Wuss of a tomcat

[rockrat]

Think I have the biggest wuss of a tomcat. Been fixed, but maybe it was too soon, but he was starting to mark everything!! Neighbor cats beat up on him at times. He will "fuss" at them, but backs down usually and if he does fight, he loses. Even "momma kitty" a stray that wandered in and we kind of "adopted" and feed, will stand up to him. The only one he picks on is a "runt of the litter" female that we got at about 2-3 weeks old and bottle fed. She is small, about half his size.

Pulled out one of the lasers' you use to "play" with your cats:twisted:. Kids cat would go nuts over it, but my tomcat is another story.

He was on the porch, so turned on the laser to see what he would do. He saw it and backed away from it!! Kept backing away until he ran in the yard about 6 feet, the he actually batted at the spot. Did this for about 5 seconds then ran further away in the yard. Waited a minute or two and he headed to the porch again so turned the laser on again. He immediately ran up the stairs to the deck and ran to the other side of the house:groner:.

Saw him later on the porch, so tried the laser again, he ran off again. All he wants to do is be petted(follows me everywhere and fusses), eat, or sleep. Big Wuss

[Hickory]

Democrat cat?

[quilbilly]

We have a similar big tomcat called Smoke. I have taken to calling him "Smoke, The Less Than Magnificent". On the other hand he is keeping me company now as I walk through the woods tapping our maple trees to make syrup.
He kills lots of mice but never eats them (our females eat the ones he catches).

[gwpercle]

Maybe he was a lover and now that he's been fixed he's having an identity crisis.
His actions sound a lot like the way I act now, like to eat , sleep , get petted....I don't care for fighting at all anymore either....cut him some slack !

Gary
Got Cats Too

[Sur-shot]

Yep, We used to have a big tom like that, he would kill mice or lizards but run from a rat. It was pitiful to watch. My grandfather fixed him because he was useless, then he told me he figured a bobcat got him because there was a bobcat hanging around out in the cane across the cow pasture from the house. One night a big fuss under the house and no tom the next morning or after.
A bobcat likes house cats.
Ed

[Blackwater]

Well, I guess one of my friend's cats got all the aggression your cat is missing. That one is BIG, better than 10 lbs., probably, as best as I can guestimate. That cat whips up on sizeable DOGS in his neck of the woods, and does it EVERY time one comes by. A couple of whippings from THAT cat, and dogs learn to pass by way out in the field, and NOT on "his" road!!! Animals have personalities just like we humans do, and they're just as distinct, if not often moreso, as ours. That cat rules the roost. He tolerated "Smokey," my friend's old dog, but that was about it. Smokey didn't mess with him and he didn't mess with Smokey, but he clearly was contemptuous of the dog. Aren't animals amazing?

[Hogtamer]

Name Barack?

[rockrat]

Not Barack,because my cat at least hunts for mice now and then, so he is useful for something.

[garym1a2]

I had a closed back yard with a German Shepard and a medium size mutt. The neighbors Tom cat jumped the fence and the two dogs cornered it and went in for the kill. That cat open a can of woop Axx on both dogs. He was so fast they did not know what to do.

[Plate plinker]

Seems most animals have to learn how to do the deed from another.

[johnson1942]

cats are like people, your either born with it or your not.

[MarkP]

We had a small female Siamese cat that would go after 40 lb dogs and they would run away screeching. My friend brought his beagle over and the cat attacked him, the dog barked and whaled for several minutes afterwards.

I think about the larger cats (mountain lion) and remember how quickly the our little Siamese cat could inflict damage, a dog or human would not stand a chance against a 100 lb cat.

[OptimusPanda]

I think about the larger cats (mountain lion) and remember how quickly the our little Siamese cat could inflict damage, a dog or human would not stand a chance against a 100 lb cat.

When I was a boy and saw dogs running around unleashed I fantasized about having a pet bobcat unleashed as well. Of course, that's a recipe for legal trouble but hey a kid's gotta dream right?

[MaryB]

When Tigger was healthy he was 22 pounds. He is also 2' long not including his tail. Oreo my other rescue is 30+ pounds and he is deathly afraid of Tigger. Tigger walks near him he flinches. And Tigger took on a guy who crashed a BBQ I was having. He was super drunk and obnoxious so I asked him to leave. He pushed me and Tigger went after him. He ended up wit 22 stitches in his legs and at one point Tigger had his teeth clamped on his crotch with his hind legs raking away just shredding his jeans and skin. Guy came by to apologize and when Tigger saw him he started growling. Dude ran for the door and said lets talk outside.

