Awww….. first Rufus sighting in 2011. I always think Archie is him for a second.
I remember how dead certain I was that Rufus was a pregnant female. I was recovering from surgery at the time, and at first I was content to wait and see if he kept showing up. Then one day I looked out, and he was under one of the trees, eating bird seed that the birds had knocked to the ground, he looked particularly fluffy, and I was all “She’s STARVING and she’s PREGNANT!” and Fred went out and trapped him.
You can read the whole saga here (my favorite quote from that post: “He’s too scared to come up on the side porch because whenever he does, you rush out there and try to touch him!” I said.), including how Fred freaked Rufus out by trying to pick him up WAY before Rufus was ready.
Also, Newman – the other cat mentioned in that post – showed up again three weeks later, very hungry and in rough shape, leading me to believe he’d been dumped. He became a Challenger’s House cat, and was adopted out (as I remember) pretty quickly.
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Awe…the video of Mary spitting reminded me of the very first litter of kitten our family had back home. Mom named them Hiss, Spit, Spat, Sputter & Scratch!
Those are great names!!
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I have a question about your cat fence. Mine is arriving today and I have been reading the training information provided by PetSafe. Did you go through the harness and 3 week training process with each cat or did they learn it all a lot faster than that? The directions seem more tailored to dogs than cats and I purchased the actual cat fence. I can just see Little Boy looking at me like I am nuts if I wave the flag around, pull him away from the fence and praise him. I can see him now rolling his eyes at me. I am hoping to keep a young cat from doing whatever acrobatics are necessary to get off of the deck.. there is so much chicken wire around our deck now… well I could keep our chickens on the deck no problem.. but not Little Boy. All my older cats are too lazy to work that hard to get off the deck anymore, just this youngster.
Thanks for any pre-training advice.
Fred ran the wire for our invisible fence around the top and bottom of the back yard fence, and the cats only seem to need to be zapped a couple of times before they figure out where the boundary is. Usually what happens is that they get zapped, it freaks them out and they run away (usually back into the house). Then they slowly approach the boundary, and oftentimes the beep of the collar will be enough to stop them. If not, and they get zapped again, then they pretty much understand it.
I don’t know that the flags would work with cats the way they do with dogs, but the cats do need to have some physical cue – that is, our invisible fence and our actual physical fence are in the same place, so the cats know where it is. Does that make sense? It sounds like you’re planning to run the wire around the deck, which I think would be the cue he needs. Don’t be afraid to turn the fence up as high as it goes, so that he really gets the idea; you can always turn it down in the future.
Your Little Boy sounds like he’s a fence-tester like Kara is, so make sure you keep an eye on the collar battery to be sure it doesn’t need to be replaced. Kara usually figures out pretty much immediately when the battery is dead, and off she goes (we’ve started checking the collar every few days, just to be safe.)
If any of that doesn’t make sense, feel free to let me know and I’ll try again! 🙂
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Is it just me, or does Peter, the house panther, have the slightest hint of eyebrows in a few of the pics today?
It certainly looks like it! I don’t see anything when I look at him in person, so maybe it’s just the lighting.
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Kathy sent me the link to this page – it’s pictures of Aoshima Island in Japan, where the cats outnumber the humans 6 to 1. I had seen the video that’s floating around, but hadn’t seen the still pictures, which are pretty awesome. Kathy pointed out that picture #7 shows pretty clearly why there are so many cats on that island (if you don’t want to look, it’s a straight-on view of an unneutered male cat’s back end.)
I’m thinking there needs to be an emergency TNR mission to that island!
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The new Peter banner is awesome. Raooorrrr!
Thanks! I have been a bigtime slacker on the banner front. I need to get back to creating them, not only because I have fun doing it, but I like being able to hit “refresh” and not know what banner I’m going to get. That picture of Peter just cracked me up so much that I had to do something with it!
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Have you ever noticed that Newt looks like a cougar?
You know, I was going to say that I don’t see the resemblance, but then I went over to Flickr and searched on pictures of cougars, and I actually can see that!
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I can’t believe that Alice doesn’t have a dozen rivals on the baby-food-connoisseurship front! How’s perfecting the recipe coming along? (The process must be sheer torture for your testers.)
I went a little too far and added a bit too much broth, and ended up with something that looked like a cross between mousse and soup. I had to cook another chicken breast to add to it, to solidify it a little. They like it a lot and eat every bite!
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Love the Paw of Nope! Are the treats wet? It looks like Mary has gravy or summit on her mouth. Is that from the treats or some other mess she put her face in?
