The Coin Return Foundational Fundraiser is here! Please donate!
Time for a cat thread!
valeryce
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Okay H/A, I have a cute and almost one year old kitty named Bonny. She's still extremely playful and is a strictly indoor only cat. My roommate also has a cat, and they seem to get along pretty well. Since we're all college students they spend a lot of time alone together (no more than a few hours at a time as we have different schedules) but as I go to a very intense school when it gets to be around finals time they tend to be left alone more often. I mean like 6+ hours at a time. Needless to say they've bonded pretty closely and snuggle together quite often. They're very cute together and are BFF cat buddies.
My problem arises in that my roommate plans on taking off to California as soon as she gets employed, which will probably be within the next month. I am worried about my cat, as my cat is extraordinarily social and playful. I think she'll be pretty lonely without her cat buddy. This is the kind of cat who will try and follow me outside my apartment to school, who will run up to me and greet me when I come home, and whom loves to play with strangers. She loves attention and I am afraid she'd do poorly without a cat buddy- my cat is more of a dog than a cat. She'll even lick my hair/face if I do not get up and feed her on time, and she likes to play 'chase' where she'll run and I'll try and get her. She also likes hide and seak, where I will hide behind furniture, and when she finds me I will jump out at her.
It should also be noted that she loves digging. Whenever I change her litter box, she gets super excited and digs in the fresh litter without using it. She'll come back 2-3 times and just dig around without soiling it. She also burrows into my blankets, the laundry, and boxes of any sort. Usually when I get a new box I'll leave it on the ground for a while for her to play with, and then discard it when she loses interest. She really likes to play peekaboo from inside of boxes, when she'll hide inside of one and jump out at people who go by.
Getting another cat is not an option atm due to a third roommate's objections. I think ultimately the best case scenario would be to find another roommate who has a cat and have them move in, but there's no guarantee I can get that to happen. The said roommate who objects to me having two cats doesn't object to future roommates having a single cat.
So H/A, any tips for keeping my bouncy cat occupied and happy? Anything I can give her to dig in/play with that she won't eat?
Also obligatory cat photo. This is old (from when she was a kitten) and I think I used it in a thread earlier when she was parasite ridden, but it's the only pic I have of her online atm.
My problem arises in that my roommate plans on taking off to California as soon as she gets employed, which will probably be within the next month. I am worried about my cat, as my cat is extraordinarily social and playful. I think she'll be pretty lonely without her cat buddy. This is the kind of cat who will try and follow me outside my apartment to school, who will run up to me and greet me when I come home, and whom loves to play with strangers. She loves attention and I am afraid she'd do poorly without a cat buddy- my cat is more of a dog than a cat. She'll even lick my hair/face if I do not get up and feed her on time, and she likes to play 'chase' where she'll run and I'll try and get her. She also likes hide and seak, where I will hide behind furniture, and when she finds me I will jump out at her.
It should also be noted that she loves digging. Whenever I change her litter box, she gets super excited and digs in the fresh litter without using it. She'll come back 2-3 times and just dig around without soiling it. She also burrows into my blankets, the laundry, and boxes of any sort. Usually when I get a new box I'll leave it on the ground for a while for her to play with, and then discard it when she loses interest. She really likes to play peekaboo from inside of boxes, when she'll hide inside of one and jump out at people who go by.
Getting another cat is not an option atm due to a third roommate's objections. I think ultimately the best case scenario would be to find another roommate who has a cat and have them move in, but there's no guarantee I can get that to happen. The said roommate who objects to me having two cats doesn't object to future roommates having a single cat.
So H/A, any tips for keeping my bouncy cat occupied and happy? Anything I can give her to dig in/play with that she won't eat?
Also obligatory cat photo. This is old (from when she was a kitten) and I think I used it in a thread earlier when she was parasite ridden, but it's the only pic I have of her online atm.
Art Blog!
I like drawing, cartoons, cookies, and shiny pointy objects.
I like drawing, cartoons, cookies, and shiny pointy objects.
valeryce on
0
Posts
Get another cat. A lot of easier than finding a new roommate with a cat that's compatible with your current pet.
That doesn't make much sense... Unless he's afraid of another prospective roomie having a cat with would bring the grand total to three.
Until you get a second cat, I suppose you could just get a laser and make a small ball of twine. Or you could get a box full of crickets from the pet store and release them throughout the house. The kitty might have fun hunting them all down.
