Cats Explained!

Hi! I'm Lexie! I've noticed that even though the Internet loves cats, a lot of people on the Internet don't understand cats at all! Which leads to a lot of people assuming the worst of us, and that makes me sad! So my friend human and I decided we would...

[cats-explained]

My cat vomited, ate some food, and then vomited again in quick succession (took place over about 15 minutes) and I noticed one of my own hairs (my hair reaches to my lower back) sticking out of his mouth. Before I panic that he swallowed plastic or something, do you think it just could of been the hair stuck in his throat? I gently pulled it out and have been keeping an eye on him, and he ate some more food since then without vomiting it back up. If he vomits again tonight hes going to the er

This is not a veterinary blog and dispensing medical advice over the internet without examining your pet is illegal. If you are concerned, please contact your vet.

[kitty]

[morphofan]

So perfect!

[sarahseeandersen]

[lord-kitschener]

Obviously I want you to take care of your pets and make sure they get food and fresh water on a regular basis, but cats being huge drama queens and screaming hysterically at you and acting like they’re tragic famine victims who haven’t eaten in weeks and are about to drop dead from starvation right mcfuckin now, because you’re 10 minutes late feeding them is always going to be one of the funniest things to me

[artaeum]

the cat who lives at the vet clinic i volunteer at was mad yesterday because his dinner was half an hour late due to a busy day. he proceeded to go to all the (empty dw) garbage cans and tried to knock them over and started desperately scavenging for scraps of food because obviously no one loves him or cares about him and if he must eat garbage to survive then so be it

[instructionsfordancing]

not food related, but one time my cat cried at me for 20 minutes before i worked out that the reason why she was upset was because there was a coat hanger on her favourite cushion

[lord-kitschener]

This is absolutely beautiful and changed my life, thank you so much. Please protect her from hangers at all costs

[catsuggest]

wow. am STORVING and humaines here making joke laugh at cate honger ?!

[goldenmeme]

My cat is a social eater who is not food motivated at all, so I was baffled when I first got him because he didn’t seem to care about food but he would SCREAM at me for hours when I knew his bowl was full. Any time I went to double check that he did indeed have food, he’d book it to the bowl and snarf like his life depended on it, but as soon as I walked away he’d follow me screaming again.

Eventually I figured out that he just wanted a dining companion and was screaming about how we’re a family and families eat together, god damnit! I moved his food bowl under my computer desk and it fixed the problem. But if I’m ever out for more than 12 hours I’ll come home to find him in a passive-aggressive kitty huff because dinner has been ready for hours but he’s been trying to be considerate (unlike some humans) and waiting for me to eat it. 

[leeferal]

My cats are indoor cats. Being indoor cats, they can’t go outside to hunt for food (mice, rats, birds, etc) to gift to my sister and I.

But they know that the kitchen has food. They know where the easily accessible cat food is. And obviously my sister and I are just Really Big Stupid Hairless cats.

So if my sister and I go without leaving our rooms for too long? My cats will sit outside our doors and scream for our attention, lead us to their food bowls, and then only stop the screaming and leading once they see us sit down at the table and eat something. Because they think we’re hungry.

[akuyaku-reijou]

Your cats are the sweetest beings on the Earth, it makes my heart warm knowing that they exist. They love you very much and they care so much, they want you healthy and happy and will make sure you don’t neglect yourself and oh god they are so perfect. Real pure love exists, I am happy to be alive today.

[mylove-isnot-fragile]

My neighbor is a hardcore drunk. Like, 9am and dude is drinking vodka, but he had a cat that’s pretty much his honest to god caregiver because I have seen this cat visibly screaming at this man to keep him from hurting himself and sometimes when he hasn’t been outside for a while, the cat will scream at my door until I go outside to knock on the door to check on him. Cats are literal angels.

[dragonkitty]

I have a cat named a Kitty Pryde who has an extra thumb and these giant paws and while she’s not super bright she did learn that she likes being pet. So I must like being petted right? So if I’m watching TV alone she’ll come up and just with her giant paw gently stroke my arm or hand until I pet her back and she waits and pets me again and it goes on a while. Cats are angels.

[trinandtonic-deactivated2022102]

My cat once stuffed my bath mat into the litter box

[dvasxmeka]

Mine wakes me up if I sleep in too long cuz she wants me to take my pills. Fiance said she was yelling at him all day yesterday. She stopped whwn I got home…and asked him if he tooks his meds. He hadn’t.

