Main Files

House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks
I created new packages, factions, and behaviours for the cats so that they will actively hunt (and kill) selected prey targets. The cats will hunt twice daily at dusk and dawn and stop once they've killed their prey (provided the hunt is successful - otherwise the hunt will stop after two in-game hours have passed). Rabbits have been added to the new cat prey faction (and placed in sensible locations, like vegetable gardens) so that the cats have something to target in the absence of any additional creatures. However, I strongly recommend installing the optional tweaks available on this page to enable the cats to interact with rats and pigeons. Requires Mihail's Monsters and Animals - House Cats and House Cats - My Version by Xtudo.

Notes: The cats sometimes get a little bit carried away with their hunt, and kill more prey targets than is necessary. The latest update uses a small Papyrus script to rectify this issue - rabbit, rat, and pigeon massacres should be much rarer from now on.

House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks - Sewer Rats
Adds rats to the cat prey faction. Requires Mihail's Monsters and Animals - Sewer Rats (port by PapaQuill). Strongly recommended!

House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks - Pigeons
Adds pigeons to the cat prey faction. Requires Mihail's Monsters and Animals - Pigeons. Strongly recommended!

Notes: The rats and pigeons tweaks both introduce "combat" scenarios between the cats and their prey to Skyrim's cities. Occasionally, NPCs will react to the ongoing events as if they have witnessed a murder, or the city is under siege. The plugins include conditions for observe combat dialogue to prevent this from happening, but some mods overwrite these changes. If you notice NPCs reacting strangely, it's likely you have a conflict in your load order. Please let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to resolve the issue.

House Cats - Dialogue Tweaks
I added limited dialogue to the cats and gave them generic greetings, similar in implementation to the vanilla dog. Requires Requires Mihail's Monsters and Animals - House Cats, House Cats - My Version by Xtudo, and House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks (optional - a standalone version is available).

Notes: Contains assets by Xtudo. Refer to the permissions and credits tab for more information.

House Cats - Animation Replacer
Replaces two vanilla skeever combat idles to better compliment the new cat behaviour, provided you're using either version of House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks. Optional, but recommended!

Optional Files

Sewer Rats - Cities Only
I disabled the rats in towns and villages, ensuring that they only appear in the walled cities (Whiterun, Windhelm, Riften, Solitude, and Markarth). Requires the full version of Mihail's Monsters and Animals - Sewer Rats (port by PapaQuill) - choose only one.

Sewer Rats - Cities Only - Less Rats
As above, but for the less rats version of Mihail's Monsters and Animals - Sewer Rats (port by PapaQuill) - choose only one.

Sewer Rats - Cities and Towns Only
I disabled the rats in villages, ensuring that they only appear in the hold capitals (the walled cities along with Falkreath, Morthal, Dawnstar, and Winterhold). Requires the full version of Mihail's Monsters and Animals - Sewer Rats (port by PapaQuill) - choose only one.

Notes: Disables the Riverwood rats only. While this is a minor change, it will encourage the Riverwood cat to hunt in the wilderness surrounding the village, provided you're using either version of House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks. Author's choice!

Sewer Rats - Cities and Towns Only - Less Rats
As above, but for the less rats version of Mihail's Monsters and Animals - Sewer Rats (port by PapaQuill) - choose only one.

Pigeons - Cities Only
I disabled the pigeons in towns and villages, ensuring that they only show up in the walled cities. Requires Mihail's Monsters and Animals - Pigeons. Author's choice!

Pigeons - Cities and Towns Only
I disabled the pigeons in villages, ensuring that they only show up in the hold capitals. Requires Mihail's Monsters and Animals - Pigeons.

Patches

House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks - Immersive Interactions Patch
Adds cats (including the new cats added by House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks) to the list of animals that can be interacted with in jayserpa's Immersive Interactions - Animated Actions, enabling you to pet them. Is replaced by the patch from my Ironclaw - Simple Cat Follower mod - choose only one. Requires Dynamic Activation Key.

House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks - Animals Swim (Sort Of) Patch
Distributes the waterwalking spell from Animals Swim (Sort Of) to cats, using the vanilla skeever swimming animations. Requires Spell Perk Item Distributor.

House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks - AI Overhaul Patch
Adds conditions to AI Overhaul's "flee from danger" package to exclude cats. Requires the full version of the mod - choose only one.

House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks - AI Overhaul Lite Patch
As above, but for the lite version of AI Overhaul - choose only one. Requires the .esp file.

House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks - Sewer Rats -  AI Overhaul Patch
Adds conditions to AI Overhaul's "flee from danger" package to exclude rats. Requires the full version of the mod - choose only one.

House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks - Sewer Rats - AI Overhaul Lite Patch
As above, but for the lite version of AI Overhaul - choose only one. Requires the .esp file.

House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks - Pigeons - AI Overhaul Patch
Adds conditions to AI Overhaul's "flee from danger" package to exclude pigeons. Requires the full version of the mod - choose only one.

House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks - Pigeons - AI Overhaul Lite Patch
As above, but for the lite version of AI Overhaul - choose only one. Requires the .esp file.

Notes: I don't personally use AI Overhaul, so the above patches have had limited testing. Please let me know if you encounter any issues.

Load Order

Due to the large number of dependencies, I thought it might be helpful to provide a recommended load order. I use the following for both my mod list and plugins list (with the exception of patches that must be loaded after their masters), which seems to work well:



Notes: There are some minor conflicts with jayserpa's Brawl Lines Expansion and Fixes - simply load it after my tweaks to ensure it's changes take priority.

Recommended Mods

• Users may also be interested in my other mod Iron Claw - Simple Cat Follower.
• Open Cities support is available via my Miscellaneous Open Cities Patches page.
• Names for Xtudo's Version of Mihail's Housecats gives names to the cats, and has both House Cats - Behaviour Tweaks and House Cats - Dialogue Tweaks compatible versions available.