Linda Hall & Rita Reimers: NEW Cat Meet & Greet Gone Wrong? Here's What You're Doing WRONG! | E40

[00:00:00] Cats have various personalities. So I think it's very important that we learn their cues, you know? And if the cat is still hiding under the bed, it's not time to introduce them to the other

[00:00:10] cat. They need a little more time to get comfortable with you in their space. You know, watch for ears and tails and lip licking. You know, all those are signs of nerves.

[00:00:20] Once they've cozied up and look like they own the space, now we can work on introducing them to the cat. Welcome to the Pet Care Report podcast by PetSummits. Here's your natural cat healthcare host, Dr. Megan Barrett. Welcome back everybody to the Pet Care Report.

[00:00:44] And we have some extremely amazing guests here today. We're going to be talking about cat behavior and the topic of meeting and greeting with a new cat, bring a new cat into your household and what you may or may not be doing wrong.

[00:01:00] So we have Linda and Rita of the Cat Behavior Alliance. And I'm so excited to chat with you ladies today about this because it's such an important topic. And you two are absolute experts in this field, and we're going to learn so many great things from you today.

[00:01:16] So thank you for being on the show. Thank you for inviting us. Thank you for having us. Yes. Absolutely. So let me share a little bit about their background. So Linda and Rita were our best friends who crossed paths while

[00:01:29] working for the fitness icon, Richard Simmons. And I just think that's so cool. But since then, they founded the Cat Behavior Alliance, which is their current venture that they use to help people with their cats and the behavior issues they experience. And this was a part of their

[00:01:48] shared dream of fostering stronger bonds between cats and their owner, which I love that. And I think it's so important. And so their passion for feline behavior has become their life's work, and they have both achieved certified cat behavior specialist credentials from the Animal

[00:02:05] Behavior College. So congrats on that. And these incredible women both have multi-cat homes, and we will talk about that and how that led to a lot of their expertise. If you want to check out more information from them, they do have their own radio show,

[00:02:23] which is hosted by PetLife Radio, and their show is called 19 Cats and Counting. So their unique cat magic is rooted in their 30 years of personal experience with cats. And they have been involved with rescue, fostering, and having a cats only pet service for over 17 years. So

[00:02:42] that is all just absolutely incredible. And I once again thank you ladies for joining us on the show today. Thank you so much. We're excited. Yeah, me too. We eat, dream, sleep, everything cat. That's Lulu behind me here. I've been laughing at her because she's sitting back there

[00:03:01] like, am I in camera? Is everyone going to see me? When she came into the, she was our last entry into the sanctuary. She came right after Thanksgiving and she hated other cats when she

[00:03:12] came here. She screamed at all the other cats, but as you can see, she's fine right here kind of looking around. She gets along with most of the other cats. She has her room she likes to

[00:03:24] stay in, although she can venture out if she wants to obviously. But she actually befriended the most obnoxious cat in my household, Jet. That's the one she decided to befriend with. I don't understand it. Go figure. You never can tell what's going to happen. No accounting

[00:03:39] Yep. Cats are sometimes a bit unpredictable as you know, usually. Yeah. So in your experience, I think a lot of people will view cats as these solitary territorial animals. And do you see that it's possible for cats to become genuine friends and companions or where

[00:03:57] there always be some tension between them? I think there's always going to be Tiffs just like anybody who lives with a sibling or a husband or a wife or anybody, right? You know, stuff happens. But getting along, yes, at least peaceful coexistence. Some cats

[00:04:15] are more people cats than other cats cats. But I have a lot of little friendships among my group and we can at least reach peaceful coexistence. Definitely. And you'll see sometimes if you'll bring in a kitten, some of the adult cats might, you know, they're not quite

[00:04:31] sure what to do with a little kitten. Some might actually parent them. But I know that as Jett, who's the last kitten that entered the sanctuary as he's gotten older, some of the older cats

[00:04:42] now play with him where they avoided him the first year he was here. Annoying kitten energy. Yeah. It is interesting how there can be a different dynamic if you're introducing an adult cat versus a kitten and it all depends on their personalities.

