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4022. judithathome - 10/20/2007 8:49:25 PM Fabulous shots!!!! 4023. wabbit - 10/22/2007 4:09:19 PM Wonderful! How well I remember sitting in an Irish bar in NYC with your girls and marjoribanks, and your eldest telling us emphatically that she was "quatre ans". 4024. wonkers2 - 10/27/2007 9:12:55 PM Nice looking daughters, Alistaire!
Wonder what Banks is doing? He's disappeared. 4025. alistairConnor - 12/3/2007 12:33:11 AM The continuing saga of my heating system...
On Wednesday, the new (wood-pellet) boiler was delivered in the middle of the courtyard. On Saturday, the installer turned up with a couple of hefty friends, and we were planning to take it down to the cellar for installation.
But it won't go... the stairway is narrow and it turns. Short of demolishing a wall... but after due reflection, it's easier to open up a doorway to the cellar from the garden.
Just try to get a mason. Before Christmas. Go on, try.
Luckily my tenant used to be a mason... so this morning we knocked a hole in the wall. Very easy to do : stone and clay, with a very thin veneer of lime mortar. The trick is knowing when to stop, before the house comes down around your ears.
So now we've got a hole, and one side of it concreted up again, and some hope of getting it finished by next weekend. So the heating people can do their thing. We ran out of fuel oil for the old boiler last week, and I'm not buying any more -- I've finished with fossil fuels. So we're burning wood to keep warm, in the meantime. 4026. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/3/2007 5:08:58 AM Pictures! I want pictures! 4027. wonkers2 - 12/3/2007 5:17:04 AM Of anything in particular? Alistaire's plumbing. Here are a few of Lake St. Clair and our local Richistan. Lake St. Clair Landmarks (Excuse if I've posted these before.) 4028. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/3/2007 5:53:40 AM Jeeze wonk, you get around! No, I want to see the hole in AC's foundation and what the new furnace looks like. 4029. alistairconnor - 12/4/2007 12:14:21 PM The parable of the kitten
Around the end of summer, my ex-wife mentioned that her cat had had kittens. She intended to keep only one. The kids were with her parents in Normandy. Better suppress the others quickly, I suggested, the girls will be back in a couple of days. I know, she sighed. Nobody likes drowning kittens. (If you do, gentle reader, please don't tell me about it.)
A couple of days later, my girlfriend announces that she wants a cat. I quickly phone the ex : too late! The dirty deed is done. The sole survivor, Petit Tom (= petit homme) has been adopted by the girls.
We reserved a kitten with other friends, but a couple of months later it died before weaning. She was still searching for a replacement when, a few days ago, the girls said that she was welcome to take Petit Tom.
So the girlfriend bustled around buying the requisite accessories, and bore him home in triumph.
And this is where the fun begins.
He craps everywhere. Sometimes in his box, for sure. But he likes variety.
This morning, as we emerged into the half-lit hallway, I felt a squishy sensation underfoot... Don't walk there! I cried, but it was too late... and there we both stood, naked, frozen like statues, one shitty foot raised... luckily no photographers were in attendance.
I wonder, she mused, could I give him back? You could always try, I said.
Same thing with me. 4030. wonkers2 - 12/4/2007 2:15:18 PM Ha! 4031. judithathome - 12/4/2007 5:57:58 PM Someone didn't properly train Petit Tom. 4032. arkymalarky - 12/5/2007 4:29:28 AM We've never had to train a cat to use the litter box, and we always had them before I figured out they were what was keeping me sneezing and itching, which only took about 25 years or so. 4033. arkymalarky - 12/5/2007 6:26:39 AM And btw, if a cat ever shits or pisses in a part of your house he'll do it over and over in that same spot. So it will be interesting to see if y'all can break him of that. Wabbit knows more about that sort of thing than anybody, though, afaik. 4034. alistairconnor - 12/5/2007 12:51:48 PM Well, Petit Tom has plenty of excuses.
He never knew his father, for one thing. And his mother rejected him at an early age (as soon as she worked out that the humans preferred him to her).
