NZFF

Sorry to carry this across several threads .... as you may or not know , i have 2 cats , Pratt and Whitney (aka , lanky and whitey ) One is not in good shape tonight .. not sure what it is , but i am sure it will be expensive.
I dont mind spending the money .. you take them on , so you pay the price for their welfare.(in my opinion)
This guy is a tough nut , i found him (or he found me) as a starving almost kitten ... it took weeks to get close to him... just eat and run. But slowly , he would allow some contact , and then he came inside , thats when i got him to the vet for all the shots and the removal of those bits at the tail end.
Since then he just blossomed into a big silver tabby type fluff ball , with a very distinct personality ... a bit odd , but doing ok .
So when i came home tonight from work and saw him in some form of distress , i got worried.
One of the flatmates just got home and coaxed him out to at least eat something (not much , but something)

Anyway , i will be taking him to the 24hr vet in the morning ... i sometimes wonder , who is the pet , and who is the owner
Sorry to bore you ... but i do care about these little buggers .

Can certainly understand that. I always thought of myself as a dog person, that is I always had a dog as a kid, and it was inevitable that my first wife and I had a dog, so our kids grew up with dogs.

But when my first wife remarried and moved to North Canty I looked after our youngest who was still at school, so it was simpler for me to rent their place close to the school. It came with their two cats, who had become feral because of their new dog, who was let run wild. They wouldn't come near the house, and I tried for a while to lure them back. One of them didn't make it, I found him dead, but the other came around eventually. When my daughter left home, and I shifted to Lyttelton the cat came along, and we have since become good friends. He's just turned 19, he's definitely old, like me, and he's started to pee all over the place, so I'm thinking of having him put to sleep. I haven't quite made the decision yet, I know it isn't fair to my flatmate -- or the landlord -- to have little puddles everywhere, but he's such a cool little guy.

One thing I've learnt about cats, they are very capable of looking after themselves, they do like to disappear somewhere safe and quiet when they are ill or injured, and they can go a long time without eating when they are recuperating, but as long as he has water I'd be inclined to just leave him and see what happens. For mine, a trip to the vet was always traumatic, and he now freaks out if I put him in the car. When I moved to Diamond Harbour, I actually carried him in a cage down the hill in Lyttelton to the ferry, then carried him all the way here so he didn't have to go in the car...

It's surprisingly easy to become attached to cats, that's for sure.

Splitpin wrote:Anyway , i will be taking him to the 24hr vet in the morning ... i sometimes wonder , who is the pet , and who is the owner
Sorry to bore you ... but i do care about these little buggers .

Marsbar was the 'classic' No place to go or least did not want to be with the other so called carer, ..... when they pick you out, that is when you know they are really happy, least Mars really had a great place to stay ... your mission Marty .. to the vet .

toprob wrote:He's just turned 19, he's definitely old, like me, and he's started to pee all over the place, so I'm thinking of having him put to sleep. I haven't quite made the decision yet, I know it isn't fair to my flatmate -- or the landlord -- to have little puddles everywhere, but he's such a cool little guy.

That's the heart sinking thing!

Come on Marty .. Update on Pratt aka 'Lanky' surely the Vet must have an answer and a fix.

Moggy report ... he's fine ...its me thats sick. Woke up this morning feeling like ... well awful , sore throat , blocked up .
How the hell does that work ? went to bed feeling good (worried about the mog .. but good) while i slept , i got full on flu ... not fair.

Cant work in the morning , 1 , because i just cant , and 2 , i dont want to spread the bot about.

But the moggy is fine

Rob and Ian ... thanks for your input on the cats.
Rob ...thats a great age for a cat ! I hope you dont have to make that decision ...and nature takes over.

Cat 'flu, maybe? Get well soon

Splitpin wrote:Rob and Ian ... thanks for your input on the cats.
Rob ...thats a great age for a cat ! I hope you dont have to make that decision ...and nature takes over.

You no how attached to Mars I was .. thing with me , I'll stick with animals , Cat's .. don't have room for dogs but Ricks dog Jess , shes all over me when he stops in here .. I call her a Rufus .. just looks the part , biggest thing is you really don't know how great they are, Think I need another Mars .. got the double glazed cat door in for a reason , LF was a stray , Mars come in after .... nothing like the four legged fluff tops snuggle in when your crook.

