An Adoption Success Story: Nurturing and Managing the World's Most Difficult Cat

Welcome to the Starlight Pet Talk podcast, where we'll talk about and explore ways to help pet parents and future pet parents learn everything they need to know to have a happy and healthy relationship with their pet. So sit up and stay for Starlight Pet Talk rescue, adoption and pet parenting done right.

If you're a fan of Starlight Pet Talk, you'll love our new line of merchandise. We have t-shirts, hoodies and more, all featuring your favorite podcast logos and designs. Plus, we're offering a limited number of Starlight Outreach and Rescue items where a portion of the proceeds go directly to Animal Rescue. Our merchandise is the perfect way to show your support for your favorite pet podcast and animal rescue at the same time. So what are you waiting for? Just visit our website at wwwstarlightpettalkcom to order your merchandise today. Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk. I'm your host, amy Castro, and I am actually recording this podcast episode from Beautiful Cape Cod, taking a little vacation, which was much needed, and unfortunately it's a little bit of a rainy day today. So my best friend Bev, who is lucky enough to live here, and I decided we were going to record this podcast episode that I've been wanting to share with you all for a while, since I had Bev on the very first episode of the podcast, the Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk, and she dished the dirt on me in my background, and this is the 21st episode. So we've been rocking and rolling for a while now, but I wanted to have Bev on to talk about her experience with her cat named Cuzzy, and you can probably explain why his name is Cuzzy, because it's a little bit weird. But don't save that story. So, anyway, we are both very strong believers that a pet is for life and, unless there's some horrendously extenuating circumstance where you can no longer properly care for your pet, that, no matter who your pet is, you need to make it work. And so Bev's story with Cuzzy is a prime example of somebody who was willing to kind of, in my opinion, go above and beyond in making that relationship work, for the betterment of the cat for sure. So, bev, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, ms Amy, all right, I'm glad to have you back. So I'd love for people to hear the story of how you got Cuzzy, because it's not your standard. I went to his shelter, or a cat walked up to my door, kind of story. So how did you get this crazy?

cat. It's unusual because he kind of fell into my lap. I was working an evening shift at the Clarkstown Police Department. I'm a dispatcher. There was a dispatcher recently retired and got a call from the local highway department and they had said that they got their hands on a cat that had been astray in the yard for quite some time. Would the animal control officer be able to come and take him? And of course it was a holiday weekend and of course it was. You know, I was working until 11 o'clock at night. There was no one available. But the gentleman who called me said he'd be willing to hang on to the cat until the next day because I expressed a little bit of interest. My previous cat had passed away and I was kind of feeling that I might be getting a new cat soon. So so he kept the cat overnight and we agreed to meet an exit ramp off of a highway how dicey is that the cat had to have on the highway, but it was totally fine. The guy was great. He worked for the highway department. You know. I had his name and number and everything and he kept saying, oh, she's so sweet and she's this, that the other thing. I took one look into the cat carrier and this massive head popped out like it was definitely a male cat. He was just big and beefy, right. So even if it didn't work out for me, I knew that I had had other options, whether it was another friend who could adopt him or go to the shelter, like if I couldn't handle him. Well, here it is. What would we say 12 years later?

Something like that. It's been at least, at least 12 years he has been such a joy to have a challenge.

Most of the time, but quite the joy. He makes me laugh every day and it was definitely worth all the effort that I've been putting into him Leading up to this podcast. Yeah, Okay.

so I know one of the things that was unusual about cousin and we'll try to lure him over and get him on for those who are watching on video. To get him on the video because he's quite the striking and giant beast he's. I'm always shocked at how much you say he weighs like 15 pounds, 13,. Not even 15 pounds, 13 pounds but looking at him I would say he's 18 pounds, just because he seems like he's the size of a dog and there goes his ears. Don't knock down the microphone. He's quite the striking and large, large kitty cat. So you were pretty surprised to figure out that, despite the fact that he was found out as a stray, that he was declawed in the front.

Yeah, so when I initially got him the animal control officer at the police department, pat McCoy, how you doing? We scanned for chip the way he's supposed to and we put stuff on Facebook and I kept praying that nobody would claim him. Because he was awesome, would you ask me.

