A new approach to gentle exercise: walking a cat!

[MeSci]

Photos of everyone else's, please! Here we have the various stages of exploring some cardboard boxes:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kgrh8wuksjmxowi/DSCF4097.JPG
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and her sitting proudly on the scratching pad we made from those boxes, by which time we felt guilty about cutting up the cardboard boxes she'd been having such fun with.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b3ts7ngiwsql1dj/DSCF4105.JPG

It's hard to photograph her with her jacket on at dusk due to the fluorescent strip, but here's the best of the bunch:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pt17jaslqxma7j7/DSCF4108 - Copy.JPG

So far we're on Tesco treats, which she likes first try. (As opposed to being dead picky about catfood. Thankfully you can get good deals on her preferred flavours of Gourmet Gold on Amazon Subscribe & Save.)

OK, here is a photo of my cats who still share this earthly plane with me.

Yes, who needs expensive cat toys when you can keep them happy with boxes, a few balls, screwed-up balls of paper, etc.?!

I give mine this tuna on special occasions. It's on special offer at the moment.

 

[Calathea]

Oh, they're gorgeous! They look all snuggly, too.

We do have one toy we bought, the Flying Frenzy feathery thing on a fishing rod, but the rest we just made. I've made quite a few catnip mice by now, plus you can make quite a few toys from toilet roll and kitchen roll tubes.

Madam has been going quite bonkers this morning, miaowing nonstop for food much earlier than usual (including demanding the second half of the tin an hour later, and then only taking two bites), though she seems to have settled down by now. We were both too tired to play with her, we seemed to get hit by migraine both at once, but she had over an hour's gentle stroll in the kirkyard next door late afternoon.

 

[MeSci]

We do have one toy we bought, the Flying Frenzy feathery thing on a fishing rod, but the rest we just made. I've made quite a few catnip mice by now, plus you can make quite a few toys from toilet roll and kitchen roll tubes.

I have a little intelligence test I sometimes play with mine - putting a loo roll tube on its end, and while the cat is looking, quickly dropping a ball into it. I theorise that the cat who quickly knocks the tube over to get the ball is clever! (It doesn't work with cats who aren't into balls or other toys though.)

 

[peggy-sue]

My brother gave our cats one of the flying fishing rod things. Not interested.

Not until I took the rod off the ball base part, and just used the rod with a long velvet ribbon on the end (it came out of an old skirt waistband) as a manual toy fishing rod.

Poor Pippin was completly stumped by the ball with holes in it that you put cat food inside. She could smell the food, but couldn't even work out how to pat the ball to get it to release a bit.

It was just cruelty, teasing her like that.
Food is the most important thing in her little world. Food, and being asleep in warm places.

This is a pic of Muzzy sitting in her "bird-watching hide". (We normally do have a plastic fence propped up in front of the willow tree, to make it difficult for her to use it as a launch pad for getting to the birds.)
The next one is her having a little roll around on some catnip, showing off her tummy.

MeSci, your cats look ever so proper! All neat and tidy, tails prettily tucked around paws... demure expressions on their little faces.
I'd be scared to fart near them, for fear of offending them!

 

[peggy-sue]

oh look - a cat shaped heap of clean laundry on the table

 

[peggy-sue]

Here's 3 pics of Pippin.
Pippin looking "intelligent".

second pic needs an explanation. She had just been doing her crawl up the stairs, demanding to be petted on every step (so why does she keep moving up?).
She has reached the top, and is now completely confused. She's got to the point where she is likely to lash out when petted, because it's got too much for her, but she is still stuck in the position she takes when she does want petted.
She looks as if she "means business", but she really is just confused and getting angry. Poor Pip.

Next one is of her rolling on the ground and yawning.

 

[MeSci]

This is a pic of Muzzy sitting in her "bird-watching hide". (We normally do have a plastic fence propped up in front of the willow tree, to make it difficult for her to use it as a launch pad for getting to the birds.)
The next one is her having a little roll around on some catnip, showing off her tummy.

MeSci, your cats look ever so proper! All neat and tidy, tails prettily tucked around paws... demure expressions on their little faces.
I'd be scared to fart near them, for fear of offending them!

Nice of you to make the tree grow into a purrfect cat seat!

My girlcat (foreground) is quite demure but sometimes instigates chases with her brother, and also has daily mad sessions leaping on and off shelves.

The boy is not so demure, and can be a bully. He also has a feud going with a neighbour's cat who currently has the upper paw and is even more of a bully. But my boy adores me and is a real Mummy's boy.

