HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mverman@msus1.msus.edu
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: Driving x-country w/ Cat. Suggestions?
Date: 28 Aug 92 05:36:19 -0600
Organization: Minnesota State University System

If your cat will not be in its carrier at all times, or if you want to let her 
exercise or relieve herself during a roadside stop, a harness and lead will
help you hang on to her easily, comfortably and safely.

Let us all know how w the trip goes.  Bon voyage.

... Shu

In article <adwright.714952288@vincent1.iastate.edu>, adwright@iastate.edu ()
writes:
> In <1992Aug27.180322.4094@porthos.cc.bellcore.com> gck@hector.uucp (24641-kemmerling) writes:
> 
>>> 
>>> > My 1.5 year old Nemisis female tabby will be with me while I drive 1,500 
>>> > miles cross country.  During short travel she freaks out completely.  Are 
>>> > there any suggestions before and during this journey?  
>>> 
> 
>>We just moved from Illinois to New Jersey in March and drove with our
>>cat who HATES being in the car.  It's a 16 hour drive.
> 
>>First of all the vet gave me (for him) some mild tranquilizers.  I gave
>>Boo one about an hour prior to leaving.  We left at 8:30 at night.  
>>While it was dark out Boo slept on my lap.  (He hated the $50.00 cage I
>>bought for the trip).  We drove all night and once it got light out
>>I had to give him another pill - he got too shook up.  He rode the rest 
>>of the way under the seat of the van, coming out a couple of times to
>>use his box and get a drink and a nibble of food.
> 
>>Also, Boo never wears a collar - he is a strictly indoor cat - but I 
>>bought one and got an engraved name tag with our phone and my parents 
>>phone numbers on it, along with his name.  He wore that the entire trip
>>(along with his rabies tag) just in case he 'slithered' out of the car.
> 
> Good point about the collar. You may also want to have copies of Boo's
> photograph so if he did get out, you could enable other residents to help
> keep an eye out for him. 
>
From: johnh@eas.pdx.edu (John Harris)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: water
Date: 26 Aug 92 22:06:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: eas.johnh.5.0
Distribution: usa
Organization: Portland State University

My new kitty in wierd!  She's a "mutt" but from a picture book of cats she 
looks exactly like a Brown Bermese.  Completely chocolate brown with brown 
eyes and pads and a _really_ tiny frame.

Anyway, she loves water!  I've never seen a cat who would willingly run into 
the tub every morning when I take a shower.  She gets herself completely 
wet and enjoys it!  While watering the plants, she stands under the 
sprinkler.  If you move the water, she follows it!

My concern is she is not getting enough water internally.  She never drinks 
the fresh water from her bowl which I change twice daily.  Why would she 
seemingly ignore her water dish, but wade chest deep in the toilet bowl?

Is a Brown Bermese a natural swimmer/fisher?

John Harris
From: klier@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: what to do with cats while on vacation
Date: 3 Sep 92 16:09:26 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

lianne@bcarh17e.BNR.CA (Lianne Raley) writes:
> Yeap, cats in their own home is the best way to go.
  I agree!
> 
> We left explicit written instructions for cat care; the number, address,
> and directions to the vet; and extra money in case she ran out of 
> anything. 
   
  The only other thing I'd add is that I always tell my vets I'm going
out of town, and that if anything happens while I'm gone, please just
put it on my bill and I'll settle it the instant I'm back in town.  
I tell the same thing to the sitter, and specify that cats that act
"not right" should go to the vet-- even if it turns out to be nothing,
I'm more at ease with a bill than with a sick cat.

Kay Klier  Biology Dept  UNI
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
From: katbea@auto-trol.com (Kathy Beatty)
Subject: Re: The latest addition to our household
Organization: Auto-trol Technology Corporation -- Denver, Colorado
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 05:16:39 GMT

oakes@rtsg.mot.com (Ronald Oakes) writes:
: In article <1992Aug28.213034.27132@evolving.com>, judy@evolving.com (Judy Bettinger) writes:
: |> From the mail I've received, it sounds like Denver is a flea-free
: |> zone!  I'd suspected as much, because of the altitude and the
: |> dry air, and other people have now backed it up.  Poor poose just has
: |> to let his skin heal.  Kind of like having mosquito bites all over
: |> your body.  But the consensus is, as someone put it, the little
: |> suckers bail out at the Colorado state line.  *whew*  I was worried that
: |> he'd brought hitchikers, but if he did, they should be dead soon.
: 
: I would not be so sure about Colorado being flea-free.  If altitude and dry air
: were enough to prevent fleas, then Northern New Mexico would not have the
: serious problems caused by fleas that it does.  -- For thoes who are not aware,

Denver is just at high enough altitude that fleas do not survive here. I 
haven't seen a single one in the 20 years I've lived here, with pets most
of the time. However, a vet told me that a flea-ridden animal brought to
Denver will continue to have problems, the fleas will not die off right
away. Given time though, the flea colony will eventually disappear. 

