Cat Behavior Consultant completing virtual visits across the USA and Canada.
Most people know about Jackson Galaxy and his book "Total Cat Mojo". There are plenty of other Cat Behavior Consultants out there. One of my fellow IAABC members, Pam Johnson-Benney, wrote a couple books. "Cat Wise" is one of her more popular ones and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about our feline companions.
Toxoplasmosis is a serious infection especially to pregnant women. This does not mean you need to give up your cat! Toxoplasmosis is found in the cat's f***s. The most important precaution is to not scoop if you are pregnant, if you live alone and cant get someone then use gloves and dispose of the gloves after one use. Indoor cats who eat commercially produced food are less likely to be infected than outdoor cats or those eating a raw diet. If you have stray cats outside, use gloves while gardening as well.
How does a consultation work?
The first pieces of information I need from my clients is all in the Client Information Form on the Contact page of my website (linked below). This gives me an idea of how to move forward.
From there I will send you one or more forms to fill out that are specifically geared towards your household's needs and set up a meeting time. I am currently doing 100% of my meetings over Zoom and therefore have a bit more flexibility in my schedule. I normally schedule the first consultation to be within a week of our first contact.
I go through all of the information I've received and create a behavior plan for your home. Meetings normally begin with me asking for more detail on specific points and a tour of the home. We go through the behavior plan and discuss actionable steps to complete it.
Our feline family has not always been perfect. We have trouble with behavioral issues. Between Cocoa bouncing off the walls, Mocha’s aggression towards humans, and Kiwi needing all of her own resources it has definitely been a process getting everyone to get along. It can sometimes be a process of trial and error and sometimes things just fall into place. Rehoming was never a consideration until we exhausted all other resources and luckily it never came to that. Even the best cat parents can sometimes need help. If you are struggling with issues in your home please let me know and we can get to work on those.
Kiwi is the very first cat my partner ever had and started his love for cats. She is a sweet calico cat that hates everyone else but him. She approached him and then rolled over on her back and showed her belly when she was in the shelter. He asked about her and she was returned from her first home for inappropriate urination. He has had a couple issues with her but it is always obvious what her real grievance is. The main ones are dirty boxes or boxes with covers on them. A clean, spacious litter box can make a world of difference.
Kiwi loves getting belly rubs from her Papa. Kiwi is a little bit skittish and does not like greeting any other human or feline visitors. She likes having her own territory with her own food bowl and litter box. Over the years she has started liking me just as much as she likes my partner especially because I pet her every time she rolls over. Kiwi enforces the rules and taps the others on the head gently to let them know she is the dominant cat. Kiwi and Mocha had quite the introductory period because they both wanted to be the dominant cat. Once we separated their resources things got a little smoother.
Mango was my partner's second cat. He is a cute orange tabby and as most orange tabbies he is very cuddly and food motivated. He definitely has a favorite human, which is my partner (totally not bitter about it). Every afternoon, when my partner comes home from work, Mango has this very loud meow and my partner sits down on the couch and then mango perches on his chest and kneads him while drooling. It is both adorable and obnoxious at the same time.
Mango's favorite thing in the entire world is wet food. He does the same loud meow and goes in between our feet when we are preparing his dinner. His second favorite thing is definitely Cocoa (introduced in my last post). We have four cats and Cocoa and Mango are the only cats that interact with each other on a daily basis. They play every morning in our walk-in closet and they also play every night while we're watching TV. Mango and Mocha get along but they don't really interact much.
Cocoa is another one of my cats. Technically everyone but Mocha is my partner's cat but we both love them all. Cocoa is one of Mocha's babies. She was born April 12, 2020 around 1am in my kitchen cabinet and was named Pandora by me. She was the runt and therefore learned very quickly that food was something to fight for. She was the first to crawl and the first to take to a bottle. Mocha had A LOT of other mouths to feed so I supplemented with formula. Cocoa always ate a full portion of formula and then went back to mom for more.
She is now bigger than Mocha and barely a year old. She has boundless energy and is an escape artist. She has gotten used to the harness and leash recently and is enjoying rolling in the grass. She's not quite ready to explore outside but is happy to stay right outside the door and bask in the sun.
She was actually separated from her mother at 8 weeks (when she was weaned) and went to another foster. Eight kittens and one cat was too much for my one bedroom apartment. She was adopted to a family that returned her for personal reasons. I had an empty nest so I was reassigned to her. Within hours my partner fell in love and I let her have a couple sleepovers with him and he adopted her after she became best friends with one of his cats. He renamed her Cocoa to go with his food theme for his cat's names.
