CAT FAQs

If this blog had comments, people might have asked questions about my cat when I gave her her 90-day performance review evaluating how she's doing in her role as a senior cat. As it does not, I have instead had to do as countless FAQ writers have done before me, and have extrapolated from the few questions people did ask me to assume those questions represent some inquisitive silent majority.

Why is your cat named Shinjuku? #

That was the name she had when we adopted her, and we thought it as a great name so we kept it. Her previous family had traveled to Japan shortly before they adopted her as a kitten. Shinjuku is a special ward of Tokyo, which is kind of analogous to a borough in New York City. Addtionally, "Shinjuku" is also commonly used to refer to the entire area surrounding Shinjuku Station." ^[1] I'm not sure if they were thinking of the whole special ward or just the railway station. I like to pretend she's named after the railway station.

What would have happened if she failed her 90-day performance review? #

The performance review is a joke, and Shinjuku was never at any risk of losing her position as our pet cat. She is really a senior cat and is 11 years old. I've been thinking a lot about the idea of senior developers and how they are or aren't similar to senior cats. And, in a completely serious way, it is impossible for her to fail at her job of being a senior cat. She only has to be herself.

Her claws look a bit long? #

Yes, they are a bit long. Perviously she was an indoor-outdoor cat and apparently the outdoor adventures wore down her claws enough. Now she is an indoor only cat for her safety and that of the local wildlife. She has had no previous experience getting her claws trimmed, and I'm working on getting her used to having her paws touched before we move on to trimming. With patience and some training, we'll get there.

Wait, did you say clicker training for cats? #

Yes! You can train cats to do tricks and clicker training works very well. Apparently. There are some prerequisites, thought, like training the cat to associate the sound of the click with a reward. It helps if the cat is not scared of the click, so another prerequisite is getting the cat used to the sound of the click. The reward is usually food, so you have to find a treat that the cat finds rewarding. So another prerequisite is that your cat doesn't run away from the food you're trying to use as a treat. We just hit that milestone yesterday and I'm pretty excited.

I didn't believe cats could do tricks until a friend showed me some tricks she had trained her cats to do, and ever since I've been very interested in trying to teach a cat tricks. Within a couple of weeks of having a cat, I found videos of clicker training lessons from Cat School, which made it look pretty doable.

I have managed to train Shinjuku a little bit to follow my outstretched finger when I carry her food, so she follows a graceful curve instead of walking under my feet. As a senior cat, she does not always have the best appetite so we can only do this trick when she's actually food-motivated. The rest of the time I have to convince her to try to eat by talking to her gently.

What's her favorite toy? #

I would rank her favorite toys roughly in order like this:

1. An old toy mouse from Daiso that came with her and was declared as her favorite mouse. It doesn't have a tail. She likes to carry it in her mouth and yowl extravagantly.
2. Any crumpled ball of paper.
3. Any other Daiso mouse of the same kind as Favorite Mouse, but new.
4. Long pieces of dry grass.
5. Cardboard boxes.

She does not like any fancy toys we got her so far. At first I thought she didn't like to play because she's old, but we just had to discover the way she likes to play.

If Shinjuku reviewed you, what do you think she'd say? #

I wouldn't like to put words in her mouth like that. I think a cat's way of thinking about the world is very different than a human's. From the outside, it does seem like she feels safe and enjoys our company.

Is this a cat blog now? #

I will surely write more about my cat. But I will just as surely write more about other things, too.