The pheramones work for some animals and not others. As you say, there is nothing lost to try them. You might also go to an herbalist and ask what they could recommend in the way of homeopathic remedies or aromatherapy to use as an ongoing solution.

As you anticipate, kenneling is often upsetting for cats. However, if you can find a nice cattery where they really cater to making the cats feel comfortable, that might work. In Seattle we have a couple of good ones (maybe more that I don’t know about). One is Vacation Solutions Purrfect Cat Boarding and another is http://www.cat-spaw.com. The first doesn’t have a website, but you might check the second one to see the kind of accommodations provided. If you could find a cattery like this in your area, you might be pleasantly surprised at how well your cat does. It might even be worth sending her to “camp” with one of the other cats for company.

I’m sorry to hear your new rug got initiated. Have you tried white vinegar and water as a cleanup? I like it better than almost any of the commercial cleaners. It neutralizes the smell of urine, so the spot is less likely to be marked again. For commercial cleaners, my favorite is Anti-Ickypoo.

Have you had your kitty checked for a low-grade infection? Sometimes they’re just trying to tell you with marking that they need medical attention.

Last suggestion would be to try an animal communicator and see if the cat can explain why he’s behaving this way, and you can explain why it’s not ok.

Keep us posted, please. If you find a solution it could help others with a similar problem.

Best of luck—
Vicki

We have 4 indoor cats and 3 of them are very well behaved. Their ages are 12, 11, 8 and 4, all males. Sage is the youngest one and looks like he is part Maine Coon and he seems to be very territorial and acts out by urinating outside the box under certain situations. I found him 4 years ago as a kitten, about the size of my hand, on a street corner bouncing around acting playful about to jump into the road. Luckily it was an early Sunday morning and no one was around, so I scooped him up and brought him home.

We noticed that he seemed to pee a time or two when we had stray kittens wandering around the neighborhood at night outside. We would see Sage run from the sliding glass door to other windows. Not realizing what was going on at the time, we just assumed he saw some sort of animal. We didn’t put 2 and 2 together. After getting a black light and urine off, we found it was more prevalent than we expected.

We recently got new carpet due to unrelated home repairs that were completed about 3 months ago and thought maybe the issue would go away. But 2 times since then we’ve noticed an issue. One time I had a computer I brought in from the garage that was owned by people with a dog, I only put it on the carpet for like 5 minutes, took something out of it and put it back and later noticed he pee’d in that spot. When we went away this past weekend we had our regular pet sitter come to the house 2 times a day as normal. We’ve been home since Monday and noticed yesterday he was in and out of the litter box more than often, which can happen at times when he’s stressed and it usually only lasts a day or two. Then today he just pee’d all over our comforter on our bed and he also pooped near the room where my wife was getting ready in the AM. Obviously trying to make a statement.

We think the primary reason is that he smells all of the different pets smells that the pet sitter brings in and acts out as a result. She had given us the phermone air fresheners that you plug into the wall before and we will break those back out and start using them again. We’re not sure if they help fully or not, but they can’t hurt.

Our concern is two fold, my sister and brother in law will be staying with us for 5 days next month. They have a dog (not bringing it with them) and I dread thinking how he may act out with the dog smells. We’re also concerned that every time we go away this will happen. We like to travel and do not want to feel like prisoners in our own home, deciding to not go somewhere due to what might happen upon return or while we are gone. He gets very stressed and absolutely hates going to the vet, so the idea of possibly boarding him separately somewhere doesn’t appeal either. He would just be more stressed and would just act out anyway to show his displeasure.

Sorry for the lengthy post. We’re hoping you might have some other suggestions we hadn’t thought of. Thanks ahead of time for any suggestions and great blog!

-Chris

My intuition says the grumpiness is probably connected to the litter problem, but it’s hard to be sure. Since you’ve already had him checked by your vet, this sounds like a good case for an animal communicator.

My 3-year-old cat, Tuxedo, lives with me and my boyfriend in our townhouse. He has a litter pan downstairs and upstairs. For as long as I’ve had him, he pees outside the litter box about once per week – mostly on the bath mat or in the hall downstairs right outside the bathroom his litter box is in.

We are in the process of changing his litter from a scented clay to an unscented corn litter which I think he is starting to prefer – but he is still having weekly incidents.

I’ve had him checked for UTIs – all clear now but he has had them in the past.

He’s also aggressive and seems generally frustrated – sometimes attacking us while we’re petting him – so we’re giving him more playtime and less affection.

Do you have any suggestions on how I can get him to just go in the box and no where else and any idea if his frustration is tied to this?

Many thanks,
Nicole

I’m working on an article now about how to introduce cats and dogs. It should be ready within a few days, but I don’t know if you can go back to ground zero with your bf’s cat and your dogs. Your situation is complex and might require the advice of a behaviorist or help from an animal communicator.

A second possibility, and somewhat related, is that she might want her box cleaned more frequently. Cats will commonly poop outside the box if it isin’t clean enough to suit them. They can be quite particular about that issue.

If those ideas don’t help, you might try an animal communicator to find out why she’s pooping outside the box and explain to her how important it is to you.

I hope you can find a solution, because outdoor life is pretty risk for a kitten, and the shelter would probably euthanize her because they can’t easily adopt out one with diarrhea. For the benefit of others with this problem, I hope you’ll come back and tell us how things turn out.

thank you misty

My first thought is that this behavior is common in some cats that have been declawed. You might check my blog of July 9, 2009 to see if anything there rings a bell. While it’s to late to undo declawing, it might give food for thought in future decision-making.

Two other causes come to mind. One is that she might be feeling rejected after being banned from the upstairs bedrooms and the family activities there. At the same time she is picking up your frustration with her toilet behavior. Some cats act out when they’re feeling left out, so you might try giving her extra love and attention — just not right after she has peed outside the box!

The other suspicion I have is the new litter boxes. Cats generally dislike change, especially of their litter box. Many cats also dislike perfumed scents, so if the Breeze products have even a slightly different scent than she’s used to, that alone could cause her to refuse the new boxes. The pellets could also explain her resistance. They are quite different from traditional litter and take some cats quite awhile to adjust. If you transitioned them too quickly to the new boxes, this could result in peeing elsewhere.

I would reinstate one box with her previous litter and see if that resolves the problem. The Breeze system is terrific from a human perspective, but some cats never accept it. Others just need a couple of months to start using it. Put the old litter box either in the bathroom where she has been going or at least in a room separate from the Breeze box so that she doesn’t associate the box she used to like with the new one that she doesn’t like.

If kitty is only urinating on clothes in the bathroom, an interim solution while getting at the underlying problem is probably to make sure no clothes or towels are left on the floor.

If none of these suggestions help, try an animal communicator. Often animals just want to be heard, and once they’ve gotten their feelings off their chest, the problems resolve. Not always, but it can work that way. It can help too for the animals to hear why their behavior is not acceptable and what the consequences will be if they don’t change their ways. I speak from experience, as I am not only a pet sitter, but also an animal communicator. If you’d like more information on how communication with animals works, you can read more about it at http://www.AnimalsReign.net.

Best of luck with your little friend. Please let us know how it turns out.

Vicki