Catnip (Nepeta cateria) leaves and blossoms contain the chemical nepetalactone which targets the cat’s pleasure center in the brain. Catmint (Nepeta faassenii) which has small silver-green leaves, blue flowers, and spreads rapidly in the garden also contains nepetalactone. Some cats like one more than the other.

Whatever you give your cats, be sure to get containers of the dried leaves and blossoms (no stems) so that you can keep it fresh and potent. To release the chemical rub the leaves and blossoms between your hand then give it to them. Also catnip toys, which are exposed to the air and sometimes get dunked in water dishes, lose their chemical attraction very quickly. 

The great thing about catnip, or catmint, is that that it is non-addictive, harmless if eaten, lasts up to 15 minutes, and can easily and quickly de-stress your cat. It can also get a couch potato off its butt, moving around, active, and having fun.

But you don’t want to expose your cats to catnip with great frequency. Once a week is about right. You want them to really enjoy it each time they encounter it. Anything chemically-stimulating that is available to them all the time will lose its fun and effectiveness.

Be sure to consider your individual cat’s personality when giving catnip. Some cats who have a tendency to be aggressive may become uninhibited on catnip and show even more aggression. For these special cases it is safer to separate them from the others before letting them have their catnip high.

Keep in mind that not all cats are interested in or respond to catnip. They are quite normal but do not have brain receptors, or activated brain receptors, for the chemical. Several of my cats look at the others in their nepeta-induced ecstasy and seemingly shake their heads at the outlandish behavior and total lack of kitty dignity.

With a little awareness, you can ensure your cats individually and collectively can enjoy the pleasure of catnip as a special treat and share that fun with you.

A friend had adopted a cat with a slight limp from a shelter in Boston. During the first week after the adoption, my friend was sure this relationship was not going to work out. She wanted a cat who would be affectionate and regard her as a best friend but that wasn’t happening. “Should I take her back?” she asked me.

After our coversation, she agreed to keep Suzi for at least another two weeks and follow some suggestions with her. As you may have  guessed, by the end of that time period my friend and Suzi were becoming fast friends.

When you are considering adopting a cat (or any shelter animal for that matter), you need to think about what may have led to their becoming a shelter animal. They may have been lost, abandoned, or abused. Whatever the circumstance may have been, they have become confused and fearful …and not sure whom to trust.

Even though some shelters and rescue organizations can be very humane, being alone in a cage, unsure what is going on or what may happen next, can make even the most initially-confident, trusting animal  wary in general or in particular situations.

For example, your new cat may tend to respond more quickly and positively to females. There can be lots of reasons for this. Women tend to have softer, higher-pitched voices which are less threatening. They tend to talk to animals as they would to a young child.

Men, on the other hand, tend to have harsher, lower-pitched voices which are more threatening. They tend to talk to animals as they would to another human. Larger size makes a threatening difference. Furthermore, less gentle handling or abuse may be more likely to occur at the hands of men.

Of course, whatever bad experiences occurred in the past are still influencing your cat until it feels comfortable they won’t happen again with you. Some cats may retain a memory of past experiences which you have to accept, as you would with an emotionally-damaged human. Your cat wants to trust you, but trust takes time.

Your cat needs to discover what is expected and tolerated. It needs to be sure how you will behave in different situations. It also needs to know whether there is an underlying uncondtional love present–that no matter what behavior may displease you,  you still care for the cat that has the behavior. As with children, you want to disapprove of the specific behavior but not the child itself.

Your cat can learn to trust and wants to trust you. Being fearful all the time is just too burdensome to the mind, body, and soul. So give your new cat a chance. If you make the cat’s comfort and adaptation to you your first concern, and not whether you are receiving yet the cuddles you think you deserve immediately, the likelihood of your achieving a great relationship is increased exponentially.   

