The Pet Thread

[bluetubeodyssey]

Does anyone have any experience having a pet (interested in cat specifically, but any info will help) in a studio/1-bedroom apartment? I really want to get a cat once I start grad school and I think having a cat would help keep my mood up, but I'm moving to a city that is really expensive and so will be in a small apartment. I'm mostly worried about the litter box situation and any potential grossness from that in such a small space. I've had cats my whole life, but in houses or bigger apartments.

I had four cats in a studio apartment (no separate bedroom, but a separate kitchen), the only problem I had was that they kept me up sometimes at night or woke me up early in the morning because there was no proper bedroom to shut them out from and if a cat deposited something fiercely stinky in the litter box, the smell permeated the whole apartment. Other than that, the cats seemed very happy, there was plenty of cat furniture for them to play on, even one that went all the way up to the ceiling that we built ourselves.

Now I have four cats in a one bedroom apartment with a balcony and it is even better. The bedroom is a cat-free zone so that I can sleep (two of my cats enjoy sitting on my head and licking my face at all times of the night and morning, it's tough sleeping through that) and we converted the balcony into a cat room. There is wood lattice against the rail that covers the entire face of patio, then shade netting is zip-tied to that. Next we put outdoor carpet on the ground, and then put cat beds here and there. I feed them out there too, they love it and there's no way for them to get out. I also have no problem with a cat smell in the apartment because I scoop the used cat litter into a Litter Locker every morning. The only time you smell cat is in the couple of minutes right after a particularly smelly cat bomb is dropped in the litter box.

Also, cats are amazing bug catchers. You will have no problems with bugs at all in your apartment. I was reminded of that this morning when I stepped out of the shower and all four of them were mercilessly destroying a black widow on my bathroom floor.

Edit: I forgot to add that my friend has two cats in a tiny bachelor and it stinks! This is because she only cleans the litter box every three days though, and she only has one litter box for two cats. I have three litter boxes for four cats and by cleaning it every day the smell is virtually erased. So I think the smell issue comes down to how often you are willing to clean the litter box for your one cat.

Edited April 10, 2012 by bluetubeodyssey

[GreenePony]

Edit: I forgot to add that my friend has two cats in a tiny bachelor and it stinks! This is because she only cleans the litter box every three days though, and she only has one litter box for two cats. I have three litter boxes for four cats and by cleaning it every day the smell is virtually erased. So I think the smell issue comes down to how often you are willing to clean the litter box for your one cat.

I've never had a cat (only dealt with barn cats) but isn't the general rule to have one more box than cats?

Also, fun idea- our friend taught her cat to use the toilet (can't flush though) over the course of a month. It's kind of hilarious but pretty effective.

[jesp bery]

Pet dogs would be more glamorous if you have pet accessories for them.. you could also have

http://www.hotdogcollars.com/

[bfat]

Yay! Fun thread! Here's my dogsies

That's Watson (the basset) and Leeloo (the pug). They are quite naughty, but I loves them anyway.

[CarlieE]

Does anyone have any experience having a pet (interested in cat specifically, but any info will help) in a studio/1-bedroom apartment? I really want to get a cat once I start grad school and I think having a cat would help keep my mood up, but I'm moving to a city that is really expensive and so will be in a small apartment. I'm mostly worried about the litter box situation and any potential grossness from that in such a small space. I've had cats my whole life, but in houses or bigger apartments.

I live in a studio now with my bf and my cat. Bella was here before the bf moved in so she kind of had to make room for him which she was not happy with at first (she slept on the bed with me, and now, of course there isn't room for her anymore), but she has adjusted and now she and bf gang up on me

Bella's litter box is tucked away between the couch and a book case and sometimes there is an issue with smell - she has a tendency to poop right after she eats dinner which is incidentally when WE also eat dinner. But this is easily remedied by taking out her litter BEFORE we sit down to eat. It's just a matter of timing.

This is her on my bathroom floor. My bathroom is tiny. So tiny that the sink is on the OUTSIDE.

Edited April 13, 2012 by anthroDork

[ktel]

Just brought my Greyhound home. He is freakishly calm and well behaved, I'm not sure what to think.

[Spore]

Ktel,

Goodluck with your new family member!

[CarlieE]

Just brought my Greyhound home. He is freakishly calm and well behaved, I'm not sure what to think.

Post a pic? Love greyhounds! I hear they are quite calm and mellow...

[bluetubeodyssey]

Just brought my Greyhound home. He is freakishly calm and well behaved, I'm not sure what to think.

World's fastest couch potatoes!

[ktel]

World's fastest couch potatoes!

