Help!
I have 10 cats, who have been living more or less at peace since the last arrival 2 years ago. In June, I had to go cross country for 5 weeks when my father died, to help my Mother through it. When I returned, I found that my live-in cat-sitter had let the cats do anything they wanted - house was a shambles and there was a pile of feces in the corner of the livingroom, behind a platform rocker. (The catboxes were pretty bad.)
Naturally, I cleaned the house (until 4 AM the first night) and all the catboxes are in their usual decent condition, but feces are still being deposited in that livingroom corner. I had thought it was my oldest cat, who is least tolerant of the others. It had been my practice to isolate her in my bedroom all day with food, water and a catbox of her own, (which I doubt the catsitter bothered to do.) I resumed that, but she is still depositing in that corner. And yesterday, I found fresh feces there when I got home from work, while she was still confined in the bedroom (and it was clean when I left for work, after putting her there) so some other cat is also using this spot.
Right now I have cleaned it (again) & deodorized it (so far as I can tell) and piled boxes & stuff behind & under the platform rocker. But I don't want to keep that pile there indefinitely - it's not a decorating plus if I have company (nor is this catbox improvisation.)
How can I permanently discourage any cats from using this spot?
I have 10 cats, who have been living more or less at peace since the last arrival 2 years ago. In June, I had to go cross country for 5 weeks when my father died, to help my Mother through it. When I returned, I found that my live-in cat-sitter had let the cats do anything they wanted - house was a shambles and there was a pile of feces in the corner of the livingroom, behind a platform rocker. (The catboxes were pretty bad.)
Naturally, I cleaned the house (until 4 AM the first night) and all the catboxes are in their usual decent condition, but feces are still being deposited in that livingroom corner. I had thought it was my oldest cat, who is least tolerant of the others. It had been my practice to isolate her in my bedroom all day with food, water and a catbox of her own, (which I doubt the catsitter bothered to do.) I resumed that, but she is still depositing in that corner. And yesterday, I found fresh feces there when I got home from work, while she was still confined in the bedroom (and it was clean when I left for work, after putting her there) so some other cat is also using this spot.
Right now I have cleaned it (again) & deodorized it (so far as I can tell) and piled boxes & stuff behind & under the platform rocker. But I don't want to keep that pile there indefinitely - it's not a decorating plus if I have company (nor is this catbox improvisation.)
How can I permanently discourage any cats from using this spot?
