How many Mudcats have cats!?

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Mar 17 - 02:04 PM

How many Mudcatters with cats have had the experience where the cat decides to adopt you? One or two posts on this thread describe such.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 03:52 PM

Right, so I looked up Savannah cats, finding out, in the process, about Bengal cats, Asian leopard cats.... I didn't know about any of that stuff. We live and learn. I had in fact heard of Servals, but not that they had been cross-bred.

CeeGee, what are you doing with six Savannah cats -- have you got your own private savannah?

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Raggytash
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 03:20 PM

No question about that Kerebouxu, there have been cats in the house I have lived in all my life, 61 years to date. Not for one second have I ever imagined I owned at cat.

The first cat who owned me was called Tiddles, she was wonderful and looked after me as a child.

She followed me to the shops to make sure I got home safely.

She was black, white and beautiful and very loving.

Thank you for reminding me of her.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 02:27 PM

According to some, it is the cats who own the Mudcatters.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: oldhippie
Date: 09 Feb 17 - 06:14 PM

Currently have 4; at times we've had up to 10, including barn cats. Plus we have fostered a total of 70 cats and kittens for the local cat shelter. So, yeah, we have cats.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Cool Beans
Date: 09 Feb 17 - 10:28 AM

A cat adopted me in graduate school (I was in graduate school, not the cat) and I've had cats ever since. Now I also have a dog.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Feb 17 - 10:12 AM

pardon my ignorance, CeeGee, but what is a savannah cat?

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Feb 17 - 02:30 PM

Amergin, what is this about a cat that adopted you?

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 28 Jan 17 - 07:57 AM

I go away for awhile and someone revives all these old threads! 17 years ago I posted about Hotspur and Ophelia; they are long ago memories now (Hotspur is still and will ever be Best Cat Ever) and we are now owned by Marie Leveau the voodoo queen, and Ralph Waldo Catterson, who goes by the name of Waldo (but I believe his secret "real" name is Max. Don't ask me why). Both are black and very distinct and dignified. Except when they're ridiculous.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: CeeGee
Date: 28 Jan 17 - 01:01 AM

Our largest of 6 savannah cats is around 30 lb and a total whimp - most of the time. The smallest, at under 10 lb, needs glasses because it obviously thinks it's bigger than the 30 pounder! But she has discovered, on more than one occasion, that her head fits inside her bigger brother's gob!

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Ed T
Date: 27 Jan 17 - 07:37 PM

Our family black cat is huge, 21 pounds, but not overly overweight for his large frame, according to our animal doctor. He is 10 years old and we trained him to fetch small balls much like a dog. When he purrs, it sounds much like a power saw.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Jan 17 - 04:39 PM

For such small beings cats are as communicative as Dolphins if you look and listen.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Jan 17 - 04:23 PM

Kendall, maybe your Sam is what May Sarton calls
a "Cat of Peace."

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: kendall
Date: 24 Jan 17 - 09:11 PM

I hang suet blocks in the cherry tree for the birds, and I have a window box with sunflower seeds for the Chickadees. Sam is never allowed to go out, and shows no interest in going out, so, he settles for looking out the window while the birds eat. He has taken at least one mouse in the cellar, but that's about it. He is no Nimrod.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Jan 17 - 01:45 PM

Page 9, in the Preface to the 1983 edition, for May Sarton's account of the fiasco of a hotel visit.
Name of book: The Fur Person, W. W. Norton.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jan 17 - 03:51 PM

On the other hand, there is the occasional breaking news report of the cat, as well as the dog, who trailed a relocated human owner across hundreds of miles, obviously more attached to person than place.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Jan 17 - 04:03 PM

The thing with cats, though, is that some of them -- not all of them, I guess -- really orient themselves to places. I have always felt that cats think of people as part of their territory, and it is no secret that cats are territorial by nature.

I am thinking of the little book by the late May Sarton. She and her partner had a pet cat, who was the subject of the book. Forget the title. Of course the tomcat, duly neutered, took over their lives. Then for some reason they had to relocate; they found a suitable home for the cat with people they trusted.

