I just bought a new baby/pet gate. I was browsing at Big Lots, and saw this metal one. Even though I did not have success trying to set up plastic gates before, I thought I would give this style a try. I did it! As I was setting it up, Tara was in the living room with me, and Anastasia was looking out of the window in the bedroom. After the gate was all set up, Anastasia came toward the gate, pawed the gate, I guess she was trying to shake it open. When that didn�t work, she started trying to put her head through the bars. Again, that didn�t work either.
Yesterday morning when I was cleaning her ears, I went to the bathroom to wash my hands before cleaning her other ear (to make sure I don't transfer any bacteria from her one ear to the other), and when I came out, I couldn't find her. I looked all over and it turned out she squeezed herself right next to Tara, who was sleeping under a chair.
This morning the TV was playing the Tidy Cat commercial, the one with the female Siamese wanting to invite "boys" to the house. Anastasia stared at the TV and watched all the cats on TV.
Monday, March 19, 2007
After driving three days cross country, Virginia and Oscar finally arrived at Auburn tonight. Oscar was tired and stressed and hissed and howled every time any one of us got near her. For now we have the baby gate set up to keep Anastasia and Tara out of the bedroom, so Oscar would recuperate in there. One time Tara went in there to be with Virginia, and she walked straight toward Oscar, not knowing the cat was right in front of her. Oscar got scared (couldn�t figure out why the big dog plodded right toward her) and her eyes got really big, I don�t think she realized the dog�s blind. At first Virginia didn�t think Oscar would be able to jump across the baby gate either, but within a couple hours, we found Oscar on the other side of the gate, even though neither of us had let her out. Then as Virginia was going to the bedroom, Oscar ran in front of her and jumped right across the gate, with complete ease. Anastasia�s behaving really well towards Oscar and did not chase her at all, just sit in front of the baby gate sometimes. None of them paid any attention to the fishes.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Oscar continues to be grouchy. Virginia took several professional-looking pictures of the animals with her high-quality camera.
Tonight Virginia showed me how to give Oscar her supplements and to brush her teeth. I tried but it�s so hard! Oscar struggles so much. I�ll have to practice more.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Several months ago I was a little disappointed when I learned I couldn't do a lot of training with Tara because of her age and health condition, but now with Oscar, who is smart and food motivated (Anastasia is not food motivated at all because she�s free-fed because of her health condition, that's why she only learned sit, down, and stay even though I've had her for three years), I'm very excited to have joined the cat clicker training list and have started clicker training (with actual clicker given to me by Keely's parents) with Oscar! Last night I did the first lesson, and Oscar associated the click with treats in just seven clicks!
Friday, March 23, 2007
Anastasia had been really good about leaving Oscar alone, until yesterday afternoon. She started following Oscar around. Virginia said when Anastasia stayed with her in October, the first three days, Anastasia was also really nice, but after that she started acting like a bully towards Oscar. And last night, I was awaken three times because of loud hissing and howling. The first time I went to pick up Oscar to sleep with me but she ran off, then I picked up Anastasia but she ran off too. The later two times when I heard hissing and growling, I was too sleepy to get up, so I just clapped my hands and yelled at them to stop, luckily they did.
This morning, I again kept the cats separated (hallway door closed) for two hours when giving breakfast. Oscar quickly ate hers (with ping-pong ball in the bowl to help slow down so she wouldn�t throw up), but Anastasia only ate a couple kibbles I think. So I decided to keep them separated for the day (so Oscar wouldn't eat Anastasia's food, which I think she did last night and did not finish her own food), and I'll re-open the hallway door when I get home.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
I saw Oscar and Anastasia drink out of each other's water bowls. I also think Anastasia�s using Oscar's litter box, Virginia said both things happened at her apartment in October also. I don�t like it when Anastasia�s bullying Oscar around, but it�s interesting to watch. Anastasia would follow Oscar around, and they would stare at each other. Oscar would get tired or too scared and she would slap Anastasia, but Anastasia would never hit Oscar, but just sat down within inches from Oscar and would not move, this also annoys Oscar very much. Oscar is still scared of Tara and hisses and howls when Tara gets close to her.
I�ve started target training with Oscar yesterday. We did a 2-minute session last night and another short session this morning. The cat clicker list said with cats, there is no need to buy a real target stick, but just to use a chopstick. I don�t have any new chopsticks, all are well-used, so decided to use a stiff drinking straw for Oscar instead. She was curious with the stick and sniffed, and I immediately clicked. In just two short sessions, I think she�s getting the idea of sniff-stick=click=treat already!
