Posted on 08/04/2006 1:58:31 PM PDT by libstripper
Before Mother, I was never much drawn to cats. They seemed slithery and remote. I have a farm, and cats didn't appear to be useful.
I am partial to working dogsespecially border collies and Labradorsthat can herd sheep, fetch sticks, hike with me, cuddle on the sofa, and swim in nearby streams. I didn't really get having an animal you couldn't herd sheep or take a walk with.
Then the rats came. They invaded my farm last summer, especially the big barns. They were fatat first, I mistook one for a rabbitarrogant, and fearless. The farmers told me there was nothing much to be done: Rats, naturally drawn to farms, were smart, hardy, and tough to get rid of, especially with other animals around.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
What is a "mill" style kitty? Anyway, I will get myself a Siamese one day once my friends have moved on. For now, 2 is enough.
Very cute cat! I love the picture of that gray tabby sitting on your husband. He/she looks like they know who's in charge. Anyway, sorry about the loss of your cat. That's a tough one I'm sure.
There are many more mice and rats on a farm than you can hunt down and shoot. If you have driven a tractor to mow a hay field you will have an idea of just how many there are, lots. Cats are welcome, also snakes, hawks and coyotes. Even chickens will kill and eat mice.
I live on a creek. My neighbors borrow my cat to keep mice and (horror) water rats our of their houses and garages. Cats discourage rodents from taking up residence at your house...it's a smell things. My cat is not friendly.
We call him Mishka, but we refer to him as Rosemary's Baby, Satan's cat and Beelzebub. He is a house cat and has lived a live of plenty. We wanted him to stay inside-safer and all. But,he is allowed outside now. After he spent months hunting us (we look like giant gerbils I guess), we opened the door and let him out.
I had a Siamese cat when I was growing up, and I will get one one of these days-lovely cats. Ours use to follow my brother to school. The principal would call my Mom and ask her to come get the cat almost every day.
I always talked bad about the two cats and joked about getting rid of them, but they grew on me over the 15 years I had them, and I found myself just expecting to see them for months and then looking around for them....
Oh yeah, do I know about the fetch fanaticism. Every morning as I'm hurrying around getting ready for work, there's C.B. dropping a ball at my feet. It's hard to say no, so I'm often late to work. But since I'm the first into the office, who cares??
The other one does like to get into the lower kitchen cupboards and will sit there trying to get it open with the attendant noise that comes with it until he can get that door open. Then he disappears inside. Go figure.
That's interesting. Halvah looks so much like my Chocolate Point. He definitely got the Siamese domininate featurs. I have a few pictures I'll post to you if I can find them in my sent mail box. You can't see Max's face in them real well so it will be hard to see how much they look alike.
BTTT
We've had the pleasure of welcoming many cats into our home over many years, most of whom lived long happy lives. The most charming one we ever had was a large orange Manx cat. All cats have distinctive personalities, and they are very loyal and affectionate companions.
I'm glad you've found a friend! I like dogs too, but I am a confirmed cat man now. Like you say, I appreciate that cats are a little easier to take care of than dogs. No need to walk them or to go out to the backyard to clean up after them. Of course easy for me to say, since they're my friends' cats, they do the clean up of the litter box. I might be singing a different tune one day when I'm the one having to do the cat box.
Thanks. She does know who's in charge - she is! It's the first time a cat chose us - usually, we've chosen the cat. She's been very good at easing the loss of our older kitty. Our older kitty was diabetic - we'd given her insulin twice daily for several years. We estimate she was about 16 years old - we had her for 14 of those years. My daughter feels that this cat (Snuggles) was a gift from God, who knew the older cat had almost reached the end of her years.
We can take the younger cat out on a leash (she's shown a tendency to run into the street when free). When we hold out the harness, she climbs into our lap and waits patiently while we fasten the buckles. She's pretty entertaining and talkative, too.
Hey, whatcha going; why are you sleepin? Nighttime is the best time to hunt and other stuff... come on get up get out of that bed...
That's cute how she gets in your lap to put on the harness. Our cats just really don't like their's and struggle against them. Part of it is they're a little small for them now. So we just keep them indoors. We are protective mother hens and don't want anything bad to happen to them by being outdoors.
She is gorgeous - inside and out. I feel extremely fortunate that she wandered into my life. She was a kitten and I was just home from a serious surgery that ordered me to bed at home for 30 days. She was young and lost and soaked from rain, and spent most of the month with me. We are much too bonded, to be honest.
She's very pushy and very intelligent. She taught herself to use the toilet for #1! She doesn't flush, not strong enough.
When you come home, the urgency with which the cat greets you is certainly a detailed report of what happened why you were you out.
She has different greetings for different friends. She has more visitors than I do, too. They call and say they're coming over to visit and I think they mean me, but it turns out it's the cat.
More on that cat. I had her a few years while I was living in Sitka Alaska. Amusing story. I went to my dentist right down the street. Cat got out apparently. When I was in the dentists chair the receptionist came in and said "Do you own a small black and white cat?" I replied that I did and she informed me that it was at the glass front door, little paws on the glass and screaming its fuzzy head off. They let it in to wait for me. The sad end to my cat was that Sitka has more eagles then most places have robins. She slipped out and was no doubt eagle snatched as many are there. Risky place to live, if you are a cat.
We don't let her out unless one of us will be outside, too. So we have a tie-down stake that we put near wherever we're doing yardwork. She chases butterflies, ants, and the occasional mouse while we pull weeds or whatever. We estimate she was about six months old when we got her, and we started right away getting her accustomed to the idea of the leash if she wanted to be outside. She likes going out - so she's accepted the terms. :-)
I assume the cat in all the pictures is the same one. It's interesting, in some of the pictures she looks a little more red than gray, so I was thinking maybe they were different cats. But she's a gorgeous one. There's a cat that looks a lot like her that sits in the window of one of my neighbor's home. She cries wildly when we walk by to get attention. I will often walk up to the window and talk to her and she goes crazy rubbing her face and crying with joy to have someone talking to her. I'm going to get arrested for trespassing and/or peeping tom-ism one of these days doing that!
Anyway, the last time I saw her early this week she didn't look well and I've not seen her since : (
You'll see a picture of my Maine Coon on this link. He was a stray.
http://www.freeonlineshippingquotes.com/cat.htm
So were women, they were wrong about the cats.
Val says "Get a picture of that!"
So I did...they must really love us.
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