I have a cat who was feral until he was six weeks old. He’s three years old now. He plays the sweet little tame house cat until it’s time to go in the carrier. Then he acts like a wild badger.
Do you have any tips on getting him in there?
I have cats who absolutely fight tooth and nail when I’m trying to get them into the carrier. If you don’t have one of those carriers that opens on the top as well as on the front – like this one – it helps a LOT. I usually get the carrier out the night before, open the top, and leave it out. It’s probably easier for me because I have so many cats, so they’re never sure who the “target” is, and they tend to let down their guard, which is when I swoop in, grab ’em up, and put them in the carrier before they realize what’s going on. With Sugarbutt and Spanky, I have to also make sure I hold them firmly at the nape of the neck so they don’t get away.
Possibly none of those ideas are new to you, but I thought I’d mention how I do it just in case.
How about it, y’all? Got any other suggestions on how to easily get your kitty into the carrier when he’s fighting tooth and nail?
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How do vets mess up a pregnancy diagnosis? If anyone would know, I would think it would be the vet. It baffles me.
Another thing that baffles me is how Crooked Acres doesn’t have any baby ducks with two males and two females occupying the premises.
As the vet tech explained it to me, after they felt Lilybet up and decided that she was pregnant, Lilybet peed. And then the vet tech couldn’t feel anything, but the vet said she still thought there was something there. I don’t know what she was feeling, but it wasn’t babies!
Crooked Acres doesn’t have any baby ducks because Fred removes the eggs that they lay, so that they won’t hatch. We have no need for more ducks – 4 is plenty!
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So I assume you need to keep Lilybet off of food and water after midnight. How does one do that with all the critters around? At our house everyone is off of food and water until the Prisoner Transport Device is populated with the victim.
Lilybet is still occupying the foster room, so I just put her food away when we went to bed Wednesday night. The few times we’ve needed to take food away from a permanent resident, we just put all the food away before going to bed, and then prepared for a night of not much rest. 🙂
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So… The is-she-or-isn’t-she tummy enlargement you witnessed would be the result of kitten food?
She ate voraciously when I first brought her home, then her appetite seemed to level off. She gained 4 ounces in two weeks, but really, she’s a small cat. She weighs 6 1/2 pounds. Most of what we were seeing was the fluffy fur on and around her belly making it seem like it was bigger than it was.
(But needless to say, girlfriend won’t be getting two huge snacks per day any more!)
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I’m not sure Lily is the bamboozler here. She’s not the one who keeps somehow reappearing at the spa. “Let’s see, if I dab a little hot sauce by my eye, I can make it seem like I–too much, too much!”
HA – I love this so much!!!
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We can call Lilybet’s imaginary litter “The McFakersons” 😉
and
So just because there are no real kittens can we still have a naming contest for the McFakersons?
The name suggestions a few people made for the McFakersons are below.
Annabelle Bransford (from Maverick)
Danny Ocean (from Ocean’s Thirteen)
Frank Abagnale Jr (from Catch me if you can)
Henry Gondorf (The Sting)
Janet Colgate (from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
Johnny Hooker (The Sting)
Lily Dillon (The Grifters)
Milli & Vanilli
Myra Langtry (The Grifters)
Neil Caffrey (from White Collar)
Ponzi
Sawyer (Lost)
Wanda Gershwitz (A fish called Wanda)
I love “Milli” and “Vanilli” SO very much! I am, without a doubt, going to use this naming theme in the future, so if you’ve got a suggestion to add to the list, I’d love to hear it!
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I enjoyed seeing the chicks last week and then saw this today.
I really really really want a Frizzle!
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What’s going on with Baby Beans? Is anyone interested? He’s so cute with that triangle face and slightly angry ears. Of course I’m a sucker for the odd kitties.
No interest yet, though Lisa reported that at adoption hours Tuesday he had an admirer! He also let Lisa pet him and seemed to be enjoying it (though I suspect that he was just waiting for her to get close enough that he could rip her lips off.)
