Trouble With Our Cats

[lovinwdw]

I had posted a while back about taking my neices 10 year old cat. I have to say, he is absolutely wonderful. He meows when you walk in the door and if you say hi to him while he is walking past. Gotta love it!!

Anyway...onto the troubling part. My DH cat (Dumpster) is very tempermental. Jingles (the new cat) is very dominant. He is a very large cat and always seems to get his way (even with the dog!). Jingles has taken to chasing Dumpster out of the basement (which is where their litter boxes are). I think it is only to play, because they stop on the 2nd floor and just lay down. So...needless to say, one morning at 5:00 a.m. I caught Dumpster peeing in my dining room. GRRRRRRR. I was sooooo mad!!! So, we decided to lock the cats in the basement while we are out of the house because we can't see what they are doing. They do get along, they can sit next to one another and look out the back door, but Dumpster is very intimidated by Jingles.

Well...the other night, Dumpster peed (marked) on my bed. He actually peed on my dog (who was sleeping under the covers at the bottom of the bed). I could tell he marked the bed because it wasn't yellow like pee. It was clear and it stunk!!! I was so mad. I was ready to get rid of both cats!! My poor little dog (Jack) wasn't hurting anyone, he was just sleeping where he always does!! The poor thing didn't even know he got peed on. He was fast asleep!!

So, now we have decided to lock the cats in the basement at night too. Just so everyone knows, it is a 1/2 finished basement, which is very comfortable for them. The other half has their food and litter boxes.

I am at a loss here!! I don't know what else to do!!! Anyone have any advice for a novice cat owner??

 

[Tigger_Magic]

This is somewhat (unfortunately) typical behavior for cats. Jingles has established himself as a alpha cat and Dumpster is having difficulty adjusting. This happens almost anytime you introduce 2 cats who don't know each other. When cats get stressed, they can tend to urinate and mark their territory.

When we bring a new cat home, we put it in a separate room for a while to let it become accustomed to the house (the smells, the sounds, the people) and gradually introduce the newcomer to the existing cat(s). We try to let them figure out the pecking order and also try to find some area of the house that each can claim as their "territory."

For Marco (our cat), it's our bed... that's her area. Molly (our other cat) claimed the sofa in the living room. Molly is like Jingles -- she is very playful while Marco is laid back and would rather be a lap-cat or sleep. Molly will "terrorize" Marco -- she's just playing, but she's big like Jingles.

It took out two about 2 or 3 months to work things out -- that was after Molly (the newcomer) spent about 3 1/2 weeks alone in one bedroom (she refused to come out, except at night).

Give it time and patience. I'd try separating them for awhile and give Dumpster lots of attention and affection.

 

[tiggger1]

I was going to ask if you had more than 1 litter box but then I reread and saw boxes. My female will pee on the floor when her litter box is full or when something is new ( like when we got the rabbit or I had emma) I just made sure that the litter box is clean and maybe make sure that they are not near each other. If they acting weird I might call the vet cuz it might be a UTI but I suspect its just a little bit of jelousy. Make sure you clean the spots good or they will continue to pee there

 

[lovinwdw]

Make sure you clean the spots good or they will continue to pee there

I have cleaned the spots where he has gone. I used bleach in the dining room (on my hard wood floors). I wiped it up quick, and there is no problem and the floors weren't wrecked. The bed spread I washed about 3 times!! I was so grossed out!!

I have learned with Dumpster (he used to do this in our old house about 5 feet from his litter box, before we even got Jingles). So, usually if he finds a spot he likes, I put something there to block him. He loves corners, so I put tin foil in one corner of the dining room and in the other one I up a vase of flowers. In every other corner of the house, I have put one of the dog's toys. I know I sound finatical, but we just moved into this house a month and a half ago and this is driving me crazy!!

 

[Danauk]

We have a similar problem with Cheeky but we have found that if we put bowls of dry cat food in the areas he has peed that stops him. It looks a little wierd having bowls of dry cat food all over the house but it is better than the smell!!

 

[lovinwdw]

We have a similar problem with Cheeky but we have found that if we put bowls of dry cat food in the areas he has peed that stops him. It looks a little wierd having bowls of dry cat food all over the house but it is better than the smell!!

I have heard that putting food where they have gone before will stop them. Only problem is my dog, Jack, absolutely loves cat food. If we aren't watching him he will eat an entire bowl of cat food in about 10 seconds. We have had to put the cats' food up now so that he can't eat it.

 

[sarha]

There is a product called Feliway that should help. You can get it as a spray or a plug-in. It mimics cats calming pheremones and it really helps both with a cat that is marking and when introducing new pets.
Your cat is reacting to a stressful change in his life. i think it would help to seperate the cats and reintroduce them more slowly. Actually, by putting both cats together at night you are probably superstressing your cat.

Feliway really helped when I introduced my older cat to our 2 new kittens. Our older cat,Gracie, started having diarreha and would hide from the new kittens. The vet suggested Feiway to me and i have to say our Gracie was much more relaxed after I plugged it in. Petsmart etc. carry it but you can do a search and find it cheaper online. Petfooddirect.com usually has it on sale and will SOMETIMES have free shipping.
Good luck!

 

[lovinwdw]

Feliway really helped when I introduced my older cat to our 2 new kittens. Our older cat,Gracie, started having diarreha and would hide from the new kittens. The vet suggested Feiway to me and i have to say our Gracie was much more relaxed after I plugged it in. Petsmart etc. carry it but you can do a search and find it cheaper online. Petfooddirect.com usually has it on sale and will SOMETIMES have free shipping.
Good luck!

THank you so much for your recommendation. I just went online and ordered 2 plug ins for the house. One for the basement and one for the living room where his bed is. I really appreciate it. Unfortunately, we have no other choice but to lock the cats in the basement at night. We cannot trust that Dumpster will not pee all over our house. They were actually introduced very slowly. Jingles hung out in the basement for over a week and then finally started coming up and making himself part of the family. I can't put a litter box anywhere else in the house because if we remove it, Dumpster will keep going back and peeing there.

But, I really want to thank you. We used the Feliway spray to stop him from peeing on the tile in our old house and it did work. Hopefully this will calm him down a bit.

 

[sarha]

I'm glad I could help.
There are also drops called Rescue Remedy that you can buy in health food stores. Actually I bought mine at a Whole Foods store. It was also recommended by my vet for calming and it's safe for cats. You put 1 or 2 drops in their water bowl. It also helped our Gracie.