Max is safely home at the Cole shitshow, and he has his own room in my office. The spare builtin desk is where his water. food, and crate are, the feliway is plugged in, he has some silverine and catnip, and we’re just gonna not fuck with him for a couple of days and let him do things on his terms.
Suffice it to say, Max was NOT the biggest fan of Thurston right off the bat:
The meeting went like this:
Thurston: “NEW FRIEND”
Max: “DIE.”
Max: “Wait. Actually I meant FUCK OFF AND DIE.”
It will all sort itself out. The key is to just give them the space to come to their own terms and not freak out and fill their heads with whacky human energy.
He hasn’t met Steve yet, because it is nice out and he is outside stalking.
BellyCat
Fantastic! Two weeks and (mostly) all will be forgiven.
trollhattan
When Steve Martin did his cat-juggling routine I didn’t anticipate this version.
Thought balloon above Max: “How long until I’m running the joint?” May or may not remain after meeting Steve.
Best of luck officiating!
Mai Naem mobile
This one pic at a time crap is not working for me. So much for an all service blog. BTW you know who else used to wear a bow tie? A white nationalist on FOX noose who would never ever have a black cat.
Steeplejack
🤞
SiubhanDuinne
He looks baleful. Once he is no longer full of bale, I expect you’ll be back to the usual Cole menagerie.
Congratulations to you and Max.
CaseyL
Yay for making it home all in one piece!
Long road trip to a strange new place, with strange lifeforms all around him – I’d bet Max’s attitude towards everyone in This Fucking Old House right off the bat was “FOAD.”
It’s great that Thurston’s initial reaction was that they should be friends. Or maybe Thurston simply wanted to recruit Max into his clique before Steve had a chance to do so.
I do hope Max gets comfortable and settles in soon. It should be interesting to see who he allies with in order to bully the one he didn’t ally with.
I think Max makes three now, right? You may need a fourth, to even things out :)
JoyceH
@SiubhanDuinne: I’ve had several black cats and honestly? They ALWAYS look baleful.
eclare
It took a few months before my cat Jacy disabused herself of the mantra “DIE” when I brought home my new dog. So be patient. They are still not friends but have achieved detente.
My other cat loves the new dog. Can’t get enough. So you never know.
JoyceH
Off topic – CNN showing Biden et al walking across the Edmond Pettis Bridge and dang, it’s easy to spot the Secret Service!
brantl
Looks like a lot of extra DIE! in that glance.
WaterGirl
Allow me to add this sweet pic of Maxwell Edison into this post to help counter the picture of Maxwell Edison where he is, shall we say, not pleased.
eclare
@WaterGirl: I do not think that photo has the effect that you think it has.
To me that photo says: what the fuck have you done to me with this bow tie along with sleep, motherfucker, try it.
zhena gogolia
He looks fine, just wary. He’ll be great.
SiubhanDuinne
@JoyceH:
I’ve had black cats as well, and yes, am very familiar with bale. The other thing black cats do exceptionally well is Disappear. As I expect you know, and as John soon will.
catclub
@trollhattan:
i saw the Flying Karamazov Brothers juggle cats. The two cats were named Wow and Flutter and seemed extremely relaxed. I suspected marijuana smoke might have been involved.
RobertDSC-iPhone 8
Reminds me of my beloved KC who lived in our office. She was the first cat that owned me and I miss her after all this time.
”Crankypants” was one of my favorite nicknames for her.
Odie Hugh Manatee
That is the picture of a cat who is very unhappy and he wants to make sure that you know it. Patience and lots of love will get everyone though this.
Make that lots of patience. And treats.
wonkie
I think it is actually better that Max start off with that attitude—better than starting off scared. If he was scared of dogs, he’d run and they would chase and they never would get along. Max will set boundaries and Thurston will learn to abide by them.
Ohio Mom
@CaseyL: Thurston has always reminded me of kids with no social skills. Someone with social skills would have read Max’s body language and would have dialed down the enthusiasm to match Max’s. Those kids rarely find ways to fit in.
@JoyceH: Many years ago — after his presidency had ended — Gerald Ford came to Cincinnati for a Big Brothers Big Sisters event (BB/BS was founded here). He must have been the keynote speaker.
Anyway, it was a cold, windy day and all along the skywalk, men in suits with curly wires going from their ears to under their suits were trying to look nonchalant, just hanging, as everyone else hurried by, eager to get out of the weather. Including me.
