A few of you liked Kit and Ozzy from my last post so here’s some more of the lovable goofballs. One’s an orange at heart and the other’s an orange through and through.

We introduced them slowly in April and in the last 2 months finally started to see them properly settle in as siblings.

pheonix the ginger and storm

My cat turned 17 this June, he’s still his playful, cheeky, curious self but has started to develop what appear to be significant health problems.

1) he has early stage kidney failure. This was diagnosed around a year ago as very very early, and we adjusted his diet accordingly. However, it is slowly amping up. He’s naturally a small cat (runt of the litter) and at his heaviest weighed around 3.9/4kg. But with his kidney function deteriorating, he now weighs only 2.9kg, despite still having a large appetite. The vet says his weight is going to continue to decrease over time.

However, to try and help we’ve started B12 injections, upon vet recommendation.

2) his joints. Again, this has happened fairly suddenly (within last 6 months). He’s always been a very active cat, and when he was younger (I’d say up until 4 years ago) he spent a LOT of time outside in the garden and residential area, jumping over fences etc.

However, he now appears to have arthritis. We have started giving him Solensia for this upon vet recommendation. So far it seems to be helping a bit, he’s started jumping up onto the sofa again whereas he couldn’t do that a couple of months ago.

About a year ago I also bought him little cat stairs so that he can safely and comfortably climb up onto high surfaces (sofa and bed). So I’m really trying to take care of him.

3) I don’t know why but he has regularly started vomiting. He’s always had digestion issues, but he’s started being sick a lot. My mum said he was sick 3 times in one day last week. We don’t know what is causing this so he is booked for an ultrasound on Monday. He’s a very well behaved, placid cat so doesn’t need sedation.

I guess I’m just looking for opinions and other people’s experience with their senior cats. How can he have almost 17 perfectly healthy years and then all of a sudden develop these problems?

We’ve looked after him so well, he goes to the vet every month for his flea treatment, claw trimming, and to be weighed.

My mum and I used to joke about how he was still so “kitten like” and nobody that meets him believes he is 17. But he’s starting to age, experience poor health, and I’m worried and petrified.

I’ve had him since I was 18 and I can’t imagine a world without his little face. I just feel helpless because realistically I know all we can do is try to maintain his quality of life while we can, and the alternative is making me want to cry.

We have a 6 month old kitten who seems very interested in the outside - we've let him out once and he looked so happy. He is microchipped, neutered and vaccinated so he would be ready to go out. The problem is that we live right next to a busy tramline, with trams going by every 5min. We have a dilemma: is it cruel to keep him in when he clearly wants to be outside, or is it irresponsible to let him out when there's such a great danger to him nearby? The charity where we got him from suggested we keep him inside (as well as RSPCA) so I am inclined to follow their advice, however I still feel guilty when I seem him wanting to go out.

There's other cats in the neighbourhood who are outside so if they are okay I wonder if he would be okay too?

Would appreciate some advice :)

EDIT: thanks a lot for everyone's thoughts & advice!!! as I said in one of the comments, we're first time cat parents (or parents in general!) and it we're still trying to figure out where the line is between being responsible and selfish. Obviously the cat would love to go outside but we're the responsible humans who need to make responsible decisions for them (even if that might feel selfish).

Leaving a pic of our cute little guy to make your days:

I already have a plan on how to handle this situation but I have no real experience with 'adopting' stray cats so am looking for advise from anybody who does. Sorry for the long post, but I think it is all relevant so I don't want to do a TL:DR.

Myself and my partner started to feed a family of stray cats around 4 weeks ago when they showed up outside of my home - this was a mother (tabby) and her four kittens, who we think were around 4 weeks old at that time. With lots of work, taking things very slowly & carefully we have built up a lot of trust and got to the point where the cat and her kittens are happy coming into my home, eating in the kitchen and then hanging out for a few hours to play and snooze. We also bought them a cat house to go on my balcony which they use overnight. However, my home is not very big and it is not at all realistic for me to keep them long-term. The mother cat allows us to stroke her and is quite friendly while the kittens will only accept strokes while they are eating treats. The kittens have gotten to the point that they are alright sitting next to us on the sofa and sometimes climbing across us, but still get easily spooked by humans walking around unless we are very slow and quiet.

