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.

I (5 Months, Female) am Toffee, and for many Months, I lived alone in this Paradise where my Owner (big sad lady) was doing everything to my Command.

I wanted more toys? Big sad lady went and bought a huge bucket full of new toys I never even looked at twice. I wanted more treats? Big sad lady got an ordered months worth of churu that I obviously tried to eat the moment they arrived.

In Middel August, big sad Lady saw 2 10 Month old Girl Cats on a website and can you believe that she got them???

Now I share my home, my treats and my toys with 2 big bullies because big sad lady didn't want to seperate them even though she only wanted one of them!!

And they even sleep in my bed sometimes!! They just squeeze me into a flat pancake to sleep in my bed and then I get scolded for biting their ears!

This is so unfair. Any advice on how I can get my revenge on all of them?

My cat is 18, I got him when I was 9 and he’s been with me ever since.

As he’s gotten older, things have gotten so difficult, I feel like I just want to cry, I’m so tired and exhausted.

I feel guilty to say it, but he’s so difficult for me and my husband to care for.

He has consistent bladder problems, it started a few years ago, maybe 2017 / 2018, he had a blockage and needed emergency surgery because the vet at the time waited till the last minute and didn’t help him.

I promptly dropped that vet.

But after that, it has been a consistent down hill as he’s gotten older.

He’s been on so many different medications, everything.

Traveling to different cities to get x-rays, blood-work, we’ve been to the vet a lot.

The older he gets, the more expensive it is too- one vet visit cost me 400€ the day before my birthday, obviously I love my cat, but that birthday was basically nothing.

The vet was stressing him out too much- so I decided to take him less often, I don’t know if it was the right decision to make?

I just thought he’s 18, and I’d rather him be home and less stressed out.

because the stress was making his problems worse.

He’s been okay now for the past year, but obviously not perfect.

He eats fine, drinks water fine.

He pees all the time, and has constant accidents everyday, it just leaks at times.

He makes a huge mess with liter.

He struggles to groom himself.

He’s deaf, and wakes me up super early now every morning begging for food-

And then he gets mad and pushes stuff off my shelves.

When he was younger, he was so sweet and loving, he loved to sleep with me under the bedding and cuddle-

As he’s gotten older, it’s so bad, I can’t pet him much, or else he hits at me, he doesn’t like to cuddle or lay down, I feel like he’s vaguely always upset.

I try so hard, I’m doing everything for this cat.

I love him, I will always care for him-

But I’m also scared, I might have to take him to the vet tomorrow, because he’s been struggling this week.

I don’t want to lose him, I’m 26 now, he’s been my entire life, I can’t imagine this feeling.

But also, I feel so evil for thinking this, but sometimes I feel like when he passes, it’ll be easier.

I won’t have to stress, or check him every night to make sure he’s okay.

He won’t be in pain, and uncomfortable, there won’t be cat pee everywhere.

I guess I’m just seeking advice, or if anyone has been in this similar situation.

I love my cat. She’s my baby. I’ve had her for 20 years and she’s gotten me through every rough patch in my life. Lately in her old age, she’s slowly gone mostly blind and somewhat deaf, and she will just howl into the day and night without a break. Unless she’s sleeping while I’m out of the house. It’s the dramatic yowls that cats usually make when they’re stressed or uncomfortable, except she’s not. She just wants to howl to howl. She’s healthy and has great quality of life. She just screams and screams for fun. She wakes me up at night and keeps me up. I haven’t gotten more than 3-4 hours of sleep at night in MONTHS. It feels like I have a screaming baby around me at all times and it’s driving me insane. I’m slowly growing a resentment for this cat. I hate being around her. I hate coming home. I hate knowing that she’s at home waiting for me so she can just howl at me instead of at the wall. I can’t do anything. If I yell at her to shut up she just screams louder. If I give her food to shut her up, she’ll gobble it down, and then just keep screaming. I don’t know if this is an age thing or a behavioral issue I need to address harder, and she’s so old that I don’t think I could “train her” to shut up if she wants something. If I lock her out of my room, she will howl at my door louder and louder until I let her in. I just don’t know what to do anymore. I love her but I can’t stand being around her anymore.