For the cat who arrived at its new home growling, hissing, scratching, and generally saying, “Get the h*ll away from me,” there may have been a lot going on previously to precipitate this response. The “Hissing, Growling, and Scratching, Oh My!” post covered many of the pre-arrival factors that could have contributed to the cat’s negative behavior. But what if none of those factors has played much of a role in the growling, hissing,  and scratching?

Introducing a new cat to your family is always a risky proposition. Cats like routines. The need to depend upon them. Change of any kind can be very difficult for them and they’ll tend to resist it … unless you show them what is in it for them (positive, not negative) to do otherwise. 

Entering a new household is especially tough. Everything is new and different. And when other cats are present, that adds another physical, psychological, and social dimension to their acclimation process.

Some of the factors to consider in evaluating the cat’s current negative behavior are that there are new people to whom to respond. They don’t know the cat and are likely to have certain assumptions and expectations about it. The cat is as yet unaware of these … and, for that matter, may disagree with them when it detects them.

The new cat has its own personality, attitudes, and behaviors with which it is comfortable. But at every turn there appear to be situations to which to adjust. There are environmental and interactional unknowns and conflicts with humans and other cats alike. If figuring out one’s place is never easy for humans, imagine what it much be like for cats.

The new cat will be required to explore and discover where everything is:

1. Cat pans
2. Water dishes
3. Food distribution center
4. Acceptable sleeping quarters
5. Scratchable posts
6. What the territories are
7. Who has dibs on what territories.

Then the cat must discern what the established cat-cat and human-cat interaction patterns are. For example, you may want to pick up the cat because you pick up your other cat(s). But this new cat may not like being picked up for physical or psychological reasons. It also may be feeling particularly insecure—not knowing what all this means.  Is this something to be concerned about. All this suggests it may take some time for you to learn and respect the cat’s preferences as it learns and respects yours.

Some new cats may not initially want to exert the effort to fit in. This is especially true if when they enter the new household, they are very anxious and/or depressed. This is because they do not understand why there has been such a dramatic change in their lives. They do not understand why they have been abandoned by their former kitty mom or dad. Did they did something wrong? Are they being punished? Are they no longer loved, lovable, and wanted?

Mozi, an old cat whose kitty mom was dying of lung cancer, joined me awhile back. From the moment he entered my office, he growled and hissed, and spent most of his time meowing constantly. When I tried to pet him to comfort him, he swatted me with his paw, none too softly, and tried to bite me. This went on for months and months.

But I continued to talk to him with comfort, playfulness, and enthusiasm in my voice. I created a special bed from an old down jacket on a corner of my desk and offered him opportunities to play and be brushed. Slowly he began to meow less. Then he started to rub against my legs while I was at the computer, signalling me to gently stroke his back.

All the while I let him know I cared and that when he was ready, we could get closer. Because of his age and never having been around other cats before, it has taken Mozi quite some time to settle in and decide that I’m an acceptable kitty mom replacement. He doesn’t know why the change occurred but finds the current situation reasonably comfortable … and, what the hey. 

He, like any new cat, needed time to become acquainted with his new environment. He needed time and space to learn the new rules and re-establish his routine. He needed time to feel better psychologically and physically and know he was accepted.

When you understand what this household change means to your new cat (and how you’d feel if this had happened to you), you can give it the latitude it needs to become part of your cat family and home on its own terms. With time, patience, and persistance you two together can turn that growl into a purr.

Cats, like humans, have a psychology of their own. They respond to their environment and form attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors based upon their experience. So that means that somethings precipitated all the hissing, growling, and scratching. But what? And what things should kitty mom look at in her research? Starting off, she should look at the cat’s most recent environment and experience.

