Author Topic: Free Kitten to good home. (Read 49511 times)

Gattopardo · « **Reply #150 on:** 07 September, 2011, 11:03:15 pm »

All is forgotten around food time or the cat wants fuss.

TimO · « **Reply #151 on:** 07 September, 2011, 11:30:18 pm »

In principle, yes the cat has to learn that weaving around your legs too much, has potential issues. That's sort of fair enough with Kai, since he's a hulking great thing (relatively speaking). Zev on the other hand is a lot less rugged, and substantially more gormless, so I have to be very careful around her. Her body won't tolerate damage as much as his will. She'll probably recover fast (as most young mammals do), but it would be easy to accidentally step on her body, and not just a paw or tail.

She's also harder to notice, since Kai has a jangly collar on, whereas she doesn't (yet).

... and they don't ever really learn that they can easily be stepped on. Talisker did pretty much the same thing for over a decade, and only occasionally got stood on, it didn't particularly change his behaviour though. Cats don't always seem to be that smart.

TimO · « **Reply #152 on:** 10 September, 2011, 11:43:21 am »

That was quite impressive. I was in the bathroom, and there was a fly buzzing around. It was directly behind a thick towel so there was no way Kai could see it, but his head tracked it perfectly. It was buzzing around in a semi-random circular path, and he was following it flawlessly, presumably just by hearing. Very neat.

The other day he also impressed me by standing up on his rear legs alone. I've see other cats do it, in pictures, but I've never seen a cat actually do it in person. He had spotted something in the undergrowth of my back garden, and stood up on his rear paws to get a better view. It put his head something like 3 foot off of the ground, which isn't bad for a not very large cat.

TimO · « **Reply #153 on:** 11 September, 2011, 06:00:12 pm »

Yay, I've got him to eat something else fairly enthusiastically.

Mostly I've been getting him to eat the Encore fishy flavours. I've got a few of the Chicken ones, which Talisker favoured, but which Kai doesn't seem too keen on. He'll eat them if there's nothing else, but will often leave some to go dry, and uneaten. The same has been true of many other cat foods, even some premium brands.

I got a box of Purina Gourmet A la Carte Chef's Recipes, which seems to be one of those designed to appeal to humans more than cats. So far I've tried him with the à la Primavera with Beef and à la Florentine with Pollack, both of which have been inhaled with some gusto.

(I mainly bought it because it was on special at PetPlanet, and worth an experiment).

It's good to find something else he'll tuck into, and not just eat under duress.

Aside from fishy stuff, he also appears to prefer gravy type meals over paté ones, which is also pretty much the opposite of Talisker's taste.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #154 on:** 11 September, 2011, 10:16:54 pm »

More piccies?

Remeber there are kitten annoying services available.

TimO · « **Reply #155 on:** 24 September, 2011, 11:30:00 am »

Quote from: TimO on 11 September, 2011, 06:00:12 pm

I got a box of Purina Gourmet A la Carte Chef's Recipes, which seems to be one of those designed to appeal to humans more than cats. So far I've tried him with the à la Primavera with Beef and à la Florentine with Pollack, both of which have been inhaled with some gusto.

(I mainly bought it because it was on special at PetPlanet, and worth an experiment).

It's good to find something else he'll tuck into, and not just eat under duress.

A heap more of that has been ordered, since he's pretty much scoffed the first box now. Of course, Pet Planet are having their annual stocktaking exercise, so ordering has slowed, but hopefully it'll turn up in the next week or so, and if I'm lucky I'll be in, or a neighbour will be. Otherwise it's the inevitable heavy trailer load back from the local Post Office! (There's also a load of other food flavours to experiment with on both him and Zev).

Kai has definitely worked out how to get back in using the RFID cat flap now. I think they always work that out, because food and warmth beckons! He's still not keen on going out through it, I've been shoving him through, which he's not overly appreciative of. Otherwise he'll just sit and stare at it suspiciously.

TimO · « **Reply #156 on:** 08 October, 2011, 12:25:10 am »

I think he's fairly happy with the cat flap in each direction now, although being a cat, he'll always prefer it if a door is opened up for him!

When he was first in the house, he'd hide behind the towel rack until I came and found him. After a few days, he progressed to coming out when I used a friendly voice for a while, and then moved on to peering suspiciously at me from the top of the stairs.

He has now got to the stage where he's obviously either hearing the sound of me arriving outside the door, or possibly the key in the front door lock, and getting so close to the front door, that on the last couple of nights I've bopped him on the head, because he's so close to the door when I opened it!

On a couple of other occasions he's been outside, and close enough to the cat flap (which is around the back of the house) that he's heard me coming in, and there's been a "Beep" from the detector and sound of the cat flap rapidly being opened, followed by a dash through the kitchen and the hall, with a friendly meow and dash up to be petted.

I think both instances suggest that he's pretty accustomed to being here, and happy with me now.

Biggsy · « **Reply #157 on:** 08 October, 2011, 07:54:16 am »

Ahhh.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #158 on:** 09 October, 2011, 01:48:06 pm »

Quote from: TimO on 08 October, 2011, 12:25:10 am

He has now got to the stage where he's obviously either hearing the sound of me arriving outside the door, or possibly the key in the front door lock, and getting so close to the front door, that on the last couple of nights I've bopped him on the head, because he's so close to the door when I opened it!

