Yesterday were Vivi and Moogle's annual check-ups at the vet. Both of them got Rabies vaccination updates, but as Vivi is 5 years old now, the vet recommended we draw some blood and set that as the new baseline, then do it again when she's 10.
Moogle handles being in the carrier fairly well, but Vivi gets very upset and froths at the mouth and dribbles in hers. It's was much more rough for her this time than ever before, on top of the nurses having to try to draw blood twice from different legs because the first time was unsuccessful.
About a couple of hours after getting home and letting them hide in their own safety places for a while, we brought out some treats and they came into the room, but then Moogle (the younger) hissed at Vivi for a bit. She did it all day whenever they were close to one another and she did it a bit this morning. Not sure what's up with that. They aren't close buddies all the time, but they can always handle being in the same room even 3 feet apart from one another with no issue.
Mr. Fantastico thinks it's because there's a lingering alcohol smell from where they wiped Vivi's back legs from the puncture wounds. I tried to clean her up with a couple of non-scented wet wipes to see if it would neutralize any strange scents, but Moogle's still hissing occasionally at her.
I'm going to let them sort it out for another day, but I'm really not sure what the change in behaviour is about.
Sugar, our non-people cat, occasionally walks around the house dragging leaves/paper/toy mice around and mewing pitifully. This is a habit she’s had in the whole 7 years we have had her.
Today I come home to this...
I locked up the house this morning and I definitely did not leave paper towels all down the stairs!
Also, her face markings always make it look as if she’s smiling, which you can see here!
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Shortytouching the meatIntergalactic Cool CourtRegistered Userregular
edited March 2019
here is Selena, pretending to be good and patient because it is dinner time
Moogle seems fine now. When I got home from work, I caught her sniffing at Vivi's tail and butt a few times, and no hissing. I think she still detected a little something of what was bothering her before, but it might be so faint now that it's not enough to upset her. This morning when they got wet food together, it was like nothing happened the last 48 hours. She was back to her old self.
Sugar, our non-people cat, occasionally walks around the house dragging leaves/paper/toy mice around and mewing pitifully. This is a habit she’s had in the whole 7 years we have had her.
Vivi does this, too. She'll find a little catnip knot or mouse and attack it, then meow and carry it around in her mouth like a victory kill.
Gaston's bed etiquette is extremely bad. He farts big. He wants to sleep on me, and me alone, and he is very heavy. He like to wake up in the middle of the night, stand up and be like "hey, what's up", before dropping his elbow on a new part of my anatomy.
On the other hand I woke up today with him guarding my right foot intensely between his paws so maybe it's good.
@pooka since separating the cat food and water the cats’ water bowls have been emptying much quicker, so thank you! They definitely seem to be drinking more.
I also think at least one of the cats is using the water fountain, as it was down quite a bit, too.
Also, we have two litter boxes, one covered and one not. The cats seem to be solely peeing in the non-covered one and solely pooping in the covered one. It’s very funny.
Janson on
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Had a small update on the blind kitten, they’re still trying to find a friend for him. He is VERY active and playful, to the point where the lady I spoke to said she’s been coming in early to play with him because the other two cats at the animal hospital don’t really want to play with him.
He’s also apparently clever enough to climb partway up a ladder she left out, despite being blind.
Anyway I’ll probably call again on Friday, or maybe early next week.
Some good friends of ours just picked up Darcy's future bestie.
Meet Harper, the border collie, who Darcy will no doubt outrun for 30 seconds, claim victory, then lay down and watch her run around for the next 2 hours.
Switch Friend Code: SW-3944-9431-0318
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
This morning I had an encounter that was both terrifying and adorable.
I was walking Ori and Kya and we were passing a backyard of a notoriously aggressive guard dog, a huge chunky mastiff cross who I’m pretty sure could tear a man in half in no time. Normally he’s kept securely behind a sturdy gate, but something went wrong this morning as the owner was getting ready to leave and the electric gate started opening before he had a chance to secure the dog.
The dog immediately came roaring down the driveway and out the gate towards us, heckles raised. Time kinda stood still for a moment as I looked from the dog to the extremely wide eyed oh fuck expression on the owner’s face, no doubt mirroring my own. There was no way he was going to be able to get to the dog in time. I’m about to lose a dog, I thought. I’m about to lose an arm.
