"pets" and 'owner's miss named...

Santilli

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Between fish and cat, I'm really thinking we should rename the above terms. I think slave=owner, and owner=pet would be a more true meaning of the situation. :wink:
I've been up since 5 am, feeding cat, and trying to clean 3 fish tanks to my satisfaction...it's now 9 something...

s
 

Mercutio

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Fish are too damn much work.
Plus they creep me out.

I'm guessing three hours and fifty-nine minutes of your pet-care time this morning was spent on those fishtanks.
 

Santilli

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Yes, you nailed it, and I have plants in the tanks. Cat is going crazy right now...

Some sort of white stuff, perhaps a weird algae, that the charcoal filters appeared to have helped get rid of, but, I've had to water change about 4 times to get it cleared up, and out of the filters.

ALERT:

Cat on screen= target practice with the squirt bottle. I feed her lamb leg, and eggs for breakfast this morning, along with my breakfast.

Fish have paid for themselves. They breed. I put the eggs in another tank, and last time I cashed in, I had 112 fish, from a 20 gallon tank. All healthy, thanks to frequent water changes, and good diet.

The biggest tank has about 9 fish in it now. 5 ottosinclus to clean the plants of algae. One bushy nosed Placo, a girl, who's huge, to clean the glass, one Siamanese also a string algae eater, and, one giant geophagus, who cleans the bottom of the tank, by rearranging the entire bottom of the tank. He's about 3 inches tall, maybe 5 long, and he digs holes the size he is in the bottom of my tank. That's ok, since as he does it, he cleans off the rocks.

Too much work...

s
 

ddrueding

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When I have cats, they are in/out-door and dont' require litterboxes. I guess this is also thanks to the climate here; it never freezes, ever. And there aren't any predators, as you need to walk across at least 3 miles of open field from any direction to get into town. A few possums, but my last batch of cats got pretty good at pack hunting and killing them.
 

jtr1962

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Having been owned by five cats in my lifetime, and now my brother's cat, I definitely share your sentiments. We go out to buy food, serve it to them, clean their toilet for them, and make sure they have a warm place to sleep. They eat, sleep and play. Maybe if they're in the mood they'll give us a little attention. Somehow I think we have the short end of the deal.

P.S. My brother's cat, despite being cared for by him for over eight years, mostly chooses to sleep in my bedroom now instead of his. This has more to do with the air conditioning than anything else, or at least i'm not reading anything more into it than that. Self-serving creatures these cats are.
 

Fushigi

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About 45 minutes ago my wife was laying down on one of our couches. Our dog, a rat terrier, was laying on top of her sleeping. I was sitting on the other couch with our cat, a Himilayan, resting in my lap.

I'd say they have us trained pretty well.
 

Mercutio

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Those are great, until you forget to empty the receptical.
Personally I take a plastic bag upstairs every other day and scoop 'em on my way out the door in the morning.
 

Santilli

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I have the litter box next to the toliet. Jumpster will not only use the box, but she will use toliet paper, if it's anywhere with in reach, and, if not, she hits the empty toliet paper roll like a speed bag, trying to get TP on her stuff.

She will also pull the wrapper out of the trash, to cover up her poop.

I scoop the pee out into a bag, since it smells seriously like ammonia.


s
 

Santilli

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She will also try to bite the toliet paper, and, she'll try and clean my private parts, if allowed.

When I shower, she's always waiting for me when I get out. Wish my girlfriend would do that...
s
 

Fushigi

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Well, that was imagery I didn't need on a Monday morning :crap: , but I know what you mean.

As a kitten, she'd jump in the tub with me when I started the shower. But she'd jump back out once her paws started getting wet. Once she could jump onto the bed she'd sleep either next to/on my head or in a cubby hole in the headboard. To this day she likes to burrow under papers, blankets, etc.

And you know how cats will sit on their back and curl over so they can lick near their privates? She's been known to fall asleep in that position. :)

For the longest time I used traditional litter and changed the box weekly. Last year I switched to scoopable. Really, it's more effort and I'm not convinced it's worth it. But I'll probably stay the course.

Her litter pan is in my den. I sprinkle a little baking soda on it every week or so and it's also only a couple of feet from my air purifier so odor hasn't been much of an issue.

I also use a filtered water fountain. Not all that pleasant to clean, but I do think the quality of her water is better.
 

Tea

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Ginger (the smaller and more adventurous of our two cats) has 15-round epics with the possums. No-one ever seems to get hurt, but there is lots of running round and yelling at one another. (If you have never heard the sound a Common Brush-tailed Possum makes, then .... well ... it's sort of like a cross between a purr and a hiss, but at about 105dB. If you didn't know what it was, you'd be washing your shorts. Even if you do know, it takes quite some time to get used to it.)

