DIVA CATS! (And other pets can play too!)

[bounceswoosh]

Too bad you are allergic to Maine Coons. This is my first one and I'd say it is the perfect family cat. He is so chill and loves company. He's been a very good addition to my home.

When I got Oscar as a kitten, I was hoping she'd be a Maine Coon. At an overweight 12 pounds, it's not likely, although I hear females can be as light as 9 pounds. She has tufts of fur between her feet, but her body is more flyaway fur than the rough multi-length coat of an MC.

I keep telling DH that after Oscar dies, I want a Maine Coon (she won't tolerate other cats; doesn't mind the dog so much). He's not interested in another cat. We'll see ... it's nice to have a little warm body in the bed ... on the other hand, even our tiny cat tends to take up 1/3 of a cali king somehow, so maybe a break would be nice!

A male polydactyl Maine Coon would probably be my dream kitty =)

 

[Kimmyt]

This is my Essie (short for Estrellita). We adopted her from my work about three years ago. She was socialized very well as a kitten and so is one of the friendliest kitties ever, coming up to everyone who enters the house. Currently she is living with my mom because the logistics of bringing her with us on our move didn't work out, but we are working to get her flown out here this month.

She put on a few pounds since we got her so we've been working on her diet. My mom has other cats, so I'm sure her diet has gone down the tubes and we'll probably have to start from scratch again when we get her back. But I can't wait! I miss my kitty!

Here she is 'helping' my husband fix the fridge.

 

[B.E.G.]

Bounceswoosh - Oscar is beautiful. Poor baby - that's terrible about the lymphoma, but I'm glad she's hanging in there and doing well. I'm sure it is also because you are taking such great care of her! As for the cats having more up to date medical records - one of these days, I will have to share my story of how my cats are now microchipped - all in an effort to get a date with my really cute vet! (Hey, it worked - we dated for a few weeks after that! But the conclusion of the story is - my boys are medically well taken care of :P)

RachelV - awww the kneading! My boys do that too - love the sign of affection, not so much the claw marks (especially in the summer when I wear shorts). Try clipping the claws every couple weeks - that'll help a lot. Scratching posts will actually not help you with this particular problem, since those make the claws nice and sharp and pointy, and thus more painful :P The worst part of the claw caps (Soft Paws/ Soft Claws) is that you have to hold the cat still for about 5-10 minutes after putting them on to make sure the glue sets. Yeah that's not fun at all... definitely a two person job.

Playoutside - 20.5 years! Wow! I am hoping my boys will live that long, or longer - I can't imagine my life without them, and I've only had them a little over a year. Kittery is a really cute name, btw, and so appropriate to a cat! I'm so glad to hear he's doing better! I've heard such great things about Maine Coons but the allergies - ugh. I visited my ex-bf's friend's house some months back and they have a gorgeous Maine Coon - unfortunately I was sneezing for the next three hours of dinner. And of course he came up and purred and rubbed up against me every ten minutes :P

KimmyT - Aww again, LOVE black and white cats! I love her white tummy - she looks like a sweetheart! My Kipling is already a tubby one - he got put on a diet a while back too!

 

[B.E.G.]

And let's see if this works - K & D with the feather wand -

[YOUTUBE]W_6qxn9n7aU[/YOUTUBE]

 

[altagirl]

Putting cats on a diet is a nightmare. Or maybe that's just my cat.

The vet at one point advised me to restrict her food because she was getting too fat. But if she doesn't have as much food as she wants, particularly in the middle of the night - no one in the house will be sleeping. She will stand on top of you and poke claws into your face and yowl if she's hungry - it's ALMOST funny because she will stand on your chest and poke one single claw into the tip of your nose. It's literally - YOU THERE. FOOD. NOW. And if you lock her out of the bedroom, she will stick her paw under the door and rattle it for hours on end. Lock her in a room across the house and she will yowl while rattling the door.

