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[Drakasin]

Greetings cat owners!
I am going to make it quick, because I don't really know what I shoud write about before asking the big question: What advice would you give to a new servant owner of a female kitten? The place of her rule stay is an apartment where there's not really that much space to build awesome cat parkour places and stuff like that. What's the essential knowledge you would give yourself if you were in my place? What amazing accessories would you have me buy for my new overlady?
Now, I've done some reading, but I would welcome anything from the very basics to advanced stuff.

Thanks!

[smeeprocket]

Cats will be uninterested in anything you intentionally buy them for the most part, though kittens are sometimes an exception. So list of things you should have:

cardboard boxes
cardboard boxes with blankets in them
laundry bin with just cleaned clothes
Expensive black clothing in a comfy area
Furniture that you absolutely don't want to be clawed in an accessible area

Don't do the inside/outside thing, it's dangerous, your cat should be inside at all times. Keep in mind that means you, and any windows available to them are their sole source of entertainment, so you need to spend quality time with them. Your lap needs to be available, the place immediately in front of your monitor is now your cat's property, as is your keyboard and any warm laptops you might have.

I have found that cats enjoy fitting their butts into the smallest possible box they can, (I watched my cat repeatedly attempt this with a rather small box until she finally succeeded. You can find "Cats putting their butts in small boxes" videos all over youtube,) my cats also had a thing for sitting on pieces of paper.

If you can build some solid shelves for your kitty to jump about on they like that, and a nice spot in front of the window is important. Some sort of scratching post is recommended, but yea, they will probably scratch whatever valuable things you have any way.

Welcome to never having pristine clothes again, no matter how many times you use that stupid sticky roller thing on them.

[Il Palazzo]

Get her a puppy.

[ChairmanPoo]

Useful video on cats

[dwarf_reform]

[WARNING: Raw, jumbled info incoming! Some of it may even require a decently strong stomach..]

Kitties like mirco-sherpa blankets (granted, I don't have air conditioning or heat, so they probably like the sherpa-blanket due to necessity) Also, most confident young kittens can be turned into 'riding cats', which is not as cool as it sounds.. I've got two kitties that'll hop in the car as soon as I open the door, and they're mildly famous around town (though I'm at risk at gaining a reputation as 'that cat guy'..)

I'd say I've owned probably 100 cats through my 31 years of life, mostly due to lack of spay/neuter and them being outside and free to express their carnal thingies I'm their overlord (they call me 'The Food Bag').. I can't walk without kitties swirling around me. I can't wash the car because every time I come home they jump on it, so its always got 8000 cat-paw decals on it (and 80,000 scratches).. I can't carry a cup or bowl outside without 8 cats singing choir to me. I've got a scar on my upper lip from a 'Who's the boss!?' stare-down with my old polydactyl cat Biggie (and many other scars, mostly due to them riding on my shoulder like parrots)..

Cats have noble souls and I think they comprehend the human form of 'humiliation'.. For instance, take a small piece of tape and stick it on your pants a couple times first so its not very sticky, and then lightly stick it to the fur at the end of their tail. You'll laugh (you can't help it!) as they spin and bash the tape off their tail, and then they'll cut you a "Are you serious?!" look that you can't deny

Pristine clothes death?! YES. The shoulders and stomach of most of my shirts are shot with holes, either from parrot-cat rides or from them 'making biscuits' on my stomach ('kneading').. And it really is a good idea to match you next clothes purchases mildly around the (overall) color of your cat.. Gray is a good color for any animal; avoid black if your cat is primarily white, avoid light colors if your cat is dark (I wear a slightly less-than-gothic amount of dark colors, so my couple majority-black kitties coexist Depending on the cat you can also try normal brushing, but they've got plenty of hair (It'll end up under the keys of your keyboard, watch.. I even get stuck keys sometimes because I have cat litter in the keyboard..)

And on furniture, they've got a scratching post right behind my really nice leather computer chair, and you know which one they prefer! Looks like the back of my chair was shot with a shotgun.. Also watch out for reachable breaks in the walls/wallpaper, because most kitties will take it as a cue to dig deeper And I didn't know my bedside table was cedar til my bigger cat scratched on it enough to expose the fresh cedar (even smells good!)

