The Pets Thread

Finally got a kitten on Saturday. We weren't really aiming to do this, but it's ended up being a rescue which is a good thing. It's a cat rescue charity in Sheffield called 'Cat-Ching'. Not 100% sure what pun they are aiming for there but anyway. They have a network of 4-5 'foster homes' which look after the cats. The place we went to get it from was grim. Quite a rough area. Small house but they had 15 cats and 4 snakes. Place smelt. But given what they are doing (it was a family) it's hard to be critical. Good effort looking after them all and they were kind hearted. We arrived at about 1pm, but by 1:30 they still hadn't even managed to find the cat we were thinking of taking. We ended up leaving and the lady saying she'd let us know when she'd found it. About 20 minutes later she called and we went back. Turns out the kitten had been in the room with us all along, just curled up quietly on the bookcase. We kind of met it ... and then put it in the carrier and went home! The lady very kindly gave us a lift back as we'd arrived in a taxi.

Now home ... the cat wouldn't come out the carrier on Saturday. Fair enough. We shut it in the kitchen, left some food, litter tray, some toys etc. Came down Sunday morning and it had eaten the food but was back in the carrier.

Since then each day has been trying to encourage it to come out of whatever place it's been hiding in. We've been slowly introducing him to more rooms of the house. But each time he just runs and hides. I mean occasionally plays a bit with some string or the laser pointer Little Miss Shady has. But my god he is permanently petrified. Sometimes have to pick him up / gently grab him - and he's shaking with fear and purring from the strokes at the same time.

Monday evening he somehow squeezed between the pipes behind the loo and got into the cavity of the wall. About an hour later strolled out. I had resigned that the following day I was going to have to make a hole in the wall to get him out (I thought he was trapped).

Today he's tried to go up the chimney in the living room (got a few metres up then fell back down) and repeated the trick in the bedroom. Before spending between 10 and 4pm squeezed behind the mirror in the hall. He's currently under the sofa. Seems to get a little more social in the early evening.

Anyone got any tips on how to get him acting a bit more well ... normal ? I guess we just keep being nice and feeding him and after a while he'll realise he's vaguely safe and no need to hide from danger all the time.

Oh, Little Miss Shady has named him Comet after her favourite Gladiator.

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ka-ching

Why is unanswerable.

Doesn't make sense. They're losing money if anything.

cat-ching.co.uk/

Just got to give the little dude some time. Also, as hard as it is when a kitten's just arrived in the house, you've also got to be prepared just to leave him alone for a few days while he settles in - he'll come to you when he's ready.

The temptation to keep picking him up and trying to force him into play is likely to set him back.

Bumble hid under the bed / under the back room sofa at first. Gary hid behind the living room sofa. Ludo didn't hide but wanted to explore everywhere and clamber up the bookcase. None of Comet's behaviour is unusual. Especially going from one of 15 to a new environment.
Time, patience and maybe a Feliway plug in.

Did not know this was a thing. Does it work? Can you smell it yourself?

I can't remember if we used them - or even if they existed - when we got Bumble.
I feel they worked when we added Gary.
Negligible effect when Ludo came along, but he was 9 weeks as opposed to Gary's 6 months upon arrival and there's some suggestion they don't always work on kittens.
I've never noticed their smell.

We had one with our two rescue cats last year, who calmed right down. Hard to know precisely whether it was the plug-in or just them settling themselves, but I'd say well worth a go.

My recollection is there was a slight smell when you first turned it on, but not aware of it after that. You plug them in for a month and leave it running to get the full effect. There are restrictions on where you can use them, though.

I’d moved back home after Uni in 2005, my parents (mum) decided they wanted a cat so went to the RSPCA place over at Radcliffe. They saw one they wanted to take off their hands but were not allowed as they’d disclosed they also had another adult living at the house and as I wasn’t present it was a big NO. To this day I’m not really sure how they determine if someone bums cats or not just from seeing them.

Anyway they ended up with a rescue from somewhere less twatish in Leicester, it was mental and clearly had a few issues from its short few months on earth. But over the years it became friendlier and less wary and lived to a grand old 18 years.

Did you bum it?

Assumed that was implied by “friendlier”.

Congrats Jim

Morry, who we got as a kitten, was bold as brass from the start. Couldn’t get enough attention.. wanted to go everywhere and do everything. Mish, who my partner got as a slightly older cat (we think 4 or 5) hid for weeks. We think she’d had a bit of a tough time with her original family and, foster care probably wasn’t great for her either. Eventually she learned she was in a safe place with safe people and came out of her shell. She’s still a shy cat, but she bounced about like she owns the place and hangs out with us etc etc.

So yeah, give the kitten time to adjust and get to trust you all. Hang out where he’s at, but don’t force things.. he’ll get curious. Read up on cat body language.. because it’ll tell you a bunch about how he’s feeling. I see he’s got dry food.. that’s fine (ours mainly ate dry food) but if you’re not doing it already, try some wet food occasionally as a treat, that may please the little void and get you more in his good books.

Jim, I believe I can help you here. The mistake you made was getting a cat and not a dog. Easy to do, they both have four legs, fur, teeth, and claws. The difference is that dogs are awesome and cats aren't.

The good news is that it's not too late to return it as defective and fix your error.

Your cat is being a cunt because cats are cunts.

Congratulations on your void. Had a cat who was just like it for many years. Lived inside the sofa for a few weeks, behind the oven for a bit, didn’t see the thing for days at a time but food was eaten, etc.
Domino didn’t become “friendly” for a long time and even when years older would do everything on her terms. Eg, no stroking unless you were in a slightly uncomfortable position (she would sit behind you, etc) and with no threat of suddenly grabbing her.
Would turn into a whirling ball of teeth and razor blades when trying to get her to the vets. Once jumped up the chimney to avoid being put in her carrier.
Calmed down eventually and, while never a lap cat, she became extremely sweet. Until my daughter was born and Domino wanted nothing to do with that, thank you very much.