On a couple of other occasions he's been outside, and close enough to the cat flap (which is around the back of the house) that he's heard me coming in, and there's been a "Beep" from the detector and sound of the cat flap rapidly being opened, followed by a dash through the kitchen and the hall, with a friendly meow and dash up to be petted.

I wonder how long it'll take bobb to get to that stage when I come home.

Jaded · « **Reply #159 on:** 09 October, 2011, 02:33:56 pm »

You'll need to be careful if he does, you don't want to be bopping him on his 'head', do you!

rogerzilla · « **Reply #160 on:** 09 October, 2011, 03:06:04 pm »

And you have to house train him first, anyway.

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #161 on:** 09 October, 2011, 05:00:22 pm »

He's pretty housetrained as it is.

rogerzilla · « **Reply #162 on:** 09 October, 2011, 06:58:12 pm »

My brother-in-law was still occasionally peeing in the wardrobe after he was married.

Jaded · « **Reply #163 on:** 09 October, 2011, 07:44:47 pm »

Had she bopped him on the head once, when she got home?

TimO · « **Reply #164 on:** 09 October, 2011, 08:32:47 pm »

Oi, this isn't the "Free Bobb to good home" thread.

TimO · « **Reply #165 on:** 13 October, 2011, 08:24:02 am »

Foolishly yesterday at lunch I mentioned that Kai had managed to not loose the collar he's had on since I first fitted him with one, shortly after arriving at Chez TimO.

... this means that he turned up last night sans collar. $:-\$

I didn't have time to dig out a new one and adjust it for size this morning, but he'll probably be fitted with a spare later tonight.

I think that's still a bit better than Talisker's average of around six weeks.

PeteB99 · « **Reply #166 on:** 13 October, 2011, 12:04:16 pm »

Just had a look at Kitten cam.

A neat effect you've got with the view from camera 2 rotating semi randomely every 10 seconds

How do you do it?

Eccentrica Gallumbits · « **Reply #167 on:** 13 October, 2011, 01:07:32 pm »

Quote from: TimO on 09 October, 2011, 08:32:47 pm

Oi, this isn't the "Free Bobb to good home" thread.

I wouldn't give him away.

Kitty is playing with the shoelace!

TimO · « **Reply #168 on:** 13 October, 2011, 02:27:49 pm »

Quote from: PeteB99 on 13 October, 2011, 12:04:16 pm

Just had a look at Kitten cam.

A neat effect you've got with the view from camera 2 rotating semi randomely every 10 seconds

How do you do it?

I really don't know what's going on there. That machine has been up for weeks, so it's quite possible that Video-For-Linux (V4L) has got confused and is going a bit doolally.

I'm rebooting that machine, and I'll restart the camera software then. If that doesn't solve it, then something has probably gone wrong with the camera, which could be annoying.

TimO · « **Reply #169 on:** 13 October, 2011, 02:31:46 pm »

The reboot has solved it. It was only the second camera which died, the first one was fine. I think V4L got it's knickers in a knot, metaphorically speaking, but the reboot seems to have sorted things out. V4L doesn't seem to be terribly stable, that's not the first time I've had oddness with it.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #170 on:** 13 October, 2011, 03:19:13 pm »

Ahhhhh sleepy ball of kitten.

TimO · « **Reply #171 on:** 13 October, 2011, 03:44:19 pm »

The second catcam keeps on dying. I've rebooted it several times, and that isn't curing it, but it's likely that the reboot doesn't actually cause interruption of power to the camera itself, so a proper power cycle when I get home may solve things.

Conveniently, Zev is snoozing on Camera 1 today, so we're not missing anything! (Watch her move away now).

TimO · « **Reply #172 on:** 23 October, 2011, 11:15:35 pm »

There's a new shot of Kai over in the Gratuitous cat pics thread. He's not as easy to pin down as Zev (sometimes literally!), so I've got less good shots of him.

TimO · « **Reply #173 on:** 25 October, 2011, 10:41:32 pm »

It's funny how you don't notice things which change gradually, but I just realised how much his tail has changed.

When I first got him, his tail wasn't very furry, a bit sparse, and a bit spiky (you can that in some of the early shots), and was one of the things which didn't match up to the descriptions of Maine Coons and Norwegian Forest Cats (and I think he's got a substantial amount of some species of Forest Cat DNA in his makeup).

Looking at him earlier, I realised that his tail is now smooth and well furred, and positively luxuriant.

I'm guessing this is possibly down to him being a well fed cat of luxury these days, so he has longer to sit and clean himself, and consequently his furs condition is improved. It could also be that an improved and more regular diet is also helping with that.

TimO · « **Reply #174 on:** 28 October, 2011, 07:26:49 pm »

Looking at some of the shots I've taken of him, I couldn't help but compare a couple:

Click image for bigness.

Admittedly the lighting isn't the same, which effects the images somewhat, but the more recent shot on the right definitely looks a bit chubbier, and with more fur. I'm sure he's looking better fed and healthier now.

Edit: Possibly a slight better comparison here (and here for a 480 pixel wide version, like the above image).