On cats

[bunn]

This weekend we had not one but 2 cats with hairballs - Henning and Footie. This bears special mention because I can't remember the last time any of them had hairballs - ages ago, certainly. I think the food they are on now has helped: it's not an anti-hairball formulation but none the less the number of hairballs has gone down to almost 0 since we switched, even for Henny, who is hair enough that you'd think he'd get them often. Apart from this weekend of course.

I held Henning down and brushed him all over, removing a small Henningsworth of fluff to prevent a recurrence. He likes having his beard groomed, but not his stomach or back legs, so he was not happy about this, but I gave him no option.

This sudden display of firmness seems to have brought dividends - this morning Henning was at full tilt chasing poor Footie up the stairs when I shouted 'HENNING! NO!' To my considerable surprise, Henning stopped and ran the other way, leaving Footie to make good his escape. Yay, I am Master of Cats. At least, momentarily...

Our cat hierarchy has switched again. The Bengals have been demoted. I think it now looks something like this:

Perl
Henning
Yama Suma
Kjetil
Footie

though actually I'm not sure that works, because it doesn't take into account the 'pairs' system - Perl and Footie are a pair, despite being at the top and bottom of the tree respectively, and Henning and Kjetil are a pair. Also Kjetil will assert himself against Bengal lunacy if sufficiently provoked, though it doesnt' come naturally to him.

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

They are usually *fairly* good on 'no' when applied to stuff they shouldn't be eating, but I was very impressed that it actually worked on Henning when he was in mid-chase, which I think is a more all-engrossing kind activity. It certainly is for Az, I don't have a hope of getting him to break off from chasing once he's started...

Could this mean that Henning actually has more brains than Az...?

[chainmailmaiden]

Could this mean that Henning actually has more brains than Az...?

I would have though that was definitely true ;-)

Ours have also been teaching us 'cat'. 'Nnnyep!' means 'Come and dangle the bell on a string for me to play with NOW!' :-)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Perl certainly has more brains than Az, but I'm not so sure about Henning. He's not known for his problem-solving skills...

Perl certainly makes a lot of noises, but I fear we haven't been terribly successful in decoding them.

[chainmailmaiden]

Lindy makes it easy, she Nnnyeps very loudly while looking directly at you then runs to the bell on a string and stands in front of it patting it with her paw and Nnnyeps again. If that doesn't work she'll pick the string up in her mouth and bring it to you, drop it and Nnnyep again :-)

Flossie's Rrrrrrs are harder to work out, they mainly seem to be used as punctuation as she runs & jumps round the house :-)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Lindy is working on a Human Training program!

[chainmailmaiden]

It wouldn't surprise me...