That you were surprised that he was declawed being such a big beast and being outside seemingly for a while.

Yeah, so he either escaped from a home or he was kicked to the curb because he was. I discovered such a handful. He was constantly getting into things. So I mean, when people meet him for the first time, I have to say I didn't declaw him, he came that way.

I didn't order, you just came that way he was defunct when I got him, yeah, but it is interesting. So obviously, whoever had him initially. You know, even I don't believe in decline either, but most people who do that fully intend to keep the cat indoors forever and they think it doesn't need its claws because it's never gonna go outside and it and it's pretty obvious when you start hearing about cuz he's story and how he is, that I mean, odds are definitely in favor. That somebody was like this cat is just way too much. He's. He's got to go and and and so out. How he went. I know you're, I'm shaming you, you're facing this over, looking at us.

Okay, so when did you realize that cuz he was not your average cat, not, you're just kind of like lay around in the sun, you feed a scoop, the litter box and you're done right, exactly working different shifts, he I wasn't always guaranteed to be home in the morning, I wasn't always guaranteed to be home in the evening, so I set up these automatic timers that I got online and they, you know, have meals set up and it goes off whatever times that you set. Well, previous cats that I had, you can leave a Bowl out all day long and they come and they snack and, yeah, they leave stuff behind and whatever. Now, not only did he eat all of the weeks worth of food, he opened up the clicking locking lid to the feeder and ate the whole weeks worth of food. Oh, wow, yeah. So I'm like, oh alright, I guess I can't leave a bowl of food out. I didn't know what to do, so I bolted them shut, I drilled holes in the side of the feeder.

Yeah, so these are the big plastic automatic feeders. You'd think that I don't, even when I'm looking at it across the room right now and we can show a picture later on of what it looks like. But I had it. How he even got into that, like he was determined to get into that cat feet.

It's a second, and he's creepy strong too. So I drilled a hole in the side of it and I put a note and not in a bolt problem solve. This one comes to me. Yeah she decides let's see if he can not work the bolt. So she's encouraging him to turn the the nut on the bolt to open it up, just to see, because he's so smart. Yeah, and he was definitely following my lead.

I don't think he ever really got the bolt all the way.

No, but he was definitely on at it and like yeah she's got something there.

So that was your first clue. Then that that cuz he was very determined to get fed, and it's interesting because he's not a heavy cat, but he probably would, you know, you think you tell me, make himself. I think he would, yeah, until he died. Yeah, okay, so what are some of the other things? Well, let's focus on food right now.

What are some of the other things that he did that were food related and so also in the same house in New York Typical pantry and a house and it had two louver doors that were rattly, rattly, rattly. He learned how to bounce on the door because it was like a spring magnet type of thing. Yeah, bounce on the door Enough to open it up and there was the food, like he would get that. So then I had to lock that up. So now I have an iron hook latch on the pantry of nut and bolt on the feeder. I mean it just it never stopped making dinner. I'm checking raw chicken cutlets on the kitchen counter and he's stretching himself up on top of the counter like, yeah, I want some of that. It just never stopped, ever. So I knew he was highly food motivated, which helped me later on with teaching him how to behave like a gentleman.

Yeah, so it's basically, basically, you had to kind of go through almost baby proofing the house. But, cat to keep him any away from anything related to food right having other cats that behave themselves.

He was the one who showed me the way in order to baby proof the house. I had no idea that he could open up a door. I had no idea that he could open up the feeder, and it needed to be bullshat. So it was kind of a learning process to find ways to make him safe, because if he got into that food and ate everything, it would be over. Yeah, you could get really obviously really sick.

So so somebody listening to this so far might say, okay, big deal, so you put a latch on the cabinet. You don't leave abandoned chicken cutlets on the kitchen counter. It's like, is that really that inconvenient? But I think people need to understand how far you've had to go. Related to the food, like talk about when you're preparing your meals.

So you fix your meal. You want to eat a hot meal after you've cooked it. When I visit her at her house, she has ps animals every everywhere, right, and I Incessantly will say you, you leave that on the counter. Like how can you do that? Like isn't anybody going to try to get that? And no, nobody, nobody goes up on account.

