Layla Beakhouse

Layla is a Senior Compliance Advisory Analyst at Animal Friends Insurance, where she works in a regulated environment providing governance, risk management, oversight and advisory support. That professional background has built strong skills in research, analysis, interpreting information and turning it into clear guidance, which is what she brings to writing about cats.

Her practical work with feline behaviour began in 2012, when she rescued her first semi-feral cat from a barn at around six weeks old. That cat introduced her to how complicated feline behaviour becomes in animals with strong natural instincts and limited early socialisation. She has rescued and cared for cats with a wide range of behavioural, welfare and medical needs ever since, and has studied feline behaviour, psychology, anxiety and stress management, and pet bereavement support alongside it.

Her specialism is feline behaviour and welfare, particularly how a cat's natural behaviours shape the way they use the space around them and what owners can change at home to work with those instincts rather than against them. She supports owners through introducing cats into multi-cat households, preparing a home for a new baby, house moves and other significant changes, stress-related behaviour including stress-induced urinary problems, environmental enrichment, and the different forms of feline aggression, from redirected and fear-based aggression to petting-induced overstimulation.

The work she describes as most rewarding was the rescue and relocation of a feral cat from the Falkland Islands. Her husband first became aware of the cat during a deployment, over which time the cat was injured repeatedly and grew steadily more reliant on human care. Together they funded his veterinary treatment, managed the logistics of his relocation and paid for his transport to the UK. They housed him themselves at first to assess his behaviour, his welfare needs and whether he could safely live alongside domesticated cats, then found him a secure long-term home where he could live as naturally as possible. He integrated well with the other cats there. His feral background and strong predatory instincts towards smaller animals meant a specialist setting was the right welfare outcome for him, which is the point she takes from it: welfare decisions should respect an animal's natural behaviour and history rather than expecting the animal to adapt to circumstances that do not suit it.

Her own cats have included pedigree, rescue, semi-feral, elderly, disabled and medically complex animals, among them a Maine Coon, a Norwegian Forest Cat cross, former street cats, a three-legged rescue cat and cats with separation anxiety. She has trained a cat with asthma to accept an inhaler as part of his ongoing treatment, and taught an elderly deaf cat hand signals so he could still be communicated with and handled comfortably as his hearing went. She also keeps cats and rabbits safely in the same household through gradual introductions and close attention to body language, though she is clear she would not recommend that arrangement to other owners, as it takes considerable knowledge, patience and ongoing assessment of each animal.