Cats

[hazeh]

Well, dreamy as in really fun and awesome to have around. I didn't mean to imply that they were the perfect cats ever x) Though I'll likely just stick to my siamese and subsiamese kitties. <3

[7Deadly$ins]

None of the Bengals I've ever handled could be considered to have a 'dreamy' temperment. They're not easy cats by a long stretch of the imagination. The ones being shown are now much better than they were (anything lower than an F4 can't actualy be registered on the Championship register over here, it has to be registered on the supplemental register) but even so I know several judges that really dislike having to handle them.

I consider them charmingly mischievous. I'm a member of a forum for bengal owners/lovers and I know what I'm getting into, but it honestly doesn't put me off that much.

 

I think some of it definitely comes down to breeder though. Sadly HCM is wracking the population because of rampant breeding for pretty rosettes, which makes me very sad. I think some breeders are caring way to much on coat pattern and not enough on temperament and health.

[TikindiDragon]

I think some of it definitely comes down to breeder though. Sadly HCM is wracking the population because of rampant breeding for pretty rosettes, which makes me very sad. I think some breeders are caring way to much on coat pattern and not enough on temperament and health.

That's been a problem with a lot of the ones being shown in the UK. Because looks are being bred for over temperment, you get some really bad tempered Bengals on the show bench. And, because they're a lot closer to the wild cat than most other breeds, a Bengal with a bad temperment is a completely different kettle of fish to bad tempered cats of almost any other breed.

 

I'm not down on Bengals in any way, btw, I'm just very against the idea of novice cat owners having them. If you've the experience to deal with one then by all means go ahead, I've just heard a lot of people who've never owned a cat saying they want one because they like the looks when they're completely unprepared for what they'd be getting.

 

Rather like people that want to own wolf-hybrids, really.

 

Edit: gah, typos

Edited November 22, 2011 by TikindiDragon

[7Deadly$ins]

That's been a problem with a lot of the ones being shown in the UK. Because looks are being bred for over temperment, you get some really bad tempered Bengals on the show bench. And, because they're a lot closer to the wild cat than most other breeds, a Bengal with a bad temperment is a completely different kettle of fish to bad tempered cats of almost any other breed.

 

I'm not down on Bengals in any way, btw, I'm just very against the idea of novice cat owners having them. If you've the experience to deal with one then by all means go ahead, I've just heard a lot of people who've never owned a cat saying they want one because they like the looks when they're completely unprepared for what they'd be getting.

 

Rather like people that want to own wolf-hybrids, really.

 

Edit: gah, typos

I was like that myself about a year ago; no cat and ready to jump into the Bengal world. I think that some people might be able to handle a Bengal without previous cat experience... but it takes a special person with a lot of time and patience.

 

Even though I'm rather in love with the breed, I still sometimes worry I wouldn't have the proper amount of time to deal with everything, but I do get that they need more attention that your normal cat and that they are much more active and perhaps intelligent. An active, intelligent animal is going to cause some trouble if it gets bored.

 

But I do love cats and I love Bengals and I'd very much like to have one someday. I spend far too much money on my current cat as it is though. I don't really have it in the budget to support another feline, especially not a feline with a start-up fee of $1000+. But one day, maybe.

 

The only thing that I think Tonks have over Bengals, for me, is the cuddly factor. Apparently they're much more suited for snuggles, and my current cat is already a squirmer if you hold him for more than a few seconds. He's very affectionate, on his own terms. But I know just as many people with cuddly Bengals as non-cuddly ones, or at least a handful with cuddly cats.

 

Maybe I WILL just have to convince the boyfriend that three cats is better than two.

[MojcaXX]

I love cats too.They are so cute.I like tigers the most.

[Kanakha]

We've got four cats, and I'm quite positive that's our absolute limit. Ben & Jerry (American shorthair, grey and black respectively) were adopted from a crazy cat lady that had like a googol of cats in and outside her house, Naomi (calico) was rescued from a mobile pet adoption vehicle, and Camo (stray tortie) found us, along with her four other siblings when they were about 4 weeks old. Yes, a full litter of kittens literally found us, but we could only keep Camo. The others are in happy homes now. It's an epic story, really. But I digress.

 

My favorite big cat changes from time to time, but it's usually either a Tiger, a Black Leopard, or a Snow Leopard.