And as it reached us, it abruptly stopped, centimeters from Ori’s face. My girls didn’t even flinch. They stood perfectly still, looking far calmer than I felt. They all stood there for what felt like a thousand years before Kya slowly and gently nosed forward, sniffed the huge boy’s ear and licked him gently on the face. He hesitated for a moment, huffed a little, and then cautiously moved to assume butt-sniffing duties, tail lowering and wagging slightly.
I’ve never seen a man sprint as cautiously as I saw the owner do so in that moment. It was like watching a cartoon character do the sneaking movement except while running as fast as possible. He slowed to a cautious creep as he got near, real fear still clear in his eyes, and slowly took hold of his dog’s collar while looking apologetically to me. “I am so sorry” he quietly said to me, “but you need to go now.”
I slowly and gently eased the girls away. The boy just watched for a moment, before making a sudden movement that made my stomach leap into my brain, before I realised that he was play bowing. The owner and I both let out an extremely nervous chuckle and we walked away, trying to will my organs back into their correct positions.
Cats aren't actually living things, so much as they are demons encased in flesh. Kya's just trying to warn you.
Sure, some of them might act nice, but don't fool yourself, that's still an act. They're just biding their time and waiting for the right moment. If that means a few years of scritches in the mean time, so be it.
Guaranteed, she hops up onto someone’s lap for an hour of chin scritches every evening.
Also, I feel as if I am the favourite of her sister, Sugar. Sugar seems to recognize and respect that I respect her maintain a distance, and she follows me round and favours me with the opportunity for pettings.
Also I feel as if my allergies may be lessening? That, or vacuuming every day and keeping them out of the bedroom really is that effective.
Convinced Stanley to sit still for a few minutes after chasing him around the room because he would not stop chewing everything
He couldn't believe his luck at being allowed on the couch and promptly fell asleep for an hour. Now every time I go to sit he'll bring his blanket over and just stare at me until I set it up for him
The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
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Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
Jesus. I dont know what Id have done in that situation. Id probably have punched a dog. Lola is an agressive type of friendly and most dogs seem to put up with it bu
Convinced Stanley to sit still for a few minutes after chasing him around the room because he would not stop chewing everything
He couldn't believe his luck at being allowed on the couch and promptly fell asleep for an hour. Now every time I go to sit he'll bring his blanket over and just stare at me until I set it up for him
Can he sing Walking on Sunshine yet?
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Man there is something genuinely gratifying about spending a few months training a dog out of a bad behavior and then watching them successfully self-regulate. Reo came with a hoooorrrrible habit of walking up to people who are sitting down and pawing them, hard, for attention, sometimes just straight up jumping on them. Now he comes up and I can see him start to put his paw up, realize that's a no-no, and put it back down and just nose them instead.
We're having a lot of problems with Gaston pulling on the lead. It's tough because he's so strong, and he's really good at "I can't hear you" bullshit.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
We're having a lot of problems with Gaston pulling on the lead. It's tough because he's so strong, and he's really good at "I can't hear you" bullshit.
Have you tried one of these yet? https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-Gentle-Leader-Collar-Training/dp/B00074L4RW. They loop around the base of their snout so that if the dog tries to pull, it causes their head to turn back towards the leash holder, which dogs absolutely hate. They're like horses in that they get really uncomfortable if their head isn't oriented exactly where they're trying to go.
They look a lot more like a restraint than they actually are and they work wonderfully for dogs that pull. Successfully trained Enzo and an old neighbor's dog (who was a nightmare on leash) out of it.
I think it's next on the list to get him to stop. We have a collar that tightens if he pulls and he doesn't give a fuck about it, he'll cheerfully choke himself out trying to get to something he wants to get to.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
edited March 2019
Yeah, in my experience chokers don't end up working for a lot of folks - dogs have a high enough pain tolerance that they just do exactly what you described.
Yeah, in my experience chokers don't end up working for a lot of folks - dogs have a high enough pain tolerance that they just do exactly what you described.
Yeah Uschi will happily crush his own windpipe if it means getting to chase something fun. He now walks extremely well on the leash, but it's been a long haul with some serious hard work put in, and some of it was probably more about growing out of the idiot-brain puppy stage.
I've heard two plans to help with that.
The first is to take the dog for a walk, and whenever they get ahead of the leash-holder, change direction. The idea is that they will learn to follow so as to not get yanked around.