So, it is possible that if the cat brought hitchikers, they will not
necessarily be dead real soon, so you might be wise to take some
steps in helping get rid of them.


Kathy
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats,rec.pets
From: nastasi@cbnewsk.cb.att.com (joseph.l.nastasi)
Subject: Free Siamese Kitten
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: nj
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 18:37:08 GMT
Keywords: free, kitten, siamese


POSTING FOR A FRIEND OF A FRIEND, PLEASE CALL HIM DIRECTLY!

Dark Gray Blue Point Siamese, female, four weeks old, weaned.
Free to good home, owner received as gift and cannot keep in
his apartment.  No papers.  Must give away soon or she will go
to a shelter.

Call: John Oritz  (908) 632-7647  days  M-F

Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
From: diana@wetware.com (CatWoman )
Subject: Re: The best litter alternative I've seen, next to going outdoors.
Organization: Castle WetWare MouseCatcher
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 20:30:52 GMT

jlecher@pbs.org writes:

] After all of the discussion about 'scoopable' litter, I had to put in my
] 2 cents worth.
] My boyfriend uses something called 'PineFresh'. It's a natural pine wood
] litter that comes in little pellets that disintegrate when the cats pee;
] the solid waste is just scooped out.

Once again - I have to ask, however - if Pine Tar and
Pine Oil are as bad for cats as we have been told,
is a pine-sawdust (presumably) litter going to have
too much pine-pitch left in it to be good for the
cats?

Diana
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
From: jill@cray.com (Jill McAllister)
Subject: Re: Diarrhea
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Date: 27 Aug 92 23:54:33 CDT

In article <ardie.54@UIUC> ardie@UIUC (Richard D. McClary) writes:
>     I have a female kitten, about 5 months old.  She has recurring 
>diarrhea - very watery (sp?).  The vet says she is totally asymptomatic and 
>right-on for growth and development and doesn't understand the diarrhea.

This also happened to my female cat at roughly the same age.  It was
diagnosed by our vet as food allergies and we spent about a year and a
half trying different foods.  Luckily we found one that works very well
for her--the dry C/D and dry R/D.  The canned C/D still gives her the
diarrhea.

Jill McAllister
(jill@cray.com)
From: klier@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: Possums and cats
Date: 3 Sep 92 21:02:26 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <2978@voodoo.UUCP>, das@voodoo.boeing.com (Deb Schwartz) writes:
> Last night, as I was sitting in a friend's kitchen chatting, we saw a
> large possum walk up her back steps, help himself to the food she had out
> for her cat, then waddle off.  The whole time, her cat was crouched about
> 10 feet away, frozen, watching the whole thing.  

I had "house possums" a few years ago-- had a habit of leaving the door 
open so the cats could come and go as they pleased, and apparently
the combination of available water (we were in a drought) and food
proved too tempting.  One night, I was talking on the phone to one of
the local DNR guys-- and I had my glasses off.  Reached down to pet
Little Cat, and discovered Little Cat had grown a very strange tail
and even stranger nose and teeth.  I said, "Oh, sh**".  Mr. DNR said 
encouragingly, "Oh, you can handle it-- I know you.  You don't need 
me to bring a live trap..."

Well, I did.  If you hit a possum over the head with a broom, they will
indeed play possum.  Then you can sweep them out the door.

During this time, the cats were just hanging around giving me 
disgusted looks like "why are you inviting funny kitties in?  Don't
we have enough real cats around here?"  I also found a second
possum in the kitchen with his head in the food bowl-- and Lucy
was calmly drinking water from the next bowl.

I've never heard of a cat being bothered by an oppossum.

