Practical Cats

I'm a new cat momma (two domestic shorthair rescues) and a dog momma. 
Do you  lovely people have any good resources on training cats, particularly ones that are completely unphaseable. (example: conventional wisdom says to sprey a cat with a water bottle when its somewhere you don't want it to be, My torti? she likes it. ) 
Forgive me if I sound a little clueless, I sort of am. I've never had cats before. 

Other than being  hard to train, she's a breeze to work with (likes being picked up, can easily be put in a carrier to vet, likes my dog even)

Wow, just noticed the last post here is about a year old. Leaving question up, but sorry for not noticing. Came over from stupidpetowners


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Hi guys - I have a sort of 'no-brainer' question that I would like some input on.

We are a three cat house, at this point. All of our babies are up to date on shots and fixed. My boyfriend has one cat and I have two - we share the house and all the cats get along.

What criteria would you use to decide if you have "enough" cats that would help let you know if another cat might be too many. The BF fell in love with a rescue kitty at one of those adoption agencies locally. The little dear is AMAZINGLY sweet, tiny even at 7-months, has been tested for FIV and all that and vaccinated, is fixed... he's adorable. I think he'd fit in just fine but the BF is worried about it all.

So, what criteria can we use to measure the house-hold for candidacy of adopting another kitty?

If I left out any important information about our situation, let me know and I'll fill you in.

I've got a question that seemed too trivial for spo_prevention , so I'm bringing it here:

Kay is my 16-year-old kitty. She's a thoroughly delightful creature and I've had her since she was foisted upon me by an irresponsible house-mate in her kittenhood. She's FIV+ (and has been most of her life) but is healthy as a horse, indoor-only, eats Wellness dry food, has immaculate litterbox behaviour and shows no signs of any infirmity or illness. She lives with 2 dogs, who aren't her favourite things in the universe, but they tolerate one another when it comes to important matters like bed real estate.

This year, though, she's started yowling at night. Like, really loud. Normally she communicates in peeps and squeaks (she's never meowed—I don't think she ever quite learned how), and if you walk in on her mid-yowl, she'll turn around and squeak at you, as per normal. She has never made those sorts of noises before, and at first I was super distressed, thinking she had injured herself or was requiring something urgently (such as the bedroom door opened for Her Highness), but every time I went to investigate, I found her happy as a clam, ready to squeak all about it with me and roll around on the floor making air-muffins. I've never been able to observe her doing this, because she only does it when she's alone in "her" room.

At first I thought it could be that her hearing was going, because my parents' elderly cat started screaming up a storm when she started going deaf (by the time she died, she was absolutley stone deaf), because she couldn't hear herself, but I've tested Kay and her hearing seems just fine. Her ears swivel and she responds to noises the same as she always has.

So, I'm pretty sure this isn't an issue that requires me to really flip out over it, hence my post here and not at a more health-care-oriented community. But, has anyone ever experienced a similar change in vocalising and anyone have any stabs as to what might have brought it on?


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My parents have six cats- a mom who we took in, and the litter she turned out to be carrying. They've lived with us their entire lives (a year and a half) and most of them are the sweetest-natured animals you could ever see. They've never been abused, or given any reason to dislike or distrust people. Basically, there's no reason that I can see for them to lash out.

Some of them will bite while playing, but one goes further than that. He'll bite without provocation- often when he's being patted. And I don't think it's an attempt to make the attention stop, because he'll frequently jump up next to you, meow for attention, and then bite when you extend a hand to pat him. And while his siblings never bite hard- they don't do more than nip- he chomps down, and you have to shake to get him off. Sometimes he grabs you with his paws while biting, sometimes he doesn't. Scolding, saying "NO," tapping him gently on the head- nothing seems to deter him. If we withdraw attention, he just waits until we start patting again and bites. Is there any way to stop him from behaving like this? Or anything that might be causing it?

Hi all. I found this place through SPO and I was wondering if I could get some advice. I know I should have asked here earlier but I can’t change that so here it goes.

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Based on the information above, it could be that she does have a home and just hangs out here for the food or she’s one hell of a lucky stray. The nearest vet is a fair trek from here as well plus when I initially went to ask for advice the woman behind the desk laughed at me and just told me to ignore it. This pretty much deterred me from going back there to try again but at this stage, I'm desperate. On Tuesday, I have my final exam and afterwards I’m leaving the Villas for good. It’s stupid and I know it’s not my cat but I just want to make sure she’s okay before I go because she’s stolen my damn heart.

