04.16.07

Megs in hammock

Posted in Cats, Megs at 3:31 pm by LeisureGuy

Hammock Megs Hammock Megs 2 Hammock Megs 3

I thought it was time for a little Megs goodness. She was resting comfortably in her hammock, until I showed up with a camera. :)

2 Comments »

  1. phoebes said,

    17 April 2007 at 5:24 am

    I like the pictures of your cat. I have two “rescue cats” (littermates, though, they probably had different fathers) but I’ve always adored British blues. If I ever get a “pure-bred”, I’d definitely get one like yours.

  2. LeisureGuy said,

    17 April 2007 at 7:17 am

    If you ever do get a pedigreed cat, question the breeder carefully about how the kittens were raised. As I write in the post on “Selecting a Cat” (link at the right):

    One very important point—and you’ll learn this from Tabor’s books—the critical window for socializing a cat to humans is from age 2 weeks to age 7 weeks. If the kitten gets at least 45 minutes a day of playtime with 3-4 humans, in the presence of its mum, during those critical 5 weeks, it will trust and accept humans. If not, you can never quite get the socialization complete. The cat whose critical window was passed may bond closely to its owner and perhaps its owner’s family, but it will also be shy and distrustful of other humans, and lack the confidence and winning personality that is so endearing.

    If you ask any breeder, they will say that “our kittens are raised underfoot”—i.e., in interactions with their families. So you have to be a bit more inquisitive. “So, can you describe the kittens’ playtime with people?” With follow-up questions that cannot be answered “yes” or “no”—examples: How often do the kittens play with people? How many days a week? How much time each day? How many different people? What are the ages of the people they play with? (Obviously, you want to check that the kittens play with children as well as with adults.) How old were the kittens when they started playing with people? Describe how the playtimes work and where they occur?

    And so on. You want a kitten or a cat that has received the minimal amount of play (45 minutes a day) from several (3-4) people, during the critical window (age 2 weeks through age 7 weeks).

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