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Your Lilybet-distracting pics reminded me to give a big THANK YOU to you for your toy recommendations. First, it should be known that I only even have a cat because of your blog. Then I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the toys you have kicking around there. I bought the Kong Kickeroo for my guy and he LOVES the thing and bunny-kicks the heck out of it, it’s so cute. The other day Da Bird was on sale on Amazon for like $3, came to $7.50 with shipping, so I bought one. Holy cat crack, Robyn. We keep it in a closet and any time someone opens that closet, he comes bounding out of parts unknown, chattering frantically. He leaps and attacks and then after our play session he is a total lovebug to his mommy for playing with him, so it’s a win-win all around. One question, though. Do you go through “birds” really quickly? We’ve had it about a week and the thing is already tattered to heck so i’m going to have get a few replacements to keep on hand. I just wondered if your cats were that hard on it or if i’m doing it wrong. At any rate, thank you SO MUCH for the recommendations because they are both big winners in this house.
and
I so need to get me one of those. Is Da Bird what it’s really called on Amazon?
We usually have to replace the “birds” every couple of months. When the cats catch the bird, we take it away from them pretty quickly to minimize the damage, but those cats have got some jaws of steel, don’t they? I’ve always got at least a couple of replacements on hand, though, just to be safe. I’m so glad your guy is enjoying Da Bird, AND the Kong Kickeroo! Also, I love that I’m the reason you got a cat in the first place. “Convincing people that cats are AWESOME, one cat at a time” should be my tagline. 🙂
And for those of you who don’t know about Da Bird, it is, indeed, called Da Bird and it’s always an instant favorite; in fact, Kennebec knows when we’re about to get it out, and he runs down the hallway meowing at us to HURRY UP. I bought this one (because it comes with a couple of extra “birds”), but there might be better deals around, it might be worth a few minutes on Google.
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Hey Robyn, have you ever had any cats that are overly aggressive with their own tails? My littlest, Duchy, is always fighting with her tail. It’s almost seems like it’s a separate entity over which she has no control. She’s always batting and biting at it violently and just last night she bit it so hard it made her yelp out and bolt under the bed. It’s really bothering me and I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this before.
Kate said: One of my cats did the same thing and she had very sensitive skin as well (if I tried to pet her back she would twitch and nip at me). I went to a grain free cat food and it’s helped some. She isn’t as obsessed with her tail and her skin seems less sensitive.
And Elayne said: My parents had a dog who did this with her tail; she had nerve damage from abuse sustained as a puppy, but there can be organic issues that cause similar nerve damage. They feel the sensation of something stinging or biting or moving over part of the body, usually the tail or hindquarters, and attack (what they think is) the threat. I’d say if she doesn’t grow out of it by 12-18 months, have her evaluated by a vet. There are medicines that can help, and it’s a really miserable thing to live with.
My parents took Alyssa to the vet when they realized she couldn’t sleep for more than 30-45 minutes without jumping up snarling and snapping at her own (missing) tail. She’d bite her butt and legs in an attempt to get to the phantom tail, sometimes drawing blood, and she was visibly confused and distraught over it. She never got completely over it, but the medicine and acupressure techniques the vet gave my parents helped her a lot – she was at least finally able to sleep.
Thanks, Kate and Elayne! I haven’t had this issue with any cats myself (I should probably add “yet”!), if anyone else has suggestions for Russell, please chime in.
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I read somewhere that in the UK it is considered good fortune for one to have a Tortie in their home. Since you now have TWO of them, perhaps you & Fred should go buy a lottery ticket (or something). You never know… maybe they’re right. Really love Torties, any chance of getting them together in one pic (at least in the same room maybe)?
Probably in the next week or so I should be able to catch Miz Poo and Lilybet in the same general area of the house. I’m planning, this weekend, to start introducing her to the other cats in the house and see how she does. (I was in Tennessee yesterday, I totally should have bought a lottery ticket!)
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I just discovered the cutest kitty catnip toy…and their site has the funniest cat videos with music. Bet your cats would love this…or you could make one similar.
No, I hadn’t seen that site. Those are some big catnip toys, and the videos are adorable!