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Oscar refused to eat tuna flakes as treats for clicker training this morning. I had no choice but to bring out defrosted �frozen� Bil-Jac (I forgot to buy baby food from the store yesterday). Oscar loves Bil-Jac, she has loved it since her days at the pet orphanage and we used to give it to the dogs as treats and we would give her some too because she seemed so interested in it. Definitely it's making her do clicker training. I think she's got the idea that sniff-tip = click = treats, but I want to keep at it for a couple more days, especially at different locations to make sure she doesn't think it's location specific, before adding the verbal cue.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Last night when Tara and I got home from the dog park, I saw Oscar running out of the bedroom, with Anastasia running right behind her! Poor Oscar. And I heard one more howling/hissing from Oscar in the middle of the night, finally I had enough, and put Anastasia in the bedroom with baby gate closed for the night. By the way, last night they both got canned food. I gave it to Oscar because I forgot to give her crab apple in the morning, and she's already licking her right elbow bare; it�s just easier to give it to her in wet food. O is getting better and better with targeting. I think she's already got the idea, but right now she's more reluctant to do it when she doesn't see the treats (if I hide the treats in my back). Also, Oscar is still a little scared of Tara, whenever Tara is near her and walking around (smelling Bil-Jac), then Oscar gets nervous and would keep looking at Tara and would not focus on me or the treats at all. This morning, around 5 AM, Oscar threw up a big hairball, even though I gave her two stripes of hairball malt last night. Teeth brushing is not going well, all I can do is to put the brush in her mouth before she struggles and gets away, so I can�t even do any brushing. I'm giving up on the brushing and will just take her to the vet for teeth cleaning. When I fed her fiber pill with water this morning, still about half of the water spilled out, she just would not swallow and lie still like Anastasia! Both Oscar and Anastasia are still using O's big litter box.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Anastasia continues to follow Oscar around. I just borrowed a new natural health care for cats and dogs book from the vet school library, and I might end up giving Bach flower remedy to Anastasia too. I finally tried hydrogen peroxide on Tara yesterday to see if it would help reduce bad breath, and it did! So I am trying it on Anastasia today. Last night I closed the baby gate, so Oscar can escape into the bedroom if she wants to. During the middle of the night, I sensed a cat was walking around near me, I thought it was Anastasia who was trying to get into my blanket, but no, the fur was black and it was Oscar! At first I couldn't believe she voluntarily walked near me, and then she proceeded to walk onto my chest and slept there for five minutes. Not really sure why she did that, probably looking for food. This morning as Oscar was on the cat tree and Tara was walking past it, Oscar hissed and swatted her paw on Tara's back. Tara did not care. I saw a cat training video online this morning, and the trainer used baby food to train her new kitten. I think I'll try baby food with Oscar also. I am still keeping the hallway door closed when I am at school, so that Oscar won't eat Anastasia's food. Before I left for school this morning, Oscar was sleeping by the bedroom window. I lied next to her and stroked her ears, and she did not hiss or howl at me! I was so touched. Tara was still not liking the doggles, and last night she licked some cheese on the tray as I was in the kitchen getting water. So I decided to give her the cheese, but have her work for it, i.e. wearing doggles while eating cheese. I think she's getting more tolerant of the doggles already.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
I still saw Anastasia chasing Oscar last night a couple times, but thank goodness no hissing in the middle of the night. Also as I'm readying through the horse clicker training book to review on clicker training (while still waiting for the cat clicker training book to arrive from the library; besides, one of the trainers from the cat clicker list said training cats are more like training horses than like dogs), it reminded me to not go too fast, to set up for success, so the animal won't get discouraged. There was a lack of improvement with Oscar's targeting in the past day or so, and I think it was because I was pushing too far (wanting her to walk half way across the room to target), so now I'm back at having her target about 1 foot away, and it seems like she's back at targeting more reliably. And also I've found that Oscar has much sharper hearing than Anastasia and Tara, so she's more distracted by the loud click sound (I'm using the regular clicker), so now I hide the clicker and treats in left hand behind my back, and then show her the stick with my right hand. Also I put a colored tape onto one of the tips of the stick, to make the tip look more distinct. More about Oscar getting distracted by sounds, I remembered that when training dogs, it says to put the other dogs in the other room to decrease distraction. Well, I finally decided to do that with Oscar, put Anastasia in the bedroom, and then Tara into the hallway. However, Tara kept bumping into the closed hallway door, Oscar was distracted with the banging sound and would not focus on me, so that did not work either. I'm going to add the verbal cue tonight. Oscar's still working for Bil-Jac, I'll go get meat flavored baby food for her when I go grocery shopping this weekend. Also feeding her water with crab apple seems to be going better, I still can't do it with her sitting up, and she's getting more used to having me feed her with her lying on her back (just like I do with Anastasia). Last night I put the crab apple remedy and fatty acid supplement in canned food but Oscar would not eat it. I guess it�s too much wet food for her in one day. So I ended up giving the wet food to Anastasia (the natural health care book says crab apple remedy is good for bad breath as detox anyways). I still close the baby gate and put Anastasia or Oscar in there when I see Anastasia chasing Oscar. And actually last night when I was watching TV and put Anastasia in the bedroom with gate closed, I saw Oscar got in the bedroom too, not sure why she decided to go in there, even after I put Anastasia in there to stop her from chasing. I still plug in Feliway about 12 hours a day, and continue to feed Oscar hairball malt once a day. I do think she has stopped overgrooming. Hopefully the bare spots will grow back soon. Since yesterday, I think Oscar has gotten better with me, not hissing when I pet her, and I told her if she stays nice with me, than I'll continue to take care of her as best as I can, and I do love her as much as I love Anastasia and Tara, Oscar's our family's first cat, so what can I say. I decided to take Tara to the dog park yesterday afternoon, and I called Virginia to ask her which of the cats I should take to the park with us, and Virginia said to take Oscar, so we did. Oscar was in the backpack on my back so I didn't see her on the walk, but some people saw her, so she probably sat up at least during some of the walk. I do feel she appears to be calmer after the walk, and luckily Anastasia didn't get jealous from the special outing. I promised Anastasia I will take her next time.