Daughter's cat pees on towel every time she bathes

[cattybehavior]

We adopted my daughter's cat, Shoshanah, as a feral kitten when she was abut five weeks. She was extremely shy and it was difficult to get her to come out from hiding. Now she's out and about, at least in part of the house. While she is a few pounds bigger than our other cat (also a former feral kitten whom I call Punky buy my daughter calls Sid Vicious), Sid/Punky bullies her. For the time being, we have solved the problem by separating the two cats in different parts of the house.

It took awhile to litter train Shoshanah. She now uses her box exclusively except for when my daughter is taking a bath. Every time my daughter bathes, she comes up next to the tub and either pees on a towel or the bathmat. She sits quietly next to the tub when either one of us showers and reserves the bathmat peeing for when Chloe is taking a bath.

Any ideas about how to discourage this odd behavior?

 

[talkingpeanut]

First you should take her to the vet to be sure she doesn't have an underlying medical issue like a uti.

After that, could you just not let her in the bathroom or not leave a towel on the floor?

 

[cattybehavior]

Taking her to the vet is a good idea. She and I discussed things we could do today, and I think she can put a chair beside the tub so the cat can hop on it and see her and yes, should drape the towel over the back of the chair. We can't really lock her out of the bathroom because the litter box is in there. The peeing behavior might be a kind of separation anxiety. But definitely we should check her for UTI because she was feral and she has been unusually difficult to fully litter train. Thank you!

 

[cinqchats]

That's kind of odd, but also kind of funny. Pick the bathmat/towel up off the floor. Maybe put her into the litter box right before bath time?