Monday, 3 August 2015

THE PUSSINGTON POST | The Online Cat Newspaper

News you can Mews!
How much you gotta know it's a dang online cat newspaper.
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[by twinkle@5:14amGMT]

Comments

papango said[1] @ 5:22am GMT on 3rd Aug [Score:1 Interesting]
My cat's actually having a nervous breakdown at the moment. My vet wants to put him on the cat version of the medication I take (benzos). Poor little Big Man (Big Man is the cat, the vet is called Kirri).

This is him.

arrowhen said @ 6:59am GMT on 3rd Aug
Oooooooooookay. First of all, I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a trained veterinarian, so please don't mistake anything I'm about to say for official medical advice. I'm just some random dude who happens to have owned dozens of cats throughout his childood, fostered well over a hundred cats in the last couple of years, and who has also happened to have dated an inordinate number of (legitimately medically diagnosed) crazy women in his adult life. My opinions are based solely upon my own personal experiences and are in no way intended to represent any kind of formal education or training.

All cats, when judged by human standards, are fucking insane.

I've never, in my entire life, met a cat who didn't exhibit all the classic signs of ADHD, most of them, if they were human, would probably fall somewhere on the autistic spectrum, and a significant number of them exhibited signs that, if a human presented them, might be diagnosed as borderline personality disorder or possibly even paranoid schizophrenia.

Seriously, the little bastards are fucking nuts.

Which stands to reason. They're highly intelligent, highly adaptable predators who usually don't have to go out of their way to get food, either because they live inside and food is free, or they live outside in an ecosystem that never evolved to account for their presence (unless you live in north Africa, your cat is an invasive species and shouldn't be allowed outside!) so food is generally too busy trying to avoid something else to notice the cat that's about to eat them.

So your typical cat is smart, well-fed, and bored. You only have to think of any smart, well-fed, and bored individuals you've known in your life, and then imagine them without the typical avenues of distraction for smart, well-fed, and bored humans (like dance clubs, or the internet) to understand that that's a recipe for kitty disaster -- at least where humans are concerned, because cats are really good at finding shit to do when they don't need to struggle to survive, but it's just probably shit that we don't like because they don't give a fuck about our silly notions of propriety.

So, anyway, your cat. What's he doing that makes it seem like he's having a nervous breakdown? (I'm not saying he's not having a nervous breakdown, but I've personally witnessed cats face, deal with, and get over situations that I as a human would need mood-altering drugs to handle, just because they're cats and dealing with new and unforeseen bullshit is something they're surprisingly good at.)
papango said @ 7:19am GMT on 3rd Aug [Score:1 Informative]
Well, Furby came from the SPCA about seven years ago and they waived the adoption fee because he'd been there for 18 months and they hadn't found anybody who had the right sort of home for him and his sister (Serena). Furby is very timid, he spent the first three months at our house hiding under the bed in the spare room and only coming out when we were at work or asleep. In all the time we've had him only about three other people have seen him in his home, he usually bolts as soon as the door is opened and is frightened of pretty much everything (loud noises, quiet noises, sudden movement, strong opinions, his own shadow, anything that moves).

We moved to our current home about five years ago and we got a cat door and he and Serena were indoor/outdoor cats. Serena died about three years ago. As best I can tell, Furby spent his days outside hiding in one of his many hidey holes until he got hungry and came home. Other cats were able to come in through our cat door, and they used to eat his food, although he never seemed that bothered by it. He spent the nights on our bed. Last month we had our garden completely re-done, and not only did he lose some of his hidey holes he also had to deal with strange people coming in the garden (they rent the shed and come by twice a day to get their gear). He ran off for five days in the second week of June and then turned up looking a bit worse for wear and very hungry. And then he ran away again for another five days about a week ago. When he finally came home he was very skinny (he was 5 kilos, he now weighs only 4) and not very well - losing fur, looking miserable.

We took him to the vet and she ran a bunch of tests, but the results came back as nothing physically wrong with him, but it seems very stressed out. She suggested some lifestyle changes, which we're doing, and mentioned the benzos (Clomicalm). We're hoping that being a full time indoor cat (and not having other cats come inside) will relieve some of his stress. It's not a behaviour thing, he's not doing anything he shouldn't. He just seems to have lost his joie de vivre.
arrowhen said @ 8:03am GMT on 3rd Aug
To me he sounds like a cat that thinks he should be outside, but has no fucking clue what to do when he's actually out there. I've had a few like that; they get obsessed with the open door, finally muster up the courage to run outside, and then they're, like, "OMG, WTF, OVERSTIMULATION!!!"

