Hello everyone!
We're huge animal lovers, but we never thought we'd be cat owners. Time was of the essence - we're both busy working.
At work, a woman approached me and said her cat had given birth to a kitten, and she'd given it to someone else, but it hadn't settled in well. She asked me to take it, and if I refused, she'd just drown it. The thought of a little kitten being put to death was too much for me, so I rushed home to convince my husband. He agreed.
And two days later, I brought home a tiny ball of fluff. We named him Kuzia. Now he's 3.5 years old.
From what I gathered, Kuzia wasn't treated very well in his previous home, and he came to us as a tiny, traumatized kitten. He was scared of everything, even though he wasn't feral at all.These are some photos of little Kuzia
Over time, he settled in and now he's the most loving cat I've ever seen.
Potty training
As it turns out, he was already litter-trained by his first owner, but he'd forgotten it due to stress, or whatever you want to call it.
I have a little hack to share with you
I've had my fair share of experiences with cats not using the litter box, but somehow they always seem to go to the same spot. So, we place the litter box there and gradually move it to the desired location over time. I've trained many cats, from feral to domestic, and they all learned to use the litter box eventually.
But it's possible that cats are born with this instinct, as I've noticed that kittens I've adopted from the streets would immediately use the litter box without any hesitation, even though they'd never seen one before. They were wild and scared of me, but they'd still use the litter box.
🐱 Vet Visits
Hands down, this is my least favorite part. My cat and I can ride in the car without a carrier, and he loves looking out the window. It's a 5-7 minute drive to the vet's office.
In the early years, I'd visit the vet for every little concern. We went about every 3 months or so.
He'd tolerate the carrier without any issues, which was a relief.
Looking back, I realize I was just being overly cautious, but we didn't have any major problems. He's had IVs for 10 days straight and even learned to get injections from me. We've also had ultrasounds, which, I have to admit, weren't exactly pleasant for him.
🐱 What Kuzia EatsI'm sure I'll get roasted for this, but...
I'll be honest, we didn't initially plan on feeding our cat a commercial food, but our little guy, Kuzia, was eating a lot. We'd buy a pack of stomachs and it would last him for two days. I tried making him some homemade liquid food, but that was a real pain, and I knew he needed some fiber, so just feeding him carrots wasn't cutting it.
Slowly but surely, we started introducing a commercial food into his diet, which was initially just at night, but now it's always in his bowl. We love the variety of food, but we don't overdo it.
My top tip for getting your cat to drink water
I saw this video somewhere that suggested placing water stations around the house, as cats don't like to drink water near their food. Our cat's bowl was always next to his food, so I set up a few water stations around the house. To my surprise, he started drinking more often from the one near his favorite sleeping spot, which is the window.
Now, he only drinks from that spot, and even stopped drinking from the faucet. It's also made it easier for me to keep the water clean, as it's always in the same spot. Even at night, he'll wake up to drink, which is a relief.
What our cat likes to do
We live in a small town on the outskirts, so our cat usually goes for walks. We figured that self-walks are doable for our area, since we're rarely home, and we pick him up from the street when we get back from work.
Our cat's favorite pastime is definitely getting clean 😂
And of course, sleeping - he sleeps in some pretty weird positions, which he's been doing since he was a kitten
But sometimes he does sleep in pretty normal positions
Sometimes I found myself searching for it in some pretty unusual places for about 15 minutes, until I finally tracked it down.
🐱 I recently became a grandma 😂
My husband and I were having one of those deep conversations about the meaning of life, and I was adamant that my grandkids couldn't possibly be the reason for it. I mean, if they were, then grandparents would probably just want to take them over and raise them ourselves! We both had a good laugh about it and forgot all about it.
As I was leaving the house, I saw a stray cat in the backyard. I knew she was probably getting ready to bring her kittens out, so I went to check on them. When I saw them, I was shocked - they were the exact same color and markings as my own cat! There was no doubt in my mind that they were our kittens.
And just like that, my grandkids became the reason for my life. I was desperate to find a way to take care of them and make sure they survived the winter. I really wanted to find them a good home.
The mom cat and kittens were a bit wild, so I had to come up with a plan to catch them. I used a cat trap (I'd written about it before), but I needed to figure out how to get the kittens in without the mom cat following them. There were two kittens, and if I caught one, it would be hard to catch the other.
Of course, everything worked out, and I was able to catch both kittens and find them a new home ❤
Now that I've got my cat-sterilization plan in full swing, I'm thinking of taking on the neighborhood felines. I've got two of them to care for, and one of them is a regular visitor to our place. She's a bit of a diva, but she loves the warmth and food here. I'm hoping she'll give birth to some adorable kittens soon, and I'll make sure to give them a good home before sterilizing her.
And that's my review in a nutshell ❤ Thanks for reading!