daily dose of dogs (aka cats with your coffee): October 2022

10/11/2022

Finicky

OK so if you’re reading here, you have cats. Maybe cats and dogs . . . Or you have had. And I’m wondering . . . would finicky be a word you would use to describe your cat(s)?

This is what I know to be true after SO many years with pets. Cats are finicky! (Dogs, not so much.)

My dogs will drink water from a mud puddle. I don’t leave food out for my dogs because I don’t have a single dog who wouldn’t eat every morsel no matter how much. And as far as where they’ll do their business . . . literally anywhere.

Now let’s talk about cats. I have my own cats (here in my house). And I have the Winnie’s Wishers – 32 of them. I have experience with cats. What I know to be true is that FOOD must be fresh. WATER must be fresh. Even KITTY LITTER must be fresh. I free feed all of the cats on this property. There are bowls of dry food in one particular area in my house. And there are various feeding areas in the cathouse and kennel. I leave dry food out. But OH! It must be the correct amount of food. If I put too much in any bowl, and it is not completely consumed in a 24-hour period of time, the remaining food suddenly becomes disgusting and NO cat will touch it. So I go through this delicate balancing act – must put out enough food so that all of the cats get plenty, but NEVER more than they will eat in 24 hours because any food not eaten during that period of time must be thrown away. No cat will touch it. And don’t DARE just add fresh dry food on top. Somehow the old (ONE-day-old) food contaminates the brand new food that has been placed on top of the old food and now NO cat will eat from the contaminated bowl.

Water. Same issue. Now I happen to believe in dumping and wiping out water bowls daily. This works well because all of the cats on the property here want VERY fresh water to drink. They run to the freshly poured water like they have been deprived of H2O entirely for days. Of course, there was plenty of water in the bowl when I dumped it. But the NEW water . . . OH how wonderful it is. SO much better than that nasty day-old water that was there just before I dumped it.

Finally – litter. I scoop every litter box every day. Some litter boxes get scooped twice a day. Of course, the freshly scooped litter box is the most popular. But nothing compares to the day when old litter is thrown out and brand new litter is in the box. How does a cat suddenly need “to go” when brand new kitty litter becomes available? I swear some of the cats have just used the litter box prior to the dump. Then the litter box is set back in place, with brand new litter, and every cat immediately needs “to go.”

Oh, our sweet, wonderful, amazing, finicky cats! Gotta love ‘em!

Posted at 07:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

10/04/2022

Enjoy the Good Times

We’re still here! Every week I try to think of something to write about here at Winnie’s Wish. Things are so calm right now that there just isn’t anything much to write about. The cats are all living comfortable lives in their various groups. They have kennel rooms and cathouse rooms and runs converted into kitty condos. Every cat has access to an outside deck (where many of them spend these gorgeous autumn days!). They have cat trees and cat beds (even heated beds in the winter). They have air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter. They have good food, fresh water, medications and supplements where needed, vet care, and LOVE (I love them all!). The population as a whole is aging but I do not have anybody at the very end of life at this point in time. With 32 “forever” cats here, I know that things can change very quickly. Any one of my seniors could begin to fail at any point. But I try to really enjoy the times when everything is just peaceful.