Because of course there’s a jar of crunchies on the side table.
and
What might be in that jar of crunchies?
That table sits in the upstairs hallway, directly across from the foster room, and at night when the kittens are in their room and Fred heads off to bed, the permanent residents (the ones who are interested – Dewey isn’t usually around for bed time crunchy time) get a small handful of crunchies from that jar – those crunchies being Royal Canin Babycat. I think this routine started when Frankie was having mouth issues last year, and Fred thought that RC Babycat would be easier for him to eat since the pieces are tiny. Since you can’t give just one cat crunchy treats in this house, whoever’s around gets some. It is THE VERY VERY VERY BEST TIME OF THE DAY for Jake, who loses his MIND when he sees that Fred is headed toward the hallway, and I need to make a video of that, because he seriously acts like he hasn’t eaten in years and is starving to death.
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REMINDER: The Forgotten Felines of Huntsville online auction ENDS Saturday at 5 PM Central Time! So get on over there (click on the picture above OR on this link right here) and bid like crazy. All proceeds benefit the kitties Forgotten Felines of Huntsville, and the kitties (AND humans) appreciate it more than you can know!
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How do you manage to make your bed every morning with so many kittens and Permanent Residents running about and most likely lounging on your bed? I have 1 cat, and it’s a crap shoot as to whether or not my bed gets made because of Mr. Malcolm mustn’t be disturbed.
I make my bed as soon as I get out of it, which is before the foster kittens are released from their room. There’s rarely a permanent resident on my bed – they generally head downstairs as soon as Fred gets up – but on the rare occasion someone’s hanging out, I generally lift them with one hand, pull the comforter/sheet tight with the other, and then put them back in the same spot before they even realize anything has happened.
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Thank you in advance – the kitten adjustment continues. New litter (no more cement clay litter boots!), but I think Kekoa the kitten takes offense to the smell of his own poo (understandable!) and I recall you saying that you add… something… to your litter? Baking soda? Charcoal? Could you refresh my memory?
Activated charcoal! You can buy it online (Amazon link for reference) OR you may be able to find something similar in the fish section of a pet store. I usually sprinkle a decent amount across the top of the litter – it’ll get mixed in as he uses it, and if his feet are a light color, the activated charcoal will make them look dirty. (But the benefits are worth it!)
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Do the cats who normally sleep on the porch come into the house via the cat door on nights like this?
There’s a house with a heated bed in it on the screened porch (it’s the one that used to sit on the front porch at Crooked Acres, that Maxi would sleep in on cold days). Usually there’s someone (almost always Archie, but sometimes Alice) in that house, but the rest of them tend to come inside when it’s cold. They’ll still go out for a little while to check things out – and there are self-heating beds in a couple of places on the porch – but mostly they stay inside when it’s as cold as it’s been recently.
(Fred calls the cats into the screened porch at dusk and then shuts the cat doors leading from the screened porch to the back yard – they can still go from the porch to the house all night long – and the past 3 or 4 days the cats have all already been inside. Because it’s been COLLLLLD.)
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For a smile, check out Tree Decorating 101. After reading that page, click “2nd page” at the top for more enjoyment.
I love it!
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I seem to remember that Dewey was more of a cat’s cat. Is that still the case, or has he warmed up to his human servants?
He’s still more of a cat’s cat, because he is mean and knows how desperately I want him to snuggle with me at night! (He does let us pet and snuggle him, just not for too long. And Jake has taught him to run when the camera comes out. THANKS, JAKE.)
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Any suggestions on how to keep Prince Harry out of the Christmas Tree.
The best way to keep a kitten out of the Christmas tree is not to have a tree (ha ha), but obviously that’s not going to work for everyone. I myself have a very small tree that I hang on the wall, over the mantel, where the cats can’t get to it – but again, that doesn’t work for everyone. The only thing I can think of is to put the tree in a room where the cats can’t go, but that is NO fun.
So, readers – have suggestions on how to have a Christmas tree but keep the cats out of it? We’re all ears!
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Erm . . . Fred’s picked up crocheting??? Need more info, please!
Fred was looking for a hobby that would keep his hands occupied and that he would enjoy, so he bought some yarn, a crochet hook, turned on YouTube, and gave it a try. Voila, he’s a crocheter. He has zero interest in making cat toys or collars, but he’s made a few cat beds, and he’s gotten pretty good at it.
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The kittens are getting so lonnnnng. (Solenoid)
Wahhhh. Solenoid’s Da BAYbee!
LoJack’s serious little round face just kills me dead.
Tank shows off the tabby patch on his leg.
“Psst! Alexa! I needs toys!”
“LITTLE MUFFINHEADED KITTEN, I HAVE ADDED 10,000 TOY MICE TO YOUR SHOPPING LIST. WOULD YOU LIKE A FEATHER TEASER AS WELL AND TO HAVE EVERYTHING SHIPPED OVERNIGHT?”
“Yes and yes, please. Thank you, Alexa.”
“ANYTHING FOR YOU, LITTLE DARLING.”
“Oh! Well, my goodness. Aren’t YOU beautiful, strange kitty.” (Cruise)
Dynamo in the sun. Rumor has it it’ll be sunny today. I won’t believe it ’til I see it.
Gauge needs a kiss.
Wahhhh. Axle’s Da BAYbee too.
LoJack is very amused by himself.
I had to take down the picture that was hanging near the cat tree, because they kept smacking at it, and I worried that they’d knock it to the floor. This left a picture hanger on the wall – one of those hooks with a nail through it – and I pulled and pulled and couldn’t get it to come out. Then Clutch came to the rescue, all “Look out, weird lady, I’ve got this!” and 10 seconds later he’d pulled it out of the wall and was playing with it (and was not happy that I took it away from him.)
