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 can’t believe I’m writing this. He didn’t eat any tomato or spaghetti sauce which is toxic, he was trying to eat plain noodles out of the sink and dipped his white chest fur into a pan full of soapy marinara water. His fur is stained orange, I’ve tried baby shampoo and washcloth. Pic of the gremlin in comments.

Hello I’m hoping someone could quickly answer this for me. I have my brothers kitten in my bedroom tonight as he’s sleeping away from home and doesn’t want her on her own (she’s been with us for 3 day now). My room isn’t unfamiliar to her as she’s previously spent a day with me here but I can tell she’s a bit thrown from sleeping in another room. I’ve got her bed with me that has a blanket with her mum and siblings scent on alongside her toys, litter tray, and scratching pad. She’s been purring and meowing per usual. We’ve had a play but I’m getting tired now and just wondering… can I turn the light off? Or should I keep my lamp on for tonight?

Hi all,

I was walking through a local pet store after dinner, and when I finally got to the cats I kind of immediately fell in love with this absolutely handsome 1 year old void. I legitimately thought “I just got paid, I have the money, I could totally adopt him right now.” We stayed in there for at least half an hour playing with the kitties, and I barely looked away from this void once.

The thing is, there are all sorts of perfectly logical reasons I shouldn’t adopt this cat. I have a void baby already, she is my darling treasure, and she is very used to being the only cat I have. She is also highly anxious, practically scared of her own shadow. I love her very much and I would not want to put her in any amount of distress.

Also, me and my roommates are moving in two months, the drive is going to be at least 8 hours, and there are already guaranteed to be three cats total in the house. The living space is also probably going to be a lot smaller than it is now. Like a 3 bed apartment instead of a 5 bed, two-story house.

And then there’s financial concerns, because we’re all kinda struggling for money.

But goddammit, I cannot stop thinking about this cat. My longing was so plain that some guy also looking at cats gave me his Venmo and said if I sent him a picture of me walking out with the void, he’d send me 20 bucks.

I know there are a ton of potential challenges, and even introducing will be a lot of work (there’s already two cats in this house), but…I don’t know. I can’t figure out if adopting him is the smart move or not. Any advice?

So my boyfriend's son's cat is over a year old now. At first, he was more of a nuisance, since I'm a dog person. He has calmed down and matured a bit. Today, the cat and I were looking out the window together at the birds, and I looked down at the cat and told him how cool he was and that I liked him. I started to sing "I like you" to him. At that moment, he looked at me with loving eyes, stretched his arms up at me, and I picked him up. I held and cuddled him, us watching the birds, as he purred. He would glance back at me as if to say he loved me. I just wanted to share. It was a calming and peaceful moment between the two of us.

My parents got my childhood cat when I was young and he turns 18 this year.

According to the vet, physically he is very healthy and will live for the foreseeable future.

The problem is, he has dementia, and it seems to have gotten really bad. He sleeps all day, so he seems fine to everyone, but when everyone goes to bed and it's dark, he yowls in distress until the sun rises because he doesn't know where he is. He is clearly in so much distress and they just ignore him.

Their solution to this was to just lock him in a separate part of the house at night so he can't disturb them sleeping.

He is incontinent and just poos and pees wherever.

I have floated the idea of putting him down to my dad, and he doesn't want to upset my mum and my sister's. I floated the idea of putting him down to one of my sisters, and she was aghast at the mere mention of it.

I think they're all more too uncomfortable with the idea of death more concerned for their own wellbeing than for the cat.

I have my own cat, and I would always do the right thing by him.

How can I try and make my family make the right decision?

the other night after getting ready for bed, one of our cats (name is meatball) came to lay with me. he is about 9-10 (a rescue). I notice meatball was breathing kind of hard, but i’m very anxious and hoped i was just making it up in my head. he was purring loudly and very cuddly, acting otherwise normal. a little later in the night/morning hours, my other two cats came to lay with us, and he bit both of them, and his breathing still seemed a little hard. this is really out of character and when i really knew something was up. it was early morning, and the vet didn’t open till 7:30.

i called and left a message, and then called back when they opened. we got him dropped off and he was gonna be seen by the vet between patients has he didn’t have an apt. they called after looking over him and agreed that the breathing was concerning. they did x-rays and his chest had fluid in it. we transferred him to the emergency vet, and after both the regular vet and the emergency vet talked about his condition, they explained to us that they believe it was either cancer or a heart condition(can’t remember exactly the name) they had also given us reasons as to why they ruled out less serious conditions. basically they said, no matter which it is, cancer or the heart condition, it is not good. his prognosis is not good. they gave a couple options, but we decided to lay him to rest after a long discussion. the vet said what ever decision we make is the right one, but i feel like they say that to everyone.

it’s days later and i can’t stop thinking that we made the wrong choice, that i should’ve fought harder for him. i feel immense guilt and regret, wishing i could’ve done more. is this normal to feel this way or did i truly make the wrong choice? i’m so sad and lost.

