When you first brought your cat home

Bandit chose us. She ran in my front door one day, over 16 years ago now,
when she was only 6 weeks old and immediately claimed our house as her own.
She was not the least bit timid about taking charge of the joint, and
defended it mightily against all comers, even my son's friend's pit bull who
followed them inside my house one day (comical but scary to see a 6 week old
kitten attach herself to a pit bull's face!).

Demi lived in my walk-in closet for a couple of weeks and over 7 years later
is still slinking around and hiding under furniture.

Jessie was another little bossy git and just claimed the house as hers
(which parts were not already Bandit's - but by that time Bandit was
restricting herself to my bedroom).

Sammy was b*llsy enough to come right in and sleep *ON TOP* of B*tch Cat
From H*ll.

--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/


"Enfilade" wrote in message
ups.com...
what did s/he do?

(Inspired by Tak in the Lapnox thread)

Kumani and Tyche didn't do much because they were three week old bits.
Pipped and squee'd mostly, drank milk out of a bottle, slept in a box,
tried to walk by churning their little legs. Imprinted on Dylan as
their natural mother.

Smokey was just bewildered at going from living in the forest in the
morning to being a high rise apartment boy by evening. He was a little
low and shy, but very curious, and confused. He'd stare at the
ceiling, double-take. Sniff and paw at the rug. Tried to jump through
the window onto the balcony, hit his head. Tried to stalk the images
on TV, get confused when he couldn't pounce them from behind. Cried to
get into the garbage pail, couldn't believe the dishes of catfood were
okay for him to eat. AND we had company over and he was lovebugging on
everyone for reassurance.

Nocturne disappeared under the bed for a day and a half to evaluate if
we were worthy of her presence. Dylan was rather upset by the diss and
spent most of that first evening watching her under the bed. She would
purr, but she wouldn't come out. Not until her judgement was complete
(Helluva thing to put a first-time catslave through!)

--Fil

"Enfilade" wrote in message
ups.com...
what did s/he do?

(Inspired by Tak in the Lapnox thread)

Kumani and Tyche didn't do much because they were three week old bits.
Pipped and squee'd mostly, drank milk out of a bottle, slept in a box,
tried to walk by churning their little legs. Imprinted on Dylan as
their natural mother.

Smokey was just bewildered at going from living in the forest in the
morning to being a high rise apartment boy by evening. He was a little
low and shy, but very curious, and confused. He'd stare at the
ceiling, double-take. Sniff and paw at the rug. Tried to jump through
the window onto the balcony, hit his head. Tried to stalk the images
on TV, get confused when he couldn't pounce them from behind. Cried to
get into the garbage pail, couldn't believe the dishes of catfood were
okay for him to eat. AND we had company over and he was lovebugging on
everyone for reassurance.

Nocturne disappeared under the bed for a day and a half to evaluate if
we were worthy of her presence. Dylan was rather upset by the diss and
spent most of that first evening watching her under the bed. She would
purr, but she wouldn't come out. Not until her judgement was complete
(Helluva thing to put a first-time catslave through!)

Cali arrived after a long car ride from her 3 month stay at the rescue
house. She'd been living in a bedroom with three other cats and was a biter
from day one. Cali is actually a very gentle cat, but must have things done
HER way. The first little while she was here she was very suspicious,
sulking and ignoring the people completely. We thought she was deaf the
first little while. She slowly came around and started displaying her
mischievous Calico side. She is very loving, but it MUST be her idea. It
took her two years to become a lap cat and that only happened because we
were sitting in her favourite basket chair. She said, "OK, if you won't get
out' I'm going to sit on you". She's long since stopped biting BTW, she's
very good at understanding HOOMIN.

Smokey arrived from the shelter at 10 mos in a cardboard carrier. She was
intended as a playmate for Cali who had gotten rather fluffy at about 7.
Smokey had been at the shelter almost two months, so she ran around the
house for at least twelve hours, then ran into her bed and passed out. She
did this for about the next two weeks. Smokey always tried to
groom/play/sleep with Cali, but Cali always forced her out. Smokey
eventually became jealous of our attention for Cali and will attack her on
occasion. Smokey's favourite was the BOA, where she would wrap her long legs
around Cali and squeeze. They would also play Sumo when Cali was younger,
Smokey would charge Cali and know her over, but Cali would get up and hit
her twice as hard, although she is a small cat. Smokey has always taken this
as play and is not afraid of Cali. Smokey is our most loving cat.

