Hi all-
Don't know if this belongs in the behavior section, but...
On Friday night, my husband and I came home to find the house smelling like cat pee. We have 2 male cats (8 months old and neutered). It ended up that a stray male (who I think is the same one we've seen in the backyard) got in because I didn't close the cat door all the way. He was hiding in my closet (where he did NOT pee) and when I opened the closet he bulleted out and dashed to the garage. I found out he had peed on my office chair and mat-- that's pretty much cleaned up now with Nature's Miracle.
It was late at night and, like idiots, we thought that if we left the backdoor open and left him alone, he'd leave during the night. Wrong. He remained lodged up in the rafters all day Saturday. By that evening, the whole garage smelled like cat urine. By now my husband is super mad. The cat was not menacing, but there was no way to get him out because he was way up in a corner in the garage rafters. We had to get animal control to get him out (they didn't want to help, but my husband managed to convince them). He ran to the yard and we haven't seen him again.
Here's the situation now:
- We sort of cleaned the garage. I say "sort of" because the garage is large, poorly illuminated and we don't know where the cat had been. So we cleaned with soap and water where the smell seemed worse. It seems to us that the smell is getting better over time. Question: do we leave this alone? We're pretty sure we can't clean it all, so we thought of moving everything out and calling cleaners. Would cleaners be able to handle this? If we leave it, will it dissipate over time?
- I was planning to try to trap this cat and have him neutered. I'm pretty sure it's a stray and I think it's fair game if he's coming into my house and urinating.
- The cat has not caused any harm to our cats. In fact, it took us a while to find the cat originally because they were not at all acting weird even though there was another male in the house. No scratches, wounds, nothing. I actually think he might be buddies with my boys.
In addition to my question about the garage, if anyone has any comments on this situation, I'd appreciate hearing them!
Thanks,
Anita
Don't know if this belongs in the behavior section, but...
On Friday night, my husband and I came home to find the house smelling like cat pee. We have 2 male cats (8 months old and neutered). It ended up that a stray male (who I think is the same one we've seen in the backyard) got in because I didn't close the cat door all the way. He was hiding in my closet (where he did NOT pee) and when I opened the closet he bulleted out and dashed to the garage. I found out he had peed on my office chair and mat-- that's pretty much cleaned up now with Nature's Miracle.
It was late at night and, like idiots, we thought that if we left the backdoor open and left him alone, he'd leave during the night. Wrong. He remained lodged up in the rafters all day Saturday. By that evening, the whole garage smelled like cat urine. By now my husband is super mad. The cat was not menacing, but there was no way to get him out because he was way up in a corner in the garage rafters. We had to get animal control to get him out (they didn't want to help, but my husband managed to convince them). He ran to the yard and we haven't seen him again.
Here's the situation now:
- We sort of cleaned the garage. I say "sort of" because the garage is large, poorly illuminated and we don't know where the cat had been. So we cleaned with soap and water where the smell seemed worse. It seems to us that the smell is getting better over time. Question: do we leave this alone? We're pretty sure we can't clean it all, so we thought of moving everything out and calling cleaners. Would cleaners be able to handle this? If we leave it, will it dissipate over time?
- I was planning to try to trap this cat and have him neutered. I'm pretty sure it's a stray and I think it's fair game if he's coming into my house and urinating.
- The cat has not caused any harm to our cats. In fact, it took us a while to find the cat originally because they were not at all acting weird even though there was another male in the house. No scratches, wounds, nothing. I actually think he might be buddies with my boys.
In addition to my question about the garage, if anyone has any comments on this situation, I'd appreciate hearing them!
Thanks,
Anita
