Monday, January 20, 2014

Lilith presents - Life with oriental cats

Oriental cats differ from "normal" cats in various ways, so I decided to tell you some of my educated opinions and personal experiences of living with a crowd of orients.

Hunger - The Neverending Hunger
I am convinced, that oriental cats have a black hole on the place where their stomach should be. They can eat... eat... and still be hungry 5mins after and scream for more food. They have also been known of emptying the fridge from food and eating the weirdest things, like dry spaghetti, hard bread etc. Food is food, and belongs to the belly of an oriental. At least that is how they like to think.
Miziu helping to wash the dishes
Kira stealing bread
 
The Sound of Music
Or rather... sound of rusty hinges creaking in an abandoned house, or a little baby screaming... Usually the louder the later evening it is. Oriental cats rarely say a cute little "meow", but they make themselves heard in the apartments next street when they decide it is time to sing a little serenade. Ladies calling can be extremely loud, and earplugs will not really have much effect against this voiceterrorism. And combine this sound they produce with the neverending hunger, and your home will never be silent!
And yes, the sound of rusty hinges is their voice - there is nothing wrong with it, even our vet first time thought that Kira was suffering from some terrible soundcord injury when she decided to go vocal at the vet visit!
Even the little ones can make suprisingly a lot of noise, especially at dinnertime!
Their Slender and Athletic Bodies
Orientals look so slender, so athletic... but dont let the outside trick you! Even they look very agile and able to perform multiple athletic feats at once, usually it ends up looking like all their legs have different opinion about to which way to go. One wants left, one right etc. and the poor body is stuck at between struggling to gain control of the tentacles wanting to go their own way.
Even they have the "neverending hunger" - and they eat a lot if allowed to - they usually manage to keep their slender bodies up to standard which makes most of the human models grit their teeth with envy. BUT, it is possible (quite easily) fatten up your orient so it looks like a round barrel with 5 sticks pointing out from it. And in this case "its just more orient to love" is not valid approach, but fatness can cause extreme strain to their bones and joints. So keep the feeding under control!
Social Creatures
Orientals just LOVE being around others... if it is another cat or a human, does not really matter. They just want to be part of everything that is going on in the house! Sometimes you are not safe from them even in the shower. Or in the toilet. Or anywhere. They just love to be there where the action is. If you want a cat that is more like a cat, sleeps 23,5h a day... do not take oriental cat!
Being a social creature can cause also some akward moments, like when your dear oriental cat decides to bring your underwear to the dinnertable where your relatives are dinining to show off how great hunter she is. Or when you are watching a great football match from the tv and your oriental decides that the opposite site goalie sucks and goes to help and tries to catch the ball from your tv-screen.
 
Brain usage
Orientals generally do not look to be too intelligent - until it suits their purposes. You look at your cat doing "catstuff" and just think how silly and simple it is. Then you leave your house and come back, finding your fridge emptied and your oriental sleeping peacefully on the couch. Before calling the ghostbusters or the FBI, read the first part of the eternal hunger of my post and connect the two dots. Oriental cat, like many other cats enjoy brainteasers and learn fast - in good and bad. Orientals are very easily motivated just by the idea of FOOD so only the sky is the limit (or hunger of the cat) of teaching your oriental some new tricks.
HUUUUUNGRY!! There is usually more than just empty space between the two huge ears - when it suits the purposes of the oriental cat
So, if you think you can live with all that (and many other wonderful things), oriental might be just the right type of cat for you!
 
We welcome you to our home to see all our orients and get to know them better!
 
~  Lilith The Mighty Minikitten




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