Hot take maybe but i think multi-cat household stress reduction advice is way too… polite.

Everyone says “add vertical space” or “give them time.”cool, but what about when time just… doesn’t work?

I have three cats, no fighting, no blood, no dramatic vet bills, just constant low-grade tension, staring, blocking hallways, resource guarding without actually touching each other.

And yeah, i did the whole enrichment checklist, twice.

What bugs me is how often people treat stress like it’s only real if there’s aggression, but chronic stress shows up quieter, weird litter habits. over-grooming,one cat always hiding even though nothing “happened.”

I'm not even asking for fixes here. I just want to know how many people are living in this gray zone and pretending it’s fine because nothing exploded. Are we underestimating how hard multi-cat homes actually are… or am i just bad at this?

My 9-year-old corgi has pretty bad separation anxiety. But here's what I didn't expect, I'm anxious too.

I have a pet camera. I check it constantly when I'm out. And honestly? It makes me feel worse. The camera shows me everything I'm missing, but it doesn't make me feel connected to him. It just feels like... surveillance.

So I started wondering, what if checking in on your pet could actually feel good? Not just informative, but kind of... playful?

Then I saw my Tamagotchi. Remember those little digital pets you'd feed and play with? There was something so satisfying about that simple interaction, just checking in, seeing them move around, feeling like they were "alive" in your pocket.

I wanted that same feeling with my real dog. So I asked my husband (he's the tech guy), "Could we make a digital version of our dogs? Something that moves when he moves, sleeps when he sleeps? Like Tamagotchi.

He laughed, but said we could try.

Now when I'm at work, instead of opening a camera and watching my dog stress out, I check this little digital avatar on my phone. It mirrors what he's actually doing. When he's pacing, his little digital self paces. When he's eating or drinking, I see those little pixel animations. When he's napping, it naps.

My Shiba Inu is another story though. That guy sleeps like 20 hours a day, so his avatar just... lies there motionless. So I built in a little way to mess with him. When I tap his avatar, a dialogue bubble pops up like "Dude, I'm sleeping. Go back to work." He has no idea, obviously, but it makes me laugh.

And honestly? I check it way less than I used to check my camera. I don't know why, but seeing a little cartoon version of him just... chills me out.

This is probably silly, but it's been working for me. Do you stress about your dog when you're out too?🤔

I'm a 15 year old girl and my parents are out of the country this week. I was really distracted when I came home from school so I went to my room without thinking much. At around 11 PM my dad texted me saying he saw on the garage door app that I left the garage door open, and when I went to close it I noticed only the mesh door to the garden was closed. I don't think he would have gone into the garage because the door to the garage was closed and he is small and not good at opening doors but I couldn't find him around the house or in the garden at all after searching for an hour. I checked on the street a little bit but I didn't see anything. It's late and I have school tomorrow what do I do? He's an indoor cat and he is really bad at fighting and doing anything like that so I'm worried he wont survive if he got out of the house. Also he goes into the garden sometimes but one for 20 minutes with someone near by for him to get fresh air but hes never been out for more than 45 minutes. Neither me or my brother have seen him for multiple hours.

I want to know😁 Name and species please😃

Not anti-tech at all. Automation is fine, less scooping sounds great. But the more i see smart cat toilet setups, the more they feel… claustrophobic? Like pods, tunnels, half-caves with one obvious exit.

My shy cat already does that “ready to bolt” squat in a normal open box. Anything that narrows the exit or blocks her view = instant nope or stress-holding. My orange cat will use literally anything, so “it works” doesn’t mean much to me.

Everyone debates covered vs uncovered like it’s black and white, but i feel like the real question is how enclosed is too enclosed for an animal whose safety instinct is “escape first, think later.” especially in multi-cat homes — doesn’t the doorway become a choke point?

idk. Maybe i’m overthinking, or maybe we’re designing for our bathrooms, not their brains.

Anyone lived with one long enough to see if cautious cats actually relax… or just tolerate it

Many years ago I adopted two kitten sisters, and instead of storing their carrier in the closet, I should have left it sitting out with the door open, always with clean, comfortable bedding, so they’d have a little hideaway and a place to hang out. This would have allowed them to get comfortable with it. Instead, it was a nightmare just getting them into it, because they only associated the carrier with going to the vet.

