I have 3 cats. A female tortie, a male orange tabby and Flanery- a male gray tabby. The tortie is 10 years old. Orange tabby about 14 & Flanery is about 2 years. We’ve had Flanery since he came to us as a foster at 6 weeks old and only 6 ounces. He had some physical delays and I believe some Neuro issues due to the severe malnutrition and emaciated state he was in. Well all has been well up until night before last. Flanery attacked Lytning. Since then he has attacked her 3 more times, the orange tabby once, my son and came after me. He has this almost “war cry” howl and looks possessed. He’s calm on some Benadryl right now but the others are shut in my bedroom. Any thoughts? I’m taking him to the vet tomorrow. I just don’t know what is going on. My son has a deep 4-5 inch gash on his foot from Flanery.
What comes immediately to mind is that it sounds like Flanery could have been reacting to something he perceived as a threat, which could have caused the first attack, and in his mind it’s still a threat. Possibly something that happened right before the first attack? Maybe he have seen a strange cat or been startled by a noise? That’s all I can think of off the top of my head, but I suspect that some L&H readers will have suggestions – as well as possible suggestions on how to deal with the behavior. Readers, got suggestions? I’d love to hear them!
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I saw a video of an Abyssinian mother with her litter – she was chomping those babies UP! (at about the 1:00 mark) The narrator described it as “wrestling” but I was really surprised by how rough it looked. Do your mama cats tend to play that roughly with their babies, or is it maybe a somewhat breed-specific thing?
Oh, my mama kitties definitely play that roughly with their kittens and it drives me NUTS. The first time I saw it, with Kara, I was like “OH MY GOD SHE’S TRYING TO KILL THEM!!!” and freaked out. Now I’m used to it – I’ve seen it happen with all the mama cats – but I still don’t LIKE it. It looks scary, but the kittens barely even seem to notice it and she doesn’t actually hurt them. I’m sure there’s some sort of explanation for it (“It’s a rough world out there, kid, and I’m going to teach you to defend yourself!”) since it does happen with all the mamas and their kittens, but I don’t know what it is. I will say that I haven’t seen it go on as long as it does in that video – it’s usually a pretty short grab-bite-bunny kick session.
And Tiny is killing me dead, when he watches his mother wrestle with the other kittens. DEAD. Oh, that face.
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I was just scrolling through the “popular” screen on Pinterest and found this. Robyn you may want to change Khaleesi’s name. omg
HA – that is awesome!!!
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Now, this is awesome. I checked your past posts, like the ones with Creed, Dwight and Phyllis (one of my all-time favorites, that Phyllis) and guess what? Creed is just like Norbert! Black tuxie, white streak on his nose and forehead, white whiskers, attitude, same time of the year fostered in Crooked Acres. I mean, it’s wonderful, isn’t it?
It certainly is! And for that matter, Buttercup kind of has that same look, too – though she doesn’t have as much white on her nose. Here they are, side by side, Creed, Norbert, and then Buttercup.
Gotta love a tuxie. 🙂
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Yikes! We have our first kittens to foster! Three little boys about 4 weeks, and a mom. They were only in the shelter two days and haven’t even had their combo test yet so that is high on the priority list, but for now they all seem to be thriving! I hope mine do as well as yours do!
I bet they’ll do just fine – and yay, fosters!!!
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First time commenter here, I’ve followed your site for a real long time and I’ve always so enjoyed your pictures, I love Crooked Acres! I hope you can offer some wisdom regarding traveling with cats: we are moving from Denver to LA, it’s a real long car drive, after weighing our options, me and my husband will have to drive with both of my cats in the backseat, it will be many hours, we will be driving during the day and stay at a motel at night. I’m curious if you have ever done a long drive with cats, should I keep them in the carriers the whole time? How will they use the litterbox? I thought it might be better for them to be out of the carriers and have some room to stretch out. My cats are pretty big, 12lb and 15lb, the carriers I have fits them pretty snugly, they can turn around but barely. Any insights would be helpful, I just want to make sure to make this as low-stress for them as I can. Should I consider getting a mild sedative from the vet? I am planning on putting a litterbox on the floor of the backseat. I’m hoping after the first 2 hours (ok, maybe 3 or 4 lol), they would settle down and not be too stressed. Any thoughts would be appreciated, thank you!