She doesn't seem to remember that Mocha is her mom. She spent three months without her in early development so it's not too surprising. I do believe that Mocha knows that Cocoa is her daughter. Mocha's eyes got wide and bright when I brought her back home and they needed no introduction period. It's hard to get pictures of Cocoa alone since she is very friendly.
Next post I will introduce Mango, Cocoa's best friend.
I thought I'd introduce my cats. Mocha is the first cat I adopted as an adult. I fostered kittens for years and successfully found homes for all of them. Mocha came to me pregnant and ready to pop! She had eight adorable babies.
When she was accepted into the rescue she was quiet and tired from growing all those kittens but once they were out she gained some of her energy back and it was immediately clear that she was not as docile as she seemed. On the first vet visit she bit the Vet tech down to her bone when she tried to reach into the carrier for one of her kittens. She was a fierce mama cat to everyone but me.
I fell in love with her more than any of the adorable babies. Once the babies were weaned the rescue intended to move her into a barn home. I already felt like I was her chosen human so I decided to keep her. She was a great mama cat to all the fosters since then. She is strict but sweet. She has a high prey drive and needs to hunt some toys everyday so she doesn't hunt any of the other cats. She lets me pet her but politely pins my partner's hand down anytime he tries to give her some love.
I have two different Consultation packages to choose from. The one you will need depends on the type and severity of the problem your home is experiencing. You can learn more about them on the services page of my website. https://felinegoodconsulting.com/services/
I currently reside in North Carolina. These times are in EST. If you live in a different time zone please convert these times and let me know when you schedule an appointment which time zone you ar…
Mavis was a very special young lady. She came to us after being hit by a car. Her hip joint had to be completely taken out and scar tissue replaced it. She had months of physical therapy but as soon as she was able to walk on her own she was ready to go to a home and explore new spaces. I already had a rambunctious kitten around her age at home. We had a good introduction period before I realized Mavis was a lot weaker and couldn’t play like she wanted to. With continuing physical therapy and teaching the other kitty to be gentle we came to a place of relative harmony. I got a lot of help from resources that focus on special needs animals such as Kitten Lady (Hannah Shaw) and increasing Mavis’ confidence was all about “Catification”(a term coined by Jackson Galaxy) and high-quality play. Mavis worked very hard on being a confident player and as soon as she did, she was on equal footing with anyone else. She would let others know when they were too rough and would make sure they knew she would not tolerate being bullied any longer. She and her foster sister ended up adoring each other and were never apart for a second. They got adopted together by a family who had a dog that had had the same surgery as Mavis. They were familiar with monitoring for signs of discomfort and we’re a great fit for the special girl.
Once a cat gains confidence they will stop being complacent in other cats bad behavior and start moving up the food chain. Sometimes the best we can hope for is neutrality but in this case it ended in a wonderful friendship that will last them a life time.
I strive to make every cat a happy cat! That is my main goal and why I became a Cat Behavior Specialist. I have had cats from the very beginning and never stopped having them around. They were the ones who taught me to be gentle and caring and I love them for it.
Motivation is a big part of keeping a small business up and running. I am continually motivated by my clients. I am motivated by their hard work, both from the humans that hire me and the cats that come with them. Watching a household do a dramatic shift for the better and knowing I had a part in that is the best feeling.
Jackson Galaxy has coined the phrase "Cat Mojo" to describe a confident, proud, secure cat. Here is a great explanation he provided in his book "Total Cat Mojo"
"For cats, mojo is all about confidence. Mojo is proactive, rather than reactive. Cats' source of Mojo is unquestioned ownership of their territory and having an important job to do within that territory. That job is a biological imperative that cats inherited from their wildcat ancestors…"
This must be a very patient cat to allow this but I find it hilarious.
The most important tool as a Cat Behavior Consultant is cat toys. Wands, crinkle puffs, mice, tunnels, oh my! There are so many to choose from but the important thing is that your cat likes them. Every cat is different but also every cat will play. Even if it's just an elderly cat stalking the toy with their eyes it is still using their hunter instincts.
I work from home like most now so my workspace looks very casual. My favorite part of my workspace is my coworkers (my cats!)
Here's some tips for any of you who are also working from home.
https://www.time.com/5801725/work-from-home-remote-tips/%3famp=true
Many employees are being asked to work remotely to combat the spread of COVID-19
It's not cat lovers month anymore but I found this and thought I'd share!
https://www.dogisgood.com/ways-to-celebrate-national-cat-lovers-month/
Did you know that December is National Cat Lovers Month? We did and we're thrilled about that! Why? Because we know that many of our pet parents are multi-petual; that means they share their lives and their love with dogs, cats and other pets furry, finned and feathered. Whether you currently share....