We'll have to discuss it with his social worker, but as I pointed out to my girlfriend, you've taken responsibility for him, you can't just turn him out in the street, he's not able to fend for himself. And his previous owner has no obligation to take him back, and is unlikely to be willing to, so we'll just have to make the best of a bad job, and try to cure him of his nasty habits...
... just like me, in short. 4035. judithathome - 12/5/2007 4:34:41 PM By training, I mean at age 8 weeks or a little earlier, grasping their paw with your fingers and outting said paw in the litter box and moving it in a "pawing the dirt" fashion one or two times.
That's all you need to do. Harley is a FERAL cat, for cripes' sake, and she was trained to the litter box instantly in that manner. Has never gone "potty" anywhere else in the house AT ALL. 4036. wabbit - 12/5/2007 4:52:24 PM Arky is right, you'll have to do some heavy duty cleaning wherever he's left you a gift.
I'd suggest a covered litter box, but Petit Tom sounds quite shameless and not the least bit desirous of privacy. Also, never clean up after him while he's watching. Sounds silly, I know, but many cats (and dogs) will quickly figure out that it doesn't matter where they do their business, because you will be along shortly to deal with it.
It could be that PT is just spreading himself around the house, making it his own, and will stop soon, or maybe he's just a dirty little bugger. Quelle suprise he was offered to you if this was happening at the ex's house. Perhaps he was expected to be an indoor/outdoor cat.
I would try confining him to one room (a smallish room, if possible) with his food and water on one side and the litter box on the other. For weeks, if necessary, until he gets the idea. You'll want to do this in a room where his litter box can be from now until the end of time, because if you move it, he may go back to that spot anyway.
I trust you've had him neutered? 4037. arkymalarky - 12/6/2007 12:38:55 AM Maybe the ex trained him? 4038. arkymalarky - 12/6/2007 12:50:42 AM That's all you need to do. Harley is a FERAL cat, for cripes' sake, and she was trained to the litter box instantly in that manner. Has never gone "potty" anywhere else in the house AT ALL.
Right, and they will generally use a litter box naturally without accidents. That he doesn't is a bad sign. We had one that didn't that I almost forgot about, but that's because I didn't live home at the time and it became an outdoor-only cat in short order after they got it because they couldn't get it to go in a litter box.
BTW, others may have done this for cats they want to convert to outside, but my parents have had several outdoor cats who ran in the house every chance they got, and since they fed them all canned catfood, they'd get them out from under the bed by hitting the electric can opener. Funny to watch them come running out of hiding every time. 4039. alistairconnor - 12/7/2007 3:06:57 PM Tom seems to be making remarkable progress. Perhaps he overheard us talking about sending him to boarding school (he's now called Cookie, by the way. I was against the change -- it's confusing enough for him to have to change his family name, but his given name too...)
He is using his litter box, which is in the kitchen (I was against this location, but my opinion counts for less than nothing -- I have been convicted of jealousy by a jury of my peers.) 4040. judithathome - 12/9/2007 3:24:41 PM Just make sure they keep the litter box cleared out...I have a little slotted scoop that I use about 3 or 4 times a day to keep Harley's cleaned out. (Bag the little nuggets in plastic bags...don't ever flush them or the little that adheres to them will stop up your plumbing.) Change the whole litter out once a week. And we used to use a plastic litter box but my friend turned me on to these disposable ones, with litter already in them...you toss the whole thing once a week and they never absorb the odors like plastic has a tendency to do. My hadn't but as soon as he mentioned that, I started imagining it soon would!
Well, after buying 3 of the disposable ones, we discoved Harley hated the litter that came in them...it was "rockier" and I guess disturbed her tender little paws. Plus, the disposers were very shallow so she tossed litter like confetti onto the floor A LOT. So we hit upon a fantastic solution: disposable aluminum turkey roasting pans with her favorite "beach sand consistancy" litter that has baking soda in it! The pans are so durable, deep, and non-odor absorbing that we can go two weeks with one so less waste. She is happy, and we are happy, too. 4041. alistairconnor - 12/9/2007 3:34:12 PM Yes we are adepts of the little slotted scoop... those little nuggets are so beautiful, with the crunchy-looking bits of white litter, that they look like some regional chocolate speciality from Voisin... "Crottes du Périgord", $35 a kilo.
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