Go Outside. Mark Your Territory.
A cat leaves a scent that says this place is safe, this place is home. We’re borrowing the idea, minus the fur: leave a mark that says someone kind was here.
Every cat knows the rule: if you love a place, sign it. A cheek dragged along the doorframe. A slow figure eight around your ankles. A quiet, invisible mine. To a human it looks like affection, which it is, but to a cat it’s also paperwork. The world has been officially claimed, and claimed gently.
Now imagine that instinct pointed outward. Not at your sofa. At the trailhead, the overlook, the picnic table, the person on the bench who looks like they could use a good word. This is the idea behind our newest campaign, and it fits on a sticker: Go Outside. Mark Your Territory.
The Original Territory Marker
Cats carry scent glands on their cheeks, chins, lips and heads, and rubbing their faces on furniture, walls, other cats and people is among the most common ways they leave their mark.1 The message isn’t a threat. When a cat is comfortable and at ease, that facial rub leaves a calming signal that tells the cat, and any cat who follows, that this spot is familiar and safe.2,3 When the scent fades, the cat simply returns and marks again.4
It’s a lovely idea when you strip the drama out of it. Territory, to a cat, isn’t about conquest. It’s about making a place feel like home.
Marie Love Stakes Her Claim
We needed a face for the campaign, and it had to be a face that looks at home outdoors. Enter Marie Love, in a fire-engine red cowboy hat, matching boots and a very good sense of timing. The shoot ran a long day, ten miles into the park, and saved its best for last: dusk, when the rock turns rose, the sky turns molten and the whole horizon looks like it was lit for a magazine cover.
Look at the frames and you’ll notice something: Marie doesn’t take over the landscape. She sits in it, stretches in it, leans on a tree stump in it, like she belongs there. That’s the whole campaign in one image. Belonging is what makes people take care of a place.
Three Marks Worth Leaving
A cat has a signature move. Here are three for you.
1. The Clean Mark
Pick up one piece of trash. Just one, if that’s all you’ve got. Parks agencies are blunt about why: garbage that’s badly disposed of can harm wildlife, and animals that get used to eating human food and rubbish can end up in dangerous conflicts with people.5 One park service goes further and asks visitors, if they see litter left by others, to please pick it up and carry it out.6 Consider yourself asked.
2. The Kind Mark
Say something nice to somebody. A hiker on the switchbacks, a ranger, the stranger holding the door. It’s a small gesture with surprisingly real payoff. In a University of British Columbia study of more than 200 adults, people who did one extra act of kindness a day for two weeks (sending an encouraging text, offering a seat, helping a neighbour with groceries) felt less lonely than people who took a daily self-care break, especially those who started out lonelier or more socially anxious.7
3. The Lasting Mark
Leave it better than you found it. A cat’s mark is invisible and comforting, and yours should be too: no carvings, no cairns of bottle caps, nothing that says you were here except a place that feels a little cared for. The simplest rule in the outdoors is also the oldest. If you packed it in, pack it out, and the law in Canada’s national parks backs that up.8 The manners travel, wherever your trail is.
The Cat House Mark Your Territory Pledge
- Go outside. A park, a trail, a lookout, a bench in the sun.
- Pick up one piece. Bag it and take it with you.
- Say one nice thing. To a stranger, a friend, a ranger.
- Share it. Post your good thing with #MarkYourTerritory and #GoOutside.
The Soft Part of a Loud World
Let’s be honest: the world is a lot right now, and a screen is a poor place to look for relief. The good news is that the fix is small, cheap and about ten steps from your door. Put the phone in your pocket, take a bag, say hello to somebody. Leave a place a little gentler than you found it.
The world is loud. Go outside. Be the soft part.
A Note from The Cat House Foundation
The Cat House Foundation believes big change is built from small, steady acts: one meal, one clean trail, one kind word. This season, mark your territory the kind way, and help us keep the wild places, and the animals in them, cared for.
Endnotes
- Antrozoologia, “Feromonas felinas: la clave secreta del comportamiento de tu gato” (July 22, 2024). antrozoologia.com/blog/gato-claves-comportamiento
- Clínica Veterinaria Viñas Viejas, “Feromonas felinas: qué son y cómo se utilizan.” clinicavinasviejas.es
- Amigato Clínica Veterinaria, “AmiConsejo: uso de feromonas en gatos.” amigato.es/feromonas-en-gatos
- Pets Bioforestal, “¿Por qué mi gato me toca la cara?” petsbioforestal.es/porque-gato-toca-cara
- BC Parks (Government of British Columbia), “Responsible recreation.” bcparks.ca/…/responsible-recreation
- Alberta Parks, “Minimize your impact.” albertaparks.ca/…/minimize-your-impact
- UBC News, “Lonely, socially anxious people see particular benefit from performing small acts of kindness” (September 2025). news.ubc.ca/2025/09/benefits-of-small-acts-of-kindness
- Parks Canada, “Ten rules for a responsible visit.” parks.canada.ca/voyage-travel/conseils-tips/guide