Cleo arrived at the backdoor one day looking skinny and dirty. We fed her
for a little over a week and then took her into the basement. Time passed,
she had her checkup, no one claimed her, so now we have three. She's always
had an aggression problem and used to terrorize Smokey in the beginning.
Smokey is afraid of her and wants nothing to do with her. Cleo will also
attack Cali, but Cali initially stood up to her. Cleo has biting issues that
show no sign of subsiding. If you try to explain it to her, she just starts
smacking and trying to bite more. She's basically my cat and would spend 24
hours a day laying on me if she could. Smokey used to spend most of her time
with me, which is why Cleo singled her out.

I wrote this anecdote ages ago and had to google it to find it. I found
it on David Stevenson's cat page:
http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/stx_wls0.htm

Here it is:
When we first got Vino he was a tiny 7 week old kitten. We got him from
Victoria, so we had to take him on the ferry to get home to Vancouver.
He looked to small and lost curled up in the back of his cat carrier!
When we got him home, we showed him his litter box and let him explore
his new home.

I think he missed his mommy a lot because he was meowing quite a bit,
but as time went on, he calmed down. Everything was going well until the
phone rang and we took our eyes off him for less than a minute. Suddenly
he was gone!

We called and looked everywhere! I mean everywhere! We even looked in
the fridge and microwave after a while in our desperation. The cat was
nowhere to be found.

Dennis was convinced he'd jumped off the balcony. He told me to go
downstairs and check to see if he was smushed on the pavement. He even
told me to check in the trees in case he'd skewered himself on a branch
on the way down! He was really scaring me ....but alas, there was no cat
on the pavement or in the branches! Whew! I came back up and continued
to look in the apartment. It was only a 1 bedroom apartment, there are
not that many places for a cat to go (I thought). Finally, in complete
desperation, we decided to dismantle our couch. It is a leather
sectional in 3 pieces. We took them apart and turned them over, and
there, on a board inside the centre curve piece was Vino all curled up
and looking oh-so-comfortable!

We were so relieved! He had just put us through the worst hour we could
remember. Turns out he continued to use the little ledge inside the
couch to hide for about the next week, then he got comfortable enough to
quit doing that.

He still loves going under the couch though but now that he's all growed
up he can't fit anymore. He runs up to the couch just like he used to,
dives underneath and gets stuck! His butt will be sticking up and he
will wiggle and struggle until he finally squeezes under. This always
gives us a great opportunity to annoy him by pulling him back out or
slapping his rump! (he's got an irresistible little tailless monkey
butt)

If he gets any bigger he won't be able to get under at all anymore
--
Britta
Purring is an automatic safety valve device for dealing with happiness
overflow.
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album




Enfilade wrote:
what did s/he do?

(Inspired by Tak in the Lapnox thread)

Kumani and Tyche didn't do much because they were three week old bits.
Pipped and squee'd mostly, drank milk out of a bottle, slept in a box,
tried to walk by churning their little legs. Imprinted on Dylan as
their natural mother.

Smokey was just bewildered at going from living in the forest in the
morning to being a high rise apartment boy by evening. He was a
little low and shy, but very curious, and confused. He'd stare at the
ceiling, double-take. Sniff and paw at the rug. Tried to jump
through the window onto the balcony, hit his head. Tried to stalk
the images on TV, get confused when he couldn't pounce them from
behind. Cried to get into the garbage pail, couldn't believe the
dishes of catfood were okay for him to eat. AND we had company over
and he was lovebugging on everyone for reassurance.

Nocturne disappeared under the bed for a day and a half to evaluate if
we were worthy of her presence. Dylan was rather upset by the diss
and spent most of that first evening watching her under the bed. She
would purr, but she wouldn't come out. Not until her judgement was
complete (Helluva thing to put a first-time catslave through!)

--Fil

On 29 Jun 2006 08:01:38 -0700, "Lesley"
yodeled:


Enfilade wrote:
what did s/he do?

(Inspired by Tak in the Lapnox thread)

Speedy Joe hid under the bed- it didn't help that we had only just
moved in, the bed was still in the living room and we had a few friends
over that night! I think he came out after a day or so

Fugazi and Isis came in, sniffed round and settled down in the pot
plants to sleep. We very nearly called them Bill and Ben.


LOL!


Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh

Make Levees, Not War

What a great topic!

Tiny Mimi (RB)
I got her from a shelter when she was just under a year old. She was
a tiny, dainty, petite little tuxedo girlie. When I got her home, she
immediately crawled under my bed, and stayed there for a couple of
hours. I went down and made myself some ravioli, and brought it back
up to eat, sitting on the floor next to the bed. -- before I knew it,
she was next to me, putting her petite little nosette in my dish.


