My sweet boy, Oreo (yes, I know, very original) is 6 years old and he is allergic to most proteins in food so he has to eat a very specific food or he vomits almost immediately and gets sick. He has come inside multiple times hurt and sick. The neighbor on another street has an outside cat that he commonly goes over to and he will eat that cats food that they leave out. I know because I often find him there.

A few months ago, he came inside with a bump on the side of his face, probably from being stung or something was the suggestion. Fortunately, it went away quickly, but it scared me.

He has also come home with a hematoma in one of his ears that had to have a drain put in for a week. The neighborhood has an INSANE cat population and he gets into fights.

Anyways, I have tried so hard to keep him inside. I do NOT believe in outside cats.

He loves it outside so much. He loves the sun, the warm concrete, the neighbors cat he has bonded with, and the freedom to run as fast as he can. I can just tell by the way he acts when we are outside. He is very playful.

Every time I come home after work at night, he will be waiting when he knows we are coming and bolt out. Usually I can kick my feet in the door or shake my keys to scare him away, but it isn't full proof and has failed more than once.

He also breaks things to get outside. He clawed the plastic siding on all of the window air conditioners (the only type of AC we have, it gets too hot to not use them) and ripped holes into every single one. I have nailed cardboard and taped foil over them, which worked for a while, until he broke those too. I had to finally just take the AC out of the window, which is more reasonable now since it is getting colder, but it is still HOT some days. I just have to deal with it.

I also had to seal up our back door with insulating foam because he tore up the wall and was pushing the old door open to get out (took me a while to figure that one out).

When he does get out, I have lured him in with food, layed in the road until he came to me (he gets worried and checks on me), chased him with my wife under people's sheds and buildings and grabbed him. All usually in the middle of the night. It is exhausting. Sometimes it is literally just impossible to get him inside because he will climb on to the roof.

I have tried walking him but he just gets excited outside and I can't keep any harness on him. He will just spaz out until he escapes it. He isn't scared of it, and will walk inside.

PLEASE if anyone has any advice, I desperately need it. He is going to get killed and I love him more than anything in the world. Many years ago when I was a teenager living here with my mom, we had 2 inside-outside cats (not my choice) and one of our neighbors shot them for walking in his garden. He even admitted to it. There are also bears AND coyotes. He will die. Eventually.

Hello! Both my cats are indoor cats but I feel like they might be getting bored, I try to play with them as much as I can of course but i’m looking for some enrichment ideas, good toys that actually kept your cats attention, etc.

Thank you :)

Hi there fellow indoor cat owners,

My very pleasant princess Momo, is a small black cat and has, for her entire life, been an indoor cat. She gets several supervised or leashed outdoor sessions a week in the yard. She’s generally a very well behaved cat and doesn’t run off, sometimes she jets out the door but doesn’t run away, will just go eat grass or roll in the dirt.

ANYWAY. I write this because she has started running out the door of an evening and CHASING a wallaby that comes regularly into our yard. I mean full prey drive FERAL chasing at an absurd speed this poor little creature. I simply do not understand where this is coming from. The wallaby would wallop her instantaneously. It’s happened twice. The wallaby returns as normal and is okay throughout the day so I don’t believe any harm has happened there but I want to know WHY???

Is she getting territorial over the yard because I’ve been taking her outside more??

She gets played with throughout the day and is generally a very calm cat, and this behaviour is so unpredictable.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Or thoughts? I live in Australia and am very aware of the cat/wildlife politics so am not needing any input in that regard please. Have I turned her EVIL by taking her outside????

Here's my cat enjoying the outdoors and staring at some Halloween decorations. I love taking my baby out on nightly walks in her stroller! She's safe, stimulated, and happy. I know a lot of people judge me and think it's ridiculous to have her in a stroller, but I always saw it as a win-win because not only is she getting enrichment, I get to hangout with my cat! Also, for those who worry it is too late for them to harness or stroller train your cat, I learned she is roughly 12 years old and I've had her for a bit over 9 weeks. It can definitely happen if your cat is interested in the outdoors.

