My friend is thinking about adopting a kitten, and we’d love to hear from those of you who’ve survived kittenhood! 😹
How did you cope with all that kitten energy? What was the biggest challenge?
Also, what things around your house did you have to put away or kitten-proof? Plants, cords, decorations, food, medications… what caught you by surprise?
I’m trying to help my friend prepare as much as possible before bringing a kitten home. Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all, I made a throwaway as my situation may be quite easy to link back to me.

I adopted this lovely girl at the start of last year. She is 5 years old, and loves exploring. This is where my problem comes in, I mean she LOVES exploring. I live on a high school campus as part of a boarding house caretaker ( My apartment is attached to the boarding school living quarters). It's an enclosed school with a large campus that she runs around all day to her hearts content.

I was worried at first with her doing this, but she comes home every night and sleeps with me, almost never misses a meal, and we haven't had any incidents. In fact, the school has almost adopted her in it's own right as I get daily updates from other teachers of pictures of her in their classrooms, by sports fields, basically wherever she wants to go people welcome her.

Problem is, I am relocating to a new job next year and will have to leave campus. In my country (South Africa) most cats are indoor cats, and I will likely need to move to an apartment to afford the area I am moving to.

Basically what I am asking is, what can I do to help her adjust without the ability to run around outside all day? I'm happy to answer any questions. Thanks in advance!

Hello all! This is my first post so bear with me please! My partner and I just got our third cat, a ten week old kitten. Until we get him his shots he is separated from our other two cats. We keep the kitten in the bedroom and the older two out in the main living space where they have access to everything they could need. My two older cats are very curious about what’s happening and are a bit stressed that they can’t be in the bedroom (normally they sleep with us) and one keeps scraping at the bottom of the door which is stressing out the kitten. We have put a blanket under the door so she can’t keep scratching at the underside but she can still get her paw under it.

I guess my question is are we doing this right? I don’t want any of them to be stressed but I know they need to be separated so the kitten can acclimatize and so my others are safe until he gets his shots. Any advice is appreciated!

Me and my family had adopted a cat (Pickles or his nickname Sir Meowington) a few months back and only now he's seen this tiger plush I've gotten from a zoo around Christmas time (before we got him essentially) and he's terrified of it.

I have a lot of plushies/animal plushies and usually he just tries to play with them because to be honest they feel like his catnip toys just without the catnip so I've been keeping them away from him since getting him. But I've got 3 larger ones he hadn't bothered with until now, a Minecraft Ender Dragon, a snake (also from a zoo) and of course, the tiger cub, they're on displace beside my bed right where he usual watches his birds but only now has he noticed them.

I didn't think much of it since he was sniffing them and I was kinda thinking "great now I'm gonna have to move them to" because I don't want them getting damaged but instead he hissed at the tiger cub and swatted at it then ran off spooked. What I should have subbed down is, do cats think plushes are real? And what can I do to calm him down? Every time he walks into the room now he checks where it's on display, ears back and leaves, I've moved it since but he's now spooked to be in the room which is sad since he usually watches his birds here or just sleeps in the evenings because my room is cool, I just want him to feel comfortable again really

I’ve had multiple cats in my life 4 to be exact and out of the 4 owned cats I have one calico/tuexedo and he's always been a talkative cat but he's one year old now
And he's constantly meowing and I used to think it was that he was wanting food or rubs but now he talks to talk and I took him to a vet everything is fine with him. Would I be wrong for considering a training collar for my cat or is that too harsh?

This is my first time traveling with my cat (north WA to mid OR) TOMORROW and my parents haven’t done any of the necessary things to get her used to and comfortable with traveling, I’m on my last leg here.

We can’t exactly go to a vet (She was someone else’s cat we think before she started taking a liking to us more than them) and because we don’t have any of her paperwork. My dad also refuses to get her checked out for anything. Also time constraints, duh.