The other idea is basically heel training. Keep treats in your pocket on the side you want the dog to walk on. Every couple of steps, give the dog a treat for staying in its designated position.
Of course, if Berners are as dumb as I've been led to believe, maybe those wouldn't work. But I think they make sense, and maybe they'll help.
We use the treat technique for heeling when there's no distractions, and do a direction reversal when they start pulling (because in a contest between a treat and a live kangaroo, the treat is going to lose every time).
It worked well on Usch, and he's 45kg of pure stubbornness. Berners aren't that thick, they just take a little longer to get the hang of complicated ideas, but they pick up stuff fairly quickly if food is involved.
That said, I've yet to completely solve the not-infrequent "I don't want to move at all" issue, or the "actually I'm going home now" phenomenon.
Gaston did "I don't want to move" as a puppy (he hated walks) and would roll over and jujitsu grab my arm if I reached for him. We eventually got him to obey a stand command, at which point he'll normally go, and he's now stopped doing it. He apparently does "fuck you I'm going home now" to our room mate when we go away.
I've tried simply stopping if he pulls, with some success. He doesn't seem to draw a clear line between "I'm pulling" and "I'm not getting to go forward like I want" though.
With the poodles, dad would find a leafy stick and wave it in front of the dogs face when doggo wasn't heeling while he reiterated the command. Worked a treat on them.
Our biggest issue walking Darcy is that when she see's another dog in the distance, she locks on to that target and I swear her head does not move a degree away from it until either we reach them and she can have a sniff, or it's clear that our paths aren't going to cross. It is just the most intense stare.
Pretty sure she has freaked a few smaller dog owners out, if not the dogs themselves.
Switch Friend Code: SW-3944-9431-0318
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
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Moogle handles being in the carrier fairly well, but Vivi gets very upset and froths at the mouth and dribbles in hers. It's was much more rough for her this time than ever before, on top of the nurses having to try to draw blood twice from different legs because the first time was unsuccessful.
About a couple of hours after getting home and letting them hide in their own safety places for a while, we brought out some treats and they came into the room, but then Moogle (the younger) hissed at Vivi for a bit. She did it all day whenever they were close to one another and she did it a bit this morning. Not sure what's up with that. They aren't close buddies all the time, but they can always handle being in the same room even 3 feet apart from one another with no issue.
Mr. Fantastico thinks it's because there's a lingering alcohol smell from where they wiped Vivi's back legs from the puncture wounds. I tried to clean her up with a couple of non-scented wet wipes to see if it would neutralize any strange scents, but Moogle's still hissing occasionally at her.
I'm going to let them sort it out for another day, but I'm really not sure what the change in behaviour is about.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Sugar, our non-people cat, occasionally walks around the house dragging leaves/paper/toy mice around and mewing pitifully. This is a habit she’s had in the whole 7 years we have had her.
Today I come home to this...
I locked up the house this morning and I definitely did not leave paper towels all down the stairs!
Also, her face markings always make it look as if she’s smiling, which you can see here!
Moogle seems fine now. When I got home from work, I caught her sniffing at Vivi's tail and butt a few times, and no hissing. I think she still detected a little something of what was bothering her before, but it might be so faint now that it's not enough to upset her. This morning when they got wet food together, it was like nothing happened the last 48 hours. She was back to her old self.
Vivi does this, too. She'll find a little catnip knot or mouse and attack it, then meow and carry it around in her mouth like a victory kill.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
On the other hand I woke up today with him guarding my right foot intensely between his paws so maybe it's good.
120 lb malamute lap dogs
I also think at least one of the cats is using the water fountain, as it was down quite a bit, too.
Also, we have two litter boxes, one covered and one not. The cats seem to be solely peeing in the non-covered one and solely pooping in the covered one. It’s very funny.
He’s also apparently clever enough to climb partway up a ladder she left out, despite being blind.
Anyway I’ll probably call again on Friday, or maybe early next week.
Meet Harper, the border collie, who Darcy will no doubt outrun for 30 seconds, claim victory, then lay down and watch her run around for the next 2 hours.
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
I was walking Ori and Kya and we were passing a backyard of a notoriously aggressive guard dog, a huge chunky mastiff cross who I’m pretty sure could tear a man in half in no time. Normally he’s kept securely behind a sturdy gate, but something went wrong this morning as the owner was getting ready to leave and the electric gate started opening before he had a chance to secure the dog.