Oldcat had some great advice here.
I myself have only traveled with a cat once, when we moved from Rhode Island to Alabama. It was just the one cat, and my intention was to leave her in her carrier for the entire trip (it was a two-day drive), letting her out at regular intervals so she could eat and use the litter box. But she howled so loudly and so piercingly that after 10 minutes that plan went out the window. I let her out of her carrier, whereupon she IMMEDIATELY used the litter box (which was set up in the back seat), necessitating an emergency stop so I could scoop the litter box because OMG the SMELL. She was a general pain in the butt – she thought she should be sitting where Danielle was sitting, in the passenger’s seat, and if Danielle shifted even the tiniest bit the cat would claim the space for herself. I was continually having to pull her over to the side of the seat so Danielle could sit comfortably. That said, it actually wasn’t a bad way to travel, and we all made it safe and sound. I’m not sure I’d do it that way again, but it worked out okay so I’m not saying I wouldn’t, either – except, of course, that I no longer have ONE cat, and I can only imagine what traveling with 12 cats loose in a car would be like. I’m sure I’d end up on the news.
So how about it, y’all – got advice for Joy?
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Whoa, Ruth has the most amazing blue eyes. Practically Fremen blue. How lovely.
I actually had to Google Fremen to figure out what Fremen blue is (it’s been a long time since I read Dune).
I like to say the father of Khaleesi’s litter must have been a White Walker!
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Robyn, you don’t have to answer this… What’s up with Stefan (I think that was his name)?
I was actually going to do a whole post about Stefan, but I can’t seem to get a picture of him and I’m about to be busy for the next week and a half or so, so I don’t want to put it off ’til I do have the time. So, meet Stefan:
Those pictures are stolen from Fred, who posted them on Facebook.
We first saw Stefan back in, oh – sometime last Fall, I guess. We didn’t see him in person, we just happened to catch him on the gamecam a few times when I set it out to see who was showing up at the feeding station. Then we saw him in person in February. It’s been a very slow process, but Fred finally befriended Stefan, and last week he was able to grab him and put him in a cage overnight until we got him to the vet for an exam and neutering and his shots.
Fred was SURE that Stefan was going to be positive for Feline Leukemia, but his Combo test came back clear. He had worms in a bad way, but no fleas or ear mites since we treated him for fleas and ticks a few weeks previously.
So I guess we’re adding him to our outdoor cat population. I would have liked to perhaps tame him and have him adopted out, but he’s really half feral. He shows up a couple of times a day to eat and hang out on the side porch. Now that he’s neutered, perhaps he’ll stop SPRAYING (if there’s anything that smells nastier than unneutered male cat spray, I don’t want to know about it. GAH.) Maxi has no problems with him, but Newt would like him to GO AWAY NOW, PLZ.
I have no idea where he came from. The vet tech guessed him to be 1 – 2 years old. That actually puts him in the right age to be related to Stompers. And he looks a LOT like Coltrane. I have no idea if he actually has owners around here somewhere, but he was skin and bones and loaded down with worms. Hopefully he’ll gain a little weight.
So, that’s the story on Stefan, who has lately started to become known as Stefonzie (you can blame Fred for that.)
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Bath time for Scorch.
::thlurrp::
“Be vewwy vewwy quiet. I’m huntin’ wabbits.”
“Bring down the hand for the belly rub!”
::thlurrp::
Is it just me, or does it look like Scorch told a stupid joke and is proud of himself as everyone around him groans and rolls their eyes?
(My favorite stupid joke: Q: What’s brown and sticky? A: A stick. I can’t help it, I snort every time I tell that stupid joke. I’m sitting here smirking right now.)
Scorch bites Ember’s paw while she bites his ear.
“What?”
While Ruth bites Ember’s leg, Ember looks around confusedly trying to figure out just WHAT is going on.
