It’s magic. I don’t know how else to describe it. I have a couple of cats, well I have more than a couple, but I have a couple who can’t help but get into mischief on a regular basis. Their favorite activity is clawing the carpet in front of closed interior doors. Any door, you know cats, if it’s closed, they want it open for no particular reason, just because. It’s too late to save the carpet but I would like to preserve the tiny bit of sanity I have left, so I decided to give this product a try.

I’m normally skeptical about products that claim to calm or control cats unless a dart gun is involved because well, they are cats. But lo and behold this plug in seems to be having some effect on the beasties. I’d say the carpet digging has abated by at least 75{9566c0a8c38d7ef68d82188668983429d8c3d2118cd02557d3ef814309ae7d10}. I’m sure you can read scientific or holistic information about why that’s so. All I care is that I don’t want to stomp my feet as much.

Now, as far as the midnight zoomies or the occasional boxing match… well, I didn’t expect miracles. And, so far they aren’t giving flashing me peace signs or listening to the Grateful Dead, but, they are cats after all.

Amazon does not offer the exact SKU I am reviewing, but the many variations of the same product are the diffuser and the refill and combinations thereof. For example: diffuser alone, diffuser with one refill, diffuser with two refills, six-pack refills, etc.

This worked like a charm. Literally. I decided to use it on a rainy day, when my feline companion really gets a knot in her proverbial knickers. I plugged it in close to where she was sitting on a chair by a window, grumbling about the rain. Half an hour or so later, I happened by that spot and she was calm as could be.

The package says the Comfort Zone system is “with veterinarian-recommended Feliway,” and indeed a veterinarian did recommend this to me.

There’s a story behind my wanting to try this product. My feline companion originally moved here because she was primarily an outdoor cat. She had been living with a neighbor, but the neighbor got another cat to keep this one company and this cat subsequently went house-hunting. She eventually settled on my house, and after some time my neighbor and I agreed that I would adopt her.

Now the rub here is she loathes snow, and acts like walking on it is the same thing as walking on acid. So during the winter, she gets a bad case of cabin fever. Taking her outside bundled in my coat and walking around does assuage her to the point of purring contentedly, but the effect wears off not long after we come back inside. She likes to do her patrol, on her schedule.

After being snowed in for several weeks, she began pulling out her hair. I would tell her “stop,” and she’d give me that “What? I’m not doing anything” look and she’d stop. But only for a while. No matter how many times I’d catch her, it wasn’t often enough to prevent the advancing hair loss.

She started to look like she was using Nair on her legs, they were that bare. Hair all over the carpet was one problem. A balding cat with a ‘tude was another. In between snows, she was fine. She’d lose the ‘tude and the hair would start growing back. But in the growing back time, the neighbors would see this cat who looked like she got poor care, and that was also a problem. It was embarrassing. She didn’t have evidence of any skin condition, and I knew why the hair was missing. However, as they say, perception is everything. People perceived I was lax in my care for this beautiful animal.

Though I knew the cause, I’m not a veterinarian. So I took her to one. He said her skin was fine, remarked at how healthy she otherwise looked (she’s lean and muscular), and said she was doing what cats often do when they are chronically agitated. He gave me a bottle with 10 anti-depressant tablets and suggested I get a Feliway system.

Well, we didn’t have another snow after that and I had started other things to help her mood. So I didn’t buy that system. Instead, I bought her a cat tube, which she absolutely loves. I also made a point of playing with her more often (something else she loves). So with the snow gone and her hair grown back in by late March, I figured we had this problem solved. Then the rains came.

So now I have this Feniway system to use when she’s agitated. Literally, I save it for a rainy day. It works so well, I use it for an hour and then unplug it. She’s set for the day. It also helps that her diet is corn-free (the corn commonly found in pet foods contains RoundUp, which is a powerful neurotoxin–read the label if you care about your cat), she has her own door to give her some sense of control, she has a collection of toys, and I rarely turn her down when she wants to play.

She’s normally a very happy cat, but snow and rain make her feel miserable. This product takes those miserable feelings away. I highly recommend it (even though I’m not a vet).

If you do try one, you might want to let it run for a few days until your cat is completely calm. Then go on some sort of “maintenance” schedule so you can reduce how much you spend on refills. The refills are reasonably priced and last quite a while, so if your cat is exposed to stressors regularly, it may be best to just leave it plugged in. If your cat tends not to stay in the same area of the house most of the time, consider getting more than one unit.

I found the results to be amazing. Just as the vet had predicted.

We have 2 cats, both male, half brothers. When we had our daughter, they went nuts. One pees on everything (though he prefers clean folded laundry) and the other is neurotic and pukes all the time. At our wits end, someone suggested we try this and after spending 50 bucks at Pet Co (23 here on Amazon, thank you) we plugged it in and with in 15 min, both cats were laying calmly next to each-other on a chair. After a few months we stopped using it because it is a bit expensive at the Pet Store (this is before our Amazon Prime days) Recently a new neighbor moved in with 2 cats and our two indoor cats again are going crazy. Felaway has calmed them down again, and now that we can get it for 10 bucks a bottle, we will be using it all the time.