Pet Talk

[Sangye]

Since most of us have pets and love to talk about them, I thought I'd start an Off-Topic thread where our pets are the topic!

My dog Patch-- the white/black one in my avatar-- is crazy smart. The other day he walked around with a post-it note stuck on his foot. Now, most dogs would tear it off in a heartbeat, right? Not my boy. He watches everything. I've had a lot of paperwork to do lately, and I used a lot of post-it notes. I think my baby boy figured out that post-it notes mean "Pay Attention to This" so he "noted" himself.

My dog Lotus-- the black one-- is Patch's intellectual opposite. I read once that you can test the intelligence of a dog by putting a towel over them and counting how long it takes for them to shake it off. I inadvertently conducted this experiment on both Patch and Lotus. I wasn't feeling well a couple weeks ago and spent most of the day in bed, really out of it. When I'm that sick, I invite the dogs on the bed for snuggles. Lotus was laying right next to me. I fell into a deep sleep. I got up to go to the bathroom and was still in a total haze. I tossed the blankets across the bed. When I came back, Patch was on the floor staring at me. Lotus was nowhere to be seen. I called and called. Finally she poked the tip of her nose out from under the blankets. She was completely covered by a sheet and two blankets. If I hadn't called her she would have suffocated under there. That's my little girl. So much cute, not much room for brains.

[onatreetop]

Sounds like fun. I have the four kitties as everyone probably knows. There is the three litter mates , Oreo, Cheeto and Fluffy. The addition is mini-kitty, Jasmine. Pound and vet. kitties. All growing so fast. Oreo is the heavy wieght and Jasmine( my avatar) is the wino or physco kitty.

We also have a fish tank too (29 gallon). Have since the kids came. We have been through hermerts crabs and frogs see -though shrimp. Everything was in a tank until kitties. Now we are letting them loose!!!

[Doug]

My poor cat started out as Lucy until I learned he wasn't female....

Lucy became Ginger, a perfectly good orange cat name until a friend of my Seattle sister said that was a "sissy" name. So Ginger became Louie. As Louie's personality became evident, his personality seemed less French ("I irritate you because I can") and more German (he irritates because he's pig-headed!).

So the name progression went Lucy>Ginger>Louis>Ludwig (pronounced the German way as LOOD-vik). Ludwig is the German form of Louis (French) and Luigi (Italian), which definitely is not this cat's personality!

I mention Ludwig's pigheadedness because he seems to be eating too little, if the instructions on the pet food containers mean anything. For a found cat, he is very particular about his food. What seemed at first to be a matter of he ate very little because he wasn't an active cat now seems to be he's an inactive cat because he eats too little.

Cats carry their weight oddly, so I brought up my weight concern the first week I had him and had him at the vet's. That's when what felt like "backbone and ribs" was proclaimed to be a cat trending toward overweight!

I think his weight is unchanged or about the same, so far as I can determine weighing myself, then us to gether, and subtracting my weight. Maybe he figured out how to open the refrigerator!

[Cindy]

Doug, I have several cats and being able to feel their backbone and ribs is not normal or overweight! Something is either wrong (is Ludwig peeing a lot) or he is under weight. I let my cats free-fed (meaning there is always food out for them to eat. Does he like his food? Is it hard or soft or both? I would love to help you on this matter.

[Sangye]

Since so many members have rabbits and/or kids.....

[Cindy]

Sangye,
Great picture - I love it!

[Doug]

Doug, I have several cats and being able to feel their backbone and ribs is not normal or overweight! Something is either wrong (is Ludwig peeing a lot) or he is under weight. I let my cats free-fed (meaning there is always food out for them to eat. Does he like his food? Is it hard or soft or both? I would love to help you on this matter.

And I'd appreciate some guidance. I put out soft food at 6 am and 6 pm, and leave crunchies out all day around, with a good supply of water. I don't think I've seen him go crazy over either kind. The soft he licks the juices off of and eats some of the meat. I know he likes turkey, doesn't get too excited about liver. As for the crunchy style, I bought another brand (Iams hairball formula) When I first got him, he liked the turkey version of the soft cat food (so-called "gourmet"- it's meat in a gravy). As a new cat person, I have no sense of what constitutes normal eating or urinating or defecating habits. I dig out a fair amount of urine clumps, perhaps more than of the poop in a week's time. I clean the litter box daily, so I'll try to keep a better accounting of this. I plan on making an appointment to see the vet this week if I can get in because he does seem thinner since I brought him home. I don't have a good way to weigh him, and the method I use suggests he hasn't lost weight.

I just changed his dry food to the Iams hairball formula (yippee!), and Ludwig wolfed it down. That's the most excitement he's shown for food (other than the turkey from the deli) since coming here. He celebrated by coming out into the kitchen to scratch on his scratching board and nibble some catnip pellets. I think I scored a hit!

[onatreetop]

It is hard to find the best food for them that they will eat. We only give our kitties dry food and they havent been to picky yet. I have changed it twice, to better food on sale. I still fill the dog bowl I bought for the four to share with a min. of four cups dry food and equal water in another bowl the same size. They seem to be happy and getting bigger fast. My kids talked me into bathing them last night. I have to say it went rather well. Oreo was smelling pretty stinky. I was calling him _hitty kitty. Nothing visable but he was poopy smelling. I used toodler shampoo, very mild.
Then my mother yelled at me for washing them. I know they dont need baths but Oreo needed it in my opinion.We have no rib action here. Just lots of running and climbing and rustling. Than they eat a bit and drink and take a nap.
Doug, is there anything the cat could be eating on the sly? To much people food? or hunting yet? My vet warned me about that one early too.
In the past I had cats that hunted a lot and ended up with worms.They did get the ribby look but not the backbone so much. After treatment they were fine.
Hope it works out soon. it sounds like you will findout soon if Ludwig is eating. That was my first step fathers name. He was from Austria. Stuborn and not every flexable yep.

[elephant]

Sangye, I love your dogs and bunny.

[Terri]

My dog Bella will be 4yrs.old this month. Rotty-mix, she was 8 wks when I adopted her from the local shelter. She was there with her sister and the sister kept picking on her so I brought her home with me. I don't know how well I would have handled being diagnosed and putting up with this disease without her to cheer me up. She makes me laugh all the time.
I remember when I was first diagnosed and spent most of my time in bed and I was doing alot of crying. Bella would spend the night at my side or at my feet. I was having a bad night and would awaken several times through the night, I was on Cytoxin and so would have to drink lots and lots of water which also kept me up at night going to the bathroom. One night, I guess she HAD enough. I was crying and she actually stuck her head under the covers as if to say,"ok, enough already, I want to get some sleep!" Whatever, her reasoning worked. I started laughing tears instead and we were both able to sleep the rest of the night. She has been a blessing for me.