“LADY GIMME THAT CAMERA, I GOTS TO TAKE A SELFIE.” (Axle)
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Kara’s got her mean Sheriff Mama squint going on today.
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Previously
2017: No entry.
2016: Wahhh! Raleigh is DA BAYBEE!
2015: Myrtle Beach sunrise.
2014: No entry.
2013: Toof check!
2012: All the girl fosters in one bed.
2011: Don’t you want to slap me?
2010: He’s one long cat!
2009: Someone commented yesterday that Gus looks like he might be made solely of lint.
2008: No entry.
2007: The concerned “What is SHE doing?!” look on Deuce’s face is cracking me up.
2006: No entry.
2005: A rare shot of all six of them.
I wonder if Sheriff Mama is related to Scottish wildcats (aka Highland tigers). Even the kittens look ready to write you up.
I laughed out loud when I read “I generally lift them with one hand, pull the comforter/sheet tight with the other..” because I haven’t been able to lift Malcolm with one hand since 2011, lol. Not to mention he’d take it as an invitation to roll over on my hand/arm and continue sleeping, and then I’d really be eff’ed…
Alexa is a kitten’s best friend.
I use three curved scat mats around my Christmas tree and my kitties leave it alone. I put the mats on top of the tree skirt. Doesn’t look pretty, but I love my tree and love my kitties, so I didn’t want them to climb in it or chew on it. I got the PetSafe scat mats on Amazon. Yes, they’re a little pricey, but they will last for years, so I considered them a worthy investment.
Growing up in the 50’s the Christmas tree was always in the corner in the living room between the front windows and the piano windows. Back then the tree was real and all the ornaments were glass. The cat would try climbing the tree and in doing so would knock it over, sometimes breaking in ornament. My mother’s solution was to put a small hook on each windowsill and run a string across the tree, basically tying it to the wall. She was happy, the cat was happy and happiness permeated throughout the home. Truly a Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Ho, Ho, Ho!
I am lucky that none of my current 5 cats ever mess with the tree. They do love to get under it though and sometimes rearrange the tree skirt. 😀 But the first year Jinx and Trixie were kittens, I bought a plastic ornament collection from Sams just in case. Still, the most they did was bat one or two off from the very bottom limbs. So don’t automatically assume you kitty will bother the tree!
so you can add handyman to Clutch’s resume..
I don’t bother trying to keep the cats out..
https://www.kittyblog.net/2017/12/our-christmas-tree-2017.html
Back before the dog (BD) our cat used to get in the tree and want to sleep right in the middle. We’d shoo her out and then rearrange the branches (faux tree) and go about our business till the next time. We don’t really have breakable ornaments since after having kids in 2000. Anyway, fast forward to AD and the cat being separated from the dog. So now even though the cat doesn’t have access to the tree, the dog did. So we ended up getting a tabletop tree (3ft) and it’s not able to have many ornaments on it, but it works on the hutch where the dog can’t really reach it.
I’ve only ever had one cat in my years of cat staffership not mess with the tree, but different cats did different things, so I’ve had a lot of learning across the years about all the ways cats can get into trouble with a Christmas tree. I do several things to minimize injury and broken ornaments:
1. Fake tree, not live. One of my current clowder is a chewer and green puke all over the house is not my idea of festive holiday decorations.
2. Secure it to the wall as Cheryl said above. This helps quite a bit to keep it from being knocked over.
3. If you put your tree on bare floor instead of carpet, run an extra blanket under the tree itself to minimize broken ornaments.
4. Consider metal and fabric ornaments such as bells for the bottom third of the tree. They’re less likely to break when played with, and this has the added bonus of the occasional bored-kitty concert.
5. Thinking about it … I wonder if hanging cat toys from the bottom of the tree might keep a cat entertained? Of course, being the perverse creatures that they are, they’re likely to ignore the toys meant for then in favor of your ornaments.
No. 5 Has worked for me for years. The very bottom branches of my tree have cat toys as ornaments, and that seems to keep them happy. They also like to lay in the cat beds I put under the tree. My firstborn cat Mickey would lick the candy canes I put on the tree. So for as long as he lived there would be one candy candy can for him on the bottom branch.
I prefer to think that Kara is thinking deep — very deep, so so so very deep — thoughts.
This will only work with some kittens/cats. I had one who climbed everything when she was young, and the Christmas tree was a favorite. But she was frightened of stuffed animals*, and so we got the stuffies to link paws and form a barricade in front of the tree. This was at my mom’s house. I mostly didn’t do trees after I got cats, and when I did, unbreakable ornaments. And no silvery-plastic icicles, only a garland.
*Could her fear of stuffed animals have come from the fact that they “walked” at her, and when she tried to flee, made a flying leap on her? Naaaah, that can’t be it! 😉
Your bed-making routine has me laughing still. Our dear, departed Bruiser thought that was the best part of the day. No matter how deep her sleep, or how far away from the bedroom she was, Boom! she was there running around under the sheet, blanket and quilt. Changing the bed linens was the worst–ever try to put on a fitted sheet with a cat running back and forth under it? Of course, we kind of encouraged her because it was fun and made us laugh.
You know those housekeeping experts who tell you it takes only x seconds to make your bed? They never had a cat!
I had to laugh at the ‘crunchies’ – we call Royal Canin Babycat ‘cat crack’ in our house, because our cats will do darn near anything to get some! Up to and including searching the kitchen cabinets. It now lives outside in the garage.
My mom always tied the christmas tree to a hook in the ceiling. I’ve carried on this tradition, as it seems to work for us. 🙂