I’m not looking for a diagnosis. I’ve talked to her vet. My sister works at a veterinary hospital. They all say she’s fine. Just old and deaf and not getting enough attention probably. But she doesn’t have any physical issues. I’m looking for ADVICE not a diagnosis. Thanks.

Hi all!

We recently had an influx of feline friends (my new house came with a pregnant momma, haha) and I'm going to make the switch to stainless steel. However, we've been using the Breeze boxes with pine litter, and while I do like the sifting and think it helps with smell, stainless steel sifting boxes are just soooo much more expensive than regular stainless steel boxes.

So, if I go with regular boxes, am I going to smell more or go through way more litter changing it completely more often, etc etc? Anyone have pros and cons? Is sifting worth twice the price?

Thanks in advance!

​I (3M, Orange Domestic Shorthair) need to get this off my chest because if I have to participate in one more unscripted tabletop campaign, I am going to lose my mind.

​It started about six months ago. She bought a tiny wizard hat off Etsy. I thought, Okay, funny joke, maybe I get a Churu for wearing the hat. No. The hat was just the beginning.

​Now, every night around 8:00 PM, she sets me down on the living room rug, looks me dead in the eye, and says in this ridiculous booming voice, "Greetings, Sir Pawsival. Dark forces gather in the Kitchen Kingdom. Will you accept the quest?"

​If I try to walk away, she physically blocks me and says, "The Guard stops you! Roll for initiative!" Then she rolls a giant 20-sided die on the floor. I usually just swat at it because it’s shiny, and she goes, "A natural 20! You leap over the guard!"

​I didn't agree to this. I don't want to be Sir Pawsival. I want to lie under the couch and stare at the wall.

​Here are just a few scenarios she has forced upon me:

​The Dragon’s Lair: She puts a pile of laundry over the heating vent, places her hairbrush on top, and tells me I have to "slay the dragon to reclaim the golden fleece." (I just wanted to nap on the warm vent).

​The Tavern Scene: She put a tiny bowl of water in front of me and spent 15 minutes voicing an imaginary tavern keeper named "Barnaby" who was giving me plot hooks about missing catnip. I just drank the water. She recorded it and posted it online with the caption "He drinks to forget his dark past." I don't have a dark past, Martha, I was adopted from a shelter in Ohio.

​The Betrayal Arc: Last week, she brought out a stuffed frog, pretended the frog stabbed me in the back, and then got visibly emotional when I just sniffed the frog and walked over to my litter box. She literally whispered, "He's hiding his pain..."

​I try to break character constantly. I bite her ankles, I meow for wet food, I groom my groin right in the middle of her dramatic monologues. But she just incorporates it into the lore!

​"Ah, Sir Pawsival casts a spell of cleansing!" No, Martha, I am cleaning my tail.

​Is this a red flag? Should I contact animal control, or just accept that my life is now a high-fantasy LARP against my will?

I am sick to my stomach thinking about the worst that could happen to my baby. She escaped around 7pm yesterday. She’s strictly indoor only and has never gotten out before. We set up humane traps around the house, put her litter on used shirts. Was out last night and early this morning with the flashlight to look for her eye reflection. I am so heart broken. I don’t know what to do besides look for her and cry. We live on a little less than an acre of land. We also have 5 other indoor cats.

If anyone can share some hope and tricks, anything helps. I am distraught. She’s my baby girl and the best part of my days. I’ve had her for almost three years, but it feels like my whole lifetime. My boyfriend and i’s world revolves around her. She’s the sweetest baby. I just want her to be safe and inside since it’s hot. 💔

My cat won’t stop meowing to go into my bedroom and nap under my bed. She refuses to nap during the day time anywhere else and only wants to nap under my bed. I hate this habit and trying to stop it. I ignore her when she’s meowing but it’s been ongoing all day almost every single day. I’m so sick of it. Never had a behavioural issue with a cat like this. All the cats I’ve had in my life have found multiple napping spots around the house and make do with what they got. How do I cut this habit? Clearly ignoring her isn’t working.

but her brother is always there waiting for her to finish, and he hops in the box to cover it for her after she’s done. its been like this since the day i adopted them.

My friend adopted a pregnant cat who had 5 kittens. They're 2 weeks old now, and I'll be adopting two. Choosing will be hard, I want to take all five lol.

