The common human foods that should never be shared with a Domestic Shorthair are onions, garlic and chives, grapes and raisins, chocolate, caffeine in coffee, tea and energy drinks, alcohol, cooked bones, raw yeast dough and anything sweetened with xylitol. Nothing about being a mixed-breed, everyday cat makes these safer; if anything, the Domestic Shorthair's opportunism puts it in the firing line more often, raiding bins, licking plates stacked by the sink and accepting offerings from several different people in one day. The protection that works is a short list, known by everyone, and food stored as if the cat is already planning the raid, because it is.
Where these poisons sit in an ordinary kitchen
Onion and garlic are the base of most savoury cooking, so they reach a Domestic Shorthair through gravy, soup, stock, stir-fries and the baby food sometimes offered to a poorly cat, which should never be given without checking the label. Raisins wait in cereal boxes and snack bars, grapes roll off counters, and chocolate lives in coat pockets and school bags as well as the baking cupboard. Xylitol hides under names like birch sugar in sugar-free gum, sweets and some peanut butters, so a well-meant smear of the wrong jar on a lick mat is a real route to trouble.
Habits that close the routes a scavenger uses
A Domestic Shorthair exploits routines, so change the routines. Scrape plates into a lidded bin rather than leaving them on the side, store baking ingredients and snacks in cupboards that close properly, and keep handbags and lunchboxes zipped and off the floor. During cooking, shut the cat out of the kitchen if onions are frying or dough is proving within reach, and wipe spills of gravy or batter up straight away. At barbecues and parties, where this sociable cat does its best work, give it its own space with its own food and ask guests plainly not to feed it anything at all.
Not poisonous, but still not cat food
Milk is the classic false friend: many adult Domestic Shorthairs cannot digest it comfortably and pay with an upset stomach. Fatty trimmings, sausages and rich leftovers strain the digestion, cooked bones splinter, and raw meat, fish or egg can carry bacteria into the household. A regular side diet of dog food leaves nutritional gaps, and large amounts of tuna or liver unbalance an otherwise good diet. None of this needs panic if it happens once, but none of it should be a sharing habit either; the cat's own complete food plus plain, cat-safe treats covers everything it actually needs.
What to do if your cat eats something on the list
Phone a veterinarian or animal poison service as soon as you realise, rather than waiting to see how the cat looks. Say exactly what was eaten, how much you think is missing and when it happened, and follow their instructions; do not make the cat vomit or give it milk, salt water or any home remedy unless they tell you to. Vomiting, drooling, weakness, wobbling, tremors or collapse after eating any of these foods means the cat needs emergency care. Smaller Domestic Shorthairs have less margin for error, so treat a small cat's raid as seriously as a big one's symptoms.
Keeping one list for a cat with many feeders
This is the cat most likely to be fed by flatmates, children, neighbours and cat-sitters in the same week, and each new person resets the risk unless the boundaries travel with the cat. Writing the never-share foods into its feeding instructions makes the rule survive handovers. In KinsLe Care Teams, the list sits alongside the Domestic Shorthair's meals, and each feeding is logged with a timestamp, so a new sitter sees the danger foods before they see the cat's best pleading face.