Edited November 23, 2011 by Kanakha

[Galaxivorous]

My life is, like, OWNED by cats! In addition to having 3 cats at the moment, I was born in the year of the tiger and my zodiac sign is Leo. I have never lived without a cat in my house!

[Nerendier]

Heya. So we have 3 cats. We just got the latest one. We're yet to come up with a name. Here are the options:

Ralphy - "You'll shoot your eye out!"

Dizzy - Main character from "The New Guy"

Buddy

Dennis - The Menace

Charlie

 

 

A few things you should know, he's a clutz, his feet are far too big for him, so he's always falling.

 

The other two cats' names are:

Kelly the calico

Rocko - AKA fat boy

Edited November 24, 2011 by Nerendier

[hazeh]

I vote Ralphy 8D Or Dennis. <3

 

But he also reminds me of Charlie Chaplin. So actually I vote that instead. |D

 

Cute boy names, if you're taking suggestions, I think are:

-Bodhi (boe-dee) (was almost my name if I was a boy, actually 8D)

-Lucas

-Leopold (was going to be the name of the bengal kitten we almost got)

-Hamilton

-Gizmo

 

^^;

[earthgirl]

Just popping around with a question that might had been asked and aswered, but I\m just too lazy to search this whole topic.

 

My male cat got fixed yesterday and he is licking the wound(and I believe this is a good thing)... so my question is: how long until his wound heals completely? it doesnt' seem large, just about the size of a small toe. Today it seems smaller than it was yesterday.

[7Deadly$ins]

I only know about female cats, which is a more invasive procedure. But I know with them at least you want to avoid having them mess with the wound because they have stitches they could tear out. I don't know if males get stitches.

[earthgirl]

Nope, males don't get stitches, because their operation is simple: removal of the testicles, without having to cut anything inside, so yeah. It's a tiny wound, but I can't really bear to look at it. I do hope it doesn't take longer than a week, though.

[Cavedragon49990]

Okay, I have a problem here.

 

We put up the Christmas tree yesterday, but since Trouble (aka Alyx) pokes her nose in everything, she's started trying to climb. She can get on the lower branches and lay there, which is causing the fake tree to droop at that area.

 

How do I stop this? We put up shatter-resistant ornaments, but if the tree falls everything will get crushed. And that is NOT something I want.

 

~Cavey

[TikindiDragon]

Okay, I have a problem here.

 

We put up the Christmas tree yesterday, but since Trouble (aka Alyx) pokes her nose in everything, she's started trying to climb. She can get on the lower branches and lay there, which is causing the fake tree to droop at that area.

 

How do I stop this? We put up shatter-resistant ornaments, but if the tree falls everything will get crushed. And that is NOT something I want.

 

~Cavey

The only answer we've ever known is to not allow the cat in the same room as the Christmas tree without someone watching it.

[hazeh]

Nope, males don't get stitches, because their operation is simple: removal of the testicles, without having to cut anything inside, so yeah. It's a tiny wound, but I can't really bear to look at it. I do hope it doesn't take longer than a week, though.

It shouldn't. When my female kitten got fixed, her incision got infected and we had to take her back to the vet so that the dead and infected flesh could be removed and flushed out. Once she was all fixed up, that only took her about a week or a week and a half to heal up, and that was with stitches. As long as your male doesn't get an infection, he should be fine in a few days.

[Silence2]

I only know about female cats, which is a more invasive procedure. But I know with them at least you want to avoid having them mess with the wound because they have stitches they could tear out. I don't know if males get stitches.

Males, from what I've seen, only get stitiches if they are cryptorchid and the testicle(s) is in the abdomen or somewhere in between. But, I can't say that I've seen many of those at all.

 

 

[Cavedragon49990]

The only answer we've ever known is to not allow the cat in the same room as the Christmas tree without someone watching it.

She knocked down a breakable ornament and it broke. And I was with her. So that's not really going to help.

 

~Cavey

[7Deadly$ins]

Well, you had to see her get close to the tree/ornament. She can't break things with her mind.

[marhawkman]

Okay, I have a problem here.

 

We put up the Christmas tree yesterday, but since Trouble (aka Alyx) pokes her nose in everything, she's started trying to climb. She can get on the lower branches and lay there, which is causing the fake tree to droop at that area.