Nobody goes up on the stove and drags off a frying pan.

The minute I do my back on a plate, on a dish that's still hot, anything. The minute I turn my back, he is on top of the counter Sneaking very stealthily quiet to get up on the counter and eat. So when I'm cooking, when I'm done cooking and I want to sit down and have my own hot meal, I have to put all the dirty dishes that I've used, like a pot or a pan, like, into the oven, into the microwave, to hide it away from him. So I can sit down and have all your food still, yeah, otherwise I have to clean the kitchen before I could sit down and have a meal that sucks.

So what have you tried? Because people will say, okay, well, there's, you know, there's products out there you can use for that. What? What kind of products have you tried to deter him from getting on the counters?

So this is a aerosol.

Oh God, he's scared, Scared him to death. Oh, I'm sorry baby.

So this is it has a mechanism that sits on top, which I believe is broken at this point Sits on top, it's motion-sensored.

Yeah, so it's basically a motion-sensored aerosol, can that? When the cat crosses the path, it blasts this, it's just air. It's not hurting anybody, but the sound as you just heard.

You saw what happened. He's gone.

Yeah, for those who were watching a video, the cat just went flying. If you didn't, you might need to go to YouTube and check that out, because it was pretty effective.

The idea of this, as well as another idea that I'm going to talk about in a second. The idea of this actually came from a television show called my Cat from Hell With our friend Jackson Galaxy. Jackson Galaxy. He's got it because if you chase your cat with a water bottle off the counter, he is like why are you squirting me with a water bottle? I surf the kitchen counters all the time. Why now? But if the kitchen counter is the one calling him out and the kitchen counter is the one that's scaring him half to death, it's not me, it's the kitchen counter, and he won't go up on it any longer.

Yeah, and that's something important for people who do use and I do use spray bottles in certain instances for things, but mostly for dogs, because they know I mean, they see me, they're looking at me spraying them and, whether you agree with that or disagree with that, it is effective for me. But with cats, once they start believing you're chasing them, then it's a constant game of chase. That's why we always, when we talk to people about adopting kittens with little kids, it's like not always a great fit, because once that kitten realizes that people are going to chase it all over the house and because kids can't control themselves and when they want to hold the kitty, they want to hold the kitty. Now you've got a cat that never comes out in front of the bed and you've kind of created that situation. So you generally don't want your pet to associate you with something uncomfortable, because then when you really need to get a hold of them, they're running from you, Right For sure, right, okay, so you tried the spray thing. It works.

It still works. If I had the device, I'm the one who got lazy, not him. He will always try to outsmart me and humans. We can get lazy.

So what other mischief, which is when we talk about and we've talked about this in a couple of previous episodes about, quote unquote bad behavior in pets? Because he's just being cozy, this is him. He's a jungle cat in a domestic cat's body and he's got things to do. He's hunting, he's exploring, he's getting his exercise, he's practicing being predator, practicing avoiding being prey, things like that. But sometimes we as people don't understand that behavior. So what are some of the other challenges that you've had with him? Behavior wise.

So also working shift work, sometimes you have to sleep a little bit later in the morning and that doesn't work for his feeding schedule. So at the previous house where I lived in New York, instead of having door knobs it had door handles Like little levers. Yeah, so actually when I first got him, at one point I thought my house was burglarized. When I got home because all of my doors that had been closed were open, because it's very easy for any kind of pet a dog or a cat to open up. All you got to do is pull down.

Yeah, read up and paw down on the handle, yeah.

And I said I'm going to do that to my bedroom door because he wants to be with me, because I'm awesome, and so I had to. How do I keep him away from the bedroom door? Oh, I forgot At one point. Oh my gosh At one point. My bedroom door is across the hallway from the guest room bedroom door. I actually tied a rope between the two handles so if he opened up my bedroom door he couldn't push open the door and wake me up. I forgot about that.

That's pretty clever, however, although don't do that if you have small children, because it will close line them. The beauty of living alone.

So this, if you're watching on video, looks like a plastic doormat.