Er. Sorry. I'm alright. What were we talking about?
I would sit down and go over your concerns with your other roommate. Their objections seem silly and likely to collapse quickly under the weight of adorable-cat logic.
My cat is much like your, follows me everywhere, comes to see me at the door. She's even my personal alarm clock; as soon as the sun is up she hops and my bed and starts nuzzling my face and meowing at me until I get up and go to the shower. I have 3 roommates and frequently have a lot of people over and she's very friendly with everyone.
Definitely this, in my experience. My wife and I have 3 cats, all adopted separately as either older kittens or young adults. While they definitely tolerate each other and occasionally will lie down _close_ to one another on the bed or couch, they've never cuddled or seemed overly fond of each other. If you're looking for your kitty to bond with another, your best bet is probably going to be a kitten - and even that's 50/50 based on how "set in her ways" your cat is.
Sadly, I have no obligatory picture of the three of them in any online format... I'll have to do something to fix that. But one of them (the one who's most attached to me, rather than my wife) has a very similar demeanor to what you describe. Very friendly, follows people around, is the first (and often only) of the three to greet new guests... Interestingly, when his "big sister" passed early last year and we later adopted his "little sister," he had more trouble with the new arrival than did his "big brother". To this day he's still wary of her, though recently he's started warming to her a bit. So, don't be too surprised if you DO bring another cat into the picture and yours doesn't react as you might expect.
It's just really important to choose the cat with a matching temperment... and that's hard. My wife and I have done it pretty successfully twice, and my mom did it once (when her cat eventually became close to her new cat, he became more sociable to people too. He was really weird before...)
This is the problem the roommate has, exactly. Basically she is afraid that if I get a cat and we want to move in with annother person who has a cat it'll cause problems, since we'll have a cat infested apartment.
I should also mention basically all of us roommates plan on working full 8-10 hour days during the summer so poor kitty will be alone, and I don't want that.
Edit: more kitteny goodness.
I like drawing, cartoons, cookies, and shiny pointy objects.
Now, down to a serious response. I'd say getting another cat is the best option. If your other idiotic roommate didn't mind your cat and your other roommate's cat there's no reason they should be opposed to you buying another cat.
Besides, what's more impotant? Your roommate's weird opinion or the happiness of that adorable little kitty cat? I think you know the answer.
You could try getting her one of those plastic donuts with the balls inside. My cats loved that. At least for a little while. Plastic bottle caps seem to be the most popular, though my one cat has a goose a string that she will leave her food dish to play with, and the other had some fuzzballs with feathers that velcro'd on, that he would bring to bed at night.
2nd cat is always a good option tho, if you can swing it with your roomie.
I think I'll wait until we find a new roommate to try and talk roommate who objects into obtaining annother cat. That way she won't have to worry about us having a cat infested house all the time due to there being 3+ cats. It'll also be good to wait as the new future roommate might not want 2 or more kitties.
I won't go to work until June so for the month of May I'll be at home and able to amuse kitty, so she won't be to lonely without her cat BFF. It should also be noted that I live in a 2br apartment with 4 people, but since it's huge (like 1200 square feet) the place doesn't feel crowded at all. It's actually a 2 story townhouse and there is lots of room/a staircase for kitty to run around on.
If anyone else has good ideas as to what I can do, please go ahead and post 'em- but for now I think my issue is mostly resolved.
I like drawing, cartoons, cookies, and shiny pointy objects.
It's a three legged cat now.
I kind of want to start calling it Darwin.
edit: whoops, forgot I was in H/A.. Try hanging little battable objects from string around the apartment for the cat to play with? One thing your cat might also love is some kind of sphere, with a tube cut through the middle of it, big enough to climb through. Endless fun, no doubt.
My fiancé and I are going to the SPCA weekend after next to get a kitten. She wants two, I've been saying one, but will probably go for a second when we get there... But I'll make another thread when we need Kitten names, as to do so now, without pics would be a shame. Hmmm, but then we'll need to name them quickly... but I digress.
At home we have one built from just a few old boxes, with a blanket over them and their tunnel sticking out the side for an entry way, but you can get very sophisticated with some duct tape:
http://www.thingamababy.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/06/08/box1.jpg
Trust me, your cat will love it.
....what are we talking about?