Do you treat cats like you do Newfs?

[AmyPC]

Hmmmm, you know, I was thinking about cats. We've had lots of cats and not so many dogs.

Since coming on Newf Net I've found there are lots of people who are really, really into their Newfs and really research breeders, and consider the best food, and are against indicriminate breeding, etc.

Just wondering if you guys are the same with cats? Because me (and my family) are not at ALL!!! The cats we've had have always been mixed breeds - tabby type of things. We've gotten them from pet shops (god forbid! One only thank god!), as strays, from shelters, etc. We've never given the first thought to cat breeders, although I'm sure they're out there!

The cats have usually eaten tinned food or supermarket dry food.

Rory has pet insurance but the cat doesn't.

Do you think there are 'cat people' who treat cats the same way we treat Newfs?

Just thinkin' out loud really!

* edited to add - actually, I forgot that once we did go to a 'cat breeder'. She'd advertised in the paper. We were after a persian or similar. Went to her place and found the most BEAUTIFUL kittens. Handed over the money and took home one. We asked her if he was a persian and she said 'yep, pretty much!'. Looking back now I guess he was a mix maybe? We didn't even keep her name or anything. So different to how we'd be if we were buying a dog! (He was a GREAT cat by the way!)

[ 01-28-2004, 08:04 AM: Message edited by: AmyPC ]

 

[tsunami]

Good question ---

We always have had cats, some from breeders and some from rescue, and are just as picky about adding them to the family. Maybe not by pedigree but at least by personality.

 

[M_Meidinger]

I must admit that Deacon has pet insurance; the cats do not. They were not from a breeder, as Deacon was. We actually mix the two cats' food. One picks out the good stuff; the other picks out the cheap stuff. They are both as healthy as can be!

But, on the other hand, the cats get to sleep with us! That is one thing I don't allow-Deacon in our bedroom. That's the cats' domain!

About the only thing that is the same is all the love they get from us!

Mary

 

[AngusMcDubhsMom]

Have to admit I don't. They've either been strays or mixed breeds from friend's litters. No they don't have insurance, but then I never had a cat that got into as much trouble as the dogs. Still, our kitty sleeps with me and the dogs don't and the bedroom is her domain. She's affectionate, but independent, so it's a different relationship. A purebred animal of any species was never my "thing." It's just with Newfs there are so many things to consider if it is not purebred and I wanted a "real Newf" with the temperment and other qualities they are known for and did not want to take the chance with the health problems. They are a special breed. Like Rhoda Lerman says in her book, "In the Company of Newfies"; it's as if they try to be human, they try so hard to connect with us and I love mine devotedly.

 

[Sailorgirl]

Well ... I certainly didn't do any research of cat breeds before we got Desdemona. I think it's because what I love most about newfs is their temperment and I think temperment in cats is more of a personality issue than a breeding issue. Desi is my first cat and she's from the humane society. If I were ever to get another cat it would also be a rescue, mostly because I don't relish dealing with a kitten and because there are SO many cats out there that need homes.

So, in that respect, it's been different. However ... she pretty much gets to do whatever she wants. She gets bits of chicken if that's what we're having for dinner, she sleeps with us, she gets to climb on any furniture that she likes, and she gets us to play with the laser pointer with her anytime she wants ... in all those respects she's treated MUCH differently from the dog. HOWEVER ... she weighs 8.5 pounds ... if she's doing something wrong, we just pick her up and move her ... not so easy with the fast-growing Hudson.

 

[brady]

We don't have a cat right now, but I always did growing up. They always came from a friends cat who had a litter. Each one had such a different personality. I would love to have a cat but my husband gets hives just thinking of them. I would love to have a Maine Coon Cat. Brady and Timmy would run and hide.

 

[Taylor's mom]

We have four cats and a Newf. Our old cat -- 16 years old we took A LOT of time in finding him. He's a persian. The other 3 were rescued they are 8, 7 and 4 years old. They are treated as special as our Newf. Special food and a lot of care.

I don't really care if they have a pedigree or not or if they cost a lot of money...in our house they are all treated the same. SPOILED ROTTEN!!!

 

[jholz99]

Funny you bring this up. Last year at this time, my wife decieded she wanted a cat and decieded to look a pure breds. At the time, we didn't realize cat breeds come with very distinct personality types like dogs. We did some research, narrowed our breed choices, and went to a cat show 2 1/2 hours away. What an experiance. I had never been around cat people before and now found myself in a room with 300 of them. To make a long story short, we made our final decision on a breed (Maine Coon) and interviewed several breeders (briefly) at the show. We left the show, talked about the breeders for a few days then called our first choice and made arrangments for a visit in 2 wks.(about 6 hrs. away). Before all was said and done we put down a deposit on not 1, but 2 kittens (kitten availibility is much greater than that of Newfs). We had to wait until the kittens were twelve weeks old before we could pick them up.