The occasion arose for a reunion meeting. The reunion between the humans went nicely enough. It was different for the cat. You see, it worked out that Sarton and partner travelled to a nearby hotel, rather than stay in someone's home. And for some reason, the new owners of the cat brought the cat to the hotel room, rather than bring Sarton and partner to the cat on the cat's new territory.

So Sarton and partner's last memory of their tomcat was of a very unhappy, uneasy animal in a place he had never been before, and wanted to get out of right now, thank you, and he didn't care if he used to know these people!

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Raggytash
Date: 22 Jan 17 - 11:30 AM

Last year my wife and I bought an apartment on the west coast of Ireland. There were 3 cats which lingered around the vicinity. We've been "adopted" by one of them, a beautiful, small and sleek black cat who is very affectionate.

Although I was reluctant to feed her, on the basis of what would she do when we are not here, she eventually won me over.

I made some enquiries and found several people locally feed her and her twin and that they use to live in the apartment we bought. It seems the previous tenants just abandoned them when they left.

How people can do that is beyond my imagination.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Jan 17 - 04:16 PM

Eliza, nice to hear that your sister is getting on well with her new "little madam."

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Jan 17 - 03:05 PM

Jack Campin, I am still getting a laugh out of your post about terrifying geriatric cat fluff.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Senoufou
Date: 20 Jan 17 - 03:56 PM

Yes, SmokeyPokey is 15 years old now, which for a Siamese is quite aged. We're all missing poor little Minty terribly. His brother Murphy is moping around, and Smokey won't leave my side. My husband still has tears in his eyes when he comes home from work and there's no Minty to welcome him. Honestly, I've been through this so many times but it seems to get harder!
On a happier note, my sister up in Scotland has just adopted a rescue cat from the Cats' Protection League. A British black female called Mela. The website said she was 'timid and wary of people' but my good old sis got her home and the little madam inspected the premises and decided it would do. She's spent the last couple of days curled up on my sister's lap, and they love each other already. My sister is a widow and has just retired, so the company of Mela will be excellent.
I can't seem to shake off the sadness about Minty. He was so terribly ill at the end, and we did the right thing...I hate this time of year anyway, and I'm trying to keep cheerful. But...

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 Jan 17 - 03:09 PM

Eliza / Senoufou, you have said that your Smokey was the senior of your cats; how old is he now?   
And you brought home the two kittens to keep him company? Now one of his kittens is gone, and he's still around. Poor old thing.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Charmion
Date: 20 Jan 17 - 09:14 AM

Elmore? It's whom. Trust me.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Jan 17 - 02:57 PM

Helen posted in " '00" about Archy and Mehitabel. Indeed, the latter was a cat, and some cat she was -- she fancied herself a reincarnation of Cleopatra.

"I have had my ups and downs
"But wotthehell, wotthehell..."

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Elmore
Date: 18 Jan 17 - 09:13 PM

At the risk of being crass, we have a dog for whom {which?} we paid 36 dollars, and a cat for whom {which?} we paid 635 dollars. Love them both.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Jan 17 - 07:49 PM

cats and kittens again

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Anne Lister
Date: 14 Jan 17 - 11:33 AM

Back in the 1970s I shared a house with various friends, including Bonnie Shaljean, and it was decided we should have a cat as there was evidence of past rodent problems. So we had two calico sibling cats, Felicity and Dunstable. When they first arrived, we were convinced that Felicity was a female and Dunstable was a male, based on Felicity's neat posture and Dunstable's total lack of sense of dignity - we didn't know at the time that calico toms are very rare indeed. Eventually we realised that they were both female, by which time we had two litters of kittens, one of whom went back to my parents and became their much loved Cato.
Both cats tended to pee in the front hall, but were good company and provided some great moments of entertainment - Bonnie, if you're reading this, remember the dead squirrel? It had been left by the side of my bed one morning, and, half-asleep, I couldn't work out what to do with it so I went and put it in the kitchen bin. Bonnie came across it when throwing a tea bag away and to judge by the scream it was a bit of a shock (which I suppose it would have been).
In due course we all went our separate ways and I went to live in France, and both cats went to live with a couple of older women friends of mine up in Nottingham. Felicity didn't last long there as there was another cat already, so she took herself off (and we assume found somewhere else to live, as she was a resourceful cat). Dunstable, on the other hand, absolutely loved her new home and when I visited some time later she showed off just how rich and luxuriant her coat now was. I was left in no doubt that she preferred things as they were, and she had no wish to return to me, ever!

