Urination problems

Hello...

I read the sticky thread about cat pee problems, and it was very helpful, but it still left a couple of my questions unanswered.

Here's my background story. I am currently living with my parents, one of whom is deathly allergic to cats, and the other who detests them. I moved from one state to another to live here, and bringing them with me was not an option. They are now in the care of my boyfriend's mother, who did not want to keep them in the first place, but was doing it as a favor to her son. My boyfriend came with me and lived at my parents' house for a month and just left today. A week after we arrived at my parents' house, his mother called to tell us that the cats, or just one of them, she doesn't know which, urinated in the house, on my bf's clothing and a chair he sat in to be exact. After reading the sticky thread, I can understand that they were stressed by us both seemingly abandoning them and that urinating there was "soothing" to them.

Two weeks passed after this first incident without any further problems. Then his mother calls and tells him the cat/s now has pooped in the dining room. I don't have even a possible explanation for this.

Then another week and a half passed with no incident. Now, the day that my bf is going back home (albeit only for a couple of days as he is leaving for school), she calls to tell him that the cat/s have peed in the living room, on the dining room table, and on the kitchen counter.

Okay...what is this all about? I know there are some highly knowledgeable cat people on here and I so hope you can try to explain this to me. I have a couple of questions.

1. Why do the cats only seem to "supposedly" do this when she is not home, and use the litterbox perfectly when she IS home with no problems? Is this typical? The fact that this is true kind of makes me want to rule out any UTI problems.

2. Why would the cats pee on the kitchen counter or the dining room table? I had always been under the impression that cats usually chose to urinate on cloth covered surfaces. Why on earth would a cat choose to jump three feet onto a counter and pee on it?

3. Would a female cat in heat cause a NEUTERED male cat to start urinating in strange places? Our female cat is not spayed, but our male cat is neutered. However, I can't see how this would be an explanation, as the female has been in heat before around the male and he has never done anything like this.

I say "supposedly" in #1 because, frankly, I don't trust this woman farther than I can throw her. She is manipulative, unstable, and a liar. As I said, she never wanted to take care of the cats in the first place. There is something about this story that is just not adding up to me, and I find it a little too convenient that the cats decide to mess in the house again the DAY my bf goes back home, and for all the reasons above. Hmmm...could that be because she wants to be rid of the cats and didn't want to do it herself? I never wanted to leave our cats with her in the first place and tried my darndest to find another avenue, but I was unable to. An aunt 15 minutes from where I live was going to take them, but HER daughter moved back in with her a couple weeks ago with her dog that doesn't like cats .

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I don't have any answers to your questions, but one thing is obvious. The cats need a new home.

One of my friends cats was known to pee on kitchen counters, my neighbours cats spray on the plugs behind microwave etc, so on the same level. They do need a new home, but I would also seriously advise having the female spayed, it will stop her getting cancer and infections, and the peeing may be her spraying, in which case it might help. I think they normally spray to mark out their territory, which she could be doing due to being in a strange place. Also, if she attempts to get out cos she is in heat, do you think these people would stop her?

I have a male who is prone to urinary tract infections. I always know when he has an infection when I find pee on the kitchen counter. When a cat selects a cool smooth surface to pee on, it is almost guaranteed that it is a urinary tract infection.

Note that UTIs can be triggered by stress. It sounds to me as if they live in a place that is not very welcoming, so the stress of being around someone who hates them might have brought on a UTI.

Please have someone take the cat to the vet to have a urinalysis done. And, please get the female spayed soon. You sure as heck wouldn't want that woman taking care of a pregnant cat (just in case she gets out and gets pregnant).

I want to add that because the lady hates the cats, it is likely that she isn't scooping their litter boxes at least twice a day. If she is letting their boxes get dirty, they will pee elsewhere. But, the peeing on the counters really makes me think that one of them is sick.

Thank you all for your advice. The female cat is being spayed sometime this week. My bf's mother refuses to take the cats to the vet herself because she "doesn't have the time". I am not really sure at this point what to do. I have come to the point where I don't want my cats in that house anymore. I can imagine the stress they are going through living in that environment, as I lived there myself for awhile and it was like living in a war zone. I am not looking for sympathetic words or anything, but I do feel so guilty in the first place for leaving them there. I thought at the time, because I didn't have any other options, that it was better to do that than to surrender them to a shelter. His mother promised to take care of them, but I should have known better.

At this point, my boyfriend is calling our vet on monday morning to see if they know anyone who would be willing to foster them for a year. Honestly, I don't know the likelihood of that happening. For one, I've never heard of anyone doing this unless the animals are abandoned or they are doing it as a courtesy for a shelter. Ever since this started, I have been telling my bf that they need to go to the vet, but his mother refuses to take them even though we are paying the bill for it. I feel like such a moron...My boyfriend is leaving for school in a week, I just don't know what to do now. I have been trying for a month now to find some other avenue to take and just when I thought I did, my cousin breaks up with her boyfriend and moves back home with a cocker spaniel! I feel like my back is against the wall.

I don't want them to stay there. His mother won't take them to the vet. If the cats don't stop the peeing everywhere, they can't stay there. I am 1300 miles away from where they are. I can't bring them to me. Surrendering them to a shelter, to me, is not an option. I can't stand the thought of them being adopted by someone and not ever knowing what happened to them and the person who adopts them dumping them out the door if they pee in the house...or letting them outside on a regular basis...I just can't stand the thought of it. I hand-raised one of my cats from a 5 week old baby. I adopted the other from a shelter. These cats are like my children. I can't just give my children away without ever knowing what happened to them. I don't know what to do...If I had known two years ago that my life was going to go the way it has, I NEVER in a million years would have taken on the responsibility of two living creatures. Never. And now I am in a place where I have no idea what to do. In one light, I feel like it would be more fair to them to take them to a shelter where they would be adopted by someone who would love them, rather than making them wait a year until my boyfriend can bring them to our new apartment. (I am moving out of my parents' house in a year). But the biggest part of me just wants to fall apart just thinking about giving my cats up...I love them so much. I just don't know what to do.