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It took me three read-throughs to realize that in the snippet, “Fred pointed out that Robin looks more pregnant than Lilybet does,” the “Robin” in question is Batman’s sidekick. I kept wondering why you’d spelled your own name wrong, and right before I realized my goof, I had decided it was because you were too distracted by your search in another tab for woodchipper rentals and bloodstain remover. (c:
HA – I’d like to say that Fred would know better, but I have my doubts!
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Corbie does look incredibly smug in that pic. All he needs is a smoking jacket and a pipe!
and
LOL! That is exactly what he needs to complete the picture. Maybe a glass of cognac too.
Those comments made me think of a popular meme, and I had to make this:
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The Lunk pictures show a cord in the background which leads perfectly into my question of the day: How do you get cats to NOT chew on thin cords? She has ruined three of them now!
Lisa said: Get some of that bitter apple spray (just wash your hands if you touch anything you spray it with). It will definitely deter chewing. None of mine have ever chewed cords. The closest one comes is chewing plastic bags. Foster kittens once chewed through the sensor wire from my old Wii system. But they left other cords alone.
I buy 3/8″ black flexible split tubing from USPlastic.com – this stuff – and have put it around most of the cords in the house (just not the cord that you noticed in the picture – I haven’t gotten around to doing that cord yet, and none of the cats have been messing with it, so I’m not in a hurry to get it done). It is a pain in the butt to put the tubing on cords, but once the cord is covered, you don’t have to worry about it.
There’s a clear cord cover that’s made of thicker plastic, called CritterCord, a thick plastic cord cover which is made specifically to deter cats and other animals from chewing on cords. I don’t recommend it at ALL because (1) the price – $12 for a 10-foot cord? Wow. (2) The smell, OH MY GOD IN HEAVEN, the smell. It SUPPOSEDLY has a “light citrus scent”, but to me it smells horrific. Your mileage may vary – and I’ve seen it in the ferret/ rodent section of Petsmart if you want to smell it for yourself before buying, but I bought a pack of it, covered a few cords with it, and hated the smell so much that I had to remove it and toss it in the trash because it smelled so bad.
I’ve also covered cords with duct tape (before I found the flexible split tubing), and it works to protect the cord (and cats don’t seem to care for the taste), but it’s an even bigger pain in the butt than putting the split tubing on the cords.
And lastly, I’ve heard that you can coat the cord with Ivory dishwashing liquid and let it dry, and the first time a cat tries to chew the cord, it’ll be the last time he does, because the taste is so bad. I haven’t tried it myself, but if anyone else has, feel free to let us know how it worked for you!
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Does Lilybet recover with you or go straight to Petsmart?
She’ll be back here for a couple more weeks. She still needs her last vaccination before she can go to Petsmart, but once she’s had it, she’ll be ready to go.
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Remember Pearl, the kitten formerly known as Dandelion? She was one of the Weeds, and she was adopted by Amanda. She has a brother in the form of Duke, who is freakin’ ADORABLE.
Well, you better sit down, because I have a picture for you. Check this out:
Isn’t that a great picture? Amanda said that Duke and Pearl are best friends, and that he always has to know what she’s doing at all times. She calls Duke “The Sheriff.” So sweet!
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“Halloooooo, laydeez!”
“Halloooooo, I said!”
Such a Lunk.
As long as Lunk’s eye continues to improve, he’ll be going back to Petsmart on Tuesday. And Batman and Robin are ready to go back when there’s room for them, so they’ll be off soon.
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Wild thang.
Crazy eyes.
She decided to work on her parenting skills, just in case. “First, I bites the kitten on the head while kicking him.”
“Then I sink my claws into his neck. Discipline! That’s what kittens don’t get enough of, these days.”
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“There’s no need for another tortie in this house, lady. One tortie per house is PUH-LENTY.”
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Previously
2012: Okay, drama queen, dial it back.
2011: Fingers crossed!
2010: No entry.
2009: I wish they didn’t get nervous and run back upstairs if I run into their general direction, like they think they’re in trouble.
2008: No entry.