I have made an appointment for the mother cat to get spayed at a local vet this coming Friday morning and the plan is to 'trap' the whole family inside my home on Thursday night. That should be fairly easy as they will all come in for their dinner / supper and I can then just close the door. It will be total chaos most likely but we are about as prepared as possible for the situation (I've been putting down litter trays both inside and outside, and they are using them).

Just to add some context, the mother cat seems to have been in heat recently and she will go wandering off for long periods of time, leaving the kittens with myself and my partner. This is strangely a good sign to me as it shows that she trusts us, and perhaps also that she is not super-attached to her kittens at this stage? However, it does mean that we don't want to leave it any later before she is spayed as we do not want to deal with more kittens!

I have somebody lined-up to take two of the kittens on that same Friday afternoon and I am completely confident that they will be fine with this person and their partner - they are very experienced cat owners who have adopted some fairly wild cats before and they also have a slightly older cat living with them (who is herself used to living with other cats in the past). At that point the kittens should be 9 weeks old.

Our plan right now is to keep the mother cat and the two remaining kittens inside for 48 hours after her spaying operation so we would not let them out until Sunday. I have a little bit of paranoia that they might run away / look for the other kittens but from what I can tell of reading things online they should be fine with us if we continue to feed them and (in the kitten's case) play with them. Some of the advise online says that you should keep a cat inside for 10 days after a spaying operation but on the other hand, when charities do the TNR (Trap Neuter Return) scheme, they release the cats on the same day. Keeping the felines inside of my fairly small flat for 10 days would be impossible and to be honest it would drive all of us crazy (the kittens are super high-energy and are constantly running about causing chaos).

We have just bought one of those see-through room dividers so that the mother cat can be kept in the bedroom away from the kittens for the 48 hours, since I have read-up that they might aggravate her surgery wound if allowed to play with / climb around her. They will be able to see each other through the divider though so this seems the best option?

I have somebody else lined-up to adopt a third kitten in another two weeks and am currently trying to find homes for the last kitten and the mother. As a 'final option' if nothing else comes through we might be able to keep the mother cat, as I'm hopefully going to be moving home by Christmas to somewhere that would be much more suitable. However, Plan A is very much to find somebody else who can take her (and I'll then adopt a rescue cat in the future once I have properly settled in).

Ultimately I am looking for feedback from people with experience on whether this plan seems workable or am I going about it all wrong. I am not sure what else I can do, besides letting the mother cat out either immediately after her operation or maybe after 24 hours but it seems better to me to give her a reasonable recovery period over the weekend (while we are around - both of us will have to go back into work on Monday).

Appreciate these posts come in time to time but we’re really concerned about our neighbours cat.

It’s outdoors most if not all of the day which I know isn’t an issue necessarily. However, it’s a small white cat and it has horrendous skin problems - the ears are raw and horribly scabbed over - it’s been like this for several years but has recently been getting significantly worse. The scabbing and rawness has now extended to her face and the skin around her behind and private parts are also red raw, no hair and visibly weeping. It looks incredibly painful.

Another neighbour had caught her and took her to the vet (before we knew who she belonged to and suspected she was a stray) and found that she was microchipped. The owner explained that the cat has allergies. I appreciate that cats can sometimes have health issues that are not responding to treatment or can be complicated but the deterioration is super concerning. The skin on her behind has completely broken down and is at risk for major infection if not already infected. The rest of her skin under her fur is unusually red/pink and quite inflamed.

So my question is - has anyone else had a cat with allergies like this? Can they really be this serious? I’m reluctant or otherwise unsure how to approach the neighbours since they’ve been approached once before already by another neighbour with little effect. I’m concerned it could be something that may have started as allergies but has now progressed to something much worse like a fungal infection or several infected wounds since the skin is breaking down. The ears look similar to that of ear cancer in photos I’ve seen of white cats too.

Bit of a random one but I’ve got two cats and pretty much my whole place is carpeted 😭

At the moment I’ve only really got one small hard-floor area near the back door where I can fit a decent-sized litter tray. It works, but with two adult cats I feel like one tray isn’t really ideal.

I really don’t want to put another one directly on the carpet because of litter everywhere, cleaning, smells etc.

