**long post** would appreciate your time to read**
I am in desperate need of help in finding solutions, ways, techniques, anything to solve my litter problem with my little princess, Layla, that I decided to join this forum hoping all you pros in caring for feline companions would be a HUGE help.
Just little background: I am a newbie pet parent. Never had a pet before Layla, nor anybody I've lived with. I'm an only child and while growing up, my parents didn't introduce me or teach me anything about caring for a pet. No one in my family's a "pet person". Didn't ask for one but I have been very friendly to cats and dogs, and find them extremely adorable. Until last year when I had this longing for a furry friend. I wanted to take care and raise a kitten. Long story short, my boyfriend had been listening to my "cat talks", so last christmas he got me a persian kitten as a christmas present!
First experience: We brought her home Dec. 22nd. She was a little shy at first, but when she became comfortable in her new home, she became very playful and got attached to us right away. She used her litter box right away that night we brought her home! I'm assuming she was trained at the pet shop. She had ONE accident, when I closed the bathroom (for me to use) second night, I thought she would already know how to scratch (to knock) on the door, so I'd know she wanted to use it. She decided to eliminate under my work desk on the carpet! Welcome! Lol
THE REAL PROBLEM: She steps on her poop. She is a smart kitty so I don't think she's slow to "pick up". She hasn't missed the box so I know she pretty much knows her routine. Does she have a leg problem? I'm starting to think her back legs are weak? But she runs and even jumps pretty high already (not sure if this is normal at this age), and does circus (jumps backwards! cute!) lol Or is this really a phase kittens go through??? What could be the problem?!!! She is white and so furry, so you could just imagine my horror the very first time it happened! .... and still, each time - - although I've sort of gotten used to it or already expects it! I have a 9-6 work hours and BF even works longer, so when I get home at around past 7, I always cross my fingers now hoping she doesn't have poopy paws. We are carpeted and she's left alone during the day (I had two full weeks with her when I was on holiday vacation-so it's not like she has anxiety or something<?>). So I would sometimes (thank god it's not literally every single day) come home, litter all over bathroom floor with poop crumbs, and her paws all brown with litters stuck on them! I feel very bad for feeling this, but I sometimes think of giving her to a new home already, afraid that I might not be able to take this any longer (believe me, I feel like sh*t having to say this, but I am being brutally honest here!). I really want to keep her but won't be fair to her if mommy is feeling frustrated to the point that she wanted to almost give her up. The mess is unbearable. (Quick fact about myself: I am a super, OC, neat freak). But I really have fallen in love with her already and she is SO sweet to me. She sleeps with me on the bed; and she first slept above my head on her THIRD night with us! Very affectionate and she is the sweetest, but she is deceiving because she gets REALLY feisty and SUPER stubborn. I have to always rinse her paws (wiping with wet cloth doesn't work -- lots of litter get left behind, stuck in the middle of her toes, and stool stain is hard to just wipe off). I started with a big measuring cup --- filled it with water each time and DIP her paws. Now, I've learned to just get her straight in the sink. Our rinsing time is never easy. She HATES being rinsed. She gets really evil about it and this task alone, whenever she soils herself, takes us more than half an hour! Then I'll clean the floor, scoop, vacuum, disinfect, wipe her off, every single time. I spend an hour or so whenever this happens, and there were several times it happened in less than 12 hours! Sometimes she gets it right. But mostly not.
It even happens in the middle of the night. Good thing I catch her before jumping back on the bed. Although not always, because it already happened when we were sleeping and just felt her stepped on my arm, crossing the bed using my BF and I as her bridge, and the smell and stool from paws so close on our faces
....or sometimes she'd run across the room when she already knows it rinsing time.
SOLUTION #1:
I've read a ton of forum discussions and online articles, and a lot have said to get a new, wider litter box. The first one we had was an uncovered, very average size tray. Spacious litter box, I've read, would give her more space to turn around and step forward. I set it up yesterday. Messy situation happened three times yesterday. I just cleaned the whole day yesterday.