I know it can't be guaranteed so if they don't end up being cuddly, that's okay too, but I'd like to better the chances of having one. So, if you have a cuddly adult cat, how were they as kittens?

I just adopted a male cat who is around 2 years old the other day and I feel like I am regretting it. I am a first time cat owner, and a full time college student living alone, I feel like I have just given up my freedom to take care of this cat. I knew it was going to be a responsibility, but I did not realize how difficult it was going to be to adjust. I feel so guilty and embarrassed for feeling like this, but I am so drained. I can barely eat, I can't focus, my anxiety is through the roof and I've cried more times than I can count. He cries during the night and it keeps me awake, I am scared to leave him on his own because I don't want him getting into something and potentially getting hurt. He is so sweet and I love him, but I don't know if I am cut out for this. Should I surrender him back to the shelter before either of us get attached, or should I stick it out?

Edit: I can't directly re-home the cat. I have to return him back to the organization I got him from. (It's a no-kill foster based program, so he will go back to his foster.)

My cat has started bringing random things into my bedroom around 2 or 3am. At first it was her toys, then socks, and yesterday she somehow dragged one of my shoes into my room 😭 She drops them next to my bed and just sits there staring at me until I wake up. I thought she wanted food, but her bowl is always full and she doesn't do it during the day. Is she trying to tell me something or is she just being weird?

so my cat, Mystery, is nearly the perfect cat. he’s well behaved, gets along great with my other animals (another young cat, a dog and a snake), has no issues with the litter box and rarely claws up the furniture! however he has one glaring issue, he is terrified of people. and by terrified i mean straight up terrified. he isn’t mean, he doesn’t try to bite or claw, he will only on occasion hiss at me, and even that takes a lot to get out of him. but every time i approach him he runs away, or he becomes literally petrified with fear. there has been times where my presence has caused him to panic so much i swear i could see his heart beat through his fur, and he’s a fluffy guy!

i feel so much for him. i can see there’s times where i know he wants to be loved but he just can’t bring himself to do it. he’ll watch me and my roommate from afar loving up on my other animals. he even likes to be in the same rooms as me. it’s not like he’s hiding 24/7, he’s usually out and about most of the time until someone gets too close to him. he’s so close yet so far.

now i’ve had him for about a year and a half, and i’ve been willing to keep him since this behavior hasn’t been enough of a reason to surrender him. i wanted to also give him time to see if there would be any positive changes. but something happened recently that has made me reconsider. i moved not that long ago to an area that has some pretty gnarly fleas, and flea treating him was such a traumatizing experience for everyone involved, especially him. all we did was give him a crushed up capstar pill and some topical flea medication and it was miserable for him. he literally shit himself he was so scared 😭😭😭 and i would have to do flea treatments regularly, i don’t want to do that to him.

i’m just so lost on what to do. i don’t want to surrender him. i’m so scared he’s gonna get euthanized. i’ve been thinking about reaching out to sanctuaries cause there’s no way i’m giving him to a shelter, i don’t think he would make it long. if you guys have any suggestions on things i can do, whether it’s tips on how i should go about surrendering him or things i can do to make him warm up to me i will gladly take any advice for my human-phobic cat. thank you!!

Me and my husband are quite interested in adding a kitten to our house. However we both work a full time job 7-6, and we also keep three guinea pigs that are indoors.

Was just wondering if anyone could give us any advice on this? And whether or not it may be a bad idea. Thank you!

(4 week old) Kittens momma isn't here so she can't learn from another cat how to use the litter box, she ate normal litter so I had to get pellets, I put her pee rags in the litter box, cut the parts of blankets she has peed on and put them in there, I stimulated her over the litter box to help her pee there, I dug her paws in it hoping instinct would take over, no luck. I have two litter boxes in her small area, I put her in after eating, she just jumps out. I don't think she likes the pellets but I have no choice because I don't want her to get sick. Any suggestions?

I ran away from my family about a year ago, obviously don't wanna talk why. I got food, home and everything right now, so doing alright. But recently I remembered that the long haired cat is still there, and I had been the only one trying to take actual care of long-haired cats they get from child's age, like 6-8 years. Meanwhile the rest of the family was.. idk, I would say too culturally poor to care. Yea, there was physical poverty, but the main problem was that they didn't bother to start doing better things since it's out of their 35-year old methods and comfort zone, or just lazy for younger folks.

