Posts Tagged ‘adopted cats’
Posted by terrepruitt on April 23, 2018
You may know from reading my blog that my husband and I adopted two cats from a place called The Dancing Cat. It is a “cat lounge”. It is not a cat CAFE because they don’t sell food, or coffee, or tea, but it is like one, in that you can visit with cats. You can bring your own food and drink and pay a small fee to visit with the cats for an hour. Also, unlike some cat cafes ALL of the cats are up for adoption. The Dancing Cat also hosts events like Mewsic Nights, Learning How To Paint Your Cat or take pictures of your cat. They also have a Henna Cattoo Night. There is a local artist, Shannon Balco, who comes in and does henna tattoos.
They have been doing it for a while but I was always away when they did it, but this last time I was home. Yipeee! Shannon has a book of pictures of tattoos she can do. Not all of them are cats. She is even so talented as to do one that someone showed her a picture of. The one that looks like Yin and Yang cats! She did that right there after just seeing it. Cool, huh?
Henna is drawn on like a thick paste. The recommendation is for you to leave it on AT LEAST 30 minutes then you can scratch it off (not wash it off). The longer you leave it on the better. When I first got a henna tattoo I was told to leave it on AT LEAST 4 hours and no longer than 12 hours.
The pictures are pictures of the “Cattoos” she did when I was there. The last two show my tattoo. The first one is after I scraped all the dried paste off. Since it is on the back of my hand and very thin delicate lines a large portion of it had just flaked off. I was concerned with it flaking off and me not noticing and then one of my cats eating a henna flake. So I just scratched it all off. It had probably been about five or so hours. I did not wait 24 hours without water because it is on my hands. In the past I had the henna put on my feet. I could easily not wet my feet for 24 hours, but not my hands. I was at a cat place. I had to wash my hands when I came home. I HAVE cats, I am constantly washing my hands. It didn’t seem to affect it adversely.
The very last shot is the next day. Henna darkens at first then it starts to fade. The length of time the tattoo lasts depends on where it is and what it sustains. If it is on your hands and you wash your hands often, it will probably come off sooner. If it is on your leg and doesn’t come into contact with water that much it might last longer. It does help to put oil on it. When I first got a henna tattoo that artist recommended just tiger balm. The second time I put oil on it. I think the oil helps.
I can’t wait for The Dancing Cat to do this again. I am going to go again. I am going to ask her if she will do my foot instead of my hand. Since I dance Nia I like to have my feet decorated.
What do you think? Have you gotten a henna tattoo?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: adopted cats, cat cafe, Cat lounge, henna artist, henna paste, henna tattos, San Jose adoption lounge, Shannon Balco, the dancing cat, Yin and Yang | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 4, 2016
Most of you probably know that we have cats. Right? I mean, I have posted a least once a month about them. They are so sweet. Cats really are. Cats, just like so many people, get a bad rep from the few that are not nice. But most cats are very sweet. They might not respond like dogs and come when you call them, but they are very affectionate. My last post about the cats (Our Tube Has A Tail) had videos, the one (Happy Cat Guardians) before that a bunch of photos. This brings me to the point of this post, it has been a year since we brought the cats home. Last year on Friday, July 3, 2015 we decided to adopt them. We brought them home on the Fourth of July.
Some of you may know the story . . . we had a cat that died in 2014. She was phenomenal in the sense that she was a very easy cat. She didn’t get into things, she had impeccable litter box manners . . . she was so many things the opposite of the reputation of cats. So when my hubby and I started thinking about getting a kitten, I was so torn. I mean, I totally wanted a kitten. The little mews of a kitten are enough to make anyone want one. And the antics . . . so fun. But I didn’t want to end up with one of “those” cats. The ones that give cats a bad reputation. It didn’t really occur to me to get an older cat. But once it did I thought, “How do you pick one?” So I had been looking on websites and “deciding” by looks, which is one of the worst ways, to me, to decide on an animal.
