Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

My Cat

13:57 / 18.12.05

I have a cat who is 11 years old. Her name is Moggi (which is unusual here in Canada). I've had her since she was about 2 weeks old and her mother was poisoned by some fuck who stayed at the campground we used to run. She's probably the first pet I've had that I've genuinely felt I loved. And I also feel the feeling is mutual. She's a good cat, very attentive, but knows when I've had enough. She's awesome.

Go on, rave about your cat.

14:20 / 18.12.05

I don´t have a cat, cause I´m allergic, but I really like them.

There´s a black cat (with white feet) of friends of mine, that really likes me, too. Her name´s Ginger and she practically jumps on my lap the moment I sit down and starts purring like there´s no tomorrow.

I often have to save her from a little guy that´s living there too. I tried to teach him how to pet the cat (he usually rubs the fur the wrong way), and had lost hope, but recently he seems to get the hang of it. He still gets scratched every time though.

07:57 / 19.12.05

Her name is Roger, and she used to be a local stray/feral cat. We started leaving food out and put a cat flap in the shed. Twelve months later she plucked up the courage to let me stroke her. Then we homed an old dog, and worried that we'd never see her again - but no!! Roger appeared to fall in love with Lomf (dog) and would follow him round the garden, come on walks and generally squeee with delight every time she saw him. It was being able to snuggle next to him on the sofa which finally convinced her to start coming in the house on a regular basis. After a while she started to purr.....This is all a couple of years ago now and Roger has since moved with us to a different part of the UK and is a bona fide couch potato. This summer she had to have a load of tumours removed and I can't stop thinking about how she'd probably have died if she'd still been a stray in Leeds, whereas now she's doing great.....

10:09 / 19.12.05

My cat is dead.

solid~liquid onwards

12:07 / 19.12.05

My Cat, Tabby, has been an attention fiend ever since her sister died 2 years ago. She likes to be wherver my attention is which is quite often on my keyboard while im on the net or editing. Poor thing is just a bit lonely without another cat about. Shes part wild cat and although she isnt large or fat she weighs about 50 stone and has oversized paws, claws and teeth.

I love cats, so much better than dogs. If you dont dominate a dog then it'll try and dominate you. gruddamm pack mentality. Cats are funckily independent and you know if you were 1 foot high then your cat would eat you.

13:17 / 19.12.05

I have two cats. One of them is big and fat and orange with stripes. He is affectionate, demading, and diabetic. The other is tiny, cute, grey, slightly feral, and deceptive. She's the size of a large kitten even though she's about eight years old.

'Nother words, they are, essentially, Garfield and Nermal.

14:19 / 19.12.05

My cat's dead too, just two weeks ago. He was black and grey striped, with a white chin and light brown belly.
He loved to go outside and would often run out on the stairs when anyone came or went. At one point he decided to go out the window and walk on the narrow ridge outside. He slipped and fell down, but somehow escaped without permanent injury.
Last summer, my mom rented a house with an enclosed garden, so he could be outside without a leash. He spent hours hiding in bushes and eating butterflies.
We had him for over 16 years and I miss him.

Sorry for being such a downer. It's strange how attached you get to your cat. Three of my family members have died, 2 grandparents and a stepdad, and I didn't cry then. But I'm crying right now while writing this.

Hattie's Kitchen

14:53 / 19.12.05

My cat is called Sage, she's about 8 years old now. Me and my ex got her when she was about a year old from a rescue centre - she was part feral, and had already had a litter of kittens but some fucker drowned them all in front of her, leaving her terrified of humans.

Because Sage was so scared of humans, she hid under a chair in the kitchen for the first few days, only coming out when we left the room. I spent one day just sat by the chair, trying to reassure her and get her used to me, and by the end of the day she was letting me stroke her.

7 years on, she's all over me and will happily headbutt me when she demands attention, and will also climb under my duvet and rest her head on the pillow. She also has a thing about collecting caterpillars - she will go into the garden, pick them up in her mouth and deposit them in the living room, play with it for a bit, and go off to get another caterpillar.