1. Did the cat formerly have lots of siblings or mates, only one, or none?
2. How did he get along with any existing cats in his former household?
3. If he did get along, with how many and what were their ages and sex?
4. Was he introduced to his carrier before his trip?
5. Had he lived in his carrier before the trip?
6. If so, did he live there for comfort, security, or out of fear, anger, or pain?
7. What could have happened during loading the cat onto the flight to upset him?
8. Was the cat in the passenger section with a human companion or in storage with the luggage and cargo?
9. What were the climatic conditions in the hold? (Too often they are very cold)
10. To what degree was the cat able to move around to get comfortable in his carrier?
11. Did the cat have food, water, and a place to easily eliminate?
12. Was the cat drugged throughout the flight? If so, how might this sedative affect the cat?
13. How did the cat respond to the drug during the flight and afterward?
14. Were the luggage and cargo stable so they didn’t shift during flight, bump or fall on the cat’s carrier?
15. Was the cargo compartment insulated to reduce the jet-engine noise? (Probably not)
16. How was the cat’s carrier likely handled by airport people before his kitty mom actually picked up her new cat?

Why investigate the flight experience first? Because air travel for cats can be extremely stressful, especially if they are not in the passenger section with a person known to them to comfort them. This tends to be even more distressing for exotics and highly-intelligent felines.

But, can she really find out many of these things? No, she can only know the possibilities and have an inkling of what may have happened to her cat when out of her sight. That should clue her into the many harmful things that could negatively impact her cat’s delicate sensibilities and leave him with kitty post-traumatic-stress-disorder.

On top of all that is the stress of moving into a new home with a new family. That’s tough on cats and humans alike. Once at his destination he was expected to explore to get the lay of the land, determine what territory might be available to call his own, see who else is there, estimate who may become a buddy, and figure out the human-kitty requirements. 

However, this new kitty didn’t want to leave the security of his carrier. When his new kitty mom came close, he hissed and growled. She had to start to create trust and a rapport if he would ever exit his hidey-hole. Wha she could do is begin to gradually move the cat’s food away from the door of the carrier. The cat has to want to change his behavior.  While he may choose to sleep in his carrier, she does not want him to stay there all the time. Not moving from there is avoidance which will only reinforce his insecurity, fear, anger, or pain.

When cats socialize, they often like to pair off at least temporarily. When a third cat is present, ther is a triangle, making the interaction unequal and awkward. It’s the same with humans. New cats tend to be attracted to similar cats—similar in sex, age, energy level, size, health, responsiveness, and degree of disability. Similarity of breed may make a difference too. For kittens who have less experience and more brain plasticity, the above-referenced factors, except for energy level and responsiveness, may be less important.

When the cat wants to stay in the bathroom, it will try to escape when his kitty mom enters. One way to work on trust is to carefully close the door before the cat can escape and present it with a treat. She could drop the treat on the floor in front of the cat and back away. When the cat takes the treat, she could praise him, dropping a few more treats at that location, and repeat her actions. After doing this three times, she could move to the door, invite the cat to leave, open the door, step out of the way so the cat can comfortably exit, then tell him what a “good boy” he is for leaving. The objective is to create positive associations and trust between kitty mom and the treats and her allowing hime to leave:  She is demonstrating that the cat doesn’t have to be afraid of her or what she is likely to do.

In my next post I’ll discuss other possible causes and ways to address the hissing, growling, and scratching of this new cat.

 Kaz, my 16-year-old, battle-scarred, football-shaped black cat, was always on the lookout for any kind of hanging electrical cord. Any cord inert on the floor held no fascination for him whatsoever, but if it were hanging, he salivated with anticipation. Unlike many cats, he didn’t bat it around. He went straight for it with his teeth. Chewing the insulation was his response to boredom. Oh, boy!

Until the phone went out in my office, I had somehow managed to miss his joyous activity. He had completely severed the cord. It was only then that I realized my computer cables and electrical appliances all sported tooth-incised cuts. The heel of my hand hit my forehead: “Too soon old and too late smart.”  That quickly led to an inspection of all dangling cords in my office and home, followed by lots of repair or replacement. Somehow, Kaz had been very lucky thus far avoiding swallowing bits of wire or electrocution.

Of course, fixing the damage was only the first step. I had to find ways to discourage a continuation of this dangerous, and potentially lethal, behavior. Where I could hide the cords and cables behind furniture, that worked well. But many cords and cables did not lend themselves to that solution. Where possible I also taped cords to the wall.