Turns out my husband’s boss had a friend who opened a cat “cafe” or cat lounge where you can go visit with cats. I love that idea and decide to volunteer there. In that same time frame they happened to get a cat that LOOKED so cute that both my hubby and I wanted her. But after a few visits, I kinda set my sights on another cat. I just needed to let my husband meet both the cat we originally saw and wanted, and this other one. I was confident that the moment he met Esmeralda and she exposed her belly for gettin’ he would be convinced she was for us. The issue was that she was considered part of a bonded pair and that means they want to adopt them out together. I really didn’t want two cats. One is enough. Two is too much. Plus I hadn’t even seen this other one. She was holed up in one of the cat spaces and wouldn’t come out.
But when another cat moved into her spot and forced her out and we finally got to see her, we decided we could deal with two cats. If you are not opposed to adopting a black cat and you ever have to choose between a black on and a not black one . . . please really consider taking the black one. Because of certain beliefs, black cats are hard to adopt out. There are some superstitions around black cats so they don’t get adopted as much.
So, it has been a year. And it was rough in the beginning — no one’s fault. We had to keep them quarantined and medicate them for the first 30 days and we felt so bad. Many of you know giving your pet medication is not easy and it is really sad when you bring a new pet home and have to put them through that. We knew that it would be over one day and the cats would be fine, but it is tough when you are going through it.
But here we are . . . a year later. And pretty much every day one of us (me to my hubby or he to me) says how much we love having our girls. They are such great cats. Very loving. Very sweet. Very entertaining.
Happy Fourth of July to you all. And Happy Home Anniversary to our girls.
Posted in Cats, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: adopted cats, black cats, cat cafe, Cat lounge, Esmeralda, Fourth of July, Happy Cat Guardians, Home Anniversary, Smokey, The Dancing Cat San Jose | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on May 30, 2016
Today is Memorial Day here in the United States. I hope that you are able to take time to enjoy your day, celebrating the freedom that has come and continues to come at the cost of so many. Perhaps you even took a moment to reflect and give thanks for the people and sacrifices they have made. I have seen so many things posted on Facebook and I get teary-eyed with each one that I look at. In 2012 I posted Three Day Weekends and Memorial Day’s National Moment Of Remembrance which has a bit of information about Memorial Day. It is past 3:00 pm, but if you didn’t do it then, perhaps you can pause now. Since I wrote that post with information about the day, I just thought I would mention the day and send my thanks out, but then post about something else.
If you are interested in cats or you read my blog you may have seen that my hubby and I adopted cats in July of 2015. Not quite a year ago. It all started after it had been a year that our cat had died. My husband was patiently waiting for me to be “ready” to get another cat. I had always wanted a kitten so I had it in my head that is what we needed to get. But, then the idea of a young cat dawned on me. There are always cats that need adopting. About that same time my husband’s boss mentioned that her friend opened a “cat cafe” in San Jose.
I decided to go check it out. It was opened by two women, who ran it with the help of volunteers. So in addition to booking an hour of visiting, I was inspired to volunteer. As I mentioned in a few post this place was only going to be open for 4 weeks. I am not even sure how they ended up staying open for 6 months. Perhaps it was the begging and pleading of all of us that had visited it and loved it. Ann and Mary, to two women previously mentioned, realized that the community wanted and needed such a place. But really, since they had only planned on being open about a month, they went ahead with closing it down. I believe they were going to take some time to figure out what to do next.
Well, they are still looking for a bigger place, but for now they are open again in the previous location, which is in the Julian-St. James area of San Jose. The first day open was Saturday, May 28, 2016. I had nothing planned this weekend so I volunteered both Saturday and Sunday. They are not normally open on Mondays but they are open Memorial Day this year.
To start, they have ten cats. They range from small to large. Aside from the two who are taking their time adjusting to the new space (they are hiding under the couch) they are all very pet-able. Pretty much very friendly. Some of them seem to get along with other cats and some of them seem like they would be best as the only cat in the household, but that is what is so great about a place like this when looking to adopt.
This type of space helps you get a glimpse into what the individual cat’s true nature will be. Yes, there is always a chance that it might emerge entirely different when you get the cat home, but in general you can see who is bossy and who is timid. Who will let you approach them and who will play with the toys. We love our two cats. I think I saw pretty much their true personalities there. If you are not looking to adopt this is still a great place. You can just go and hang out with cats.It is a nice place to be with cats.
This time around the cats are being obtained from The Silicon Valley Pet Project which is a group of volunteers that save at-risk pets by placing them in foster homes or The Dancing Cat. In addition to saving the pets through rehabilitation and finding them homes, the project also works to educate the community in order to reduce the number of animals that end up in an “at-risk” situation.
