5-30-12

Posted on by Robyn

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In yesterday’s comments, Trudy said:

Robyn, I am having a problem and am at my wits end. I have two tortie sisters, age 13 this year, and two male cats, age 8 this year. Dunkin (male) occasionally pees on the beds the females sleep in. Now he has started peeing on the toys in the toy baskets. Any idea why? Any idea on how to stop him other than taking away the toys? Thanks for any help you can give me on this matter! He has been to the vet. He had a bad urinary tract infection some years ago, and I am afraid that is when the behavior started. Usually it is just the beds the girls lay in, but he does occasionally pee elsewhere. He is on Amitriptyline for this issue. If he gets really bad, the vet gives him steroid pills. I hate to have him take them too often, I am afraid the steroids are not good for him.

I suggested:

Is Dunkin only peeing on the toys in the toy basket and not any that are laying around on the floor? Because if so, and if you can stand the idea, you might want to stop putting them in a basket, it’s possible that something about the basket is tempting him to use it as a litter box. Are any of the toys catnip toys? I don’t know why, but there’s something about catnip toys that entices Sugarbutt to occasionally (but not always and not often) pee on them.

You *may* want to give the Feli-Way spray a try. I don’t find that the Feli-Way plugins make much difference in my house, but the spray will very often keep them from coming back and peeing in the same spot.

And Teughcats added:

If it’s behavioral and not medical, one trick I found to help break the habit – after you give the area a thorough cleaning and smell removal – is to put a food bowl in the spot. Cats won’t pee where they eat, so if he ha been thinking it’s OK to pee in that spot, that will help redirect him.

Edited to add: And Doodle Bean left a comment here with some great suggestions.

I’m posting this here so that y’all can share any suggestions that you have on the topic. Got a thought? Post it in the comments, please. Thank you!

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2012-05-30 (1)
Noms, crammed into one bed. Though I guess they aren’t really CRAMMED – they fit nicely, don’t they?

2012-05-30 (2)
Newbery and Logie spend a lot of time snuggling. When they’re not fighting, that is.

2012-05-30 (3)
Spanky had no idea Newbery was back there.

2012-05-30 (5)
Even when this was going on, Spanky must have thought it was me, touching him.

2012-05-30 (6)
Then Newbery backed off. Suddenly Spanky’s sensors went into hyperdrive, he WHIPPED his head around, saw that Newbery was right there, deduced that all the touching he’d been feeling was NOT from his beloved Mama but from that little kitten, and he hissed and jumped off the desk onto the floor in one smooth motion.

2012-05-30 (7)
Leaving Newbery to ponder, “What’s HIS problem?”

2012-05-30 (8)
Logie’s been dusting again. She always forgets the step where she’s supposed to shake the dust off herself.

2012-05-30 (9)
Something startled Logie, and she went to hide behind Miz Poo, incorrectly believing that Miz Poo would protect her (I think there was a vacuum going). Miz Poo is of the “If I don’t see a kitten, it isn’t there” religion, and so she refused to make eye contact with Logie. Eventually the vacuum went away, and Logie wandered off and no kittens were smacked.

2012-05-30 (10)
Darwin and Logie.

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2012-05-30 (11)
Kara and Elwood, rolling around in the grass. Kara didn’t have any idea that Elwood was there until…


“SOMETHING TOUCHED MY TAIL. IS IT A MONSTER? IT’S A MONSTER, ISN’T IT? OH, I AM TOO SCARED TO LOOK! SAVE ME!”

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Previously
2011: I don’t know what kitten tails taste like, but they must be really tasty given all the chewing that goes on.
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: Such a little lunatic.
2007: (I didn’t see it myself, but apparently it was quite the sight to behold.)
2006: No entry.
2005: They’re little playing machines.

Comments

35 thoughts on “5-30-12”

  2. Oh, I love Kara’s eyes in the second photo!

    Re: Newbery and Spanky. What would we do without wise older cats to teach kittens Proper Behavior?

  3. Oh Kara that is the best monster fearing face ever! Thanks for the big laugh…

  5. Thank you for the “He’s touching me!!!” themed post, courtesy of Spanky, Miz Poo, and Kara. My own children did a version of it last night, but it wasn’t nearly as cute.

    Poor Kara… she needed saving from the Elwood monster and you took her picture instead. Probably laughed at her too. 😉

    Norman always looks “dustier” than the other cats in the house. Black fur is quite sleek and slimming, but apparently shows the dust easier than fur of different colors.

  7. What they all said. You could crop that picture and caption it and I bet it’d be an instant hit. Fabulous shot.

  9. Love the teeny tiny Darwin tongue in the picture of Darwin and Logie. ::thlurp::

  11. I’ve been reading this blog since the McMaos were little babies, but I’ve never commented before. But, clearly, I’ve been looking at your kitties way too much because last night I had this dream that I found a Ty Classic stuffed animal that looked exactly like Miz Poo, and I was going to send you a picture. It was so freakin’ adorable, I’ve never had such a cute stuffed animal. Just thought I’d share that.

  12. I just about died when I saw Kara’s face. That’s the look my Ted gave me once when I picked him up while he was sleeping (he doesn’t like being picked up or held). He didn’t even stir while I cradled him like a baby, and then all of a sudden, his eyes flew open in a wide OMG W. T. F. expression. We still laugh about it.

