“…a unique, patented and proven device that helps people train their cats to use the regular household toilet.”
Only takes eight weeks.
Anyone ever seen this work? Other than on television?
Our Pumpkin would only have to fall in once and it’d be back to the litter in a heartbeat.
Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Senor Gato, Uncategorized
Always fun to be nose-booped by Pumpkin, especially in the morning. For a while I thought it meant he merely wanted me to get up and feed him, but now I know it’s more generally affectionate than a specific concern. At such times he even likes me booping him back, touching his nose with my index finger.
Cats are mysterious creatures. Seemingly indifferent. Actually very affectionate.
Posted in Blogosphere, Rancho Roly Poly, Senor Gato
Tagged nose-booping, Pumpkin, Senor Gato
Senor Gato turns his nose up at Simply Nourish brand venison and duck cat foods. So far seems to like Meow Mix brand beef and chicken and tuna. Any seafood, maybe. Or maybe not. Finicky eaters, cats.
I can see why they’d get bored with the same old chow day after day, though I tend to like being stuck in food ruts, myself, but I’m not a furry critter. I wouldn’t sleep sixteen hours a day if I could. Well, maybe if I could.
So the search for a reliable wet food Pumpkin will eat goes on. I’m going to try and hold him to 50-50 wet and Friskies dry. Not only for the expense of wet but the really stinky poop it produces. Any cat lovers out there have a suggestion?
UPDATE: No suggestions coming, I moved on to two new brands Senor Gato actually likes: Purina and HEB’s house brand. The latter seems to hit the spot every time and it’s cheaper than the former.
Comments Off on Cat food carnival
Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Senor Gato
Tagged cat food brands, Senor Gato, venison and duck cat food, wet and dry cat food
Back in the mid-1980s, I was assigned to cover the local AIDS epidemic. I got used to reading, talking and writing about HIV and its impact on people, usually gay men, but sometimes straight men and women. I got to know a few of them well, and went to their funerals.
Thursday, taking our new furry friend Pumpkin/Garfield to the vet for a checkup, I learned that he has Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, the cat version of HIV. It cannot infect humans and is spread between cats primarily by bites. According to Wikipedia, it is estimated to have thus far stricken a mere 4.4 percent of the cats in the world. According to some web sites on cats, Senor Gato has a maximum of five years to live.
While Mr. Boy and I already were working on keeping our new companion indoors, for our sake as well as his own, we now must do it, according to the vet, to keep him from spreading the disease to other cats in the neighborhood. And for his own protection since a common bacterial or viral infection that a healthy cat might fight off quickly could kill one, like him, with a damaged immune system. His own litter box could kill him if it isn’t kept clean.
Ironic, to be sure. Having recently lost Mrs. Charm to advanced cancer we have now returned to caring for the dying. And, eventually, to grieving the loss of another loved one. It seems to be the way of our world.
Posted in Cancer, History, Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Senor Gato
Tagged Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, FIV, Senor Gato
Mr. B. and I spent most of last night worrying about Garfield/Pumpkin’s safety as he spent a cold night outside. He wanted out so bad at 6 p.m. Friday that, despite having kept him inside nights since Monday, I reluctantly obliged.
Mr. B. kept asking on the hour whether he was back yet. When he still hadn’t returned by 2 a.m. Saturday, despite leaving the patio door open several inches so he could shoulder his way back in, we both found it hard to sleep.
I was worrying a raccoon would get him, a car run over him, or a stray dog chase him up a tree, etc. But when I got up at 9:30, there was Senor Gato snoozing on the couch in the family room. A little distant as he usually is after one of these all-night events, however.
It’s going to be the last one, I’ve decided. I know he’s transitioning from an outdoor to an indoor life, and that’s a hard row to hoe, so we’ll compromise for a while. I will let him out in the morning, but no more all-nighters.
Outdoor cats live an average of 2 to 5 years, it says on WebMD. Up to 20 years of life for an indoor one. Not to mention the years his being out all night subtract from mine.
Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Senor Gato
Tagged indoor versus outdoor cat, Senor Gato, WebMD
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 