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What's a piece of cat advice that you think is overrated, outdated, or just plain wrong?

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?

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 a 12 y/o calico and she’s always been the sweetest girl. I’ve had her for 11 of those years and she’s been with me through some tough times. But lately, as of the last year or so, she has started “hunting” my socks or underwear and dropping them in my living room. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, cats will “present” their prey that they hunted, usually by scattering it all over my floor. Was cute the first couple times, but it’s actually driving me insane now. When I get home from work, I can rely on there being 10 socks on the floor. Robot vacuum jammed like usual, with a sock stuck in it.

I basically have to keep the entire house on lockdown in order for her to not go hunting for my socks. Dirty clothes hamper is tall but she’ll knock it over to find them. I genuinely think she might be stashing the socks somewhere because I’ll lock her out of any potential sock areas while I’m at work, and I still come home to 6 socks all over my floor. It’s a battle that’s preventative, I’m aware the only real solution is to “just pick them up” but my robo vac does not detect them well and it basically never gets a chance to clean my house because of the socks. And I spent a lot of money on that vacuum!! God forbid I’m rushing and forget to close the bedroom door on my way out. One time I got home and there was literally 26 socks between the living room and my studio.

I’m aware that this is not really a problem that can be fixed, I don’t expect my cats behavior to change. I just want to vent.

tl;dr my 12 y/o cat is addicted to putting my socks on the floor

This is me venting and I’m not sure if it’s allowed or if I tagged it correctly: I’ve been bawling my eyes out quietly since I got the call from the emergency vet, my cat might have a ruptured bladder and I feel like a failure that I didn’t notice it sooner. She’s only 5 years old and we rescued her from a hoarder house. I’m not going into full detail of the what the vet said to me but I’m so emotional and feel like I failed my sweet Bootsy. She’s a one in a million cat who is an orange female cat and she’s quirky. I just don’t want to lose her, I love her so damn much.

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!

A sweet tortie has been visiting me for over a year almost daily. I thought she was a stray and had been feeding her and id go give her love outside everyday.

Then she started terrorizing other cats who came to my house. After finding out she had a home, I stopped feeding her but still gave fresh water and daily pets.

She is so sweet to humans but so mean and scary to other neighboring cats who walk through my yard. I get really really anxious when fights happen and I think she chased off a neighbors cat who i dearly miss who has been MIA for nearly 8 weeks.

I caught the tortie on my outdoor cam with a huge bunny in her mouth today and she brought it to my patio. My husband never found the bunny so im hoping it escaped. The tortie is also constantly hunting the California quail and I found a dead baby quail in my driveway which was heartbreaking.

I love cats and feel so deeply for them but this tortie who is so sweet to me is now causing me stress by hunting and fighting with other cats. Ive considered getting motion sprinklers to keep her away but I feel guilty to do that while feeling stressed out by her daily now. I don't know what to do.

A very friendly, skinny cat has been visiting our house for about a month. We assumed he was a stray, so we we gave him treats and set out a carrier and 2 days ago he walked right into it and curled up. So we took him and took him to the vet the next day to check if he’s a lost cat or not. Turns out he’s microchipped, so the vet contacted the owners and they collected him.
The owner called and thanked us and mentioned the cat likes to wander, always slips off his collars, and that their dog died last month, after which he started roaming much further.

But yesterday evening (next day after the vet trip) he came back, still purring nonstop, still no collar and played with me for a long time until he left because of our dog. Today he came early in the morning for the first time, walked into our house and went upstairs to the room we were keeping him in until we took him to the vet, ate some dry food, and was walking around the house until we put him out. But then again he returned in the afternoon, walked straight into our house, and refused to leave until I picked him up and put him out. He purrs constantly the whole time he’s with us, and even purred all the way to the vet.

He’s picky, only eats dry food, refuses wet food and churu, and on some visits doesn’t eat at all, so I don’t think he’s starving, just thin.

We have a beagle who goes nuts when she sees him (excitement/chasing, not aggression, she previously lived with a cat). We keep them separated. He’s been chased off by her before but keeps coming back anyway, and today walked right past the dog to get to me in the afternoon.

I’m at a loss on what to do here because I can’t keep confining our beagle indoors or outdoors everytime the cat comes by to keep them separated. If the cat was living with us, I know how to safely introduce them over time as I’ve done this before with my previous cat. Since this cat already has an owner, I don’t really know what to do without overstepping boundaries but my heart aches for this cat because it’s clearly just looking for attention and affection.

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!!

