cat life
Sunday, 11 March 2018
Simba becomes Simballess!
This is another post about my little cat, Simba, even though we can hardly say he's a little cat anymore now. I like to believe he was born on July 31st (at least that feels the estimation) so that makes him around seven months now, with 3.5kg and with his own Instagram account. He's still a little terrorist and I've no answers for the letter I wrote him about two months ago but there's been little progress when it comes to answering his name. I'm pretty sure he know his name is Simba by now, but most of the times chooses to ignore it. He does respond very well to "Let's go eat, Simba?".
We took Simba to the vet last friday, who told us he was completely developped by now and he recommended neutereing him as soon as possible to avoid problems at home. We always knew we were going to neuter him. It made no sense to us to expose him to the torture the mating season is and we'd avoid all the territorial marking we still hadn't seen but weren't very keen to. So we scheduled it for the next day (do you get the pun in the title now? see what I did there?) and that meant he couldn't eat anything that afternoon and the morning before the surgery. That was the most complicated part because, as a little terrorist, he usually manages to find food we didn't even know it was there and sometimes, goes through various levels of "security" to reach the food such as a bag inside a bag under a lot of tupperwares on top of the balcony. That's how much of gluton he is, it's indeed a real problem!
So the morning after he got inside the transporter fairly easily, unlike every other time and I took him to the vet. Despite being reassured this was a very easy surgery it's a surgery nontheless so I spent the day worried about my "little" 3.5kg kitten. Since he would be asleep, the vet would also take some blood to test him for FIV, which is the Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (equivalent to the human HIV) and FeLV, the Feline Leukemia Virus. Both diseases, even the virus themselves are not letal, means his immunity would be reduced and a simple cold means endless headaches since his immune system can't fight it properly. They're very easily transmited: fights, scratches or even saliva and sand boxes. Because we didn't know anything about his past, we were very worried he would test positive for any of these as they will eventually impact his quality of life.
Thankfully, when I picked him up, I was informed he had tested negative for both diseases. He was already awake and ready to go when I got there. The vet told me he could be a little dizzy and aggressive because of the anesthesia and may even vomit, so we would have to keep him confined to a dark room with no food and make water available to him only after midnight. We would also have to desinfect his scars twice a day, which in itself proved to be a challenge because I'm almost sure Simba is bipolar: he is a tiger with us and a kitten with the vet.
He reacted better than we expected. He got out of the transporter like it had been just another visit to the vet. We didn't find him dizzy and he didn't vomit. He was our little old Simba, ready for another one! I think he didn't even noticed something was missing! Yesterday we returned to the vet with him, who confirmed he was healing very well. Of course, it will take a maximum of six weeks for the hormones to completely leave his system, which means we will have to be even more careful with food near him because both his appetite and lazyness will increase, so the risk of getting fat will too. I am not sure if this will make the running like a mad cat disappear, or the nighttime crazy activity but I do hope it calms him down somewhat. Like I said, he is a bipolar cat: oftentimes he is cuddling with us on the sofa and the next moment he is running around like crazy without a purpose.
While talking about this recent news with a friend, I learned that in the first-language English countries you don't castrate your pets but "neuter", "spay" or "fix" them instead because of the torture association with the first word. I guess here in Portugal we're still slightly barbaric because we only call it "castration" or "spaying" but mostly castration. I understand the "neuter" word but I am still not sure what is there to "fix" besides possibly their behaviour.
Do you think we should neuter our pets? Let me know about your opinion and don't forget that you can follow my Simba's adventures on Instagram!
We took Simba to the vet last friday, who told us he was completely developped by now and he recommended neutereing him as soon as possible to avoid problems at home. We always knew we were going to neuter him. It made no sense to us to expose him to the torture the mating season is and we'd avoid all the territorial marking we still hadn't seen but weren't very keen to. So we scheduled it for the next day (do you get the pun in the title now? see what I did there?) and that meant he couldn't eat anything that afternoon and the morning before the surgery. That was the most complicated part because, as a little terrorist, he usually manages to find food we didn't even know it was there and sometimes, goes through various levels of "security" to reach the food such as a bag inside a bag under a lot of tupperwares on top of the balcony. That's how much of gluton he is, it's indeed a real problem!
So the morning after he got inside the transporter fairly easily, unlike every other time and I took him to the vet. Despite being reassured this was a very easy surgery it's a surgery nontheless so I spent the day worried about my "little" 3.5kg kitten. Since he would be asleep, the vet would also take some blood to test him for FIV, which is the Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (equivalent to the human HIV) and FeLV, the Feline Leukemia Virus. Both diseases, even the virus themselves are not letal, means his immunity would be reduced and a simple cold means endless headaches since his immune system can't fight it properly. They're very easily transmited: fights, scratches or even saliva and sand boxes. Because we didn't know anything about his past, we were very worried he would test positive for any of these as they will eventually impact his quality of life.
