Dear Cat

[feral1]

Gerbils are great pets. They do best with some gerbil company, are fun as heck to watch (especially after their cage/habitat has been cleaned), will respond if you play with them/hand train them, and are easy to care for. And they are really cute. My son had gerbils when he was small; they were a lot of fun.

And if you get a bunch of cages/habitats, reconfiguring the gerbil abode becomes an interesting engineering project! We had nine cages in all, and would have has many as eight at a time making up the gerbil complex. (We always kept at least one cage separate in case of illness/need to transport/stashing for the complex cleaning spree.) Lots of tubes and levels and places for the gerbils to be.

I have a friend who used to have rats as pets and liked them a lot. (Now she has cats, so ... no rats.) But gerbils... are definitely cuter!

I'll admit gerbils are cute but rats have more personality. They also need to have friends of the same sex to keep them company or they become depressed.

[Owlie]

I want a pet rat! I don't think the management would approve, and I think it would freak out my boyfriend, though.

Azfiddle, Rory looks like DBF's cat, only Pooh has more white on his face. Congrats on the new kitty!

[jessmarimba]

Dear psychocat:

Would you just chill? I don't understand how one five-pound critter can make so much noise! And neither do the other two cats. If you keep that up you're getting shut out of the bedroom tonight.

P.S. If you're acting up because of the snowstorm, we're in for a looooong winter.

[alexis_the_tiny]

Dear cat, I thought all cats LIKED smelly fishy food? I know you have a tooth gone now, but the vets at the hospital said you ate canned food great! And you HAVE to eat this one because there's your dose of antibiotics mixed in and if you don't eat it you're gonna have a fever again and back you go to the hospital where you'll have that cage above the crazy high strung sausage dog and DO YOU REALLY WANT THAT?!?!?!

[skhill]

Dear cat, I thought all cats LIKED smelly fishy food? I know you have a tooth gone now, but the vets at the hospital said you ate canned food great! And you HAVE to eat this one because there's your dose of antibiotics mixed in and if you don't eat it you're gonna have a fever again and back you go to the hospital where you'll have that cage above the crazy high strung sausage dog and DO YOU REALLY WANT THAT?!?!?!

Hope your little one is cooperating and feeling better! I've given up on trying to hide pills in cat food-- these days, it's just grab the cat and stuff the pill down his throat and make sure it isn't spit out. Too bad your vet doesn't have a separate area for cats!

[alexis_the_tiny]

Apparently, this cat would not touch wet food for his life. I gave up this morning and stuffed the pill down his throat with the good old blowing on nose trick. Despite having only three cracked canines left, he's demanding his kibble and refusing to have anything to do with that Science diet high calorie prescription stuff. And the vets swore he was an angel and ate all the canned food they gave him. HAH.

[bmccasland]

Hope your little one is cooperating and feeling better! I've given up on trying to hide pills in cat food-- these days, it's just grab the cat and stuff the pill down his throat and make sure it isn't spit out. Too bad your vet doesn't have a separate area for cats!

Apparently, this cat would not touch wet food for his life. I gave up this morning and stuffed the pill down his throat with the good old blowing on nose trick. Despite having only three cracked canines left, he's demanding his kibble and refusing to have anything to do with that Science diet high calorie prescription stuff. And the vets swore he was an angel and ate all the canned food they gave him. HAH.

Thanks for reminding me that I have to pill Chloe this evening. Chloe and Calypso have been at a pet hotel all week while I was out on a business trip, and are currently wandering around the house meowing most pittifully, with time outs for chasing each other.