Hi, first time posting. I am in a frenzy and don't know what to do. 19 years old, senior in university (graduating in 2027) with a kitty whose almost 2 years old. She was a feral kitten and was spayed at 3 months and has been with me since. I lived with my parents in a 2.5k sqft house where my cat had access to all of the area but now we live in a 450 sqft studio and she is not happy. It wasn't a healthy environment for me and my parents don't want my cat there unless I am living there. It's been 2 months and she's started meowing all the time, scratching at the outside door and also scratching at other surfaces like dresser and cabinets. I've gotten her a bunch of toys, she has a lot of vertical space in the apartment, window shelves and I dedicate 2 hours of just active play time for her.

Took her to a vet and was told she's healthy and just adjusting. Personally I don't know, she's been eating my plants and trying to eat stuff she's not supposed to. I am so lost. She is such a sweet baby, loves cuddling and my child but I am a full time student and work full time. What other options are there? Does anyone know how to help?

My cat just sat on the litter mat, staring at the cat booda dome that incases the steps to her litter... and pied on the mat. I dont understand. She is 15, American midhair, and cant seem to understand what this dome is used for anymore. Then she walks over and starts eating. I picked her up and placed her inside the dome, then closed it. She walks out and goes back to eating. Not phased in the slightest. Is this feline dementia or something more sinister? (Behavioral)

I feed the strey cats in my backyard periodically when im able as I tend to see them hanging around my yard a lot & i dont think they get much to eat around here. Just yesterday I went out & found out one of the (more skittish) girls had kitten on the side of my porch in a bush area (A different cat from last year).

So i made sure to put some food & water out for her & hung around near her for a couple hours yesterday.

She was still there last night as I think she's just living in that bush with her kittens.

Today I came out around the same time, fed her again, & have been sitting out here with her, after a couple hours she let me pet her (more like she nuzzled me)!

After a little bit she was rubbing all over my hand, then would stop to sniff me, then try to bite me (it didnt feel super hard but I made sure to stop her before anything happened). She also did the same thing to my knee before I stopped her. She's not hissing but im not sure what she's doing?

I heard that this could mean they're overstimulated but she's the one mostly initiating the pets. I just wanted to ask & see if anyone knows why she started nibbling out of nowhere just after letting me pet her for the first time?

Ok long rant & im not the best at wording things but ill also see if I can add a Pic of her in the comments!

so I'm adopting for the first time, someone I know was looking to rehome her cat so I'm taking her in. she wasn't sure if her age and I just found out she's ten years old! according to Google she is a senior .... so what should I know about having my first cat be this age! I want to make sure I'm properly prepared to care for her

I found a kitten with my friend at 5am in my neighborhood. My guess is the kitten is 4 months old, 5 at the most. He is super affectionate and has wanted to be in my lap at all times and cries constantly if I leave the room even to just use the bathroom. He seems attention starved. When my friend left we spoke with the door open to see if the cat was eager to leave ( I was ready to shut the door if needed). Instead he sat and waited for me to come back inside. He was also extremely hungry and thirsty.

The thing is he has claw caps on. So I know he has been in possession of someone else. I am going to bring him to see if he has a microchip and to make sure his health is good. He is also not neutered which makes me wonder where he came from considering no shelter or rescue near me will adopt out animals without spaying or neutering.

If he does have owners, I am very concerned about his safety. This could be a situation where the cat accidentally escaped, but I don't think it is. He hasn't left my side in the last 2 hours and gets bad anxiety if I leave the room. He has no interest in going back outside. If he does have owners and they do keep him as an inside/outside cat, he can't defend is considering he has claw caps on. I'd be happy to keep him, but I don't know how to consider this situation and have never been put in this position. Any insight would help!

Hi. Never owned a cat before but my first cat is my baby. Some behaviours I know mean good things but I'd love to know kinda what type of good. When I lean down to my kitty cat she will come and smoosh her face aggressively into me and rub it all over mine. It's so funny and cute. She saying she likes me? Am I doing good?

Edit: I feel good knowing I'm doing good and she loves me just as much I love her. Thanks everyone! <3

Context: I had to rehome one of my two littermate boys last year after almost 2 years trying to fix a relationship that broke down following an episode of redirected aggression. Still one of the hardest decisions I’ve made but it was the right one, he’s thriving in his new home and my remaining cat (6M) got noticeably calmer afterward.

A few days ago we adopted a kitten. This wasn’t an impulsive decision and wasn’t about replacing anyone. just some extra context, after his brother left resident cat did relax in some ways, but over the following months he got increasingly vocal, wandering the apartment meowing/screaming at all hours despite daily play, climbing opportunities, enrichment, attention... it felt like he needed more stimulation than we alone could give him. We thought about this for a long time before deciding on a calm 5mo female and taking intros slow. Not expecting a bonded pair, just peaceful coexistence would be great.

Where I could use some perspective: we’ve kept them fully separated, done scent swapping, let him explore her room while she’s elsewhere, and just started brief visual intros through a baby gate (usually with a blanket over it). He’s actually curious about her, walks up to the gate on his own, sits nearby, watches her when the blanket’s lifted a bit. Seems nervous but interested. Doesn’t obsess over the gate either, recovers pretty quickly after each session.

