Caregiver's cats behaving badly.

I would never judge either
It's a hard thing to do for sure.

Gershun,

I stayed with my cat. She was 16 years old. I held her in my arms. I understand it’s painful and some people can’t do it but I am glad that I did.

Not judging anyone who can’t do it. We are all different and capable of different things.

I watched something online yesterday that was sad but true. A vet was saying that when your furry friend is dying, though it's hard, you should be there with it when it is getting put down. He said he's seen so many times where the owners have left and the pet is looking around the room searching for that familiar face. :(

Sorry, didn't mean to bring the mood down but I know for me there was one time I did not stay and another when I did and the time I did, it brought real closure for me.

Our pets can hear us, and understand.
There is a pet-mom on a few bird videos, who can hand feed her birds.
She instructs to put their spinach, lettuce, on top of their cage for foraging purposes.

Yesterday, I said to my hubs, I wish Tweety would eat from my hand like that.
I don't think he ever will.

Today, he was on his cage, and I offered him a huge piece of romaine lettuce.
He ate from it! Nice!

Luckylu- with you as their Mama, everyday is pet day for your babies. :)


Ali- at least you did all you could.

Today is National Pet Day,so cats and dogs everywhere deserve special treats.
My cat babies are getting freeze dried tuna as their treat and my little dog is getting a chicken strip after they all eat their dinner first.Then at bedtime,there will be extra pats for all of them.

Ali I think the way that mouse was acting and the fact that you were able to catch it so easily probably meant that there was something wrong with it, I'm surprised you were able to keep it alive as long as you did.

The little mouse died. I took it an hour away to the suburbs on Tuesday and gave to friends who have 8-10 other mice in little cages and the other mice are friendly and like playing in your hands and such. They weren't field mice but my friends said they wanted this one, even though he was a field mouse. Then I got a call about 40 mins later that the little guy had died. I think *all of it* was just too much for him, and he wasn't eating the right foods, and he had to lick off all the oil on his fur, and he had to endure a scary hour car ride, and he had to meet all these MUCH bigger mice who were sniffing all over him... and he just couldn't take it. Who knows.

If I ever catch another mouse by accident, I'm putting it back outside close to here. I think that's as good a chance at survival as what I tried to give this one.

I've always had pets. Cats, dogs. One year my kitty scaled the decorated Christmas tree. Right through the trunk of the tree! Years ago, but still so funny. A few weeks ago I lost my last little man, my dog. It's been terrible as he's also the last pet I'll have. He was 14 and had cancer for over 3 years. The vets called him the miracle dog because he lived so long. He hated all people, except me and my daughter. When this happened with my mom and she came to stay with me, I sat him down, literally, on my bed, and had a 'conversation' with him. Do you want to stay in the bedroom all the time, or do you want to learn to love her like I do? Who knew, he accepted and loved her too!!! And she's not an animal person, but she loved him too!!!

I wish my cats were more aloof. They smother me to death with their neediness. I always wanted cuddly cats but my guys take the cake.

I hide in my bedroom with the door closed a lot, lets put it that way.

And yet I love them................a lot.

I love their aloof, carefree, independent nature! Refreshing!

Yes, I remember putting those icicles on the tree. That’s funny. Cats are so curious and playful.

Funniest place I ever found my cat was my sock drawer! Poor kitty jumped in. I didn’t see her in there. I shut the drawer and left the bedroom. She was crying to get out. I couldn’t find her. I traced the sound to the drawer and when I opened it she jumped out like a ‘Jack in the box!’ Was funny!

My cats I grew up with used to get into the Christmas ornaments as well. The icicles...........I don't know if people still use them. Those long, stringy things that are supposed to resemble the icicles that you see on tree branches and eaves. Anyway, we would see them hanging out of our kitties behinds............I used to pull them out when I was a kid. Yes, gross, I know. But have since learned that is harmful to an animal and you should not do that.

I love cats and dogs. But I've only ever had cats as pets. Life just would not be normal without a little fur creature around.

I grew up with cats and dogs. Have severe allergies to cats and no longer own any 😔.

One cat I had was very sweet. Very spoiled. She loved standing at my feet while I cooked in case I dropped something.

I cooked one of hubby’s favorite dinners, spaghetti and meatballs. I’m a wannabe Italian, haha. I married an Italian though 😊.

I placed the bowl of meatballs on the table and walked to fridge to get ice for our drinks. By the time I got back to the table my cat jumped up onto the table and was eating our meatballs. Oh, hubby was not happy that evening!

Another time she climbed up our Christmas tree and shook off all of the ornaments. Those were the days of satin balls. Remember those? She had the satin shredded all over the living room. Was a mess but she had so much fun destroying our Christmas decorations!

I am loving these stories. Keep 'em coming. There is joy here!