Needless to say, she wasn't on a restricted food diet for long. We just found some low calorie food and give her an unlimited supply. Which surprisingly seemed to work really well - she lost almost 2 lbs in the last year and the vet said she can go back to normal maintenance food now. Phew!

 

[bounceswoosh]

And if you lock her out of the bedroom, she will stick her paw under the door and rattle it for hours on end.

I thought only my cat was crazy enough to do this!

I am not allowed to close any doors, ever, at all in the house. DH may do so, but I am forbidden.

 

[Jenny]

When we first got our cat and had her shut in the other bedroom for the night she found the springy door stop and played with it until we got out of bed and let her into our room. It was on the well between the rooms and the reverb was something special . . .

 

[persee]

To me she looks like a Nebelung, aka Russian Blue Longhair. However it is true that Maine Coon Females can be as light as 9-10lbs. The original Maine Coons were not as huge as many of the ones you see today. They've been bred recently with too much emphasis on large size which has been detrimental to the health of the breed in many cases, so a smaller coon may actually be healthier. I also think your Oscar looks too "sweet faced" to be a coon, as coons tend to have very prominent muzzles.

When I got Oscar as a kitten, I was hoping she'd be a Maine Coon. At an overweight 12 pounds, it's not likely, although I hear females can be as light as 9 pounds. She has tufts of fur between her feet, but her body is more flyaway fur than the rough multi-length coat of an MC.

I keep telling DH that after Oscar dies, I want a Maine Coon (she won't tolerate other cats; doesn't mind the dog so much). He's not interested in another cat. We'll see ... it's nice to have a little warm body in the bed ... on the other hand, even our tiny cat tends to take up 1/3 of a cali king somehow, so maybe a break would be nice!

A male polydactyl Maine Coon would probably be my dream kitty =)

 

[RhodySkier]

Here are my two kitties!

Hannah:
11 years old
We adopted her at 6 weeks old from the Humane Society. She was a college graduation gift from my then BF, now DH. She's been with us through thick and thin, is super chill, loves to sleep and eat and HATES her diet. She has that "please stop taking pictures of me" look in this photo.

Otto:
4 years old
We adopted him at 6 months old from an animal rescue society. He had been returned because he was "too much". Turns out that pretty much sums him up--TOO MUCH! He's a total spaz but we love our little guy. He is obsessed with Hannah who could take him or leave him. She *might* be slowly warming up to him or it could be wishful thinking!

 

[playoutside]

What a coincidence! But I don't see the picture ...

Hmm. Let me try loading the pic another way. Hopefully you can see this one.

 

[bounceswoosh]

Hmm. Let me try loading the pic another way. Hopefully you can see this one.

Weird - now I can see the picture in both posts. Wow - Jake could be Oscar's twin! I could half think I'm looking at a picture of Oscar. (DH says Jake's hair is shorter, but if so, it's not by much!) What a pretty cat ;-)

 

[Serafina]

This is Buster. When he was a kitten, he Set Out To See The World. This involved living on his own, outside, for a whole winter and the better part of a year, in Madison WI. Then getting hit by a car and messing up his face, big time. Animal Control brought him in to the Dane County Humane Society, where someone "had a feeling that he would be a great adoptable pet" so they fixed him up with major reconstructive surgery instead of putting him to sleep.

I met him 4 months later, in the satellite adoption center, where they housed him separately from the other cats "because he tended to play a little roughly". When I asked to see what that meant, the attendant let him out of his cage, he stretched, let me pick him up and mess with his paws with no complaint, and then - when I put him back down - he made a circuit of the room, beating up every single other cat in the place (in turn), stealing their toy, and moving on to the next victim before launching himself (after all other cats were defeated) onto the tallest Cat Tree in the place...whereupon he began to take a leisurely bath. His magnificent spirit took my breath away.