[00:04:59] It depends on how much you work with them too, because you can't just say, open the door and go here's another cat working out amongst yourselves. That rarely, rarely works. I've had a few instances where the cats really wanted to meet each other right away

[00:05:14] and they got along right away. But that's extremely rare. Linda, what do you say? Oh, 100%. Yes. You have to, I think it's important to realize that my famous Rita quote, Rita once said something that I repeat a lot. She said, everything a cat does is about survival

[00:05:30] of themselves and their species. So if you were broke down on the highway, Dr. Megan, and some man came to your window and said, can I help you? Chances are he's a very nice man,

[00:05:39] but you want to get out and chatting with him because there was a small chance he's a mass murderer. And you know, so cats are always going to err on the side of caution for

[00:05:48] their own safety and health and assume the worst. And we have to prove to them that it's okay. We have to help them in the process. That's true. And yeah, it's nice. I think they do

[00:05:58] take on reassurance from us. Yes. I've seen that quite a bit with my own cats. Yes. Sometimes they just need some support. They feel the stress from us too. We've seen quite a few cat parents that their stress was really ruining the integration.

[00:06:12] Yeah. So we do a lot of work on that too. Well, you know, just like human parents, if you're a human parent when you're a child is sitting and fretting over something, you get this anxious. You don't even know what you're upset about, but you're upset.

[00:06:25] Yeah. Because mama's upset. Dad's upset. Somebody's upset. And they look at us for the same way. They take their cues. Oh, should I be upset? Is there danger lurking nearby? Uh-oh. Yeah, definitely. It's so important to take care of

[00:06:37] ourselves so that our pets don't take on our stress and lead to health issues, especially cats who are prone to medical issues related to stress too like the urinary problems and those types of things. Okay. So if someone is going to get a cat, let's talk about the

[00:06:56] step-by-step process you would recommend for introducing a new cat in a nice gradual way to minimize issues. Well, I think the first thing is providing that the new cat with a smaller safe space. I mean, you know, if you're wandering through the woods lost and you

[00:07:12] come upon shelter, would you rather it be a one room cabin or a three story mansion? There could be people hiding up there. Give them a small space and give them time to adjust

[00:07:21] to the normal sense and sights of your home before you say, now meet this cat. Give them a safe start. No, because they're still getting adjusted to you too. Yes. To the person. Taking their background into account really is important too. Are

[00:07:38] they a young kitten that was born inside and handled well? Is it a cat that was born inside of the shelter or sanctuary and wasn't handled well? Was he born outside and was feral

[00:07:51] and raised by a feral mom? All those things factor into how long or short it might take. That's true. Yes. We are big fans of those temporary screen doors that they sell on Amazon. Love these things. They're like 20 bucks and they stick up with two-sided sticky tape so

[00:08:11] they're renter friendly. You're not drilling holes into walls. It allows you to open the solid door and have short interactions where you build positive memories without them being able to connect and hurt each other. We set a short time limit. Food, play, anything. Like,

[00:08:29] yay, it's fun when this cat is around. You get these treats and life is wonderful. Then when you're done, you say, okay, see you later. Good job. Good job and shut the

[00:08:39] door. If a cat should jump on the screen door and try to attack, time out, shut the solid door. It teaches the cat that that's not the way to approach that other cat. That will not get them

[00:08:49] what they want. We build up on those experiences before moving them out together where there's a possibility for harm. We're also big on scent swapping. Swap the bedding between the two. Take a cloth and rub it against each cat and put the other cat's scent where the other

[00:09:05] cat's spending a lot of time. Because right now when they smell that new cat, it's instant fear. But if they get used to that smell being around all the time, what is it you say, Linda? It's like being, you've gone nose blind.

[00:09:17] You've gone nose blind. You know those commercials? You've gone nose blind. We want the cats to become nose blind to each other's scents so that it's not... LESLIE KENDRICK People don't realize how sensitive cat's sense of smell is. It's just

[00:09:31] like with dogs. They smell everything on this exponential level that they take so many of their cues from these pheromones and the scent glands that they have. The smell is a huge factor. es I smell things we don't want to smell.

[00:09:50] We talked to someone today. I don't really agree with this method, but she put vanilla on all their cats so they all smelled the same. But it's best to get them used to each other scent because out in nature and the clowder, they get a combined scent.

[00:10:04] So when they're sleeping at night, if a strange cat enters, it doesn't smell like them. The alpha cat, daddy cat, knows right away, there's somebody here that shouldn't be here. The vanilla scent doesn't really help that. LESLIE KENDRICK Yeah. That's an interesting method though.

[00:10:21] So how long do you think you would have someone keep the new cat in their own room, give or take? KATE BALLARD Do you want to talk about the hierarchy of sounds, Linda?

[00:10:30] LINDA Yeah. I think that we have to measure it by the cat. Just like humans, there are people, me. I've never met a stranger. We'll be best friends if I run into you in the supermarket. KATE BALLARD So maybe being your best friend doesn't mean anything?

[00:10:45] LINDA Just so we know, you earned the spot. But Rita, on the other hand, is more of an introvert, and she's not making buddies with everybody. Cats have various personalities. So I think it's very important that we learn their cues, you know? And if the

[00:11:03] cat is still hiding under the bed, it's not time to introduce them to the other cat. They need a little more time to get comfortable with you in their space. You know, watch for ears and

[00:11:13] tails and lip licking. You know, all those are signs of nerves. Once they've cozied up and looked like they own the space, now we can work on introducing them to the cats. And then we like them to leave that screen up until we've heard no more hissing, growling,

[00:11:27] or jumping on the screen so that we know that they're in that safer place before we take them out to somewhere where there's no partition. KATE BALLARD Yeah, we're reducing the chance

[00:11:36] of a knockdown drag out if we wait until they just look at each other through the screen like, no big deal. Just like that. KATE BALLARD Yeah, that's good. LINDA Yeah. KATE BALLARD Okay, so then the screen comes down. And now what's next?

[00:11:47] Well, we want to put them in a room that neither of them have ownership. So we don't want to go into that small room, particularly the other cat, into that small room with one door in,

[00:11:57] one door out. That just makes that cat fearful all over again. So take them into a larger room, you know, wherever you're going to want to spend a lot of time with them. Get

[00:12:05] the first cat focused on something to do, something to eat. Then bring the other cat out and get that one focused. Let them decide if they see each other, if they want to approach. And how are we ready, Linda, for the approach, the toss and all of that?

[00:12:20] LINDA Yeah. You know, again, like she said, set up enrichment. I saw on a social media video, this lady brought home a cat and her cat's laying on the cat tree. And she's like,

[00:12:28] look, here's your friend. And I'm like, don't do that. You know, there's two things with proximity that we pay attention to. One is there a lot of people that like to do this, feed them this far apart, bring them closer, closer, closer. That's got to be their decision.

[00:12:45] On the other hand, we've had people try to discourage them from getting nose to nose. If I keep you apart from me, then how are you going to get to know me? But it's got to be up

[00:12:55] to them. So it really is watching their cues and getting them engaged. And we usually say when you bring them out from the screen the first time, even though we've had an amazing time

[00:13:06] and they can be hours with the screen open, you're putting them in a new situation, which changes things a little bit. So start small again, right? Like we'll do this for five minutes

[00:13:14] and then kitty can go back to their safe space and then build up and see how they're doing. And again, take their cues from them. JAN NICHOLLS Be ready with something in case one approaches the other

[00:13:23] a little too quickly. It looks like there's going to be a fight, you know, soft ball or pair of socks, anything and toss it to the one that's doing the chasing. It'll distract him from chasing. He'll have to look because it could be another predator, could be something

[00:13:37] to eat. Gives the other cat a little chance to get away. But if we've done everything right with the screen up, there should be really no surprises in that at least. But someone is going

[00:13:48] to want to approach the other. They're going to want to get a good sniff of each other's butt and one might be ready to do that while the other's not quite there. So you still

[00:13:56] have to watch and don't just walk away, put them in the same room, walk away. Make sure you watch how the interactions go. Yeah. JAN NICHOLLS So it might take a few weeks to get a cat fully integrated into the household.

