We sell home fragrance. We also know that a good many of you have a cat asleep on the sofa while you read this.
So here is the honest version, including the parts that do not help us sell anything.
The problem is the oil, not the smell
Most people assume the risk is that a cat finds a scent unpleasant. It is not. Cats have far better noses than we do, and a room that smells faintly of fig to you is considerably louder to them — but strong smell alone is a nuisance, not a danger.
The danger is the oil itself, and there are three ways it reaches them. They breathe it. It settles on their coat and they groom it off. Or they knock something over and lick it up.
Cats are worse at dealing with it than we are, and this is the bit that surprises people: their livers lack much of the enzyme that breaks these compounds down. A dose a dog would shrug off can build up in a cat.
The oils to know about
The PDSA name tea tree, peppermint, citrus, ylang ylang, lavender, wintergreen, sweet birch, pine, eucalyptus, cinnamon and clove as the ones to be careful with around cats.
Lavender and citrus are on that list. We sell both. We would rather tell you that here than have you find it out somewhere else.
Which format, and where to put it
The form matters more than the fragrance. Ranked from the one we would be most careful with to the one we would reach for first.
Reed diffusers — the one to think hardest about
A bottle of concentrated oil, standing on a table, at exactly the height a cat walks past. It can go over. The liquid gets on paws and paws get washed.
We are not telling you not to own one. We are telling you to put it somewhere a cat genuinely cannot reach — not "somewhere they don't usually go" — and to clean a spill properly rather than wiping it about.
Electric and plug-in diffusers
These put fine droplets into the air continuously, which is the whole point of them and also the issue. The cat breathes it for hours and it settles on their fur. If you use one, use it in a room the cat can leave, and not in the room they sleep in.
Candles
The wax is not the worry. The flame is, and specifically a tail going past it at exactly the wrong moment. Never unattended, never at tail height, and never on the surface a cat uses as a route.
Wax melts in a burner — what we would choose
A burner sits high, on a shelf or a mantelpiece. The melt is solid until it is warm, there is no bottle to tip, and it stops when the tea light does. You decide when the room is scented and when it is not.
That control is the whole argument. It is why, in a house with a cat, this is the format we would pick.
Room mists
Fine, with a bit of care. Spray the soft furnishings rather than the air, do it with the cat out of the room, open a window, and let it dry before they come back. Never on their bed, never on a blanket they sleep under, never on the animal.
Four rules that cover most of it
- A cat must always be able to leave. Never scent a room they cannot get out of.
- Anything liquid goes up high, out of genuine reach.
- Nothing goes on the animal or their bedding. Ever.
- Wash your hands after handling oils, before you stroke them.
If something goes wrong
The signs to watch for are dribbling, being sick, wobbliness or unsteadiness, seeming flat, laboured breathing, or a tremor. Ring your vet the same day, even if it seems mild, and tell them what the cat was exposed to.
Do not wait to see whether it passes.
Dogs, and birds
Dogs handle these compounds better than cats, but a dog's nose is far more sensitive than ours and a strong diffuser in a small room is genuinely unpleasant for them. The same rule applies: a room they can leave.
Birds are the exception to everything above. Their respiratory systems are extraordinarily sensitive to anything airborne. If you keep birds, we would not scent that room at all.
What we will not tell you
We do not sell a pet-safe range, and we are not going to put a paw print on a box and imply otherwise. Nobody can promise you that a scented product is safe for an animal that licks its own fur for a living.
What we can do is tell you which format gives you the most control, and where to put it. That is this page.
If you want proper advice for your own cat — an older one, one with asthma, one that chews things it should not — that is a conversation for your vet, not for a shop.
What we actually do
A burner on the high shelf in the front room, lit when we sit down and out when we go up. Wax melts rather than anything with a bottle in it, because there is nothing to knock over.
A window open a little while it burns.
And the cat, who has heard all of this before, asleep on the chair nearest the radiator, entirely unbothered.