What made it worst is that I'm trying to switch her to wet food diet so I have been giving her wet food, but still mix with the dry in between as "snacks". So, yesterday, new box. great! Thought it would be my last night to be cleaning her paws ( I don't mind vacuuming litter particles --- she digs like a mad girl!). What happened? She went in, did her business, stepped on it, came out, I washed her, came back in after just few minutes WHILE paws and furr were STILL wet (of course she's stubborn and doesn't even want me to gently towel dry her --would run away from me as if she doesn't like me at all), and TADA! Wet paws, stepping inside the box, with wet poopy, sprinkled with litter!!!!! It was a nightmare. Always is, actually. You could just imagine the mess --- for a neat freak like me, it's unbearable (all poop stains on our pillows, carpet, bathroom floor and rugs, etc. )
The nature of my job is very exhausting. I hate to say it but I really don't want to do this cycle anymore; especially at 3 in the morning, and then go to a meeting at 8. I don't want to sound like a complainer, but I am opening myself up in the hopes of getting good advice with no judgement. I really don't want to give her up. But I'm afraid I may if it doesn't get any better. We only have one bathroom in a 1BR apt, and being in NYC, we really don't have a different room where we can buy or make our own EXTRA HUGE litter box (I don't even know if the box space is the problem).
Oh, and also, I hate that she'd get her white furr all brown-stained, hence my need to always give her a rinse instead of just wiping with wet warm cloth.
PLEASE, all you cat pros out there. Please tell me what to do. Would she grow out of this? I love her, I really do. We have bonded a lot in a month. This is why I'm thinking, instead of badly breaking her and my heart in the long run, I'd just give her up sooner that it wouldn't probably hurt us way too bad :-(
Is this just a phase? Should I expect this to change in the next couple of months?
I plan on getting her spayed by March when she turns six months. I'm afraid that if she would still be getting in trouble with soiling her paws with her stool by March, it might be a hell of a lot worse when she comes back home from surgery.
I'd really love to hear and would appreciate your thoughts on this. And any experiences the same as this with a white long-haired cat too would really help me a lot.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING!
P.S. That is her on my avatar.
I am in desperate need of help in finding solutions, ways, techniques, anything to solve my litter problem with my little princess, Layla, that I decided to join this forum hoping all you pros in caring for feline companions would be a HUGE help.
Just little background: I am a newbie pet parent. Never had a pet before Layla, nor anybody I've lived with. I'm an only child and while growing up, my parents didn't introduce me or teach me anything about caring for a pet. No one in my family's a "pet person". Didn't ask for one but I have been very friendly to cats and dogs, and find them extremely adorable. Until last year when I had this longing for a furry friend. I wanted to take care and raise a kitten. Long story short, my boyfriend had been listening to my "cat talks", so last christmas he got me a persian kitten as a christmas present!
First experience: We brought her home Dec. 22nd. She was a little shy at first, but when she became comfortable in her new home, she became very playful and got attached to us right away. She used her litter box right away that night we brought her home! I'm assuming she was trained at the pet shop. She had ONE accident, when I closed the bathroom (for me to use) second night, I thought she would already know how to scratch (to knock) on the door, so I'd know she wanted to use it. She decided to eliminate under my work desk on the carpet! Welcome! Lol
THE REAL PROBLEM: She steps on her poop. She is a smart kitty so I don't think she's slow to "pick up". She hasn't missed the box so I know she pretty much knows her routine. Does she have a leg problem? I'm starting to think her back legs are weak? But she runs and even jumps pretty high already (not sure if this is normal at this age), and does circus (jumps backwards! cute!) lol Or is this really a phase kittens go through??? What could be the problem?!!! She is white and so furry, so you could just imagine my horror the very first time it happened! .... and still, each time - - although I've sort of gotten used to it or already expects it! I have a 9-6 work hours and BF even works longer, so when I get home at around past 7, I always cross my fingers now hoping she doesn't have poopy paws. We are carpeted and she's left alone during the day (I had two full weeks with her when I was on holiday vacation-so it's not like she has anxiety or something<?