You bet. Just got hit with an $800 vet bill though All for pretty routine stuff, we had next to no medical records for him even though the adoption group claimed he should be up to date on everything. Had to do vaccines, bloodwork, flea prevention, antibiotics, the works. While he was great yesterday during the day, last night was a bit worse. We tried to get him to sleep in the other room but he's never slept alone before so he whimpered like crazy. So we brought him into our room, but he was scratching and licking himself all night (hence the flea prevention). And now he won't eat breakfast this morning, even when I sprinkled yummy peanut butter on it... Now he just lies there, not sure what to think of it. He's either really calm or depressed and anxious.

[Dal PhDer]

oh my gosh...everyone has such adorable pets!!!

I am not sure what I would do without my girl, Gemma! Honestly, there is something so special about a pet relationship!

[SgtExposition]

So I will be moving her nearly 700 miles come fall. I will be asking the vet what to do make the move go smoothly and I will be getting her microchipped, but if anyone has experience with moving a cat a similar distance I'd love to hear advice on that. I don't want to fly her because I don't want her to get lost like Jack the Cat and I think driving her should be fine with proper advice from the vet and with multiple drivers so that someone can always be with her.

With cats, it all seems to depend on the temperament. I moved with the mostly-mellow Cat (yes, I have a cat named Cat) around 700 miles for my M.A., and will be doing around twice that for my Ph.D. For both moves, I'll be stopping the first night at my parent's house, so I never had to put her in a hotel. For the first move, I put her in her chest harness and tied the leash to the passenger seat headrest. Then I gave her time to get used to the inside of the car (and to make sure she couldn't manage to hurt herself). She hates moving anywhere not under her own power (including being picked up), so I knew she'd hate the move no matter what. I also kept a freshly washed, clean litter box within reach, in case she wanted somewhere "safe" to crawl into.

She wasn't thrilled for the first hour or so, but after I'd been on the road for awhile she settled down and slept most of the way next to me. I did have her carrier and some treats on hand as well just in case, but I never needed them.

Edited April 16, 2012 by SgtExposition

[Chande]

With cats, it all seems to depend on the temperament. I moved with the mostly-mellow Cat (yes, I have a cat named Cat) around 700 miles for my M.A., and will be doing around twice that for my Ph.D. For both moves, I'll be stopping the first night at my parent's house, so I never had to put her in a hotel. For the first move, I put her in her chest harness and tied the leash to the passenger seat headrest. Then I gave her time to get used to the inside of the car (and to make sure she couldn't manage to hurt herself). She hates moving anywhere not under her own power (including being picked up), so I knew she'd hate the move no matter what. I also kept a freshly washed, clean litter box within reach, in case she wanted somewhere "safe" to crawl into.

She wasn't thrilled for the first hour or so, but after I'd been on the road for awhile she settled down and slept most of the way next to me. I did have her carrier and some treats on hand as well just in case, but I never needed them.

Thanks. The only move she's done was only an hour away, and she adapted to the new location just fine but didn't enjoy moving at all. I got her microchipped today, and the vet gave me a medication I can give her beforehand to help her calm down. I won't have anywhere to stay other than a hotel, though, so my fiance and I are going to attempt to drive straight through. Just hoping it will be possible.

[risingsun11801]

I have a ~60lb dog and a cat in a one bedroom apartment with 2 people. It never really feels crowded, except when we are sleeping and they both jump on the bed to look out the window. For the litterbox situation, mine has to be in a place where the dog cannot get to it. Covered litterboxes with a flap will not work, my dog will stick her head in to get those delicious cat turds. Teaching her to use the toilet won't work, because if I leave the seat up the dog will drink out of it. Right now I have the litterbox in an open closet with a baby gate across the doorway. The cat can easily jump over the gate to do her business and it keeps the dog out. It never smells that bad unless she's doing her business at the moment and hasn't covered it yet. I HIGHLY recommend FreshStep crystals. They are a bit expensive if you have multiple cats/boxes, but for my one cat and one litterbox they work wonders. They absorb odors much better than scoopable litter and there is no dust when scooping or adding new litter. How they work is the urine get absorbed into the crystals and they turn from blue to greenish yellow. So, the only thing you scoop out are the logs. It makes cleaning a lot easier- no litter clumps to worry about. Before I go to grad school this fall, however, I will be making one of these: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=291147.0 It's a cabinet modified with a kitty door to hold a litterbox. Genius!

My dog is a pretty good traveler- she's ridden 18hrs straight back when she was ~1 year old. (Of course I stopped for breaks every 2 hours at rest areas for her.) What I did at the time was I tried to put her crate together in the back seat of the car. The roof didn't fit, but the 4 sides and the bottom fit. I pointed the door of the crate towards the door of the car so when I opened the backseat door, I still had plenty of time to make sure she didn't escape. She usually rides in the front passenger seat on short trips, and sometimes is a little too excited to get out of the car once we've reached our destination. This also assured that she would not try to jump into the front seat for any reason and distract me while I was driving.