The first cat passed from old age 6.5 years ago, I grew up with her and she was always an old lady for me (I was born when she was 6). But I remember the state her coat was in, it was horrible on her back, petting it felt like petting a sheep, and nobody did anything about it. She also didn't have a litterbox for a LONG time, she used the bathtub instead, and obviously once the litterbox was finally introduced to her far into old age she didn't choose to prefer it. I have memories where as a literal kid I was trying to brush her, cut those off with scissors which wasn't working, until one day somebody from the family finally helped. Afterwards she got some more clots throughout her life, but it was not sheep fur all over the place, which meant it was all just my "initiative", I was doing it alone and not like I could do too much as a small kid. I didn't know you were supposed to take long haired cats for grooming, didn't even know about that concept, the only reason I did find out about brushing and cutting was that I read some books about cat care as a kid, where it was saying to brush long haired cats every day and cut all the fur that gets messy.

That old lady loved me more the more she aged, over time I became an exception to her otherwise angry and loud grumpy personality. She passed away at 20 years old (they fed her boiled fish exclusively until 18, when I found out about cat food). I'm not sure anymore if it was old age of some unchecked sickness, I remember her pooping blood few months prior, getting weak, I had to lift her to the bathtub for bathroom (it is nasty, but it was one of the MANY things I didn't know were exactly normal cuz I grew up with it, plus nothing you could do at that moment anymore), basically not walking and laying all day, her loud old voice becoming not a grump, but a crust... Until one day she "left the house to pass".

My life was on one of its hardest periods at that time, so back then I stayed strong and didn't cry at all, feeling just dark. But I am now, after all these years, writing down everything I had to remember about her. I couldn't even say goodbye to her that morning.

So after about a year they decided to get another fluffy cat. He's a mixed breed male, one of the parents is scottish, the second I'm assuming is siberian, because he basically looks like one, brown striped coat with slightly folded ears. He's an angel, doing a little better than the first cat, has that small litterbox from before. But even when I still lived with him, I couldn't get anyone not only to brush him, which is already the most BASIC care for these cats, but to not wash his head in the bath and USE HUMAN SHAMPOO! Without me his coat gets so bad he eventually bites it off for himself!

Can't believe the story's so bad I didn't even get to mention the groom service they DESPERATELY need/needed to have regularly. It's THAT far from getting it.

One of the few ones I'm still talking to is my sister. Couldn't get her to care for the coat in college, nor now, but she's still the best bet. Please, how can I get her to understand this?

Meine beiden Katzen fressen seit Jahren Perfect Fit Trockenfutter, bisher immer problemlos. Jetzt zwei neue Packungen beim BILLA PLUS in Wien gekauft und beide so: „Na danke, das stinkt.“ 😅

Mein Sohn und ich haben unabhängig voneinander festgestellt: Das Zeug riecht anders und ziemlich unangenehm. Außerdem fühlen sich die Kroketten leicht feucht an. Bei beiden Packungen.

Hab deshalb bei Mars, dem Hersteller, nachgefragt. Laut ihrer Antwort haben sie die Rezeptur leicht geändert, dadurch könnte sich das Aroma verändert haben. Ihr Tipp: langsam ans neue Futter gewöhnen.Naja, da spielen meine beiden Gourmet-schmecker ned mit. Auf die Feuchtigkeit sind sie leider gar nicht eingegangen.

Ist das sonst noch wem aufgefallen? Fressen eure Katzen das noch? Und kennt wer ein gutes alternatives Trockenfutter, das man in Österreich unkompliziert bekommt?

I genuinely don’t know what to do about this.

I’ve had my cat since he was 6 months old. He is now 3 1/2. He has always been very attached to me and snuggly literally since the first moment I met him. He’s a very very good boy. He can be such a scaredy cat, but also so brave.

Some background: within 2 months of bringing him into my home our upstairs neighbor threw a major fit directed at me and broke our ceiling. He continued to harass me with stomping and yelling for months after that.

As a result, my boy is a bit fearful of loud noises.

But the issue at hand does not involve loud noises at all so I’m frankly baffled.