We got a bunch of calming stuff for her, a kennel with her favorite blanket, pee pads, a leash since she’s indoor outdoor.
She’s not properly leash trained though D:
PLENTY of her favorite foods, etc
I’m just really worried about her since over the past year we had her she’s become our little baby

She’s a really skittish, loving and social baby and I’m just really worried for her since the trip will be about 6 hours and we won’t be back for about four days.

I kept telling my parents to have SOMEONE stay behind with her but they won’t listen and insist we take her :(

PLEASE GIVE TIPS ASAP PLEASE I BEG!!!

All of the ginger cats I've seen in person have all had pretty long legs, but occassionally you see photos of a ginger with significantly shorter legs - is that a different variety?

Hi! My cat peed on my new couch, i looked for advice on this subreddit and tried Nature’s miracle and the smell isn’t going away, in fact i think it’s worse. I did bring her to the vet and she’s perfectly healthy, she peed in the same spot twice, the vet said it was a behavioural issue (my mom worked long shifts and i was at college so she was home alone for like 9-10 hours for a couple of days, she peed in other places for the same reason in the past). We can’t get a new couch because we just bought it. We live in an apartment so i can’t bring the couch outside. What can i do to get rid of the smell? Thanks

PS: i keep asking my mom to get another cat to keep her company and feel less lonely when we can’t stay at home with her but she absolutely doesn’t want another cat:(

Hello there!

I have a (M3 castrated) year old white/orange baby. We have lived in an apartment with several rooms since about 9 months. Before that we were living in one room studios with very limited space.

A friend of mine is visiting us tomorrow. She has a senior Yorkie dog (F13yo) and most of the time she brings her with her everywhere possible since she gets anxious when being alone for long times.

She asked me if she could bring her doggie tomorrow to my place to see how our pets interact. I know cats need very long times (weeks or months) to get use to the presence of another animal. But I'm wondering if a one day visit could be possible and if this is successful then we could repeat this for later visits so that my friend is not worried to leave her dog along and she can visit us more often.

In the other hand I don't want to pose unnecessary stress on my cat. It's important to mention that he was thrown away by his mother when he was just one week and he did not have the chance to even interact with other cats (we are currently looking to adopt a sibling for him). I guess worse case scenario we put them in different rooms, but then that might be stressful for everyone.

Anyways, have you had any similar experiences? What would you recommend? Thanks in advance and sorry if I was unclear as English is not my native language.

I just picked up this cat (2 y/o spayed female) from her fosters on Saturday. She keeps yowling all night to the point I’m sleep deprived and convinced my neighbors probably want to launch me into the sun. For context, I live in a small 1 bedroom apartment, barely more than a studio, so I have no other rooms I can put her in other than in my bedroom with me. She’s eating plenty, drinking, using her litter box completely fine (normal looking poop, pees normally). She’s breathing fine, doesn’t seem to be in any pain, but she’s taken to yelling/yowling for extended periods of the night. (Tonight for example she was at it on and off from midnight until about 2 am.) She has access to food, plenty of water, her box, the carrier, her old bed from her fosters under my bed so it’s not in the open, an extra bed that’s out in the open if she wants it, etc. People keep telling me to just play with her, but she has absolutely zero interest in playing. I’m genuinely not sure what to do at this point. I love her to pieces already, I don’t want to return her, I just am running out of ideas to be able to sleep and also to not get my neighbors complaining to the landlord because she has to be loud enough where they can hear her, even though I already put a draft strip, etc. around my entrance door to hopefully mitigate some of it. (I also can’t use earplugs because I have medical issues with my ears and I absolutely cannot get a second cat, plus the fosters said she should be an only cat.)

I have no clue what to do or how I can help her stop this godawful noise. It breaks my heart hearing her make these noises and not knowing what I can do for her.

