I can't think of any "reward" that Samson reaps when he misbehaves. It usually just earns him a rather moist face or an extended stay in the bathroom. But, he has SIGNIFICANTLY calmed down since he spent a week with his "grandparents". I am not sure what they did, but he is transformed. From what I hear, he did not have a single accident while he was there. And since he has been home, no accidents, and he hasn't even tried to destroy anything!
We even let him sleep loose in the house last night. He came and slept on the floor by our bed like a good kitty. He didn't even jump on the bed to attack our tootsies as we slept.
LOL that story about your cat "training" you reminds me of a story I heard. A family gets a cat and the father says how he'll show them how you train a cat not to scratch the furniture. First time the cat does it, he picks it up and tosses it outside. Guess what the cat did forever after whenever she wanted to go outside? >;D
Samson is growing so fast! The other day he conveyed to me in no uncertain terms his interest in becoming a diver. I think this has a lot to do with the Olympics coming up. He is just fascinated by the high divers.
Jamison had stepped out of the house to run some errands, and I was upstairs folding some laundry, when suddenly I hear a loud *SPLASH* coming from downstairs. I hurry down, just in time to see a soggy and bedrraggled Samson, flopping out of the toilet!
Poor fella. Forgot to check the depth of his pool before diving in headfirst. By the time I picked myself up off the floor and wiped the tears of mirth from my eyes, the poor silly kitty was shaking and cold, and mewling pathetically. Needless to say, a warm bath was in order. Though, I cannot say whether he was madder at me, or the toilet...
^ This one cracks me up! "Omg mom... cookie over there!"
As you can see, his eyes are no longer blue! They are slowing turning into a very striking "sea green" color. It is absolutely gorgeous against his white fur and face mask.
This one shows the HUGE difference in size between his two ears. It was barely noticeable as a kitten, but it has been becoming more and more apparent as he gets older. He has also developed those tabby-like markings around his eyes, that he didn't have when he was a baby. His "perma-booger" has also gotten larger, and there are now two of them! One on each side. Isn't he just the sweetest thing?
All done with his bath, and quite irritated with momma too
We had Samson fixed on Friday. At first I was VERY nervous to leave him. It wasn't done by my normal vet. I got a voucher for a 10$ neuter, and there was a list on the back of the voucher of all the vets in the area that would accept the voucher. I chose the one that was closest to me. When I called to make the appointment, the receptionist was EXTREMELY rude. I chalked it up to that she must have just had a bad day. When I went to go drop him off on Friday, I was very uncomfortable with the location and circumstance of the clinic. I didn't know this when I chose it, but this clinic is located in a predominantly Viet part of Sacramento. The clinic itself was a tiny one-room facility, and there were a total of 2 staff. The vet, and his receptionist, neither of which were very proficient in English (which explains why she came across as rude over the phone). The ONLY reason I didn't just pack him up and leave, was that Samson really didn't seem afraid of them at all. I have quite a bit of faith in animal intuition, so I decided that if Samson trusted them, I should too. The vet picked Samson up by the scruff, told me to come back at 5, and walked away. And that was that.
Needless to say, I was on edge for most of the day. When it finally came time to go pick him up, I walked in the door, and the first thing the vet says to me is " Good news! He is still with us!!!"
Holy cow. I didn't realize that your patient living through the procedure was such a success rather than just a common occurance.... I thought that was pretty tasteless, IMHO. He brought Samson out, showed me his rather uneven incision (that was not closed up), said "full diet tomorrow" and walked away again. This left me with the receptionist, who insisted that my debit card would not be sufficient payment, and that I must get 10$ in cash to pay them with. So I go looking for an ATM machine, and everywhere I go in that part of town has an ATM machine, but not a single godd*mned one of them was in service. So after 20 minutes of searching, I come back to the clinic shamefaced, but prepared to pay with three 1$ bills and 7$ worth of quarters (I always have a ton of quarters for laundry). The lady looks at me, laughs, takes my debit card and swipes it. That bleepity bleep could have used my card the whole time! Ugh. So that was a ton of time wasted. I had pictures of his incision to post here, but Jamison accidentally deleted them, so I will have to post some tomorrow. Samson seems none the worse for wear, so I am grateful for that. In the future, if anyone is in the Sacramento area, I would not recommend going to Valley Hi Pet Clinic.
But other than that little hiccup, everything is going very well! Samson hasn't had an accident in weeks, and thus has full reign of the house. We don't even check corners anymore. He has been a VERY good boy in that respect. He is still biting. I am hoping he will just grow out of it, because discipline is largely ineffective.
However, he did destroy my orchid this morning.
Little butthead. But a very, very cute butthead at that!
I am also happy to report (I posted this on another thread as well) that Jamison and I are in the process of starting our family! He sat me down last week and told me had been really thinking about it and that he wanted a baby.
