General Chat

...but how do you train a cat NOT to chase after something?
I had crane flies - loads of them. The cats would chase them and kill them.
Unfortunately, they also managed to break a glass lampshade, and score the wallpaper with their claws!

On the 'up' side, the wallpaper was replaced when I redecorated, and, after 2 years of crane fly chasing - I no longer have any crane flies in the garden!! The cats had a good time and they were fun to watch!
Oh - and the cheap lamp (from Ikea) has been replaced.

Years ago, I had a huge ginger tom - 14lbs of muscle, who would stop whatever he was doing when I said 'behave' - but he's the only cat who I could train with such precision.
Having said that - my youngest would see how far she could 'go' with him. If she did something he didn't like (like brushing his fur backwards), he would 'bop' her with his paw. if she carried on; he would do it again. if she persisted, he would bite her - not enough to break the skin, but enough for her to shout for me!
Daughter would then get told off for teasing the cat - cat was told to behave and he'd go and do something else.

He would also pin her down on the ground.
Daughter would shout for me, and I'd find her lying down with the cat sat on her chest, front feet either side of her head, staring into her face!!
How he managed to get in this position, or why she allowed this I have no idea. He never hurt her. I'd just say 'behave' and he'd walk away!! LOL
We had that cat for a long time - the last time he did this was when my daughter was 14 - old enough to know when she was p*ss*ng him off!
He and his (much smaller) sister would chase each other around the furniture, I just had to say the magic word- 'behave' and they'd stop still - it was a magic word!! LOL

Reading this thread has made me chuckle :-))))

And also reminded me of when I got my previous 2 little beauties. My OH had just redecorated our hallway and because the outside wall was always damp there he put a very thin lining of polystyrene under the paper.

About a week after he'd done it, I got my 2 little kittens, and it was just soooooo funny to watch them chase each other up the hallway.............and run up the wall!! LOL Then, while their claws were in the paper, their own weight would cause them to slowly slide back down to the floor (complete with claws full of paper)...........I thought the *tattered wallpaper* look was quite cool ;-)) LOL

Mary

Contrary Mary, that reminds me of our son when small, had that polystyrene wall stuff by his bed in an effort to keep the room warm. He lay in bed and picked it all off!

maggie

I am intrigued by your comment about stroking cats' stomachs

My daughter and her husband have 2 cats, brother and sister, and both neutered. They live on one side of Canada, and we live on the other ............... we've been lucky enough to get to see them once a year since she moved in 1999. It's an 8 hour plane trip ....... or 6 days on the train (our favourite way of going!)

The cats are now about 6 years old, and there was a new addition to the family in March when daughter had a baby boy ...... whom they basically ignore.


On my last 2 visits the female cat has evenutally settled down on my knee on the last evening, having spent the previous 6 or 7 days walking over the arm of the chair, round the back, along the other arm, down onto my knee, up on the arm, etc etc etc. She'll spend ages on those evenings letting me stroke her, but never settles down. Then on the very last day ..................


But what caught my eye was .............. the second thing she has done each time after settling down on my knee is stretch out after about 10 minutes and expose her tummy for me to stroke and tickle

Each time she has stayed on my knee with minor changes in position for literally 2 or 3 hours ........... which amazes daughter and s-i-l, because she has never done that even with them.


Unfortunately, we can't have cats at home 'cos OH is allergic to long-term exposure to them ...... and I'm not a very good housekeeper :))))



sylvia

You may remember the two feral cats we are feeding. My OH built a wooden shelter for them for the winter, and apart from a first inspection they have ignored it. But tonight he saw the female, Sweetie,, go in to it and sit looking out of the doorway, then she disappeared into the back part out of the draught! Dont know if she will stay there all night, they tend to be about earlier than us and waiting by the back door for their breakfast. We are looked at as if we are mad, but I'd rather spend the money on them than go down the pub if we had one, and buy drink I dont need. Healthwise, it would be stupid for me.

Sylvia - someone trusts you!!! What an honour!! :o)
Would OH be allergic to a hairless cat?
Awful as they are, (I hate breeding for 'looks'), there may be one in a refuge needing a home!

Jean, its really cold down here, maybe Sweetie knows more about the weather than you!
I need to sort out my windowless shed, it's a good refuge for the abandoned cats round here. I don't mind them sleeping in the shed and coming in and eating the food my cats leave - but if they get a bit too 'territorial' (my cats come first - and are not to be attacked!), I have a tumbler of water handy.......

I've loved reading all of your cat stories.

Maggie, your ginger tom sounds as if he was a character.

We too had a ginger tom a while back. Curtains, wallpaper and lamps were in constanct danger!

I rermember coming into the lounge one day, and he had climbed the wallpaper to catch a fly, and couldn't fathom out how to get back down. He was mewing pitifully for help. I never did hang "spongey" wallpaper again,lol.


New boy Tom we got from our daughter. He was a rescue cat. So when Gemma got a job with longer hours, we couldn't face him going back to the cat and dog home....That was 3 years ago!

Gail

LOL Gail, I wonder how long he'd been up the wall!
Mine was a canny old thing - he used to scratch the wallpaper behind the doors! As most of my doors areleft open for cat access, I didn't realise he was doing it for quite a while.
When I went up in the attic, he'd follow me - but couldn't get down, and didn't want to come down when I did. I used to leave the hatch open, and everyone was on 'cat duty'.
When he wanted to come down, he would look through the hatch and howl loudly.
I'd then have to climb the stepladder. I'd get halfway and he would throw himself (all 14lbs) at me and cling on furiously to my shoulder! (Yes, it DID hurt!)

I don't know maggie .... it's the dander he's allergic to.


anyway, I don't like the look of hairless cats (or dogs!)



we had neighbours some years ago who had 2 cats,

Mercury was midnight black with one spot of white

and Velcro, a sort of tabby colour


................. so-called because he was always getting stuck

I watched him one day race down their garden path, across the side walk in front of me, and leap upwards and forwards ...................... to end up about 5' up the trunk of the Maple tree

Then he hung there looking pitifully over his shoulder at me

these neighbours then had 3 children, in pretty short order

THEN they bought a dog .........a pure-bred Rottweiler


who was the softest, most well-trained dog that you could ever meet. Although, I wouldn't put one foot on his property unless one of the family was there!


Those 2 cats ruled him .... it was hilarious to watch them in the garden together. They would prevent him climbing the stairs to the back door, have him going round and round in circles trying to get them while staying just out of reach.



then, when they got fed up, they would come into our garden ........ and Mercury would climb to the top of the support holding up the kiwi vine! Velcro never really got the hang of that.


The two cats were about 15 or 16 when their people moved away about 4 years ago.

LOL Sylvia - I think the dog was trained by the cats!!!

I looked after my daughters alsatian/collie cross for a while.
She was really good with my cats.
The poor thing would be slumbering under the table when Sophie (a stray the neigbours had 'forgotten' to take when they moved) would go up to her and bop her on the nose to wake her up - then walk away.
A very confused dog would wake up and wonder what had happened!