Two difficult to care for cats

So for the last year I've lived with a roommate, but I spent the entire time saving up for my own place and searching for something affordable. At pretty much the exact same time as I finally moved into my own place, my family moved from their house to the east coast, and not wanting to risk the cats not making the trip, I got stuck with them. I'm good with pets, and these two cats have been in my family for an eternity, so I didn't mind.

Anyway, one of the cats is 19, the other is 14, and although the landlord liked me enough to bend the rules and let them stay with me, he was very clear that I wasn't to let them out, so as not to give the impression that he'd be okay with anyone having pets.

The 14 year old eats as if every meal is his last, so I have to sit with him every time I feed them so that the older one can get some before he finishes the job. He also has an eat to poo ratio of 1:1. If he uses the litter box (which he does literally about 6 or 7 times a day) and I don't clean it before the older one uses it, the older one will step in it and track it everywhere.

14 urinates where he pleases, 19 tracks the litter and poo all over the carpet and all over my bed. 19 can't get on the bed on his own, so he'll scream at me until I pick him up, which happens maybe 8 times every night when I sleep. I have to set my alarm for all hours of the night to clean the litter box so as to try and avoid the poo tracking, which always ends up happening anyway. Both make a point, when they throw up or cough up a hairball, to do it on the carpet instead of in the easily cleaned kitchen. I spend hours every day cleaning, and I'm too embarrassed to have friends or a girl over.

This weekend I spent the night out. I made sure the cats had eaten, used the litter box, and everything was impeccably clean. I was gone for 14 hours, and when I came back, I returned to a complete wreck. I spent eight hours and a few hundred dollars cleaning. Since then, I've literally been sapped. I can't imagine having to do that, having to spend hours every day cleaning, to be too embarrassed to have people over.

Since the eight hour clean-a-thon, I got one nights sleep, and woke up to the same old mess. Since then, I just kind of collapsed. I stopped cleaning, I've slept maybe an hour in the past few days, I've hardly eaten, I've barely left my place for fear of new messes, and since I live in filth anyway, I've even found the need to shower less pressing. It all feels so futile. I clean for hours, every day, and then it's just the same story. My bedding will always have crappy litter on it, there will always be the smell of pee I can't find, I'll always need to pick 19 up on the bed, always have to clean the litter box several times a day. I'm just losing it, I don't know what I can do. I don't want to give the cats that have been in my family for years to some random stranger, I don't feel justified putting them down. I'm just, I don't know, I'm losing my mind. What can I do?

Just as a note, both cats have gone to the vet recently, and I give them their medication. They don't have any pressing medical issues, and the medicine is mostly preventative.

The cats have had blood work done this month. I've even taken in stool samples. For as big of a pain as I consider them, I definitely love these cats, and I've also had enough pets in my time to know that keeping them around for my sake is definitely not in their best interest. If I got the impression that they were unhappy or in some kind of diress, I would more seriously consider putting them down. I'm just exhausted. I don't think, at the very least, the 19 year old would survive a cross country trip, and I'm not even sure if that would be a possibility for my family (new dog, demanding jobs). I'm kind of at my wits end, and it feels more and more like I just don't have options, but I don't want my feelings of burden to translate into how I treat the cats, but I also don't want to be expected to care for them for an extreme length of time.

I seriously appreciate the suggestions and empathy. I went out today and got a second litter box and some steps for the bed, hoping for the best with that. The main issue with these things is space, I live in a studio apartment so there isn't a whole lot of room for a lot of cat related merchandise, but hopefully this will work.

Chandler (the 14 year old) actually does attempt to bury when he uses the litter box, the problem is actually that his poo is liquidy (hence me taking in stool samples), and I actually got medication for that that didn't prove to be effective. This is also why I'm hesitant with the self-cleaning boxes, I'm afraid it would just drag and spread.

The issue with the pee is partly that I can't tell where all of it is. The color of the carpets makes it tough to identify until I see him going in a specific area (which isn't an issue when I'm home, it's not like there's a room he can go to that's out of sight).

Anyway, I'm gonna set up the second litter box and the steps, and I'll take the other suggestions and try out the cleaning for the carpet and bedding. Luckily my family is helping with the cat budget, though I'm definitely spending more than they anticipated (Chandler is the source of the majority of the mess, even though Zeppelin (the 19 year old) tracks a lot of it, he's the much cleanlier cat when operating on his own, and Chandler used to be an outdoor cat (which is why I think he eats everything in sight, I think he's sort of restless and bored)). I'll keep you guys posted and ask for help when I need it. I'm seriously grateful for the help, and I'm glad I found this board.

Oh, and someone asked earlier about the types of food and litter I use. Basically the set up I have going is I always have a supply of Deli-Cat on hand for hard food. This is usually just something they snack on occasionally, but I've been considering putting it out of reach at night since Chandler will eventually get hungry enough to down the whole bowl, which could likely be the cause of the frequent midnight poo.

