Ok, I'm going to try to make this as short as possible, but it's going to be difficult. And thank everyone in advance for their advice.
I have two cats: Pumpkin, a neutered male who's about 8 years old, and Aspen, a spayed female who's about 3 years old. I've had Pumpkin for 7 years and Aspen since June 2007. I got Aspen right after my 19 year old kitty, Bud, died.
I can't say Aspen and Pumpkin love each other, and they get in the occasional fight, including each of them having a tiny piece of ear missing now. About 3-4 months ago, these stray cats showed up in our neighborhood. One has found a home next door although the lady's husband won't let her bring him in (they already have on indoor cat) so the new one lives in the garage and roams as he please. Another one found a home across the cul de sac, but I don't really see him that much. There's a third one that's just around although it looks like someone's feeding him because he's not skinny, and then there's a fourth that my neighbor says exists but I've never seen him at all.
Well, over the last month or so, Pumpkin has started spraying all over my house. I've had to wash a particular set of curtains 3 times so far because he sprayed them. He's sprayed my refrigerator, my ottoman, my file cabinet, my Christmas tree. Just anything and everything. He does it right in front of me multiple times a day, and he doesn't seem like he's mad when he does it. My explanation is that he's feeling stressed by the new cats that are around (I also think he may have gotten in a couple of altercations with them too, both of mine go outside anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours a day but only when I'm home and during daylight hours). He has a high-strung disposition to start with.
Aspen, on the other hand, is very confident and doesn't seem to have a timid, high-strung bone in her body. She's quit bossy and pushy, but really cute and LOVES people. Over the last month or so she's started peeing where she's not supposed to. As I was beginning to write this, I heard her scratching and went to see what she was doing and she had peed in the bathtub (actually not such a bad thing if that's the only wrong place she did it). She's peed in the corner of my foyer, on the floor in my bathroom, and around the dining room window. She doesn't pee as much as Pumpkin sprays, but any is too much. Thank goodness I have hardwood floors instead of carpet.
I used to have a female cat, Velvet, who peed in inappropriate places, but she did it in the same place each time and it was pretty obvious that she did it because she was mad. With Aspen, she doesn't seem mad at all and see does it in totall different places each time.
I have two litter boxes, one in the basement and one upstairs in the bathroom. I thought about another one on the main level, but I really don't have a good place to put one.
I plan to get a few Feliway plug-ins and I've been cleaning the walls and floors and everything else whereever I find they've sprayed/peed (my vet let me borrow her black light so I could see where this was occurring).
They've both gone to the vet because I was praying that the behavior was because of UTIs since that would be an easy fix, but they're both fine. She's recommending that I put one or both of them on Prozac, but I don't want to do that unless I really have to.
What else can I do? Pumpkin has sprayed occasionally in the past, but this is getting out of hand. I'm not sure if they're doing this because of each other or because of the cats outside or both. I would never get rid of Pumpkin, and although I considered giving Aspen back when they were fighting some in the beginning, I don't think I could do that now because I've fallen in love with her. And, they even play together occasionally, so they don't totally hate each other all the time.
Please help!
I have two cats: Pumpkin, a neutered male who's about 8 years old, and Aspen, a spayed female who's about 3 years old. I've had Pumpkin for 7 years and Aspen since June 2007. I got Aspen right after my 19 year old kitty, Bud, died.
I can't say Aspen and Pumpkin love each other, and they get in the occasional fight, including each of them having a tiny piece of ear missing now. About 3-4 months ago, these stray cats showed up in our neighborhood. One has found a home next door although the lady's husband won't let her bring him in (they already have on indoor cat) so the new one lives in the garage and roams as he please. Another one found a home across the cul de sac, but I don't really see him that much. There's a third one that's just around although it looks like someone's feeding him because he's not skinny, and then there's a fourth that my neighbor says exists but I've never seen him at all.
Well, over the last month or so, Pumpkin has started spraying all over my house. I've had to wash a particular set of curtains 3 times so far because he sprayed them. He's sprayed my refrigerator, my ottoman, my file cabinet, my Christmas tree. Just anything and everything. He does it right in front of me multiple times a day, and he doesn't seem like he's mad when he does it. My explanation is that he's feeling stressed by the new cats that are around (I also think he may have gotten in a couple of altercations with them too, both of mine go outside anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours a day but only when I'm home and during daylight hours). He has a high-strung disposition to start with.
Aspen, on the other hand, is very confident and doesn't seem to have a timid, high-strung bone in her body. She's quit bossy and pushy, but really cute and LOVES people. Over the last month or so she's started peeing where she's not supposed to. As I was beginning to write this, I heard her scratching and went to see what she was doing and she had peed in the bathtub (actually not such a bad thing if that's the only wrong place she did it). She's peed in the corner of my foyer, on the floor in my bathroom, and around the dining room window. She doesn't pee as much as Pumpkin sprays, but any is too much. Thank goodness I have hardwood floors instead of carpet.
I used to have a female cat, Velvet, who peed in inappropriate places, but she did it in the same place each time and it was pretty obvious that she did it because she was mad. With Aspen, she doesn't seem mad at all and see does it in totall different places each time.
I have two litter boxes, one in the basement and one upstairs in the bathroom. I thought about another one on the main level, but I really don't have a good place to put one.
I plan to get a few Feliway plug-ins and I've been cleaning the walls and floors and everything else whereever I find they've sprayed/peed (my vet let me borrow her black light so I could see where this was occurring).
They've both gone to the vet because I was praying that the behavior was because of UTIs since that would be an easy fix, but they're both fine. She's recommending that I put one or both of them on Prozac, but I don't want to do that unless I really have to.
What else can I do? Pumpkin has sprayed occasionally in the past, but this is getting out of hand. I'm not sure if they're doing this because of each other or because of the cats outside or both. I would never get rid of Pumpkin, and although I considered giving Aspen back when they were fighting some in the beginning, I don't think I could do that now because I've fallen in love with her. And, they even play together occasionally, so they don't totally hate each other all the time.
Please help!