No, they’re dry. She’d been chewing on it for a few moments, so it was wet from her saliva. 🙂
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When Winnie and Kathie brought the kittens to me two weeks ago (has it really only been two weeks??), they also brought this cool toy:
That is a Innovation Pet Kitty Connection™ Deluxe Cat Tree.
It’s one of those toys you can add on to, or it can be a stand-alone toy. These kittens LOVE that thing!
They’re always playing on it, swatting at the toys, taking turns climbing up on top of it and swatting at each other. It’s sturdy enough that it doesn’t budge when they climb it – but keep in mind that they’re less than two pounds each. I’m not sure that Sugarbutt (at 13 pounds) would be able to sit on top of it (or want to), but it’s great for the little ones.
For now, it’s big enough that two wee kittens can both fit on top of it.
The neat thing is that the “levers” that the toys are dangling from on the outside are attached to the ones on the inside, so if a kitten is playing with a toy on the outside, it moves the corresponding toy on the inside, which usually grabs another kitten’s attention (please note that in that picture, Princess Spitty is spitting at the feathers. She cracks me UP.)
And the kittens really like the toys themselves. Feathers? Fur-covered mice? Yes, please!
Did I mention they love that thing? They certainly do!
I hope that didn’t sound too much like an ad – I just try to share when I find something that the kittens love!
Paul gets grabby.
Peter and the CRAYZEE EYES.
“He’s behind me, isn’t he?”
::LEAP::
Yes, she leapt from there to the top of the blue condo and nope, I didn’t get a picture of it. But you know I’m gonna keep trying!
Paul sniffin’ the shelf, while Peter keeps the crazy eyes on me.
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Video! Just one today – it’s Mary, going crazy with the Kitty Connection toy. Peter and Paul both make appearances, too.
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Joe Bob was super busy yesterday. Every hour or so, he’d come and let me know that the door to the back yard was closed. Then he’d accompany me to said door, wait for me to open it, and then slip through the cat door into the icy back yard. He’d go about a foot and a half, realize that his toes were cold, and turn around and come back inside, shooting me a wounded “How COULD you let it rain ice?!” look.
Good thing for me he’s so forgiving.
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Previously
2014: Angelo has a dirty little secret: he’s a toe sucker.
2013: Why drink fresh water out of the water bowl when you’ve got an entire pond of water that tastes like catfish poop?
2012: “MOMMA! I HAZ A COMPLAINT!”
2011: No entry.
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: They feel cartilage-y, like human ears.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
That’s it…Mary is now and forever more “Princess Spitty” to me!!
And I said it on your Facebook page, but we need a link to favorite L&H videos. A “Hall of Fame”, so to say. Mary’s spittin’ one should be #1, but there is also the kitten (Mattie? Alice? It’s kiling me that I can’t remember!) on the copier, and then I still love the video of wee Norbert walking where it looks like he is ice skating! I’m sure everyone else has their favorites, too!
How could I have forgotten about the poop on the walls??? It made me laugh all over again!
RE Joe Bob – the SF writer Robert Heinlein was inspired to write a novel titled “The Door into Summer” because his cat kept going to the doors to the outside and meowing to be let out. Unfortunately it was raining so the cat kept being disappointed. After several times his wife said the cat was looking for the door into summer and Heinlein was so taken by that phrase that he wrote the whole book in a few weeks. Poor Joe Bob I fear he may have to wait a few days for his door into summer.
I love that tidbit, thanks for sharing!
As you pointed out, the cats already more than outnumber you guys 6 to 1!
Thank you for the fence advice! I only had one wire and he got out, then added the second wire and he got out.. cause he leaped from the deck over the railing and on to the ground so fast… so I added a little more chicken wire to slow him down and then turned the power up and so far so good. By the way, this deck is high off the ground and sort of over a cliff to a creek… not for the faint of heart to leap over. Now he is just bothering with the collar all the time, but I am sure he will get used to it eventually. I have been taking it off a night and closing off the deck. Thanks for the advice on the battery, I ordered one extra, but maybe I better get a handful. I see him out there testing to make the noise. He is 2 years old and just acts like a little kitten, I think the other cats are relieved when he jumps off the deck to explore, and leaves them alone for a little while…I imagine they are all cheering him on to leap over the edge.
Thank You!!!!!!!!
Kitten spits crack me up. I wish they didn’t grow out of that phase so quickly. Although old man Philo (8 years) will still spit if he’s sufficiently annoyed.