Yeah, it's just a sheet of plastic that's got some electrical wires running through the center of it and a battery pack.

What's a square one? A nine volt battery and wire running through it. So you place this on the floor in front of your door and it all takes this one little step and it gets a little shock, and I've touched it myself. It's more startling than it hurts. It's not a big deal. He did it once and that was it. He never did it again. I haven't had a battery in this mat for several years and he still manages to step over it If I open the door and leave it and he can come in and out as he pleases.

But he definitely avoids stepping on it. He will never step on it. Yeah, and I think it is important for people who are like oh my gosh, I can't believe you chalk your cat. A couple of things. Number one we call things like shock collars, and I'm not a believer in shock collars, but shock collars, shock mats, things like that. It's not like an electric shock. You feel a vibration, but because animals are so sensitive, it's it startles them, it's not something they're expecting and it's not super pleasant, and so, therefore, I just learned quickly not to do it again.

Right, I think it's more startling than anything and, like you said, I'm just going to avoid it. And he stepped on it once. That was the first, last and only time he ever stepped on it. Yeah.

And I think it's one of those things where you do it as a as a last resort. You obviously tried several other things, right? You know, we had a dog one time that used to dig out of the yard and we tried all the regular tricks. I mean, we tried running fence underneath that he, you know chicken wire underneath that he couldn't dig through. That didn't work Cause it was a large, large yard. We tried filling the holes with dog poop because they said, oh, your dog's not going to want to dig in his own poop, but he didn't care, or he would just dig a hole right next to it, filling it with rocks, filling it with broken bricks, and nothing worked until we finally got two D batteries and this little electric wire, and again, you know one. Actually I don't even think he touched it, he was too smart to touch it, but the other dog touched it and jumped and then nobody touched the fence and there never were any batteries ended after that, but we never had a problem, and that's it. And you know, if you've got a better solution, please let us know, because until I find and I feel like I've exhausted everything else, that was, that was the best solution that worked, and I think it's an alternative of doing that versus getting rid of your pet because you can't keep them in your yard.

I was completely willing to try and this shock mat was very similar to the kitchen counter, the motion sensor aerosol spray, and that it wasn't me giving him the shock. It was the area in front of the door. Unfortunately, he learned that he can't put his paws on the door or open the latch, but he can use his voice.

So now, what does he do?

Let's see summertime. It starts getting late around 4.30, 5. No, it goes on incessantly until I get up out of bed.

Yeah it's charming, yeah, and in those kinds of situations I think it's just how persistent are you, how persistent is the pet? And it's really a test, like I know for my cats. They've done the same thing, where they're meowing outside the door and if I ignore them, you know, within X amount of minutes sometimes 30, because sometimes they're persistent. But sometimes and this is just a good note for everybody when you get up and open the door, even to yell at them to get away from your door, you're rewarding them because you're giving them attention. So you have to, you know, put in some earplugs or something like that until they realize that no amount of meowing is going to keep, you is going to make you open the door, and then one would hope that he would give up.

And so, and that just jogged my memory, which is why I constantly run a fan spring, summer, winter, and fall in my room like a big box fan, so it's white noise, so I don't have to hear him.

Yeah.

I forgot that.

Yeah, so we're probably about maybe halfway or so into this episode.

And.

I know that there are people listening that are saying you are freaking crazy, that nobody should go to that extent for an animal. Why don't you just like lock him in the bathroom, lock him in? I've even said that, like he's got a lot of his stuff is downstairs in her basement. It's not like a scary, creepy basement. You know why not just close him down there, and that is an option. You know, some animals do have their space. That's where they go at night, so you can live your life and be peaceful. But it's a choice. It's a choice that you have as the human that's in charge. So why do you put up with him?

Well, like people say, it's a part of their family. You invest a lot of your heart into it and everything. And when you take on that responsibility, like you said in the beginning, this is a responsibility that's going to last about 20 years and you can't just kick somebody to the curb because they're pissing you off. You just can't do that. Find another way. Go onto a podcast or a website. Find another solution Watch Jackson Galaxy on TV. I never thought of that, which is why I have the shock mat and the motion sensor. These things worked over time and you know, yes, it's a struggle, but he makes me laugh every day and it's the investment of your blood, sweat and tears into this.

