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So my partner and I adopted a rescue cat. She's about five years old, and apparently did really horribly at adoption events - hissing and swiping at people, etc. We had a few in-home visits with her foster, and eventually brought her home and she's been great. For all the doom and gloom that her foster talked about - unlikely to be super affectionate right away, kind of a problem child, etc. - she's been delightful and affectionate and the couple of minor issues we've had so far have been easily dealt with, especially with help from the OP. A couple of questions, though: 1) Before we adopted, we got her a short cat tree that has a sisal rope scratching pole as part of the support structure. She's seemed completely uninterested, so we also got her an angled cardboard scratcher, which she's paid a little attention to, but not much. Saran wrap has worked a treat for getting her to avoid stuff she shouldn't scratch, but I'm curious how to go about getting her enthused about the stuff she should? 2) This kinda segues from question one, because it ties into "how do I do this when she's not interested in positive reinforcement?", but she seems uninterested in the treats we've gotten her. She eats and drinks just fine (we rotated her to a new wet food from the one that she was on with her foster, and she loves the new stuff we got her), so I don't think she's ill (and she had a vet visit a week before we brought her home), but treats get a curious sniff and then a "meh, not interested" head toss. Normal or weird? Do we just need to try different brands, maybe? As penance for asking probably silly questions, here's her perched on the windowsill. She loves it there.  
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Sep 24, 2018 13:47
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 14:14 |
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Organza Quiz posted:How long have you had her for? If it hasn't been long then she might just not be relaxed enough in her new environment to be into scratching things or treats. Or you might not have found the right treat yet! Only about a week or so, so that makes sense. I just wanted to see if there was any immediate thing we could rule out. Her foster is really happy about how much she's warmed up to us in that time, though - she's done a ton of stuff with us that she never did with her foster, and near as my girlfriend and I can surmise, it's that she was never happy with being around other cats with her foster, but now that she's home with us and the only cat, she's much happier and less stand-offish. She loves taking naps with my girlfriend on the couch and apparently she never did that with her foster, so we're both really happy with how much of a lovebug she is. The cardboard scratcher did come with a small amount of catnip, and boy did she love that, but it didn't seem to translate into "this thing had catnip at one point so it's a good thing" yet.
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Sep 24, 2018 14:13
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ILL Machina posted:Yah all fish is fine. If you can vary their flavors you might have better luck getting them to eat medicine treats and stuff later. My girl eats only one can type and pretty much refuses any other food. That sounds like Sweetheart - when we got her from the rescue, her foster basically told us she wasn't super keen on wet food, but that was mostly because she was giving her lower quality chicken-based stuff. She inhales the tuna and salmon-based wet food we've switched her to since we got her. Still trying to get her interested in treats, though.
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Oct 10, 2018 18:19
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Thumposaurus posted:Have you tried the temptations treats? Our guys refuse to try any but them we've tried fancy dehydrated fish etc... They only want those drat temptations and they will do anything for them. Hm, no we haven't, actually. I'll make a note for this week's shopping, thanks.
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Oct 10, 2018 21:10
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Y'all have a very cute gremlin, and I'm glad they are going to be okay.
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Oct 12, 2018 21:30
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Synthbuttrange posted:
This might be the most relatable thing on the forums right now.
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Oct 24, 2018 04:44
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A big flaming stink posted:Seriously yall, adopt more adult cats. those kittens absolutely don't need your help to get a home. That's why the girlfriend and I looked for an older cat. They have more issues finding homes, and we figured they'd be more okay with us both having jobs. Sweetheart's always happy to see both of us come home, though. The first time she sat and waited at the door to our garage when my girlfriend was due to come home, my heart melted.  We love her to bits. 
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Nov 6, 2018 05:49
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computer angel posted:Old cats own. They spend a significantly smaller portion of their day running around the house tearing poo poo up. My mom's old cat is on such a geriatric schedule. You can predict the time based on which activity she's doing. Yeah, Sweetheart is definitely in that good middle ground of still loving to play (she'll go bananas for her ribbon dancer or the laser pointer) but also being chill and self-sufficient. It broke my heart the first few times the rescue home we got her from (she'd been living there over 3 years because she didn't do well at adoption events) and the rescue lady was like "oh, well she never did that with me before" for things as simple as "yeah, she likes to sit on my lap on the couch and watch Jeopardy" or "she really loves playing with her ribbon dancer!". But near as either of us can tell, she's healthy and happy and affectionate on her terms, and that's all we can ask for. 
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Nov 6, 2018 16:20
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Len posted:Where do people come up with cats are hateful and don't show love? I took a nap on the couch today and woke up with a cat laying on me sleeping with a big ol cat smile In my experience, it's people that treat cats like dogs and expect them to behave like dogs.
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Nov 10, 2018 23:39
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Yeah, Sweetheart is the same way with us. My girlfriend always jokes that the cat loves me better, but without fail, she waits at the door to the garage every day my girlfriend is at work when it's near when she'll get home. It's adorable.
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Nov 10, 2018 23:57
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Sweetheart had her first vet visit at the vet we found locally (as opposed to the one she was going to when she was at the rescue) and got a clean bill of health.  (requisite tax payment) She did really well and the vet praised how calm she was.
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Nov 15, 2018 19:55
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Saves you the money for a tree topper! 
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Nov 29, 2018 17:01
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Organza Quiz posted:Leave the carrier out somewhere frequented by cat, give her treats in it, play with her around it and in it, then when you need her to go in you just throw a treat in there and done. Yeah, that helped us a lot with Sweetheart, too. The carrier is near her actual cat bed (as well as her favorite cardboard box that she actually uses as a bed ) and I've absolutely found her sleeping in there before when I've woken up before.Required cat-in-box tax: 
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Dec 7, 2018 16:55
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Sydin posted:6. One specific chair under the dining room table, no other chair will do and it specifically has to be pushed in, otherwise commence the meowing Sweetheart does this exact same thing. Heaven forbid either of us sit at the dining table in her chair for dinner, either.
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Dec 12, 2018 06:27
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Len posted:rear end in a top hat comes up and headbutts your hands if you're phone postin'/playing videogames. If you put the thing down to pet him he scampers away to glare from the other side of the room. Sweetheart does this too, or rubs her face all over the phone/switch controller/whatever your hands are busy with.
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Dec 17, 2018 06:30
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So Sweetheart seems to be fairly resistant to brushing. We're doing the best we can to keep her fur fairly well behaved on her sides and back, but she adamantly Will Not let us touch or brush her belly (or anywhere past like right under her chin, really), and it's getting kinda unruly. She behaved really well the one time we took her to a groomer (to remove some mats in her fur she had when we got her from the rescue), though. She also hasn't really had many issues with hairballs - she doesn't mind the preventative paste we got from the rescue. Is this something we should really be overly concerned about, or just let her roll with it as long as it doesn't appear to be causing any issues? Cat tax: one (1) judgemental floofball 
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Jan 7, 2019 17:04
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Sweetheart adamantly refuses to wear a collar, but she's also pretty talkative, so it's not as much of an issue with regards to "oh god, sudden catte". She also has zero interest in wearing a harness for going outside, which is annoying because she also loves to stare at the outside or try to slip past when I come in the front door after work. "We would go outside if you would just put on the harness!" doesn't seem to register for her.
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Jan 11, 2019 18:21
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Len posted:rear end in a top hat originally hated his collar but now if he manages to get it off he will sit still and let it go back on. Yeah, Sweetheart figured out how to get hers off by hooking it on the corner-mounted self-brushing thing we got her and tugging.  Once she got it off a couple of times the girlfriend and I just gave up on it.
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Jan 11, 2019 21:30
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Sydin posted:If I've learned anything in three years of cat ownership, it is that there is no stronger cat attraction material on the planet than an empty cardboard box. I'm at work but otherwise I'd post a dozen pictures of Mel in a dozen different boxes throughout the house. I bought a new pair of running shoes over the weekend and sure enough this morning I got up and there she is sleeping in the still tissue-paper lined shoebox. Yep, Sweetheart has an empty Monster box that she's basically claimed as her other bed. I'd set it down for a moment to grab a recycling bag to put it in and when I turned back around to it, she was sitting in it, happy as can be. I decided to let it be her one permanent box since she loves it so much. My girlfriend likes to joke that it suits her, the little monster goes in the monster box.
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Jan 24, 2019 00:44
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Gorgar posted:awwwwwww  Pictured: one (1) adorable soot sprite where she likes to be
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Jan 24, 2019 03:02
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zakharov posted:I also offered him a bit of fish and he walked away. Oh man, that reminds me of the first time that my girlfriend and I had fresh salmon for dinner after adopting Sweetheart, she was insufferable, trying to get into our plates and meowing pitifully and wandering around the dining table legs. Since she was pretty good about the whole thing we did give her a very small piece that hadn't been seasoned or anything, but now when we plan to have fresh fish for dinner we make sure to get one of those fish filet treats so she has her own and doesn't try to get a hold of ours.
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Jan 24, 2019 16:04
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Thumposaurus posted:He also hates mail and will shred it especially if it's bills. I mean, that's a mood.
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Jan 24, 2019 17:12
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Marchegiana posted:Or she might just be like my dummy Odin who screams at me every time I'm by the food bowls even if he has food in it, because he wants me to pick up and set down the already full bowl again. Sweetheart has literally watched me use her dry food scoop to scoop up what's in her bowl and pour it right back in and been happy as a clam to eat it up. Cats are hilarious.
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Feb 4, 2019 20:03
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Yeah, we're the same way with Sweetheart. She has a dry food bowl that gets kept topped up at night for her through the work day, plus gets wet food for breakfast.
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Feb 5, 2019 14:52
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Len posted:If the box breaks it becomes bigger for sits. There was a week recently where assholes favorite spot was a destroyed shoebox in the middle of the floor. Absolutely no box shape was left but he laid there proud of his work. Yep. Sweetheart's favorite lounging place is on top of a plastic bag sitting on a broken-down box. I tried to pick both of them up to get rid of them and she wouldn't stop crying until they were put back. 