[labradigger1]

Hmm, a laser to chase cats off. I'll need to get me one of them. The wife has a neutered (think Obama) tomcat, if ever there was a defective cat he's it. Useless waste of hairball hacking, food eating, sleeping all day (insert above anecdote here again) no good, no mousin car hood tracking up, lazy 2lb of cat food per meal, belly dragging the floor critter I ever seen.
Yep, need me one of them lasers.

[johnson1942]

mary b. loved your story about tigger. my daughters house cat is well over 20 pounds and he really can move if he wants to. meowwwwws all day for meat, but he doesnt rule me i rule him. crunchies in the morning and meat when he goes to bed. he doesnt give up and neither do i.

[kingstrider]

I have a cat which is useless as well. Eat, sleep and occasionally nip a family member when he wants more food. I won't miss him when he's gone.

[Blackwater]

One more story of a "cat" that was combative in the extreme. A friend was out in a field one day, and saw a big bob cat walk across the road that surrounded the field. It stopped mid-road, and licked itself, and preened a few moments, then sauntered on into the soy beans. A minute or two later, a coyote walked across in the same spot, obviously stalking the bob cat. After a few seconds, those soy beans erupted in the most awful racket and squealing and squawling you've ever heard, with the bushes shaking like a thresher had been turned on in them! A couple of seconds later, that coyote shot out of those beans like he'd been shot out of a slingshot, and he was stretched out and running for his life! About 30 seconds later, the bob cat strutted out, looking very indignant, and sat down again, and preened a bit. The he just stood up, looked around, and stuck his chest out, and pranced off as though he thought he was Queen of the May! He could have shot either of them, but just chose not to, and after that bob cat whupped that coyote, he just didn't have the heart or will to shoot it.

Cats are curious creatures, and though your cat may be "wimpy" right now, I suspect that if he ever REALLY got in a bad attack, he very well might rise to the occasion, and open a can of whuppit on whatever is threatening it. Kind'a like that old Kenny Rogers song, "Coward of the County." Most "fights" among animals are more nips than real attacks. They're generally vying for dominance, and trying to establish a pecking order more than really "fighting" in earnest. Your cat may be the kind that only fights when it's really in earnest, so don't be too surprised if it "wakes up" one day.

I'm a "dog man" myself. Cats are WAY too complex for me to appreciate them fully. And as an old "bird hunter" (that's "quail" here in Ga, or was, back when we had tons of wild birds), I was taught to hate cats, and some shot them on sight in the woods, because they DO take a good many quail. But I always knew they took a lot more rats and mice and other pests than they did quail, and could never shoot one because I'd always imagine some neighbor kid crying "you shot my Fluffy!" Just don't let that tidbit get spread out too far. I might lose my reputation. :mrgreen:

[oldred]

Well I have 17 cats so I guess I have or have had just about every cat personality there is. We have 6 Himalayans, a couple of Siamese, 7 Himalayan/Siamese mix (of course a Himalayan is half Siamese anyway), an Abyssinian and a cute little mix of everything Calico that is a polydactyl with 26 toes! One of the Himy/Siamese mix Toms weighs 19 lbs and is tough as nails, we named him Jack after the Jack Bauer character on the TV show "24", like the show character he is one BAD *** cat! He seems to be so gentle and petted around people that a person would think him to be a sissy but when that cat goes into action he is a sight to see! The Abyssinian cat breed is one of the most intelligent breeds and ours is a good example, she is our house pet and you couldn't ask for a smarter or better mannered indoor critter. This cat is definitely different in intelligence than a smart dog but just because she's different doesn't mean she's less smart, within a few days of coming to live with us she learned the Kitchen and Dinning rooms are off limits and to stay off the furniture, she will come no farther than the kitchen door and will sleep only were she is allowed. I have never seen a cat until now that would learn things such as that but she did and a whole lot more.

Tippy has an extra half foot on all four legs

185671

Jack Bauer, the pest control foreman in my garage,

185672

[Multigunner]

My Egyptian Mau is the sweetest tempered cat I've ever seen. He didn't have to be fixed because he was born sterile and his male parts never matured.
He is all male when it comes to interloping cats. Awhile back the neighbor's tom started hanging out in my back yard and when the Mau saw him he shot past me as I opened the door and lit into the intruder. As the other cat struck out for home climbing the fence in a shot my 16 year old Mau launched himself like a missile. From ground level he leaped over my head and I caught him in mid air before he flew over the fence.

