Boxes

Hi.  Pam here.

Tuesday was International Box Day and I forgot.  If you are a cat parent, have been a cat parent, or intend to be a cat parent, you must learn about this most important day.

Cats and boxes.  Boxes and cats.  They go together like peanut butter and chocolate.

Unfortunately, we don't seem to have any pictures of Mr Tucker actually in a box.  I remember he did play in them when we were unpacking after we moved to the condo.  But he was really more of a bag kitty than a box kitty.

Although sometimes he hid his woobie in a box.  You can just see the red woobie feathers.

I did find Mr Bailey in a box.

If you don't have your own cat, or you do and he's not a box kitty, remember...there's always Maru.

Happy belated International Box Day!

Marking

Hey gang!  Travis here...

So I've been learning something new about cat behavior.  Barb over at The Daily Gs has her Mr Gandalf on a confinement program to stop his spraying.  It sounds like a lot of work, but in the end it's worth it for both kitty and people.  And Mr Gandalf seems to be responding, so that's great news! 

I had always thought that neutering a male cat takes care of quite a few obnoxious things they do, like spraying or territory marking.  I never worried much about it with Mr Tucker.  He was a nervous spook, as I think I mentioned before.  And his life with me had a few high stress times, like a 2-day road trip when we moved from southern California up here to Washington, then staying in a strange place with 2 high activity country gentlemen, then the move to an apartment in Renton, followed by the move here to the condo.

Not to mention the visits to our place by those 2 rambunctious country gentlemen and nearly a year's worth of external construction!

Stress can bring on inappropriate marking or spraying behavior.  But Mr Tucker never did it.  He'd miss occasionally, but he always used his litter box.

So I did what any responsible kitty Dad, or kitty Dad-to-be, would do...I Googled.  I found this site, among others, which did confirm that most neutered males will not spray.  Although, the sites also indicated that a stressed out kitty, whole or no, might mark territory or develop other inappropriate behaviors due to stress.  These sites also cautioned that if such behavior occurs, the most important thing is to get to the vet to rule out possible medical reasons.

Good safety tips!

Mr Tucker and I got together pretty much by accident.  I hadn't intended to get a cat.  It just sort of happened and I never regretted it.  This time around, Pam and I are going to be more prepared.  We'll have to be, especially if we start with kittens.