Tag Archives: Video

The Kitten Whisperer

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We went to my sister-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving this year. Felice works at a vet and has taken in several “unadoptable” cats with her husband, Jeff. She has also become an expert at bringing newborn kittens back from the brink of death. Felice saved one of our cats, Puck (see here), as well as Miss Luis (see here). Her ability to be such a great surrogate mother to so many tiny kittens makes me think of her as “The Kitten Whisperer.”

While she was raising Miss Luis, she was given two more little kittens to bottle feed (see here) and recently she was asked to help two more kittens. Here are some pictures and a video of the newest kittens, which, I believe, are about five weeks old. Enjoy.

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Pull ‘n Play Cat Toy

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Two weeks ago we bought two cat toys from Friskies called Pull ‘n Play. The toy is like a Weeble. which they call Wobbert. It is weighted on the bottom and it wobbles. It is shaped like an animal but I’m not sure what it is supposed to be, perhaps a bear. The head twists off so you can put treats inside. It comes with a bag of Friskies Party Mix and it also has a string-like treat that you thread through the ears. There is a small hole at the bottom so treats will fall out when it wobbles just right.

When we introduced it to our cats, Chris dominated the toy. As expected, he was the first, and still only, cat to figure out how the toy works. I recorded the first few minutes of them playing with it but later, after the camera was put away, I watched Chris wobble it and then immediately look for treats. Sometimes treats would come out and sometimes they wouldn’t but he was smart enough to expect it.

Later we brought the second toy to Rose’s sister, Felice. Her cats were different. The were more interested in the string and our cats were after the treats.

I used to buy the Party Mix as a treat for our cats and they loved it. Here is a video from a few years ago related to those treats.

I will say that I stopped buying those treats because I wanted our cats to have a more healthy treat. I now give them a raw, freeze-dried cat food that I use as treats. The brands vary because they love everything I have tried so I buy whatever is a good deal. Currently, I am feeding them Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw. After the Party Mix was gone I put some of the raw treats in the toy. Even though they love it when I give it to them as a treat, they mostly ignored it in the toy. Cats can really be frustrating at times.

Has anybody else tried this toy or another treat toy?

The Building Inspectors

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Cats love new things. Bring something new in the house and every cat will come out to give it a thorough inspection. That is especially true when you have to put that new thing together, as I did last night with a new shelving unit. All three of our cats were busy investigating every nook and cranny.

After it was mostly put together, they each had to get on it to test for structural deficiencies. There was even a bit of a disagreement when two of the inspectors found that their work areas overlapped.

Another Great Outside Adventure

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We let the cat’s outside for their weekly romp in the backyard. Puck immediately caught a lizard and then brought it in the house. That distracted me long enough for Frankie to run up the palm tree and get on the roof, and again I missed recording it. At least now I know how he did it.

Our cat Frankie on roof

Frankie then led me on a wild goose chase around the neighborhood while Chris was busy investigating our neighbor’s patio. In other words, it was a typical day.

Cat on a Not Tin Roof

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Chris was not the center of attention during the cat’s weekly outing in our backyard on Sunday. Frankie took that trophy in a big way. He not only caught the only lizard of the day, he managed to climb onto our roof. He then was unsure how to get down.

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Unfortunately, I have not perfected my movie making skills yet and was distracted by bringing Puck into the house when he made his way to the roof. I then spent the next 10 minutes following Frankie with the camera as he searched for a way down. Unknown to me then, the last half of that time was spent with the record button off. He did finally jump down to the roof of our neighbor’s truck and everything ended well.

Here is the video from Sunday. If you don’t want to watch the entire thing, I recommend starting at around 5:22.

The Lizard Dilemma

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The other day Chris was outside and caught another lizard. That is bad enough but he has this irresistible urge to bring his catch into the house and doesn’t know what to do with it when he can’t get in.

I’m not sure why he has to bring it inside. At first I thought it was instinctual but then I realized that lions don’t kill a gazelle and then drag it back to the den to eat it. Maybe he just wants to show it off to Puck and Frankie.

Meal Time

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Meal time for our cats has become very predictable in our house. They all become very excited when I walk in the kitchen. Puck jumps on the counter along with Chris or Frankie until I take the can out and then whoever is on the counter with Puck jumps down but Puck remains and starts eating as soon as I put the food in the nearest bowl.

Chris takes a few bites from his bowl and then walks away. I then have to move his bowl to where he is, sometimes more than once. After a couple of minutes Puck leaves his bowl, before he finishes, and heads out to look for Chris and his bowl, just in case his food is better. When Puck approaches, Chris just walks away and lets him have it.

This is unusual for Chris, who is so dominant, but I think he is just addicted to dry food and does not care much about wet food. That is why I have been searching for a canned food that all the cats like, especially Chris. It is difficult because I want to feed them healthy but it seems they tend to shun the healthy food for the more moderate quality choices.

I was mixing raw food with their wet food but I have temporarily given up on that because too much was going to waste. I would like to get a good meat grinder and try to make the raw food myself. For now I am giving them Stella and Chewey’s Raw Freeze-dried Dinner as a treat instead of the unhealthy cat treats they were eating.

Recently I found a good quality food that is grain-free and everyone seems to like it. It is  Earthborn Chicken Catcciatori Dinner. I have not tried all the flavors but the two others that I did try (which I foolishly did not take note of) were liked by two out of three cats. I would like to find one more flavor that they all enjoy so I can mix it up a little.

Let me know what you think. Has anybody else tried Earthborn or another high quality food that your cats really like.