Class Act Cats

Class Act Cats is a cat behavior consulting and training service based in Minneapolis, MN. Virtual consultations available wherever you are located!
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Class Act Cats is a feline behavior consultation and training service run by IAABC certified cat behavior consultant Joey Lusvardi based out of Minneapolis, MN. I take a whole cat and person approach to addressing and preventing behavior concerns in cats. My approach is science based and takes into account the wellbeing of your cat and you. I can help with problems such as fight cats, litter box u

sage, aggression, and more. Interested in learning more? Check out my website for more information on services, prices, and blog with free cat behavior resources.

12/01/2024

Thank you to everyone who attended my talk today at Pounce! (And thank you to Jen for getting this screenshot) It was so much fun and to talk cats and environmental enrichment (but… secretly human behavior 😬) A special shout out to the other presenters for their fabulous talks and to everyone at IAABC Foundation for all their hard work.

This was especially meaningful to me because the first few Pounces were something Zoloft and I attended together when I first got started working with cats. You can see him watching a presentation VERY intently from our first Pounce. I’d like to think he would have been proud of me for helping other cats and how far I’ve come… assuming he wasn’t annoyed that I stopped petting him for any length of time. Thank you for leading me here, bug. 💚

11/30/2024

It’s Small Business Saturday! There are a lot of lists going around of things you can do to support small businesses. I wanted to share a few free things you can do to support small businesses, but not things that are typically seen on other lists. Think of this as the advanced version of supporting small businesses.

🐈 Go beyond just liking social media posts: share and interact intentionally. Sharing helps get more eyes on their business. So do other things like watching their videos all the way through, favoriting content, and rewatching videos. It’s a factor in some algorithms that helps determine how frequently their posts show up. If you have the time, it helps!

😺 Follow them across social media platforms. (Hey, did you know Class Act Cats is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn? Give us a follow all over!) It helps others find them!

🐈‍⬛ Do you have a website? Link to theirs (in a natural way). It can help them show up higher on search engines.

😻 Recommend them to friends, family, Tinder dates, and anyone who will listen. Personal recommendations matter a lot!

😸 Be respectful! This means a lot, but “don’t be an 🫏 🕳️” is a great general rule of thumb. Yelling at the business owner? Not helpful. Running a business is hard and many of us have other jobs *gently pets PA license* in addition to our businesses. Being kind costs nothing!

🥐 Bonus suggestion: carbs. Carbs help, though they cost money.

There are ways to support the small businesses in your community even if they don’t offer a service or product you need. Every little action adds up!

11/29/2024

With Thanksgiving over, many people are putting up their Christmas tree. Is it possible to have a cat and a Christmas tree? Yes! Is it possible to keep your cat out of the Christmas tree without causing them stress or fear? Also yes!

The easiest thing to do is block off under the tree so your cat can’t get to it. There are some neat circular cat tunnels that can be put up around the tree to give your cat a place to play AND protect the tree.

This is also a great time to remind you that having cat furniture and giving a cat a place to climb is part of having a cat. If you don’t have any cat trees or other places for your cat to climb, they will climb your Christmas tree.

There are more strategies you can try, but I can’t include them all here due to space. I have a full guide on my blog so head here if you want to learn more: https://classactcats.com/blog/christmas-trees

11/28/2024

Happy Thanksgiving from Poutine, Prozac, and I! We hope you and your cats have a relaxing day. Well… P&P hope they get a bit of turkey, but I’m sure they also hope you have a great day too.

11/27/2024

Have you introduced (or attempted to introduce) new cats into your home when you already had resident cat(s)? I want to hear from you!

I’m trying to gather some data on which parts of the process people find most challenging. The goal is to not only improve what I do with clients but share it with others so they can improve, too.

I’ll be sharing the data as an aggregate eventually but everything is totally anonymous. I won’t know if you completed it or what your answers are.

The survey is 7 questions (one of which you may not need to answer). You have to enter two numbers and click boxes so it should take two minutes to complete. If you have a second, please complete the survey and share with anyone you know who has introduced cats!

You can complete the survey here: https://forms.gle/LRRqA5veXuxirQBJ6

Thank you for your help!

11/25/2024

Thanksgiving is this week. Having guests over? Here are a few tips to keep your cat happy.

🦃 Give your cat a safe space to retreat if needed. Never force your cat out of hiding or to interact with someone when they don’t want to.
🍂 Keep your cat busy while cooking. A food puzzle or enrichment activity is a great tool to keep them occupied.
🌽 Set your cat up for success: Don’t leave tempting food items out and uncovered or allow them unsupervised access to areas where they could injure themselves. You are ultimately responsible for the environment you create. Your cat is just going to be a cat.
🥧 Loud noises can be scary. Play music composed for cats or classical for your cat to drown out some of the noise. (Poutine says to skip Lana Del Rey, but that might be specific to him)
🎃 Going out of town? You need a cat sitter. Have someone check in on your cat at least once a day to feed them, make sure they have plenty of water, make sure the litter box is scooped, play with them, and make sure they are safe.

