Solve the kitty mystery

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I seek advice dealing with a bed-peeing cat in this multi-cat household. (Pictures to follow, as soon as I find the camera.)

The cast:

Alkali: 6YO female tortoiseshell. The queen. She is not amused.
Patch: 1YO male whitish mix. He’s high energy, but a pushover.
Thorne: 6MO male black kitten(ish). He’s almost full grown, and becoming more of a handful each day.

Supporting cast: Me, my sister, her husband, and my black lab.

The Story:

In September, my sister and brother-in-law found a great house for all of us to share. They moved in with their two cats (Alkali and Patch). In October, I moved in with my dog and cat. I have a sort of mother-in-law apartment downstairs, and the dog is not allowed upstairs except in my company. This has given all animals some space from each other.

The cats have taken their time getting used to each other, and the dog, but by now we thought they were settling in. Patch and Thorne play, until Thorne gets too rough and Patch runs away – but they’re back to playing again a couple of hours later. Alkali hisses from her perch high above, or goes to sleep on my sis and BIL’s bed. When it was warmer, she often got let out during the day (at her yowling insistence). Thorne also sometimes goes out during the day, usually no more than an hour at a time. Patch doesn’t seem to care for the outdoors.

Sometimes there’s some conflict over food: my sister’s cats get canned food every night, and Thorne doesn’t, so when he started trying to horn in on their feast, it became standard to evict him from the upstairs until suppertime is done. Then he’s allowed back in to eat anything left over.

The Mystery:

Someone has (three times now) peed on my sister’s bed. All of the cats are suspects, but the favorite choice seems to be Thorne. Motive: either he’s trying to “take over” from Alkali, or maybe he’s feeling the odd cat out, since he’s the new one. I can see arguments either way, and it seems more likely than that it’s Alkali (why would she pee on her own bed?). None of the cats has ever peed on any furniture before now.

We have, of course, changed and washed the sheets immediately each time, and we also sprayed some sort of “animal calming” solution on the bed (recommended by my mom). We could also keep Thorne downstairs permanently, thereby preventing him from getting access to my sister’s bed, but none of us wants to be so drastic.

So, cat-dopers, what do you think? And more importantly, how do we make it stop?

2

She gets my vote. Sure, she may be peeing on her own bed, but she’s feeling Threatened and wants her humans to make the strange human, cat, and dog GO AWAY. Plus, she’s an Entitled Tortie. Torties can be quite personable, but they are famous for their temperaments.

I’d try keeping Thorne downstairs for a while, though, and see if the peeing stops. He might be doing the peeing, and if he’s not up there, he can’t pee on the bed. If it’s Alkali, she might feel a little less threatened if she doesn’t see him. Remember, she’s moved recently, and adult cats do NOT like moves. Especially if they have been Queen of the previous home.

I would also suggest adding another litter box, in a different location from the other boxes, and possibly using a different kind of litter. One of the cats might have taken a dislike to the box, its location, or the litter. Or one cat (and again I’d suspect Alkali) might be preventing another cat from using the boxes. A change might make for happier cats.

3

Sorry - it’s your husband.

4

When my wife noved her 5 cats into my larger house with my two cats, we didn’t have any problems as my two older cats quickly established dominance, even over her larger male.

However, after losing her large male to a back injury and then moving the six of them into her smaller house, we had major problems. Her adult female started urinating everywhere my female (who had made herself alpha) liked to sleep. The two youngest cats (male and female, siblings) started peeing everywhere. The male would urinate and defecate under every window and on every windowsill in the house. The female would urinate on objects, even those sitting on the dining room table. Between the three of them, they completely destroyed my computer chair and quite a number of things in our storage room.

My bet would be that it is Alkali. She’s now got a dog and a male cat, both of which are larger and more dominant than she is. She’s still getting special treatment, but there’s also more competition and less peace.

5

I’m voting for the tortie, because tortie’s are notoriously bitchy.

  1. Make sure you have the scent completely out of the mattress. There are various sprays, but you’ll have to use it a bunch of times.

  2. Until she stops (which she may not), either keep a plastic mattress cover on there, or cover the entire bed with a plastic sheet or tablecloth. At least then it’s easier to clean.

6

I am also voting for the Tortie for all the reasons mentioned.

As for the youngest, is he neutered? If not get that done soon. If it is possibly him that might help but I still think it’s the female.

7

Why not do some experimenting and keep each cat downstairs in turn?

8

All the cats are properly spayed/neutered.

It may be a good idea to separate them on a trial basis. The younger two will lack a playmate for a while, but if the problem goes away, it’s probably for the best. It will require rearranging the litter boxes, but one upstairs and one downstairs doesn’t seem like too much of a burden.

Pictures:
Alkali
Patch and Alkali
Thorne

Hope I did that right.

The most recent event was a couple of days after the bed’s comforter came back from the cleaners, so there’s still an outside chance Alkali or Thorne is expressing displeasure with a new smell or something. But I think Thorne will get to stay downstairs for a while.

9

There’s also the chance of it being a urinary infection.
Also, once a bed smells like pee, it will be peed on, again and again. Get some of that powder stuff to really clean the smell out.

10

This might be part of the problem. Generally, the rule of thumb is #litterboxes=#cats + 1. So, for three cats, you need four litterboxes. Sometimes one cat doesn’t like to wait for an available litterbox, sometimes a cat will get Offended about the state of the litterbox, and sometimes one cat will chase another away from a litterbox.

And, as E-Sabbath pointed out, there could be a urinary infection going on. In fact, I should have mentioned that you should eliminate that first. My daughter’s cat used to pee in the bathtub because she had a nasty infection. Of all the places she COULD have peed, we were very grateful that she chose the bathtub!