USVI-On-Line

Lex, what breed of cat is that? Either you're really, really tiny, or that's the biggest damn cat I've ever seen.

Jorge, glad your baby is better now. It's such a helpless feeling when they're sick. I am a little worried about Junior, though. He doesn't seem to know how to relax.

The TAD wants to get a "Rag Doll" cat. Anyone familiar with that breed?

I like cats, but don't know if I'm up to taking care of another animal right now. We already have an elderly weimaraner who has occasional seizures, a long haired chihuahua who believes she's a pit bull, and rescued chinchilla who's pretty much useless as pets go.

Lex's cat looks like a Maine Coon. They are such cool cats. We have one that is half Maine Coon-serious hunters but very affectionate.

That's not our cat. It's just a photo I found that amazed me. It is a Maine Coon cat. We do have a cat that looks like it may have some Maine Coon in it, but is best identified as a Northeastern Shelter Cat---six toes. Not close in size to the jumbo cat.

Here's the link to an article about the jumbo cat:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... image&cd=1

I had a friend who had a rag doll cat. It was cute, but it wasn't worth the $1,200 she paid for it. This might sound awful, but there are so many cute, loving house cats out there available for free, that I can't imagine paying $1,200 for a cat. Portia is expensive enough as it is.

I am going to try to take her picture for you all. After seeing Lex's cat, I'm not going to worry as much about her size. That's one big cat!

Lulu, I agree. We were in PetSmart a couple of weeks ago, and there were so many cats/kittens that needed homes. I'm sure she would love any kind of cat. The only reason I would consider getting a Rag Doll would be their temperment. I've "met" a couple and they were the most laid back cats I've seen.

Supposedly, they get along with dogs and aren't prone to the bi-polar activities mentioned above. I doubt that we'll be paying hundreds of dollars for a cat, though. I'll save a cat from a shelter and save my money for airplane tickets.

Lulu76 wrote:This might sound awful, but there are so many cute, loving house cats out there available for free, that I can't imagine paying $1,200 for a cat.

I don’t think there is anything awful about that at all. Millions of cats are dogs are euthanized every year in this country…I see the intentional breeding of cats as pretty much a waste of life. If someone insists on a pure-bred, then there are charities that deal specifically with certain breeds. We are a no-kill shelter, and one of the things we do when we can is save cats from being put down…we have saved some truly amazing, wonderful, loving cats that were minutes away from being killed at animal control. And don’t even get me started on puppy mills!

I had a Jack Russell terrier that someone just left on our farm once. I think sometimes people think getting a certain breed is a good idea and then realize it's too much. I can see that happening with a Jack Russell. My aunt got a dalmatian that way too.
There can be a lot of problems with specific breeds too.

I will say, my friend's cat was great, but he was still very kitten-like when he was a kitten. He climbed up on everything and would sleep on her computer keyboard when she tried to work in her home office. Not as bad as bitting, but still.

I wish I had a copy of the contract she'd signed with this breeder in order to get this cat (as if $1,200 wasn't enough). There were some ridiculous rules in there. That whole process just turned me off to pure-bred animals. Well, that, and the fact that so many perfectly good pets are put to sleep while people are fooling around with these "designer" dogs and cats.

I know a lot of people who are really into hunting dogs, and I understand wanting a specific breed for hunting purposes. Still I'd prefer that they find their pure-breds through rescue charities, but I don't get worked up about that kind of breeding like I do stupid puppy mills. Though I will say that I know plenty of people with hunting dogs with great bloodlines that aren't good hunting dogs, so if I wanted a hunting dog I'd take my chances and go through a rescue charity for a puppy.

Hey Jorge,
I am so glad to hear your cat is doing better. I think most of us feel pretty helpless when they are sick. We lost one of our three cats the last day we were on STJ in May. Then, two weeks ago my neurotic cat got really sick. I first noticed a sinus issue and further testing showed a urinary/kidney problem as well. Two antibiotics and two weeks later, she is well again but I was really worried. She wouldn't eat or drink. I had to entice her to drink water "laced" with tuna. We ended up calling it "tuna soup". She even got room service They just give you that meow that sounds different. Like, help me mom/dad.

Teresa Rae, How is Jasper? I remember him having some problems too.

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Teresa~
We have a lot of dog breeders in our area, of course some are good and some are puppy mills. There is even a monthly dog auction near us. I think they mostly deal in breeder dogs. Rescuers attend these auctions to save puppies and the mother dogs. There have been many of the dogs posted on line for adoption.

Since we lost our furbaby in July I have been thinking about another puppy, but haven't because my husband has been seriously ill. Hopefully he is on the mend now with a brand new stent in his heart.

There are also quite a few older pets on-line that are "orphans" of senior citizens that have gone into care centers or passed away. It tears me up to see these little forlorn pets, and it certainly has made me think twice about taking on the minimum 10 year committment that a puppy brings. Seniors need to have contingency plans set up for their pets!

Thanks for caring about these little loving creatures.

Brenda - Thanks for asking. It really makes me sad to think about your loss. Jasper seems fine but I’m going to get a second opinion…well, actually it will be a third opinion, because our regular vet and the internist at that practice don’t really know what to say. Basically two of his white blood cell counts are in the opposite ratio that they should be…they should be 1:2 and instead they are 2:1 (or vice versa, I can’t remember off of the top of my head). The vets have told me that I can do thousands of dollars in tests that might not even show anything (like testing his bone marrow)…and that Jasper might just be like this. Of course it could probably be something awful too, so I want to pursue it further. Most recently they suggested that I do another round of blood work in October, so that is coming up soon.

Verjoy, I often wonder about that…how old I will be when I decide I can’t adopt another cat…hopefully I will have close family then who will be happy to take care of my babies after I’m gone, because I’d be very sad if I couldn’t have cats in my late years…we’ll see how things go.

We have three cats...

Here is my favorite YouTube video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVjzd320gew

We just rescued a kitten from a body shop, she was living under the hood of a Nissan. She is the sweetest little thing, the dogs don't really like her much but they will get over it.
This is my favorite cat site:
http://icanhascheezburger.com/