Sooooo – scratching posts. Do you personally replace the “rope” stuff on them as needed? I’ve got two posts that have perfectly good rope all the way around from top to bottom – except at ONE spot (near the top) on one side where apparently they all stretch to scratch there. I certainly don’t want to replace the whole posts, and don’t NEED to replace the whole rope. What I’m thinking of doing – is unwrapping the whole thing and JUST wrapping the top part where they all scratch with the part that’s never been scratched. I’m mostly asking this of you because you have multiple scratchers, and multiple cats and in most of the pictures I’ve noticed that you don’t seem to have bare spots and I wondered how on earth you manage that?!
Despite the box of sisal rope that I ordered from somewhere YEARS ago with the intention of replacing a threadbare scratching post, I have never actually done it (in fact, I’ve never even opened that box). I always INTEND to do that, but usually before I get around to it I either find something to replace the scratcher with, or… well, that’s about it. They usually get replaced!
I would think that you could unwrap the whole thing and then just replace the bare spot – but since I’ve never actually done it, I’m not sure how the rope is held on. Is it glued? Because I think you’d have to be careful when re-wrapping to put the glue side on the inside. (Am I making any sense? I’m not sure I am!)
Readers, suggestions, thoughts, advice? Please weigh in!
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Oh, I love Polo!!!! My 16 year Old Man Atticus has diabetes; how old is the handsome Polo?
He is 6 years old – I actually had to go look at his profile to find that information out. For some reason, I was thinking he was more like 3.
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The 2009 entry is titled “That’s Hoyt the big mouth” LOL! That’s my boy! He’s still a loud one and talks to me all the time. He even talks in his sleep at times! I can’t believe I’ve had him almost five years now. I love his goofy sweet self beyond belief and I’m so glad he’s mine. He is healthy & happy. Thanks Robyn!
Love that sweet boy!
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Re: Mr. Dolores – in a lot of spider species, the male is lucky if he manages to find a female, so when he does, he moves into her place and hangs around until she decides she likes him. They mate, and then she eats him. From his point of view, it’s a fair deal- she protects him (she’s usually much bigger), provides the web he hunts from, and he has little chance of finding another female if he lived. She’s only going to mate once herself, so it makes sense to make it count for all it’s worth, and a little extra food to make their babies nice and strong is his final gift. There are even species where he more or less flings himself at her jaws as a way of courtship. Don’t worry, it’s what he wanted most in life.
I just had to post this comment, because it made me laugh so hard!
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I feel like I should know this, but have you had to give shots to anyone before? I remember having to give the Boo fluids in her final year, and it was very hard for me to do though I made myself do it for her sake. But boy did I cry the first time I had to put that needle in her!
Tubby was diabetic, actually. (I canNOT believe it’s been 10 years since we lost him!) Fred was always in charge of his shots, and there was never any reaction from Tubby, I think the needles are so small that the cats can’t really feel them.
I have never had to give a cat fluids (I know, hard to believe), but with our aging permanent residents, I’m sure my time is coming!
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For the licky-licky thing, I’ll start doing something the cat doesn’t like. One cat tends to get wax in her ears – it always works its way to the outer ear just fine, but I’ll take my pinky and start cleaning the wax out of the ear. She’ll look at me like WTF? and go away. Or check their teeth. Or claws. Just something benign that they don’t really like. Hey, you gonna groom me, I’m gonna groom you! 🙂
This is a really good idea!
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Um, I am sure it is all camera angle but Jake appears to be ready for winter. Heh.
It’s the angle! The angle, I tell ya! Actually, except for Dennis, Jake is our smallest boy cat and weighs a little less than 12 pounds. He just doesn’t carry it well – especially when he’s poured into a bowl.
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I had a baby a couple of years ago and had one of our two cats tested for toxoplasmosis prior to my pregnancy just to check whether I’d have to be super-careful. He was negative. We didn’t test the other cat after another good-natured vet asked us how we planned on preparing her for dinner when we asked if she should be tested: Did we plan to eat her raw? He said it in such a disarming, funny way (and he clearly knew his morbid humor-loving audience) and then said no. It was unlikely that she, as an indoor-only cat, was infected. He then suggested I could either let my husband deal with the litter box (yay!) or wear gloves and wash my hands well after scooping. The point is, it’s not easy to get toxoplasmosis from an indoor, or any other cat. Unless you plan on eating them raw. Or licking your hands clean after dealing with dirty litter.
(I apologize if I’ve offended anyone! Just so y’all know, I’d never eat a cat, raw or otherwise. I can barely choke down “normal” meat…)
Like I said, I wish doctors would stop flat-out telling pregnant women to get rid of their cats! Back in the Dark Ages (1988), when I was pregnant, I was THRILLED to turn over litter box scooping duties to my then-husband. (Also, your vet sounds like my kinda people!)
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This may be a silly question, but do neutered male cats still spray in the house? Hubby is convinced they do, so I told him I’d check with the experts ;-). Thanks for the help.
Louise said: I have observed that males will continue to spray inside once fixed if they had a habit of spraying before they were fixed. Or if they feel they need to be top cat because of another male cat who is is dominant. I never had any problems with my males (8 of them over the years) spraying inside. I will say they were indoor only cats, which could have made a difference. Of course each cat is different. By the way, there are no silly cat questions !!!!!!
I added: Louise is right, there’s no such thing as a silly cat question! Neutered cats can and will spray – but I’ve seen lots of cats who were spraying stop after neutering. It’s more often to send a message, an insecure cat will spray a bed or other spot to send the message “this is mine.”
Female cats can spray, too! Maxi did it, way back when we first bought this house. I was very much taken by surprise (if I hadn’t seen it myself, I’m not sure I would have believed it was her work), but I haven’t seen her do it in years (thank god).
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I just had to share these adorable pictures of Orlando. I am tickled pink at how well he’s doing in his forever home!
Orlando looking through the door at Rosie the dog who clearly wants to play and be BFFs!
Is that not the most adorable thing?
“Ahhhh, yes. Right there!”
LOVE. IT!!!
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“This thing where you point that camera at me all the time and make lots of noise with it in a most annoying way – that’s going to be a regular thing?”
::sigh:: “I guess that’s the price of being beautiful.”
“You might want to take up sleeping with one eye open, lady. JUST SAYING.”
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This is Corbie’s favorite place to wait while I’m eating breakfast. RIGHT there, keeping an eye on me. He likes it when I leave a little bit of scrambled egg on my plate for him.
Corbie: smuggest of the smug.
And speaking of Corbie, check out these blinkity-blink Eyes of Lurve.
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Previously
2013: Don’t you just want to squoosh ’em?
2012: So we leave the closet door open all the time (of COURSE), and now there’s always at least one kitten in the hamper.
2011: Bobby Brady update.
2010: No entry.
2009: With Lafayette getting his new eyelips, we now have more kittens with eyelips than without!
2008: Yoga kitteh is surprised that you’d interrupt her during such a crucial exercise.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.