Farts are no problem for my cats - they are very used to them! (Oh the joy of living without fellow-humans. )

 

[peggy-sue]

Pippin bullies Muzz. Not obviously, Michael won't believe me. But she does. As soon as Muzz finds a safe place to be, Pip will usurp it. Pip won't let Muzz go upstairs, that's her territory. Poor Muzz ends up in cupboards or behind them, or in the laundry basket, to try to find a safe sleeping place.
Sometimes, Muzz gets brave and gives Pip a wee swipe from above, because Pip doesn't really get up on anything. Her arthritis stops her.
We all have to tolerate the vilest of farts here. Michael has IBS.

 

[Calathea]

*coos over all the adorable photos*

My brother gave our cats one of the flying fishing rod things. Not interested.

Not until I took the rod off the ball base part, and just used the rod with a long velvet ribbon on the end (it came out of an old skirt waistband) as a manual toy fishing rod.

What ball base part? Are we talking about the same thing? I mean this toy.

 

[peggy-sue]

The toy was similar, but you stuck the rod into a ball-shaped base which had a little clockwork engine in it to turn the rod around.

Muzz not interested in mechanical movement of the rod. It has to be manual and operated by me.

 

[Calathea]

Well, yes. Naturally. If possible, it should make you completely humiliate yourself too. Anyway, the brand of wand toy I mentioned is excellent.

 

[Calathea]

Does anyone else have cat shelves? We put four up my my living room about a month ago, and they're awesome. Here she is eating on one, when she was just getting used to them. Now she plays on them, chasing the feather toy up and down and making us throw cardboard balls for her to bat back down to us. They have strips of carpet tile stapled on, and the spare carpet tile bits ended up on the side of my wardrobe as a much-appreciated scratching pad.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/120338704@N05/13168696045/sizes/l/in/photostream/

I've started the blog, though there's not much up yet. http://walkingacat.livejournal.com.

 

[peggy-sue]

We have Glass shelves here. Shelves for Art Glass. Not for cats.
Cats are discouraged from climbing the walls and curtains here.
I even laid out a load of lemons and oranges throughout the glass on my shelves when we first got Muzz, to put her off investigating them.

 

[MeSci]

Does anyone else have cat shelves? We put four up my my living room about a month ago, and they're awesome. Here she is eating on one, when she was just getting used to them. Now she plays on them, chasing the feather toy up and down and making us throw cardboard balls for her to bat back down to us. They have strips of carpet tile stapled on, and the spare carpet tile bits ended up on the side of my wardrobe as a much-appreciated scratching pad.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/120338704@N05/13168696045/sizes/l/in/photostream/

I've started the blog, though there's not much up yet. http://walkingacat.livejournal.com.

Your cat shelves look great. Having been owned by cats for decades, and participating in cat forums, I thought I had encountered all the ideas there were for serving our owners!

My cats just use existing shelves, window sills and furniture!

Your Ninja Kitty stuff won't load for me.

@peggy-sue - I didn't have you down as houseproud!

Here are a couple of photos showing my two on our leadless walks (Mummy's boycat getting stroked in 2nd photo). They know when it's walkies time as I bang my wellies upside down to knock out any unwanted contents before putting them on!

 

[peggy-sue]

oh no, not house proud, I can assure you, but I'm certainly exceptionally proud of my glass collection.
The shelves in the sitting room contain a load of stuff from the very beginnings of the Studio Glass Movement. Not much American from the early days, (where it started in '63) sadly, but from when Sam Herman came over from the States and introduced it to Britain at the RCA here. Back in '67.
It's not just beautiful, it's historically important stuff too. (or will be when the so-called hoi-poloi of art get around to recognising glass as art.)

And my curtains are my Grandpa's old cotton velvet ones. They may be 60 years old, but they are top quality and I love them, I don't want them ruined!

But I want Cat shelves now, too. I'm sure Muzz would love them - out of Pip's way.
Pip wouldn't go up, not unless it was into a sling attached to a radiator. She never gets any higher than Michael's lap these days, and that's a two stage, laborious process. She is 16.

MeSci, I'm so jealous of your beautiful walking place - and such amiable cats, going along with you, a lovely little threesome.
I wish Muzz and Pip would get on. Muzz tried, Pip wasn't having it.

