Journal heliocentric's Journal: On getting a cat. 18

First off, yes I know I've been prolific lately. This will be the last JE for a while. I had several things to write about lately and it just happened this way. Yes, neophenix, I will write about that programming language I created in a dream, don't worry. Just not now.

Luvsbway and I are preparing to go down the road to cat-dom. We welcome our new furry overlord as we prepare for their arrival.

I should give you some background about us, but my goal in writing this is to seek suggestions about our plan.

Luvsbway is pretty easy to sum up - n00b. She's never had a cat and looks kinda funny when one is put into her arms. Sort of a mix of "This thing won't eat me will it?" and "Wow, these things are smaller than they appear on TV."

I, on the other hand, grew up in a house that always had two cats. I have come to know cat psyche so well I am the Steve Irwin of cat-dom. I can wrestle with the meanest cats out there and rarely come away with a scratch. I can look at a cat and tell when it has "bad on the brain" and is looking for trouble. I'm down with cats and thinking about what trouble they look to get into and what they desire (like attention and warmth).

We have a few goals about the cat we would like to get; each has reasons behind it. We seek a used cat. Not a new one. A new cat to me is a kitten. Yes, if you time it right you can get a kitten that is weaned and been liter box trained by their mom, but frankly they are still new to the box and accidents can happen, especially with the trauma of a new environment and the separation from their brood. We figure a not overly old, but not new cat is what we seek to minimize potty issues.

This also affords time for the cat to develop its modus operandi. You never know from a kitten if it will grow to be nervous wreck, an affectionate doll, or a mischievous rat since a kitten is all of those things from minute to minute. If you get past the kitten stage the cat will have found its style.

We desire a darker coat and short hair. This will show the least on our "equipment" (Clothing, furniture, stuffed penguins, etc...). Also short hair requires the least maintenance. I'm fine with taking the thing out back and holding it while luvsbway brushes it in and around spring time (height of the shedding) and the occasional maintenance groom now and then, but not some daily hairball that takes more work than the hair on my head. Proper cat hair maintenance reduces hairball barfing, and we wish to minimize this event.

So, we pretty much know what we're looking for. Brand and model doesn't mean that much. I grew up with a Siamese and we got another one then, they are pretty, but the latest bredings of them have resulted in those ugly head shapes. We'll probably want one with a tail, so the Manx and related series are out. Rex's and other misfit-inbred wonders are out. I'd rather have a mix than a pure bred as the more recent and massive inbreeding of pure breeds means greater likely hood of genetic pairings resulting in bad outcomes. Mixes offer the ability for more varied genes to form a more perfect union.

Deaf cats, blind cats, narcoleptic cats, or three legged cats, while fun at parties are not really great pets. I'm sorry, but I'd like my cat to have all of the standard options. We had a cat that went blind after 5 years with us. She lived another good 10 or so and was quite happy so long as we never ever moved a single piece of furniture or placed our shoes somewhere new.

I'd prefer the front end to be de-clawed and the back end can be whatever. I call this setup "rear wheel drive."

I am currently compiling a list of items to purchase prior to adopting the kitty. On the list as of right now:

A litter box
Cat litter (no need for a liner, cheap trash bags work well)
Some different varieties of canned foods
Some cheap dried food (want to start cheap here in hopes it is a success)
Some tender vittles
A few toys
A bed: a basket (not one of those overpriced things intended for cats) with an old pillow in it with an old towel on it)
Investigate food and water dishes (we may already have viable options, but luvsbway may be more concerned with looks in her kitchen than being as cheap as possible)

It has been suggested that we seek out a vet to use for checkup of the new pet and for regular maintenance (oil changes and new wiper blades). Zartik's wife works for some vet in the area I believe so I'm going to look into that option. Then again if her vet work is anything like his server work this may not be good (dig: zimwiz.com has been down for two months due to his "kernel mod").

The biggest issue we are facing now is introduction, and here I sort of have to get into talking about the new house. I don't want to just toss the thing into the entire house and have it roam free unsupervised. We also need to work out a litter box position that isn't just temporary during the introduction period. And we are limited as to which portions of the house we can effectively shut off. Let me hit tab and give you our basic inventory.

Basement. A single door provides access to this. Half is finished off, the other half is not. A door that happens to already have a cat door installed connects the two parts. The unfinished part appears to be cold area that a cat could get quite lost in. The finished part has all of my computers and lots of trains as well as a fireplace. Read: lots of good places to get into trouble, and I haven't yet worked on cat-proofing them yet.

First floor. Standard living room, kitchen, half bath with not enough room for use other than that (ie, don't suggest putting any cat things in there). There is also a porch that is completely walled in with windows and a ledge that is just screaming for a cat to nap on and look at birds. This will be better when the weather warms up, or during the warm afternoons now.

Second floor. There's two bedrooms and a full bath. The landing at the top of the stairs is quite big and this is where the previous owner kept their litter box. This landing, however, is carpeted, and cats will track some litter out, and unfortunately carpet holds this better. Placing some paper bags around the area can help, but it does not eliminate the problem.

Options/issues already noticed. When company is over for a party (like with kids or just weirdos in general) or when furniture is being delivered we would like to pen the cat somewhere, preferably with ability to go potty. The basement seems like a likely place. However, to always keep the liter box in the basement means we must keep the basement door open and thus lose the heat quite easily from the finished part (or have all the cool air go there in the summer time).

Also, I should mention that the first set of cats we had when I was a kid, my parents actually trained to use the toilet. Yes, a human toilet. No, not to flush, but to sit on the seat and go into the real potty. Now, that was the best in maintenance, and did freak out a few people who would walk into the bathroom and find it already in use, but I don't see that as an option for our cat. My parents took very young kittens (so young they had to feed them milk) and brought them up to do that "trick."