I've also transported 3 kittens on an 8 hour drive, and they rode in a cat carrier together (they were 3 months old at the time, plenty of room for everyone.) They all had collars and we brought little leashes for the grass at rest stops, but they hated it and would not eat or drink or go to the restroom. They were litter trained already, and for the trip I bought a cheap plastic 9x13 cake carrier from Walmart that had a good snap-on lid. I put some litter in it before we left, and the lid assured it wouldn't spill in the car. At stops, I just popped off the top and set the kitties on it. On the way back, it was raining so I actually had to hold the litter in my lap while in the car. It was small enough to maneuver in the car but large enough to function as a litterbox.

[ktel]

Here is a picture of my guy, from the adoption site. I have yet to upload recent pictures, I have a really cute video of him playing with his stuffed animal, which he doesn't often do. He sleeps all the time and really only perks up when we go outside. It's perfect for me, low maintenance when I need him to be, fun when the time is right.

[Sparrowing]

Here is a picture of my guy, from the adoption site. I have yet to upload recent pictures, I have a really cute video of him playing with his stuffed animal, which he doesn't often do. He sleeps all the time and really only perks up when we go outside. It's perfect for me, low maintenance when I need him to be, fun when the time is right.

He looks like such a sweetheart! Who knows, maybe our dogs will one day meet in the parks of Toronto.

[ktel]

We already ran into another Greyhound adopted from the same agency at the dog park. They were there at the same time. Small world. We took him to the dog park today and there was some strange little dog, I don't know what breed, but MAN was he fast. The sight of my Greyhound and this little dog keeping pace with each other was amazing. It was coupled with the fear that Turbo would fall into one of the many holes dug there and break his leg. Not a safe running dog park I guess, but there are 2 others in our neighborhood.

[chrysanthy]

I have four cats, two from shelters and two I trapped as kittens from a feral colony. They don't take up too much time, and the apartment doesn't smell like cat at all because I clean the litter boxes everyday. The only tough part is that I had to switch them to an all-wet-food diet because one guy develops deadly urinary crystals with dry cat food, and even cheap wet food is more expensive than high quality dry food. Oh well, still love them lots.

Here's a picture of three of them sleeping on each other:

What a perfect pose.

[GreenePony]

DH and I just sent out a "feeler" email today about a corgi-mix 90 mi north of us. If it comes back favorably (actively level is right, isn't too heavy), we're going up Saturday to see if we click!

DH has decided he wants to name her (or another female dog) "Anyanka"

[constantSun]

we need more picks of your pets!

[mirandaw]

This is Konstantine in the role Princess Pretty Paws

[CageFree]

Yup, that's definitely something I'm going to look into the first semester I'm there.. Hopefully, there'll be one that's quite close by..

I'm guessing volunteering doesn't have any visa restraints, yeah?

Another thing is, dog rescue groups are always looking for good foster homes for senior dogs. People dump seniors at the shelter just cause they don't want to deal with them anymore, or before they "start getting sick." It's so sad. Seniors can still live a good number of years. Older dogs are quieter, less likely to get into trouble, and there's something very cool about giving an old dog a good home to "retire" in.

[ktel]

So I have been teaching my dog to lie down. It is going quite well. He can lie down inside, outside, on grass, on concrete, wherever. The problem is getting him to get back up! I have had to wait several times on a walk after I've done the command and he decides this is comfortable and he just wants to lay there for a while. What a goof. I also caught his long nose and tongue down my milk glass the other day lapping it up. Dogs do the strangest things.

[risingsun11801]

So I have been teaching my dog to lie down. It is going quite well. He can lie down inside, outside, on grass, on concrete, wherever. The problem is getting him to get back up! I have had to wait several times on a walk after I've done the command and he decides this is comfortable and he just wants to lay there for a while. What a goof. I also caught his long nose and tongue down my milk glass the other day lapping it up. Dogs do the strangest things.

Why are you telling your dog to lie down in the middle of a walk? Maybe he is getting confused. A walk is supposed to be for exercise, so telling him to lie down is a bit strange. Possibly he thinks the walk is over and it's time to relax.

My dog loooves ice cubes. When she was a puppy she would knock over any glass she could find to get the delicious ice cubes inside. She always comes to the freezer when I'm getting some ice cubes for my water and she has to have one.

[ktel]

Why are you telling your dog to lie down in the middle of a walk? Maybe he is getting confused. A walk is supposed to be for exercise, so telling him to lie down is a bit strange. Possibly he thinks the walk is over and it's time to relax.

Because I want him to be able to lie down in all sorts of situations. It's our replacement for sit because sitting is very awkward for a Greyhound. I don't think he's confused, I just think he's lazy and a little stubborn.