The dog immediately came roaring down the driveway and out the gate towards us, heckles raised. Time kinda stood still for a moment as I looked from the dog to the extremely wide eyed oh fuck expression on the owner’s face, no doubt mirroring my own. There was no way he was going to be able to get to the dog in time. I’m about to lose a dog, I thought. I’m about to lose an arm.
And as it reached us, it abruptly stopped, centimeters from Ori’s face. My girls didn’t even flinch. They stood perfectly still, looking far calmer than I felt. They all stood there for what felt like a thousand years before Kya slowly and gently nosed forward, sniffed the huge boy’s ear and licked him gently on the face. He hesitated for a moment, huffed a little, and then cautiously moved to assume butt-sniffing duties, tail lowering and wagging slightly.
I’ve never seen a man sprint as cautiously as I saw the owner do so in that moment. It was like watching a cartoon character do the sneaking movement except while running as fast as possible. He slowed to a cautious creep as he got near, real fear still clear in his eyes, and slowly took hold of his dog’s collar while looking apologetically to me. “I am so sorry” he quietly said to me, “but you need to go now.”
I slowly and gently eased the girls away. The boy just watched for a moment, before making a sudden movement that made my stomach leap into my brain, before I realised that he was play bowing. The owner and I both let out an extremely nervous chuckle and we walked away, trying to will my organs back into their correct positions.
Good start to a Thursday morning.
Steam ID - VeldrinD | SS Post | Wishlist
thank crap that turned out ok.
Steam ID - VeldrinD | SS Post | Wishlist
Steam ID - VeldrinD | SS Post | Wishlist
Cats aren't actually living things, so much as they are demons encased in flesh. Kya's just trying to warn you.
Sure, some of them might act nice, but don't fool yourself, that's still an act. They're just biding their time and waiting for the right moment. If that means a few years of scritches in the mean time, so be it.
Guaranteed, she hops up onto someone’s lap for an hour of chin scritches every evening.
Also, I feel as if I am the favourite of her sister, Sugar. Sugar seems to recognize and respect that I respect her maintain a distance, and she follows me round and favours me with the opportunity for pettings.
Also I feel as if my allergies may be lessening? That, or vacuuming every day and keeping them out of the bedroom really is that effective.
He couldn't believe his luck at being allowed on the couch and promptly fell asleep for an hour. Now every time I go to sit he'll bring his blanket over and just stare at me until I set it up for him
Satans..... hints.....
Can he sing Walking on Sunshine yet?
Have you tried one of these yet? https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-Gentle-Leader-Collar-Training/dp/B00074L4RW. They loop around the base of their snout so that if the dog tries to pull, it causes their head to turn back towards the leash holder, which dogs absolutely hate. They're like horses in that they get really uncomfortable if their head isn't oriented exactly where they're trying to go.
They look a lot more like a restraint than they actually are and they work wonderfully for dogs that pull. Successfully trained Enzo and an old neighbor's dog (who was a nightmare on leash) out of it.
Yeah Uschi will happily crush his own windpipe if it means getting to chase something fun. He now walks extremely well on the leash, but it's been a long haul with some serious hard work put in, and some of it was probably more about growing out of the idiot-brain puppy stage.
The first is to take the dog for a walk, and whenever they get ahead of the leash-holder, change direction. The idea is that they will learn to follow so as to not get yanked around.
The other idea is basically heel training. Keep treats in your pocket on the side you want the dog to walk on. Every couple of steps, give the dog a treat for staying in its designated position.
Of course, if Berners are as dumb as I've been led to believe, maybe those wouldn't work. But I think they make sense, and maybe they'll help.
It worked well on Usch, and he's 45kg of pure stubbornness. Berners aren't that thick, they just take a little longer to get the hang of complicated ideas, but they pick up stuff fairly quickly if food is involved.
That said, I've yet to completely solve the not-infrequent "I don't want to move at all" issue, or the "actually I'm going home now" phenomenon.
I've tried simply stopping if he pulls, with some success. He doesn't seem to draw a clear line between "I'm pulling" and "I'm not getting to go forward like I want" though.
Pretty sure she has freaked a few smaller dog owners out, if not the dogs themselves.
PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
https://imgur.com/gallery/oo6w8QS
GIVE ME YOUR PUPPY
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN