New Here

[NicoleLJ]

Hi. If you have been to the dog area you will see my new thread that gives a bit of a discription about me and two pictures of my two dogs Sheena and Luca. I also have 3 cats and 2 ferrets(which I will post pictures of in teh pet section. I am a stay at home mom of two great kids and I reside in Canada. I can't wait to get to know you all.

Prince (oldest cat at about 8-9 yrs old)
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h264/NicoleLJ_2003/472E1C12-B085-6650-C330E47B7E5B37DE.jpg

Psycho is about 6-7 yrs old
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h264/NicoleLJ_2003/472CC2A0-0551-4596-1AD84DB3C472C0A7.jpg

Peace is our newest addition at about 6-7 months old
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h264/NicoleLJ_2003/tmpphpZteqDj.jpg

Nicole

[Catty1]

Welcome, Nicole!

Beautiful babies! PSYCHO? :D

If you go down to the last section, you will see a topic on Meetings. A few Canadians are trying to set up meetings. I am wondering what area you are from, as we have one lonely PTr in PEI!

Welcome again!

[RedHedd]

Welcome to Pet Talk. Your kitties are gorgeous, but I especailly like Psycho's name and markings - what a beauty! :D

[critter crazy]

Beautiful cats, love the name choices too!:D Welcome!! You have some lovely animals!

[buttercup132]

Lol I love thier names.

They are all gorgeous!

Lol Catty you beat me to asking about the meeting:p

[NicoleLJ]

Catty1 - Thanks. Psyco actually has a very interesting story behind her name. She used to be called Taffy. She was owned by an elderly woman who allowed her to run loose and get abused. She was so badly abused that she learned to hate people with a vengence. When the lady went into a nursing home Taffy ended up in the rescue I was fostering for. She was wild with aggression. She was so bad that she was scheduled to be put to sleep. But I wanted to give her a chance. I have a knack for the hard cases. I brought her home and put her in my spare room. She stayed there for many months. Anytime anyone would walk past teh door she would scream and hiss and try to attack them from under the door. If you went in to her room you had to be dressed in winter gear to protect yourself. She would litterally throw herself at you to attack you with her teeth and all four feet. Well with a lot of patence, training, behaviour modifaction she has become a wonderful lap cat. She has been with us four years now. She is safe around children and other animals. But those crazy first months is why she has the name Psycho. If you say her name she comes running purring all the way.

I am in Southern Alberta.

RedHedd - Thanks. All my cats, ferrets and also Luca are rescues. Sheena is the only one form a breeder. Prince I found with is other two siblings in a dumpster when he was about 2 weeks old, Peace we found under a car out front of our house. He was skin and bone. The ferrets we got form a rescue in Calgary. Luca we also got form a rescue.

critter crazy - Thank you so much.

Buttercup132 - Thanks. I am in ALberta.
Nicole

[Laura's Babies]

WELCOME TO PET TALK! Hope you like it enough to stay around awhile. Your babies are adoreable even Psycho.. (My daughter has a cat that she call a psycho kitty that is also a calico.)

There is a nice bunch of people here and I am sure you will love it. It is a great place to show off your babies and brag, brag, brag! (about them) :D

[kimlovescats]

Welcome to PT! All of your kitties are very pretty and I love Psycho's story! We all love rescue stories that have such happy endings! Thank you for sharing that and for saving Psycho!!!

Kim :)

[NicoleLJ]

Laura's Babies - Thanks so much. I already like it here. And as you most likely noticed I love to take pics and post them.

kimlovescats - Thanks. I will always rescue. I was a fosterer for 13 years for shelters and pounds. I hope in teh next couple of years to move out of town to some property and start a White Shepherd rescue.
Nicole

[krazyaboutkatz]

Welcome to PT!!!:D All 3 of your cats are gorgeous and thanks for telling us Psycho's story. I'm so glad that she's now accepted you as her family.:)

All of my cats are also from rescue groups. Storm and Sky were from the Humane Society, Sunny and Starr were from rescue groups and were fostered in a home. Pearl and Ziggy Stardust were found dumped in a park with feral cats and were fostered by another PT'er,K & L, and I fell in love with them so I had to adopt them.:)

[orangemm]

Welcome to this neck of the woods! What an amazing story about Psycho; see what love and patience will do? She is blessed that you did not give up on her, no matter how bad it was.