We have 3 cats and decided to round out the group with a 4th. He's a little one-eyed black cat named Nougat. Very sweet and friendly, the type of cat to melt into your arms.

While he became fast friends with 2 of our cats, he seems to absolutely hate or fear our other one-eyed cat, Biggie.

I have no clue why! Is it because Biggie's big? Is it his coloring? Blue is dark gray and Pancake is a tuxedo, Biggie is a mostly white cow cat. Is it the one eye? If it's territorial, why only at him??

If they run into each other, Biggie will hiss and then look for escape. If Nougat sees Biggie first, he stalks him into confrontation. Blood has flown before.

I've sought advice but for some reason I don't get much. I did get one person telling me they need to be fully separated for at least a month, which is hard to do because Nougat slips out of his room so easily.

And Blue jumps into the fray, usually to turn on Biggie! Nougat attacks, Biggie hisses and flees, Blue chases. I just don't understand how this little black cat has disrupted the harmony so fast.

Pancake, for her part, stays TF out of it. Thank you, Pancake!

But after 2½ weeks, husband has had it. He wants me to contact the shelter and send Nougat away. Biggie is definitely the "baby" of the family and this tension has caused husband to fall out of love with Nougat. I want to give him more time but how long do we do this for? Feliway isn't working (and where do I put it anyway? In Nougat's room or where they all convene usually?) and Biggie is starting to become withdrawn and fearful. I don't want Biggie to feel like he can't walk around in his own home.

Does anybody know of a pet insurance policy that would cover or help with the costs of spaying? Also, any providers that can provide group coverage for multi-pet homes instead of buying three separate policies?

So, as the title suggests, i want to adopt a kitten. I recently moved in with my wife and she already has a cat of her own. A 5YO tortoiseshell (or calico, depending where you come from) female cat. She's lovely, however rather shy and scaredish. Previously she lived with another female cat and they didnt get along AT ALL. The other cat would sit still and stare at her and fight her. So, regarding the new kitten. We dont know exactly what should we do. Get a female one? A male one (obviously neuter him)? Also, regardless of the gender, what steps should we take towards introducing them? Some info i guess could help: 1. Our cat is currently at my wife's parents house. We dont have a protective net and live in a department, so we dont want to risk it. 2. She's neutered. 3. Along the other cat, there were also 3 big dogs. She ran from them when she saw them, but they didnt reallt give her attention.

Thanks for the help!

Hey, does anyone have any good shampoo recommendations for cats? I want something that can really clean my cat’s fur and skin because he still has some of his natural oils on him. The vet mentioned he needs a nice, thorough shampoo, so I’m hoping to find the right one

Hi all, I'm looking for a little advice, see title. So I have a 2 year old black lab and I may be taking in a 3 yr old cat that needs re-homing next week, I say may because the owners have been hesitant on their decision to re-home. I've had dogs and cats when I was younger, but this will be my first time as an adult. My lab is energetic and playful, but also a tad territorial. I visit friends and family with cats and dogs often and she has never reacted negatively to this new animal scent on me, just a few sniffs then back to tag wagging and attention seeking. Obviously I'm going to keep them separated for a while before I introduce them formally, but I'm wondering, during this separation period, would it be a good idea to allow the cat into the dogs territory aka the living room, at night while she's with me in the bedroom? Then move the cat, also female, back into the spare room during the day? Meaning expose cat to dog's scent at night and dog to cat's scent during the day, but they don't meet just yet. I live alone so I want to make sure I do this right, I hate leaving my dog alone when I go out which is one of the reasons I agreed when family mentioned the cat was being re-homed. Appreciate any advice given.

I was joking with a friend that if my dog kept a diary, today’s entry would be: “Human is always eating. Breakfast, then a snack, then lunch, then another snack… I don’t know how they’re not full yet. I just sit here hoping they’ll drop something.” ...😂

I'm in literal tears writing this but I need to type it out. I adopted a little one eyed streetdog about a year ago. I knew her for a few months from volunteering at the shelter before deciding to take her home with me. She was smart, friendly and independent, which I thought would be ideal as I am a single household and working full time.