Stinky
Stinky was a scrawny, dirty, sticky little fellow whom I took off the
subway tracks. He had no fear. He came right to me, happily sat in
my Barnes and Noble tote bag for the long subway ride from Washington
Heights to Brooklyn, and entertained the other passengers by calmly
popping his funny little head out and looking around at them. Stinky
wasn't a promising looking kitten-- he had a long, scrawny neck and
enormous ears, and his head looked like a periscope as he swiveled it
around. But he already had a great personality.
When we got home, Stinky was immediately at home. The first thing he
did was go straight to Mimi and get bopped on the head. After he
got home from the vet, he began eating, and didn't stop for about
three months.


Dante
I had a little kitty playpen of sorts for Dante to stick him in when I
couldn't keep my eye on him-- supposedly so he wouldn't get into
trouble -- fall into anything, get stuck behind anything, etc. He was
just a little black and white scrap of bitty. I put him in the pen,
and in less than a second, he had sproinged straight out of the pen
like the Pi taking Beecher's Brook at the Grand National. So much for
keeping him confined. :P


Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh

Make Levees, Not War

Smokey's previous owners had a 2 year old girl who pestered him
constantly -- to the point they were afraid he would injure her. Our
son who was living a couple of apartments away with 2 deadbeat
"friends", took him in. When the deadbeats didn't pay their share of
the rent, two months in a row, they were served with an eviction notice
(24 hours and the sheriff will move all your stuff out for you). Son
came back with Smokey. At the time, we had a large D-pet (Jaws - long
story for another time). Son put Smokey down in the living room. Jaws,
being ever-friendly, came over to see who the visitor was. Smokey, all
of 6 months old, puffed up to at least twice his size and hissed at
Jaws, who didn't understand at first. A couple of baps from Smokey on
Jaws' nose (followed by yelps and pitiful looks at DW and me) and The
Natural Order was determined. From that point on, they tolerated each
other well.

Mistletoe, was a shelter adoptee (about 3 months ole). We brought in
her carrier and set it down (closed) in the kitchen floor. Smokey came
in for lunch and saw the carrier, puffed up, hissed, and jumped back.
When he decided the intruder wasn't going to interfere with lunch,
Smokey went about his business. After his lunch, Smokey went off to our
bedroom for his nap. We decided to let Mistletoe (Missy) out to explore
while Smokey was snoozin'. Explore she did, going downstairs to our
partially finished lower level. She found the open furnace return and
hid therein. I could see her by shining a flashlight/torch into the
return but she was having none of coming out. I tried for two hours to
coax her out with no success. I finally gave up and came over to my
computer (also downstairs) and started Mistletoe's story (on Flippy's
cat page). She finally came out and let me catch her and take her
upstairs for some food.

The kids have reached an "understanding" now and mostly leave each other
alone. Smokey is Mom's cat and snuggles up with her. Missy, when she
comes upstairs, comes and climbs into Pop's lap for varying amounts of time.

And we're all pretty much happy with how things go.

--
Sam, closely supervised by Mistletoe

Rebecca hid underneath my desk, up on the seat of the chair. She barely ate
and barely moved from there until I opened the door a crack so she and
Sundance could see each other. When she saw him she ran right over to see
him, even though I was right next to her!

Sandy

On Thu, 29 Jun 2006 06:54:32 -0700, Enfilade wrote:

what did s/he do?

(Inspired by Tak in the Lapnox thread)

Amelia had been a lonely little girl in her cage at the adoption center,
and was craving human attention. We brought her into our bedroom, set up a
litter box and food and water, then let her out to explore with Cleo and
DD locked out of the bedroom. She immediately came out of her carrier,
jumped up on the bed, onto Nancy's dresser, onto my dresser, explored the
bathroom in minute detail, then spent several minutes trying to reach a
paw under the bedroom door, sensing there were other kitties on the other
side of the door.

Since we didn't hear any hostile sounds coming from the other two, we
opened the bedroom door and let them meet. Cleo gave Amelia a hiss, then
sniffed her face. DD gave her a sniff, then washed her face. From that day
on, those 3 had no problems getting along together.

It was on her second day with us that Amelia was on top of my dresser when
I opened the top drawer. She immediately climbed into the drawer, and has
been a "drawering" kitty since then.

About her third day with us Amelia figured out how to get on top of the
entertainment center in the bedroom. That lead to her discovery that she
could fly! She would leap off the top of the entertainment center to the
shelves under the window, or onto the bed, or onto the nearest available
human. Up to this point we had not decided on her final name, but seeing
her love of flight Nancy decided that her name had to be "Amelia, the
Flying Adventuress".