And then, walking toward my direction strode Ford (surrounded by more SS). Ford was tall, broad shouldered, in a suit that fit perfectly, and contrary to what I would have expected, graceful with that sort of movie star charisma emanating from him.
There is a retired SS officer in my subdivision. He’s very hush-hush about the specifics of his career and surprise, surprise, a Tea Party/MAGA.
pieceofpeace
What a beauty! Never had a black cat, might edge toward having one after comments here. Enjoy learning one another’s charms and hellscapes….
Is there a type of cat that is easier to have and/or train as an indoor companion? Male or female? I could research this, but cat-lovers here, I’m guessing, wax or wane enough for me about their enthusiasms and knowledge. Thanks in advance.
CarolPW
@catclub: Buford would let you put your fingers under his armpits and then in front of his chest and twirl him head over heels around and around. He would let me do any silly thing to him and thought it was all great fun.
He was a little dim but the sweetest of cats. He and Iris (dog) had a game where she would dash by where he was laying on the hardwood floor, grab him by the tail, and haul him across the room (about 50 ft) and let him go so he went sliding another 10 ft or so. Buford would then chase Iris for a bit, run back across the room and lie down again, and they would do it all over again.
J R in WV
Our first cat was a solid black cat, who was very patient with us.
Black cats Rule ~!!~
satby
Glad to see you got home safely. Max looks fine, he’s in a strange new place and with strange new roomies. John’s got this.
Tom Levenson
I look at that top pic, and I hear Max declaring proudly…
“I am Cat! Hear me roar!”
NotMax
@Ohio Mom
Blog really needs to agree on a shorthand other than SS.
;)
satby
@pieceofpeace: All cats are fine as indoor pets, and any you get from a rescue will be spayed or neutered, so no hormones to complicate things. Some people argue for letting cats out, but they’re unsafe from traffic and predators, responsible for killing thousands of songbirds a year, and potentially can pick up parasites from hunting vermin. I’ve taken dozens of outdoor cats off the streets in my lifetime, and after they adjusted NONE pined for the great outdoors.
The dirty secret is the people who let their cats outside do so because they don’t like dealing with litter boxes, and cats will mostly go outside. And I get it, I have 7 litter boxes. But I don’t save them to get them healthy and risk their lives again. Too expensive a hobby.
Jackie
@SiubhanDuinne: And great at tripping humans – especially in dark places AND the dark!
Speaking from experience.
sab
That little guy looks a lot more like an actual panther than he did a cou0le of days ago.
Steve will not like him (if Steve is anything like our Mouf, who looks and acts like a mini Maine Coon.) People are wonderful, dogs are okay, other male cats need to be run off the premises.
Roonieroo
Wow Max is beautiful.
Dan B
Needs MOAR Feliway!!
sab
@satby: Agreed. Only one of my cats would even consider going outside and he doesn’t really pine for it. Especially the ones rescued from outdoor life. They run the other way when outside doors are opened.
Mostly they like to sit at wimdows and watch the bird feeders, and stalk each other around the house.
ruemara
@WaterGirl: Man, I do love that picture. Congrats, Cole & Max! May the household achieve peace. Quickly.
zhena gogolia
@pieceofpeace: Satby is right.
satby
@Dan B: I never knew how helpful that was,until MazeDancer got some as a gift for my gang. I’m a believer!
satby
@sab: @zhena gogolia: thanks! I know it’s an unpopular opinion, and I would modify it only slightly for people who can keep their cat in the yard with them (challenging) and bring the cat in when they come in. Cat supervised the entire time, for their and wildlife protection. Most people don’t do that, they open the door and that’s it. Sooner or later, that cat is gone.
karen marie
@pieceofpeace: I stick to female cats even though in my experience you stand a better chance of having a super friendly cat if it’s male. My current cat breaks that mold – she’s female AND friendly but only with me. She skedaddles if she even thinks someone else is in the vicinity.
When I was in high school (so we’re talking mid 1970s), my heart was broken by a male cat who developed a urinary tract blockage. The vet said he could clear it but couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t recur in short order. My mother gave the “murder” order.
Male cats are prone to such things because of their longer urinary tract. If it becomes chronic, they can now have an operation that significantly shortens it, but that’s a somewhat recent development and not one I can afford. I’m not even supposed to have a cat. After Our Gracie left us at age 16 – much too young! – I swore I was done (due to my age, my ability to make a 20-year commitment is a bit iffy), but in September 2021 a neighbor brought me a four-week-old kitten she’d found on the street.
