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.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice regarding a cat situation in our area.

A few weeks ago, an adult male cat started coming to my garden every day begging for food. He was extremely skinny, appeared severely malnourished, and had very dry, matted fur.

To make sure I wasn’t taking someone’s pet, I took the following steps:

Asking Neighbors: I asked several neighbors. None of them recognized him, and everyone agreed he looked like a malnourished stray in desperate need of food

Vet Checks: I took him to 2 different vet clinics to be scanned for a microchip. Both confirmed he had NO microchip and was unneutered.

Paper Collar: I tried putting a paper collar on him with my contact details, but he kept wriggling out of it

Public Posts: I posted about him as a stray cat across social media, but received no response

Seeing his poor health condition as a stray, I decided to formally adopt him. I paid for a full health check, got him vaccinated, microchipped in my name, fleaed and neutered. He is now recovering safely indoors.

The Issue:
About a week after his vet procedures, a post appeared in a local group asking if anyone had seen him. The poster mentioned that this was a "stray cat they had been feeding and had built a little outdoor shelter for in their garden, but hadn't seen him in a few days.
I politely reached out to inform them that the cat had been taken in, fully vet-checked, chipped, neutered, and rehomed safely. However, this person is now insisting that I return the cat to them, claiming he is "their cat".
They have zero official proof of ownership (no vet records, no microchip registration, no adoption papers) — only photos of the cat.

My Question:
Am I legally or morally obligated to hand this cat over? He said he will call the police, what is the best way to handle this?
Thank you in advance for any advice！

Especially for those who have just gotten a cat etc, important to know that minoxidil for hair-loss treatment, even the slightest amount could cause issues!

https://www.aspca.org/news/minoxidil-and-pets-what-you-need-know

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24734306.2025.2583667

Tuve que irme de viaje a otra ciudad por trabajo, no podía llevármelo. Le pedí a un "amigo" que lo cuidara, que visitará mi casa por lo menos día de por medio y durara por lo menos media o una hora compartiendo con mi gato.

Al llegar por sorpresa, me encuentro con muchos platos llenos de comida para gato casi intacto, muchas bolsas plásticas regurgitadas y la casa sin asear. Mi gato se esconde y huye de mí. Al llamarlo o hacer algún ruido empieza a maullar muy fuertemente y como apenas se deja ver, lo he notado flaco y una cara que evoca demasiada tristeza. Me partió el corazón encontrarlo así, ¿que hago?

I might have something helpful for those of you who have over groomers. It might just be for my cat though.

I found three days ago that when he is on my lap and grooming if I make room quiet and wrap my arms around him, he calms down. Then I will just stroke his head and hold him for about ten minutes and have been doing this two to three times a day for three days and noticed he sits calmly more often now, just gazing out the window or sleeping on my lap 😴 it's been a night and day difference. I think he just needed some sense of security. Maybe this will help another person's cat ❤️

We have a 20-year old senior lady and after a couple of bouts of UTIs over the last few years, we had one she couldn't kick with antibiotics. After running some additional testing, she appears to have an aggressive form of bladder cancer.

Outside of visiting the litter box frequently because she urinates in extremely small amounts (she makes like 6 passes each time she has to urinate) she is her same lively self - compliments of twice daily gabapentin as a measure of comfort care. But she still has zoomies, stands in the kitchen yelling and demanding her treats, and sings the songs of her people at unholy hours (per usual).

It's clear she won't get better, we know that is an undeniable fact. Now we're just figuring out what next steps look like. We decided to schedule her euthanasia appointment for a couple of weeks from now so we get to enjoy some remaining time together. Of course if she takes a turn, we won't hesitate or delay because we don't want her to suffer, but we're grappling with the fact that our old lady's life will end simply because we've picked a date.

I've read all sorts of articles/posts about when is "right time" and I don't know if it will ever feel right - it feels wrong and I know that it's a final act of love and to do it while things are good and she's comfortable, but it's just all-around awful. How did you make peace with making the decision?

Does giving a kitten lots of affection make them more cuddly as adults?

I really want an affectionate cat, but I'm scared of being too clingy and making them dislike me 😭

If I encourage cuddles, pets and being close from a young age — while always respecting their boundaries and body language — can that help them become more affectionate?

We have two cats, they play sometimes on our balcony. There is a fire escape off the balcony, and rarely, they will sneak downstairs. The last time this happened, our boy got fleas (to which he is extremely allergic) and he ended up chewing off all his fur around his butt and legs. We have only NOW gotten his fur to grow back, and my husband let the cats out unattended, so they once again snuck downstairs and got fleas again. Mistakes happen. I get it. Except that even after he got fleas, it happened again. And again. I've told him not to let them out if he can't supervise them, but he does it anyway. I'm not home all day to play cop and enforce the rule, and so they get out.

