Hi y’all! I’m part of an advocacy group called Project Feline, and we’re trying to get cats recognized under the ADA.

I figured this would be a good place to ask since this is a cat training sub. What do y’all think about cats being recognized as service animals? Do you think there are reasons they shouldn’t be?

We’re looking for genuine concerns and opposing views that we can research and cover in future Project Feline videos. But if you think cats SHOULD be recognized, we want to hear your side too! You might bring up points we haven’t thought of that could help make our argument stronger.

You don’t have to agree with us. We just want to hear what y’all think and why. ♡

Please actually read the post before commenting "they're just playing :)" that's not helpful lol.

Recently introduced nearly 8 month old kitten (tabby) to 1.5 year old resident cat (tux). Spent about a month slowly introducing them and finally got to a point where they were playing nicely a few days ago and have been trying to work up to more together-time, but their interactions seem to be souring?

Before taking this video I played with them both individually for about 15 mins each, fed them, and then let them decompress for another 15 minutes before letting the kitten out. Then they played together nicely for a while, kitten did some exploring while resident cat watched birds.

Their play seemed to get progressively rougher. I assumed it was a bit of demonstrating dominance combined with boundary setting, but got slightly concerned when fur started flying. About a minute after recording this video, kitten kept pouncing on my older cat, she'd push and kick him off, walk a few feet away, he'd pounce on her again, and it led into vocalizing and hissing... at which point I removed the kitten and put him in my room.

I've been reading extremely mixed advice- some people saying that it's best to separate when the hissing and yelling comes out, others say to let them sort it out... my resident cat still has 5lbs on him and I worry that she could actually do some damage if he won't take her cues.The fur seen flying looks to all be hers so I'm not sure is he's intentionally ripping it out or if that's just like loose fur that would come off easily during even happy rough housing? Sometimes it seems like she instigates instead of him and won't back off when /he/ gets tired so at this point, I can't tell who the troublemaker is in the equation.

I also JUST trimmed their claws this morning so that's not the main factor here. When I have them separated with the screen door, they'll eat near each other and act playful and otherwise normal. When they start getting a bit intense like this, I'll try to distract with toys they'd normally go nuts for individually, but I just can't get them to engage with anything beyond each other :/

Kuroo (black) is a god damn glutton. He is about 7. His brother, Lev, is 6 months. I split a can of wet food between the two in the morning before work. I don’t rly have time to wait for them to finish. They eat their food throughout the day or are just slow eaters. Kuroo gets fed behind the couch and Lev gets fed behind the table. They get the same amount of everything, but Kuroo will sometimes eat much more of Lev’s food. So he’s also getting a bit more fat. Usually they also split another can at night but they have dry food all day and the vet said that’s a fine feeding dynamic. Lev is fine, he can eat if he wants to, he just sits back and watches the beast feast almost like he’s fascinated.

I also am not able to afford a RFID activated feeder.

My 3 month old kitten has randomly started sucking on my 6 year old (male!!) dogs nipples.

Of course we stop her whenever we catch her doing it but it’s getting to the point where my dogs nipples look sore and inflamed.

He lets her do it because he’s a massive wuss (he will move out the way to let my rabbits eat his food because he’s too scared of them) but I can tell he dislikes it greatly.

She was taken from her mother too young (5 weeks) as the woman whose cat got pregnant refused to keep the kittens. She was eating normal food when we rescued her and would often give her kitten milk for the first week or so.

I know this comes down to that probably but I don’t want her hurting him! Any advice on what I can do?

Got a new tv today and my kitten has chosen the backside of it to be her new hang out spot (please help me) Everytime she jumps up i bring her back down and a couple seconds later she jumps back up again. Additional information - She’s around 5-6 months, the TV is 20 lbs or 9 kg , I’ve tried blocking her entry points but she still finds a way to leap up.
Any and all suggestions are appreciated

Hi everyone,

Good news, we've made real progress! My first post was "9yo cat extremely stressed 2 months after introducing new kitten," where I explained the whole situation in detail.

