Found this video that encompasses both Ka's and Zaia's behavior around the computer. Ka takes it one step further and actually chews the cable in two rather than just unplugging it though.
Showing posts with label cats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cats. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Cat Truths
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Happy Birthday Ka and Zaia!
On July 12, Ka and Zaia turned one year old. They got a day of canned food and new toys - a feather toy for Ka (which he stole out of the bag, packaging and all) and a new puff ball for Zaia. Zaia killed her puff ball in roughly 30 seconds flat, but we consider that a success.
For perspective, here's a picture of them when we first got them. Note that they are sitting in the same cat tree in both pictures. When we first got them, we thought Ka would be the crazy, run-around-the-house cat, less of a lap kitty and more of a get-in-trouble kitty. Zaia would be the lap cat, more shy but loving with the people she's comfortable with. We were wrong on those predictions.
Ka loves to sit on laps. He'll follow us around the house, waiting for a lap opportunity. He sits on laps daily. He's also braver with new people - greeting new people within 10 minutes or so, where Zaia will likely retreat into her room for the duration of the visit. Zaia is more of a weekly lap-sitter, but indulges in daily insanity. She'll play with her toys, chase herself up and down the stairs, hopping in and out of boxes, behind the curtains and she gets a spray dousing for attacking the blinds every evening. She's shyer around people, but braver around gadgets. She was the first to use the robot litterbox and will sit near the vacuum cleaner longer than Ka. They haven't learned any new tricks in a while (primarily my fault for not teaching them anything new), but they still happily do their old tricks for treats.
They've been a wonderful addition to the household family so far and we look forward to many more years with them.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Ka's Backyard Adventure
It was a bittersweet day.
The sweet part was when Ka donned his smart red walking jacket and ventured out in the wilds of the backyard. This wasn't his first outing. A few weeks ago, he wore his red jacket and yo-yo'ed in and out before he could muster up the will to stay outside. He would put a paw on the step outdoors, retreat to his room upstairs. Then he would come down a few minutes later and sit on the step. He would retreat upstairs again, then come down and sniff the patio tile below the step. It took him six or seven tries to slink over to the patio table and lie down in the moss. He cautiously explored the area just outside the door with me scrambling to make sure the leash didn't get tangled up in branches, chairs, or plant containers. This time, he didn't need the retreating iterations to get outside but it still took several laps around the backyard before he stopped slinking around. The sheer joy of pouncing on bugs probably did it. It was Lee's turn to "walk" Ka. Although Ka's pace was relatively slow, he would unexpectedly speed up to jump on anything of interest.
The bitter part came when he returned inside. During his adventure, Zaia stayed firmly inside. She also yo-yo'ed up and down the stairs, but the closest she came to outside was to stand at the threshold and sniff the air. When Ka came back inside, she made it a point to smell him thoroughly. Apparently what she found wasn't to her liking. They're no longer on speaking terms. Perhaps she's jealous that she wasn't able to experience whatever it was that made him smell so differently. But there was much hissing and growling within a radius of about 3-4 feet. Ka has spent the rest of the evening asleep on my lap. Zaia spent the evening cavorting in their room alternating with coming downstairs to see how close she could get to her brother before he starts hissing or growling. We did have some moments of peace when we had a trick and treat session, but it ended with Zaia cuffing poor Ka upside the head. As I type this, Ka is under my desk, hunched up, staring at Zaia who's on the other side of Lee's chair, similarly hunched up and staring at Ka.
Hopefully they'll remember they're each other best friends soon.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Cirque of Ka and Zaia
We haven't gotten very far with new tricks. Ka and Zaia get so enthusiastic about receiving the treats that my fingers bear battle scars. So I guess we need to work on some kitty zen with them - that clawing and biting don't get them the treats any sooner. The trouble with learning that rule is that it involves more battle scars before they get it. I have to space it out and let my fingers heal in between lessons.
But they do have the following trick down pat:
Ka is a much more linear and impatient student than Zaia. Once he figures out what will get him the treats, he'll repeat it over and over and over and over. He does experiment now and then but gets frustrated easily. Zaia loves the treats too, but perhaps not with the passion of burning suns that Ka has. So she tends to be much more random. I think she picks up tricks by watching Ka do something and then she follows. However she is more willing to do random things to try and figure out what I'm trying to get them to do. Except that without Ka's powers of retention, it remains somewhat random until Ka learns it and repeats it (over and over and over).
We're working on getting Ka to High-Five sans claws. Right now, I put a hand up, he puts a paw out with claws to bring it closer and see if there's a treat in it. But when we leave the house, he has taken to sitting on his cat tree next to the window and putting a paw up to wave goodbye against our hand on the other side of the window.
