Yum! Delicious kitten!
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Momma likes to wrestle with the kitten, who is now three and a half weeks old. Momma can get pretty rough, but I haven't seen any blood yet and Baby doesn't seem to mind, so I guess it's ok.
What's NOT ok is that Momma came from the shelter with an added special feature, i.e., worms. Guh-rosss! It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. I've got to go to the shelter after work and pick up worm meds for the both of them. Gross! (shiver.)
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I've been busy baby-proofing the apartment, now that Baby is out and about. I put up a window screen across the doorway to the kitchen so she can't get in there, and I'm trying to block off any other spaces where she might get in a jam. Both cats love to scratch the carpeting, so I got a cat scratch post, but so far the carpeting is the far-preferred option. Sigh.
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Momma is eating like there's no tomorrow, but I think the worms might be involved in that. Hopefully once I get her de-wormed, she'll no longer be eating FOUR CANS of cat food a day. Truly, it's amazing. She can polish off an entire (3 oz.) can in about sixty seconds. Baby licked some food off my finger the other night, but that's about the end of her interest in solid food so far.
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So, other than the worm situation (gross) (shiver), all is well in foster land.
"Bye, Momma! See you later!"
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They grow up so fast. (heh)
5 comments:
Some cats (mine, for example) are horizontal scratchers. You can work with this preference (easier than trying to change a behavior) by taking a carpet sample and sprinkling it with catnip. They get to feel warmly toward "their" carpet square. Also, if there's a particular area that they head to sharpen (like on a stairs or whatever), you can place the carpet square over their scratching spot and voila, no more problem.
What a great idea! Thanks, Bridgett!
She's getting so big!
Worms are sooooo gross. We had a cat who got them, I think, from eating rodents.
Thing I just learned: cats go back to the same place to sharpen because they release pheremones from scent glands in their paws when they sharpen. The purpose of sharpening is to leave a visible reminder to other cats that this space is taken and they need to go and refresh that smell every once in a while. Momma can still smell Rocky's scent in various places even though you've cleaned a bunch -- everywhere a cat walks or has brushed with its tail or mouth, it leaves a scent signature that can be smelled by other cats for months. Momma is just making sure your other invisible cat knows that this is Momma's stuff now. If Momma has a place she really likes to mark and you can get her to sharpen a couple of times in that place on a carpet square, she'll probably just keep clawing in the same place. (This explains why cats often don't want to share scratching posts. I knew they didn't, but I didn't know why.)
Scent glands in their paws? Really?! Who knew?
And yeah, listie, the whole worm thing is beyond gross. I shudder every time I think about it. GROSS.
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