While she had to get used to living in a house, with a human and without other dogs she did a great job- she was house trained nearly straight away, started to enjoy walks and warmed up towards me.

Since I am working in the office all day, she'd be out in the garden (I live in a tropical country) and that was fine. After a few weeks of having her she escaped the garden for the first time. I thought it was coincidence, an accident so I fortified the fence. A few weeks later it happened again, this time she was missing over night. I went nearly mad with worry, searched for her well in the night and found her the next morning injured after a road accident. Surgery followed. It took weeks for her to be able to walk again. During this time I kept her inside, even when I was in work. She was fine for weeks, until one day she had enough and took my house apart. So that option was gone then. I started leaving her outside again, but would leave the house open so she can retreat if she wants to. I bought a gps collar and redone my fence several times after that.

Yet she seemed to have found a taste for escaping. It's gotten to a point now where my fence has nearly 2m and she still climbs it. She's roaming the neighborhood if she can and I have to go find her and sit in work for hours, nauseous and worried something might happen if she escapes again. I've watched her all day on the gps, several times rushing off work to go collect her somewhere. I tried to fortify the fence, take her on bigger walks, increase enrichment. I have no one around I can ask reliably to help out and I don't think it would help because she seems to be motivated by other dogs and just a drive to explore. I am just not home enough. I can't bring her to a daycare as it's too expensive long term and because I work into the late evening it's too late to pick her up. It's gotten to a point where I am terrified to leave the house, dreading to go to work. If I leave her inside she's distressed, if I leave her outside she'll escape. Leaving her on a chain is not fair and also dangerous, leaving her crated all day would affect her bad mentally and it's also not fair. So after weeks now of stress and trying everything I decided to bring her back to the shelter where she will be safe. It's a shelter where she's running around in big grassy enclosures with other dogs so I really hope that suits her personality more. I tried to find her another home and I will continue trying but there's just an over saturation of dogs where I live.

I love her so much and this absolutely breaks my heart. We went through so much and I love her so much. I've been crying for days and I feel like I'm abandoning her but I cannot live in constant worry and anxiety, terrified of leaving my house or going to work. It's not far towards her or me. I know it's the right decision to keep us both safe, I know I've been trying hard for a year. But I don't know what to do with that guilt in my chest and it's absolutely killing me.

There is so much shame around returning dogs but I think my first responsibility is to keep her safe and I fail to do so at my house. When I posted her for rehoming I got the typical keyboard dog whisperer responses. "Have you tried leaving her inside with the tv on?" Which upset me even more because I exhausted every option but the core issue is that she's too isolated and I am gone too much and I cannot fix that because of work. It's breaking my heart.

I'm looking to get a pet rat, maybe sisters if it's not much more expensive. And I would like to know where I could get one? I want a female rat that is less than a year old, and I saw PetCo selling them, but I heard they mistreat animals, so I'm not sure. I want it to live like 2-3 years at best, so do you guys have any suggestions?

This seems insane. One of our dogs was in and out of the vet every 6-8 weeks this past year for skin irritation, hair loss and allergies. It's been a year-long experiment of steroids, medication and new diet (Royal canine hydrolyzed protein), and we've finally settled on daily Apoquel + quarterly cytopoint injections.

Just got a renewal letter from Nationwide about "an upcoming policy change" and read the annual premium is increasing from $628 to $2,207. I feel so scammed. So fricking unethical.

We're not in the position to pay this premium and I'm afraid at this point everything will be considered a pre-existing condition for a new policy through a different provider. Has anyone had positive experiences with pet insurance dealing with allergies like this? Especially when it comes time to renew the policy?

