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My older cat died this week, leaving my younger cat a solo cat for the first time in her life. Ciaran died after a brief illness, and during his illness, Kismet had significant reduction in appetite. Since his death, Kismet has started to eat a bit more (I don't know if she just finally got...

When the weather is nice, I often let the cats have some outdoor time, either supervised in the back garden or out walking on a leash. Ciaran very much enjoys this while Kismet, who has a somewhat nervous temperament, often declines to partake. Which is fine. But the problem is when Ciaran comes...

Any advice on how to approach an older cat for nail trimming? Over the past year or so, Ciaran has gotten much less tolerant of nail trimming. While he used to allow me to hold him on my lap and get through most of his paws with minimal protest, he now lashes out and hisses after we’ve done a...

Like many cat owners, I am on the never-ending quest to find the perfect litter-litter box combination...which, I appreciate, will always remain elusive... I've used covered litter boxes with wood- or wheat-based clumping cat litter for years (currently using okocat) and I'm thinking about...

One (or both) of my cats has been peeing in a potted plant. Last year, I found the then-kitten peeing in my large potted cactus once or twice, but this was unusual. However, since I moved this summer, I was noticing intermittent phantom pee smell and tracked it back to the cactus, which leads me...

I’m moving at the end of the month, and this entails a six hour drive with my two cats. The older one, Ciaran, has traveled a lot with me and he does fine in the car but Kismet, who is a year old and has much less travel experience, gets pretty upset. Which then in turn upsets Ciaran. We’ve gone...

I have a twelve-ish year old neutered male cat and a five month old kitten. A handful of times over the years, I’ve seen him hump toys or blankets. This was never a concern, as I’ve heard of other cats doing the same thing, but tonight he distinctly tried to hump the kitten—more specifically...

My 12-year-old male cat has a history of intermittent petting vs play aggression. This comes in two presentations. In one case, he’ll pounce on my arm, pull it toward him and start bunny kicking with or without mouthing/biting like he does with his toys. He never breaks the skin or uses his...

I recently added a new kitten to the household and generally it has been going pretty smoothly. I used the crate method so the kitten would be safe and confined but the resident cat wouldn’t lose access to any of his territory, and they had their first meeting with the door open about a week...

I have an adult cat to whom I am introducing a new kitten. I’m using the crate method—keeping her in a “playpen” so Ciaran still has access to all the rooms in his house—and initial observations are promising. They are curious about each other and seem relatively calm with occasional hissing...

Ciaran has always been the mouthy type--he sometimes will get excited during play and affection and start mouthing/gnawing me or my clothing. I thought at first it meant he'd had enough but he often draws my arm towards him with his paws during these episodes. Sometimes it seems to be a play...

I have been toying with the idea of investing in a self-scooping litter box. I swore I'd never resort to one of these, but I work long hours and the idea of having one less thing to do every day is growing ever more tempting. So, do self-scooping litter boxes actually work well? How do cats...

I am thinking about getting my cat a buddy and one of the candidates I've come across who seems like he would be a good fit personality-wise happens to be FIV positive. My first question is safety for my current FIV- cat. FIV is only transmissible by deep bite wounds and Ciaran is not a...

I adopted my current cat, Ciaran, a few years ago and planned to get him a buddy prior starting my medical internship so he would have some companionship while I'm working long hours. Anyway, I unexpectedly was acquired by a second cat ahead of schedule last summer who we lost earlier this...

Ciaran doesn't do well in the carrier for long trips, so I usually try to tether his harness to the seat belt. I was wondering if anyone has any opinions on the relative safety and comfort of a regular cat harness vs a small dog "seat belt" harness for a long drive.

My cat is about two months into chemotherapy for lymphoma and we've hit a rough patch. For the past week she hasn't been eating well, so on Friday the oncologist switched around her drugs and gave her some empiric antibiotics. At this point, she still has an excellent prognosis but I'm concerned...

How long do you generally give your cats to get used to a new food before making a final decision? I've been trying to transition mine from Fancy Feast to a limited ingredient diet. Ciaran has always been difficult about changes in food. He takes to a new food the first few times he has it...

On Friday, my cat was started on the La-COP protocol for intestinal lymphoma. So far, she's tolerating it well. She had some diarrhea Saturday but is otherwise eating, drinking, and interacting normally.  Mostly I just want to see what other people's experiences have been so I can get some sense...

Earlier this month, one of my cats was found to have an abdominal mass on exam. Within a week, she was in surgery and had a solid tumor surrounding a section of intestine removed. We got the pathology back today. The good news is it looks like the vet got the whole thing with wide margins (ie. a...

I've seen a lot of advice here to use the cat attract training litter for litter box-reluctant cats. I've tried the cat attract litter additive (ie the stuff in the bottle you sprinkle on regular litter) under the assumption that it's the same thing. I've had mixed results. I was wondering if...