Need advice for 2 cats and vacation!

Hello all -

We have an 8-year-old cat, and last fall we added a 6-month-old kitten.  (It was sort of by accident!)  Now the kitten is about 14 months old.  They kind of get along.  They mostly ignore each other, sometimes chase each other, and occasionally do "wrestle."  About 1/3  of the time the wrestling seems to get "out of control" - one (usually the older) starts to hiss, ears go back.  Frequently they will separate themselves pretty quickly; if not, we do it.  They do not groom each other, but sometimes will sleep within a foot or so of each other.

We went away for 5 days at Christmas and had a friend come in to feed them daily.  When we came back they were fighting horribly!!  My take at the time was that maybe the "wrestling" had gotten out of control repeatedly and now there was bad blood between them.  We had to separate them a lot over the next month or so, and gradually things settled down.  (Actually, I'm remembering now - before we left they would - rarely - sleep touching each other.  They have not done that since then.)

We are about to be gone for 12 days, again with a friend coming in daily.  I can't decide how to handle it!!!!  Our house CAN be divided with doors into Upstairs and Downstairs, and there is a litter box in each place.  For the past 6-8 weeks Cat (the 8 year old) has spent nearly all her time Upstairs and Kitten has spent all her time Downstairs - so it seemed natural to divide them that way. 

But the big problem: the litter box and food that Cat has used for 8 years is Downstairs.  She rarely uses the litter box Upstairs - she has, but I haven't seen her do it in some time.  

For the past few days we've been putting food in both places, and today I shut Cat Upstairs to see if it would work.  But she has gone the entire day - about 12 hours now - without using the litter box.  :-(  I'm starting to get worried.

My options:

1) Keep waiting and hoping that Cat will start using the box Upstairs, and let her be where she seems to like it best these days.  

2) Reverse it, and shut Kitten Upstairs and Cat Downstairs.  I think they would both be a little stressed, though, to be away from their favorite spots. But - though I think Kitten uses the Downstairs box more often, I am sure she uses the Upstairs box too.

3) NOT separate them. Give them both free reign of the house.  Hope that they don't fall into the bad fighting patterns.

Any advice?  I'm absolutely baffled!

Thanks!!

I would separate them. Try it out for a few days before you go on vacation.

Based on your description, I would put the older upstairs and the younger down. But, you want to make sure both are using the litter box BEFORE you leave.

Also, are there any differences in the 2 boxes you have? Different sizes, types, etc??

Ugh.  I got up this morning, and the upstairs littler box was still empty!  It had been 24 hours since we separated them.  With a sinking feeling I decided Cat must have gone outside the box.  But then, as I started looking around, Kitten walked into the room!  Someone (my husband or son?) who went to bed after me must have left the door open between them.  So I bet Cat went to her usual litter box Downstairs, and I still don't know if this will work.  We leave in 4 days.

Yes, the boxes are different.  The Downstairs one is actually a big, translucent storage tub - it's in a basement, and that works fine.  The Upstairs one is a proper litter box and it has a lid and door - it's in a smaller living space so we really needed the lid to make it workable for the family.  Both Kitten and Cat HAVE used it with the lid and door in place - but like I said, it has been a long time since I saw Cat use it.  For this experiment I have lifted the front on that box so it is now only enclosed on 3 sides, hoping that Cat would like that better.

My husband suggested that we consider switching the 2 boxes, just while we are gone.  I may have to do that.  It's a little discouraging, because it took months of slowly moving the boxes to get to this arrangement that I wanted - but maybe that's the best option, at least for the short term.

As an aside - in the middle of the night I heard Cat racing around upstairs.  I thought it was odd that she was acting that way without Kitten around to chase.  So that explains it - she WAS chasing Kitten!  :-)

I keep wondering if I really should separate them or let them be together.  But I still suspect separating is the right idea.....

It might be fine if they were left together, but it sounds like separating would probably be safest still at this point.  It's a tough call and obviously more inconvenient to keep them separate, but you'll probably feel more comfortable knowing for sure that they aren't fighting.