>). So I would sometimes (thank god it's not literally every single day) come home, litter all over bathroom floor with poop crumbs, and her paws all brown with litters stuck on them! I feel very bad for feeling this, but I sometimes think of giving her to a new home already, afraid that I might not be able to take this any longer (believe me, I feel like sh*t having to say this, but I am being brutally honest here!). I really want to keep her but won't be fair to her if mommy is feeling frustrated to the point that she wanted to almost give her up. The mess is unbearable. (Quick fact about myself: I am a super, OC, neat freak). But I really have fallen in love with her already and she is SO sweet to me. She sleeps with me on the bed; and she first slept above my head on her THIRD night with us! Very affectionate and she is the sweetest, but she is deceiving because she gets REALLY feisty and SUPER stubborn. I have to always rinse her paws (wiping with wet cloth doesn't work -- lots of litter get left behind, stuck in the middle of her toes, and stool stain is hard to just wipe off). I started with a big measuring cup --- filled it with water each time and DIP her paws. Now, I've learned to just get her straight in the sink. Our rinsing time is never easy. She HATES being rinsed. She gets really evil about it and this task alone, whenever she soils herself, takes us more than half an hour! Then I'll clean the floor, scoop, vacuum, disinfect, wipe her off, every single time. I spend an hour or so whenever this happens, and there were several times it happened in less than 12 hours! Sometimes she gets it right. But mostly not.
It even happens in the middle of the night. Good thing I catch her before jumping back on the bed. Although not always, because it already happened when we were sleeping and just felt her stepped on my arm, crossing the bed using my BF and I as her bridge, and the smell and stool from paws so close on our faces
....or sometimes she'd run across the room when she already knows it rinsing time.
SOLUTION #1:
I've read a ton of forum discussions and online articles, and a lot have said to get a new, wider litter box. The first one we had was an uncovered, very average size tray. Spacious litter box, I've read, would give her more space to turn around and step forward. I set it up yesterday. Messy situation happened three times yesterday. I just cleaned the whole day yesterday.
What made it worst is that I'm trying to switch her to wet food diet so I have been giving her wet food, but still mix with the dry in between as "snacks". So, yesterday, new box. great! Thought it would be my last night to be cleaning her paws ( I don't mind vacuuming litter particles --- she digs like a mad girl!). What happened? She went in, did her business, stepped on it, came out, I washed her, came back in after just few minutes WHILE paws and furr were STILL wet (of course she's stubborn and doesn't even want me to gently towel dry her --would run away from me as if she doesn't like me at all), and TADA! Wet paws, stepping inside the box, with wet poopy, sprinkled with litter!!!!! It was a nightmare. Always is, actually. You could just imagine the mess --- for a neat freak like me, it's unbearable (all poop stains on our pillows, carpet, bathroom floor and rugs, etc. )
The nature of my job is very exhausting. I hate to say it but I really don't want to do this cycle anymore; especially at 3 in the morning, and then go to a meeting at 8. I don't want to sound like a complainer, but I am opening myself up in the hopes of getting good advice with no judgement. I really don't want to give her up. But I'm afraid I may if it doesn't get any better. We only have one bathroom in a 1BR apt, and being in NYC, we really don't have a different room where we can buy or make our own EXTRA HUGE litter box (I don't even know if the box space is the problem).
Oh, and also, I hate that she'd get her white furr all brown-stained, hence my need to always give her a rinse instead of just wiping with wet warm cloth.
PLEASE, all you cat pros out there. Please tell me what to do. Would she grow out of this? I love her, I really do. We have bonded a lot in a month. This is why I'm thinking, instead of badly breaking her and my heart in the long run, I'd just give her up sooner that it wouldn't probably hurt us way too bad :-(
Is this just a phase? Should I expect this to change in the next couple of months?
I plan on getting her spayed by March when she turns six months. I'm afraid that if she would still be getting in trouble with soiling her paws with her stool by March, it might be a hell of a lot worse when she comes back home from surgery.
I'd really love to hear and would appreciate your thoughts on this. And any experiences the same as this with a white long-haired cat too would really help me a lot.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING!
P.S. That is her on my avatar.