It is.
The pond is frozen over, the koi are down where it’s warmer, next to their heater—and it is clear and cold today.
We discovered a really strange thing about Shu when we went south—he doesn’t deal with cold. He kept going under the seats, really stubborn about it, and when I picked him up, a little worried about this, he just kept shivering until he warmed up. We provide a fuzzy to sleep on, and he slept and slept and slept, warm and just fine. His ancestry is Bengal: his weight is double that of a domestic cat his size; his metabolism is ‘hot’, and he eats like a horse; his jumping ability is so extreme he threatens his own bones, and he has hair like a dog, doesn’t feel like a cat. He’s just—different. And apparently cold isn’t his thing. Heat isn’t ours: we always have the house between 65-67 in the winter, and love it. But we also can’t have Shu being cold. So I ordered a cat-mat from Amazon…I worry about heating pads: I don’t trust them, safety-wise, and don’t like to leave them connected; but there’s that NASA-type silver stuff, that thermal insulation, and an enterprising (forgive pun) company has made that stuff the interior of a padded pet mat, so it just reflects the critter’s own body heat. I figure while Seishi is Shu’s personal blanket (Seishi’s ancestry is Scottish, where cold is not an anomaly, and he’s fine with the chill) Shu can’t always get Seishi to snuggle down with him—I think Sei gets too hot. So I’m going to plunk this nice pad down in a place where Shu rests and see how it does. It’s not very pricey. Cats or small dogs; there’s a bigger doggie version; and I suppose if anybody has chronic cold at night, it could help people, too.
I’ve been not only writing on the current book, I’m spending my evenings reviewing the very first e-books, The Writing Life, and those will go up with improved text, not enough to warrant another copyright, but enough that certain sentences will now make sense.
The wonder is that we survived all that. The number of times I hit the ice is really quite amazing. Mind, I started skating at 61. And OMG, the computer I was working on, that crashed every hour—and Jane’s nursing the thing back to life…
I used one of the heated beds for my Ski Demonspawn – very slick black kitty with minimal underfur – as he began to get a bit older. He’d hunker down in it for most of the winter. It had a VERY thick faux fur pad over it and I never had any problems with claws getting through to the electricular bits. It’s very low temp – in the low 90s F when occupied but just enough to keep an antisocial kitty toasty. I kept it on his end of the couch.
I have a couple of those pads and my boys love them. I also found out, while vending at outdoor markets, they work very nicely for humans to sit on too. Oh, and yes, they’re good to put your feet on too!
Yep! Have a small one on the bed for the cats, two big ones from when I had two large greyhounds, that go on their beds. And I can definitely tell when I am sitting on one, and have, on occasion, stolen one to use for my feet under the covers on the bed. They aren’t dramatic, but do slowly create a nice, warm, comfortable glow around the area that is on them. It might be more noticeable for a cat, since they have a higher body temperature, and thus more heat to reflect.
ISTR a short cylindrical thing, hole in the side, covered in a faux-fur sort of stuff, meant to be a critter “den”. Thing is, it’s covered so heat doesn’t rise away. If that weren’t enough all on its own for Shu, perhaps some enterprizing re-engineering could get your space-blankey layered insulation in under the top and bottom fabric?
What’s the name of the product, please?
I don’t trust an electrical heating pad around the cats. Both are prone to get feisty when playing and bedding can get grabbed, clawed, nibbled, in kitty enthusiasms. So a heating pad doesn’t seem a good idea.
Goober is now 6 and has always been thin, natural appetite control, metabolism, body type. He’s not yet showing any signs of middle age, but that “officially” starts at 7 for cats.
Smokey is a month shy of 3. He’s very much like Yushu in every way you both have described. He’s a street kitty, could be anything in his ancestry. Small and stocky due to his first month or so on the streets before he got here. Perpetually hungry and into everything. (His middle name’s Trouble. Semi-officially.) So he may be sensitive to cold…he’d suffered exposure when he was rescued and given to me after Christmas.
It isn’t yet cold here, but this weekend may see a dip, and December through February should see some cold weather.
