Litter Box Woes, and other cat poo adventures
Libby, my little darling
I was hoping this problem had resolved itself while I was in Savannah, but it didn’t. A few weeks ago Libby started peeing on the carpet instead of in the litter boxes. At first I thought it was Mickey doing the dirty deed, because he’s the one who’s always running around the house acting crazy like a male cat does. (Yes, he’s neutered but he’s still a handful). But I was wrong. One day I walked into the litter box room (actually our furnace room on the main floor) as Libby was coming out, and found a fresh pee spot on the carpet. As further alibi for Mickey, he was upstairs at the time. As evidenced by this photo:
Who, me? I'm just chillin' here....
So once I knew who was doing it, I tried to figure out why she was doing it. She’s almost 15 years old and starting to show her age, so I thought it might be caused by that. But since she was still going in the box to do her “other” business (if you know what I mean), I was puzzled. I made sure to keep the boxes as clean as possible (fun!), and watched her continue to do this multiple times a week for the next couple of weeks. The litter box room has indoor/outdoor carpet on top of concrete, so I’ve been using Woolite Oxy Carpet Stain Remover to clean up after her “accidents”, with great results. But too much is too much, and it’s starting to be a problem. (Yes, I’ve measured the room in preparation for putting down linoleum soon…).
So I took her to the vet yesterday and had her blood and urine tested. Both tests came out completely normal. The vet, who is a cat specialist, says that he thinks she has just developed a sudden aversion to the boxes for some unknown reason. Most likely she’s decided that if there’s anything already in the box from a previous visit, she’s not getting in. So she just chooses a dry spot on the carpet and lets loose. I’m counting my blessings that she’s only doing this in that room — I think if she was doing it all around the house I’d lose my mind.
So Dr. Wonderful Vet (not sarcasm — I really love him!) suggested that I add another litter box in the same room and see if she’s happy with that arrangement. So yesterday after I brought her home I went right back out to Petsmart and bought not one but TWO new litter boxes and fresh litter. So now we have 4 litter boxes for 2 cats, which means that they can each have one box for pee and one box for poo. What more can you ask, right? I took Libby in and showed her the new boxes, but she showed absolutely no interest and turned around and walked out. At 7 am this morning I went in there to see if it worked. Well, somebody had peed in the new box, but somebody had also peed on the carpet again. (I sure wish I had a camera in there so I could tell which cat was doing what! Hey, I could upload my “Cats Gone Wild” litter box videos to YouTube — wonder if anyone would watch that 50,000 times?! LOL)
So I scooped everything and waited. Later in the morning I found another pee spot on the carpet. The vet says it may take her a few days to accept the new boxes, so we’re not giving up yet. But I think I’d better go shopping for linoleum pretty soon….
Remember the good old days when people let their cats go outside to do their business? Sigh.
Yesterday was a day of more cat poo adventures too. (If you stop reading now, believe me, I’ll understand.) Since Eric is home on vacation this week, he’s trying to take care of some chores on his honey-do list. So he had scheduled tree trimming guys, and they just happened to decide to come over yesterday. Knowing that I had to get Libby in her carrier to go to the vet at 3:00, I was stressed all day worrying about how I would be able to grab her when she was hiding under the king size bed because of all the chain saw noise outside. (That was eventually accomplished by taking the mattresses off the bed and with much hissing and running around.) But Mickey had his own little accident too, and it was my fault. You see, he had gone upstairs to hide when the chain saws started, but he kept coming partway down the stairs acting like he wanted to get into the bedroom with Libby. So I took him in there and closed the door so they’d both feel more secure. Well, big mistake on my part. About a half hour later, as I came out of my office to go downstairs for something, I smelled something VERY foul. After checking to see if the husband had just come out of the bathroom (ha!), I went looking for the source of the odor. Of course you know what’s coming here — my nose led me to the bedroom, where I found a fresh puddle of “chocolate pudding” on the bedroom carpet. Apparently Mickey’s stress gave him diarrhea, and he was probably trying to go to the litter box when I put him in the bedroom. I felt so bad for him, but felt even worse for myself when I had to clean THAT up. Oh man, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy (well, maybe I would!). I apologized to Mickey over and over for the rest of the day — I felt so bad that he was that upset. Poor little kitties. We all had a very stressful day yesterday. But today everything is calm — at least so far….
