@Ken Anderson You are going to make @Lon Tanner trade in his stuffed dog for a cat before this is over with.
When it comes to the fine dining table, they have their favorites too, sometimes i think they"re fussier with their meals than we are....Talking to your pets.......Great to hear....I am normal..
We probably will, but will wait for a private adoption, meaning someone with a cat to give away because my experience with shelters has not been good.
Adoption, good choice. I've never had anything to do with shelters, but what i've learned from others and programs, not the best choice for pet seeking or the best choice for the animals that end up there. It is so very sad when they end up in shelters for whatever reasons, their life becomes very short. I call that cruelty to the innocent.
For one thing, the shelters will pump them so full of poisons that you end up with an animal that is likely to have health problems. Plus, they inevitably insert themselves where they don't belong.
When Ella is outside, she nearly always comes right away when I call her. Sometimes, she roams, and I think she knows that I don't like her to go too far from home, so she practically flies back, usually along the tracks, when she isn't nearby. A few times a year, she will decide that she doesn't want to come in. Once, I spotted her sneaking under the neighbor's shed when I called her, and another time, she simply wouldn't come and ran from me when I went to get her. When she doesn't come, and I finally catch her, or she decides to finally come home, I will pick her up and carry her in the house. There's no scolding her, and certainly nothing in the way of punishment, except that she is grounded the next day. It seems that this would be too abstract for a cat to figure out, but cats are pretty good at remembering patterns, so I think she gets it. But she associates it with my carrying her in as much as that she didn't come when she was called. When I carry her in the house, she knows she's not getting out the next day. The funny thing is that often, when she is behaving herself perfectly well, I'll pick her up and carry her around, petting her. She likes that well enough but if I carry her back toward the house, she will struggle for me to let her down before I go in, so that she can walk in that door on her own. Then she knows she's getting out the next day. Changing the subject, we probably will get another cat for Ella to hang out with. If she's like any other cat I've ever had, she will hate that cat for the first few weeks, at least, but I think it's good for a cat to have another cat. However, I do want a private adoption. Also though, we're going to be spending a week at one timeshare, followed by a week at another early this fall, so I think we'll wait until after we get back to introduce a new cat. Our usual cat sitter won't be available, so we're thinking of bringing Ella with us and boarding her near each of the timeshares. She will probably hate being boarded, but it won't be as bad for her as it would have been for Cutie, as Ella is far more social. Plus, she'll be with us during the trip, since we can find hotels that will allow a cat, although our timeshares won't, and maybe we can visit with her during her stay so that she knows she hasn't been abandoned.
We don't have any population of feral cats here, as far as I know, Maine being a pretty harsh climate for outdoor cats in the winter. Otherwise, I would love to take in another feral cat. That is quite the challenge, and a rewarding one.
I have always had cats but have never had one who is underfoot as much as Ella, and I mean that literally. She insists on walking in front me (or anyone, she does it to my wife too), then stopping without notice so that I either step on her or manage to somehow maneuver around her. When I step on her, she yells and then acts afraid of me, as if I had tried to kill her. I have stepped on her a few times but, even more often, I have fallen, once down the steps, trying to avoid stepping on her. She is the only reason I need to have the lights on if I am going anywhere at night. I know the house well enough that I think I could maneuver it blind. But with Ella stopping in front of me, it's downright dangerous, even in the daytime. I feel bad when I step on her but, at the same time, she seems to be trying to get stepped on. It's not like this occurs only when I happen upon her, either. She usually follows me whenever I go anywhere. When I say follow, I actually mean lead, because she insists on being in front. It's on my mind because I nearly took a tumble from the top of the stairs a few moments ago, and people would blame it on being old, probably.