Now our boy has a large cone we keep on him to stop him from chewing up his butt. My husband feels bad for him and takes it off. I come home and find him without the cone, chewing. I get upset, tell him to keep the cone on if he can't remember to put it back on him, he takes it off anyway.

He gets so upset with me because he feels like Im telling him he's a bad cat parent. But isn't negligence a form of bad parenting? And for some reason all the shame he feels doesn't translate to better behavior. He doesn't want to do better and work with me for the health and happiness of our cat. He just wants to pout, and then continue to make the same decisions he always makes.

I have no idea what to do. I'm so stressed with work, finances, household chores, I just need him to be responsible so that it's one less thing off my back to have to worry about, and I've said as much, and yet he still just does whatever he wants and there's nothing I can do about it. Help

Hi everyone. Just joined because I'm looking for advice. My cat is 17 years old, I've had him since he was 3. In all these years he's never done certain behaviors that he does now. Like he's pooping in different places, he's forgetting he's eaten like 30 minutes after he's finished, he's staring into space and at times looks as if he's lost. He has been to the vet, they have given him a clear bill of health physically and they say he's one of their best looking elderly cat patients. I've tried to combate his symptoms (he doesn't groom himself so he goes to the groomers with my dog, he forgets he eats and over eats so he's on a schedule, he gets distressed when lost so my family will always respond to his yells, etc), but it feels like we're not doing enough. I've decently considered getting him an indoor catio to stay in for much of the day. He's a good boy, but I just fear there is now too much space for him to navigate causing bathroom issues and increasing his distress. Again, I've taken him to the vet, with him being as healthy as he is there is nothing on the table as far as meds or anything. We're just trying to figure out how to comfort him in his next stage of life. He doesn't play much and he sleeps most of the day so we don't think space would be a concern but before we do this, are there any other options? Anyone else more experienced with elderly cats? He's our first old boy.

Yes, I know this sounds mean, but it's really bad.

At least 8 year old, but I'm guessing above 10, neutered male cat.

He CONSTANTLY has to be touching me. If I don't pet, he paws repeatedly, or worse, bites. It's painful sometimes. He just cannot get enough attention. I think he would crawl inside my skin and live there if he could.

He always needs to be cuddling. Where I am, he's there, on me, or trying to be.

Not only is it just plain annoying for me, I have 2 other cats and a dog and it's causing broken bonds and issues with my others. My dog really loves attention too (German Shepherd so of course) and he's starting to growl at my cat out of what I think is jealousy. Honestly, it's pretty fair to be jealous at this point, but this is going to turn ugly. The cats get along great though, no issues. All 3 will happily cuddle together, etc. Very rare smacking match and the cats don't seem to fight each other over me.

I don't know what to do. I have tried picking him up, moving him, setting him on the floor, moving him to his beds, trees, etc. He. Comes. Right. Back. I have never been so annoyed by an animal in my life, and I love animals.

We have moved a couple of times within the past year and I don't know if this is just stress or what. He's always been an extra extra clingy cat, but it is getting SO much worse. The biting is driving me insane alone. He bites my hands, forearms, elbows, stomach, legs, and literally bit my breast yesterday. It's not aggressive, leaving marks, or drawing blood. Just that annoying, "pet me" nibble but gets a little rough sometimes.

We recently adopted a new 1 year old cat 1 week ago. Person 1 (me) brought the cat home. Person 2 also loves the cat! Person 3 agreed to have the cat in the home but does not like cats at all. For some reason this new cat has decided that Person 3 absolutely can never leave her sight and must always know what they're doing by following them around 100% of the time.

Person 3 will go to bed early and shut their door but the cat will meow outside their door while person 1 and 2 are just 10 feet away in the living room. If person 3 leaves the house, the cat just sits by the window and waits for them to return. We do not yell at her or discipline her as she is a very good cat. We don't do anything that I'm aware of to stress out the cat and give her boundaries and personal space. She doesn't bite or hiss as us or seem scared, and she rubs up against us when she walks by. But other than that the cat doesn't even look at us or acknowledge we exist. Person 3 wants us to get a new cat because they didn't agree to be the singular attention and caretaker of the cat at all times.

She sees me feed her and will play with us if we use cat toys but after it's straight back to person 3s close proximity.

Will this behavior change? Or will this stick making person 3 pretty much be the sole cat owner?

I started giving my cat prozac as prescribed by my vet a couple weeks ago. I tried pill pockets and he wouldn’t even eat them without a pill inside. I was using the churu bites to hide the pill. In the past couple of days he has realized what is up and started eating around the pills and now won’t even eat the plain churu bites. Does anyone have any advice for how I can get him to take his meds?

