Comparing the amiability of indoor/outdoor cats and full-time indoor cats

Comparing the behaviour of indoor cats and indoor/outdoor cats

This is an interesting survey which compares the behaviour of indoor/outdoor cats with those who are kept indoors full-time and living with other cats. I think it’ll be useful to people considering adopting a cat and whether they should keep the cat indoors full-time or allow them outdoor access without supervision. Of course, there …

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Social media user asks “How do you discipline a cat without hitting him?”

A user on the quora.com website asks what I consider to be an inappropriate question about cat caregiving namely, “How do you discipline a cat without hitting them?” The woman (Julia) considered hitting her cat to discipline him. I responded by saying that her cat is very unhappy living in her small apartment and …

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If you wanted to adopt a cat, would you adopt a really mean one to spare his life?

Wizard the mean shelter cat learned to love his new family

The question in the title is asking whether you would adopt a shelter cat slated for euthanasia because he had been evaluated by shelter staff as aggressive and unadoptable. This is what can happen to rescue cats when they behave badly at shelters. The staff sometimes for the right reasons and sometimes for bad …

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Why should I avoid adopting a traumatized cat?

You shouldn’t avoid adopting a traumatised cat and the question in the title begs many more questions such as: Those are just some of the questions I would ask. There will be more. Sometimes shelter cats can be labelled traumatised not because they are traumatised but because they are currently living in a shelter …

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How many cat scratching posts do you need in a multi-cat home?

How many cat scratching posts do you need in a multi-cat home?

I think this is quite a complicated question and I’ll try and tell you why. I’m mainly thinking of the full-time indoor cat scenario where there might be half a dozen cats living in the owner’s home. From the cats’ perspective, the house will be divided up into six ‘home ranges’ which overlap in …

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Happy cat owner tip 1: wearing wellies!

Wearing wellies to protect one's legs against your cat's play attack

This looks a bit strange – very strange perhaps – but effective. The idea comes from Rebecca Watson in her book The Cat Expert. I like the idea if you have a problem with your kitten or cat attacking your lower leg and/or ankles a lot. Wearing wellies protects them until they get out …

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Who’s more territorially aggressive? The human or the cat?

Putin murders thousands of innocent civilians to try and claim the independent territory of Ukraine

We think of cats as territorial and of male cats aggressively fighting each over their territory but humans are infinitely worse. The infographic summarises the situation at 2023. But you can look back in history and see all the wars over territory. The list is too long. Anyway, I don’t need to research it. …

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Cat redirected aggression or pain-induced aggression

Cat redirected aggression

Dr Fogle calls redirected aggression pain-induced aggression (it is also referred to as ‘transferred aggression’). I have not seen that alternative term before. It seems to me that the pain that is induced can be either physical or emotional. Although Fogle means that it is physical pain. He thinks that it might happen as …

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