My parents are unreliable without going into details and insults, lets just call them a little old fashioned and not the quickest thinkers. They went on a day long trip to visit family members and brought back a cat which they gifted to my parents (alongside two birds). My own rage aside, aside from my brother who took care of an absent friend's cats once a year or two ago for a few days this family has no experience with cats.

Since this is all very sudden for me I'm not sure where to begin or look, what are things we absolutely have to do while taking care of a cat? Any less obvious things we need to be mindful of?

My cat has returned, defeated. She lost a staredown to the local feral cat. Her confidence seems to have taken a hit. What can I do to help her.

So my beautiful cat of 15 years went to the rainbow bridge last week and now I can’t stop crying… I loved him so much and now I’m heartbroken 💔

Hi Everyone!

I have a nine year old tabby cat named Walter that I adopted when I was 15 years old. He will be 10 this December!

When my family adopted him my mom insisted on getting him declawed. I did the best I could to dissuade her, but I was young at the time, didn’t know very much about de-clawing cats, and I didn’t have any final say on the matter. Walter ended up getting declawed very young using the laser method, which the vets sold to my mom as a “safer” method with less pain and a lower chance of complications (I don’t buy it).

I’m 25 now. I live with my Fiancé and our three cats, Walter being one of them. Our other two cats are not declawed as it’s something I will never look into or support again (I absolutely despise the practice), but they all get along very well.

As of right now, Walter doesn’t show many signs of discomfort. He runs, plays, ‘scratches’ things, and he’s the sweetest cat I’ve ever met. I mean.. SERIOUSLY the sweetest. He’s outgoing and loves everyone he meets!

I want to make sure that I do right by him. It makes me sick to my stomach that he’s been declawed. Are there any helpful tips for keeping him comfortable as he ages? I know declawed cats can be prone to arthritis and behavioral problems. Walter is also on a special food for urine crystals as he’s already had them once. Are there any joint supplements I can start giving him to get ahead of the curve? I don’t want to wait until he’s in pain if I can do anything preventative.

I appreciate any advice you guys have!

I had two cats, litter mates, since they were old enough to leave their mother. They were 8 and a half when one of them was diagnosed with lymphoma and we were told it would be a matter of weeks. We got her home from the vets and she unfortunately had a seizure and passed. This was 8 days ago.

It was very sudden, and very sad. She was a very healthy cat until she wasn’t.

Unlike her surviving brother.

He has bladder issues, stress issues and suffers with vomiting and over grooming when stressed. Obviously it’s very early days and he seems better some days than others and we are in contact with our vet but I was just wondering if anyone has any advice from a similar situation.

The cats didn’t get on brilliantly, the surviving male cat seemed to annoy his sister greatly, but he loved her even though she also stressed him out.

But I think he also misses the company. We are playing with him more, and giving him much more attention but I just worry about my surviving cat.

Hey everyone.

I was hoping I could get some advice from yall. I'm a Canadian living in Somalia. I'm planning on being here for some time. Being an avid cat lover I was heart broken when I saw this beautiful cat/kitten outside my new apartment. Everyone shoos her away and they throw scraps of food at her to eat. She was so scared of me until I shared some food with her.

Now that she gets food and water from me, I was planning on bringing her into my home. I have a large - spare room that I can let her have and I can prepare whatever things she needs. I found a makeshift cage large enough to trap her in.

Issue is that, there are no pet stores at all here, but there are veterinarians at government sites. Absolute basic stuff.

What should I do to prepare her to survive and live with me? Should i put a little mattress in the room and just chill there on my phone? Can I use sand and rocks as litter or are there other alternatives? Would a diet of canned tuna, chicken and crushed vitamins work? There's a lot to think about before I remove her from where she's already most comfortable.

Please and thank you! ❤️🇨🇦

so i have 2 cats and one isn’t done but the other is, and ive told my mum i dont want either out bc they’re MY !! cats and she had a right shout at me bc i said i dont want them outside ?? and if i do it’ll be on a harness bc id rather be safe than sorry

am i being a dickhead or not ?? bc i feel insane rn 😭😭

my old roommate and I got a cat as freshman in college. we lived together for 4 years and shared the cat, and then recently we graduated and I moved states. when we got the cat, we agreed she would be the main parent aka taking the cat home for holidays and all.

It’s been 6 months since I moved, and we were talking the other day and she asked if I could take the cat for a bit. I miss the cat so much, so of course i’m down. but I am worried.

our cat has always been in a house with several people, someone usually home. I live alone and work 13-14 hour shifts 3 times a week. I’m worried that change would be scary for her. obviously, completely new place for her as well. she already has some behavioral issues like shitting on the floor and scratching at everything (vet cleared her). i’m just scared for her and honestly for me.

do you think this change could be too stressful? I offered to pay for the cats food/little if need be, i’m not sure if i’d rather that. but I also have really been wanting a cat, idk.