So two of these cat mats sound like a good idea to me.
In the bedroom, they generally sleep curled up with me, but through the rest of the day, it’s the office, a window sill, or some other spot. Anyway, it’s great future prep and a good holiday gift idea for the cats.
“Slumber Pet Thermal Cat Mat” made by “Slumber Pet”, 22 x 18 1/2 inches, available in blue, beige, or grey?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001J2JQTE/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00 It sounds like the same one. I tried an electric one, but it was lumpy and it made a sound even a human could hear as it cycled into a warmup. The cats wouldn’t have anything to do with it and I don’t blame them. The thermal mats, however, have real promise.
Merci, c’est ça exactement. Les chatons en l’auront. Eh, deux ou trois.
Thanks, that’s the one. The kittehs will have it. Uh, two or three.
This house has old-fashioned little gas space heaters in the bathrooms – in one, the heater sits on the floor under the lavatory (no vanity cabinet).
Years ago, my ancient old black cat discovered that although it was rather hard, the china bowl was such a nice temperature in winter that it contained a pool of black fur for most of the season. This fall I have my current generation of kittehs here, and Agate has made the same discovery. Even having the water turned, he is fairly slow to decide to leave.
I would LOVE to have one of those old gas space heaters…hazard around flowing robes, etc, but such a wonderful heat. Our bathroom has no heat, and since our house temperature is around 67, it means the warm-up you get is from the water, not the air. It warms up as one is showering, but not that much. And it is so small there is just no real place for a heater…which is why the shower can warm it a bit. But toasty warmness in the bath only happens in July with the window open. 😉
I’ve got carpeted ‘cat shelves’ along the top of one wall, as well as other places for them to ‘get high’. The first time the heat was on they were all up at ceiling level, reveling in the heat (I like the house in the mid 60’s in winter, so it had slipped into the high 50’s before I put on the heat).
I have a tiny forced air ceramic heater for the bathroom as I absolutely detest winter time ‘thermal shock’. It is small enough to sit on the toilet seat and will shut off automatically if it’s tipped over by a cat.
I grew up with one of those old gas heaters at our house and my grandmother’s house, even with central AC/heat. I have mixed feelings about them, but they sure made the bathroom toasty warm in winter. I *think* I have an electric space heater stored in the garage, but haven’t needed it (and haven’t been home). Now this winter, we’ll see. Something’s up with my AC unit outside, though the attic’s fine. Not sure yet about the heater, but I’ll have someone out to service it soon.
BCS, if you have cottonwood anywhere, and outside AC coils, pressure wash with a garden hose and you might be surprised what flows out.
I remember when I was a kid, my father built a little shelter for our (elderly) cat on the front porch. It had a raised padded area (smaller than the depth of the box) with a low-wattage light bulb underneath to keep it warm, and the front was open at the bottom to about the height of the bed, with a clear panel above that, so the cat could watch the world. (This was a cat who enjoyed a fire in the fireplace, and in the winter would be sitting in front of it when my father got home from work, waiting.)
omg,omg OMG! This has absolutely notbing to do with anything, but it is so cool! I LOVE living in sci-fi!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20265623#
Neat stuff—I want an invisibility cloak: just link bunches of those itty bitty things together. 😉
CJ–does your bathroom have an overhead light? Mine has a combination light, vent fan, and heater (with 3 wall switches so you choose what you want to use). First place I’ve ever had with individualized bathroom heat, and it’s wonderful in the winter. And takes up no space, doesn’t create a fire hazard, etc.
Speaking of cats and winter…
We have the new kitteh blues here…basically, had four cats, are going to “lose” two, and got a kitten (well, he’s 9 months old, but still a kitten in behavior terms). The two who are on the way out are going back out to the country; we’re in a city situation, and the neighbor is getting downright aggressive about calling Animal Control on every single cat he sees in a yard. He despises cats, supposedly because he’s an avid birdwatcher. I say he’s a hateful old curmudgeon.
However, he’s a curmudgeon who apparently has strings to pull, so I’m removing my “outside cats” to the country. They’ll be happier, have more birds to chase, and no one will call the animal cops on them.
