Cat problem

[badbadme]

Have namechanged as feel ashamed.

I am having a major cat problem. I'm experienced with cats, have had many in the past, but I dont know what to do now.

I have a 3 year old male cat that I got 3 months ago from the local Cat shelter.

There were a pair of unrelated male cats who had been living together, but were neglected, and so had been handed in.

I had spent some time looking at the cats, playing with them. One was much friendlier than the other, but they came as a pair, and the other one seemed OK. I later agreed to take them and brought them home.

It has not worked out well.

The first thing was that it became apparent the cats didnt like each other much.

I kept the cats in when I first got them, and then after a few weeks opened the cat flap so they could go outside. A couple of days after that there was some noise from the cats in the night (nothing very excessive, more something I remembered in retrospect, if that makes sense) in the morning we found that one of the cats had defecated all over the bed in the spare bedroom. One of the cats (the friendlier one, who was also the less dominant one of the pair) was no where to be seen, and we havent seen him since. We went out looking for him, and he is microchipped, but we have heard nothing of him.

There are major problems with the cat we have left. He is clearly a very damaged cat. He seemed OK in the cat shelter, but now we have him he is timid and looks nervous whenever anyone goes near him.
He hates the children, and seems frightened of them.
He wees on any cloth or fabric that he can find on the floor - rugs, jackets, handbags, laundry (I know that I really shouldnt be leaving things on the floor )
He has defacated on beds on a few occassions.
He had a cat flap so free access outside and also a litter tray in the house.

The situation know is that we have this cat who I dont think is happy. I dont think that we are the right family for him, I think he would be better off in a house with maybe one adult, not a house with lots of children in it.

I'm unhappy too, because my house smells of cat urine, we have to keep most of the doors shut as if he gets into rooms other than the utility room/kitchen then he urinates on stuff.
It also isnt good in a house with small children to worry that they might go into a room that he has defacated in.

So I dont know what to do.
We cant go on like this. I feel that in the right situation (or maybe with a better past) he could be a lovely cat.

Is there anything that I could do to help these behaviours?

The way things are at the moment I dont feel like we could keep him. I feel really bad about this. When you take on a cat it is meant to be a lifetime comittment, and here I am thinking of failing to do that.
I do want a cat, but maybe I'm not fit to own one if I give up on him.

What can I do?

[forevercleaning]

Speak to the rescue place you got him from. They will be able to offer advice or should be able to have him back if that is what you feel.

So sorry it hasnt worked out though, I strongly admire people who rescue animals.

Good luck

[jojo76]

you have my sympathies, I have a cat who wees in the house too, and he was also a rescue cat. Mine doesn't sound as extreme as yours, but he has a couple of favorite places that he wees, and like you, I have had to be really vigilant about shutting him out. I'm always thinking I can smell cat's wee as well, it is awful. Mine also sprays in the garden, which I don't mind, except that if I put up tents or that kind of thing for the kids, he will go in and wee in them, and then I have to chuck them away.

There are a couple of things I have found that really helped. I noticed that he started to do this when we had the kids, so Ithink it is the kids that he feels stressed by. I have taught them to be gentle and have a no chasing the cat rule! When he was really bad, I got a "feelyway" plug in, and plugged it in close to the hall where he likes to wee, I do think that this did help. I also have some "get off" spray which I have used on the kids play house, which he was weeing on, and I think this has helped too. I have made sure that I am bang up to date with front line, and comb him regularly, I think that when the kids came along, I didn't spend much time making a fuss of him, and now i try to fuss him more and take care to pay him attention.
In terms of cleaning up the wee, don't use anything with ammonia in it, as this encourages them to do it again. White vinegar is good for getting the smell out, put some in a spray bottle and spray on the areas where the cat has weed.

It's so hard, mine isn't as bad as yours, and because he does it in one main place, it is easier to control, if you can't get him to calm down, i dont think anyone could blame you for taking him back to the shelter, as I think it is a sign of stress on his part as well, so like you say, he could be just in the wrong home. Don't feel bad, he might go somewhere else and be fine.
good luck, i hope you get it sorted out

[newpup]

This will not solve the problem but may help. There is a product called Simple Solution available at pets at home stores. You put it where the cat has weed and it gets rid of not just the smell to us but the smell to the cat so it will not go in the same place again. You can use it on soft furnishings and carpets. It is very good.

[jojo76]

you have my sympathies, I have a cat who wees in the house too, and he was also a rescue cat. Mine doesn't sound as extreme as yours, but he has a couple of favorite places that he wees, and like you, I have had to be really vigilant about shutting him out. I'm always thinking I can smell cat's wee as well, it is awful. Mine also sprays in the garden, which I don't mind, except that if I put up tents or that kind of thing for the kids, he will go in and wee in them, and then I have to chuck them away.

There are a couple of things I have found that really helped. I noticed that he started to do this when we had the kids, so Ithink it is the kids that he feels stressed by. I have taught them to be gentle and have a no chasing the cat rule! When he was really bad, I got a "feelyway" plug in, and plugged it in close to the hall where he likes to wee, I do think that this did help. I also have some "get off" spray which I have used on the kids play house, which he was weeing on, and I think this has helped too. I have made sure that I am bang up to date with front line, and comb him regularly, I think that when the kids came along, I didn't spend much time making a fuss of him, and now i try to fuss him more and take care to pay him attention.
In terms of cleaning up the wee, don't use anything with ammonia in it, as this encourages them to do it again. White vinegar is good for getting the smell out, put some in a spray bottle and spray on the areas where the cat has weed.

It's so hard, mine isn't as bad as yours, and because he does it in one main place, it is easier to control, if you can't get him to calm down, i dont think anyone could blame you for taking him back to the shelter, as I think it is a sign of stress on his part as well, so like you say, he could be just in the wrong home. Don't feel bad, he might go somewhere else and be fine.
good luck, i hope you get it sorted out

[jojo76]

oh, sorry, delay between writing this and then the kids getting up from naps, computer froze and I couldn't see if it had posted or not!

[badbadme]

Thanks for the advice. And for not flaming be for being a horrible bad animal hater

Where would I get a Feelyway plugin from?

I'll try and get hold of some Simple Solution too. Though the way this cat behaves will probably have to fumigate the whole house

[jojo76]

No probs, to be honest I have thought about taking ours back too, there is something so repugnant about knowing that your cat is weeing in your house. Don't you find yourself sniffing everything and imagining that you can smell it EVERYWHERE?!
You can get the feelyway from the vets but don't do that as I think you can get them much cheaper from the net....(my mum gave me mine, she had a spare!) they are fairly expensive, but if it works, it's worth it....I will have a search and try and post you a link, bear with me , have never posted a link before....

[jojo76]

ok here goes....
eliway

[badbadme]

Thanks. I have ordered the Feliway. Hopefully it will be the solution to our problem.

[falcon]

Do you have litter trays for them and if so how many?

[badbadme]

We only have one cat at the moment. We havent seen the other one for weeks now. Hopefully he will come back, but realistically I think it is unlikely.

We have one litter tray for the cat that we have.
He doesnt use it much at all, only once a week if that, as he has free access outside. I have postitioned the litter tray within a few feet of the back door, as I hoped that would deter other cats (there are a couple of other large male cats in the area who come in the cat flap if they can).

[geraldinetheluckygoat]

hi badbadme, how's it going, wondering if the feeliway has helped at all, if it's arrived yet? Its Jojo, have namechanged