2007: Smackdown at the Anderson Corral.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
“Convincing people that cats are AWESOME, one cat at a time” – LOVE IT
Amanda M. – Thank you so much for Pearl’s (Dandelion’s) picture. I adore her sooooo much and sooooo wanted her to be MINE!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you for the updates and for giving her such a nice life and home!!!
So, I bought the last Da Bird off of your link…and because I was there I started looking around. So, now I totally blame you for my additional $70 worth of purchases!!! Ha!
So I bought one as well from Robyn’s link last time (Robyn, you should see if Amazon can set you up with referral fees 🙂 ) and when it came in, it is definitely like “crack” for cats!! My 4 girl kitties beg/cry/whine for it every evening. My hubs and I can’t even sit down until we played 15 minutes of kitty crack. They enjoy it so PLUS they are getting their needed exercise. I just hope they keep at it for years to come.
My 4 cats love Da Bird! Baby Sabrina (well, soon to be a year old!) will grab it, growl, and carry it off, dragging the pole behind her. But she’s learned that I won’t always follow her to get it back, so if I wait, she’ll pull it back in front of me and drop it for more play time!
I tend to go through the feather ends quickly, but I’ve also started gathering the feathers back up and glueing them back into the empty red casing. I use Crazy Glue and then squeeze them between a chip clip overnight, and they last a lot longer.
I got Da Bird because of this website as well. I have many “things on a string” toys, but only my younger cat was interested in those. With Da Bird, my 16 year old three legged cat went BONKERS! She rarely plays with anything, but something about that toy just does it for her (and stragely enough, our other cat doesn’t like it much). Thanks so much for letting me know about this toy, it has given my husband and I so much joy to see our Bonnie play like a kitten again! Here is a link to her playing with it (sorry it is so dark):
http://youtu.be/UygWQwVRGZw
Oh my lord, look at her go! What a gorgeous girl you’ve got there, Kathy. 🙂
What a pretty kitty, and so full of energy!
Oh, putting them back together is a great idea! I’m going to give that a try.
Oh good lord, I need to mention this in the posts, and I keep forgetting! I do use an associates link when I link to stuff on Amazon, and we get some small percentage of sales when people click through and buy the stuff I’ve linked to. I think we figured it out, and it comes to about $10 a month. Every quarter, we get an Amazon gift card for the exact amount… and I buy something for the cats (or the fosters) with it. 🙂
Oh believe me, I feel your pain. I could easily spend hundreds of dollars there every week. I try to stay away from Amazon. 🙂
I have never seen a tortie with facial markings quite like Miz Poo’s. She is the Poo of the Opera!
“The Poo of the Opera” PERFECT!
Alternatively, “Phantom of the Op-Poo-Ra.”
Excellent!
Years ago I had chewy kittens. I rubbed a dry bar of soap along the cords and the biting stopped. Easy, mess-free, and cheap!
I totally got the wrong picture in my head after reading the first line. I saw chewy and thought chewy granola bars or gummy bears! The mental picture of you chewing on your kittens made me have a head shake this morning! LOL
LOL! I had to read a bit further myself to get my brows knitted!
LOL!
Greetings from Popsicle, Indiana. Everything here is coated in ice and sleet. Pretty yes, fun no. That Frizzel is one good looking chicken. It does not even look like a live thing. But the name kept bugging me cos it sounded so familiar. Then I got it. In one of my favorite movies, Love Actually, the character that goes to America to meet American girls is named Colin Frissell – almost the same spelling and sounds the same. And the actor is somewhat ginger headed so he matches the chicken. I will have to watch that move now. I have heard the suggestion of putting the cat into a pillow case and then into the carrier to help cut down on the stress and bloodletting. I have not had issues with kitties and carriers, in fact one of ours will just walk in and sit down. I guess she is hoping for a chance to escape her miserable existence.
Re: Getting cats into carriers. Ugh, one of my least favorite jobs. Seriously, I feel like I need at least two extra hands for an 8.5 pound cat. Anyway, I agree that “top-loading” carriers are easiest to use. I also put a couple of treats in the bottom of the carrier, which works for the food-motivated cat. For the other one, scruffing and patience. And extra hands.
