I know there are about a million threads on this subject but I think I've tried everything.
I'm at a loss and I don't know what to do. I have four cats of my own and about a year ago my best friend moved in with her three cats and dog (she lost her job and house). Up until this point, my cats were fine but we expected there would be some... fluctuation in behavior what with the new family additions. Certainly, there were. My tinyest sweetest little girl turned into a bully of my friend's cats (one of them still has her claws so I feel like she can defend herself but her other two boys are declawed and I worry about them). We deal with that though. The cats have found their happy places and they only overlap when we're around so it's not much of a problem (and there haven't been any horrible things, just minor scuffles here and there).
The bigger problem is two of my older cats (by older, I mean 11 years). These two cats were, I believe, weened too early and litter-training them when I got them as kittens was painful.
Frankly, I'd never had to litter train a cat before - I thought they just did it!
Well, I learned different and eventually got them MOSTLY litter trained. I say mostly because the boy really hates the stuff. He'll jump in pee where he lands and jump straight out! He often poos right next to the box. I tried about a million different brands (including those paper pellet things -
!) and finally got them into something we could all live with (some litter boxes have Swheat Scoop and some have whassisname's Cat Attract).
The problem is that the new animals have wreaked havoc on these two. Over the past year, I've tried everything but they are destroying the house. One of them has started peeing down the vents! I'm at the end of my rope.
I've tried everything I know to try - admittedly, we don't have eight litter boxes (I have four cats, she has three) but we do have dedicated ones - litter boxes which are in locations where some cats are allowed and others aren't. I've tried various different types of litters and I've got Feliway plugged in to every outlet in the house. I've also taken both of the "sinners" to the vet and they can't find anything physical to explain it. It's got to be behavioral.
I just don't know what to do! We have four HUGE litter boxes (we actually bought big plastic storage boxes from Walmart - each one holds four boxes of litter). I can't realistically add more boxes - there's just no room. My house is beginning to smell because anything left in a pile gets peed on, plastic bags get peed on, papers get peed on, corners of carpets get peed on, and, now, vents are getting peed in.
I've actually taped plastic over the vents in my room because that's where she's at her worst - my room is reserved for my cats; my friend's cats are not allowed in there.
I've even tried quarantining the two problem children but that hasn't helped at all either. I feel like I've tried everything realistic so I don't know if you guys have any ideas and I've read through every thread I can find but I can use some "out of the box"
ideas here please! In fact, I don't know if there's anything I can do about the peeing but I could even use suggestions on the best ways to clean it up and FIND it! OMG, last weekend I found a piece of the carpet in an out of the way corner that may be ruined - I didn't even know they were going there!