[00:14:09] JAN NICHOLLS It could. The quickest we've seen client-wise is, right, two weeks, which we can't guarantee that. But that was really quick. JAN NICHOLLS Okay. The quickest is two weeks. JAN NICHOLLS Yeah.

[00:14:18] JAN LENKA It was exciting. Yes. And again, we got to look at the cat. So Lulu behind Rita was scared of all cats. So it took her probably three months before we really thought

[00:14:29] she was ready to, you know, before we considered her basically integrated because she's got more fears than others. She was scared of me too. Yes, she was. She really scratched Rita bad. JAN NICHOLLS I forgave her. JAN LENKA Yep. JAN NICHOLLS We're both now.

[00:14:44] JAN LENKA Yes. And if they've had a fight, they're going to remember that fight. So it might take a little more convincing. If they were rescued out of a hoarder's home where they were really fighting for resources, it might take a little more time. Y'all cats carry

[00:14:59] their trauma around like baggage, just like we do. I don't care if it happened when they were two days old. It's logged in there. Trust me on this one. JAN LENKA Especially the lack of food. That one really sticks with Linda has one that was a

[00:15:15] dumpster kitty eating on the trash and she's still, I mean, she's been taught not to jump up into plates and things, but it took a minute. It took a minute. JAN NICHOLLS Yeah.

[00:15:23] Yeah. She used to steal food off plates and once my daughter took a bite of chicken and she did a drive by and stole the chicken right out of her mouth and scratched her. JAN LENKA Wow. Yeah, that food insecurity is a real thing.

[00:15:34] JAN LENKA Yes. Yes, exactly. JAN LENKA Just like with dogs. A dog get it too. JAN NICHOLLS Yeah. Oh yeah, definitely. So we've taught her not to steal food, but I have to keep cognizant of the fact that that trauma is still with her.

[00:15:46] Just because she's learned that she can't take food off my plate doesn't mean she's feeling better about food right now. So yeah. JAN LENKA Very true. Okay, well that's super helpful. So what are the top five or so biggest pitfalls or mistakes people make when they're introducing cats?

[00:16:02] JAN LENKA They don't do that cool down period. A lot of them just bring them in, plop them down and go, hey, here's your buddy. Have at it, right? Then they wonder why they're spying you.

[00:16:12] JAN LENKA Yeah, they're used to dogs more. I think dogs are just more of a typical pet that people have had. Maybe there's a lot of new cat owners these days.

[00:16:22] And so I even have people that are like, oh, I want to have a playdate with my cat and my friend's cat. And I'm like, that might not be the best idea. But yeah, introducing a new

[00:16:31] cat into the household, it's not like dogs where they're just going to buddy up and have this wagging tail interaction and go off and play together in the yard. That's not how cats work.

[00:16:45] JAN LENKA Right. It's not like that with... I actually wrote a blog about that way back. JAN LENKA Yeah. Look, think about when you go to the vet's office. You see the dogs walk in, they're

[00:16:53] approaching each other, they're sniffing the waggy tail. No, the cats aren't like that. They're all in their individual carriers growling. JAN LENKA Yes. Yes. I think the biggest one for me, please stop assigning human emotions

[00:17:09] to your cats. While there are very many similarities, I could build the sanctuary if I had a nickel for everyone who said to us, my cat is a bully, my cat is a victim,

[00:17:19] my cat is aggressive, my cat is selfish, my cat is jealous. My cat is punishing me. JAN LENKA My cat is punishing me. My cat is... No, they're not. Those don't exist. We had a client quite a while ago that really stuck with me.

[00:17:33] JAN LENKA Every month he had to go away for a couple of days for work. And every time he came back, his statement, the cat pooped on his pillow to punish him for leaving.

[00:17:44] And he was considering rehoming the cat for this. And I said, your cat has gone to the biggest scent soaker in your house that smells like you. I could actually cry talking about it. And has

[00:17:56] mixed their scent with yours to comfort themselves because they love you so much. And I wanted to say, and you want to reopen them. But I did not say that because I am a professional dog. I wanted to, you know, in those misunderstandings

[00:18:13] can make you view your cat differently, handle things differently. We have to have understanding of where living beings are coming from, whether it's a cat, a dog or a human being.

[00:18:21] JAN LENKA Yeah, a lot of those are like a cry for help too. My cat one time peed right on the pillow that my fiance was sleeping on. And he was like, oh, he's being bad.

[00:18:32] And then it turned out that then he was peeing blood and he was like, somebody help me. And it was totally a cry for help. So, you know, we can't assume that when they do bad things,

[00:18:45] bad things that it's malicious behavior. They're just trying to communicate with us in the only ways that they have sometimes is these extreme types of things. LESLIE Oh, it's true. One of the things we always ask is has the cat had a vet

[00:18:59] visit recently because, oh no, he's been doing this peeing for two years. That doesn't mean that this time it's not a UTI or something else going on. JAN LENKA Yeah, yes. And I think, you know, that peeing on humans thing,

[00:19:11] people do not understand and it's that time of year how upsetting feral cats are to your cats. And a feral will spray your house, which is a big sign to your cat that someone

[00:19:21] has claimed their space and is going to take everything they own. So they will often pee on their people while they sleep to mark them with their scent so that the cat knows you can't take

[00:19:31] my person. So of course, you're upset. Nobody wakes up and goes, oh, that's so sweet. My cat just urinated all over me. No one says that. But the cat was trying it was out of love.

[00:19:43] It's actually a compliment and no one wants it and we can fix it. But it wasn't a mean jerk. LESLIE Yeah, the cat at the farm always pees all over my car whenever I go there.

[00:19:55] And I have to wash my car before I go home. Otherwise, my cat's going to freak out when I get there with the car. Cat behavior is so fun to talk about. JAN LENKA You wanted five top things. I think what are we at? Three? LESLIE Yeah.

[00:20:09] JAN LENKA Another mistake people make is they have a 15-year-old cat and they bring home a two-month-old kitten and only one, right? And they wonder why they're not getting along. Well, it's interesting. We've noticed though, if you bring home a kitten that's

[00:20:23] young enough, like maybe eight weeks, nine weeks, a lot of time the older cat will parent the younger one. But if you bring one home, it's already like five months, six months, right? It's already past time when mom would have been kicking babies out

[00:20:35] of the nest. Usually they want nothing to do with them or their high energy or their antics. LESLIE Yeah. That's the little terrorist phase. JAN LENKA Yes, it is. LESLIE They're teething and going berserk, bouncing off the walls, keeping you up all night.

[00:20:51] JAN LENKA And your geriatric cat, who is the equivalent of a 98-year-old, does not need that or want that. LESLIE If you're going to do that, get two kittens because they work all that out on each other. JAN LENKA Yeah. Great tip.

[00:21:05] JAN LENKA I think, again, we hear a lot. My friend, mother, brother, cousin, mechanic told me to just put them together and they'll work it out. Don't do that. LESLIE That's where that works. JAN LENKA No, they won't.

[00:21:19] LESLIE Very rare. Linda actually had to do that during the Great Integration because she had no room to separate them, but you guys policed all the interactions and made sure everything went well. You didn't just say, okay, we're all together now.

[00:21:31] JAN LENKA Yeah. Here we go. Everybody out. Well, and we purposely brought over two of her four cats at a time so that they had somebody there that they knew and so that my cats were like, four cats, you know? So it was two and two. So yeah.

[00:21:46] LESLIE That makes sense. It's interesting how they end up establishing this type of hierarchy when there's a multi-cat household. JAN LENKA We see it change. LESLIE They all fill these different niches, right? JAN LENKA We see it change too. We see top cat change quite a bit.

[00:22:01] LESLIE Yeah. My cats are always being dominant over the other and then it swaps. They're actually siblings so they were born and raised together, but as they've gotten older, it's interesting to see the dynamics that fluctuate in between them.