This means the two younger, indoor cats – Rudy and Fizzgig, and technically they’re my brother’s cats but who’s really counting? – have to adjust to kitten (Phoenix). Rudy adores Phoenix, and they’ve spent much time romping about together and generally wearing each other out. Fizzgig on the other hand, is willing to sniff noses with Phoenix, but even when Phoenix is displaying every sort of polite cat behavior – the equivalent of shy smile and a hand held out – Fizz begins to hiss and grumble at the younger cat.
We’re not sure what the issue is. I’ve never had cats not adjust to each other within a couple of days. Have any of you had this kind of trouble? What did you do? I don’t want to have to separate Fizz from the other two – especially since the only place I could put him is our un-insulated garage, and it’s getting chilly even here in the South.
@Hawke, far be it from me to self-identify as an old curmudgeon (I seem to be younger than several in This Space years-wise anyway), but mayhap your neighbor is not so much anti-kitteh as he is tired of your kittehs crapping in his yard. My otherwise-nice neighbor has a cat that is indoors in the daytime and outdoors in the night. When I asked him why he put the cat out at night, he said he didn’t like the way a litterbox smells. When I said I didn’t like that smell either, he didn’t seem to get my point… Male-pattern obtusity, I guess. Though I have not called animal control, I am sometimes tempted.
I’m just sayin’.
If that was what he was saying, I’d be more understanding. The cats use the bathroom in the vacant lot across the street, though. He has confronted me twice so far about his problem with my cats; basically a barely-polite harangue about “your cats are eating my birds.”
My problem with that is: a) as far as I know, my cats haven’t actively hunted in his yard, despite the presence of bird feeders; and b) he doesn’t own the birds, they are wild creatures. So the proprietary attitude seems a bit of a stretch.
As far as I know (and I admit I haven’t gone to get photo evidence or anything), the cats hunt in that same vacant lot, and in our yard. Our other neighbors all have dogs which discourages the cats naturally; and Mister Bird Fan sets out non-specific bird food in a variety of feeders…which means he attracts more blue jays than anything else. And the blue jays are MEAN around here. My cats aren’t up to that sort of target. When they’ve brought home a catch, it’s been baby mockingbirds (once), lizards (half dozen times), and mice. Many, many mice, babies and otherwise. And a rat, once. For all their trying they can’t get the squirrels!
But I feel like removing them to the country, where there are certainly plenty of rats, mice, lizards, and so forth, will still be better for them. The city has a leash law, as well, so if the cats did get caught by anyone, they might be assumed to be strays/feral – and put down. Or I’d have to pay a fine to get them home. So it’s all around better. It’s a little depressing to me because I truly love my orange tabby outside kitty…but if he’s happier back at the farm as it were…
Have you tried rubbing a little tuna juice or cat food “gravy” on up under the fur on Phoenix’s back right next to his tail? — just a dab — kinda like kitteh perfume.
I believe it’s in the law books that cats are by nature wandering and leash laws can’t be applied to claim trespass, but that’s one jurisdiction, in the spirit of the judge who told the attorney who came out to get a trucker out of local legal troubles: the attorney cited interstate commerce regulations and the US Constitution to state that the trucker is an interstate operation and not required to have the sticker the cop pulled him over for not having: the judge (and this is true: it was one of my brother’s colleagues who was the lawyer) said, after hearing the whole argument: ” ‘At’s all right, son. We got ‘im AFORE he got to th’ state line…”
Meaning—a judge can do about anything. So protect your critters.
If you do have a cat that’s an avid bird-hunter they can be a holy terror near a bird feeder, so there’s that, too. Some will, some could care less about birds.
But country is far, far, happier for outdoor cats. I look at the few outdoor ones in my neighborhood and just worry about them, because we’re a short block sandwiched between two very busy arterials. As they get older, deafer, and slower, it too often ends badly.