She's a cute happy fat little thing and I'm so glad we found her.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:12 / 19.12.05

I wish I had a dog.

solid~liquid onwards

16:14 / 21.12.05

I wish i had a person. On a lead.

Red Cross Iodized Salt

18:45 / 21.12.05

My girlfriend has two cats, but they're also kind of my cats since I picked out the first one and ended up naming them both. They're called Cookiepuss and Fudgie, partly after the Carvel ice-cream cakes but mostly because the names just seemed to fit.

Cookiepuss is younger, but was the first to be adopted (when she was still a kitten). She’ll be three in February. We think she's either a Mainecoon or a Norwegian Forest cat as she has a lot of black and white fur and a huge tail. She’s a polydactyl cat and has between six and eight toes on each paw. She’s easily the strangest cat I’ve ever encountered. She rarely makes any noise and only seems to purr when she’s followed someone into the bathroom. She freaks out if you put up the hood on a jacket or hoodie. She fetches and returns things that are thrown for her and can open doors using the doorknob. She likes jumping into the bath after someone has just gotten out, but will immediately panic and run around the apartment if her tail gets wet. She’s fascinated by dogs and dental floss.

Fudgie came along a few months after Cookiepuss. He had been very badly abused when the shelter found him and nobody knows how old he is. He seems happy now, and will occasionally beat up on Cookiepuss even though she’s physically much bigger. It’s often difficult to tell if they’re playing or not. He gets very needy after being left alone all day and will follow the first person to come home around until they pet him for a few minutes. Mostly he just sleeps. He’s grey all over and built like a tank due to being greedy, lazy and on steroids for some kind of allergic condition that was causing him to scratch himself badly around the ears. He’s terrified of dogs but likes anyone who will pet him.

Red Cross Iodized Salt

18:48 / 21.12.05

Oh yeah, Fudgie's full name is Fudgie The Whale and the petting is only acceptable if it is on or around his head. If you pet him too far down his back he gets nervous and may bite you.

19:20 / 21.12.05

Ah, but how big is his dundha?

23:48 / 27.12.05

Meet the most unamused cat in the world, incidentally also one of my best friends - It's Benny!

He had to be shaved just after he arrived at our place. One of the best animals I've ever met, I thought his previous owner was cruel until I tried grooming him. He's 14, smelly and very happy with his new home and other feline friends

15:11 / 01.01.06

*Bump*
Sorry, due to a broken link I feared many would miss the chance to see my shaved pussy, an opportunity I'm sure you wouldn't want to miss.

Mysterious Transfer Student

09:28 / 22.01.06

Meet Mr Jones. Fat, fourteen and grumpy.

My brother sent me this photo of our family cat recently... most of the time he's not nearly as adorable as this. He tends to prefer to merge, Predator-style, with my mother's 1970s-vintage swirly patterned lounge carpet, making occasional sorties to try to eat people's food off their dinner plates.

Jonesy is currently on medication prior to his upcoming thyroid operation, so sympathy would be nice. Most of the sympathy should really go to my mum who has to get him to take the nasty stuff with his food, about which he's choosy enough as it is.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

02:15 / 23.01.06

My cat, Fidget has a wonderful personality, and when I got her, she HATED human beings or being held, which made the cross country flight with her a bit of an adventure. She has since warmed up to me and a few of my son's friends, but still hates him with a passion. She likes to play fetch, stares at the TV when I watch REALLY weird DVDs and has snuck out of the house twice and been gone for three to seven days, each time breaking my heart.

I think I am far too much of an emotional wimp to have a pet.

Disco is My Class War

12:58 / 23.01.06

Schnapps is 8, a gigantic, handsome, fluffy blue Maine Coon who acts like a lion and is the lord of his dominion, the backyard. He tends to follow us around all day: he doesn't have to be sitting on your keyboard, but he has to be in the room with you, preferably close -- at your feet will do. (Maine Coons are the most dog-like cat, I hear, in terms of being pretty demanding of attention/affection.) He's got loads of charisma.

