the purrrrrfect pet (Owning a Cat in General)

Member Name: barbie84

Product:	Owning a Cat in General
Date:	25/05/09 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great pets

Disadvantages: scratching my furniture

Cats in my opinion are one of the best and easiest pets to own, no actually i should say to be owned by as anyone with a cat will already know you never own the cat you are owned by the cat.

I will start by introducing the cats we have
: tizer a tortoise shell female cat who is 5 years old
:guiness a black and white female cat who is 7 years old
:jack a black tom cat who is 4 years old
:garfield a ginger tom who is 4 years old
:socks a ginger tom cat with white feet hence the name socks who is 4 years old
:brandy a ginger female who is 4 years old
:gizmo a tortoise shell femail who is 4 years old
:stripes a silver tabby who is male and just under two years old.

Guiness was the first cat i aquired when her owners moved away leaving her behind and she has been with us ever since, she has a funny nature by which i mean is a little tempremental, she will often usually first thing in the morning come to you for a fuss puring her little heart out but if you aproach her for a fuss she will scratch and bite so affection is very much on her terms not ours, She point blank refuses to eat dryed or tinned food and will only eat pouches of cat meat, very finicy eater not eating anything else.
She will not allow us to brush her without a major fight no matter what we try and hates having her flea treatment put on her neck. She will not sleep or lye with any of the other cats and has a cat bed all of her own.

Tizer was also a stray that i felt sorry for so began to feed, next thing we knew she had adopted us and was pregnant, tizer has a good nature and doesnt scratch us but will hit out at you if you are doing something she doesnt like, she will eat anything she is given or not given and will scavange food from any where so we never take our eyes off our dinner or the meat will be gone, she loves to be brushed but she isnt a very homely cat, if it isnt raining out side she prefers to be snoozing in the flower beds than in the house.

Jack is one of tizers kittens and he is the most gentle natured of our cats having never scratched or hissed at any of us no matter what we do to him, the children love him the most and he is definately theres as he follows them everywhere and spends all day wandering around the house meowing for them when they are at school, jack sleeps in my daughters bed. He loves dryed cat food and will happily eat this other than on a sunday when he knows there is chicken in the oven.

Garfield another of tizers kittens definately belongs to my husband, he spends the whole of his time either on my hubbys lap or sitting on my hubbys chair waiting for him to come home, he will unwillingly have a fuss off the rest of us if we go to him but never comes to us and is definately the most spoilt of the cats and the fattest as hubby is always giving him tip bits of meat out of the fridge so it is no wander he refuses his own food.

Socks is the roamer of my cats even though he has been doctored which is supposed to stop them wandering off, we will go days without seeing him and on occasions only see him when he is injured after fighting with another cat, he is not very affectionate and very self sufficient, it is almost like he comes to visit us when it fits into his buisy schedule.

Brandy is our poorly cat and is the smallest of them al, she has seizures and is on constant meication to control them which does give her a very normal life although she lacks the energy of the other cats and much prefers to spend her day sleeping in the radiator cat bed that she has claimed as hers, she is not a big fan of the other cats despite having been with her 3 brothers and sister since birth and will soon tell them off if they go near her or are on her bed. Brandy prefers cat meat to buiscuits but this doesnt agree with her giving her a upset tummy so we only allow her to have dryed food, she never ventures out side despite the kitchen door being open a lot of the time and is a very homly cat.

Gizmo the last of tizers kittens pritty much follows her mom around the gardn all day and only comes in to be fed where she is given dryed cat food but will pinch an body elses meat that has been left out, she enjoys being fussed and will come to you every time he sees you rubbing around you for a fuss.

Stripes was our latest addition, he is a very funny cat with the most energy about him, he is always racing around the house up and down the stars and i truley believe if he would actually venture out side he would love it but he wont go any further than the door step. He is an affectionate cat and enjoys a fuss but always has a habbit of getting too playful and biting you, he spends the evenings asleep on my bed and most of the night jumping on me every time i move in my sleep. He eats dryed cat food and loves to be brushed

Cats for me are very much like people, a bit mad you must be thinking but actually i am not, each of my cats has its own personality, likes and dislikes just like humans do.

My cats do not require as much attention as my other pets do but having said this they do require the basics to survive.

I am a big fan of dryed cat food for a few reasons, i can leave it in the bowl for hours out in the open without it either smelling my kitchen out or going off so that the cat turns its nose up at it and it is also better for there teeth as it helps stop any nasty build ups and reduces bad breath. Unfortunately as you can see from above not all of my cats will eat it.

We have a couple of litter trays in the house and over the years i have used a lot of different types of litter but have to say i personally prefer the wood pellet litter and so does stripes as he hates the clay stuff as it gets stuck in his paws.

Other than when the kittens were very young all of my cats are given water rather than a cat milk as i dont like the idea of this going off in the heat when left in a bowl for a few hours.

To prevent fleas i use the drops on the backs of the cats necks which works brilliantly for then all except socks but that is due to not being able to colar him sometimes to give him his new dose of drops.

I have found cats to fit in very well at our house and they enjoy living with us as much as i enjoy them living with me, the only down side to it is the clawing of furniture but i have to say brandy and stripes are the main culprits for this and no matter how many scratch toys they have they still prefer my settee.

Summary: brilliant pets that own me