Hamza
My girlfriend and I are the guardians of a cat, Hamza. He is simultaneously both very cute and also very the devil himself. For example:
At first glace he’s all ‘draw me like one of your French girls’ but in reality he is just taking a quick break from destroying the cord of our blinds.
This page is primarily for friends and family brave and generous enough to take care of him while we’re away from home.
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His food station is in the hallway by the kitchen. Daily he gets two 3.5oz pucks of wet food, two scoops of dry food (scooper is in the glass jar of dry food), and 16 Greenies dental treats. We usually do half of that twice a day but all of it once a day is totally fine.
The wet pucks are on the shelves there—he gets one flavor at a time for a while so use whatever is currently leftmost on the shelf. Dry food is also on that shelf in a big glass jar. The Greenies are hanging on the inside of the closet door.
Bowls you can use for food are in the far left cabinet of the kitchen, and feel free to throw dirty bowls in the dishwasher.
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He has a water fountain on the ground by the piano. It occasionally turns on and bubbles. It’s quite reliable, but if you stare at it for three minutes and it never bubbles or if it has a blue light on, put out a bowl of water I guess.
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His litter box is in the bathroom. If you see poop in there plz scoop. There are small plastic bags under the bathroom sink—after knotting them feel free to drop them in the kitchen trash.
If you are watching Hamza for a longer period of time, please replace the pee pad about twice a week. The litter box has a drawer underneath that slides out to reveal the pad. The extra pee pads and disposable gloves are behind the bathroom door, and just like poop, after bagging and knotting a pad you can drop it in the kitchen trash.
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He has some treats in the hallway closet, hanging on the other side of the closet door. Purebites chicken as well as minnows. They are cheap and healthy for him so give him tons of treats and he will love you. A fun game: if you can find a whole or mostly whole minnow, on the sisal rope-wrapped pole in the living room you can wedge a minnow high up between two layers of rope and he’ll climb the pole like a tree to get it. Please keep Hamza out of the closet and keep the closet door closed.
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He has toys in the same spot in the closet. He particularly likes to bat the little plastic springs around and play with the wand. You can get him to jump pretty high with the wand—start at around six feet and see how high you can get him to jump. You can leave the springs out when you leave but put the wands away as sometimes he tries to eat parts of it. And again please remember to close the closet door so he doesn’t wreak havoc in there.
There is also a laser pointer hanging on the calendar in the hallway across from the bathroom.
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Sometimes he gets too excited and bites too hard when playing. We’re working on it. If he does it to you… sorry for your pain, but also, congrats, it means he likes you. Feel free to spray him with a squirt bottle if he’s being extra.
Other things to watch out for:
- Sometimes he’ll randomly jump onto people’s shoulders. Again, sorry. He likes being elevated. Thought I’d give a heads up since it can be alarming if you aren’t used to it.
- He’s an escape artist, so watch out for that. If he does get out, his usual pattern is to go all the way down the hall, up the stairs, all the way back on the second floor, back down the stairs, repeat until caught or chased back into apartment. Or, he’ll go to the basement and sniff around in the laundry room.
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Thank you so much! Please help yourself to the hallway spirit collection. Cocktail tools are in the corner cabinet to the left of the sink and glassware is in the freezer. Wine-based liquors and syrups are in the fridge.