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Susan have you guessed why the cat was a stray?
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LOL Veronica!

We never figured out if he actually was someone's pet or if he was truly a stray that was born outdoors and just figured out that if he was pitiful enough, people would feed him. He was a rack of bones when we got him, but that changed soon enough once I took him in, got him to the vet and started feeding him good quality food. His fur and everything changed completely. He looked like a ratty short-haired cat until I took him in - now he is a beautiful (very photogenic) long-haired fat cat. Not overweight fat - just big. The vet says he's an incredibly long cat, so whatever mixed breed he is, he's mixed with something big. When he stretches out, he's incredibly long.
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This story may start cute but, fair warning, the ending is not so warm and fuzzy.

So, yesterday, apparently my little girl cat decided to keep a pet baby bunny. She caught said baby bunny and kept it corralled in one corner or the other of the screened porch. Kept it for several hours apparently (I got this part of the story second hand from Mom's caregiver today). Matilda would pick the bunny up and move it from one corner or the other. She would lay there and corral the bunny between her paws. She didn't hurt the baby bunny but I have no idea what her intentions were.

I did not know anything about this last night when my dog came in through the pet door with something in her mouth. I heard a squeaking noise and thought it was a dog toy. Boy I was wrong. I quickly noted that it was a baby bunny but before I could take any action... chomp, crunch, crunch. The dog ate every bit of bunny from head to toe. Bad dog!

I do wonder what true cat's plans were, though.
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M2M - pretty sure the cat's intentions were much the same as the dog's, though it might have taken longer. I've seen a cat in action with small creatures, and it's rarely a "nice" story.

(Another not-so-nice story ahead, so if you're at all squeamish, you might want to pass this over.)

When I was about 10, my indoor/outdoor cat was outside, rattling the door to come in. When I got out there to get him in, I saw he had a mouse in his mouth, and yelled for mom. I had *no* idea what to do - we'd never, ever had a mouse in the house, so I hadn't the first clue how to handle this. While Mom is coming to the door, the cat decides to show off his juggling skills and starts throwing the mouse into the air, smacking it around, grabbing it in his teeth, then smacking it back up into the air again. The poor mouse is bleeding, squeaking for all he's worth, and doesn't even have the strength to try to run away. Mom arrives, and yells at me to grab a shovel and kill the mouse. I'm completely freaked out by this idea, but more freaked out by the yelling that Mom is doing behind me, telling me, "KILL IT! KILL IT! DON'T LET IT SUFFER LIKE THAT!" So, feeling much like I would imagine a mafia hit man would, I whacked the poor mouse with a swift smack of the shovel. I never did get that image out of my head.
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I have witnessed the mouse juggling act many times and, while the cat seems to have so much fun with it, the mouse never seems to appreciate it.

I was surprised, though, that my cat kept her prize pet rabbit alive for so long - more than six hours, and wasn't appearing to have been torturing it. She was apparently carrying it gently from one corner to the other and not batting it around or anything. I am going to stay with the idea that it was her pet.
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Susan, that cat you described isn't nuts, he's normal :)

He will out grow that in about 10 to 20 years :P  Oh, I bet he has some Maine Coon in his linage, those guys can get to be very long.
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FF - my sister had a Maine Coon cat - they're definitely huge. Mine doesn't look anything like one, other than his size. I guess it could be in there somewhere.
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Norwegian Forest Cats are gigantic, too. Healthy (i.e. not overweight) males range from 12-16 pounds. The cat fanciers' site says they often are mistaken for Maine Coons, perhaps partly because the breed hasn't been around in the USA for all that long.
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My little kittens are misbehaving badly getting into everything they shouldn't even though the room is full of toys.Iv'e pugged every hole and they still find a way to get to where they want to go.So cute and yet so rotten.
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Ah toe nail inspections time for the cats. My wild child "Charlie" is the easiest of the three.... I can plop him into my lap like he is sitting and inspect each and every nail. He will even spread out his paws to make it easier. So funny. He does have a bad habit of when cleaning his nails, he will spit out the old broken nail as there is a new nail growing underneath. I find pieces of nails everywhere.