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Feb 7, 2019 16:35
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Thumposaurus posted:Our local dollar store has these lovely carpet mats that our guys seem to love to lay on and scratch. We have a Daiso nearby that also has these, and as a bonus they have silvervine powder included. Coincidentally, this is how we discovered that Sweetheart loves silvervine.
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Feb 8, 2019 16:17
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Speaking of harnesses, do y'all have any suggestions on how to get a cat to warm up to one? Sweetheart always acts like she wants to go outside, but any of the methods that would be safe for her to do so (either the girlfriend or I carrying her, wearing a harness, getting in a pet stroller) she basically has no interest in (to the point of attacking rather than let us put a harness on). We've tried leaving the harness around and just as another thing for her to sniff at and get curious about, and we always try to reinforce "harness = outside time", but it never goes well.
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Feb 22, 2019 14:55
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Yeah, Sweetheart cottoned on pretty quickly to the fact that she could meow pitifully all she wanted, I wasn't giving her breakfast until I used the restroom and was generally ready to start my day (aside from getting dressed/eating my own breakfast), so she's calmed down considerably in the mornings. She'll still sit in front of the bathroom door and maybe stick a paw under it because cats, though. Unless me and the girlfriend sleep in past like 9 AM on the weekends, then she's like "MEOW? FEED ME? I HAVE NEVER BEEN FED BEFORE?!?" right outside the bedroom door.
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Feb 22, 2019 15:53
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I guess I need to find treats that Sweetheart likes, though, because she is oddly not treat motivated.
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Feb 23, 2019 01:57
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InvisibleMonkey posted:I have to face this tiny black hole of disappointment every morning. I love your tiny disappointed soot sprite.
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Mar 14, 2019 19:37
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zakharov posted:Every day I am thankful that my cats don't demand to share my bed because I'd never sleep. Yeah, if anything, Sweetheart likes to lurk under our bed, not on it. We've tried to coax her up and she'll hop up there on very rare occasion, but even putting her favorite cat bed up there makes her just sleep in her favorite cardboard box in the living room instead.
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May 15, 2019 15:24
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Sweetheart unilaterally hates anyone touching her tummy, which is a shame because she has such incredibly soft tummy fur.  (It would also be nice if we could brush her tum, because it gets kinda unruly, but again with the "I will claw and bite the poo poo out of you if you even think about it" thing) Tummy 
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May 21, 2019 18:26
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Sweetheart's first interaction with her fountain was going paw-first into it (it's one of the ones that has a bowl that the water flows down into) and being Very Alarmed. Now it's her favorite water source. Cats.
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Jun 3, 2019 19:57
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Yeah, Sweetheart has a chew stick that's infused with mint and she won't leave the thing alone when she gets to play with it. We keep it in the cupboard that's inaccessible to her (that we know of) with her treats and stuff when she's not playing with it for that reason.
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Jun 7, 2019 14:56
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Protocol7 posted:Salem made it outside because our piece of poo poo storm door didn't latch correctly. Sounds like Sweetheart. Not interested in harness training, not interested in her cat stroller, not interested in her playpen on the back patio, just OUTSIDE, NOW, GIMME OUTSIDE.
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Jun 20, 2019 21:17
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Lord Zedd-Repulsa posted:Alternately, ask if the rescue/shelter has one that's not great with other cats so the animal gets its own space and you don't have to worry about if the cat is lonely or needs a playmate. That's why we got Sweetheart. She's an older cat (roughly five years old when we adopted her) who did horribly at adoption events because she doesn't like loud noise or lots of people or other cats. She seems to do pretty okay when both my partner and I are at work, but also is very happy to greet us when we get home. Apparently the foster that Sweetheart was staying with had put rehoming instructions for Sweetheart in her will, because they thought no one was ever going to want to adopt her.
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Jun 21, 2019 13:40
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Sydin posted:
Yeah, like, the rescue we adopted Sweetheart from, I get like a "every few weeks/couple of months" call from the lady who was fostering her, but that was more to make sure she was adjusting okay in the beginning, and now just to keep up with any changes. She's a nice old lady, so I don't even mind talking to her on the phone, and she's been very happy to hear all the positive goings-on with Sweetheart. I've definitely heard of horror stories like Fleta has described, though.
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Jul 2, 2019 19:37
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Boogalo posted:Why does this stuff always happen on the weekend when the vets are closed. This makes me so thankful that my vet's hours are 8 AM to 10 PM, seven days a week. 
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Jul 21, 2019 04:35
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Deteriorata posted:I've had this conversation dozens of times: My coworkers don't even ask anymore, they're just "Why'd you piss off Sweetheart?  ".
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Aug 2, 2019 20:43
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 14:14 |
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 Sweetheart always seems to know when I'm taking pictures of her and gets all curious (or shy).
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Aug 17, 2019 00:58
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