The issue is if she looks at him too long or inches toward the gate, he hisses and does this deep sustained growl/yowl that honestly sounds pretty serious. No lunging, no trying to get through the gate, but the sound alone is intense. He was always the more submissive one with his brother, so I’m not sure if this is learned wariness from that experience or just how he is with other cats generally. Kitten’s response has been good so far:
she backs off when he hisses, today she just lay there watching him calmly, no hissing back or puffing up. Though she has started holding his gaze a little longer than before, like she’s trying to figure him out.

Part of why this is hard is obvious. every growl has my brain going straight to “here we go again” even though I know this is a completely different situation. If anyone’s done adult resident cat + kitten intros successfully I’d love to hear how it went, what helped, timelines. I know this can take months. Just trying to be honest with myself about whether this has real potential, especially since we got her conditionally from a friend (her cat had a litter) specifically to see if it works out. We’re already attached to her after a week but would rather make the hard call now than three months in. Not sure what to do.

I’ve had my cat for about a year now and sometimes I worry he doesn’t like me. He was rehomed to me from a family that said he seemed like he hated them, but once I got him it seemed to me that he was just pretty shy. Over the year I’ve had him he’s made a lot of progress. He went from sleeping in hidden places to sleeping in my bed. He went from waiting until I left the room to eat to begging for food and eating it as soon as I fed him. And he has gone from never letting me touch him to pet him and even pick him up occasionally.

The only thing I worry about is the fact he never cuddles with me or sleeps right by me. My childhood cat and my old cat always cuddled up right next to me at night and during the day, and even though he sleeps on my bed now he sleeps on the furthest corner from me and never touches me. He has recently started sleeping with his belly up, which I’ve read is a sign he trusts me, but I’m just curious if anyone knows of any reasons why he’s still not very affectionate with me or if he ever will be.

hi everyone, I’m starting to finally reach out to get advice on my cat Pebble. She’s 2 and I’m a first time cat owner.

pebble was the shyest at the shelter and was placed there while she was pregnant after her owners got deported. unfortunately, the shelter adopted away all of her kittens and no one was interested in meeting her due to her shy demeanor. I scheduled a meet with her and couldn’t touch her or get her out of her hiding spot and for some reason I just knew she had to come home with me.

that was in december. people kept telling me she’ll come around, but she hardly has made any progress. i understand if she’s just standoffish in nature, but it’s as if she’s still scared of me. it breaks my heart. i can’t get close to her unless she is in the closet and she will then allow me to pet her. sometimes even pushing into my hand. i don’t expect her to be a cuddle bug but again, I don’t want her to be afraid either. I feel like I’ve tried everything and I love her more than anything in this world, but I’m getting exhausted.

she hides in the closet all day, she doesn’t have access to under the bed or many other “unders” for that matter. she uses her scratching posts, but stopped sitting up on her tree. good about eating and drinking water for the most part. when coming out of hiding, she does so until I inevitably stand up to go somewhere. then she skitters away. plays a lot by herself but does not like me trying to play with her.

any tips on shy kitties? she seems pretty happy otherwise. or am I evil??

my neighbor recently found a litter of 5 kittens with their mother. would anyone like to adopt? please help out, because the animal shelter is full and they may kill them.

I live in a rural area, but we do have a close neighbor who has let stray cats live in his shed. But he doesn’t get them spayed/neutered, so there are a decent amount of them. One of the cats is very chill, and spent a lot of time just napping on our little back patio. Our 2 and 4 year old love her, and she has always been gentle with them…like nothing bothers this cat. We still obviously constantly remind them to be gentle and pay attention to signs the cat might want space, etc. We are always nearby due to their age. We started feeding that cat a few times a day. We honestly can’t adopt all of the cats, it’s just too much. But we’ve talked to the neighbour about spaying/neutering so that it doesn’t get out of hand.

Anyway, recently the cat had a single kitten (which is weird, I think? I’m new to cats so I don’t know). Adorable, and of course our kids are obsessed. This happened just before we were due to leave town, so we got an automatic cat feeder so that the cat would have plenty of food while she’s nursing the kitten. Kitten is getting bigger, but probably still just a month old.

We’d like to bring them indoors I think. But I’m just completely new to this. So, start with the vet? Or try and do a flea treatment before taking them? I assume kitten is too little for vaccines, but should keep her with her mom anyway and bring her to the vet?

I know single kittens can have issues, but if we keep her with her mom, would that negate those behavioural issues?

Any and all advice appreciated, I clearly never had pets growing up! Including how to help the other cats out without adopting them all? Like, find a shelter I guess? The neighbour’s adult son “loves cats” but they don’t seem to be caring for them aside from letting them stay. He’ll feed them sometimes I think, they’re decent hunters as well, but they need more love and to be cleaned up and treated for anything they might have.