Double-sided sticky tape or contact shelf paper (sticky side out) wrapped around small lengths of cords worked in some places because cats don’t like stickiness. Some cats don’t like the feel of aluminum foil so wrapping it around cords also helped as long as the cords didn’t move a great deal. Cats, like us, are also attracted to things that glitter when they move.

Available at hardware and office supply stores are long, rigid plastic channels that snap together over cords as well as flexible foam cylinders with a slit in the side to slip around cords.  But sometimes you have too many cords and cables in one open place, like in your office. One way to address the problem is to keep cats out of that area. But when that is not possible or desirable, or in other such areas, you can find substances your cat will find so unpleasant as to squelch its desire to bite and chew.

You might want to try different things to see what your cat’s unique dislikes are. Of course, do not use anything that may be toxic or can harm your cat, like hot sauce which can burn its mouth and throat and get into and burn its eyes. It is impotant to remember that this is not about punishment. It is about shifting your cat’s natural behavior to something safer. Bitter Apple, which is available at many pet stores, can deter your cat, but the molecules may not last as long as you wish. Consequently, you might want to try other things as well.

I’ve found lots of suggestions for other possibilities, ranging from menthol to lemon juice to moistened soap. Whatever you use, be sure to check that the smell will deter your cat, rather than the substance make your cat sick if it bites the cord or cable.

Of course, the old stand-bys of re-direction and distraction are important too. Be sure to have lots of toys available that will stimulate your cat and re-orient their behavior. And don’t rely upon just one. Instead, have an array of danglers and other things so you can switch off to keep your cat interested in something other than cords and cables. When the cords and cables are less interesting than other things that you provide, your cat will likely begin to ignore the cords and cables.

For those of you who celebrate the holidays with a Christmas tree, you likewise will need to address the cord for its colored lights. There is a danger not only from electrical-cord chewing which can cause shock but also from breaking of glass bulbs which can be stepped on or chewed causing significant trauma or death.

Like most humans, your cat is instinctively drawn to things that dangle. They tantalize and spark the imagination. This means you have to be both proactive and reactive to protect your cat from the dangerous danglers (by hiding, removing, covering) while personally providing fun, safe stimulation away from them. 

Well, that’s “cured” until your cat is back in its old environment. Before you know it, the problem has reappeared. You’re aghast. What is going on here? Didn’t the cat professional do its job properly?

When this happens, it may not be what the behaviorist did but what he/she didn’t do. What may be going on is what was a problem with HeadStart-like services for children in the early days. During the day, the child learned new information and how to apply it, behaviors, attitudes, and useful skills. Its life was being enriched. But when the child went home, it was likely to regress. In fact, it could “lose” much of what it had gained during the day. What was happening?

What was going on was that HeadStart-type organizations needed to take a two-pronged approach. One prong is working with the child to stretch its knowlege, abilities, intelligence, and create confidence. The other prong is working with the parents so the home environment can and does positively support their child’s daily enrichment gains.

Parents had to understand what was needed, be willing to work with HeadStart-type services, and be given ways to create this new encouraging, reinforcing, positive home environment so the change and growth could continue.

It’s the same with having someone address your cat’s behavior problems. You have to understand and accept what environmental factors, your behaviors, attitudes, and expectations may have contributed to your cat’s behavior. You likewise need to be willing to be sensitive to your cat and its needs. You need to be willing to change yourself to appropriately address the problem behavior—to keep alive trust and respect in your relationship with your cat.

Unless your animal behaviorist, cat whisperer, or animal communicator addresses both prongs of the problem, the problem may recur. The professional needs to make sure you understand the dynamics of the cat’s behavior. He/she needs also to make sure you commit to discovering and changing whatever factors may be making the behavior possible. 

If your animal behavior professional does not address this with you, you need to make sure you ask what you may have been doing to make the problem possible and what you need to do to keep it from recurring.  The solution to your cat’s behavior problem requires change by both you and your cat.  

