New addition to the family

Posted by: andym

New addition to the family - 17/09/2004 20:10

Finally decided I'm old enough to look after animals....

Posted by: tfabris

Re: New addition to the family - 17/09/2004 20:17

Okay, everybody, collective "AAaaaawwwww..."
Posted by: Laura

Re: New addition to the family - 17/09/2004 20:57

So, what's its name and sex and how old? It's adorable but then I am quite a sucker for kittens
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: New addition to the family - 17/09/2004 23:14

A/S/L?

Posted by: canuckInOR

Re: New addition to the family - 17/09/2004 23:50

Yay!!!! Kitty!
Posted by: gbeer

Re: New addition to the family - 18/09/2004 01:20

So how much did two-bit there pay for you. (We all know it's the cats that own people, not the other way around.)
Posted by: jimhogan

Re: New addition to the family - 18/09/2004 03:00

Quote:
Andy M ....Proud owner of:..... Now with 32MB of memory


Andy, that furry creature now has 32MB of memory? Isn't that what would be called vivisection??? I am (possibly!) shocked. It wasn't enough to experiment on the Empeg?

And I am sure that numerous members of the BBS including tfabris, pca, and number6 have chimed in on this point, but I just want to make sure.... you know cutie is going to turn into a *cat*, right?
Posted by: tfabris

Re: New addition to the family - 18/09/2004 05:20

Quote:
We all know it's the cats that own people, not the other way around.


Oh, they don't think they own us. But there is a saying... "Dogs have owners. Cats have staff."
Posted by: tfabris

Re: New addition to the family - 18/09/2004 05:22

Quote:
Andy, that furry creature now has 32MB of memory? Isn't that what would be called vivisection??? I am (possibly!) shocked. It wasn't enough to experiment on the Empeg?


Not to worry, I'm sure he experimented on a badger first.
Posted by: andym

Re: New addition to the family - 18/09/2004 07:52

Quote:
So, what's its name and sex and how old? It's adorable but then I am quite a sucker for kittens


We're still not sure whether it's a he or a she, I think that might be a nice surprise when we see the vet for the first time, but I think it's a she.

She was part of a litter of 4 and she's the only tabby, the rest are all black and white like their mum. She was born on the 6th of August so we're leaving her with her mum for another week or so but she seems to have got most things sorted, like using the litter tray.

We're holding off naming her until we're absolutely sure that she's female. But SWMBO wants to call her Mavis, I'm not convinced.

She's absolutely bonkers, we spent a couple of hours with her last night, I've forgotten how much kittens like to mess around. I'm used older cats who'd much rather have a nice sleep on the sofa. The funniest bit was when she discoved the zip tabs on my empeg bag. She sat there batting the tabs and jumping on the bag, suffice to say the empeg worked happily for the journey home.

I know I'm a 25 year old man but I can't frickin' wait to bring her home.
Posted by: Laura

Re: New addition to the family - 18/09/2004 09:43

Quote:
I've forgotten how much kittens like to mess around


Tell me about it, I've got four that are of kitten age right now They can destroy the house quicker than I can clean it up.
Posted by: g_attrill

Re: New addition to the family - 19/09/2004 14:15

I'm a cat person rather than a dog person, but my sister and husband are going take delivery of this Husky puppy in a month or so. They live just on the outside of the New Forest so long walks aren't a problem!



Gareth
Posted by: frog51

Snap - 21/09/2004 08:22

Just received this little cutie on Saturday.

He (we reckon) is about 7 1/2 weeks old and so far is utterly mad. He performs a perfect 4 wheel (paw, sorry) drift through the kitchen, falls off everything, sleeps anywhere and in general is brilliant fun. Was necessary to prevent SWMBO demanding a third child

Almost got him and our existing 14 year old cat to be friends - they eat at the same time without fighting, which is nice.
Posted by: peter

Re: Snap - 21/09/2004 10:13

Quote:
Just received this little cutie on Saturday.

Is he seeing a vet for those JPEG artifacts?

Peter
Posted by: frog51

Re: Snap - 21/09/2004 10:18

Am posting over slow dialup so thought I'd compress a bit - maybe over did it?
Posted by: canuckInOR

Re: Snap - 22/09/2004 02:54

Think scale, instead of compress.
Posted by: andym

Re: Snap - 22/09/2004 19:52

Dammit, I want my cat! Might see if I can pick her up a bit earlier.
Posted by: canuckInOR

Re: Snap - 23/09/2004 02:47

I want your cat, too!
Posted by: ricin

Re: New addition to the family - 23/09/2004 04:58

Cute cat!

