Lol! That sounds like fun!!! :biggrin:

My experience... you will only have "problems" if you have orchids with grass-like leave... those are teh only ones my cats like to "eat".. also teh long petals of Phragmipedium wallisii seems to be atractive to them ;)

otherwise, they are all safe: cats and Orchids!

Ah! if you keep humidity trails under your orchids, no matter how dirty teh water is, be sure your cats will prefer drinking that water than the clean one you give them.... :D

The white and orange one looks like my Pumpkin Pie. :( Miss him so much... Here's a picture:

Lol. Good to know. Thank you. ;)

That's so cute! I would have brought him home too! :)

Fostering is a terrific idea, I would if I could, but the organizations here are really touchy about where to place animals. As their pens are filled... they had medium dogs in cat pens, and 4-5 dogs in each doggy pen... And don't get me started on the kitties...

That place is horrible. They have 5 people on shift at a time and the dogs don't get walked, they are sitting in their feces for days... The cats litter boxes look like they haven't been cleaned for weeks... I feel sorry for all the animals there. I visit regularly, and I only see animals going in, and not out...

It was very difficult.
There's a thread about her, and the shelter cat that followed me home from college here: http://www.orchidboard.com/community...t-present.html
(that little trooper cat drove 12 hours with me without batting an eye.)

Keep working on them. Tell your friends to go volunteer. That's one thing that I loved about my shelter back in sufu. They really made themselves known to the general public, and therefore had a great volunteer program. There were still those animals that were overlooked, but thankfully we had a handful of volunteers like me that focused on those guys.

ANother thing that really helped- they had an inmate program. All the cleaning, feeding, and most of the walking, was done by inmates. It was wonderful. They were only those that were convicted of non-violent crimes. But it helped both animal and human alike. And really helped the shelter. Perhaps suggest that?

Cuuuute! The dilutes are rather hard to come by, I'm a sucker for them. I have a smokey black, and Posh is a grey and cream torbie.
x.x I love color genetics.

Did you know that all cats are tabbies? The stripes are only expressed if they have an active Agouti gene. And even if they don't, sometimes you can see faint stripes on solid cats.

And if you have a water fountain.
I broke down and just bought one of those kitty fountains, and now they leave my decorative ones alone.

Very good point, I've noticed that too. My black monster only bothers my spider plant- the grassiest plant in the house.

I saw her eyeing George yesterday and he got sprayed right quick.

Well Pumpkin was a Turkish Van if you know what that breed is... He LOVED water. He actually acted like a tempermental lab. :D

It was "cheaper than therapy", as my Mom would say. Very soothing after a rough week at college.

There was one fat tabby girl in the Feline Friends Room- Muffin, that insisted on laying across my chest and neck whenever I laid down. x.x
The only drawback of that room, is that it has to be free-choice food, in order for everyone to get enough. So...makes for a few rather hefty kitties. :rofl: We made sure to exercise them though!

:shock: I. love. Vans. Great find!
That explains why the orange is (mostly)localized on his head and tail/rump- typical of vans. Was he purebred? If not, might explain the stray spots on his midsection.

He was mixed, 75 (at least) Van. Sweet boy though. Couldn't get him out of the bath!

n'aw.
What do you think of my suggestions for your shelter? I am not familiar with the culture in Kansas, I don't know if they'd be keen on working with inmates or not. But they sure kept that shelter running- and left the staff more time to do what they needed to do.

There isn't a jail near by, but I have noticed that they have tons of volunteers, also they aren't located in the nicest part of Kansas. The people are rude and they have 15 people working there (as of lat week)... So I don't think it's due to a low number of people. They just have poor work ethics. It's sad, and the people don't care about the animals there... it's just a pay check to them. There was one nice lady a year ago, but she quit because she couldn't stand being the only one there that was trying to help the animals. Have you ever heard of a 300 dollar adoption fee??? They charge I think it's 100 for food, 150 for health care, and 20 a day that the animal has been kept there... so they really have no shot at all.

Wow. That's obscene. Both the money and the ethics.
Are these guys affiliated with the Humane Society? You could report them.

Or- suggest a story to some of the news stations there. The ones around here love getting in on things like that that need attention.

Hmm. Well- I've sent an email to my connections back in sufu, to see if they have any ideas. I hope you don't mind me doing that, and quoting some of what you've said here. I've not mentioned your name, and only the state.