Well CM I have two cats and one of them knows his name and comes when you call him. He is smart as a whip. A classic orange tabby. He likes to drink water out of a running tap. One time I ran the water for him in the bathroom and then got on the throne to do my business. He likes his water a specific temperature so he was sitting there waiting for it and then I noticed he kept looking at me, then looking at the tap, then back at me. Suddenly he whipped his paw through the water stream at just the right angle so that it would hit me in the face, which it did. I know it was deliberate.............but so hysterical that I sat there laughing. I couldn't get mad. It was priceless. Good for you, I thought.

My other cat is brother of aforementioned cat and he is a big, chunky, food driven cuddle monster. He is so attached to me it's pathetic. My hubs always says "what have you done to him?" cause of course he wants his cats to man up. But not this one. He is a fat baby and proud of it.

Cats, can't live with them, can't live without them..............sigh!

Sigh. Cats. I have two lively, well-behaved cats that pretty much ignore me although I would love it if they would cuddle with me... one of them, well, more on her later. We also have a very obnoxious, thoughtless cat I don't much like, who actally belings to my child who is away at school. This cat drools because she has a crooked tooth, and guess what? She is all over me, all the time. She can't just sit quietly on my, lap, either. She has to lie on my chest, gazing lovingly into my eyes, while I glare at her. "Go away," I say, to no effect. She reaches one paw up to gently caress my face. I wouldn't mind so much if she just didn't want to stroke me affectionately with her needle-sharp claws out. Sometimes one claw will catch me on the lip. Can't trim them, she is a tornado to trim. I push her paw away, of course. But she persists. "I really don't like you," I tell her. She knows, but she can't help it that she is addicted to me. She loves me with her eyes. "I know you do love me," she purrs seductively, butting my chin with her head, then sliding her face along mine and leaving a trail of slime on my face. She is the only mouser of the three, so she stays.... Sigh. Cats!

The second one, the one I truly love, is an obese Siamese-Tabby cross, a "lynx-point" gone wrong. She's cross-eyed, built like a tank and has a tiny meow. She ignores me completely except when there is a door between her and me. But only a particular door. You know which door. The door which, once it is closed, I can't open. She puts a paw under the door. "Are you in there?" She asks. (Of course I'm in here, you just saw me come in.) "Come out," she says. (I can't come out, I'm busy!) She starts tearing the door down. "What are you doing in there?" She demands. (You don't want to know!) "Well then let me in, I will die if I don't see you RIGHT THIS MINUTE!!!

The third cat is a stunted, skinny, mottled, nondescript grey and brown affair that stalks around like a miniature Siberian tiger. She is majestic in her own mind. She's a mighty hunter, but only of dragonflies and the occasional butterfly. Once she caught a hummingbird! I don't think she'll do that again. There's not much meat on a humm'bird. The other cats fear her, but only a little bit.

Sigh. Cats! And yes, they know their names.... and how dare we speak them, lol!

Ah mice, we have them in my house so I need to call a family meeting with the cats as they have been slacking in their jobs :P

My mice come in from under the house foundation, and they can come in from the garage getting into through a space no bigger than a dime. Mice have no skeleton, so they can flatten out to get under doors. If your house has siding, the corners is a good entrance point, too.

One day I opened my sink cabinet and notice large bites out of toilet paper I was storing there. Yep, mice were able to get through from around the plumbing drain that goes into the wall.

I have also heard mice gnawing away between the walls.

And, oh of course, let the cat out in the garage and they will return with a mouse and let it loose in the house.

I hate to kill any creature [ants and wasps are the exception], so I try my best to catch them. I usually have to race to my boss's office before he uses his method of eliminating a bug, and scoop it up and put the bug outside.

One time Home Depot sold small plastic mice catchers, no-kill. Put in peanut butter and the plastic door will shut. Empty many of those waaaay in the back yard.

One time I found mice using an old extra litter box in the basement that still had some litter. My gosh, I had the mice "litter trained" :)

I'm a "neat-nik," as my father used to say. If there was any infestation, or droppings, I would have seen them. I've never seen any. This one had to have crawled up from another unit, or outside. I've never seen holes chewed in trash bags, or anything that looks like mice or rats were around my immediate area.

I use gloves when handling the mouse because they can have gross germs on them. It's crazy that I'm doing all this, yes, but I didn't go looking for a mouse outside, one came to me, then was stuck while still very much alive and struggling in a glue trap.

This thing is a baby, a very small mouse. Why did Mother Nature make infants so much cuter and seemingly vulnerable...? Probably so other creatures would pity them and try to nurture them. That's where I'm at with this. Mousey is in a plastic bin until he gets all the olive oil off his fur, then he's going elsewhere. Actually, my friend let me know I can bring him anytime, so he's going this weekend.

I don't care what anyone else thinks about me doing this. It's a tiny mouse and it was squeaking so pathetically in the trap and I wasn't going to kill it just because I could. If my friend wasn't taking him, I'd release outside in a couple of days.

CM, when I saw the mouse, I was yelling for Delilah to come and get him. She never showed. They don't care. lol

Front page headline today:

Cats do know their names... but don't care.