Kay Klier  Biology Dept  UNI
From: gt1167b@prism.gatech.EDU (Christie Shackelford)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: New kitties (WAS Re: kitties have to be siblings?)
Date: 4 Sep 92 00:09:39 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology

In article <1992Sep2.012948.20627@auto-trol.com> katbea@auto-trol.com (Kathy Beatty) writes:
>ssnyder@sunai.er.usgs.gov (Steve Snyder) writes:
>: 
>: One question - Has anyone tried mixing several different brands of
>: dry kitten foods together and feeding them that way? So far I've
>: fed them Iams, Purina Kitten chow, and 2 other brands whose names
>: escape me right now. I was wondering if it would be OK to mix them 
>: all together. 
>: 
>I often mix several kinds of dry food. The cats seem to enjoy it. 
>
>Kathy

I have to mix the kitten chow with the grown-up food, because when
I don't, Dixie (12 weeks) eats the cat food and growls at Fermi (3.5 years)
who is forced to go eat the kitten food (she seems to prefer it, too).
So I just mix it all together.  At least Dix gets a little bit.

The growling bit is odd, I think.  Dix must've had to fight siblings
for victuals.  The really odd thing is that Fermi doesn't even try
to defend her food dish.  

-- 
Christie Shackelford
gt1167b@prism.gatech.edu
Meow!
From: STella@thelema.uucp (STella)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Cathandle Position was Naming cat behaviors
Date: 29 Aug 92 01:26:30 GMT
Organization: Idiosyncratic Anarchic Order

In article <1992Aug21.115253.5728@cs.nott.ac.uk> cczcole@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (Marlon Cole) writes:
>	  No-one seems to have mentioned this one yet, so I'll lower the tone
>straightaway :-)
>
>What about "tuning in" (to the radio) ?
> - this is what we call that priceless moment, inevitably when you're
>in polite company, when the cat decides to sit in the middle of the
>floor in order to clean its back end, with one back leg pointing
>skywards (a la radio aerial - hence "tuning in").

Ah, I LIKE that name.  Call it "cathandle" position myself, because I
simply cannot (or is that WILL not) resist grabbing the handle and
attempting to lift the cat.  None of my cats will stay in cathandle if
I walk toward them with even a hint of "predator" in my bodylanguage.

BTW, I call kneading (loved the phrase "making starfish paws", BTW)
"catdancing".

I don't have any novel names for catstampedes, but I do have a great
story....  Back a while we lived in an apartment where the living room
and the kitchen both had two doors, so that a cat could run into the
kitchen from the living room, exit the kitchen by the hall door, and
come into the living room from the hall, making a circle.

We had lots of cats, about a dozen.  Wjr came home from work and
decided he wanted to open a can.  When he unlocked the front door, all
the cats were hanging in the living room with me, a couple on my lap,
most sprawled around.  He hit the button on the canopener, and the
feline horde jumped up to investigate.  Problem is that about six of
them headed through the archway between living room and kitchen, and
about six of them took the hall.  Running flat out, scrabbling for
traction on the linoleum.

Wjr tells me that when the two thundering hordes of cats swarmed into
the kitchen, each mob scared the other, recoiled, and ran back into
the living room by the door each had just used.

I heard him whoop and giggle at this, and looked up just in time to
see the two gangs of six charge into the living room, react to each
other's presence, and decide, in one of the few displays of feline
agreement that household ever had, that it was time to groom.

We couldn't stop giggling for about five minutes....  THEY didn't
think it was at all funny.

STella@xanadu.com	1016 E. El Camino Real, #302, Sunnyvale, CA 94087
From: en01@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (EUGINA M. NOVAK)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: Why Do Cats Sit on Paper?
Date: 3 Sep 92 12:56:12 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

In article <1992Sep2.230715.22505@leland.Stanford.EDU>, jay@cmn19.Stanford.EDU (
Jay Kadis) writes:
>I've always assumed that since a piece of paper has finite thickness, the
>cats' preference for sitting on paper is related to the prime directive:
>get as high as you can...

We follow a different prime directive:  Get on or in.  This directive
incorporates the penchant for sitting up high, but it also allows for the
typical box-sitting (I will wriggle and squirm all of my 14 pounds until I've
managed to squish myself into an open shoebox--it doesn't matter if my "love
handles" roll over the sides of the box--the cat is IN).
Since the prime directive includes "on", paper sitting proves desirable (all
the more so if your pet is trying to read or write something on that piece of
paper).  This "on" part includes laying ON furniture, counters, toilet seats,
pets and their beastly dogs (I get immense satisfaction out of sprawling ON my
pets' dalmatian's head!!!!).

