At a loss...

We have Oliver, a 1 1/2-year-old black longhair. He has always been a vocal cat with a true 'mind of his own,' but as of late, he has gotten out of control. Here's the scoop:

He has developed an affinity for the outdoors.
This is fine, but our other cat has been attacked by another animal once already, so we are becoming worried and reluctant to let him outside. (Not to mention it's getting down to 20-30 degrees here at times).

He will stand by the door meowing incessantly until we let him out. 20% of the time, he will stray off somewhere and not return for a few hours. The vast majority of the time, however, he will be outside for no more than a minute or two, and will scratch and cry to come back inside. After we let him back in however, he will scratch and cry to go back out. The cycle will continue indefinitely.

He is urinating and defecating repeatedly in two spots around the house. We have purchased repellants to try and keep him out of these areas, but he simply ignores them.

He has begun to aggravate our other cat (his biological father) to the point where he no longer wants to associate with him.

He does eat and drink like a normal cat and is still very active. He will also occasionally use the litterbox. We are contemplating one of 2 things:
1) Could he have a urinary tract (or other) infection?
2) Is he simply wanting to be an 'outside' cat and we have nothing to worry about?

We're at the point now where we are ready to give him up...He keeps us up at night and is intolerabe while we are awake. (Not to mention clean-up after clean-up).

-Dan

I would not let him out under any circumstances. Don't you have coyotes there? Now that it is getting cold, I would break him of the habit altogether. If his peeing is behavioral, you can find information on the "stickies" on this form. Before you can determine that, you have to have a vet determine whether it is a UTI which can be fatal if not treated asap.

Has he been neutered? If not, get it done, or he'll be spraying all over, and going insane trying to get out to find a female.

Definitel NEUTER him if he isn't already.

Past that, build him an enclosure. I am in the process of doing this. I'm building a little deck out front of my house so I am making the underneath a place for the cats to be outside, then in the back I plan on making something like one of these, but using my own plans:

http://www.just4cats.com/page7.html

Also, do a search on the net for "outdoor cat enclosures" for other ideas.

1) neuter him if it isn't done, neuter/spay every cat in the house for that matter.

2) have him tested for a UTI

3) buy some Feliway plug ins and spray

4) make sure you have one litterbox per cat plus one extra

Originally Posted by Jen

1) neuter him if it isn't done, neuter/spay every cat in the house for that matter.

2) have him tested for a UTI

3) buy some Feliway plug ins and spray

4) make sure you have one litterbox per cat plus one extra

Click to expand...

5) Buy an enzymatic cleaner to thoroughly clean the inappropriate pee/poo areas to make sure that no scent is remaining and attracting him back to those spots.

Be aware that a coyote can also get through a 'cat enclosure'. My friends in Canada have a small Pomeranian that they keep in a fenced yard. A coyote was very nearly able to get under that wooden fence. The dog is now never left in the yard unsupervised.

I'd do what the other posters recommended, and if that doesn't work, rehome the cat.

Thanks for all of your responses!

Here's what we've done, to no avail:

- Used enzymatic cleaner beginning 3 weeks ago when this first began occurring. No result. (he doesn't seem to care)

- He was neutered when he was a baby, so that would not be the issue.

- We purchased a Feliway plug-in and let it run in the room where he keeps urinating. This worked a miracle on our other cat's behavior, but Oliver seems completely unaffected. He urinated on the couch again this morning.


My girlfriend refuses, for some reason, to take him to the vet. She feels that she 'knows' he does not have a UTI. He is not really exhibiting more than 2 of the symptoms (crying and urinating in unusual spots).

I just spoke to my aunt as well (who had the same problems with her cat a few years ago) and she advised to get a black light and Nature's Miracle and go crazy wherever we find he has urinated around the house.
She also suggested we get 2 litterboxes (versus one) with hoods so that each cat might have privacy when they go to the bathroom.

Any other advice?