Love all your pictures. Keep up the good work. Those guys are lucky to have you!

[CultureJunky]

Hi Nicole,
Welcome to the forum, it is a great place with lots of fun and pictures and stories about the wonderful companions we all have.
I love Peace what a beauty, so perfectly white! Is he deaf as some white cats are deaf sometimes?
I have two cats Jack and his sister Sunny, who I adopted from Cat's Protection here in Wales. I dote on them and adore them more than anything.
They have Catster pages if you want to check them out!
We all look forward to hearing more stories and seeing more pics of you gorgeous rescue babies.

Kate

Jack:
http://www.catster.com/pet_page.php?i=313762

Sunny:
http://www.catster.com/pet_page.php?i=313764&j=t

[trayi52]

Hi Nicole, love the pictures of your cats, they are just priceless! Really do love the picture of Psycho. Well I love them all, I could pick out something about everyone of them!

Anyway,Welcome to Pet Talk!

Willie :)

[Freedom]

Hi Nicole, WELCOME! This is a great place, with lots of people who are just nuts about their pets, ha ha. Peace certainly looks full sized; if she is 6 to 8 months old, she could maybe get even a little larger, whoa!

I have had a total of 9 cats. Eight were either foundlings or shelter kitties. One came to me from a lady with 2 cats moving into senior housing; they only permitted one cat. As her kitty was 12, she could not find anyone willing to take on an older cat. I have seven currently. My cats range in age from 1 year old to 15 (the one from the senior lady). They are an active, spoiled, demanding bunch!

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

First of all: http://users.pandora.be/bernardgabriels/images/Smilies%20550%20welcome_kittiesletters.gif to Pet Talk!!!

Wow, what a touching story about Psycho!! How in the world did you manage to let her trust humans again?? Great achievement!!

I am Lut, owned by 4 cats and a bunny :)

[catmandu]

A BIG FOUND Cat welcome to the Terrific Trio.
And that would be a great thing for Canadian Pet Talkers to meet, and compare notes.
Its just that Canada is such a big country,oh well we can dream.

[AbbyMom]

Welcome to Pet Talk! Psycho's story is charming. Good work. We all love stories with happy endings here at Pet Talk.

[Reachoutrescue]

Nicole,

Welcome to PT. This is an awsome place to be. I have learned that there are so many good hearted animal lovers out there. I hope you enjoy it here.

I love your pets. They are so cute. Your cat Peace, is so handsome. I just love white cats!

Again, welcome. :D

[NicoleLJ]

krazyaboutkatz - Thanks. That is so wonderful that you have rescued so many. I admire the people that adopt animals form shelters and rescues. They are the last and most important link in the rescue chain in my book.

orangemm - Thanks. Psychos was a hard case but she turned around nicely once she was re socialize, had behaviour modifaction and some training.

CultureJunky - Thanks. No Peace can hear perfectly. I tested his hearing th every first day to make sure.

trayi52 - Thank you so much

Freedom - When we found Peace at teh beginning of September he was just starting to lose his teeth. So the vet figured his age at about 5-6 months old. He was small when he first arrived but good food has helped him to grow fast. lol. 9 cats!!!! WOW. I ahve never had that many except when I was fostering mommies with kittens.

Maya & Inka's mommy - Thanks. Since my home was litterally a last resort and her aggression was so bad I had to take the most extreme messures. She was put in my spare room with a bowl of water and a litter box. For two days she was alone in there to settle down. But no food at all. I know some will look at me badly for that but in her case food was the only way we could change her beahaviour. After 2 days I would go in to her room several times a day with a food dish of various foods. Took her another whole day to come and eat out of my lap. But the only way she could eat was to eat out of my lap. For a week I would no touch her. Just let her eat. She would growl and eat at the same time. The whole time. By the end of the week though the growling had gotten to just being periodic. Then for a week when she would start to eat I would just barely touch her back for a few seconds. The first time she flipped out. She went at my face and just freaked. Luckily I only ended up with a few good scraches. But after a few days she would just scream at me. By the end of the week she would growl loudly when i touched her back. AS the weeks went by I slowly increased the amount of touching. After about 6 months there was no more growling and she actually would arch her back to be touched. She would also great me at teh door and once in a while she would actually purr. That is when I started letting her out of the room for supervised time with the other animals. It was a very long journey for her. But she is such a lovable cat now that it was well worth it. ANd hse has the loudest motor of all the cats. lol

catmandu - Thanks. I would love to meet some of you some day but as you said Canada is a big country.