[00:22:17] JAN LENKA Are they both male, both female, one of each? LESLIE One of each. JAN LENKA One of each. Ah! Go ahead, Linda. Talk about the alpha male or female syndrome. LINDA Yeah. And not every household has an alpha male or female. Some cats are submissive,

[00:22:34] but if you're looking at a household like mine with 11 or Rita's with 18, there's probably an alpha male and an alpha female in there. And when it comes down to a disagreement, females always trump the males, as we believe it should be in all.

[00:22:46] JAN LENKA Well, sure. It's their job to guard the kittens' house and home just like us at home. LINDA Yeah. That's true. JAN LENKA They'll put their men in their place. LESLIE Yeah. My female is smaller than the male and she doms him every time.

[00:22:59] JAN LENKA Yeah. See? It doesn't matter size. LINDA People will say that all the time. I don't know because he's a really big cat. It's like, honey, that has nothing to do with it. You heard that small but mighty kind of cliché? Yeah. JAN LENKA The Napoleon complex.

[00:23:11] LINDA I have another big one. I have actually two. I'm pouring between which one I want to talk about, but I think this one will appeal to Linda. People bring home a bangle when they

[00:23:18] have other cats. That doesn't usually work out too well. Bangles and savannas and sorbils are whole different. They're very different than our typical house cats. Linda, you want to talk? JAN LENKA Yeah. We just got an email recently from a lady. She has an F1 savanna. For those

[00:23:38] of you who do not know, this is as close to a wild serval as you can possibly get. Crazy thing, this cat's like biting her 19-month-old. Isn't that bizarre? If you want a bangle… LESLIE It's just a kitten too. It's just 15 weeks.

[00:23:53] She isn't even into the thick of it yet. JAN LENKA Yeah. She's in trouble. If you want to get a bangle, that's fine. There are people who have them and love them and they

[00:24:01] are great cats, but you have to be prepared for what you're getting yourself into. You're getting yourself into an ADHD kid that's going to need a lot of enrichment and… LESLIE I knew I was going to rile up, Linda.

[00:24:12] JAN LENKA Yeah. Great people that get a wolf hybrid as a pet. LESLIE Yes! JAN LENKA The bangles aren't even legal here in Hawaii. So it's kind of… LESLIE Really? I did not know that. JAN LENKA Yeah. I mean, a lot of exotic pets.

[00:24:26] LESLIE I know the savannas and sorbils aren't legal everywhere, but I didn't know that about bangles. Wow. JAN LENKA Yeah. What about a Maine coon? The Maine coons can be very large. Do you ever see issues with that?

[00:24:37] LESLIE Well, Maine coons are very docile. They love other animals. They love other dogs. They're very agreeable, so they have a totally different personality. I have no problem with people getting Maine coons with other types of cats, but those other ones are just too wild.

[00:24:55] JAN LENKA Again, you have to look at what they've been through. I mean, Maine coons are typically the dog of the cat world in behavior, but if your Maine coon has known lack, was out on the street, got beat up by other cats,

[00:25:10] they've got that with them and that's going to change their behavior. It's so important to know backgrounds, right? LESLIE Yeah. And it's hard when you adopt a cat from the shelter because you don't know what they've been through.

[00:25:21] JAN LENKA But you do know they were relinquished or they were on the street and they lived in a shelter situation with barking dogs, so you know they've not trauma. LESLIE Yes. Yes. Yes. And now there is no, from what I've seen so far, there's nobody we can't

[00:25:37] get there. We just need to have realistic expectations and understand that it might take a little longer. JAN LENKA Yeah, it does take work. LESLIE And it's not exclusive to certain breeds, as I watched Deadpool in the window

[00:25:50] he's a jerk. Okay? If he is not kept occupied, enriched and entertained, he will cause trouble. He has been stuck in my chimney. JAN LENKA Oh my goodness. LESLIE He is an escape artist. He doesn't want to be outside. As soon as he gets out

[00:26:10] there, he sits by the window and cries until you bring him in. He just needs a challenge. I provide things for him to do. My house is Kitty Disneyland and he's fine, but God forbid I slack off on it. He's not fine. He'll find his entertainment somewhere else.