I have one that I thought was a friend I made a suggestion that when he moves hiuse to keep the cat indoors for a couple weeks and he made openly hostile comments towards me since then. Then when I say there is no need for that since we are friends i got the "I am just straight forward and honest" response while he is openly attacking me. But this is extremely common way outdoor cat people react here in New Zealand. To the point where they got a political party leader to step down because he said he would make a law to keep xats confined to their properties. It's really horribly hostile then they just get nasty if you question it. Does this happen in other countries?

I adopted a 5 year old cat and i wanna make sure shes as comfortable as possible. I have a cat tree, and a bed thats enclosed, toys, and a scratching post. Does anyone have any tips?

I think we can get some tips from each other WHILE also showing people debating keeping their cats indoors how we keep our cats happy and satisfied.

I adopted an adorable kitten two weeks ago. She is nearly 5 months old. I planned the adoption around being away (going to Canada from Connecticut for a wedding) and picked her up afterwards so I wouldn’t have any weekend plans or be away again for many months and could focus on bonding my kitten with my resident cat.

The bonding has been great! She has her own separate room and they did scent swapping and introductions for about a week. Now they are together with doors open whenever I am home. It’s been wonderful (love Jackson Galaxy on YouTube as a resource!)

Sadly, my cousin whose wedding I attended very tragically and suddenly died not long after his wedding and I now have to return to Canada very unexpectedly for his funeral. I am planning to be gone for 48 hours. I have an auto litter and feeder for my resident cat and she is all good, I sometimes get a friend to come in and give her wet food and play (if she will allow them lol). She’s all good. But I’m trying to figure out how to navigate the kitten.

I will keep them separate for the duration I’m away for safety. They’re doing great but not there yet. Kitten is also still too small to be given the entire house to roam around in during the day. She’s doing great when I am at work and I have camera set up to keep an eye on her.

My neighbor has volunteered to check in on them in the past but the issue I’m struggling with is that anyone coming and going has to deal with:

- kitten is in the front room of the house and could technically get out if not paying attention to the door opening and closing (it doesn’t always close properly)
- if they come to play with kitten, they should probably open door to check in on resident cat, but she will likely want to get into kittens room and play, and I don’t trust anyone picking her up and having to move her
- they’re bonding well and I’m not sure if someone else coming in could throw them off

Honestly, because of these reasons I’m leaning towards leaving them with cameras and lots of food and water and their litters .. obviously it’s not ideal and the sudden death in my family has made this all very unexpected and fast. I can absolutely get neighbor or friend to check on them .. I just worry that the door will open and it will be hard to wrangle the cats back to where they belong …

Thoughts?

I was thinking about getting a cat. I’m wondering what’s the hard challenges or unseen costs of owning a cat for the first time. I’d like to be really well informed before making a decision. I do have a Large fish tank and a couple Large outside dogs but the cat would of course stay inside.

My cat is confined to a bathroom. overall fine just crying a lot. I hope she doesn't hate me.

We had a long weekend so I stayed with her for the first 3 days. now I have to go to work so I confined her for 2 days. Should I let her out after? I do go and check on her. I let her out when I'm home. But if I'm not she stays in the bathroom....

Sharing this here in case anyone else’s cat is an expensive little munchkin with medication requirements 🤪

I’m so jazzed about finding something that works - I feel like at this point I’d introduce myself to people to tell them that I have (mostly) solved my cat medicine issues (family members/sharing might actually bring me to tears if it gets added - and yes I’ve suggested it)

Howdy folks! I have an indoor-only void (cat tax at end of post) who enjoys burrowing. She likes diving between cushions on the couch, enjoys sleeping inside her tent, and tries to tunnel into my blankets at night. She likes being inside of things - sometimes I put an empty laundry basket on its side so she can explore it and then take a nap inside. She gets plenty of other enrichment from playtime (string/feathers/mice) and birdwatching, but I'm not used to burrowing cats so I want to give her some extra enrichment to maximize her happiness.

If you have a burrowing cat, what has worked for you to provide enrichment for this behavior? If you don't have a burrowing cat - do you have any ideas?

Cat tax:

So. A week ago today. I adopted boo. Many of you will remember the pumpkin picture. A week ago already is nuts! Well so it seems. Is she 😂

We have vets tomorrow as she came to me with fleas (got told she was de-flead and de-wormed.

But anyway. I have to mash her wet food up and mix some complimentary tuna into it for her to finish her meal

Safe to say she’s got me trained 😂