"THE CAT QUESTION"
As for cats, after living with five over thirty years, I do consider myself a bit of an expert on them. Unlike what many people believe, cats are social animals, and enjoy company, human (they accept you as a large and eccentric cat) or of their own species.
I know many people who work at home who report that their cat prefers to sleep in their office or studio during the day when they are working there, for the company - which is nicely complementary for your reason for wanting a cat, to have a living thing around as a companion.
If you are out a lot, then it may be better to have two cats, which can keep each other company, or amused, while you are out - and certainly you have to make sure when you do come in that they get attention, groomed, played with, and given a lap to sit on if they are into that.
Cats are adaptable; if they have not been born and raised feral, and particularly if spayed or neutered (and they should be, to keep down the population) they don't mind being indoors.
If you have a farm in the country, fine, they go out to amuse themselves, but cities are too dangerous.
What matters most to them is that they have one or two meals a day, a clean water bowl, AND A CLEAN PLACE TO SHIT.
(You have to keep it clean. Daily.)
Beyond those necessities, a scratching post is advisable (ideally next to where they are fed, which allows you to train them to it by putting a tiny bit of food in the bowl each time they use it), and they love having kitchen counters, cabinets, bookshelves, televisions, computer monitors, windowsills, etc, to jump up on to watch you, or to sleep on.
(Windowsills also allow them to keep an eye on the outside world too).
Radiators are nice to sleep under in winter months. They can be quite happy indoors, even in two or three room apartments.
Cats are not people. They are what they are: sentient animals certainly, each with its own catonality. They will bond to you, and you to them. But again: they are not people.
Bodmin
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The above was edited for broadcast, and well...because I could. However it's mostly all there, and makes good sense. Btw I'm still tempted to get a robot cat. We'll see.
8 comments:
Umm, yeah, but there's that problem of freedom again. Birds like to fly around.
Like them wild parrots on Brooklyn. Legend has it that a bunch of these guys got loose from a shipment over at JFK.
They been happily wild in the "Borough of Church's" ever since.
Mostly building nests in, and around power lines, and telephone cables.
My heavens! Your parrot lived nearly 40! Years!!
Well at that rate if I gets one of these folks to live with they'll out live me by 10 or 15 years.
On the bright side they'll inherit my digs so won't get tossed onto the streets like I was.
Note!
In life get everything, I mean EVERYTHING in Writing!!!!!!!!
...get the damned thing notarized too!
OOPS!!
Sorry Lino, now of New York. I deleted you swell missive by mistake. Would you mind restating it?
Sorry my finger slipped,...yeah I know, but this time it really did.
...."but there's that problem of freedom again. Birds like to fly around."
Not when they are well fed and all needs taken care-of. This ol' bird is fat 'n happy, he used to be able to fly all over the seven rooms -now he ditches @5-6 ft from cage. He has what we (plural not royal) call "open cage privileges" -never locked up so he climbs out and sometime all the way up the curtain to the valence...where he chews wood. But almost always retreats to inner sanctum for sleeping.
I sometimes fell bad about his (hers?) lack of flight but as my Father pointed out it was only a matter survival-mating-turf and with all needs met...who needs to fly.
This bird BTW was apparently smuggled up from Mexico (as are most of my friends) so he retains the wild instincts. I am up moderately high often he hears a hawk call as it flies, Norton (it's name) snaps to attention. I caution guests not to try and pet him -he bites like he means it. Only my Mex Indian friend Enrique has gotten insider's privileges. The wild ones are never cuddly as pure domestic and it is a real window on the constant torment and survival nature puts creatures through.
As i mention with Cats, among the standard domestic pets, they are the ones most likely to evince a tolerance for you...pet 'em let them rub against your leg etc, but they will go their own way.
Here in NYC I always see cats out at night. I live a couple of blocks from Central park and that is where they head at night. Never see stray dogs here. In my second home in Bangkok packs of "Soi" (street) dogs are common and frankly, the most scary aspect of that city...aside from drunken pervs from Europe.
Since childhood I have had just about every type of pet that could semi-reasonably be held in a city apartment, multiples even.. so ask if ya got questions...but the robot sounds good.
Lino
..."Legend has it that a bunch of these guys got loose from a shipment over at JFK"
I should have read more thoroughly. Anyway, the legend I always read/heard was that those birds escaped from the Bronx zoo's aviary when it was damaged in the 1992 Nor'easter (Dec 2). Importing parrots has pretty much been banned since the psittacosis (parrot fever) outbreak in 1973..but who knows..we haven't been able to keep anything else from getting in.
"My heavens! Your parrot lived nearly 40! Years!!
Yep, their years the same as ours, 80-90+ are not uncommon. You get you money's worth.
"On the bright side they'll inherit my digs so won't get tossed onto the streets like I was"
Yeah, I really don't know what to say about this.... I can't imagine doing that to -anyone- let alone family. Guess I could never be a landlord.
Hopefully you'll put down long and solid roots, I'll be listening.
Lino
I have read or heard more than once that some parrots can live to be as much as 200 years old, just like the giant tortoise. If you get one, make sure to have someone to will it to, even if you expect to live to be older than George Burns or Eubie Blake (who not only attended but actually performed at his 100th birthday party).
I'm with Lino about tossing people out in the street. I couldn't do it. In Italy it's illegal to do so, because a *right* to housing is guaranteed by their Constitution.
Really?
It's against the law in Italy to "86" folks out of their homes?! I guess our gleeful foreclosure mania in this country must seem barbaric to them.
Well 'course it 'is' barbaric, but that's life in the land of the free.
200 year old parrots?!!
Good grief, if these folks could talk,...wait a minute they can!
Has anyone thought to ask them about things other than crackers?
Ur a bunch of funnies. I loved to read through the comments - and learned quite a bit - thanks.
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