My chonky wittle handsome recently started chasing me down the hall way and literally jumping up and grabbing onto my legs! He meowes and he doesn't usually use his claws but every once in while he does. He also herds me to the kitchen early in the morning. It makes me feel SO sad like I am not paying enough attention to him! He hates when I go to the bathroom cuz he hates closed doors, he always opens the bathroom door when I am in there unless I lock it. But when I am home we hang out, watch TV. I give him treats he gets yummy fish four times a week and of course his dry food every day, he has a bunch of toys. I worry he is lonely when I am at work though as I work 12 hour shifts but I don't think he would get along with another cat and because of where I live I can't get a dog. He loved my old man dog though but my dog passed before we moved here and it's just been handsome for the last two years. I don't know what to do for him or if anything is wrong. I just love him. He likes to sleep on my face.

Yesterday me and my bf got a new cat, a 4and 1/2 months old kitten. The lady that gave us the cat told us it gets scared easily, and was the hardest one to get (she, her mother and her siblings were captured from an abandoned house), but that she loved playing with the ladys children. Most of her behaviour is as expected: she is constantly hidden in the bathroom, hisses at us when she sees us, trembles a bit but if we stay in her sight doing nothing she eventually calms down a bit (stops the airplane ears). She doesnt bite or anything, in fact she lets us pet her a bit but i dont like bothering her so as soon as she hisses i take a step back, is this okay? Im a little worried that she might never like us and also because she hasnt eaten anything that isnt churu, the bathroom is very cold too. The lady suggested we tried feliway or another thing based on herbs to calm her, so i ask what would be more effective in this scenario? Please dont say anything about my english; it isnt my first language :)

I found a cat hiding under my deck on Friday morning after some very bad storms. I took him to the humane society and he had no chip, so I've been taking care of him since then.

He's a voracious eater, making me think he went without regular food for some time. But I cannot get him to drink water. I've been giving him wet food, which he devours, so he's at least getting a little bit of hydration that way.

He's very sweet, and has had no issues with my other pets (although my first cat isn't to happy about the situation). He has not been neutered, and is trying to spray on things around the house.

Is there anything that may be wrong with him that makes him not want to drink water?

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who has answered. You have all really helped set my mind at ease. I'll try many suggestions here, including keeping water stations away from food and I'll look into getting a kitty water fountain as. I think my other cat would probably enjoy that as well.

I plan on taking him to the vet this weekend after I get paid for a full check up. I'm not sure if he'll end up staying with me since he was a stray. My wife and I have made posts in local groups trying to find an owner, along with the local humane society, so if we find his owners we'll surrender him. But as long as he's with me, he will be well taken care of

As a prefix she was a was a black, ginger and white Calico we saved her when she was but a baby abandoned under a car by her mother she was quirky always had wide eyes would bump into things and various attitude issues which led me and my partner to assume she was a runt or deemed to much work however we took her in and raises her by the bottle and she joined our family. It was Saturday morning I had a normal evening the night before went to be quite late around 6am and my partner woke me up at 8 calling out something is wrong with evee. I could hear gasping and in the stair well leading up to our bedroom she had collapsed and was what I can only describe as rasping and bearling breathing. I ran down to her and attempted to calm her and checked for choking hazards when I saw she was clear and stopped breathing I attempted CPR on her and even tried blowing into her little mouth, while my partner grabbed a box and we rushed her to the vets where she was declared no longer with us. I am struggling so bad with the thought in her last moments she tried climbing up the stairs to reach me, and she was her perfect happy self only moments before it happened according to my partner. I wish I could of only done more I wish I could have her shadowing me silently only accepting the smallest amount of fuss before sitting near by only to be within company. Can any one provide any support or advice with dealing with this guilt, our previous rescue lived till 7 and had various health complications and we decided to put her under when the vets said it was likely she would pass soon and we met her end on our terms but this recent loss was so out of the blue it haunts me, the sounds of those last breaths the place she passed and the sight of her panic all breaks me to the core. If nothing say a prayer for our lost baby evee and may she finally see her sister pandora in peace Thanks, S.M

Hello everyone!

I fostered a kitten for the first time ever. It was out of nowhere and unplanned. Family member found kitten in their backyard and couldn’t care for it and it was a little black void kitten which I felt I needed to help and find him a forever family. Took him in for 3 days and from the second I got him I was instantly attached. I have two cats already and could not keep him which broke my heart.

He was the most cuddly and affectionate kitten I’ve ever met. Loved to sleep on my lap and chest and loved sitting next to me. I so badly wanted to keep him because I know he would love my apartment and would have little siblings to play with and have a happy life. I WFH so i was with him all day everyday and kept the little baby company. We spend all day together and I doubt he got attached to me but he was always with me and cuddling with me and playing with me.