All pets are flesh and blood, as we are, and are prone to the same things we are, to varying degrees: infection (viral and fungal! lots of cat-abusing fungi out there..), stress, allergies, heredity, hell, cats even have to deal with mental illness and herpes (NOTE: cat-herp cannot harm a human; there are only a small ((and mostly rare)) handful of things that can be transferred). On mental illness, I had the joy of experiencing a Siamese that had some mental instability :| Terrifying, rolling over in the middle of the night and unconsciously hanging your arm off the bed only to be woke by a faster-than-light 22-hit cat-claw combo.. Despite tender love and care (and understanding! lots of understanding!) that cat ended up attacking its owner one night after entering the dark house after a trip to the grocery store; bit into her thigh so hard that, in addition to many deep punctures it left a bruise as big around as a common coffee cup, and that was only one of many bites that were delivered.. Before anyone asks, he wasn't a rabid cat, either Just.. genetically unlucky, is all.. After that incident I moved Chewy from her house to mine so he could (hopefully) at least live as an 'outside cat'.. I bonded a bit more with him on my own turf, but after about a week I went outside and he wasn't there anymore.. Not sure what happened; I can write my own ending now, mahahaha! (He ran into the mountains and found a supah-sekret Catuary (thats a Cat Sanctuary), where he became a Conk (thats a Cat Monk) and had a long, placid, peaceful life Anyway, around here (Arkansas, US) most people live by the 'rule' that any animal that assaults a human has to be killed.. While I did have one dog shot because it bit me (a Great Dane that shook my arm like a spaghetti noodle because he'd been previously abused; I got bit for giving it a piece of ice, basically).. Begged them not to kill the dog, but they wouldn't listen (of course..). I buried it, at least. I at least did that, as atonement.

On a mostly pessimistic note, I think the whole mechanic of 'pets' in general is designed to acclimate young humans to the concept of cold, unreasoning death (assuming you're lucky enough to avoid human funerals for the first ten or so years of your life..). They can't tackle time quite as well as we can, so, barring gruesome fate, you will be there when your cat dies. You'll be its final comfort, its caretaker in its old age. It may go blind, it may grow tumors like a bunch of grapes.. Its a real contract, a real bond, and serious. It can hurt. But.. are you going to avoid human love and interaction just because of eventual death? No Its a part of it all, and unavoidable..

And one quick (okay, no quick) side-note! (I just developed this while watching Dr. Pol recently).. If you want to pursue a career as a vet/animal doctor, you must reconsider :> I just realized that being a vet means that you will interact with animals, and heal them. But there is a lot of blood and gore and tough moves there.. Like watching someone on that show bringing their dog in to get the stitches removed only to find out there are disgusting foamy yellow layers of infected/rotted flesh under the stitches.. So the vet had to scrape out all the gross tissue and redo the stitches :| I can't imagine the smell, and I can't imagine scraping a dog and then sewing it up like a torn pocket.. A farmer needed a bull-child castrated; Dr. Pol shows up, ties a rope around its throat and wrenches it taut and ties it off and then (with a fair amount of crude violence) slashes open the sac and uses sharp metal clamps to sever the testicle, which he then tosses on the ground like a bubble-gum wrapper, with not a drop of numbing agent administered.. I'm thinking you have to be mechanical/cold to be an effective surgeon, be it animal or human, and having a deep love for animals probably conflicts with that.. Not to mention a lot of being a vet involves interacting with the worst aftermath that idiot animal abusers dish out.. Overall (and again, same with humans), it seems like a job best suited for the callous worker, not the emotional animal-friend.. And, more on topic, being a pet owner can involve "Pol'ing" out, an example being that one day I walked outside and our dog had gotten into a bucket of fishing gear and ended up with a barbed treble hook stuck in its lower eyelid, which I removed, cold/machine style.. The RNG can throw this type of stuff out; be prepared! I also had a cat break its leg by trying to jump onto the back of a parked car, slipping off, leg/foot slipped behind the license plate on the way down, *snap*.. That quick, right in the middle of a sunny day :> Another cat was in the back of my dad's truck and jumped out of the back at around 20mph, which broke its bottom jaw in half :| Sometimes.. sometimes life is ugly

With all that said, I'd consider (NOW, not later!) getting another cat as a companion for your current one, if you're away from the house for long hours.. Its all personality based, really.. Some cats can sit in boring silence and be perfectly fine, but just like most human beings, cats would rather not be alone the majority of the time (and, as with humans, privacy and alone-time are equally important). When I say "NOW!" I capitalize in all seriousness I have two cats in my room that have never been outside and have never been around other cats, and now they will not accept any strange animal around them.. Thats an "animal" reaction I can't wrap my head around. They're full-grown cats and I bring in this cute lil' baby kitten, all doe-eyed and wobbly and fuzzy and squeaky, and they act like its a fully armed and growling War Machine :| It'd be like a 350lb guy meeting a strange baby they'd never met before and going on full alert like they were facing an alien life-form instead of a small version of themselves.. If human beings acted that way, well, we wouldn't be here typing this.. Anyway, solitary cats can go full-on isolationist when.. isolated.. :> With two cats (if finances are a worry for you, like they are for me..), more litter, more food, and more potential for those ugly accidents happening.. Note that a pair of cats is much more likely to 'rampage', tearing around chasing each other at high speeds, usually while employing as many z-level changes as possible.. I used to have figurines on top of my TV (Cap'n Crunch, Sugar Bear, Scrooge McDuck, and original Worf from Star Trek, some Battle Beasts) but they kept getting exploded off the top like so many bowling pins that I finally just put them up :> At least they weren't glass! Also, watch out for Christmas tree raids.. Tis the season!

