Caturday...

[Laura 20]

Thankfully she's ready litter trained (not that it stopped our other two pissing in our shoes every so often!). It seems she's taken a liking to one of your old pals too Paul.

 

[Roz_Bennetts 2]

[andydclements 755]

Cat's opinion, basket has shrunk.

[Roz_Bennetts 2]

Hehe yes

[Bibs 11,146]

 

[Roz_Bennetts 2]

Oh wow - I thought that was a spoof video till half way through. I suppose for people with house cats it might work but it all seems a bit complicated with all that plumbing needed.

[andydclements 755]

Ours will still yowl while sitting near the door, giving such volume you'll think he's not near the door but beside your ear.

 

Over the winter with frozen tubs etc he found there was no fresh water outside so begrudgingly started drinking the water we put down but then decided the water in the shower tray was nicer, so we started running the tap and so he drinks from the sink.

Now he comes from outside (it may not be warm but the water is now liquid again) and yowls for water, looking at the sink. He has his humans trained too well.

[Bibs 11,146]

We have a catit water fountain. Perhaps give one a try if running water is the answer?

[Vulcan Grey 251]

Anyone see "the Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret"?

 

In the first episode he leaves his cat alone in his apartment, in the US, with a huge bowl of food, as he leaves for a new job... in the UK...   He also leaves the windows open for the cat... and every other animal.

 

It's very painful to watch, but can be very funny.

[andydclements 755]

An equation for you.

Cat + Dog = Shirt.

 

 

 

 

The solution relies upon you understanding how much force it takes for a fully grown average size adult male cat to jump from somebody's arms/chest to a point on a staircase approx 2/3 of the way to the first floor. You then have to compare that force to that which a shirt can withstand when subjected to it all via one single claw.

 

Oh well http://www.etonshirts.co.uk I must have worn it at least six times.

[Bibs 11,146]

Cat in a shark suit on a Roomba chasing a duckling. Nice.

 

[Simon350S 192]

LOL that's pretty special!

[Skaffen 57]

There's a nice animated gif snapshot from that video...

 

Makes it look a bit more sinister than it actually is (although it's damn odd, whichever way you look at it!)

Now for some cats which haven't been forced into costumes ... I have a couple of kittens (well they're 9 months old now, so not looking quite as kitten ish). One is a Bengal and the other is an Abyssinian.

Loki:




Theo:




The pair of them:




And a short video clip...

[Bibs 11,146]

[Simon350S 192]

Bengal......

I REALLY fancy one of those! What are they like to keep?

[Skaffen 57]

Simon,

 

Well I've only got experience of this one Bengal and I've only had him since October (when he was 3 months old)! They have a reputation as a breed for being fairly active, strong, energetic, inquisitive, interactive and intelligent and that's been my experience of him so far. They can also be fairly talkative - Loki's actually not that talkative much of the time, but he has his moments (including mad episodes of shouting at the ceiling corners of the room). They're known as a large breed, although that tends to be more with the males than the females (and that's an average - so you can still get some which are more normal cat weight as well as the big ones). Loki's dad was 7kg and Loki's already 5.6kg himself (and probably has a little more growing, although as he's been neutered I don't know if he'll reach quite the weight of his dad). They're actually very dense due to being very muscular and with their short coat they don't look their weight, but you really notice it when you pick them up. Other traits that spring to mind - they can be fans of water, which means the usual trick of using a water pistol to discourage behaviours can back fire . They're very athletic - Bengals love to do back flips when trying to swat at wand toys and can jump really high when doing so, and they also like to vault off surfaces.

 

One of my previous cats was an Abyssinian (like Theo) and they're also a fairly interactive breed. Like most of the more intelligent cat breeds Bengals do need attention/keeping occupied a bit more of the time, especially with the amount of energy they have, otherwise there's perhaps a higher risk of destructive behaviours developing. I got the Bengal and Abyssinian both aged 3 months and they arrived a day apart - within a week they'd bonded like siblings and keep one another occupied, although both do seek out attention from me and my other half (actually the Abyssinian has turned out to be the more needy/demanding in this regard!).