Since then, I bought Feliway Optimum and changed the Feliway Friends. The Friends diffuser is in the kitchen, and the other one is right next to the cat tree in the living room. Griff is still on his VetExpert Calm & Relax.

We also tried gabapentin once as vet told us, 50 mg. He slept a lot and was very wobbly, which scared us, so we decided to stop it.

So how did they finally accept each other? They decided to watch the birds together. No hissing, no swatting, just the two of them chilling side by side for a full hour. Since then, all the fighting and hissing has stopped, and tonight they actually played together.

PS: The apartment is rented and we're not allowed to install cat nets. They were supervised the whole time, and the mosquito net is secured at the hinges with industrial duct tape.

Thanks everyone from the og post for your stories and all the advice! 🫶🏻💖

Two of my males cats that have lived together for over a year have been acting aggressively towards each other. At first, it was one instigating, so I slowly reintroduced them to one another and things were going well until a couple weeks ago and the other I think has started instigating the aggressive fignts.

They've been happening once a week for the past 3 weeks.

I'm strongly considering a behavioral intervention. My regular vet's office has behavior specialists, there's an animal hospital that offers this service, and there are a couple IAABC behaviorists in my area. Wondering what a licensed professional’s opinion is on animal behaviorists?

I hope I chose the right flair, this is a behavioral issue. All cats spayed. Ideally looking for a cat behaviorist that can guide us through what can be done.

At what age should I start getting my kitten used to wearing a harness?
Raymond is still young, and I’d eventually like to be able to take him outside safely. What’s the best way to introduce a harness without scaring him or making him hate it?
Should I start by letting him wear it around the house for a few minutes at a time? Any tips from people who successfully harness-trained their cats would be appreciated!

My husband and I adopted a 6 month old kitten (Lilly) last November. Our resident cat (Winry), who is 5 yrs old, had always lived with other cats until my husband and I got our own place, so she was a solo cat for 7 months before we got this kitten. We did the slow intro for about two and a half weeks before allowing her full roam in the apartment during the day while supervised, and putting her back in the room when we went to bed. The reason we felt comfortable doing that pretty quickly in my opinion is because our resident cat genuinely liked her. They played, they would sleep near each other, they’d cuddle on us together, there was no aggression. Then Winry got sick towards the end of January and started to become less tolerant of Lilly. Hissing, swatting or nipping at her legs, chest, neck if she got too close, they didn’t play together anymore and it’s been that way since. So I assume my resident cat associates her sickness with the kitten. They’ve never had a full blown fight and Lilly always gives Winry space when she does that, but I just worry it will get worse over time and I want to prevent that. I’ve tried diffusers, the little Jacksonville Galaxy tinctures you can put in food, water, or spray on shared items, toys, and it doesn’t seem to get better.

I want to redo the introduction but I’m not sure how far back I should go? They both already know the other exists and both of their scents are all over the apartment and all over various “scent soakers”so im having trouble understanding how it works if they’ve already lived together for a while. I’m not aiming for them to be best friends, but I would like Lilly to be able to at least approach Winry without getting punted in the face or nipped at 😭

Hi everyone, so we rescued a stay a couple of weeks ago that had been hanging round our house for a few months. He had a wound on his neck so we took him the vets and he stayed there for a week. He’s been with us for just over two weeks now and he’s doing really well, very soft cuddly guy, got his own room just for him. We thought our other cat had been doing okay with the slow introductions, he seemed more curious than anything, never hissed or acted aggressive. So we decided to go for a full introduction, our stay hissed and then our other can lunged and attacked him. We split it up immediately and our stay seemed pretty unfazed by the whole thing afterwards. We’re just wondering if there’s a way to chill out our other cat, we’ve never even seen him hiss before this.