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Jan 17 - 03:05 PM

keep those cats and kittens coming

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Jan 17 - 08:25 AM

Isobel, a small black fur person, is squirming and purring in my lap as I type, for the study desk is her favourite place to infest. Watson, her brother, owns the kitchen sofa and anyone with the temerity to sit there, especially in the spot beside the reading lamp.

For a couple of years, we had a Siamese named Tokyo Rose, Rosie to her friends, who operated like a heat-seeking missile from Remembrance Day to Easter. She came to us as an emergency case, having been the undermost cat in a crowded house, and departed just as abruptly when it became apparent that she would succeed in preventing the settlement of Isobel and Watson, then four-month-old kittens. By the time the kittens came into our lives, Rosie had been the only cat in the house from April (when Old Bill died) to late November, and she was determined to keep it that way. She ambushed the kittens whenever they ventured onto the kitchen floor, especially whenever they emerged from the litter box. By February, the kittens were living on top of the refrigerator and Watson had learned to crap in the sink. Something had to give, and it was decided that the least bad solution was to find yet another new home for Rosie.

With great good luck, an old friend of my brother was found to be in need of a cat, and Rosie went to Prince Edward County where she is now the love of an old bachelor's life. He sent us a photo yesterday, of Rosie basking in a sunbeam on the sofa, so I gather that she has not changed a bit.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 Jan 17 - 07:21 AM

They sound lovely Anne. I had five cats at once for quite a while. If one passed away, I usually got two kittens. (I found the kittens were company for each other and felt more reassured together. They also played kitten games without irritating the older cats.) Trouble is, the policy of 'lose one, get two' results in rather a lot of cats around the place. But then I had a huge garden surrounded by fields and the cats enjoyed our log fire in the winter. Our present house is much smaller.
Siamese cats are always very talkative. Ours have a wide vocabulary. They also have a very naughty tendency to have a quick wee on any object to mark territory. (I've always had neutered males) You can see them laughing when you chase them after they've done it. Dreadful.

Minty is still in out thoughts. It's over a week now since he was put to sleep, and the grief continues. I half expect to see him again when I go into the kitchen early in the morning. He used to rub his head against my dressing gown sleeve and try to stop me filling the kettle at the sink. We loved him so much...

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Anne Lister
Date: 10 Jan 17 - 02:58 PM

Since I posted in 2009 we have acquired a second cat. He is a quarter Bengal, an eighth Ragdoll, an eighth Snowshoe and the rest moggie (but we have seen photos of his Dad and he looks very Siamese). His name is Mylo. My husband tends to think that Persia (who you might recall is a rescue cat from the mean streets of Barry) is like Nessa (from Gavin and Stacey, for those of you who watched it) while Mylo is rather more Hugh Grant, with his pedigree upbringing. Mylo has just been talking to me in the kitchen (being a very chatty cat) and I think he's been requesting me to turn the wind down outside as it's putting him off going out there. Oh, if you want an image - Mylo is white and grey, while Persia is a dark tortie.
Can't imagine life now without cats, but I don't think we could cope with more than two, especially as these two get very possessive about us, laps and places to sleep!

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Jan 17 - 02:35 PM

The two cats that are left, Murphy and Smokey, have been moping around looking sad. I'm sure they're missing Minty too. Winter doesn't help, as they miss the sunshine and warmth.

