Peeing on the cooker and elsewhere

by Jo
(United Kingdom)

We have 10 rescue cats and quite a small house, but it does have a garden. We recently made a neighbour have her tom cat neutered as it was coming in the house, spraying and injuring a number of our cats (we have a cat flap and all of cats are neutered). This of course meant that some of our cats were too scared to go into the garden.

Two of our cats have been peeing in the house (at least two that we know of!) and we think it was because of this tom. He is now coming round much less, but they are still doing it.

One is peeing on the cooker, which of course creates a nasty small whenever you cook as it is on the electric hob (not ceramic hob, which we will be getting soon, as we are fitting a new kitchen).

One is peeing in the living room. We took the carpet up and it did not stop but have now put cat beds in the corners and it seems to have reduced, if not completely stopped.

We are in the process of decorating, but this of course will not stop it necessarily and we would like to stop it, otherwise we are going to have to shut them out whilst we are out, so they do not ruin the house, plus we are trying for a baby. They also scratch the sofa (and we are getting a new one) despite having numerous scratching posts.

When we were on holiday recently, we left the bedroom open to them so they had a few places to go, only to find that one of them had pooed on the bed (we had covered it, but still).

All of this is causing much frustration between my husband and I and of course we cannot punish them, as it does nothing and they are being cats. We have narrowed it down to two.

Any help and advice you can offer would be very much appreciated.

RESPONSE:

Cats urinate inappropriately when they are stressed. Re-Decorating, vacations, and of course invading cats are all stressors that can start cats spraying or urinating inappropriately. Go to our webpage on Cat Pee for lots of ideas on stopping cats from going outside the box. Once cats start spraying or peeing on things, it is very hard to break the habit but it can be done. The best things are to increase play time, make their boxes desireable and other places less desirable, and to clean up completely including the odor. Once a cat has scented an area with their urine, they tend to go back to that spot again and again so removing the odor completely is a must. With diligence and patience you should be able to minimize if not stop the problem all together. Good Luck!

Donna - House Full Cats Mom