This is a picture of our cat Tiger. She lives with my mom in Tampa, and when I say 'lives with' I am using the term very loosely. You see, Tiger has been an outside cat for her entire life, this means that aside from during the occasional torrential downpour/hurricane she is outside all of the time. We (previously Katie, now mom) feed her in the morning before leaving for school or work and then that is it, the rest of the day she entertains herself - we may not even see her until the next morning. Now some people would argue that she is not a good pet because of this 23 hour and 45 minute absence from our daily routine... but I beg to differ. This week I have been experiencing the opposite end of the spectrum caring for Guinness, Tapper and Jessie while dad and Julie are out of town. Their day begins (without fail) at 5:30 when they start barking to go outside an pee, I can get away with leaving Tapper and Guinness out back in their fenced in area but Jessie can't stay out (because she is too small to stay warm in the cold) so I have to stand there (as my chances of being able to fall quickly back asleep diminish) and make sure she pees AND poops and then bring her back in. If I do manage to get back to sleep it will only last until 7 when the barking begins anew because 7 is breakfast time. Tiger never woke me up. Not once. When Tapper and Guinness are inside they want to be right next to you, licking your hand or trying to get you to pet them. When Jessie is inside you have to keep your eye on her so that she doesn't sneak off and covertly pee on the floor or chew through wires. When Tiger is inside she sleeps. An obvious solution to this problem would be leaving the dogs outside during the day (like we do with Tiger in Tampa - what do we have all this land for anyway?!) but that doesn't work because Tapper has a penchant for running away to terrorize neighbors and their livestock. Not only does Tiger not terrorize people, she comes home with gifts - what am I talking about? Look back at that picture and you will see she is wearing a pink collar, we have no idea where this collar came from - she left one morning wearing a perfectly good one we had given her, and showed up the next day with that one. I also have no recollection of Tiger ever "passing gas", maybe she is just too classy. Tapper on the other hand will sit there NEXT TO YOU and let them rip all night. Give him a break, maybe he has a stomach problem you say? I think the problem is that he eats his own poo. Thats right, I said it, he
eats it. And now Jessie has picked up this lovely habit, Julie was worried it might hurt her little puppy stomach (I think she was worried Jessie might start 'passing gas') so we asked the vet how to discourage this behavior. He said it wasn't hurting her, but since it was grossing us out he suggested using Tabasco sauce to get them to stop. So now I get to follow the dogs around and put Tabasco sauce on their poop. Not only does Tiger not eat her poop, she buries it. I know, I know, Tiger would never have gone on walks with me up here and I know I would not have felt nearly as protected, but I think I am still a cat person. Look closely and you can see Jessie snacking in the background of this first one:
This is a picture of our cat Tiger. She lives with my mom in Tampa, and when I say 'lives with' I am using the term very loosely. You see, Tiger has been an outside cat for her entire life, this means that aside from during the occasional torrential downpour/hurricane she is outside all of the time. We (previously Katie, now mom) feed her in the morning before leaving for school or work and then that is it, the rest of the day she entertains herself - we may not even see her until the next morning. Now some people would argue that she is not a good pet because of this 23 hour and 45 minute absence from our daily routine... but I beg to differ. This week I have been experiencing the opposite end of the spectrum caring for Guinness, Tapper and Jessie while dad and Julie are out of town. Their day begins (without fail) at 5:30 when they start barking to go outside an pee, I can get away with leaving Tapper and Guinness out back in their fenced in area but Jessie can't stay out (because she is too small to stay warm in the cold) so I have to stand there (as my chances of being able to fall quickly back asleep diminish) and make sure she pees AND poops and then bring her back in. If I do manage to get back to sleep it will only last until 7 when the barking begins anew because 7 is breakfast time. Tiger never woke me up. Not once. When Tapper and Guinness are inside they want to be right next to you, licking your hand or trying to get you to pet them. When Jessie is inside you have to keep your eye on her so that she doesn't sneak off and covertly pee on the floor or chew through wires. When Tiger is inside she sleeps. An obvious solution to this problem would be leaving the dogs outside during the day (like we do with Tiger in Tampa - what do we have all this land for anyway?!) but that doesn't work because Tapper has a penchant for running away to terrorize neighbors and their livestock. Not only does Tiger not terrorize people, she comes home with gifts - what am I talking about? Look back at that picture and you will see she is wearing a pink collar, we have no idea where this collar came from - she left one morning wearing a perfectly good one we had given her, and showed up the next day with that one. I also have no recollection of Tiger ever "passing gas", maybe she is just too classy. Tapper on the other hand will sit there NEXT TO YOU and let them rip all night. Give him a break, maybe he has a stomach problem you say? I think the problem is that he eats his own poo. Thats right, I said it, he eats it. And now Jessie has picked up this lovely habit, Julie was worried it might hurt her little puppy stomach (I think she was worried Jessie might start 'passing gas') so we asked the vet how to discourage this behavior. He said it wasn't hurting her, but since it was grossing us out he suggested using Tabasco sauce to get them to stop. So now I get to follow the dogs around and put Tabasco sauce on their poop. Not only does Tiger not eat her poop, she buries it. I know, I know, Tiger would never have gone on walks with me up here and I know I would not have felt nearly as protected, but I think I am still a cat person. Look closely and you can see Jessie snacking in the background of this first one:
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