 

I've always kept my cats as mostly-indoor cats. I don't have a back garden, and although I'm on a residential road the cars do zip past at a fair old rate so I'm very cautious. My previous two cats I did eventually allow some supervised access to outside (very carefully done) and they were fairly cautious about it and pretty good about not going far.  Bengals are probably a bit more risky to let have outdoor access than your average cat - their distinctive look and reputation as being expensive will make them higher risk for theft. However Bengals have a reputation as being easy to train to be comfortable being on a leash and a lot of owners do walk their cats (which is more of a guided explore than dog-style walking, mind you). Loki took to it straight away, he didn't freak out at the walking jacket nor the leash, and he now gets excited when I pick up the walking jacket as he knows what it means.

 

So vexing things with Loki... He likes to launch himself from the cat climbing platform at the top of the curtains to just dangle from his claws (even though I clip the tips off he can still get a good grip). He's fond of swinging from any clothes which are hanging up. He likes to push small things off surfaces in the lounge and watch them drop, so the mantelpiece now only has a couple of lightweight ornaments stuck down with blu-tak . Anything dangling (blind pulls are one favourite) he'll try swat at. He briefly had a habit of trying to climb me, but he thankfully kicked that habit - he now sometimes bounds up to me like a puppy and puts his paws up against my leg to say hello but keeps his claws in. All pretty minor stuff though.

 

If you do look seriously at getting one it's worth researching good breeders as there's sadly a lot of crap ones around. It's important the breeder socialises the kittens well as that helps reduce the risk of bad behavioural traits. There's a bit of prestige around getting earlier generation bengals (i.e. less generations from a crossing with an Asian Leopard Cat - often termed F1, F2, F3 etc) but they're best avoided as the resulting temperament is less predictable and there's a higher likelyhood (almost guaranteed with F1s and F2s) of a wild cat nature which just makes them a handful and likely to be crap pets.

 

Phew... bit of a ramble all that . There's a website "bengal cat forums" which is great for advice and info. The "Behaviour" forum is worth a look for people posting about problems they have, just to get an idea of the risks (although most people don't have these problems, and some of them can be mitigated by choosing the right breeder).

 

Anyway, another video clip of Loki:

[andydclements 755]

We have behaviour issues with a Bengal cat in the area, namely it picking fights with every other cat. Even our (previously fearless ginger tom now tries to keep out its way when it comes through his territory. That said, it's apparently a very affectionate cat that's great with the children of the family that own him, he just wants to rule all other cats in the area.

[basalte 108]

I have got into watching "My Cat From Hell" on Animal Planet-cat behaviourist Mr. Jackson Galaxy travels to homes in the USA with cat issues (aggressive / traumatised/fractious moggies)  and seems to have a good record of solving them, if the happy interviewed cat owners are anything to go by. 

The Bengal seems to feature more than most on the programme as a cat that has lots of energy and must be kept busy with playing and is troublesome and aggressive if not allowed to dissipate their energy-they also seem amenable to be taken for walks in the area to get used to other cats.

As for Sparly the ginger tomcat that comes round to us most days , he`s only got two problems. And they`re both between his back legs.

[Skaffen 57]

I suspect problematic Bengals may crop up a bit more often in part (or perhaps largely) because they're currently a fashionable breed because of their looks. So they're popular with "backyard breeders" because they're of being in demand and fetching a decent price and those breeders have a breeding programme consists of churning out kittens rather than caring about the breed development, and those types also don't tend to socialise the kittens and can let them go to early as well which can lead to behavioural problems. Plus they don't educate the prospective owners and will sell to anyone, and usually don't bother with pedigree registration (which involves extra cost and adhering to codes of conduct). And people who are inexperienced cat owners may often buy them for their looks without appreciating what cat ownership, especially of an active breed like the Bengal, involves/needs.

[andydclements 755]

That could possibly sum up the owner of the nearby Bengal, they do bread them and another cat owner nearby had a female Bengal, when she decided to sell it she refused to sell it to them.

[Bibs 11,146]

Do they deep fry them too?

[rogerch 63]

 

Now that's a cat.

[andydclements 755]

Darn, too reliant upon a combination of spell check and grammar check to notice it shod have been an e not an a.

[Bibs 11,146]

New game...

 

 

[Skaffen 57]

Is it Caturday again already? It must be!

 

First, here's my Bengal, Loki, goin' for a walk...

Loki

 

Loki

 

Then we have Theo guarding the front door...

Theo

 

And finally Theo going mental over a new toy mouse (it's the "Ratatouille" from the Frenzy Cat Toys range) - I've not seen him go so insane over a toy since he was a properly small kitten...

Theo and the Ratatouille

 

I also have a short video clip of him shortly after, showing quite how into the toy he is...