AbbyMom - Thanks. She always had it in her to be a great cat. She just had to learn to trust people.

Reachoutrescue - Thanks. I am addicted to white animals as you can see from Peace and Sheena. lol
Nicole & Sheena PSD OFA FD FDX

[KitCat]

I think you found the right place! You sound like alot of the people here who really go the extra mile to make a home for cats!

[Dorothy39]

Your cats are just beautiful~ and I have to admit, I was smitten with Psycho's photo, ;) I would have never guessed the story of how he got that name!!!!! :eek: How did you ever regain his trust!!!! because it is such a wonderful, happy story!!!

I'm glad you like to post pictures~ your pets are Beautiful!!!!!!



I just read the amazing story of how you helped Psycho become a Warm and Loving Cat.!!!!!! :o

[phesina]

Dear Nicole, welcome to the Cats section of Pet Talk! This is a wonderful group of people from all over whose lives are ruled by cats. I have five cats, and all of them are rescues too. I work at a cat shelter and pet-sit sometimes.

Your story of Psycho is amazing. I had a cat like that, Mitsie, and like you I gave him a home so he wouldn't be euthanized. I was absolutely fascinated to read the process by which you socialized Psycho. I wish I had known of it. I didn't have any ideas on how to retrain Mitsie. I just gave him the space to be however he felt like being and plenty of food and warmth and love. He never did become resocialized, but he did calm down somewhat over the years. I had him for about 8 years, and he got quite old. He finally passed away last year from kidney disease complications. Toward the end I was able to hold him and pet him. I told him often how much I loved him.

All the best! Looking forward to learning more about you and your family,

Pat, and Peony, Sydney, Priscilla, Poppy, and Elmer

[NicoleLJ]

KitCat - Thanks. I don't beleive in not giving a chance. If someone tries and fails that is one thing but to not try at all I just find wrong. That is why I always seemed to end up witht eh harder cases. lol

Dorothy39 - I think that is one of the things I like about cats. If they don't trust you forget it. Ther ei snot much you can do unless you earn that trust. But once you do the results can be very surprising.

phesina - Thanks. I rarely had to use that technique. I think about 5-7 times out of 13 years of fostering did I have to use that technique. The point is to get them to realize that you are a food and resource provider. So first they have to get hungry. I would never allow an animal to go without food for more then 2 days and only for cases like this. In these types of situations food can be a very powerful tool in resocializing and modifying behaviour.
Nicole

[GreyhoundGirl]

Welcome to Pet Talk. Your kitties are gorgeous, but I especailly like Psycho's name and markings - what a beauty! :D

Dito, the face colouring is lovely.

WELCOME, I'll have to check out the Dog section (which I am more often in ) for some of your Pups pics. From your siggy... Looks like a cutie ! ;)

[MajesticCollies]

Welcome to PT Nicole. You will probably see me around here alot. I love to help people understand nutrition and health for there pets. I also work with Tri State Collie Rescue. Careful, this place is addicting.

[Randy_K]

The name Psycho is OK. I know of a cat named Ernie the Assassin.

Welcome Nicole!

[jazzcat]

Welcome to PT! Your kitties are adorable and what an interesting story of how Psycho got her name.

[Abby&Buddy'sMom]

http://www.gifs.net/Animation11/Words/Welcome_Signs/hand_writing.gif

Hi I have 2 cats: Abby is a black medium hair 3 yrs old and Buddy is a blue point siamese 2 yrs old.
Hope you like it here as well as I do. Everyone is so nice and we most certainly like lots of pictures !! :)

[Bengalz]

Hi Nicole and welcome to Pet Talk. I hope you enjoy coming here and meeting some kindred spirits - pet lovers :)

You kitties are adorable and very lucky to have you. I admire your patience and dedication to Pyscho especially. Poor little kitty didn't know what being loved was until you took the time and energy to teach the little baby compassion.

We have one little kitty girl who has stolen our hearts and makes our days very fun and interesting. Her name is Eve and she is a bengal mix.

You'll fit right in on this site - there are so many amazing people with amazing fur kids. They are all special - just like you.

Betty