Speaking of cats, this is mine.
Posted by: Laura

Re: New addition to the family - 23/09/2004 09:12

I've always wondered how some people can have only one cat
Posted by: boxer

Re: Snap - 23/09/2004 10:01

Quote:
Dammit, I want my cat! Might see if I can pick her up a bit earlier


DON'T

We were given one separated from Mum too early and its behaviour was affected throughout its 14 year life, it miaowed endlessly from dawn to dusk and was really uneasy about being left alone.
Posted by: Cris

Re: Snap - 23/09/2004 11:13

Nothing to do with being trapped in the house with 2 mental Boxers then

Edit - Andy, any luck with getting my suggestion of "Dwain the Cat" accepted by SWMBO???

Cheers

Cris.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: New addition to the family - 23/09/2004 14:14

Quote:
I've always wondered how some people can have only one cat


We've been a two-cat family for many years, but we'd always "leapfrog" them... when one died, we would get another kitten.

Until the vet finally told us, only after the third diagnosis, that the disease they were dying from, FIP, was 100 percent contagious with a long incubation period, mostly affecting cats when they got older. We had been allowing the disease to pass from cat to kitten to cat to kitten... And each cat died from the same disease. We thought it was just in the environent or something, instead we were spreading it.

Once we realized this, of course, we didn't get another kitten. Our current cat must be carrying it, but probably won't show symptoms for years. When she dies, we'll probably take a break from cats for a while, but after that we'll be able to get two again.
Posted by: trs24

Re: New addition to the family - 23/09/2004 14:31

Quote:
We thought it was just in the environent or something, instead we were spreading it.

Wow, that sucks - but it is very interesting. I was reading about FIP after reading your post and noticed this:

"Not all cats that are exposed to the FIP coronavirus will develop the disease. In colonies of cats in which this disease is known to be present, estimates are that 8 to 20% of cats exposed to the virus will develop clinical signs of FIP. The rest of the cats may become immune to the disease or may simply not react to it. The reason that only a relatively small number of cats exposed to the virus develop the disease is unclear. It is known that the cell mediated immune response is the primary protection for the cat's body in the case of FIP. Cats that do not have a good cell mediated response may be more susceptible to the disease. The humoral (antibody) defense system actually enhances the damage caused by FIP virus and seems to be partly the culprit in the death of affected cats."

So it is possible that your current cat won't actually show symptoms - not to create any false hope, though.

I thought it was also interesting, though, that FIP is caused by a coronavirus but is also an autoimmune disease - two traits also exhibited by SARS.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: New addition to the family - 23/09/2004 14:38

Right, the thing about FIP is that it's very contagious, but whether a cat will succumb to it is a crap-shoot. From what I understand, though, a cat's chances of succumbing to it increase as the cat ages and the body's immune system doesn't work as well as it did when the cat was young. So for a run of a few cats, we've had a 100 percent mortality rate from FIP. One of the cats that died from it was young, the other two were old.

What made me upset is that the vet didn't tell us it was contagious until the third time. Sigh.
Posted by: andym

Re: Snap - 23/09/2004 15:39

Quote:
Andy, any luck with getting my suggestion of "Dwain the Cat" accepted by SWMBO???


No, if it turns out to be a he then she wants to call it Dexter. Oh, and she takes offence to SWMBO even though I think it's a term of endearment.
Posted by: canuckInOR

Re: Snap - 24/09/2004 03:14

Quote:
Oh, and she takes offence to SWMBO even though I think it's a term of endearment.

So.... I guess that rules out naming the cat SWMBO, then, eh?
Posted by: andym

Re: Snap - 01/10/2004 18:59

She's arrived, I'd post pictures but my digi-cam is probably being sold in a pub in Little Hulton right now. She asleep on the staircase.
Posted by: g_attrill

Re: Snap - 01/10/2004 19:31

I nearly brought home a kitten today.

Yesterday there was a grey one (approx 2 months old) wandering around outside our office - it was walking up and down mewing and trying to jump on the wall outside. I kept an eye one it (intending to fly downstairs and grab it if it started walking up the motorway embankment) but it disappeared.

Saw it again today wandering around and then later noticed some ladies from the office nearby holding a cat basket and looking down a narrow gap between the car park and the fence bordering the motorway embankment.

I went down and they said their arms were too short to grab it, so I layed down, jammed my head under the fence bar and tried to grab it. After we got a piece of cardboard to keep it from running towards the narrow part of the gap (where we would be in trouble!) I managed to get it. A bit of hissing and thrashing I managed to put it in the box and it was on it's way to the local RSPCA centre and the ladies were going to print some leaflets to post at local houses.

Gareth
Posted by: andym

Re: Snap - 01/10/2004 19:53

When we were over in Ireland in the summer we came across a tiny kitten. We'd just found Father Teds house and there was a farm nearby. I assume it must've been the offspring from the farm cats, I have to say i'd have grabbed it there and then if there had been a chance of getting it home safely.
Posted by: andy

Re: New addition to the family - 02/10/2004 09:09

A helpful review for those considering "Juvenile felis catus" ownership:

http://www.dansdata.com/kitten.htm
Posted by: boxer

Re: Snap - 03/10/2004 19:47

Quote:
Nothing to do with being trapped in the house with 2 mental Boxers then

Hence the expression: Aren't people just like their dogs?
I'd have picked up on that sooner, but they've spent the weekend terrorising the climbers on Snowdon!
Posted by: g_attrill

Re: New addition to the family - 03/10/2004 20:19

Well this is my sister's new arrival (named Jango), now eight weeks old. Soon he'll be able to take them for walks!!

Posted by: Cris

Re: Snap - 03/10/2004 21:12

Andy,

How is "Dwainette" settling in ???

Cheers

Cris.

PS - Have to say, she is very very cute, she seemed to like my knee very much!
Posted by: andym

Re: New addition to the family - 15/01/2005 16:57

Thought I might as well provide an update to this thread, Lottie is now 5 months old and I think she's settled in quite nicely. Apart from climbing all over the christmas tree we had.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: New addition to the family - 16/01/2005 01:01

Quote:
Apart from climbing all over the christmas tree we had.

Click.
Posted by: kayakjazz

Re: New addition to the family - 18/01/2005 16:11

There is a definitive test for FIP, so you should be able to find out whether she's a carrier or at-risk if you want to.
Posted by: g_attrill

Re: New addition to the family - 18/01/2005 18:25

Cute!

For comparison here is the puppy at around the same time:

Posted by: andym

Re: New addition to the family - 18/01/2005 19:32

OMG! He's effing huge! I assume he'll get even bigger?
Posted by: canuckInOR

Re: New addition to the family - 18/01/2005 19:33

Not exactly a puppy, anymore. :-D
Posted by: drakino

Re: New addition to the family - 18/01/2005 20:07

Quote:
OMG! He's effing huge! I assume he'll get even bigger?


I have fond memories of riding our german shepherd / husky mix dog around the back yard. Basicially back then my mom found it easy to buy a ton of dog food, then also cook for an extra person during meals to be able to feed him. If I remember right, he was nearly 200 pounds when he was considered an adult dog. Very loyal though. When we moved out, we gave him to a farmer we knew to allow him to live out the end of his days out herding anamals.

He has been the main reason I have wanted a dog again, but I'm not sure I would have enough time to spend with one right now.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: New addition to the family - 18/01/2005 21:50

Quote:
There is a definitive test for FIP, so you should be able to find out whether she's a carrier or at-risk if you want to.

Very interesting. I'll discuss this with my vet the next chance I get.
Posted by: g_attrill

Re: New addition to the family - 18/01/2005 22:28

Quote:
OMG! He's effing huge! I assume he'll get even bigger?

I think he's about two-thirds grown - he's quite skinny and will fill out quite a bit. He likes sitting on the parcel shelf of my sister's car but that's not going to last much longer!

Amazingly, they have him reasonably trained enough to let him off the lead in quiet places - that did suprised me because all I read on the 'net was that they should be never let off! They live right on the edge of the New Forest which is obviously excellent for long walks (and mushing when they get a sled/scooter)

Here is another photo I took of my cousin's cat over christmas - the 300D rocks! The only annoying thing is the light reflected off the edge of the cat's eyelids.

It's a 100% straight crop, nothing done, stock 18-55mm lens.


Gareth
Posted by: mlord

Re: New addition to the family - 18/01/2005 23:51

Quote:
... another photo I took of my cousin's cat ...


Hey, whatdya think this is, dpreview.com??

(cat foto fodder is a tradition there)
Posted by: Ezekiel

Re: New addition to the family - 19/01/2005 11:45

Mark,
Yes, but is that lens really sharp? Can we see a 100% unsharpened crop from the upper left hand edge at f2.8 with the sun just out of the frame? MY f1.0 Yahsahaka medium format lens that I bought for $1.05 is WAY sharper. You must be an idiot!

-Zeke

(ps: for those who don't frequent dpreview.com's forums, I apologize for the odd post)
Posted by: SteveH

Re: New addition to the family - 04/02/2005 11:25

Keep the inside of your screen clean:

Screen Cleaner

It's related to the thread, sort of . ...
Posted by: canuckInOR

Re: New addition to the family - 05/02/2005 05:14

Quote:
Keep the inside of your screen clean:

People here seem more likely to need something to keep the outside of their screen clean.