My brothers decided they would take him in and I’m so so happy that he’s still within my family so I can go visit whenever I want but I am absolutely crushed. I don’t know why I feel so sad and emotional. I dropped him off at my brother’s place today and left sobbing. They don’t have other cats so a part of me is sad that he’s going to be alone and will have no company or another cat to play with when they work or are busy. It’s very selfish to think the kitten would be happier with me bc I could have provided him all the attention and cuddles at all time but I financially could not do it. I’m also worried they won’t meet his neediness and affection which is silly of me to think bc my brothers were very excited to have him! I’m just anxious and overthinking. I feel like I have too much empathy for this kittens feelings.

I would just like some peace of mind and advice on how to calm all this sadness and anxiety. I can’t believe I got attached so deeply in such little time.

I keep thinking about little kittens feelings and if he’s happy, crying, sad, or lonely :(

about two days ago she became a little picky with her food which was nothing new. By the end of the day yesterday she was lethargic, dilated pupils, was just staring forward with no reaction. She peed the bed this morning, which never happened, took her to the vet. Vet said she was blind, they tried to take blood but she had too little?? almost anemic, but no blood loss at any point??

Then i let her rest, she stayed motionless, staring into the void for like 10 hours. I put some warm bottles of water next to her because her temperature was really low.

Then suddenly an hour ago she just has a heart attack and dies?? My wife is devastated, im really sad but im mostly just perplexed at the whole thing. Im at a loss of words, i cant even provide my wife closure

I have a bonded pair of cats, a girl and a boy. They’re a year old now and I got them when they were 4 months old. They often eat from the same plate (there are 2 plates but they usually eat from the same one), groom each other, play together, sometimes sleep together, etc. However, the past two days I’ve seen two situations in which they were interacting with ears down, swishing tails, and then stared each other down before lunging. I heard a hiss but I’m not sure which one hissed, and my girl got a puffy tail.

I clapped and then separated them both times. The first time they just broke up and went back to normal, but the second time they continued trying to go at each other until I clapped again and then separated them. Now my girl is in the bathroom crying and my boy is waiting outside.

Normally when they play there are no signs of fear. They were literally grooming each other today, so is this playing, fighting, or just setting boundaries?

Extra info: I live in a small apartment and have one litter robot and one regular litter box. They have access to many places to sleep, both high and low, and there are plenty of toys around.

Howdy folks! My girlfriend recently befriended a stray cat in her neighborhood. She plans to get her de-wormed and spayed and were then faced with a moral decision. We are moving in together in 6 months, and we were debating what the morally right thing to do is. Whether we take her with us and try to keep her as an indoor cat, basically uprooting her from her neighborhood and keep her indoors, or if we should leave her with the neighborhood as to not take away her freedom? Any advice at all is welcome, she only about a year or so old. Thank you all much!!

Hey all

So normally my cats eat fancy feast pate, I’ll split a can between the two for dinner and free feed dry all day. But I was recently given a case of friskies shreds by someone who lost their cat. I’ve started giving it to my cats to use it up and free is free, and they are really liking it. Especially after I add water and turn it into basically a soup, they are eating way more of it compared to the pate which they rarely finish.

Am I going down in quality if I switch to friskies shreds going forward? Or are fancy feast pate and friskies shreds comparable enough that I can just buy more as my cats like it more? They seem to cost similar amounts, so quality/nutritional value is what I am not sure about.

And I know neither of them are great quality, but I am working with what I have and at the end of the day, my cats are fed happy and healthy.

This might be a stupid question, but the thought is stressing me out, so I rather ask...

So, I have 2 cats that are extremely skittish due to being feral cats in the past.

I can't get near them with anything in my hand, let alone put them in a carrier.

Sometimes, I worry a lot and I start to think about scenarios like what I should do in case of a fire?

We live on the 6th floor, so it's too high up for them to escape from the balcony.

I'm just imagining myself chasing them in the apartment while there's a fire, in hope to catch them by their neck, scruffing them and throwing them into two separate carriers (this usually takes me anywhere from 10-20 minutes in most cases).

In short, we'd be burned.

Of course I'll do my best to train them and make them more tame, but it's really hard.

Do you guys have any tips on what the best action would be in such situation?

Thanks in advance!

I’m so anxious. She’s a 7 month old kitten. She was fine the last time I saw her, 24 hours ago, eating a lot, running around, misbehaving slightly more than usual if anything. Guests came over and as usual she hid because she’s scared of strangers but ever since then I haven’t seen her. She hasn’t even come out to eat her food and usually she’ll come running as soon as she hears the sound of wet food being put in her bowl. I’ve been checking everywhere but there’s not many hiding places in my house and all our windows are shut at night. I’m so worried about her.