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“Wah! Make him stop BITING me!”
Stressing out on top of the cat tree. Those toes are killing me.
“A STICK! Bwahahaha!”
Aslan just LOVES that condo on the cat tree in my room. It’s the perfect size for him.
Fabulously floofy.
Fabulously whiskery.
Did I mention that the cat tree hammock is popular?
Yeah, THEY don’t look guilty, do they?
Leia loves to show off her delightfully spotted belly.
I do believe we’re moving into the lanky stage.
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Pretty, pretty Corbs. OH SO PRETTY.
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Previously
2012: Meet Cicero (or, as he later came to be known as, STOMPERS!)
2011: Trapped!
2010: Are they not the happiest little monkeys?
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: Guess what? New fosters!
2006: No entry.
2005: When will these little monsters let me snuggle them?
This exact scenario happened with my three cats. Rosie, who is normally #2 in the pecking order, saw something outside one night from th back porch where we were all hanging out. What followed was two weeks of pure hell, not just for the other cats, but for the entire household. I tried separation, calming potions, everything it seems up until I started looking for another home for Rosie where she’d be an only cat. What saved us was, I had planned to go on vacation, and had someone taking care of them. I couldn’t leave Rosie with them, and couldn’t leave her alone in a room for a week, either. I decided to board Rosie at the vet while we were gone. When I returned to pick her up, I brought her back to the house and it was as if there was never any problem. Maybe she needed the time out in unfamiliar place to forget, or to decide that the other two weren’t so bad, I don’t know, but it worked. It was well worth the $100, though, and we have had peace for years now. Good luck, I understand how hard this is!
In regards to traveling with cats: Two summers ago, we moved from northern Michigan to the Detroit area. We had a month between the closing of the mortgage on one house and the closing on the second one so we did what any logical family would do… pack up the cat and the kids and drive to Florida 😉 (Actually, it was pack up the cat and the kids and go to Grandma’s, but she happens to be in Florida). I don’t know if have as much advice, as an anecdote that might be helpful in giving ideas and/or assurance that it can absolutely be done.
We had four people and Simba in a mini-van that was packed to the gills. He’s not known to be a terrific traveler so I was a bit nervous, but this was the solution we hit on (and it worked quite well). We kept his litter box in the “way back” of the van, although he never used it while we were in motion (perhaps something to do with the movement and not feeling steady). We also put blankets and pillows on top of a couple other pieces of cargo so he had his choice of places to sit and “watch the world go by”. As it turns out, he did much better outside of the carrier than inside of it… didn’t do a ton on wandering, but the teenager in the passenger seat had a permanent assignment of keeping him off the dashboard and off the floor in the driver’s area. He visited, snuggled, and watched out the window most of the way without incident. Although, I will tell you that he sang opera for the first 30 minutes every time the car started for the next leg of the trip. We popped him into the carrier every time we got out of the car (gas, stretching our legs, dinner, etc) to make certain of no escape. He wasn’t interested in eating or drinking while in the car, but he chowed down as soon as we got to the hotel. What I dreaded actually turned into a pleasant memory, and gives me the giggles when I think about the one time we dared go through a drive-thru and Simba decided to try and enter McDonald’s through the window (we got out at every other stop along the way to discourage this from happening again).
There’s also the time that the late great Madame Einstein took a 24 hour plus plane adventure from Michigan to Idaho which included 4 airports and three planes. Don’t ask… it was January weather and thank the good Lord for kitty tranquilizers and plane that only carried 10 people who took turns taking her for walks on a leash while I napped. Gosh, that was 18 years ago and I can still remember every moment like it was yesterday. It was a bit scarring.
Or just pop them back into the carrier when going through a drive-thru…
Aslan looked COMPLETELY guilty!!! And rather Abyssinian!!!!
Ruth…sooooo sooooo sooooo pretty!
Corbie has a mighty fine kissy belleh!
Newt may tolerate Stefan more now that he is neutered….