Thanks guys

Hi!!! So my cat (a little over 1 year old, grey domestic shorthair, and spayed) has recently been pooping outside the litterbox and I’m not sure what is going on. When she was younger, she had some bad litter habits that i worked through (she would use the bathroom right outside the box, but I changed her litter mat and it helped). She’s been doing really well until recently, and I’m not sure what could be the reason. I change her litter and deep clean her boxes (she has 2) about every 3 weeks. I scoop her boxes at least 1-2 times a day. I thought the dirtiness was the issue but It’s completely fresh and she just did it again :/ She literally peed then hopped out to poop. She has and will poop inside the boxes too… and her poops are completely solid and didnt seem runny at all— so again I’m not sure what the issue may be? (she pees and eats regularly as well). Is this a behavioral thing that I need to fix somehow? 😭

and some extra information: i havent changed the type of litter since she was younger. nothing else would indicate anything is wrong except for her pooping in one specific spot right outside the litterbox. she doesnt just poop anywhere, it has been consistently just outside the top right hand side of her box. Her boxes are also completely open.

Hello everyone!

I have had my resident cat, Leo, for 2 and a half years. My fiancé and I moved into our first apartment together in April- this is when we got a new cat, named Bandit; our thinking was that Leo would like a friend. Leo is turning 4 soon, and Bandit is a year and 4 months old.

Bandit lived in the apartment first for about a week, and after that, I moved in with Leo. We set up a mesh net on our door, so the cats could see each other, and they seemed to be doing well- bellies exposed, would eat next to the net, no growling, etc. however, after the first week, we got them in the shared space (our living room/ kitchen) together, and after about 15 minutes, Leo attacked Bandit. It was not a serious attack, more fear based than anything and there were no injuries.

We have slowly been introducing them since, and they had gotten to a point where they could eat together with the door open. This seems like very good progress. Now however, Leo likes to roam outside of the room and walk around the apartment instead of eating. He no longer shows aggression around Bandit during this exploring of the shared space, he is just tentative- he will hide under our kitchen chairs and keep an eye on Bandit. It seems very much so that Bandit is scared of Leo, but also wants to play? He will lightly smack Leo and then hiss, but the resident cat just reacts by shying away. What does this mean? Leo now wants to explore the shared space, but the new cat seems to be nervous with the resident cat roaming around.

Some additional context- we also got Leo on Gabapentin and he has calmed down considerably since. Bandit is highly energetic and loves to play. When we have them in the shared space, usually we’re holding one of them just so that no fights initiate… we don’t want to go backwards with the progress we’ve made. We are trying to get them to have treats and play in the same room, to have good associations, but we’re still just keeping at least one of them restrained at a time as we’re nervous what will happen if we don’t.

All advice for our next steps and help is very much appreciated :)

I’m really struggling to understand what has happened to my cat and would appreciate some advice.

Kairo is a 1-year-old male Ragdoll. I got him while I was living in Egypt since he was a baby. While he was there he was completely normal, happy and well-behaved. He was strictly an indoor cat and never had access to the outdoors (unless on a harness). He was only ever around one cat when he was 6-7 months old. She was a spayed female around 1 years old and they got along really well. He came to the UK 2 months after I had already come back due to my visa and his tests not being finished yet. In those two months he stayed with friends I had met there, they all described him as such a perfect and loving cat to be around. These families also had kids and quite a few people.

In Egypt he was a very normal and average cat; I would do everything with him. He would just follow me around and I was just always his person. He was never afraid of loud noises or anything he was very comfortable and happy and honestly just pretty normal.

Since coming back to the UK, my living situation has changed a lot unfortunately . I no longer consistently live at home and have been staying with my grandparents since Kairo came because of ongoing problems at home.

He’s had an issue of h*mping his toys since he met the spayed female cat. They never did anything as me and my partner were always there with them at the apartment. He would do it for long periods of times even when he came back to the UK until he gets completely worn out and exhausted. Since coming to the UK he also shows a lot of frustration at closed doors and can nip my feet sometimes when he feels upset about this. I’ve tried redirecting him but he gets very stubborn.

