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Cat Forum / Cat Anecdotes / September 2006Mooch demands security?
Last night around 8 pm Mooch, our resident stray, showed up on the veranda for his evening meal. He was just about finished when a chubby black and white lookalike charged up with her eye on his food, and he took off. It was Sally, the cat next door. A close relative had given her to our neighbours when she was still a kitten. She looks a lot like Mooch. Like him she wears a tuxedo, although she's a lot fatter, and the white patch on her chest is smaller than his. Early this morning I got out of bed to give Mooch his breakfast (yes, he's spoiled). He was waiting, and had a great deal to say to me. It could have been "Hurry up and put down the food and water, guy." But I interpreted it to mean "Hey, what's with last night? Can't you provide proper security on MY veranda while I'm eating? What's with that fat look-alike bandit that interrupted my dinner last night? Can't you keep her away??!" http://www.flippyscatpage.com/moochtwo.html Bobcat wrote---> But I interpreted it to mean "Hey, what's with last night? Can't you provide proper security on MY veranda while I'm eating? What's with that fat look-alike bandit that interrupted my dinner last night? Can't you keep her away??!" Isn't it interesting how we can read so much into what cats say? I swear my cat thinks I'm his bumbling gopher. It even comes across in his web-site. Cats are so expressive. Even when I've got it all wrong, it's fun trying to figure them out. Cheers, Azy! "For those of you who've never been to the vet's office, let me clue you in on a few things." ~ Mr. Fleez www.housecatwisdom.blogspot.com > Last night around 8 pm Mooch, our resident stray, showed up on the > veranda for his evening meal. He was just about finished when a chubby [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > http://www.flippyscatpage.com/moochtwo.html Mooch is beautiful and if he is talked to enough, he probably will get more tame. Good luck. MLB > Mooch is beautiful and if he is talked to enough, he probably will get > more tame. Good luck. MLB You're right - Mooch is a lovely little cat. I'm always glad to see his pretty, suspicious little face when he appears for his meals. As for becoming more tame, it's odd. He's talkative, but that's it. He'll only approach us when we have food, and sometimes he keeps a good distance from us, depending on his mood. I've had previous experience with feral cats, and unless they're very young kittens, the chance of them becoming tamer is quite slim, I'm afraid. I wish it weren't so with Mooch - I'd love to stroke his fur, but at least we know we can help him by keeping him healthy with a good diet. >> Mooch is beautiful and if he is talked to enough, he probably will get >> more tame. Good luck. MLB [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > Mooch - I'd love to stroke his fur, but at least we know we can help > him by keeping him healthy with a good diet. Will he play with a feather or a wand toy? MLB > Will he play with a feather or a wand toy? MLB No, if you make any move his way other than to put his food and water in front of him, he bolts under the veranda furniture. He's very skittish, and I wouldn't dare approach him with toys like you describe, which we have for our three indoor cats. He'd take it as a threat. No, I'm afraid that Mooch is very much the 'fraidy-cat. > I'm afraid that Mooch is very much the 'fraidy-cat. Try minced meat.<g> I never met a cat who, after some weeks of throwing meat in its way didn`t come closer once I began sitting on the floor, next to the pieices of meat. > > I'm afraid that Mooch is very much the 'fraidy-cat. > Try minced meat.<g> > I never met a cat who, after some weeks of throwing meat in its > way didn`t come closer once I began sitting on the floor, next to the > pieices of meat. Normally this sounds like a sound idea. But in Mooch's case there's an odd problem. We feed him on the veranda, which is carpeted in rough sisal. When he eats, bits of dry cat food fall on the carpeting, but he's very careful to eat every last scrap and leave no trace of food. He seems to know instinctively to leave no trace of it behind, and that we'll take the food in once he's finished. Minced meat or its odour would get in the carpet and attract other cats, and what's worse, raccoons, who've stormed up and chased Mooch away while he was having late supper. That's why we never give him moist canned cat food. >> Try minced meat.<g> >> I never met a cat who, after some weeks of throwing meat in its [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > raccoons, who've stormed up and chased Mooch away while he was having > late supper. That's why we never give him moist canned cat food. Put the food on a big enough wooden plate, so that nothing can fall on the carpet. Squarely Yours Michael  SignatureSquare Dance is friendship put to music Andrea and Michael with cuddle kittens Blacky and Merlin More detail at: http://www.curschmann-sachsen.de > Put the food on a big enough wooden plate, so that nothing can fall on > the carpet. The odd thing about Mooch is that he doesn't really like meat. He much prefers the top quality Hall's Science Diet dry cat food we give to our indoor kitties. It's a far cry from over a year ago when we first noticed Mooch, then a starving stray, eating the stale bread we threw out for the birds in the backyard. (See this article about him.) http://www.flippyscatpage.com/moochtwo.html >> Put the food on a big enough wooden plate, so that nothing can fall on >> the carpet. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > >http://www.flippyscatpage.com/moochtwo.html Awww. You have to feel for such a pretty cat, so desperate for food that he goes after bread crumbs. >> The odd thing about Mooch is that he doesn't really like meat. He much >> prefers the top quality Hall's Science Diet dry cat food we give to our [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >> >>http://www.flippyscatpage.com/moochtwo.html > Awww. You have to feel for such a pretty cat, so desperate for food > that he goes after bread crumbs. He's beautiful! And definitely not starving anymore. Joyce > >> "Bobcat" <bob_catt@hotmail.com> wrote: > >> The odd thing about Mooch is that he doesn't really like meat. He much > >> prefers the top quality Hall's Science Diet dry cat food we give to our > >> indoor kitties. It's a far cry from over a year ago when we first > >> noticed Mooch, then a starving stray, eating the stale bread we threw > >> out for the birds in the backyard. > > Awww. You have to feel for such a