[Blindtlk] Cats nd aMulti Pet Households

[Mike Freeman]

Danielle:

May I gently observe that some of your questions have little to do with
blindness and might better be answered on lists specifically catering to
cat-owners and pet-owners. Nevertheless, I'll answer the blindness-related
questions and give a few observations re your other questions.
One of the tacit tenets of NFB philosophy and the discovery method is that
in approaching blindness, it's often easy to look at situations as problems
to be solved by the blind person using imagination and ingenuity. And yes,
asking questions may well be part of the process. But let's consider. You
need to tell your cats apart. I hope your cats have collars and tags. Could
you not put a bell on one collar but not the other? Or if you have perfect
pitch, put bells of different pitch on the different cats?
As for feedings, I suggest establishing separate feeding schedules for each
cat and dog and sticking to them, making clear that good manners are
expected and that misbehavior (including eating another animal's food) will
not be tolerated. Put only one feed bowl out at a time. Feed each cat and
dog in a separate room and do not tolerate transgressions, i.e., having a
dog or other cat try to eat the food of the cat you're dealing with. Have
separate cat trees/scratching boxes for each cat and put these in different
rooms so the cats learn where their territories are.
Personally, I keep my cat indoors and every veterinarian I've heard
recommends this. Around here, allowing cats out-of-doors makes them tempting
morsels for raccoons and/or coyotes.
As for toys, try different ones with each cat and see what it goes for. I
have a pull-toy with a bell on a string; some cats like miniature play-mice
that they can pounce on. My cat, I've come to conclude, never really learned
to hunt so toys don't interest her. Butg she *loves* to sit in windowsills,
looking out on the world and if I open the windows, she gets to survey and
smell the world. She's a happy cat for the most part and has a collar with a
bell which she's worn from the day we got her so she knows nothing
different.
Hope this helps a little.

Mike Freeman


-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Danielle
Ledet via blindtlk
Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2015 5:31 PM
To: blindtlk at nfbnet.org
Cc: Danielle Ledet; nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Blindtlk] Cats nd aMulti Pet Households

My computer is being a bitch right now please excuse. How od you guys
handle multiple cats, as in how to tell them apart? If cats and dogs
in one home, how is feeding handled? I mean so that either doesn't egt
into the other animl's food? My cats were outside os hwat types f
otreats and toysd o your acts enjoy? Lastly, what is the purpose of
catnip and hwo is ti used?

Tia,



-- 
Danielle

Email: singingmywayin at gmail.com

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