Ciao for now.
--Shaldar, Turbo, Oscar, Gizmo and our pet, Gina
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
From: ehp@poe.acc.Virginia.EDU ("Didi Pancake")
Subject: Re: Playing with kitties face: was "naming behaviors"
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 15:31:51 GMT

In article <1285@ncrclm.ClemsonSC.NCR.COM> lsnow@ncrclm.ClemsonSC.NCR.COM (Linda Snow) writes:
>Does your cat make the "old man face"?  When I scratch my cat's head
>or chin, he sort of scrunches up his mouth in a way that sort of looks
>like an old person without any teeth. At first I thought all cats did that
>till my friends starting giving me strange looks when I talked about it.
>Now I've found some cats that do and some that don't.

My Cleo does this...it's sort of like pursing her lips. She also does it
when faced with the prospect of having anything including yummy goodies
_placed_ into her mouth. It's like she has a steel drawstring in her lips
that she yanks shut at the thought of a pill or hairball goo or even
having her teeth looked at. She looks like my grandmother when she does
it! :-)


--
|  Didi Pancake         |     "How do you kill mud?"                     |
|  ehp@virginia.edu     |           --Dean Jagger in "X the Unknown"     |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  All the usual disclaimers about the origins of these opinions apply.  |
From: klier@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: cow belly
Date: 26 Aug 92 21:09:18 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <1992Aug25.222856.21824@rigel.econ.uga.edu>, hughes@dogwood.botany.uga.edu (Wayne Hughes) writes:
> 
>   Alright, here's a question.  My partner was waiting for his order
>   to be filled in a local eatery and was reading the bulletin board.
>   There was an ad for "black and white kitten with cow belly".
>   So.  Anyone know what a cow belly is?

I'd guess it was a belly like Bear's -- a bunch of loose skin that hangs
down and sort of flaps side-to-side like an empty udder when he trots...

Kay 
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
From: coimay@sn01.sncc.lsu.edu ( LAURA CARRIERE)
Subject: Naming Hurricane Kittens 
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4   
Reply-To: coimay@sn01.sncc.lsu.edu
Organization: The unofficial LSU news node
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 19:08:58 GMT
Nntp-Posting-Host-[nntpd-29112]: sn01.sncc.lsu.edu

About a month ago I posted a note asking how to tell if a cat was pregnant.
Well, just to follow up, Mom had 6 baby kitties a week ago Monday.  This
just happened to be the day before Hurricane Andrew hit Louisiana and
Baton Rouge, where we live.  Since Mom's an outdoor cat she had them under
a bush in a corner of the backyard (even though we set up two nice convenient
spots for her).  So there we are, Monday night, chopping down half a bush in
the late evening, dodging the wasps we discovered between the fence and
the bush instead of shopping for anti-hurricane supplies.  Mom actually
had the last kitten as we were chopping.

Eventually we got to the kittens, moved them to a good box/bed and moved
everybody inside.  It was a good thing too.  The hurricane knocked down
the wooden fence beside the bush they were under and there was quite a
bit of water there too.  Two days after the hurricane we moved everything
back outside to a shelter we'd built for them.  Unfortunately Mom keeps
trying to move them back inside.  I think she's finally settled down now
that we've made the shelter more hidden.

Anyway, I want to name the kittens after hurricanes.  There are two boys
and two girls for sure and the remaining two are still uncertain.  One
will definitely get Andrew, another will be Hugo.  Then there's Camille
and Betsy, two hurricanes that have hit Louisiana.  I also want to use
Hazel since it hit Toronto where I used to live, though before I was
born.  Any other suggestions?  Particularly boys names since they've
only been using them recently.

There are three mostly grey kittens, two grey and whites and one that 
looks like a calico, but has very little white.  The calico is the runt
of the litter and I'm not yet convinced it's a girl, though it probably is.
The tip of the calico's tail is curly, like a pig's.

One of the kittens has white facial markings that resemble a maple leaf.
That one's name is either Hazel or Hugo, depending on it's sex.  (Hugo
battered the Canadian eastern provinces as well as the U.S.) 

Now all I have to do is find homes for them (when they're old enough) 
and get Mom SPAYED before her grey, studly boyfriend comes back.