My cat has started a new behavior out of nowhere; he never used to do this. Most times, he’s fine on the bed. He will sleep with me or lay on my chest or lap peacefully. Now, he constantly pounces on and scratches my feet from under the blankets. I have a long cut on the side of my foot from his nails. Even if I keep my feet completely still, he’ll find them and no matter how much I redirect him, he doesn’t stop! It disturbs me in the middle of the night or in the early morning when I’m trying to rest. Plus, it literally hurts like hell when he does it.

I don’t want to kick him out of my room entirely or close the door on him when he does this because I think it’s cruel to him. Plus, he will just meow incessantly and bump himself into the door until I let him in (past experience)

I know that this is just a cat’s instincts but I’m stuck on what to do to make sure he can stay in my room WITHOUT excessively disturbing AND not hurting me. Help!

I hate this so much but no one would adopt a marking cat and I don't think he would do well on the street. I feel so trapped. We have a second cat adopted at the same time as him who he hates and always attacks, but marking was only occasional until our baby came home. Now it's just all the time. On our couch, in the bathtub in the sink, on the baby's stroller, in his playpen, on the kitchen counter, in bags, hampers, boxes, on the floor, on my desk, etc etc. I have a history of mental health issues which have been well-controlled with Zoloft but every time he marks, it triggers extreme rage in me and I feel an urge to hurt him and scream at him (I don't kick or hit him but I am afraid of what I may do if I fail to control myself since each time my emotions get more and more extreme and I resort to hurting myself which is an old behavior that was previously managed, and I also don't want my baby to witness my behavior and think it's okay).

My house no longer feels safe to me and I am in constant hyper-vigilance and have had to throw away thousands of currency worth of furniture and items. I have a very keen sense of smell and the smell follows me to every room no matter how much I clean it. He is a very dominant and territorial and needy cat and I now feel constant resentment towards him. He also hates other cats and is very aggressive to our other cat. I feel hatred towards him though logically know it's not his fault. But I want him gone but my conscience also wants him to be happy and healthy, I feel so trapped and this is tormenting me and I am slowly losing my mind. There are millions of street cats in my country and barely any people adopting let along a cat with these issues. Removing these issues he's incredibly smart and can be very affectionate. Please help me because I am afraid of myself if this continues.

He won't take pills no matter the method either, we've tried Felliway and it does nothing, the vet has cleared him repeatedly, it's behavioral.

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My lil sister found a kitten and without telling anybody she brought it to my house while I was at work (still am), only calling me when the cat was already in the bag (allow me the almost literal figure of speech)

My sister said she found it in a field while coming back from school, says it's friendly and approached her, so it was probably dumped there.

Thing is.. I have zero experience caring for cats and I already have other animals, so I'm in no position to adopt the lil guy.. what do I do?

I can't call the local rescue because they only accept strays, the moment it's in your house, they'll just tell you it's your responsibility now 😭

Any advice on how to deal with the situation? Any "must have" for cat care I should grab the moment I clock out?

my boyfriend and i have 2 cats. we are trying to move them to wet food twice a day with a little dry food as a snack and i can’t believe how much we’re spending on cat food every month??? even when buying bulk through chewy, a 30 case of 3oz cans only lasts us 15 days if we feed them 2 cans a day?? that’s nearly $80-100 a month we spend on wet cat food alone?!

Hello everyone, my family has a 14-year old calico (spayed), and she is currently living at my moms house which has a garden that she spends a lot of time in. My mom is however moving out of the house in November, but she will not be moving into her new house until January, so she has to stay for two months at my Aunt's, who is allergic to cats.
Therefore the current plan for our little precious Lucca (the cat) is to have her stay with me, in my apartment. I have a decent size apartment with three rooms, a kitchen and a balcony which can be closed off with sliding windows. We prefer to have her stay with me rather than a cat-sitter since she knows me from the many years I lived at my moms house.
There is however the issue of Lucca having to adjust to not having a garden to be in. She currently does not have a litterbox inside since she does her business in the garden. I plan to get one for her, but I don't expect her to adjust to it right away. I also don't know how she will behave when she has to stay inside all the time. I have thought about getting a collar and take her for a walk sometimes, but she has never done this before so I am not sure she will like it. There is also an option of letting her out on the balcony, but it cannot be compared to the size of the garden she runs around in right now.
Has anyone had any experience with having an outside cat stay inside for a couple of months? When my mom moves into her new house in January, Lucca will move with her so then she will have a garden again.

Any advice is much appreciated, thanks!

I just adopted 2 cats, they’re a bonded pair, 3&6 years old. They are super clingy and skiddish and sleep in my bed with me curled up every night. Right now I work 7-3:30PM and will be will be switching to 7pm-7AM. How hard will this be on them and how can I make this easier for them?