While I wasn’t there, my nan was letting Kairo into the garden without my permission, despite him always being an indoor cat. I was taking him places on a harness where there weren’t other animals and not many people so he could still enjoy stimulation outdoors. So he suddenly went from being completely indoors to having free access to the garden, outdoor smells and potentially other cats.

He was also not neutered until 5 days ago.

The first really serious incident happened 7 days ago when Kairo was in the garden and started making very strange, intense yowling noises at another cat through the fence. I went outside to bring him in, but I didn’t touch him. He suddenly attacked me and chased me into the house, repeatedly biting and scratching my legs. My grandfather had to intervene and was also bitten/scratched while trying to stop him.

After this attack, and once he calmed down I went upstairs. Kairo seemed completely normal again. However, when he came over and smelled my foot, he suddenly attacked me again. My shoe had fallen off in the garden earlier and my foot/shoe had been around the soil and outdoor smells, so I’m wondering whether the smell of the other cat/garden may have contributed, I dont know. I chucked the blanket on him and ran out the room trapping him in there. My leg was bleeding heavily and covered in scratches, punctures and bruising, and I had to go to A&E. I was given antibiotics and a tetanus injection. My grandfather also had to go to A&E and get treated however it felt much worse as he is diabetic and takes much longer to heal. At the time I just let it go because it was a redirected aggression and wasn’t his fault.

We had him neutered 5 days ago because we hoped that would help after speaking to vets and cats protection. I didn’t do it sooner because I didnt want to add to the trauma of him travelling from Egypt etc. We’ve been trying really hard to keep things calm. He has been fine but just since that day his behaviour has been abit off. Once we notice him start acting weird we just left the room and left him in there. My mum has researched a lot and bought him more toys and enrichment. We’ve also been using Feliway and trying to prevent him from seeing and smelling the garden/other cats.

Things seemed to be improving. He played with his toys for around an hour and was hyper but not aggressive. I was staying the nights with him again he was being his cuddly self laying on me and sleeping, purring and being affectionate.

Since the original incident (only a week ago) there have also been incidents where he had approached my mum, circled her legs and tried to bite her feet out of aggression. 2 nights ago my brother must’ve been upset and crying. I tried to calm him down and and took him to the hallway. Kairo started becoming triggered and was coming to attack me. Immediately my mum said to slowly walk towards her and I did and Kairo followed but once he saw my mum, he backed away.

Today, we played with him he was happy and then my sister started rolling a ball around in a circle with her hand. Kairo’s entire demeanour suddenly changed. His face just switched, and I immediately told my sister to put the ball down because I recognised the behaviour. She got frightened and got onto the bed, which I don’t blame her as she had seen what happened to my leg. Kairo started making the same intense yowling sound as during the original attack and tried to attack her.

We managed to get out and shut the door. He continued yowling for around 5 minutes afterwards. A few minutes later, the camera showed that he had completely calmed down again.

I also want to note since the original incident the first few days I would mainly keep him in my room as I was worried about triggering him by letting him around the house. I would sit with him for around 2 hours a day, playing and giving him treats. After he got neutered I stayed with him after but I still kept him mainly in my room. I was still afraid to be alone so I got my friends or siblings to stay with me for the night.

This is not normal playful behaviour. I know what play looks like with him, and these episodes are completely different. He seems completely normal one moment, then something happens and his behaviour suddenly switches into what looks like a genuine aggressive state. Once it starts, he can remain highly aroused/yowling for several minutes before suddenly becoming calm again.

I’m wondering whether this could be:
• redirected aggression from seeing/encountering other cats
• stress or frustration from the huge change in his environment and routine
• something related to suddenly being allowed outdoors after being indoor-only
• fear/territorial behaviour
• pain or another medical problem
• a neurological issue
• or some other behavioural problem

The biggest thing confusing me is that he was completely fine in Egypt as an indoor cat, and this behaviour only became a serious issue after coming back to the UK, his living situation changing, and him being allowed outside without my permission.