Traveling with cats…. I have 3 cats and travel with them often. I will say, that personality dictates everything. I have a yowler..a confident one and a baby (at heart). My confident one is only happy if she is sitting on the center console (arm rest) with an ac vent blowing directly in her face. She is pleased as punch with that arrangement. One wants to be in my lap…and my yowler settls down after we have been on the highway for a bit. When my youngest was still tiny, he wanted to be in her carrier with her. Now, they cannot both fit. I think he was sorely dissappointed on the trip that he realized that. I do have RULES. No doors get opened (when stopping for gas etc) until all cats are secured in their carriers. I would beat my husband to death if he did not follow that rule! It is helpful to have two people in the car. The non-driver can insure that a kitty does not want to get under the brake or gas pedal. OldCat was bang on with that one. I did have a cat that loved to watch cars go by or lay on the back deck of the rear seat. That was perfect. As for litterboxes, I kept a smaller on on the floorboard on one side and food and water on the other side. I had their full sized litterbox in the back (for hotels or where ever we were staying) and I just put it inside a large lawn debri bag. I use to put the litter in a bag, but learned that that wasn’t really a necessary step. I use plastic grocery bags for litter scooping. Easy to toss out into the trash when getting gas or lunch, etc. I do buckle my carriers in using the seatbelt. 2 of my carriers have seatbelt slots, my oldest one doesn’t so I run the seatbelt through the handle. I have traveled with my cats since the late ’80s and it always has gone well. Just think about each one’s personality…and act accordingly. I do not let all 3 out of the carrier at the same time…too much. I rotate them.
Oh, about the attacking kitty….my only experience is with a co-worker who had a kitty that became quite violent. He had a brain tumor. Not trying to scare anyone…but all things must be taken into consideration. If nothing changed (outside stranger cat, weird noise, etc)…have his physical well-being checked into.
Re: Traveling with cats. An acquaintance of mine (she and I have cats who are somehow related to one another — we used to live in the same neighborhood and both adopted polydactyl tabby kittens from people who own a Chinese food storage warehouse next to my apartment building — we discovered this through a mutual friend) writes for the pet-focused site “Pawesome” and documented her move from Brooklyn to California a few years ago on the site.
http://www.pawesome.net/2010/01/tails-of-two-citiesday-one-of-operation-kitty-transport/
It doesn’t sound like you have all the space options that she did, but there may be some tips in there! Good luck!
I would get attack kitty to the vet for a thorough check up but I suspect the real culprit is something outside. This sounds like displaced aggression. I have gone through this in a very limited way with brother kitties. My sister just went through this a month ago but the behavior was different. Instead of attacking, the kitty acted as though it was being attacked. We got some Feliway going in the house, vet checked kitty and all was fine physically, no human meds were in the house that could have been accidently ingested. But… there was a female cat in heat in the neighborhood who decided my sister’s yard was the best place ever. The episode is over now and all is back to normal. My husband had a cat with a brain tumor and it started attacking out of the blue that is why I suggest a visit to the vet first but, especially at this time of year with lots of new kittens and wild critters like baby possoms and raccons on the prowl outside, I bet you have an outside visitor marking the house and causing havoc.
I agree with Elaine on this one. My cat Pandora had this issue, and it was due to cats outside (in my last place) that would use our backyard for their haunt. (Nevermind that they had their own backyards to go to!) She got over it, but I did end up keeping the blinds down on that side of the house to keep down the incidences. If your attack kitty is still doing it, go outside and see if you can smell (or see with a black light) any spraying from other cats. And perhaps have him separated from the rest (in a smaller room, give the others the space to roam). He may calm down. And a visit to the vet is always a good thing.
And, unrelated – OMG Stefan! So CUTE!! 🙂
Hmmm…marking…that is a good point… Attack kitty is feeling very threatened and insecure…
Perhaps a motion sensored sprinkler would be a good idea.
kind of tough on the living room carpet, though…
Younger daughter requested a dragon shaped cake for her birthday today. Older daughter has named the cake Puff.
that is too cute!
