It’s not easy: we’ve got one never-gains-weight and one easy-keeper, and feeding one enough while not having the other blimp up is not easy, but we’re managing. Now that we’ve fixed the yard as escape-proof, we can let them both out, then feed a LITTLE after they’ve had their constitutional. And feed reduced portions. And keep Shu out of Sei’s dish. I am glad to say that in only a week, Shu is reacquiring a waist, and is starting to play again. Hurrah for us. Feeding them separately so that Shu does not get half of Sei’s is a big help. It also helps Sei not gulp his food nervously with looks over his shoulder. I’ll hand out a 3-kibble snack if Shu is being desperate, but over all, I think we’re winning. The mild winter is helping. We have had clear ground a lot of the winter. They really are not fond of snow.
cat diet…actually working.
by CJ | Jan 30, 2018 | Journal | 24 comments
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I wish we had a fenced yard for our cat, we lost one last spring to a coyote, she was an outdoor kitty someone dumped off and she was a scaredy-cat and didn’t sleep inside but did like to come and lay under my wood cook stove so I really miss her. The one we have left is our only pet at the moment. We love him so much and sometimes he hides and won’t come out until we have walked all over the place for 15 minutes or so then he comes out acting like he has been around the whole time and why are we so upset?! He is a blue-eyed lilac tabby – he refuses to use cat litter and only wants to “do-his-business” in the sawdust of the woodpile or dirt for the garden during summer so I keep sawdust mixed with soil in his cat box and he likes that just fine. We just had a bobcat come through last Saturday and have mountain lions all over so we watch this guy like a hawk. He is not fond of snow either and has his ears back when it is raining and though he wants to go out, he won’t. Cats are so funny.
Is there such a thing as an escape-proof yard to a cat? Wouldn’t’ve thought so.
I do think it is possible.
On a PBS documentary about cats they showed a cat climbing the corner of a stuccoed building. Here are some others, easily found. If they can do this…
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cgtYrlFwzF0/hqdefault.jpg
Or:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0344/6469/files/Screen_Shot_2017-03-29_at_10.11.45_PM.png?v=1490839991
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ruMn_8p9qmk/maxresdefault.jpg
http://www.irenesinternet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/GiantCrawlingBugs.jpg
I tried to post a reply with 4 links to pictures of cats climbing stucco walls of houses! There was a (rerun) Nature series on PBS that showed an orange cat climbing the corner of a brick building to the second story. If they can do that…
Those pictures don’t really surprise me all that much. Stucco is structured rather like tree bark, with enough irregularities for their claws to get a good grip on, if it isn’t too crumbly…
As said before by others, it really depends on the individual cat, both its climbing experience and its motivation for going up something.
I got my cat as a 4 year old; she was an indoors appartment cat and not used to climbing, and doesn’t appear to realise that she could climb a tree, or that it might make a safe retreat to do so. She can’t jump very high either. Once, outside, she was scared by a dog, and instead of climbing one of the available trees she went to ground under a bush and cowered there. Luckily I could chase off the dog, and she shows no ambition to leave my safe fenced back yard. Sometimes when playing she’ll jump onto the garden tree trunk, hang there for a moment looking puzzled, and then jump down again; she’s never scrambled up to the first branches at head height. When she does the same with the indoor cat tree she’ll scramble up it from perch to perch, but doesn’t often go all the way up to head height – easy petting height is far enough up for her!
I guess if a cat hasn’t learned climbing as a kitten, they don’t just naturally pick it up as an adult. I read about that effect on orphaned Orang-utan apes, raised around safe, sturdy and wobble-free playground climbing equipment. When the carers wanted to release them into the wild after they were grown, the apes couldn’t manouvre in the swaying treetops, on thin and whippy branches, moving in the wind and under their own weight; and didn’t recognise the dangers of the occasional dead and brittle branches – they had not trained their reflexes to deal with real forest surroundings, even though the rangers had spent a lot of time on trying to teach them to climb and find food. It turned out to be necessary to make the orphan’s playground less safe and more natural, so they could take the occasional tumble, and sometimes even a broken bone, while growing up and learning the risks as well as the necessary flexible moves.
Hmmm… saying that makes me think of whether there might be analoguous consequences to “helicopter parenting”…
My garden fence keeps him in if I shut the gate when he is sleeping under shady leaves and I don’t see him. It is 6′ high with wire gauged from around 2″x4″ rectangles. If there are no objects to climb up and jump from I would think that would be enough to hold a cat, the posts are metal, now maybe a desperate cat could climb and get out but if there is enough to keep a cat happy that type of enclosure should work. He always gets into the catnip when he is in there so he would have the energy to escape if he could. I know he has been fairly “put-out” if he gets shut in…
Escape-Proof is a very relative term: Relative to the particular cat or cats in question, primarily, and how determined they are to explore, escape, or otherwise cause mischief for reasons which make most sense to Cat Logic, which has its own gravity relative to both the real world of space-time, and potential other dimensions of reality, unguessed by human observations, but detectible and manipulable by feline intuition. See Also: Feline Teleportation.
