It's Caturday- Post some cats (vol 3)
Discussion
clarkmagpie said:
Does anyone have experience of Norwegian forest cats?
There is a localish breeder but when I sent of an email enquiry about kittens, it was like an interview!
Would appreciate some owner views if possible.
We have a Norwegian forest cat but not pedigree, found in a barn near a local rehoming centre so we took her and another cat both aged 6 months.There is a localish breeder but when I sent of an email enquiry about kittens, it was like an interview!
Would appreciate some owner views if possible.
Not sure if it is because she was partially wild but she is not the type of cat to sit on your lap at all. It took a year or two for her to get comfortable being held for more than a few seconds. Even 7 years later she won't sit on a lap and you can't hold her for more than 30 secs before she wants to get down.
She likes a little nibble of fingers, but very playfully, not hard biting. She is very much the outside cat, happy to be out in all weathers. Within a week of us letting her go outside she disappeared for 24 hours in the snow so we were very worried, she came back in at 4am covered in snow and just trotted off to her food bowl like she had been out for 10 minutes!
She is a fan of the wildlife and has brought us numerous, mice, small rats and birds.
In summary they (well ours) is an amazing cat and they look gorgeous but don't expect a lap pillow and affection is very much on their terms..
Mr Snrub said:
What if she needs to go for a dump?
Like most she uses the bathroom before we leave. So far in the many hundreds of miles we've covered not once has she had the need to use the bathroom. Although I'm fairly sure I'd know the signs and could pull over at a suitable stop for her to relieve herself. Just like you or I. She's mostly sleeping so I doubt it'll ever happen. Mr Snrub said:
Glad you're bonding well and she is a lovely cat, but is having an unsecured cat climbing around the car a good idea?
Thank you. Frida was only a few weeks old when I took her in and she's travelled with me a lot since then. Frida will sit on my shoulder for the first five or ten minutes and then climb down on to my lap and sleep. If she ever gets to the point where she's climbing about (I sometimes use a harness on her too but she's yet to really grow in to it) or seems in anyway unhappy/stressed then I'll stop taking her with me.
Mr Snrub said:
Problem is if you have to stop suddenly she's going to be thrown into the dash or windscreen
You think I use the brakes!?Seriously - she has a harness, which when she's bigger she will have fitted in to the seat belt clip - I also use it on my dogs. They'd make a much bigger mess.
Like this
This is, or rather was, Bert
Bert appeared from nowhere a couple of years ago. Seen hiding in my neighbour's garage, obviously frightened and very, very hungry. I was round there one night and we could hear him crying outside the back door so I let him in and began to feed him. After three full pouches of food he was still ravenous enough to follow me home and eat half of my bacon sandwich.
Anyway, I had no intention of acquiring a cat so I turfed him out, even though the sound of him crying was pretty upsetting. Turned out he crept back into my neighbour's house via their catflap and slept there the night. And the next, and the one after that. You can guess what happened next. As it is, they already had two cats and were enchanted with Bert so they gladly took him in, and whistled down to the vets that week to give him a check up and make sure no-one was missing him. It appeared unlikely that he wouldn't be reported missing as he was obviously well looked after and very sociable around people, so he'd been well loved by whoever had owned him before. But no, no record of him being reported missing. Moreover, a foreign chip. Odd
Anyway, after a few weeks it was clear that Bert was effectively a new addition to the neighbour's cat collection. And ours too, as he basically spent half his time in my house and developed a real attachment to my wife. He also sought to thank me for his rescue by waking me one morning with the gift of a still-warm but very dead rabbit, which he placed on my head while I was asleep. It think it was also part thanks for the bacon dinner that first night, as it soon became clear that Bert was a fanatic for any form of ham or whatnot.
So, for the next couple of years, Bert becomes a much loved member of both families, spending equal time in both houses. He was incredibly affectionate, and hugely endearing. Always up for cuddles and snuggles. His habit of standing upright against the patio doors and spreading his front legs wide apart, which made it look like there was a skydiving cat trying to gain entry, was very cute indeed. As was his comic hatred of vacuum cleaners and plastic bags. And as soon as he saw a packet of ham, he turned into a drooling maniac. Bert was just a very, very cool cat to have around.
On Friday my neighbour was standing in his front drive when there was a frantic commotion on the road outside. A woman came rushing up to him and asked him if he knew of a ginger and white cat in the area, as she had just put a leaflet through my door (next door) and seen Bert scamper past. He said yep, that's Bertie. She could barely contain herself by this point, and told my neighbour that she thought it might be her cat, who had gone missing a couple of years previously. Neighbour went and called for Bert, he came trotting over and lo, the woman rushed over to him. Bert was indeed hers. In fact, he was her husbands cat. The guy had found Bert as an abandoned kitten in Cyprus while serving there with the RAF. He had become smitten with him, taken him in and spent £3000 bringing him back to the UK and another £1500 on vets fees to sort him out. Once back here they had moved a couple of times with work until they ended up here in S. Oxfordshire. And then, only days after arriving, Bert had gone missing. Presumed dead, after a while. They had checked with every vets in the area except one. Which of course is the one that my neighbour had taken him to. And although they had reported him missing on Petfinder, neither myself nor my neighbours had even known that such a website had existed (stupidly, perhaps).
Suffice to say, when this bloke's wife rang him to tell him what had happened he was dumbstruck, He rushed round within the hour and as soon as Bert saw him, the tail went up and he scampered towards his old owner. To say the bloke was overjoyed is something of an understatement. They took Bert home that evening, where no doubt he's being pampered to within an inch of his life. What was nice to hear was the chap observe that Bert looked so healthy and happy he must obviously have loved his new environment and the people that looked after him, but it was evident to all of us that Bert should go back home to his real family. They did say, however, that if he somehow made the effort to rediscover us then it was probably a sign that he should stay here.
They rang us the next day to tell us that Bert (real name Tigger), had settled right back in, and was busy putting the family dog, who for the past two years had been enjoying a bit of status around the house, right back in his place. Their two daughters, who absolutely doted on Bert/Tigger, are away at boarding school. His owners are going to wait until they come back home for half term for the kids to discover that their beloved pet is back with them. Should be an awesome day.
Anyway, I miss the little ginger sod. He was a lovely cat. But I'll be swinging by his new house to say hello soon.
Biggest irony? Me and his original owner work about 30 yards apart in the same building, and have done so this whole time.
We're currently being assessed by the local stray:
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