February 01, 2005

• I need help with Melon, the sweet feline love of my life. Monkey husband and I try to play with him (mousie on string attached to stick; various ribbons and strings always with us holding/supervising; endless ping pong balls and ocasional catnip, and on....and on....). What activities do you do with your cat overlords to keep them appeased?
• Monkey husband and I try to play with him... How about I finish that sentence for you. We try to play with him....but to no avail. He is not very interested. He seems bored with all of the games and toys we have for him. And we try to play at least 4 times a day. He is healthy. We have had him checked within the last month.
• My two cats don't play with toys that can be bought. The best is to just get gloves on, and stick your fingers on their belly, sort of roughly, and that usually gets them to wrestle playfully. Don't overdue it.
• how old is he? i usually chase my cat around the house/ up and down the hallway when she gets stroppy. maybe he's lonely?
• My cat enjoys roughhousing like pilgrim mentions. His favorite toys are the feather-on-a-stick and fur-covered mice (he chews off the tails). Laser pointers are good. He also seems to derive alot of pleasure from the cardboard scratching post. Is there any chance of getting him a companion?
• Little tin foil balls...well...aluminum balls anyways. They're shiny and make noise on hardwood floors. Some kitties just don't like to play though. My one cat only cares about cardboard boxes to sit in. He also likes to use the box edge to choke himself, but I think that's another story. Odd cat...
• Melon is year old, and there are two other cats in the house- 9 and 8 years old. But Tubby and Babs do not like to play. So we try to play with him as much as possible. He did just get over a urinary tract blockage, but the vet gave him a clean bill recently. He used to like wrestling a lot, but has lost interest for the most part. He takes great care not to bite too hard or scratch- so he still knows it is a game. We are careful with him due to his recent hospitalizaton, but he just seems...bored. We are moving to a larger apartment this summer (we cannot do so beforehand), so he will have soemthing new and fun to do then, what with the exploring and all, but for now he is so hard to please.
• Melon is 1. My "1" key is not working. Melon.
• my cat never played with anything, no matter how hard we tried. then she jumped into a lake and killed herself. true story. /most depressing, unproductive comment of all time.... sorry
• One of my guys loves little plastic springs. You can find them in a varity of places in packs of 10 for a buck or so. The other guy likes a blanket dragged across the floor. He jumps on it and fights with it as it slides around the hardwood floor. Just keep trying. Every cat has his own loves and hates just like us humans. Both my guys love belly rubs, no gloves needed.
• I have woken up at five in the morning because my girlfriend's cat has developed an unwholesome attraction to foam earplugs. New or used, doesn't matter. The cat has taken to digging around in the trash for her favoritest toy ever. I think it takes her back to her savage days, when she hunted wooly ear plugs on the african veldt. Anyways, might as well try that. If it works, they are very inexpensive and easily obtainable.
• My mom's cat won't play with anything except pipe cleaners curled into springs. He'll play with that until it disappears under the couch and then lose interest. I have a friend whose cat will only play with shopping bags (the paper ones with handles, but not too high-sided or he can't get inside). Cats are just...cats. There's no explaining them.
• Do you have one of those cat tree/cat perch thingies? SideDish posted a site with a bunch of fancy ones, but I'm too lazy to find it now. Maybe he's just a sitting-and-looking kind of cat. Maybe don't try so hard. He'll play when he wants to. Cats always know when you're trying to make them do something, and will invariably resist.
• what koko said. here's that link. some kitties indeed seem to prefer lolling and gazing! and if he USED to enjoy playing, maybe he's just maturing into, um, lolling and gazing. and i think we need a BIT more information about mfpb's SUICIDAL CAT. yikes! what happened???
• Hang on, don't we flame cat threads anymore?
• Sounds like you need: Confuse-A-Cat!
• My cats also turn there nose up at store bought toys. One likes two liter bottle caps and the rings off of milk bottles. The other like small stuffed animals (However, I have NEVER actually seen him playing with them. They just get moved all over the house.) They both love cardboard boxes. How bout catnip? My girl cat will play with a small stuffed rat that you can put catnip into.
• My cats won't usually play with store toys either, except for the feather-stick. They LOVE the feather-stick. They also love laser pointers. There's a cardboard box scratcher Target sells that's filled with catnip and they would scritch and roll all over that, too. If your older cats won't play with him maybe he needs a playful companion his own age? If you have room for four cats that is!
• My cat (who just passed away) loved to play with laser pointers, too. I'd be reading or whatever and then this little red spot would appear on my body. I'd dive for cover, thinking I was targetted by a sniper, only to discover that Simone was being mischievous again. It was more annoying than funny, I guess.
• shrik, it would seem like some people have taken the advice to just sit out threads that they don't like instead of complaining. Still, I love hearing people bitch. It keeps me happy. I yell, stomp my feet, and chase the fuckers. I have yet to find a cat that didn't love that. If I am confusing what I think is a look of pleasure from the cat with what is really a look of terror, I guess that would just be an extension of my sex life.
• Two things that never fail to entertain our single cat: birdfeeder - he's been sitting on my desk for the past hour, engaged in a staring contest with a cardinal. Blue jays will sometimes go out of their way to taunt housebound kitties, which is always entertaining. practice epee sword - he likes the sabre too, and would probably wrestle a meterstick given the opportunity, but the epee has a bitable rubber tip on the end, and he gets his thumbclaw stuck in the blood groove. It makes it a little hard to practice, having a cat who's jumping up trying to catch your point, but it's held his interest even longer than the laser pointer did. Sometimes our cat also likes to play peek-a-boo - hide just behind a door or corner and stare at the cat. If you stare long enough, and then pull back, he'll come prancing around the corner.
• sorry to hear about your kitty, kmellis.
• I used to have two cats, and they loved these: 1) shoulder pads -- I'd cut 'em out of the shirt and throw them on the ground, and Houdini would go nutsy. 2) paper bags -- lay them on their side, so the kitty can get in. I used to have a cat that was literally too dumb to find his way out of a paper bag. 3) cardboard box -- why do cats love boxes? dunno. But they do! my cats turned their noses up at store toys, but loved anything they thought they weren't supposed to play with. Then again, my cats were crazy. One time Houdini got into a whole, unopened, still in the plastic box of matzoh crackers someone had given me for passover. I get home, the box is destroyed, and there were matzoh crumbs everywhere. Houdini was particularly pleased with himself.
• bernockle, you crack me up.
• Kimberly and I have 3 kitties... here's what they like: Dexter: Little wads of paper, fur-covered mousies (only the ones that rattle), over-the-door mouse toy that squeaks when you smack it, hanging from an elastic sting. Misha: Fur-covered mousies, laser pointer, over-the-door mouse toy that squeaks when you smack it, hanging from an elastic sting, catnip sacks. Jack: Hair bands, fur-covered mousies, your fingers, my fingers, laser pointer, catnip sacks.
• over-the-door mouse toy that squeaks when you smack it, hanging from an elastic sting That's one toy, right? You need to get a shorter name for it. I had an image of your two cats hanging from the ceiling like stuntmen. I find some cats just like being alone, and groove. Unless Melon's actively asking for attention, perhaps he just likes meditation?
• oflinkey, we got remote control cars for Christmas and the cats still don't know quite what to make of them. We steer them around the living room and they sneak up carefully, then zip away and quickly come back for more. You can find cheap ones in the toy section of a Walgreens. Heck, your other cats may even take a passing interest in it.
• I find that cats enjoy it when you take some really good, homemade chicken gravy, and liberally smear it on your peni... umm... nevermind
• you sick fuck
• perhaps your kitty would like to take up cat yoga.
• sorry to hear about your kitty, kmellis. Thanks, it's been hard. I had her 14 years. I've been essentially a shut-in the last three and she was my constant companion. She died while I was out of town for the holidays and I delayed coming home several weeks because I knew that coming back here and being constantly reminded she's dead would be hard. It's been a week, and it's better. But I must do 20 things every day where I forget she's not here and I expect her to do something in response to something I do. She was pretty interactive. And she talked to me a lot. (Partly because I talked to her, I bet. Now I guess I'm going to have to talk to myself or something.)
• By the way, in her 14 years, nothing delighted Simone and reliably excited her more than the plastic ring from a milk container. It's the Best Cat Toy Ever.
• Sorry to hear you lost your cat companion, bmellis. When you've grown so close to an animal I know loosing it is a is a very hard thing. Have you given any consideration yet to some day having another pet?
• A Siamese cat will talk to you. And talk, and talk, and talk.
• I a sorry, kmellis. My condolences to you. I am sorry to MonkeyFilter for the cat thread. I admt I did not know cat threads were verboten. Thank you all for your help. I will try these suggestions. Yes, Melon does ask to play, but then gets bored very fast. Thanks again!
• Here I thought kitty was a slang term for vagina, and you're all talking about your stupid cats. Boo!
• Seems we like any kind of pet/animal thread -- cat, dog, bird, chicken, horse, parrot, goat, and even weasel. If you check the Archives, oflinkey -- you'll find more threads about cats and kittens, too.
• Thanks for the condolences. I have thought about getting a kitten. I'd love to get a kitten. I do feel a little ambivalent about it, though. A bit of irrational guilt that it would be a betrayal of Simone. Like, she's dead, she doesn't care. But maybe I don't want to forget her that fast. The forgetting is an additional sort of death.
• Milk rings and straws for the one cat, the other seems to only enjoy tormenting the first cat.
• The forgetting is an additional sort of death. Kmellis: Depends on how you look at it. I find that I need to find a successor to my missing companion fairly early on--after about a month of sorrow-- because of the horrible empty space. I don't feel like it's a betrayal, but a way to honor and remember. Getting a new companion for me is the acknowledgement of the importance my old friend had in my life. It's not a replacement, because they can never be replaced, and I don't look for a similiar personality or type, but what comes, comes. When my Kelpie, Hope, died, I was fairly stoic until Lucy-dog came. I was able to cry buckets on Lucy's shoulder and find some release and finally mourn. We had long discussions about what a great dog Hope was, and how Luce had lots to live up to. (Which, of course, she didn't! She's her own special dog) Watching her antics and enjoying being with her reminds me of all the fine times with Hope and keeps the memory of my good dog alive.
• Well said, and I greatly appreciate your thoughts. I do want another companion because, as you say, the empty space is excruciating. And kittens are so fun. But I want Simone back. I guess I need to emotionally accept that that's not going to happen. I think it would have been easier had I been here. I had always imagined that I'd have to have her euthanized, and I planned to be there and holding her as I was when my childhood dob had to go. It seems like the least I can do—be a soothing presence at the end. But, as it happened, my aunt, who was looking after her, found her dead on the 27th. I actually haven't talked to my aunt and asked about details, but I should. I'm afraid of doing so for some reason. Simone had been very sick since this summer when she stopped eating and I actually had to force-feed her with a syringe several times a day for almost a month to get nutritioon in her. She seemed to have gotten better, but was still very thin. Then, sometime in mid-November, I noticed that she was losing weight again although she was eating. Right before I left for xmas, I noticed she was weak. So it wasn't a surprise. But it was a surprise that it happened when I wasn't here. Various people have hypoethesized that that's part of why she died when she did. Either from being alone and not having my company (which she did, 24/7), or, as someone pointed out, that cats typically hide when they're very sick and "maybe they don't want to be around their special human when they die". Either way, though, I was rushed when I left and gave her a much more cursory goodbye than I normally when I go out of town. That bothers me. And, of course, none of this really matters to her. She's dead, and she's an animal. But she really was a constant companion, and we interacted all day long. She was a personality, she's gone; and, also, I've been very grateful for her company over the years and I wish I had a way of saying "thanks". Ahem. Now I'm all weepy.
• You don't need to find a way to say "thanks". She already knows. You were her best creature, and it's why she stayed with you so long.