Cats can get stressed

Like humans developing ulcers, so too can cats develop stress-induced illnesses.  Ritz has stress-induced FLUTD; the first time she had it was a result of having strange, noisy repairmen in my house for several days.  The second time, when I went away on vacation for five days.  I'm having some repair work done in my house next week, and I hope lots of Feliway and Rescue Remedy will mitigate the symptons (UTIs and constipation).

I'm debating whether to put her in a cat carrier and move her to the basement or put her in the bathroom.  Too late for antianxiety meds (and I don't like the side effects they can cause).  Anybody have any other ideas?

Not sure if this would work, but maybe put on a radio to help drown out the louder unpleasant noises? 

We do this at work. If it's too quiet the dogs bark at every little noise, but if the radio is playing in the background it helps to provide a kind of "white noise".

Day two of work being done in my house, last day thank goodness.

I've been playing soundscape ('new age') music from 4 a.m. until around 7 p.m., and it seems to have helped Ritz.

That, and lots of rescue remedy.  Feliway too.  What also helped was to close the door(s) to where the man was working; what she doesn't see, won't scare her as much.

She actually sat next to me and groomed herself (which I understand helps calms a cat) on the sofa while the handyman was painting and vacuuming in the bedroom.

Glad to hear she's holding out ok. I haven't ever tried Feliway or Rescue Remedy, but a co-worker highly recommended rescue remedy to me recently.

Soundscapes sound nice! I love this CD my mom has called guitar by the sea. I think its classical guitar with waves crashing in the back ground. Very soothing!

Classical guitar sounds great, perfect.  I also read that harp music is especially soothing for cats.

Ritz kind of ignored me yesterday evening but did sleep with me as usual.

I would try rescue remedy. While I didn't achieve results with my dog before he passed I would reccommend it and try it on future pets. I think my dog's anxiety was at the level where nothing could work unfortunately. But it's got over 75% success rate for a reason! (*plus it helped me relax and move on after my dog's passing.. So it helps everyone!)