Then there's Fetch. I've seen them both pick up things and carry them around so we just need to get them to bring those things to us. Right now, they tend to carry it off to their favorite spot (i.e. under the Christmas tree) to play with it there. It's a hit or miss endeavor.
As for the Litter Robot, it's like it's always been their litterbox. (And there was much rejoicing in the household.) They still go to the bathroom together. And they both find they have to go right when we're adding new litter to it or otherwise tending to it. There's no longer any flinching and looking nervously towards the upstairs bathroom when it starts cycling. So we'll call this a win-win.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
High Tech Gadgetry, Zaia-Ka Style
In my youth, one of my chores inspired my lyric misunderstanding of the song "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash. I heard, "Cherie don't like it. Not the catbox, not the catbox" and thought they wrote it just for me. I hadn't lived with cats since I lived at home before college, but I knew I would live with them again. And now, I have Ka and Zaia.
But let me back up a little and get to the point. Two years ago, when I was daydreaming about having cats again, I remembered my "Not the Catbox" song and researched possible ways that the 21st century might have been brought to the litterbox. That was when I discovered the Litter-Robot being raved over at the Automatic Litterbox Forum (if you don't think there's a forum for just about any topic, rest assured, there is one). Intrigued, I headed over to the company website to see how it worked, and why I should believe it would be reliable. The product itself is essentially a barrel on its side atop a waste bin. The barrel holding the litter, upon detecting cat usage, would roll, sift out the good litter, and continue rolling until the clumped litter could be dumped out into the waste bin underneath it. Then it would roll back, putting the unused litter back in place and ready for the next visit. Thus, scooping would be done automatically, requiring only that the waste bin be dumped out every few days or so. The smell, hopefully, would be confined to the waste bin only. Cats, being cats, could still find ways to foil this ingenious system, not the least of which would be refusing to use it. This was by far the biggest obstacle according to the litterbox forum. But I was intrigued (and not a little jealous that I hadn't thought of the idea myself). But I didn't have cats then.
Now I do.
Since Ka and Zaia are still kittens, I figured it would be easier to get them acclimated to a fancy new litterbox than if they were older. So it was a red letter day when I pushed the order button. And with much anticipation, I saw that it would be delivered on the Friday before Thankgiving.
We predicted that Ka, as our resident adventurer, would be first to check it out, use it, and thenceforth try to figure out how it worked. Zaia would be a little slower to take to it, but once Ka experienced it and didn't yowl in displeasure, she would be fine with it.
And so it arrived:
The box was huge. Ka was with me when I opened it and put it on the floor to have a look. It was still huge. He didn't seem too perturbed about it. He sniffed all the parts. It wasn't until I carried it up the stairs to their bathroom that it began to dawn on him that he ought to pay more attention to it. Zaia was with us by then and she sat farther off to watch the goings on. I moved their current litterbox to the side and set up the Litter-Robot in its place. It took both Lee and I to read through the instructions and put litter in it. Once it was ready to go, we unplugged it so as to not freak the cats out too much. According to the company's suggestion, we left the current litterbox in place, but didn't bother cleaning it. We put a clump of the old litter into the new litterbox to give them the right smell of an idea.
Both had a habit of having to use the litterbox the second we dug around the litter to clean it out. So we scooped around in the new litterbox to get their attention. To our surprise, it was Zaia that led the way. She poked her head into the old litterbox, sniffed disdainfully and stepped up into the new one and used it. Ka was not one to be left out and crawled in after her, relishing in the depth of the new litterbox with apparent glee. Said glee was evident in the rain of litter making it out of the box as Ka flung it about, rearranged the clean litter, dug to the bottom to find out what it was made of. All seemed to be going well so far. That is, until we cycled it sometime later in their presence for the first time. Ka fluffed himself up and backed up. Zaia ran to their bed and hung out there for a few moments. She hopped down and made it halfway back to the litterbox by the time the cycle ended. A soothing pet for Ka soon after the litterbox cycle sent him all-paws into the air. No, that didn't go well at all.
The next time Ka went to the litterbox, he went into his old box, out of it, sniffed at the Litter-Robot's step, then ultimately went in his old box. Sigh. But it was only day 2. We had 58 days left in the company's money back trial period. We left the old box in place over the next couple of days and only cycled it while the cats were distracted with their feather toy so they could get used to the motor sound of the litterbox cycling (which sounded eerily like their nemesis, the Roomba). During the week, we soon graduated to cycling the Litter-Robot while they played within sight of it. They would perk up and show interest in the box, but played on. By Tuesday night, when we were gathering up the trash for trash day, we decided to keep the Litter-Robot on supervised cycling only and remove the old litterbox. At the start of Thanksgiving weekend, we left the new litterbox on automatic mode during the day and turned it off at night. By Friday, we were leaving the box on 24 hours a day.
