In a previous post, we discussed how to create a cat-friendly home and nurture your little furry friend in your living space. While a cat can serve as a wonderful companion, they can also be quite a practical friend to have in the household.
That’s because a furry pet, cat or dog, is often quite good at detecting issues with the household before you do. Sure, they might not be able to tell you there’s damp behind the wardrobe, or that you forgot to lock the windows, but they can certainly alter their behaviors and indicate issues that you might not have noticed otherwise.
In this post, we’ll discuss a few signs to watch out for, without any strange clairvoyant pet whispering or odd implications the title of this post might suggest:
Scratching Or Pawing At Walls & Floors
If your pet starts scratching or pawing at certain areas of your home, especially all of a sudeden, it might be more than just a playful behavior – unless you mixed your wall paint with catnip. Dogs and cats have pretty precise senses that can pick up on things we don’t notice, such as the movement of pests behind walls or under floors, or even rot. Constant attention to a specific spot could mean there’s an issue beneath its surface, like termites or rodents. In these cases, calling pest control to inspect can help check and resolve the problem if there is one.
Changes In Sleeping/Resting Spots
Pets often choose their favorite places in the home based on comfort and safety, and of course, around your habits too. If your dog or cat suddenly changes their preferred sleeping area or avoids certain spots and won’t go near them, perhaps not going near where you feed them all of a sudden, it might be worth checking why. It could be that temperature shifts due to drafts or insulation problems are affecting them, or maybe they smell the development of of dampness or mold. Pets often react to subtle changes in air quality or humidity that humans might not notice too. Check these things, you may just notice an issue you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.
Unusual Reactions & Stress
Pets are very sensitive to their surroundings, and so changes in the home environment can sometimes encourage them to behave differently and even weirdly. Now, if you’ve ruled out a health issue, check the environment. If your pet seems restless, anxious, or more vocal than usual, there might be an issue nearby affecting them. This could include strange noises from structural shifts in the household, vibrations from damaged floorboards, a renovation in a nearby house affecting them at odd times, a sound you may need a noise meter to hear, or even a new pet next door that’s tormenting them. While not every change in behavior is related to a household issue, it’s always smart to at least consider a deeper look to make sure it’s not an issue you can fix.
With this advice, we hope you can follow your pet’s lead and potentially identify a home issue you hadn’t noticed.