I don't know what to do about my cat...

Gina, it's weird b/c of all my cats he is the LEAST stressed or nervey, he really thinks he's the $***.  In college, my roommates also had cats, so cats were coming and going and it never bothered him, never had any accidents from him.  I think it is the smell of the other cats, but not so much nerves/defense, but "oh hey that tom peed here, so ima pee here too! yay!" sort of thing.  So Barb is right, we didn't have this problem before and probably won't somewhere else.  I honestly don't feel the same way about my cats as I do about my dogs, but I can't just re-home a cat because another cat happened to be here at some point, wizzed all over, and apparently the landlords didn't know or didn't care, but now I feel bad he's shut in the basement if he stays here. I guess I could let him be outside but then he'd have to be out 100% (he goes out under my supervision and has snuck out a few times and been out all night).

Frustrating because it's not my fault and it's not my cat's fault but yet the more he keeps this up, the more damage it does.  Right now he's howling at the basement door b/c he's pissed I blocked the cat door and wants out.

At least it's comforting to know others have had the same issue with their cats.  I'm just upset because he was fine for five years and I thought I did everything right, I swore I'd never have one of "those" cats that sprays all over everything b/c my kid best friend's dad put their cat to sleep because of spraying and we were devastated.  Right now I can't help it but I really really resent my cat.

The other issue is the scent.  I don't know if I'm more sensitive to it because I am sort of OCD about how I keep my house, but once he pees on something IMO there is no 100% salvaging it.  Now since I put on the Nature's Miracle I smell it even more, like the smell is lifting and whafting through the air as the NM dries.  I just ran my deep cleaner carpet cleaner over the area for good measure and have two fans on it, but I'm sure the smell is still there and always will be.  I paid hefty deposits so I'm not so worried about the landlords/cost if they don't like it (hey at this point it doesn't smell any worse than it did before!!) but *I* know it's there and it drives me insane.  There is something about this particular cat's urine that is so nasty to me.  Even when I throw something away that he peed on and didn't touch it I have the smell in my nose forever.

For example right now even the dogs are wrinkling their noses, and they eat cat s*** and roll in duck s***!  I used a gallon of Nature's Miracle (saturated the area) and with the fans on it, the smell is making me ill.

Erica, I've tried open boxes, closed boxes, large boxes, small boxes, and various scents/textures of litter.  He uses them all like he couldn't care less.

Oh God, you guys are scaring me!!!  Don't forget I'm a rookie when it comes to cats!! 

And, not a fan of the smell, box or the walking in the box then on my furniture at all. 

I'm learning. 

Hope this is something that you guys can both work around. 

:)

Talk about double trouble, Lies if that is your bad boy, here is mine, poor Smokey Joe.

Smokey is the Grey, Whiskeyjack is the fluff ball.

Lori, no need, most cats are independent and easy going. Your doing fine as a first time cat mom!

THANKS!!  And, these cats are so beautiful!  I love gray animals!

In defense of the cat...DH says the burning smell that I smell now is not so much the pee but just the wet floor/mildew smell in general.  Yesterday I peel the carpet back, beyond where my cat peed and that's when the smell really hit me.  I know he did pee there because I saw the spot, but now we both agree that this corner definitely has issues beyond my cat's marking.  I've had two fans on it for 24 hours now and ran the attic fan all night with the windows in this corner open (so I was freezing this morning).  It's dried up quite a bit.

As for the cats, they are still all in the basement.  I dumped all the litter (like dumped all the litter in all three boxes and started over rather than only scoping and replacing a little bit).  They are still pissed but are happier now that I moved the 7' deci-level cat tree down there in front of the window, and put a bench seat from the van down there as a giant cat bed (I see the sheet cover is already saturated with hair).  I guess the basement is not so bad?  There's lots of bugs to chase, they have this pile of boxes that they scratch and play hide-and-seek in.

 I second the moving their food and water bowls to places they like to mark.  I haven;t had a cat with this issue, but it does work on dogs, so worth a try?  Putting their bed there might also help?  Alternatively, giving them a litter box in that area, so that if they WANT to go there, they can, legitimately?

willowchow

THANKS!!  And, these cats are so beautiful!  I love gray animals!

Here you are

(Yes, she sleeps in my jeans.  She is weird.)

Can't put anything there, it would get raided constantly by dogs (litter box especially, ew!).  It's in the living room/den, which is already the designated dog area of the house.

my cats loved my basement up north - that was their second favorite place, next to the back porch. I can tell my old lady misses being under everything, she's always sitting under chairs and things....