But now, on Sunday, we have a new challenge. Ka has gotten over his initial wariness and is in full investigation mode. As soon as he hears the motor going, he trots upstairs to watch it. He has since discovered that stepping on its entrance step will stop the cycling momentarily, a handy safety feature. It also allows him to go inside and see what's different if the barrel is upside down (there's no litter and there's some sort of grate to stand on). Unfortunately, it also starts moving again 15 seconds after he stops it mid-cycle unless he triggers the sensor again. We have not yet come home to a thoroughly confused robot, but I foresee that event in the near future. Hopefully it won't be long after that until the Litter-Robot finally becomes their regular old, boring litterbox.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Cat Clicker Training or What My Kittens Will Do For Treats
I'm not sure how I got the idea of clicker training cats in my head. Or even training cats to begin with. So I'll start this story with my Google search for 'clicker training'. Of course I immediately found Karen Pryor's website for clicker training dogs, cats, horses, whatever animal you want to train. But more importantly, she had clicker training gear. I ordered the beginner cat training set that comes with an instruction book and a clicker. I went and picked out some suitable treats (small bits so they don't get full too quickly and different from their regular cat food so it seems more like a treat) from the pet store. I ended up with Wellness brand jerky treats that fit the bill. And judging from Ka and Zaia's motivation, they really fit the bill.
As soon as the instruction book arrived, I devoured the beginning pages. It did start off with the benefits of clicker training (like closer connection to your cats, another way of communication and mental stimulation for both owners and cats) but I skimmed through that and headed straight for how to get started. The first step was to have them associate the click sound with something good happening, i.e. treats. That may have taken 0.5 seconds but I wasn't timing. Next, we tried target training. I held out a chopstick and click/treated them when they touched it. It was maybe a minute later that they were following me and chasing the stick around so that they could touch it and get a treat. Apparently I made a bit of a mistake here in that I rewarded any sort of contact with the target when I should have just rewarded nose touching. We're retraining this now. Zaia gets it better than Ka. He'll still raise his paw to grab the target and bring it closer faster.
I noticed a few things during this process. The first is that they both learn amazingly quickly. Ka is more persistent in learning. I call him our Puzzler and can almost see his little brain pondering new things to try. He's figured out that doing something to knobs, whether they're doors or cabinet pulls, makes them open. He hasn't quite figured out what he needs to do to actually get them to open, but we'll find him trying every now and then.
The second thing is that I look forward to our training sessions in the evenings and I'll catch myself dreaming up new things to try the next time we train. I try to make sure we keep our sessions short to leave them wanting for more so that they don't decide it's boring for the next time. But if it isn't going well, I have to talk myself out of keeping on trying until we get it. I'm a big fan of learning anyway, and during training, I'm learning how to best communicate what I want them to do so that they get it and get treats. I find it even more engaging than flipping the fishing pole with feather around for them to play with. We still do that of course, because it's good to just play sometimes too.
Things Ka and Zaia know:
-Touch nose to target (Zaia knows this better than Ka. He likes to swat at the chopstick instead)
-Come when called. Currently, we call them with 2 knocks on the floor. I think we need to move this to something better suited to outside (whistle?) eventually.
-Sit (Ka knows this better than Zaia. Actually, I'm not sure she knows this yet)
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Welcome Ka and Zaia!
We went by the Milo mobile adoption event down at 4th Street in Berkeley today and brought home these two beauties! They are formerly named Ike and Clara, 4 month old brother and sister from a litter of five. As soon as I saw Ka (aka Ike) I knew I liked him. The lady at the adoption event let us hold both of them briefly. Ka really really wanted to jump down and play. Zaia was pretty nervous about all the sidewalk goings on and merely cuddled.
It took them several hours to wander out of their carrier once we put them in their own bathroom upstairs. Ka was lured out by the feathers we bought for them. Zaia is a little shyer but she soon followed her brother out. It wasn't long before they were exploring not just the bathroom, but also the adjoining playroom. Maybe they're still uncertain, but they were very polite about their exploration. By the end of the evening, I had two purring kittens in my lap just before bedtime. We're very happy to have them.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Cat Juggling + Ninja Cat
Tonight's obession was YouTube videos of cats. I didn't even know they had hamster wheels for cats, let alone that cats could self-juggle.
The second video requires some patience with the beginning (about 17 seconds in) until the camera starts playing peek-a-boo with the cat.
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