Dear George,
Ever seen one of these? It's just a simple ladder, made to fit with hen houses. But it has made a huge difference to my life.
At first I could not get into the outside world at all. Me and my human live in an appartment on the first floor, but there is a double door. First a door into the building, then a door into my flat. The landlord would not allow a cat flap into either door.
So my human has rigged up this ladder. It is just a chicken ramp easily bought online. It works well.
There is only one snag. The window has to be kept open for me and my human therefore has to wear an extra jumper to keep warm. The fresh air is good for her....
Yours
Sidney.
Dear Sidney,
Good idea. Simple. Cheap. All it needs now is a cat flap that fits into glass. This can be ordered though you might need a glazier to fit it.
Humans can also make ladders that go up several stories. There are some amazing Swiss cat ladders - here. Or google "outside cat ladders" images for even more ideas. I haven't yet got my paws into Pinterest but there are lots there too.
Go for it, apartment cats. You have nothing to lose but your boredom.
Yours
George.
Hi,
I am Tripod. Odd name but it's because I lost one of my back legs after a traffic accident. It was injured and hurt badly. After the op I feel much better without having to live with pain.
My humans are much more upset by this than I am. They seem to think I will not be able to cope. But already I am finding I can manage fine.
You should have seen their faces when I crawled up on to the armchair! They have put everything at floor level. Is that necessary, George?
Yours
Tripod.
Dear Tripod,
You will manage fine. Humans are confused because they only have two legs, so when they lose one of them, they really are disabled. One legged humans have to wear artificial legs. We don't. We can do a lot - and we do do a lot - on only three legs. In a couple of weeks time you will hardly notice the missing one.
There's some information here and here which might help with a few ideas.
Are your humans going to let you out? Most people don't let disabled cats out into the big wide world, but some cats manage so well that they do get given a cat flap. If so, you may find mousing a bit difficult, though not impossible.
Yours
George
PS. My secretary is away next week and, because my paws don't hit the keyboard reliably, I will have a week without blogging.
Help for cats whose humans show behaviour problems.
This blog is devoted to the study of human behaviour. We cats, who live with this sometimes unpredictable and always feeble minded species, can benefit from seeing their behaviour in its proper scientific context. The study of feline dilemmas, training problems, and difficulties with humans, can only benefit all of us. All of us train our humans - to buy the right food, for instance, but many of us do not have knowledge of how to improve our training methods. The human species is obviously not as intelligent as the cat, but nevertheless can learn quite a lot - if properly managed. Topics of interest include the use of claw and order, purring as a human reward, rubbing your human up the right way, when to bite, spraying as a method of making our wishes known, ignoring the human, human harassment, human inattention and sheer human stupidity. I welcome your questions. Photos can be sent via my secretary's website, www.celiahaddon.com This blog has been chosen as one of the top 50 feline blogs by Online VetTechprogramms.org