Personally, I've been in that exact same situation (both on and off LSD!), where there's all kinds of shit going on, and it's kind of overwhelming, but it's interesting! But scary! But interesting! But scary!

And really, the worst possible thing that could happen (other than sudden, unexpected death, of course, but only humans worry about that shit!) is for someone to come along and take away your safe little hidey-hole and make you choose -- right now! -- on the spot! between "interesting" and "scary". Because when those are the only two options, and you're the product of millions of years worth of creatures who faced that same situation and chose the path that let them survive long enough to pass on their genes, you run like a motherfucker.

And when you're done running, and you're not dead, that's the time to start thinking again. Because everything that's alive and has a brain is only alive and has a brain because it was already born with the habit of running like a motherfucker from way before having a brains was an option. If you're a cat, you navigate by scent and by sight, and by the kinetic sense of how many steps you ran and how many steps you have to walk back to where you remember there was shelter, and food, and love -- which, because you're "just" a cat, are all kind of the same thing.

Your cat has seen some shit. He's been to war. He's been plunged into the depths of the kind of fight-or-flight, kill-or-be-killed world that most of us only know second-hand from TV shows and novels. Sure, maybe he only really wandered through your neighbor's gardens for a couple of days, but he doesn't know any better.

I'm not saying drugs aren't the solution, but I think a couple days outside for a typical housecat is the equivalent of a fucking zombie apocalypse for humans. So at least give him a chance to deal with that shit before you resort to more drastic measures.
papango said @ 8:17am GMT on 3rd Aug
Putting him on medication will be a last resort. We'll be keeping inside for a few months and hopefully he'll put some weight back on and figure out that he doesn't have to hide under the bed all day to be safe. He's eating and he sleeps on the bed with us at night, so I think he's coming around.

I don't have any difficulty imaging Furby going through some shit being outside for a few days. He's very timid and I expect he just wanted to hide. He hasn't shown any interest in trying to get out of the house now that the cat door is closed. I think he's happier indoors.
captainstubing said @ 10:13am GMT on 5th Aug
My little grey man went through a period of being ill at ease and having an angry gentleman's sausage (inflamed bladder, no crystals) while we were living in a reasonably small apartment. Part of the solution was to make his indoor environment more interesting. This was mainly leaving cupboard doors open so he could assplore those, keeping wadrobe doors open, moving most of the furniture off the walls so there was a tunnel behind each piece of furniture, and randomly hanging toys off things here and there. I also moved some stuff so he could sit on thins and gaze out the windows on a few sides of the apartment. It worked. He was much happier.

Now we live in a big ramshackle house with an interesting yard and he coems and goes as he pleases in daylight hours and he is supe happy. And yes, he mostly hangs out in his hidey holes in the yard and sleeps...so I can't clear weeds around those as that would destroy the hidey-ness of the holes.

My Vet's cat is on anti-depressants so don't feel bad if your guy does end up on them. It happens, and he will be fine, but it might take him ages to orgasm :)
papango said @ 7:47am GMT on 7th Aug
Well, big man made his own excitement today. Our cleaner came and cleaned and left, careful not to leave nay doors or windows open for Furby to escape. But Furby doesn't need to escape to have a good time, he managed to get himself stuck in a kitchen cupboard and was only freed when I went to make dinner and he started crying. Poor little big man. Even the indoors is stressful when you're Furby.
captainstubing said @ 12:31pm GMT on 7th Aug
Awww, poor little Furby man. Does he have tunnels? They are super cheap and the nervous cat loves a good tunnel to relax in. I string them togethe rto give my guy really big tunnels of calm he can go to. Also, he likes to leap out and attack my shins from his tunnels, so it is win win, or something.
Dienes said @ 1:41am GMT on 4th Aug
PM me, we should chat about cat behavior.
papango said @ 6:47am GMT on 6th Aug
I will, and we should. I'm currently looking for ideas on how to make Furby's life a bit more interesting, without sending him into fear spiral.
Mythtyn said[2] @ 10:50am GMT on 3rd Aug [Score:1 Informative]
There is also The Daily Puppy.

www.dailypuppy.com
The Sun (for cats) said @ 12:30pm GMT on 3rd Aug
Sexy Pammy The Puuuurfect Purrrrrrsian Loves To Get Her Kit Off! Only In Your Social Species Sun! We'd Let Her Scratch Our Post Any Day Of The Week!

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