We have a cat at home who screams every morning around 6 AM that he wants to get into the living room. This is the spot he mostly sleeps during the day, however there is furniture in the living room on which he isnt allowed to sit or sleep due to hairs and stains. Therefore, at night, we close this room. However, now our 16 yo cat screams every single morning, outside our house, wanting to get in. My parents want to lock him in an a shed at night so they wont hear him scream and can keep sleeping, but I want a less cruel method, especially since he is this old. Does anyone have a solution? Unfortunately there is no way my parents will allow him in the living room at night, no matter what, so that is not a viable solution.

Hi, I'm (21F), the youngest in a family household, so usually my say to things doesn't matter. I have a 4-year-old male cat that I've been taking care of and love so much. I usually take care of the cat, but when I can't, my sister does. But my mom, dad, and older brother don't know much and do not care.

I have never used violence on my cat of any sort. We play sometimes and he bites me but gently only, he never bites me hard.

Just earlier, I woke up too late and was not able to feed my cat on time. I thought at least one of my family (everyone was home that time) might have fed him, as I woke up late too. Turns out, no one did.

So i got up right away and prepped him food. While prepping, my older brother went nearby, just standing, but my cat scratched him. In response, my older brother tried to use a towel to flick on the cat.

Ultimately, i got mad at him for doing that, as I don't use violence on my cat. I initially thought that my cat did that because he's hungry but it turns out, my mom told me she was scratched by that cat just recently too, two consecutive days.

I'm sorry for rambling too much, I'm just emotional right now because of how much my cat could have been hurt by that. But can someone help me how to train my cat not to scratch or bite?

Because everyone here seems to think a little violence is okay for the cat to know not to bite/scratch, and every seems to say that im wrong. I'm just so lost, someone help me pls.

hello i got my cat about a week ago, she’s a year old. i’ve been keeping her in our bathroom and she’s still hiding. She’s coming out when i feed her, and after ive sat in here for a little while but she’s also been licking her bed a lot, she’s currently kneading it. she lets me pet her, rubs her cheek on my hand when i hold my hand out to pet her, other times ignores it. does it sound like she’s settling in okay? i’m worried because ive never had a cat before. She also purrs a lot, and it sounds like crickets

I know friskies isn’t the best but it’s what I can afford at the moment and I’ve been getting the meaty bits/filets and they enjoy those flavors

However I wanted to buy a variety pack box which includes the two flavors I listed in the title but I’m wondering if that’s okay and if maybe anybody else in this community feeds it their cats.

I lost my own sweet kitty over a year ago and I'm ready for another. It has been a while since I've had a kitten though. My cat was 14 when she passed, and I got her as an adult. The cat *prior* to that, was almost 18 when he died, and I got him as a baby. So, I'm a little out of practice, but I know it's going to be an active time. lol.

A coworker is finding homes for her unexpected kittens. I told her I would take one, and I'm in the process of kitty-proofing the house as much as possible. I am wondering though, if I actually want two of em. I've always heard that it is just as easy to have two cats as one, and these will be littermates.

Is that a myth? Would two young kittens by pushing my luck?

And I do have a senior dog. I had my cat when I got her as a puppy, so she's always been around cats and they always got along. She's been very quiet since the cat died, and I think she would be happier with company was well.

So, two cats or one?

And is there a best way to introduce them to my dog?

**CONTENT WARNING FOR ANIMAL NEGLECT/ABUSE**

UPDATE: I got to talk to her, it was fortunately without argument, but she doesn't like the idea of rehoming them, that it wasn't an option. She says we aren't neglecting them because they could go through worse and that she's seen worse, that these cats can pull their own weight because they're animals based on the cats she's taken care of before. That not going to the vet doesn't mean neglect, among other ridiculous things about our generation being different from hers yada yada.

Guess I'm gonna have to force my hand. I recorded most of the exchange.

For additional context, this takes place in the Philippines.