My sister up in Scotland is soon going to collect a rescued cat from a shelter. She had to have her old black cat put to sleep. He was 20 and had been a super chap. She's seen a female called Mela, which means 'black' in Polish. It's a British type, black all over (she showed me a photo) Mela is a bit timid and hasn't had a happy life, so hopefully she'll relax and enjoy living with my sis. Like me, she adores cats and has never been without one.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Jan 17 - 01:14 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Jan 17 - 03:07 PM

Charmion, and Eliza, that is a post I should dearly like to read myself....the description of singing with the cats in the kitchen.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Senoufou
Date: 03 Jan 17 - 02:11 PM

Thank you so much Charmion and keberoxu for your kind and understanding words.
I've never had a female cat, but I have found Siamese to be less long-lived than British ones. My British Shorthair was 17 when he died, but most of my Siamese have been between 12 and 15 at the most. The various strays I've taken in (and who can refuse a hungry,lost cat at the door?) were of indeterminate ages.
My husband has often talked to ours in Malinke, and funnily enough they seem to understand. He rang his mum in Africa this morning to tell her Minty has died. She was astonished to discover he was talking about a cat, not a person. (Cats over there finish up in the pot!) She didn't quite know how to react, so began reciting Muslim prayers for the soul of the departed. I did smile when I heard him replying "Amen. Amen. Amen."
Still feeling sad, but still sure we did the right thing.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Charmion
Date: 03 Jan 17 - 01:40 PM

Oh, Eliza, I'm sorry poor Minty is gone.

One of my favourites of your posts is that one in which you described your husband dancing around the kitchen, waving a dish in the air and singing "Chicken! Chicken!" while the cats thronged his ankles and howled. It just won't be the same as a duet.

Is it my imagination, or are tomcats more vulnerable to disease than females? Most of my ladies have lived to advanced ages, but I've never had a tom who made it beyond 13 (at best guess). Kidney disease, crystaluria, pancreatic disease -- it's quite the list. But Perdita, a foundling kitten who lost her mother before she was weaned, lived to be 19 despite chronic thyroid problems, and Lucy, who came to me as a stunted stray, made it to the age of 16 -- and finally died of cancer.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Jan 17 - 01:12 PM

In fact, Eliza, I have spoken with one or two breeders of pedigreed pet animals, of dogs or of cats. The good kind, who are protective and devoted to the animals. And for them as well, when their elderly males and females, long retired from breeding, have to be put down, the grief is terribly intense. The good breeders get attached to their cats / dogs, just as the pet owners do.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Senoufou
Date: 03 Jan 17 - 03:44 AM

Thank you keberoxu. I've cried quite a bit, and sadly so has my husband. He and Minty had a real bond. So many times in the past I've had to take a cat to the vet for the final journey, and it never ever gets any easier. But somehow the older one gets, the harder it becomes. The pain of grief is so intense.
I'm sure it's no different for owners of dogs, or in fact any creature we've grown to love.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Jan 17 - 08:33 PM

Ah, Eliza, even when it is inevitable and merciful, it really smarts. Good on you both for doing what your cat needed when he needed it.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Jan 17 - 09:21 AM

We're very very sad today, as we've just had to have our little Minty put to sleep. His triaditis flared up again last week and he was in a bad way this morning. I felt it was cruel to go on, and we took him to the vet's. My husband has just buried him under the pear tree in the corner of our garden. We'll miss him so much, he was a real character. But he'd had a lovely life in the countryside, with his brother and other cats, plenty of love and fun, and good food etc.

Rest In Peace little Minty.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Dec 16 - 11:16 AM

Captain, your Sam sounds like a grand little companion.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Dec 16 - 06:59 AM

Until a few years ago we lived in another village, in a house with a huge garden bordering on fields. No fences, just a ditch. Our cats over the years seemed to be more interested in shrews, field mice, rats, baby rabbits, the odd wood pigeon and once a pheasant. We often saw Hissing Sid, a huge grass snake, which our cats used to torment and poke, but never hurt. It was very rare indeed that they came in with a songbird of any sort. Now they're (like me) quite old, they don't hunt or catch anything.
Mind you they were usually stuffed with food. I had a colleague who went shooting, and he gave me rabbits and wood pigeons free, as long as I was prepared to skin/pluck and draw the things. (I was) The cats always shared this food with us. They crunched, gnawed and munched their way through all sorts of good stuff. I don't suppose they could summon up too much energy for chasing songbirds!

