Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

My mom rescued me from a cage in a shelter last year, and now I’ve got a wonderful home with all the food, water and snuggling places I could possibly want. She’s even taught me how to sit, stay, come, follow and get things for her. She loves me and in her eyes there’s nothing I can do wrong … well, except for one thing. I have this habit of stealing hair bands and all kinds of other things, and I put them all in my water dish. Yes, all of them. Sometimes Mom comes in to find that I have plastic wrappings from food, or even ties that secure bread bags.

Mom keeps wondering why I steal, and she’s even told everyone I’m a cat burglar! Is this true? Is that why I was in that cage? I’m starting to wonder if I was born a thief and it makes me sad. Can you help me understand why I do this? My mom is wonderful and I don’t want to make her sad. Please help!

~ Toby

This is Toby. Doesn't he look handsome?

Siouxsie: First of all, Toby, let me reassure you that you were not in that cage because you’re a bad cat! You found yourself there because you unfortunately fell in with some bad humans who didn’t realize how awesome you are.

Thomas: Fortunately, your new mom does know how awesome you are, and I’m sure she’s not angry with you for stealing things.

Dahlia: But she might be worried about you. You see, Toby, if you actually swallow one of those hair bands or twist ties, you could get very sick. You might even have to go to the vet and have an operation to get it out!

Siouxsie: We think it’s actually quite adorable to take things and put them in your dishes. In fact, I’ve even done that myself … back when I was a young and foolish kitten, that is.

Thomas: Yeah. Now Siouxsie only brings her toys and puts them in Mama’s chair. And on Mama’s bed. And on her lap …

Dahlia: Now, Thomas, you be nice. After all, you’re the one who’s always bumping Mama’s hand to try and get her to pet you while she’s trying to work.

Siouxsie: Yeah, ya big brown-nose!

Thomas: My nose isn’t brown, it’s brick red!

Dahlia: Anyway … back to the matter at hand. Toby, we don’t think it’s likely that your mom will be able to train you to stop stealing things, and that’s because in fact you’re the one training her and her daughter about the importance of putting things away when they’re finished with them!

Siouxsie: We had to train Mama the same way, but she’s much better now. The trouble is, now she’s too good at putting things away and we can’t find tasty morsels or people-food dishes to lick anymore.

Thomas: We hate to share the way Mama’s gotten us so stymied in our quest for forbidden goodies, but for the sake of keeping you safe from eating things you shouldn’t, we’re going to.

Dahlia: It’s really, really important that your people put things like hair bands, bread ties, bows and ribbons away so you can’t get to them. Little plastic storage containers work well — and since we don’t have opposable thumbs, if you close the containers correctly, we can’t open them.

Siouxsie: Plastic food bags should be put in drawers or boxes where they can’t be accessed.

Thomas: Mama calls this the Lead Them Not Into Temptation approach.

Dahlia: And trust us, we’d rather be led not into temptation than delivered from evil!

Siouxsie: Dahlia, you silly little thing! You know cats can’t be evil!

Dahlia: It was just a phrase. Sheesh!

Siouxsie: Toby, sometimes cats get into human things when they’re bored. Do your people play with you enough? You know how a good game of Chase the Mouse can just tucker you right out? Well, you should make sure your humans play with you every day using an interactive toy like Da Bird (our very super-favorite toy) or Neko Flies chaser toys (another favorite of ours).

Thomas: Check out this video of me — oh, and Siouxsie and Dahlia too —  playing with our bird toy. You’ll see how much awesome fun it is, and I promise you’ll want one of your own, too! (Please forgive Mama’s “Blair Witch ShakyCam”; she says it’s hard to hold a camera and play with kitties at the same time.)

 Dahlia: A quick word of caution: These toys should be put away out of your reach when your people aren’t playing with you. Again, you wouldn’t want to eat the toy by mistake!

Siouxsie: So don’t feel bad, Toby; you’re just being a cat. It’s your people who are going to have to learn to accommodate you on this one.

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Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

Can cats carry bed bugs, and if they can, how do you get rid of them on the cat? The place where I’m staying has bed bugs and I have three cats.

~ Jammie

Good night, sleep tight ... and don't let the bed bugs bite.

Siouxsie: Well, Jammie, bed bugs sure are a drag, and they’re the just about single biggest pain-in-the-tail pest of modern life in the U.S. But the good news is that no, your cats will not carry or spread bed bugs.

Thomas: Bed bugs generally don’t live on their hosts. They hide in cracks and crevices and come out at night to feed. Once they’ve eaten their fill, they hop off again and go about their nasty business elsewhere.

