Use this thread to discuss anything related to cats that doesn't otherwise fit the subreddit! Also feel free to ask questions that you believe are too short for a standalone post.

My father cut off all of my cat’s whiskers because he was drunk and I’m so devastated.

This is my cat. We adopted her from one of my moms client’s this March. Her name is Jingle Bell and when we got her, she is overweight and already has walking problems.

I dont know what to do in my situation. Does anyone know what I should do now? Below is a picture of her currently and the length of her whiskers before.

https://imgur.com/a/bqTaN89

Im seeing mixed opinions, and I’m worried I might be stressing her out unintentionally. She almost never initiates the chase (it’s always me), but she doesn’t hiss when I catch her.

After I chase her I will often hide behind furniture and around corners to signal to her it’s her turn to get me. She will usually pounce at me after a bit of hiding, but other times she just ignores my invitation and carries on about her business. Sometimes during these chases she will hide under the bed but come out a couple minutes after like nothing happened (like she won’t be avoiding me).

Also slightly unrelated, but whenever I walk through the lounge room throughout the day, if she sees me about to walk by the curtains or her car tunnel, she will often hide behind the curtains or in her cat tunnel to surprise attack me.

Is this a sign that the chases are ok to continue, or should I only let her initiate from now on?

Or am I just overthinking like crazy right now???

I recently got a kitten and from what I can tell her and her sister dog are getting along great! If the dog is drinking out of her water bowl kitty goes right up and joins her. Follows her everywhere around the house and is constantly trying to cuddle with her if she’s lying down. My question though has to do with playing. The kitten will stalk the dog and then after the dog looks start running to get the dog to chase her. They seem to love this game. My biggest concern though is that the dog is 45 pounds and kitty is obviously significantly smaller. She has her spots she can hide but is there anything I should do or are they okay to continue playing like this? The dog try’s to be soft but because she’s so large I’m nervous that in the chase she might stomp on her accidentally.

So I have three cats. My youngest, Cricket, (a little under two years we think) is super active and a bit crazy. She needs a lot of attention and enrichment, otherwise she destroys things or fights with the other two cats.
My middle cat, Goose, (about 5.5 years old) is super playful when she wants to be. She is like a dog that is ball crazy. When she’s playing with a toy or hair tie, she sort of loses her shit 😅 but the two don’t really play together.

My problem: I keep buying interactive toys to keep them occupied while I’m working or just randomly throughout the day, mainly to help with cricket being bored, and Goose ends up breaking them in less than 24 hours. She just plays too hard and destroys whatever it is. I have gone through many electric chase type toys, automatic rolling balls, and the laser pointers that turn on intermittently. All are broken.
I am looking for recommendations on toys / enrichment for the cats that Goose is less likely to be able to destroy.

Thank you!

For context I have an 11 year old cat with my boyfriend. We feed her 3 times a day, morning, mid day and evening. She has an automatic dry food feeder which provides her morning/mid day portions. She has no problem with dry food, always eats her portion no problem. In the evening, around 9pm, we give her wet food to help with her digestion and hydration since she has a history of constipation.

For the last 3-4 months she has started BEGGING for her wet food. Like an hour in advance every night. From 8 to 9 it is CONSTANT. She'll just sit there and moan, and LOUDLY.

At first we thought she was just really hungry so we tried leaving a bit of additionnal dry food but she doesn't want anything to do with it. She wants her wet food and will not stop begging until she gets it.

We've tried ignoring her, waiting for her to shut up to give her the food, to stop rewarding this behavior, but I swear to God she will not stop. We can wait 1-2-3 hours, doesn't matter. She'll just wait there and moan. Once again we still leave a bit of dry food which she could eat if she wanted to. She doesn't.

We don't know what to do and it's driving me and my boyfriend crazy. He says we should stop the wet food for a while but i don't want her to go back to being constipated or cause liver issues ( which she is prone to). We also can't keep ignoring her for hours as we have to go to bed at some point. We just don't know what to do.

EDIT : Saw a bit of confusion and wanted to provide some additional details.

First, our cat is overweight and is on a vet approved diet. I can assure you her caloric intake and nutrients are being monitored very carefully.

"Maybe she's just hungry, why make her wait"

When she first started doing this it was also our assumption. She started meowing so we fed her earlier. The next day she started meowing even earlier. So we fed her earlier. The next day even earlier, rince and repeat.

