rootboy 

She was/is a beauty. That pic was taken shortly after my wife brought her home from China. That's as far down the stairs as our other cat would let her come. She lived upstairs for nearly two months before Minky accepted her. She looks a little different now.

AlexCyclistRoch

A more recent pic of my Mimi:

Velocivixen

This is dear Excellencia, who is the shop cat and overseer of all at a plumbing company where I work. She is about a year and a half old and was found, stowed away, in the engine compartment of one of the shop trucks when it returned from a job out in a more rural area. She was barely old enough to be weaned.
Excellencia by velocivixen, on Flickr

She's a little rough around the edges because the fellows play a little rough with her, but I'm teaching her civilized manners. She is making progress.

PedalingFool

Simba (11 years old)


Sullivan (about a year old)
Sullivan was homeless and followed me home while I was out on a walk one day right after I moved into my new home... had him since last summer. He's much fatter now.

Hoss Cartright

Photos from yesterday - 14 year old 'Monte' chillin' - at one time he weighed 28lbs. But now he weighs about 20lbs. We have several cats, and the dry food bowl is out for them at all times, to help him lose weight, we started putting the cat food up on a counter where he couldn't get at it (but the others could) and he was able to lose some weight. Now we feed him wet food (to avoid urinary problems) in portions that help him gradually lose the weight but it is not a starvation diet. He is monitored by the vet. He was morbidly obese when he had access to food 24/7 and got to the point he could barely walk, now he is doing great and much more active.
Rescued from the street in the pouring rain as a wee kitten back in 2003. We spotted him in the headlights, helpless, cold, wet, and alone. For sure, we saved him that night.

solidtyres

Zephir as a youngster. street rescue as a kitten, now about 11 years.



He's a Carnivore

Sir_Name 

ColonelSanders

Beautiful kitty.

If all goes well with my adoption application, I will have a beautiful tuxedo kitty of my own in a week's time.

rootboy 

Interesting story, Hoss. We would love to get our two on wet food permanently, because of potential health problems associated with a dry-only diet. Have tried in the past but they just don't seem to like most wet foods.
I think, like humans, they get habituated, and maybe addicted to, the high carb content of most dry foods. Not a good thing, long term.

tbo

on the diet for the large cat. It can be a hard thing to do.

We have a cat that was quite large upon adoption and couldn't clean herself after using the litterbox as a result. We went to a strict twice a day feeding schedule and that sorted it out - cat lost about a third of her bodyweight.

[rant] The amount of suggested cat food listed on a cat food container *will* get your cat fat, especially if you cat is big already. There is some math you can do to find out how much food they need. It's probably a lot less than you think. [/rant]

Peugeotlover

Panda was born on our back porch in April, 2000 to a stray. Surprise, you now have 5 kittens!
He's the only one to have stayed and lasted. 17 years. He acts a little dumb, but when you get to observe him, he is pretty smart. He is not a hunter, he is too gentle to hurt anything.
When he was younger, he ran away twice. Thankfully, he returned when I left food out on the front porch.
Now, he is my tail, follows me everywhere.
He gets strange notions, occasionally- he literally ran up the Birch tree 15 feet. He scared himself when he looked down.
Climbed down backwards. Took a nap.

thinktubes 

Yeah, diets and large cats can be difficult.

We inherited Damien when my mother-in-law passed 3 years ago. He weighed almost 30 pounds. He had trouble walking and his stomach dragged on the ground.



We checked with the vet and put him on a twice a day feeding schedule with measured portions.

He's down to 21 pounds and moves much better. He also went from being mean and agressive, to becoming a real sweetheart. I'm sure his size was making him miserable.

tbo

There are some really good (read: expensive) dry only foods now. We use Blue Buffalo Freedom, just as an example. It will take a little bit of research, but they are out there.

AlexCyclistRoch

As for weaning cats off dry food-our Mimi was a bit plump when we got here, so we put her on "good" dry food in the mornings (wet food in the evenings), but put her dry kibble in a "food ball" that made her at least work for her food. Also helped with her paw-eye coordination....

rootboy 

Thanks TBO. Yes indeed. We've been there, and chose, hopefully, one of the good dry foods. Of course, the problem with most dry foods is the relative lack of moisture compared with wet foods. Which can lead to health problems, urinary tract issues, etc.
The other problem with dry foods is the so-called "guaranteed analysis". My wife's and my eyes were opened a bit by reading the chapter "how to read a food label" in the book "Your Cat" by Elizabeth M. Hodgkins, DVM.
I just took a look at the Blue Buffalo Freedom you mentioned. And, using her method to determine how much of the mix is carbs, or other ingredients, which is to add up the 4 or so major components, but not all the trace elements, you come up with a total which you subtract from 100% Using Blue Buffalo as the example, the total for protein, crude fat, crude fiber and moisture, comes to 63 %. Which means 37% is something else. And that something else is usually carbohydrates. Since the food companies know that the trend is for pet owners to eschew grains, given newer findings, the balance is usually other stuff, such as vegetables. Or potato, etc. None of which are good for felines, at least according to Dr. Hodgkins.

Figures come out pretty close to the same for many "good" dry foods. Including the two we are using. Her theories are not without controversy. But more and more vets are coming around to her way of thinking. Including our vet.
This is all just FWIW, of course. I recommend her book though.

RichSPK

Bikeforumuser0019

The fuzzy one is Rio (after the Duran Duran song) and the orange one is ****zy. The orange one I trapped as a feral kitten, she's really needy and always wants to be "hugging" the fuzzy one.

DSCN1963.jpg
DSCN2903.jpg

rumrunn6

awesome. ours did that when they were kittens

Bikeforumuser0019

One more; because hugging FTW

**** and Rio 20160521 forum crop.jpg

ColonelSanders

Beautiful kitties you have.


Does ****zy also like to hug her hooman slaves like she does her kitty friend?

Bikeforumuser0019

Hah, actually not at all. She's feral. It was many years before she'd even really let me touch her. She will occasionally get in my lap but she's really neurotic about it.

Speaking of wet food (above) I just switched them to wet food after about 10 years of dry food.... and I definitely feel like their slave now. The feral will eat until she throws up, so I have to give her little portions.... the other one turns her nose up to almost everything I've tried on her so far. work work work.

markwesti

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/378091331197593098/

deaninkl

I always thought bike porn should be free of puss.. ah i mean.. cats..

gaucho777 

Luna, who is naturally drawn to shiny, spinning things.

Jeff Wills

Pumpkin climbed on Diane's lap, then Mango climbed on top of Pumpkin.