  Laura Carriere
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
From: ericj@hwcae.Honeywell.COM (Eric Jacobsen)
Subject: Re: Declawing question (Oh no, not another one...)
Organization: Honeywell, Air Transport Division; Phoenix, AZ
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 19:29:25 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.182141.54494@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu> lb04@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (Laura Bassi) writes:

   I, too, would like to hear what folks have to say on this issue.  I have 2
   cats, neither declawed.  Most of my friends' cats are declawed.  What's the
   story?  I think I can figure out the Pro's for myself.  The con's, however,
   I would like to hear from you all.
   thanks,

I used to be against declawing until a friend of mine had her cat declawed.
Thier vet was very upbeat about declawing and her cats were all declawed
and still climbed trees, caught birds, etc. (although not quite like
before). So Pooh got declawed and never seemed the worse for it. It
was REALLY funny how he used to look at his paws for a week or so after,
though...

--
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
* Eric Jacobsen        Honeywell Inc.                           *
|     1-602-436-3941   Commercial Flight Systems, Air Transport |
* HVN       436-3941   US Mail: P.O. Box 21111, MS 2Q34C1       *
| FAX 1-602-436-1310   Phoenix AZ 85036-1111                    |
* INet: ericj@hwcae.honeywell.com                               *
| UUCP: uunet!hwcae.honeywell.com!ericj@uunet.uu.net            |
* The opinions expressed are my own and therefore better        *
| thought out than my employer's.                               |
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
From: cmickan@cc.curtin.edu.au
Subject: Catnip question
Organization: Curtin University of Technology
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 11:31:07 GMT

I gave my cats some fresh catnip last night for the first time after
reading so much about it in this group.

Fatstuff, my big and very dignified cat, acted very undignified after
playing with it.  Josephine, my very nervous cat, was in a state of sheer
bliss.  It also amused me for a couple of hours just watching them.

They both chewed and rolled in it and then Fatstuff decided it was just too
good to share, so he gathered it all up and promptly lay on it with his front
paws extended, daring Josie to touch it.  I had to get some off him for her
and put it in a separate room.

I'm going to get a couple of plants now that I know they love it but can I
give it to them everyday without doing any harm other than Fatstuff losing
his dignity and behaving like a kitten?


-- 
Judy Mickan                    
Curtin University               Internet: CMICKAN@cc.curtin.edu.au
Perth, West Australia           Bitnet: CMICKAN%cc.curtin.edu.au@cunyvm.bitnet
From: klier@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: Marking---Can it be corrected?
Date: 27 Aug 92 18:09:46 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <92240.084238U39730@uicvm.uic.edu>, Norma Kateeb <U39730@uicvm.uic.edu> writes:
  He has been repeatedly
> marking his territory in one particular room of the house.  She is now
> in the process of replacing the carpeting in that room and has had to
> remove some of the books that were ruined.
> 
> After much soul searching and consultation with her vet, she decided to
> take Topaz to an animal shelter in the hope that he will be adopted.
> 
> She is so heartbroken over this whole situation that she may decide
> to take him back and confine him to a downstairs laundry room.
> The dilemma is --If she takes Topaz back and finds homes for the
> other 2 cats, can Topaz be corrected of this bad habit?  Does anybody
> out there have any suggestions or creative ideas?  If so, please advise.
> 
One thing that *should* be tried is a progestin treatment, which will stop
marking behavior in about 50% of the cats undergoing treatment.  Tranquilizers
work on about 50% of the territorial cats, too... so *I* sure wouldn't
give up without a several-month trial of both treatments.  If her vet
hasn't heard of this, I'm sure there are several vets in the area that
have.  It's now standard vet textbook treatment.

Kay Klier  Biology Dept  UNI


Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
From: afdenis@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (Stephen Dennison)
Subject: Re: Naming cat behaviors
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Ancient Souls Inc.
Date: 25 Aug 1992 17:30 EST  

In article <17533@autodesk.COM>, dansmith@Autodesk.COM (Daniel Smith) writes...
>In <seZJqF_00UhWI5E5UV@andrew.cmu.edu> ag3b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Amy Ginther) writes:
> 
>> >>As long as we're naming cat behaviors, how about alternate names for
>> >>the insane running around that has been called "the crazies"?
> 
>> The Feline 500!
> 
>	Late for the Cat Convention!

*I've* always called it getting a case of `The Rips', because they rip 
around like a man looking for a restroom after dinner at Taco Bell... :-)

I *think* the term originally came from the Garfield comic strip, tho.

-- Stephen

	The smallest light offered in total darkness is a blinding
	beacon of hope.
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats