later, when we had a mouse infestation and he turned into an excellent mouser).

 

[Zardnaar]

Not my humans but I'll visit and mooch anyway

My name is Kora. I'm like drooling and mooching on new humans.

 

[shadowplay]

Do you need to cat proof your home when you get a new cat? I'd like to get a cat but I worry theres too many cables and wires and such.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I met my building manager's cats today. He has two 6-month-old female kittens, Sophie and Chloe. Sophie looks like she has some tuxedo and calico in her, and Chloe is a tuxedo (I kidded the manager about him naming her after my Chloe, but he didn't start working here until well after my Chloe died, so he never met her).

Sophie is cuddly and at 6 months she's heavier than Maddy. I don't know about Chloe, as I was told she's more shy and is actually in heat right now (not good to handle a female cat in that state). It came as news to the manager that 6-month-old kittens are biologically old enough to have their own kittens. He's getting them spayed later this month. I should tell him tomorrow he's lucky he didn't get male kittens, or his apartment would be reeking about now.

Do you need to cat proof your home when you get a new cat? I'd like to get a cat but I worry theres too many cables and wires and such.

Yes. If you search my posts in this thread you'll find a long reply to @Zkribbler about this. Some cats like to chew cords and cables and wires and you could end up with damaged electronics and an electrocuted cat.

Make sure you don't leave wires and cords dangling. Cats see those as toys to be batted and chewed. They don't understand how dangerous it is.

 

[Zardnaar]

Do you need to cat proof your home when you get a new cat? I'd like to get a cat but I worry theres too many cables and wires and such.

Ours don't chew cables, ymmv.

Personally we don't bother but don't have anything poisonous in plants or whatever.

 

[Zardnaar]

Dexter got in a fight today.

He won sending the other cat packing. Then came bowling up to me with black fur in his mouth.

Got a bit stroppy when I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him inside.

Idiot thinks he's top cat, seems bigger than his competitors but he's getting older.

 

[Zkribbler]

Kittens were running around today. A couple of times they caught a claw on my couch or floor-length curtain, not intentional claw sharpening, but I'm worried that they may begin doing that .

They're three weeks old. When may I begin clipping their nails?

 

[Narz]

I had a dream that my mom's cats had somehow developed swirls of psychedelic rainbow colors mixed into their tabby fur and there were two or three more of them (similar tabbies, not related to my cats, since they were all being so friendly with each other I wondered if there was a connection to these colors & the cats unusual pro-social behavior ) and they were all cuddling in a sunny windowsill and spilling over onto my bed. My bed was somehow in a classroom (where I was in high school, nevermind that I'm 41) and I took a break from math problems to cuddle with them until I was rudely told to get back to my desk by the teacher.

I remember debating taking photos of the cats to share or just enjoy the moment. Since it was a dream I guess I made the right choice (I didn't take the photos... maybe my brain is starting to learn that images captured in a dream only serve to annoy me later when I awaken & realize I cannot access them).