Bowl Bullying

What I've noticed is that CC comes down from her spiral staircase in the AM to eat breakfast with me. Then INKY comes over to the feeding station and CC cries and walks away. Then INKY "needs" to eat. When he finishes, CC goes back to eating and drinking. Then INKY "needs" to go right back and eat AGAIN! This goes on and on...as if they are each trying to claim the feeding station. Sometimes they do eat together (we have 2 bowls near each other) but I still can't help but think this is some kind of food intimidation game. There is another feeding station located elsewhere in the house where they all eat from time to time. But I'm thinking we could use ANOTHER separate feeding station. Problem is, in South Florida we have so many bugs it is difficult to monitor so many bowls for ants etc. The only other convenient place I can think to set up another station is not far from the front door (where I often see ants coming in!). I know that food should not be placed near litter boxes. When I feed them their wet food (once a day) I make sure to spread the bowls out all over the house so there is no competition. CC usually doesn't even come down for that and JP doesn't like to eat until much later when he can try to lick the crusted on crumbs from the bottom of the bowls. Our house is already under the control of the cats: litterboxes everywhere (from previous SPRAYING incidents a few years back) and cat trees, toys, structures ETC! allover the place! This is more strange feline behavior!

Fling-a-string

Excuse the low photo quality. I had to snap this one quickly with the crackberry. INKY is demonstrating exactly how he destroyed his new toy. My friend Bill received the fling-a-string toy for Xmas and it drove his cats bonkers (in a BAD way). You hang it over the doorknob and a battery powered motor causes this elastic pulley to rotate in circles. Not pictured is a piece of string which comes around every second or so. If you click here you can see a pic of the whole toy and watch a video of some cats playing with it. Well, Bills cats were so upset with the toy. It only frustrated them and made them cry for hours after turning it off. He lent it to me to see what my kitties would do. Well, JP played with it for over an hour. He looked like he was on acid. By the end of each play session he was on his back staring up at it in awe (look at the colours, man!). But some of the REAL DANGER is that unlike the dumb cats in the video, my cats (especially JP) can catch the string no problem which stops the rotating of the elastic so that the string can be chewed off and ingested. I had to carefully supervise each play session to be sure the string wasn't getting eaten! I might as well have just been playing an interacticve game with the cat in the first place. That would have been healthier for their stomaches and minds! So, when I returned home from the Florida Flute Convention (no, I never went to BAND CAMP), I found the string exposed (the toy must always be turned off with the string positioned in the back where kitties cannot get to it - even though they are going to keep crying when you turn it off either way). My husband claims I left the string on the front side before I left for Orlando. I don't think so. Not my MO. So, while cleaning the litterbox the other day, I found some colourful string stuck in a poop (kind of graphic...sorry, but that's life with the cats). Then I noticed last night that INKY is able to pull the elastic pully down so that he can get to the string. I was going to take the fling-a-string toy away last night but I didn't want to hear the crying. Figured I'd wait until the kitties fell asleep then sneak the toy away. Well, I awoke this morning to find a little stub of string hanging off the front of the toy! Inky had done it again! He ate more of the string. I quickly gave him and Spike (JP wont eat it and the girls dont play with the toy) some Petromalt to help them digest the string. This toy is evil! It messes with their little minds and even their stomaches. I took it away and offered to buy Bill a new one - even though I don't think any cat should have one. Bill says its a toy for lazy cat owners. I say irresponsible cat owners.

cold weather

Ever notice how cats go crazy in the cold? First of all, I had 45 lbs of cat sleeping on me last night. No, not one superfat cat, just 3 chubbers that add up to 45 lbs. That was cute and comforting but it leaves my body feeling like I got hit by a truck for a day or two after. Then this morning I wanted to bike to Starbucks (in 50 degree weather or so! brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Pretty cold for Miami!) and INKY was going after CC and Scooter and CC was going after Scooter (redirected aggression?), so I had to linger long enough until the tension dissipated. When I returned home from my chilly breakfast adventure, INKY wanted to play. I played silly stick (also known as silly string - it's a fishing rod type toy that has been chewed down so that only about 3 inches of string hang off it. INKY love love loves this toy!!!) a little, but didn't have the patience to really play PREY with him...so, he started going for Scooter Mercilessly. I had to lock Scooter in the studio for her own safety. I sprayed Felliway around so that INKY wouldn't mark the spots where the girls had been. Then INKY started going for Spike under the bed and poor Spikey was crying so I went and got him to save him from my ebony terror!
CC spent some time on my lap today. She does most days. She's become quite a lap cat and a mammas girl.
Then....I spent some time this afternoon trying to clean up the pee from where JP (and INKY, of course!) got upset about the roofers. I can't wait to get rid of this nasty carpet altogether! I want to go down to the Cement floors. That'd be way cool. I'm so sick of smelling PEE! I never had this problem before INKY!!! Good thing he's cute and smart and gorgeous and I love him to death!
Anyone out there on facebook? I just joined (not exactly sure why yet...). Please friend me - and my cats. Thanks.

Kitty Hero!