How about “Verbal” (The Usual Suspects) for a McFakerson name?
I love Lilybet’s crazy-eyed look. I do hope you can get a picture of her and Jake together before she heads to Petsmart. The looniness would be off the charts.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention. We got the food-motivated cat one of those Stimulo feeding stations that I think I saw on here a couple of weeks ago (http://aikiou.com/stimulo-cat-bowls-and-feeders/) and, while I think we’re more entertained by watching him use it than he is by using it, it definitely slowed down his eating. I’m hoping for no more barfing of the dry food.
I also bought my chubby kitty a Stimulo feeder. It is pretty entertaining to watch her use it. However, the other day I woke up to barf all over the Stimulo. Apparently she still figured out how to eat so fast while using it that she barfs. Ugh.
About how old is Lilybet? You probably mentioned it before, and I just forgot. But she does look like a tiny thing!
They said at the vet that she’s at least a year old, so they set her date of birth for February 1, 2012. She might be a bit older, but I’d guess not much older. She certainly still plays like a kitten!
Verbal Kint! Love it!
Oh I forgot, one of my favorite fake names: Anastasia Beaverhausen – Karen used this name on Will and Grace
Love it!
Lilybet looks like crazy-eyed Housewife Ramona! i just ordered those Kitty Kick Stix. They look like winners.
I think she has a bit of crazy Teresa from Jersey in her too. In that one pic she has the I’m gonna flip the table look.
HA – she DOES look like Ramona, doesn’t she? Only cuter, of course. 😀
Awww, so sorry to see that Dandelion/Pearl is stressed out in her new home. LOL Seriously, what cat wouldn’t love being doted on by their owners as well as a big bro doggie?
Crazy eyed Lilybet…she’s definitely going for that look!
You can get cats in the carrier they know it’s been sitting out? Impressive. Maybe I just have easier cats, but honestly the worst part about loading them is catching them if they know what’s going on. I have to sneak the carrier into the house when the cat in question is in a different room. My routine includes putting it up onto the kitchen counter or a table that’s just around a corner so the cat doesn’t know that his destination is actually the Prisoner Transport Device. Just before we round the corner, I adjust the way I’m holding him so that his legs are “folded down” under his body. Then it’s just a quick shove from the rear… he can’t regain the use of his legs to protest until he’s already in the carrier.
So… Lunk goes back to the store on Tuesday. Should we start a pool as to how long it will be before he boomerangs this time? Or shall we bet on the reason for his return instead? It can be like a game of Clue. Lunk on Thursday with a catnip overdose?
“Lunk on Thursday with a catnip overdose” just made me snort. I think we should start a pool for “How long does it take for Robyn to give in to Fred’s ‘Can we keep him’ eyes”. 🙂
Too funny Kelly!
Shush, you, don’t give him any ideas! 🙂
Pearl – she sure is a fluffy little thing, isn’t she? Pretty girl.
As for getting cats into carriers – I have a 20 pound monster who hisses, scratches, and bites. What I do is leave the carrier out the night before, but open and upend it so that the waiting opening is on the top. Scruff him, grab his back feet and into the carrier with him before he knows what is happening. Of course, if he sees the carrier before I do this, I have to fish him out from under the bed first, so caveat emptor 🙂 I suggest bringing him into the room with his back to the carrier so he can’t see what’s up until he’s in it.
I have a friend who has a half-feral kitty. The only way to get her in the carrier is to have one person hold the carrier and the other person hold her and give her only one option for where to go to get away – the carrier.
Also, Lilybet, you make my heart sang.
On the subject of loading cat carriers (aka – PTU, “prisoner transport unit”).
I have one old hard plastic style and two of the newer fabric and mesh style. The new ones with the zipper top are super easy, my kitties do not fight at all.
With the old plastic one I would open the door and set it up on it’s end, scruff the kitty and drop him/her in back end first. Trying to shove them in head first never worked!
If you have a “food motivated” kitty you can try luring them in with food or treats.