[sharing-of-words]

My girlie screams at me if she thinks I’m up past bedtime. Apparently this transfers to my new roommates too: Maeve led @katculator to her room, yelled until she was under the covers, then came back to the kitchen to do the same to me.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

I recently took in a pair of kittens who had, up to this point, lived outside. They were well taken care of by the friend who gave them to me, but they don't enjoy being pet or picked up. What can I do to help them better enjoy socializing and make them more comfortable at home?

Give them time, and approach petting and being picked up like behaviors you’d actually train an animal to do. Work in small approximations, only at their comfort level, and reward them heavily for tolerating any part of the process. Don’t expect it to go fast. 

I’d also ask you, though, to sort of self-examine how you’re approaching the situation. Why do the cats need to enjoy being petted or picked up? It’s important for them to tolerate such things, sure, so you can make sure they’re not injured and move them if there’s a safety issue, but past that? It feels like kind of a human priority thing: it’s important to us that our cats like these things we want to do to them, but we’re not taking into account that it might be okay for these animals to just have a preference for those things not being done. Will asking the cats to tolerate handling and contact they don’t like make them more comfortable at home, or will it just make you happier? Will they enjoy socializing more when being asked to allow petting, or will you just be more comfortable engaging with them socially through that method rather than figuring out how they prefer to be social with humans instead? I’m not saying you’re wrong to want to condition your cats to be more accepting of tactile interactions, but I do think it’s important to know what are human priorities being projected onto the cats that you’re telling yourself are “for their benefit”, versus what pieces of interactions it is actually necessary for them to be willing to tolerate to successfully coexist in a human home. 

[fractiousrvt]

I have two cats in my house that I rarely touch. The first is my semi feral girl. Her main form of social interaction during the day is to lay next to you if you lay on the bed. She might also tolerate some head scritchies or she might leave. At night when we’re in bed she’ll actually lay on us and demand head scritchies but if you shift your weight, or move more than the arm that is petting her, or even breathe too deeply, she will bolt.

The other is my second youngest boy cat (he’s 10) and early on we developed a truce: I didn’t touch him at all and he didn’t “randomly” attack me. I think he just overstims way too easily and his go to behavior was biting. He was like that from the moment I found him. Now that he’s mellowed some with age I will venture to scratch his chin for a few seconds which he usually enjoys and will respond to by licking my hand for a little bit before making airplane ears. The other day i went in to give him a scratch and he right away very very gently bit my wrist so I didn’t push it. But the gentle biting is a vast improvement and so I respect his communication.

I don’t love these two any less because they aren’t lap cats. And actually, getting affection from them feels far more rewarding precisely because they aren’t obnoxiously attention seeking.

[nixien-marie]

@cats-explained Maybe you can tackle this a little more efficiently than I can, I’m thinking they’re just feral or borderline feral from being outside for the most part.

[petshrink]

If you don’t mind, I’ll be taking this one because I happen to be one of the type of cats you are describing. But honestly, @why-animals-do-the-thing and @fractiousrvt answered this one pretty thoroughly. Most kittens are either adopted around 8 weeks old after time with their mother, meaning that their socialization window has closed, or are hand raised at a much younger age which we know can put them at a disadvantage for healthy human and cat interactions. I was found at 6 weeks old with my brother and was puffed up, spitting, and lunging at everyone in the clinic where Mom worked at that age.

Genetics also plays a significant role in our temperament. In particular, the type of personality our dad had has been shown to be more likely in the kittens.

My mom says that I was designed to be the perfect street or barn cat. I am a great hunter. I am skittish enough that I won’t let anyone get close enough to hurt me and definitely wouldn’t get in the way of any moving vehicles. My only downfall is my coat. I am a pretty thorough groomer but keeping this fluff tangle-free is a full time job and results in a lot of hair balls.

I’m 6 years old now. According to Mom, she did a lot of things wrong when she first brought me home. But we have a great relationship. i get close to her all the time and bunt her when I want pets. Then I leave and hang out a few feet away from her. I still run if she approaches me too directly. And she gives me a whopping dose of gabapentin if she needs to do anything yucky like clip out mats, trim my toes, or take me to the vet. We recently had a really successful day at her office where she was able to get blood from me and I even ate some squeeze cheese!! I have become a lot braver around people that come to visit as long as they don’t reach for me.

I won’t ever be a lap cat, and yes sometimes she says she wishes she could just grab me and snuggle me, but we both know that isn’t going to happen. And she respects that. We have a really good life together. Let your cats lead the interactions and I bet you will be surprised at what happens.

-Ducati

[cats-explained]

Ugh wrong blog

[cats-explained]

Hi! My cat adores playing with hair ties and rubber band (it will often end up in her bowl of water). While she is cute when she carries them around, I'm afraid that it will end up in her stomach. Is there any safe alternative?

Hello!

You are right to be concerned. As you may know our mom is a vet (which means we have to deal with all kinds of nonsense) and has seen vast quantities of hair ties pulled or cut out of kitties’ stomachs.

I, for one, play with hair ties all of the time, but I have no desire to eat them. She says she got lucky with me.

I’m not clear whether you are asking if there is a safer hair tie available, or if there is something like a hair tie that she could play with instead. As far as I know, the latter isn’t very likely. The ones that are supposedly ‘no crease’ are wider and have a knot, which may or may not deter a particular kitty. The safest option is to never leave them lying around. Mom’s last kitten would go into the cabinet and open a drawer to get the hair ties - she had to tie it shut!

I really like twist ties and the plastic ring that comes off the milk jug. But this is cat dependent because a cat that likes to ingest lots of things may eat those as well. Letting us get our hunting instinct out using wand toys or other great enrichment items may make us less likely to eat random items like that.

If your cat is determined to eat inedible items, like plastic or cloth, make sure to visit your vet to make sure there isn’t a medical reason.

- Chupie

[mostlycatsmostly]

(via peartree impressions)

[cats-explained]

Happy Thanksgiving!

From Chupie and Ducati

[but-dude-why]

[randomitemdrop]

Item: Orb of Animal Lethargy

[cats-explained]

My cat hates nothing more than having her nails clipped, won't let me touch her paws EVER. But lately she's been pawing at my hand until I "hold hands" with her (which, yes, involves touching her toe beans), and she gets upset if I let go before her nap is over. Still won't let me clip her nails, though! Not really a question, just thought I'd let you know what a weirdo she is.

This is Cat Behavior 101.

All things are on the cat’s terms, not the human’s terms. Paw holding does not equate with nail trimming!!

-Ducati

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

New footage of the elusive Chinese Mountain Cat! 

(Image Credits: Shan Shui Conservation Center)

This documentation of a barely-known species of small wild felid is incredible - it’s potentially the first active Chinese mountain cat den ever found! As documented in a recent blog post, a researcher working on a crane conservation project took photos of what he thought was a Tibetan fox, only to discover later that he’d actually photographed a cat so rare it was only discovered as a species in 2007! Researchers returned to the site later and were ecstatic to find that the cat was a mother with two young kittens. The placed a camera trap close to one of the den entrances and was able to record multiple days worth of footage before the family moved on.

Chinese mountain cats (Felis bieti) live in a very small, high-altitude range in remote northern China. They’re well-adapted to the harsh weather at those heights, with a stocky build and thick fur in the winter, and are often called “grass cats” by locals because they blend into the the dry grass of the alpine meadow habitats where they’re most often observed. What little information we have about these elusive felids comes mostly from observations by herders whose livestock graze in those meadows. The IUCN lists that no substantive knowledge has been gained about Chinese mountain cats since 2010, so this new footage from Shan Shui Conservation Center is a major contribution to the scientific understanding of the species. 

Click through here to watch the footage of the Chinese mountain cat family! 

[things-that-are-great]

Life hack

Got something you need to do at a certain time every day (e.g., take meds)?  Start giving your cat a treat right before you do it.  You may have trouble remembering, but your cat absolutely will not.  

[dareyoutoread-blog]

This might be the most genius idea I’ve ever read.

[consolationblog]

[petshrink]

Web survey powered by SurveyMonkey.com. Create your own online survey now with SurveyMonkey's expert certified FREE templates.

Hi everyone!

After a lot of time and revision, my research project for my residency is now collecting data. This is a quick 5 minute survey looking at cat behavior in homes. if you have a cat, I would be very grateful if you would fill this out! You are able to fill it out multiple times if you have multiple cats. 

I tried to make wording clear but if anything is confusing, let me know.

I really appreciate it!

[cats-explained]

Hey cat people, take this quick 5 minute survey to help us learn more about cat behavior. Feel free to share with your cat loving friends!

[cat-memes-only]

[weasley-detectives]

i’ve been laughing at this for a full hour

[tree-of-blue-squirrel]

IT´S ALIVE

[cats-explained]

This blog has been really quiet lately. Our mom is going through advanced training so she can be an official pet psychiatrist, so we don't get as much time as we'd like online. But she's making us a ball pit!!! Anyway, we just want to know if you guys have questions you want answered, or topics you'd like covered on cat behavior. Let us know so we don't get bored! -Chupie and Ducati

[catsbeaversandducks]

By Lucas Turnbloom

[catversushuman]

The second one is never a waste.