Thankfully, when I picked him up, I was informed he had tested negative for both diseases. He was already awake and ready to go when I got there. The vet told me he could be a little dizzy and aggressive because of the anesthesia and may even vomit, so we would have to keep him confined to a dark room with no food and make water available to him only after midnight. We would also have to desinfect his scars twice a day, which in itself proved to be a challenge because I'm almost sure Simba is bipolar: he is a tiger with us and a kitten with the vet.
He reacted better than we expected. He got out of the transporter like it had been just another visit to the vet. We didn't find him dizzy and he didn't vomit. He was our little old Simba, ready for another one! I think he didn't even noticed something was missing! Yesterday we returned to the vet with him, who confirmed he was healing very well. Of course, it will take a maximum of six weeks for the hormones to completely leave his system, which means we will have to be even more careful with food near him because both his appetite and lazyness will increase, so the risk of getting fat will too. I am not sure if this will make the running like a mad cat disappear, or the nighttime crazy activity but I do hope it calms him down somewhat. Like I said, he is a bipolar cat: oftentimes he is cuddling with us on the sofa and the next moment he is running around like crazy without a purpose.
While talking about this recent news with a friend, I learned that in the first-language English countries you don't castrate your pets but "neuter", "spay" or "fix" them instead because of the torture association with the first word. I guess here in Portugal we're still slightly barbaric because we only call it "castration" or "spaying" but mostly castration. I understand the "neuter" word but I am still not sure what is there to "fix" besides possibly their behaviour.
Do you think we should neuter our pets? Let me know about your opinion and don't forget that you can follow my Simba's adventures on Instagram!
Sunday, 28 January 2018
An Open Letter to My Cat: Questions I Have
As you might know by now, I recently got a cat. You can check his background and some tips of what you should and should avoid doing when you get a cat yourself in my last post. So Simba is around five months now, getting more and more comfortable every day and on his way to become an Instagram top model. We're hoping he doesn't start marking his territory for a while but we know he'll start doing very soon (another trip to the vet will be scheduled as soon as that happens).
While we're very happy he's in our lives, we still got a few issues. And by issues I mean we have some questions we'd love if he could answer so this is my open letter to my cat.
"Dear Simba,
Hopefully you look at us as more than the humans who feed you twice a day and occasionally rub your fur. I know we had a rough start and you took a while to warm up to these humans but after two or three weeks you started showing typical cat behaviours towards us. However, there are a few questions we'd like you to answer because those still baffle us.
1- How can you ALWAYS be hungry?
You've turned out to be a HUGE gluton, dear Simba. You're always begging for food and we can't leave the cupboards open for thirty seconds because you come out of nowhere and when we look again, you're searching for (and most times finding) something to eat. We know you've recently gotten the habit, which we're trying to work on, of climbing onto the kitchen counters to eat the food we sometimes leave there. You've even been able to work around the microwave protection I left on top of my breakfast bowl and managed to feast on it! While we're on it, please let your obsession with the trash can go, the food there is not for you.
You also got recently obsessed with your 4kg food bag and even managed to open the wardrobe it was in to get to it! We're running out of places within my reach but out of yours to hide it in!
2 - Why are you very still and suddenly start running around like a mad cat?
You know the situation. You're standing very still, your tail wagging left and right and suddenly you start running somewhere like your life depends on it. We, humans, are suspicious you somehow have access to a paralel world and when you do that it's because your life is being threatened in that other dimension but we'd like to have your input on it.
3 - What do you see in rugs?
You have an obsession with rugs. I don't know what you see in them but you like to stretch and put your claws out and do some weird movements on them we still haven't understood. You do this quite a lot during the morning, when I'm trying to not wake up, so I will give you food. We'd like to, so please do explan why you do this.
4 - What's up with the bites?
Sometimes we're having a petting session and you're enjoying it very much (I can hear you purr!) and after a while you just bite us out of nowhere. It's a light bite, yes, but what's up with that? Why do you do that and how can we make you see it's not okay to bite us, even if they're not meant to harm (at least I don't think so anyway)?
5 - Why do you ignore it when we call you by your name?
You've been Simba for two month now. We've been calling "Let's go, Simba, let's go eat" every time we feed you. We've been saying your name every time we pet you. Yet, you still don't respond when we call Simba. By now, we're almost sure you just don't care what your name is.