    1. Awww, Rachael, I’m sorry to hear that! You don’t mind if I link to your ChipIn, do you? Scrilla’s so lucky to have you!

      1. No, please go ahead. Thank you so much. He’s my sweet boy and I just want him to have a happy & healthy life 🙂

  14. “Miz Poo is of the “If I don’t see a kitten, it isn’t there” religion…”

    Bwahahaha !!
    Poor Miz Poo- what she hasto put up with !!

    P.S.
    Question; for the first time EVER my Girls are going to get flea treatments. The fleas are just horrid this year and I can’t seem to get ahead of them. Frontline seems to get positive reviews… Have you any suggestions ? Have you sed Frontline ?

    xoxo
    Karen

      1. Since Miz Poo and Sugarbutt both have allergies to fleas, we alternate between Advantage and Frontline every three weeks for all the cats. They both seem to work really well, I can’t remember the last time I saw a flea in the house. We have to use it year-round here due to the mild winters, though I’ll admit that in the coldest part of the year we usually go to treating them once a month.

        1. Thank you for the speedy reply… Glad to hear some ‘personal experience’.
          K.

  15. Thank you Robyn so much for having “previous posts”. I started reading your blog when you first got Maggieand I fell in love with your blog. I love being able to catch up on all the other fosters you’ve had. I did especially enjoy when you were talking about how all your permanents came to your family. If I am ever feeling a little down or whatever I come to your blog. I am guaranteed to be smiling and laughing by the time I’m finished the page. You bring alot of joy and happiness to many people in such a crazy world. It is very refreshing to have happy things to read about and your photographs and captions for the cats’ pictures are always amazing.

  16. TETRIS KITTENS!!! 🙂

    as for the peeing, a) sorry, it has been covered, but it wasn’t clear if the cat has been to the vet in the past week. UTI’s are reoccurring. Because he has had them in the past, it is always a good idea to get them rechecked frequently. Nutrition conducive to healthy bladders is very important (aka no dry food – as few plant based ingredients as possible)

    sounds like it probably is behavioral though. Jack is very insecure and will spray when he feels vulnerable. Figuring out WHY a cat is spraying is the key to getting it straightened out. I highly recommend the book Cat vs Cat. It helps you understand better how cats interact and what you can do to make things as smooth as possible. In my case Jack was having insecurities about being “Alpha” and I had to support him and give him first dibs at what ever he wants. I need to spend one on one time with him telling him how handsome he is and what a great job leading our clan that he does. He gets jealous easily and needs constant reassurance, something Ollie never needed as Alpha, and until I realized that things were problematic.

  17. Just wanted to say that putting a food bowl in regular cat-peeing locations (after thorough cleaning, of course) was the biggest thing that helped us. Our (male) cat had nothing medically wrong with him, he just likes to be an asshole and express his opinion through urine. This got especially bad after we moved to a new house with which he was….. displeased. We eventually had a cat food bowl in almost every corner of the house, but it worked – he would never pee in the vicinity of any food bowl. After a month or so he resigned himself to the litter boxes and we were able to (carefully, one by one), reduce the number of food bowls in the house to just one per cat.

  18. I cracked up so hard at that last picture of Kara & the caption. Hilarious!

  19. My friend Brinn sends me your RSS feeds from her email (my ebil job won’t let me subscribe at work and internet is banned so I am often pining PINING away for kitteh infusions throughout the day.) Today was a bad day for me, just getting over a nasty bout of flu/bronchitis and had to leave work early yesterday to take daughter to ER (nothing serious, turns out it was anxiety induced hives–probably from her being worried about how sick I was over the weekend no joke), and today feeling still less than 100% and cranky as all get out. THEN Brinn’s lifesaving (saving the lives of my poor coworkers probably) email with today’s post and that pic of Kara at the end had me laughing and smiling thus breaking the crank right out of my system. Thank you Brinn and Miz Robyn!!! (and Kara and Elwood) <3 <3

  21. Wanted to add my 2 cents to the suggestions. Our kitteh Autumn decided she wanted to pee on everything box shaped, whether it was comfortable or easy for her to get into or not. this was also non medical related as it turned out she was acting out her anger at the invasion of other cats in our house, plus stress from her just plain not liking the dogs in the house. We solved it by giving her her own space, she now has our bedroom and her own litterbox all to herself and is as happy as a clam. She doesn’t even mind it too much when one of the other cats (knowing how they are about closed doors) manages to slip in once in a while. She doesn’t actually go out of her way to make them welcome but doesn’t freak out and definitely doesn’t pee on everything in sight now.

  23. OMG, that picture of Kara and Elwood CRACKED me UP!

    And made me L.O.L. Out Loud even 😀

  24. That last picture is still cracking me up today.

    Cocoa (my black cat) doesn’t look dusty until I take a picture and then it looks like he’s been running with the dust bunnies.

  25. The look on Kara’s face is priceless! And today’s post was really all about unaware kitties, wasn’t it?

  26. Sorry for the late comments, i’ve been sick. the look on Kara’s face is classic! LOL-ed I did!

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