The girls, they are prim and proper except for toe nail inspection. Oh my gosh, for one you would think I was taking all of her 9 lives at once. The screeching and squirming.

When cats get older, mine are 16-18, their toe nails will start to get thick and sometimes will grow around into the pad of the foot. That's because they aren't walking on concrete or other rough surfaces as much as they should to help get rid of the old claw automatically. For those thick claws, I use wire cutters as I can't use the cat nail clippers.
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freqflyer,You are such a good and Brave cat owner to cut your cat's nail's and all 3 cats too.That's awesome.I'm afraid to with mine because I'm scared I'd get too close and get 'em bleeding.Good job FF!
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Lucky start with the kittens, you can see how far to go. Just clip the transparent bit. With the kittens just clip the point off. The idea is to get them used to this when they are little. Do you have a scratching post for them. it needs to be high enough that an adult cat can stretch out full length while they scratch. You may need to introduce the kittens to it and take hold of a paw and scratch the post so they get the idea and leave your furniture alone. When you have outdoor cats they tend to take care of the problem outside. Just keep an eye on that dew claw higher up on the front paw. In older cats especially the nail can curl over and and dig into a pad and cause a lot of pain.
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Thanks Veronica...I'll try clipping the kittens claws first,just the points like you said.That's a good idea.And yeah,They have a "scratchy scratch",that's what I call it and they Love it.They are so tiny and cute.They were having such a good time today until I had to give them their antibiotic and eyedrops and now they're all knocked out but I'm sure they'll get their second wind when it's time to go to bed.
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When I go into check on the kittens first thing in the morning,I never know what I'll find.Today,when I went in,there was an old glue mouse trap with a really old dead mouse inside.No tellin' where they found it,I was just glad they hadn't gotten to the glue on the trap yet.It was so gross!And they all looked so innocent....
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There was a little girl who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead,
And when she was good,she was very,very good and when she was bad she was Horrid......
A perfect description of my kittens~
Today when I went in,they were climbing up on the top of a shelf,jumping to the floor and racing back to do it again like teenagers jumping off a cliff into the lake,it was a new ,fun game they created until they thought of their next game.
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Lucky don't you just love kittens. They have so much energy. I remember ours at that age. They used to love to bat bottle caps around. We've been trimming our kitties claws since they were babies and they are fine with it. Just avoid the pink part which is called the quick. Just get their paws and gently squeeze and that causes the nails to extend. You don't have to trim them right down, just so they are blunted. I usually hold the cats in my lap and hubs trims their nails. :)
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Thanks Gershun,That's a great idea IF I can get my dH to cooperate.
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Luckylu, it must be quite a comedy show when the kittens are playing. It's like looking after toddlers. My grandsons escaped their back yard yesterday ( it happened within a time span of less than a minute). My dd couldn't find them in the front yard so she immediately called 911. She found them on the next street over and luckily they didn't get out on a busy traffic area.
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We have 2 cats, a black one named Jade and a calico named Callie. Callie is a senior cat and has been waking me up at 3AM every morning.
Sharyn, I am glad your grandkids are OK. They can be quick!
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caregiver2020...I hope you don't get awakened at 3 a.m this morning again by Callie.
And SharynMarie,Thank God your Grandkids were OK.
It is scary how fast they can get into real trouble.Today,I caught one of my kittens trying to eat the electrical cord to the lamp and then another almost got his head caught in some bars on a rocking chair and they pulled all of Bootsie's food in breakable bowls to the floor,just one thing after another.....and I'm exhausted-
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Our neighbor's cat (one of many) was sent to live outside. He was a pure black beauty, and cried to get inside our home. He became the neighborhood cat, and I forgave him for trying to kill a dove near my front steps. He came inside, just twice. Because he wanted outside at 4 a.m., and would climb the screen door, waking us up. He was crying on the roof of the laundry room months later, and I felt he was afraid. Hubs would not allow me to let him in our house. That was the last time I saw him......but he was behaving badly.
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Did the dove live?
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While I was dog sitting for Older Bro this past weekend, I was also monitoring 2 lively cats, litter mates. The one, Cuddles, is the female, and loves to get out in the rural setting and hunt day and night. Snuggles, the male, prefers inside life and is skittish.

