- Joined
- Jun 29, 2008
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I have two cats, brothers, around the age of 4 years old. The first brother, Baby, I have had since the age of 2 weeks. I bottle-fed him until around 6 or 7 weeks, then a month later, found his real brother at a humane society with the mother of both cats. I only adopted the kitten because I couldn't afford to keep 3 cats at the time. They had no problem getting along at first, I think it was because the were so young at the time.... but that's never been a serious issue... until now... I had to baby-sit a baby kitten for a few days, the cats never warmed up to it, and even had a blockade somewhere in my kitchen with the kitten.... (both are male, neutered) The kitten stayed in my living room, the big cats took over the rest of the house, and if it invaded their side, the big cats went nuts...
They have both grown into huge cats, around 20 lbs. or more. The only breed I can associate them with is the Chartreux breed. Their mother seemed to be a Chartreux, but you never know with stray cats...
They are both strictly indoor cats, I let them outside for a little while every few days, only if I supervise them. I live in an apartment downtown, and there is a parking lot at the bottom of my stairs, so they don't really have a safe place to play/explore.
I have many issues with them getting into just about anything you could imagine. Some of these things really agitate house guests, and my husband... I'm usually not so bothered by them, unless it's a certain issue... which I will explain later.
Cats are obviously curious by nature, which is the only way I can explain some of the weird things they take habit of.... For instance, my cats have taught themselves to open my refrigerator and take lunch meat out and feed themselves, even if they have a full food bowl. I have caught them in the process more than a dozen times, and even literally, I woke up one afternoon to find a package of turkey, a package of cheese, a bottle of mustard ripped out of the fridge, aaaand in the same area, a shredded-up bread bag... Do my cats really know how to make a sandwich?
Not only do they rip into the refrigerator, they rip into my cabinet doors. My husband and I installed magnetized latches for every cabinet door so they couldn't rip into them. That didn't really help, after a while, they just discovered they had to pull a little harder... The brother, Baby, really likes to sit next to a cabinet, open it, let it slam shut and stare at you until you walk over to him... You should see his expression, it's almost like he's only doing these things to taunt you for a second, to make you walk over to him... He looks so bored when he does it... (I'm sure he is in a way, he's strictly an indoor cat)... if you walk away, he just does it again, even if his food bowl is full and he has been "played with" recently with one of his many toys. In my house, nothing can be left out in the kitchen, period.... Even if it's bagged or packaged, we have to hide things that we really want to keep in our microwave because, so far, they haven't gained enough strength in their arms to open that door...
Both of my cats love to play with door knobs. They roll their paws around them as if they are trying to open them... We keep our outside door locked, even though we know they couldn't build up the strength to pull it open, it's a swollen door because rain water has drained into it for so long... However, they are capable of opening locked doors within our house... The only locked door they can open is one leading from our wash room to our pantry because the lock is a little uncentered/weak. This is also the area they go whenever we need a "time out" because of something either of the cats has done, for instance, attacking someone. They can also open our unlocked bedroom door, it doesn't have a lock....
Another habit they have formed, the most annoying to me, is opening our dresser drawers in our bedroom, and taking out socks from the drawers, and carrying them all the way to our living room.... This habit strikes me as the most odd... Our cat, Apple started the habit first.... He would open the drawer, get my husband's socks, and meow, all muffled with the socks in his mouth, carry them through another room, down the hall and into the living room, meowing muffled the entire time until you look at him, or call out his name.... Then he just drops them. A few minutes later, when he's in that mood, he goes and gets another pair.... over and over again until there's almost twenty socks laying next to you... We tried throwing the socks, because they both like to play fetch, but they never played with the socks anytime we tried, so... Usually, if we are awake at this point, we rip out the toys and play with them... That generally takes their mind off of getting even more socks... But, they like to do this when we are either sleeping or just gone out of the house... We'll visit a friend for a few hours, and come home to LITERALLY twenty or more pairs of socks piled in one place in the living room... with a few extra strewn about down the hall... Shutting the bedroom door seems like the most logical answer, however, there's no air conditioning in that room, so we have to leave it open for a while to cool it off.... We've also tried a few brands of the "Stay Off" spray for cats, with many other things, they don't even mind it, they just jump over the scent, roll in it, they just don't care... Oddly, Baby the other brother, never did that... But after Apple started, he picked up the habit about a year later... At first, he never meowed with the socks in his mouth, but a few days ago, he started meowing with them and sounding just like the other cat.... I can't help but call him a copy cat... I mean, this problem isn't terrible or anything, it's just messy to have to clean up sometimes... Not only do they get my husband's socks, they get into my drawer and get my bra's and panties... Sometimes we'll leave a Perfectly clean house, come home with guests and find my bra's and panties in a window seal, with others strewn about the entire house.... This has been happening since the cats were about two years old. Right now, I am looking at about 11 pairs of socks, a couple of bra's, all laying in my living room... because I was sleeping???