I have seen the cake on your blog, Kelly – you are one tallented Mama! 🙂
Another traveling with cats story: when I was getting ready to move, I asked the vet about how to handle it, since they always howled in the car. She asked if they had ever been in the car and not ended up at the vet, and when I said no, suggested we try a non-vet trip to see if they settled down. I took them out one day and drove around for an hour. They didn’t settle much, but when we got home again they ran from room to room, clearly very confused that we left home and ended up at home again! (It was hilarious, actually.)
For the trips themselves (NC to PA, then six months later PA to MA), I can’t say they enjoyed it, but they weren’t as stressed about it as I was! They curled up together in the carrier, and when I stopped and offered them food, water, or the litter box, they were completely uninterested. “Are we there yet? No? Then let’s go.”
We regularly travel with cats from Lower Michigan Detroit area to Marquette Michigan (Upper Peninsula on Lake Superior) which is an 8 to 10 hour trip. All packed in a Volkswagen Beetle. Our cats (except Old Cat who is sensible) have harnesses they wear in case of attempted kitty self-evacuation (makes it easier to grab one as they try to zoom by). We also keep them shut in their carriers until we get on the road proper (highway) and we have a litter box in the way back they can get to when we eventually let them out.
I agree with GD that personality is pretty much key to how the cats travel. Old Cat cannot abide being locked up in her carrier so we open the door to let her roam. She’ll then spend the entire trip snoozing in the carrier, occasionally foraying out to check on the scenery. She is a champion travel kitty. The Siamese of yore used to howl his fool head off (but traveled well otherwise – no accidents and he would keep his roaming to the back seat) so we got kitty tranquilizers for him. That didn’t stop the protesting but it dialed it way down to “I can ride 8-10 hours with this cat occasionally drunkenly merbling his disapproval at me”.
The two new kittens are different still. TinyCat will meep pitifully at you until you let her out, at which point she curls up on your lap and sleeps the entire trip. We also found out that TinyCat and Old Cat will ride calmly in a locked carrier for hours if they are both in the same carrier even though individually they are uncool with the idea of being shut up while in the car. Apparently their being together cancels out each of their neuroses. If we don’t let them out to roam, we make sure to open the cages at lunch or potty breaks so the cats can find their way to the litter box (and also get a drink; we fill a water bowl for them when we stop for food).
Tycho…we need different drugs for Tycho. He will howl even on tranquilizers with brief bouts of sleep (until someone says “He’s awfully quiet, I’m going to check to make sure he’s still breathing.”) but we’ve been conditioned by the late Siamese so it’s cute annoying rather than SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP annoying. Still, I’m thinking of getting poor Tycho a Thundershirt because all that cat worry has got to miserable for the poor fella. We’ve tried putting a towel over the carrier and popping another cat in with him but neither seems to calm him down like it has the other cats. He’s a travel work in progress.
I drove from Atlanta to DC with my cat Steve. I set up the back for him, and he was chill back there, using the litterbox when he needed to, which necessitated stops to clean out the poop because yes, it DOES stink in a big car. He was 18 pounds so there was never worry of him “getting underfoot”. He couldn’t wedge if he tried. He ended up eventually riding in my lap, with his head perpetually “butting” my chin, looking out the window.
Yes, this is dangerous if you’re in a car wreck. The cat will go flying. I have since traveled with my two cats and they shared a big zip up cat tent most of the way. Not like that wouldn’t have gone flying too, but it did SEEM safer.
But I will never forget what it felt like to be driving off to the great unknown after college with my best friend quite literally by my side the whole time. God I miss that cat.