She matches my dog, so how could I refuse?
zhena gogolia
@satby: Yes, even in the daytime. We used to think it was safe if we got them in before dark. Not. And certainly not safe for the birds. Our last set of three were born outside and appeared on our deck as kittens. They never showed any interest in going outside once they were settled in the house.
eclare
@satby: You have converted me. I used to be an indoor/outdoor kitty person, no more. The problem is the cat that I inherited sneaks out when I come in with groceries, so I am distracted and my hands are full. At least she has outdoor skills. But she will be my last outdoor kitty.
To use the political term, I’ve evolved.
eclare
@karen marie: So cute!
Jay
@satby:
Always had “indoor cats”, allowed out only supervised. Capra just like to lie in the sun, occasionally eat grass. Early on, we discovered that Pablo, the tiny “invisible” cat with the heart condition, liked to jump from our 3rd floor balcony, across a 6 foot gap, to either snag sparrows out of midair and eat them on the neighbors balcony, or make the leap to go over to eat her pansies. Once we knew that, a) I grew him pansies and nasturtiums, b) I put up a plexiglass barrier to foil the jump.
When it was Capra, Mellow and Jelly and us, and acreage, Capra was still the supervised sunbather, Jelly alternated between sun puddles, the sweet grass and exploring, nose booping bumblebees in flowers. With Mellow, you had to make sure the deck was clear, ( he murdered a deermouse once 2 seconds out the door), and watch him like a hawk.
Josie
@satby:
I had been feeding two semi-ferals when I moved to a smaller house some years ago. I couldn’t leave them, so I took them into the new house, planning to keep them in for a couple of months. They quickly got used to a better way of life and ignored any open doors after that. I was surprised how quickly they adjusted.
WaterGirl
@karen marie: So sweet!
Jay
BTW, litterboxes. We converted to pine pellets for the pellet stove decades ago. $5 for a 50lb bag at the hardware store, $10 a bag at the pet store. Smells like pine. You sift it like the clay clumping stuff, except you are trying to get the wet sawdust that the pellets turn into, into a bucket, (compostable) or toilet, (flushable), then pick out the dried poops. The good pellets get returned to the box, (or another container if the box needs a wash), and when done, get returned to the box and topped up.
We got a bit more than a week out of a box on average, (3 cats), if it faintly smells like urine, time to clean, and ususally 3 months out of a bag.
satby
@Jay: same pine pellets sold at Tractor supply for between $5-7 as horse bedding. That’s what I get. And because I seem to be in constant battles with moles, the used litter goes out into the flower beds, because moles try to avoid predators too.
satby
@eclare: 😊💖
satby
@Josie: I don’t think most people realize what a frightening world outside is to small animals. Cruel people, cars, trucks, dogs, other cats, trains, even the occasional predator like coyotes. Cars and cruel, sadistic people are, unfortunately, everywhere.
karen marie
@eclare:
@WaterGirl:
Thanks! Baby is an absolute terror. At 18 months old, she’s resumed using me as a climbing post. It was cute when she was a tiny baby but not so much now. It’s weird because she had stopped doing it for close to a year. She has added a trick to it – she climbs up to my shoulder and furiously bites the hair on the back of my head.
Anybody want her? Hahahaha.
Ann Marie
@zhena gogolia: A friend of mine has rescued many cats from the outdoors and she would agree with you — they never show any inclination to go outside again. They know they have it good inside.
J R in WV
We have lost a couple of small cats to predators in the past 40 years… But mostly our cats are indoors. They will predate on chipmunks or other rodents, but not so much on birbs… Now we’re down to one elderly tortie cat who makes friends with the new big dog, who groom each other. Cat is loud, dogs are persistant begging to get out or get in.
The dogs are from 65-85 pounds, which size keeps them fro being predated. We don’t have mtn. lions here, bob cats, foxes, coyotes, none of which will go for a 65 pound dog prowling with an 80 pound dog…
kindness
New dogs with cats are always tough. I’m hopeful the meeting with Steve goes better
@satby: I’m fine with my cats being indoor/outdoor but I live on the outskirts of town. I was more worried about the coyotes getting them but my cats learned fast.
