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I gots little buddies

10 (52.6%)

No pets allowed

2 (10.5%)

Not now, maybe later

7 (36.8%)

People are far more entertaining to play with

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 18

Voting closed: November 10, 2004, 07:45:05 pm

[Carlos del Vaca]

Pandora J. Cat is a very fine cat and a very fine cat is she.

Eleven years ago in Albuquerque, my roomate and I got two wee kittens from the same litter.  After we left town, the cats stayed with him, travelling to Philly, then Georgia, then Princeton, NJ.  In Princeton, Rob got married, and his new bride had a cat of her own.  Pandora decided this interloper cat had no right to LIVE, let alone stay in the same house.  They spent a year trying to have everyone get along, but eventually they decided it just wasn't working.  I was the first person he called to take in Pandora, and since our ancient cat Morgan had just died at the age of 18 or so, we said OK.

She drinks from the bathroom faucet.

[Nabubrush]

The most common recurring joke in our household is that someone has got some cat all over them and that person says "You know what I like about cats?  They're so aloof and independent."

That is funny.

We have a black and white cat named Bob (Robert "Wheezy J." Robertson/Bobby/Bill "Moshi" Mosienko/Moshi/Fat Boy/etc.) who has an eating disorder. He will eat as much food as is set in front of him. He will eat loaves of bread. He will eat bars of Mexican laundry soap. He will lick up household cleansers. We have to keep a fairly close eye on him. He will not eat turkey, or chicken, or any other meat-type item. He does like tuna giraffe.

[CortJstr]

My cat wouldn't eat any people-food of any kind. Not even giraffe. But he would go crazy if you opening tuna and would drink the water that was drained out of the can. He loved that stuff.

[sjlimmer]

3 giraffe (betas)

I spent a little while trying to figure out what beta-testing pet giraffe would entail before my brain caught up to speed.

Damn this made me laugh.  Thank you.  That is all.

[V-Adore]

Now that I sort of have time again, my addition to this thread:

Cat, ~20 years old, "Puff": Puff is an exceptionally antiquated cat, sort of the Grande Dame of the household; she was obnoxious even when she wasn't elderly, and now that she's been elderly for more than half of her life, she's truly a figure of wonder and terror. That said, she's loyal and one of the brightest cats I've ever seen, and she's a good companion as long as you help her with her mobility. This cat is sort of my paradigm, as we got her when I was very wee myself and I really can't remember a time without her.

Cat/kitten, ~5 months old, "Cammy": Technically "Camellia," but she never gets called it unless my mother gets angry at her, which is admittedly fairly often.  Cammy started off as a tiny, adorable kitten and has in the month afterward gotten less tiny, less adorable, and very loud and antsy. Luckily enough she's still cute enough to earn her keep, but every call home lately is "oh, god, you'll never guess what Cammy did now..."

Cat, age totally unknown, "Mr. Kitty": Mr. Kitty is the stray who lives in our carport. The agreement is pretty simple: we leave him food and let him sleep on our deck chairs, and in return he expresses a grudging affection which has slowly become less grudging. He'll never ever be let into the house, but he's sort of part of the family.

Of course, this is all at home; at college, I am sadly petless, unless you count my graphing calculator (TI-83, ~4 years, basically nameless except when I get angry, getting persnickety in its old age.)

[Va]

I totally forgot the best part about my cat. He was declawed but would still make the sharpening motions on furniture, walls...

Heh, our Neko does this too--we call it "sharpening his toes", and we always ooh and aah over how sharp his toes must be when he does it, and then he rolls over and shows us his belly.  But seriously, he has developed a kind of kitty iron palm technique by sharpening his toes; they're so calloused that his front paws actually "click" on the floor.

[Va]

My cat wouldn't eat any people-food of any kind. Not even giraffe. But he would go crazy if you opening tuna and would drink the water that was drained out of the can. He loved that stuff.

I'm starting to suspect your cat and my cat Neko are long lost twins or something.

[arkabee]

my cat, while surgically emasculated, retained his claws.  his enterring of my, at the time, "household" was entirely temporary: it was halloween, i was on a 2 hour drive back to town that evening, gf said "we must take this cat in or evil children will do unmentionable things to him", i said "this is temporary" which led to "please remember to change your cat's litter box" which led to "you are leaving but my cat is staying".  i figured 1) he might be enterring the wild again at any time, so taking his claws would be horribly evil, 2) i was taking away his means to procreate, i would not take away his means to retaliate.

he was always more of a biter than a clawer, though.  one time i was doing dishes, and he thought it would be interesting to jump onto my vertical back.  apparently he was impressed enough with my vocal range that he decided to never hear its full extent again, beyond that there was some damage to the couch, but a water bottle slooowly weened him of that.

however, he had an uncanny tendency to paw at windows.  as if he were pining for the outdoors.  which always made me somewhat sad.  until his claws started to touch the glass, making fingernails on chalkboard seem like a fine and peaceful symphony.

eventually, i think he stopped pining for the outdoors and scratched glass solely to see me jump up from my seat and give him my full attention (read: i ran for the water bottle, he ran under the bed, hilarity ensued).

my girlfriend's (current gf) cat, however, does not have his front claws.  the first time i saw him "sharpening his paws", i was somewhat aghast at the phenomenon.  atari, my previous cat, would sharpen if he were extremely peeved (as if to "lock and load") or extremely happy ("yay, i got treats, now i'll sharpen my claws!!").  it is odd to me to see a clawless cat do the same.

[side_show]

this thread was making me very sad,
then i got to:

 He runs and hides if one of us shifts too suddenly on the couch.  We often shout out "oh no Max!  Today is the day you'll be murdered by humans!"  To which his eyes bulge out and he gets in the "ready to run off" position.  

and i burst out laughing.  thank you side_show, and thank Max for me, please.

I'll thank him for you.  Indeed his life in an ongoing hell of constant fear, and this makes for moments of pure bittersweetness, especially when we rub him til he purrs, and for moments of hilarity, like the above example.

On another note, thanks all for your suggestions for puffergiraffe names, but I actually didn't get to check back here (still not net connection at home) until after I'd named him.  I especially liked Bloaty though - that one made me laugh AlohaDawg, so thanks.  

I ended up naming him HoJu  - like Fugu, but actually from the Simpson's episode where Homer offers to let Bart change his name to Homer Junior " They can call you HoJu."  Since the giraffe is a pig that devours everything is sight, and yet remains somehow endearing, I thought it fit.