Crazy cat people, unite!

I'm owned by two cats, one male (Anko, which means "Bean Paste") and one female (Chame, which means "mischief.") Both of them are black, although Chame has a small patch of pure white on her lower belly. We rescued them from a center in Tokyo about six months apart.

Anko is super-friendly and believes that everyone who enters our house has come to pet him. He's not bothered about being scratched behind the ears, but if you scratch his neck just between his shoulders or brush his back, he'll love you forever. He also insists on charging downstairs to greet me when I get home. (While most cats are graceful, silent-footed creatures, Anko sounds more like someone tap-dancing in combat boots). He's also bigger than most average cats, which might have something to do with it. He's missing most of his tail - we don't know why; he was found that way in someone's yard - but he gets along quite well without it.

Chame is very shy. She was known as the Furry Rock when she first arrived, as she was too scared to do anything other than curl up in a tight, frozen ball on the window ledge and watch your every move with gigantic eyes. Luckily, she's getting past that now. Her playful side is beginning to emerge, but in terms of affection, she believes it's much better to give than to receive. In other words, you don't pet her; she pets you We have this game where I put my hands on the stairs and she rubs her head against my hand, my wrist, my arm, and every part of me she can reach. She also has a purr like an attack helicopter.

They sound so adorable!

When I was a kid, I used to have a cat named Boo. My first word was "cat" because of her.

Am I a bad cat owner if my latest cat is the second one I've lost in the past three months?

oh no

sorry to hear about your cat!

and to answer the question, not necessarily, it depends on the circumstances.

You're the first one who isn't screaming at me for having been so dangerously irresponsible as having let a four months old cat out of my sight.

My furry overlord did drag his ass back home after 34 hours, however, and isn't hurt. So there's that.

Edited by amitakartok on Oct 21st 2020 at 9:07:31 PM

I've always loved cats. The fact that my neighbours had them as I was growing up certainly helped. Though I'm ashamed to admit that I was kind of rough with them when I was a wee toddler.

I was about 8 or 9 when we adopted our first cat. Or rather, she adopted us. And she was the one who was supposed to be adopted.

Her name was Pip, and she was supposed to be adopted by the girlfriend of the neighbour's oldest son. It was my brother and I who named her and her brother initially, as a matter of fact, though we didn't expect the names to be permanent.

But then one week, our neighbours left for a trip to Turkey, and since the two of us crossed their lawn every day to get to our bus stop, we were asked to feed the cats while they were gone. It was also... a bit of a way to prove to our parents that we were capable of caring for animals now, I suppose. We had pet rabbits when I was very little, but both of them escaped. And then we had salamanders... which ended with one eating the other.

So we fed the cats dutifully... And then Pip started to come down to us more and more. So, our neighbours told us that we could share the ownership of her. (They said that the girlfriend came to visit so often that she practically didn't need to adopt her, but in hindsight, this was probably a lie) We agreed to feed her and cuddle her, but we wouldn't let her into the house since my Mom is allergic to fur. But she started to sneak in, and one thing led to another, and then she just ended up being our cat one day.

She passed away about 4 years ago, at the age of 14.

Now, we have a (soon-to-be) 3-year old kitty called Powder. And she's a cat who knows what she wants, alright. A Picky Eater like you wouldn't believe. But we all adore her.

Awwwww.

Powder sounds the opposite of Dusty in that regard; while Dusty has a favorite cat food (beef flavor Fancy Feast) she isn't picky and will eat pretty much whatever kind of delicious meaty morsels I place in front of her.

She's chasing ghost rats by our wall right now.

Or rather, she's probably hearing rats in the wall. And the sound is very interesting to her...

For all of her being a Picky Eater (Seriously, what cat won't eat chicken?!), she's an excellent hunter. One of the best we've had, in fact.

Powder is currently sleeping in my lap.

I can feel her paws, whiskers and ears twitching in her sleep. I wonder what she's dreaming about. What is she hunting?

Edited by MagmaTeaMerry on Feb 7th 2021 at 7:27:39 PM

Awwwww!

I always wonder what Dusty is dreaming. Is she dreaming of live prey? A catnip mouse? One of those feather-on-a-string toys? Or is she dreaming about being petted and held and loved and secure?

You know how there's a cat stereotype that cats don't care about you, but will leave you the millisecond you stop feeding it? One anecdote I'll bring up as a counter-argument to that is from about 2 1/2 years ago. This was around the time we'd adopted Powder and her sister Bell.

My family had a crayfish party, and I'll admit that I had too much to drink on it. So, I was quite hungover and felt horrible the day after. I went up to my room to take a nap and sober up while watching The Runaway Guys play Wheel Of Fortune.

And that's when these two kittens, who bear in mind didn't know me all that well at this point since they'd only been adopted two months prior and I usually only come home on weekends, entered my room, jumped up onto my bed and surrounded me. I laid on my side, and Bell laid on top of me. Powder curled up by my stomach. And both purred their little hearts out.

They could tell that I wasn't feeling well and purred on me in order to make me feel better.

Anyone who claims that cars are sociopathic and evil will get this story thrown at them.

Awwww, that's a very sweet story.

I've noticed similar with Dusty. If I'm not feeling well (physically or emotionally) she'll jump on me and try to comfort me by purring at me or just being next to me.