During the interview process, I used a lot of what I had learned here to pick a good breeder. The parents of our kittern are OFA certified against hip displasia, and I have found the breeder to be available when I have had vet concerns. We signed contracts that read much like that of a dog breeder.

I feed them wysong, wellness, and other high quality foods rotating brands as I will with my Newf if I decied to feed him kibble. My cats do not have pet insurance, but I feel they are at less risk for expensive vet care (they are strictly indoors) than that of a Newf.

I guess they are treated much like my newf will be minus the training that will go into the newf. But one big difference is, I can tolerate the cats being up on the table or the counter. I hope that NEVER happens with a Newf .

Jason

 

[amyk]

This is sort of a long story... lol... I have 4 cats, actually only 2 are officially mine, but since my roomate and I got them at the same time I feel like they're all both of ours. And yes I do spoil my cats as much as my new puppy. Three of them are littermates from a litter of stray kittens that were born across the street from my roomate's Mom's house, the people who's yard it is were the "owner" of the mother, but never fed her and never did anything for her except to call her theirs. My roomate's mom was always feeding the cat and giving the cat deworming medication. Once the kittens were born, her second litter even though she was only about 18 months old, my roomates mom, my roomate and I all agreed to take the kittens. Well the owner of the mom wanted to keep one, so we felt we couldn't really stop them. So we each took one of the litter of 4. And they kept one. About 8 weeks after our kittens came home, the neighbors kitten was getting too big to be what the neighbors wanted, and they stopped feeding him and my roomate's mom was feeding him on her porch. Finally one day when Ana, my roomate, and I were there we just took him. He hadn't had any shots yet and was just completely bloated from worms, so we took him and never told the people. These people were horrible with animals, they had kennels in their yard and were "breeders" of Chocolate Labs. The dogs were in horrific condition with welts all over them, finally my roomate's mom found out that they would shoot the dogs with bb guns if they barked and she called the humane society who came and took their dogs away. My roomate's mom ultimately had the mother of our kittens fixed, herself and kept her in her house while she recuperated, and the neighbors didn't even realize she was missing! The people are now in the process of moving and have no intentions of bringing the cat with them, so my roomate's mom is keeping her.

The kitten we took at 16 weeks, Sammy, was horrible in the beginning, he had never been socialized and we called all over finding out about feral cats and what to do about them, he couldn't figure out how to get along with the other cats even though he was their brother they didn't remember him then. It was a rough few months, it probably took 3 to 4 months before we trusted him to be alone with the other cats. Now he still tends to pick the fights the most, but toward us he is the biggest cuddler and the most "talkative" of all the cats. I'll attach a picture of my Sam, I'll see if I have any pics of them on my website...

Here's some old ones from Christmas 2002,

My fourth cat is a Ragdoll from a breeder, he has papers and an official name, Villaroyal's Andrew Llynx Weber, "Andy" he's a blue lynx mitted ragdoll. The breeder came highly recommended and I did most of the same research that I did with getting Eloise and I drove 9 hours each way to pick him up, just like Eloise.

Here's Andrew...

But all my cats eat California Natural or Innova catfood and my mom always laughs at my house that is just filled with cat furniture. The strays are treated no differently then my ragdoll or my newfie. They are all my babies, the cats and the dog. And my cats are very personable I guess because I expect them to be. They still are not too sure of Eloise, but they're coming around.

Here they all are at Petsmart last year...

I have to get Eloise over there for her professional portraits soon! lol

Anyway, I'm done gushing about all my furbabies!

 

[Taylor's mom]

I love the pictures! I applaud everyone that takes pride in ALL their animals.

 

[Sailorgirl]

OK ... it's obvious I know nothing about cats ... I guess since I'm a recently reformed cat person (well, maybe ... frankly I never really thought too much of cats, sorry) I shouldn't have assumed all breeds are the same but the personalities are different. I guess what I do know is that I love my little kitty and would do anything to keep her healthy and happy and that's enough for me.

 

[BoundlessNewfs]

We have always had mixed breed cats...or maybe they were pure, but who knows with strays? Most we either got from shelters, or from pregnant strays that my mom-in-law took in. Caesar was one of 5 kittens from such a stray. We really lucked out with him. He's such a great big spoiled rotten baby. BUT...I wish we'd had pet insurance for him. When he was 6, he had congestive heart failure, and we almost lost him. Three days in the emergency hospital, and then testing for the next couple of years, and medications have cost nearly $2500. He's fine now, but gee! The other two we have now (Tasha and Antigone) were both adopted from a no-kill shelter where I volunteered for a while.

