The Pet Thread

TheSameIdiot said:
I'm sure your cat appreciates your exhaustive efforts to save him. My wife and I "joke" that our cats understand us. Every weekend, we'll tell them it's movie night, and sure enough, they all immediately get up and gather around the living room. Of course they don't understand English, but there does seem to be a deeper understanding there than repetition or learned behavior.
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I've no doubt that they understand us to some degree. Just like a dog understands when you say things like "drive", "walk", "ball", etc., so do cats. Garrus always assumes the position whenever I mention "scratchies", and you best believe I've had to start spelling words like "tuna" and "treats" because he'll immediately run to his food bowl if I say the full word, even in contexts that have nothing to do with him. I never even really said the word "tuna" when giving it to him before, but he still seems to know. And he certainly knows when I'm having a bad or rough day, even if I'm not outwardly expressing it. It's odd. Even if it's just as simple as pattern recognition, like how people can parse out words or meanings in foreign languages they don't speak, but may know a word or two, animals are smart like that. Who knows- maybe it's something left over from our time as monkeys and pets' pre-domestication, there's some of that animal instinct left over.

And they absolutely do know when we go that extra mile or do something nice for them (they certainly know when we don't give them their favorite food or something, so why not the opposite?), so I have no doubt that Oliver knows how hard Ace fought for him.

Then again, my fluffy wuffy bb can do no wrong, so maybe this is all the delusional, annoying pet parent in me talking. 😅
 
Ace, So sorry you and your wife had to go through that. Sound just horrible, but so glad Oliver is doing much better.
 
Bit of an off-the-wall question... what kind of litter do you cat owners use? We've been using Fresh Step for years. We tried two new brands over the last few months (Arm & Hammer and Purina Tidy Cats). They're both cheaper than Fresh Step and didn't clump worth shit. It probably tripled my time cleaning the litter box. Do you all have a brand you like? I don't have any problems with Fresh Step, but it's relatively expensive compared to the others.
 
We use the Arm & Hammer Slide Multi-Cat and it seems to work for us. We've tried a bunch of others but couldn't find anything we liked. I think the Purina was the one that ended up all over our fucking house because it would get stuck in their paws.
 
I mostly use the Arm & Hammer Clump n Seal with odor blasters. Sounds like you may have already tried it, but oddly it's pretty much the only kind that'll work for my lil guy clump-wise. I use it mostly because it's fairly dust-free and is the only one I've tried that doesn't send him into a sneezing fit, but it also clumps and covers up the stank pretty well. It's a multi-cat kind, apparently, but I only have one kitty, so that may be why it works so well; your mileage may vary.
 
I haven't been allowed to have a cat in many years now, but when I was single-with-cat, I always loved Johnny Cat. Mostly because of the name.
 
We have two cats, and have one of these. It works great. I change it once a week with the two cats. I have the replacement little on automatic delivery from Amazon. That's about $60 every 3 weeks(ish). I haven't noticed any kind of excess odors. My wife keeps trying to tell me we need this one, but I ignore it. She's not changing the one we have now, and it works just fine.
 
Damien said:
Allowed?
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Well... my wife likes cats but would prefer not having them, and that intensified when we learned my son is seriously allergic. He got really good about washing his hands after petting any, and it's not as bad as it used to be, but better to not.
 
Damien said:
Anders is the newest addition...
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You do pronounce that with a hard "on", right?
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Ru1977 said:
Well... my wife likes cats but would prefer not having them, and that intensified when we learned my son is seriously allergic. He got really good about washing his hands after petting any, and it's not as bad as it used to be, but better to not.
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This is a weird thing, and do take it with a grain of salt, but I was allergic to cats and dogs for a long time. I read somewhere that Siamese, Burmese and one other breed I can never remember have some slight difference in their dander that makes them not trigger allergies for some folks. My ex had a Siamese and turns out I'm one of the lucky few. Lived with that cat for like 8 years and loved finally having a pet I could hang with sans issues. When he passed on we got another one and I still have him and no issues. In fact in the intervening years I've noticed my allergies towards cats in general have waned. Not sure if that's just psychological or if the difference and age has reset some part of my immune system.

Not saying go grab a Siamese today or whatever, obviously be very careful with allergies, but it might be worth seeing if they set off your son as badly. It worked for me and having a pet (despite my current little guy's penchant for ruining my sleep) has been a MASSIVE benefit for my mental health.

It's possible I just aged out of my period with worse allergies and it happened to coincide with getting a cat, but I figured I'd mention.
 
We actually did find that out about Siamese and Burmese but... I can't handle Siamese personalities heh. My mom's best friend had a Siamese and that thing talked non-stop! But yeah, hoping he grows more or less out of it.
 
Ru1977 said:
We actually did find that out about Siamese and Burmese but... I can't handle Siamese personalities heh. My mom's best friend had a Siamese and that thing talked non-stop! But yeah, hoping he grows more or less out of it.
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They are *very* chatty. That said, they are whip-smart and every Siamese I've met was sweet as the day is long. For me at least it's been a good trade. They're like the yippy dogs of the cat world. How could I not love this guy?


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