He has lived with me lo, these past 6.5 years, and we have at least one fight every day. We have a Cat Battle, and then he pastes himself on me. He is 14 lbs, except when he is asleep, which he prefers to do on my feet or knees, at which time his weight approximately doubles. He is like a toddler - races around the house until he passes out, and when he falls asleep, he is IMPOSSIBLE to wake up. I have to kick him, hard, at least 3 times every night to get him to move off of my feet long enough for me to turn over.

Between this cat and my Tierras, it seems clear that I have a taste for Challenging Acquaintances.

 

[gardenmary]

We have 2 kitties, both rescues. One is a 5-yr-old "basic black" cat with some tummy white spots, named Sophie. She should have been named Sybil, since she has several personalities (none of which are very nice, lol).

The other one is an 8-yr-old Birman named Rocky. The folks at the pound named him "Royale" which we thought was pathetic. His full name is Rocket J. Cat. He is a very mellow, lovable cat - not a lap cat, but loves to hang out with you.

FINALLY figured it out...the ".jpg" file extension is the key. Thanks all!!

 

[Mom of Redheads]

Hmm. Let me try loading the pic another way. Hopefully you can see this one.

Holy crow! This is Jake? he could be a twin of my/our first cat, Greything. (Now that name is a long story). Greything came home one day when I was living with my mother (a stray), and he adopted me. When I moved out, my mom said, "Are you taking your cat with you?" LOL

He lived in Tacoma, Charlottseville, Virginia and Delaware before giving up the ghost. We actually forsook a honeymoon for that cat as he almost died the summer we were engaged - turns out he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - and eventually we had to put him to sleep because he threw a blood clot and lost the use of his back legs.

Greything story - DH "catsat" for me while I drove cross-country to grad school. DH was living in Beacon Hill (Boston) at the time in a rooftop apartment. One day, DH's buddies let Greything get on the roof and he took off across the buildings (you know how they are all next to each other in a city)... and DH was trying to figure out how to chase him across the rooftops (Greything finally came back on his own)!

Picture to follow once I figure out how...

 

[RachelV]

I love this pic. She has the perfect sassy look to convey something like, "I am wearing this jester collar to humor you, but I do not like it."

 

[Mom of Redheads]

This is Greything (if I've got this figured out)...

And I thought we had the only such cat in the world!

 

[Mom of Redheads]

Okay, that didn't work the way I wanted it to. But you can see Greything if you click on the ?.

I will try again when my kids aren't screaming for a snack.

 

[gardenmary]

I love this pic. She has the perfect sassy look to convey something like, "I am wearing this jester collar to humor you, but I do not like it."

That's her all right! Her primary form of communication is hissing.

 

[Mom of Redheads]

Trying again...

Okay, there he is... more white thqan Jake, but still... very similar...

 

[B.E.G.]

Altagirl - I had to put my boys on a diet when we were living in Chicago in an apartment. Right now, in the house, they have their own room but in the apt. they were allowed access everywhere but the bedroom. Well, let me tell you - when they wanted food, they would YOWL at my door, stick their paws under it, bat the door stopper, jump on the door, scratch the door, throw themselves against the door, etc. etc. I usually ended up giving in after an hour of unrelenting yowling! Now, it's easier - they have their room and the house is bigger!

Jenny - my cats broke off the spring door stop of my bathroom door! They loved batting it.

Rhodyskier - Aww love the look on Hannah's face! And Otto is gorgeous - love that little brown/gray spot on his white mouth!

Playoutside - I love long-haired cats. Drat my allergies! Yours is beautiful!

Serafina - LOL. Your post cracks me up - Challenging Acquaintances keep your life interesting though, no? Buster's expression in the last pic definitely says he's the top cat in those parts ;)

Gardenmary - Aww, Sophie is cute, but she does not look happy about her collar/outfit! :P And Rocky is just stunning - love the color and fluffy fur!

MomofRedheads - OMG - the roof jumping would probably have given me a heart attack! Glad he came back on his own! He is beautiful too!