Yes, setting the carrier on the end and “dropping” the kitty in feet-first is my method, too. Neither of my cats like to be picked up, so I have to make sure the carrier is nearby, too.
Thanks for all the suggestions of anti-cord chewing devices/solutions. I will definitely have to do the soap trick first and see if that helps. It’s only the really thin cords she goes for-Wii sensor, phone charger, and daughter’s Nintendo.
She does not have a problem with carriers though. We have a fabric/mesh one with both a side and top zipper opening. I leave it out ALL the time in the corner near the couch. She regards it as no big deal. We even use it as a “time out” or to house her while we leave the front door open for an extended period of time like with groceries or visitors. We have an open floor plan house and no spare room except the bathroom to place her in otherwise. She does like to cry in the car if there is a vet trip involved though.
And Robyn, I know how much you like to hear about kitty dreams. Well this morning I awoke after dreaming about kitties in a kitchen while I was making marshmallow sculptures. Weird I know. I’m sure the kitty thing is because of my own and the kitties on your and Kelly’s blogs. I think the marshmallow thing comes from my daughter using it in her spelling sentences recently. Anyway, all the kittens were tuxies like my Oreo. I had to think of names when I woke. I think there were about 5 or 6 of them. I thought of additional cookie ideas like Hydrox, Milano, and Nabisco. But then I thought of cute fastener ideas like Buttons and Zipper. Then I thought “ooh Robyn should hear those names. Buttons and Zipper would be too cute on a rambunctious pair of kittens just staying for a few weeks”. What do you think?
Ha – I love the dream!!! I also like Buttons and Zipper. I’m adding them to my list. 🙂
And Velcro! Also Frog (it is too a type of fastener) and… and… and String! Yeah, String!
Okay, maybe not String.
Haven’t finished the page to see if anyone else mentioned it, but whatever the turned-out-to-be-imaginary girlfriend of that football player’s name was, add that to the McFakerson’s list!
Awww, Duke and Pearl = best friends. How sweet! I lurve Miz Poo’s little face. I had an 18 lb male cat who was generally pretty docile – he was my big baby – but would fight like crazy when I tried to put him in a carrier. It would take my husband and I all we had to get him in, and that involved 2 people and taking the carrier apart! An 18 lb pissed cat is much like wrestling an alligator. One day I had to load him alone and in desparation, I corralled him in the laundry room with the carrier, put the carrier up on the dryer with the front door of the carrier even with the front of the dryer, grabbed him, kind of held him in the air in front of me and stuffed him into the carrier. Miracle! With him being up off the ground and nothing to get traction on, he didn’t fight at all. Since then, that’s the only way I put all my kitties into the carrier. My husband called it “air loading”. I would think it will work just as well on the edge of a table, counter, etc. That’s my trick – don’t know if it will work for every kitty.
Uh…..that would be “desperation”. Darn spelling!
YES! That’s exactly the method I was trying to describe above… by putting the carrier with the door on the edge of the counter and folding the cat’s legs down, it’s AIR LOADING! 🙂
As for loading the PTU, I use the same method as Beth P. Hold by the scruff of the neck & front legs, then drop them in butt first. It’s not as much of a fight, but you still have to be quick about it. Funny how when the vet is finished with them & it’s time to go, they always walk right into the carrier with no problem.
Yeah, they want OUT of the carrier until they’re at the vet, then they can’t wait to get back in. 🙂
Once at the vet, they took Calpurnia off to get some blood or a shot, and came back with her in a carrier that wasn’t mine. Apparently when she zoomed into it, they figured she owned it.
On another trip she zoomed into one of my carriers, but my cat Julius was inside it already. Somehow she wiggled past him to the back, and these are both cats 11-12 pounds big.
Surefire way to get a cat into a carrier…pick up said cat while they are calm, quickly throw a dishtowel over their head so they cannot see where you are taking them, and quickly put them in the carrier with the towel still draped over their head. They easily get it off, and are always surprised to find that theory are as
already in the carrier.They don’t panic if they can’t see where they are going.
I like the dish towel idea, I may have to give this a try when it’s time for Lunk to go back to petsmart!
