- Joined
- Feb 20, 2014
- Messages
- 147
- Purraise
- 17
Hello all!
I am new (again) to cat ownership. I'm usually more of a dog person, I am loved by three Labrador Retrievers, who are all curled up around my chair as I type this, but my daughter recently realized that she was legally able to adopt a cat from the shelter without parental permission and brought home a gray tabby, after I'd told her that we'd discuss adopting a cat at dinner. From what we can gather, Porter has had a rough life up to this point. He is elderly. My vet thinks between 8 and 10 years old, at the youngest. We believe that he lived much of his life outdoors. He has several small nicks in his ears and the shelter's intake form says that he was wounded when they picked him up. My vet thinks this was from a fight with another male cat. He won't be going through any of that here. If he goes outside, it will be on a leash. I don't think he's interested in being outdoors now though. He's ready to settle down and sit on a few laptops. He has a few scars, but I still think he's beautiful. Fortunately for Porter, my daughter knows her mom pretty well. She knew that I would forgive her for bringing him home because I'm an animal lover and I have a particular soft spot for sad cases. All three of my dogs are rescues, so I know that Porter had very little chance of making it out of our local shelter system alive as they are overloaded with cats. The shelter didn't do a very good job of making sure his wound on his shoulder had been treated properly and it reopened after he came home. My vet is taking good care of him, but he's living in my son's bedroom in the basement right now, because I don't feel that it's fair to expose Porter to three 70 pound dogs while he's wearing the cone of shame and has stitches in his shoulder. He has enough stress as it is.
It's been seven years since I last owned a cat. I was told that Porter was socialized with dogs, but I have the facilities to keep them separated if necessary. I also promised Porter that I would be a better cat owner to him, than I was to our last cat. So, I'm here to learn. I've already settled on a diet for Porter, based loosely on the research I did on dog food. I feed grain free, holistic food to my dogs, I figured Porter deserved the same. I would love to learn the basics of training my cat and cat behavior, and I would like to learn a bit more about cat litter and am considering an automatic litter box, because one of my dogs already eats poo in the back yard. I'm sure kitty litter will be a fun experience with him. It would be nice if it could stay scooped and out of Jet's mouth.
It's very nice to meet you all!
I am new (again) to cat ownership. I'm usually more of a dog person, I am loved by three Labrador Retrievers, who are all curled up around my chair as I type this, but my daughter recently realized that she was legally able to adopt a cat from the shelter without parental permission and brought home a gray tabby, after I'd told her that we'd discuss adopting a cat at dinner. From what we can gather, Porter has had a rough life up to this point. He is elderly. My vet thinks between 8 and 10 years old, at the youngest. We believe that he lived much of his life outdoors. He has several small nicks in his ears and the shelter's intake form says that he was wounded when they picked him up. My vet thinks this was from a fight with another male cat. He won't be going through any of that here. If he goes outside, it will be on a leash. I don't think he's interested in being outdoors now though. He's ready to settle down and sit on a few laptops. He has a few scars, but I still think he's beautiful. Fortunately for Porter, my daughter knows her mom pretty well. She knew that I would forgive her for bringing him home because I'm an animal lover and I have a particular soft spot for sad cases. All three of my dogs are rescues, so I know that Porter had very little chance of making it out of our local shelter system alive as they are overloaded with cats. The shelter didn't do a very good job of making sure his wound on his shoulder had been treated properly and it reopened after he came home. My vet is taking good care of him, but he's living in my son's bedroom in the basement right now, because I don't feel that it's fair to expose Porter to three 70 pound dogs while he's wearing the cone of shame and has stitches in his shoulder. He has enough stress as it is.
It's been seven years since I last owned a cat. I was told that Porter was socialized with dogs, but I have the facilities to keep them separated if necessary. I also promised Porter that I would be a better cat owner to him, than I was to our last cat. So, I'm here to learn. I've already settled on a diet for Porter, based loosely on the research I did on dog food. I feed grain free, holistic food to my dogs, I figured Porter deserved the same. I would love to learn the basics of training my cat and cat behavior, and I would like to learn a bit more about cat litter and am considering an automatic litter box, because one of my dogs already eats poo in the back yard. I'm sure kitty litter will be a fun experience with him. It would be nice if it could stay scooped and out of Jet's mouth.
It's very nice to meet you all!