I think you may want to move the old litter box from downstairs to upstairs for this trip, even though this is not your preferred arrangement.  I suspect Cat may really not like going in a covered box.  With more time I would suggest looking for a different upstairs box that suited both yours and Cat's needs as it sounds like this one really isn't working for the cats, but you probably don't really have enough time to be sure of a new one working.  You don't want to risk being away for 12 days and having stubborn Cat decide not to use a litter box!

Sadly, I'm starting to think separating them is not going to work!  Cat has only peed 1 time in the past 30 hours, and has not pooped at all.  (Unless she's gone outside the box and I haven't found it yet!)  I'm really worried that shutting her on only 1/2 of the house is making her stressed.  Since my goal is to REDUCE their stress while we are gone that's not good!

Right now I'm thinking that we may just need to have them together.  I have not opened the door yet, but am thinking to do so later this morning.  (We did switch the boxes, fyi, but that hasn't helped Cat.  Kitten is fine with both.)

Any advice for increasing peace while we are gone?  We leave in 2 days.  I don't have Feliway plug ins unfortunately, and probably can't get them before we go.  I do have the spray, but honestly have not found it to be that effective.

I've got someone coming in to feed them and our other critters.  I may ask her to try to spend some focused playtime with them when she can.

Their food has been fairly close in the kitchen, and they have always eaten fine - but I may separate them more while we are gone (opposite sides of the room, maybe?).  I will ask her to keep the dry food bowls filled so they are not competing for food.

I will leave out lots of toys.  

Any thoughts?  Either on putting them together, or whether I should wait longer to "give up?"

Thank you!!!

This really is a tough decision.

How often per week do you think they get into these small fights? If you were not to intervene, how long would it take them to break it up?

They are going to be spending a lot of alone time together for nearly 2 weeks. And a lot can happen in that time period.

My suggestion would be to try the new Feliway MultiCat, though it can take a few weeks to a few months to see any improvement. (It took 3 solid months of using the original Feliway to see improvement in my home.) So, there's no guarantee that you would see any improvement for the time you are gone. BUT, definitely something to consider when you get back!

Have you thought about switching the cats where Cat is down and Kitten is up?

As for your sitter...
How frequently will they visit your home and for how long each visit?
Has this person cared for your animals before? Will either cat hide from this person?
Would it be feasible for them to monitor the cats in their new territories and see if this works? If not, the sitter could open the dividing doors and allow cats full access.

The frequency of their little spats goes up and down.  I'm guessing now it's around 3 times per week?  

I keep wondering about switching territory.  But all of their favorite spots are with this arrangement, and this is the way they spend most of their time, so it's seems more reasonable??

It's hardest for Cat, who has spent most of her 8.5 years with free reign of the house.  Kitten would probably be fine either way - because she was slowly introduced in, she is used to being shut in various parts of the house.  

Our catsitter knows our animals well, so I don't think they will hide.  But I feel uncomfortable asking her to take charge of deciding what they need.  

I'm watching Cat right now.  She seems very content in one of her favorite spots.  But she's hasn't pooped in 24 hours, and has only peed 1 time.  I'm worried!

I would expect there to be some adjustment time for Cat as you are changing her routine.

Do your cats wear collars? We have used the Feliway spray on our cats' breakaway collars to get a similar affect to a calming collar. Just spray on collar, place collar in a bag for about 30 mins, then put collar on cat.

This would need to be repeated daily, but would be worth a shot.

Aside from scant litter box usage, how is Cat's appetite? Is she drinking much water?

Can try putting a temporary litter box close to her favorite nap spot? I would get one similar to the box you know she likes.

You could give this a few more days of try and see how it goes.

And let me add. You know your cats the best. You have to be comfortable with the decision.

Perhaps a compromise would be to allow the cats free reign during the day and separate them at night, when they're likely to be unsupervised for a longer duration.

Or, you could allow free reign and let the sitter know it is ok to separate them if there is signs of problems.

I'm thrilled to report that Cat is using the upstairs litter box!  Both of them seem to be adjusting well to their half of the house.   I think this might actually work!  

Thanks for all the input and advice!

So happy to hear this! I really think this particular setup will help ease your mind while away.

Hope you have a wonderful vacation!