Only one problem: Woof and Ginger own the ground, the possums own the trees. Either one trespasses at their own peril. Alas, their favourite battleground - the no man's land of the eternal war between feline and marsupial if you like - is my roof.

The roof, unfortunately, is corrugated iron. When possum chases cat or cat chases possum, it sounds like there is a demented maniac with a sledge hammer belting hell out of the place.

Eventually, after the first few years, you just shrug, roll over, and go straight back to sleep.
 

Santilli

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Sorry for the image, but I don't know what the fascination is. She comes up, and sits right next to the toliet while I poop, and trys to grab the toliet paper as I use it.

I tried one of those water fountain things, no joy. Returned in two days. She barely drinks out of a bowl. She only drinks out of a dripping faucet, or, if she can get her nose in, a fish tank :roll: .

My girlfriend bought one of those 30 dollar swinging mouse things. Lasted two days, until she broke it, and, after fixing it, she got bored with it.

Favorite game is "mouse!".

I throw, at high velocity, fake mice down the hallway. She jumps up to get them, sometimes as high, or higher, then the door knob. She's getting so good that she catches it, one pawed, then uses the other paw to bring it down to where she wants it to go.

She likes to be around us. She's currently sitting on top of my 21 inch monitor sort of half sleeping, both eyes closed, but one opens every once in awhile.

Tea sounds like a very nice place to live. Any snakes?

I think Jumpster would sleep more with us, but I snore sometimes, and have been known to roll over a couple times, almost on to cat. Not good for cat.

s

PS One thing I have made sure I do is play with and talk to our cat, all the time I'm home. I really did not want to have a super independent cat, or a grumpy cat. So far, it seems to have worked.
My girlfriend tends to lock her in the bathroom while she works, and smokes, outside, since she doesn't want an escaping cat.
The cat clearly favors me, and I'm pretty sure it's just the time and effort I put into creating a relationship with her, even if she doesn't like it sometimes...

This does lead to intresting moments, like when I was trying to figure out how to put these two oversize cheetahs in the mac box, and she was nosing around, 'helping" :wink:
 

Buck

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Dave, most outdoor domestic cats in my area don't last very long. We have packs of coyotes that roam the neighborhoods and wild cats that wait in prey for the unsuspecting dinner (on rare occasions joggers and cyclists).

A few miles away in some of the more rural areas, people that own dogs usually have at least three so that they can fight together, and they usually outfit their dogs with studded collars since that is the first place coyotes usually bite.

Coming from a fighting breed, Rottweilers do very well against coyotes, especially since their first instinct is to injure their victims by biting and disabling a front leg. I've seen them fight before, and it is amazing how quickly they can disable another dog with this method. Most animals instinctively expect a neck attack, but when this canine beast attacks and bites the upper portion of a front leg, the victim just falls to the ground in pain and shock. Without killing an animal, Rottweilers can quickly overpower several animals with this method.
 

Fushigi

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Santilli said:
Sorry for the image, but I don't know what the fascination is. She comes up, and sits right next to the toliet while I poop, and trys to grab the toliet paper as I use it.
Yeah. Forgot to mention earlier that either pet will follow it's Chosen One (the dog & my wife; the cat & I) into the restroom. Dunno what the fascination is. Typically, if I've got my pants around my ankles the cat will climb aboard and lay down for a brief nap. I'm sure it's a scent-thing, but that's not a scent I prefer to notice let alone hover around. :-?
 

Mercutio

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My cats do that, too. Or they would if I didn't shut the door on them. I'm not so big with having an audience when I'm in the bathroom.

Actually the hilarious one is my cat Will. Will gets in the shower with me in the morning. He stands at the very back of the tub so he doesn't get wet, and he watches me bathe. I have NO IDEA why.

Also, when I read in the bathtub, he likes to climb in and lay on my belly. If I move in such a way that he gets even a little wet, I get claw-tracks down my torso as he dashes away, but if I stay still, he'll get comfortable enough to take a nap there.
 

Tea

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Mercutio said:
Will gets in the shower with me in the morning. He stands at the very back of the tub so he doesn't get wet, and he watches me bathe. I have NO IDEA why.

Ginger does that too. I don't know why either. Not actually in the shower (the layout of the plumbing would make that difficult) but on a high shelf where she can poke her head round the corner and watch. She seems to enjoy that.

Later, if I'm lucky, Ginger will play her part in getting me dry. That little scratchy tongue on my leg (or whatever part seems convenient) doesn't cover much area, but it's cute.
 

Santilli

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Jumpster would come in the shower, but the wet paws keep her outside. I think they are worried about the effects of water on us, and they wait to see what it does, and are concerned about our well being, being bathed in a substance they don't like.

Jumpster stays outside the shower, until I'm starting to dry,and ok.

Cats, plus water end up with owner looking like swiss cheese...
s
 
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