I noticed on one day as I let the dogs out a side door that there were feathers... and blood... I'm sure left by Cuddles as her mark of bringing back her trophy to show, before she did *whatever* with it. I didn't bother to clean it up. But then every time I let the dogs out, I would see that, and think "poor birdie." lol

The cat is only doing what comes natural to her, and bro and SIL worry about a coyote getting to her, which happened to their last cat, and has happened to some of their neighbor's dogs... So I figure it's all a natural cycle happening out there that I won't judge. I'm still not cleaning it up, either. XD
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Cats behaving badly...

I have only had one cat in my life that was difficult. His name was Sassy Simon, a Siamese cat. To be honest, this cat would not have had a home that loved him like we did. He would swat at you as you walked pasted him. One time (very funny because my mom was such a difficult person), he swatted at my mother's head because she was sitting on the couch with her head to the back rest where he liked to lay to sleep!! My mom yelled out, "he hit me!!!" I never had problems with Simon, he loved me and knew I loved him. I don't think others would have put up with his shenanigans.






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Iv'e always loved Siamese cats Sharyn and it was so nice of you to care for that one.They are extra unique.
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Luckylu, Simon was a character. He adopted us as he did belong to the nieghbor behind us. Siamese can be temperamental yet I have had other Siamese cats that were big sweethearts.
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SharynMarie...I had a chocolate point Siamese named Mocha.She was nice one minute and mean the next.
Now I have Odom who was the neighbor's cat that wants to live here instead of there.He's a Huge,old Tabby.
And Bootsie,The best MaMa cat in the world who's asleep now with her 5 beautiful Tuxedo kittens.
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My little tiny girl cat, Matilda, loved the outdoors and will wander into the woods behind the house. She comes I to eat, have a quick snuggle and then back out to hunt and play.

I had not seen her for a day or two and was wondering if she had become a snack for a larger animal. She was quite on my mind.

Last night, I slept with the windows open and at 5:AM, I heard her delicate cry. I called out to her from the second floor window and she responded. We went back and forth several times and I swear, she actually said "help". It came out as "meowelp" but we all know it was "help".

I quickly donned my robe and ran downstairs to find that, no it was not sweet Matilda but rather Sebastian, who had been imitating Matilda's voice, asking me to let him in the back door... because it was raining and if he walked 20 feet to the pet door to let himself in, he would have gotten wet.

BTW, Matilda showed up later, unscathed.
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When my eldest and her fiancee were in vet school a cat was brought to the small animal clinic basically to be euthanized because it had been hit by a car and badly injured. The professors thought it would be a good idea to let the students operate and see if they could fix him. it was too expensive to use bright shiny new equipment so they used anything that was lying around the lad (properly sterilized of course) They actually did a pretty good job and recovered well but his leg looked mechanical. i was asked if i would keep him on the farm which I agreed to but he got out while the kids were all there so they lured him back with cat food and inside he went. A few days later some idiot left the back door open and he was gone again. We found him a few days later dead on our quiet country dirt road. I guess he was actually suicidal.
When I was away at boarding school the principal had a big orange cat who spent his time round her neck. She would often let me wear him as I was animal crazy.
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It's a zoo at our house!And "someone" outside is behaving Very badly....There's a baby squirrel out there with no head!The hungry strays met me at the back door.Bootsie tried to get out to get pregnant again.The 5 babies are Huge and have taken over the whole room and in my john,Odom is in the window while my dH is sound asleep down the hall with Precious.I'm just as busy as when Mom was still here,it's just different caregiving and I'm worn out but very glad for all this Love.
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