I've got 2 cats that are about 6-7 years old. They're nearly identical sisters. I named them Toki (after Toki Wartooth from Metalocalypse) and Scipio (after Scipio Africanus). Toki's more mischievous, she'll do something she knows she's not supposed to do and give me a "Who? Me? I'm innocent" look. She tends to visit me in the office in the morning when I'm working which is a nice distraction. I've basically worked out a system with Scipio where if I sit on the sofa to watch TV or play video games, she'll snuggle up next to me and give her a belly rub. They're both scaredy-cats, they're still terrified of the vacuum cleaner after all these years.

Powder continues to be a precious little bean. She's started to jump up in my lap whenever I'm in the living room. It's totally cute, but as always when a cat is in your lap, you also don't want to move them because they're so precious. I think the weeks of high temperatures and the past two days of partial cloudiness and somewhat unpredictable weather does a number on her - She's been sleeping more than usual.

One adorable (but also a bit bothersome sometimes) thing she does when she thinks the living room is too hot or she's just had enough for a while is that she takes refuge underneath the couch... except she doesn't always crawl in with her whole body, leaving her hind legs, butt and tail just hanging out.

Actually, my brother has been home this summer, and last week, we all played kubb together. And Powder was observing us while we played, and whenever anyone tossed a baton, she had to run up to it. Totally adorable, but we carried her out of the way every time so that she wouldn't get hurt. She eventually took the hint and just hung out on our deck and watched.

During the penultimate game to determine a winner, Mom and I were in the lead when my brother decided to ask for the "cat's blessing", so he let Powder sniff on the batons he was about to throw. And after that, he actually knocked down every single remaining "kubb" we had left on our side with his batons, not missing a single one of them and thus leaving him and Dad the victors in the end. "Cat's blessing", indeed!

Bit of a scare with Eddie yesterday. He was having trouble with his back legs and was in a lot of pain.

Thankfully, one vet visit later we found out it was most probably the cold aggravating old injuries - He was hit by a car when he was about one year old. We've got some meds to give him and he's looking a lot better already.

I feel bad the vets had to sedate him to check him over, though. Eddie is a good cat and I love him but he definitely has a strong personality, especially when he's unhappy.

Edited by Murataku on Aug 24th 2021 at 10:29:00 PM

Ignore this.

Edited by Murataku on Aug 25th 2021 at 2:17:07 AM

I had to jump into this thread as soon as I found out about it... my relationship status is Crazy Cat Lady for a reason! Matter of fact I'm a cat cage maintenance worker at a pet store. It can be a handful, but it's a labor of love. At home, I've got a brother-and-sister duo named Trixie (black) and Truman (tuxedo). Both are peculiar kitties. Trixie is quite the contortionist- and the big eater. She might hiss at you if you're meeting her for the first time, but she'll turn sweet and cuddly once you get to know her. Truman is the mischievous one. He has a strange obsession with human food; the other day I cooked a nice frittata and it was so hard keeping him from taking a bite. He also runs around often enough, and frenetically enough, that he could give Usain Bolt some competition.

I’m having trouble uploading a photo. Oh well.

My Lisa is 16 years old. Schrodinger was almost 14 when he died in March. They knew each other since she was a year and a half old, and he was a kitten.

We’re all taking Schrodinger’s death hard, but Lisa has been especially vocal lately. She sleeps a lot, but when she wakes up and realizes she’s alone, she complains. She also complains if we go out to eat. “You’ve been gone for more than an hour!”

I don’t know if we should get another cat, though. Would she get used to another cat as quickly as she did with Schrodinger? And at this point, could we take care of another cat? Maybe we should just focus more on Lisa for the time she has left.

So, I recently got into an argument on the internet where I told someone who wanted a significant other to give up their pet that they should perhaps instead consider dating people who don't have pets.

The person responded by saying that my comment was "degrading to women", to which I responded by getting into one of the most inane arguments I've ever had online. I even went so far as to point out how emotionally taxing it was on my parents to give up the family cat when my mom was discovered to be allergic.

Despite consulting multiple people who said I did nothing wrong, I still wondered if I had somehow overstepped my boundaries.

So I asked on Reddit if I was the asshole in the situation.

Over 200 people, pet lovers and otherwise, said I was correct.

Now, apparently, someone has used my question as a material for their web article.

Moral of the story: don't date anyone who wants you to ditch your cat/dog/whatever.

Condolences.

Edited by SkyCat32 on Aug 4th 2022 at 2:41:28 PM

Yeah if anyone asked me to choose between them and Dusty I'd choose Dusty.

Seriously: Allergies is one thing, but... maybe don't date people who own pets in that case?

And demanding that your beau get rid of their pet just because they don't like pets? People who do that are total assholes who don't understand that pets are family members.

My Mom once had a woman over who didn't like cats. Which is, you know, different strokes and all that. But she actually recoiled in disgust when she saw Powder, and I was like "OK, you and I will never become friends." That wasn't the sole reason, granted, but what the hell, man?

Yeah. A pet is entirely reliant on you. You are their security, shelter, meal ticket, companion. Basically their entire life.

Somebody asking you to rip all that away from your pet just because it's inconvenient to them is insane.

And I know at least in my case my pet provides a lot of comfort to me. She's basically my baby. There's no way I'd choose some person I barely know as a friend or partner if it meant getting rid of someone who's been my beloved companion and major source of comfort for 9 years.

I have never met a cat I didn't like.

Obviously can't say that about humans.