If you like cats and you like to help out organizations that are helping the community, then make your reservations and go visit The Dancing Cat. You’ll be able to sit and visit with cats. And more-than-likely other people who like cats. I am hoping that this will be a huge success and a permanent fixture in San Jose.
I am thankful for the people who make the world a better place.
Posted in Cats | Tagged: adopted cats, Adoption help, Cat lounge, helping community, Memorial Day, National Moment Of Remembrance, San Jose cat cafe, Silicon Valley Pet Project, the dancing cat, volunteer | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on February 3, 2016
I think my last cat update was in October. So I thought I would share what is up with the cats. You may have read about me saying that I was fascinated by Esmeralda’s paws because they were so big. It was guesstimated that the cats were done growing pretty much when we got them so I didn’t understand how such a tiny cat could have such big paws. Well, she doesn’t. She got big. Her and her sister are not big cats but they both grew a lot since we’ve had them. We used to be able to see a cat’s in shadow or silhouette and know who it was, but now we can’t tell because they are the same size. Smokey is heavier . . . she is a solid cat, but they are the same length and height. Esmeralda grew into her paws.
They learned pretty quick that when I come home the first order of business is kisses. They are usually waiting by the door when I open it, but when I get home from teaching Nia, I usually have my arms full of stuff, and I have to run to the turn off the alarm. I drop the stuff as I go, then swoop up the nearest cat and give her a bunch of kisses!
They pretty much rule the house. We are having a few things that have just started happening that we are going to have to work on. Esmeralda has figured out that she can jump from the cat tower onto the wall-mounted speaker and walk across the top of the curtain rod and jump on the entertainment center. Sometimes it takes a bit to figure out these things are happening. I was wondering why our curtains were beginning to come off the rod, then one day I look up and I see Emmy WALKING across the curtain rod. So we are working on altering that behavior.
It is difficult to discipline two cats because you don’t know who did what. With one cat you know if something is amiss it was THE cat, but with two, it is hard to tell. There are habits and behavior patterns so you can guess, but you don’t really know unless you see them do it.
They both love the sun. So they have been enjoying the sun the past few days. They both love to play. And to our delight they actually love to play by themselves. It is super cute. I’ll have to do another post to post the videos. They also love to play together. Sometimes it is a challenge to know if they are playing or fighting, but either way they seem to work it out.
They snuggle together and bathe each other.
Esmeralda isn’t a fan of me being on the computer. I usually have about 20 minutes before she comes in and “murphs” at me.
Esmeralda doesn’t “meow” she makes these little noises that sound like “murph”. Smokey meows and in a big way. She always sounds as if someone is disemboweling her.
Because of Smokey’s meYOOOOWWWLLLING and Esmeralda’s odd and painful kneading, I think they were taken away from their mother too young. Esmeralda doesn’t knead in a milking-mamma-kind-of-way. She stands on us and then marches. Pressing really hard using ALL FOUR paws. She dances around in a circle. It is odd. And Smokey will just knead the air every-once-in-awhile . . . but she YEOOWWLL often.
She will be dead asleep and then wake up meYOOOOWWWLLLING. She will meYOOOOWWWLLLING all the way through the house until she finds us. It is that blood curdling type of meYOOOOWWWLLLING.
Cats are funny. Which is one thing that makes them great. They are a great source of laughter and entertainment.
We love our kitties and consider ourselves very blessed to have gotten such great cats. They are very good and super sweet.
What silly thing does your pet do? (I ask because they ALL do something silly!)
Posted in Cats, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: adopted cats, Nia, Nia class, Nia Teacher, Teagan and Nessa | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 22, 2015
It has been a little over two months since our cats have been out of confinement. You may have read that we adopted cats in July. Within a week of bringing them home I suspected ringworm, so they were locked in a room until the cultures came back. When the culture came back positive nine days later we had 30 days of pills and confinement ahead of us. Near the end of the round of medicine my husband and I were not sure we could make it. Only because by that 38th day the cats seem to be giving up. They were done with being in one room and they were done with having pills jammed down their throats. We all were done. So when they were cleared to come out we were all happy. So it has been three days over two months and they are still getting used to things. They are just beginning to really run the house, as cats do. Smokey, the black one, does not seem to like her picture taken. As soon as I point my phone at her she turns away. She will stay for a couple of shots, but after a minute she will just get up and walk away or move away. Emmy, the tortoiseshell, is a little bit more tolerant, but not much. Smokey is also very difficult to capture because of her coloring. She is pretty dark. I think of her as all black, but in the sun today she seemed to have a lot of red/chocolate in her. The sun was very bright and I could barely see what I was getting as I was just clicking and clicking. I am surprised at these shots. I thought they were nice so I wanted to share.
Of course, I took more than I have posted, but it is kind of a series of photos, so that is why I have posted so many. You can see how they are both looking at the mouse. Then Emmy looks at me. I have several of these. As I mentioned, I couldn’t really see what I was getting, I was just pressing the button. Smokey’s attention never waivers. Then you see she gets low . . .then she gets a little lower, then . . .a little pounce.
When they were brought into the shelter they weighed in at 9.8 pounds and 8.8 pounds. At the last vet check they came in at 7.44 pounds and 5.5 pounds. Using the hold ’em and weight method, Smokey is back up to 9.8. And Emmy is at 7 pounds. They are much happier and eating better. Plus they have a lot more room to run around. And boy, do they run around. They tear through the house at top speeds. I wish we had something to clock them. They get going so fast!
They are very fun. They want to play a lot. So I am constantly being interrupted to play. They are very good mousers. Smokey is very good at knowing where the mouse will be and she can catch it without having to move a lot. She has slowed down a little bit with having gone from 7.4 pounds to 9.8. Esmeralda is a flier. She is always in the air. All four paws either in a long jump or in a really high pounce. It is amazing. They both would be great hunters.
Well, I know this type of post is far and away from health, wellness, and fitness, but our cats do bring a lot of laughter and joy into our lives. I like to share.
After she got it, she had to roll around with it as cats do. Her trophy. Emmy looks unimpressed!
Show me pictures of your pet! Either e-mail them to me so I can post them, or post a link so we can see them. It is fun to share pictures of our furry family members!
Posted in Cats, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: adopted cats, black cat, confinement, Emmy, Esmeralda, health, mouser, quarantine, ringworm, ringworm medicine, Smokey, tortoiseshell cat | 1 Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 3, 2015
As we all know, when we block the sun from coming in it helps reduce the heat. I mean there are a lot of us that have those shades for our cars. So, I know this is not new to anyone, but I really cannot believe how much this has helped keep our house cool. You may have read here on my blog that we adopted two cats in July and they had ringworm. In order to keep it from getting all over the house and to keep it contained, we kept the cats locked up for over 30 days in one room. The room they were locked up in happens to be the hottest room in the house. One, it is upstairs and upstairs is where the heat rises to. And two, it is in a section of the house that gets the sun for most of the day from both sides. AND the windows happen to be on both those sides. So it was when the cats were in quarantine that we started putting up things in the window to help block the sun. It really helps with reducing the heat.
In the cats room at first I used my pop up shades from my car. Many of us use the shades in the car because we know it helps keep the car cooler. So it only makes sense that using the same thing or something to block the sun will help keep the house cooler. But once the cats were out of the quarantine I wanted my shades back for my car. So we started just using some cardboard we had in the garage.
As I said, I know this is not new to anyone, but seriously, I am happily surprised at how well it worked in the rest of the house. My office, the upstairs room, really gets hot no matter. The pop up car shades really helped. So does the cardboard. We put the cardboard in between the blinds and the windows.
Since it worked so well upstairs I started doing it in the kitchen where the windows are on the same walls as the room upstairs. Wow! It really made a difference in the temperature in the kitchen. We just move the cardboard from one window to the other as the sun shifts and whew! It is amazing.
Prior to this past week, we had been having a couple of weeks of really hot weather and I had been dreading it. But when the days actually were here it didn’t seem as hot because of the shade. I am amazed that we had not done that sooner. It is really quite silly because the curtains in the kitchen window aren’t even really curtains they are just sheer things that only go up half the window.
Putting the cardboard up does keep me from seeing the hummingbirds during the day, but that is ok. We take it down during the “wartime” when the hummingbirds are battling it out in the evening.
Since we don’t have air conditioning this little step of blocking the windows really helps us stay cool. There are plenty of other areas that the cats can look out from, but who am I kidding, they sleep all day anyway.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you reading this are just going crazy thinking “why don’t you just get real curtains or blackout curtains”. Well, since the extra blocking out of the sun helps keep the house so cool, we might look into getting some actual blackout window treatments. I mean that would make more sense than putting up cardboard. But then again it is only during the hot days that we need that additional heat blocking help . . . so we will see.
Do you have heavy curtains to block out the sun/heat? Do you have blinds or curtains? Have you ever just put something up in the window to help keep the heat out?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: adopted cats, blackout curtains, block the sun, car shades, reduce the heat, ringworm cats, sun blocking blinds | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 1, 2015
What better way to start a month than with a Goodie Jar check in? Any of you still doing a goodie jar or any version of one? A Goodie Jar or a Good Things Jar is where you make a note of a good thing and put it in the jar to read later. That is the basics so how you go about it is up to you. The possibilities are endless. You could decide upon guidelines on what is allowed in the jar or just put whatever you want. My idea is whatever is a “good thing” that makes you smile. You can assign yourself a schedule as in “you have to do it once a day/week/month”. Or you can do it whenever you experience something that makes you smile. When you read them is also something unique to you. Our Goodie Jar is read on December 31st. It is kind of nice since we are past the age of going out and getting crazy. We usually are home all night and so this is a little tradition, a way of celebrating. Now, many of you, perhaps people who frequently read my blog, already know about this because I think I am on my third year of doing it, but there are many people out there that don’t know about it. And for a lot of people it is a good way to keep focused on the good things in life. There is always something good so it is nice to have a way to keep that at the forefront. So, I am happy to report that I have had to go back to using my first goodie jar. But that is in addition to the new container I had moved, too. We now have two “Goodie” locations!
How awesome is that? Our Good Things filled up one container so we had to move it to another one! That is good stuff. Granted some of our things are full sized pieces of paper. John used that as documentation for one or two good things. Plus we use all types of paper and all types of sizes. There are also a few tickets in there. So they take up a lot of space, but still! A lot of good things.
There are always good things to say about the Nia classes because of the fabulous students that come to class. In fact, as I type this I was reminded that the attendance I had at this past Nia class on Sunday at the NW YMCA was the largest I have ever had. So that is going in the good things jar. That was a good thing!
My yoga classes are a consistent good thing, too. There seems to be a lot of good revolving around those, too. Currently, yoga in the park. So nice to be out in the gorgeous day . . . even when the lawn maintenance people are there.
Our cats are doing well. We decided to stop the medicine for the little cat. We had three days left and we decided that she was just getting, too upset and it was just causing too much stress in the household. So we stopped that. She has yet to realize that evening time is not “torture” time. But she will get there. I even got an exposed belly and purrs today. The whole situation around us getting the cats and all that mess was really a great time to utilize the goodie jar because that is when I need it. When a happy situation turns to muck, it helps to have a process in place to help concentrate and focus on the good things. So we are rolling along.
So, what about you? Are you doing a Goodie Jar? Do you have a way to help you stay focused on the Good Things? How is it going?
Posted in Good Things in the Goodie Jar | Tagged: adopted cats, focus on the good, good things jar, Goodie Jar, Nia, Nia at the YMCA, Nia class, shelter cats, things that make you smile, YMCA, Yoga | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on August 22, 2015
Oh, man, I was trying not to write about the cats. I am sitting here trying to come up with something to write about, but I am not coming up with anything. Or I have, I’ve thought of a few things, but my notes, information, and research are not here with me, so I don’t want to write a post off of just my memory. I am a bit tired as I am been in training all day. Ya know, just learning stuff all day long. It is really tiring. It doesn’t matter what you are learning, being in a training and getting new information or even being reminded of stuff you already know, but maybe forgot – is tiring. So all I got left at this late hour is the cats. Sometimes when I can’t think of something to write about I look through my photo album on my phone and I find something to write about. I often snap pictures of things to remind me of a post I thought of or I find a pretty picture in there I can comment on. All of my recent photos are of cats. So . . . cats is what you get. An update on the girls.
