Cat spraying Christmas tree

This cat.  SIGH.  If it wasn't for the fact that 1) he's 10 years old and 2) we got him from my neighbor's sister who adores this animal and who- almost a year after moving here STILL comes over here to see the cat- I would have re-homed him. 

He sprays.  No it's NOT medical.  He's a very nervous, territorial cat.  Don't know if part of it is b/c he's declawed (not MY thing- he came to us this way).  I do have most of the problem under control thanks to Nature's Miracle and 2 Feliaway diffusers.

So now he's spraying the real Christmas tree.  SIGH. 

What I did is take the diffuser from upstairs (b/c he's spraying up there) and put that one in the room with the tree.  I know- now there isn't one upstairs and he may decide to start spraying there again.  SIGH.  I so don't want to pay Petsmart prices for ANOTHER diffuser- but I may have to so we can keep the "peace" for the next few weeks.

Ugh.  At least there's no tree skirt under there right now (I intentionally didn't put one down b/c of this cat's past behavior). 

Any other ideas that might work? 

I guess I should be happy and it's not Holly (aka Mayhem) deciding that the Christmas tree is a fun place to "play". 

Cheryl

Not a real answer to your questions, but still a part solution.

Feliway diffusers are rather costly. And you are apparently using them permanently, so it makes quite some money every year.

Try to find them at E-bay or Amazon. They say you can find them cheaper there.

Christmas tree I imagine it has lots of smells. It may even be some animal did, ahum, made the shorter bathroom thing on it...          I mean, nothing peculiar with the cats verry interested and defending their revire.

Our newest investion in our home is a ready made half lamp, half tree, made of some planks.

Looks quite nice, works fine, and our cats arent the least interested.  

Just smelled on them once or twice and proceed minding their own business.

Yeah they are.  I bought 1 at Petsmart b/c I was desperate.  The cat was spraying all over my den and ruining furniture.  And I couldn't wait for Amazon to deliver.  That did wonders- the spraying in there went down almost immediately.  Using Nature's Miracle helped too.I have to make sure that the diffuser doesn't completely run out.  That happened once downstairs and I had a few spraying problems.  I also found that the refills- if you buy them in bulk on Amazon are way cheaper than getting them at Petsmart.  $60 for 6 of them  

So I guess you can say the diffusers are a permanant solution.  I was just kind of hoping we could get away with only 1 downstairs.  Our house isn't huge- but I think they only cover 900 or so square feet per diffuser, and it's probably a little more than that downstairs.

But if he starts spraying upstairs again- I just can't wait a week for amazon to send me another one.

Sigh.  And more than likely- I'm figuring this behavior was NOT just because he was moved here. I can almost bet it's something he did all along.  So you don't want to "punish" him b/c it's not like he's doing it out of spite.   

The lady who had him before had other issues as well (hoarding being one of them) so I can bet the cat pee was never cleaned up in her apartment.  Yuck.

Cheryl

AWWWW Bless you for taking in this cat and taking on the "spraying" issues. I suspect you are right in that he sprayed well before you ever got him . Sound's like a stressful environment for this cat being in a hoarding situation. In many cat hoarding situations, keeping up with litter boxes is not done properly at all. Plus the fact that he was declawed might have set off litter box aversion too. Good that the Feliway diffuser's are working. They are pricey - but do work for these problems. Have you ever tried Cat Attract litter??? They also sell an herbal cat litter attractant that you can sprinkle on clumping litter and mix in. It might be a bit cheaper and last longer for you. There is a great article written by a wonderful member on cleaning up cat urine. I will go and copy it and post it here for you to read. Might help :nod:

Here it is .
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-remove-cat-urine

I did do one more thing. 

His litter box is in the garage.  Dh decided to store some of the containers that the Christmas stuff came in.  It's a pain to have to haul them out- and put them back.  But- were the containers causing him stress and making him not want to use his box?  I don't know. 

So I took the boxes and put them all back in the attic.  Yeah, dh will be annoyed that we have to go BACK up there to get them.  But if it makes the stress level of this cat go down and he's not spraying in my house- I'll be happy. 

It's so hard to get mad at this animal.  Esp at night when he likes to "occupy lap".  Then he'll lay there and make "happy Jasper noises" as I call them LOL.

Cheryl

OH I see - about the "hoarding" of thing's :nod: Yes - still that can be quite a mess for a cat and a bit stressful - OR it might be loads of fun climbing on all of that stuff. But it likely that they never keep up with litter box scooping and patrol which might have lead to the spraying behavior becoming a habit.... But it can be rectified :nod:

Sneakymom said:

His litter box is in the garage. 

Cheryl

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Hi Cheryl - I just noticed this, where you are keeping the litter box. Do you have any litter box inside the house? This may be part of the issue if the only box is in the garage :dk:. I always recommend for one cat - two very large open litter boxes for the cat to use and choose from. Some kitties want one box to pee in and one box to poop in. :lol3: I know sounds silly - but it is true !!!!! I wonder if you try to add a couple of boxes inside the house plus leaving the one in the garage. Just until he is regularly using the boxes, then maybe you could get rid of one of the boxes. I just always feel that the more boxes the better. They don't look great in the home - but to me - it is worse if someone decides to not use the litter box because there are not enough of them. Just a thought