We once raised a kitten that didn't even have it's eyes opened yet. Someone had tossed it out of a car while driving down our road. She was a pretty little tortoiseshell colored cat, and was our younger son's best buddy. By the time she was a year old, he would drape her across his shoulders, and go whizzing down the driveway on his bike...taking her for rides. She loved it!

Anyhow...to answer your question: We've never really given much thought to purebred cats. It seems that there are sooooo many in need of homes, and if that "certain personality" is there, then it comes home with us

 

[Annie Milliron]

I grew up with both dogs and cats, and while I prefer dogs, I really love cats, and would love to have one... however, Russell is allergic, so that's not an option.

We had a variety of cats growing up. We had 2 siamese cats (one blue point and one lilac point) that we got from a breeder. And, siamese being siamese, they were both a little.... whacky. My sister decided at one time that she wanted a Himilayan, and managed to convince my parents. She had a job, and paid for it with her own money, including the vet bills. The cat's name was Charmin (as in "squeezably soft" ). Charmin was a great cat, very sweet, but incredibly vein.

All of our other cats came from shelters or were strays. And in my opinion, they were the best. I had one named Buffy, who was 100% devoted to me... and she lived for 12 years and gave me much joy. My other cat, who was my absoltely favorite was Maxwell... he looked exactly like a Maine Coon Cat, and was awesome.... sadly, he was determined not to be an indoor cat, and managed to slip out the door one night, and got hit and killed by a car. That was my last cat.

I think that I wasn't as nuts about my cats as I am about my newfs. However, they got the same care, and were fed quality food.

I do think that Maine Coon Cats are the Newfs of the cat world....

 

[amyk]

I had always had mixed breeds before getting my ragdoll and a friend of mine got a ragdoll cat and I just fell in love. Ragdolls have very distinctive personalities to them, they are very laid back, afraid of just about nothing (I used to think nothing until Eloise came home) and they flop when you pick them up, hence the name ragdoll. They have their different personalities like any cats, but they are actually quite newflike as well, although I will just have to guess that a newf flops when you pick them up! lol Unless I purchase a crane in the near future! hahahahaa!!

 

[Annie Milliron]

I forgot to ask how you managed to get all 4 cats to sit still for that picture. It's amazing!!!!

 

[amyk]

I know it really was so cool!, I actually have a few different ones like that, I got them done at petsmart and the lady who was taking the pictures was just amazingly quick! For the most part Andrew wanted to explore the photography room the whole time, Jack just wanted to sleep and kept falling asleep, Sammy was just whining as usual, so my roomate just carried him around until we were ready to take the picture and Beatrice is always angelic, truely, she's a wonderful cat. They all are, but she rarely does anything wrong.

Here's some more from that session...

This was when Jack was really falling asleep, it was toward the end and I guess the balls of yarn were just too comfortable. We had to wake him up to take the pictures...

 

[Zatara and Merrick's Mom]

I love those cat pictures!

I have had five cats over the years. All were/are ordinary house cats. One was from a pet store, two from newspaper ads, one from Pet Refuge, and one was a stray. Obviously, I didn't do too much research. I want to have a Ragdoll someday, but the house is too full. My rule was never to have more than 2 cats at the same time, but the stray kitty found us and I caved and now there are three.

Although I love all my furry kids, I am much more attached to my dogs because they are so devoted to the humans in the house. The cats are much more aloof.

I know I shouldn't play favorites with my kitties, but the stray (named Purrcival) is my favorite -- he is the most affectionate kitty I have ever had.

 

[AmyPC]

It's great to hear about everyone's kitties! You know, I didn't even know cats could BE screened for displaysia!!! Jason your breeder sounds fantastic!

I'm planning on getting a cat when I get back from my holiday but will go to a shelter to get one. An adult. I don't mind if the cat is like, 7 years old - just as long as we are compatible. I just don't really want to do the kitten thing again, as lovable as they are.

After hearing about the Maine Coons though I am tempted!

(PS - Amyk - great shots of your kitties!!! I love those photos and they are all so cute!)

 

[Leslie]

We have 2 incredibly spoiled cats. The first is 12 years old, 10 lbs., solid white, allergic to everything that my husband rescued from a life of eating cheerios and spagettios. The second is now 3. She was about 3 days old when we got her. My cousins lab was playing with something in that back yard and throwing it up in the air. We went out to see what it was and, taa daa, it was Skyy. She's a freak but it's probably because we raised her. She's a runty little tuxedo, about 6 pounds right after eating, very sweet. They both eat raw (same as the dog), have their own bedroom, and half of the PetSmart Cat department. We love all our fuzzy creatures. The kitties are my snuggle buddies and the puppy is my play bud.