So, thoughts and opinions? If I can extend the time I’ll be here for, I’m going to see if I can get one of my roommates to drive me to the vet and ask them to scan her for a microchip. But I'd really appriciate it if someone could maybe confirm or deny that she's a stray or not based on what I've told you.

[EDIT as of 10/05/10] - Asked the front desk about the cat and they told me that she's been hanging around for about two and a half years. Even though her owner has never come by the Villas, based on all this she probably does have a home to go to. That's a weight off my mind.

I figured it'd be fun to see how everyone goes about feeding their cats. Who's up for a cat nutrition poll?

Feel free to answer as many or as few of the poll's questions as you like!

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So I live with someone that has a cat.He's about a year and a half old.This person seem to be drinking too much.I have seem them yell or swat at the cat a few times.The cat will do the whole latching on when you pet him.But he will also attack when he is not approached.A few hours ago I was totally ignoring him in the kitchen.Then he lunged at me!He jumped as high as my bra band and held on with his claws.The person I live with recently took in a new puppy that needed a home.

So why is the cat acting this way?and can I save him?Could it be mistreatment?Could it be an illness?Jealousy of the puppy(even though he was acting strange prior)?I don't think it's over stimulation or playing......if I'm not approaching him first.

Hi there,

Just joined this community, as I'm currently having a cat problem and looking for a little advice...

My eldest cat died a few weeks ago, and I just adopted a new cat to keep my surviving younger cat company, as she'd never been an only cat before and seemed really sad and lonely. The new cat is a three-year-old spayed female, who I got from a friend of a friend, and she seemed really sweet and affectionate and mellow, so I thought she might be a good companion for my other cat.

Now, I have enough cat experience to know that there's always a little friction when a new cat joins a household in which there's already at least one cat present. And I know you just have to ride it out and give them a chance to get used to each other. So I was prepared for a little drama. I also have a dog, though my dog is quite used to cats and the new cat is used to living with a dog, so I didn't anticipate too many problems there.

And in fact, there hasn't been much friction at all - a bit of hissing at each other from a safe distance, but no fighting and really not a whole lot of contact between them. The new cat has been mostly staying in the bedroom, and my other cat has been mostly staying out of there. The dog seemed to be keeping a very watchful eye on the new cat for a while, but mostly seems to have settled down and accepted her now.

What there has been, however, is three instances in as many days of the new cat using my bed as a litterbox! Even when she had a perfectly good litterbox right there in the same room. The first two times were both on Friday - she pooped right in front of my pillow in the afternoon, and then, after I'd stripped the bed and hauled everything to the laundromat and washed it all, and then remade the bed and was just getting ready to go to bed for the night, she peed on it. Saturday and most of Sunday were uneventful, and she had seemed to be settling in and becoming happy and relaxed. Saturday night when I went to bed, the new cat came and cuddled up next to me and the dog, and all seemed well. But then this evening she peed on the bed again! Not in the same spot as the first time, either, so I know it's not just that there was some residual scent left after washing everything.

I'm really not sure what to do. Her previous owner said she'd never done this before, not even after moving households, so it's not something usual for her. I figure it must be a stress reaction of some sort, but she's not acting terribly stressed, and as I mentioned, hasn't really had any sort of serious clashes with my other cat or with the dog. She gives every impression of being happy and relaxed. And yet...

I live in a fairly small one-bedroom apartment, so there isn't really a separate room I can confine her to as some people on my journal have suggested. The only rooms with doors are the bedroom, which is where she's causing the problems now, and the bathroom, which hasn't got any heat of its own, so it would be freezing cold if I shut her in there.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do about this? Or how much of this I should put up with before I decide that maybe she's just not happy here and give her back to her previous owner? :-(

So currently the way I solve the don't scratch furniture is to cover my furniture with draping sheets. The cats don't seem to want to scratch when they can't see the cool woven texture - don't know why this works but it does.

Does anyone have any suggestions if I'm in the market for a new chair for material? Do cats ignore microfiber chairs? Or does everyone just get their cats to use scratching posts anyways so it doesn't matter. I think leather would go scratch proof - cats like texture beneath their paws to scratch up. to mimic trees where they can leave their scent.

I took Teeti outside and she could not get enough of scratching up this cedar tree... They have a flat scratchy box but I need to get more trees with sisal rope, etc.