Yeah Well, no pet, no companion, no person is perfect and you have to make adaptations to make the relationship work. For sure, do you find and this is something else I think you know when people you know? I'm thinking right now about Eddie, the dog that I have at my house right now, who chewed some very expensive chairs. 100% my fault, I left him unattended, a dog that I did not know very well, who was young and obviously had a thing for chewing. I just didn't know the extent that he would be willing to chew on. You know, just enough to basically ruin, not destroy. You could sit in it if you want to see the foam sticking out of your chair one chair and then moved across the room and did the same thing to the other chair. It's like every animal is different. Some animal might have worked on that chair and just worked a little corner and then walked away. Some animals might have taken that chair down to the springs and the feet and gone from there. So you've really, I think, supervision and understanding how your animal operates and how far they're willing to go. How much of a chew drive does that animal have? How much of a food drive does your animal have? Because I can't imagine. I've had lots of cats whether it's my personal cats or just cats coming through my house and they all love food, but I've never seen anything like that, the extent to which your cat would go to rip into a bag of potato chips or throwing the garbage can down the stairs because it had a latch top. I mean, how does a cat maneuver? I mean you'd have to envision this home that's got kind of an open concept and the cat made managed to get the garbage can from the kitchen about eight feet away to the top of the stairs and pushed it down. It opened and it opened. Look at how well that worked. I mean it's no, that would not happen at my house. They would sit there, they would cry for two minutes and they would just move on. So some animals are much more persistent in what they need. My point in that too is to bring up the fact that some of these behaviors, beyond some of the interventions that you've taken so far to curb them, can also be prevented by making sure that your animal has appropriate, not only exercise, which you know we always talk about tiring animals out so that they're, you know, less mischievous, but enrichment and that, and nowadays we're really talking more about enrichment, and exercise is definitely a piece of that. So I know you spend a significant amount of time, again beyond what people would think for a cat. Now, a lot of the things that Bev does with the cat I think people do with their dogs, or they at least try to do with their dogs, but I don't think people realize that. You know there are some cats who would really benefit greatly, whether it's behavior that's unwanted or even anxiety. You know you've got a cat that just constantly licks themselves or is bullying another cat. Maybe they need more enrichment. So how did you kind of start going down the? Okay, I've done this, I've done the preventative measures. What can I do also to just help his overall well-being and his need to just be such a darn busy body?

First, I started with the fact that it does break my heart to have an indoor cat, and I get it. Every cat is safer in the home. Don't let your cats out to run free. It cars up here, it's coyotes, it's just horrible. People shoot them, people, yeah. So I think you even suggested try the harness and leash. I'm like that's never going to work. Sure enough, it freaking works and it works terrific. We go out and I always say to people lay on the crazy cat lady that walks my cat out of hardest and leash. But he thinks he's a freaking Puma. I mean, it's unbelievable. The stalking alone. It burns up so much energy, it's exhausting. It's mental energy too, exactly.

You may see a cat sitting there, very, very tense and leaning down ears forward, or the butt starts to wiggle, but there's so much thinking and processing that's going on. It's the same thing with dogs. You give a dog a good and we'll get into puzzle toys and things like that, but they can get exhausted from working a puzzle toy. If you're watching the video, you're getting to see Kazi. If you're not watching the video, we'll put a picture up. Yeah, dogs and animals need to use their brains, just like we do. Otherwise they either go down the wrong path, get into mischief or rot. So walking them on a leash.

That's part of it. I just want people to know. If you're playing with your cat in your house with a feather toy or something like that and they seem not to be interested or disengaged, leave it still for a second, you can see it. You can see when they get engaged. It might be boring for you. That's my point. You have to be a little bit patient until they get engaged and they want to put it into first gear and start going. It does seem a little boring at the time but, like I said, that stalking is huge Stalking and figuring out prey or whatever.

So what kind of things? Let's say, you're not going outside and you're not able to get them out on the leash or you don't feel like it what other things are you doing to keep him engaged? And burning off mental and physical steam?