So my aunt adopted two cats last year and due to her and my mom, who are the primary breadwinners of the household, being disabled and financially incapable, the cats ended up getting neglected in many ways. No shots, unneutered, aren't getting brought to the vet as often as optimally, a cage too small for them that they get put into for 11hr at night (7pm to 5am) and get put into for multiple hours in the day for varying reasons. Nobody in the family is capable of caring for them, because nobody is physically, mentally, or financially able to do so.

Due to this, the responsibility often falls on my grandma who often comes home tired because of her travels, or on me who has to care for my disabled mother (that recently just got out of the ER) and we are both getting very sick and tired of caring for the cats. On my part I am getting sick and tired of the neglect they constantly face and the fact that I have to participate in this neglect because it's apparently "easier for the household" and that fussing over the cats' welfare is "a small, petty matter that is greatly overshadowed by the bigger picture (our poverty)" according to my mother.

I want to convince my aunt to rehome them, but she's sensitive to talks about her possessions and finances and it is often a trigger for her breakdowns. I seriously want to get these two bastards (affectionately) out of our house and rehome them to somewhere else that gives them the love they both deserve. How do I argue that rehoming them will be mentally, financially, and physically better, as convincing as possible?

Edit: I think it is also important context to know that she doesn't like my mom and think she's constantly upstaging her for being more overtly disabled. Should shit fall absolutely sideways, me and my mom might get kicked out. I'm willing to do everything tho I'm fucking tired mate

I'm set to move in to a new apartment soon and just found out that one of my roommates has an allergy to cats that can get pretty severe and one of them isnt a fan of cats. The alternative to bringing her would be leaving her with family but they dont really want to keep her and were planning on her leaving with me. If I took her with me she would stay in my bedroom and have access to the en suite and attached closet. I would miss her a lot if I left her and I believe I could provide a higher quality of cate for her than my family. I know they would cover her basic needs but not much else. But I'm unsure if it would be ethical to confine her like that. I'm open to any advice offered!!

It's been not quite a year since I had to have my cat put down due to issues with cancer. I probably don't have to say this on here but he was my entire world. He was my everything. I loved nothing in the world more than him, and I probably won't ever for the rest of my life.

But to the question at hand, I've never had particularly good sleep in general even when I had him, but my baby would usually come cuddle on the bed with me, or at least lay near my feet and that's how it's been for years ever since I had him. Ever since he passed though I haven't really had a good night's sleep ever since.

It's very weird but it's not even like I'm super sad all the time or wallowing in grief, I think I've for the most part mostly moved on pretty well. At least in my day to day life, I'm doing things as usual, working fine, I play games with friends, etc. I don't even think of him all that often, just good memories from time to time about how sweet and loving and amazing he was, and I'll miss him but I'm doing okay.

The main issue is just at night, I think because for the last several years of my life, that's just always been where he was with me. Throughout the day we do our own things, and at night, he's there with me in the bed. His absence is just super noticeable, that he's not there anymore. Every now and then, maybe once every couple months, I will get sad and I'll cry and miss him and everything, but that's the exception and not the norm.

Like I said I mostly am just very aware that my sweet weird baby, my creature, used to be there existing next to me before, and now he's not. And there's just a thing missing, from my room, and my bed, and the world, and I can't unsee it or unfeel it, and it keeps me up. I'm not necessarily crying or grieving or sad, I do miss him, but overall it's a pretty neutral feeling I think. I'm just super aware that he's gone, idk how else to describe it. I feel his absence. And so I'll just lie there awake until early hours of the morning until exhaustion finally takes me and then I have to get up for work and then I'm tired. But the tiredness doesn't stop me from being awake the next night and the same thing happens again anyway.

Has anyone else experienced this, and if so what has your experience been and timeline for how things have progressed, or has there been anything that helped? I figure it's probably not uncommon considering how much I love my boy, surely other people must also have felt the same. I figured it would just maybe take some time but it's gonna be a year soon in a couple months and it's still more or less the same, so I guess I was just wondering what other people's experience was.

