it's like re-living a bad nightmare!

where to start? I've posted several of my dramatic pleas for help with my spraying cat Jiro in past....for about a year, he has been good. no spraying, no issues. I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment and while i was at work, jiro and my other kitty would be in "their bedroom" and this seemed to work. However, I recently moved back home (my parents passed away and I need to take care of my younger sister) so the situation is kind of weird. Me and my kitties are upstairs in the master bedroom. They do not go anywhere else in the house. My sister has 2 dogs that are in the backyard. When my cats moved back to the house, they took to it very well. Especially Jiro. He seemed very comfortable right away. its been about 3 months now. we have been doing alot of tile and wood work within the home and a lot of furniture have been shuffled around. also, when they do tile work in the master bedroom, i have to temporarily move the cats into another bedroom for a few days. With the weather cooling down, i've been openigng some windows. I caught him spraying the side of the bed the other day! GRRR!!! He has sprayed 3 times since then! Could the environment changing and furniture moving be upsetting him? Could the windows being open upset him all of the sudden? I'm not so much worried about the carpet becasue it is going to be replaced with wood, but i don't want him to get back in the habit of spraying once the wood is in. he's already been tot he vet and does not have any health issues. any suggestions?

Sounds to me like they are very stressed out because of all the changes. I'd try a feliway diffuser in the room they are in!

You never know - one tiny change can stress them out, and it sounds like your have had a whole lot of changes in a relatively short period of time.

He probably heard (or saw) a strange cat (or dog) outside - now that the windows are open. That'll do it every time!

Since there's not vet issue, and I assume he's neutered, it must be stress - not surprising, given all the changes you've outlined.

You've tried Feliway plug-ins or spray? And flower essences? You can check both out at http://www.catfaeries.com/

I'd also give him more attention that usual. You can also give him a catnip toy - but don't leave it out, and only give it to him every few days. They get "used" to catnip and then don't have the same reaction to it.

Apart from those stress-reducing things you can do, you can try adding another litterbox or two (temporarily). Our cats LOVE it when a new litterbox turns up in a new place, lol! There's also a product out there now called "cat attract." I don't know where it's sold - I've seen it at the vet. It's a mixture of dried greens that you add to the litter. Don't know whether or not these would help as it seems it's mostly a stress issue.

I would try all of these things. Also, to get rid of the smell from his spraying, try using this product instead of the pet store enzyme cleaners: http://www.nokout.com/odor.html Nature's Miracle just didn't work on the couch, but Nok-Out did.

As a final final final last resort, you can consider anti-anxiety medication. A lot of people at TCS have a problem with this, but after having resorted to everything - including the litterbox retraining (which led to obsessive licking), we did decide (with our vet) to give our cat Spooky Elavil when there were a lot of changes going on in her/our lives. We moved into a new home in August 2004, adopted a new cat in September, 2004, adopted an 18-year old daughter in December 2004, and the cats lost "their" room for a while. All of this added up to Spooky peeing outside the litterbox - mostly on the bed and the couches. Being experienced with cats by that point, we knew what to do. But all the remedies worked for a short while. We finally resorted to Elavil. We weaned her off of it after about 4 months, I think it was. When we started her on Elavil she slept a lot - but within a few days was back to her old self - happy, playful, wanting pets - and not peeing on the bed or couch. Again - before anyone jumps down my throat, this isn't a recommendation to use Elavil or any other anti-anxiety medication, it's simply sharing my experience for when we had literally tried everything and wound up with a cat that also licked herself compusively.

I've tried the feliway plug ins and spray (he sprayed right on top of it...) The vet has put him on buspar before too. i think it's just all the changes that have gone on within the home. I'll have to make sure to not open the windows! Thanks everyone!

I know our males get kinda strange acting when the windows are open in the fall and spring, so we make sure the ones in our room stay shut so the neighborhood cats don't antagonize them.