Cats are all about hunting so their toys have to certain qualities to meet their individual specifications for predation. Some cats are attracted to birds, some to mice, some to bugs, some to the sound of a jingle bell in a ball which acts like prey, or some to a little of all of the above.

To see if your cat prefers birds, find toys which resemble birds, have feathers, can “fly” suspended in the air, and perhaps make a chirping sound. Some cats love just having a feather they can chase or leap at.  Since this is an experiment, you’ll want to take note of what factors seem to stimulate your cat the most. 

After you put away the bird-related toys, try toys that are mouse-like. They can have fur or not, be stuffed or not, move on their own, be tossed, or dragged by you around by a string. Catnip is a separate issue and should not be part of your toy-type comparison. How does your cat respond to the mouse prey? What does it prefer?

After you put away the mouse toys, try balls. Balls, balls with bells, balls with treats inside, or balled aluminum foil can be considered mouse- or bug-like Does your cat expect you to start the ball rolling so it can chase after it, but then wait for your to start it again? Or does your cat bat it around on its own or require you to start the action but continue it without your help? What qualities should the ball have?

You may find that your cat likes several types of toys that may not depend upon shape, fur, or feathers. It may also like a knotted string or string with an object attached that you pull around the house so your cat can chase it. It might like that same string suspended so it can swat at it and try to catch it.

I have some cats that adore a laser light shone on the floor and walls they can chase and jump at. Sunlight reflecting on your watch dial can create the same effect. Also, as I’m sure you know, boxes of all sizes and paper bags add to their fun whether they are bird-, mouse-, or bug-oriented.

What you need to determine is the specific type of prey of interest and how your cat wants to play with it. Having a variety of preferred items, bought and created by you, can keep your cat stimulated, exercised, and content. Everyone, even cats, likes to have their preferences met.    

Punishment is generally thought of as rough handling or mistreatment. This is never an appropriate response to what your cat does. There are all kinds of ways to change a cat’s behavior for the better. Your objective is to replace a bad habit with a good habit. Any show of physical anger or meanness will tend to have the opposite effect. What does your cat want from you?

It is necessary for you to ask yourself why your cat is doing what it’s doing.  Your cat naturally needs to scratch and, therefore, needs to have something appropriate to scratch. Do you have something available? If you do, is it in a place the cat finds desirable? Cats have preferences just like humans. Is it of a material your cat likes to scratch? Some cats like carpet-covered scatching posts, others like sisal.

In general, when you see your cat doing something you consider to be “bad,” you should say a firm “No.” When the cat stops, immediately (10-second rule) give it a treat and say, “Good (name).” You can use distraction and re-direction as well. But whatever positive approach you use, you need to be sure to show your cat your respect and appreciation for its positive response to you. Cats demand respect, as do humans, from those with whom they interact repeatedly and intimately.

In response to furniture scratching, there are several things you can do. One is you can spray the area being scratched with Feliway, a pheromone that calms cats. Next you should move the piece of furniture away from that location. In its place put a scratching post the cat will like. Cover it with catnip or whatever attracts and appeals to your cat (like “Eau de Mouse”). When your cat scratches the post instead, praise your cat and give it a reward.

Since you probably want to move your piece of furniture back to its original location, slowly move the scratching post to a new, central location, still praising your cat when it continues to use it. After a short time, you will only intermittently praise your cat for its scratching the post. This variable type of reinfocement tends to make the behaviors hold better than constant praise.

Two is you can cover the area of the furniture being scratched with transparent heavy plastic wrap and pin it in place. Then you can put double-sided sticky tape in strips across the surface. Cats don’t like stickiness on their paws.  You can also spray the area with Feliway. But again … what is important is to give your cat something to scratch. This procedure also works for door jambs, etc., that have become the cat’s designated “scratchee.”

Changing an unacceptable behavior to an acceptable one requires time, effort, patience, and persistence—not violence—to get the desired result. If you work with your cat, rather than against it, your cat will likely think you are the “cat’s meow,” rather than a mean s.o.b. who deserves a hit-and-run scratch or bite when you’re not looking. 