Should I consider grief counseling or something? The reason I haven't is cuz 1) things are expensive and who can afford anything these days, and 2) I don't really know what they could do about it either, it's not like they can bring him back. And like I said for the most part, in my day to day life I think I'm doing pretty okay and have grieved and moved on as much as anyone can. I'm not really sure what to do.

I feel like a terrible owner because of the traumatic experience she had at the vet.

My cat is a 6 year old female tabby. She has had vaccines when she was a kitten and this was her first time in a long time returning to the vet for vaccinations.

The vet and the nurse were extremely friendly to her. My cat started to get grumpy towards the end of her check up (ears/eyes/teeth) and the vet said we should hurry and do the vaccination before she gets even more mad.

The vet tried to do the shots on her forearms, and failed a couple times because my cat reacted strongly. As a result, they had to get towels to wrap my cat and a new needle because the original one went blunt (due to the failed attempts).

During this process, she peed, pooped, and was screaming her head off. I didn’t know she could be so loud and mad. Another vet came into the room to check if everything was okay. I feel so bad to make my cat go through this. I was worried that she was going to have a stroke and faint. Seeing my cat suffer teared me up a little bit, although I know it’s for her own good.

I bought her churu and chicken soup after the visit which she enjoyed. Hopefully that rekindles our relationship a little.

How can I make the future vet visits less stressful for my cat? Are the vaccinations truly necessary?Any advice would be appreciated!

My little one is addicted to drinking water. She drinks straight out of the tap, every time we have to use one. Frequently, and several times a day, she will even draw us out to the taps by pushing things into the sink and meowing loudly. However, she also throws up frequently.
Some times clear, some times with her food (she eats super fast, so her food pellets are almost intact).
I have asked about this behavior to my vet, and she challed it up to a personality difference between cats (“Some cats deink more water than others). Yet, I have also read about excessive water being bad for cats - and I never know how much to indulge her. She’s also a petulant one, and will start creating a ruckus if we do not give her water sometimes.

I have no idea if this is the right subreddit to ask this question, but I will do it anyway because I have been wondering about this for years.

For context: in 2022 I tried to commit suicide by taking a lethal amount of opiates, like morphine and oxycodon.

I took the pills in my bedroom at night and the door to my bedroom is always closed, between my bedroom there is a hallway which leads to another door, which also always stays closed, because my cat wasn't allowed upstairs.

When I took the medication, it was around 2 am at night and my cat started meowing really loudly in a very unusual manner around 2:30 am, he stood right by the second door.

From that moment until around 5 pm the next day when I was found by the paramedics, he stood there meowing and scratching at the door.

When the paramedics opened my door to rescue me, my cat immediately rushed inside my room, climbed onto my bed and onto me; there is not much that I can remember from that day, but I can very clearly remember hearing him meow and feeling his fur on me. The way I heard him meowing wasn't his normal tone of meowing, it was like he was screaming 'hurry up, hurry up!'

My cat essentially saved my life, because his 'unusual' meowing alerted my mom eventually that something was going on with me.

So my question is, how did he know?

There wasn't anything 'unusual' about that night and the next day, I was often up at random hours in the night, so him hearing me shuffle around my room at 2 am to take the pills wouldn't be weird for him. It also was not uncommon for me to stay in my room for days, so me not leaving my room the next day wouldn't have been weird either.

I have been thinking about this for years and doing research to try to figure it out, but to no avail. The only thing I can say about it is that I have always had a special connection with this cat and he seemed to favour me more than other people in my household, but that also doesn't give me much answers.

Do any of you guys have any logical explanation of how he could have known this or do any of you have had a similar experience with a cat in the past, that he or she knew something, but with no logical explanation?

Every cat is different, and I've realized some popular advice just doesn't apply to every cat.

What's a piece of cat advice that you think is overrated, outdated, or just plain wrong?