What she learned is that begging = what I want. By responding every time she begs, we reinforce this behavior. We space out her meals and calories throughout the day specifically to make sure she doesn't go hungry during the night.When I said we could wait 1-2-3 hours it was simply an example to show that the usual ' just wait it out' advice we've heard many times didn't work for us. Not a thing we do every night. We now simply feed her at the usual 9pm regardless and let her be dramatic.

I can assure you she is very well fed with love and care, she's a very vocal cat who really loves wet food.

My 6-year-old girl has become really fussy about her litter over the last 6 months, and I'm running out of ideas.

She'll use a fresh box once, maybe twice at most, and after that she poos directly outside it, right next to the box. I've always scooped after every single use, so it's not like the box is ever dirty, but once it's been used she seems to stop accepting it.

This is new for her. I used to go about 3 weeks between deep cleans. Now I'm deep cleaning every day or two just to keep her using it.

What I've tried so far:

• Multiple litter boxes (at 3 now)
• Different litters: World's Best Cat Litter (unscented) and wood pellets
• Cleaning the boxes with plain soap only, and separately with enzyme cleaner
• A vet visit, which ruled out any physical or medical issues

The only environmental change I can think of is that I'm home a lot more now since I lost my job. Could that be affecting her? I genuinely have no clue what else it could be.

I'm getting stressed about it. I'm going through a huge amount of litter, and after the layoff it's becoming a real financial strain.

Has anyone dealt with this? What else could I try to get her back to using the box normally? Any ideas are appreciated, especially cheaper ones.

My cat is 1.5 years old, and his PICA tendencies are seeming to get increasingly worse. I am a grad student and my partner and I just broke up, so I am living alone in an apartment with my cat and his sister. He used to eat string and yarn if it was left out, and I learned to diligently put it away. In the past few weeks, however, he has been eating rubber of all types (spatulas etc), he ate steel wool, and even a bite of a protein bar. I try to hide anything I think he might eat, but at this point I feel like he will just find new things he likes to eat. Last week I spent $500 at the ER vet getting X-rays, and I am constantly so anxious about a blockage.

I'm just looking for advice about how to live with this. I play with him as much as I can, and I've tried taking him outside for more enrichment but after many tries, he is very uninterested in that. He is a black cat and I got him and his sister as tiny babies. He's never stopped making biscuits on me in the middle of the night, and I think he was bottle-fed. He is very vocal and clingy. He loves cat TV and I taught him how to high-five me. I love him more than anything and am really struggling with worrying so much about him, especially in the midst of a big breakup. My vet has not been very helpful, just telling me to put things away, so I am open to hearing anything that might help. Also, is pet insurance a good idea? Seems like this wouldn't be covered since it is a preexisting condition.

Thank you.

I’ve had my cat for 7 years and he would never come into my room or sleep in my room but for the last week he has been in here every single day and he stays the whole day and night just on my bed with me. He leaves at around 5am and then he comes back in at 8am and he doesn’t leave until 5am the next day. He just sleeps the whole time. I want him in here ofc but I’m so anxious and I’ve convinced myself there must be something wrong with myself or him. We have other people in the house so it can’t be because he’s lonely. Should I be worried?

On Sunday, I had to say goodbye to my old baby cat Minou (Caramel, a Bombay), he was almost 18 years old. What upsets me the most is that we took him to the vet multiple times over the past few months, yet his lymphoma was only discovered when it was already too late.

Back in August, we brought him in because he had a fever. We kept being told it was his age, his kidneys, or just fatigue, even though his kidney condition remained stable until the very end. Almost every visit, we were dealing with a different veterinary assistant, and we were mostly just prescribed the same medication we already had.

There was really only one veterinarian who seemed to know what he was doing, and on October 23, he finally discovered my cat had a lymphoma and not just chronic inflammation as we'd previously been told. Unfortunately by then the tumor was already too large and my cat was too weak to undergo a biopsy and do chemotherapy.

I can't stop thinking about how things might've been different if we'd pushed for more tests, especially an ultrasound back in August or September, instead of the vet finally deciding to do one in October when it was already too late. He was still doing so well just a few months ago, and everything happened so fast. I'm honestly convinced he could've made it to 20 with the amount of love he received in his life, if we'd caught and stabilized the tumor earlier.

On October 21, after two days on IV fluids, he came back home looking so much better. He was eating like crazy, had two entire pouches of food and still wanted more. I actually thought he was recovering but by Thursday evening he started getting weaker again, and on Friday we had to take him back to the vet. And then on Sunday, I held him in my arms while the vet put him to sleep. He fell asleep almost immediately before receiving the final injection.