Yup. That's fine! It's just that a bunch of people here have been turned down from them, and I think it's rediculous charging people a certain amount per day the animal has been there, it racks up pretty quickly. Also there's a "shelter" here that only takes pure bred animals and the adoption fees are well over 500 per animal!

Purebred "shelters" are more commonly referred to as "rescues"- most specialize in a certain breed. :/

No, there's talk that this certain organization takes the purebred and designer animals off of craigslist just to make a profit. Kansas is really messed up and I can't wait to leave this forsaken place.

there's always petfinder.com, and adoptapet.com ;)
Where I am some shelters may refuse to adopt animals to particular situations - like certain dogs must go to families with out children, or children only over a certain age. Some animals need to be the only cat or dog in the home, etc ... but they don't have across the board restrictions, like no cats to homes with dogs - that's just crazy ...

I've called around to a lot of the shelters here and they don't trust my Mal, even though she and my other are crated during the times no one is home, and my husband's mother lives with us, so she's always home. But I might get a fluffy white kitten that this lady saved from a trailer they were going to destroy, but they have to catch it first. And I've already ordered a cat tree and other must haves. Lol.

The said shelter doesn't specialize in any one breed. It's any pure bred, and a friend of mine went there to see about a dane, but they wanted 700 for it, and it wasn't even a puppy... She also told me that they were completely over ran.

The only shelter I think is good is the Riley Humane Society, but they are one of the ones that have told me that I can't have my dogs to have a cat.

Kitten???
 

One thing you should be aware of in adopting a kitten, ie: 6 weeks to 8 months or so is that kittens are very rambunctious. They are so playful and curious and have to investigate everything. They, of course, have no idea of the fragility of plants, lamps, ornaments etc. Things WILL get broken or damaged, it it just a fact of life with a kitten. And try having two siblings to raise. ;) So...yes, try to train it to leave your plants alone by whatever method you deem most humane and workable. The squirt bottle does work and a good, loud NO at the same time helps, too. Eventually the kitty will mature and with good discipline and training your plants will survive kittenhood.
Beverly A.

Lol. Thank you for that! I'm hoping it wont hurt any of my chids, but my mother in law is home all of the time, so it shouldn't be too big of a problem. :)

I agree with Beverlys advice. Personally, I have always found that 'NO!' (it's all in the Tone of the voice) works wonders!
I have never had to spray my cats when they were kittens to teach them. and they never touch any of my plants. Although they also have access to a lot of grass which they eat everyday (my cats are long haired and they also get 'malt' 2/3 times a week)

Do you have catnip grass? Or is it something else? Should I buy some? If so how much?

I buy the cat grass seed and grow a little pot of it myself, which I circulate with another one that I'll start growing soon after the next one. Cheaper in the long run.

Be aware- a stern NO works, but punishment absolutely does not work with Cats. Some people have problems with using verbal scolding, and find that a squirt bottle works better.
I make more of an "angry noise" like a low, loud growl- or a very loud "ah ah ah!" if I catch them doing something. In the cats that I've fostered/house trained, it's worked better. :twocents: Sometimes supplemented with a squirt bottle, but you don't always have that handy.
If they start pushing their luck with something they know is a no-no, a warning "snarl" is a good reminder for mine.
Call me weird. I've had a lot of experience in this, and done a lot of research, and this is what I've found.
/steps off soapbox

And...much like with orchids- prevention is better than having to "treat". We've had to train ourselves to just not leave food on the counter or loose in the kitchen/house. Stuff like that.

a good "SSSSSSSSSSSSS" seems to work too

:D Hey! I do that too!

LOL! and it works, doesn't it?
Also, the "game show wrong answer buzzer sound" works well - for dogs too

That may be similar to my "ah ah ah" noise. :hmm though it's more akin to a Goffin Cockatoo.....

I come back and everyones making weird virtual sounds! Lol. HAHAHA! :rofl: I think I'll try the "SSSSSS" and the "ah ah ah ah"!!!

:D The cockatoo noise works very well for me.

LOL! Well I'm picking him up in a little while, so I will post pictures up. Don't know what I'm going to name him, but I will figure it out. :D

Kitten?????
 

Mary: Here's a site with suggestions for cat names.

2000 CAT NAMES: Naming your kitten :twocents:

Beverly Al

how exciting! can't wait to see pix, and hear more about him!

Well it looks like he's part Siamese, fluffy and he's cream colored, very light orange on his ears and light orange rings on his tail. He's such a cutie, but he's been sleeping so I haven't been able to try to take pictures.