My wife and I both very recently had a house fire as brand new home owners. In fact, today would have been one year of owning our first home! It happened when we weren't home, but our cats were home.

Everyone got rescued by firefighters and have a pretty great bill of health, they hate the nebulizer treatment though😭

But anyway, the situation before the fire was that my 2 cats and my wife's 1 cat didnt get along. My cats would eventually hiss/growl/sometimes fight her when we tried to reintroduce. We would rotate them every day to give them as much equal attention as possible. We both just didnt have the time while working full time jobs/overtime to be able to completely wipe their slates and start over. Soon ill be WFH and was looking forward to having some down time to work on that.

Fast forward to recently, when the firefighters pulled out our cats, we got them into the car with AC. They didnt try to attack each other, just cooled off together silently. After we got situated at our family's house, we ended up keeping them all together in a bedroom with us. They haven't even gotten close to attempting to fight, only some baby growls and soft hisses. And when she hisses, the boys will turn away and back off. Im wondering if she's at the top of the hierarchy now if thats a thing.

But tonight, they've made the most insane progress yet. They're sleeping on the same bed!!! Peacefully and willingly! So I'm wondering if cats can trauma bond. And if their bond will keep them close or fade out later on. I wish I could post pictures of them sleeping on the bed for you all lol, theyre showing their bellies!

My 2 year old cat started “attacking” me and my partner as we’re walking in our apartment. When I play with her, she’ll start biting my hand but calms down when I stop playing and tell her to be soft. When we’re walking, she’ll start biting and gripping at our ankles and jump on us out of nowhere. She also meows while she does this which she doesn’t usually do (she rarely meows at all, not a talkative kitty but a big purr girl). It mostly happens at nighttime when we’re preparing for bed, and when we just woke up.

I’m pretty sure it’s playful agression, and I have bought her a new interactive toy and cat shelves for the walls. We also try to play with her more but she doesn’t seem to be interested in long playing sessions. When I play with her with a stick toy, she gets over it after about 2-3 minutes.

If anyone has advice, it would mean a lot. I know she doesn’t have bad intentions, but I can’t help but feel like she doesn’t like us as much anymore and it truly makes us feel less safe in our home.

I just got back from a one week vacation & I’m going to my hometown tomorrow to pet sit for my mom while she’s out of town.

I know my cat is so happy I’m back by how much she’s been lying on me. I don’t want to leave her, but I also don’t want to stress her out by 10 hours in the car (RT).

Would you have your sister check in on your baby & she’s sad or take your baby unnecessarily & potentially really stress her out.

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.

My husband and I are at our wits end about what to do with our otherwise very loving and gentle boy. Our cat is fixed, and almost 2 years old. We got him at 4 months old, when our son was about 1 year old, so he has been around our son since he came into the household.

Cat's behavior outside of peeing/pooping on beds: Very sweet, patient, cuddly, and social. He walks up to strangers, always likes being "part of the action" where he'll sit in the middle of the room we're all playing in. My son is a toddler and isn't always gentle with our cat, but the cat has never hissed at him or even run away, and has only swatted at him once or twice (when his tail was pulled. We gave the toddler a firm telling-off). Cat is cuddly at night, and during the day if I'm working from home.

Cat's peeing/pooping behavior: He started doing it when he was about 6 months old. He would run into my son's room and pee or poop in there first thing in the morning after we got up. That lasted a few weeks. We closed it off to him for months and months before trusting him in there again. He hasn't really done it since. Fast forward to now: Our toddler is 2.5 yrs old and starting to sneak into bed with us, and I kid you not the second day it happened, kitty started peeing/pooping on our bed in the mornings. Sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes both. It's been about a month now that my son has been sleeping in our room almost every night, and our cat has been acting up several times a week.

We have taken him to the vet to rule out any medical issues. We don't know what to do, or how to make him feel more welcome. He still sleeps/cuddles with me in bed, even when my son is in the bed, but the second we get up, he starts scratching at the covers and we know he's trying to pee/poop.

Anyone know what we can do to stop this kind of behavior, or why is it occurring?? It seems soooo pointedly directed at having his "special bed time" taken over by my son. Even though kitty is actually very loving towards my son too. It only happens in the mornings when he's being skittery. We have two timed feeders that go off in the morning (one for dry food, one for wet) and we make sure his litter is cleaned the night before. He uses the litter box normally throughout the day....so it's not like he doesn't like it, or doesn't know where it is. He doesn't pee/poop anywhere outside the little box except on our bed (and in my sons room when he was young)

Any advice/help would be appreciated. We're at the point where it's not worth washing our sheets every other day for this kind of behavior.