h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Who has the weirdest cat? Well, I do. She's an absolute miserable, complaining, tiriannical brute. But of course we love her to pieces ...

Well mine is an absolute sweety, even with only 3 legs, but she won't let me pick her up at all and absolutely craves being stroked, and will only go around in circles when stroked and rarely will sit still, except for a head scratch , during which she pulls the weirdest faces!

Mine likes to sleep in the wash basin in the bathroom, but I think most cats like that. When you turn the faucet on, she starts drinking from it... Still lying down, blocking the outlet...



PS, nice to see you back, Krabatt!

One of our (by now six) monsters has started displaying a preference for tea as his beverage of choice, especially out of my wife's mug.

Y.

Better watch that, Yelbakk -- today tea, tomorrow !

My two stoopid little bratz are messing with my stuff!! I got back from errands yesterday and tossed my open fanny pack on the bed. Next thing I hear is herself, getting into it, right before it hits the floor. Zipped it up, groused a tad, and put it away.

This morning, it's hisself digging away at it! I have smelled it, and it doesn't smell weird to *me*; I also dumped it out, just in case I'm missing a clue, like a stowaway . Nada.

I have no idea what's so wonderful about it, and they certainly don't react like that towards me.

SC

ours has developed a circuit of the living room involving racing round in a huge circle, galloping over an easy chair, along the radiator shelf, onto his cat "tree" and then launching himself at the top of the TV - which is angled and he slides off.

After the 4th time in a row we realised that he really likes it...

My cat Emma used to do that when we lived in London, belt around the room a couple of times and then dive under the clothes horse and peer out from under the clothes with a look on her face saying "That wasn't me honest"

Wow, for the first time ever I have just seen my 3 legged indoor cat do a proper attack on something.
Having only 3 legs (one at the back) makes her a little unsteady for attacks as you would imagine, but this large fly has been flying around and she got close enough for a proper paw wide open attack!
....OK she missed, but that isn't the point, and as an indoor cat she doesn't exactly get a lot of practise at chasing things, just the occasional fly, and that needs to be no higher than ground level.

That's so , good for her, SS!

What does she do when you dangle a string for her? Would it be good exercise for her hind leg? Probably *great* paw coordination drill...

SC

Sadly she would probably back away from it, although she played with toys when I first got her and will occasionally find a bit of paper to play with, she has lost that wanting to play thing mainly so I gave up buying toys as she ignors them. I did buy a toy on a stick thing but she ignored it, she would rather have a sweet wraper or tin foil.
I still find it quite funny to see her run down my flat when looking from behind as she kind of hop runs and the one back leg, it goes kind of in the middle to compensate....when she wants to she can really sprint as fast as any cat!

builders tape meassure, is another good toy, can also afix treats to it with butter marmite or other viscous substance, good fun

the missing leg often means they can back in to smaller corners to bounce out on unsuspecting bits of paper, or in my case house mates.

we had cat with 3 legs. she even climbed trees, chased german shepard who was chasing her daughter. she tried to scratch her neck. she was also very skinny, because she was poisoned by cat hater. one of her kidneys failed, because of posioning. she was at least 17 when she died.

I find the heirarchy's so interesting. My 6 moggies have two Matriarchs - Ming-ming (siameese) and Mouse (long-haired mongrel cat). After battling out the status quo for a time they agreed to share - and now outright ignore each other and BOTH play "boss of the house". They share my bed and bedroom and can ly close to each other but can NEVER look at each other. The only other cat "allowed" in the room is the teenage boy - Bo Jangles. And he is just oblivious to any "rules". the others all have their little corner of the house - Yogi-bear owns "upstairs" and the staircase and Paddington has the spare bedroom. Naledi comes in to eat but distains our company over the other families on the estate who I suspect feed her too.

Mouse however is half-certain she's a dog - well why shouldn't she be? Her best friend is one (my cross chow/labrador). They "hang out" whenever Asha (the white german shepard) is outside. Can you Imagine the fur-balls Mouse gets with all her attempts to keep Honey-bear groomed?

There's an order to it all tho and if anyone steps out of line Ming-ming and Mouse are quick to set them straight again. I'm very clearly their person tho - and they never let me forget who is truly in charge .

KPOW

Kosh

You should introduce Mouse to our neighbor's dog, who is convinced she is a cat...

Y.

Loose, my dog wishes she was a cat. She's jealous of the cat because Josephine is free to go where and whenever she wants to. Strangely enough Josephine the cat adores Loose the dog, and Loose is totally embarrased with Josephine's display of affection.

Our cat, Herman, is pretty weird. While much of his "eccentric" behavior can be atrributed to his disability (he has cerebellar hypoplasia, a condition similar to cerebral palsy in humans), he really is a weirdo.

Here's a photo of him sleeping blissfully on my lap last weekend, to prove it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wyrdsister/300573527/

What an abandonment, soooo relaxed!

My cat Mars is on Prozac. His shrink said he was "anxious." We called her in after he broke a picture frame, a bowl, a coaster, a lamp, etc., shredded the carpet down to the pad outside the closed door of the bedroom where the rest of us had gone to escape him (me, husband, older cat) and never ever seemed to sleep.

It has brought peace to our household and to him. Although he does still, ahem, masturbate a lot. (Will that make it past the screeners?) The vet said it really wasn't unusual for cats, but I've certainly never seen it before.

If Prozac is working for Mars, then I'd stick with it. Cats can be peculiar all on their own, you know ...Rocket is a neutered male who nursed "his" cat Missy, even though they are unrelated.

However, I have to say that I feel somewhat leery about vets giving human meds to cats, as there just isn't that much testing out there on the side effects.

Friends of mine had a male cat who suffered from "hot spots" on his chin (places where the skin gets reddened and puffy and the hair falls out, related to an autoimmune disease sometimes fatal to cats). Their vet gave the cat birth control pills which cured the hot spots. But...Farnsworth died at 8 from cancer, while his sister Theresa is 9 now, and very healthy. She never developed hot spots, however.

I could make a joke about Mars being suicidal now but as that would be in terrible taste, I will restrain myself.