[00:26:27] JAN LENKA Well, I guess speaking of that, what environmental adjustments or enrichment can be made so that the resources and the vibe of your home is going to reduce these squabbles between the cats? LESLIE Yeah, that's so important. I was a professional cat sitter for 17 years. I

[00:26:45] owned just her cat's pet sitting. I was one of the main sitters too. You walk into these homes and there's nothing that indicates there's a cat except a litter box and a food bowl. You need to give them things to do.

[00:26:55] Depending on the breed and the cat too, they need intellectual stimulation as well as physical stimulation. They need places to go up high, places they can observe the world. They need self-play toys they can play with while you're not home. Linda?

[00:27:08] LINDA One of my biggest things is, you know, cats in nature go out and hunt their prey and torture it, right? It's a whole thing. They're very sadistic and they torture it and they do all the stuff and then they come in our homes and we go,

[00:27:21] here's your dinner, fluffy. And they're left with this amped up prey drive, treat balls, puzzle toys, JAN LENKA Silver vine, lick mat. LINDA Yes, silver vines. You know, things for them to do and hunt and get that

[00:27:38] energy out because it's going to come out one way or another. So do you want it coming out on your other cat or the treat ball, right? JAN LENKA Yeah, like cat trees, repurposed furniture so that, you know, not everybody wants their house to look like a

[00:27:50] pet cow or a pet smart, right? One of our favorite websites is housepanther.com with Kate Benjamin who co-wrote Catification with Justin Gallacy which is an awesome book. She's got a lot of do-it-yourself projects and things that she recommends

[00:28:07] that don't cost an arm and a leg that make your house look still like your house instead of like a vet's office. LINDA Yeah, I brought a big cabinet from upstairs down

[00:28:18] and stuck it in the hallway intending it to be, which it is, the cat cabinet where all the cat food and stuff is. But it's near a window and it's up kind of high so I stuck some

[00:28:28] cat bins on it. They think it's the greatest thing ever, you know? It's not all the ways about expensive or even pet-specific products. It's just about their need to get up high and, you know, cats can live happily in a studio apartment if you provide

[00:28:42] space going vertical and places and things for them to do. JAN LENKA What about litter boxes for the multi-cat households? LINDA It should be the number of cats plus one. I'll admit I do not have 19 litter boxes.

[00:28:55] I have 14. Some of them are double. But even if you've got just one cat, you should have at least two boxes because some cats like to poop in one pee in the other. JAN LENKA Yes.

[00:29:03] LINDA Or if you're, you know, you get caught out late, you don't get home in time to, oh I'm too tired to scoop the litter, right? You need to scoop it at least once a day,

[00:29:11] twice as ideal. But cats will start pooping and peeing on the floor if it's not to their liking. JAN LENKA Yes. Yeah. And providing different types too, you know? Not every cat will go in a covered litter box. I love a covered litter box. Nobody wants

[00:29:24] to look at poop but not all of my cats will go in a covered litter box so. Yeah. I always tell people too, it's like having a house you share with other people. You don't want

[00:29:33] to have to share the bathroom. So it's nice even if they don't always use the same one for each cat, to have an option of, oh I'm not going to go in the one he just went in. JAN LENKA Yes.

[00:29:44] LINDA You know, it's important for them to have those choices. JAN LENKA Yeah. We don't want to go in the bathroom right after somebody else has stunk it up. JAN LENKA Well, and that too, if you've got a multi-level house, you should have at least

[00:29:58] one box on every floor, especially if you've got senior cats. And okay, here's another pet peeve of Linda's. Talk about those top-loading litter boxes. JAN LENKA I knew you were going to say that. I hate those things so much. I hate that. LINDA I do too.