On Thu, 29 Jun 2006 06:54:32 -0700, Enfilade wrote:

what did s/he do?

(Inspired by Tak in the Lapnox thread)

My 2nd post on this topic

This time I'll describe Sammy. Samuel was the little tiny orange kitten
that someone abandoned on the edge of the parking lot of the warehouse
where I was working at the time. He had found himself a nice, thick hedge
to hide under and figured that would be a perfectly serviceable home.

Of course I couldn't a little bitty guy like him alone. I set a trap can
captured him, and took him to our vet. I could see that he had an eye
infection and wanted to be sure he didn't have anything infectious he
could give to the other. He stayed with the vet 3 days, and came home
with eye ointment, antibiotics for a respiratory infection, and
instructions to keep him isolated for 10-14 days.

We set Sammy up in the bathroom with a litter box, food, water, a soft
towel to sleep on, and a bunch of toys. We took turns going in to visit
with him and play, and it only took him a few hours to figure out that
the bathtub made a wonderful hockey arena We would spend long
stretches batting rattle balls and fuzzy mouses around the bathtub.

We had installed cut a vent into the bathroom door to allow airflow from
the cooler - this was in the middle of the summer. I put a towel covering
the vent opening to still grant some privacy and to keep the kitten from
seeing the hole and trying to let himself out. This of course didn't last
too long. After he had been with us a little over a week, Sammy decided
he didn't like sleeping by himself. We woke up one morning with a little
tiny orange fluffball between us - Sammy had apparently jumped onto the
towel bar, walked over close to the door, jumped onto the towel, and
squeezed through the vent opening. From that day on we didn't worry about
keeping the kitties apart.

From that day on Sammy was Daddy's kitten. Every night when I went to bed
Sammy would climb the covers (he was too small to jump all the way to the
top of the bed), climb up on my chest, and smurgle happily for half an
hour, then fall asleep on my chest.

Enfilade wrote:
what did s/he do?

SNIP

Izzy and Pan: They were both 8 week old bitties who both ran and hid in
the closet in the empty room of my (then) two BR apartment. I had set
up a cat pan, food and water in preparation for the event. I unwisely
tried to follow Izzy and bring her out to get acquainted, but she
escaped and ran back to the closet again with every indication of
horror and disgust. Finally, I got smart, sat down on the floor and
just waited quietly. At last, a little black and white face peered out
from around the sliding door when she could no longer contain her
curiousity. The giant was sitting still! Pan came trotting over to me,
gave me a good inspection then decided I would do for his cat slave.
It took Izzy longer to warm up and venture near me, but she turned out
to be the braver cat as an adult. Pan was the one who managed to get
himself wedged under the refrigerator on his first day home. If you
think I was in a panic, you're right! I kept hearing him call for help,
but couldn't see him until I got down on the floor and looked
carefully. I was able to induce him to back up through gentle pokes
in the chest with a yardstick, thank heavens! I was quite ready to do a
super-hero stunt and at least TRY to lift the fridge up off him!

Izzy just baptized the carpet in an unfortunate way. Once I showed
her the box though, she didn't have any more accidents until she was
very old.

Francesca: I wasn't sure how Pan would take to her, since she was a
strange cat, so I put her in the bathroom with food, water, a bed and a
litter box and slid the door shut. According to the instructions on
the sheet I was given at the animal shelter, I was supposed to keep the
two cats apart, and introduce them in a gradual, specific way.
Well.... In their dreams! The door to my bathroom is a sliding door,
and after she had made a thorough inspection of the bathroom, Francesca
soon figured out how to open it enough to escape. Still being the
obedient new adopter of cats, I put her back in solitary and wedged the
door shut. Francesca sat by the door and cried hearthbreakingingly,
then managed to peel some of the wood veneer off the surface of the
door on her side. Once, when I went in to check on her, she was
sitting on the metal rail at the top of the shower, looking as if she
liked the view. After that first night though, I gave up on trying to
corral her. The first time she met Pan, she muscled herself up, and
hissed right at him. When he made a gentlemanly retreat before this
hysterical young lady, Francesca looked very proud of herself!

NIna: lay in her box with Mama and nursed. =o) When she got a little
older, Francesca started moving her around. One day, when Nina was
about two weeks old, I went into a panic, because the box was empty,
and I couldn't find baby anywhere--until I looked under my bed and
found her curled up in the dust near the head of my bed.

Melissa