 

How do I stop this? We put up shatter-resistant ornaments, but if the tree falls everything will get crushed. And that is NOT something I want.

 

~Cavey

One approach is to tether the tree to the ceiling somehow. But that might not be doable in your house.

 

And climbing is perfectly normal behavior for cats.

[HuntressX]

I LOVE cats, wild and domestic ones!

Tigers are among my favorites for wild ones.

Our family has a cat, its a ragdoll! It is really pretty! But it is kinda fickle...

 

[hazeh]

She knocked down a breakable ornament and it broke. And I was with her. So that's not really going to help.

 

~Cavey

...Then maybe supervise her better?

[Spinxo]

I used to have over 10 cats, but I let the farmers keep them as barn cats since they were having problems with mice in their barns and around their fields. We lived in an area surrounded by corn fields and that caused a problem. We didn't want the mice to start coming onto our property. I now have 4 cats remaining that I wanted to keep. We have the two sisters who look like twins so I call them The Twins. Their names are Streak and Whisper. Then we have the eldest cat out of them all that we've had in the family for a very long time. She's a tuxedo named Bootsie. Then we have the male cat (recently fixed) he and The Twins were born into our family. He is also a tuxedo, but his name is Oreo.

 

I have a couple of questions that hopefully someone can answer. Oreo is a very shy cat and he's very unsocial to humans. I'm the only one who can really get near him, but very rarely. I take slow movements when I walk near him and try to pet him, but he seems to crouch down like he's going to be smacked. We've never smacked any of them. How can I help him understand that we're not trying to hurt him? He's still upset about us getting him fixed, I figure.

 

The next question is about the cats jumping onto the kitchen counters and tables which is causing a lot of problems in the family. Is there a way that I can keep them from doing this? I'm tired of cleaning the counters where they've been laying all the time, lol. The counters are all white and tile so you can imagine how frustraiting it is.

[TikindiDragon]

She knocked down a breakable ornament and it broke. And I was with her. So that's not really going to help.

 

~Cavey

*shurgs*

 

That's it, I'm afraid. In nearly 30 years of cat ownership I've *never* known of a way to stop a cat climbing a Christmas tree if it's dead set on the idea. Short of shutting it out of the room.

[LADYDRAGONSKEEPER]

I was talking to some friends about the 'nine life' wive's tale.

 

I was wondering how many lifes people figure there cat's have left.

 

Far as I know my boy has all of his though I wander about some of what he does when I'm not around. I think my girl's got seven. She had a close call with the second story window and wound up outside in a bush bawling her head off. And then she tried to run like a cheetah into my bedroom when the door was closed and rattled her brain.

Edited December 6, 2011 by LADYDRAGONSKEEPER

[StarGirl17]

I have four cats. Two of my cats are constantly sleeping under the christmas tree. One cat doesn't care about it and has pretty much only looked at it once or twice and that's it. But the fourth cat is constantly climbing it. He goes right up to the top and sits there. He has ruined the bottom of one of the trees. But we have bells on our tree, so when he climbs it we can hear the jingling from anywhere in the house. From there we just use a squirt bottle to get him down. He's rarely ever up there for more than a minute because of that.

 

That same cat, when we got him fixed, they discovered one of his testicles had went back up inside him at some point, so they had to go inside of him to remove it. He had stitches, but the cut was barely noticeable even with, and he seemed to be better in about a week.

 

I have a cat, who's a year and a half, and we are trying to get him neutered now. Thing is, he is terrified of the sound of cars, and we dont have a car so in order to get him to a vet we have to carry him along a busy road. He can't be put into a carrier, because he gets scared and violent at the sight of it, as well, and when he is inside carriers, he wails extremely loudly. This attracted insane amounts of attention when carrying him. The last time we tried he fought so badly about halfway to the vet that he broke the carrier, sliced my arm open about 6 inches long(which I got a tetanus shot for that I had an allergic reaction to), then escaped and we couldn't get him back in the house for almost 3 weeks. I am extremely hesitant to try it again. He needs to be done though because he is extremely territorial and he has reduced one of my other cats into living in my mom's bedroom closet because he is too scared to go near the other cat.

Edited December 6, 2011 by StarGirl17