Herding Cats at Home - April 2005

Q: Every time my cat uses his litter tray, he starts making strange low pitched meowing sounds. Do I have a problem?

A: Well, YOU might not have a problem, but I'll bet your cat does. His vocalizing in the litter box likely means that urinating and/or defecating are causing him pain or some kind of distress. This calls for an immediate visit to the veterinarian. If your cat is experiencing pain in the litter box, his next step may well be to associate his pain with the box, and to take his "business" elsewhere. (Trust me, then you WILL have a problem.) Get your cat to his doctor ASAP.

Q: I have two cats: a seven-year-old and an eight-month-old. They're generally well behaved. They come when called and respond to No when they are engaging in bad behavior. However, they are slowly but surely destroying my house plants. I have a large Areca Palm in my dining room and they pull the limbs down and break them off. The older cat eats the plant and later throws up. I have told them no when they go near the plant but it is not working. What can I do to stop this behavior before they kill the plant?

A: Obviously, your usual "No" isn't enough to overcome the attraction that your plants offer your cats! In other words, their gardening activities are "highly motivated behavior."

Cats in the wild, and domestic cats outdoors, frequently snack on greenery for a number of reasons, including to aid digestion, encourage upchucking of prey-parts that aren't meant to be digested, and just because they enjoy plant-chomping. Your houseplants are obviously just MUCH too attractive to your cats.

Your first move is to make completely sure that none of your houseplants are poisonous or toxic to your cats. (I can supply you with a list of plants that are dangerous for cats; just ask, and I'll email it.) My own policy is to simply not have anything, including plants, in my home that could be harmful to my cats - unless it's COMPLETELY inaccessible to them. If I can't insure that, I just don't have it in the house. You can ask your veterinarian, or someone knowledgeable about plants at a local greenhouse or nursery, about plant toxicity.

If you want to keep both cats and plants (safe greens only!)...

1. Keep your plants in groups rather than spread individually around the house. They'll look more lush that way, and be easier to tend. And it's also likely to be easier to teach your cat to avoid one or two specific areas than to keep his paws off all those tempting individual plants.

2. Sprinkle the soil in your plant pots, or the area where you group your plants, with something your cat finds repulsively stinky -- pepper, Tabasco® sauce, citrus rinds or cotton balls soaked in flowery perfume.

3. Keep plants up off the floor. Use hanging planters, or place planters on pedestals or narrow topped tables -- with no room for a curious, leaping cat to land. Make sure the pedestals or tables are stable and non-tippable.

4. For plants that must stay on the floor, place pots atop plastic carpet-runner, spiky side up. Make sure this barrier is at least 2 feet wide all around the plant.

5. Is your plant-chomper just bored? If you see him heading for the greenery, distract him with an interactive play session, or divert his attention to a game or cuddling session in a different room.

6. Set up a bird feeder outside a window to help distract his attention from indoor greenery. Most cats find that watching fluttering birds is more addictive than other indoor pursuits, including greenery chewing.

7. Provide pots of kitty grass just for him. (My book, "Outwitting Cats," tells you how.)

8. Consider "sacrificing" a plant or two. A couple of spider plants can provide your plant addict with plenty of chomping fun. Your sacrificial greenery may look ratty after awhile -- but spider plants are hardy and nearly impossible to kill. Switch them periodically into a cat-free zone to recover.

Q: My four year old cat is health and friendly. But every now and then he will urinate in the corner of my bedroom or what seems to be his favorite place, on my clothes. The litter box is always clean in a room with light. I don't understand. I can't find any patterns to this behavior. I got him about a year ago. He was a stray cat and was not fixed. Once we did get him fixed we didn't encounter any problems for a few months.

A: It's possible that your cat urinated in the corner at one time because he had some temporary bladder distress. Maybe he couldn't get to his litter box in time, or maybe he associated some pain in urination with the box. When he felt better, he returned to his usual good manners.

However, cat urine contains pheromones and scents that are extremely long-lasting. If the area where he urinated was not thoroughly cleaned and deodorized, with a product made specifically to deodorize cat urine, those scents are still in that area. These scents tell the cat, "Aha, there's urine scent here. This is an OK place to go."

Cats who have gotten into the habit of urinating in non-approved sites often extend this habit to things like clothing or towels on the floor, pillows on chairs, and the like. That's why it's SO important to nip the habit in the bud the first time you see it, and to be rigorous in cleaning up.

If you haven't thoroughly cleaned and deodorized the site(s) he uses, your cat sees no reason why he shouldn't urinate there. Maybe when he's feeling lazy, or sleepy, he just heads for the corner - which he likely sees as a handy alternative litter box.

You need to do two things: 1) Deny your cat access to this problem site(s) while you 2) thoroughly clean and deodorize all sites he's used. Lock him out of the problem room(s) if possible while you do your cleanup (which can take several days). There are several products available commercially (from pet supply stores and web sites) that - if used correctly - can do the job. Be sure to follow label directions exactly, and use enough of the product. Don't skimp on this!

If the problem area is carpeted, what's on the carpet's upper surface is just the tip of the iceberg. Especially if your cat has urinated on the spot several times, the underside of the carpet, and the underlying pad and floorboards will have to be cleaned and deodorized as well. (Often, discarding and replacing the soiled piece of padding, and even the carpeting, is your best bet.)

It's also possible that if your cat has urinated on your clothing, towels or other washable articles, those articles (even after laundering) still carry the urine scent - it won't be detectable to you, but your cat's much more sensitive nose can still smell it. Laundering with ordinary laundry detergents doesn't remove all cat urine scents. However, after a lot of experimentation, I've found something that does remove the scent, even to a cat's sensitive nose: Launder all washable items that have been urinated on with "Surf," All/Surf," or "All" liquid laundry detergent, along with a capful (or two capfuls, for serious cases) of "Febreeze Laundry Odor Eliminator" (comes in a dark blue jug).

One other tip - even "only cats" prefer to have access to more than one litter box. Consider adding another box or two in different locations of your house, especially if your house has multiple levels.

My latest book, "Outwitting Cats," includes extensive and detailed information on effective clean-up or urine and other cat messes, and lots of other litter-box tips.