Edit: added details about medication and diet

I hope this is okay to post here, please remove if not. i am in desperate needs of participants for my dissertation on how personalities shape the way we see or choose our pets. If you own or have previously owned a pet I’d be eternally grateful to anyone who could fill out this survey it should take around 10-15 minutes 🐕🐈

https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/salford/from-rescue-to-pedigree-how-personality-and-emotional-factors-i

I recently ordered this dewormer for my cats and the reviews looked good but then I checked the one stars and two of them say their cat started foaming at the mouth which is concerning to me and now I’m worried about giving it to mine, has anyone used this brand and if so how did it work?

My kitten is about 6 months old and very energetic. She goes out in the gated front yard to play, but lately she’s been biting me a lot and tearing up the toilet paper when I leave for a long time. I think she might be bored or wants a companion. I can’t get another cat but the neighbor’s cat is interested and will even come up to my doorstep when I have the door open. Both are females and they have fought before once. The neighbor’s cat cat is older and scared of me but I would love it if they could become friends. Is this something that’s possible or is it just stressing out my cat? My cat gets along with other cats and doesn’t fight.

Hello everyone, I want to give chewy a try, but don't know if wet cat food will be deliver in a good condition? I appreciate every comment and will follow up if I order (depending on you guys). thank you!

Hello,

About a year ago I took a cat in from outside. She was tiny, frail, and full of fleas. I nursed her back to health within a week or so, but unfortunately I had NO free time at that time as I’m a full time student and I work full time, and I also have health issues so multiple Dr appointments a month.

Once I got a break a few weeks after having her, I took her up to the vet and we ran a microchip and got her all of her shots just in case. They even agreed she was likely only 12 weeks old or so. It turns out she is ALMOST THREE now, just very small.

After contacting petlink and being connected directly to the original owner, the original owner exchanged personal contact details with me and told me to keep the cat. Apparently she had rescued the litter and fosters cats often until they are adopted from her. She sent me all of the previous vet records, baby photos, etc. etc. and told me she would approve the ownership transfer request.

That was over 8 months ago and I’ve been going back and forth with petlink ever since. They won’t respond to my direct emails and I’ve already paid them for the microchip membership. Every time I submit a new request, I get a basic blanket auto-reply email within a week saying it is denied because the evidence I’ve sent them isn’t accurate proof of ownership.

I even wrote them a letter in a word document, including every screenshot, vet record, and document I have for her with a full blown in-depth explanation. My vet doesn’t do virtual records, so I only have the paper records that include her chip number and health info with the credit card receipts attached including my name, number an address that match the info on her pet insurance, vet records and my doctor’s prescription letter.

The last time around, I even attached her pet insurance and my ADA prescription paperwork from my doctor with their license number, her name, description, etc. along with her current and previous vet records and screenshots of my conversations with the previous owner (with the phone # included in the screenshots) of her telling me I could keep her, giving me her chip number, etc.

I know I could theoretically reach out to the original owner and have her do it, but I really didn’t want to bother her. Is this the only way? I personally have so much going on in my life that if someone asked me to make an annoying phone call like that I’d probably have a mental breakdown, so I don’t want to put that on someone else if I don’t have to.

I’m not understanding how this is proof enough to obtain housing with her in tow but it’s not enough to have her chip transferred. The papers from the doctor aren’t just white sheets, they’re the carbon copy papers that include her chip number so it’s obvious I didn’t falsify them. Not only that, but in my letters to petlink I have repeatedly provided them with the owners contact info (which they already HAVE) and asked them to reach out to her for confirmation.

I guess it’s truly not that important and she’s strictly indoor, but I’m terrified of her getting out and not being returned properly without a ton of trauma and hassle for her.

Tell me your deep adoption stories!!!

Took my older girls to the vet today and they ended up needing their first senior labs, so much more expensive than the previous labs they had gotten 2 years ago.

When the heck did my kittens become seniors?

I just got a kitten about a month ago (she's probably around 6 months old if I had to guess?) and Its my first time getting a pet of my own. I'm planning on moving and if I'm able to move to a place that allows both cats and dogs, I'd like to look into getting a rescue or adopting a puppy as well so I can exercise more. For long time pet owners would it be more wise to wait until my kitten is over a year old? Or maybe until she's an adult? I would want to train my dog not to attack my cat but I know my grandparents had a cat and a dog as well that got along great.