Who was your first cat? Share a picture and a description below. I would love to see them!
Cheeto and Batman were the first fosters I worked with. They were born under an elderly woman’s porch and were the only ones who liked coming inside the house. They had feral tendencies but we’re deemed tame-able. The homeowner was on oxygen and the kittens would chew on her tubes! She couldn’t move around or yell at them so she would throw books at them to get them to stop. This made them scared of humans and they were becoming more feral as time went on.
When they got to me they were very scared and wouldn’t let me touch them. I observed them and learned Cheeto loves food and Batman loves to hunt. I used those to my advantage. Cheeto was hand fed for weeks and Batman got hours of play time a day. Within a week I could pick Cheeto up! Batman was willing to eat from a bowl next to me but it took about a month until I could confidently handle him. Every cat is different and there are no quick fixes. It took two months before they were completely tamed and ready for adoption. They weren’t adopted quickly since they were 6 months old at that point and came from an undesirable background. Eventually they were adopted by a young couple as their first pets. They have been there for two years now and have never had any bad behavior.
I am so proud of these sweet boys and how far they have come. I am blessed to have been able to meet them and help them on their journey to a forever home. This is a great example of using low-stress and fear-free handling. At no point in their socialization did they feel fear. If they communicated through body language that they were overly scared or stressed my training session would end and I would leave them alone.
The Perfect Scratching Post
I became a cat foster almost immediately after graduating college and getting my own apartment. It was something I was very passionate about. From my first fosters to my last, it was very clear that cats have specific needs and every cat is different. I was actually a little lost at first, I was given semi-feral kittens and had no idea how to socialize them. I did research and talked to other, more seasoned fosters for almost every foster I was given. I absolutely adored all of the cats and learned so much about cats in general. I have had fosters returned to the rescue for bad behavior that was not present in my home. I started helping new cat parents adjust to their new family members. That was the very beginning to the start of Feline Good Consulting.
Pro tip for older humans: Put your litter boxes up on something. It makes it easier to clean if you don't have to stoop down.
I have had some older clients (and most recently my mom) come to me with litter box issues. I ask them questions and it turns out they have too few boxes and don't scoop them everyday. The most common reason is that it is hard to squat or bend down to scoop the litter. Cats, even old ones, are more agile than us and are willing to jump up to their litter box. If the box is in your closet then move it on top of your dresser, if it's in the laundry room put it on the folding table, etc.
Slow feeders are not just for dogs! If you have one cat that savors their food and another that inhales it and tries to steal more from their sibling a slow feeder bowl works wonders. Cats will stop eating when they are full so not only does it take longer to eat from between the grooves but it also allows the cat's stomach to register the food.
“A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”
– Ernest Hemingway
Okay, I see cats all the time but LOOK AT THESE TWO! They love each other so much and are definitely posing for the camera!
How many cat behavior consultations are needed to fix a problem?
The answer is complicated! Some problems really only need one. These are things like territorial insecurity or excessive vocalizations that often have a easily determined "why?" Some problems need multiple. Aggression cases almost always need multiple since relationships are dynamic and things can change as the process goes on. You may think your cat's motivation is food when it's really hunting. We may think a cat is triggered by outdoor cats but it turns out it's the sprinklers. It's really up to your household's needs.
The Perfect Litter Box
There is a theory that every cat is either a bush dweller or a tree dweller but there is a third option. There are cats that like hanging out in those medium spots like on couches, tables, and chairs. They like being out in the open but not up high.
Where do your cat's like to be?
I have four cats in my home and they are all different. Kiwi likes being the highest possible. She is normally on top of the kitchen cabinets, top cat tree perch, or in the shelves in my closet. Mocha wants to be in the cat hammock, on the coffee table, and is most often found on the heating pad we have on one of our couches. Mango is in his kitchen cabinet we put a cat bed in, under his dad's desk, or in a cat cubby. Cocoa is a kitten and is wherever the action is.
Get your DIY hats on and try making some puzzle toys for your cats!
Puzzle toys are great for getting the hunter brain working and keeping your cat entertained while you are working on something else. Some cats take a while to learn how to use one and there are a couple different kinds you can buy.
You can also make some to see which kind your cat likes best! Put treats inside crunched up tin foil, cut holes into a small plastic bottle, or use an empty egg carton and place things on top of or inside with the treats. See which one your cat likes best and let me know!
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