Sarah_Rose
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2008
- Messages
- 1,800
Such a tough situation. I don't have any more advice than what has been given here. With the one cat that I've lived with (not my cat, but a roommate's cat), we did have to put aluminum foil on the furniture to teach the cat to keep off (both my roommate and I had mild allergies, so keeping the hair off of soft surfaces was key to happy living!). After a few months, the cat would just stay off of the area, because of the negative association with the foil. However, he was a young cat, so I'm not sure if that would work for an older, established cat.
My SIL went through the same thing that you're going through over the past year. Her best friend and her adopted kittens from the same litter while they were in college 15 years ago; my SIL's cat died a couple years ago, and she was heartbroken. At the same time, SIL's friend had just had a new baby and her cat was very jealous and stressed at the new family member. So, my SIL adopted her friend's cat, but the cat was never the same from then on. It was constantly stressed, peed and pooped all over the house, and destroyed furniture. She tried everything she could think of, but finally just had the cat confined to the bathroom with her litterbox most of the day. The cat started scratching up the bathroom door, and my SIL finally took the cat to the humane society to have it put down last month. Even though the cat was 16 years old, it was still a tough decision, especially knowing that it was the sister of her own beloved cat who had recently died. It also very much stressed the friendship between my SIL and her friend; neither could keep the cat in their house, and both were very resentful of that fact.
Oh, pets. They're such wonderful creatures that enrich our lives, but they can be so trying at times.
My SIL went through the same thing that you're going through over the past year. Her best friend and her adopted kittens from the same litter while they were in college 15 years ago; my SIL's cat died a couple years ago, and she was heartbroken. At the same time, SIL's friend had just had a new baby and her cat was very jealous and stressed at the new family member. So, my SIL adopted her friend's cat, but the cat was never the same from then on. It was constantly stressed, peed and pooped all over the house, and destroyed furniture. She tried everything she could think of, but finally just had the cat confined to the bathroom with her litterbox most of the day. The cat started scratching up the bathroom door, and my SIL finally took the cat to the humane society to have it put down last month. Even though the cat was 16 years old, it was still a tough decision, especially knowing that it was the sister of her own beloved cat who had recently died. It also very much stressed the friendship between my SIL and her friend; neither could keep the cat in their house, and both were very resentful of that fact.
Oh, pets. They're such wonderful creatures that enrich our lives, but they can be so trying at times.