Oh my, that Pearl photo is lovely! And it’s good to see the boys and Lilybet looking so happy. I hoping that Batman and Robin’s stay at the kitty spa will result in quick adoption when they go back to Petsmart.
As for getting cats into a PTU, I have some tricks since my two oldsters possess Disappearing and Getting Away superpowers!
First, I keep my carrier out all the time. I have an old plastic carrier but can’t afford one with a top opening. Keeping it out all the time keeps my oldsters calm and ignorant. It’s important to keep a clean towel in it or change the towel days before the vet visit. Seriously, changing the towel makes both cats disappear for hours.
When the time comes, I scoop the cat, turn him/her on her back and just dump her/him in the carrier back end first. It definitely helps that I scoop up my cats at least once daily and turn them on their backs. Because that experience is their daily routine, they think I’m just going to carry them around for a bit as usual. It buys me a couple of seconds to dump them into the carrier. And those seconds are crucial. Even though they’re elderly, my cats are fast and determined.
I honestly don’t know how I’d do it with a semi-feral cat. Maybe dump a towel over top of him and scoop him up towel and all?
My first cat required phenobarbital and scruffing and wrapping her in a blanket to get her into a top-loader. Even drugged up, she would get so nervous en route to the carrier that she would lose control of her bladder (hence the blanket). Getting her to the vet or the groomer — that’s correct, she wouldn’t let me clip her claws — was a major mission. RIP, Molly-moll, I still miss you like mad.
Robyn, if you got a Frizzle, you’d have to do some trimming so it wouldn’t walk into walls… like Rockstar.
We’d have to have a Spa Day to get all the trimming done!
I vote for a Keyser Söze McFakerson please!
Clearly we are on the same page! I suggested “Verbal” for a name up above.
Re Torties in the UK – Ive never heard that a tortie is good luck, quite the oposite, we all know about naughty torties! but then I am from the home counties and live in Wales, maybe oop north or int’ Scotland they do say that, Ive just never heard of that one, Black cats are good luck though,Ive always known that.
Cannot. Stop. Laughing.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbellassai/cats-that-dont-want-to-be-in-your-stupid-picture
Those are awesome!!!
Funny how cats have PTU sensors! mine know when I just think about loading one. I’ll have to try air-loading. A vet tech told me to try loading back-end first, works pretty well, but I don’t have 18 or 20 # of fury either!
LOVE the Corbie meme!
My favorite fake name is Regina Filangee. Or however you spell it. Phoebe’s fake name on Friends. Can’t remember Joey’s though. But I know I liked it too.
My guess is that it was Phalange. It’s latin for ‘fingers’.
Regina Phalange! I love it when she introduces herself as Regina Phalange, it always makes me laugh.
In the Lord of the Rings parody, Bored of the Rings, the hobbits introduce themselves as “Alias Undercover” “Ima Pseudonym” “Ivan Gottasecret” and “John Doe-Smith” when they are trying to avoid the Black Riders in Bree.
PTU tip: Make a comfy bed in the PTU and leave it out all the time. Some are less frantic about going into it if becomes part of the scenery. One of mine sleeps some in it at night, but you’ll never catch her in there during the day!
I volunteer at a no kill shelter. One of the cats in the FIV building I clean will attack his tail. He was the first cat I saw do that. He doesn’t do it much but nice to hear there are treatments for it.
When I took Kennebec, Mercury, and Baby Beans back to Petsmart last time, I was wishing that I had a smaller carrier for Baby Beans, because it would have been easier to deal with all those carriers if they weren’t all so BIG. I bought a small carrier for $15 at Target and brought it home. It’s in two pieces, the bottom part nested in the top part, and I left it in the computer room. It’s still there, still in two pieces, because Tommy thinks it’s the BEST place for sleeping, EVER. It makes me think I should get a couple of the big ones out, put comfy beds in them, and let the cats get used to them.
I think Lunk needs a bigger bed. The next time he comes back, just buy him his forever bed.
Ha ha shush, you. 🙂
Lunk is Kennebec, yes? When/how did he become Lunk?