I just had two cats returned today.. lady said they wouldn't stop urinating all over her house. Look through their medical records to find she had ALL FOUR PAWS declawed. Well no wonder... I wouldn't want to use my box either! =[

I hope you figure out something that works for your boy Lies! I'll keep trying to think of suggestions. have you tried vingar yet?

Wow!  I didn't even think they did the back claws! 

Chuffy, your cat is so beautiful.  What's his/her name?

yea... most vets wont, unless there's a medical reason why (ie - owner on blood thiners or something along those lines). I know the vet that did it - and I am very shocked... sadly.

Erica we had one like that.  In college I had two cats (two of the three I have now) and my friend had one and wanted another, so we went on Petfinder and she found one she wanted.  We went to the rescue to see it, and this rescue had over 200 cats in their office!!!  The smell was horrid.  Many of the cats had extreme health or behavioral problems.  The people were very nice and geniune but to me it was now a hoarding situation.  I mean, volunteers could scoop litter 24/7 and still not be able to keep the place sanitary.  It took us 45 minutes just to find the cat that we had picked out (luckily they all had a collar with an engraved name tag).  So we got our cat and she had a URI and UTI which they gave us antibiotics for.  By then we just wanted out.  When we got home we realized they had just declawed her.  This was a stray/feral cat but for some reason they declaw all of the cats they trap!  Our cat was sick and she never did use the litter box.  We think she was traumatized by the declaw, already being feral and the litterbox being a new concept.  We actually had to build a large, two-level cage for her to try to re-train her.  She died two months later because she had FIP the entire time and was not diagnosed in time.

My cat was front declawed before I adopted him but I don't think it's part of the issue because this marking thing is new in the past year or so.

I haven't used vinegar.  Because of the moisture/mildew in that area in general I've given up cleaning it, at least for now.  Getting it wet just seems to be making it worse, the damage is to the flooring beneath the carpet.  When it gets wet, the smell (not the urine but just from all the years of moisture and damage) is so overpowering it makes me sick.  I did the Nature's Miracle and then used my steaming deep cleaner (with it's cleaning solution) and put fans pointed on it for days now to dry it out.  Luckily, this is the corner behind my entertainment center, so you don't see it or smell it unless you are crawling around back there.  So it's OK for us people but now I have to make sure the cats can never get back there.

You can kinda see it here, it's the left corner.  I could block off the cats being able to go around either side, but they are perfectly capable of jumping over the top since they often walk from the ledge we have along the left side of the room, over the top of the entertainment center, to the other window ledge next to the fish tank.

Oh yeah, and if there is a will, there is a way.  If he wants to get back there to be the big "dog" cat to cover the smell with his own, he'll find no problem getting back there.

I know exactly what you mean when you say you are beginning to resent the cats.  I'm there too.  I have turned into such the dog oriented person; and unfortunately Heidi won't allow integration...although she is getting slightly better.  She doesn't spaz out nearly as bad as she used to when she sees the cats.  But, I don't think I will ever be able to trust her.  Deep down inside I want to rehome the cats, but even when I think that statement I have such guilt.  I've had two of my 3 for 12 years.  The youngest, Rocky 3 years.  I just can't do it.

OK, since we are sharing pictures of our grey cats:  Rocky:

Feliway is a great option if you think there might be cats outside triggering issues - it's just like the DAP diffuser but for cats and tends to work on more animals than the DAP does in dogs.

Another tip that might help: clean areas where the cats are eliminating that should be no-go zones with a citrus scented cleaner.  Cats tend to avoid citrus smells so it can be quite helpful for spots like Liesje's where there's something drawing the cat to a specific location.  It's not all that useful for markers or similar, though, because they will just pick another spot to go.

My cat peed on a cheapie (thank goodness) folding chair - we had to get rid of it because even treating with Simple Solution couldn't get the smell out.  It was awful.  Thankfully, neutering fixed the issue. :)  Still, Pi stays in a 3' by 3' by 6' kennel when no one's home just in case (and to keep him safe from the dogs) - he's got shelving and a small climbing station in there along with his litter box, food, and water, so he's pretty happy with the set up and I don't worry about him doing bad things when I'm out.  In the new house he'll have a small crate for the box and a shelf for his food, but will only be confiend to a room vs. the kennel when no one is home.

willowchow

Wow!  I didn't even think they did the back claws! 

Chuffy, your cat is so beautiful.  What's his/her name?

Her name is Greebo 

stardog85

Another tip that might help: clean areas where the cats are eliminating that should be no-go zones with a citrus scented cleaner.  Cats tend to avoid citrus smells so it can be quite helpful for spots like Liesje's where there's something drawing the cat to a specific location. 

Why didn't I think to suggest that???  We have successfully used orange peel/segments to deter cats from places we didn't want them to go.  Worked a treat.