So, you may have read my past blog posts, you may not have. Here is a summary. We adopted two cats (sisters, what they call a “bonded pair”) on Fourth of July. On the 13th of July we locked them in a room and started treating them with a topical medicine because we suspected ringworm. On the 21st of July it was confirmed and we began giving them pills on that same day. They had to take 30 days worth of pills. On the 20th day (August 10th) of giving the meds (that means they had 10 pills left to take) we took them in to be tested again. The vet said that Smokey (the black one) didn’t have any spots on her that could be tested. And that the tortie, Esmeralda, only had spots on her toes. So he took a sample to culture. That takes 10 days. So while the culture was being done we had the remaining 10 pills to give. Plus we were instructed to put the topical medicine on Esmeralda’s toes.
So our new-to-us cats were brought into our home and enjoyed it for a week before we locked them into a room and put medicine on them for nine days, then gave them pills for 30 days. Then we had to start putting the medicine on one of them again. Well, we were/are really determined to get rid of this fungus so we are doing it. We were putting stuff on Emmy’s toes for 7 days. On the eighth day I couldn’t find which toes I was supposed to be treating so I stopped. On the 30th day of giving pills we talked to the vet and he said that they were since they didn’t have any spots on them that they were no longer contagious and that they could be released. So we released them after being in one room for 38 days. BUT . . . . . . the vet prescribed 14 more days of pills for Emmy. He said her cultures were a little fluoresced, so he wanted to make sure we completely knocked it out. So even though she had ten more days of pills after the sample was taken he felt she needed 14 more days of pills.
Now at the end of the 30 days of pills she was getting more and more withdrawn. And depressed. Both of the cats would hide when evening rolled around because that is when we would pill them. They knew it was coming. And they just seemed to get more sad and more skittish. It was nice to finally be able to let them out, but this additional pilling with Esmeralda is tough.
Today she disappeared. We couldn’t find her. We looked all over. Finally my husband said, “I found her.” I said, “Where?” And where he said she was I would have NEVER thought to look. NEVER. I would have NEVER imagined she could have got under there, but she did. We decided to let her come out on her own, which she did when she heard something in the yard. But she is very pouty.
We are very sad that we are having to continue with her pills. They make her not feel well so we don’t blame her for not wanting to take them. Poor girl. Hopefully she will forgive us down the line. We will see.
It is great that neither my husband nor I got the fungus. We played with the cats and handled them as if they were not infected. But we washed our hands after. Hubby would walk from cat room straight to the sink to wash his hands. I would sometimes use hydrogen peroxide to wipe my hands, legs, and feet. It it really nice to not have to change clothes just to see the cats. It is really nice to have them out in the house with us. We have eleven more days of pilling Emmy. We can do it.
So that is an update on our little situation. I still have to put my office back together, getting all the stuff I took out of it out of the rest of the house. But we are doing ok. Thanks for “listening”.
Posted in Cats, Teagan and Nessa | Tagged: adopted cats, fungus, pilling a cat, ringworm | 10 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on August 8, 2015
Well, as you know, we not-too-long-ago adopted two new cats. And with that came ringworm. So we have not been able to start our lives together . . . in a sense . . . because we have been having to keep them locked in one room to reduce the chances of the spread and continuation of this fungus. It is not worms, but a fungus. In addition to the lock-down, we are having to give them both medication in the form of a pill. Anyone that has “pilled” a cat knows that no matter the method it is not pleasant for neither recipient nor giver. It is not something new “parents” want to have to do to their new cats. So, really, all I have thought about is cats, lately. Yes, I realize that I tend toward the obsessive side, but when all my spare time is spent cleaning and a lot of my energy is spent working towards getting my “new” cats healthy, can you blame me? With all the thoughts; “cats”, it made me think of a one thing about cats that I recently learned. Some of you might find it interesting, I know I did. In talking to a friend after Nia class the other day, she asked me if I was going to write a blog post about it and I said no because I feel I have been posting too much about cats. She made me think that it might be ok to do so. So here ya go.