Before Kennebec went off to Petsmart the most recent time, Fred said “He’s just a big lunk”, and it stuck. 🙂
Ooo! Fakey names! Ragina Filange and Ken Adams, Phobe and Joey’s fake names on Friends!
Names that go with Milli & Vanilli: Tilli, Dilli, Willi?
LOVE Dandelion/Pearl’s picture! What a sweetie and her sweet doggie buddy!
Lilybet is awesome! She’s so wild and kittenish! Well, she is still nearly a kitten I suppose, and thank heavens she wont be having any kittens herself! What a darling.
cat/carrier issue. Use a pillow case. Either put the cat and the case in the carrier, or tie a not in the pillow case and transport the cat that way. I have a carrier that looks like a picnic basket and it is a bit easier to load and unload, but if I had a cat that was frantic in a carrier I’d use a pillow case.
that hot sauce comment slayed me the first time, it slayed me this time too
Re the attacking tails thing:
A friend’s cat used to do that. She would bite her tail bloody, until the owner had had enough and got it amputated. The biting stopped after that.
My carrier only opens in front. I put the cat in quickly, backwards (tail end first). Works great.
RE: CAT BITING ITS OWN TAIL.
Could be FHS (Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome). I have one cat who has a fairly mild case of it (twitching along lower back but no actual tail biting).You can google it. here’s one link: http://www.vetinfo.com/feline-hyperesthesia-syndrome-treatment.html. In a bad case, you might want to ask your vet about antianxiety meds for your cat.
You are certainly responsible for the happy life our two kitties have here. I’d never had a cat until I read your blog. You should do a poll and see how many cats have homes with people who read your blog and decided they needed a cat (or two) in their lives! I bet there’s a lot of us!
For anyone looking,hydrogen peroxide is what nurses use to clean up blood spatters on their uniforms. So apply that info…oh and soak item in COLD water first(or after??)because hot water sets in blood stains because heat COOKS proteins(blood is a protein)…I am a champion in the “run-on sentence olympics” and I apologize.
If your carrier does not have a top entry door,simply put your carrier on it’s end. That’s what the rescuers do when gathering hoarders cats,wild animals,etc.
You gently drop the wildcat in and because it’s a long way down when the carrier’s in this position,you have a chance to quickly shut the door and lock it without getting torn up.
After getting the door locked,it IS MANDATORY that you raise your hands up over your head and yell,”Time!”
To anyone not getting the rodeo reference,I apologize.
We keep our cat carriers out as part of the “cat furniture” and we feed the old cat in one of the carriers. When it’s time to go to the vets, all the cats are so used to there being treats and food in the one carrier that it takes them a moment to figure out they’ve been bamboozled. I’ve also used the carrier end up loading method for my sister’s cat who became the Vishnu of cats whenever she even saw a carrier. I think that’s why we decided to keep our carriers out and about.
The “Vishnu of cats”?! That is an absolutely tremendous image. LOL!!
We use the pillowcase method to get Molly into her PTU. Works like a charm.
All the “fake” names typed out above and oldcat’s comments made me think of some of the names in school that kids use to fool the substitutes. Here are some I remember:
Nate A Torium; Phil A Buster
My cat has very limited choices of cat toys and treats. For one, she doesn’t like any treats I get her, and only ate the last bunch when she was starving (I was in bed and would rather her eat the treats than me get up to get her biscuits). I have a chihuahua, and if I give my cat toys, she will play with them quite happily, but always take them into the lounge room where the dog lives, and the dog then claims them for himself. She very rarely gets to play with them again (he’s a bit possessive). The only toy I’ve had success with is those like the Da Bird you mentioned – a toy on the end of a string attached to a stick. She loves those when I wave them around (she doesn’t usually take those in the lounge room). But she has an odd habit of snipping strings and such things with her teeth – it was worse when she was a kitten, but I still hide my head phones cords and hair ties. The last toy-on-a-string we got her didn’t last very long because I left it on the floor and came back to find the string in two pieces. Oh well… lol 🙂