lolcatsFollow

He plays one on TV.

I find Mentos and a full 20 oz. coke bottle are cheaper, and more readily found year 'round.

Edited, Jan 12th 2009 2:17pm by Belkira

Your new feline friend will appreciate the effort.

Milk is actually bad for cats, you monster.

Stock up on squirt guns. Place them all over the house. They're they best way to discipline a cat without hurting them.

Decide beforehand if it will be indoor or outdoor. It's already been mentioned, but once an outdoor cat, always an outdoor cat. You can not turn an outdoor cat into a full time indoor cat.

Spay or neuter as soon as you can

If you decide to let it be an outdoor cat, be prepared for presents. Cats are well known to bring you mice, birds, and other assorted animals to your doorstep. Do not punish them for this, but praise them. Cats believe we're their parents, but do not understand why we dont hunt. It's instinctive to teach a less adapt feline how to hunt. The first part of this lesson is to bring them fresh kill. Basically when your cat brings you a gift, it's trying to teach you how to hun,t taking on the parental role. You'll only confuse it if you get angry. That's just going to have to be a part of owning a cat if you let it outdoors. One of my cats, when I lived on a farm growing up, would bring me birds. It's favorite to catch were crows. I dont know how the hell he did it, but when I would leave for school in the mornings, at least every 8 weeks, he'd saunter up to my porch with a humongous crow in his mouth.

If you keep an indoor cat, you need to play with it a lot. Get it toys. Rotate the toys once in awhile so they dont get bored. Keep the tabs off of milk caps, those are the best free cat toys ever. they will need excersize, and because they tend to get less than their outdoor counterparts, they can get fat.

Watch their diet. Try not to give them table scraps.

Decide early on if you want your cat to sleep in your bed or not.

Except hairballs. They're gross. Get used to it.

Some cats, when very content and lying on you purring, while you pat them, will drool. It's another kitten thing, and some just dont grow out of it. I had a sped cat that drooled constantly. But I've owned a lot of cats over my life and I think he was the only one I could remember who did it everytime he was really happy.

some cats are quiet. Some cats talk. Some cats will talk to you, like you're having a conversation. The latter kinds are a riot.

keep them updated on vaccines, check for ear mites, and fleas.

Love your cat

My cat loves to lick tape. I assume it's because he's retarded.

Perhaps he thinks it's a window.

He's allergic to grass or something; he's already a really sniffly cat when just inside (this is not good when you're sitting next to him). When we picked him up from the shelter, he was just a weak little thing with respiratory problems. Now he's a fat thing with respiratory problems.

I don't remember exactly what his problem is, but he still seems to be a bit worse off when he's outside.

If you want to get the perfect toy for you to play with your cat, get a laser.

They pretty much go nuts, although some do get bored fast as there's nothing really substantial to catch.

How about you adopt.

Yes, he has been to the vet about it, I just don't remember the details personally.

I love my cat, Theo, and loved my late cat Rocco. Both are/were outdoor cats that spend a fair amount of time inside as well.

With Rocco, he was a real fighter. I don't know about how he started out since he was born around the same time as me but he was awesome. He wasn't very trusting though, it was almost impossible to pick him up and my dad had was covered in scratches the very few times we had to give him a bath. Rocco was a real hunter, and got multiple birds and bunnies. He was also known to beat up our neighbors dog. He got his *** kicked by a possum one day but that was the only time I can recall him being in trouble. Rocco was about 17 when we had to put him down, he had a seizure(we think) and just spiraled slowly downhill until he had another seizure (that we witnessed) and.. yeah. Rocco was sweet though, whenever me or my sister were crying as kids he would always come over to us and try to cheer us up.

Theo, while also an outdoor car, is very loving and trusting. He's less than 2 years old right now and still nibbles a bit on you if he's playing with you. When we first got him we got him all his shots and etc, and got him neutered at about 6months iirc. We also placed a litter box in the bathroom and got him to use it once or twice. From then on he used the litter box whenever he needed to go to the bathroom. We started letting him outside before he was a year old iirc, and got his *** kicked by something, probably the crazy *** dog halfway down the block. He took a while to recover from that was has been happy ever since, his tail is usually up all the time when I'm with him. I'll stop rambling now..

I'll just say a few things..

* Their tails are usually indicators to their happiness. When you bring him home he's going to explore everything and be really happy, tail straight up and everything.

* Make sure all your plants are not poisonous to cats and yell at them if they start eating them. Try to get rid of your potted plants for the first year at least and move them out of kitty range, they'll use them as litter boxes if you're not careful.

* Outdoor cats will teach themselves to go to the bathroom outside, but will use the litterbox if they're unable to get outside so make sure you always have it ready.

* If their ears are down and backwards they're in fight mode, get on some gloves and a long sleeve shirt and play!

* Male cats with be more "attracted" towards the females in your house and female cats vica versa. Theo spends his default sleeping time with my sister, and sometime changes it up to whoever has been providing his food when he meows at us and walks us too his bowl the last few times.

* Short haired cats are win. It helps so much. I have some allergies to pet hair and dander and the only time I have trouble with theo is if it's nearing summer and we have the air conditioners on.

* What my dad does if the theo jumps on the dinner table or starts using the carpet/couch as a scratching post he just yells loudly and mades a loud vibration by either stomping or hitting a hard surface. Theo usually realizes he's doing something wrong and stops. He doesn't scratch anything when dad is home anymore, and whenever I catch up doing it to the carpet he just stops and lays down and pretends he wasn't doing it.

* Don't be mad, if you have an outdoor cat, kills his first animal and leaves it on your doorstep. Cats instinct tells them to bring their first kill to their mother/whatever to show that he can fend for himself.

cats>dogs

edit: Just to summarize my feelings on everything:



This is the truth. I love having outdoor cats, I find them so much more fun than my aunts indoor cats, but they're probably going to have at least one really bad thing happen to them in their life that will cost you a thousand dollars in vet bills. It's worth it imo, but that's just me.

Edited, Jan 12th 2009 9:27pm by Deadgye