I wanted to be there with him until the very end, but fuck, it's so hard. I feel empty, and I still think about his little face after he passed away.

One of the vets there, who was really kind to us, told us she'd never seen a cat so loved before. That meant a lot to me, but it also made me sad thinking about all the animals out there who never get to experience the amount of love my mom and I gave to Minou.

I'm 26 and I've had him since I was 8. He was there for pretty much my entire childhood, teenage years, and adult life so far. Apart from my mom, my cat was my family and pretty much my entire world. So losing him feels like losing a huge part of my life.

I'm grateful I got to spend all this time with him, and I know he had a wonderful life. But it still hurts. I really hope I'll eventually be able to cope with losing him, because right now I'm not sure how to do it.

So it has just been 11 weeks since we adopted our cat Genie. She is 8 and a half and was at Cats Protection for 7 months. Not much known about her back story other than she was surrendered by her family, and there’s a feeling it is because she couldn’t cope with the young kids (couple said they had Genie since she was a kitten, they also said they have a 3 and 4 year old and that Genie can absolutely not be with kids so kinda adding things up here).

In some ways she is doing so well. She sleeps and cleans herself in front of us, she greets us, she guards the bathroom when we are in there and follows us around etc etc etc. She is eating well, very playful…just, she seems to be settling in nicely.

However we have had 3 vet visits since we had here. Stress grooming, stress UTI and then yesterday it was because she had an allergic reaction to the flea treatment. But when the vet had a further look at her (which he could only do because she was high as a kite on gabapentin) and her belly is still showing signs of over grooming.

She is also very reactive and will attack feet, and though she asks for pets she gets overwhelmed very quickly and attacks. So clearly, she is stressed. And today she attacked my hand so bad that I have to have antibiotics again, 2nd time since getting her due to deep bites.

What we are already doing:

- we have a behaviour plan
- we play a lot and use puzzle feeders
- she has loads of different sleeping spots at different heights, different areas and different cover levels
- calming supplement
- Feliway upstairs and downstairs

And still, here I am again on meds. Just..despairing, feeling some regret and then feeling severe guilt for feeling some regrets, feeling like we are doing stuff wrong (even though the vet says we are doing everything we can do), feeling annoyed at her and then feeling guilty about feeling annoyed and just, ARGH.

Also, my hand hurts 😭

Hi everyone! I have a beautiful, orange long haired girlie that I adopted earlier this year. She is my first ever cat so I’m learning! I’m in need of some grooming advice though. While she does let me brush her back and sides, I’ve noticed recently that she has some mats on her belly/underside. She will absolutely not let me brush there though. I would cut them out but I’m scared that if she squirms, I could cut her. She doesn’t like to be held, so it’s not like I can hold her and let someone else do it either. Does anyone have any advice for how to go about this? I’ve been trying to use her favorite treats while getting her used to touch there, but no progress seems to have been made. I’d appreciate any advice because the thought of her ever experiencing discomfort from mats makes me very sad to think about. pic of my gorgeous girl

Hi everyone. My cat went missing on 10/22 and she is a completely black cat. With Halloween getting closer I am extremely worried about her. I’ll explain everything we’ve done to look for her, please let me know how we can change our search strategy or if there’s anything else we can do.

On 10/22 around 5-7pm, my partner’s roommate discovered the door was open after waking up from a nap. He swears he closed and locked it. We’re not sure how it came open. Regardless, at that point, my partner’s cat, Gabby, was gone.

Immediately my partner left work and began looking for her. He set out her bed, carrier and food with clothes and things that smell like her. I was trapped out of town for the weekend, so I began posting to Facebook groups and contacting local resources near us (we’re located in Phoenix)

The next day, he set out some of her soiled litter as well, and began looking several times throughout the day, prioritizing sunrise and sunset and looking in good cat hiding spots. He also set up a tomahawk trap with food in it and some clothes.

We set up a camera pointed at the trap, and we’ve noticed other strays in the area coming to eat there, but no sign of our Gabby. We even brought Gabby’s brother cat with us while looking because we hoped he would meow or the smell would help, but he just hunkered down in his carrier and was quiet.

Me and my partner have both been out looking with flashlights at sunrise and sunset. We’ve kept our search incredibly close to home, no more than 1/2 a mile. We live in an apartment complex. We’ve put up fliers and asked neighbors to keep an eye out.

We suspect she’s scared of the other strays which is keeping her away from the trap.

What else can we do? Any advice helps. Please, please share. We are so worried about her.

After considering everything she will not be rehomed i finally made progress trying new medications and calming plug ins around my house. She actually slept near me for the first time and didn’t attack anyone when i went upstairs.

