Nothing makes my day like hearing the process of a hairball being expelled. Um, stepping on it later tops that, but my instant response to >hack!hack!hack!< is, “Where’s that damn cat now!? He better not be in the front room! Why don’t they ever have their accidents on the floor in the bathroom? Why is it always the front room carpet, with the deep pile? Why!? Why!? Why!?”
Hairball Victim
Yeah, Dougy hacked a hairball today. On the front room carpet. Right under my computer desk, where I found it with my bare foot. Erp!
The boys are on an indoor cat dry food diet that controls hairballs, and I brush them to reduce the amount of hair they might ingest while cleaning up. Andy never has them, as far as I can remember.
Dougy occasionally does. Of course, his fur is thicker, with a dense undercoat Andy managed not to inherit from his mother’s side of the family. And — dang cat! — Dougy is a hair eater! That’s right. If he sees a clump of hair on the carpet or if he takes out a mouthful of Andy’s hair when they have a spat, the little rascal eats it!
I always take it out of his mouth when I see him gagging down hair, but I’m sure what I stepped in today was, in part, what I saw him eating earlier this morning but wasn’t able to take away from him in time. It’s cleaned up now.
Did you see on Youtube there is a three part BBC Horizon documentary on Cats, catwatching or something. Excellent. If you want to watch it, I would download it quickly as they may take it down.
Thanks! I’ll check it out.
Unfortunately, they are available for view only in the UK. I just checked it out. I’ve run into this before with programming from the UK. I don’t remember the reason (some law), but it doesn’t mean it won’t eventually become available over in the US on Public Broadcasting or something like Animal Planet channel. (I’ll keep my eyes open for it – the clips you can watch suggest it is an excellent series!)
Sorry but this was funny and made me laugh!
It’s always funnier after the clean up! (I over-react to them.)
hahaha…but he feels better now. We kitties can be very helpful at times. Kali just threw up all over mom’s bed…..she just changed the bed yesterday and now again today. Mom was not pleased but we have to admit she has a very clean bed.
(((Shoko)))
I’m with Mom on this one…!(Yes, he felt much better, thank you! And he and Andy played hard and long afterwards.)
LOL! A couple of mine are pukers. I have it a bit worse. One likes to climb onto my bed and puke there. The other seems to start napping on my desk, then explodes. The carpeting would make me happy.
I agree: My carpet is a better place, given the alternatives! Dougy oftentimes parks by my arm on my computer desk, and that puts me dangerously close to the action!
Oh man not a fun way to start morning.
Oh no! Anyway, I did find some information on hair eating in cats, and it has a variety of causes, ranging from nutritional to psychological to having to do with allergies. The condition is called “pica”. I guess I shouldn’t be too focused on it since it is just occasional behavior, but I’ll pay attention more, I think, on the chance I can figure out a specific reason Dougy does this
Eating hair… strange habit… I’m glad dogs don’t do that!
I’m not sure what to think about it. I asked their veterinarian about it. I thought maybe it indicated a nutritional deficiency, but their veterinarian didn’t think so.
That’s one less thing to worry about! 😉
I haven’t found any information on hair eating by cats. It is curious behavior, something I’d like to understand.