At my eighth grade graduation, the “Most Likely to” section in the program speculated that I would become a writer and a crazy cat lady. Seems some prophesies come true.

Doug and I only have seven cats at the moment, but I suppose that still sets me in that category, of which I am alright with. We love our cats so much. But having cats is like running a damn preschool. In fact, it is exactly like that. A little over a year ago, Doug and I went to the animal shelter and brought home two adorable fluffballs that were just twelve weeks old. That would have been all fine and dandy, but then a few weeks later, I was casually walking out of the grocery store (you know where this is going), and there was a fellow with a bright orange Home Depot bucket with two tiny orange kittens inside and I just hopped in the truck with the bucket while Doug was asking, “What is going on?!” I shrugged. So we have had four kittens at the same time (pure joy, maybe not for the older ones).

Having a one year old kitten, if we do the math, is seven in human years. Have you ever had three seven year old boys in one place? It’s mayhem- human or feline- with them climbing the walls, wrestling, picking on their sisters, being held down by the older brother just trying to get a break from their nonsense. We call them the Ritalin kids. They are crazy.

We have had two cats pass away since we got the four hooligans, but that is still a lot of cats and a lot of strong personalities. Much like a preschool teacher might use a diffuser to pump lavender into the air, I use cat pheromones. 

I was skeptical of these magical pheromones that plug in. I had two veterinarians recommend them over the years for our Siamese (who really hates the catbox) and for all of them when we moved states. I had a sick kitty, Taos wouldn’t go near the catbox, the Ritalin boys were torturing the girls, so I tried it. Amazing. 

The pheromones are safe for humans and kitties and have no odor. They plug into an outlet similar to an air freshener. Within a week, Taos was peeing next to the catbox on a puppy pad (we will take our victories where we can), and our semi-feral (for no good reason, she was born at the shelter, and we took her home at ten weeks old) cat comes out for lovins and is not as scared. The kittens are still crazy and will occasionally pick on the older ones, but much less and they are far calmer. And all of the cats are visibly happier.

If you are having kitty box or aggression issues at your house, try the pheromones. Anything we can do to give our rescued animals a bit more peace is worth the twenty dollars the thing costs! We use the Feliway brand available on Amazon. (Note, I am not paid to promote anything. I don’t even put ads on my blog because they annoy me. Just speaking to you from one crazy cat person to another!) Give it a try!