As for wet food, this is something I'd do more research on if Zeppelin wasn't so particular. Chandler would eat anything, but Zep literally refuses to eat anything other than specific flavors of Friskies (the original kind). If I put down a flavor he doesn't like, a flavor he's recently had too much of, or a different brand, he will seriously just refuse to eat it. He would starve before giving in. I try to keep it to two cans a day, but sometimes I have to give in just because Chandler will end up eating the majority (basically, I'll sit with Chan while Zep eats, but once Zep is done, Chan will finish it off in just a couple of sittings). I really just have no way to separate who gets what, and it's hard to be concerned with them getting too much, and easy to be concerned with too little, because in the last few years they've both lost a lot of weight.

As for litter, I've tried all kinds, and so far it seems the best bet, the only way there's a possibility Chan will use the box to pee, is Fresh Step Multiple Cat Scoopable. This is also the only litter that makes at least a little headway at clumping Chandler's poo.

Do you think I should restrict the Deli-Cat? At least at night? The cats act extraordinarily hungry when I run out and I wait a little while before going to the store, but I can't imagine Chan eating an entire bowl every night is doing him or me any favors.

I'll definitely look into the black light. As for what I've been trying to use, has anyone heard of Nature's Miracle Advanced? Comes in a red bottle? It's tough to tell if it's having the desired effect just because the cat continues to pee in the same places, but if the second litter box has the desired effect, I'll try and go to town on the carpet, I just want to know if I have the right stuff (one of the ingredients is Bio-Enzymatic Odor-Lock).

Is there a hard food you would feel comfortable recommending off hand? I wouldn't want to cut them off entirely because they get so hungry, but I've definitely had suspicions that the Deli-Cat was a big part of Chan's problem (they ran out late one night and I didn't get more until morning, and that night the poo was still soft, but it was definitely more manageable).

Thanks, I just hit up the Nutrition board asking for recommendations. And thanks again to everyone. I hope to come back with better news about my living situation.

Well, with the second litter box and mats in place, I went out last night, then came home and went straight to bed without doing further cleaning. When I woke up this morning, there wasn't a single grain of litter on my bed or on the carpet. Chandler used both litter boxes liberally last night, and the mats prevented the litter from getting around, and I guess Zeppy had room to avoid stepping in anything, so it worked like a dream. Both of the litter boxes were pretty full up though, the ideal would be to have a third one, honestly, but I just can't figure a way to have enough room for one, having two in my kitchen is already taking up a bunch of space, and I'd prefer not to have one in the living area.

One thing though, Chan clearly used the litter boxes for peeing last night, and I can tell there weren't any new surprises on the carpet, but this morning, after I cleaned out both litter boxes, and he knew they were clean, he just decided to pee on one of the mats. I mean, it's definitely ideal to the carpets and kitchen floor, I just thought it was odd because he happily used the boxes last night, and they were cleaned this morning.

Also, Zep won't use the steps, I think he prefers waking me to get my attention. He didn't used to have a problem getting up, but I think he depended on his claws a lot, and I had to get them trimmed because he kept getting caught on things.

Anyway, thanks to the advice I've gotten here, there's already been a noticeable increase in mine and the cats' quality of life, at least so far, so I just wanna share my gratitude with everyone. Less smell, less mess, everything is definitely more manageable, and now I'm less scared to leave my apartment for chunks of time, so thanks again.

I said in an earlier post that it was important to me that my feelings of burden didn't translate into how I treat the cats. It's true that, even being a pet lover, I was really looking forward to being in a position where I was on my own and without responsibility to anyone but myself, just for a little while. And truth be told, and I absolutely don't mean any disrespect by this statement, and it's honestly not something I personally believe in or judge anyway, but I feel like there's a stigma that comes with being a young guy that lives alone in a studio apartment with two cats. I was looking forward to dating, having friends over, and in all ways other than financially, living relatively carefree.

Are the cats kind of a burden? Yeah, definitely. Is this my ideal situation? Definitely not. But I feel like, to the extent that I've had cats, including these two, in my life, and for the majority of my life, that I'm pretty well suited to treat the situation with care. These cats don't understand my situation, and they aren't to blame either, so I make all the effort to treat them with nothing but love. I know that treating them with some kind of indirect spite would be terrible for them. When I feel overwhelmed, I never take that out on the cats or treat them differently as a result.

At the age they're at, and the fact that of all the cats I've ever had, these two in particular have been companions in a sense, I wouldn't want to risk them being separated from each other. In a way, too, Zeppelin was always mine. I'm, to this day, even after I moved from my family's house, the only human that Zeppy is comfortable with. He literally despises everyone else, including other family members. I had to drive home frequently after moving to help take him to the vet, or give him medicine, or even just hang with him when he wasn't feeling well.

I mean, it comes down to the fact that while this isn't my desired situation, I would feel far more regret giving them up than I would feel burden keeping them. I don't know that I could trust someone else to give them their medicine the right way, to calm them down the way I know how to, etc etc. If I felt at all like I was showing my exhaustion in the way I treat them, or if they felt uncomfortable because of the way they were perceiving me, then yeah, I'd look into something else, but I'm confident I'm doing right by the cats so far.

As for the traveling thing, when they went to the vet, although there are no pressing medical issues that aren't already being treated, there could be complications from flying, and at Zeppy's age, I think a five day cross country drive is about the worst thing I could do for him. I took the cats in out of respect for my family's needs, but I'm keeping them and caring for them out of respect for them, as pets I've had for years.