We definitely have a long way to go trust on both ends she still isn’t allowed to free roam the whole house. I haven’t been attacked or lunged at once today and was even able to get her to play a little bit. She hissed once when I accidentally dropped something but that is way better than anything I’ve experienced with her ever since having her.

I just brought in a stray I will be fostering until he is able to find a forever home and am trying to figure out the best litter for odor control. I currently am using the world’s best cat litter and it doesn’t seem to have any odor control. It also tracks a lot so that is not so great either. I was wondering what the best litters are for controlling odor, minimal tracking and decently priced, mainly the odor control though. I went with world’s best initially because it was the cheapest at the grocery store since it was the smallest bag but I am now realizing how quickly litter gets used up. For reference I am scooping at least once daily and I live in a small apartment so scent travels quickly.

Also, if you have suggestions for disposing of the litter that would be great as well. I’m currently putting tied bags in my main trash because I won’t be able to toss out litter waste daily in the dumpster. I have seen the litter genie but am wondering if there are other good alternatives.

Hello I got a kitten a couple weeks ago, white, blueish orange eyes, proper cutie, after a while I've noticed she doesn't respond when you call her, I was using a power drill next to her and she tried to come right up to it, she doesn't move when I hoover, she doesn't meow she screams and I mean she screams it's so adorable, when she's sleeping you can be so loud and she won't budge. I have a feeling she may be deaf, she's 12 weeks old. Either way I'm obsessed with her, and I love her so much already! When she sees you she will scream and wobble over to you and lick your face. I just want to know if caring for a deaf kitten is hard, if there's anything I should do etc, when I feed her I have to show her the food so she knows I'm feeding her as she doesn't hear it. And I can't stroke her if she doesn't see me first as she gets startled. Is having a deaf kitten the same as having a normal cat or will she be more hard etc, I've only had 3 cats before and this is the first time I've had a deaf pet, also I have a dog and she's not scared of her at all maybe because she can't hear

I have a 17 pound short hair cat (give or take, shes been dieting) and she has been slacking when it comes to cleaning herself. She is 10 years old and just trying to live her best "old lady" life. We have noticed over the last year or so that she just isn't cleaning herself as much. There has been an odor that sometimes is unbearable. I have been trying my best to clean her, but she does not tolerate it very well. Usually, I provide her with a lickable treat and then take a facecloth with warm water and cat shampoo and wipe her. Sometimes she gets through the whole treat before turning around and scratching me, but usually she makes it through only half the treat before realizing what I'm doing.

Does anyone have any tips/tricks on how to give her a sanitary cleaning without me getting mauled? or does anyone know how much it costs nowadays to have it done at the vet? She had it done at the vet about a year ago during an appointment. I just want to try whatever I can at home first before going through that stress.

About a month ago, I got a 7 week old kitten who was found alone. He is currently my third cat and while I love him unconditionally, I’m having a hard time handling him. My two other cats are a few months older and while I got them at the appropriate age and they were not separated from their litter, they’ve been perfect clingy cuddly angels.

I don’t mean to compare, but my new cat Snubs is just so aggressive. I cant touch/pet him for more than a few seconds before he starts flicking his tail, he bites unprompted and hisses/full body freaks out if I pick him up. I know the usual advice of “dont play with hands, give him space when he shows signs” and I know his behavior is due to being seperated too early. Im just scared he’ll turn into a grumpy angry cat that lashes out random, or he’ll start attacking the others. So far theres no aggression.

I want to know what I can do differently? I try to engage, I get bit, I play with toys, I get bit, I try desensitizing him, I get bit, swiped and hissed at.

Im so sick of fleas ive tried everything. Between the shoulder flea medicinefor several months , Damascus earth EVERYWHERE, furniture flea poison, flea combed every day, dawn dish soap baths. They keep coming back. I got my cat around 8 months ago and she was already flea infested. I love her so much but I feel like I cant be comfortable in my home anymore because there are flea eggs everywhere. I will try a pill next but at this point i feel helpless...

I currently have an 8 week old kitten and was wondering if there’s any non-toxic and safe way to carry a nice scent or fragrance in the apartment.

I scoop her litter twice a day and use a HEPA air purifier with carbon. There’s no bad smell but there’s no good smell either. There’s a slight smell of cat food or cat litter.

The most common things to use are candles or fragrance plug ins but I know those are definitely not safe for pets.

Is there anything that actually is safe that could give my apartment a nice scent to walk in to?