Dahlia: And given the choice, bed bugs will feed on humans before they’ll feed on cats, dogs or other animals. You humans have a lot less hair, so you’re easier to bite!

Siouxsie: If your cats are itchy, take them to the vet to make sure they don’t have other parasites like fleas.

Thomas: Because cats don’t carry bed bugs like they do fleas or ticks, you can’t keep them off your cat with flea treatments.

Dahlia: The only way to get rid of a bed bug infestation is to de-clutter, wash the heck out of all your (and your cats’) bedding and clothes, and bring in exterminators to treat your home.

Siouxsie: The ecologically safest way to get rid of bed bugs is heat treatment. Exterminators bring in special machines that raise the temperature of your house to well over 120 degrees F and keep the temperature that high for a set amount of time.

Thomas: One of Mama’s good friends got bed bugs in her apartment, and the property management company had the heat treatment done. She hasn’t seen a bed bug since then — and it’s been a few months now. (Heat treatment is not a DIY project! The Bedbugger.com forums contain a few horror stories about people who’ve destroyed their belongings and sometimes even burned their houses down by trying to heat-treat their own homes.)

Dahlia: You can read more about the various treatments for bed bugs here. They also have some advice for DIY treatments you can use to keep the nasty little things at bay.

Siouxsie: A couple of years ago, we responded to a reader who asked about how cat-safe the various bed bug treatments are. If you’re interested, you can read that column here.

Thomas: So rest assured, your cats are not a bed bug vector, and nobody should blame your cats if the bugs spread!

Dahlia: We hope you and your housemates can get your bed bug situation sorted out and that everybody is less itchy and creeped out as a result.

Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

My cat is approximately 5 years old. I adopted her from the ASPCA over a year ago. She seems to be afraid of her toys — the ones with little stuffed animals or feathers hanging from sticks — and runs away when I try to play with her. She prefers to pounce on my arm and grip it, play biting it. How can I make sure she is getting enough stimulation and exercise without sacrificing my arm?

~ Maureen

Play is super-important for happy (and well-behaved) cats.

Siouxsie: This is an odd situation, Maureen, but we think we can help. We cats do love to play, but there’s a right way and a not-so-right way to play with us.

Thomas: A lot of people think they can play with their cats like they’d play with a dog — that is, getting them all riled up and excited by waving toys at them or perhaps even putting those toys near their faces. That doesn’t work so well for cats.

Dahlia: When you play with your cat, you need to exercise her prey drive.

Siouxsie: Think about the kinds of critters we hunt: Mice and birds. Some cats are “mousers” and some cats are “birders,” and you’ll find out which one your cat is when you play with her.

Thomas: Mice move along the ground in uneven jerks, sometimes standing still. They often seek shelter or move in quiet places. If you use a toy with a stuffed animal on the end, or even just a plain old six-foot-long shoestring, use these kind of motions.

Dahlia: Birds also move around on the ground, but then they suddenly take off. When you play with a feather toy, use this kind of motion.

Siouxsie: Most importantly, don’t wave the toy right in your cat’s face or aim it at her head. That will scare her and she won’t want to play with you.

Thomas: Start out by dragging the toy along the floor, several feet away from her, using slight jerking motions to attract her attention. You’ll probably notice that her eyes will start following the motion of the toy. If you keep doing this, making the toy’s movement unpredictable, she’ll get into a crouched pose. You might see her tail starting to twitch a little bit. Then her muscles will tense … and bam! She’ll be on the toy!

Dahlia: Make the toy “struggle” for a few seconds as she wraps her paws around it and bites it, and then let it “die.”

Siouxsie: When you play like that, you’re engaging her whole prey cycle: hunt, catch, kill. You can make the experience even more awesome by giving her a small treat afterwards so she gets to eat once she’s killed. (But keep the treats very small in size and adjust her regular feedings to compensate for the extra calories so she doesn’t start gaining weight.)

Thomas: As for what you can do about your kitty stalking and “killing” your arm, think about what kind of motions you’re making when she goes after your limbs. Are you making small motions like typing on a keyboard, knitting, writing or drawing? If so, she may be attracted to the motion of your fingers, the pencil, the knitting needles or the string.

Dahlia: What that’s telling you is that her prey drive is not being sufficiently exercised. If you’re able to play properly with your cat, so that your attempts to play with interactive toys don’t frighten her, you’ll be able to burn off a lot of that extra energy and it’s very likely that the arm-attacking behavior will stop.

