Descending into Cat Chaos
Woman in the Middle | March 24, 2017We have descended into cat chaos. The kittens, who are now almost two years old, are flexing their territorial muscles. Something must have happened while we were go on our short trip to Universal Studios that put Blackie out of sorts. When we got back, he started urinating all over the house. First it was the front bathroom, then the master bathroom, and then he settled in to using the corner of the dining room as his litter box. Yee gads, it is horrible.
We had two litter boxes in the garage, and for a year and a half they have used just the one big one in happy harmony, That happy harmony is all gone now. We added a third litter box to the garage, and that did nothing. Tuesday I spent the day following Blackie around and insisting he go in the garage boxes. He did four times. But there were still times he went in the dining room.
Finally, Tuesday night we broke down and moved one of the ignored boxes from the garage to the dining room. Blackie has been using it, praise the lord. But I now have a litter box in the dining room.
Then, Wednesday morning around five am, Blackie came in to the bedroom and I gave him his early morning snack. Iwent back to bed and he finished eating and strolled over to get up in bed with me. He must have felt a little tummy trouble at that point because he threw up…right into my slipper! Chaos, I am telling you it is cat chaos around here!
Hubby and I doubled down, me in a pet shop and him on the internet. I bought yet another litter box as well as the manager recommend product to get out the cat urine smell from my dining room. Hubby bought some plug in things that are supposed to release a cat pheremone that has a calming influence on cats. I just need to buy thirty pounds of litter to fill up all the boxes.
Meanwhile, Nox and Lumos are happily spreading their excretions among all the litter boxes. Blackie actually used the usual one in the garage today. HE acted like nothing had changed. Just strolled in and did his thing.
Meanwhile, after just a month free of random animal pee in my house, we are right back at it again. I won’t be able to have guests over if their keeps up. “Please come over and have dinner with us, two feet from a cat box, while the sent of cat pee from my carpet wafts over your meal.” Meanwhile, we are scared to death the kittens will decide that the corner of the dining room is their preferred place to go for the next fifteen years. I love my cats but I can’t take this madness.
I feel your pain. My adult daughters took two kittens each from a litter of a stray cat when we used to live in Mojave. Out there, in the mobile home park we lived in, someone moved away and left their many animals to fend for themselves. After two weeks and after repeated calls from the park manager, they came back to rescue the four dogs they left. The neighbors had been kind and fed them. The cats, however, roamed and weren’t fixed. They only took one cat out of 12. The thing is there are coyotes out there and they picked the cats one by one. Little by little, they started to disappear. This is why we had to keep the cats inside. So we had our two original cats we moved there with and then add another four…you can imagine the mess. The younger kids wouldn’t clean the litter box enough and the cats would poop outside of it. My two adult daughters moved away and couldn’t take their cats with them but wanted me to “hold on” to them, for them. They started pooping all over the living room. We had to keep them separated because some of the boys would fight with each other. That’s why some of them were in the living room. When we moved back towards the Palmdale area, we brought them with us. Eventually, they each took their cats back and we were left with the original two cats. I hope you find a solution for your cat problem. I remember having to soak things in a half and half mixture of vinegar and water for about a day to get rid of the pee smell, in case you need to get it out of something.
Thanks for the suggestion! Right now we are avoiding the dining room. ugh….
At the end of his life, I had issues with my old cat Jake. He wouldn’t go in a box that was soiled (his word, not mine!) by another cat. I had three other cats and couldn’t clean out after each deposit. I had a lot of litter boxes in different places but the other cats would “soil” them before he got there. He would go “outside the box” in the same location so I started to put towels down. Only he peed on the towels, the other cats didn’t. He seemed to understand and continued to only pee on the towels. There were no poop issues. The plug ins worked to some extent but didn’t eliminate it. Just made happier peeing cats. My vet suggested anything with Oxy in the title to eliminate urine and my favorite is Woolite Pet Stain and Oder Remover + Oxy although we had to have our oriental professionally cleaned. If there is a place in the house where you can put the box for Blackie maybe he will use it there. In the meantime you can have parties outside!
My problem is that the other cats, especially Lumos, love a freshly clean litter box. He has a 6th sense about a box being cleaned and is RIGHT THERE to use is the second I step away. Blackie seems to be OK about using a box another cat has used, just not the boxes in the garage. As a matter of fact, as of yesterday, the entire cat population has abandoned the three boxes in the garage and are using the one box in the dining room. Sigh. Yep, I think for a while it is going to be all about garden parties.
Morgan is like that too. If she sees me with a plastic bag, she follows. Sometimes I can’t finish it before she walks in. It’s like it’s a contest and there is a huge tuna prize! Garden parties are great.
Yep, a contest only cats love and understand.