When I was in grad school, my cat Baal and I would drive from SC to Maryland to visit my dad. Baal’s favorite place was laying between my neck and the headrest so he could watch the cars go by. We got some pretty startled looks and smiles from passerbys! His litter box and water were in the back floorboard, and he did well on the 7 hour trip, sharing sausage biscuits and hamburgers on the way (that cat would eat ANYTHING!). My only scare was the first time we stopped at a toll booth and he almost jumped in the toll basket! I learned to hold on to his harness after that. I had Baal for 16 years and he was a cat among cats! I still miss him deeply 9 years later…
And one year ago we met STOMPERS for the first time!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂
Two years ago, we moved from Ohio to Iowa with three kitties. I used to fly all the time with my Bella, and she was a champion traveler. I withheld food starting the night before, giving them water and a few treats. Then we loaded them up early in the morning and headed out. We opted for one very, very long day in the car versus an overnight stop because it was better for all of us. Bella was with me in the moving truck. She stayed in her (larger) carrier the entire time and after some talking, settled right down. I gave her some treats off and on but she never left the carrier. The other two rode in the backseat of my husband’s car. We actually bought pop-up kennels from Target for them. They weren’t super sturdy but they were large enough that the cats could turn around and move around a bit. They are also mesh on the sides so they could see each other, which I knew would help them stay calm (they are super bonded). My husband claims they howled the entire 17-hour trip, but I doubt that report. They also stayed in the pop-up kennels and got treats every so often. When we stopped for gas, I usually stuck my head in the car and said hello to them. One settled in a napped, but the boy struggled a bit. Eventually, he tipped the kennel on its side so the top part was down by the floor boards. Once he was down there, he felt more secure and calmed down. I am a huge fan of the one-day trip, if it’s doable. Then you don’t have to mess with litter boxes or food. And if you stop feeding the night before and let them use the box in the morning, you should be fine. I highly recommend the pop-up kennels. They weren’t incredibly sturdy, but they worked like a charm for us. We just strapped them in and went on our way. We’re looking at another major move and will use them again, since they worked so well last time. Good luck with the move!!
My absolute favourite dumb joke has always been…
Q: “What do you call cheese that doesn’t belong to you?”
A: “NACHO CHEESE!”
Seriously makes me laugh every time.
I laughed!
Re the suddenly attacking kitty: I have experienced complete personality changes in two cats and both turned out to be suffering from the sudden onset of hypertropic cardiomyopathy. The personality change was due to panic from the heart and breathing problems. I really hope that’s not the case here but I agree with the other posters that kitty needs to get to the vet ASAP. On a more positive note, I saw an episode of Jackson Galaxy’s show not too long ago with that same issue and it did turn out to be displaced aggression which he was able to correct through some behavior modification.
Last year, I moved from Dallas to a small town in Oklahoma about five hours away. With five cats. Four are fairly calm, and one is a nutcase with even the slightest of change. Mr. Nutcase got a hard plastic case all to himself, and he didn’t “go” in the car (a small SUV) at all. The others were split between two of these (each had enough room for two cats and a small litterbox): http://www.walmart.com/ip/5192526?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227001163989&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=&wl3=13952682310&wl4=&wl5=pla&veh=sem
They DID cry all the way up except for about three minutes when a Black Sabbath song came on the radio. You might try stocking up on Ozzy CDs/downloads! Or maybe I just have weird cats … nah, that couldn’t be it! A friend moved last year from Cleveland to Portland, Ore., with five cats and she rented a minivan for the drive out. Good luck!
I concur – check with the vet first upon any change in behavor like tht, ot just violence but in general. Rule out an illness.
attack kitty..
yes, I agree a vet visit is in order. But I always say that. There is no point in working on behavior issues if there might be something medical going on.
Then, think about this. You say the kitty has Neuro issues.. so I am guessing that kitty doesn’t ‘speak the same language’ as kitties with out neuro issues. So one is intending to say something but it is being read by another kitty as something completely different, and they freak out when the other kitty doesn’t react ‘the right way’.
My Cat from Hell recently had a few episodes on about differently abled kitties. one was blind, one had CH. Both they recommended doing a kitty superhighway up off the floor for the ‘regularly abled’ kitties to be able to sit on and look at the ‘different’ one. While your kitty might not be CH or blind, you can probably get a lot of help from those episodes. As well as some of the other episodes where the kitties are fighting and what they do to help them co-exist peacefully.
I saw the CH episode..
@ Joy – Here’s our traveling story.