Siouxsie: When she does attack you, cry “ow!” in a high-pitched but not excessively loud tone, and put her on the floor. This “ow! and down” technique has been very successful, particularly with kittens. The high-pitched squeak is a tool kittens use to tell each other that the play is getting too rough.

Thomas: Jackson Galaxy, cat behaviorist extraordinaire and star of the Animal Planet show My Cat From Hell, made this short video on how to properly play with your cat. This could be helpful, too.

(In a reader? Watch the video here.)

Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:

I am fostering a mother cat who just gave birth to five kittens. As I write this, the kittens are two days old, and my little girls are dying to pet and hold them. Is this a good idea? I don’t want to see Nala, the momma cat, become resentful toward her kittens if they’ve been touched and handled. Nala’s restless, but I’ve been keeping her in a warm room with the kittens. How much longer should Nala stay in the room without going out of the room to roam around the house? She’s has been a very kind and good mommy to her five kittens. Please give me some suggestions and tips. Thanks!

~ Adrienne

This is Rosabelle, a cat who showed up pregnant and hungry on our Grammie's doorstep. Grammie took her in and fostered her and the kittens, and with the help of her local animal shelter found good homes for the babies. Along the way, Grammie fell in love with Rosabelle and adopted her! The kittens were about 10 days old when this photo was taken.

Siouxsie: Your instinct to keep your daughters from handling the newborn kittens is a good one, Adrienne. Mother cats can become quite anxious if their very young kittens are frequently handled — especially if they’re being handled by people they don’t know.

Thomas: It is okay, and actually a good idea, to socialize the kittens to people at an early age, though.

Dahlia: So we’re going to tell you how to go about socializing and petting the kittens without driving mama cat crazy or over-stressing the babies.

Siouxsie: First of all, the mother cat should always be present when the kittens are handled. Do not touch or hold them when she’s away, until they’re at least two weeks old.

Thomas: Did Nala meet your girls before she gave birth? If so, did she get comfortable with them? We ask because if Nala already had a good relationship with your daughters, their visits to the kittens are going to be less stressful for her.

Dahlia: If you do bring your girls in to pet the kittens, make sure they know it’s very important to be quiet and gentle. If they do the typical little-kid “squee and grab” thing, Nala’s going to absolutely freak out!

Siouxsie: We suggest that you bring the girls in one at a time. This will reduce the stress on mama-cat (and mama-human).

Thomas: Gentle petting is okay — stroking a kitten’s back with one finger, for example — but don’t pick the kittens up until their eyes open. Imagine how you’d feel if you were blind and suddenly something grabbed you and yanked you into the sky!

Dahlia: Whenever you’re visiting with Nala and petting her kittens, be very careful to monitor her body language for any signs of anxiety. If she demonstrates signs of tension or anxiety, it’s time to back off!

Siouxsie: This PDF is an excellent reference guide to the stages of cat body language from calm and relaxed to utterly terrified. We strongly suggest you print it and share it with your daughters. Bring it with you when you take them to visit Nala and the kittens and if she starts showing any signs of tension or anxiety, it’s time to leave.

Thomas: But we strongly recommend that even gentle, quiet handling by the children not be done more than twice a day.

Mama holds one of Rosabelle's kittens. He's about 10 days old (you can tell because his eyes are open) and Mama's supporting his body.

Dahlia: Once the kittens’ eyes are open, you can start picking the kittens up and holding them a few times a day … as long as mama-cat approves, that is!

Siouxsie: When the kittens start crawling around and exploring on their own, it’s okay for the girls to handle them more often.

Thomas: Be sure when you pick the kittens up that you support their bodies well. If you hold them by their front legs and let their back ends hang in the air, they’ll get frightened and cry. This will, of course, make Nala anxious, too.

Dahlia: Now, on to your next question — when is it okay to let Nala leave the room?

Siouxsie: Mama says that when she’s raised kittens, she’s kept the mama and babies confined to one room for about a week. After that, it’s all right to let mama-cat out of the room so she can explore and get some respite.

Thomas: To minimize Nala’s anxiety, be sure to keep her bedding and litterbox clean. Also, make sure the litterbox is on the opposite side of the room from the kittens’ nest and food supply.

Dahlia: One more thing: while she’s nursing, Nala should be allowed to eat as much as she wants. She needs as much energy as she can get so she can provide enough milk for her babies to get big and strong.

Siouxsie: Good luck, Adrienne. And thank you for being willing to foster Nala and her kittens until they’re ready to find their forever homes. *purrrrrr*