A full medical workup revealed she has hyperthyroidism wherein all her body functions are speeded up, quickly using up her energy reserves. Her kidneys are failing—she has chronic renal failure (CRF)—so her body can barely rid itself of toxins and provide her with necessary hydration. On top of that she has painful arthritis in her hip joints.

Her vet prescribed Felimazole for her runaway thyroid gland, Epakitin for her kidneys, and Cosequin for her arthirits. But her mouth is always dry. As a result, she cannot take her pills. She chokes on the pills in full panic mode and often spits them out. Even if she could swallow her pills, holding her to pill her is difficult because of her arthritis. Moreover, while she received intravenous fluids and IV medications for several days in the cat hospital, she is too thin to receive sub-cutaneous fluids at home. Consequently, she cannot get enough fluids to prevent dehydration. So her serious health conditions are not being addressed. And what about her other needs?

Oops! Finally I had an aha. In trying to find a way help her medically, I discovered I had been forgetting to help her emotionally.  For a while I saw her only as a problem to be solved and totally forgot about her needs for petting and attention. Unfortunately that is all too common and easy to do when you’re dealing with a serious health condition, whether it is with your cat or another human being.

Poor Delia. She needed so much more than tasty food with a great deal of fluid content provided five times a day.  I was aghast at how long it took me to tumble to the fact that I was treating her differently from my other cats. She wasn’t being scritched and brushed and petted.  And, with her deafness she actually needed more from me emotionally because she couldn’t hear my soothing, comforting voice to show her caring attention.

This is the same situation doctors face when dealing with a sick individual. The person can be seen as a physical “problem,” rather than a “person with a problem.” Now that I’ve finally had a 2X4 to the back of my skull, I’m spending more non-medical time with Delia. And though she can’t really purr—it sounds more like heavy breathing—she is demonstrating she is enjoying it.

Even if her medical problems are not being addressed medically which will undoubtedly shorten her life, my attending to her emotional needs for the time she has left may be more therapeutic for her than all her prescriptions.

Like you, your cat does not want to feel pinned down, held captive, out of control, and panicky. It certainly does not want to physically, or psychologically, struggle with you, their allegedly-caring human companion, whenever they can avoid it. Like you, they would rather remain relaxed and ready to have some touching, a fun interaction, or a tasty treat.

It would help if you considered the nail clipping problem from your cat’s point of view. The clippers come out—or you get that look in your eye or that particular body position when you pick up you cat. Your cat knows what that means and says,”Uh oh. Been there, done that. Not again thanks. Where’s the door?” You have already conditioned your cat to expect and prepare for an unpleasant time. What you need to do now is work to change those negative expectations to positive ones.

Starting with relaxing your cat, or exhausting it from playing, can works lots better.  If you’re working with mature cats, as opposed to kittens who are still learning the basics, you may have to take a little longer to get the cat used to the step-by-step procedure. At first you should talk soothingly to the cat, pet it, and work your way down to its paws. Then gently separate its toes, rubbing between them. Cats tend not to like to have their paws played with or confined.

After you can accomplish this, clip one nail. Of course, when your cat says, “Whoa, dogies! What’s all this?,” you should immediately go back to petting and calming your cat as if it were no big deal. You don’t want to make this a competition. Even if you can clip only one or two nails in this session, you need to praise your cat for what she/he has allowed you to do. Providing a little crunchy kitty treat or catnip is a nice reward as well. You want this to a valued experience for your cat.

If you can replace the early bad experiences with nail cutting with these more laid back and rewarded experiences, your cat will be more accommodating over time to having you clip its nails. This takes patience and persistence—more with some cats than others.

The important thing to remember is that cats do not like it when you try to physically strong arm them, or even kid about “hog-tying” them. But they will acquiesce to your desires when you choose to positively persuade them—make it clear what benefits are in it for them if they cooperate.