Feliway for DOGS?????? Hm....nothing else has helped him - medications and whatnot.... wonder if the Feliway would work? I suppose I could try it. Do you know how long it's been on the market? (wondering if it would already be on store shelves) I'll be needing to get to PetSmart in the next month or two (I'm "down" to 40 lbs of litter and will need to restock) and can look for it.

The Feliway for cats did nothing to settle Sparky or Muffin down.

I'm glad I am not the only one that thought of spray catnip. I don't even know where I got that idea from but I'm glad you've heard of it so that means it must exist. I will be looking for that too when I get to PetSmart. I think it would be good to spray Muffins favorite crinkle crab (a gift to Sparky from Margaret when we transfered ownership) with it so she would play with it again. I will also be looking for that toy with the mouse in it that is similar to the turbo scratcher.... I have to find SOMETHING that will keep Sparky happy with winter coming. The time they spend outdoors will be much more limited in winter. (Though we are looking forward to seeing what they will all do in the snow - just once if possible.)

Michelle:

The Feleway for dogs is in the store. That is how I found it - sitting right next to the feline version at the local pet food store.

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When Ranger was very young and active, I had a good deal of luck with a hanging toy mouse that had a computer chip in it. Touch it and it squeeked. Ranger and Floyd would play with it for hours at a time. Now, it is pretty much ignored (ever since Floyd passed away, Ranger does not play with it).

It was cute, almost as if Floyd was teaching Ranger to hunt. Floyd would jump at the hanging mouse, then wait for Ranger to do it.

Floyd was a very special cat!

Mark

Edited to add link to DAP (Feliway) for Dogs

I have two of those mouses that squeek (with a real mouse voice in it) and Sparky does like those but they are "old" to him already. They don't hang though.... but he does like to kill them when he gets going. His favorite toys are the little porcupine balls that Maria sent last April in a care package. He LOVES those and I have to constantly go looking for them to dig them out from under the stove or couch. Last night I actually saw him playing with other toys that I have never seen him play with before. Still, with spray catnip on them he might play with them more and with some new toys I think he might be a bit happier.

Another thought I had is that when the deadbeat contractors built our pole barn, they didn't use all the wood that came in the kit. Since my husband will be home on Mondays and not doing anything (he said he could use the wood to "build stuff") I thought maybe he could build some cat ramps and stuff so the cats can walk along the ceilings and stuff - at least here in the spare/computer/safe room. They have plenty to walk on in the living room the way it is all set up. Maybe he could even build them a new scratching post - bigger and better than the small ones they have now. I could staple the carpeting to it when he's done. Oh well... just ideas.

Thanks for the link for the dog feliway... now I will know what to look for at petsmart. It sounds like it might work as Snowball has ALL those problems it says it helps. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

Margaret - I'm so sorry!! I missed your post with the link to the spray catnip in it!!!! Thank you for posting that.

On the other paw... it would have been a good "invention" if I was the first to think of it. I could have made some money there!! Oh well.....

Oh boy....then I was WAY off in using the Feliway for the cats. Boy.... I sure was lucky nobody felt the need to spray in the house to mark stuff.... that would have been really bad. What a can of worms that would have been..... I'm glad my cats are secure in this house to know not to do that. I feel like I dodged a bullet! Thanks for clarifying that for me. I'll know not to use that again.

I feel bad for poor Simon and what he went through after you spraye the house with it. I guess you were lucky that he was only rubbing his face on stuff too and not actually spraying anywhere.

I didn't think of putting some of the toys away for a while and then bringing them back out again. Excellent idea. I can do that.

As for building a new (or more than one) scratching posts.... yes, we pretty much need a new one already. Sparky has torn the carpeting off one of the ones by the window and I have to keep picking up carpet threads all over the place so nobody swallows them. We really need a new one. At least one.

Michelle, rather than use carpet, wrap the scratching post with sisal rope. Cats prefer it, it does a better job of allowing them to get off the old dead outer layers of their claws, and it does not leave little bits and pieces on the floor like carpet does. It lasts a LONG time, as long as you wrapped it and secured it tightly enough.

Oh yes, Margaret.... I planned to incorporate some sisal into the prospective posts. I still need to design what I want.... my husband is "out of commission" for a while. He hurt his shoulder/neck/arm area badly (I think he tore a muscle or tendon or something - he walks like a horror movie monster with his left shoulder up by his ear and he can't sleep or carry anything - he even has trouble lifting his fork to eat - this has been 2 weeks now and the doctor won't do anything for him but give him pain meds that are having absolutely no effect. He called a different doctor today to see if he can go see him for a second opinion. He wants to sue the first doctor already for not sending him for exrays or whatever to see what is causing the problem.) He even dropped our brand new new Harley a week after we bought it becasue the pain "grabbed" him and he couldn't hold it and due to it's weight, he couldn't recover before it hit the ground. That REALLY ticked him off at the doctor. He didn't even have pain meds at the time. (The doc "blew him off" when he told him about the pain the day before the bike incedent.)

Besides that, on Dec. 5th my husband is having surgery to roto router his sinuses and repair a badly deviated septum. He'll be out of commission with that for a week.

Anyway, it's going to be a while before we can get the new cat stand built.

Michelle:

Pass on to Neil my best wishes for a quick recovery.

Mark

Michelle, I hope Neil recovers from everything soon.