Hello,
My new cat Bitsy (adopted her Dec 12) just did something very strange. In my ensuite I have 2 long shag-type bath mats, washable. I just washed them today. Not long after I placed them back in the bathroom, I saw Bitsy walking across one of them, making "digging motions" in the rug (which I thought was kind of cute). She's about 1 yr old. I guess in some respects the long shag might ? seem like something to "dig into" (like litter). Well shortly after I noticed she'd peed on the rug!!
Now 2 weeks ago I had her checked for a UTI, she had a urinalysis done and it was negative. The reason I'd had it done was I feared she might have been peeing more often than normal (about 5 times in a 24 hr period). As it had been years since having such a small, young cat, I wasn't sure if that was "normal" and though my Vet thought it was, I had a urinalysis done just to be on the safe side, which of course was negative.
Has anyone ever had a cat who confused a long shag-type rug with litter? Does this even sound plausible? She's certainly not exhibiting signs of a UTI that I can see (I have 4 other cats, and 6 litterboxes in total, all of them down in the basement, which she uses just fine).
I have a large shag area rug in my kitchen nook that Bitsy loves to lie on, play with her toys on...........it's a large area rug and surely not one that could be "washed" so now I'm paranoid that she'll start peeing on it?
Would appreciate your thoughts on whether it's likely that she just confused the ability to "dig" this freshly washed mat with the digging she can do in the litterbox and that's likely why she peed?
(If so, do I stop using these mats in my bathroom? (there's lino beneath them so easy to clean the floor). She's loved that mat in the past; in the mornings when I'm in the bathroom getting ready for work she'll roll around on it)
TO ADD: I just read somewhere on the internet that mats with a "rubber backing" really attract cats (my mats have a rubber backing)....the person who wrote the info stated that there's something about the smell of the rubber backing that attracts a cat to pee on it. I've never heard this before, has anyone here? All of the mats down in my litterbox area have rubber backing and nobody's ever peed on them. I will admit though, these 2 shag rugs in my bathroom have a weird strong odor to them. It was really bad when I first bought them, I had to wash them twice to try and get rid of the "odor"....?
My new cat Bitsy (adopted her Dec 12) just did something very strange. In my ensuite I have 2 long shag-type bath mats, washable. I just washed them today. Not long after I placed them back in the bathroom, I saw Bitsy walking across one of them, making "digging motions" in the rug (which I thought was kind of cute). She's about 1 yr old. I guess in some respects the long shag might ? seem like something to "dig into" (like litter). Well shortly after I noticed she'd peed on the rug!!
Now 2 weeks ago I had her checked for a UTI, she had a urinalysis done and it was negative. The reason I'd had it done was I feared she might have been peeing more often than normal (about 5 times in a 24 hr period). As it had been years since having such a small, young cat, I wasn't sure if that was "normal" and though my Vet thought it was, I had a urinalysis done just to be on the safe side, which of course was negative.
Has anyone ever had a cat who confused a long shag-type rug with litter? Does this even sound plausible? She's certainly not exhibiting signs of a UTI that I can see (I have 4 other cats, and 6 litterboxes in total, all of them down in the basement, which she uses just fine).
I have a large shag area rug in my kitchen nook that Bitsy loves to lie on, play with her toys on...........it's a large area rug and surely not one that could be "washed" so now I'm paranoid that she'll start peeing on it?
Would appreciate your thoughts on whether it's likely that she just confused the ability to "dig" this freshly washed mat with the digging she can do in the litterbox and that's likely why she peed?
(If so, do I stop using these mats in my bathroom? (there's lino beneath them so easy to clean the floor). She's loved that mat in the past; in the mornings when I'm in the bathroom getting ready for work she'll roll around on it)
TO ADD: I just read somewhere on the internet that mats with a "rubber backing" really attract cats (my mats have a rubber backing)....the person who wrote the info stated that there's something about the smell of the rubber backing that attracts a cat to pee on it. I've never heard this before, has anyone here? All of the mats down in my litterbox area have rubber backing and nobody's ever peed on them. I will admit though, these 2 shag rugs in my bathroom have a weird strong odor to them. It was really bad when I first bought them, I had to wash them twice to try and get rid of the "odor"....?
