Calling all cat lovers

[Natooke]

We have a young male cat ... a year old and I have a few questions about cats, as it's been a very long time since I've had one in the house.

Q1) The cat isn't a very big "male" cat ... does it take longer for them to fill out ? ... or would he be considered a runt? ... or because we fixed him, his growth is umm stunted?

Q2) Why does he NEED to scratch his post, before his food is put in the dish ? & he does this to show us when he's hungry ... from what I have seen.

Q3) Every time dry food is in the dish, he scoops it out & places the kibble on the floor ... but doesn't do this with wet food.

any insight !! experiance would be helpful.

[Cake Guru]

Hmmmm as a long-time cat owner I can just say... cats are silly, crazy and loveable, each as different in personality as we non-furry people. We castrated Ståltassen at 9 mos, a little early, perhaps, but he was really driving us crazy, and after talking to our vet, we made that decision due to his having reached sexual maturity. He is absolutely enormous... 8-9 kilos [glow=red,2,300]without[/glow]being overweight. He's just a regular striped farm kitty, illegitimate, with a half Norsk skogs for a mamma. So your kitty's size most likely has more to so with who his parents are, and maybe he was the smallest of his litter!

I can't answer why he does his scratching thing. Cats are knäppa, is my only answer. Why does Ståltassen run around like a wild man right before he poops? Why does he stand on papers and try to lift them with one paw? Why does he love the vacuum cleaner and wrestle with it, thereby impeding the whole apartment-cleaning process. Why does he escape out into the hallway EVERY time the door opens? Why does he love hallonsoda? Who knows. Kitties are as much individuals as you and I.

Enjot your kitty... he will definately give you years of love and affection and, not to mention, laughs!

[Marie]

hehe, the post scratching prior to eating made me laugh. My puppy yawns every time I fix her food. Just sits there and yawns and yawns and yawns. It's the funniest thing.

[Sabeine]

Scraping the kibble onto the floor I've heard is quite common. I have a cat that does that too.
I think that your cat may be small for his age, he may have been the runt. I also had a male cat that was very small and the vet said that this is normal. Not all males are big cats. Just like not all male humans are tall.
There is a website called, ivillage.com, it has everything from home decorating to pet behavior. There is a question and answer section dealing with pets. Maybe you could look it up there?

[Natooke]

Enjot your kitty... he will definately give you years of love and affection and, not to mention, laughs!

Cake Guru wrote.

Do you mean like this ?http://people.txucom.net/matrix/pics/cat3.jpg ;D BTW this is not my cat but has the same colour & markings

My puppy yawns every time I fix her food. Just sits there and yawns and yawns and yawns. It's the funniest thing.

Marie wrote.
We have a Black Lab ... we love him to bits He's does the same thing yawn... but his silly thing is a tennis boll on the grass and rolls over it in pleasure

ivillage.com Thanks for the link Sabeine

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D


Read the paper bag ....

[LadyDuff]

As a cat owner I can tell you NAtooke that your kitty is perfectly normal! we have a male cat who was also fixed and he is now a BIG kitty! Also, the food thing, that is something that happens here too with our cat, I think it has to do with the fact that our cat wants to pretend he has been hunting or something! He also eats the dry food on the floor, I think it is because he likes it apart from the wet food. Or something like that anyway

[Julie]

Natooke,

I think your cat is quite normal and he sounds a real cutey. My cat does the biscuit thing too. I think its because he finds it easier to eat. The scratching thing could just be his way of saying he's hungary. Exor wakes us up to go out in the night by stratching his post (its in the bed room and he manages to make alot of noise with it)

I loved the picture of the kitty in the bag. So sweet.

Enjoy your cuddles

Julie

[LadyDuff]

Our 8 year old cat, Rufus, has gotten a habit of hopping into bed with us in the mornings. He loooooves my husband and this morning around 7 am he was up in bed, not just by the feet ( which is where he likes to sleep) but all the way up to our heads! He was meowing me in the ear and when I woke up I found him trying to cuddle up between me and hubby!
Does anyoe of you have a cat with this behaviour?
Yes the pics are adorable!

[Carolyn]

Before I moved to Sweden, I had a gorgeous cat named Thaddeus, long-haired with the coloring of a Burmese.

On cold winter nights, he would crawl under the covers and stretch along side me (I sleep on my side). He would have his head right under my chin and then lay along my length, kind of like a couple sleeping like spoons. When he got warm in the night, he would move to the foot of the bed for awhile, but then come back under the covers when he got chilled again.

And for those that think that cats are selfish and have no feelings for their owners, in the mid 1980s, I owned two cats named Harold and Dumpster (found as a kitten in a trash bin in the alley). They always slept together at the foot of my bed. One day, I had had a terrible break-up with my then adored SO, who betrayed me in more ways than you can imagine. I was nearly hysterical all day and had cried to the point where your eyes are nearly swollen shut and you have the hiccups and stuff. When I went to bed, I kept starting to cry again (Hey, I was younger then), and all of a sudden, my two cats walked up to my shoulders, one on each side. They curled up next to me and each one put his head kind of between my neck and shoulders and started purring softly. Every time I woke up in the night and started to cry, they would start purring again. They stayed there the whole night with me, and the next night, they were back at the foot of the bed where they always slept and they never came up there again. Weird, huh? But boy, that sure helped me out that night.

[LadyDuff]

Oh that is such a sweet story although Im sorry for you that it wasnt that nice an ending and that you were so terribly sad! I know what you mean though, a few years ago I had to do a huge surgery, when I came back home my kitty came to sit next to me, he was guarding me, walking with me to the bathroom, to the kitchen, to the living room, no matter where I was, he was there too! So you are sooo right, you bet they have feeling and you bet they know what you are feeling!!

[Carolyn]

Actually, when the hysteria stopped, I was MUCH better off without the guy and the cats were much nicer to me and much more affordable!

[LadyDuff]

Im very glad to hear that

[Carolyn]

Somebody famous (Dawn, do you know THIS too???) once said, "The more I'm around people, the more I like my cats." or something to that effect.

[LadyDuff]

Here´s a kitty that sort of looks like my cat does!

[LadyDuff]

The difference between this kitty and my kitty is that mine is alot bigger! As he was fixed he has started getting really big, the vet told us that this was a result of the fixing! But, he is not lazy, he likes to go outside and walk around for a while and then when he comes back home he will walk around the house and meow his head off to let us know that he is home! Also, he jumps up on the bed and takes a really long nap!! Cats are oo funny! I love to watch him sleep!