Just wondering what other people do, especially if you rent or live somewhere small.

Where do you keep yours? And if you have two cats, how many trays do you actually use?

Hello,

I have a 4 month girl who used to always eat Sheba kitten, but now she flat out refuses to eat it, I’ve tried other kitten food and she won’t touch it. The only thing she will eat is Sheba soup (which is only complementary so not a meal) and purina gourmet slow cooked beef which isn’t even kitten food!!

Any ideas on what I can try?? I don’t want to keep giving her the purina as it doesn’t have the right calories for her and she’s already slightly slimmer than she should be.

Thank you!

I’ve been trying to adopt a cat for the last few months and most of the larger rescues/charities seem to have a strict outdoor space requirement for cats which seems weird considering that London doesnt seem to be the safest place to let cats be out and about (I live in Central).
I have tried a couple of indoor only charities but they seem to have much fewer cats and constantly say they have too many applicants so they cannot take in more applications at the moment.

Any advice on how I should go about adopting a cat would be super helpful!

Hi everyone, I need some advice/recommendations. I'm considering insuring my 3 year old indoor white cat. She already has skin allergies which I understand most (if not all...) policies won't cover because we rescued her knowing about the skin problems, so this isn't an issue.

I mainly want her insured in case anything else pops up, since I've heard white cats in particular are susceptible to other health issues. If anyone has any advice regarding insuring an indoor cat or a white cat (or both!) that would be greatly appreciated, thank you! 😊

We have just adopted a kitten from our local rescue, and the minute we met her she was super affectionate and purring. Brought her home and into the settling in room- we used the upstairs office. She was fine immediately affectionate, purring, exploring everything, doing her business in her litter, eating and grooming. 2 days later she starts wanting to follow us out, so from what I have seen this is the sign she is ready to explore. She’s done exploring the new rooms - our bedroom is right across, and also downstairs is the living room
And kitchen. But she is suddenly scared of us while in the new rooms. Like she will bolt and hide if we’re standing anywhere and try to go near her. I have sat down and let her approach but she will jump over me to hide. Does this mean it is too soon and she’s not ready to leave her settling in room? And what next steps for her?

I’ve been sleeping here with her she she cuddles all night etc, we play all day, but I am starting to bet cabin fever but also don’t want to rush the process.

Turned my sleeping kitty into a meme I just had to!🐈‍⬛🤣✨

My 2 year old cat has brought in two mice in the past 48h, that’s 4 in a couple of weeks… before this she had never brought anything in!

We have SureFlap microchip smart cat flap, so we already have curfews so that she’s not outside at night or during rush hour, but it seems 8pm is her happy hunting hour 😅 so I’ve now moved her curfew even earlier, but I just can’t face another mouse (dead and alive) being plonked on my living room carpet 🙈

Has anyone tried the ZeroMOUSE catflap attachment? Does it work? It’s quite expensive, but if it works, it might be a necessary investment 😅

So my neighbours cats like to come into my house but one has started to come in the house and deliberately pee. He never used to do this but how do I stop this occurring?

So 9 months ago we moved house did the kitty acclimatising phase, let me two neutered boys run free. Well recently I noticed the ginger boy coming home less to the point I put missing posters out and then one day he appeared. I noticed he was a bit skittish, not the loving boy I know and blamed the heat. Come to now he comes back home with a COLLAR on (we stopped putting them on him because he wriggles out of them or breaks the safety). I don't know what neighbour has done it but someone has tried to claim my very healthy well fed cat because they've obviously FED him. He comes home for food but is skittish around people he's not like he was. How do I go about finding out who has tried to take my vaccinated, microchipped and well cared for cat that's a sucker for food?

Her fur is in my nose and I'm trying not to think about it so I don't scratch and then disturb her ..

When I first started letting my cat out using the cat flap installed in my back door I followed all of the advice - I started by leaving it taped up fully during the day, then started to lower it slowly over a week.
She now goes in and out of it no problem 24/7.

However, the flap I have installed has a magnetic strip on the flap and the inside of the hole. I removed the magnetic strip from around the flap as she was struggling to figure out how to push it open, so I thought step 1 let it hang free so she knows she needs to push through.