Something to invest in: LASER POINTER. I'd say 80% of cats will respond to it.. And I'm starting to think catnip is primarily for adult cats.. I've got quite a few felines to run field tests on, and I've seen a lot more adults react strongly to it, and very few young ones.. Most cats also love sleeping on magazines/paper and crawling into grocery bags (paper, plastic, even backpacks).. Cats also have hidden quirks that you wouldn't expect, like one who'll try to bury (or lay on) your cell phone if it plays music, another who'll eat apples, another who sleeps only on its back, another who refuses to sleep unless they're at the highest point in the room, some who watch TV and look at themselves in mirrors (and most ignore TV and won't make eye contact with themselves in a mirror).. Most hate water with a passion; some take to it like a fish.. The cat that split my lip was terrified of thunder and would hide under the blanket during storms, and he loved green olives..

Statistically, being a cat owner is less likely to land you in court, too, versus owning a giant dog :> I've never seen anything on the nightly news about a cat shaking a baby to death

I guess if I had to tl;dr: cats are soul-filled beings cursed to a short lifespan, and as caretaker ("owner") its up to you to offer as many unique opportunities as possible.. Hell, it still bugs me that the two female cats in here will never get to mate, and know motherhood :| I may think a little too deeply, though

[Sappho]

There's plenty of good advice and info on here already, but I think really, in the end, it will depend on your cat. Cats can have *extremely* different personalities, behaviors, and quirks. My current cat refuses to eat fish or chicken. He doesn't like sitting in containers, but he likes being underneath things. And he likes water (or at least doesn't mind it), so I have to lace the water in my spray bottle with a little bit of vinegar in order to deter him from destroying the furniture. (Fortunately it's usually enough to just show him the bottle now.)

I could write you a book of advice, but I think the best thing to do is just see how she turns out and what problems you end up having, then ask specific questions. The cat ladies and cat gentlemen around here will be happy to assist you.

There are a few universal truths, though:

A lot (maybe most) of a cat's personality is hard-coded, but you can influence some of it. Cats are not actually tame. They only tolerate us (and love us) because we handle them when they're babies and persuade them that we're just big hairless cats. Cats who don't get a lot of affection from humans as babies can go feral, or at least schizoid, and reject human contact. So be cuddly! Also, I've found that with cats we have as babies and cuddle a lot, they are more cuddly as adults. Ones we've adopted as adults tended not to be so cuddly. So if you want a cuddly kitty, get to work on those cuddles. It's possible she might be hard-coded to not like cuddles, but you can only try.

Also, cats can be trained, to a degree. They are not anything like dogs. Dogs are just hairy slaves. Once they identify you as master, they will do their best to do what you want. Cats are more like teenagers. You have to constantly persuade them that it's in their best interest to listen to you. They DO understand what you want, make no mistake. The question is whether they care. You have to teach them why they should. Reward her for doing things you like, being cuddly, using her scratching post, etc. When she does something naughty, like biting/scratching you (aside from when you are playing with her - but be careful, because that's a fine line for a cat) or scratching the furniture, have a spray bottle with water on hand and give her a spritz. Most cats hate that. But it has to be immediate. Don't wait five minutes or even thirty seconds then do it, or she won't know why you're doing it. Be consistent. Spritz her every single time she scratches the sofa, immediately. Then as soon as she stops and starts doing something else, go pet her and baby talk her and show her she's being good. It will never be 100%, but most of the time the cat will calculate that they're better off doing what you want them to do. And always have that spray bottle on hand. Once they learn what it means, it's often enough to just show it to them, and they'll stop.

The exception is when they want to play, at least with my cat. When I'm busy and he wants me to chase him, he'll break all the rules and ignore or dodge the spray bottle, just trying to do everything he can to piss me off so I'll jump out of my seat and chase after him. Great fun for him. Eternal frustration for me. But I can't be *too* mad at him, because he's trapped in a tiny apartment all day with nothing else do to.

