Family and Home

I am frequently asked about the right age for children when it comes to adding a companion animal to the family. In general, it depends on the particular child and the preparation and education done by the parent. My daughter, as a preschooler, was as gentle with our cats as I could’ve ever hoped for. ...

  When shopping for a carrier for your cat, you may be tempted to think bigger is better. You might feel it would be far more comfortable for your cat to be able to stretch out during travel. Larger Isn’t Necessarily Better When it Comes to Cat Carriers Actually, it’s not a comforting feeling for ...

  You’re sitting in a chair and your cat jumps up onto your lap and starts purring. He moves closer to your face and then literally butts his forehead against your cheek or chin. Sometimes it’s a gentle nudge and then at other times it’s almost a head-to-head bone-crusher. There are also times when kitty ...

  Cats don’t like change. Cats take comfort in predictability, familiarity, and routine. They’re also territorial so imagine how they must feel when they suddenly find themselves in a new location. Moving is stressful for humans so you can certainly understand how unhappy the whole thing makes the family cat. Everyone in the family except ...

  Cats communicate to humans in so many ways but the one way that almost always gets our attention is the meow. Of course there are lots of other vocalizations cats do that are usually quite easy to interpret such as the growl, hiss, and spit. Whenever your cat growls or hisses at you there’s ...

  Listen to the audio version of this article You’re probably very familiar with the fact that dogs can suffer from separation anxiety but you may not have realized cats can go through this as well. Many people have an inaccurate image of cats being solitary creatures who don’t need companionship but they actually are ...

Cats, despite what you may have been told, aren’t solitary creatures and many of them benefit from having feline companions. That said, cats are also territorial so the introduction process requires some finesse and patience. If you just toss the cats together with a they’ll work it out themselves mentality, you will put a tremendous ...

Because cat urine has an unmistakable odor, you would think that it would be easy to clean up, but if your cat has found some discreet locations to eliminate then you may not be aware of the problem until he has gone back to that spot repeatedly to urinate. By that time, the urine will ...

Aggression can be scary – not only for the victim but also for the one displaying the behavior. Since cats prefer to avoid confrontation, engaging in an aggressive encounter usually means they feel backed into a corner. In order to avoid actual physical encounters, cats do lots of posturing and use their bodies to communicate ...

  Listen to the audio version of this article If you don’t want your cat scratching the furniture, you’ll need to provide an object more appealing. When I say appealing, I’m not referring to whether your cat likes the way it looks – I’m referring to whether it gets the job done or not. The only reason ...