pretty cat, so desperate for food > > that he goes after bread crumbs. > Joyce wrote: > He's beautiful! And definitely not starving anymore. "Bobcat" <bob_catt@hotmail.com> wrote: You and Takayuki are correct. I look forward to climbing out of bed early every morning, to see his pretty face staring in the veranda window, mutely - and sometimes vocally - demanding breakfast. Over the summer he looked slimmer and trimmer than last winter (but not thin or unhealthy), but now that his internal clock tells him the cold Canadian winter is approaching again he's beginning to grow in his thick protective undercoat. A big bonus in his physical wellbeing is the top-quality dry cat food he gets regularly, and he's storing up body fat with it by stepping up the frequency of his meals. In the hot weather he often showed up just once a day, but now he's here for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and sometimes a late evening snack. He's always welcome! >> I'm afraid that Mooch is very much the 'fraidy-cat. > >Try minced meat.<g> >I never met a cat who, after some weeks of throwing meat in its >way didn`t come closer once I began sitting on the floor, next to the >pieices of meat. Last night, I cooked a batch of hamburger patties (ground beef). Cinders ordinarily eats dry food; when I have tried giving her canned food, she has sniffed at it and walked away. Last night, however, she kept hovering around my feet as I stood at the stove, making hopeful noises. I didn't give her any of the hamburger, however. SignatureJohn F. Eldredge -- john@jfeldredge.com PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu "Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria >> Will he play with a feather or a wand toy? MLB > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > which we have for our three indoor cats. He'd take it as a threat. No, > I'm afraid that Mooch is very much the 'fraidy-cat. I'd be trying our old standby favorite cat toy. Take long piece of cotton string. Tie a small bit of paper to one end of it. Walk past the general vicinity of the cat with the string dragging behind you. The more timid the cat, the longer the string. Only problem we've had, once my grandsons saw how well this worked, I kept running out of kitchen string. Jo [[mlbriggs wrote: > Will he play with a feather or a wand toy? MLB No, if you make any move his way other than to put his food and water in front of him, he bolts under the veranda furniture. He's very skittish, and I wouldn't dare approach him with toys like you describe, which we have for our three indoor cats. He'd take it as a threat. No, I'm afraid that Mooch is very much the 'fraidy-cat.]] I wonder if he'd be interested in chasing a laser dot "greebling". You wouldn't have to move much to get the dot to go, and as long as you avoided aiming the light right at his eyes, he could play safely with the dot. Or maybe bubbles. Some cats love playing with bubbles. If he doesn't get spooked when the bubble bursts and a)disappears b)splashes droplets of soap, he might like those, too. > I wonder if he'd be interested in chasing a laser dot "greebling". You > wouldn't have to move much to get the dot to go, and as long as you [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > spooked when the bubble bursts and a)disappears b)splashes droplets of > soap, he might like those, too. Sorry for the delay in replying - Google Groups was malfunctioning yesterday. Those are two good ideas, Gabey. But I'm afraid Mooch is on our veranda for one thing - food. Anything else is a distraction for him. This doesn't mean he isn't playful - we've seen him chasing leaves blowing in the backyard, etc. It's just that he's wary all the time he's eating, then he leaves right away. Take this morning. I left my vigil at the window for only a moment while he was eating, and returned to discover a big raccoon gorging down his food, and Mooch scared away. And in the daytime, other hungry neighbours' cats butt in on his meals. So every second is spent eating and drinking. I must go and see if he's returned for a second try at breakfast. Thanks again for the ideas. > > I wonder if he'd be interested in chasing a laser dot "greebling". You > > wouldn't have to move much to get the dot to go, and as long as you [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > So every second is spent eating and drinking. I must go and see if he's > returned for a second try at breakfast. Thanks again for the ideas. Where in the cold Canadian winter are you? Golden Horseshoe or Great White North? --tension > > left my vigil at the window for only a moment while he was eating, and returned > > to discover a big raccoon gorging down his food, and Mooch scared away. > Where in the cold Canadian winter are you? Golden Horseshoe or Great > White North? In the wilds of Toronto. Why the raccoon? Actually we get a lot of wildlife, partly because Scarborough Bluffs is at the foot of our street, a strip of largely wooded areas along Lake Ontario that gives various critters a refuge and a thoroughfare. In addition to raccoons, at times we've had skunks (lots of them!), coyotes, foxes, and even deer on verges of the airport runways farther north of here. > > > left my vigil at the window for only a moment while he was eating, and returned > > > to discover a big raccoon gorging down his food, and Mooch scared away. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > at times we've had skunks (lots of them!), coyotes, foxes, and even > deer on verges of the airport runways farther north of here. I remember the Scarborough Bluffs. I grew up in TO, more specifically in Etobicoke. --tension >> Mooch is beautiful and if he is talked to enough, he probably will get >> more tame. Good luck. MLB [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > Mooch - I'd love to stroke his fur, but at least we know we can help > him by keeping him healthy with a good diet. Molly was nearly two and had raised a litter before she was trapped and we adopted her. No she isn't a snuggle bug and she has expressed her wishes as to out vs in. (She will come in for meals, love, play and sleep. If we try to keep her in, she is leaving for good) But she does sleep on out feet and is acceptably tame. One of our other two ferals was about eight months and became quite domestic. The other seemed to have balance problems, probably from illness before we got her. She was fairly tame. But had a fondness for walking the fence tops and teasing the neighborhood dogs. It didn't mix well with her balance problems and was finally her downfall. Jo |
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