Multiple cats in a household can be exciting and sometimes frustrating. Common behavioral problems that may occur in many of these households are:

• Two cats are calmly walking by each other when suddenly one cat wheels around snarling and attacks the other cat.

• A cat suddenly begins to urinate outside of the litter box (i.e. on the floor or on different objects such as clothing).

In these situations, one or more of your cats are stressed out. If you have these type of problems, on the inside your cat is a boiling, raging set of emotions. Fortunately, in the last few years, products have been developed to help with these problems.

We have all had cats rub their chin and face on the side of our shoes, arms, and other objects. They are marking us with pheromones. These pheromones have a calming effect on the cat. In other words, these pheromones relieve anxiety and make the cat happy. Synthetic pheromones have been created that have the same calming effect on the cat. Initially, they were sold as Feliway Spray.  You could spray objects and areas where the cats gathered. While this helped some, the pheromones were not there constantly. They did work well on objects, such as the cat carrier to calm the cat for traveling. Recently the use of Feliway Electric Diffuser, designed much like some of the room freshners , have improved the effect. You simply plug the electic diffuser into the wall and the pheromone is dispersed into the room. The constant small quanity of pheromone in the room has no effect on humans, dogs, birds, or other animals. However, it does wonders for the cat. A house full of cats at peace is possible.

Owen Fisk