You really do need to get creative. Even if you search on Amazon, there's always some kind of toy that you might know works specifically for your cat. For my cat, he needs to run until he's panting, but that can't always happen, especially when you're indoors in New England. So you kind of have to get creative, and what I've done. He's very food motivated, so I'll take a handful of his treats and, one by one, I throw them to the top of the stairs and they bang, bang, bang. They bounce down the stairs and he runs up and down these very high. I'm sure you remember.

Yes, very steep, scary stairs.

So it's good for his cardio and he's constantly balancing. He has slipped a little bit occasionally, but it's really good just running up and down the stairs until he's like I'm done, we're okay, and he's no longer a jerk. He's no longer pushing things off the edge of the table. If a cat does that, in my eyes it means you're not doing something for them, so doing something that just burns up energy. What I've done in the past the puzzle treat or the treat puzzle, whatever you want to call it that's always good for their brain.

Yeah, I just recently gotten those for our dogs too. Just to number one. It's something for them to do. It kind of keeps their minds occupied and there's a lot of research that backs up the nose. Work that they have to do and the figuring out how to make that puzzle work burns just as much energy as a run does, because they're using just it's just a different type of energy but it's just as exhausting for them and so important. And I think it's interesting that we don't give our animals the same credit that we give children, like we wouldn't keep your on a rainy day. When you've got kids trapped in the house, you're going to find something for them to do. If you're not trapped in the house, you're going to be getting them outside, getting them running. You've got sign them up for soccer. You sign them up for this well, because they need to burn off steam and they need to use their physical bodies and they need to use their minds and our animals have those same needs and, like you said, when we don't fulfill those, they get into all kind of mischief because they're creating their own opportunities, just like a kid trapped in the house with nothing to do is going to do.

And sometimes you might think that it's kind of boring, like we talked about Jackson Galaxy's the bird earlier, and sometimes if the oh he's not chasing it, well, drag it across the floor like it's prey, even though he's not jumping on it and chasing it. That stalking is mentally exhausting. So you just have to get into their world. You can't just, I don't know. You just have to make sure that you fulfill every, all the slices of the pie for them, whether it's running or stalking or whatever it might be. But the other one I think we mentioned earlier in the podcast was the one fast cat the big hamster wheel.

You know, I don't know. So for those of you who may be watching this on video, I was going to say this and then I forgot is that we had some technical difficulties recording this episode. So we actually recorded the first half of this, half of this episode, probably like two weeks ago, when we were in person together, and now we're recording it remotely to catch up. So it's a little bit of a did we, did we talk about that already, but I don't think we got into the fast cat because we we had big plans, we were going to show it and all that other stuff. But talk about that because it's like a giant hamster wheel, right, or that's all pretty much.

It's completely safe. The framework there's really no framework. It sits on a cradle and the wheel sits on four smaller wheels, so there's no framework that they're going to get caught in or anything, and it's. It comes unassembled and you kind of click the pieces together and it makes this giant. I don't know four foot tall wheel. Yeah, it's big. It's big and it spins very easily on the four smaller wheels casters, like on the bottom, my cat. It has to be food motivated, so a piece of chicken will do it. A piece of cat filled would not do it, so I have to get a piece of chicken that's cooked and hold that in front of him to get him going and running, and then after a few minutes he'll last a while, but after a few minutes he's like, yeah, no, we're done, Give me the chicken or I'm getting off this thing. But yeah, having said that, it still encourages balance, encourages hunting, encourages running. He gets a little bit of a workout and it was definitely worth the purchase to get it. I think other people might have better success if their cat also is food motivated as well, but it works. I think it's great in the wintertime.

It's perfect. Yeah, I think the bottom line with a lot of this is number one you need to get to know your pet. How much of a need do they have for extra exercise and extra stimulation? And then, what do they like to do? What really floats their boat? And I think part of that probably has to do with not only the pet itself, its personality. It could be tied back to its breed, because most of us don't have a clue what our pets really are from a breed perspective. But do you feel like too? It also has to do with his physical age and development. I know you got him as an adult, you didn't get him as a kitten, but has his need for that changed? Or what he likes to do? Is that changed over time? It?

has but very little Like. It's definitely less playful, but he still likes to go out on the horse and leash. He'll still do the one fast cat wheel, Maybe not so much the bird anymore, but his taste really haven't changed. He's just slowing down a little bit, that's all.