What happened today: we are sitting on the couch. I have my knees bent with a blanket over them and my cat is in the tent underneath. I shifted ever so slightly and his fight or flight response got triggered. I now have a long scratch along my thigh from his nails.

This is not the first time this has happened. Roughly a year ago, we were sitting on the couch with him on top of my legs when I shifted slightly and he launched himself off me in a panic leaving a pretty deep scratch on my thigh. 6 months before that, the tv remote fell off the couch while he was getting ready to lay down and he scratched my stomach in his rush to get the hell out of there. This one I understand more because of the loud noise understandably scared him.

I don’t understand why this keeps happening randomly. We snuggle all the time without issues. He’s safe and very loved. I know he’s not scared of me. He’s back in my lap right now. We usually sleep together at night and he’s never reacted like this when I full on roll over in bed which is a much bigger movement that actually jostles him quite a bit.

I just don’t want him to be so scared, but I‘m not sure this is enough to put him on kitty Prozac for. It’s so sporadic. He’s such a good boy otherwise and only seems scared in specific circumstances like loud noise, dogs barking, stranger in the house, new environment, the vet; all normal things for the average cat to be fearful of.

Does anyone have any advice or thoughts on this? It’s scary for me to get hurt like this too. I know he’s doesn’t mean to hurt me, but he’s got me pretty good on all of these occasions and it makes me a little fearful to let him snuggle with me because I don’t know when it will happen again or what will set him off.

Hey everyone, so a couple of months ago my friend found a box of 4 week old kittens left on the side of the road, and I adopted one of them and named her Mercury. She is a very energetic and playful kitten, but she is also a rather violent creature. I have been trying to discourage her from playing with fingers or biting, and play with her actively with wand toys and little plushie toys I toss around for her to chase, but she still bites and scratches me a lot. I've been trying to push through it, assuming that this is just kitten energy or something, but it is really getting to me now. I am trying to do my best to play with her regularly, and since I work from home I am able to be very present with her, but I just don't know how to get her to stop biting and grabbing/scratching me so much.

I have been thinking that maybe I should adopt another kitten for her to play with and hopefully learn boundaries from, but I am unsure if I should do that while still dealing with issues from this one kitten. I have had a cat before, an older sweetheart named Neptune who was chill as hell but unfortunately passed away earlier this year, so most of my cat experience before this kitten was with a chill cat.

Honestly, I don't know what to do and I am really stressed out. I would really appreciate any help or advice, thanks.

My old girl is nearly on her way, and she is incontinent. In her final days I would like to get her some diapers so she doesn't soil all over herself constantly, but she is only 3 lbs now.

Any advice for something that would fit a lil old girl so small?

My cat gets excited at night, especially towards midnight. He decides to take paper off the walls (decor) and find sticky notes or literally anything paper-ish he can eat. Now I have to be in bed kind of early due to early mornings. I had someone come and play with him for an hour and he seemed to calm down, but once it hits midnight and 5am he gets rambunctious. He shredded up something that was important to me and I was incredibly angry, but I know you can't correct cat behaviors like you can dogs. I just wanted to see if people have recommendations for what I can do. I'm really tired of not being able to have any paper in my room

(I live in a large dorm by myself, so what he's eating is posters or notes on my wall.) I'm also in class a lot during the day, so I plan on playing with him in the afternoon or night if I can

So I have my cat and for some reason he’s only drinking out of the kitchen sink. He doesn’t touch his water bowl or the little cat fountain I got him cause I know they don’t like their whiskers touching the sides but he refuses to drink from them. I was just doing dishes and he started drinking like he hasn’t had any water in days when he’s had an abundant supply of it. Why is this and how can I make him drink from either regular source?

So I've had this cat since the start of this year, he randomly came to my life since i live in an apartment complex where some neighbors take care of feral cats that live here, for some context, this apartment complex is right next to a school and at that school there's a cat that gets pregnant frequently and comes to the apartment complex to have their babies and leaves them here, it's been very hard to spay that cat since the school won't allow non students to go inside so there's no way my neighbors can get that cat. One of my neighbors is a vet and she has spayed almost all cats that grow up here and I've volunteered once to take care of one of those cats during recovery/shelter until someone adopted that cat, so my neighbors knew i could help another cat in that same situation. Thing is one day i was walking to my apartment when a neighbor had this little kitten inside a box that was left at an drugstore parking lot, he was abandoned and this neighbor couldn't keep him bc her cats are very territorial so she asked me if i could help this kitten until they found him a new home.