If you know the answers to any of these questions, or any other tips in general (like how to make him stop going after his food bag), please don't hesitate in commenting, because these are truly intriguing behaviours. Meanwhile, don't forget that you can follow my Simba's adventures on Instagram!
While we're very happy he's in our lives, we still got a few issues. And by issues I mean we have some questions we'd love if he could answer so this is my open letter to my cat.
"Dear Simba,
Hopefully you look at us as more than the humans who feed you twice a day and occasionally rub your fur. I know we had a rough start and you took a while to warm up to these humans but after two or three weeks you started showing typical cat behaviours towards us. However, there are a few questions we'd like you to answer because those still baffle us.
1- How can you ALWAYS be hungry?
You've turned out to be a HUGE gluton, dear Simba. You're always begging for food and we can't leave the cupboards open for thirty seconds because you come out of nowhere and when we look again, you're searching for (and most times finding) something to eat. We know you've recently gotten the habit, which we're trying to work on, of climbing onto the kitchen counters to eat the food we sometimes leave there. You've even been able to work around the microwave protection I left on top of my breakfast bowl and managed to feast on it! While we're on it, please let your obsession with the trash can go, the food there is not for you.
You also got recently obsessed with your 4kg food bag and even managed to open the wardrobe it was in to get to it! We're running out of places within my reach but out of yours to hide it in!
2 - Why are you very still and suddenly start running around like a mad cat?
You know the situation. You're standing very still, your tail wagging left and right and suddenly you start running somewhere like your life depends on it. We, humans, are suspicious you somehow have access to a paralel world and when you do that it's because your life is being threatened in that other dimension but we'd like to have your input on it.
3 - What do you see in rugs?
You have an obsession with rugs. I don't know what you see in them but you like to stretch and put your claws out and do some weird movements on them we still haven't understood. You do this quite a lot during the morning, when I'm trying to not wake up, so I will give you food. We'd like to, so please do explan why you do this.
4 - What's up with the bites?
Sometimes we're having a petting session and you're enjoying it very much (I can hear you purr!) and after a while you just bite us out of nowhere. It's a light bite, yes, but what's up with that? Why do you do that and how can we make you see it's not okay to bite us, even if they're not meant to harm (at least I don't think so anyway)?
5 - Why do you ignore it when we call you by your name?
You've been Simba for two month now. We've been calling "Let's go, Simba, let's go eat" every time we feed you. We've been saying your name every time we pet you. Yet, you still don't respond when we call Simba. By now, we're almost sure you just don't care what your name is.
With love,
Vera (the human)"
If you know the answers to any of these questions, or any other tips in general (like how to make him stop going after his food bag), please don't hesitate in commenting, because these are truly intriguing behaviours. Meanwhile, don't forget that you can follow my Simba's adventures on Instagram!
Sunday, 7 January 2018
The Family Is Growing (Or Dos and Don'ts When You Get A Cat)
I have been living with the boyfriend for a while now and we had always agreed that once we moved we'd do this since it was something we'd always been looking forward to: we'd go to an animal shelter and get a cat. So we did that. We visited a couple of places to choose (or get chosed by) a cat and there were a lot of internet searches and cat pictures involved in this process. And we eventually fell in love with a little orange one from Amor ao Gato (Cat Love, in English), a small association which helps street cats in Odivelas finding a home, a city and a municipality in Lisbon Metropolitan Area. We were told he was three months old, had been found in a box in the trash and was still a bit scared. We decided to bring him home with us after looking at his pretty little pink snout. We then entered a discussion, going back and forth throwing names, always somehow movie related. This lasted a few days until we reached a final name for him: Simba.
And thus, an alternative title for this post: Dos and Don'ts When You Get A Cat. It's possible this is only the first part of a series of posts. Noobies as we were, we forgot pretty much everything we'd previously read. So here's a few tricks of things we wished we could have done differently or things we've learned so far, hoping to help some beginner cat owners out there:
1) Before you let your new cat out make sure you have covered all the holes your house has. This includes the space between the stove, the machines, the fridge and SPECIALLY that hole you don't even know you have behind the bidet. Yep, he decided to hide inside that.
2) Let the new cat out of the transporter where his space will be (where the food and sand box are) so he knows where everything is.
3) And close the door of said space so he doesn't bolt to an unknown hole you haven't covered yet.
4) If you ignored all the previous steps and the cat ends up in an unknown hole don't try to make him come out of it because he'll get even more scared. He'll eventually grow hungry and tired of being hidden, he'll know where his food is. When the cat finally comes out, quickly do step 3 and then 1.