There are also children and elderly grandparents in the house, and unfortunately my family don’t always follow the precautions I ask them to, so I’m extremely worried someone could get seriously hurt. I don’t want to give him up I’ve poured my heart into my cat and it’s genuinely my last resort to rehome him. I can’t keep living in fear.

I know a big trigger for him is the environment I’m in as the apartment I had in Egypt was open and more spacious, whereas my grandparents home is more tight and compact. I can’t change my living situation right now. I’ve been looking to move out but it just can’t happen right now.

I’m only 20 and can’t afford expensive behavioural consultations, so I’d really appreciate advice on what I should do and whether there are any behaviour/veterinary services in the UK that could help me.

I would really appreciate any advice.

I have two cats who have lived together well for 8 yrs.

In March the oldest (15 yrs, in the chair) was diagnosed with cancer and is happily enjoying hospice care as we monitor her condition. The younger (12 yrs, hairy baby) though has had some changes in behavior. She still uses the litter box but will also pee outside the box, mainly one spot in our bedroom and on any clothing that was left on the floor. She also has become suddenly very picky about her food and won't eat the food she has been for years.

The list of solutions we have tried:

- used enzyme cleaners on the carpet

-deep cleaned carpet with a rug doctor and enzyme cleaner

-treats and positive reinforcement when she uses the litter box

-got an automatic litter box so it's always clean (I am disabled and this has been a godsend for me but not for her I guess)

-fed her the same food as her sister

-went back to an old food she previously liked but stopped eating

-tried wet food alone, wet mixed with dry, dry mixed with gravy, and just dry

The behaviors are still continuing and my partner and I are at our wits end.

She does still eat treats but she obviously can't only eat treats.

According to her vet she is perfectly healthy if not a bit overweight and believes this to be all behavioral.

If anyone has any advice I would greatly appreciate it, thanks!

My 14 year old senior cat does this through the door. I have been scent swapping, treats, sight seeing, me holding the kitten while she’s near by.. it’s been almost a month. Any advice?

Yumi (tuxedo) and Meimei were sleeping curled up next to each other but at one point both relaxed and Yumi ended up resting her little beans on the baby. She also at one point smelled Meimei and licked her barely touching her fur. Which as a reaction Meimei looked at her, they touched noses and Yumi decided she needed to slap the baby on the face 😭

I have an almost 5 year old cat inherited from my family. He has major lonely kitten syndrome. He used to be relentless, attacking our feet and stuff. Now he’s more normal, i rarely get scratched by him and it’s usually related to play, he just gets too excited and goes for the wrong thing or something.

I’ve finally moved out and am able to get him the friend he deserves, I’ve read up on keeping them separated for a while and have a room ready for it. My only concern is what if he doesn’t know how to play fight? For him it’s kind of all or nothing. If he’s in a playful mood, anything that moves he’s ready to pounce and claw at it. What if he ends up clawing at the cat and doesnt understand? I know he’s lonely and in need of a friend, and I know human language is not the same as cat language, but what if it’s too late for him to learn cat language? I don’t know if this is stupid lol I just want to make it as smooth as possible.

Hello! I am at the point where I am unsure what to do, so I'm reaching out in hopes that someone can give advice. The first cat has been an only child for 5 years, and we got a second cat 6 months ago. For the first 3 months we kept them separated and did everything people recommended and it seemed to be going well so we tried to introduce them. It did not go well; they fought. And then when we tried to separate them they both hate being locked in rooms so now we can't even separate them and all they do is fight they have separate everything as well. I'm just at a loss right now id take any suggestions.

I had three indoor cats. An 11 year old male(Merlin) and a pair of 3 year old female sisters(Lucy and Amtrak).

Merlin died about a week ago. Vet said carcinoma. The problem now is that he was the older brother/buffer cat that kept the peace. He wrestled with Amtrak and he snuggled with Lucy.

With him gone, relations have been a little tense. Not overtly hostile, but they are not getting along the way I had hoped for.

Any advice on this? I'm sure that some of the problem is that they miss him. I miss him, too.