Heh.
(I’d tried to post last night, but various misadventures on my end here last night prevented it. There was, notably, some help from one cat on one of these occasions, but it was mostly my own stuff going on, and a new keyboard, intersecting with cold/allergy symptoms, I think. That is, no fault of the blog or interwebz gremlins, just the human (and cat) behind the keyboard. Such is the way of things.)
Of note, in case anyone’s interested: The movie adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time is on sale in the iTunes US store for $5.99 right now. I don’t know if this is a limited-time offer, or longer-term, and I have not seen the movie to know if it’s good. I somehow never read the book yet. — But I couldn’t resist that deal after watching the trailer. It looks like an enjoyable enough movie. I found I’d bought the books late last year, so I’ll have them to read too.
It’s possible that Amazon or other online sources also have the movie on at a low price, if people prefer it there or elsewhere.
I watched a cat going over a chain-link fence. It was a bit like watching a caterpillar go over a wood fence: the same kind of motion going up, with a neat turn at the top and a little slither down before it jumped away.
(I’m not sure what would qualify as escape-proof, short of a complete enclosure, but it really depends on the cat.)
DH has been down with a cold and sleeping in the living room out front with the cats, sort of upright to promote drainage. Surprisingly, the cats have been behaving and not starting the usual alarm-clock behavior at 5:30 a.m., although there was one report of a throw pillow being utilized as a missile weapon! There is also some discussion about just who is entitled to the quilt…
It doesn’t look very pretty, but if you leave about a foot of wire “netting” (sorry, I don’t know how to say it better- I use the green-coated kind with 2 by 4 inch openings) sticking up above the fence, not attached to fence posts, so it wobbles if a cat tries to climb it, this will deter almost all non-desperate cats.
One found a route jumping over it, from a shed-roof (bordered by wobbly wire) into a tree, but for all other cats large enough not to fit through the wire openings it was sufficient deterrent to keep my birds safe.
PS. What’s going on with those West Samoan hidden links Suzy and Paul talked about on the previous post? Should I worry they might have infected my phone or computer?
I checked them for bugs but didn’t see any. “Bugs” are references to an image, maybe even a 1×1 pixel and transparent to boot, somewhere on the internet. That site can learns where you are when you fetch it, where you came from (which may betray some interest) by the name of the bug they planted where, and then can try your defenses.
So, I don’t think so AT THIS TIME, other than as an indication that you’re not “safe” no matter where you go! Or maybe I should rephrase my answer to, “Yes, always be a little afraid, but this doesn’t SEEM to do anything malicious.”
I’m not sure how to handle the situation with five cats. The oldest usually gets first dibs to the dish, then the second youngest walks in, followed by the very youngest, and then the second oldest, and the middle girl. In order of names: Sydney, Cindy, Dusty, Sophie, Maggie. The problem arises when Maggie tries to get anything, she has to hurry because Dusty goes after all of them, and Maggie being the smallest, is also the most vulnerable. So, after bolting her food, it usually comes back up again in the most inconvenient places in the house. I don’t have a lot of places to put separate accommodations for the cats, as most of my house has open doorways, such as between the living room and dining room/kitchen, the hallway. This morning, I caught Dusty chasing three of them, and the industrial strength spray bottle of water seemed to put a temporary halt to that activity. The chase might be play, but when the older cats growl, hiss, and generally put their claws out and fight her off, she still doesn’t seem to get the message. I don’t really want to rehome her, nor do I want to separate her from the rest of the house, but it might have to happen temporarily, at least the separation from the other cats.
We have a 6′ vinyl ‘stone’ fence, and yes, the fact Sei put an intruding cat OVER said fence says that cats can climb it, but there has to be real motivation. Sei was going to chase him over and was halfway up, but I called Sei’s name and he came back down, nor has ever tried to climb it.
Trying to fence in our yard would involve far more effort and expense than desired; besides, cats, chickens, other free-range critters seem to come and go as they please no matter what. As long as I don’t end up having to take someone to the vet, I’m okay with not blocking access.
Sorry, I keep forgetting that my 5×10 meter back garden may be fairly standard for the ubiquitous Dutch single-family row houses, but people in America and elsewhere often have much larger gardens and boundaries.
Off topic: CJ, did Jane get dad’s book off to the postoffice? Or does your mailperson pick up as well as deliver?