This cat has claws twice the size of an average adult house cat.
Despite his occasional pugnaciousness he loves kittens and dogs. He's a very heavy cat, solid muscle and long bodied and stands tall.

They say the Mau can live 24-25 years. We once had a mixed breed with mostly Mau appearance that lived 24 years.
They also say the Mau thinks more like a good dog than like a cat.
In ancient Egypt if someone killed your Mau cat you were allowed to cut their nose off in revenge.

[Plate plinker]

Looks like Jack takes no BS from anybody.

[MaryB]

This is how big Tigger is, that is a full size office chair a friend was sitting in to use my computer.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd248/maryalanab/Tigger-hanging-out.jpg

Can't have a box without a cat on or in it

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd248/maryalanab/Box.jpg

[bayjoe]

My son had a big ole tom cat when he was growing up. It was a mean ole ranch cat that was NASTY!! He would jump up on the vehicles and pee on the windshields. And was always fighting with the other cats. We watched him whip another tom cat one day, after he whipped him he turned around and peed on the cat he had just whipped. Meanest cat I ever saw, he just disappeared one day. Figure the coyotes got him.

[WILCO]

http://www.warrenphotographic.co.uk/photography/bigs/01181-Ginger-tom-cat-white-background.jpg

[rockrat]

Grandad told me of a big old tomcat that would wait in the bushes , next to the sidewalk and when a dog would come by, it would jump on the dogs back, dig in its claws and ride the dog like a bull rider

[sav300]

Thanks Wilco,have you seen a blue eyed ginger cat? Want a pic of one,if possible.

[oldred]

Can't have a box without a cat on or in it

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd248/maryalanab/Box.jpg


LOL! Ain't it the truth!!!

Cats LOVE boxes and baskets and some of the most comical things I have seen them do is fit themselves into a box that shouldn't be able to hold something half their size.

BTW, is Tigger feeling better these days? I truly hope so.

[shaper]

I'm not a cat person, we always ha dogs when I grew up. However my oldest daughter is a cat rescuer. Local vet calls her when someone drops off a litter of unwanted newborns. She will bottle feed them and get them accustom to living in a house with humans. The vet will then find new homes for them. It is common to find a dozen or more cats in the house at any given time.I am proud of her for doing that but I still am not a cat person. But, when I visit her I can count on being sat on. One of her own cats has a perfect bulls eye marking on both sides. I call it Target. Target has claimed me. No other cat will come near me but Target will curl up in my lap and stay there until I leave. I feel the ice breaking.

[oldred]

I'm not a cat person, we always ha dogs when I grew up. However my oldest daughter is a cat rescuer. Local vet calls her when someone drops off a litter of unwanted newborns. She will bottle feed them and get them accustom to living in a house with humans. The vet will then find new homes for them. It is common to find a dozen or more cats in the house at any given time.I am proud of her for doing that but I still am not a cat person. But, when I visit her I can count on being sat on. One of her own cats has a perfect bulls eye marking on both sides. I call it Target. Target has claimed me. No other cat will come near me but Target will curl up in my lap and stay there until I leave. I feel the ice breaking.

Hang around those cats long enough and the ice will not only break but it will melt! I was not really a cat person either at first, didn't hate or even particularly dislike them but I didn't want to have one around either. I thought of cats as being stuck up and self centered thinking only of themselves (you know, like liberals! :wink:) and while they could be tolerated that was about as far as it went. THEN my daughter acquired a tiny little Siamese from a neighbor that bred the things for sale, since this one was a runt that due to it's deformities was not sellable and was destined to be "put down" they just gave it to her. This was one pitiful looking kitten that was half the size of normal and had crossed eyes and very obvious crooked teeth with one of it's fangs sticking out sideways, the girl was only eight years old at the time and was crying and begging me to let her keep it so what could I do? He really did look like that and at barely 5 lbs full grown he was such a tiny homely looking critter that it made him cute, "Co-Co" survived and became a full fledged family member that forced me to take another look at how cats really are and how they think. I discovered that there is a tremendous difference between being independent and being just self centered, I quickly learned that cats are affectionate and loving pets that do indeed bond with their owners (actually I'm not sure who owns who!). When she first brought that cat home I only begrudgingly allowed her to keep him but 14 years later when he contracted a viral disease that left him totally blind and unable to walk I had to fight back tears when we finally had to put him to sleep.


