My friend rescued a cat we call Augie (Augustus…because he was discovered in August) and asked me if she could take care of it in my back yard as an outside cat. I gave my consent. I didn't necessarily want a cat, but I like the fact that it has given my friend a reason to come over to my house every day. Before Augie, my friend could never remember how to use my security system even after 5 years of knowing me and trying. Now she operates it without problem, and it's seeming more like she may be moving over before too long. She has already been spending much more time at my house. Augie is a nice cat too, and I'm thinking my gentle but firm paternal influence has helped him mature better, though he still has a tendency to swipe at you with his claws.
In early October I got the new house with heated pad (heated pad not yet used) which has done very well. (The first house my friend bought had collapsed within a week, and kept needing re-assembly daily due to cat fights and cat sitting on top.) The new house now sits on top of a homebrew table made of cinder blocks and a piece of plywood. The homebrew table is essentially impossible to move or tip over, and it also gives Augie a place to sit underneath with some protection from the neighbor cat we call Alexander, who is still much bigger than Augie and has often come back to my backyard to reclaim what he thought was his territory. They do get into fights, but seemingly less as time goes on.
Augie got his vasectomy last week, after the previous week of false starts--she recruited her daughter to take the cat to the vet, and her daughter wasn't entirely reliable for the first week, then finally we got everything pre-arranged with me taking Augie to the vet as a backup plan on the next Monday, and this time my friend's daughter followed through and got it done, so thankfully I didn't have to take Augie to the vet myself after all (in the early morning when I'm usually sleeping).
I had thought my friend was going to do neutering, but apparently she hasn't done that with her last two male cats and she finds that vasectomy seems to stop spraying as well as neutering, or maybe better, since her first two cats were neutered at the correct age but still ended up spraying, while none of her vasectomized cats have sprayed. For 3 days after the surgery he had to be kept inside in the Hall Bathroom. I moved my showering to the unused (and in some disrepair) master bath during that time, and haven't moved back yet. After the 3rd day my friend cleaned the bathroom out, and only after that she decided not to keep him in the bathroom for the remaining 10 days of "reduced activity" usually suggested after cat surgery, not wanting to clean the bathroom again. So we have kept him outside, and he has been relatively passive anyway, sleeping most of the night away, except for a couple of brief fights with Alexander that I broke up.
One of the bigger problems in the back yard recently has been ants, including very nasty fire ants. My friend does not want to use Amdro ant killer, and would rather not use any chemical ant killer (someday we might want to grow organic foods and spices) but does allow me to spray Pyrethrin based Raid Ant Killer alongside the house which has helped. I remember one day in late September walking across the back yard in my bare feet--and getting welts that took weeks to go away--it seemed like the fire ants were were everywhere. The back patio is often swarming with ants also. My friend cleaned the patio last weekend and it didn't help and might have even made matters worse.
I resprayed Raid ant killer along the back side of the house today (I like the new unscented version) and also very carefully removed and then sprayed the very bottom of the feet of the table where Augie is fed, wiped the excess spray off, and let it dry before putting the table back.
I tried to get ant proof feeder at a pet store, but ended up ordering a new Fool-A-Bug feeder online. I already have one of those somewhere in Lyndhurst but needed it now.
I'm researching natural ant killing or diverting techniques and will post on that.
**** Update
Augie was taken into the house several nights when it was below 32 degrees and windy. I actually think the house is good down to 0F (they suggest that in the online advertisements, and reviewers have done it safely also) but it makes my friend worry. I created a rule that says he should be taken in either when it goes below 30 degrees, or at or below 32 if it is very windy or rainy. I think this rule is safe even if the cat heater fails. Because the cat house is in front of the sliding glass door, it gets some residual heat from the house, and the cat inside, even if the heater were to fail. To be safe, I have also tested the cat heater with infrared thermometer several times…it works exactly as claimed. I have an alarm on the AC circuit so if the ground fault detector breaks the circuit, or anything else causes the breaker to trip, an alarm will wake me up. I monitor the temperature on Weather Underground before going to bed.
Despite all these precautions, my friend wanted me to take Augie in when it had only gotten down to 35 the first time this fall, but I refused, and Augie was fine. It seems mostly that Augie would prefer to stay in his house, and I have to wait very patiently and beg him to come out of his house. I know better than to pull him out of his house.
Augie has behaved perfectly in the Queen's Room overnight. I put him on the bed and he mostly just stays there. He uses the covered litter box. I also provide him water but not food (I want to feed him only outside, at least if possible). He also has a scratching pole. I never hear any whining or scratching (but thanks to the soundproof doors in my house…I probably wouldn't anyway). All my friend has had to do afterwards is clean the litter box and sweep a bit of litter that has fallen on the floor.
Even though he has behaved perfectly, I try to put Augie back out as soon as possible. Since I sleep late, that was as late sat 12 noon on one day. But I didn't need to worry, the room was fine. Still, it's probably not good to press my luck with a youth cat if I don't have to. It's best if he does not acquire bad behaviors in the first place. I would not be surprised if this winter we have some deep freezes, and Augie may have to stay inside for a whole day or more. But by that time, he'll also be more mature, so there's hope he'll continue being the perfect back yard cat.
In fact, and I think this is largely or at least partly due to my (experienced with cats since being a child) skill with cats, Augie seems like one of the best behaved cats around. He doesn't whine or anything. I feed him strictly on schedule (as soon as I get up) and try not to respond positively to any whining or scratching. If he is whining, I might hold off from feeding him for a few minutes until he stops, if I have time. If you make a point of not responding to whining, they don't keep whining very long. I always do feed him, so he has no need to whine either. Cats don't really need to talk, and might prefer never having to. What's good for them is purring, and Augie does that quickly when picked up or taken inside to the bedroom.
