Shelly, how is the new cat?

Weeellllllll, Minnie realized about 48 hours ago that in addition to behind the stove, there were places in the LR where she could hide also.

So now it is completely impossible to relax in my own home b/c I'm going completely insane w/Max & Cosmo constantly trying to get at her. She's behind the couch, she's under the coffee table, she's under the loveseat.......they're scrambling, growling, hissing, spitting, barking.......I actually had to crate Max last night so I could get to sleep on the couch! And I'm pretty sure Minnie knows exactly what she's doing. She's teasing the crap out of my poor dumb dogs.

<sigh> I guess I should be grateful she hasn't discovered the tree yet.
 
>I'm pretty sure Minnie knows exactly what she's doing. She's
>teasing the crap out of my poor dumb dogs.

She knows who's the boss (and her name begins with "M"!);-)
 
Oh Kathryn you would love this--she's completely come out of her shell. She hides under the furniture & scratches Max every time he walks by. The poor little dog is like WTF? He has no clue why he's being tortured......

When I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night she was sitting at the top of the stairs, so she's ventured to the second floor. I don't know if she's done this before (I'm sure she's roaming the house all day when I'm not home), but I thought it was a breakthrough.

The best was when I woke up this morning & found her curled up with Cosmo. Where are those cameras when you need them! x( Interesting how at first she was scared of Cosmo (the big dog) & not of Max (the little dog). Now it appears she's scared of neither & knows the right dog to pick on & the right dog to snuggle with.
 
>The best was when I woke up this morning & found her curled up
>with Cosmo. Where are those cameras when you need them! x(

That is so sweet! (Believe me, usually once the camera comes out, the cute moment is over!).

My cat Mandy (age unknown, but probably 10-12) got it in her head yesterday that she wanted to play with a price tag/label from a Christmas cat collar I got for Scooter. It's a round piece of thin cardboard/thick paper and it was lying on the floor (wood floor, so it was flat). She kept frantically pawing at it, until finally she got the corner up, grabbed it in her mouth, and trotted (yes, trotted) over to one of my workout shoes and tried to drop it in (she missed, and it's now on the floor again).
 
Now what would make Mandy think that tag belonged in your shoe? Cats are so strange--that's why I've always been a dog person. You can never figure out what a cat is thinking, whereas with a dog you know they're thinking either eat, poop, pee, pet me, play. :7

Minnie stole a matchbook I had under the (too short) leg of my DR table. Of all the toys I bought for her.......doesn't she know it's dangerous to play with matches? :eek:
 
The 'tag in the shoe' is a mystery to me. Though Mandy seemed very certain that it belonged there...no hesitation between picking up the tag and attempting to drop it in the shoe. (I have at times found a catnip mouse or other small item in my shoes...now I have an idea who put them there!)


>Minnie stole a matchbook I had under the (too short) leg of my
>DR table. Of all the toys I bought for her.......doesn't she
>know it's dangerous to play with matches? :eek:

She maybe thought it was dangerous to have matches so near a wooden table? She's helping fireproof your home (unless she's a pyromaniac!).

I'm amazed at the "toys" cats can come up with on their own (tags, random pieces of paper, pencils, shoelaces, the plastic rings off the top of gallon water/milk jugs, matchbooks, their own tails---my cat Simon is 8, and still enjoys chasing his own tail, other cats' tails) and how they snub their noses at most of the toys you can buy for them.

The only purchased toys that I have much luck with are 'fishing pole' type toys (Bobsie loves a cheap one I got at Walmart, with a metalic ribbon tassle and a bell on the end...she drags it around the house after me trying to get me to play, I thow it and she fetches...and she often wakes me up with it in the morning when I hear the 'jingle, jingle' on the bed) and some catnip mice (though an old, unmatched sock filled with catnip and tied up works just as well.) One family cat one day discovered a pipecleaner on a grade-school art project I'd made, and immediately made it into a toy. From then on, we'd buy those long pipecleaners, twist them into a spring shape, and she'd love to play with them.

RE: cats vs. dogs. I once saw a play based on some comic strip (single woman, cats, dogs) and it featured several songs. When the woman was gone, the cats sang "Everything here is MINE! Everything here is MINE! THIS is mine! THIS is mine! THIS is mine! THIS is mine" when the owner came back, the dog sang to her: "Everything here is YOURS! Everything here is YOURS! THIS is YOURS! THIS is YOURS! THIS is YOURS! THIS is YOURS!" in a very deferential tone.)
 
You've got to also try a laser pointer toy!!! My cats chase that thing all around the house (while DH sits on the couch, LOL). They love it!! When Gracie was little the laser toy was on a keychain and we couldn't move it from one place to another without the chain making noise. She STILL comes running when she hears a similar sound!

George always leaves his toys in our shoes. We know it is him because Gracie doesn't like the puffballs- she's more of a crackle ball girl. But we have found more puffballs in our shoes than behind the fridge!

LauraMax, my sister has put up a fake tree with lights but nothing more because she is afraid her Minnie will consider ornaments toys for her! :7 I'm glad your Minnie is making your house her own. :)
 
>You've got to also try a laser pointer toy!!! My cats chase
>that thing all around the house (while DH sits on the couch,
>LOL). They love it!! When Gracie was little the laser toy
>was on a keychain and we couldn't move it from one place to
>another without the chain making noise. She STILL comes
>running when she hears a similar sound!
>

I do have one (actually, two!) of those. (It's one of the few purchased cat toys that is really worth it.) I take one to the shelter to play with the cats (and even when the kittens are under quarantine because they've got an upper respiratory thing going on, I can play with them through the big glass window. It's fun to make a whole group of them do 'the wave' against the back wall!). Some cats do a strange little 'jig' move when I have the laser light go back and forth and forward in front of them (try this move, some cats look absolutely spastic doing it, and it's loads of laughs..for both cat and human!)

When I was playing laser-tag with the shelter cats more often, there was a whole group of them who recognized the bag I had it in, and when I reached into it, they already started to get excited.

Aside from putting stuff in my shoes, Mandy also likes lights and shadows of any sort. She's wild for the laser pointer, but also goes whacky for flashlights, lights reflected off of CD's or DVD's, the shadows cast by my arms when my living room lamp is on. (One of her nicknames is "Shadowchaser.")
 
Gracie does the same thing!!! I can get her to play with the reflections from my ring if it is sunny... and one day she started chasing the reflection made by my insulin pump! I didn't even know it *made* a reflection, but there she went, chasing!!

(Of course, you wouldn't know it to look at them right now... they are both on the bed, on opposite corners, with the heated mattress pad warming their little bodies! Sigh, tough life...)
 

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