I’m posting this on behalf of a friend who’s really struggling with what to do in this situation. She knows there’s technically an owner, but she’s worried about this cat’s well-being and could really use some advice.

A couple of months ago, a cat showed up at her house, and she ended up taking him in. A few days later, she took him to a local shelter to see if he had an owner. He had no microchip and wasn’t even neutered.
The shelter gave her two options: she could surrender him to the shelter for a week, and if nobody claimed him, she could legally adopt him. Or she could keep him privately for 30 days, and if no owner came forward, she could adopt him that way.
By that point, she was already getting attached to him, so she decided to keep him at home and wait out the 30-day period.

Then, on day 28, she came across a Facebook post from someone looking for their missing cat. It turned out the owner lived only five houses away from her!
She later learned that the owners let the cat roam freely outdoors and said that everyone in the neighborhood knew he belonged to them and that people shouldn’t take him in.
Of course, my friend was heartbroken to give him back, but she knew it was the right thing to do since the owners had come forward.

Fast-forward to a week ago, and the same cat showed up at her house again. This time, he looked really dirty and noticeably thinner than before. She felt bad leaving him outside, so she brought him inside, fed him, and wanted to make sure he was okay.

Now, here’s where she’s struggling.

The cat is currently inside her house, and he doesn’t seem interested in leaving. He seems comfortable staying there, and she’s getting attached to him all over again. She knows he technically has an owner, but she’s concerned about his condition, especially since he came back looking so thin and dirty.

The owners already have her phone number from the previous incident, but it’s been three days, and they haven’t contacted her.

She feels like she should probably let him go back outside, but she genuinely doesn’t know what the right thing to do is. She doesn’t want to keep someone else’s cat, but she also doesn’t feel comfortable putting him back outside when he looks like this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hello!

I’m an undergraduate upperclassman currently considering adopting a cat. I’ve carefully considered my situation—finances, time, etc—and think I’m well equipped to care for a cat. However, I do have one hang-up.

At least four times per year, I’ll have to take a ~5-6 hour car ride back home for breaks, those being up to three months and as short as 5 days. In some cases, for the shorter breaks, it may be possible to have someone pop into my apartment to check on them, but due to my living arrangement, the number of people allowed and available to do this is highly limited.

So my question is: is it feasible to bring the cat back and forth a few times a year? Would they be able to adjust to multiple environments, and would it be unkind to subject them to the lengthy car ride? I understand that kittens may be more adaptable/trainable in this regard, but I’m worried a kitten may be too high maintenance for my situation.

Thank you!

Maybe I just need reassurance because I feel guilty about how lonely he seems.

I've had him since he was 1, I do not have other pets. I used to take him on walks, but had to move to a condo which made walks significantly harder (a lot more people, dogs, cars, noise), so he's indoors almost all the time now. He sleeps a lot and isn't usually interested in playing except for bursts of energy every 3 days or so at night.

I've been debating getting another cat to keep him company because my work is bringing us back in office and due to my long commute, I'll be away for 11hrs at a time.

He's very social, so I feel bad that I have to be away from home for so long. When I took him on walks though he would try to fight every cat he sees, hissing and lunging at them (he is NEVER this aggressive to humans or dogs). So, I'm thinking it would be a bad idea to get another cat but I'm also wondering if he'd be okay after an acclimation period and he would end up happier in the end.

Or maybe I'm just trying to find a way to not feel guilty anymore, because after I come home I don't leave the house to socialize or run errands (I usually try to save these for weekends).

My life revolves around his happiness and I've tried all the at-home enrichment things (DIY treat puzzles, teaching him tricks, etc) but he just isn't super interested in them anymore.

Any advice? Thank you

Hello, I want to preface by saying I don’t plan on doing this lightly. I adopted a 5 year old cat for my small studio apartment 3 weeks ago and he is a pretty sweet cat. He’s adjusted fairly well and lets me pet him no problem. The only issue is that he meows all night and into the morning. I have been getting only 3-4 hours of sleep every night since I got him and I don’t know what to do anymore. I’ve tried literally everything online from diffuser to playing before bed and keeping him up during the day. I’ve scheduled a vet visit but it is not until the end of November and I genuinely don’t think I can last that long. I have been losing my patience with him and have been a notably more irritable person in my work and personal life from lack of sleep. I wanted to get a cat to better my life but this has significantly lowered my quality of life and I don’t believe my home is a suitable environment for him, regardless of the amount of toys and amenities I’ve purchased for him. If anyone has any last minute advice please let me know. I don’t want to lose him.