End Of My Rope!!

I know what you mean. We had to hide everything when we got ReeRee. He would eat shoes, cords, anything really. My sister lost quite a few pairs of shoes because of him chewing. All you can really do is wait it out and hide everything.

But as for the resident older cat peeing, something is wrong there. I would definately look to the resources here to getting some ideas of what can be done. You are unhappy, the older cat is unhappy. I think your SO needs to realize he needs to make things better not just tell you to deal with it....

Oh wow! I know how you feel. I threw a peed on rug away this morning. Seti has some emotional issues we're working on. I totally feel your pain and frustration.

Would it be possible to give you existing kitty his own space so he has someplace safe and all his own? That may perk him up and it will at least limit the inappropriate urination to one area. If you don't already have one box for each cat plus one you can try adding more to see if that curbs his urination. Didn't help me but it certainly can't hurt to try.

How old are the kittens? They go through a "rubber ball" stage where they seem indestructible themselves but wreak havoc to your household. Thankfully, they usually grow out of it!

It does sound overwhelming.

The senior cat, Baby Kitty, needs a check up. An older guy cat like that doesn't just start peeing all over for no reason.

Stress causes illness, and he is under stress. Please get him to the vet for a full health profile including bloodwork (to check all organs including thyroid) and a urinalysis.

Were you and your husband both on board with taking in that female cat? Were there originally plans to rehome that bunch? If the kittens are 12 weeks are older, they're ready to go to new homes, and if you really want that you probably need to sit the husband down and work on that. I hope something can be worked out there.

And yes, kittens are extremely aggravating. My three weren't so much destructive as they were bad about trying to eat everything - no not chew on things, eat and swallow. I once caught Blann with the copper pot scourer that my BIL had left out on the sink. I had to chase him down and take it away from him. At ~10 months they have gotten better and behave more like young cats than spastic kittens.

You older boy needs a vet, even if you think it's just him being annoyed by all the other cats. Your vet can also make some suggestions as to what you can do to help.

One thing you must do is not leave anything out, ever. Your cat can't pee on a clean pile of clothes if you put them away in the dresser. Likewise, dirty clothes need to be picked up and put in the hamper. Lots of people slack on this, so it's not just you.

Do look up the stickies at the top of this section, both the peeing sticky and the behavior problems sticky. That he's been doing this for a while will mean you'll have to correct both health and behavior that's become a habit.

I think God makes kittens really cute so you won't murder them.

You've gotten some good advice for the situation already, I'm just chiming in because after you get your older kitty to a vet to make sure the stress hasn't affected him (it can cause all kinds of problems, and he may have crystals in his urine, which is a situation that can become life threatening), one thing you MUST MUST do is clean up everywhere he's peed properly. Steam cleaning won't do it, traditional household cleaners won't do it, and spraying it with fabreeze won't do it.

At this point, you must buy a black light to go through your home to find any places he's peed. It will turn up as an orange splotch. Best to buy a regular black light bulb - the little battery powered ones you have to bend over and be like 4" - 6" away from the carpet or furniture to see it.

Anway - when you've identified all the spots, they MUST be treated with a GOOD enzyme cleaner. Nature's Miracle will eventually work - after 3 - 5 treatments, depending upon how old the pee stain is or how bad it is. If some of the spots have been there a while, even Nok Out (what we use, one of the best ones available) will need to be applied twice. But it sounds like you're going to need a rather large quantity of enzyme cleaner, so I REALLY recommend Nok Out. I can only be purchased online: http://www.nokout.com

You do need to talk to your DH about the kitties. Unfortunately, they go through this phase, and basically you just need to put everything away all the time. You can also try spraying an orange or lemon scented freshener on curtains to help prevent them from climbing them, and you can try bitter apple on cords & such.

Cushions on couches and chairs that have been soaked with pee will almost certainly need several applications of any enzyme cleaner. They must be SOAKED - because cat pee wicks, and the enzyme cleaner must reach ALL of it to work.

Hang in there - and please get Baby Kitty to the vet.

I only have one 8 week old kitten and then the two adults and the kitten is overwhelming! I couldn't imagine having more than that! Totally feel some of your pain!

Is there any way that you can confine them to one room in your house at all? This would limit what the kittens can destroy as well as give your older cat some relief from the young whippersnappers.

As for the older boy, don't get mad at him; he's just doing what he can to tell you he's very overwhelmed and stressed out. He does need to go to the vet for a checkup and urinalysis. Start using a Feliway diffuser to help him with the stress.

Oooh boy! No fun at all! We had a similar problem when my brother got a kitten when we were little. My sister's cat hated him, and stopped using the litter box till the kitten found a new home. She did not want a little brother!

I must be lucky with my kittens- they went through the really destructive phase in only a week. We would wake up and hear them crashing around, they climbed the curtains, everything. Now they are cuddle bugs most of the time, unless they are playing with each other, or while they are allowed to roam the rest of the house.

Good luck with your guys, I hope you can find a way to make your situation something you can handle, and that you will get to enjoy your kitties!

It sounds like you and hubby didn't agree on this arrangement before it happened.

Just a couple comments - please don't take them personally. Cats don't pee in inappropriate areas to "get back at you" for some reason. My cat has been going through an adjustment period lately.. her litter box is in a room in my mom's basement, where the door has been open. We installed a pet door so that we could close that door, and I have been working with her on it. She has no problem going through it when I'm holding it open, but I don't think she's figured out that she can open it herself. The other day, she started meowing at me (very odd for her)... long story short, she had pooped in the corner of the room. Once I realized what had happened, I opened the door to where her box is, and she ran straight in there to use her litter box. I know she was SO embarrassed to have had an accident outside her box...

