Cat is fine, she's not in pain, no infections, no distress, no illness or condition that needs treating - but she's not quite all there anymore, which is generally fine when all you need to do is take her to the food and show it to her even though she also forgets that she's been fed and yells for more five minutes later and accept that she will be either demanding fusses or asleep for the rest of the day and night.
She's a bit hit and miss with the litter trays and has been for a few years, but it's always been easily cleaned up.
However, four days ago, she pissed on the kitchen floor by the food bowls and this morning, she's just done the same on the living room rug.
As I said, she's been checked and there is no physical reason for this new very annoying behaviour, I'm told that it's just that she was never the sharpest tool in the box and is now losing what's left of her basic cat protocols. She's generally a very contented little thing, but I have never had a cat do this before.
Two questions, one practical -
- How do I get the urine out of the rug so that she isn't attracted to it again? It's a long pile synthetic rug and it soaked all the way through. I've sponged the backing (hessian) with bio washing powder, but there's got to be loads soaked into the fibres themselves. What works best? I've got a steam mop, bio soap powder, washing up liquid, etc - or I could drag it upstairs and stick it in the bath then hoy it out the window to hopefully dry within a week or so.
The enzyme cleaner never seemed to make a difference to her where the litter trays were concerned. I have vague memories of my mother spraying vinegar on her carpet, but that place was filthy, so I wouldn't want to emulate that if it's actually nonsense - and whilst she used Sarson's, I've only got organic apple cider vinegar complete with the Mother in the cupboard, so that would be a little expensive/wanky when the rug (which I love, by the way) only cost me about £40 and makes the entire downstairs much, much warmer than just hard flooring.
and the second -
- She's happy. Very happy, a contented but slightly confused little thing. Should I be thinking about her exit point? I'd PTS immediately if she were distressed or in pain because that's my responsibility as a cat slave. But she isn't. Or is this a sign that she's reaching EOL on her own terms? How does it usually progress from this point?
On the bright side, her kidneys are clearly working magnificently, so she's spared the way two of my previous cats went over the course of about a week.
Any suggestions? Whatever happens, I need to get that rug clean, even it goes into the loft for the next x weeks/months/whatever. And I need to have a plan formulated to break it to DP when he gets home tonight. He'll agree with whatever is best for the fluffball.