That happens to all of us when we get older and it's interesting. We did a recent episode with a person who is a very experienced not only shelter person but also a trainer and we were just kind of planning for the episode and talking about what we're going to talk about on the episode and I had never really thought about the fact that the toy need does not go away just because the dog's not a puppy anymore. It may just be a different toy or a different kind of play that we need to engage our pets in as they get older.

Yeah, the bird. Usually when he was younger, that would be the one that he would just go crazy for to the point where he was panting. Now his big thing is those kick sticks. So it's like that fiber filled cloth covered, pretty stiff toy.

Yeah, Kong makes some really good ones of those kicker roos or whatever they're called.

We'll put it in the link rabbit kick, and that seems to be his go to thing, along with totally getting high with the catnip.

Tell people what you do with your catnip outside, or at least you did at the old house. I'm not sure about the new house.

Yeah, same thing. So it's right now in July it's out there in the pot growing and once in a while kind of like easily pinch it back and take a few leaves off and I just put it in the freezer in a baggy, and first time the frost comes then I take the rest of it and put everything in the freezer. So all winter long we have fresh not dried, fresh frozen catnip and he just goes crazy for it, even if it comes out like wilted and whatever. He don't care, he loves it.

It's funny. Kelsey pulled out a baggy out of the freezer. You never know what you're going to find in our freezer. But the baggy out of the freezer there the other day and is it like, okay, I need you to tell me if this is parsley, cilantro or catnip and I'm like I don't know. It looks like green goo at this point, but the cat knows the difference for sure. What do you do with that wet catnip?

Just kind of give it to him, and even if it's slimy at that point you can just rub it on one of the toys, like the kickstick. Oh yeah, goes crazy for it, and kind of gets the smell on it again it's fine, if it's a nice big whole leaf, then that's, he'll just eat that. He doesn't care if it's icy, cold or whatever, he just eats it. He eats a monster.

He's terrible. One other question Obviously there's a wide range of budgets. I know things like the one fast cat are not inexpensive. Even the bird is not, you know, a cheap cat toy per se. Have you found that random household objects or homemade toys, because I've seen some of the weird stuff on your floor that it's like is that garbage or is the cat playing with that?

God bless Chewy and Amazon because that's how you get. The cat just loves to get inside a box. Everybody knows. You put a cardboard box on the floor, boom, they're in. So every time there's an Amazon shipment or whatever, he's in the box. But crumbled up pieces of paper. That's the best.

Or the crinkly paper that comes in some of those boxes. Cats love that too.

Well you take the crinkly paper and you make a tent out of it so they can get into that. I mean, yeah, if I could turn the camera around. My dining room floor is just a mess. It's a cat, it's a cat fest littered with cat debris. But yes, I don't have kids living at home. I live by myself, so what do I care? It's a mess.

So do you feel like you have to kind of cycle the toys through or, you know, take some away and then bring them back to keep them interesting, or you just leave everything out?

No, I think so I think, and also I get tired of looking at it. But especially things like, especially things like newspaper and whatnot, eventually they lose their crinkliness. So when there's a fresh batch of Amazon whatever coming in, then yeah, I just switch it out, and mostly just because I get tired of looking at the floor being a mess. So I switch the toys out and go into the closet and I say, oh, he hasn't played with this for a while, let's switch it out. And he, I guess there is a little bit of interest to try to keep it fresh, but it always comes back to the cardboard boxes. It really does. And there's one or two favorite toys that are just, they're always his go to thing. One of them is like a little tiny yarn ball, like those little chicks that you used to make as a kid. Like you wrap the ball up and you cut the ends.

Oh yeah, it's just like. Yeah, it's just like a pom pom, basically, and there's silent.

You know, you think it would have to be something crinkly or whatever, but it's silent. But it moves quickly and it bounces around. That seems to make him crazy.