5) Keep the door closed and spend time with the new cat so he gets used to you and his new space.
6) Be patient on this part of the process. Don't give up. It's a new situation, most likely stressful to the cat so be patient with him. Let him set his own flow.
7) After the cat is more used to you, you can let him explore the house a little bit more, opening one room at the time. Leave the problematic rooms with potential hiding spots for last (such as the kitchen and the bathrooms).
8) Make sure you ALWAYS have your windows closed. And if you have to open it, make sure the cat is not inside the room and then close the door.
9) Don't buy any noisy toys because after a while you'll get tired of getting up in the middle of the night to put it out of reach. Aluminium foil balls work just fine, honestly.
10) Don't switch the cat's food all of a sudden. If they're used to a certain brand of food, start mixing the new food you want to give him with the old one and go from there so he doesn't get gastro-intestinal problems.
As I previously said, Simba was very scared when he first arrived home but we've seen him get more confident every day to the point he sleeps at my feet, joined us on the sofa and decides to join us at the table when we're having dinner (we weren't too thrilled about this last one). We laugh when he decides he's a dog trapped in a cat's body and starts to meow at us whenver we arrive home so we give him food or when he decides to chase his own tail. We took him to the vet last week, who confirmed his age (he's around 4 months now) and behaved so well, I couldn't believe my eyes. I was expecting him to bolt to a dark corner once I let him out of the transporter but he stayed very still and cooperated very well.
We're still trying to make him respond when we call him. We've been calling him whenever we feed or pet him but still with no success. Do cat experts have any tips for this? Or any tips at all, to be honest, as we're open to every kind of useful tip.
All in all, it's been a great expercience so far and we're very happy we gave him a home. Don't buy a pet, adopt one!
And thus, an alternative title for this post: Dos and Don'ts When You Get A Cat. It's possible this is only the first part of a series of posts. Noobies as we were, we forgot pretty much everything we'd previously read. So here's a few tricks of things we wished we could have done differently or things we've learned so far, hoping to help some beginner cat owners out there:
1) Before you let your new cat out make sure you have covered all the holes your house has. This includes the space between the stove, the machines, the fridge and SPECIALLY that hole you don't even know you have behind the bidet. Yep, he decided to hide inside that.
2) Let the new cat out of the transporter where his space will be (where the food and sand box are) so he knows where everything is.
3) And close the door of said space so he doesn't bolt to an unknown hole you haven't covered yet.
4) If you ignored all the previous steps and the cat ends up in an unknown hole don't try to make him come out of it because he'll get even more scared. He'll eventually grow hungry and tired of being hidden, he'll know where his food is. When the cat finally comes out, quickly do step 3 and then 1.
5) Keep the door closed and spend time with the new cat so he gets used to you and his new space.
6) Be patient on this part of the process. Don't give up. It's a new situation, most likely stressful to the cat so be patient with him. Let him set his own flow.
7) After the cat is more used to you, you can let him explore the house a little bit more, opening one room at the time. Leave the problematic rooms with potential hiding spots for last (such as the kitchen and the bathrooms).
8) Make sure you ALWAYS have your windows closed. And if you have to open it, make sure the cat is not inside the room and then close the door.
9) Don't buy any noisy toys because after a while you'll get tired of getting up in the middle of the night to put it out of reach. Aluminium foil balls work just fine, honestly.
10) Don't switch the cat's food all of a sudden. If they're used to a certain brand of food, start mixing the new food you want to give him with the old one and go from there so he doesn't get gastro-intestinal problems.
As I previously said, Simba was very scared when he first arrived home but we've seen him get more confident every day to the point he sleeps at my feet, joined us on the sofa and decides to join us at the table when we're having dinner (we weren't too thrilled about this last one). We laugh when he decides he's a dog trapped in a cat's body and starts to meow at us whenver we arrive home so we give him food or when he decides to chase his own tail. We took him to the vet last week, who confirmed his age (he's around 4 months now) and behaved so well, I couldn't believe my eyes. I was expecting him to bolt to a dark corner once I let him out of the transporter but he stayed very still and cooperated very well.
We're still trying to make him respond when we call him. We've been calling him whenever we feed or pet him but still with no success. Do cat experts have any tips for this? Or any tips at all, to be honest, as we're open to every kind of useful tip.
All in all, it's been a great expercience so far and we're very happy we gave him a home. Don't buy a pet, adopt one!
You can follow my Simba's adventures on Instagram, I'll be sure to keep it updated.
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