The 17 cats we have now is not nearly as bad as it sounds, we live on a secluded farm and these are mostly "working cats" (although most of them should be fired for sleeping on the job, Lol!) and we have only one full time house cat plus two in my garage with the rest residing in the barn. My cats are a daily chore that I dearly love attending to, they have become very dear to me and I just couldn't imagine life without them, just give them a chance and you will soon see what I mean.

[Blackwater]

Mary, just red about Tigger again, and every time, I'm ROTFL! Thanks! "Cats" covers a big territory, and there's lots of variation in size, personality and so much more. We used to have cats when I was a kid. One hopped up on a dresser one nigh, saw hereself, and let out the loudest and most scary growls, moans and other sounds I don't know how to describe, and Dad was gone. Just me, my brother and Mom. I grabbed my old shotgun since I was the "man" of the house (about 9th grade, IIRC?) at the moment, and told my brother to hold the flashlight and open the door slowly and I'd either shoot or run out of the house whatever it was. He refused to open the door, so I got Mom to hold the light, but she wouldn't open the door either. So I got her to hold the light, and I opened the door with my left hand while holding my shotgun in the right, and as I swung the door open, I leveled down toward where I thought the sounds were coming from, not knowing what to expect.

All I could do was laugh when I saw Percy, our best mouser ever, standing with arched back, and all hairs standing STRAIG out, growling at herself in the mirror!!! She was a very camo-looking callico, and most would have called her ugly. She was also always thin, no matter how much she ate, and once drug in a big ol' rabbit that had to be at least twice her weight.

I had one devil of a time getting her down off that dresser! She just would NOT disengage from that ugly cat in the mirror! Aren't cats funny?

[TXGunNut]

Haven't been adopted by a cat in awhile, last few times it was a feral cat and they were all excellent mousers. Not sure what happened to the last one but a neighbor's dogs have a talent for teaming up on smaller critters. Feel pretty sure he got his licks in if that was his fate. He badly injured another feral cat that I disliked (probably his father) and I never saw him again. Tried taking him to the vet when he was young and I nearly needed stiches before I gave up. He'd draw blood just to let you know he was in a bad mood and he preferred rats and mice over anything I fed him. There's a black cat hanging around these days but I only get a glimpse of it now and then.

[MaryB]

He is skin and bones, cancer has spread form his thyroid. He is not in pain so just letting him be and cuddling when he wants it. He had 1/4 of a chicken breast tonight as I was eating supper, Oreo got a few bites too.


LOL! Ain't it the truth!!!

Cats LOVE boxes and baskets and some of the most comical things I have seen them do is fit themselves into a box that shouldn't be able to hold something half their size.

BTW, is Tigger feeling better these days? I truly hope so.

[oldred]

That's really heartbreaking and not at all what I was hoping to hear, I too know what it's like to have a beloved pet in that situation and knowing there is little we can do.

Best wishes for the little fella

[richhodg66]

Wife and I love cats and have four, three indoors all the time and one big, friendly tom cat who showed up a little over a year ago and adopted us. I built him a warm, insulated house for the front porch and he sleeps in it when it suits him. Friendliest cat you ever saw, would be held and cuddled 24/7 if you let him, but he is big and muscular and strong with sharp claws and teeth and is quite the predator when he wants to be. I love him like I love the indoor ones but when you're used to fixed, declawed ones who've been conditioned to be house pets and then get one who still has all his cat qualities and instincts intact, it's hard to believe they're of the same species.

[Outpost75]

Our rescue cat is also named Tigger, and has a similar personality. As good as a watch dog, does not like strangers. Snarls and growls fiercely when anybody comes to the door. Champion mouser and fearless.

186080186081

[Multigunner]

We had a cat named Tigger many years ago. We named him that because he loved to pounce "cause that's what Tiggers do".
He looked a bit like the illustration in Winnie the Poo, same general coloration at least.
He and his brother Muffin chased each other all over the house endlessly. They ran so fast they could run up a wall at a 45 degree angle and run across the ceiling for several feet before running down the next wall.

Muffin liked to slip up behind people when they were standing near the book case and gently step off onto their head and perch there. It looked like they were wearing a coon skin cap.

