When I first found Ingrid, I was feeling pretty desperate. (How else do you find a cat behaviorist online?!) I had rescued an older boy cat and my younger girl cat was not having it. I was pregnant with my first child, yet my biggest daily stress and worry was these two cats. The resident smaller one would basically bully the new one and the awful guttural growling and squealing noises during fighting that would come out of both of them were alarming to me. I would follow them around playing cat referee. Who has time for that? My biggest wish was that they could be friends and affectionate to each other. This seemed like a very lofty goal at the time since one was basically attacking the other. Enter Ingrid. Her recommendations were both intuitive and not intuitive, but all were spot on. My cats really took to the litter box recommendations (intuitive!) and the scratching posts were a huge help. My cats weren’t interested in scratching posts at all before and with her “industrial” and strategically placed scratching posts, they are the first thing they do when they walk in the room! They even play on them! Ingrid helped me to reframe things and see them from my cats’ perspective.
She was able to help me reset expectations and by viewing my videos, she was able to help me understand what behavior was problematic and which wasn’t! (Vigorous play vs aggression) She was proactive in helping me learn to medicate one of the cats as well. It’s crazy that the vet sends you home with 4 meds (that taste awful) for your cat to take for the rest of their life with very little guidance on how to give them and no insight on what to do when the techniques (pill pockets for example) no longer work. Fast forward a few months… my cats are napping together, grooming each other, playing and generally entertaining each other. They take turns chasing each other around the house and are so fun to watch! They are best buddies! They follow each other around and seek each other out. They eat together and there’s no more food anxiety. With how things started out, I never imagined they could be such good friends and it truly makes me so happy and has relieved so much stress and worry from my life. My husband calls me a “helicopter cat Mom” and thankfully, there’s not much to helicopter anymore. Ingrid also gave me tips on transitioning the cats to my new infant which has gone really smoothly! I felt that Ingrid validated and addressed my cat anxieties, genuinely cared about my animals and their situation and expertly helped me navigate all of it! I’m so grateful for her help and expertise!! Thank you, Ingrid!
