Getting a cat

[Hume]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Declawing is incredibly inhumane. Seriously, it takes all of 10 min a week to trim your cats nails. It's really easy and all I did was have the vet show me how to do it. Declawing is for lazy people w/ no thought about anything but themselves IMO. I mean they CHOP OFF THEIR FINGERS!!! Is there any real justification to this?

And no, this is considered even more inhumane for dogs and most (all?) vets won't do it.

[/ QUOTE ]

My parents circumcised me when I was born without my consent. WTF. They cut off a piece of my wee wee. HOW INHUMANE. HOW COULD THEY HAVE DONE THIS TO ME? THEY DON'T OWN ME. WTF MATE. All it takes is one minute a day to pull the foreskin back to keep it clean. Circumcision is for lazy people w/ no thought about anything but themselves IMO. I mean they CHOP OFF A PIECE OF THEIR PENIS!!! .....See how dumb I sound?

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually that issue is way less nontrivial than you seem to think.

[CORed]

Whether to let a cat out is something that cat people disagree strongly about. I've done it both ways and both have their advantages and disadvantages. If you're going to keep the cat inside, you pretty much have to commit to never letting him out. Once a cat gets accustomed to going outside, he will either bother you until you let him out, or hang out near the door waiting for an opportunity to make a dash for it when the door is open. Unless you are extremely vigilant, or keep him shut in a room where he doesn't have access to the door, he will get out. Most cats who are never, or very rarely allowed outside will get used to the idea. If your cat is allowed to go out when he wants to, he will come back, unless something bad happens to him. He knows where the food is.

Downsides to letting a cat out:

A cat that is allowed outside will be pretty much free roaming. Short of building an enclosure with a top on it, there's really no way to fence them in. They are too good at jumping and climbing. This puts the cat at risk for getting run over by a car, killed by a dog, or killed or taken to the pound by neighbors.

A free-roaming cat will hunt. Their prey can be anything from bugs to mice to birds to squirrels. A well-fed cat may not eat his prey, but he will still hunt. A lot of cats will bring what they catch to you as a gift, sometimes dead, sometimes alive. A live, relatively healthy bird in the house can be quite interesting. I speak from experience.

Your neighbors may not appreciate your can or his droppings in their yard. Some people get really upset at finding cat poop in their flower beds.

Upside to letting your cat our:

He will be happier, less wild and better adjusted. This is not to say that indoor cats can't lead happy lives. They can, but I think most of them know something is missing. OTOH, a free-roaming cat very likely won't live as long as an indoor cat. Most cats are pretty smart about avoiding cars, but they only have to make one mistake and they are dead. You may or may not find him if this happens. It is heartbreaking either way. Only you can decide whether safety or the desires of your cat are more important to you.

You mentioned having to rescue your cat out of a tree. Generally speaking, unless the cat has been up the tree for a couple of days, the best thing to do is leave him alone and let him figure out how to get down. Cats are very good at climbing up, but to go down a vertical tree trunk, they have to back down. Most kittens will figure this out for themselves after they get hungry enough. Once they learn, they will be fine. If you keep rescuing them, they may not learn.

If you decide to keep your cat inside (or even if you don't) you should probably have him neutered. If he's not neutered, he will want to go outside to find ladies. If you keep him inside he will have no opportunity to satisfy his mating urge, and he will probably make a lot of noise. Also, intact males will scent mark by spraying urine on vertical surfaces. Some can be trained not to do this. Some can't. Neutered males are less inclined to do this. If you let him out, an intact male will get into fights with other males over females. They can get chewed up pretty badly, or get abscesses. Neutering won't eliminate fighting altogether, but neutered males tend to get beat up less than intact males.

[Ignignokt]

[ QUOTE ]
If you decide to keep your cat inside (or even if you don't) you should probably have him neutered. If he's not neutered, he will want to go outside to find ladies.

[/ QUOTE ]

And if it's a female, have her spayed, unless you like hearing the obnoxious sounds of a cat in heat + the neighborhood's unneutered males queueing up outside your doors and windows.

Really, it's a difficult proposition to allow a cat outside. In Seattle we have a number of coyotes around the city - they basically live on cats. Raccoons will tear a cat apart. Stray dogs, cars, nasty people, etc., etc.

I've been very lucky that my cat never wanted to stray far from home (females have shorter ranges in the first place, but mine seemed to stick to ~30 yds from the house) and that she knew enough to run full speed back home when she saw raccoons. (Now we're in a townhouse development with a completely enclosed courtyard, which is the best of all possible worlds.)

[AceLuby]

[ QUOTE ]
Question about getting another cat:

I have one senior cat who is almost 15. He is great but very set in his ways and used to his routines. I've been thinking of getting another so he'd have company while I'm at work, but I worry that my old cat will react badly to a new cat in his house all of a sudden. Anyone have any experience with this? Like I said my cat's kinda old so I don't want to stress him too much, but then I wonder if he might actually like the company of another cat.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your cat will hate the new cat at first, but after a couple of months will get used to him. Your cat is really old, so I wouldn't recommend getting another one as it will be pretty traumatic to the new cat to have the older one dies.

[hedxcold]

so i just got my cat. its this small little 1 1/2 yr old. i have it in my computer room with the door shut so it can get used to the house. its so scared of me though, keeps trying to hide
thanks to everyone who gave advice

[tuq]

hedxcold,

I'd like to see pics. How/where/why did you get the cat?

[hedxcold]

through an animal shelter that keeps some of them at a petsmart near me. they had a lady come to my house to make sure i had permanent screens in the window

imageshack is going sloooow for me right now, i have more pics

[hedxcold]

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...d/P1000602.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...d/P1000600.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...d/P1000599.jpg

[hedxcold]

oh yea, and apparently she has the sniffles or something. they gave me some clavamox to give her until the bottle is empty

[tuq]

Wow, cute cat. I tried to inline those pics to save people a click but for some reason can't do it.

Just saw this thread, will go through it. From the first few posts I definitely agree about getting a second one to keep the first one company. This actually turned out handy when I left town for 3 1/2 days - didn't bother with a sitter, just put a lot of food and water out. I also left them alone for six days last month because of a family emergency. That was iffy but they had each other to keep company and don't seem to hate me for it.

As for the sniffles, the second one I got had those, the vet told me a huge number of cats that end up in the shelter have that, like way over 50%. It's like a low-grade cold and he gave me some medication (maybe clavamox, idk) to syringe into its mouth, and he got better quickly.

EDIT: whenever I'm in PETsMART I try to go over to the area where they have a few cats and kittens. They have an awesomely cute selection for only having a dozen cages or so. I however got mine from the AZ Humane Society. Probably the same cost.