Good thinking Ian .... probably a good time to think about another mogget (MB would approve) , you could name him/her "classic "
I know they hunt birds and other stuff ... but i enjoy pulling up the drive after work and one of them is waiting (dont know how they know Im on the way) as soon as i open the door ... in he jumps .... checks the car out and then runs to the front door .... once open , he zips to his food dish , and so it goes , i become a cat slave for 12 hours
But , as you said , they seem to know when your not right and stay close ...not as loyal as a dog , but they do have something.
Im not so keen on the "gifts" that appear on my bed sometimes .... look dad , i got you a mouse ... lets play and the poor mouse is looking at me ... with that look of " do something dude" , it never ends well Im sorry.
I have however saved a few birds , even ended up hand feeding a young black bird ( ironically on cat food) for a few days until it managed to fly away.

No two ways about it , they (the mogs) are cold calculated killers ... that love us , so what do you do ? I love them back , and discreetly bury the "gifts"

The only thing that really bothers me is when they invite their mates around for a feed (cats do have friends)
..... and not just any old feed ... bloody expensive dry food (for soft fur and great kidneys) or the wet food .. prime beef in gravy or ocean white fish in sauce !!
Some of which smells good enough to pop on cracker and have with a wine ... and its cat food!! Am i a sucker or what
But back to their friends ..... i can just see it ... " yo fluffy ... beef in gravy at my place ... say, around midnight when my pet is asleep" ... cats .

Mars just loved the table next to the door here.. morning sunlight kept it warm, I always feed the birds breaking up morsels and crumbs and through it up on the shed roof - personal airfield almost ... ole Mars just looked up and maybe said to himself, "been there done that" , I'll just lay here on the hot plate ... LF brought a young bird, a sparrow, plopped it my hand one other time ... I held it above the fence and it flew away, If you feed them well and really look after them they do loose the kill to eat mode and it more is a game , like example with LF ... the sparrow was not even hurt ... both LF and Mars are gone now , they were like your fluff tops Strays ..

A couple down the very end of block here were having a quiet chuckle .. was not sure what the laugh was about , there was both Mars and LF sitting patiently looking at me , that's the way they were , you give them constant attention, they will pay you back !

My sister, who is a cat person, has some pics of a friend's cat. It is pouncing on a bird, with one paw outstretched while the other paw is silencing the bell on its collar...

Stealth Cat ... I would have to be a lucky photo

The lady saw it had taken up killing, so she put the bell on - it was an open bell with a clapper. The cat had no trouble silencing that. When she still found mauled birds around, after a bit of surveillance she saw what was going on, and got the pics. Also a closed rattle-type bell which the cat couldn't stifle...

emfrat wrote:When she still found mauled birds around, after a bit of surveillance she saw what was going on, and got the pics. Also a closed rattle-type bell which the cat couldn't stifle...

I think a lot off that comes down to the Moggy's, Fluff tops not being looked after properly, LF was a kitten when arrived here, was a hunter but in a few months realized had better fun without bird kill .. Mars come in later ..... spent most his time chasing me, if they are well looked after and feed .. not to the extreme tho , constant contact and acknowledgement .. they don't go bird hunting , most times they simply and really follow you around.

I had one cat giving to me, .. 'Gobi' I called him, that go's back to 1986, apparently when I was out, he was abused badly and run off ... I moved away , out after the rubbish, I went back in a long weekend 'labour' I guessed in the hope a week later .... on calling him he come racing out - stuck to me the car , was not going anywhere .... and for the next 10 tens he stuck to me like glue, he died of cancer exactly 10 years later , one thing he was a inside cat .... if you really look after a cat 24/24 X 7 plus you will be surprised.

Youngest bro had a cat that was a Buddhist - would not kill anything. Happy to watch mice being caught in the mechanical traps John set, but would not touch them, at all.

Yea, cats can be moody.
Mine hunts down anything. Dogs humans and even my car. You guys can imagine my face, rolling up the driveway with a bump and my (then new) girlfriend went "oh was that your cat?"

Cheers

picus wrote:Yea, cats can be moody.
Mine hunts down anything. Dogs humans and even my car. You guys can imagine my face,

I can see movie writes here, "The cat that would take on the world" ... voice set ... starring Sly Stallone

Ian Warren wrote:I can see movie writes here, "The cat that would take on the world"

it was quick to take over the house, so that movie would be sweet as to see.