[00:30:11] JAN LENKA I just read a social media post about it. You know, they have these boxes that they're kind of like trash cans with a lid on the top and a hole. So the cat jumps up,

[00:30:18] drops down in, does their business, jumps back up, leaving litter scatter behind. JAN LENKA What a brilliant idea for humans. Your cat, on the other hand, does not like walking in their clumps. They will be very careful when they get up to avoid

[00:30:32] their clumps. When you're dropping in from a hole from above, you don't have that option. JAN LENKA If you are, if you have arthritis, how much is it going to hurt to bolt yourself

[00:30:41] out of that box? And if you are concerned that another cat, maybe you've got a little litter box bullying going on, not a great relationship between your cats or you've got ferals outside, I'm getting down in that box where anybody who comes and sits on the lid can

[00:30:57] tramp me in here. I hate that thing. LINDA Or who's in there already hiding in the dark. JAN LENKA Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I hate those things. Major pet peeve. LINDA Yeah, two crazy cat ladies have a brilliant solution to that. We always

[00:31:08] recommend is they take a clear tote box and they make it into a huge litter box. It's clear on all sides. It's high sided for high peers and catching litter scatter. And the cats inside can see who's outside maybe lurking about so they don't feel quite

[00:31:22] as intimidated about getting in it. If you don't know the two crazy cat ladies, you should definitely check them out. JAN LENKA Yeah, they're an awesome resource too. JAN LENKA Yeah, they are. LINDA Yeah.

[00:31:32] JAN LENKA Well, speaking of resources, I can see and the audience I'm sure is aware that you guys have so much to share, so much amazing information. So where can we find you online to continue learning from you?

[00:31:46] JAN LENKA We're everywhere. So catbehavioraliance.com is our website and that's where you can go to book a session and get more information. We've got blogs, we've got all kinds of stuff there. We are also on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram,

[00:31:58] and Facebook. And we try to do some regular tips and tricks. Usually it comes out of a session that we've done and I'm like, I got to do a video about this. Listen,

[00:32:07] quit doing that. So we post a lot of good tips and tricks and things that we see are getting common on social media as well. LINDA Talk about our clubhouse. JAN LENKA Yeah, we have a clubhouse within our website that is kind of like a way of

[00:32:29] supporting us like a Patreon, that sort of thing. There's a monthly or a lifetime membership or a yearly membership. It's tax deductible because they're donated to the Cat Behavior Alliance and we've got some videos and things in there, PDFs of years

[00:32:42] and years of catstar articles and we try to do some specific videos and things that are only for our clubhouse members. So yeah, there's lots of good stuff on that site. Check it all out. Hit all the buttons. LINDA And where can we find your radio show?

[00:32:56] JAN LENKA 19 Katzen County is on PetLifeRadio.com. So if you go to PetLife Radio. LINDA Yeah, pretty much anywhere that I just asked Alexa to play this podcast and she does. She's amazing like that. But yeah, pretty much any place you can hear a podcast.

[00:33:11] JAN LENKA Apple, Spotify. And then we have a page on our website too where you can go right to the Apple Podcasts. We also put the video up on our YouTube which is YouTube.com slash Cat Behavior Alliance. So you can see the video versions. Well,

[00:33:26] a lot of time we'll post that, oh, this new audio is up. Okay. When's the video coming out? LINDA Yeah, they want to see it. Yeah. JAN LENKA Okay, very cool. So we're about out of time. Do you have one last tip,

[00:33:37] your number one tip for our listeners to go away with so they can implement if they're going to be introducing a new cat soon? LINDA Take it slow. Understand what your cat is feeling. Take it slow and let them be your

[00:33:50] guide. It's, you know, it really is. It's not about you. It's about them. JAN LENKA Try to look at things through their eyes. You know, what have they seen? What are they feeling? If you try to empathize and think about things from their perspective,

[00:34:03] I think you'll have a lot more understanding of what they're going through and how to get them through it. LINDA Yes. Yeah, 100%. JAN LENKA Okay. Well, I thank you guys so much for your time. I just really encourage

[00:34:12] our listeners to go and check out all of your websites and social media. We had so much to learn from you and we've enjoyed, I've enjoyed speaking with you so much today and can't wait to check out all of your content and learn more.

[00:34:25] LINDA Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure being on your show. We're very honored. JAN LENKA Yes. LINDA Okay. Don't forget to like, follow and subscribe to the Pet Care Report

[00:34:33] and this will help us reach more pet owners. So thank you ladies for your time and have a great rest of your day. JAN LENKA Thank you. You too. Bye.