There’s still a few days to prepare if needed. Your cat will be -thankful- for all your efforts to take their well-being into account this holiday!

11/24/2024

I’m taking some time off and am speaking at/helping with/attending Pounce! this weekend so I have limited availability and will not be checking email for part of this weekend.

I’ll get back to people when I am able, but please allow me a few days to reply back. If you need to reschedule or move an appointment, check the confirmation email as there’s a big button to do so in there. Your appointment is not moved until it’s moved officially in my scheduling system.

If you have questions about working with me, please read over my website as I try to be as transparent as possible and make sure people know what they’re signing up for. The information is likely there! You’ll get a response faster than waiting for an email.

If your email follow up period ends during my break, I’ll get back to you when I return as long as you emailed me prior to it ending.

11/21/2024

Starting December 1st, I’m not taking any new cat introduction/reintroduction/fighting cat clients until January. With the holidays coming up, I’m a bit busier than I normally am and will be taking some time off at the end of the month so I want to focus on my established clients. Because these cases are so complicated, I’m very close to capacity.

I will make exceptions for direct referrals from a veterinarian, a rescue, or another behavior consultant.

Established clients, this does not affect you.

I am still accepting clients for other reasons. Bring on the human directed aggression! Or… maybe actually don’t literally bring that on.

Questions? Happy to answer them! Otherwise, general info is on my website.

11/19/2024

Pounce! is where all the cool cats will be.

11/18/2024

Hey, I know the cat from that leaf. 💚

(Mission is great and I send a lot of people to them. I’d write something more extensive but for some reason my eyes are now leaking)

11/18/2024

We had some lovely, lovely clients today, but we are ready for a nap. 😴

11/14/2024

With various holidays coming up, I decided it was high time two felines started earning their keep around here. They both reminded me they legally can’t hold jobs because… cats. Obviously I had to put them to work somehow so I made them put together a holiday gift guide for your cat so I didn’t have to do it myself.

They came up with a few fun ideas as you’re thinking of your kitty this holiday season. There’s cheese themed things, non-cheese things, magic snack machines, floating cat beds, the perfect rave accessory if your cat attends raves, and plenty of toys.

(Poutine also suggests the gift of never playing Lana Del Rey around your cat, but I have a feeling that’s a specific to him aversion.)

Head to my blog to see what they suggest. While you’re there, I also added a few guides to picking out other cat things over the last few weeks so if you’re wondering what your cat will love and what will result in a swift return, I gotchu.

11/10/2024

Did you know we’re on… well, we’re on a lot of social media platforms. Yes, even LinkedIn. If you don’t already follow Class Act Cats, I’m not very creative with user names 🤷🏻‍♂️ so we’re easy to find.

If you’re on Pinterest, I’m posting new blogs on there as they go up. I’m also pinning a lot of cat craft projects. I have no idea if they show up anywhere else because I don’t know how it works, but you might find a fun knitting project to work on. Or learn that I posted a new blog today. Whichever.

TikTok… I’m yelling. Yelling about cats. Yelling about not listening to influencers who don’t know what they’re talking about. There are also cute videos of Poutine and Prozac in between the rage. I even made a dancing video (without any yelling) that hasn’t been posted yet.

YouTube is a work in progress but I’m working on compiling a list of good behavior videos for clients. There might be clicker training videos in the works too. 👀

LinkedIn… 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

Go follow anywhere you’re not already following because I try to post different things in different places. And you never know when there will be a cringe video of me dancing and telling you to scoop your litter box.

11/06/2024

Breaking news you’re hearing here first: In a shocking twist sure to send the electorate into chaos, the all cat ticket of Poutine and Prozac has been declared the victors in the key battleground states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

Neither the Harris nor Trump campaign could be reached for comment, but an anonymous source reported tells us the Biden administration is already installing cat shelves in the Oval Office.

The possible victory of Poutine/Prozac would represent the nation’s first feline president and vice president. Poutine responded to the news with a purr and demanding a presidential Churu.

11/05/2024

It’s Election Day in the US so I hope each and every one of you who is eligible to vote did so. If you didn’t, know that you’ve made Poutine very sad. Poutine loves voting, but sadly is unable to because he doesn’t have opposable thumbs to fill in a ballot. Do you want Poutine to be sad? No? Get to your polling location then!

Reminder that in Minnesota you can register to vote day of the election. If you are in line when polls close, they have to let you vote so stay in line.

11/04/2024

Prozac is very interested in this “White House” thing everyone has been talking about. He’s hoping everyone is planning to vote tomorrow.

If you don’t, he says he’ll just move into the White House instead. Don’t get me wrong, he’s very smart but I just don’t think he’d make great foreign policy decisions. Go vote if you haven’t already to prevent that from happening 🤷🏻‍♂️

(And yes, that is a cat White House. It’s a nightmare to assemble but if you’re up for a challenge… 😹 I got it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4f8TYHD)

Address

Minneapolis, MN

Telephone

+17633085069

Website

https://classactcats.com/

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