Schnapps adopted me when he was a kitten. He and his sister kitten, who is also blue and fluffy, were strays... they took up residence under the house I was living in. We left milk out for them and I gradually got them to come close via games with string, etc. Soon enough they were sleeping on my bed, pissing on the floor, acting like the place was theirs. My mum took the other cat, who is now called Sylvie. We think they were traumatised at a young age, because they were both hella jumpy and nervy and neurotic at first. Schnapps' 'enough pats now' signal was once the sinking of teeth into the hand. Before he was spayed, he also used to be rather possessive: one of my exes woke in the middle of the night to find he'd sprayed her in her sleep. There was rather a lot of house-training. Nowadays, however, he rarely bites, is happy to be scratched under the pawpits and rolled around on the floor for games. For a pretty middle-aged cat, he acts a lot like a kitten: he'll stalk anything that moves, butterflies, random pieces of grass, shoelaces, and is especially fond of hunting the mysterious creature that lives under the rug. He also does a slapstick line in chasing his own tail. Hours of fun. His best stunt, though, is with food: he loves small amounts of yoghurt and corn on the cob. I have watched him drag an eaten corn cob off the plate and lie down with it like a dog with a bone, using his paw to hold it down so he can chew off the remaining corn.

I really like dogs, but can't cope with the neediness of dogs. Schnapps is affectionate -- he will headbutt and cuddle me if I'm upset and he's in the right mood. But basically, we are his vassals, we feed him, open doors for him, etc, and the rest of the time, he does his own mysterious thing, and a lot of arse-licking. The perfect companion.

13:54 / 23.01.06

I had a cat, it's name was scraps. It was really cool, but then I went to my nan's for the summer holidays and when I came back it had gone. My parents said that it had run away. I was about seven at the time, and I knew they were lying, but they insisted. I never trusted adults again after that - thanks, scraps, whereever you are.

15:09 / 23.01.06

I have two cats:

lizzie, so named because when I got her, she was scrawny and sickly, and I started calling her "thin lizzie". I fell in love with her at the local spca, when she lifted her paw to the cage bars and looked me in the eye as if to say "help me!". being part feral, she was pretty naughty and caused me a lot of misery, including partially devouring a number of small pets. but she's turned into an incredibly well behaved and sweet tempered companion. she's started to get quite fat in the past year or so, and this increased girth has allowed her to lay on her back a lot...and so I often put stuff on her soft belly. she sometimes licks the back of my head as I sit in my favorite chair.

and izabel, the original bitchy kitty. I got her from the vet's office, before they had a chance to take her to the shelter. I picked her up and she melted into my arm like she knew it well. she can be bitey, but she is totally in love with me and only me, and absolutely loves to snuggle with me every chance she can get.

they get along quite well.

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:40 / 23.01.06

I think you know what question needs to be asked about cats at this juncture.

19:35 / 23.01.06

I'm afraid that you're about ready to tell me that my cats don't REALLY love me, haus. I shall now arm myself against the possibility of such a painful revelation with the meager protection of trembling, pouty lip + puppy dog eyes. also rainbows and unicorns.

ONLY NICE THINGS

19:48 / 23.01.06

Not at all, BK, I would not presume to judge how cats feel. I wish only to know how to FIGHT them.

*

21:49 / 23.01.06

Spray bottle of diluted vinegar, right in the face. It works on leopards; it'll work on housecats.

You know. If you should ever really, you know, HAVE to. In a life or death situation, when a housecat has the upper hand.

ONLY NICE THINGS

22:01 / 23.01.06

Isn't that a bit like "It works on enraged gorillas. It'll work on babies"?

*

22:12 / 23.01.06

No. Babies are more vicious than gorillas, while housecats are less vicious than leopards. I wouldn't presume that anything which might work on a peaceful, herbivorous mountain gorilla, no matter how irritated, would necessarily have any effectiveness against a human infant.