We have two cats, Buddha (is about 12) and Brian (is about 2). Buddha was my wife's cat before we moved in together and got married. When he got used to me being around, my wife would complain that I get all of his attention. He'd sleep on my lap all the time and just generally chill out around me. We decided to get another cat for companionship, so we adopted Brian. They would get into their spats, but overall they were fine together. We were living in a 2 bedroom, 1000 sq ft apartment. Since we didn't have a whole lot of room, they had to share a litterbox in the guest bathroom. Every once in a while Buddha would pee outside of the box, before we got Brian. He started doing it more when Brian came around and I attributed it to them having to share. So I picked up another litterbox and put it in the living room. It didn't seem to fix anything, as Buddha would right in front of the litterbox, on the floor or the mat. He also has a bad habit of just peeing on things that around laying around. For instance, if my wife left a scarf on the back of a chair and it got knocked to the ground, he would pee on it within the day.
Fast forward to now. We bought our first house and have been living in it for about 3 months. Buddha cannot relax at all! To start the peeing in front of the litterbox has gotten worse. I've seen him properly use the litterbox once, right after I scrub it and fill it with fresh litter, but after that he's peeing on the mat or the floor again. There is one litterbox in the hall and the other in the garage, quite far apart. I wanted to eliminate the "private space" issue, but that hasn't helped. I've thoroughly cleaned the mats and floors to ensure there's no remaining odor. Nothing is working and we've got a little one on the way. I can't have them crawling around with that happening.
On top of that, Buddha will not relax. He's always pacing and making a loud, distressed meow. I know part of it is he can now see the yard and wants to go outside. A long time ago, he used to be an outdoor cat. Since the apartment was on the second floor, he didn't really have an area he wanted to go into. When I saw that he was completely freaking out about the outside, I'd pick him up and take him outside to show him the yard. I'd never let him go, but I'd set him on the grass so he could check it out. My god, that made things worse. Now he thinks I'm always going to let him outside and that was a month and a half ago.
I got one of those plugin pheromone things to put by the back door, but it's not working at all. It's been the better part of a month. He can't be happy because all he does is pace throughout the house meowing. He'll eventually get tired, but as soon as one of us gets up, he's right back to it. If I'm in another room with the door closed (due to fear of him peeing on things) he'll sit outside of it and meow so loud.
We did take him to the vet to have him checked out. They did some blood work and did find out he's got a bit of a high protein issue, so we got him on special food. He's also lost a lot of weight since we moved. The vet said it's probably because Brian is chasing him around the house and he's actually getting exercise. She said he's at his optimal weight now, but you can feel his vertebrae down his back.
Any and all help or advice is greatly appreciated. I know that's a lot of information to take in, and I probably could have structured it better, but maybe that's an indication of how desperate we are to get this resolved. He's driving us both crazy and we just want our old Buddha back.
Fast forward to now. We bought our first house and have been living in it for about 3 months. Buddha cannot relax at all! To start the peeing in front of the litterbox has gotten worse. I've seen him properly use the litterbox once, right after I scrub it and fill it with fresh litter, but after that he's peeing on the mat or the floor again. There is one litterbox in the hall and the other in the garage, quite far apart. I wanted to eliminate the "private space" issue, but that hasn't helped. I've thoroughly cleaned the mats and floors to ensure there's no remaining odor. Nothing is working and we've got a little one on the way. I can't have them crawling around with that happening.
On top of that, Buddha will not relax. He's always pacing and making a loud, distressed meow. I know part of it is he can now see the yard and wants to go outside. A long time ago, he used to be an outdoor cat. Since the apartment was on the second floor, he didn't really have an area he wanted to go into. When I saw that he was completely freaking out about the outside, I'd pick him up and take him outside to show him the yard. I'd never let him go, but I'd set him on the grass so he could check it out. My god, that made things worse. Now he thinks I'm always going to let him outside and that was a month and a half ago.
I got one of those plugin pheromone things to put by the back door, but it's not working at all. It's been the better part of a month. He can't be happy because all he does is pace throughout the house meowing. He'll eventually get tired, but as soon as one of us gets up, he's right back to it. If I'm in another room with the door closed (due to fear of him peeing on things) he'll sit outside of it and meow so loud.
We did take him to the vet to have him checked out. They did some blood work and did find out he's got a bit of a high protein issue, so we got him on special food. He's also lost a lot of weight since we moved. The vet said it's probably because Brian is chasing him around the house and he's actually getting exercise. She said he's at his optimal weight now, but you can feel his vertebrae down his back.
Any and all help or advice is greatly appreciated. I know that's a lot of information to take in, and I probably could have structured it better, but maybe that's an indication of how desperate we are to get this resolved. He's driving us both crazy and we just want our old Buddha back.
