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Old March 12th, 2010, 12:16 PM
coasty coasty is offline
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2Yr. old spayed cat with an attitude

We have a tiny 2 yr old kitty. She has been a delight up till this last few months. We had a lot of stress and grief in our home over the loss of a close family friend. Following that we had a new couch in our front room. Now the cat has reverted to peeing on the new furniture and in the bathroom, on any towel or piece of clothing she finds left there. Weird thing is, she has always been an outdoor cat. We live in a mild climate, she has a cat door and she has never shown this behavior before. My dh is ready to get rid of the cat but she is my dd special love and I want to try anything. I have the orange oxyclean pet smell neutralizer and it seems to work ok, but my gut is telling me that since this all started when the trauma started, there must be something mental going on. I have had her checked and seems to be no UTI.
The other weird thing with her is she will ONLY eat dry cat food. She will leave human food or canned cat food till it shrivels up (were I to leave it that long)
so she is a bit constipated most of the time...
frustrated...and looking for suggestions!
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Old March 12th, 2010, 12:31 PM
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Love4himies Love4himies is offline
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So sorry. When you took her to the vet was both blood work and urinalysis done?

Have you tried changing her litter box or litter? Is it at a specific time of day that she does this? Does she use the litter box at all?

I would really try to get her off kibble, it really isn't doing her any good. Here is a good website to read:

http://catinfo.org/
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Old March 12th, 2010, 02:31 PM
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MyBirdIsEvil MyBirdIsEvil is offline
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She may be marking. Even fixed females will do that. I have a fixed calico that will sometimes back up against the wall and mark like a male would.

A new couch wouldn't have her scent on it and she may feel she has to mark it.

As far as peeing on towels or stuff on the floor, there is an easy solution - DON'T leave that stuff on the floor! I've found that with dirty laundry MOST cats actually seem to be prone to peeing on that kind of thing. It's like the musty scent of dirty laundry or wet towels elicits them to pee . So I never leave that stuff where it can be peed on anymore.

With stuff like furniture, try putting her scent on it. You can actually rub her on it, and you can try rubbing her bedding on it (assuming it hasn't been peed on too). This works with some cats because once their scent is on the item they don't feel the need to mark it.

With her litterbox, try using several boxes with different types of litter and see which one she uses more often. Some cats are really picky with litter, and if she was an outdoor cat you just may not have noticed she had a problem with it before since she was going outside most of the time. Also scoop the litterbox and keep it very clean.
If you use an open litterbox try a covered one, and if you use a covered one try an open one. Some cats are actually odd about this. I have both covered and uncovered and my cats definitely prefer either one or the other.
Make sure to have at least 2 litterboxes, yes even with one cat. Some cats prefer to pee in one and poop in the other, oddly enough, so if they only have one and they poop in it they may pee elseware.
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Old March 12th, 2010, 02:34 PM
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MyBirdIsEvil MyBirdIsEvil is offline
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I actually hadn't noticed the pooping in one and peeing in another thing until recently when someone I know mentioned their cats do this. I've never had only one litterbox before and never really paid attention, but once I heard this I started paying attention and they definitely do seem to use specific litterboxes for each one. Some of the litterboxes are almost nothing but pee and the others are almost nothing but poop. Go figure.
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Old March 12th, 2010, 02:40 PM
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Does she have a litter box in the house? It is possible being an outdoor cat something has happened to scare her when she is outside. Have you thought about trying to make her an indoor only with the boxes set up as MBIE suggested?
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Old March 12th, 2010, 06:32 PM
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You've received some good suggestions. I was just wondering if your little girl was yelled at by you or your dh when the pee was discovered. If this had happened, particularly if you had mentioned her name at the same time, this might have caused her stress. Don't use cat's name when you're reprimanding. When you have to reprimand a cat, always do it at the time it is doing the bad behaviour with a stern "No! bad!". It doesn't do any good to reprimand or yell after you've discovered the dirty deed as the cat won't connect your words with the deed. Now I don't know whether you or your dh yelled or not, but it is a natural reaction, that's why I'm wondering about it. Cats can certainly hold grudges. This marking and peeing on clothes may be her way of getting back at you for something. Try be extra loving to her when she is showing good behaviour, and see if that makes a difference.
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Old March 14th, 2010, 12:09 AM
coasty coasty is offline
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lol, catlover. I am sure if dh found kitty in the act, he would have yelled, but little Lily is always one step ahead. I am not sure which one is harder to train I am certain she is getting back at him for something, and it is always the morning shower towel that she pees on- kind of funny if it wasn't so frustrating. The couch, I am sure now was exactly as you all suggested- a threat! She hasn't marked there again but I am having a hard time getting rid of the smell..any suggestions?
As for the towels, we continue to keep picking up all laundry. The rule is nothing gets left on the floor, or in a basket she can reach.
We are trying an intensive therapy of love and affection So much sadness and grief in our family lately and unfortunately kitty was the one who got left out of the little energy we had. Spring is coming and she loves to be outside so we will keep up with the praises and hope for the best. Thanks for all the advice
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Old March 14th, 2010, 01:21 AM
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MyBirdIsEvil MyBirdIsEvil is offline
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If she peed on the cushions you can wash the covers in the washing machine and spray the cushions down with something like urine gone (it really does work). I actually use something called Pawls which is a cheap alternative from the dollar store. It does discolor stuff though so don't use it on visible fabrics. I haven't had trouble with the Urine Gone discoloring stuff but it's really expensive. There's another pet enzyme cleaner from Walmart I've tried but I can't remember the name. It comes in a white bottle with a tip kind of like a dishwashing liquid bottle.
I also use Oddball pet spray afterward to spray stuff down. It's REALLY strongly scented and you don't need much so it's pretty economical. Some people don't like the smell of it though.

Also on non visible places (like the cushions, but not the covers) you can spray with a bleach solution.
I've actually put my cushions in the bathtub before and washed with laundry detergent but I don't suggest that since they take FOREVER to dry.

As of right now I have garbage bags over the cushions on my couch under the covers so if one of the animals has an accident it won't soak through and i can just wash the covers in my machine.

For upholstery that is marked do not clean with water (you need to look at the tag, it will have a letter that is the cleaning designation that tells you what you can use) you will need to get a cleaner that isn't water based and use that first, then use the enzyme based pet urine remover and test it in a non-visible spot to see if it discolors or not.
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