In other fantastic news, Jamison was talking with our banker about our refi, and the banker asked if we had ever considered buying another house. Jamison said yes, but that we had run into nothing but trouble trying to get approved. The banker crunched some numbers, and told us that after 6-12 months has passed from the closing of our refi, we can be pre-approved for 200,000+ as long as I am the primary person on the loan!!! So this means that in about a year, we can start looking for our next house!
I can't believe that he is still biting. Amazing how some animals are so stubborn. I will tell you that my sister has a siamese mix that is the same way...and, he has never outgrown it...he is fixed and declawed and still munches on them every chance he gets. I've never had that problem.
That clinic sounds like a nightmare!!! He picked the cat up by the scruff???? That really would have sent me packing...
Glad he's doing well. He's a beautiful cat. I've found most of my cats were playful till at least 2 years old. Imp's still playful, and he's about 8 now. As long as it's not an aggressive biting, just playing I'd not worry to much about it. I have found touching/pushing their noses, will cause them to back off, or I'll push in rather than try to jerk back if one clamps down on my fingers.
Yup, I'd avoid that clinic in the future.
Be careful with the toilet. I've heard that cats, either trying to drink or playing; can fall in headfirst, not be able to back peddle on the smooth porcelain.
I can't believe that he is still biting. Amazing how some animals are so stubborn. I will tell you that my sister has a siamese mix that is the same way...and, he has never outgrown it...he is fixed and declawed and still munches on them every chance he gets. I've never had that problem.
That clinic sounds like a nightmare!!! He picked the cat up by the scruff???? That really would have sent me packing...
Yes he most certainly did. There was one other customer and his pet in the clinic. When the vet scruffed Samson, I looked at this guy like "uh.. is that normal?" and the guy just shrugged like it was no biggie. I was pretty darn frazzled by the time I left. I am thankful Samson is fine, but I will just stick with my regular vet from now on.
Glad he's doing well. He's a beautiful cat. I've found most of my cats were playful till at least 2 years old. Imp's still playful, and he's about 8 now. As long as it's not an aggressive biting, just playing I'd not worry to much about it. I have found touching/pushing their noses, will cause them to back off, or I'll push in rather than try to jerk back if one clamps down on my fingers.
Yup, I'd avoid that clinic in the future.
Be careful with the toilet. I've heard that cats, either trying to drink or playing; can fall in headfirst, not be able to back peddle on the smooth porcelain.
How can you tell the difference between a playful bite and an aggressive bite? He does look downright hateful at times when he is about to clamp down. Hard to say. I am positive that at the very least, MOST of the time he is definitely just playing. It mostly happens when one of us goes to pet him. His other major biting fixation is our feet. Gotta count our toes every night before bed
As for the toilet, we definitely learned our lesson with that one. We are now very careful to keep the seat down. The last thing we want is for him to fall in when neither of us is home.
Alright well it would appear that I can no longer edit the title of this thread
So I guess now it's permanently "Olympic Diver". Oi.
Samson is doing well. He is still pretty small, so I am thinking he is just going to be a smaller cat.
He successfully slept on our bed last night! He only tried to play with Jamison's feet once, and other than that he was on his best behavior.
He has finally found his voice! For the longest time he didn't make a sound. Then about a week ago, we heard this bone-chilling otherworldly sound coming from the kitchen. We jumped up and ran over, thinking that he had somehow hurt himself. Nope! He was just rolling on the ground and exercising his first amendment rights.
It doesn't sound like he really has much control of the sound quality yet, but he sure is talky anyways! He is always letting us know what's up.
I have finally transitioned him onto a 100% dry food diet. For the last month or two he was eating 1-2 small cans of wet food a day with 1/4 cup dry food mixed in. I have been told that the wet food isn't very good for him, so I am now free-feeding dry kitty kibble. He is SO unhappy with me. I feel terrible. Is the wet food really that bad for him that he shouldn't have it? I am using Science Diet, so it's not like I am using a cheap brand.
Er, actually wet food is great for cats, especially a good brand like "Wellness". (look at the ingredients, if the first 5 ingredients aren't "meat, meat, meat, meat, and more meat" then it's not the best for a carnivore like a cat). Cats, particularly male cats, have issues with urinary crystals forming, and having them hydrated helps to keep them away. A lot of cats can be pains when it comes to drinking, because in the wild they'd get a good chunk of their water from the meat they're eating. Kibble isn't exactly juicy stuff.
For my cat, I have him on grain-free dry food (who ever thought that a carnivore should be eating GRAIN?!) which he can eat all day (he's a browser, and will nibble all day without pigging out. Not every cat is like this!) and for supper he gets some wet food plopped on top, which he does his tricks for.
I only use wet food if there is an illnees. I've never had a male cat have urinary tract problems and the kibble crunching keeps their teeth cleaner. That's just MHO though. Others will feed canned food exclusively...I for one don't like cleaning up hairballs with canned food...messy, messy, messy
