I have a cat problem. In fact, I have two of them—I mean problems and cats.

We were catless for about 10 months for the first time in many decades. It was time to jump in again. We found our first cat, aged 2 years, at the local Humane Society. The second cat, aged 6 months, came from our local vet clinic.

It took a few months before their pecking order made itself apparent. Moggie, our old cat, was in charge, and Ghlarn (phonetically Flarn) was subservient. There were the occasional revolts, but these moments in history never lasted more than a few seconds, with major revolts lasting up to a minute. All quite scary for observers like myself, what with the frenetic rolling balls of fur and the screeching. Oh, the screeching.

All was tolerable and fell into the normal zone until it didn’t.

We noticed increasing predatory behaviour by Moggie The Old, with crouching, flattened ears, and hyper-alertness. Ghlarn The Young was sometimes blocked from moving freely, especially regarding access to either litter boxes or food bowls. Despite our best efforts, this went on for a long enough time that my wife and I discussed finding a home for one of the cats; either would be a great pet in the right environment.

We were desperate and couldn’t find a solution. We dropped by our local pet food store and asked for their advice. After a discussion, they recommended the air fragrance-like bottle that plugs into the wall and distributes. Simply put, it has a month’s supply of feline facial pheromone that seems to calm cats. “Helps reassure cats and control unwanted behaviours.”

Now, we were all about wanting to control unwanted behaviours. Desperate, too. We bought the plug-in and one bottle to try it out. It wasn’t cheap, but nothing is too good for our cats. (Not really. I have a limit, and thankfully, it is similar to my wife’s limits.)

We noticed steady improvement after a day. We couldn’t smell any difference, but Moggie The Old must-have. Calm, she was. Not comically calm, as you might see in a cartoon involving float-on-air calm. But all the predatory behaviour has vanished.

Ghlarn The Young still tried revolting, but the effort was feeble, never lasted more than a few seconds and was not nearly as scary to watch.

All this got me thinking about how I change my micro-environments to make them better for me. There are some obvious ones, such as sprays in the bathroom and kitchen. Especially during the pandemic, air filters were used more than usual in my home. I like to open the doors and windows during the summer to better hear the birds enjoying themselves.  I have a heated birdbath on my deck to help those hearty, wintering birds. It regularly has drinkers and bathers, which gives me a warm feeling of helping them out.

Please give this a bit of a think. How do you adjust your environment so it works better for you and brings joy to you and others?

I’m curious about your thoughts. Please share your bit of a think in the comment section below. It will come to me for approval before posting.

Photo by Timothy Kindrachuk on Unsplash

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glenn.walmsley@icloud.com