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 27 Dec 16 - 06:50 AM

I haven't yet seen an estimate of how many birds are killed by domestic cats that seemed to be based on honest and well-informed statistical methodology. Everybody seems to extrapolate from some sample without any attempt to show how representative it is.

We're in a village with a lot of green space and a few minutes walk from open fields, so there are a lot of birds available. Our three cats seem to kill a bit more than one bird each per year (and some near misses, like the pissed-off magpie we found sitting on the pillow which our Ollie had given up on trying to kill). They managed about double that when they were younger, and one year wiped out an entire nestful. Not good but not exactly an environmental disaster either.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 27 Dec 16 - 04:43 AM

Cats kill millions of song birds every year.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: kendall
Date: 26 Dec 16 - 07:27 PM

I lost my old dog, Charlie, in July. I've always had a dog or a cat. So, I went to the animal rescue and adopted a 3 year old neutered male. Orange and white. Feisty but loves attention, and sleeps with me.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Dec 16 - 06:43 PM

"Mad Mick" .... sounds like your regional answer to Glasgow's Sam the Skull.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Dec 16 - 10:18 PM

Hmmm. At the time this thread was started in 2000, I had five feral cats living in my yard, in an area of Sacramento that had lots of feral cats. There was rabies found in a feral cat in that area this month, so I imagine the feral cat population will be significantly reduced soon.
So, I got married in 2002 and moved into my wife's home in the foothills - with 3 dogs and 3 cats and an 11-year-old boy. And then the neighbor's cat moved in, bringing the total number of cats to four. We eventually got down to one dog and one cat, but then the other neighbor's two dogs moved in and the last cat died, so now we're a 3-dog, no-cat family, and the boy is 27 and still with us.
I like it that way.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 25 Dec 16 - 09:40 PM

We have no cats at this time, though we've had plenty of them over the years, sometimes four or five at a time. We live on a rural road where people often dump unwanted pets, and we could usually depend on a new cat showing up on the doorstep every year or so. But since a puppy (who subsequently grew into a rather large dog) showed up on that same doorstep a few years back, the cats have stopped. We'll see one in the yard every now and then, but they're too leary of the dog to make hanging around a habit.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Dec 16 - 08:08 PM

The predator thing can be inconsistently presented when a cat is highly domesticated and human-friendly.

I have rarely encountered a kitten or cat that would not make a game of pouncing on something, ANYthing, that moved in an arresting visual fashion. That does not mean that said cat will know how to dispatch one of its fellow warm-blooded beasties. Cats stalk instinctively as well, I believe.

But hunting and dispatching prey requires skill as well as instinct. Skill has to be acquired through a learning process. A lot of times, for a cat, that means there is another cat present who is already a good mouser/ratter, and can demonstrate to the learning cat how the thing is carried through.

I grew up where there were barns; and where there were barns, there were barn cats. Feral often as not, or semi-feral. Their lives depended at least partly on their hunting, so they got on with it, and did not like humans wanting to get hands-on friendly with them.

After all, being a lap-cat is something else that has to be demonstrated, practiced, and learned...although it seems like it looks a lot easier than being Nimrod The Mighty Hunter.

Subject: RE: How many Mudcats have cats!?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 Dec 16 - 08:10 AM

Cats as ratters or even micers is not something I've really known. Sure they may bring you the odd present doing no harm in the field in but I don't see (at least well fed pet cats) them as being that effective pest controllers.

A friend of mine had a mouse infestation in her flat. A cat of her own wouldn't be practical, she travels too much. But she'd heard that cat fluff was a mouse repellent. So I collected a bagful of surplus fluff from our long-haired lilac tortie Chloe. It worked - she hasn't had mice for a year.

The thing is, Chloe is nearly 19 years old, has almost no teeth, and has probably never caught anything in her life. Any prey would suffer nothing worse than a geriatric gumming. But her fluff seems to be absolutely terrifying.