Yeah, I think certain noises and then the motion, you're engaging the different senses, whether it's something that smells a certain way, something that feels a certain way, sounds a certain way. Look for those opportunities to kind of get those different things into your repertoire of toys and things to do with your pet.

And I just thought of one other thing was changing the sheets on the bed Always fun.

Oh gosh, I know I never had a cat that does that.

Really no, I think part of it is, you know, hunting under the. I can't see what it is, you got a pounce on it. And also they are so fastidious that having a clean sheet is just heaven to them. I like that. So I try to clean the cat beds as frequently as possible, because they like clean stuff, and so does everybody else, so just wash it as much as he can. There you go, there you go.

So overall, it sounds like you have gone above and beyond what you know, because I get people calling. I mean, I literally had a lady call the other day and granted it was an issue between her cat and the new cat. She had not had the cat 24 hours and she was already ready to return it and because the place that she got it from wasn't open, she was just calling rescues and it's like okay, the cat hadn't really done anything yet other than her and the new cat weren't getting along Well, they don't even know each other, you know, and so just to kind of wrap things up, what lessons could you share with people, or maybe give them some motivation for sticking with it when they've got a quote? unquote difficult pet like Cuzzy might be perceived by some people today.

Well, when you take on that responsibility, it's a commitment and I don't want to create it with a baby that you can't send back, but I mean it's a commitment. You made the commitment you wanted to adopt, so follow through, be consistent, put the time into it, give them time to adjust. If you bring a kitten home and it's not getting along with your cat, that's there now. Give them some time, figure it out, research, research before you adopt.

Research is huge. I know you've done a lot of research.

A lot of it was just figuring out, like the door handles you know I had in the other house. They were latches and all the doors were open. Hmm, if I really had a problem with that, I would probably switch the door handles out to door knobs. Yeah, a lot of it was just trial and error. Oh he's, he's thrown the garbage can down the stairs because he was trying to get the bungee cord off the top of it. Yeah, you know, if your child misbehaves, you don't throw it away. You figure out a way to make it work. That's all it is. It's just commitment and empathy. Make the house livable for the cat, not just yourself. There's a way around it.

I think, sometimes too, changing your mindset. I know that I personally have had my eyes opened and my mind opened a little bit just in doing this podcast and talking to different pet experts, especially with cats. It's like it's not bad behavior, it's cat behavior, that's what cats do. And so I think if you don't know what cats do and you don't know what cats need going into it, and you think it's just going to be this thing that's going to lay around your house and maybe occasionally cuddle with you and have no other needs whatsoever, you're not giving the animal credit enough for who it is from a species standpoint. So it's important to do your homework even from that perspective, before you decide oh, I can't get a dog because I don't have this, this, this in lifestyle, or I worked too many hours, so I'll just get a cat. And it's like, well, you know that cat may be just as much of a challenge as you have found as any dog, so be prepared for that as well.

Yeah, exactly, and he's worth it. He makes me laugh every day. There's something that he does. Every day. I have company visiting and he is working her. He is trying to get treats from her. Last night we were eating dinner and he's practically reaching up and grabbing her bowl to pull it down, the bowl that we're eating out of. You gotta tell him no, you gotta tell him no because it's going to happen. But, yeah, it's definitely worth all the effort. He's worth it.

He is something else. We'll post his picture on the show notes. Well, bev, I appreciate you jumping back on and redoing this whole 20 minutes of the last, the last half of this podcast with me. It was such a bummer too, because it was such a good, we were on such a good flow, so hopefully we finished it up well, I think we did okay, but we're definitely going to have you back as a recurring guest, because I ordered you. Just so everybody knows, I ordered Bev her own headset for podcasting, so therefore she can be high tech and professional and I'm just going to let her take over the podcast. I'm not going to do it anymore.

No, no, no, no, no, no. It's bad enough that I'm going back to headphones after working at the police department with headphones, hey there you go.

It'll be just like that. We'll pretend I'm having a flashback. All right. Well, I'll let you get back to visiting with your auntie there. Thank you so much for being with us and thank you all for listening to another episode of Starlight Pet Talk. And, as I always say, if you don't do anything else this week, give your pets a hug from us and we'll see you next time.

Yeah.