The truth is, kitties are not so different from human kids. I had to "kitty-proof" my condo when I adopted Holland. She tore a button off my laptop:



She knocks crap off of every table and shelf that I have. She is amazing at using her scratching post, but she still has a negative effect on the carpet.

I'm hoping that you were just venting, but I can completely understand if you are not a cat person and not willing to put up with what you have to put up with to own them. I agree with the posters who said you should get the "peeing" guy checked out. And I truly hope you and your hubby can come to an agreement on how to deal with them.

Best of luck!!!

Take the flap off. Or prop it open until she gets used to going in and out of it. But you don't really need the flap do you?

Years ago, we had two adults: one male (Hydrox), one female (Whisper), a young cat (Banshee), and then five kittens (Whisper's kids). They were hell on wheels! They got into everything and anything. I think Ms. Pepe was the worse, though. She tore huge (and I mean HUGE!) holes in the drapes in the living room. She destroyed the fronts of our stereo speakers. She chewed the cord to my computer mouse. She broke a beautiful light in the bedroom and another light in the living room. She broke the ear off my ceramic owl by dropping something on it when she was in the living room window and accidentally knocked it off the window. She was trouble from the ends of her whiskers to the very tip of her tail! Her nickname was the PepMonster....there was a reason for that name. The other kids did stuff, too, but that girl.....Oy!

That first Christmas we had the kittens, I put the tree up, but we didn't decorate it right away. DH came home from work and, not only was the tree down, but it was at the front door. So, not only did they knock the tree on the floor, but somehow it got down the steps, too...DH tried to open the front door and the tree was in the way. Lord only knows how that happened. But we learned a lesson; we can have Christmas trees, but they need to be wired to the wall. It was hilarious...we often thought about putting a camera in the living room, just to see how in the world they managed to do some of the things they did.

Hydrox was quite a bit older than the kids and we think he was more than a little taken aback by what had happened to "his" house. There he was, an only kitty for years, and suddenly the place is inundated with little ones! He would sit on the television and watch everything that was going on....and we swore he was shaking his head in dismay. But I think that the kittens kept him on his toes, too, and may have added a few years to his life. He was 20 when we had to put him to sleep.

When we were sleeping, Banshee would chase the kittens around the house. They'd race back to the bedroom and 20 little paws would pummel our stomachs (and kidneys! and bladders!), followed by Banshee as they jumped on and off the bed. Race out the hallway. Race back the hallway. And back out again.

It got on our nerves at times and I got frustrated when things got broken. But all in all? It was better than a tv show. We had a ball watching those little ones grow into mature cats. At night, after dinner, DH and I would sit on the sofa and watch those little ones play and tussle and fight and nap. It was a hoot. We managed to find homes for all of the kittens, but then, after giving two of them away, we decided to keep the other three. We told the other three familes that we couldn't bear to part with them. And so they grew up with us.

And now....Slugs! All of 'em! Slugs! They eat...and they sleep. Slugs! LOL! Instead of calling our gang the RugCats, sometimes DH calls them SlugCats because they're now geriatic babies and they're not the most active bunch around. Those kittens are now 14 years old.

I hope you can figure something out with your bunch. Kittens are like little children; they don't understand that what they're doing is destructive. They will grow out of it, although it may take awhile. But if you really don't want all of them, have a serious talk with your DH to see if you both can come to some kind of an agreement. Good luck.

I've already decided to prop the door open. Taking the flap off is another good idea. Because, no... I don't need it.

niquejp - please check your PMs.

It's not spite, it's stress.

Cats can feel many emotions, but spite is not really one of them. STRESS however can cause a cat to behave this way. What you describe can certainly cause stress to a cat, they are very sensitive to any kind of stress.

STRESS also causes urinary tract problems such as crystals or bacterial infections or both. Inappropriate peeing is not only a sign of a cat feeling stress, it is a symptom of these very dangerous painful diseases.

In a male, this can become FATAL very quickly if not taken care of.

Getting rid of the kittens will not solve his problem if it is health related, which, by this point very likely is. Please bring him to the vet, he is probably already in a lot of pain.

No, cats are not spiteful. They don't have that reasoning ability. He needs to see a vet. You cannot apply human behavior to a cat, no matter how well you know him. You need to tend to him. He is just an animal and looks to you for his well being. He does not need to be "dealt with later". He should not be punished in any way, it will only make the problem worse.

Sounds like more going on here than just the cats.

Couldn't agree more. Kittens are just like little kids. They want to touch everything, taste everything and just explore the new world around them. Its up to the owner/parent to sent boundries for them. Mine have learned that "nonono" means stop what you are doing.

I feel for all of you - this does not sound like a happy situation and the cats appear to be caught in the middle. I hope you and your hubby can sit down and work this out amicably for everyone.

This rather alarms me. I hope you're venting rather than threatening; are you?

To pee in spite, revenge or anger, a cat must first be angry about an act, then attribute the cause of that act to you, then recognize that his peeing outside his litterbox is something that would cause you the same anger he's feeling.

This kind of reasoning just simply isn't possible for cats.

Peeing in places he could potentially find comforting (the old chair, the clean clothes) is a classic reaction to stress, however. How many litter boxes of what type and size do you have (the recommendation is one box per cat plus one)?

Also, cats are very sensitive to disharmony in the home - it's likely the poor guy is not only stressed from all the new cats, but also from the tension between you and your hubby. Maybe you could mention that to hubby? If he really cares about the kitties, recognizing that this is an unhealthy environment may help him make some changes.