But he does start whining when he senses my friend is around. That's because she does respond positively to whining behavior. "Oh, see, he's lonely, he misses me," she says. She responds positively to cat whining, but unpredictably to human male whining.
In early October I got the new house with heated pad (heated pad not yet used) which has done very well. (The first house my friend bought had collapsed within a week, and kept needing re-assembly daily due to cat fights and cat sitting on top.) The new house now sits on top of a homebrew table made of cinder blocks and a piece of plywood. The homebrew table is essentially impossible to move or tip over, and it also gives Augie a place to sit underneath with some protection from the neighbor cat we call Alexander, who is still much bigger than Augie and has often come back to my backyard to reclaim what he thought was his territory. They do get into fights, but seemingly less as time goes on.
Augie got his vasectomy last week, after the previous week of false starts--she recruited her daughter to take the cat to the vet, and her daughter wasn't entirely reliable for the first week, then finally we got everything pre-arranged with me taking Augie to the vet as a backup plan on the next Monday, and this time my friend's daughter followed through and got it done, so thankfully I didn't have to take Augie to the vet myself after all (in the early morning when I'm usually sleeping).
I had thought my friend was going to do neutering, but apparently she hasn't done that with her last two male cats and she finds that vasectomy seems to stop spraying as well as neutering, or maybe better, since her first two cats were neutered at the correct age but still ended up spraying, while none of her vasectomized cats have sprayed. For 3 days after the surgery he had to be kept inside in the Hall Bathroom. I moved my showering to the unused (and in some disrepair) master bath during that time, and haven't moved back yet. After the 3rd day my friend cleaned the bathroom out, and only after that she decided not to keep him in the bathroom for the remaining 10 days of "reduced activity" usually suggested after cat surgery, not wanting to clean the bathroom again. So we have kept him outside, and he has been relatively passive anyway, sleeping most of the night away, except for a couple of brief fights with Alexander that I broke up.
One of the bigger problems in the back yard recently has been ants, including very nasty fire ants. My friend does not want to use Amdro ant killer, and would rather not use any chemical ant killer (someday we might want to grow organic foods and spices) but does allow me to spray Pyrethrin based Raid Ant Killer alongside the house which has helped. I remember one day in late September walking across the back yard in my bare feet--and getting welts that took weeks to go away--it seemed like the fire ants were were everywhere. The back patio is often swarming with ants also. My friend cleaned the patio last weekend and it didn't help and might have even made matters worse.
I resprayed Raid ant killer along the back side of the house today (I like the new unscented version) and also very carefully removed and then sprayed the very bottom of the feet of the table where Augie is fed, wiped the excess spray off, and let it dry before putting the table back.
I tried to get ant proof feeder at a pet store, but ended up ordering a new Fool-A-Bug feeder online. I already have one of those somewhere in Lyndhurst but needed it now.
I'm researching natural ant killing or diverting techniques and will post on that.
**** Update
Augie was taken into the house several nights when it was below 32 degrees and windy. I actually think the house is good down to 0F (they suggest that in the online advertisements, and reviewers have done it safely also) but it makes my friend worry. I created a rule that says he should be taken in either when it goes below 30 degrees, or at or below 32 if it is very windy or rainy. I think this rule is safe even if the cat heater fails. Because the cat house is in front of the sliding glass door, it gets some residual heat from the house, and the cat inside, even if the heater were to fail. To be safe, I have also tested the cat heater with infrared thermometer several times…it works exactly as claimed. I have an alarm on the AC circuit so if the ground fault detector breaks the circuit, or anything else causes the breaker to trip, an alarm will wake me up. I monitor the temperature on Weather Underground before going to bed.
Despite all these precautions, my friend wanted me to take Augie in when it had only gotten down to 35 the first time this fall, but I refused, and Augie was fine. It seems mostly that Augie would prefer to stay in his house, and I have to wait very patiently and beg him to come out of his house. I know better than to pull him out of his house.
Augie has behaved perfectly in the Queen's Room overnight. I put him on the bed and he mostly just stays there. He uses the covered litter box. I also provide him water but not food (I want to feed him only outside, at least if possible). He also has a scratching pole. I never hear any whining or scratching (but thanks to the soundproof doors in my house…I probably wouldn't anyway). All my friend has had to do afterwards is clean the litter box and sweep a bit of litter that has fallen on the floor.
Even though he has behaved perfectly, I try to put Augie back out as soon as possible. Since I sleep late, that was as late sat 12 noon on one day. But I didn't need to worry, the room was fine. Still, it's probably not good to press my luck with a youth cat if I don't have to. It's best if he does not acquire bad behaviors in the first place. I would not be surprised if this winter we have some deep freezes, and Augie may have to stay inside for a whole day or more. But by that time, he'll also be more mature, so there's hope he'll continue being the perfect back yard cat.
In fact, and I think this is largely or at least partly due to my (experienced with cats since being a child) skill with cats, Augie seems like one of the best behaved cats around. He doesn't whine or anything. I feed him strictly on schedule (as soon as I get up) and try not to respond positively to any whining or scratching. If he is whining, I might hold off from feeding him for a few minutes until he stops, if I have time. If you make a point of not responding to whining, they don't keep whining very long. I always do feed him, so he has no need to whine either. Cats don't really need to talk, and might prefer never having to. What's good for them is purring, and Augie does that quickly when picked up or taken inside to the bedroom.
But he does start whining when he senses my friend is around. That's because she does respond positively to whining behavior. "Oh, see, he's lonely, he misses me," she says. She responds positively to cat whining, but unpredictably to human male whining.
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