I think my cats are aware of the term "no" or just any negative enforcement... I've taken the socks back to the drawer and said "no"/"bad" and they run under the bed... I just don't think they associate, obviously...
The only enforcement we do with them is just saying "no"/"bad" and sometimes putting them in "time out" in our bathroom/washroom for no more than thirty minutes... (Time out is usually only for my cat, Baby, whenever he psychotically chases my husband, and he does this daily) I think it's cruel to lock them up in a way, so they usually never stayed locked up for longer than five minutes, however my husband seems to think it's positive reinforcement... but they don't even really know what they did to get there, or know they did something wrong? Or do they, and they are just rebelling??
Some people think that our cats are wildcats.... Literally... I think they Look pretty normal... But other people seem to think they don't, especially in size and temperment....
They also know the word "bath".... I give them a bath once or twice a month, sometimes less, and anytime I say the word "bath", they run under my bed... Do they really know the word "bath", or do they just know what I'm thinking?
Whatever they do, I will always love them like they are my children, but there are certain things I don't know how to handle properly, like the sock thing.... How do you stop your cats from carrying your bra's to your front door??? I don't care to clean it up, but it embarrassing whenever guests see your panties and bra's laying about.... This happens DAILY in my house... Are they trying to reanimate me when I'm gone? I'm sorry this is so long and all, and I will ,to your dismay, post even more things I can't even begin to think about cramming it into this post... Sorry...
They have both grown into huge cats, around 20 lbs. or more. The only breed I can associate them with is the Chartreux breed. Their mother seemed to be a Chartreux, but you never know with stray cats...
They are both strictly indoor cats, I let them outside for a little while every few days, only if I supervise them. I live in an apartment downtown, and there is a parking lot at the bottom of my stairs, so they don't really have a safe place to play/explore.
I have many issues with them getting into just about anything you could imagine. Some of these things really agitate house guests, and my husband... I'm usually not so bothered by them, unless it's a certain issue... which I will explain later.
Cats are obviously curious by nature, which is the only way I can explain some of the weird things they take habit of.... For instance, my cats have taught themselves to open my refrigerator and take lunch meat out and feed themselves, even if they have a full food bowl. I have caught them in the process more than a dozen times, and even literally, I woke up one afternoon to find a package of turkey, a package of cheese, a bottle of mustard ripped out of the fridge, aaaand in the same area, a shredded-up bread bag... Do my cats really know how to make a sandwich?
Not only do they rip into the refrigerator, they rip into my cabinet doors. My husband and I installed magnetized latches for every cabinet door so they couldn't rip into them. That didn't really help, after a while, they just discovered they had to pull a little harder... The brother, Baby, really likes to sit next to a cabinet, open it, let it slam shut and stare at you until you walk over to him... You should see his expression, it's almost like he's only doing these things to taunt you for a second, to make you walk over to him... He looks so bored when he does it... (I'm sure he is in a way, he's strictly an indoor cat)... if you walk away, he just does it again, even if his food bowl is full and he has been "played with" recently with one of his many toys. In my house, nothing can be left out in the kitchen, period.... Even if it's bagged or packaged, we have to hide things that we really want to keep in our microwave because, so far, they haven't gained enough strength in their arms to open that door...