Get her spayed as soon as possible, if she's not already. If you're in the US, this might be automatic. But in many countries (including where I am now), people don't usually do it. When I was ready to get my cat neutered, everyone bullied me into letting him keep his balls. They went on and on about how cruel it was to cut them off. But they were wrong. He was unhappy. He was restless and aggressive and territorial, and horny as all hell with no one to have sex with. He started pissing all over everything. Finally I told my friends to go to hell and I got him fixed. He's been a happy cat ever since. Girl cats can be just as bad, or even worse. They go into heat, and you do not want to experience that.

Don't worry about parkour. Cats make their own parkour. If's she's at all inquisitive (and almost all cats are), before you know it you'll find her in places you never imagined she could reach. Anything you want kept safe, put inside something she can't open (like something with a latch or very heavy door). This is especially true for catnip, if you decide to give her that. There are pictures and videos all over the internet of cats who managed to get into their human's stash of nip.





Catnip is fun and most cats love it. But be aware, if you give it to her, that it is basically like LSD for cats. It doesn't just make the cat stoned, it makes them hallucinate. Great fun for a cat trapped indoors, but be gentle with her while she's on it, don't startle her, and be forgiving if she goes nuts and bites you while she's high. She probably thought you were an evil squid from outer space.

If you're in an apartment, you have some limitations. Cats who can go outside are far less destructive to human property because they prefer to sharpen their claws and hunt outdoors. They prefer to go potty outdoors, too, and you don't have to do as much litter box upkeep. Finally, they don't get bored so easily and start searching for new and interesting ways to demolish your stuff, because they have other things to do. But if it's not safe to let her go outside, you'll have to accept the fact that your stuff is probably about to get trashed. I find it helps to rotate my cat's toys. I take some of them to work with me in my bag, or store them in a box in a storage container for a while, so they take on a foreign smell. Then I bring them home and he goes nuts for the invaders. Be aware, though, that if you're going to keep her inside, you should really keep her inside all the time. She won't know there's a world outside, so she won't be unhappy with her little apartment world. I had a friend who thought it would be nice to take his cat to the park once every month or so, and she went schizoid on him. She was miserable being trapped inside because she knew what was on the other side of the door. He could never get her to stop doing her business on the floor, and she howled endlessly and scratched and bit him all the time. He went from being her love to her jailer.

Last piece of universal advice for now is to make sure to always keep her litter box clean. This is important. Get the poops out of there right away (flush em). Scoop out the clumps of pee as often as you can. A cat will not use a dirty litter box any more than you'd use a toilet that doesn't flush. And always keep an eye on that box, because it's a very good indicator of her physical and mental health. If her poops are coming out hard, make sure to get her clean water more often and give her a few drops of olive/vegetable/fish oil now and then. If she's got diarrhea, there's something wrong with her food or she's eaten something she shouldn't have or she's sick. If she's not trying to bury her poops, she's trying to insult you and take over the house (she's not happy). If she ever starts going anywhere but her box, then she's upset about something. Basically, if she starts exhibiting any unusual potty behavior, something is up and you should either ask the vet (or quickly as us) and find out what's going on and what to do.

[martinuzz]

I do have to post to say I disagree on the always keep them inside part. Cats that can go outside usually are healthier, more active, and have a longer natural lifespan.

However, it really depends on where you live.
If you live in a dense urban area, with cars speeding everywhere, this will greatly increase the chance of your cat not living out it's healthy outside cat lifespan due to becoming roadkill.

But if you live in an area that has reduced car speed (here in the Netherlands, there's a lot of urban areas that have 30km/h max speed, and speed bumps everywhere to enforce it), or just a generally quiet area, it's much healthier for your cat to be able to go outside, climb trees, jump over roofs, kill birds and mice and whatsmore.

Since you have a female, chances for becoming roadkill are not as big as for a tomcat. Female felines tend to not stray far.

[Dutchling]

I agree with Martinuzz. Making your cat depend entirely on you for any (inter)action whatsoever sounds like a very bad idea.

And when you let them go outside you don't have to clean up their shit, which is definitely a bonus! Of course, you might have to clean up dead or dying mice/birds/rabbits/moles/whatever else your cat ends up bringing to you on a weekly basis.

But then again, I've never had an inside-only cat

[Arx]

Going by the fact that Drakasin lives in an apartment, having an outside cat seems unlikely. Probably a high-density area with a lot of traffic, and likely above the ground as well.

I've owned one cat ever, when I was much younger. Don't trust anything I say about this.