Jonathan Rosenberg is the coolest! He was a dot com millionaire and chucked all that to create a kitty haven for shelter cats that were gonna be euthanized! Check out the story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/26/eveningnews/main4754449.shtml
When I grow up, I wanna find my passion and take care of kitties too!! Anyone know this guy personally or seen Tabby's place? P.S. That is not CC on his desk.

Cat Scratch Feeder

We set up the new Pavlov's Cat Scratch Feeder. Thought it was a good compromise between free feeding and no free feeding (which the experts recommend. Even my vets office said free feeding is BAD). The cat just scratches the post on the device then food tumbles out into a bowl on the base. Problems have already surfaced in our house. This AM I found all the cats milling around the feeding station. No one was having a scratch at the feeder, so, no one was eating. I tried pulling CC's paws along the post to release the food. Scooter did a good job with it. The real problem was BOWL BULLYING. CC wouldnt let JP near the food and INKY was too scared to even approach the pole. He wouldnt let me touch him. Then I realized, JP and Spike will not be able to use the feeder since they have been declawed.
Side bar: I do not recommend declawing. I did this to them years ago before I really understood the horror of the operation and when I was a little scared to be scratched (I was raised WITHOUT CATS!!! Oh my! What kind of childhood was that??). Now I know the tricks to getting kitties to scratch where they are supposed to and not on the good furniture. OK, truth is, we dont have good furniture and anyway...we brought cats into our home, of course there's gonna be some damage etc! It's worth it. Cats rock!!!
Spike(husband) decided to try to modify the Cat Scratch Feeder so it will have a foot lever for the clawless cats to activate the feeding. First attempts were not adequate. I will keep y'all updated on that progress. Until then, I had to fill another trough with food so's the kitties dont STARVE!! I hope the Pavlovs Cat Scratch Feeder ends up working out for us all!
Do any of you have experience with this device?

Long Paws

It has been a long long time since I have posted. I thought maybe y'all were getting tired of hearing about the same antics, shenanigans and tom foolery of my clowder. Here's the condensed update:
I thought Inky was getting a little better with CC...but he still chases her and they continue to hiss at each other and CC tries to avoid him. I guess that is a little better. Certainly better than when the problem started ONE YEAR AGO!!!
CC has become quite a chubber because all she does is eat, sleep and hide from INKY! I am considering removing free feeding for all cats.
Early on in January, at about 5 AM (the hour that INKY generally wakes up and wreaks havoc one way or another) INKY was smashing the wooden blinds on the bedroom windows and hyperventilating. I panicked, thinking he was seeing a cat in the yard...which would most likely result in INKY getting paranoid about his territory and recommencing the spraying of the home! Turns out it was Rocky Raccoon. I turned on the outside light to scare him away. Didn't work. I ran outside to chase him away...all the while INKY is on the windowsill hyperventilating and pacing. Rocky is not a skiddish raccoon. He just kept about his business in our backyard...nosing around and such. I tried spraying him with the squirter I use to deter bad kitty behavior. He just retreated into the shrubbery, but wouldnt leave the yard. I'm real glad my husband made friends with this critter earlier in the week when I specifically told him he was not to hang around with wildlife! Finally, I threw a small stone NEXT TO Rocky. NO, I wouldn't throw anything AT ANY ANIMAL!! And I ran screaming towards him. Finally he got out of the yard and INKY could breathe normally again. Luckily, I have not seen Rocky back in the yard since!
INKY and JP are both peeing/spraying around the house because (I think) they are not happy with all the renovations we have been doing. I try desperately to clean it up every day! Hopefully the Solar Panels and all that good stuff will be done soon and we will have extra money (from Federal rebate) to remove disgusting dirty carpet and put in pee-proof flooring!
Scooter is still quite...shy, but she loves to sit on my lap and purr and has even been hanging around the bedroom often. She still runs from INKY and caught a loud beating from him last week (no detectable injuries).
Spike lost most of the whiskers on the right side of his face and...as I feared, had a couple fleas which bit me up pretty good before I could get the flea meds on all the kitties. Hopefully, the fleas were the problem with his whiskers and sores on his head (too much scratching, I'm thinking).
I'll try to post again soon (no more long pauses in blogging) about the new bedding and toys etc. that the kitties got for Chranukkah. Please feel free to leave comments, questions, link to my blog etc! -Cathi

Back To Square One?

CC hates the tarps we had to put all over the house while they destroyed our roof (so's we can gets a new roof and then solar panels!!). Those tarps smell BAD! Also, there was all kinds of crap falling on everything making a huge mess. I ended up messing up my neck and back too. The roof people really should have warned us to evacuate. This has been very traumatic...but I will actually spare you the details.

The big bad news is that I went out of town for gigs this weekend and when I returned...I was told the kitties were not fighting (statement naive at best). They weren't getting their Bach Flower Essences either! This afternoon, INKY was after CC with a vengeance! He chased her up the spiral staircase and actually caught her and pulled out chunks of fur. There was screaming and hissing from all 3 of us and I had to run over and smack the TV so many times to scare him off her that I hurt my hand. Then he started hyperventilating and making awful sounds. This is the worst I've seen him in months. Seems like we may be back to square one.