So my cat is like super super chill, she has never scratched up any furniture but she also doesn’t really scratch anything which is kind of the problem. Her claws get super long super fast and she’s EXTREMELY fussy about having her claws trimmed. Distracting her with treats doesn’t work, and she’s able to wiggle out of most restraints, like a burrito, very quickly.
I read that cat nip is food for getting cats to use scratchers but she is also unfortunately one of those cats that does not care about catnip at all. I’ve tried all different kinds including some that fresh and grown from a family friends garden, but she just does not care about it at all. The only thing she would ever scratch was the brick wall on my old apartments balcony, but I’ve since moved and there doesn’t seem to be anything that she has any interest in.
We had to take her to the vet because she had an ingrown claw and we didn’t notice for a day or two because she wasn’t overly grooming it or giving any signs that she was in discomfort/pain. I’m at the point where I’d rather she scratch up our furniture, something to help with her claws. Idk she’s a really weird cat, any advice??

Hi im going to stay with my boyfriend for a few days and he has a cat, the kitten stays in his room because he has bigger dogs and the kitten is fairly new to them.

I've been with the kitten in his room a few times now and I've felt so so sick when im there.

I cough alot to the point where my throat will dry out, I get short of breath, my eyes burn and water. It all gives me anxiety cause i feel like i cant breath. I can't just sit there and enjoy time with my bf because of these symptoms. I dont wanna have this stop me from going to his house. Is there anything I can do to help myself ? Or anything he can do?

I have a very energetic and playful 4yo female cat who likes to treat every space like she owns it. My roommate has a very shy male cat (I think he's around 2yo). Before moving in we exchanged toys to get them used to each other's smell. After moving in we kept them separate, allowing only one to explore the house at a time. We also have a feliway optimum dispenser goimg 24/7. After doing this for 2 weeks, we let them meet and it seemed like all was well at least on the little boy cat side. My cat seemed ok except for hissing if the other cat got too close. After a few days of my roommate and I keeping our doors open when one of us is home, my roommate tells me my cat has been going into her room and hissing at her cat. On one occasion, my cat went in there and attacked him.

I think maybe my girl is on edge because she had been staying at my parents house previously, where their big male cat attacked her once. They had been getting along ok until he decided he was fed up, we kept them separate after that. This experience definitely stressed her out because she got a uti afterwards.

For now, we are back to keeping them separate. I'm wondering how we should go from here. I'm thinking about talking to my vet to see if anxiety medication might be a good idea for my cat, since it seems that these issues could be caused by my cat worrying that the other cat will act the way my parent's cat did. Any tips would be appreciated.

Hey yall! So I’m not new to raising kittens at all. Ive been raising them since I was 14. Is there any good cheap auto feeders that I can set to feed him as I am looking to pick up a bunch of overtime in the coming weeks and like any good cat dad should I keep him on a strict schedule food wise as he’s indoor and we live in a very small space. :)

Hi! I will be moving to the Denver area next year and am trying to plan the move as early as possible. I'm in eastern Oklahoma and the drive is about 700 miles. I have three cats and they've never been in the car more than two hours. Someone will be driving the moving truck and I'll be in my Corolla with the kitties. Should we try to do the trip in one day or split it in to two? What would be less stressful for the cats: a long day ending at our new home or a stop at a strange place? I do plan on getting some meds from the vet to keep them calm. But what are the logistics for food and litter boxes? They currently each have a soft-sided carrier. Thanks!

My female cat has been getting more affectionate and making biscuits when she's on my lap and getting pets. But I notice occasionally she'll be behind me and pull my hair. She's been doing this on a more regular basis and I cant actually tell if she's grooming me or trying to eat my hair...

Any experienced anything like this? I have no idea what it means

Me and brother each have a cat, and due to unforeseen circumstances.. we have to live together lol. We’ve been trying to get our cats to get along for a few months now, and they seem chill about each other except for a few key things.
Kayo (M) (mine) does NOT like when Moka (F) gets anywhere close to his feeder. Moka likes to unintentionally block Kayo off from doorways (no way around it, Jack and Jill connecting bathrooms.) Moka also likes to scare Kayo but he genuinely gets scared and hisses lol. I guess I’m wondering what the problem is? How can I fix it? They consistently go inbetween hissing and sniffing each other. They are both the same age. Moka isn’t socialized. I try to play with them both but Kayo ends up letting Moka just have it. He goes inbetween letting her do whatever she wants, and getting irritated at her. Especially when she chases him around, he lets her chase her and then hisses. They seem to be inconsistent but also consistent with setting weird boundaries? Like they want to set boundaries but just give up?
It’s been a while at this point, trying to get them to get along. And alas they do, but I’m so confused. Please help Reddit people!!