Leash laws are very locale-specific. I’ve been in towns where cats were required to be on-leash, same as dogs. Having said that, I can, to a degree, sympathize with the bird watcher. I used to have feeders, and got quite a variety of birds, from scrub jays (fun to watch!), grosbeaks, thrashers (ok, they didn’t come for food), red-wing blackbirds, orioles, downy woodpeckers, juncos, doves, quail, down to the common house sparrows. Sometimes a Cooper’s hawk, even. But I had to give it up when a neighbor’s cat took up staking out the feeder. I didn’t mind providing a meal for the Cooper, but baiting birds for a cat? Not so good. Plus, it made MY cats furious to have this stranger hanging out in THEIR yard, when they couldn’t really do anything about it, since they were safely away from the birds in their secure run. So yeah… having a neighbor’s cat roaming in your yard can really get old fast. Plus there is always the risk that one of my dogs would go after it, and the greyhound can outrun any cat out there.
A heated kitty-bed kept our old cat, Penelope, alive through one more winter. It was not warm to the human touch, but it was enough.
Buddy, one of our current cats, is a former Walmart-parking-lot cat, and he knows about cold. He has already found the heated bed — even though last night was the first real cold we’ve had locally this season.
I’ve been told that if you can feel the heat, it’s too warm for a cat. I don’t know if that’s true, but I know our cats like the room-temperature-to-the-touch bed that we have.
Have you tried Polar fleece? Cats ADORE that stuff. We buy inexpensive baby blankets at the dollar store and similar places. Any decent fleece will do, although a little thicker is better. Tuck one into one of those cushiony kitty beds you can get at pet stores, Kmart or wherever, and put it near the furnace vents (if you have a furnace). Coziest cat bed you can have. If you put mylar down first and then fleece, teh kittehs will be cozy-warm.
C.J., Do the boys have harnesses for when they go on trips? If they tolerate those, maybe Shu would tolerate one of those “kitty coats” like they make for Sphinxes, or something like a “Thundershirt”? (They’re made for dogs but one that would fit a small dog like a Yorkie or a Jack Russell would fit a cat.) Some cats will tolerate something like that — even something like an infant’s tee shirt. As far as that goes, something like that would be fairly easy to make out of thick fleece or felt and some Velcro.
Two of my cats just love to sleep in corrugated cardboard boxes. I had some computer equipment shipped to me about 8 years ago It came in a corrugated cardboard box that was about 12 inches square and 6 inches deep. My white cat came up to investigate, immediately took possession of the box, curled up in it and kipped out. The box is still on the floor of my office and it’s his favorite haunt when I’m in there working. I vacuum the cat hair out of it from time to time, but if I threw it out, I’d never hear the end of it. I keep a similar box on the seat of one of my dining room chairs. It makes a nice hidey hole for the little grey girl to escape the black one, who is built like a linebacker, and is “all boy.”
Corrugated cardboard has good insulating qualities. A box about 15 inches on a side can be taped shut, and a hole about 6 inches in diameter cut near the bottom of one side. With a piece of blanket or fleece or such like put inside, it’s a snuggly little “cathouse.” (Weight it down with a brick or two or wedge it in under something so it doesn’t slide around.) (And write “Schroedinger’s Cat House” on it!) Thing is, you don’t have to go all high-tech to come up with something that will do the job. A box with a low opening like that would allow body heat to collect and warm the inside. It costs next to nothing, and you know how cats are about curling up inside of places.
If Shu takes to it, with your DIY skills, you could recreate it in 1/4-inch plywood with a hinged lid for easy cleaning and paint it if you wanted to. You could line it in fleece, or toweling, or carpet remnants.
Cat stories: Zorro invited herself in today, for the third time. One of our friends had to move; we are keeping some of his stuff for him. He had 6 cats. It was thoroughly inspected. Then Zorro proceeded to sniff-check the whole house, except for the bedroom and Captain’s Cabin, which had the doors shut. We had a time persuading her to leave. If she keeps this up, she will become indoor kitteh #3, after a vet visit. Our biggest concern is how she will react to being kept inside, as she more or less grew up outdoors. We are wondering if our screen door will survive the encounter.
I’d say you already have cat number three, after that walk-through inspection. Good luck with that screen door, though. Welcome, Zorro.