[Sappho]

Yeah, it's definitely better if you can let the cat outside, but most apartment-dwellers simply don't have that option. My current cat is the first indoor cat I've ever had. It would be better if he could go out, but we're on the second floor with no balcony, in the middle of a city with lots of traffic. It's just not feasible. Nevertheless, because he's never been outside and doesn't know what he's missing, he's still a happy guy.

[smeeprocket]

I do have to post to say I disagree on the always keep them inside part. Cats that can go outside usually are healthier, more active, and have a longer natural lifespan.

However, it really depends on where you live.
If you live in a dense urban area, with cars speeding everywhere, this will greatly increase the chance of your cat not living out it's healthy outside cat lifespan due to becoming roadkill.

But if you live in an area that has reduced car speed (here in the Netherlands, there's a lot of urban areas that have 30km/h max speed, and speed bumps everywhere to enforce it), or just a generally quiet area, it's much healthier for your cat to be able to go outside, climb trees, jump over roofs, kill birds and mice and whatsmore.

Since you have a female, chances for becoming roadkill are not as big as for a tomcat. Female felines tend to not stray far.

That is absolutely not true. The span of a cat that is outside versus inside is much shorter.

They can also decimate the small animal population of a neighborhood and surrounding areas very quickly.

Any decent vet will tell you not to let your cat outside. There are cars and dogs and messed up people and predators outside and sooner or later they will get your cat.

Cats can get neurotic if alone too long in a house, but they are much safer, and if properly entertained it is no problem.

You want your cat to disappear one day and never know what happened, let them outside. You want to find their corpse by the side of the road, let them outside.

That is as antiquated a belief as not having them fixed, and no animal welfare organization will advise letting your cats outside for very good reason.

[smeeprocket]

http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/cats/facts/cat_statement.html?credit=web_id212453451

https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/cat-behavior/preventing-your-cat-getting-outside

[Sappho]

I wouldn't say it's that extreme. Cats can be safe, healthy, and happy both indoors and outdoors. I've had dozens of cats over my life and they have all gone outside, until my current cat. Only one was ever hit by a car, and that was after we moved to a new house and she was old and didn't know where she was. All of our other outdoor cats died of old age (most lived up to 16 or older) or congenital diseases. Nothing bad ever happened to any of them.

It is true that there is always some risk if you let your cat go outside. Depending on where you live, there might be fast-moving cars, wild animals, or other dangers. But cats are very intelligent animals and they know how to look after themselves. If you live in a dangerous place, then of course it's probably better to keep the cat inside. If you live in a safer area, they'll probably be fine.

Smeeprocket, it sounds like you must have had a bad experience, and I'm sorry for that. I do know how it feels. I remember burying my cat Missy when she was run over, after 13 years of having her by my side. But I think it's up to each person to judge how safe their neighborhood is, weigh the benefits of inside/outside life, and make a decision. The vast majority of outside cats are safe and happy.

[Dutchling]

I stopped reading that after it started telling me to walk my on a leash lol

I don't know about you, but if I wanted a pet that requires a ton of attention, must be walked daily, and makes me clean their shit, I would take a dog. One of the upsides of a cat for me is that it's low maintenance. Of course that isn't always true, my last cat practically turned into an indoor cat (well he still did his business outside...) when he got old.

If you live in a dangerous area I would definitely consider it though. Hell, I lived in a relatively safe one with my last cat and he got hit in the face by a truck :/. He did survive that for some reason, even though my parents didn't even took him to the vet.

[smeeprocket]

That is just terrible advice, and animal welfare organizations agree that letting your cats outside is a bad idea. Whether or not your cats did well is irrelevant to the fact that statistically, your cats will die much sooner if they are left outside.

Things that have happened to my outside cats: hit by a car, disappeared without a trace, stolen by other people, tortured, gotten sick from eating lizards, attacked by other cats (possibly spreading things like feline leukemia and rabies if you don't keep your cats vaccinated,) shot for getting into other peoples' trash, got into the engine of a car and was burned to death.

Things that have happened to my inside cats: died of liver cancer, died of complications from eye surgery due to high blood pressure, died of kidney failure.

All the indoor cats were natural deaths. I was able to monitor them closely and they lived the max possible life. The outdoor cats were always a crap shoot. My parents were religious about keeping the cats outdoors, the engine death was of a very small kitten, but cats will crawl up inside the hood of a car when it gets cold and it is a brutal way to go.

Do not let your cat outside. Besides the very many myriad of things that can and will go wrong, your cat will destroy all the small wildlife in your area. Cats are extremely destructive in that regard.