A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

Hi everyone.its been busy a bit lately and a ood part of that has been cats. We just dd our big yosemite trip with our 3 dogs. The weather was rainy but still couldn't have been better. Sometimes walked 8 miles around playing guitar and still it only started raining just as I got back to camp. Thanks God. Tents had almost no water. Clouds made great pictures.
But the timing was terrible due to cats. I have an old lady renting our granny flat she has 3 cats. she is less and less capable but all 3 cats had litters. Over the last 10 weeks. AND one of her cats became ours somehow last year as a semi feral. Well she got pregnant and had kittens 2 w eeks before the trip. The feral, Luna, seemed to really tame up to me so I kept her and the kittens in my room. As l left I had my mom take her t keep an eye at her house. Well luna freaked and my mom couldn't find her for days. We thought the kittens would starve. Anyway my mom couldn't handle it so we had her stop them at the animal shelter where they could take care of the kittens. This is all going on while my mom had a kitten she got from my renter while fostering another that was near feral. My sister in law was taming 2 others while she really wanted a cute 3rd one that my renter would not help her get. If this sounds complicated it's actually many times worse I just don't want to type that much. this whole time I have a very special cat named slappy. I call her in every night to feed so she doesn't get eaten by coyotes like a few others suspect. Sweet girl loves us and handles the dogs like a pro.

Anyway we get back. The pound fixed Luna the kittens are perfect and up for adoption and as a feral they offer us Luna back as she seems completely feral. Whe she sees me she she finally relaxes. So we take her back and I put her in my room to recuperate for a day or so. She spends about 2 hours looking for her kittens. Then she starts to come up to me and is in a state of pure bliss. Purring and rolling and biting and hugging. Like catnip high. So hooray except. Slappy my great cat hates her. They were fine greeting each other in the patio but now Luna is in HER room and taking attention from HER daddy. The whole night slappy is sulking and growling and hissing. There was some of this when Luna was in the room with kittens but she was mostly on the floor to the side. Now that Luna is purring g and won't leave me alone slappy is miserable. If I try and hold her and comfort her she growls and for the first time ever I'm actually afraid to have my face near her. I'm afraid she won't come in at night when I call her.
Any of the cat experts know a good way to make cats friends?

Jeez that was long

Feliway?

Seriously don't know, but our two cats are brothers and try to kill each other when the Feliway runs out.

And the dumber one tries to pee on any plastic he can find on the floor. Or rubber boots.

Now I am wondering why I didn't just get a dog.

Feed them some really special treats together. ??
Smoked salmon is the strongest treat I've had to use as a behavior bribe.

Like @Partscaster said, use some special food and try to get them to tolerate eating next to each other. Sardines, tuna, whatever they'll go crazy over. Also, try to get them to play with you at the same time. Use a laser pointer, string, whatever they respond to.

Cats can be extremely jealous and hold epic grudges, both against other cats and people.

Maybe you should keep Slappy in a few nights for her safety, at least until you make up with her. A cat out all night who is not used to the danger out there can get in big trouble.

All this talk about cats made me remember Tigger my cat that died a little over 2 years ago. She was a 2 month old rescue kitten when my 2 grandaughters and I got her from a local shelter. I remember she stayed hidden the first few days after we brought her home and we left her alone to acclimate to her new environment. She lived 15 years and gave us much more than we ever gave her except vet visits, she would have nothing to do with any of us for a couple of days after a vet visit. It's absolutely amazing how much a pet becomes a part of the family and how attached you become to them. I sure miss that cat she was almost like another child.

Tigger

Miss Purrl

Partscaster wrote: ↑Sat Jun 17, 2023 8:00 pm Feed them some really special treats together. ??
Smoked salmon is the strongest treat I've had to use as a behavior bribe.

Throw in a bagel and i'll duke it out with the cats for that !

I don't have a lot of personal experience to offer (my cats get along well) but I do know that cats can be pretty good at holding grudges like toomanycats says; I know some people who have cats that won't be in the same room together even after years of living together. But I do recommend Feliway, as well as calming collars if your cats will tolerate them.

Partscaster wrote: ↑Sat Jun 17, 2023 8:00 pm Feed them some really special treats together. ??
Smoked salmon is the strongest treat I've had to use as a behavior bribe.

Actually I was exactly using salmon food they love. They purrsnarl when they eat it.
It didn't help.

Every time I see the title of this thread, I am reminded why I don't have any cats. Tripping in the way-back time machine, we used to record and mix down on large reel analog tape. One of my collaborators had a cat that would laze around while we worked. I think the cat got mesmerized by the loose tail of a spinning tape on the master recorder. The tape poked up at the center where you loaded it, and would look like a dizzy carousel rider as the tape spun. Cats love moving things...

We finished recording a tough song and went to lunch, leaving his cat in the studio. When we returned, there was mangled tape all over the floor and a guilty cat just going "What?". He apparently pulled it off the reels of the powered off multitrack and did some chewing. We had to cut that tape and re-record the whole piece from scratch, and it was not as good as we remembered the first master to be. The cat was never invited back.

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Wed Jun 21, 2023 12:00 pm Every time I see the title of this thread, I am reminded why I don't have any cats. Tripping in the way-back time machine, we used to record and mix down on large reel analog tape. One of my collaborators had a cat that would laze around while we worked. I think the cat got mesmerized by the loose tail of a spinning tape on the master recorder. The tape poked up at the center where you loaded it, and would look like a dizzy carousel rider as the tape spun. Cats love moving things...

We finished recording a tough song and went to lunch, leaving his cat in the studio. When we returned, there was mangled tape all over the floor and a guilty cat just going "What?". He apparently pulled it off the reels of the powered off multitrack and did some chewing. We had to cut that tape and re-record the whole piece from scratch, and it was not as good as we remembered the first master to be. The cat was never invited back.

Yes. I still find pieces of my favorite headphones wires in different places in my room sometimes.