2 female cats, 2 years old, we were moving from Colorado to Texas, 2 days of driving (8-10 hrs a day). We got 4 tiny valium (2 cats, 2 days)from the vet and they mostly slept the whole way. My husband is allergic (yet still let me have kitties! <3), so they rode with me in the giant semi hauling all our stuff. I was terrified that they would get stuck under a seat or, god forbid, the gas or brake pedal (in which case I'd just have to crash!) so I kept them in the carrier the whole time, with breaks every few hours for litter and nom breaks. They are not generally great carrier riders, but they settled down and did just fine. They had a great time in the hotel rooms at night, we eventually had to put them in the bathroom to get some sleep!
No matter what approach you choose or how bad it gets, know that everything will be fine in the end, I promise. Good Luck!
The traveling cats: I would definitely keep them in carriers…just in case you are in an accident you want them safely secured so they don’t get out and lost.
Years ago (1969) we moved across England in VW Beetle with two cats one in a cardboard pet carrier and the other in a whicker basket, Timothy a long haired dark brown tabby neutered male pooped, yowled and clawed so my Mum ended up somehow with him cwtched up in her (fake) fur coat it was November,and quite cold in the car. I remember the car stank for ages. Sim my own Siamese cross breed, basically a slinky black siamese (neutered female) yowled and ripped at her box like demon eventually breaking out and also having to be held! There were 5 of us in the Beetle with the cats, Mum ,Dad the only driver, my older sister who was about 20 and me aged 9, a memorable trip, luckily I was too young to have to cope with the clean up.
My main tip if moving with a cat that will be allowed out is when you first allow it to venture out ensure its paws have been smeared with butter, the cat will be unable to dash wildly away as it will want to stop and lick its paws, allowing it to calmly start to explore its new environs with a positive and tasty experience. My Mum always recommended it and so do I. We have always used this method and it works and the cats usually love it after the smearing bit..!! 🙂
When I read “cardboard” for the carrier, I thought, “oh, this isn’t gonna end well…” 🙂
The butter trick is brilliant. I hope I have an opportunity soon to try it and see how it works. Thanks!
When my mom moved from PA to CT last yr (4-5 hr trip) she was worried about her cat. The cat is generally mellow and likes to cuddle. She thought of getting a harness and letting it sit on her lap, but I was driving and was nervous it would get underfoot. SO we just kept it in the carrier the whole time. We only stopped once. We didn’t let it out because after the first 20 mins it settled down and slept the whole time. Once we got to the new place it hid under the bed for a while but eventually came out and ate and used the litter box. So overall, things were fine.
That Aslan is all “What??”
Moving – it so depends on the cat. I helped a friend move last summer from Ohio to Utah. One cat was fine – she is a seasoned traveler as she was going back and forth from Ohio to Montreal with the daughter for college. The other cat? Pain in the butt….we finally discovered if the dog laid one way, the cat was fine. If the dog moved, the cat yowled. 🙂
Love Stephan…..hope he feeling better soon with some well needed groceries.
A stick….the is gonna make me snicker all day now. Thanks.
Hello All, Thank you so much for all the great advice regarding traveling with cats, it does sound more doable and less intimidating now. The move date is coming up! Its June 10th. I will let you know how everything goes 🙂
Best wishes. When I go on vacation to the Blueridge mountains, I bring my kitties with me! I’ve been doing it since ’88. The past 6 years, I go every year.
One of my cats had diabetes for a while. He experienced a blood sugar crash that caused his behavior to go totally berserk. Luckily I was there to see it and immediately gave him Nutrical to get his blood sugar up. (I may be misremembering what I gave him, but that is not the point; I’m happy to say that with diet change, his diabetes was reversed.) As others have said, I think it is possible that is a physical cause.
Having said that, a coworker of mine has experienced a problem with one of her cats attacking them not too long ago and they discovered a male cat was coming up on their deck and looking in. Once the cat disappeared, her cat’s erratic behavior went away.
Probably Karo syrup! 🙂 That is what I gave my diabetic boy!
If it is not physical, I agree with Kathi…probably a spraying cat and her kitty is feeling threatened and insecure thus taking it out on the innocent ones around!
