The Official HTF Cat Thread (1 Viewer)

[Jay H]

Cats are awesome at finding the best hiding spots. It's been a few times when I moved where I searched everywhere and couldn't find greylock. I mean everywhere. I still don't know where he was hiding to this day! When I'm on vacation, say 5-7 days long, I leave dry food out in those vacation feeders.. Even when I'm home, I leave out dry food 24/7. My two cats don't go haywire eating them all because I think they eat the bare minimum to wait for the gushy fancy feast.... I put my water feeder in a small litter box because they used to play with it but now I think they've outgrown it, it's just a habit now and doesn't hurt... The longest I've gone on vacation with my 2 cats is 7 days... 3 giant litter boxes out, 2 5-day food feeders, 2 5-day water feeders and all was well! Jay

 

[Sam Posten]

I'm sure cats can survive that long, I just don't think it's fair to em, mentally. Most I leave mine alone is 2 days. Anything longer than that and I make sure I get a neighborhood kid I trust to come feed em and spend some face to face time with em....

 

[Jay H]

I'm sure cats can survive that long, I just don't think it's fair to em, mentally. Most I leave mine alone is 2 days. Anything longer than that and I make sure I get a neighborhood kid I trust to come feed em and spend some face to face time with em....

What face time?? If anybody shows up at my house, my two cats run and hide and never to be seen!!! Greylock will automatically hide when even I get home, then once he can sense that it is me and not a stranger, he comes out and mingles. Marcy is a little more brazen but both of them are scare-d-cats. Plus, I'm just there to clean the litter box and open the fancy feast can and provide a warm sleeping matt. They have each other which is plenty of company for my two fur balls! Jay

 

[DaveF]

We hire a cat sitter for over two days. They have a key and come in for 30 min a day, play with the cats, check food, change litter, and make sure there's no emergency. There would be litter tragedies if we left the cats alone longer than that! We use the same person every time, and they come the garage like we do, so the cats get to know her and dont hide the whole time. We hired a neighbor kid initially, but he wasn't quite responsible enough.

 

[Stan]

Have always had one or two cats for the past 30 years, had a brother/sister set of Siamese since 2001, but the brother died of something unknown, even to my vet, about six years ago. They got along great with an Italian Greyhound I also had (think of a Greyhound/Whippet but only about ten pounds). Male cat and Greyhound passed away and I got a Black Lab puppy about three years ago, thinking she would be small enough at the time to get along with the survivng sister when they met. Wrong. Dog loves the cat, cat barely tolerates the dog. Not a hatred or fear response, just more of a "we'll ignore each other most of the time". Things work out fine since for whatever reason my dog is terrified of going into my basement, so the cat literally has half the house to herself, plus I've blocked out an upstairs room so she can get into it, but the dog can't. The strangest thing is that the cat "monitors" the dog at all times. When I let the dog outside to do her thing or get some exercise, literally within seconds the cat is on my lap and gettting her "affection" time. Bizarre relationship, everybody, animals and me get along just fine. Then again, if I have friends over, the dog is a complete black lab slobber machine, friendly as can be, yet you'd never know a cat lived in my home.

 

[ChristopherG]

Originally Posted by Stan
Then again, if I have friends over, the dog is a complete black lab slobber machine, friendly as can be, yet you'd never know a cat lived in my home.

We have two cats as well. In addition to the mother of the cats that Sam just adopted (named Zoe) we have a mostly white cat named Toby who I have nicknamed "The Ghost". If you don't live at our house, you will never see him...

 

[KPmusmag]

I am enjoying reading about everyone's cats. The black and white kittens are adorable! I wanted to share a few pics of the cats I grew up with, they were very smart and rather protective of me and put up with a lot of ear and tail pulling, although as I got older they decided that I should know better and let me know that, yes, they possess claws. They were devoted friends and I miss them to this day. (Credit to my Dad for the photos - on good, old-fashioned Kodachrome.)

 

[Johnny Angell]

Kevin, those siamese look like special babies. What were their names?

 

[KPmusmag]

Kevin, those siamese look like special babies. What were their names?

Oh, thanks, I think they were. The male's name was Tu (pronounced like the number two) and the female was named Ting. My parents would take them on walks in the woods, and they would stay right with them. I would never dare do that with cats! And they never left my side until I was about 4 years old and getting more independent and going to school, etc (the pic is of me at 2 years old).

 

[DaveF]

Awesome Siamese. That's great they were so bonded with you and your parents. My limited experience is they're more standoffish cats...but I guess all cats can be close to their people if cared for and given the opportunity.

 

[KPmusmag]

Awesome Siamese. That's great they were so bonded with you and your parents. My limited experience is they're more standoffish cats...but I guess all cats can be close to their people if cared for and given the opportunity.

Thanks, Dave. Most Siamese I have known have been rather stand-offish. Those two really were an exception. Perhaps it was because my parents had them from when they were just old enough to leave their mother, and my Mother is quite the cat-whisperer, so it just added up to something out of the ordinary, I guess. They were around before I was born, and I have to admit I took them a bit for granted, they were just part of the family to me and I didn't realize until I was older how special my relationship with them was. My parents told me that they were very interested in me when I was born, and seemed to stand guard over me in a sense. Fascinating to ponder. I feel very lucky. I adopted a female Siamese named Mei Lei who really didn't like me at all (she even hissed at me when I would put her food dish down) and she finally went to live with my Grandmother, whom Mei Lei could at least tolerate. Homo sapiens was not her preferred species, apparently. Pic is Mei Lei, and Ophelia, the parrot.

While on the Siamese topic, among a variety of cats through the years, we also had a beautiful Balinese cat named Tuptim (Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals are a good source for cat names, I guess) who was very affectionate when she wanted to be, but rather aloof most of the time. To our chagrin, she was an avid and ruthless bird-catcher; she seemingly expended little effort at that task but rendered great results, one quick swipe of the paw and Tweety Bird was no more - and she had been de-clawed! (before we got her, I might add). She had the oddest voice - think Lucille Ball + Carol Channing + Vitamix blender. Her meow certainly announced her arrival, that's for sure. Here are a couple pics of Tuptim. Thanks for letting me reminisce about the great cats I've known! And I love reading everyone's stories about their cats and seeing pics. More, please!

 

[Todd Erwin]

These are my two trouble makers, Xena (left), and Domino.

 

[KPmusmag]

These are my two trouble makers, Xena (left), and Domino.

They look cuddly, did they grow up together?

 

[Sam Posten]

Da boys! Kitties1 by Kadath, on Flickr

 

[KPmusmag]

Da boys! Kitties1 by Kadath, on Flickr

What handsome fellows! Those bright eyes and alert ears - I bet they want to get into everything.

 

[Edwin-S]

The two pictures of the Siamese cats sitting on top of the cupboard and looking out the window bring up images of Si and Am from "Lady and The Tramp".

 

[KPmusmag]

The two pictures of the Siamese cats sitting on top of the cupboard and looking out the window bring up images of Si and Am from "Lady and The Tramp".

Yes, definitely. Fortunately, these cats left the draperies alone. The tropical fish, not as lucky; they did take delight in them.

 

[KPmusmag]

The two pictures of the Siamese cats sitting on top of the cupboard and looking out the window bring up images of Si and Am from "Lady and The Tramp".

Based on this picture, I probably deserved to be shred to ribbons. But they were very patient.

 

[DaveF]

Great looking kittens, Sam! With a feather toy, similar to that, my cat Dash would run and jump himself to tongue-out-panting. I'd never seen a cat do that, before him.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

One of my father's cats is a sucker for the laser pen. You could spin it in circles, and the cat would chase it in circles.