Both of my cats love to play with door knobs. They roll their paws around them as if they are trying to open them... We keep our outside door locked, even though we know they couldn't build up the strength to pull it open, it's a swollen door because rain water has drained into it for so long... However, they are capable of opening locked doors within our house... The only locked door they can open is one leading from our wash room to our pantry because the lock is a little uncentered/weak. This is also the area they go whenever we need a "time out" because of something either of the cats has done, for instance, attacking someone. They can also open our unlocked bedroom door, it doesn't have a lock....
Another habit they have formed, the most annoying to me, is opening our dresser drawers in our bedroom, and taking out socks from the drawers, and carrying them all the way to our living room.... This habit strikes me as the most odd... Our cat, Apple started the habit first.... He would open the drawer, get my husband's socks, and meow, all muffled with the socks in his mouth, carry them through another room, down the hall and into the living room, meowing muffled the entire time until you look at him, or call out his name.... Then he just drops them. A few minutes later, when he's in that mood, he goes and gets another pair.... over and over again until there's almost twenty socks laying next to you... We tried throwing the socks, because they both like to play fetch, but they never played with the socks anytime we tried, so... Usually, if we are awake at this point, we rip out the toys and play with them... That generally takes their mind off of getting even more socks... But, they like to do this when we are either sleeping or just gone out of the house... We'll visit a friend for a few hours, and come home to LITERALLY twenty or more pairs of socks piled in one place in the living room... with a few extra strewn about down the hall... Shutting the bedroom door seems like the most logical answer, however, there's no air conditioning in that room, so we have to leave it open for a while to cool it off.... We've also tried a few brands of the "Stay Off" spray for cats, with many other things, they don't even mind it, they just jump over the scent, roll in it, they just don't care... Oddly, Baby the other brother, never did that... But after Apple started, he picked up the habit about a year later... At first, he never meowed with the socks in his mouth, but a few days ago, he started meowing with them and sounding just like the other cat.... I can't help but call him a copy cat... I mean, this problem isn't terrible or anything, it's just messy to have to clean up sometimes... Not only do they get my husband's socks, they get into my drawer and get my bra's and panties... Sometimes we'll leave a Perfectly clean house, come home with guests and find my bra's and panties in a window seal, with others strewn about the entire house.... This has been happening since the cats were about two years old. Right now, I am looking at about 11 pairs of socks, a couple of bra's, all laying in my living room... because I was sleeping???
I think my cats are aware of the term "no" or just any negative enforcement... I've taken the socks back to the drawer and said "no"/"bad" and they run under the bed... I just don't think they associate, obviously...
The only enforcement we do with them is just saying "no"/"bad" and sometimes putting them in "time out" in our bathroom/washroom for no more than thirty minutes... (Time out is usually only for my cat, Baby, whenever he psychotically chases my husband, and he does this daily) I think it's cruel to lock them up in a way, so they usually never stayed locked up for longer than five minutes, however my husband seems to think it's positive reinforcement... but they don't even really know what they did to get there, or know they did something wrong? Or do they, and they are just rebelling??
Some people think that our cats are wildcats.... Literally... I think they Look pretty normal... But other people seem to think they don't, especially in size and temperment....
They also know the word "bath".... I give them a bath once or twice a month, sometimes less, and anytime I say the word "bath", they run under my bed... Do they really know the word "bath", or do they just know what I'm thinking?
Whatever they do, I will always love them like they are my children, but there are certain things I don't know how to handle properly, like the sock thing.... How do you stop your cats from carrying your bra's to your front door??? I don't care to clean it up, but it embarrassing whenever guests see your panties and bra's laying about.... This happens DAILY in my house... Are they trying to reanimate me when I'm gone? I'm sorry this is so long and all, and I will ,to your dismay, post even more things I can't even begin to think about cramming it into this post... Sorry...