 

[Calathea]

Oh, it looks lovely walking your cats there! We're in the middle of a city, so walking her with a harness and lead is our only option. But it's a very lovely option. We're trying to work out if there's a nice place we could get to by wheelchair and then walk her with me in the wheelchair. I'm not sure she's up to bus travel.

We made cat shelves after a friend got me hooked on watching My Cat From Hell, which is very into them. It's weird, it's like the space in my flat has suddenly expanded. She still goes racing up and down the hall after catnip mice and cardboard balls made from cut-up toilet roll tubes, of course. Anyway, apparently they're good because cats adore vertical space (well, most of them do), it makes them feel more secure, and it's fun to play on, and it can also give one cat a means of escape from another cat if that's needed in that household. We occasionally park her up there if we need her to be out of the way, and she watches whatever we're doing with interest.

Radiators, ah yes. Ninja is deeply devoted to being in a towel- or fleece-lined cardboard box next to a radiator. And if you put the halogen space heater on, that's her curled up for the evening right in front of it, although these days we tend to use a heated throw instead so she has to settle for that.

Do you mean that the LiveJournal blog isn't working? I know I seem to have a dead image link in that post. I'm on the tablet rather than the laptop at the moment, so it can be a bit trickier sorting out links and images and stuff.

 

[MeSci]

Oh, it looks lovely walking your cats there! We're in the middle of a city, so walking her with a harness and lead is our only option. But it's a very lovely option. We're trying to work out if there's a nice place we could get to by wheelchair and then walk her with me in the wheelchair. I'm not sure she's up to bus travel.

We made cat shelves after a friend got me hooked on watching My Cat From Hell, which is very into them. It's weird, it's like the space in my flat has suddenly expanded. She still goes racing up and down the hall after catnip mice and cardboard balls made from cut-up toilet roll tubes, of course. Anyway, apparently they're good because cats adore vertical space (well, most of them do), it makes them feel more secure, and it's fun to play on, and it can also give one cat a means of escape from another cat if that's needed in that household. We occasionally park her up there if we need her to be out of the way, and she watches whatever we're doing with interest.

Radiators, ah yes. Ninja is deeply devoted to being in a towel- or fleece-lined cardboard box next to a radiator. And if you put the halogen space heater on, that's her curled up for the evening right in front of it, although these days we tend to use a heated throw instead so she has to settle for that.

Do you mean that the LiveJournal blog isn't working? I know I seem to have a dead image link in that post. I'm on the tablet rather than the laptop at the moment, so it can be a bit trickier sorting out links and images and stuff.

I can get to the 'Matter or Mucus?' page but I can't get anything when I click on the 'walkingacat' link on the top right. I could see one cat photo, but I keep getting the 'page-loading' -type symbol.

Yes, it is nice round here, and sorry to make you and @peggy-sue envious. It's not as nice as it was, as the local authorities seem determined to let developers build on vast swathes of green fields. The fields used to stretch all around, but a new housing estate has been built on some, anti-social residents have polluted the river and bank with litter, and the council wants to build a link road across another field.

I've campaigned long and hard to try to stop them (short of lying down in front of bulldozers), but the only thing that seems to stop them is lack of money.

I found a beautiful place last week that is still peaceful and clean. I'd love to live there...but I will probably need a lottery win!

Making balls from loo roll tubes - you do have some great ideas! How do you make those?

 

[MeSci]

MeSci, I'm so jealous of your beautiful walking place - and such amiable cats, going along with you, a lovely little threesome.
I wish Muzz and Pip would get on. Muzz tried, Pip wasn't having it.

Don't be fooled! Boycat bullies his sister regularly. But last time we went for a walk, the tension created by the distance from home had a bonding effect. It was really sweet, like he was saying "We gotta stick together, Sis." At one point they were standing parallel to each other a few inches apart, in purrfect solidarity. That doesn't happen often!

 

[peggy-sue]

I think the only time Muzz and Pip are ever "side-by-side" is when a strange cat tries to come in through the flap.

I am in a dilemma about flaps. They are convenient for letting your cats in and out, but can cause insecurity in the cats because of other cats using them.
It's like leaving your front door wide open all day.

We only have it open in daylight.
When it gets dark, the cats are shut in the house, I don't let them out at night.

 

[Calathea]

Cut the loo roll into four rings. Put one ring over another ring, and then add a third, and you have a cardboard ball. The spare ring may be flicked across the floor for the cat to chase.

A new definition of an optimist: one who gets to the end of the loo roll and thinks, "Yay, I can make another cat toy!"