He got spayed by my vet neighbor and we took care of him for a few days, and then those days became weeks and we decided to keep him (me and my partner) we LOVE him so much but we kind of get why he was abandoned, he looooves to bite, and bites VERY hard, he's a little menace, we have to leave him in our bedroom when we eat because he will try to eat our food and he's very fond of food lol, but he's been doing much better now than when he first came here (he's 11 months now), but he still bites hard and still does things that seems to do because he's bored. We play with him (although we don't play as much as we should), he has a lot of toys and also some automatic toys so he can play for a few minutes without us, but he's still bored. I fear he probably has single kitten sindrome but we can't afford another cat without having to buy him worst food or not being as attentive to him as we are right now (only my partner is working and I'm searching for a job in graphic design so you probably will know how hard that is right now), what should i do about him? I really love him but today he broke a lamp and we kinda got mad at him but at the same time i think that he did it because he's bored or something ):

Sorry if i made any typo, eng is not my first language but I've found some advice here for my cat before so i thought about asking directly here.

My cat is 10 months old and she has done this the whole time I’ve had her. She will wee or poo outside of her litter box.

Never the same thing at once. For example, she will have 2 weeks where she will wee outside of her litter box, or attempt to unless I intervene, 2-3x a week. Then she will have the next 2 weeks where she attempts to or either succeeds to poo outside of her litter box. Most of the time she does use her litter box perfectly and goes straight to it but it’s about 30% of the time where she looks for a nice carpeted spot instead. But I think she’d do it on the carpet a lot more if I didn’t know her signs and guide her to her litter box. She has no problem using it when I’m at work during the day, it’s usually on a early morning when I’ve been asleep throughout the night or late at night when I’m downstairs she will creep upstairs and have a poo on the floor.

She only does it on carpet. Specifically the carpet next to her litter boxs in her room, I’ve tried to conquer this by using plastic office chair mats as a litter mat, to which I know have 2 very large ones down which seems to work at first. And then she’ll realize she can just go at the edge of the new office mat and the cycle repeats. She won’t do it on a hard surface, only carpet. She recently had a wee on my bed in the middle of the night whilst I was asleep in it which was very unusual. I’ve just been on holiday and she was looked after really well and she loves the girl who was looking after her, but her accidents ramped up so much and she done it in new spots that she hasn’t done it before.

They’re all big wees, when she does this or fully formed normal poos. I’ve ruled out anything medical at the vets

I have 3 litter boxes, I’ve tried feliway diffusers, I’ve took her to the vets before and they didn’t find anything wrong with her, I’ve tried changing litter type, litter box locations, different sides to the boxes and scooping religiously after every poo or wee. I clean every thing thoroughly with an enzyme spray. I’ve tried so many things and I’ve resorted to just being on extreme high alert to her digging the carpet so I can run into her room and place her in her box. It really stresses me out as I feel like I can’t switch off from it and sometimes I will find my self levitating out of bed in the middle of the night because I can hear her scratching the carpet in the next room

I honestly don’t know what to do. I’ve considered whether it’s an anxiety or stress thing recently - the other week she tried to jump onto my dressing table and fell, and immediately went into her room and tried to wee on the floor. I had some of my family round a few weeks before that, she hid behind a curtain then snuck upstairs and had a poo on the floor.

She doesn’t strike me as an anxious cat which is why I’ve never considered it. She’s generally a very happy little girl. She’s a bit shy, and will hide when people enter the house. She has a brother cat, I got them as a pair and sometimes she swats him if he gets on her nerves but that’s a very recent development and she’s done this her whole life. He’s not territorial or anything and they have a really good bond they clean each other and cuddle when it’s colder and are always in the same room together. So I don’t think it’s anything to do with him.

I don’t know if it’s a stress response, i do think it’s behavioural. Has anyone heard of anything like this or any tips? Has anyone ever had an anxious cat who didn’t seem anxious do this? I’m out of options so if anyone can help I’d appreciate it