My favorite dumb joke:
What do winnie the pooh and jack the ripper have in common?
they have the same middle name. lol
Mine, too — many thanks for reminding me! Meanwhile, the Dragons are coming into their own and the Royals are doing their best to corner the cuteness market. Of course Corbie is gorgeous, but so is Stefonzie. Between him and Scorch, buff-stuff fans are in seventh heaven.
The stick joke is one of my favorites! It always makes me laugh too! My daughter told me that one when she was 4′, along with this one:
Why couldn’t the flower ride her bike?
Because she lost her petals!!!!
That one always makes me laugh too!
For the angry kitty:
I have an orange tabby named Red, who had a leg amputated and went from being happy and compliant to being a terrifying raging whirlwind of terror, no exaggeration, my son and I still have the scars. He would attack everything and anything, even the vacuum when it was not on-just sitting in the hallway where it always is. Well luckily, we have a wonderful vet who explained the vulnerability that he was feeling. She told us that if a cat has trauma, or is in pain they will act psychotic. They can even act out from dental pain, as they don’t have a way to tell us that they are in pain.
I truly know what you are going through, and am glad you are taking flannery into the vet, I hope it’s something easily remedied. I also have a cat on Prozac do to aggression and marking issues- there are as many options as there are issues, so just keep your mind open if it is behavioral! Good luck, and let us know what happens!
I love Ruth’s make up.
I’ll try this again, it’s too good not to. Not being all that savey on computer stuff I really hope this works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8yznYCA5dw&feature=player_embedded
Oh good lord, I am dead – DEAD – from the adorable!
That tiny little squeaky meow! Oof – *thunk* (that’s me, dead)
(If that man ever goes cleanshaven, that’s going to be a very unhappy kitten.)
That joke has a friend!
Q: What’s a foot long and slippery?
A: A slipper!
HA! I am going to call my mother and tell her this one tomorrow. I promise you, an hour later she’ll still be going “but what does it MEAN?”
It does sound to me like Flanery has some displaced aggression issues. I definitely think it would be helpful to make sure that 1) it isn’t a health problem (a vet check should clear that), 2) to see if there are any invaders outside that are causing him to act out (nighttime game cam to confirm), or 3) something broke down the social connection in the cats, and they need to be reintegrated again, with the victims of the aggression getting confidence building to keep them from becoming prey again. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched My Cat From Hell on Animal Planet, but there’ve been a few cats featured with similar problems. It could be worth a look for you to check out. http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/my-cat-from-hell and http://jacksongalaxy.com/category/cat-behavior-and-care/
In regards to traveling with cats: If I ever have to travel with my four, I always thought I’d buy my cats the leash/brace combo so that I could hook them to something inside the car. That way, my cats couldn’t make a wild, scary dash when I opened the car doors. Just a thought.
I have no tips for any of today’s questions, but I just had to share a print that a friend pointed out to me: https://www.etsy.com/listing/103550845/print-mechanical-beast-no4-gerald “Dang, son” – hee!
I love the stick joke too (and laughed out loud at the kitten repeating the punch line. That was unexpected and hilarious).
I thought it would be right up my mother’s alley – she likes simple, uncomplicated jokes*. But I just couldn’t get the notion of “[noun]y” to sink in. She was too hung up on the fact that “that’s not what ‘sticky’ means. Does ‘pretty’ mean ‘like a prett’? No. So it just doesn’t make sense.” I’m going to spring the slipper joke (above) on her tomorrow; I bet you anything she’ll be measuring her slipper, testing it for slickness, and explaining to me again how “that’s not what that word means!” lol
*Her favorite joke is pretty cute, I have to admit – What’s smaller than a teeny weeny flea? A flea’s teeny weenie!
Thank you Robyn and everyone. Flanery checked out healthy at the vet. He has a tender spot on his back from surgery earlier this year but that’s it. He has calmed on everyone but the female tortie. The vet said some male cats go through a male hormone rush/spurt and this increases their need for dominance. Flanery is now on a med similar to a birth control pill which is supposed to scramble his hormones a bit and calm him. We’ll see. We have to be gone next weekend so he may get boarded for several days too. Thanks again everyone.