Yes, it is winging its way to him at this very moment.
Your back garden is very like those in New York’s Queens, and those can be very beautiful. Perhaps there is a little Dutch inspiration in those, considering the Dutch were the first builders of the city.
Our back yard is L shaped, and the largest square portion is about 10 meters by 30, or 30 feet by 90. The original fencing was literally falling apart…it was wooden, and probably dated from 1954, in our wet, windy winters: we had painted it, but even paint couldn’t hold it together. Because we have the pond, we legally have to have a ‘privacy’ fence to prevent random children from mishaps, so we went for a new 6′ tall (2 meters) vinyl imitation rockwork that will never need painting.
Thank you, and Jane too!
Yes, I loved the look of your new fence in Jane’s pictures. Like the new kitchen cupboards, you two have an eye for something that’s both unusual and beautiful, and fits perfectly with the surroundings. That stone-look to the fence went very well with the Japanese-style mural on the garage, and the oriental look of the large pond with the viewing lantern and the Japanese maple and peony and such. It all looked lovely together, and those unique fence panels were exactly right for your garden, from what I remember of the pictures.
Mine’s a lot more boring, messy mixed green in summer, and semi bare in winter when a lot of the perennials hide underground. Its best feature is all the little proliferating spring-flowering bulbs I put in from the start, so I’ve got something flowering from the end of januari until the summer. Snowdrops and little yellow aconites now, then crocus and jonquils/daffodils, 2 kinds of scilla, wild cyclamen, chionodoxa, puschkinia, hyacinths, triteleia, and a few botanical-type tulips (as I dislike digging them up and replanting), and I can’t remember what else. Then the perennials take over, and the roses make sure I’ve got a few flowers into oktober/november, when the other kind of wild cyclamen flowers after the deciduous bushes have lost their leaves. I don’t take enough care of it, so it’s messy (and during the growing season usually too full of plants for weeds to be able to get much traction), but at least I’ve got something giving a touch of colour and hope almost year round.
We’re still trying to find something for summer. Our wind is too hard on gladiolas.
Washington does share one thing with the Netherlands—beautiful fields of flowers: tulips and other such, one near us, one on the coast—I recall it being long rows of yellow tulips. The one near St John has another sort of flower, but I’ve never seen it. We finally had to give up on the iris, not for want of success, but because they reproduce so very fast we can’t keep ahead of them. But we are experimenting. It’s my great ambition to have lots and lots of ground covers. Our favorite is red thyme, which is fine little leaves with a purplish-red tiny flower: it drapes itself like cloth over every slight bump and rock. But due to sun and shade conditions, one type does not fit all.
I tried to do creeping thyme and creeping peppermint, but neither of them took in our sandy dry soil; maybe you would have better luck. Sedums are also attractive. I am fond of the succulents hen and chicks. We have a common ground cover here called ‘hearts and flowers’ which is vining plants, heart shaped leaves, and little red blossoms like portulacas.
I used to see the creeping red thyme on sunny exposed rocks high in the Swiss mountains – it needs sun, good drainage, little food and no competition from anything higher. I can’t grow it here, it absolutely hates the grey wetness and fecund clay soil.
I used to have a dearth of flowers in June/July/ August, until I started planting more and more (climbing) roses. I resisted for years as I think the bushes look ugly and I always get scratched; but they bloom exuberantly for a very long time, especially in those boring high summer months, and I truly love their delicate scents in the garden. But do smell them before you buy: lots of pretty-looking ones have no scent, and I wouldn’t waste my precious garden space on those.
My three favorite climbers are Celebration (salmon pink, lovely scent, large flowers spread over a very long time, needs a sunny spot; my absolute favorite, though it blooms a bit less profusely than the others), New Dawn (small white flowers with a delicate blush and delicate scent, blooms fairly fully and for a long time, and does okay on a semi-shaded wall – might fit in best with your more delicate Japanese theme) and Sympathie (a darkish fire-engine red, blooms enormously profusely but mostly during 3 weeks in June/July; then if you cut it back it’ll repeat maybe 1/4th in oktober). 1 bush of Sympathie grows all over my south-facing back wall, and for most of June that means it’s a wall of bright red roses. An alternative for a semi-shaded wall would be Parkdirektor Riggers (also red, and hardy).
If you can get your mitts on them, some of the old style cabbage roses would be good: strong, sweet rose scent, hardy, and bloom from ‘can’ until ‘can’t’. My mom rescued a cutting from my grandmother’s bush before it was plowed under by road maintenance. It has yet to bloom, but I hope it will. It has large, densely petaled pink blooms and it’s a rambler. We just have to keep the deer from eating it to a nubbin.
Honeysuckle? Clematis? Apothecary Rose?