I saw this latest comic and started feeling paranoid and checking the ceiling for lenses. It’s been a depressing couple of weeks, and…we’re hosting more cats. My son’s house got flooded by a water main break, he’s sleeping on couches at friends’ places, his gear is stored in various places, including our car, and we had to take in his two cats, temporarily.
It does not ease the situation. Our existing cat is a minion of the devil who hates strangers and strange cats, so we’ve had to wall off the two groups in separate rooms. I still come home to find our satanic beast snarling and hissing at a closed door. We are the only two other creatures on the planet she trusts at all, so far, and it’s a little uncomfortable to be the patrons of the bestial anti-christ.
So don’t do it, PeeJee! Not unless, of course, we can figure out how to translate real creatures into a two-dimensional cartoon world, and you really want a cat that will attack all your patrons on sight.
So I read that comic and have no idea what a “bar pet” is. I’ve tried Googling that term and it didn’t help.
We tried a second cat a few months ago. It did NOT go well, but the worst part was just the stress of which cat was in which room and which one was sleeping where and CLOSE THE DOOR BEFORE THE CAT GETS OUT and can they eat in the same room yet? NO and aaarrrggghhh
Really? You’ve never heard of a bookstore cat, or a bar pet?
Some businesses will have a customer-friendly pet on hand. It makes the place a little more homey.
I know where you can get yet another cat, if that helps.
My own cat is disappointingly gregarious. He even likes staying with the neighbours when I am away.
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I finally got to see “Johnny Dies At The End” uninterrupted, and I liked the invisible spidery thing from another dimension that made its home in Johnny’s house. For some reason Johnny did not like it. I suppose some are just not “pet” people.
PZ Myers @3
AAAAHHHHhhhh. I don’t read that comic so the context was lost on me. I had no idea they owned a bar.
Bar pet? What an alien concept. Well, so are bars as far as I am concerned but still.
The patrons with allergies must love it though.
I was staying with a friend recently in Chicago who has a cat, Pickles, whom he rescued as a kitten after he (the cat) was found crawling around on the ground after a rock concert. (The story sounds familiar, for some reason.)
Anyway, the cat’s kind of a jerk, and kept scratching my buddy, so I had to pick him up and cart him around a little bit and show him who was the cat and who the human.
He also had a thing of standing outside the bedroom door in the middle of the night and meowing piteously until I let him in to have the run of the place, after which he would promptly leave again. After he’d inspected the closet and the boxes therein.
I eventually just started leaving the bedroom door open so I could get some sleep.
If Milholland spies on anyone with secret cameras it’s probably Jeph Jacques.
The cats finally called a truce when we got a dog. Not that I’m giving you any ideas, PZ.
Here in Australia, any bar with a pet would be at risk of losing its liquor license, unless that pet was kept in the back of house offices or similar. Cool as a bar dog or cat may be, the law takes a dim view of mixing them with food / drink serving areas. The only businesses-with-pets I’ve seen here have been veterinary clinics.
Our little family of fur-babies are quite social. When my daughter brought me a tiny kitten last May, my older cat (13 yrs old) tolerated her, but mostly ignored her. My husband’s cat (12 yrs old) promptly adopted her. My German Shepherd was disappointed when the kitten was terrified of him.
Now, 10 months later, the old cat still tolerates but ignores her, the husband’s cat still loves her and often curls up to sleep with her and my dog and my kitten are the best of friends. I often find them sharing his dog bed, and he happily grooms her.
My daughters have brought their dogs in to visit, and they are happily accepted into the “pack”.
Are our animals just different from most?
Re: cat détente: try scent-sharing, also known as scent-mixing. Take a sock and rub it on every cat’s cheeks daily to mix their scents. Start with the dominant cat, then when it comes back, that cat will smell its own scent along with the others. Reduces agression markedly.
My technique for getting cats to tolerate each other: boiled chicken.
New Cat arrived from the shelter. He went in a dog crate (i.e. big cage) with his own litter box, water, food, and piece of carpeted cat furniture. Existing Cat got upset (predictably), New Cat was scared.
Solution: put Existing Cat in the bathroom with a litterbox (just in case). Go to the kitchen and boil a chicken breast. For a long time. After a while, both cats are meowing for chicken. Take the chicken out of the water and dice it. Put a little in each of two bowls, and the leftovers in the fridge. Let Existing Cat out of the bathroom. Take bowls (immediately followed by Existing Cat) to room with New Cat. Put one bowl at the edge of the crate. Put the other bowl on top of the crate. Cats can’t have their treat unless they put up with each other. Repeat with the leftovers (or with extra chicken breast) a few times, no more than twice a day, for a few days. New Cat comes out, Existing Cat is happy to see him — Existing Cat now believes that the appearance of New Cat leads to chicken.
My homicidal snuggle-beast does not get along with other cats at all.
“Homicidal snuggle-beast”
I want that on my tombstone.