I may have made things worse for myself now though 😂 with the turn in the weather the wind is causing the flap to swing by itself / let in drafts. So I put the magnetic strip back on and I CANNOT get her to push harder to open the flap.

The magnet is quite strong and does actually take a bit of force to open - I’ve made it a bit less strong by putting tape over both magnets but it still needs her to push - probably with her paw rather than her head.

Any advice on how to convince her that the flap isn’t locked and she needs to push harder to open it?

Cat tax of biiiiiig yawn paid 😂

Hi, I’m currently looking at buying a catio. I’m looking for something mid range, I don’t want to spend too much money in case my cat decides not to use it.

Has anyone ordered anything from home and roost? Is there anyone else you could recommend?
Protectapet is too expensive and I don’t like the look of the omlet catio’s.

The first picture is after my hospital appointment back in July before my hospital appointment last week and he gave me this look like he's saying I know where you've been 🤣

I love him to bit he's seven years old but will be eight in February and I still remember when I adopted him when he was nine weeks old and I look back and thinks that's gone so quick

I do worry about him and any advice is highly appreciated but Coco has I believe a bit of separation anxiety towards me or worries every time he smells doctors or hospital on me but he won't eat anything until I'm back from hospital or doctors and he's sees I'm ok. It started when I had my first operation since having him back in 2023 it was a day operation and I was back home that afternoon but he stayed by the window and refused to eat or even be stroked by my brother and my mum until I got back home and then he stayed with me gave me lot of cuddles and letted me know how much he missed me when I came back home and every time since he's panicked and worried every op (all been day ops), blood test etc and every hospital appointment etc I've had. I've had problem s with my thyroid since my early 20s (I'm now 27 but soon to be 28 on 23rd Sep) and in 2023 I developed large lump on my thyroid but because it was benign after doing ultrasound doctors left it but if it got worst or developed symptoms like struggling to breathe to go back to them etc since then last year on 15th July I noticed second thyroid lump on left side this time so went to doctors and they did ultrasound and shows in ultrasound that its gotten bigger since last ultrasound and that they reffered me to endocrine (I think that's what it's called but please correct me if I'm wrong). To cut long story short I had phone call with them who referred me to ent in hospital who put camera up my nose to check my voice box then asked for CT scan. To cut another long story short I recently went back to hospital and he told me after deciding on diagnostic thyroidectomy that the wait for operation is long wait unless he has cancellation which they'll let me know, he said they'll check to see if it's cancerous but the lump is sitting on a nerve that controls my voice box so there's a chance when having the operation that it could damage the nerve which can lead to me having permanent hoarse voice so effect my speech but if it's cancer they'll be other treatment there is other risk but he said I could be in hospital overnight but when having operation they'll put drainage tube in my neck so I'll have to wait until that's removed to be sent home. What they'll do is they'll operate first, remove right side of my thyroid then they'll do biopsy because right side more bigger and causing lot more issues (struggling to breathe and swallow) they're removing right side but if results come back cancerous I'll have more treatment but I'm so worried about Coco and how he'll be while I'm at hospital so if there's any advice anyone has that can help calm him down and for him to not worry I would really appreciate it. My partner said something like feliway and he also said about calming treats so I definitely appreciate any advice anyone has like anything that can help stop him stressing out until I'm back home

All the best and any help is aways appreciated and thank you so much to anyone that gets in touch with any advice or tips

Ive had cats for 3 years now and im still using plastic trays. Its time to replace then again, and ive decided to potentially go down the stainless steel route. I originally ordered a 2 pack from amazon, but had a small nightmare as they came shipped together and me and my partner could not separate the trays lol. Can anyone recommend a particular brand?

My 2 cats are mixed breed/moggies so not particularly large, but still looking for fairly large trays (current boxes are about 50cm length, 38cm wide, 20cm depth). Happy to go bigger, but dont want smaller trays.

Are enclosed/hooded trays any good? My female cat can be pretty messy lol. Would also love to know what litter mats you're using as ive tried so many and they never seem to do a great job. Any litrer tray recommendations would be appreciated!

Me and my partner brought our own home last year so I dont have loads of money for a robot tray, and dont have any free plug sockets until we finally have the house rewired. Specifically looking for standard litter boxes, preferably stainless steel as ive heard theyre easier to clean! Thanks :)