Concerned and loyal to the breed

[steve0]

View media item 151238
The cats you see here were trapped by a dedicated person.I want to thank this person for the

expert help given in the time o f need. The tortoise cat was adopted to a good home and is getting along Fine..

Am still  keeping the brothers in a cage so they feel safe,have been letting them run the house intermittently but the really get rowdy and tear stuff up, which is a normal thing as they mock attack each other constantly.  After all this, getting them fixed chipping them and looking out for their well being, adopting them myself only seems right, for now, anyway.  I don't want to give them up!  Although I have a disability that only allows me to use one hand and my leg is the same. This can be frustrating,sometimes I wonder if I have taken on too much, although having them fall into someone else ownership, that is less likely to care for their needs, gets tired of that and throws them out the door really bothers me! For the time being,They're staying with me!I call the short-haired one Zip-Zap, The brother Tuppy. 

The problem I face is the scratching on my new couch, I have posted the scratch post in obvious places but the short-haired one on the top, Zip-Zap goes right for the couch not the post. any ideas will be appreciated

 

[ondine]

You can try making the scratching post more appealing by spraying it with catnip.

When they scratch things like that, they are marking their territory (putting their scent on them).  For some reason, Zip-Zap seems to need the sofa to smell like him.  Did you have another cat previously or currently that he may be smelling on it?  An enzyme cleaner may help get rid of his smell but that's not guarantee  he won't do it again.

Fixing them will definitely help calm them down.  You're doing the right thing.  Good luck!

 

[maewkaew]

Hi Steve. Nice looking cats there, and you are doing a good thing. Here is an article that has a lot of tips about getting cats to scratch the right places and not your furniture. http://www.catsinternational.org/ar...eclawing/saving_your_couch_from_your_cat.html
Even though you are disabled, maybe you can play with them with a wand toy -- a toy like feathers, fur etc., attached to a flexible line ( strip of leather or something) attached to a stick. that is a good way to interact with an energetic cat, and they have fun and run off a little of their energy. You can do it from just sitting in a chair and move the toy around and around for them to run around the room chasing. One of my cats will chase it around leaping and running and then finally catch it, I let him grab it, he does a victory lap and fetches it back to me. If he gets a lot of play it actually does make him less aggressive too. Of course getting them fixed helps too, if part of it is hormones, but it can take a while for those hormones to die down. Good luck!

 

[steve0]

My concerns lie most definitely with the cats, my daughter says "Get rid of them dad", on the other hand, I love these guys, and don't want them to be given to another person, who, may mistreat them or just say to heck  with them and let them kick them out the door.

Beside the fact all my kids are grown and going, my youngest is moving out in early April and three years ago I lost a cat I had for 11 years to  bladder cancer, had to put her down..I was holding her when the gave her the shot, her poor head fell right in my hand/ OM gosh~>IT WAS DREADFUL and I cried for days. She was a feral cat I rescued too.

D O N 'T  WANNA ADOPT THEM OUT.

WANT THIS TO WORK

THEY ARE STILL CAGE BOUND LIKE I SAID I LET THEM OUT WHEN I CAN..THIS IS NOT FAIR TO THEM. TELL ME WHEN YA KNOW THEY CAN BE LET OUT FOR GOOD?

 

[ritz]

Thank you for caring, and for caring for these cat.

Do you have a room you can put them into, instead of a cage?  That way they can get use to a smallish place, versus your entire house.  Make sure the room is cat safe.  You can feed them in that room, litter box in that room, and so forth.

 

[di and bob]

You might want to try those corragated cardboard scratchers you can get at Walmart, my cats definitely PREFER them to the couch. Also, double sided clear tape applied to where they scratch makes it a place they don't like anymore. My cats don't much care for regular scratching posts!  They destroyed a lot of furniture before I discovered these two things.

 

[hersheys mom]

My concerns lie most definitely with the cats, my daughter says "Get rid of them dad", on the other hand, I love these guys, and don't want them to be given to another person, who, may mistreat them or just say to heck  with them and let them kick them out the door.

Beside the fact all my kids are grown and going, my youngest is moving out in early April and three years ago I lost a cat I had for 11 years to  bladder cancer, had to put her down..I was holding her when the gave her the shot, her poor head fell right in my hand/ OM gosh~>IT WAS DREADFUL and I cried for days. She was a feral cat I rescued too.

D O N 'T  WANNA ADOPT THEM OUT.

WANT THIS TO WORK

THEY ARE STILL CAGE BOUND LIKE I SAID I LET THEM OUT WHEN I CAN..THIS IS NOT FAIR TO THEM. TELL ME WHEN YA KNOW THEY CAN BE LET OUT FOR GOOD?

My heart goes out to you. My beloved Hershey, who was 17, got brain cancer and intestinal cancer and I had to put her to sleep. She died in my arms. That was 10 months ago and I still cry over her. In the mean time, I adopted a tortoise who had behavioral problems and kept getting returned to the shelter. Two weeks of one-on-one time solved her problems. She is a loving, fun, kitty now. Two weeks after adopting her, I got a call from the Humane Society in Denver. They had found another Dark Chocolate Burmese (feral) for me. I flew to Denver and took her home. She was totally wild and bit and scratched every chance she got. 5 months later, she is a darling lap cat, even though I still can't make any fast moves around her without her running away (she comes back in a minute). As for the scratching thing. Hershey Rose, my new ex-feral, took to sisal rope instantly. My tortie, Minja, does not scratch. Anything. Her thing is pulling pieces of wool out of the rug. We have 2 rug scratchers that hang from the door knobs, a carpet scratcher that stands upright on its own, an S shape emery board ($30) scratcher with a carpet in it too, several sisal scratchers, and a 2 cardboard ones. But Minja has to pull apart the bathroom rug, the kitchen rug, and her cat tree. I had to replace the hall carpet with laminated wood to keep her from destroying that. Yet her nails are razor sharp. So how she is sharpening them is a mystery to me. Hershey Rose discovered the cardboard one 2 days ago, now she alternates between sisal and cardboard. I guess you just have to try different ones until you find the right one. I can tell you that I cover my couch arms and the front sides below the arms with corduroy. Neither one of my cats likes that fabric. Also, the 3" scotch tape sticky side out works very well.

When I first got Hershey Rose, she bit and scratched every chance she got. I was allergic to the bacteria in her nails and mouth and had to go the to ER several times. But I would not give up on her. My mother called me every day and told me to give her to the pound (shelter), I could lose a finger to her bites (true). I refused. She nagged. I refused. It was the best decision I ever made. I saved a life, and now have another "child" who sits on my lap, rubs against me, and on occasion, grabs my finger and "kisses" it. Not bad for a feral who never learned to show affection. Go with your heart. If you want to keep them, and I think you should as you sound very attached to them already, ignore what other people say. Your own instincts will win out every time. And definitely try those balls hanging on a stick - it was the first toy my feral showed any interest in, and it made us much closer. I just kept drawing the ball closer to me, little by little, until she got used to being close to a human. One of the happiest days of my life was the day she rolled over in front of me, for no reason, and let me pet her tummy. That was the turning point. One week later she became my lap cat.

As for when can you let them out, Hershey Rose came home Sept. 15 and was let out of her room on Christmas. But then, I had Minja so I had to be sure they were introduced slowly. If you can let them out now, I would just increase the "house freedom" time slowly, day by day. Hershey Rose came out of her room in about 2 hours. She didn't go far, just a few feet. The next day she explored a little more. In about 4 days she owned the house!

Good luck to you, may Bast look over you and your babies.

Blessed be,

Lei Ann