Japan - study involving 78 cats [presumably not all in the same lab] - controlled trial to see if they would respond differently when their names were read out among a list of random nouns. Would their ears prick up, would they move their heads or display signs of excitement such as tail movement?

They did. Two out of three, anyway: they reliably moved their ears or heads but rarely demonstrated excitement. Scientists concluded that cats learn very well that hearing their name probably meant a human was about to disturb them, for good or ill.

How any of this is news to any cat owner I really can't say.

Ahhh, Ali, don't post things like that to FB. Someone, somewhere is bound to disapprove, some very very inappropriately. People are just nuts sometimes and take every advantage of every opportunity to let someone know they do not approve of their actions.

Went to sleep playing fetch, wake up and playing fetch!🐈 It is so funny😂

Ali, I don't want to be the Voice of Doom, but mice do not come in ones. That perhaps is why they are mice and not mouses.

Your cats don't go out of doors, do they? If they did, I'd say the likeliest method of entry for Mousey was that the cats brought him home for a play date. But as they don't...

You'd best get a torch and look for "signs" of infestation. I.e. droppings. Sorry.

Ali, I have a big heart and love animals too but I don't think I would have done all that. Mind you, I did once spray raid bug spray on a fly and instead of dying instantly like I thought it would, it did this kind of death spiral. I watched this in horror and had a good bawl afterward.

Yeah, being kind and gentle can be a lot of work sometimes.

Ali- that made me giggle but also made me see how precious your heart is.
I hope too you are feeling better these days.
And I hope the mouse gets a good home.

I have a mouse, a very small and young one.

I was standing at kitchen counter yesterday and saw something out of corner of my eye. I look down at floor and there's nothing there, I figure I'm just wonky. There it is again, I look down and there's a small mouse, small ball of fluff, just sitting in the middle of the floor, very curiously checking out my apartment. Where did he come from???? I have no idea. Why would he be on 2nd floor and not on first floor of the building, anyway? He's so small, barely older than a baby, maybe still is a baby. I figured the cats would get him eventually, or he'll find his way back outside. I wasn't prepared for him to get stuck in the glue trap boards that I put down for roaches and water bugs.

But... there he was, stuck sideways in the glue trap and couldn't free himself. I wasn't happy about that, it didn't seem humane to take him to trash still alive and just dump him, but that's what I did. But then I was sad about it so I posted on Facebook, and an animal-lover friend of mine (seriously, the guy is vegan and believes that every life is worthwhile, that eating meat is cruel, etc) sends me a link about how to remove mice from glue boards. It involves pouring vegetable oil on them. Ok, I figure I can at least set the mouse free.

I go get him out of trash outside. I pour olive oil on him, trying to get as little as possible on the mouse itself because online it says that they will have problems regulating their body temp if they are coated in oil. But this mouse keeps resticking himself trying to escape the glue board, keeps getting restuck to the glue board, he's panicking, I'm panicking, and I pour olive oil all over everything. Mouse is now free but covered in oil.

It's amazing how much smaller he looks with his fur plastered down to his body. It's SO TINY. I put gloves on and take a warm wet washcloth and try to wash him. I've done this about 4-5 times now, he still has some oil on him. I got him a warming lamp today... because I didn't think he was going to make it if I didn't warm him up. He didn't look so good this morning.

He's getting bread pieces in milk, and peanut butter, and water. I don't know if he's eating or drinking anything besides licking off all that olive oil.

My fingers are crossed that he can recover. An acquaintance has a few wild mice as pets and I told him he could have this one, too.

But yeah. I have a wild baby mouse in a big plastic bin, with warming light and food. :-)

My cats are really slacking off, that's all I can say about that.

Glad, that's so cute! My cats both will "talk" to me and with me sometimes, and Old Man isn't shy to put himself right on my lap when he wants pets, or use his paw to grab at my hand. But no fetch. lol Sometimes I wonder if they get enough play time but they're both older, and have each other, so... I figure they're fine. The new roommate is really good with them. I think she's their favorite cuddle buddy now and that's MORE THAN FINE with me, lol.

This game of tossing the crumpled napkin has become fetch. Ming fetches! She will bring that napkin back 10-15 times before she wears me out! Then I now always wake up with a crumpled napkin on my bed.🐱

If you are seeing an increase in urine in your litter box you may want to take your cat to the Vet as there may be a physical problem.

Good Tweety! It's amazing the some birds have so much personality. My MIL has a beautiful talking parrot. He greets her in the morning with "Morning" or "Hello." If he doesn't see her at the usual times of day, and she's late, he'll get mad by giving her the 'silent treatment.' That's so funny.

No, really! It was a real question. There was so much in the cat litter box, it seems impossible that just a cat could add that much in a day.....
This might have really happened, maybe? Did anyone ever see elder parent Pee
in the cat litter box?
Maybe it could be an invention, put cat litter in the bedside commode to decrease odors. Re-invent it to look different, and more absorbent, a prettier color other than clay? But not green, yellow, brown or red.
Talking about poo is okay on this thread. Lol.