My wife and I are at a loss on what to do with our cat Miss Kitty. She's the sweetest cat you'll ever meet and we love her dearly. Unfortunately she has recently begun having some issues peeing in the apartment.
When we first moved into our new apartment a little less than a year ago she had a few accidents on our bathroom rug. At first we couldn't figure out what the problem was but we eventually decided it was due to the rubber backing on the rug and the fact that her litter box is now located in the bathroom, where as in our old place she had the laundry room pretty much to herself. Well we got rid of the rug and through our problems were over, but we've recently discovered they aren't.
The first thing we found was an accident in the living room on her bed. Though I guess I wouldn't call it an accident since she clearly meant to pee in her bed. We figured maybe she got confused since the bed I guess somewhat resembles a litter box and thought it was a one time thing. Since then we've been finding more and more spots in the bathroom where she has been urinating. First we realized she had peed on a pile of our clothes that were sitting on top of the hamper. After that I went out and bought a black light and discovered that she had peed in a couple different spots in the bathroom, in two different corners right along the baseboard. Well today I found two more spots. One along the wall behind the sink, she must have climbed up onto the counter and peed. The second was in an even stranger location. We have a piece of furniture that sits behind and around the toilet that we keep extra towels in, and it appears that she climbed up onto the top of that and peed along the wall.
At this point we really don't know what to do. It would break our hearts to have to get rid of her, but there is no way we can continue to tolerate this kind of behavior. In a few months we're actually moving back into the apartment we lived in before this one (long story), and we are trying to decide if we need to find her a new home before we move. Part of me thinks that the reason for all this is because of the fact that her litter box is in our one and only bathroom, and she just really isn't fond of sharing that space. If that's the case then things should go back to normal when we move since she'll have her own room again. If this is going to be an ongoing problem however we're going to be forced to get rid of her because as I'm sure you know cat urine is not an easy thing to clean up and we'd just as soon not have to deal with it in the new apartment.
What are your thoughts on the issue? I'm going to try and get her into a vet to make sure it isn't some kind of urinary infection, though due to the odd nature of where she's urinating it doesn't seem like that's the case. I remember reading once that if most of the accidents are along walls instead of on the ground then that means they're marking their territory. Any help would be greatly appreciated. As I said, we would both be heart broken to have to get rid of her, but I really don't know what else to do at this point.
When we first moved into our new apartment a little less than a year ago she had a few accidents on our bathroom rug. At first we couldn't figure out what the problem was but we eventually decided it was due to the rubber backing on the rug and the fact that her litter box is now located in the bathroom, where as in our old place she had the laundry room pretty much to herself. Well we got rid of the rug and through our problems were over, but we've recently discovered they aren't.
The first thing we found was an accident in the living room on her bed. Though I guess I wouldn't call it an accident since she clearly meant to pee in her bed. We figured maybe she got confused since the bed I guess somewhat resembles a litter box and thought it was a one time thing. Since then we've been finding more and more spots in the bathroom where she has been urinating. First we realized she had peed on a pile of our clothes that were sitting on top of the hamper. After that I went out and bought a black light and discovered that she had peed in a couple different spots in the bathroom, in two different corners right along the baseboard. Well today I found two more spots. One along the wall behind the sink, she must have climbed up onto the counter and peed. The second was in an even stranger location. We have a piece of furniture that sits behind and around the toilet that we keep extra towels in, and it appears that she climbed up onto the top of that and peed along the wall.
At this point we really don't know what to do. It would break our hearts to have to get rid of her, but there is no way we can continue to tolerate this kind of behavior. In a few months we're actually moving back into the apartment we lived in before this one (long story), and we are trying to decide if we need to find her a new home before we move. Part of me thinks that the reason for all this is because of the fact that her litter box is in our one and only bathroom, and she just really isn't fond of sharing that space. If that's the case then things should go back to normal when we move since she'll have her own room again. If this is going to be an ongoing problem however we're going to be forced to get rid of her because as I'm sure you know cat urine is not an easy thing to clean up and we'd just as soon not have to deal with it in the new apartment.
What are your thoughts on the issue? I'm going to try and get her into a vet to make sure it isn't some kind of urinary infection, though due to the odd nature of where she's urinating it doesn't seem like that's the case. I remember reading once that if most of the accidents are along walls instead of on the ground then that means they're marking their territory. Any help would be greatly appreciated. As I said, we would both be heart broken to have to get rid of her, but I really don't know what else to do at this point.