Jay
@satby:
the urea is also a great fertilizer. Mulched raspberries with it one year, could not keep up with the canes and the fruit. Bags upon bags in the freezer, canes donated far and wide, Digger (Belgian Shepherd) and Bitsy (Soft Ginger) ate belly fulls, (he picked them gently, one at a time, she was a weird cat, loved fruit), and because they were a mix of early bearing and everbearing, the fruit didn’t stop until the frost. I even brought in allies to try to keep up, (Dave, Vikki, James, Martin and The Girls), and it was still not enough.
Jay
@karen marie:
do you have a cat tree?
different-church-lady
As long as Steve accepts him, it doesn’t matter what the dogs think.
different-church-lady
@NotMax: Yeah, SS is a bit ambiguous in a highly unfortunate way.
different-church-lady
Also: I have cause to review my life, and the first thing I want to say is FUCK YOU PANDEMIC.
anitamargarita
I had a semi-feral cat who loved to go out so much that he adapted to a harness and leash. We didn’t go for walks, I would just follow him around the yard while he explored, sunbathed, rubbed on the catnip plant. When I was able to, I built him a small catio off a bedroom window so he could go out when he wanted. He loved my 80 pound lab and loved to tease the border collie.
TriassicSands
@satby:
There is a better alternative to an indoor only cat. That is walking a cat on a leash. That works best if the cat is introduced to the harness and leash at a relatively young age. I got two cats at the same time, a male and a female, both about 5 months old. I immediately introduced them to their harnesses and walked them every day for the next sixteen years. They loved it and they were different — and better, happier cats from what they would have been if they’d been kept inside every day of their lives. They got to experience changes in temperature, rain, snow, and the endless aromas of real life.
It may also work for older cats, because cats are individuals, but I believe a good general rule for cats is that if there is something you want them to do (or be able to do) the younger they start the more likely is success. Don’t think you can just put a harness on every cat, even young ones, hook up a leash, and go for a walk. Some cats may never take to it, but working up to it gradually is more likely to succeed.
I loved walking the cats and they had a great time outdoors. You do have to be careful. Cats are such amazing hunters, that even on a leash it is possible for them to catch and kill a bird or rodent. In the case of birds, it’s mostly their fault — sometimes they will fly out of bushes and pass just overhead of a cat. On the rare occasions when that happened, my one cat — the male — would jump straight up in the air and catch the bird in his mouth. It all happened so fast, that I couldn’t always prevent it from happening. In sixteen years, it only happened twice, and although those birds died (from the impact with fangs), that was nothing compared with the toll if the cat had been allowed to roam free.
With rodents it was a different story. I often walked the male at midnight and in the dark he was able to make a small dent in the local vole population. Again, it happened in a matter of seconds.
It’s also nice, if possible, to plant cat nip. Both of those cats loved to eat the fresh leaves and in winter the dried up leaves and flowers. The cat nip bush was always a stop during a walk.
Note: Don’t bother trying to walk two cats at the same time. Invariably, one will head north and the other south.
soapdish
That is a panther.
That. Is. A. Fucking. Panther.
Peke Daddy
@NotMax:
SecSer.
mvr
@TriassicSands: The neighbor’s cat follows along when they walk the dog. I believe that is the only time the cat goes outside but I might be wrong.
anitamargarita
@TriassicSands: Also important to find the right harness, cats are liquid. I tried several inside before I found one Cabo couldn’t ooze out of. And yes, he managed to snag a couple of shrews.
VOR
We got a young mama cat and the last remaining kitten from her litter. She had been taken to the vet as a pregnant stray and had her litter there. iMHO she had clearly been a pet and not feral. We kept them both indoors but she always tried to sneak out and succeeded a few times, but never for more than 24 hours. She was both fast and quiet. The kitten never had any interest in outside even if you held the door open.
satby
@TriassicSands: Dude, that’s fine for one cat and someone who is convinced cats HAVE to go outside (they don’t) and has tons of time. I’ve had up to 19 rescue cats at once as fosters. At the time I also had a fully enclosed catio with a pet door, so the cats could go outside at will. Only about 6 of them ever used it though it was accessible to all of them.
Rugosa
@WaterGirl:
@WaterGirl:
I don’t know about sweet. The thought “I’ll get you for this” is lurking not too far beneath the surface.
Paul in KY
@karen marie: 16 years for a cat is not bad.
Paul in KY
@Jay: My cats have generally been indoor/outdoor, as I do like them to do the business outside and I think they enjoy being outside (on a nice day).
Paul in KY
@different-church-lady: True dat!