Not all cats like catnip. Well, it is not so much as “like” as it is respond to it. It is a genetic thing. I thought all cats liked catnip. I thought catnip was like cat marijuana and every cat would get “high” off of it, but I recently learned that is not true. Some cats will have a reaction to it and others won’t. Between 70 to 80 percent of cats will react. The reaction cats have is in a general “range”. Most of them will “exhibit several behaviors common to queens in season (females in heat): They may rub their heads and body on the herb or jump, roll around, vocalize and salivate.” (According to ScientificAmerican.com) And even more interesting: “This response lasts for about 10 minutes, after which the cat becomes temporarily immune to catnip’s effects for roughly 30 minutes”. So you can only dose your cats in 30 minute intervals. But some cats also become immune to its effects.
Some cats get more aggressive than just rubbing their heads and rolling around, but it is not dangerous aggressive or violent aggressive. Just maybe a little more aggressive and active than you are used to seeing your cat actually be. But I don’t know exactly first hand because I once read that catnip is a drug for the cat. Some articles say that it is like LSD or marijuana. So my hubby and I decided to keep our cat “drug-free”. And we did. We didn’t give our cat, Spot, catnip. Once I bought a toy that either didn’t disclose on the website that it had catnip or I didn’t read it. So we gave it to her, but then we put it away and it never came out again. But with two cats, who knows what we will do. This is new territory for us. And by now, I had dreamed of being well into our “getting-to-know-you” phase. Anyway . . . we will see. In addition to the “frenzied”, “high”, “tripping” behavior a cat might exhibit there is a calm. It acts like a sedative. I could see that being a good thing. But who knows. When they have reign over the whole house we might never need a sedative. Although from the sound of things it might be entertaining to see them on the stuff . . . .
What about you? Did you think (like I did) that all cats reacted to catnip? Do you allow your cat to indulge?
Posted in Cats | Tagged: adopted cats, catnip, dose your cats, fungus, genetic reaction, immune to catnip, lock down, LSD, marijuana, medication, Nia, Nia class, pilling a cat, ringworm, sedative for cats, worms | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 28, 2015
You know how I love to roast veggies, right? Well this is such a super easy one. I usually don’t roast my green beans because they are not my husband’s favorite vegetable so when I cook them I like to do Green Beans, Onions, and Walnuts because I just love that. Since my hubby is not that fond of green beans, I don’t cook them that often and I save my cooking of them for that recipe. But recently I just wanted something to throw in the oven. Like I normally do. Wash it, season it, throw it in the oven, and walk away. That is one reason why I love to roast veggies. Well, we just happen to have received green beans in our produce box . . . so that is what I ended up roasting.
You know I always love easy, and easy right now is what I need because we are having to spend so much time just sitting in the room with the cats. I mean we don’t HAVE to, but we do. I have found in talking to people who don’t have cats, that it is a common misconception that cats don’t like company. People think cats are super independent. While they might be more independent than dogs, they still like their people’s company. They might not want you to even pay attention to them, but they like you to be in the room with them. Especially when they are locked in a room and they can hear you out in the house, then they really want to be out there with you. Cats like to be WITH you. These girls have been in three different places since June 1 so we want to let them know that they are part of a family now, so my hubby and I spend a lot of time in the room.
Often I try to go into the room to work, because they are quarantined in my office, but usually once I go in they want to play. Anyway . . . with the extra time I am spending in my office, it is nice to have an easy time with dinner. And you know roasting veggies is my “go to!”
This isn’t so much about the recipe (because it is so easy) as the idea of roasting green beans. It could be that someone hasn’t thought about doing it yet.
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Roasted Green Beans
1.5 pounds of green beans
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
garlic
pepper
Preheat the oven to 450° F
Wash and trim the green beans. Line a cook sheet with parchment paper. Put your beans on the pan. Then drizzle the oil over the beans. Toss the beans so the oil gets on all the beans. Spread the beans out so they are one layer on the sheet. Sprinkle the beans with salt, garlic, and the pepper.
Put the beans in the oven for anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes. How long you cook your veggies is up to you. You can check on them and decide how well done you like them. Sometimes I like them not so done and sometimes I like them well done. When roasting I am ok with them well done. With other methods I like them less done.
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Of course you can season them with whatever you would like. Salt, garlic, and pepper is simple seasoning. And sometimes that is nice.
Do you like green beans? Do you like them roasted? How do you cook green beans?
Posted in "Recipes", Food, Vegetables | Tagged: adopted cats, green beans, olive oil, parchment paper, roasted vegetables | 12 Comments »
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