Those were possibly the strongest and fastest house cats ever.

[xs11jack]

The first time our present orange tabby saw a stray cat looking at him through the patio door window he let out a scream and headed for the bedroom. My wife said that he was a big coward, but I corrected her and said he was just going for help. She didn't believe me at all.
Ole Jack

[wmitty]

My youngest sister brought a stray cat back from west Ft. Worth when we were kids; toughest tomcat I ever saw. Came in one time with a dew claw stickin' out of it's head; another time it had a stick protruding from the side of his eyeball. I took him over to Dad an he said "Hold him" and he pulled the stick out but cat did not like it at all. Came in with right ear swollen so bad Dad decided to lance it with pocket knife; when it healed the ear sorta crinkled up and laid flat on his head. We named him Ernest T. Bass. A mouse took off across the kitchen; cat was eating and didn't see it. I grabbed the cat and threw him at the mouse - he saw it in mid air and caught it before it got under the stove; even though he crashed into the cabinet door. This impressed me and I cut him some slack after seeing it happen.

[Multigunner]

A Cat belonging to my grand niece was an old female cat she found badly chewed up with one eye torn open. She took it in and nursed it back to health. The cat soon regained her strength and amazingly the eye that had remained glued shut by scab and discharge opened up a year later good as new.
She later gave the cat to her grand mother who lived in the country and the cat always preferred staying outside even in winter so they covered the patio screens with plastic and set a heater out there on very cold days just for the cat.
The old cat loves the outdoors and stays fat and sassy hunting for her dinner more often than not.

[Mytmousemalibu]

This is one of our 4 kitties, this is Teddy, our very ornery one sitting in the bathroom sink for what ever reason! He is quite the animal!

186074

[oldred]

This is one of our 4 kitties, this is Teddy, our very ornery one sitting in the bathroom sink for what ever reason! He is quite the animal!

186074




Lol, Do they need a reason? Cats just love to sit in bowls, boxes, baskets, etc and it seems the tighter the fit the better they like it!

BTW, that cat is the spitting image of a very friendly healthy looking cat that showed up here a couple of weeks ago, if he stays around a few more days that means he likely was abandoned and looking for a new home. We already have the 17 I mentioned before so I suppose one more won't make any difference, my wife has already taken to calling him "Rusty" so it looks like a trip to vet for shots and a bit of surgery to ruin his love life just might already be in order.

[Mytmousemalibu]

Lol, Do they need a reason? Cats just love to sit in bowls, boxes, baskets, etc and it seems the tighter the fit the better they like it!

BTW, that cat is the spitting image of a very friendly healthy looking cat that showed up here a couple of weeks ago, if he stays around a few more days that means he likely was abandoned and looking for a new home. We already have the 17 I mentioned before so I suppose one more won't make any difference, my wife has already taken to calling him "Rusty" so it looks like a trip to vet for shots and a bit of surgery to ruin his love life just might already be in order.


We love him to bits! Cats love boxes and bowls and things just like you mentioned, ours love climbing all over stuff and checking anything new out. We also have a petite calico and a flame point siamese. Right now we have my sister's cat, Max for a little while sitting for him. He is very, very ornery and quite the brat sometimes but hilarious too. He's almost like a corgi cat, he's kinda chunky but has somewhat short legs. Very high energy, to the point he annoys the others and is always getting into stuff! We love him anyways!

186158

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Not many dogs (or, I suspect, coyotes) feel happy about attacking a cat that isn't either running from them or successfully stalked unawares. As with canine-canine disputes, speed counts for more than size.

Territory also matters. We used to have a black tom which used spend a lot of nights out on the tiles, and probably got beaten up a lot, with his ears becoming rather tattered. I didn't see much evidence that all-black was getting into the local gene-pool either. He was only little. There was also a large, mostly white tom in the vicinity, who had notched our labrador's ear when she was a puppy, and unlike most cats, which only rated a nasty fright for trespassing, was marked for death the rest of her life. That cat had a permanent kink where she pulled him off a wall by the tail once, but she fumbled the switch to his neck, and he managed to avoid the cairn terrier who tried to do her share.

Once that cat came into our garden and was tackled by little Blackie, barely half his size. It lasted just seconds, but fur flew like a snowstorm, about all of it white, and he never showed up again. Clearly being on home ground made a big difference to Blackie, and being roughed up by a rival cat had more of an impact on the intruder than the occupational hazard of dog attack.